davelepka

Get the fuck out of Italy, for starters. Beyond that, I'm about 50/50 between tyring to put it all behind her and move on with her life, or cash in via the media and being a 'celebtiry', and end up a drugged-out useless whore like Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan. Could go either way.

Sectionals (maps for piltos) are marked with parachutes for DZs, but the marks are often off to the side of the actual location with a little arrow pointing toward the airport. There is other info about the airport printed over top of the airport itself, so the parachute symbol get pushed off to the side. Beyond that, there are no rules preventing pilots from flying over a DZ. Unless it's controlled airspace (unlikely for an airport with a DZ), the pilots have every right to be there. Getting the tail number wouldn't have done much, at best you could contact the pilot and give them a head's up as to the location of the DZ. A tip for you, when scanning for traffic, or dealing with traffic, anything that is in line with the horizon is exactly on level with you. If something appears to be above the horizon, it's higher than you, and if something appears to be below the horizon, it's below you.

It's called the weather. If you can find a way to control it, you could make billions of dollars. Short of that, all you can do is become more involved in weather forecasting and predicting. If you want to be better at predicting the weather, you need to do the work. Watch the weather everyday where the DZ, even when you're not planning to jump. Study the forecasts and then compare those to what actually happens. Even then, there's no guarantee you'll be right, but you would have done everythying you could to ensure your success, and unless you're already doing that, quit your bitching. Again, what did you do to prevent this? When I want to jump on a day that I don't think anyone will be at the DZ, I take the min number of people needed to fly the plane, subtract one (for me), then call and get confirmation from that many other jumpers that they will be there and willing to make 'x' number of jumps. The end result is a 'private' DZ, where you and three of your friends (for a 182) get to jump all you want at your own pace. Between email and facebook there's no excuse for not being in touch with other jumpers. Call the DZO, make sure he's willing to fly, and organize the jumpers. Again, until you do that, quit your bitching. Note that both suggestions don't cost anything or take more than a few minutes a day on a computer, which means you can do them anytime you have a free moment. If you want to sit around and wait for things to be done for you, it's not always going to work out. If you're willing to step up and take an active role in your life, you might get a little more out of it.

First you were hung up on finding a woman to make you happy, and now you've switched that to a car? It's not about anyone or anything else, it's about you learning to be happy with yourself, and all the rest will follow. As for the car, stop trying to convince yourself that it makes any kind of sense. You're clearly hung up on the idea of driving a Porche that you're looking for any way to justify it. Do you really think a two-seater convertable is a good idea for a single-car household. Do you ever see the possibility of needing to carry more than one other person? What carrying anything bigger than golf bag, or how about one other person and anything else for the two of you? Have you looked in to the price for a set of tires for a Boxter, as compared to a Jetta? What about brakes? Those are 'wear' items, and will need to be replaced eventaully no matter what you do. Have you looked into the Boxter's reccomended maintenance schedule, and the costs for those services?

Having fun is a seperate issue, and not what we're talking about in this thread. It's about looks and the way they relate to flying skills. Way to miss the point.

I agree, and would also add that no amount of looking good will cover up your shit flying. You can dress up like a skydiver, you can hang out with skydivers, and you can act like a skydiver, but once you get in the air your skills will show though all of that, and it will be immediately apparent what kind of skydiver you are.

Really? I hate to burst your humanitarian bubble, but you realize the reason the video ever made it anywhere on the web, let alone to this site, is because it's a goof. Nobody is watching it and swelling up with pride because of the guy's triumph over adversity to build a revolutionary flying machine. Nobody. As previously stated, the design is an enlargement of a very popular RC aircraft that's being sold by the millions all over the web. It's nothing new and he didn't think of it. Beyond that, the underprivledged third-world builder somehwo got access to 8 motorcycle engines, 8 wooden props, 8 electronic tachs, what looks like a couple hundred feet of sqaure tube and a welder. It would be one thing if they guy built it all out of bamboo and cocconut shells like on Gilligans Island, but it's clear that while the guy is not an aeronautical genius, he's obviously got no shortage of fabrication skills or acees to raw materials. For you to overlook that, and then comment on others lack of rational thought is, well, irrational.

What does one thing have to do with the other? Putting 15 jumps on a 190 does not prepare you for doing anything but jumping a 190, let alone a canopy 25% smaller than that. Another thing that hasn't been mentioned is the size of the reserve. The majority of rigs are built with similarly sized main and reserve containers, so you're left jumping a similarly sized reserve to your main meaning it's going to be small, and F-111, and a 7-cell, and you're going to be jumping it in the wake of some sort of malfunction. I don't see the logic in your thinking. You want to rush into two downsizes in order to be ready for further downsizing in the future. What about the next ten, twenty, or thirty jumps you're going to make? Have you considered those jumps in your plans? You seem overly concerned about jumps you may be making 100 or 200 jumps from now, but giving little thought to your present situation. The first step in being a good deal is that it's the right product for you. I know of a Velo 75 in a Javelin with a PD reserve that's been sitting in a closet for the last 5 years, and I'm pretty sure the owner would let it go for a song (he's not jumping anymore). It would be a GREAT deal, should I PM you his contact info? The basic idea in skydiving is to buy what you can safely jump/wear today. Don't ever buy anything based on skills you might have in the future or weight you might lose. Neither one of those goals might happen, and then you're stuck with gear that's not right for you. The truth about rigs is that they can generally hold three sizes of canopies, the one they're built for, one up and one down. So if you look for a rig that was built to comfortably hold a 170, you'll be all set. You can put a 190 in there to start with, and when you're ready to downsize, it will hold a 170, and further down the line, a 150. Don't fool yourself into thinking you need to downsize, or buy gear with the intentions of downsizing. If you just want to go faster, then just admit it. If you're just trying to be sensible, then be sensible and buy a canpoy and rig appropriate to your current skills, and worry about your future skills when they actually materialize.

Excuse me for getting in the way of your bleeding heart. I'm sure the huddled masses of the world are thankful for people like you. It doesn't take any education at all to realize that if you're sitting above a collection of spinning propellers, falling down would be a very bad thing. Last time I checked, even in 3rd world countries everyone falls down, not up.

What's the point of the fabric surrounds for the cockpit and some of the engines? It's not like they're going to 'protect' anyone from anything. One of them is already burning up from the exhaust running through it. Did anyone else notice that the 'craft' was built in an closed courtyard next to a pool table? Was he really thinking he could fly it up out of there on the first try? Most aricraft I have seen have been built and tested on an airfield, or at least in an open space. The way that thing was pitching around when he was tyring to 'fly' it, that guy is going to get knocked out of the cockpit and, well, we all know what happens next. Can you wash blood out of the felt on a pool table?

You've got a handful of problems, with one of them being that most skydiving gear is only certified to 254 lbs exit weight (jumper+clothing+gear). The other is that as a student, you need an oversized-for-you canopy, and they don't make many that are oversized for a guy who's 265lbs. Here's what you can do - if you have $5000-ish to drop on a rig before you make jump 1, go to your local place and see if they'll let you jump your own rig as a student. They would probably have to help you put a rig together, but in the end it has to meet their standards for a student rig before they'll let you train with it. If you don't want to drop $5k right away, or your local place turns you down, do a search of this site for 'big boy' rigs or training. There are a couple DZs in the US that will train anyone they can stuff into a harness. They'll have the closest thing to a 'safe' student rig for a guy your size, and experience working with others like you. Of course, you'll have to travel to train, and you'll probably want to work through to a license while you're there just to get it over with on one trip. Plan on spending $2k-ish to get the license, plus travel/lodging. Once you have a license, there is a bigger variety of gear you can use. Most places will not weigh you and check the certification on your gear. As long as it's properly assembled and well maintained, they'll let a licensed jumper jump just about anything. You may need a custom harness, but you can buy a used harness/container, and for $300 - $500 you can have the harness upsized to fit you. Then you can buy a used main and reserve canopy, and have a fine rig (that's custom fit to you) for about $3k. Of course, you could buy all new gear with all the bells and whistles for $9k, so figure somewhere between $3k and $9k for gear. So it can be done, and you can be a jumper, but it's going to take some extra effort up-front. Once you get a license, your weight will be less of an issue, and you'll be able to jump like most other jumpers. There are some issues with your weight in terms of jumping with other people, as you'll fall much faster than lighter folks, but that's another story. In terms of being able and allowed to jump, once you have a license and your own gear, you'll be on par with the rest of us.

I've been friends with skydiving loner than I've been friends with most skydivers. The ones that have been around for awhile didn't last that long doing dumb shit anyway, so when the choice is between doing what makes skydiving happy, or doing what makes some newbie I haven't known that long happy, I'm going with skydiving every time. Injuries, fatalites and lawsuits aren't good for skydiving, so I'll do what I can to keep them off of my DZ.

No. This you thinking too much on your own again. Exposing the top skin of the canopy is not a factor in any way, the problem is that making a riser turn is different than making a toggle turn. The toggles are already in your hands, the pressure is light and the response is immediate and consistant. You can make a toggle turn without taking your eyes off of the sky, and without much thought. A riser turn requires to reach up, locate and pull a dive loop or riser that's presumably not already in your hands. Even if you can 'usually' get them without looking, the times you don't you'll end up having to look up to locate the grip and will also be falling behind schedule. Keep in mind you wanted to turn back when you first reached for the loop/riser, and if you miss and have to look and make another go, you're not in the same place as when you originally wanted to turn. You're further along and lower, and neither of those is good under canopy. Beyond that, the risers, and your ability to pull them and enact change, are directly connected to airspeed. If you have too much of it when you want to turn, the riser will be rock solid and you won't get much 'turn' out of it at all. Toggles, on the other hand, are fairly consistant in their pressure, and even when the toggle pressure goes up, it stays within a 'reasonable' range, and is always within your ability to pull them down immediately. I'll repeat, you really should stop trying to figure things out on your own or over the internet. You seem like a smart guy, and if you want to understand canopy flight better, coming to your own conclusions is not the way to go. Hunt down some additional education/training, and devote some time and attention toward becoming a more informed, better canopy pilot. If you try to do this on your own, it's not going to end well.

I'm willing to bet it has something to do with the horizontal center of the frame when he's wearing a forward-facing camera. It's like a version of the 'paper asshole' ring site, just a reference line across the center of the frame.

As other have mentioned, given the above sequence of events, no speed is being carried over into the flare. On a canopy like a larger Tri, the speed from a riser turn will quickly bleed off (just a few seconds) and you'll be back to full flight. All your riser turns are doing is jacking your arispeed up and down, and probably doing the same to your glide ratio. Your life will be way easier if you stick to easy toggle turns (no more than toggle down to shoulder height) and keep things more consistant during your time in the pattern. It also takes less thought and doesn't require you to grab/re-grab or hang onto your dive loop. More importantly, what's with the flat turn to final? Again, why deviate from a standard turn at that point? Why not stick with consistancy for your sake and the sake of the others around you. A canopy behind you making a standard turn will shoot under you if you pull a falt turn onto final for no reason. They'll speed up and lose a touch of altitude, and you won't. What you want to focus on is a 'stabilized' final aprroach, meaning that your canopy is in full flight and flying in a steady state (no acceleration in any direction) for a good 8 to 10 seconds. This ensures that you're really at 'full' flight, and all of your energy can be converted to flare power as opposed to some of your engery being soaked up counter-acting some other force. You need to make a sure and strong flare stroke down to the sweet spot, where the canopy will level off for a moment. If you mush your way through this, you're bleeding off energy the whole time you're 'mushing'. Take the speed you have, and convert it to horizontal energy in a 'swift' fashion. Once you feel the level-off subside and the canopy wants to resume sinking, complete the flare stroke fully, with the same sure and strong flare stroke you used for the first part. Keep in mind that the level-off and the time between the two flare motions might be slight, or it might even be more like a brief pause, almost impercpetable to the outside observer. You really need some professional help, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Your posts are indicating that you're 'engineering' your canpoy control skills on your own, without the benefit of a qualifed instructor. You're making some fundamental errors in your thinking, and transferring those to your real world actions, which isn't a good thing. It's like this - stick to what they taught you as a student. Qualified professionals told you how to handle yourself, and you should follow that until further notice. If you're unhappy with that course of action, seek another qualified professional (in-person, and paid to focus on you and your needs) to revise your list of what to do/not do, and how to go about it.

Just to be clear, that's not what I said. I just highlighted the similar risk that we both take in just making a jump regardless of our respective experience level, while a kid on a curb is risking way less than a guy on a mega-ramp. It only looks like I have natural skill becuase you met me 16 years and 5000 jumps into my learning progression. It wasn't always this pretty. I'm more of a sledgehammer than a paintbrush, and I just beat skydiving into submission with years of a stubborn refusal to suck. Back to what you were saying, all things are relative. Sure a foam pit has made the backflip 'no big deal', but these days you NEED a backflip or two with a variation to even think about placing in a competition. The bottom end is coming up, but so is the top, so it still takes the same amount of blood, sweat and tears to get to the top as it always did. Truth be told, it might even take more because the risks become higher as the ramps get bigger, the number of rotations go up, or the canopies get smaller. The other guys are right, breaking through boundries in skydiving ends up with dead bodies. Wingsuits, swooping, base jumping, proximity flying, they're all out there on the leading edge of what's possible, but they also have made their contributions to the body count. You only really find out how far you can go when you go too far, and when you're talking about using parachutes to save your life, too far is when your life isn't saved.

You're missing big, huge chunks of the point. Hoffman is the man, for sure, but he wasn't always 'Hoffman'. At one point, he was some kid named Matt bunny hopping curbs outside the mall. Over the years, he ramped it up to what you see today, but that was a progression, and what you see today is the result of years of experience and training added to his giant sack of natural ability (and his giant sack). In BMX, there's a big difference between the curb at the mall, and a mega-ramp. In skydiving, there isn't the same difference. A 100 jump wonder (like yourself) is taking mostly the same risks as a 5000 jump wonder (like me) on a given jump. We're both taking a similar risk, while Matt at the mall and Hoffman on the mega-ramp are doing two very different things. The other thing to keep in mind is that Hoffman is one of the best ever in his sport. The things that he does and the way he does them are not for everyone, so comparing his progression to an 'average' rider just isn't right. The 'average' rider will always appear to be 'behind' what Hoffman is doing, but that's not because there's something wrong with the other guy, it's because there's something right with Hoffman. In the end, any sort of 'pushing' should be at the far end of a learning progression. Stay well back from the edge until you have 'confirmed' your natural ability, and built a foundation of education and experience. Once you've been at it a few years, seen a few things and done a few more, you'll have an idea of how much 'Hoffman' you have in you, and then you can push.

Kill a student, and see what that does to the TIs pay.

If that's the case, then the TI needs to hire more TIs so nobody has to do back-to-backs. If the plane turns that fast, by the time one set of TIs land, bring their gear in, go potty, and gear check their next rig and student, they'll sit for no more than 5 min before the plane is back a ready to load. DZO should know that a TI can sit for 5 min for free, but a running turbine costs a lot more. Additionally, if the TIs (and other jumpers) are geared up and ready to go, you can have the plane taxiing back out within 60 seconds of pulling up. Mullins is a good example, they jam you into the plane in the loading area in the shortest amount of time possible. Considering how fast the plane is, they save a load or a half-load of tach time by not wasting time in the loading area. There are a ton of good ways to save time during the day, and pulling the tandems low is not one of them.

Even if you hadn't downsized before becoming uncurrent, it wouldn't be a bad idea not to upsize while getting recurrent. With 140 jumps total, even if most of them were on the canopy in your rig, it's still only 100 jumps and it's been a year since you were in the air. Jump or not jump is a personal decision only you can make. If you do choose to jump, however, it's highly reccomended that you upsize a couple times before your recurrency jump, and then you move back down one size at a time, and progress only after 'proving' yourself on each size. If all you did was change canopies before becoming uncurrent, you might look for a used canopy that matches the one you replaced. It will fit in your rig, and you can jump it until you're back to where you left off before your layoff. Keep in mind that at the time you downsized in the past, that was the peak of your skills. You should be back to that point before jumping the canopy you were downsizing to. In truth, if you're 49 and feeling less 'bold', bag the smaller canopy all together. Sell it to fund the purchase of a larger, more conservative canopy, and just enjoy the ride.

Look at it another way - does your thinking tell you that a jumper who has previously hurt themselves landing, has expressed severe misgivings about landings after the injury, and never really got 'the hang' of regular landings really need to be going faster near the ground? Let's remember that the Triathalon was a very popular canopy, in production for many years and the larger sizes served as the first canopy for many, many new jumpers. Would those things be possible if the canopy couldn't flare well out of full flight? If there's a problem with your flare on a straight-in landing, you need to (in order) - 1. Verify that your brake lines are properly adjusted. Do a search and you'll find the procedure for determining the stall point has been posted many times. Also, download the trim chart for your Tri, and get with a rigger to verify the trim. -if that doesn't solve your problem- 2. Get one on one canopy coaching, focused mainly on pattern work and your flare, to include video and debriefing of every jump. Coaches are available when you're paying, if you wait around for someone to have time to work with you for free, you'll get what you pay for. Spend some money, and get some focused, dedicated time from a qualified instructor. Ask the DZO or S&TA who you should talk to. -if that doesn't solve your problem 3. Get the above mentioned canopy coach to jump your canopy and make sure it's not a lemon. Being that it's a used canopy, the chances are slim, but have the guy put a jump on it to evaluate it's conditon. Note that nowhere in the above is the idea of goign faster. You're into bikes, right? Here's the motorcycling equivilant of your question about canopy flight - "I'm having trouble figuring out the braking points for a couple corners on the track. What if I just blow through them hard on the front brake and back the bike into the corner? Seems like it would be easier because I could brake closer to the corner, and it's easier to judge where to brake from closer in, right?" You realize the answer is 'no'. The real answer is to actually ride slower so you have more time to figure out where to brake. Same thing with your canopy. You need to be able to do things at full flight, the regular way, before you can get 'fancy' with it and add speed to the equation. How quickly you forget the pain of your accident, the missed jumps, the missed life, the missed mobility. Get those crutches back out and use them for a couple hours and tell me again that you think you need to go faster on landing.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4182827;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread Possibly related?

An airshow is one thing, and if you pay attention to the layout of most airshows, the crowd is on one side of a line, and the performers tend to stay on the other side of the line. Additionally, the majority of movements are made perpendicular or away from the line, so if there is a problem the plane won't carry into the crowd. The races, on the other hand, have the spectators on the outside of the course, so if any of the planes have a problem during a high-g turn, the tendency will be for the plane (or the debris) to continue outward (thanks Newton) toward the crowd, not hold the turn. Of course, that's not at all what happened here, but that's the primary danger in these situations. Anytime you have a plane moving at high speed toward a crowd, the possiblity of it ending up in the crowd exists.

If I'm not mistaken, the plane was either rolling onto final or was rounding the last pylon of the race, so you can expect a minimum fuel load at that point in the race. I have no first hand knowledge of this, but my guess is that they don't carry much more than they're going to need for the race, and I have a feeling there are no fuel reserves required for these planes during a race. It's entirely possible the tanks were close to dry by this point in the race. Given the size of the impact area, the small quantity of fuel would have burned off rather quickly.

Speed is also death. The closer you get to VNE, the less margin of error you have for certain failures. It's a two way street where you have to factor in stall speed, manuvering speed, VNE, and the pilots ability to withstand G forces. Somewhere in the middle is the 'safe' speed.