joephus

It's a spam-bot, mod's need to delete the account.

The only malfunction I've had so far was a spinner from line twists. I'd pulled at 3,500' had some serious line twists and as I tried to get out of the line twists I transitioned on to my back and started spinning. As I started spinning I checked my altitude and was at 2,800' so I knew I had a little bit of time to fight it some more so I tried to regain control of my canopy. After a few seconds I checked my altitude again and was at 2,000' which is my decision altitude. It wasn't much of a decision. So yeah, I always check my altitude on my malfunctions, well so far anyway.

I don't think anyone has suggested that you rely solely on leg kicking. Leg kicking is just a part of the assessing and reassessing of your situation that you were talking about.

At it's base it's all about information exchange. But that said, I sure as hell slam on my horn when someone is trying occupy the same lane space I'm using. Again its just conveying information.

Turn signals are a method of conveying information, they can still convey inaccurate information regardless of laws, standards or anything else. Having laws and standards for turn signals does not make them auto-magically convey accurate information when someone has been driving 30 miles with their turn signal on. Knowing and abiding these rules doesn't always happen, hence inaccurate information is often relayed by using them. That doesn't mean you should stop using them. I'm curious though, why would I stop paying attention to whats going on around me at any point in time, legs kicks or not? Just because we had a leg kick exchange it doesn't mean I'm going to start flying willy-nilly all over the sky. But your scenario is actually the biggest reason I'm glad leg kicks are taught and used at my home DZ. As a noob I'm flying a docile and slow canopy and on any given load I can find myself in the middle of the load with several folks behind me flying high performance canopies. It's not uncommon to find myself in the air below canopies than can smoke right past me. It sure is comforting to know that when I kick my legs at them and they kick back, I know they see me before they do said 450.

See my response above about inaccurate information.

Inaccurate information can be a cause for concern but the off chance that you might get inaccurate information does not mean you should stop trying to collect information. Should we stop using turn signals in cars because some people leave theirs on while driving straight down the highway? I would think not. You can observe that the person driving down the highway is not slowing down, is not turning his vehicle in any direction. His behavior is negating the information his turn signal is giving me. I proceed with this information in mind. In the same light if some is kicking their legs but isn't looking at me, or doesn't divert course and keeps flying at me, his behavior is negating the information his leg kicks are giving me. Again it's all information, and when life saving decisions have to made in a split second I want to err on the side of having more information not less.

If they do not respond back, it's still more information I can add to my more overall situation. "This person is more than likely not aware of my position relative theirs, proceed with that in my mind." It really just boils down to maximizing the amount information you have on had to make decisions. I don't think anyone can make a successful argument that more information is bad in this case.

All leg kicks are doing is providing you with more information about your surroundings. It's a little packet of information that you can add to the overall picture you use to make decisions. It is a half second process of "I see you. You see me. I now have more information about my surroundings than I did before". How anyone can argue that having less information is the way to go is beyond me.

Getting off student status is definitely a given before this trip. We plan on having our class A done by this spring. Thanks for the info!

Hi all, this is my first post and it looks like this is the appropriate place to post this question. The girlfriend and I are starting to plan a skydiving trip for late August/early September next year and was wondering if anyone has any DZ recommendations. The general travel plan will be to hit Iceland first and then make our way through Ireland, Wales, England, Scotland, and France. We are hoping to spend a few days at each DZ, with a couple of days of jumping, and maybe another day of site seeing and what not. So, we would prefer to find the type of DZs that wouldn't mind us maybe crashing in the hangar or at the very least throwing up a tent nearby. I've taken a look at the DZ locator and found some interesting locations, but any first hand knowledge of the area(s) would be great. TIA!