wolfriverjoe

And probably by more refined and civilized people than me. ("I've been called far worse by far better" is how I've put it)

Just for the record: Despite his abysmal spelling, Lee is probably the smartest guy on here. He's currently rigging recovery parachutes for a rocket program. So he's really a 'rocket scientist'. The story he's mentioned is called "The Man Who Rode the Thunder." Ltc William Rankin was in an F-8 Crusader, going over the top of a thunderhead at 47000' when his engine quit and caught fire. The APU failed (handle broke off in his hand), so he had no hydraulic power to control the plane. It was not a survivable situation (and he probably could not have ejected safely in a very short time), so he ejected directly over the storm. Due to the updrafts in a thunderstorm, he spend quite a while going up and down inside it. He may have been disoriented, or he may have actually pendulumed up and over the inflated canopy. Absolutely fascinating story. All the more so because it was true. I read the book back in High School. https://aviationhumor.net/the-man-who-rode-the-thunder/

He doesn't want to admit he comes from the same country as a vulgar jerk like you. <--- Note tongue smiley. THIS POST IS A JOKE!!!

Actually, that doesn't sound all that unrealistic. Something that I missed in my post was that sport rigs have reserves. Bailout rigs do not. So if they are using those, a canopy mal would be really really bad. And cutting away, going to reserve isn't an option. To my knowledge, most bailout rigs do not come with AADs. Only sport rigs. So that may not work. One alternative is to have the character not be able to find the handle until the last second. One thing we are taught is to find the main lift web (vertical harness strap) and follow that up to the handle. They would have to be someone who can think under pressure and remember stuff when it really counts. Lots of old school, Depression era barnstormers went in 'no-pull' and were found with torn up jumpsuit knees. A couple who had close calls recounted that they couldn't find their ripcord and were grabbing anything and everything. Including the knee area of the suit. Jumpers went out in a 'tuck' position back then. But, to answer your second question first: I'd tell the poor sap to go out the door with their hand on the ripcord handle and to pull right out of the door. When they pull, fling both arms out as far and high as they can. As far back too. That would put them in the old 'student X man' arch position. I'd also tell them to 'tuck and roll' when they land. A judo fall for someone with that sort of training. We call it a PLF. Landing in trees is usually pretty bad, but a good old 'blackberry bramble' is just really annoying and scratchy. It will also cushion the landing some. Landings can be largely a matter of luck. A good gust or calm at the right (or wrong) time, landing in a sheltered area (lee) can help, although turbulence from obstacles is a large concern. Any winds above 15 mph or so would make this sketchy. Anything above 20 would be beyond reality. Especially with a round. And I agree that carrier landings, especially at night, are one of the most difficult and dangerous things in the world. But also cool as hell.

I dunno, a '9 seat regional aircraft' is pretty much what most jump planes started as. Caravan, Porter, Kodiak. Otters are 19 seat, but same basic concept. First the regional airlines get them. They fly them a while and sell them to the cargo haulers. Then they go to the drug smugglers. Then, a DZO buys it, tears out the interior, installs a kick ass stereo and we jump from it. Isn't that how it goes? I do, however find this interesting: Most big airliners have a max takeoff weight and a max landing weight. The latter is a lot lower. If there's a situation early in a long flight, it's typical that they have to fly around for a while, burning off and dumping fuel overboard.

Wind speed is pretty important. Lower is better. Rounds have very little 'forward' speed. Squares (under specific circumstances and in very expert hands) can go much faster. But the problems is when you land. If a round is going 5 or 6 mph forward, a 20 mph wind would mean it's going 14 or 15 backwards, or 25 or 26 forwards (and it's not unusual for a novice to 'freeze up' on landing and do nothing). So the landing would be the rough equivalent of jumping from a moving car at slower city street speeds. There's also the issue of the canopy catching the wind once the jumper is down. Being dragged sucks. And can be dangerous. Paratroopers practice a "Parachute Landing Fall" (PLF) a zillion times during training. They'll jump in some pretty hairy conditions, so they need to be able to land without major injury in all sorts of situations. Even then, the military expects that a certain percentage of the troops will be injured and incapacitated during the drop. A few more thoughts: Gear - For a novice, a static line jump would be simplest and "most accomplishable" (if that's a real word). That's the type of jump where a line is attached to the plane, and it opens the container (pack) as the jumper falls away. Some just pull the pin and open it, others extract the deployment bag (the bag that the canopy is packed into), pull it to line stretch and pull the bag off. There are both round and square static line rigs. However, for a 'bailout rig' (emergency parachute), those usually aren't static line, they have a ripcord that needs to be pulled to open it. The problem with using that kind is that the jumper needs to find and pull the ripcord. Which is a lot harder than it sounds for a first timer who is 'plummeting towards certain death'. Ya got an 'expendable' character who can be on the plane and not survive the jump? (sort of kidding, but not completely) Most bail out rigs are rounds. There are square ones out there, but they are not typical. Generally used by jump pilots who are also skydivers. Steering a round is pretty simple (pull left, go left) but landing one safely takes some skill & practice. Altitude - The military will make combat jumps as low a 800 ft or so. For those jumps, the time to recognize and react to a malfunction (get the reserve out) is extremely short. Sport jumpers will do static lines from 4500 or so. Lots more time to deal with anything that goes wrong. For licensed sport jumpers, the 'minimum pack opening altitude' is 3000' or 2500', depending on license level. Most jumpers have a decision altitude (sometimes called a 'hard deck') of 2000' or so. That's the lowest altitude they will continue to try to deal with a malfunction before cutting the main away and deploying the reserve. Sport jumpers are often doing stuff in freefall, so we get out at upwards of 14,000' and fall until deployment altitude. There's rules on oxygen use at higher altitudes. Some jumpers want to focus on canopy skills, so they do a 'Hop & Pop', getting out lower and deploying immediately. A couple of those are required for a student to be licensed. It's rather funny to watch a student who has never gotten out below 10,000' to look down from 3500 and say "it's so low". For your scene, a static line jump from 4000' or so or a H&P from 5000' would be reasonable. Other weather issues - If it's too nasty to land a plane, it's too nasty to jump. In fact, a basic instrument landing is doable in weather far worse than a parachute jump. It's somewhat plausible for them to not be able to find and land on a carrier, depending on the technology on both the boat & plane. Or maybe the weather at sea is crap and it's better over land. Ice was mentioned. Rain hurts like all hell too. The joke is that when we fall down, we are hitting the tops of the raindrops. You know, the pointy end. (reality is that they are round, it's just the impact velocity that hurts). Clouds are a big 'no-no' in jumping, at least in the US. You can't see what's on the other side of them. Colliding with a plane or another jumper (free fall or under canopy) is a really bad thing. You also can't see the landing area. There was an incident in Ohio back in the 60s where a load of jumpers was accidentally dropped a few miles out over Lake Erie. The air traffic controller mis-identified the plane and thought they were over the DZ. Most of the jumpers drowned. GPS or similar can be of help in that sort of situation, but it's not perfect. Stuff going wrong - There's a few different malfunctions, where the parachute opens, but doesn't fly properly. The gear is designed that pulling the cutaway handle releases the main parachute and then the reserve handle is pulled to deploy that (there's an RSL or MARD that does it automatically, and there's also an AAD that senses fall speed and altitude and deploys the reserve at the last second). Some mals are gentle (lineover, where one of the 'strings' is looped over the canopy fabric), some are not (spinning linetwists can get very 'interesting'). Last, you said one character was an experienced paratrooper and the other had spend time at a military training school and done a jump tethered to an instructor. Paratroopers are almost exclusively static line jumpers. Military freefall is a thing, but it's a specialty. Mostly for the 'spec-ops' types. Tandems (tethered to an instructor) are almost exclusively civilian. The military does them, but those are almost always "show" jumps. Taking George Bush or the Dolphins cheerleaders or that sort of thing. Even the MFF guys do what called "AFF" in the sport world. I don't know where you are, but you are only going to get limited info on here. Only so much can be conveyed via posting. Your best bet would be to go out to a DZ. Maybe do a jump. Most of us love the sport and it's way, way, waaaaaay easier to get us started talking about it than it is to stop us. If you go at the end of the day, there's usually a bunch of jumpers sitting around, drinking beer and swapping stories. Take a case of good beer and ask for advice. Seeing the way jumping is often portrayed in books & movies annoys us. The fact that an author is trying to get his basic facts right will encourage some of us to help.

Don't forget that we had a few folks show up on here that "smelled like" Russian paid internet crawlers. And before that (before the whole Russian Internet Propaganda Machine became well known), there were a couple Russians who's posts followed the Russian agenda in perfect lock-step. Before the election, so the posts were about how the Ukrainian government was all Nazis or how nice of a guy Putin was or that sort of thing. Russia (and the Soviets before them) have always been very good at propaganda. I doubt they would have put the time, effort and money into doing what they did unless they were reasonably certain that it would pay off. Exactly how much of an effect it had is virtually impossible to quantify, but the fact that it did have an effect is pretty clear.

There should be a little yellow rectangle just to the right of the thread title. Click on it and it should take you to the first unread post. Hover over it and it says so.

Yup. That's been making the rounds on various Social Media. Somewhat similar to the Cubs winning the World Series, as predicted by Back to the Future. Or the Simpson's predicting President Trump. When they make a movie about the future, it's got about a zillion 'predictions' in it. It's inevitable that one or two will come true. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad that LA doesn't look like the city in Blade Runner.

When did they add an "H" to "BASE"? (and where would it go? "BAHSE"? ) That's a skydive. It's from an aircraft. It would fall under FAR part 105 in the US, and require rigs with reserves. No clue what the rules are over there, but it's not out of the question for a video like this to result in some consequences, at least in the US.

A good example is this: There was a fairly long thread titled "Name That Rack", where cropped pictures were posted and guesses were made as to who was pictured. Searching "Name That Rack" generated zero results to the actual thread, yet two results mentioning that thread by name (one had "That" capitalized, one did not). Interestingly, the words "name" and "rack" were highlighted, yet 'that' was not. https://www.dropzone.com/search/?&q=Name That Rack&search_and_or=and&sortby=relevancy Edit to add: This post now shows up in those search results. But not the actual thread I've searched for by name.

I don't really know exactly where the line is. I'm not a moderator. However, I would say that 'sad, delusional, dangerous and loonie' are across the line. However, I have found that BillVon replies to PMs reasonably quickly and will give you an honest and fair opinion. My 'week of vacation' was also at a time when Ron had posted some pretty offensive stuff and a lot of people had posted PAs. Bill had had enough and stated "no more warnings", but it was shortly after I had posted mine.

Nope. Ron gets the same courtesy we all do. No PAs. I got banned for pointing out his shortcomings a while back. I do find it amusing that he claims that the "liberals" wrongly think that Trump supporting conservatives are ignorant, then posts what he posted above.

Not really. As long as you don't have any health issues, and are reasonably flexible, there shouldn't be any problems. I routinely see people in their 60s going. I've seen folks in their 70s and older go. I believe the record is 103 (could be wrong on that). Lots and lots of licensed sport jumpers that age (myself included, 54 next month). In fact, the "SOS" (Skydivers Over Sixty) group set a big way record last summer. I know a few of the old guys (and ladies, although I'd not call them 'old') that were on it.

1st off, a 170 at your experience level is likely too small. There's a sticky thread in the "Canopy & Swooping" forum with Brian Germain's downsizing chart. It's a good read. 2nd off, there's lots of places to find a rig. Classifieds on here, FB "buy & sell" groups, gear stores, ect. But the best place is your local DZ. Put the word out that you are looking for an appropriate rig for a beginner.

https://www.dropzone.com/classifieds/

Well, he is proud to be a 'deplorable'.

Well, Trump's tax cuts and trade war are going to be very damaging to the economy (and Trump has stated he 'doesn't care' because he won't be in office by then). And Alex Jones and his ilk, while not as overtly racist as Johnson, are just as despicable.

Well, I'm gonna guess that Bill was at the Pride parade to support his friends who are Gay. I don't think he is (married to a woman, couple kids - although that's not definitive). Was Fred Trump at the riot to 'support' his KKK friends? Lots of kids can be raised by horrific parents and turn out ok. Some cannot. You seem to ignore a long, long, looooong history of documented racism by Trump.

Keep in mind that Fred Trump (Donald's father & Eric's grandfather) was arrested at a fight between the KKK and the NYPD. As noted in the article, there was no proof he was a member, or indication of why he was arrested. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/donald-trump-father-kkk-1927/

Well, if you only count white, racist, misogynistic males, which I'd guess are the only one he considers 'real' Americans, then he might be right. Edit to add: While certain aspects of 'stupidity' are hereditary, stuff like racism and attitudes towards women are more often taught. Like father, like son.

Well, don't forget when he publicly (on Howard Stern IIRC) bragged that he went into the dressing room at the various beauty pageants. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-former-miss-arizona-tasha-dixon-naked-undressed-backstage-howard-stern-a7357866.html

There's ample evidence that Trump is a sexual predator. There's a fair amount of evidence that he's willing to prey on teenagers. There's a growing amount of evidence that he & Epstein had similar tastes. The suit by the girl against Trump was filed before the election. It's not new. It's been dropped once or twice, dismissed a time or two. I'm not certain it's still open. But one thing about it is that it was a civil lawsuit because the statute of limitations had expired. Some of those SoLs have changed, to allow victims to press charges well after the fact. Not sure if any of Trump's crimes will fall under those. But in any case, it's pretty clear that he's committed rape. Likely more than once. But I doubt he will face consequences for it. And among those non-consequences would be a loss of support from his base. They don't condemn him for being a sexual predator. They admire it. Just like his racism.

Don't bet on it. I'd love it to happen, but his base is just fine with it. Just like they are fine with his racism.

So Trump is AGAIN breaking the law. So what? He doesn't care. His supporters don't care. The Republican party doesn't care. He hasn't faced any consequences for his behavior. Not in a long, long, loooooong time (if ever).