RandomLemming

British airways allegedly have no weight limit on hand luggage but you must be able to lift it comfortably and it must fit within the size limits, so a rig as hand luggage with them shouldn't be a problem. I phoned about 6 different airlines for a trip to SA next year. Not one of them will give sports allowance for a skydiving rig. In some cases the allowance is just an extra bag, but in many cases (golf, cycles, etc.) there is a lot of extra weight allowed for as well. Maybe we should be trying to get the BPA to lobby some airlines about this ?

Which airport in Spain are you aiming for ? I know that stanstead are being very firm about the new size restrictions for hand luggage (50x40x20 I think) and this is smaller than my rig (it goes to about 27cm at the bottom). Some airlines (e.g. Ryanair) are very firm about their weight. 500g over their 10kg limit and it's going in the hold (at about 5 quid per kilo :)). If you can fly out of London City on BA's new Madrid service, they are VERY relaxed about stuff.

I never was going to the boogie... I promised to stay home the week between xmas and new year and give my wife a break from dropzones :) My dates were earlier in December.

I'm planning on coming out next year :) What were the good points and what were the bad points?

I think that most people coming out to Empuriabrava will be using Ryanair and I believe that Stanstead and Luton have remained mostly unaffected by these cancellations. So hopefully everyone will make it out ok :)

Make sure you get travel insurance that covers skydiving in the US. Check the small print and make sure that it covers you for more than x jumps a day as well.

Damn you guys are lucky! I'm still not able to jump with other people until I spend another trip in Spain getting my FS1. I really do think the USPA wins on this particular point. I just _know_ I'm developing bad habits right now, but I can't jump with other people yet :(

Just a word of caution on this. I'm not aware of any DZs in Spain that are BPA affiliated. I think that some of them might be USPA affiliated though. Pretty much all of the schools in Spain have ties to a UK DZ, but make sure that you find a school that has ties to a DZ close to you. I found some issues on getting back to the UK having trained in Spain. mainly because the DZ affiliated with the school I used was not practical for me to get to.

They call it 'multi-function headwear'. You can see more about them at http://www.buffusa.com/ I have the Typhoon Buff which has the Goretex Windstopper fabric. I'm not sure where in Germany you are, but my limited German makes me think that http://www.steppenwolf.de/ sells them. I might be wrong though :( I didn't just get this because of temperature on the ground (but I use it when the temperature drops below about 6C). I mainly got it to keep some of the icy wind from cracking my lips and nose :)

I don't like the cold... but more than that, I don't like not jumping... I asked a lot of questions here and with the help of the kind people that frequent this forum, I found a solution that works for me. I thought I would post a gear report on the kit that kept me warm, dry, and happy (well, ecstatic really!) throughout this weekend. The trick, as everyone has said, is layers. I'll start at the bottom and work my way up to the top. Feet: - 1 x pair of thin work type socks - 1 x pair of Hitec hiking socks - Salomon boots (goretex) During the heatwave on Saturday (7C) I didn't bother with the thin socks, I just wore one pair. On Sunday the second pair was a blessing! With the amount of crud and muck in the fields at the moment, the Goretex on the boots is a nice feature; it kept the water on the outside where I like it. Having water seep into the boots would have meant wet socks and far more uncomfortable jumps later in the day. Legs: - Icebreaker Bodyfit 200 leggings - Craghopper fleece lined trousers The only thing I might change here as it gets colder is to move to Bodyfit 260 leggings. I was definitely warm enough during the ride and during freefall. Even under canopy I was quite comfortable. Torso / Arms: I went mental on layers here :) - IceBreaker Skin 200 - IceBreaker Bodyfit 260 - Long sleeved shirt (thin material) - Short sleeved t-shirt (Sunday only) I added the short sleeved t-shirt on Sunday just for more protection for my chest. I didn't want to go for another long sleeved layer because I didn't want to restrict my arm movement or elbow flexibility. Even though I'm not allowed to jump with other people yet, I'm still doing what FS practice I can. Other: - Fleece lined leather gloves from the Kit store at Headcorn. - Silk glove liners - Buff neck warmer / mask - Bonehead Pimp Daddy helmet I mention the lid here because the Bonehead is lined and is nice and warm. I might move the glove liners to icebreakers if I can find these anywhere. The Buff neck warmer is just the bomb (or whatever the cool kids are saying these days). Because it is so long, I get two folds of fleece at the base of the neck, tucked into my jumpsuit. Above that, covering the exposed part of my neck and face, I have the windproof component. This really is windproof and I felt no cold during freefall or canopy. The only downside to this is that I misted up my goggles on the plane ride, hardly a real problem :) Over all that, I wore my trusty Symbiosis jump suit. This made me comfortable mainly because of the booties - the Salomon boots have those metal hooks for the last bit of the lace. I normally don't jump in these boots because I worry about something catching on that hook. With all of this tucked away under my suit, I was less worried. This was jumped at Hinton (although sadly with rented gear because of their 50 jump rule before I can jump a 190) and then at Headcorn (with my gorgeous Pilot 188). I was warm and comfy at both places, except while packing... while packing I was too hot, but that might be because I suck at packing and my canopy is slippery as a well lubricated eel in an oil bath. The other option is a warm suit - Symbiosis make these as well and they will only run you about £150.00. That's actually pretty cheap as I spent about £120 on all of the above. The upside to going for a layered approach is that as things get colder, you can wear some of the layers. With a warm suit, it's an all or nothing affair. Everything except the gloves were bought from Blacks. Their Lakeside store is pretty well stocked and the staff there are helpful. I'd like to say the same about the Bluewater store, but I'm trying to post an honest report free of lies here :) Hopefully this will be of some use to someone like me - utter coward who hates the cold but has to jump :D

That would clear up my confusion a bit :)

Are Freefall Adventures also based at Skydive Spain? Or is there another DZ in Seville?

Ah - I think I get it... Chest strap through the regular strap section, and then around the d-ring a few times, right? By the way piifish, are you going to be at Empuriabrava this weekend? I only ask because you've replied to a lot of my posts about going out there, so I figure I owe you a beer :)

Sorry to ask a dumb question, but how would you protect your reserve handle with your chest strap ?

Heh... I was out last weekend, and the thermals work great to be honest... I was just looking for the one last bit to be perfectly snug. I'm not taking any with me this trip... She's staying home :)

Those look great... Not sure I'll be able to get one before my trip though. I'll try ringing them today anyways:)

Hi all, Just trying to get the last of my clothing for the UK this year and my trip to empuriabrava. I've got icebreaker everything for the warm layer so far (2x tops at different weights, 1x trouser layer, glove liners) and some lined trousers. I'm now just trying to find the windproof layer. Looking around, the Gore Windstopper stuff looks ok as a windstopper layer. Has anyone used this for skydiving, and if so, how did it work for you ? Any idea where I can find the gore stuff in London / SE? I've tried Evans but they were their usual helpful selves. Any other advice on the windproof layer that will go under a jumpsuite would be much appreciated :)

Buy the poor man a TomTom - they rock :)

Heh - my AFF video has 'Look up' and 'Is there love in space' for the DVD music. It worked well and seemed appropriate :)

Thank you muchly - I shall order that immediately :)

Any idea where I can find that in the UK? Amazon.co.uk doesn't seem to carry it and borders can't order it for me.

Mostly, I just stopped eating stupidly. I read the hacker's diet at http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html A lot of what was said made huge sense to me, so I thought I'd give it a try. For the first 5 days before I started the diet, I just noted what I ate, and I was shocked to realise how much crap I was putting into myself on a daily basis. I was eating about 3200 calories a day when my body really requires closer to 1800. When the diet kicked off, I guess my body just heaved a sigh of relief and went back to how it was. I was always quite trim and never really made any effort to stay that way. Then when I moved to the UK about 7 years ago, I had a couple of high pressure jobs and lived on take-out and vending machine food for about 5 years. This bred some bad habits :) Just taking all the crap out of my diet made a big difference, and then just reducing my calorie intake did the rest.

Well, I started out trying to downsize my canopy when I started looking to buy gear. I didn't want to buy anything bigger than a 190, mainly for resale value, so I started looking while jumping rental gear and downsizing. I eventually got down to a Maverick 210 which put me at a wing loading of 0.95. Once I was consistently standing up these landings, I had a chat to my instructor and he assured me that I would be fine with a 190. The fact that I was looking at a ZP canopy and had been jumping older F111 canopies also meant that this wouldn't be such a big change. I finally found a rig a little while ago that met my requirements so I bought it. Yay me

Thinking of weekend after next... 15 - 17. If the weather is good, I can get some jumping in... If the weather is bad, maybe I'll be able to find someone to teach me to pack. Either way it will be a good trip :) Thanks for the link - hopefully my tomtom will get me there and back. It was fine for Ocana and Skydive Spain at least :) Now I just need to call and find out if they have space in the bunk rooms. I tried Hotel Castellblanc, and actually got a price, but I couldn't even get that far at Ampuria... I really need to actually learn Spanish at some point, not just how to ask for stuff when I have no idea how to understand the responses... Quanta Est is all well and good, but if you don't understand the numbers in the response, you're SOL :D

Stunning, thanks a bunch. I just got concerned by the 'Costa Brava Airport, Airport, Gerona , ES ' statement :)