adamsr

yeah, you guys have it easy, i pay about £3.65 per gallon, that's $6.83 a gallon!!

i'd reccomend the paratec FreeZR as well, i have a big head and it fits great, really comfortable and excellent field of vision

Only jumped one once, i normally jump a Hornet 190(pretty much identical to the sabre2) and i jumped the ZP EXE 195. I noticed a much higher decent rate than i'm used to and it had much less flare power on landing. also felt as if i was getting buffetted around in turbulence more than with my own canopy, but that could just be because i'm used to my own canopy and the way it flies more. plus some of these differences could be because the ZP EXE is a square capopy, and my HOrnet is slightly tapered giving better performance

I don't really agree that the SL student doesn't have much to do, all of the malfunction training is the same, the student is on their own with AFF or SL at that point, plus the exit it the most critical part of the dive, that the student has to get right, or things can get messy. There have been quite a few injuries or fatalities due to bad SL exits, causing entanglements, whereas with AFF a bad exit can be sorted out by the 2 instructors. I personally did SL and enjoyed every minute, was qualified in 28 jumps and believe the skills i picked up during my training have helped me as a skydiver. canopy control and spotting being 2 major skills. in 250 jumps i have never landed off, and on a couple of occasaions been the only person/group from the whole load that has made the dz. this is partly due to luck, spotting, and even realising that the spot is crap in freefalland adjusting opening height so i make the field. In my opinion it is down to the person which route they take. i personally chose SL because of money and that was the main teaching method at my home dz. on student at my dz however got stuck on 5-sec delays (did about 30 of them) before switching to AFF and qualifying within 3 days Both AFF and SL get you to the same point in the end, just down to the individual which system works best.

i dont know exactly how much protection you would get from it, but it was deigned and built by a germen motorcycle helmet manufacturer in conjunction with paratec (hence the motorcycle helmet look) so i presume it's built to a fairly good standard. Generally though skydive helmets dont get large impacts, no helmet is gonna help you if you go in! I have hit my head on the door of the plane on exit and not even felt it, someone exiting behind me told me on the ground and was making sure i was alrigh coz apparently i gave the plane a pretty good whack, but had noting to show for it apart from a scratch in the paint! it is a good helmet though, roomy inside with a great field of vision (can see cutaway and reserver handles easily without tilting my head, and when looking forward cannot see the sides of the visor) and most importantly they did my size!!

spose it's a bit late now really! but i had the same problem, bought myself an XL paratec freeZr and it fits great, i would reccomend them to anyone!

backwards google is a proper headfuck!! even have to type your search strings backwards, some people have way too much spare time!!

my favourites are Mi-8, then skyvan (i love tailgates) then i love the Turbo LET, more roomy than an otter, with a bigger door, fast and comfortable, but can only take 16 jumpers

yeah, the CCI at Langar can be a bit arsey if he doesn't know you! Personally i've had 6 month layoffs the previous 2 winters, coz of weather and being so far away from a DZ when at uni, and the worst i have had to do is basically just do a solo first jump back. Was advised to practice reserve drills on the ground as well, but apart from that no problems. I did however go to my home dz after both layoffs, so they know me there, and know what i'm like which makes life easier

Jumped my FreeZR about 60 times now and its been great everytime. Some people i've showed it to have been dubious about the lack of a tightening mechanism saying it looks like it could fall off easily, but i haven't had any problems both flat flying and sit flying, the helmet has always stayed put. The helmet is very comfortable, i have a big head and couldn't get into most other full faces (tried the XXL Z1 which didn't fit, and the XL oxygen wouldn't fit either) but because the freeZR has a large shell size i have no problems. I love the visor locking mechanism on this helmet, it is about as simple as you can get, but it works every time and has never opened when it shouldn't. In my opinion it is a superior mechanism than all other full face helmets i have seen (was jumping with 2 other people that had oxygen helmets and both of them had their visors pop open in freefall on more than one occasion over a 2 week holiday) My one con with the helmet is the audible pockets, although they are very secure, and make it easy to hear the audible i find it can be uncomfortable against your ear at times. Also the audible needs repositioning when i put the helmet on otherwise it is uncomfortable.

it was a fair amount, but the main reason the dytter wouldn't fit was that the sides of the recess sloped inwards. That part of the helmet is deceptively thick as well, or was on mine at least! so i basically filed out the sides so they were a bit straighter and managed to get enough room to wedge the dytter in.

i had the same problem with my gecko and a dytter, spent hours with a needle file trying to make the hole a bit bigger. I eventually filed the helmet out enuogh so that the dytter fits into the recess so that it doesn't protrude into the ear space. The dytter now pretty much wedges into the recess, but i glued a circular pice of elastic to the back of the recess which goes round the dytter to hold it in place. I agree with the others about turning the dytter round, you want the speaker hole to be right next to your ear... mine is and i still have trouble hearing it above the wind noise some times!!

jump 32, 4 jumps after i finished RAPS, i'd been looking for a second hand rig, just lucky that i found one that was perfect for me so quickly. What's the point in waiting a long time from getting your A licence.... you'll just have to pay every jump to rent gear!

i'm the same, if it wasn't for the gross stuff i would do it i don't really fancy eating horse rectum or anything like that... not my idea of fun!!!

Does your level of MAO change, or stay constant. so are you born a risk taker or if you take risks your MAO levels reduce? If MAO levels are linked to depression it could explain why i always feel down if i haven't jumped in a while!!

No it isn't flat packing. The psycho pack is a normal pro-pack up until you lay the bundle on the floor. Here is a quick description, and pictures of the stages can be found here: http://www.icaruscanopies.com/canopies/Safire/packing.htm Before you put the canopy down you put a 180 degree twist in the lines, and lay the canopy down so the nose is pointing upwards. there is a step here where you fold the tail of the canopy so the bundle looks like a triangle, but is hard to explain in words so look at the pictures. then you fold the canopy into thirds length ways, then roll the sausage. then put the bag on the canopy upside down and finally take out the 180 degree twist, then stow the lines as normal. I do reccomend getting someone to show you this method before you go out and do it yourself, or at the very least practice a few times before jumping it, but in my experience i've found it to give great openings every time, and really tamed my hornet!

All i can say is Psychopack. I did about 30 or 40 pro-packs when i first got my hornet 190 and got really inconsistant openeings, some were slow, some were fast, some were off-heading. Tried experimenting with rolling the nose, but nothing would give me consistant openings. Then i started psycho packing. Have about 100 jumps on psycho packs now (on the same canopy) and have had nothing but nice consistant openings, sometimes off heading, but i put that down to position or a sloppy pack job. If anything when i first started psyhco packing the openings were too slow, so now i do not roll the nose, but make sure it is flaked out to catch the air, and that the slider doesn't protrude out in front of the nose. So basically give it a try and i hope you'll be as impressed as i am with the packing method. Makes it a hell of a lot easier to get the canopy in the bag as well which is a bonus.

Some recent studies show that either hands free or not, the loss of attention while talking on a mobile are about the same. Dont kid yourself, if you talk on the phone (handsfree or not) stop by the side of the road on a safe place. Yeah i generally do, it's scary when after having a conversation and hanging up you try to remember the road you have just driven along, generally you wont remember much, so phone conversations do take your concentration away from the road. I was just making the point that in the UK it is now illegal to hold a phone against your ear, but it is not against the law to use a phone with a hands free kit. It would be pretty impossible to police anyway, as you can't see people using hands free kits very easily

it's been made illegal to drive while using a mobile in the UK now. it was classed as dangerous driving before and you could get pulled for it, but now the police can hand out fines and you can get points on your licence. so no more conversations without hands free kits

I noticed a significant slowing down of opening when i started to psycho pack my hornet. While i was pro-packing it i would get really inconsistant openings, sometimes hard, sometimes soft, sometimes diving one way or the other. Since psycho packing i've had the vast majority nice on heading openings. I did have to tweak the pack jobs a bit and experiment with the nose and slider to speed them up, but now i'm fairly parcticed at it i get nothing but sweet openings. It confuzes the hell out of a lot of people that watch me pack as well

I had a couple of fairly hard openings when pro packing, but then switched to the psycho pack and have had nothing but nice smooth openings since. If anything i now have to speed up my openings (they were about 800 - 1000 feet which is a bit too slow for me!!) now i do nothing to the nose and making sure it's flaked out when i lay it down, and the slider doesn't protrude out the front too much.

I have never thought that the 'follow the leader' style do what ever the first person does is very good, sometimes by the time they've worked out what they're going to do you're in a position that you are committed to your current landing pattern due to your position. I was visiting a dropzone last summer where in the dz brief i was told they had a strictly left hand circuit rule to keep you away from the buildings and make sure everyone was coming in the right direction, then after landing from a load i got a bollocking from the CCI because i was the only jumper that landed using a left hand circuit. Basically the first person down who was a local at the dz had taken it upon himself to change the rules because it suited his position better and he wanted to land right by the windsock so his walk was shorter, and the others followed him. There does need to be uniformity however, as once before i have had to take avoiding action after turning onto my base leg and there being a canopy heading straight for me, at the same level and we were about 3 or 4 seconds away from colliding. fortunately i had enough height to recover from the radical avoidance turn and land safely! I never found out who it was though, didn't really hang around to take a good look and no-one ever owned up to it.

i see what you're getting at now... it's difficult to tell in low wind and some kind of pre-determined direction needs to be decided. just spose the dz operators need to sort out an arrow or something in those kinds of conditions, and just make it clear that whatever way you think the wind is blowing, just land in the direction of the arrow.

Looks like a good deal to me, i've been jumping my hornet 190 for a couple of years now and loved every minute of it, they're a really nice canopy. once after doing a 4-way we were all flying back from a fairly long spot, and i was at exactly the same height, and about 150 feet to the right of another jumper on a sabre 170, we were staying at the same height but i had much more forward speed and just overtook him. when we got back he was like 'wow, what canopy is that??' kinda puts a smile on your face

I've never seen or jumped mikes king air but i know dives like that are definately possible. Got told about a world championship in europe, where they were using a porter for the 4-way comp, and the porter from 13k would land before the skydivers had pulled!! pretty much dive straight for the numbers, pull out and land using the props in beta mode to slow the plane down! So this Mike fella, flew Spitfires in WWII did he? Yikes! I've heard the plane is fast but I didn't believe that he actually beats the jumpers to the ground I thought the 'nornal' Kingair at Hollister was a quick ship - I'm not sure I'd agree with those who say there's less room than in a C 182 (I live in one) but it sure is cozy. I kinda miss being able to salute the pilot on exit in the larger ship as I take a stand off the step -Dave