LloydDobbler

Just a heads up. My name is Mark Rejhon. That's what I get for making a quick post, Mark. I even thought twice about it, but just hit 'Post' anyway.

I've got about 16 hrs in the tunnel...and about 13 of that is 4-way. It took me a good 30 mins to get comfortable on my back. But I stuck with it, and it helped tremendously with my sit (I actually was cleared for sitflying, then went back and just worked on the back for a while. Made a HUGE difference). Probably now have an hour of sit, 1.5 hrs of back, and 30 mins' of transitions. Again, I'd highly recommend getting comfortable on your back. Everyone wants to move on to sitflying...but it makes SUCH a difference when you can bail to your back and be in control. There's a level of confidence in that which can't be attained any other way, IMO, than getting good on your back. Oh, yeah - and as for belly stuff, I probably had a good 45mins to an hour before getting into 4-way. If I was flying 4-way with 3 MUCH more experienced people, though, it would be a different matter. But instead, I started with people of my skill level. THAT was entertaining. Signatures are the new black.

I agree with all Michael's comments on the burble advantages/disadvantages. I prefer the airflow in the single-door tunnels. Interesting. From my experience, I'd say exactly the opposite. For the more touristy tunnels, I've noticed that entrances/exits are easier/quicker with only one door, because the TI doesn't have to finish with exiting customer, then slide back through the airflow to get to the next customer. They're right there, ready to go. On the flipside, for 4-way, entrances/exits are always faster in a 2-door tunnel, because (provided the other people in the chamber are aware) we can shoot 2 out one door and 2 out the other (same goes for entrances). Makes getting in/out much faster. (But to each their own). If given the choice, I definitely agree, though - much prefer the single-door tunnels for flying. Signatures are the new black.

First off, congratulations to all who worked on this. It's a monumental achievement. That being said...I'm a little surprised about the specifics. Given the 40-some-odd pages of discussion about the 71-way in Elsinore (and the numerous 'The Emperor has no clothes' comments), I'm wondering about this grid thing. I recall there being numerous issues with the judging of the record, supposedly given the distortion of perspective when working with wide-angle lenses, etc. I eventually stopped following that thread after coming to the conclusion that I was never going to see a photo with the grid overlay that would prove that it was 'done.' So apologies for interrupting the celebration, but I think this bears some discussion. Was the perspective/grid issue from the Elsinore 71-way ever resolved? If it wasn't, are we not putting the cart far ahead of the horse here (especially since larger formations will presumably involve even more distorted photographic perspective, given their massive scale)? Will these standards ever be able to be upheld? Or will the next record attempt again result in a multi-page thread of excuses from the organizers? Signatures are the new black.

+1. Z-Hills is still one of my favorite DZs, and it's easy to see that all the staff, from TK on down, contribute to making it what it is. Signatures are the new black.

Chris - You've got my admiration for making a difficult choice. You've got my congratulations for going after something you've dreamed about. And you've got my respect for your words above - I'm sure you wrote them for yourself as much as for everyone who's touched your skydiving life...the sentiment is commendable. Like everyone's said, the sky isn't going anywhere. And we'll hope to see you back in it at some point. Until then, I hope the road rises to meet you. Good luck! Signatures are the new black.

Because - pardon the unintentional cheesy analogy - it delivers me to a higher place. Like many people, I spend the greater part of my life sitting at a desk, doing work I'm not too fond of (but don't necessarily hate). Then I come home to a different to-do list, or another project that I'm drawn towards and find myself compelled to pursue. There's no chance it'll ever all be done. Life will always be a tug-of-war between different foci - be it career, family, love, or any of the other various priorities that come up. But when I leave the door of an aircraft, that all fades away. There is no grocery list, no argument with my ex, no bill waiting to be paid. There is no past. There is no future. There is only the sky, and 50 seconds of complete, utter focus. It's pure and raw. It takes on different forms (it began as an adrenaline rush, then became a challenge to myself, and now it's something even different). But the constant is that it forces me to focus only on the present. And all of the other things that stress me out and seem so important during so-called 'real life'...they cease to exist for those few moments of clarity. Signatures are the new black.

Yep. That's a decent workaround. But from a web design standpoint, you want to make your site accessible to the most amount of people. (In other words, people having to go out of their way to download an add-on in order to make a basic link show up = usability FAIL.) Signatures are the new black.

That's good to hear. I've seen otherwise in a few cases, but glad someone stepped up and did the right thing. (Even though you seem to be taking a really balanced approach to this, the majority of students who ask questions like this already know the answer they want to hear. Which often leads to pain.) Good luck! Signatures are the new black.

Well, bummer. It's not an IE CSS hack - on non-IE browsers, the 'Copy Shortcut' link doesn't even appear in the HTML, which means either it's a browser-dependent script, or the PHP has been instructed to not serve it up. Looking at it in IE, it's a document.all javascript function called postShortcut. Which makes me wonder why they would use a browser-dependent javascript function to accomplish this, instead of using simple, cross-browser-compliant PHP. In other words, they're going around their big toe to get from their nose to their ass. As a developer, I have no idea why they would have done it this way. Dumb. Alright, powers-that-be - want to make a quick fix to help the rest of us who don't want to infect our computers with IE? It should be a simple matter of tweaking the javascript a bit. PS - Sorry for all the geeky talk. I imagine most of you have zoned out. Just figured I'd at least identify the underlying cause of the problem, rather than just sitting back and hoping the admins decide to look into it. Signatures are the new black.

Yup. Firefox mostly (web dev tools, etc)...but like you said, it doesn't work on Safari & Opera, either. I'll take a look at the code and see what's going on...I don't have IE on this machine - is there an actual 'button' or link to copy a shortcut? Or does it just make the title of the post clickable? I'm thinking maybe some IE hacks were used in the code to make the page look right (because IE doesn't play well with ANYTHING), and in so doing, those lines in the CSS blocked out the button display for other standards-compliant browsers. Which means the data is there, just hidden. Should be an easy fix. Any chance you could attach a screenshot? I might be able to solve this problem myself. In the meantime, looks like someone needs to be doing some cross-browser testing... Signatures are the new black.

Hey, folks - On rare occasions, I find some nugget of wisdom I want to save in a 43-page thread. To add this post to my bookmarks, the process is currently: 1) copy the 'in reply to' link associated with the post 2) paste that URL into my browser's address bar 3) go back to the post and get the post number by hovering over the 'Reply' or 'Quote' links 4) replace the post numbers in the URL I just posted into the address bar with the post number I just found 5) hit 'Enter' to load the page 6) Bookmark away. I know my way around the web, and have enough experience with SOAP and APIs to be fairly good at hacking URLs. Still, this whole process is REALLY cumbersome. (And that's me - most people don't even have a clue WTF I'm talking about). Wouldn't it make more sense to add a button to the template for each post that reads 'Direct Link to this Post', or something of that nature? Or make the particular title of each post in a thread a clickable link back to that particular post? Shouldn't require too much PHP...and would help immensely, both with bookmarking and referencing posts in other posts. (It facilitates conversation, and it's just good usability...heck, most blogs today even offer direct links to each of their comments)... Signatures are the new black.

The Optima alarms are great for swooping, given the beep-Beep-BEEP-BEEEEEP! buildup. If you turn that feature off, however, I think it makes a great 'reminder' device for standard canopy patterns. Of course, you should be able to eyeball where you're going to land and put it down there...but sometimes it's nice to have an alert to tell you to start thinking about turning into the pattern. I set mine at 1100, 600, & 400. Signatures are the new black.

Try to listen! Simple: get an analog altimeter first. Why? Because that is always working. Completely untrue. As I and many others on this forum have related, analog altimeters do get stuck. As a student, I had 2 analog altimeters stick while in freefall. One was at 8K, the other was at around 5500', just after I had begun my track. It was only after seeing my instructor pull that I realized I was low. Analog or digital, there is no foolproof device. It's 6 one way, half-dozen the other. I would personally much rather know in freefall that my altimeter is out rather than realizing it when the ground starts looking really big, so I fly a digital. But that's just my preference. That being said, I agree that pretty much every skydiver would do well to have an analog altimeter (at least as a backup), so I recommend to students that they get one of those first. Still, saying that an analog always works - or that it even works better/more often than a digital - is patently incorrect. Signatures are the new black.

Sooo...? How'd it go, Dean-O? Signatures are the new black.

Well-said, Tom. It also makes sense to point out that in an age of divergent disciplines and constantly-changing foci, perhaps the one thing we all have in common these days is skydiving history. Signatures are the new black.

When I'm not wearing my full-face, I wear Sorz (and yes, I wear contacts, too). They work fine for me. However, goggles really seem to depend on the person. Your face shape might be better-suited for different kinds of goggles. Luckily, they're inexpensive, so you can try different brands to see which work for you. Some people at the DZ will likely let you try theirs out for a jump or two. Otherwise, I'd say just grab a pair and try them out. If they're not ideal for you, grab a different kind and try them again. It's always good to have a backup pair. Signatures are the new black.

To some extent, I was saying the OP should discount your advice based on your jump numbers and background (or lack thereof). But it wasn't the advice to talk to his instructors that I took issue with - it was the way you questioned a lot of the advice councilman24 was offering, and then advised the OP that 'everybody's different,' implying that he'll be okay under a higher-loaded 170. That sort of advice is dangerous for a new jumper, IMO. With less than a year in the sport, you likely haven't been here long enough to recognize 'mad skillz syndrome' - but it happens far too frequently with newer jumpers, and it's never good to encourage it. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, a quick search in the incidents forum will bring you up to speed). I don't know that the OP would go down that path, but it makes little sense to recommend that he start seeing things that way. Especially when that advice is given by someone with only 50 jumps and not a lot of time in the sport. To be fair, maybe you didn't mean it like that. But it did come off that way when I read it. Even moreso when I looked at your profile and saw that you're flying a 150sf Safire2 loaded at 1.3 when you're just off of student status yourself. Then there's this: Since this remark was included in a reply to councilman24, it seemed reasonable to assume that you were directing it at him. Being just off student status yourself, you probably don't have enough perspective to see that in the beginning, it makes little sense to advise a newer jumper to be less conservative (which you did, indirectly, by implying that councilman24 was just giving easy advice because 'it's not his money'). I don't have that much more experience than you...but with three years in the sport, I've now seen my share of the things that result from newer jumpers thinking 'I can handle that canopy.' That's why I recommended he consider the source. Your advice about the OP talking to his instructors was well-stated. Your discounting councilman24's recommendations about choosing conservatively - and implying that he was merely giving easy advice because 'it's not his money' - was not. Signatures are the new black.

Talk to YOUR instructors at YOUR dz to find out what will work well for YOU. While being conservative is a good thing, most people will offer advice that is easy to give when it's not their money. I agree with your assessment of 'talk to the instructors at your DZ.' But I also agree with 'Consider your source'. Even not knowing what I know of Terry, I'd trust the advice of a Master rigger / S&TA / USPA Board member with MANY years in the sport and thousands of skydives much more than I would someone with

Whoa - that's funky. Press submit once, and get two posts. Deleting the excess now (and hoping it doesn't decide to delete twice, too). If only that 2-for-1 thing would happen when you go to buy a wingsuit...

Hey there, now, *some* of us turbine babies know how to spot. (That's what happens when you learn to jump out of one of the oldest Otters still flying.) Any of you Pepperell jumpers want to confirm that N121PM still uses the buttons at the back of the plane for communicating with the pilot to adjust the spot? (God, I hope so. Would be nice if there was still at least one Otter that required real spotting.) Signatures are the new black.

Hey there, now, *some* of us turbine babies know how to spot. (That's what happens when you learn to jump out of one of the oldest Otters still flying.) Any of you Pepperell jumpers want to confirm that N121PM still uses the buttons at the back of the plane for communicating with the pilot to adjust the spot? (God, I hope so. Would be nice if there was still at least one Otter that required real spotting.) Signatures are the new black.

Signatures are the new black.

Wouldn't the pressure differences between the two environments (from weather) also affect the unit, not just the ground level differences. I know we don't know if that's what happened just checking my knowledge. Yep. That's 'density altitude' - the pressure altitude adjusted for non-standard temperature. humidity, etc. Signatures are the new black.

As a rig, I love the Vector. I fly a Micron. I HATED their older riser covers, but the magnetic riser covers have solved that problem. But Mirages are great rigs, too. And I know the discount doesn't hurt - that's why I recommended you talk to them to be sure a retrofit will be possible before you buy one. As a new jumper, you'll find soon enough that most modern rigs are great pieces of equipment. Vector, Mirage, Talon, Javelin, Wings...the list goes on. Everyone will offer you different opinions on which one is their favorite (usually the type they fly), and generally all have good reasons why they like it. It's good to talk to people at your DZ about it. Personally, I always advise students to go used for their first rig. You can do a search and find all the reasons why, but basically, a rig for someone just off student status is often a 'stepping stone' rig. You're trying to figure out what you're into, what equipment you need for that...and you also will likely want to downsize at some point in the near future. Buying used allows you to do all that, and to resell it for close to what you paid for it after you put a couple hundred jumps on it. A new rig is somewhat like buying a new car - it loses value the moment you purchase it. Signatures are the new black.