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Politicians are worse than lawyers, but only just Seriously, you summed it up pretty much right there. I can't stand politicians for the most part - in my lifetime i have not yet seen of one who is out for anything more than self/party interest and is truly in touch with the electorates needs and wants. It's a shame when voting is choosing the lesser of two evils, but i guess that's the falacy of a (almost) 2 party system. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

My suit is defintely baggy - even though it was a normal cut from Bomber. I wonder, maybe i'll try the next one without a suit. Thanks "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I have been told to arch - which works, but not quick enough, even when i pull my arms right in and grab my leg straps. I have been told to change my angle of attack, which i do but then i tend to pick up a lot of forward drive too (i think my body position for this might not be too great - i tend to drop my knees and someone told me this will put me in a high life track position). What's the most effective and safe way to get down to a tracking formation quickly if it's "falling away from you"? For some reason i seem to find myself floaty on a lot of tracking dives, and by the time it's breakoff, i'm still too high. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Thanks Zoter, some good tips

Really, wow, and there was me thinking i was being cautious with a hard deck of 1800ft for reserve deployment Will check the forums for more info on hard decks now and think about raising mine... Thanks for the input "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Hi guys, i'm not sure if anything has been covered on this (i'm sure it has, but i checked the FAQ and a search on "safe" and didn't come up with much). If anyone has any advice and/or could post some links, that would be great. I only have 185 jumps, and in 15 more will be able to jump with my PC9, which i bought ages ago hoping to be able to fly camera with it, but life and finances got in the way and it's taken me a while to get to C license level. Anyway enough of that. The reason behind this post is safety. I want to be as safe as possible, and would like advice from camera flyers on how i can go about doing that. This might have to be moved to safety and training, and that's no probs, sorry if i posted in the wrong forum. Anyway my current helmet is a Millenium Mindwarp and a friend has offered to affix an L bracket and secure it for me (he did a nice job on his own and it cost him virtually nothing). He even installed his own cutaway system for the camera which i have had a look at and works well, as well as reduce snag points. As well as speaking to camera flyers at my dz, i am hoping to amass some useful info from exerpienced flyers before i start flying camera. I don't want to be someone who just slaps a camera on their head and is good to go without realising what can go wrong, and how to fly it safely. Many thanks for anyone that can help and point me in the right direction, i really would appreciate it

It looks fake because they are firing over the top of the clothes rack, which sort of reminds me of Police Story scenes with Leslie Neilson. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

LOL are you serious? If you are, then sure mate, no probs. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

You need another category, namely "a mix of the above, plus something unidentifiable". There is no one quite like a Brit. But what is a Brit? Given that you cannot classify us, and that i believe we have approximately 50 demographic identities or thereabouts, you will be hard pushed for a reasonable answer to this question. As a fellow Brit, however, i would say we are generally speaking a fairly tolerant, quick to jump to conlusions, tactful, mouthy, trustful, suspicious bunch, with bland taste buds, who like curry so much its now the national dish, who never win at any sports and always complain at that fact, bring back numerous golds from the Olympics including the 4 x100m title, and a double gold for one competitor and then can't stop banging on about it, quiet and reserved bunch with one of the rowdiest drinking and socialising sects in the world, shrinking violets with the highest teenage pregnancy figures in Europe, tongue biting and quiet football hooligans, with the best sense of humour ever invented, spawning nothing but quality comedies like the Carry On series, masters of musical productions who spawned the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Queen and dance music and are in love with Cliff Richard constantly, have a vast landscape of English culture and tradition that stretches back over a dozen or more centuries but where all our high streets look the same, and Morris Dancing still prevails, where we have the ability to laugh at ourselves and the stupidity of life, and simultaneously actually listen to what ever point Robery Kilroy is trying to make, in a serious, politician like manner and then actually vote for him and finally where we pride ourselves on being able to find virtually every national dish from around the world in the eating hot spots of London, which are almost worthy of a rival to New York, yet, when asked what the national dish of the country is will eaither reply "baked beans on toast/a fry up/roast dinner/curry and chips" and most likely be right. So yeah, i would say the Brits are most like no one but themselves, a weird hodge podge of unclassifiable misfits really. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

What happened to Peaceful Jeffrey? I was wondering where he got to... "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I don't know - probably a little less than me, maybe 100 jumps a piece of something. They seemed to understand what i was saying about going right and left off jump run. I always thought tracking on the line of flight/run in was a big no no. I know we definitely didn't do it because i took markers on the ground while we were in the door - im very careful to take markers when practicing tracking before i leave the plane. I think you're right - rather than me casually say we are opening higher at 4k, and to advise them to do the same to make sure they have enough altitude to get back to the dz, i should have asked them when they were going to open and plan it a little more around that too. Or at least said, what my plan was, and found out if that changed their plan in terms of opening altitude etc. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Thanks Gus, those are all good points. So it's entirely feasible to have 3 groups tracking, you just need to break the groups up more right? Perhaps have groups one and two go out early on in the load, then group 3 go at the end (i.e. before tandems/wingsuits). "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Thanks for the post - so basically what i can learn from this is: 1 - 3 groups tracking (even if 2 are solos) is just not a good idea on one load 2 - i flew into his area, so if this in a similar situation (where there ARE 3 groups tracking on the load for whatever reason) that everyone should track straight 90 degrees of jump run and keep it like that, not making changes which could end up making a situation like the one i found myself in. Thanks for the help. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Ok - i had a really close call on Saturday that i didn't even know about until i landed and i would like to try and understand how this could have happened. When i landed, a guy came up to me and said that he was approx 30 metres (his estimate) from me, and in freefall, not as i opened, but by the time i was under a full open canopy. This was a complete shock as i had not seen him at all. The first he saw of me was when i opened and he saw my canopy fully inflated. Had i opened and either changed direction of flight, or had an opening that put my heading on a path with him, it would probably have been a post in incidents not here. I will try to describe what happened as i did to the CCI (DZO) when i got back as i wanted to learn from this - but he had no idea how this could have happened, other than "people move about in freefall" which is true, but doesn;t help me understand what happened and how to try and prevent it in future. I know it's hard to get an idea through a post, but i'll do my best to describe it. If i was at fault, please tell me as i don't ever want to be in a position like this again if it can be helped. We were on a 3 way tracking dive. My friend was going to lead on his back, and was going to practice his back track, which is pretty good, but not that fast. I was going to reference the ground, and indicate corrections to the line of flight if needed. Upper winds were light, so the plane was motoring quite fast (LET turbine). Jump run heading was 130. We were the 2nd group out, and the guy who ended up very close when i dumped was doing a solo tracking practice jump, and he was out after another solo tracker, who was out directly after us. In the plane, i told the 2 solo trackers that the first one needed to track to the right of jump run (i.e. heading approx 210) and the second soloist should then head off to the left of jump run (the same way as us) at approx 40 degrees heading, to give us maximum vertical separation. This way we would get out and track left, the next guy would go right, and the next guy would go left again. This is where i don't understand what happened. We exited as the second group, so were going to be getting out a little short, so i wanted to take us 90 degrees off of jump run, then close the angle to about 45 degrees once we had moved safely away from jump run, so that we wouldn't move outside the cone of operation too drastically. It wasn't a fast track by any means, more medium to slow, but we were cruising across the sky quite nicely. Now at break off (about 5500ft), i was slightly high and to the left of the rabbit, the other guy was to the right of the rabbit, and the rabbit was pretty much centred. I broke slightly left, so was now at pretty much 90 degrees to jump run again, the rabbit powered straight on, and our friend turned slightly right and we split in that way to separate from one another. The guy who i almost had the collision with was apparently tracking for 10 seconds in one direction, then turning 180 and tracking back. Now this is something i did a couple of times when i was learning, but only in Empuria, because it's so easy to take ground reference there. When i was practicing tracking doing solos at my home dz here in the UK, especially when i didnt know it too well from the air, i would track in one direction because turning and finding a ground reference when you only have a quilt of green patchwork below you and unfamiliar was always quite a challenge. Plus i knew if i tracked in one direction, while i might be further away from the dz, i would also be further away from other people and groups exiting. Well, we broke at 5500 and i pulled just under 4k which i had told the other guys out after us we would be doing as i wanted to make sure i could make it back ok with plenty of time, and advised they might like to think about pulling slightly higher too. He dropped past me while i had a fully inflated canopy, like i said, the first he saw of me was when i was under canopy, he didnt see a wave off (which i always do) or a PC extracting, just the open canopy. The only thing i can think of as to what happend is that he tracked above where we ended up but i don't understand how this could have happened as i was pretty careful to keep us on heading. Also, he said he gave good separation, but he didn't say in terms of distance, just time (about 5-6 seconds). If anyone can please give me some guidance and tell me what i might have done wrong, i would be very grateful as it shook me quite a bit. I was very apologetic to the guy, and said it must have completely freaked him out, but he seemed ok, and took it well enough. I thin both of us were unsure as to who's fault this was, not that we wanted to lay blame, but just that neither of us understood it enough to know how to learn from it. I have attached an image of what i think could be the only possible cause for the close call - black line is jump run with heading and direction, red lines are the direction of flight, X = my group, Y = the solo tracker after us, Z = the tracker i almost had the incident with. The red dashed line is my flight path on break off, the blue dashed line is the rabbit at break off and the green dashed line is the 3rd guy in our formation on break off. The solid green line is an estimate of the flight path that jumper Z made to end up where he did, and O is my opening point. This is the only thing i can assume happened. Obviously this isn't to scale, and the green solid line is just my guess as to what happened, but really, i have no clue as to his actual flight path (he did say he was turning back on himself every 10 seconds so he wouldnt track too far out). Thanks and sorry for the lengthy post but any help on how to avoid this would be much appreciated. Edited to add - as a resuilt of this, i now do a quick barrel roll, to check above me. I had contemplated doing this before, but read it's best not to to save some time. I think now i would rather take a second off my separation track to do this as a safety procedure to try to check the airspace directly overhead. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

You obviosuly didn't read what lawrocket posted. Go have a look at this link: http://lw.bna.com/lw/19990810/s054561.htm If a jury can find that stopping someone using a racial slur against another is not an infraction on their right to freedom of speech, you can be sure that as soon as someone takes offence to someone handing out similarly offensive material on a street corner, that this case will be brought up and used to protest that stopping you handing out something that discriminates along racial lines is not an infringement of your personal freedoms, and is in fact discriminatory. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

That is really strange - i know there is a time and place for everything, but i figure you were discussing the case because you thats part of you job - to analyse cases etc - not because you are some freak with a morbid fascination in it. Sounds to me like they were overreacting to be honest. Unless of course they weren't lawyers themselves, and they probably took offence because it might seem out of place for a discussion like that to happen. Anyway does sound really weird to me. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Interesting points, and good comparison post! Thanks "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

good points, thanks. PS what did you mention about the Jamie Bulger case? PM me if you dont want it here, im curious to know why people here took offence. Also, many Brits enjoy shooting as a hobby. I used to go to the range with a mate on a weekly basis and pop off some rounds before the Dunblane shooting. It was fun and challenging. We also are not overly sensitive about violence (as far as i know). Like the US, we have become quite desensitised to violence from one medium or another, in my opinion. In fact i think we have more graphic violence left in the movies in the UK/Euro cut than what is permissable in the US. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

This is to do with written material designed to incite hatred, nothing more nothing less - there is nothing to stop you in this country taking to the streets and marching with a bunch of neo nazis and proclaiming you love for Hitler while seig heil'ing your merry way around the streets - as occasionally you will find our British National Party doing. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

yes, apologies for the poor grammar there (Tom, what's the name of that thar English teacher you had for me?) "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Ok so if nobody knows better than pro gunners, that Americas freedoms are being eroded, and you are now less free than you as citizens ever were - why do some Americans point to Europe as the govt-controlled, socialist welfare state, lacking in even the most basic personal freedoms that you don't want the US to slide into and become - when we aren't actually really like that anyway? Which is the point of this post in the first instance. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Interesting points, which i hadn't really though of, thanks for the food for thought. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

LOL @ "y'all" being used in the same sentence at trying to get us to talk "proper" Yeah, the pro-gun thing was a generalisation - but i didn't say it's exclusive to pro-gunners to have this view, but it seems to predominate the threads of those that are (from time to time anyway). "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I really don't know. I have lived most of my almost-30 years in London, have travelled pretty extensively in Europe but have also spent several years living in the US, and travelled to both coasts, Texas and Arizona in my time there. What i seem to get from people who live there, at least from this board, (particuarly pro-gun people for some reason) is that, because i'm living in Europe, i'm living in some sort of gestapo-policed socialist nightmare, with no personal freedom, no freedom of speech, having to be supported by government and being moley coddled in a nanny state, without the support of which, i would wither and die. To be perfectly frank, and i will admit that i have only spent very LIMITED time in the US (i would estimate 2+ years tops, most of which was in California), America seems to have far more curtailments on "freedoms". Allow me to throw out a few thoughts if you will... You can't even smoke in many public places in some major metropolitan cities. You can get sued left right and centre for the smallest of things. Most police seem somewhat draconian to the smallest of offences, like having a few grams of marijuana on you, whereas here, most notably in the Netherlands, but even now in the UK, law enforcement and law makers alike recognise it would be far better use of resources to have those committing serious crimes and using hard drugs to be the focus of police attention, than some stoner who just wants to get high off of a dime bag, eat bags of chips n dip, and watch cartoons. We see more nudity on regular TV, even in commercials, which - aside from pay per view or cable - you guys just can't get there. There is national outcry when Janet Jackson has (part of) her breast exposed on national TV there, whereas the Europeans turn round, laugh, and complain she didn't expose her "puppy nose" fully, and that stupid star got in the way, so it only half counts and was therefore somewhat disappointing. Up until several years ago, it was even perfectly legal here to own and shoot the same guns you guys do. Sure we have seen some knee jerk reactions to gun control, but many other European countries still allow you to shoot and go hunting. Switzerland even makes it compulsary for most able bodied civilian men of military age to keep a full auto military assault rifle at home in case of a threat to national security. Norway also has relatively high gun ownership numbers and in fact, you can still shoot in the UK - it might be small bore weapons, or with shotguns (at clay pigeons, rabbit hunting, lamping for foxes (with high powered rifles) or pheasant shooting etc) but if you want, you can still go and blast away at things. Sure we can't carry guns, but then i don't think we really feel threatened enough to do so, and i live and work in one of the most deprived boroughs of London, where there is gun crime, but it's more against gang members than anything else. Besides, how many states allow people to to have CCW permits? Not many from what i can gather. What about gay rights? Netherlands and Belgium allow for same sex marriages, and Germany, France, Norway, Denmark and Sweden at least recognise in law, long standing same sex partnerships. The debate on whether this is "moralistic" or not is neither here nor there - essentially if you are gay, you seem to have more "freedom" in Europe than the US as it stands now. I mean, up until the Supreme Court decided in Lawrence VS Texas in 2003, some parts of the US had non commercial, consensual same sexual relations as an incarcerable crime. We had those laws changed back in 1967. I'm not gay, but, if you think about it, gay people in Europe seem to have more freedom, and that's what my post is referring to - personal freedoms. I also can clog my arteries with whatever junk you guys do. Last weekend i went and had some great bbq ribs, dripping in hickory sauce, with some none too healthy 'slaw and potato stuffed to the brim with artery clogging sour cream, washed down with a (non lite, because no where really sells those) cold and frosty Samuel Adams. I can also clog my lungs with all the fine Cuban cigar smoke i like. I like how Denis Leary sings about having his feet up on the table and smoking a Cuban, but if you actually read this from the US Customs and Border Patrol website: "The revival of interest in cigars and cigar smoking underscores the need to remind the public of the prohibitions that have been in place for many years with respect to cigars of Cuban origin. The number of attempted importations of Cuban cigars into the United States is rising and because dealing in such cigars may lead to Treasury enforcement actions, the public should be aware of - and make every effort to observe - the prohibitions which are in effect. There is a total ban on the importation into the United States of Cuban-origin cigars and other Cuban-origin tobacco products." it makes me realise that, even though Cuba is a mere stones throw from your guys, you can't even sample one of the finest exports it produces (at least not legally). And what is it with gambling there. For years i have assumed (perhaps wrongly, please correct me on this) that betting - even if consensual, with your friends, and not for profit, in the privacy of your own home, on a card game, is illegal. Is that right? Here we can walk into a betting shop (and trust me, you are never far from one of those things) walk to the counter and put a bet on anything you so wish, be it what a football score will be, or the likelihood of you seeing and gathering proof that evening that alien life exists. It's all there on the street out in the open for us, not tucked away in Vegas or an Indian Reservation. We drive the same cars you do. Just recently i have seen a Ford F350 on the way to work, a Dodge Viper driving about in the countryside, and a new Cadillac XLR in a showroom here. Quite how people can afford to put gas in those things and run them is another story, but people have a lot of money here, as they do there, and - surprisngly perhaps to some - made out of a capitalist, free market system, like what you guys have there. We can load up the car/truck and take a road trip, go to the mountains (or hills), see the freedom that nature offers, fish, camp and do the all American "at one with nature" thing that many people stateside see as something akin to something you can only do in the US. People do this all the time - even in really really bad weather, which is lost on me, but in the summer, it's great fun. We are tree hugging environmentalists though right? But in California you are subject to stringent vehicle smog testing, more so than you are here. In New York, you are subject to strict burning of fuel environmental laws. You guys lead the way with alternative fuel development - i saw more hybrid and electic powered cars in a couple of months in California than i have done in my entire life time in this country (i think i have seen one hybrid car here). But we have a monarchy, so we must lay down our lives for an antiquated aristocratic system right? To me, the Queen and her lot are good for one thing - it encourages tourists to come and spend their money here, and boosts the economy. I used to wonder why we have them, what the point in them was in this day and age, but without them, we lose the valuable contribution that the tourist contribution provides to the economy. We don't have freedom of speech? On any given sunday, you can come and meet me in Hyde Park (the largest park in London) and come to the REAL Speakers Corner - the name given to the corner at the north east end of Hyde Park where, if you are a muslim fanatic, fundamentalist Christian rightwinger, neo nazi or tree hugger, you can stand on a box, talk about whatever the heck you want, without fear of retribution whatsoever from the authorities. Londoners pride itself on Speakers Corner and the freedoms of speech we enjoy. So yeah, in closing to this fairly generalised post of mine, i would like to say to those of you who think Europe is like some kind of nanny state, where we all are on welfare support and without our govt to guide us (which by the way, record numbers of voters are completely disillusioned by - and that's politicians in general, not any one party in particular) we would all run around like headless chickens, please tell me how and why these views are formulated as i'm genuinely curious. As i said, sure i havent lived too long in the US, but i'm keen to try to understand why some people view living in Europe as equating to a lack of civil liberties. As uncommon a thing as it is to hear in SC, I WANT TO BE EDUCATED! "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Does anyone else see the Simpsons chacrters having a "meeting of the townspeople" when reading that newspaper story? I can't help but picture a scene like that, where, even when there are people there trying to stand up and say "do we REALLY want to follow this idea?" (Marge, Springfield monorail episode) the simpleton townfolk are like "YES! SHE SPEAKETH THE TRUTH! WE MUST FOLLOW THIS IDEA!!" That's just how i see it in my head. For fly-on-the-wall entertainment, i really don't think you could do much to beat being in a gathering of this nature and watching the absurdity of it all. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts