Zlew

I did the same thing when I was a student. Big canopies, long lines... it can be less hard than you think to get the canopy turning faster than your body can keep up with. Scary stuff!

Based on the conditions, I doubt this is the case... But I have seen similar effects when shooting too high of shutter speed in the studio, and the shutter basically is closing while the light is still exposing the image. Possible to do with a flash also, but doesn't look like the case here.

NICE! what a sweet plane. If the 182 only had thrust vectoring.... :)

Knew a pilot once who said he always made sure not to turn too fast for a 180 degree turn to create negative airspeed and stall the plane. I thought he was talking about turning too fast/hard at too high of an bank/AOA to create a stall. Nope, he really thought he could turn around and get negative airspeed over the wing. *note to self....don't get on the plane with this guy.

I didn't go to the tunnel as a student, but for me Tunnel time seemed more beneficial than the same amount of true freefall. When you consider how much you can focus on the task at hand, you can work on a skill for a min or so, get out, and get right back in, there to work on what you learned, remove the adrenaline factor and have a very controlled environment with fixed points of reference... IMO, you have the opportunity to get more out of a given amount of tunnel time than the same amount of freefall. One thing to consider is that the hostile frefall environment that is freefall is something you will have to deal with when you make your next skydive... so if that is part of the issue it may be a different story. But if you are just wanting to work on specific freefall skills... the tunnel is an amazing tool.

As far as I know, for medical insurance (not Life insurance), they dont typically ask lifestyle questions (do you skydive etc.). Also, as far as I know, if you are insured, you should be covered regardless of what caused your problem/illness/injury.

On a related note: for me, the biggest piece of a backloop was the "trying to kick your self in the chest with you knees" concept. The arms don't mater so much. On an unrelated note- I had a jump this weekend that had backloops as part of the dive (one point was a backloop!) It was so much fun! I haven't done backloops in years.... had a blast! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB_vBbsIZNw backloop jumps starts at about 2:30 *edit

I think there are some better threads about hardware and such. I'll see what I can track down.

Spot: Here was a recent thread about video hardware: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4061195;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread *edit for Clicky The gear itself changes so fast it is hard to keep up with, but the take away from most of what I have read on here and other places is that HD rendering uses a lot of processing power, and hard drive bandwidith. Fast HD's (many of use have separate hard drives for reading and writing the files), and as much processing speed/cores as you can afford seem to be the way to go. I also believe most are using a PC workflow as opposed to Mac. Things to keep in mind: A lot of this discussion is around doing video editing for a business. You don't have to build a Billy Baddass machine to edit AVCHD video...but you might need something like that to do so and get it on a DVD in 4 mins. So if you are just doing it for yourself and for fun....you don't have to have top of the line gear, it will just take a little longer.

I've used Flickr for years, and have been very happy with it.

All are cool, but I really dig the "Awesome!" vid.

I've never lost my goggles outright before, but had a few times where I did get enough air under a pair of goggles that was trying to fly off that I did lose a single contact. Lucky for me, it was just one each time. The idea of landing my canopy without either contact is not a good situation (land in the middle of the largest open area at half brakes and PLF most likely). The crappy depth perception of just one good eye isn't ideal, but much better than landing "blind". +1 on the carry an extra set of contacts in your gear bag.

Haha. True. I don't think there is much use for them anymore (and probably wasn't back then either) but they were fun. Once in a while they would surprise you when they would land great distances from where your educated guess would put it.

I don't wanna brag or anything....but I used to be pretty good with a WDI. Now that I think of it, I haven't even seen one of those since the DZ closed (8 years ago?). Anybody use WDI's on the first load of the day anymore?

With GPS, and more and more large turbine DZ's the art,skill and even concept of spotting has faded greatly. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people sitting in the door, just looking at the green light (not at the ground...) and waiting to go on green. Or how many times I've seen later groups climb out without ever sticking their head out the door. Many DZ's don't even post the winds aloft anymore.

So then you are having a whuffo (fire/police chief etc.) determining if how you got hurt was reasonable or not at an event they weren't even there for. Do you really want someone who thinks we are crazy, and has no idea of anything about jumping trying to determine if you had enough altitude to do a half brake turn to avoid the tree, had the proper body position on your PLF, or tried to do a high performance landing in winds that were 2mph over your skill level?

I see your point, but still think that it is too slippery of a slope to go down. Who decides what a "too risky" of a situation is? Is it something obvious to a whuffo like skydiving? What about driving in the rain or ice (risky by all standards and causes way more accidents than "extreme" sports).

In a sense we are taxed. I buy gas, food and other taxed goods in the area around the drop zone I jump at. I provide money that is taxed to the drop zone, who pays tax on the property and business. So the DZ being there generates tax $$ in many different ways. Also, I'm not sure I want a fire chief, or other government official deciding what constitutes an extra risk and how they will respond or if they will charge extra. I have family that work as fire investigators, and some of the stories of the just dumb things people do and end up burning down their homes make a tree landing look low risk and intelligent. Should those people be charged when the fire department comes out? If I wreck my car doing 10mph over do I get charged? 20mph over? Who decides that? What is the threshold? We are taxed for it, and their charter is to help people out....I don't think they should be in the business of trying to make money on it or decided what they deem as an acceptable reason for their services to be offered without extra penalty. edit-typeO

I'm torn on this one, because in many ways I agree but I also think it is a slippery slope. I'd be outraged if they charged to put out a fire at a home or business. They are still having to use their time and equipment and resources. So where do you draw the line between what government/public services charge for and what they don't charge for? When is it part of what the tax payers pay for them to do, and when is it a service they are going to bill you for? Z

+1 many things in this sport are very slow to change in any real significant way, but there is nothing that can make up for experience.

I am back in, but was out for several years. It was a combo of things.... My home DZ that I also worked at closed, and I was starting my career at the same time. So I went from getting paid to jump and a 15 min drive, to having to pay and drive 1.5 hrs. Most of my friends from my home DZ went their different ways. From there it just kinda creeps up on you.... Next thing you know its been a year... then two....then three. I always missed it (and am glad I"m back) but it was also refreshing to get out for a while. Not being at the DZ 2-3 days a week(end) every week, no matter what the weather was had it's perks. Could spend time with friends/family...even watch football games! Was reminded there was life outside the DZ. So now I"m back, and trying to find a better balance to keep me jumping but not having it take up my entire world. That was fine for a while in my life, but not so much anymore. Z

For those prices, I'm almost tempted to buy a 2nd.

There are plenty of things that you can do to reduce your risk and odds of having a function, but if you stay in this sport it is not a question of if you will have to go to your reserve, but when. Practice your emergency procedures. Go over in your mind over and over again what you would do in a given "oh shit" situation. Hell, when I do my dirt dive in my mind in the plane, I always do at least one that includes a function and cutaway. Plan for it, be ready for it, and when it does happen... I think you will find it is no big deal. My first ride was at 700 jumps, and I was almost let down afterwards. "That was it?" It was so matter of fact and so automatic that it wasn't scary at all. I opened, looked up...saw I didn't have a square stable and steerable canopy, went through my emergency procedures and had a pretty white canopy above my head before I knew it or had time to be afraid. Trust your gear and your training, and don't worry about it!

Sandy Bridge is the next generation of intel processors. The current line (i3-i5-i7 some of the xenon etc) were code named Nehalem and based on 45nm architecture. Sandy Bridge will be based on 32nm and might be announced officially this week. edited for type-o

Most get reported because with all of the new style AAD with cutters (not pin pullers) it is almost impossible to hide it. Upon repack there is no hiding the cut loop or the fired cutter that has to be replaced. It is not something as easy as not saying anything to anyone and having a repack.