Newbie

Good point. On that note, does anyone know if there is a more reliable means to test the "secureness" of a main/reserve pin cover tuck tab, short of taking the rig into a wind tunnel and holding it in the air flow at different configurations? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

well mine came open straightaway - i.e. the rig is on the ground and doesn't raise up off the ground even a millimetre without the main cover coming open, which is why i was concerned. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

yup thanks guys. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

well so far (to my knowledge) i have never had the main pin cover come open during flight, but then i haven't done any HD yet, which is when i'll have the relative wind pushing "down" on the cover, which could expose it that way perhaps? (in a sit, the wind pushes "up" on the tab, so i figure it is more likely to keep it secured while head up). I did think it was weird that, as a test, they say to pick the rig up like that, which is sort of what preempted this question. So am i worrying over nothing then? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I was reading this article about freefly progression, safety and gear etc... http://www.skydiveuk.com/avalore/articles/freeflyprogression.pdf and i tried to pick my rig up slowly and gently by pulling on the main pin tuck tab. Well i have a Teardrop SF and the tuck tab doesn't have side tucks, and i can't lift the rig up - the tab just comes open. Now i know that the rig is designed for freeflyers, but is this something i should look into further? I was wondering if anyone out there had a rig with the same issue. The reserve pin is against my back, so it's really only the main pin cover that concerns me. Thanks for some feedback. Edited for bad link "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I find myself agreeing with you on this one, which personally leaves me in a delema, I have to somehow seperate them from todays suicide bombers Kamakazi pilots did what they felt was a last resort and necessary for the betterment of their families and certainly did not wish to die, and only attacked those they were directly at war with - namely military targets. Suicide bombers will do something almost incomprehendable to normal human beings, often as a first resort to what they think is right, not necessarily something that is deemed necessary, for the betterment of themselves (they are going to be sent straight to their God to live in unimaginable and eternal bliss) and will often target non military targets. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I don't know about blasphemy, but as a Christian, KFC is certainly no icon of any kind to me. Perhaps it is a symbol of Americanism, capitalism, tasty chicken, expensive take-outs, Western decadence, a need for oil, but a Christian icon? Nope. this is what i was getting at. I don't understand how the OP decided Colonel Saunders represented something uniquely Christian. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

where does it say that: a) KFC is a "christian icon"? b) they burnt the KFC down because of this supposed christian symbolism? They also burnt 2 petrol stations down - sounds like more of a rampaging mob mentality than anything specific. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Hi, i was a little confused - you said you used to pull at about 1500ft but once had a mal that took 3500ft to deal with - i take it you opened a lot higher on that jump? Also what was the mal, and why did you ride it out for 3500ft instead of chopping it? Thanks To answer the original question, i don't pull low and that's not because anything has ever happened to me personally in my short jumping career, but knowing that the ground is rushing up very quickly and i'm vastly narrowing my chances of escaping without serious injury or death the longer i stay in freefall, is definitely enough to make sure i pull at a reasonable height (3000-3500ft) on the few jumps i have made todate. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Thanks for the advice - there is no way i would begin head down jumping without starting off with a coach for fear of tracking all over the place, but i'm just curious to see what you guys think i need to know to be safe and what skillset i need before i go up to a coach and say "hey can we do a coached HD jump?" etc. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Good read, thanks for that. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

What particular flight skills should i have obtained before venturing out to try HD? What about other general skydiving skills? I'm not looking to try it just yet, but i'm interested to know what others think you should master to be a safe skydiver before trying it out. Thanks "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Personally i don't want a computer that can outsmart me be in anymore a position of power other than driving for me when i get tired, massaging me after a hard day at work and doing annoying things like vacuuming/dish washing/taking out the garbage and so forth. Anyone who has seen The Terminator knows that putting smart computers into positions of power is not a good idea. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

one down, and 10 will sprout up tomorrow, especially when they see the US marines smiling, standing over his freshly killed body. Hell, even if they capture him and he gets a trial, he's a martyr. You have been reading too much into the quick-fix mentality if you believe that "getting these evil doers" by any means necessary, is going to have any sort of positive effect on the situation, not just in Iraq, but on a global scale. Don't get my wrong, i'm not a sympathiser in the least, but the only thing "quick fix population control" will do is recruit more terrorists to this war, no matter how satisfying it may be to have it happen. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Have we taken this stuff too far? http://www.snugglemutts.com/barbwebgraphics/FeatherFullParka.jpg "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Hi what's the purpose of the tour? I saw your guys van at Sibson about 2 weekends ago and some leaflets but wasn't sure what was going on, if anything. Will see you guys at Sibson this coming weekend though. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Done "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I came off of AFF and asked if my brake line was safe because i landed on about jump number 10 and noticed the finger trap loop and thought it may have frayed while opening. I was told it was fine and i would learn about it on packing. A few jumps later, I saw a pro swooper who was getting out low with his riser covers open on the plane because he was deploying sub terminal, but didn't realise this at the time or even knew what swooping was and asked him if he knew they were not closed. He said yeah, explained why, and thanked me for looking out for him though. I said to a jumper with over 2000 jumps that his chest strap was hanging (although done up) while we were taxiing for take off recently and he looked at me with a "thanks, but i know what i'm doing look". I don't care. If i see something i don't understand, or do understand but not sure if it's safe, i'll always ask to make sure. Lives are at stake, we aren't playing tiddlywinks, and while it all might be fine and dandy, i would rather know in my mind that i and my fellow jumpers are ok. If someone on AFF spots something about my gear, i would rather he spoke up and asked me about it, then sat there and wondered if it was safe. Besides, even if it's perfectly fine, it provides a talking point as to why it's ok, therefore helping education people "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I agree, dependency is not a good thing. But what's wrong with something to aid you? Bringing back awareness for the 1 time out of your jumping career you might lose altitude awareness, while hd and having too much fun for your own good? When i bought a protrack at about 50 jumps, i asked if i should get more jumps without using it as an audible altimeter first, in order i didn't become reliant on actually hearing a series of beeps to know when to break off/pull. A jumper with a few thousand more jumps than i had made an interesting point - he said, something like "why would you not want to use it as another altimeter? Skydiving is dangerous enough already, use everything you can to give yourself a better chance of survival". It doesn't mean i'm dependent on my audible, just as i would make sure i wasn't dependent on a flashing light or a beeping sound or a CYPRES or even a reserve - it just means i have something else that might assist me if things ever go wrong. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

What about a CYPRES? Hasn't that saved more people than it's ended up killing? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

what's VFR stand for? But if technology saves more lives, isn't that a good thing? Of course, it will never substitute our own eyes/brains etc for what is "safe" but as we know, most plane crashes are caused by pilot error, not computer error, so if seen in that light, could it not be a good thing? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

That's pretty tame compared to some of the comments i saw on the Alfie blog which he had up until yesterday, whereupon he seems to have erased them all. The problem is that these days, an instinctive reaction (and perhaps the right one) is to teach them a lesson they won't forget in a hurry. However, not knowing if these kids have a knife (or perhaps even a gun) tucked somewhere makes that probably not the best option. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Unfortunately (as the video shows) this is way more than just being "touched". Happy slappers assault woman with cancer 16 year old girl knocks out and temporarily paralyses girl in happy slap attack "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Have a look at this blog, it has a .mov file that plays clips of "happy slapping", the latest "craze" to (apparently) be sweeping the UK. I don't know what i would do if i were happy slapped. My instinctive reaction would probably be shock, followed by fear of someone coming at me from behind and socking me, so i would probably try and run, especially if it were a gang of slappers. I don't know if i would be so angry as to try and get the guy(s) who did it, but i wouldn't put it outside of the sphere of possibility. I'm not normally very confrontational at all, but i could see me getting the red mist over something like this. I think it's a sorry state of affairs that kids are allowed to be doing stuff like this, without fear or caring about the consequences of their actions. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I don't think it's out yet mate. Looks good though, L and B producing some interesting looking things at the moment... "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts