mjosparky 4 #26 September 12, 2010 QuoteI'm a wingsuit pilot. I AM the aircraft... When you can go up or land the "aircraft" without a canopy you will be a pilot. Until then you are falling not flying. SparkyMy idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnMitchell 16 #27 September 12, 2010 QuoteQuoteYour SL jumps sure as hell count. I am not sure when it changed but at one time took 25 freefalls to get an “A” license and the S/L did not count. A C&P because you pulled your own ripcord. We beat the hell out of this in another thread. Seems that "jumps" count, not freefalls. I didn't count my 5 student S/L's or a couple of test jump ones either. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skydiverkeith 1 #28 September 12, 2010 Quote Quote I'm a wingsuit pilot. I AM the aircraft... When you can go up or land the "aircraft" without a canopy you will be a pilot. Until then you are falling not flying. Sparky In that case, I'm a canopy pilot. I always land that one. Blue skies, Keith Medlock Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Inspired 0 #29 September 12, 2010 Quote Quote I'm a wingsuit pilot. I AM the aircraft... When you can go up or land the "aircraft" without a canopy you will be a pilot. Until then you are falling not flying. Sparky Really?!? I know a professional pilot who never set foot on an aircraft! Me thinks you are simply making up definitions. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mjosparky 4 #30 September 12, 2010 Will you can have harbor pilots, a TV pilot and even a pilot drive. But since we were discussing “aircraft” your friend would have to earn his living from flying aircraft to be considered a professional pilot. SparkyMy idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andy9o8 2 #31 September 12, 2010 QuoteQuoteQuoteYour SL jumps sure as hell count. I am not sure when it changed but at one time took 25 freefalls to get an “A” license and the S/L did not count. A C&P because you pulled your own ripcord. We beat the hell out of this in another thread. Seems that "jumps" count, not freefalls. I didn't count my 5 student S/L's or a couple of test jump ones either. I've generally thought about it this way: Did you have fear to conquer on each of your student S/L jumps, especially your first-ever jump? Did you have sensory overload that reduced just a bit on each successive one of those jumps? If you had a malfunction on one of those early jumps, would you have followed the same training in handling EPs on, say, jump #2 that you would have used had it been your A-license check dive? For most people, including me, the answer is yes, and that's why I think student S/L jumps should "count" toward raw numbers (although not for freefall time). http://lpcoverlover.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07.resized/the-count.jpg Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
karenmeal 0 #32 September 12, 2010 I get very annoyed with wind tunnels too. They were just started to come about when I started skydiving. They have propagated change within the sport that I really hate. I wish skydiving would go back to it's blue collar roots and get away from yuppie domination. I will never go to a wind tunnel. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DBCOOPER 5 #33 September 12, 2010 Forums: Skydiving: General Skydiving Discussions: Am I a snob to be annoyed at thinking this should be in "Bonfire"? "Replying to: Re: Stall On Jump Run Emergency Procedure? by billvon If the plane is unrecoverable then exiting is a very very good idea. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
riggerrob 643 #34 September 12, 2010 Quote No free fall Note to self: do not vent on internet...... ...................................................................... It is okay to "vent" on the internet. You gave the rest of us a good laugh! Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously. Venting - every once in a while is good for the soul, like the Australian sport of whinging or the American tradition of singing the blues. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnMitchell 16 #35 September 13, 2010 Quote I will never go to a wind tunnel. But wait until you actually go in one. Highly addictive. Sure, there's a lot of yuppies in the sport, Karen, but they're just tourists. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LongWayToFall 0 #36 September 13, 2010 Skydiving is about learning to fly your body. Your goal, as a skydiver, is to learn to fly your body. Tunnel rats learn to fly their body more cheaply, can log many more minutes of freefall in a day than you can, and best of all, have someone better than them only feet away giving them expert instruction. Skydiving>Skydiver>Body Pilot Tunnel time>Body Pilot Personally however, my money is better spent skydiving. I do not compete, or care only about perfecting my body piloting. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andy9o8 2 #37 September 13, 2010 QuoteI get very annoyed with wind tunnels too. They were just started to come about when I started skydiving. They have propagated change within the sport that I really hate. I wish skydiving would go back to it's blue collar roots and get away from yuppie domination. I will never go to a wind tunnel. I think you're saying this tongue-in-cheek; but for the fun of it, I'll bite. When I started skydiving in the mid-1970s, it was a very blue-collar sport, where anyone who was not that - for example, suburban kids in college skydiving clubs like me - were treated with unabashed hostility. It was one of 2 reasons I stopped jumping at my first DZ and switched to another couple DZs in the area (the other being that that callous attitude, IMO, directly contributed to the death of a friend of mine there). It chased a lot of eager people out of the sport before they ever got around to getting their A-license because they quickly got sick of ignorant, bigoted, semi-literate assholes treating them like dog shit. The result was that skydiving was effectively restricted to a narrow cross-section of the population. The "yuppization" of the sport (which by the way was not caused by wind tunnels) did not cause blue-collar jumpers to phase out; it just expanded the segment of the population who were welcomed into the sport beyond the factory-and-biker crowd. And that's a good thing; I say good riddance to that aspect of Back in the Day. Now it may be that, even adjusting for inflation, skydiving is more expensive now than it was 30, 35 years ago. But I think a lot of that is because there used to be a huge choice of cheap mil-surp gear on the market, and that segment of the market no longer exists, so gear, even used gear, is comparatively more expensive these days. (That's not the only reason, but that's one of 'em.) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
happythoughts 0 #38 September 13, 2010 Tunnel training is used by every 4-way team that I know. It is definitely a great tool to fine-tune your skills. I wish it was available when I started. I had 1,000 jumps before going to a tunnel for the first time. I felt like a lotto ball for the first 2 minutes. I don't think it is the same as skydiving because there is an element of awareness that is different. In skydiving, there is always a part of your brain that is thinking of your safety. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shah269 0 #39 September 13, 2010 There are what 31k skydivers in the US? Of which 1k are girls? The odds of impressing a girl with your stories in the air are much higher in a tunnel then at any DZ. So.....it's not all bad. Not those SOB's who do one tandem and suddenly think they are skygods....now they piss me off! I know one....and they insiste they are a skydiver.Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
happythoughts 0 #40 September 13, 2010 QuoteThere are what 31k skydivers in the US? Of which 1k are girls? The odds of impressing a girl with your stories in the air are much higher in a tunnel then at any DZ. So.....it's not all bad. Whether a woman will be impressed by my stories is not a factor in how I make my decisions in life. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shah269 0 #41 September 13, 2010 Quote Whether a woman will be impressed by my stories is not a factor in how I make my decisions in life. When i visited Sky Venture Montreal later in the afternoon on a Friday with friends there were about 30 girls there all on some sort of bachloret party. All were happy and harbord no ill will. So not only was it nice to flirt with a bunch of girls it was also nice to fly. Your average DZ if the girl is at all good looking, from what i'm told, she is incased in layers of dudes. So as the n00b good luck saying hi. And if you do she will most likley call you some odd name and accuse you of being a dork. Whic you already knew already. Take tunnels for what they are, good safe fun to lean and to grow....with some nice eye candy.Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Joellercoaster 6 #42 September 13, 2010 QuoteI wish skydiving would go back to it's blue collar roots and get away from yuppie domination. [edit: Never mind, ITIHBT.]-- "I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan "You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shah269 0 #43 September 13, 2010 A friend put it to me this way. It's the difference between indoor and out door rock climbing.Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Southern_Man 0 #44 September 13, 2010 You should really stop posting anything that implies that you have any idea whatsoever of how to meet or approach women in any context."What if there were no hypothetical questions?" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
happythoughts 0 #45 September 13, 2010 QuoteYou should really stop posting anything that implies that you have any idea whatsoever of how to meet or approach women in any context. +1 Jeez. Every post, no matter what the topic, is about his plan to meet women. Everything guides back to that. Can't we just talk about skydiving and the tunnel ? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shah269 0 #46 September 13, 2010 Quote You should really stop posting anything that implies that you have any idea whatsoever of how to meet or approach women in any context. Yeah your right. Rockclimbing gyms is not a good place to hit on girls. Their hands are strong and rough and well...one wrong word and it's off with your wang. God relax! Tunnels are fun. You see people jumping in and having a good time and you get to practice a little. Live and let live.Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ridestrong 1 #47 September 13, 2010 QuoteA friend put it to me this way. It's the difference between indoor and out door rock climbing. Not really... If your doing 'sport' routes then indoor/outdoor climbing is pretty similar. The biggest difference being that indoor climbing technically requires the climber to follow a specific route using specific hand and foot holds, where as outdoor climbing there are no 'set' holds to use. Also indoor routes are obviously height restricted. In a lot of ways though indoor climbing still carries the same risks as outdoor climbing (unlike 'indoor skydiving'). Then you also have 'trad/traditional' outdoor climbing which is another story.*I am not afraid of dying... I am afraid of missing life.* ----Disclaimer: I don't know shit about skydiving.---- Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shah269 0 #48 September 13, 2010 Well in indoor you can just "free" climg in that you can just use what ever holds there are to get to the top. and that's what most people wh just show up do. And they have a good time and it's all good. Yeah it's not "real" rock climbing but hey, at least they are getting out and having a good time. Now if one of these MOFOS's starts bragging about climbing K2 after a day or two of indoor rock climbing then well there may be an issue. But if not then live and let live. Sit relax enjoy the view and when it's your turn to float show off a little and learn how to better controll your body. The $60 I spent on my 3 min was perhaps the best $60 I have spent thus far in this sport.Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay. The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
