DeeBeeGee

Sorry, american forum, must use emoticons.. If you ever made a no trump grand slam and felt no buzz then just maybe you are

When I started wingsuiting I felt a bit like this. I think at the time I was so well briefed and so focused on performing well that I wasn't really nervous and everything went exactly to plan so it all just felt a bit satisfactory. Might be that with a few more jumps you'll relax into it a bit more and start to appreciate a few bits that have so far passed you by. I'd say stick around until you've at least tried an unstable exit and tracking and if you still aren't having fun you're probably dead on the inside

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TIN-FOIL-HAT-Multi-purpose-protection-for-many-uses-/331086957719?pt=UK_BOI_ProtectiveGear_RL&hash=item4d16520c97

tracing and tracking are distinct or at least variations of the same discipline. in my dictionary, anyway, tracing involves going right through the vertical and you need solid headdown skills to do that safely. even in a steep track the amount of power generated and potential for speed differential are staggering. on your own with good navigation you'll be fine but not that much fun, with a coach would be better as you'll get some feedback and learn something. it really isn't much like a swoop and dock but if it was and that was 1 out of a scale of 10 then angle tracking would be about 11 and tracing 100 you can take my advice for what you paid for it but when bryan burke says that most people with less than 500 jumps underestimate the complexity and you have less experience than that and think it's simple well... ETA: tracking is bloody awesome though, don't let me put you off working towards it, i've just been on too many boogie tracking jumps with people (once myself!) without any appreciation of the implications of flying as fast as they can without the ability to control their speed

There's a lot of useful information from Bryan Burke in the two articles he wrote last year. in essence a beginner angle/tracing camp is not for beginner skydivers. by all means you can start working towards it by improving your tracking, get some focused one-on-one coaching etc. you really need to be flying headdown pretty slick and be comfortable with complex breakoff routines before considering tracing. http://www.dropzone.com/safety/General_Safety/Implications_of_Recent_Tracking_Tracing_and_Wingsuit_Incidents_938.html http://www.dropzone.com/safety/General_Safety/The_Horizontal_Flight_Problem_935.html

was there *only* 4 HP fatalities in the US last year? seem to remember a glut of more than that in a week in 2012. is the message getting through or is that just the nature of low sample statistics?

errmm, did you read the "scary stories from the old days" thread?

Filming openings reeeaally sucks you in. I fell for this despite being totally aware of the danger and even joked about it before the jump especially as the canopy i was filming was a safire 2 but we planned a 5k deployment anticipating it would snivel to 4k. Stupidly didn't factor in that I would not also be at 4k at that point! Flipped over and saw I was at about 2.2k, turns out I had taken my audible out of my helmet to go in the tunnel. Not quite a NSTIWTIWGTD moment but ended up with one of those off landings when you're glad you didn't downsize too rapidly

ANTI-clockwise!! the worst kind of clockwise

intentional or not it may have been cutting away that bought him the velocity to activate the AAD i'm not suggesting anyone work that into the EP routine

might work with a drogue on either end of the fulcrum

Remember vivdly in my earlyish days swooping down to a formation so fast that my eyes watered up to the point I couldn't see what I was aiming for thinking crap crap crap. then i blinked and i could see again

Strapline: "Delivers you direct to your grave"

depends on your rounding.. they all work over perfectly over 99 times out of 100 like those odds?

windows phone 7: if a skydiver can use it, any muppet can!

are these from weston-on-the-green (UK) this weekend? the RAF was doing some drops (interupting our jumping day!) from a plane i didn't recognise at the time but remarkedly similar to the a400m

if you roll the tail too tight you can cause the opposite effect. while this is unravelling you could have just enough drag to put you in an upright position causing you to accelerate and at the same time shaking your pack job around before anything begins to inflate

not sure i know it, can you hum the tune?

Same amount of training for RAPS and AFF. For AFF the day largely is split between Freefall, Emergency Procedures and Canopy Control For RAPS it's mostly Emergency Procedures and Canopy Control and you get briefed about freefall when it becomes relevant Is it fair to say that students preoccupy themselves predominantly with getting a canopy over their heads first, and flying it second? For AFF students the jump is over when the canopy is open, which is when the jump begins for RAPS students and no i have no stas to back any of this up

i have a failsafe way of doing up my chest strap. what i do is do up my chest strap properly. simple or what? it's only failed me once, when i did it wrong by mistake. looked right though and noone spotted it so all's good (happily i subsequently spotted the error)

fantastic idea for a thread - we have an area for mistakes that cost people dear but not one for mistakes that luckily didn't after a gear check i noticed that i had misrouted my chest strap - the guy who checked me and said i was good to go told me they were waiting to see if i would spot it myself. i half believe him (half as in 10%) lesson - check your own kit. get someone to check it. then check it again. then again. then again. if your current dressing routine fails you then reassess why you fucked up in the first place and adjust your routine so it never happens again. then check your change to routine to see if it works. then guess what, check that you didn't ignore your new routine and fucked up putting on the piece of equipment that's going to save your life only other tip would be not to rely on the breeze to blow away a hangover