LukeOliver

I can understand why you might ask the question; However, metalwork is not an essential part of the puzzle. It's completely optional. You could even argue that with the increased availability of quality training, targeted training activities and peer feedback... it's not even a badge of honour.

Sitting in the Bombshelter now. Haven't seen too many of the ladies yet today. Great party last night. Lots of pink jumpsuited ladies thrown in the pool prior to that. Result: very green pool this morning, you couldn't quite see the lettering on the bottom... Found in the deep of the pool during the morning cleanup: a set of keys. Sunglasses. An iPhone, ouch. A Blackberry, ouch. Coins. A wallet. A pink feather boa. A sock. And it looks like a bikini top on the top of the shade sail. A few sore heads this morning! Another view of the opening celebrations... I'm looking for Aussies, and mainly my chick :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYxx3fqYVgY

Attempt 4 for the day emplanes. Really positive vibe from the rally before they went.

All the ladies emplanes; skyvan and eight otters are taxiing. They're off to 18,000'... Everyone has permission to take up grips on this one. I'm running some video randomness from Perris if you're bored: http://YouTube.com/JFTC2009 ...I think :)

Question about phones... bringing mine from overseas. What's a good SIM to get which will give a decent data allowance as well? 3G.

No way :-( Fly free.

The guy you're thinking of targeted this discipline from day one, worked real hard at acquiring skills: got mentoring, rigorous goal setting, disciplined practice. Lots of effort. You could too. But he did.

2.4 on VX96. I was supersizing, better now at 2.2. Never felt the need to go much faster.

I had LASIK about 8 years ago, after 24 years of spectacles. Reduced to a choice between skydiving and LASIK, I'd take the eye surgery. Also the weirdest experience of my life.

Real photo, taken with one of CookieComposite's belly mounts I'm guessing. That's definitely Bretto's nose. It's Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. It's a pretty progressive shop, and to my mind counters much of the alleged corruption and exploitation of workers in the tandem industry up that way. Yes, it's an Extreme FX, scaled up to 285 sq ft. Bretto has like 9500 tandems last I looked, super current, he's a rigger, and has the physique which makes it all look easy. The chances of anyone getting their feet to the ground before him are minimal, and I've watched him react whilst a student is still /thinking/ about doing something untoward. It offers little to the first time jumper (other than the landing takes less time so you worry less). Many licensed parachutists have been on the front as well, and it's been pond swooping according to the videos I've seen. I would suggest - without referring it to Bretto, so inviting trouble - that at some stage you start doing tandems for yourself rather than the student. There might be an element of that, but having worked with him I see customer service happening as well. If you're going to be potentially loaded at the 2.0 mark, crossbraced canopies have demonstrable advantages. Collapsible sliders on Tandem canopies help if you're going to jump in max legal wind limits. I don't have a problem with it. But it's not for me. Me and my new friends will stick with my 330 Crossfire ;-) L.

"Jyro". It's an acronym ;-)

I believe this ultimately dates back to 2003, prior to the recall for additional static shielding. There were issues then - misfires? ground fires? - I believe that's well established, and the issue may well have been before the courts since then.

http://www.vigil-aad.com/pdf/WorldTeamResponse_005.pdf Feb 16, 250kb Apparently so. Text in this PDF does not copy and paste nicely :-/

That didn't read quite the way I intended, sorry. You never actually forget; but time helps heal. "Nobody is really gone as long as someone remembers". When I lose a friend in the sport, I take my current pullup cord and tie it in a special place with the others; spending as long as I need to say "goodbye" before consciously trying to move on. I wish the collection was smaller, and that some of the pullups weren't so fresh. L.

I've never worked out an adequate way of dealing with the grief, and it seems to be a new problem each time. Practical matters, and in the positive sense: 1) Add what we learned from it to the body of knowledge 2) Do what I can to educate I tend to go apeshit when I see people covering up dodgy practices in the sport to protect said dodgy practices and the people involved. It's a pity more people don't speak up sometimes, difficult to effect positive change when you've got folks who should know better shutting up - or worse, sitting around going "it's all good" when it's obviously not. There are some lessons this sport seems to have to learn again and again and again... Bill Booth's writings in these forums are proof positive of that. And the lack of that sense of history contributes to the worst kind of grief. Everyday I see advertisements offering classes to help me improve my memory. There are days I'd take a course which would help me forget. L.

JC rocks.

This thread is nutty. So many truths, half truths, nothing but the truths... Karen. - Batteries don't last. - Hard disk units suffer at altitude. - You'll need a computer with a media manager to sort out music for whatever player you buy him. The various bits of specialist advice offered here about hacking iPods, music formats, yada yada are great but beyond someone who just wants to listen to music (read the last six words again before you complain folks). It's a moving target, evolutionary model, etc. There is a reason Apple (whom I hold no allegiance to, believe me) flog millions of iPods whilst the other products rot on the shelves. K.I.S.S. Music player? iPod. Skydiving? Nano. Size? Biggest one you can afford. Durability? Plan to replace your music player every two years or so. Don't be baffled by the bullsh*t. Miss you :-) L.

Used to work with a guy who toggle hooked every tandem landing he did. Always pulled it off, looked cool, pretty good touchdowns. 6' tall, too, that helped. He's still in hospital I think, since before Christmas, with a range of injuries. Home DZ, did his usual thing, got it wrong. One of his rare jumps on his sports equipment. Thank !@#$ he didn't have someone on the front. L.

Whoa there! Not quite. You can do ONE solo jump between stages, but it's not meant to be a goof off. And you'd have to be pretty convincing for an instructor to leave you in the plane by yourself. In answer to the original post, seek to compress your basic training to the shortest continuous timeframe your budget will allow. Easier on everyone because it's easier on you. L. Training ops manual: 5.7.4 The DZSO may, at her/his discretion, allow a student to make a solo descent between stages six, seven and eight for the purpose of consolidating and polishing manoeuvres prior to advancing to the next stage. Operational Regulations: 6.3.5. Student parachutists shall be accompanied by an instructor in the aircraft until such time as the DZSO is satisfied that the presence of an instructor is not necessary. At no time will this be before the completion of stage 6 of either the Static-line or Freefall Student Training Descent table

Someone needs to clarify "control" for this thread... bet there's already a thread which itemises "Controllability check". Food for thought: Being able to make the parachute fly in a straight line does not constitute control I wouldn't have landed this one, but I'm pretty heavily loaded these days. I did once land a broken brake line on a square, but that was loaded at 0.65:1. Parachute Landing Rolls remain a worthwhile technique. As far as reserves go... 4 chops from 4 tandems (thinking that should count as 8 somehow). So, in my experience, reserves can be relied upon to work. But whilst I'm here, the lesson I learnt from the last two malfunctions was really simple - "Don't put up with jumping other people's tired old crap" - they were the same malfunction, on the same tired old canopy, that the owner was too cheap to fix the first time. Twice I had one last chance with two people's lives because of a clear problem which we had to "put up with for another few hundred jumps". The owner netted enough cash from rig hire between the two malfunctions to purchase, say, a small four cylinder car. I have also retired one of my students from the sport for landing something I described in their first jump course as a "low speed malfunction, corrective action Emergency Procedures". At "A" license, you can discuss situations whilst negotiating responses with your instructors, not before

Yeah yeah. Like JP said.

Look no further than Greg Puttick, ex Byron Bay/Mission Beach. I'd at least wait until I'd had the titanium out myself. Bad luck mate. And have you changed your phone number? L.

There's some other stuff I wrote here http://www.lukeoliver.com/thesis/#_Toc77152632 It's a bit long-winded to cut and paste here, but in passing it deals with the issues we have in regulating canopy progression - namely, the failure of the 250cc restriction and the eventual adoption of a graduated licensing scheme. The full source of the Queensland Parliamentary report is online somewhere as well. L.

Here's another parallel that caught my eye, married to a more general quote regarding our sport: From the Queensland Police Force, on driving skills: Learner drivers have three general areas of skills to acquire before they become safe drivers. 1. Manipulative skills: steering, control of speed, changing gears, braking, choosing the correct lane, etc — these skills are relatively easy to acquire within a few months of practice. 2. Perceptual skills: recognition of potential hazards, where to look, what to look for, attention switching, etc — these skills require a longer period of practice —in the order of a year or two — before reaching a plateau level. 3. Decision -making skills: judgement of safe manoeuvres, attitude to driving, expectations of driver’s own ability and those of others — these skills are the most difficult to acquire and take approximately seven years — about the age of 25 these skills begin to plateau. The Average Skydiver “The average skydiver [in the U.S.A]. makes about 200 jumps per year and will leave the sport before his or her 5th year” - Wikipedia