ernokaikkonen

That's the one. http://www.freesky.de/SKYRAY.html Erno

You should decide for yourself... However, go and read this.

One version of the rules can be found on Wendys page Erno

See this thread.

I have nothing better to do for the winter... So I can do my part on maintaining the FAQs. I have one question remaining though: Who decides the "right" answer to a given question? As I mentioned earlier, there are no absolute truths in some topics... And especially in these questions, but in all the others too: Shouldn't the source of the answer be included, so the one looking for the info knows that the one giving the answer knows what he/she's talking about? Erno

>I don't know if it's better on a linked exit to look at each other or the >ground. I think I'm in that habit from RW. You are absolutely right to maintain eye contact with others on the skydive. Eye contact is one of the most basic things in FS. >My friends say that they are > spotting the runway, But why on earth?? You should have spotted before you left the aircraft, there isn't much you can do about it after exit now is there?and eye contact is not needed, since we're linked. Eye contact during a formation skydive is the one thing that keeps you relative to each other. When you look at the other jumpers, you can always tell where they are(duh...). Especially right after exit it's important to keep eye contact and fly relative to the formation. If you're not looking at the others you're more than likely to funnel the exit. This is especially true on 4-way and bigger linked exits. And now, since I'm drinking and posting, I'm going to let others fill in the blanks before the need arises for me to insert my foot in my mouth. I'm going to sleep. Good night... Erno

This should be posted on the RW-forum. You'll get a lot of response from the experienced FS-jumpers...

Disclaimer: I hold no instructor ratings whatsoever. >my thinking is to stick with that 220 for a nice, long time... Fine, that's entirely up to you. There is nothing wrong with jumping a large docile canopy. >when does it make sense to transition to a throw out system (I'm still using > the ripcord/SOS)? I've heard it's better to transition as soon as possible, That's correct. The sooner you start practising your emergency procedures the way you're probably going to execute them for the rest of your skydiving career, the better. > but right off of AFF seems a bit soon. You are aware that on most(AFAIK) DZs people jump dual operation systems from jump #1, aren't you? This is because re-learning is generally more difficult than learning. The sooner you learn the DOS emergency procedures the better. When you do transition from SOS, whenever you do that, remember to practice your new emergency procedures a lot. People have a tendency to revert to the first procedure they learned when the proverbial shit hits the fan... Erno

Beer. But just because I have 3 bottles left from friday night...

>but terrorists may claim to be muslim but they definitely are not followers > of any religion that I have ever heard of. Why? Because they kill people? Just like the protestants and catholics in Northern Ireland aren't protestants and catholics, like the jews in Israel aren't jews, and the palestinian muslims aren't followers of islam? And in general all the christians all over the world? "Thou shall not kill"? Ring a bell? [/rant]

I was thinking along the lines of swiping text from the people who know their stuff. Linking to threads has the problem of hijacked and sidetracked threads; the actual information might be lost in the static. Also, some topics might have to have more than one answer, since not all truths are absolute. Erno

Don't hurry. You have the rest of your life to downsize. Without knowing anything about your canopy handling abilities, I wouldn't downsize before you have at least 200 jumps. At least. And then I'd buy the 120 instead of the 105. Why do you feel you can skip a size? And don't listen to anything I said

It seems to me that on many of the forums, the same questions are being asked over and over again. While it's good that important topics such as "Should I downsize?", "Canopies and downwind", "How to make a spaceball" and "Freefall stability problems" are discussed on regular intervals, wouldn't it be a good idea to compile an FAQ for each of the forums? Maybe the moderators could decide which questions and which answers go to the file? Any comments? Erno

>myself? i think i would have to go for the greater good. i would shoot one to >save ten, then see if i could live with myself. Posting to answer to all of you who answered like this. After shooting the 1 person, the terrorists pull another hostage to the firing range and say "If you don't shoot him, 9 people will die." Where do you stop?

>Do you have evidence that a radical manuever puts more than, say, 5G's >on a canopy? I would think cobaltdan might have an answer to that. As far as I know, they've been using all kinds of measuring devices during the testing of the Cobalt. Erno

Even though I agree that spiralling in a cloud is the best way to deal with the situation, for the sake of the argument; If you descend at the same rate, you are either going to hit him or not >hit him the first time your ground tracks intersect; if you don't hit him, >you won't hit him in the future because you will have permanent >altitude separation. You're assuming that matching descent rates will also mean that the two jumpers complete their circles in the same time. With all the different canopies, wingloadings and brakesettings, this can't be guaranteed. >If you are descending at different rates, you still only have one chance to > hit him (i.e. that moment you are both at the same altitude.) So you >still have that one chance to hit him. This is of course true. It is extremely likely that the jumpers will descent at different rates. > The same is true with a straight >line; but if you have adequate separation, a spiral will keep you from a >collision and a straight line may not After posting, I noticed a fundamental flaw in my logic; I was assuming a system with only two jumpers! As the number of jumpers in the sky increases, the number of potential collisions increases even more... And as you said, straight line will be more likely to take you away from the DZ. Erno

>The spiralling keeps them in one place in the sky; if there is adequate >separation after opening, this results in a good chance of avoiding everyone >else. If they just open on a random heading and fly straight the odds of a >collision increase If there is adequate separation. But in a cloud you really can't tell. If two jumpers are spiralling down so close to each other that their paths cross, they have two chances of collision on each completed circle(the two points where the arcs of the circles cross). On the other hand, two jumpers flying their canopies in a straight line have only one point where their paths cross. No? Yelling is good idea of course. Erno

The dead horse is sure getting a beating again... >ever heard of Penitration Checks? You should be able to tell even with out the >ground if you going faster or slower in one direction or the other. No. The only way of detecting how well your canopy is penetrating into the wind is by reference to the ground. The airspeed(the speed of your canopy relative to the airmass it is flying in) of your canopy remains constant regardless of whether you're going downwind or upwind. If you would close your eyes under canopy, upwind and downwind would feel exactly the same. Please remember not to try that in crowded airspace. Erno

>Without any input from the pilot (harness, toggles or risers) wouldn't any >canopy turn downwind and stay downwind? This has been discussed here many times. The answer is "No". The canopy does not know which way the wind blows. The canopy flies relative to the airmass. If you remove all reference points(ie. the ground), there is no way of telling the wind direction under canopy. If this made no sense, it's because I'm suffering from a terribe hangover. Do a search, it's been explained in greater detail somewhere else on the forums... Erno

>I know there was this evil white shooter that I had when I was in >Helsinki.....blew the back of my head off! ? You're going to have to be a bit more specific with this one...and then there was this hot berry type thing in Saariselka (?) I think it was >called glogi or something....was like hardcore gluhwein!! Glögi. (Note the dotted o, difference in pronounciation is like the difference between "burn" and "born") Yeah that's traditionally drunk during christmas. There are variations, from non-alcoholic to the proper stuff. Erno

Hmm. Haven't tried Cuervo myself, but "Dos dedos" seems to do the trick just as well...

We're not allowed to jump through clouds in Finland either.

>Only thing I need to understand about swedish is "Hoppa inte till min >potatisland". I think the tone of his voice will tell you all you need to know... If you plan on visiting Sweden sometime(Herc boogie?), I'd learn the following sentence well: "Nej tack, jag tycker om kvinnor."

>ROTFLMAO! ... hee heee .... that comment brought up some scary images .. >*shudder* ... Ditto! Most of the other people working in my office are female, aged 40+. Erno