cpoxon

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Everything posted by cpoxon

  1. Ha! I wish Ray, i wish. Coo-eee! Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  2. The two at Chatteris are N22Bs The one at Old Buckenham is an N24A i.e. a stretched one. Don't know if that accounts for it being slower than the N22Bs I've jumped or whether it is down to the engines. I like the Nomad (N22B). I've done a lot of tandems out of it. It find it preferable to a Caravan because it is faster, roomier (I can do standing exits with smaller passengers - I'm 6 foot tall), and it has a nicer slipstream. I think it has slightly odd C of G issues, which was certainly the reason for the (non-fatal) crash of an N24A at Weston-on-the-Green five years ago. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  3. They are, once they've done a 15 second delay. The rest of the sub-para says, My guess would be that since squares are much more steerable than rounds, with greater distance being covered, being aware of you altitude is important and most courses involve some flight path training relating to altitude. Also, 15 seconds is the most anyone can be reasonably expected to count accurately, so after that, deployment is dependant on altitude, hence requiring an altiemeter. But as Rob said, it's mostly irrelevant. Only two centres in the UK do rounds anymore and one (if not both) progress to freefall via retraining to square parachutes. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  4. The UK inspection interval is 6 calendar months (not 180 days). The wording on the Record of Inspection is, "The next inspection is due within a maximum of 6 calendar months from the above date, by ...." It is my understanding that that is the last day your rig is valid for jumping and will be the date it was last inspected + 6 months minus 1 day. So if your Record of Inspection says 17th of June 2007 (which fortunately is a sunday so you can jump it and leave it unpacked ;-) ) when the next inspection is due by, that is the last day you may jump it and therefore the date it was last inspected should read 18th December 2006? Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  5. Right. Seeing as this allegedly took place in the UK, Section 1 (Conduct and Control of Sport Parachuting) Para 3 (Responsibility) Sub-Para 3.3 of the BPA Ops Manual says, Section 8 (Parachuting Limitations) Para 4 (Opening Heights) Sub-Para 4.2 says, Section 6 (Equipment) Para 4 (Instruments) Sub-Para 4.1 says, Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  6. Sorry, in deleting Shropshire's flippant one-liner, I accidentally deleted other useful comments: ThatGuyEd said, Tigra replied, Freeflyit replied, Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  7. See here. There's a similar discussion going on on UKSkydiver.co.uk also. Edit: and since B certificate in the UK includes the Canopy Handling 2 grade, it does really pay to have it! Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  8. Steve, ease back a bit. No advise was offered, just a progression listed. And did you check out the wing loading on the Sabre 120? (Yes, I know a smaller canopy at an equal wing loading to a larger one of the same design will exhibit a faster and more radical control response). Seems reasonably sensible to downsize through the same model of canopy, without skipping any sizes before settling on the one around that meets recommendations for that experience level. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  9. You might want to read the sections on Topical Posting and Moderation in the rules. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  10. Jack/Gus, Those are much better pictures than the publicity shot I found (see attached). Do you mind if I use yours for the SkydivingFatalities website? Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  11. Being 71 inches (180 cms) tall and 168 lbs (76 kgs), I've taken some pretty big students (by UK standards, maybe not by US!), the biggest being 80 inches (203 cms) and 245 lbs (111 kgs) but this weekend I took the smallest - a dwarf who was 54 inches (137 cms) and 91 pounds (41 kgs). I was a little concerned that a harness would be able to be made small enough to safely contain him. First we tried with a Parachutes de France harness and whilst it would probably have been okay, we also tried with a new Paratec Next harness. The main lift web was able to shrink quite significantly, as well as the leg straps, and the lower back and belly straps offered considerable reassurance, so I was happy to take him. With the drogue out it flew around 109 mph according to my Neptune (will download it when I get a chance) and the cameraman had no problem flying with it. You can download the video here (you will need an FLV player to view, such as the free Riva FLV Player or you can view it through the RealXStream website with the ID 45586 (although it appears to be down at the moment?). Has anyone taken anyone smaller? Any issues? Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  12. Well, as it is in the UK, the weather hasn't been co-operative.Far from cracking out the 2000th as I thought I would in this post, the weather was far from perfect and got no where near to do it. Then the next weekend was equally bad. Switiching dropzones away from the one where I do most of my works jumps got me to one shy of the 2000 before the weather came in. The next day I went up in the plane but came back down due to the weather, so I didn't make the 2000th. This week I am in Scotland, undertaking what we call here in the UK a Category System Basic Instructor which I guess is closest to the old, now defunct, s/l- jumpmaster USPA rating, i.e. if I pass this course I will be able to teach and dispatch under supervision. Anyway, part of the course is to practice dispatching static-line, but we use the other candidates of the course to get things turning over quickly. The forecast here in Scotland is not great at the moment so we took the advantage of getting the dispatching done first. So.....my 2000th jump was in fact a static-line jump over the fabulous scenary of Strathallan (you can see Gleneagles golf course very closeley from the air). So it may not have been a cool and groovy big-way, but it least it wasn't another tandem! Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  13. Generally it's people who knew the deceased that provide personal information. I don't think Nick assumes to portray those he didn't know. In the situations where no information has been provided, it is usually just the news reports. I've submitted personal information about a couple of people on the list and it has been reproduced. The list should stay. No disrespect is intended and it has education values. As the maintainer of another list of dead people I believe in providing personal information so that they are not just another statistic. Sorry for your loss. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  14. Have you talked to your instructor? What did they say? Does the plastic of the handle melt once you take off? Is that why it doesn't feel the same? Or do you mean it doesn't feel like it is in the same position? Without any more detail I guess the best advice would be to slow down and take your time. There's a lot going on as the static-line deploys your parachute and you'll be moving around even with the best exit position. Don't assume the handle is going to be where you think it is and don't snatch and pull as if it was. Maybe start working up from the bottom of your container first until you find the handle. But please discuss it with your instructor first. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  15. Ahh, great, Dangerous Dan's eminently qualified ground crew... Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  16. Just how long is that exactly? Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  17. Err, Billy, did you notice what forum this is? Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  18. Looks like there is plenty of work over there Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  19. It's likely that I'll do my 2000th jump this weekend (5 jumps to go) and seeing as I'll be working (at the busiest tandem dropzone in the UK) it's likely to be a paid jump. Whilst I see x-thousand jump numbers as milestones, I don't think they are hugely significant so I'm not too bothered. On my 1000th jump, I was doing a wingsuit first flight. However, for some reason I have the urge to do something special for this one (although I don't know what), but I'm not prepared to give up a days work, so it's obviously not that strong! Anyway, it got me wondering how all the other working skydivers feel about x-thousand jump jumps? Oh, and by the way, I don't feel it to be a bind to be doing a tandem, as I love doing them, but it might be nice to do something a little different. And another thing, I've been on a few x-hundred jump jumps and they generally don't work out so well as people are over-ambitious usually with a larger group of people how are all trying too hard not to muck up the person's special jump, which usually means something goes wrong! I don't have much experience of x-thousand jump jumps I think I'll wait until 10k before I do something special (only 40 years to go at this rate!) Edit: Oh yes, and I'm a part-timer. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  20. F%$k me, Douggs in a suit! Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  21. There aren't many fans of Skyride around here, myself included, but you won't get much support on here if you don't indentify yourself and for some reason you've only decided to post now that you are a former employee. Also, there are several other Skyride threads which you have spammed with the same post. Please keep the discussion in there. Thanks. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  22. Have you met Kallend? He attracts a lot of attention...mainly due to his white socks and sandals combination! Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  23. The BPA stance is that FAI licence holders from other countries are grandfathered (er, no pun intended) in to the system, but some DZ's choose to be more cautious/ restrictive than they need to be to comply with the BPA requirements. Seriously though, with your experience you won't have any problem at all. One thing I haven't seen mentioned though is that BPA members over 40 need to have their doctor sign them off as fit to jump - anyone know if that applies to visitors? Section 11 (Medical) Para 2 (General) Sub-Para 2.6 (Foreign Parachutists) of the BPA Operations Manual states, Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  24. Cool! I did Conny's first flight and she was very cool then. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live
  25. http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/gofast/27915/ Edited to add copy in case it disappears in the future. "Narrowly escapes tragedy"?! Got to love those sensational copy writers! Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live