dragon2

Atmonauti and tracking groups go out last, before any birdman though. Make sure that if you have more then one birdman/atmonauti/tracking group in one jumprun that they figure out their flightplans with each other as well. Personally I think that if you did a birdman course you already learned the stuff about flightplans, and the atmonauti I've seen so far are pretty heads up too, but I've had members from tracking jumps freefall past my opening canopy pretty close ciel bleu, Saskia

7 cell. There's tons of postings on this subject if you do a search... ciel bleu, Saskia

I've got a couple free tandem jumps, because I'm hanging out a lot of the dropzone I get asked a lot. These are recurrency jumps (after the winter), new tandem master jumps (kinda scary sometimes LOL), new rig/chute jumps, and they all require a passenger with at least an A license. Then I did 3 tandem jumps when I only had to pay either one or two slots, also because I'm an experienced (ahem) jumper... And because they were special jumps (night jump and a jump-in at another DZ for a party and then back to our DZ). Just hanging out, no jumper? No free jumps... ciel bleu, Saskia

We have some crw/demo rigs with hybrid triathlons in them. I jumped a 150 and a 160 both once before they had their half brake thingies installed, the openings were slooooooow. Like over 1k (hop'n'snivel). It then took 3k for me to get the slider to come down on the 150 On the team crw rigs (competition triathlons 99 and 120) the half brakes are never set, no idea why though. ciel bleu, Saskia

If you do a search, you'll come up with hundreds of posts on the subject. Usually everyone these days is pro AAD, most people are anti AAD-dependancy (going on jumps you maybe shouldn't because "hey I got a cypres!"), and opinions vary about WHICH modern AAD, especially about the Vigil. Risks, with any AAD there could be a premature opening, but with cypres and now the vigil this doesn't happen much and if it does it has a reason (cypres not send in for 4/8 yr check so not fixed to withstand radio signals, an AAD that got wet, various bugs now worked out of the vigil, stuff like that). A dual deployment is also a risk but with a cypres/vigil you'd be very low then already so to avoid a dual deployment DON'T GO LOW (duh). But if i were you I'd buy a rig with either a cypres, cypres2 or vigil in it. ciel bleu, Saskia

There may be a reason for that, as some tandemmasters have a preferance for certain students (tall/short, heavy/lightweight, out-of-shape, ...) or take certain types because they can and some other TM might not, or because it is the best type for the TM because he's just starting out or something... Ie at our DZ a TM will not take a child or very small person up before he has got a lot of experience, they are also not allowed to take a video person up with them the first 25 (I think)tandem jumps, a short TM will probably not get a very tall passenger, an experienced TM will take any elderly, overweight and/or out-of-shape students, stuff like that. Not saying something like that happened here, but tandemmaster-passenger pairings are not always random. ciel bleu, Saskia

Did our first 4way competiton this weekend. Rookie class, only 2 teams, we came in 2nd My first skydiving competition, ever. Man I never really saw the fun in FS, but filming it.... oh boy now I got a new hobby (again!) The team learned a lot, they got professional coaching for the first time, and I also learned a lot (after some "interesting" exits How come I got hit by the POINT again?! LOL). Now, I gotta go learn a whole lot more ciel bleu, Saskia

You have got to be kidding me? Good canopy or not, you saying a xfire is an ok canopy for someone (anyone?) with 200 jumps? Here in The Netherlands you can't jump one either with less than 500 jumps, same for stiletto, katana, diablo, etc. ciel bleu, Saskia

Mostly jump wingsuit, although last weekend I didn't have my suit connected (excuse: it came back from the repack that way!) and I got invited to a 3way atmonauti jump, which was my first. Was fun, even though I missed something, where are my wings!! LOL Then after that we were supposed to be doing a sunset 12 way atmo (my second atmo jump, oh yeah) but the pilot kicked us out at 7.6k without even a 1 minute call so that jump went straight to hell . We did get to practise our landing-out-sticking-together skills... Other than that, besides zooming around in my S3, I film a newbie FS4 team, with me being a newbie FS filmer. Hey I got wings so it's all good ciel bleu, Saskia

And these kind of incidents are more frequent with some certain type of canopies. Why, oh why? Maybe because there simply are a LOT of sabre's around? ciel bleu, Saskia

What's a "visio"? (I guess that means I can't help here...) Microsoft Visio, for flowcharts and stuff. Sorry, don't know any pics for that. Nice idea though. However there are a couple nice programs around that are specially for designing dives. ciel bleu, Saskia

In the Dutch news today: http://www.nu.nl/news/527023/21/Dodelijke_parachutesprong_van_Eiffeltoren.html Deadly parachute jump from Eiffel Tower A 31 yr old Norwegian died because of a failed parachute jump from the Eiffeltower in Paris. So said the police tuesday. He tried jumping from the 2nd level but hit the metal structure of the second floor and died instantly. The incident happened monday evening after the tower closing time. The still ongoing investigation revealed that the man and 2 other Norwegians had hid on the 2nd level, apperantly looking to avoid closing time. When the 31 yr old jumped, the 2 others were supposedly filming. The police has taken the other 2 Norwegians in for questioning. original text: Dodelijke parachutesprong van Eiffeltoren Uitgegeven: 17 mei 2005 13:29 Laatst gewijzigd: 17 mei 2005 13:32 PARIJS - Een 31-jarige Noor is om het leven gekomen door een mislukte parachutesprong van de Eiffeltoren in Parijs. Dat heeft de politie dinsdag meegedeeld. Hij probeerde van het tweede niveau naar beneden te springen, maar sloeg tegen de metalen structuur van de eerste etage en overleed op slag. Het incident deed zich maandagavond na sluitingstijd van de toren voor. Uit het onderzoek, dat nog gaande is, is gebleken dat de man en twee andere Noren zich op het tweede niveau verborgen hadden, kennelijk met het oogmerk de sluitingstijd te omzeilen. Terwijl de 31-jarige man sprong, zouden de anderen aan het filmen zijn geweest. De politie heeft de twee andere Noren voor verhoor meegenomen. ciel bleu, Saskia

And risk tailbone and spine injury. Will he always be flying a Manta? Even with a manta, and me being 150 lbs geared up, I plf-ed a couple times. Esp the one time I came in downwind and it was too late for me to turn 180 it saved my bacon. After 3 plf's I got up and didn't even have bruises, nothing. Besides scaring the hare I almost landed on top of I don't think a light WL should mean you don't have to learn how to plf. But I'm no instructor... ciel bleu, Saskia

It comes out of the top part of your rig. I'm assuming you did a first jump course, didn't your instructors tell you that? See pics below for some reserves (PD 126R and PD 143R if I'm not mistaken). ciel bleu, Saskia

I'm not missing that point, and I'm a lightweight (not 100 lbs though) girl myself. If you have a few HUNDRED jumps, a 120 is fine, IMO. I know it is zippy, I jump one. And I wouldn't advise one for a first canopy or even a second. But after you have downsized properly and have a few hundred jumps under your belt, why not? Over here you now need 500 jumps before you're allowed a 135/120, but I got mine before those rules, at ~350 jumps or so. No big deal. Yes it's small. Yes it's zippy. Yes it's zippier than a 150 at 1:1.3. Duh. And yes I can land it downwind in a backyard. ciel bleu, Saskia

Square footage can have more to do with how responsive a canopy is than wing loading. For this reason a 120 is an inappropriate choice for a 100 pound girl with a few hundred jumps even though her wing loading is just 1.0:.1. A 95 loaded at 1.5 is a questionable choice for a 130 pound guy with 500 jumps. What's wrong with putting a lightweight girl with a few hundred jumps on a 120?? It's the girls with 50 jumps on a 120 I'm more worried about... ciel bleu, Saskia

The 2k is the same as our 300x, one of our cameramen bought that one. It does have a remote (even though the canon website doesn't mention it). However there was a too long delay between pressing the switch and the camera firing. This was normal for this model according to the shop (and that shop sells us a lot of skydiving camera stuff). So the cameraman gave the camera to his daughter and is now looking for an older model (the 300/rebel2000 was fine) that does work. ciel bleu, Saskia

L&B have got something like that in the works: http://www.l-and-b.dk/altitrack.html ciel bleu, Saskia

I always test jumped a canopy not to see if anything was wrong with it but to see if I liked it. No one can do that for you. OTOH, I jumped a spectre 190 a couple times, fell in love with the canopy and ordered a Spectre 150 later on as my first canopy (WL 1). I knew the canopy TYPE I just couldn't demo one smaller than 190 (I did jump other canopies in between of course) so I based my decision on that. ciel bleu, Saskia

Some cow swooping by Martijn van Dam at my DZ: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=606 Or go to http://www.martijnvandam.nl/ - videos - cowswooping. Njoy ciel bleu, Saskia

Somewhat off the main thread, but is it true (as i've been told) that if you do end up landing in a field with cows, the cows will tend to run away as you come down, ie you don't really need to worry that you'll crash into one? We had a military guy land ON TOP of a cow. I haven't asked it why it didn't ran away ciel bleu, Saskia

Hey Tristan, got your C?! And I hear you're actually flying now ciel bleu, Saskia

Damages slider grommets better! I like the way I can hook 'em all together if I have a spare set, less hassle then looking for a ziplock baggie to put the slinks in The one thing I did like about french links was that it was easy to adjust the trim of my Lightning a bit by adding links. I think for crew most people still use french links, it's easy to tack big slider bumpers to 'em (don't think the pilgrim hat thingies will hold a spider coming down fast, but not sure, never tried). ciel bleu, Saskia

I'm just starting to add some extra speed to my landings. I'm a wuss close to the ground, I like to stay in one piece I've been videoing a LOT of swoops these last 1 1/2 years and attended the seminars and generally talked/chatted a LOT about swooping. I've been told by 2 PD Factory Team guys that I have picked up a lot just by watching. Maybe, I can usually tell (I think, LOL) if someone was low,why he was low etc. But I don't have the sight pictures from up high. I don't know, maybe I'm a swooping talent waiting to be discovered (yeah right ) but for now I mostly either FORGET to go to my fronts or I do but let them up waaay too high. The only thing I'm really sure of is that I've seen too many really botched-up landings already, and I don't intend to add one myself. I think that I may know a fair amount, however that's all "book wisdom". Now to get the sight pics and the muscle memory... I make a much better swooping video judge than I do a competitor ciel bleu, Saskia

It doesn't take as long to get to terminal, as you start flying pretty soon after exit. also the freefall time and speeds if they come from a neptune or pro-track aren't entirely accurate because a bit of the exit and opening are included. ciel bleu, Saskia