cpoxon

I'm glad I'm not the only one logging this sort of stuff! Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

A couple of things led me to this post. The first was some cameramen taking the piss out of me this weekend for noting my students' names in my logbook (I now have approximately 1500 skydives in 8 years, 261 of which are tandems - maybe I'll get bored of logging it one day!) The other was a discussion about the male/female ratio in skydiving and whether it is reflected in tandems. There is no reason why it should be, with the ability to walk in off the street to do a tandem, gender should be no barrier, perceived or otherwise. In fact the opposite maybe true; "macho" men may avoid a situation, such as skydiving, where they may not be seen as such. In my experience, women handle tandems better then men. Also, I'm not sure what is worse for a heterosexual, male, whuffo on their first skydive; being strapped to a man or a woman! But that is probably for another post. Also, as a tandem instructor, if find it very difficult to gauge the ratio. I would have said that I take more men than women but I wonder if that is because I would rather take women ;-P I also wonder whether manifest had any influence on my ratio but that is probably just paranoia! For the record, of my 261 tandems, 135 have been male, 111 female, and 15 unknown (either names not logged(to my dismay), or ambiguous), which of the knowns is a ratio of about 1.2 males to 1 female or 6 men to 5 women. So does anyone else have an idea of their ratio? Is it different dependant on location, culture, day of the week?! Is anyone else even logging this sort of stuff? I had a look on Russell's logbook but that just lists "student" although this may be a reduced infoset. I'm almost wishing that I'd logged their weights and heights (they are required to provide it on their medical forms in the UK, but then I'd be getting into Data Protection issues). ;-P Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

I'm running a Wingsuit introductory weekend at the Black Nights DZ in Cockerham on the 8th/9th of July. The (4th?!) annual Weston Wingsuit weekend is on the 20th/21st of August. I believe Sibson have already had a wingsuit weekend this year. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Nice one JP. I did my 250th tandem this weekend. I think it is highly probable that my next mal will be on a tandem rather than a sport rig. Might be a good sweepstake actually because I also jump small ellipticals, quite often with a wingsuit! Also I pack practically all of the tandems I jump. Does that increase or decrease the chance of a mal? I'm not at the mercy of busy, stressed, packers, but then, you haven't seen how I pack! Anyone fancy a wager? Anyway, glad you dealt with it well JP and hope I do to when the time comes. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Talk about dressing for succes, check out the drogue toss in this video. Although having a jumpsuit on would have missed the point of the charity jump! I'm not ragging on the instructor in the jump; he's a very experienced military and civilian jumper, but it's good example of shit happens and the disadvantages of not having a lot of drag on your body. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Or a Tandem Instructor.. with 2,250 jumps at the time that page was written! Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Thanks for posting a bigger version of that pic Nick. Do you know the details of where it was taken? When I saw it in the smaller format on the fatalities list I'd always imagined it was some sort of caving picture?! Funny how one gets a picture in the mind. Now it is larger I can see the three ring on a rig... Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

A friend (hi Tash!) reminded me that I've jumped from an Otter without a bench at Zephyrhills. It was a couple of years ago....:-S It looks as though it is lap-style belts along the side of the fuselage. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Do the jump mods include benches? I know that you are required to have restraints but does that have to be airline style lap belts (which would require a bench) or can they be strops with RSL shackles or carabiners (as we have in the UK - where seatbelts aren't require for take off, but helmets are). Would be weird sitting on the floor of a Twotter! All the Skyvan's I've jumped in the States have benches but you have to sit on the floor in the one that gets jumped in the UK (G-BEOL). Although even in the Skyvans with benches, some people are still required to sit on the floor and I'm sure I've seen lap belts mounted on the floor with the two ends of the buckle close together on the same strap so that it can be buckled around the rig webbing. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

About here? Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Could have a page on the site naming and thanking those who have donated (unless they wish to remain anonymous)? It's not much but it would be a small token of our appreciation. Very cool guys. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

In a related story, unfortunately someone died when they got in the way of a responding fire engine :-( Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Cool! Another FrankenOtter (although not for much longer). What's the story behind the plane and how much does that refurb/refit cost? Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

You guys don't have to do any tandem terminal jumps to qualify? I couldn't find any reference in the IRM Essentials (sorry Ton, I have no idea what the Dutch/Germans do). In the UK, prospective Tandem Instructors are required to do four jumps (from a minimum of nine) where they do a combination of stable/unstable exits and turns, without and with an experienced skydiver on the front of them before deploying the drogue. See section 2c of Form 152 - Tandem Instructor Training Syllabus Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

My thoughts also. What is the limit? The suit's performance or the human's? At least it looks like we'll be able to examine the data afterwards, unlike someone's cross-channel crossing I could mention! Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

It may well be Lori. I read another report on this in another UK tabloid (albeit, not as bad as The Sun, The Daily Mail) which described his "emergency chute" activating automatically but not in time. Is this accurate i.e. did an AAD open the reserve? If so, was it malfunctioning or calibrated incorrectly? How so? Do you have more accurate facts? Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

My French is rusty but he's saying something like "at a recorded altitude of 6,300 meters on a mountain in Pakistan in the Karakoram region." And something about lower altitude is possible. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Bits of string and brightly coloured Nylon was all that was on offer! Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

A packing lesson is not a date! :-P Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Whilst I am far from the realm of Robi, Uncle Charlie and Vesa (who could do with eating a few more pies), I am quite impressed with a 22 second delay from 1600 feet (Yuri did 13 seconds from 1200 feet pulling low from the big Russian tower? although when you start low, anything higher gives you an almost exponential delay, if you get my meaning) with a greater than 10 second canopy ride (although the video ends before landing). I haven't been to the valley for a couple of years, but it looks like Vesa is landing on the other side of the road from the _other_ side of the valley? How much this has to do with Vesa's experience rather than the new suit, I am not so sure. Vesa, show us what you can do from there with a Vampire! ;-P Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

More power to your elbows guys, but if you can't fill in your profile on here and be recognised (surely you are not already registered on here under another username?!), how can you you expect the powers that be to accept you? And why did your other post (Want to jump 3l (@p!t@|\| - legally?") get resigned to the Recycle Bin? :-P Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Yeah, my Remi impression is a killer! Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Cool n Groovy's Time-Out!! became flashing enabled in September 1997 L&B's old FAQ page for the ProDytter mentions that LIGHT-TRACK would be available "by middle or end of year 2000" but I'm not sure that they ever released it. Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Pick up a copy of the BPA Starter Magazine at the dropzone and give them that! Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

Well, I guess they have to set a date at some point! I just noticed on the Netheravon website, that the new women's team AirKix will be at the Milton Keynes tunnel between the 12th and 16th of September Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live