dragon2

Ding dong we have a winner This photo came from yesterday's 5way speedstar scramble. Every round had a 90s theme to it. Teams were judged on time for the speedstar + creativity for the themes. Round 5 saw me drafted as replacement inside video for the winning team Basten's Angels. They let their original videoguy Basten exit on his own, which he figured out by 10k "Hey, why was Saskia in the plane without wings?!?! They really are not coming..." We made it an all-girls team for that one round, which according to him turned us into Basten's "Vixens" Video here, the Macarena part starts at 2:40 with the music changing to a famous Dutch musical song about a little boy who's angry everyone leaves him and no one loves him/wants to play with him (mildly NSFW video) When they drafted me i had to laugh, as this was the third time I know of that someone pulled a stunt like this on Basten. He seems to invite pranks like that ciel bleu, Saskia

You're not a jumper, are you? Our parachutes do not "tangle" all that much actually. Modern parachutes (square parachutes) are made out of 2 layers of fabric with ribs in between, open in front and closed in the back. This design generates lift and forward speed. Lift is something we use to land softly, and can be used to create a lot of forward speed, which a lot of jumpers like. In fact it is the whole purpose of the jump for a number of jumpers. The forward speed you get from just normal square flight is very helpful in landing exactly where you want to land, ie being less dependant on the winds. Round canopies, like yours, do not generate lift and have little forward speed. They are used purely to slow down your descent. Helpful in certain situations, like cargo dropping or certain types of military jumps. But not nearly as much "fun" as flying a square canopy is. Look up pictures of tandem drogues, they are the little break parachutes a tandem uses in freefall. This comes close to your design I would think. But other than that, 99.999% of jumpers will stick with squares ciel bleu, Saskia

pic from today... ciel bleu, Saskia

I take it you have already bought the canopy…….the question of fit should have been settled before purchase. FYI….if your profile is correct your wing loading on both main and reserve puts you in the danger zone. Sparky What do you mean by that please? Your wingloading on the main is more appropriate for 200+ jumps than for the 100 jumps and the ~240 lbs exit weight you list. The wingloading on your reserve is frankly ridiculous for 100+ jumps. IMO you shoud have a 220+ sqft reserve. Especially if most of those 100 jumps were in 1996. Hence, danger zone. ciel bleu, Saskia

You need to have a valid KNVvL membership card, which is 3rd party insurance click and click ciel bleu, Saskia

You can put loops on rears for sure. I had them on a 2nd hand crw canopy once. I had them removed... Too much extra bulk especially for a canopy also used for freefall. RR blocks are a better option IMO, if you don't pull your slider down. ciel bleu, Saskia

I ruptered an eardrum while jumping with a beginning cold, I could still breathe through my nose. Hurt like blazes. Not recommended. ciel bleu, Saskia

pyrite flakes? ciel bleu, Saskia

For skydiving, the sigma 15mm f/2.8 or nikon 16mm f/2.8 work best IMO. You can buy a switch ready made for the nikon d70s/d80, or a "converter" cable so you can plug in a standard switch. Laszlo sells both. ciel bleu, Saskia

None. Buy rapide links from a skydive store like paragear. Or better yet, from your rigger. Your rigger can also tell you which size to get. I know there are at least 3 different size rapide links in use for skydiving, alll have their specific uses. ciel bleu, Saskia

The one thing this nikon does not have, is a built-in focus motor. This is only a problem if you want to shoot autofocus (duh) with non AF-S lenses. Most Nikon lenses sold these days are AF-S so unless you want to shoot specialty lenses or older lenses this is no issue. Just something to be aware of. ciel bleu, Saskia

You clearly have no idea about how helmets protect you, or not. As stated here and in the other thread, skydive helmets are made to look nice, hold your audibles, protect your face from a knee in relative work, hold cameras, protect your head from a glancing blow from say the airplane door or the risers. They are NOT rated for head protection, as stated before. They are NOT made to protect your head like a skate, snowboard, canoo helmet is, which is what a pro-tec IS. Do a bit of research into just HOW (mechanically) a helmet protects you head. You may be surprised! And do buy a pro-trec/benny type helmet (WITH ear protection) if you want actual PROTECTION. If you just want to look COOL and spend a lot, get one of the quite expensive skydive helmets. Which may not even be the right one for your further skydiving plans off student status, so be prepared to buy another one soonish. I still have my pro-tect from my student days, still comes in handy now and then. Oh yeah, for the nth time, camera flying is best left to 200+ (or IMO 300-500+) jump jumpers. So it is of NO consideration to a student. ciel bleu, Saskia

The student is not guaranteed anopening with SL! A SL can break ya know. Or may no tbe hooked up properly, so instant freefall in both cases. Relying on the RSL to get the reserve out? Yikes. And why would the AAD even fire if you say a student is "guaranteed" a main? Only 2 reasons I can think of: 1) the student is going through AAD activation hight with a seriously malfunctioning canopy, in which case you'll be glad he has an AAD to get more fabric out, because said student has spent way too long already without pulling the reserve himself or 2) the student is spiraling through AAD activation hight, something they should not be doing anyway and you can teach them not to. ciel bleu, Saskia

That. But now that you know this particular rule, you know not to get on a plane anymore without having had your JM pointed out to you. I jump at Teuge, BTW. edit: Just found your vid, see you did your AFF at Teuge. I find it very weird that you ended up with no JM. Anyway, go have a talk with John/Opa about all this. ciel bleu, Saskia

Spotting is covered a little bit in AFF here, but continues up to your A license. If you do not have your A license, you are NOT responsible for spotting yourself, you should have a I, HI or experienced jumper with at least a B license as your jumpmaster. You are not allowed to jump all by yourself without a jumpmaster in the plane present until you have your A license. If you do head into a cloud in freefall, do not track away from it unless that was part of your jump plan already. Do you know which way to go in tracking? So that you do not end up in other people/group's airspace? Or end up landing out, a village away? Basically, you shouldn't go through a cloud in freefall as that isn't allowed. You prevent going through clouds in freefall by spotting (together with your JM). Do not try to fix the situation in freefall, just fall straight down as planned. Under canopy, do not fly into a cloud if there is a way to prevent it. Again, you shouldn't get put in a situation like that especially as a student, but stuff happens.... Remember clouds can have some hard edges (ie, the glider planes at Teuge hang out just underneath clouds, they don't come up to freefall hight often, but you can encounter them under canopy on a regular basis) so they should be avoided if in any way possible. I suggest you read up a bit here, here and here. ciel bleu, Saskia

If by "just off A status" you mean you have ~700 jumps, then by all means, go for a crossfire. (Hey, "just off" is relative ) ciel bleu, Saskia

Local news item about the POPS/JOS record National news item about the POPS FS4 National teams 4@Work and Deland ciel bleu, Saskia

I think the 10 year reserve limit is a Russian thing, or 14 years, something like that was mentioned in another recent thread. ciel bleu, Saskia

Get a mediaplayer that also accepts SD cards. These are GREAT for debriefing (and for just showing off videos and photos). A mediaplayer with just a usb port would work too, you can plug in a cardreader. At my DZ there are various models from AC Ryan, Western Digital and Mede8er. ciel bleu, Saskia

The big X is obsolete, yes... For SL and the first couple freefall jumps after SL, we teach delta instead of boxman. The reason being, in a faster airplane like our caravan let alone our supervan, the boxman or any other position with your arms up will cause the staticline to hit your arm if you exit correctly. See attached pics for the difference. While the delta position is not something you will use in later skydiving (well except a "reversed" version if you go wingsuiting ), it does seem that most students get the hang of this delta position quite well. It also seems easier to arch this way or at least harder to not arch but just bend your back. ciel bleu, Saskia

I don't know about age regulations for gear in the UK. But I'd keep an eye out on the Dutch, Belgian, German etc skydive forums as well. I just sold an older but in good shape beginner-size javelin (and all black too, not even pink) with a PD-143R for 475 euro. There are deals to be had if you look for them, especially with gear that's been in a closet for a while so older but still good to jump (provided you're allowed to jump older gear, in Belgium for instance you are not so they sell stuff). ciel bleu, Saskia

http://www.performancedesigns.com/pdzone/wallpapers.asp edit: That's not a skyvan... Try a Hercules C130 ciel bleu, Saskia

You can't do an hour of tunneltime by yourself, all at once. An hour is typically shared between teams and/or other coached jumpers, with their coach either in there with them or watching, followed by debriefing. For a firsttimer, 10 minutes out of half an hour or one hour would be a lot I think, that's 10 jumps done in an hour or less (!). You'd need a skydive coach or tunnel staff anyway, which is not included in the hourly rate. Just go the beginner package route, but do mention you are a skydiver. Or find a coach that will take beginners, some coaches have even cheaper rates than just the tunnel, because they bring in customers. The local dropzone usually knows about that, or maybe the tunnel can hook you up. ciel bleu, Saskia

Both are OK beginner canopies. They just are quite different canopies. Jump both, decide which one you like better. Good beginner canopies include: spectre, triathlon, omega for 7cells, silhouette, pulse, safire 1 or 2, pilot, sabre 1 for 9 cells. The most high performance 7 cell you would buy as a beginner would be a storm or omni, for most high performance 9cell a fusion or sabre 2. ciel bleu, Saskia

3,4,5 are very very hard to see from below you, not good. I've never liked those canopies due to that. 1 and 2 should be ok, visibility-wise. BTW if you have a fairl recent version of windows, you got the free Snipping Tool (in Accessories) as well. Use it ciel bleu, Saskia