nigel99

So can you ban yourself? Or is that an admission that after all you are actually Coopers Ghost Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I have noticed that if a thread is locked it rouses my curiosity and I end up opening the thread to see what drama went on. So is it like the wet paint phenomenon and is your curiosity aroused? PS Hopefully posting in general about locked threads isn't against the rules

It has held up to all the abuse the kids have thrown at it. It has internal layers of fabric curtain with a steel backing at an angle. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Crosman-BB-Pellet-Air-Soft-Target-Trap/4840335 You could always drop a piece of carpeting in to improve the effectiveness. I noticed that on the Walmart review they mentioned the target area being "small" and damaging the plastic housing. I suspect that if you can't hit within a 6 inch diameter indoors maybe shooting isn't for you Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Sorry can't help on your specific questions but if you are shooting indoors Walmart do a cheap pellet trap that effectively catches the pellets to keep you safe and stop them making a mess. At short range our pellet gun can make quite a bruise on a ~5m ricochet (found out by experience and lucky it was my shoulder not my eye) Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

The pet rabbit is buddhist, and the gerbils are catholic as they do midnight mass Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

He's good fun but don't let him buy you a drink or dinner. He expects you to put out It's what I put IN your drink that caused that

Good video, Google poped up the following ad while viewing. I think it is funny that it 30 seconds to see how much your injury is worth. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

He's good fun but don't let him buy you a drink or dinner. He expects you to put out Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Was your first freefall without an AAD? Mine was too. I remember the jumpmaster building up my confidence by saying "Remember, John, when you leave that plane, you're a DEAD man until you pull." Sure got my attention. Yes first freefall was on a C9 with a belly reserve and no AAD. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Thanks Pops. I don't mean to imply that AAD's are either super-reliable or not (as the case may be). My personal view is that they are a fantastic invention and anything that reduces the chance of a fatality while not substantially contributing risk or complexity to the user is a good thing. I am not suggesting that a backup device should be relied upon. IMO, problems arise when the AAD is not used properly. As so many people don't appear to completely follow the manual and design parameters (of virtually any product) I still see this as part of the equation. IF someone stays within the expected normal parameters they are safer. Finally I realise I shouldn't have used the word statistics as that really requires hard data and a decent sample size to have any meaning. Two or three deaths a year with an active AAD are hardly a statistically significant sample. BTW - on my first free-fall I KNEW that would not pull the ripcord. I was absolutely convinced that when I stepped off the wheel I was dead. Strangely the one thing that gave me a bit of confidence was that there was full cloud cover below us (non US jump - before anyone worries about FAR's) and I reassured myself that if I got to cloud I would pull! The jump was more typical of a first freefall from static line progression though - the jump master had to worry about the pilot chute getting stuck in the plane. I know that at stage of my jumping life an AAD would have reduced my mental stress and probably have made me a safer jumper as a result. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Goodbye all have a great New Year. This will be my last post of 2010. I have met some great people and had some great times this year. Try not to get to pissed and happy holidays everyone

That is the kind of information I was looking for. Now to be picky and out of interest how many "good" AAD-induced two-out's have you witnessed? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I agree completely. I do however believe that some people are happier believing in God and it is a victimless crime so they should be left to it. I grew out of Santa before I was 10, it took me another 10 or 15 years to grow out of God. I personally am happier for it. I love watching the debates though as no one ever seems to have the balls to put their hands up and say "I don't know all the fucking answers". The vocal physicists are as bad as the religious crowd. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I thought swoopers had balls of steel? In a way you are right there is the whole arena of the AAD tried to kill you but failed. In which case you would need to include 2 outs from low deployments that complete without injury. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Leaving religion out of the equation: 1) Are you assuming that "God" created us? I don't mean Adam and Eve any concept will do. 2) Have you got a definition of God that you find acceptable? For example is God a living being of some form? BTW - The weak force is stronger than EM - so that is wrong in the video. Could have been mis-spoken though. I agree that it is truly mind-blowing that everything is so perfectly "fine tuned". I am not sure physics is the best place to look as the concepts can be so complicated that conjecture can quickly enter the equation and whether you are Stephen Hawking claiming that there are multiple parallel Universes or an Anglican Priest crediting God - both are purely conjecture. I think that God is a philosophical discussion and not scientific - the human mind and belief systems are intriguing and I believe provide alot more insight. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I was thinking about this last night. We all (should) know that all an AAD does is cut the reserve closing loop. From reading the forums my impression is that there is somewhere between a 60 and 80% chance that if your AAD fires you will live. My guess is that alot of AAD saves don't get reported so the "true" figure is probably in the high 90% range. So from the people who are at busy dz's what is your anecdotal feeling on the statistics? Just to lay a few common ground rules: 1) AAD not switched on doesn't count either way. 2) Interested in AAD induced fatalities or injuries, for example swoopers killed or injured by an reserve deployment (non-injury doesn't count) 3) A misused AAD or misrigged AAD counts as a non-save. For example the recent incident where the closing loop might have not been routed the cutter. 4) going in where the dz is at a higher altitude than the activation altitude is included as a non-save (misuse of the device) I am interested to here the anecdotes and evidence as a lot of people place so much credence on the AAD and yet my feelings are that it doesn't do as much as people give it credit for. For example I am aware that an AAD firing when you are perfectly stable may not save your life as your PC is caught in the burble - I am not suggesting anything is changed I know that the parameters have been carefully considered and are most likely the best compromise. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Nah, the kid is already out of the hospital. CU is a noted engineering school-I guess when you're not getting laid it gives you a lot of time to think up stupid games. I guess you agree with Shah about engineers having no game then? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I think that these are sometimes false recall where you have seen pictures/heard discussions and your mind fills in the gaps Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

So does God switch between being Hetero, Gay and Bi? Maybe she just had PMS? I think that as it is Christmas he is out helping the elves clean up after Santa's trip around the world and didn't have time to deal with the snow. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Ok so with a name like AND getting a loaded gun on board we know that TSA don't do racial profiling It is not that uncommon as the article says. There is a US businessman that arrived in Heathrow from the US with live ammunition in his pockets. The UK checks caught them and from memory he got a prison sentence. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I wonder if FutureDivot was the SUV driver? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

The whole "spotting" thing winds me up I haven't done a night jump but I have spotted before the biggest plane being a Casa 212. The complete lack of knowledge of the subject is really frustrating. I would venture to say that IF Cooper spotted a 727 the pool of subjects would be exclusively focused on experienced jumpers as I don't believe it could be done without interaction with the crew. "5 right" at least once? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Thanks for all the replies. I realise that the death aspect is pretty grim and I have also jumped enough (but too long ago to count) to realise that my chances of going in as an AFF student are very small but are still a possibility. I don't think this is paranoid - the only persons time wasted by preparing and carrying this stuff is your own - unless it is needed. If it IS needed chances are that you have screwed up and caused a number of people a serious headache so it is a chance to help them in a small way! Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Hi All, I intend to go to the USA to do AFF and become current and I am trying to research the legal aspects so that I have all my ducks in a row. Firstly I am not a member of the BPA and don't intend to become a member prior to becoming licensed. I realise this is touches on some grim aspects of the sport but I need to consider my options. 1) travel insurance covering injury any recommendations? I got "caught" on a snowboarding holiday when the insurance clause required minimal treatment so I had my arm in a temporary cast until I returned to the UK. 2) In the event of accidental death does anyone know the procedures and how it all works? I know that it is a remote possibility but my wife would be with me and she is hopeless under stress. I would want to have documented instructions/procedures laid out and ideally any insurance policies that can help with the legal and other aspects of accidental death. Any other legal aspects to be considered? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I will agree with that. Not if you were a big guy jumping back in the day of the myopic one-size-fits-all mentality, and the C-9's had massive cutouts for steerability. The only good C-9's for big guys were unmodified with a 4-line release. I weighed about 130lb's and on at least 2 occasions I was still >1000 foot after the NEXT 182 load deployed, on a T-10 with the thermals sometimes I just didn't come down. I could do stand-up landings on a C9 without really trying. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.