pinkfairy

Pilot 111 @ 1.3:1 It opens on heading when packed properly, floats, floats floats in half brakes, can turn incredibly flat, and is generally easy to handle in bigway traffic. Nice canopy that gets me through the wind without being too small or agressive.

You make weather considerations on the ground. This is something that you learn to do, and then it's easier to not have plane ride down. BTW how can you see that it's turbulent in the landing area from 12k? Also: MANY of your safety calls in skydiving costs you money. I lost my freebag last year, but I'd rather pay for a new freebag and a repack that land the main I had. This is an expensive sport. I've ridden the plane down once because of hail, and I've jumped from 8k instead of 12 because of clouds once. It rarely happens, and it's an acceptable risk when it comes to cost for me.

0:18:1 Well, this was for the week not for the weekend, but I didn't jump this weekend, only in the week. 18 jumps from monday to friday, the beer is for first 100-way completion. I got on Polish TV, and had a great time with people from 32 different nations, but i wonder if that included the people from Texas. Wow, thanks to the polish organizers, the P3 organizers, the PINK skyvan and everyone who jumped with me for making this happen. Wow, just wonderful. I love bigways! Oh, and I jumped a Spectre 190 for the first time. And a Pilot 104. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Nono, the whole secret of how to survive a parachute jump is stated in the user's manual of "Softie" Pilot emergency rigs: Check altitude, bailouts are usually not successful below 1000', clear aircraft, pull handle even if you're tumbling, choose an open area to land and don't turn close to the ground. I think it's better to focus on what you should do, rather than what you shouldn't. That's more productive and keeps your head working better. It's easier to follow the advice "pull handle" than "Don't slam into the ground". Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

"For a while"? Belly flying is the way of the future! Seriously: Just put them on and go fly. Don't overthink it. To get effect of them, you should learn how to turn using leg input.

There is a way to get rid of that 100-jump wonder label. Yeah, and some messages aren't pleasant. How do you present "You can die or get badly injured if you don't have a proper breakoff plan" as a positive message? There are worse things than your feelings that can get hurt. The discussions here are actually to a large degree useful. There are people going around at DZs advocating barrel rolling, Here you get to read experienced skydiver's opinions on it, and get some good explanations on why, instead of having some guy with 475 jumps telling you that you have to barrel roll. I think many skydivers learn from this, including me. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Perfect, then. I don't like it when it's only girls or only boys. @Rosa: Cool, helis are nice, you get the fun of a still air exit, but on a good spot. I've done it twice, and screamed like a little girl both times. It was really funny, going up the second time thinking "Well, I've done it before, it probably won't be the same kick", but yes, it was. I don't have that many jumps, but I have jumped a lot of different jumpships.

Aaaah, beer! I don't drink right now, so I'm drinking various non alcoholic ones. There is a northern norwegian brewery that makes a great non alcoholic brew called "Freeze", and another norwegian brand called Aass that makes one called "Uten". But good old Clausthaler is good too. If it's with alcohol, I love Coronas, and norwegian Mack. Mack is best in Tromsø, directly from the cask. It's so fresh and nice and easy to drink, you forget that it's alcoholic, which can lead to surprises. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Wow, sounds great, and I'm not usually interested in all girl boogies. I'll see if I can fit it into my budget, I'm headed out to Perris the following week to do some serious bigway fun, but it would be great with some pure, low pressure fun jumps first. And helicopter: Yum, I love helicopters. My favourite.

Nono, don't lead the boy astray: pack fast, pull low, date your rigger's wife. Seriously, though, I've actually heard people argumented that they'd be safer under a smaller canopy. Yes it's true. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

1. Do you want more speed when you land? Because that's what you get with smaller canopies. Yes, sure, smaller canopies also usually give you a more powerful flare and better penetration through the wind, but mainly you get more speed. 2. Small(ish) canopies can be used with wingsuits, as long as they are appropriate type. My Pilot 111 has great WS deployments, and worked great even when I hadn't bled off all of the forward speed. But if you don't want to have to deal with a new canopy and a new kind of jump at the same time, that's very understandable. And smart. On the other hand, 7-cells, like the Storm and Spectre are considered better WS canopies than the Sabre2. Us people on the internet can't really give you an answer to wether you should downsize or not, we don't know you, the above is just general information. I quite liked the spectre, but haven't tried a Sabre2 yet, I'm a Pilot girl.

Priorities, priorities. As other people have said: it depends on the terrain and altitude available, among other things. I think I'm way more valuable than my main and freebag, I lost a freebag once, and it doesn't bother me really. I chose to chop, fly to the DZ, do a practice flare and land safely. But that's me. I would feel incredibly silly if I got injured because I chased a cutaway.

Oh, yeah! Give me half a chance, and I'll put on my rig, shoes altimeter and helmet and jump from a plane. I look good on the ground and in freefall in my jumpsuit, but wearing nothing in freefall, I don't look good at all. And there is photo evidence. But I don't care, it's good fun. Advice: 1. If you're a woman and the front float is male and heterosexual, NEVER rear float, even if that's your best slot. It causes the exit to funnel. 2. Never, ever give up, weightbelts count as clothes, but just bend your body into the required shape and get there. 3. Shave for aerodynamics! Good name, Sanssuit, I'm all for it.

That's why I wear them, I found out that if I keep comfortable in the plane, I get less tired when I'm jumping. They don't significantly reduce my ability to talk to other jumpers in the plane, but I don't really like talking on the ride to altitude anyway. I take them out before exit because I sometimes have problems equalizing pressure in my ears with earplugs. If we go high with O2, I take them out before I put on my canula or hose, so I have less to think about at the top. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Sounds like he at least had a proper first jump course, then. It was boring, I would close my eyes after I was done and see bad canopies and the EPs. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

I got my Factory Diver because I needed my own headgear, was at a 4-way training camp, and Skysystems were right around the corner. It has a hard shell, so it's definitely better than nothing, but protection isn't the main reason why I'm wearing it, it holds my dytter, keeps the wind out of my face and is comfortable. I like it. What about I keep my factory diver and you wear your frap hat?

I have one, but I don't use it. I can't be bothered, I'm busy watching out for traffic and entering the pattern, after I open my canopy, and I don't have a highly elliptical one anyway. I used it for a while, then I got into 100-way skydiving, and stopped using it, and now I don't use it at all. Maybe that means I should sell it, or maybe I'm a dirty low puller. I don't know. I just collapse the slider and loosen the chest strap a bit, that's all. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

I was just wondering why Sea Shepherd don't go after norwegian whalers. There hasn't been any Sea Shepherd activity in Norway for a long time. And I was presenting some facts that might explain that. Note that Kelpdiver cites an american source for the Minke whale's conservation status. American fisheries authorities has no interest in keeping the consevation status of the minke whale updated. Sorry about my poor source in my previous post, but here is the consevation status on the IUCN Red List: http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/2474/0 Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Hi, stumbled on your video on youtube, and had to check out if you posted about this on DZ.com. Of course you did People here are rightly pointing out that spiralling wasn't a good idea in this case. You lost all vertical separation to people who exited before you or have faster canopies. It's an unpredictable way of flying and and makes it harder for other people to avoid you. Have you tried flying on half brakes or rear risers to stay up longer, thus creating extra vertical separation? That was really close and I hope you learn from this. Yes, other skydivers, the jump plane and your gear can kill you, but the biggest risk factor is still yourself. Take care!

It's not necessary to be underweighted to recover.

You know, that's interesting: I attended the norwegian record qualifying event, organized by Pål Bergan and Lise Nansen, both look like light weighters on the ground, but the formation fell like a safe. this was just the base 48 and the beginning of some whackers of the 124-way that we will be building in August, the training jumps were 55-ways. 8-way base with 4-way and 3-way lines, basically a bunch of big holes strung together. So the shape and size of the formation says more about the fall rate than the size and shape of the people in the base. The 6-way bases with full whackers that I did in Perris for the BWC and 100-ways were way slower. And those were with big strong men like Tony Domenico and Dan BC. Yeah, I'm an "at the end of a whacker line" kind of girl. I think it's easier closer to the base, because then I can just fly in fast, stop and dock, far out, I have to make sure I don't pass the people I'll dock on, and I have to wait until it's built in front of me. But I'm built to slowfall and recover, so that's where I should be.

We catch a few hundred of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minke_whale, a least concern species, Japan also catches a few sei, bryde, fin and sperm whales: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Japan_whaling_1985-2006.svg some of which are listed as endangered. but other than that, I don't know why, in Norway we don't even call the catch "scientific", norwegian whalers kill whales and the meat is sold. With the very limited numbers of whales being taken out of a least concern species, I don't think that norwegian whaling is in any way unsustainable. It's not an over harvested resource and there is no by-catch, something that can be said for few sources of seafood. I think it's easier for Sea Shepherd to go after the japanese whalers because they operate in the antarctic sea, it would be harder to go after the norwegian ones, as they have the coastal guard close at hand for assistance. Just my guess. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

If you're not sure that the person contacting you on facebook is who he says he is, you could contact that person through other means, like on the phone and ask if they really have a facebook profile and tried to add you as their friend. People always want technology solutions to problems, when what works is often just common sense.

Ouch! people like you in baggy freefly suits on their bellies are TOUGH to follow, even I have to get out my slowfall gear. If you want to fly on your belly, you should get a RW suit. Check out some other brands of freefly suits too: Boogie Man makes some really good, slick freefly suits that are fast while still easy enough to fly for a beginner. My friend here got a Cristal, that she already flies well. Sonic also makes good fast suits. Of course I recommend getting into RW, RW is great fun, and you get to turn points even when you're fairly inexperienced, and we can build really big formations.

That's how it is everywhere, one brand gets a lot more popular than everything else: at my home DZ it's UPT Micron, Javelin Odyssey and Aerodyne Icon. Not only do few people have anything else, they also don't hesitate to say that everything else has major flaws and is dangerous. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?