nigel99

It's the Australian branch of Citizens for Quiet Skies. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Good and interesting discussion. One thing I really don't like is that the AAD manufacturers don't publish the change logs on their software. Vigil do to some extent. I would want to know what is being changed when my unit is serviced. With algorithms as you tighten them up to avoid false positives (unwanted firing of an AAD) you get to a point where you miss the real event. I wouldn't be surprised to see that Cypres algorithm is so robust against false fires that it fails to fire on time. The anecdotal evidence from the florida fatalities sure puts the spotlight on the AAD. BUT we also don't want unwanted AAD firing at the same time. Seems like raising AAD firing altitudes is a good compromise to keep algorithms robust. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I think the back story is important. Not all countries provide the same level of opportunity and this might be a young teen. Not saying I would take this approach however, just think people should consider the possible circumstances. Back when I started jumping as a spotty faced 16 year old, the ONLY reason I got off static line and onto freefall was the generosity of another jumper. For 18 months I spent every penny I had doing 1 and sometimes 2 jumps a month. To get off static line you needed to do more jumps than I could afford in a month. Unlike others who think someone like that shouldn't jump I loved it and lived at the dz on weekends. I would have carried on doing static line jumps as I enjoyed them. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I agree with you that it is a serious problem - one that ends with a gun but does not begin with it - Its the lack of respect for a persons own self and the right for another to exist. I am not trying to brush anything under the rug. I just cannot see how disarming law abiding citizens will do anything to stem the murder rate - and yes I do realize that legitimate gun owners have snapped and killed others - but disarmament will only lead to victims without the means to defend themselves - does anyone really think that by disarming the law abiding people that criminals wont have firearms? I quite honestly don't have the answer, but I do know that disarming us isn't it. Roy The answer is very simple and has nothing to do with guns. The USA needs more boobies on tv and in newspapers and less violence on tv. Second part closely related is less religious extremism. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Jesus. I don't get the US gun culture, but your posts are way out of line. Frankly i am surprised you havent been banned because youve done a number of personal attacks. It is fucked up to celibrate death. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Thanks for a very informative comparison. I wonder how the shipping of AAD's for service is going to be affected under the new UN38.3 dangerous goods regulations that come into force next week. I am pretty sure the lithium content is higher than the limit. Will be interesting to see how it plays out (currently crippling where I work - and are based in an area with NO cargo only flights) means that everything has to be road freighted to the East Coast (3-5days) before it gets onto an aircraft. Cost has literally skyrocketed. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I agree and that is what i like about it. It has been 2 yrs since it was explained/demonstrated to me, so hopefully my description is accurate. In Brians method you pull the centre to the edge of the pilot chute. This can create bulk away from the hackey if you aren't careful. This can then bunch up on extraction. Way Andy taught me is to fold two sides to meet at the hackey (middle). It creates a very even and flat distribution of fabric. Sorry but the description probably sucks. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Any bunching up of the fabric can cause it. BOC that are not spandax are more susceptible as they dont give. I used to pack my pilot chute Brian Germains way and local rigger told me he didn't like it as it 'might' cause a hard pull. Ignored him for a while then had a hardish pull myself and then took note when i packed for the CI and he said he nearly went to reserve. Now i pack pilot chute how the rigger showed me :) Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

The OPs question was (quite reasonably): ***Could someone help me understand why canopies of 150 square feet or less are deemed high performance? The intent of the SIM is quite clear that it is not WL dependent. All the downsizing charts i have read say that a very light weight jumper can jump a 150 at only 40 jumps its the minimum size but its still allowed? I could be wrong but just seems weird coz apparently any loading of any 150 is high performance People are just losing their frame of reference with modern canopies. 20 years ago any wingloading on a 170 would have been considered high performance. Canopy performance has WAY outstripped how we teach and deal with canopy flight. I have quite often heard 135 Sabre 2's referenced as good 'intermediate' canopies recently. The problem is people are no longer referencing flight characteristics and the skills needed to fly a parachute, but rather the fact that 'up jumpers' are on 70-80 sq foot parachutes - therefore something 1.5 times bigger must be safe. It is misguided and people are blaming the tools for their poor skills. Side note - a tiny person who struggles to flair a parachute, can they actually cutaway or pull any reserve handle (I know of one case where they couldn't - fortunately caught by the instructors prior to allowing them to jump) Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

What I find entertaining is peoples attitudes to canopy flight. I started off as a sub 60kg jumper on rounds and then a 288 square footer. I hear things like going backwards is dangerous etc. Learn to spot and you have a steerable parachute so it is not as big a drama as people make it to be. Smaller jumpers have plenty of challenges that are much higher priority than being on a lightly loaded modern parachute. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

apparently they are already having : bag search, sniffing dogs etc for that event. Seems like rights have been given away already. Poor country. Poor inhabitants. We need to send the french in to liberate them Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Thanks for bothering to dig around Peter. Interesting reading. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

When I was researching with a view to swapping to pull out, the biggest downside appeared to be more strength required and increased shoulder injury. Only information was from DZ.com and haven't jumped them but packed a few. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

yikes. Seems legit, but 'most skydiving accidents that he hears of are fatalities'? That is a very uninformed statement... Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Hey best mate and I started at 16 and every cent went on jumping.he's got over 15 000 jumps... Besides jumping is safer than girls Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Have you tried using a light pipe? I considered trying it, but stopped jumping a gopro. Another really simple option that a friend has is a tiny dental mirror glued to his alti. Nice thing about your circuit is you can up the brightness... Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Heights for me. I am fine in an airplane, but get me about 2 floors up and I get really nervous - ESPECIALLY those shopping mall escalators that are suspended... Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

What does it bring to the table? EDIT: seems like NZ are not far behind http://vimeo.com/111820591 That is an awesome video. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Honestly I disagree that the camera was a link in the chain (in this incident). Not that I think people should be jumping with cameras. I do relwork coaching and without cameras, you get people 100% focused on turning the next point and completely forgetting to look at their altitude. Here is australia you have to complete a rel work table as part of your B license, and the hardest 'fail' that I have had to do was an amazing jump where we turned an incredible number of points - but not once did he check his altimeter and I as coach had to initiate breakoff. In THIS incident - a very real link in the chain is that is looks like neither jumper had an audible. Here is Australia an audible is mandatory for any camera jump and note that here it is 100 jumps to jump with a camera. Audibles are compulsory for freefly here, but not flat fly. I encourage people to not use an audible during their initial coach jumps so they develop that early sense of time, but to use one as soon as they get their B license. In 5 pages of discussion, as far as I recall this is the first time an audible has been mentioned. That to me is the danger of the camera obsession. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Dont inject common sense into the discussion. I disagree with this silly obsession of blaming all incidents on small cameras as it detracts from the real issues. Lets face it Cypres preceded gopro, strange really as before gopro nobody ever lost altitude awareness. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I am scared of heights but love flying. I am a nervous jumper especially if i haven't jumped for a while, but it is different to fear of heights. Few weeks ago I had the opportunity to get some one on one coaching from a member of Arizona Airspeed and his advice was to visualise the jump with a smile. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Pretty much sick of these threads. 1) The 200 jump number is arbitrary. Australia has it at 100 and is the mother of all nanny states. 2) The 'distraction' argument is frankly weak, although there is some limited merit. 3) Very few people treat snag hazards seriously anymore. Whether they have 20 or 2000 jumps they are bolting stupid cameras to their heads on full face helmets with no thought to the safety aspects. Hell at least the 20 jump newbie doesn't put it on a 2ft long pole on their fullface helmet with no cutaway to get really selfies like the guy with 2000 jumps. 4) 99% of the footage is crap. I find it amusing to watch 10 people sit watching 20 camera angles from their 5 way angles jump 5) Someday someone on the ground is going to get taken out by a falling camera. Cameras get knocked off, fall off so frequently nowadays. 6) I really don't want to be in a plane when someone puts a reserve over the tail, because they insisted on wearing their stupid camera as an inside diver with their head rammed up against someones handles. Jump numbers are irrelevant, this stupidity is rampant - used to be stupidity reserved for free-fliers, now every 2nd belly flier thinks they need inside footage of the jump as well. I'm grumpy and need a snickers bar Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

New Zealand has at least 1 dropzone that offers USPA licenses. Have you considered that it might be cheapest to simply fly to the USA and do it there? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

2 considerations with booties 1) Increased snag hazard for some aircraft types - a famous 182 exit where the plane ended up landing with the guys bootie still trapped on the step (don't know when or where as saw it on tv) and I know someone who got temporarily hung up on a 182 step 2) 1 bootie coming off or not put on will cause interesting flying. Not an issue if you are aware and have a plan. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

This made me think of something. Why is there no digital altimeter with colors? Imagine the background (around the numbers) beeing green, yellow and reddepending on the altitude. And you could change the altitude when it changes in the settings. I know it will use battery, but why not? It could be a setting if you wanted it on or off to save battery. I think that colour display technology is more power hungry than mono. But not really an area of electronics I've had much experience with. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.