blueshrew

Dragon, glad you made it down OK. But Dterrick, I see why a lot of people are bickering about people with low jump numbers giving advice. I don't have many more jumps than you do, so before I write something like that, I make sure, I know what I am talking about. I have really never heard of stalling a canopy to get it to inflate. That would only make it worse, I'd figure, which a couple of others here have also written. I had a reserve ride on my PDR, and it flared exactly like my Sabre2. The only difference was that it had a much higher fall rate (it was also a bit smaller than my main). So I am wondering where you got that idea, since also in that point others have agreed. Maybe this is off-topic, but there is a lot of great material on the internet, e.g. the PD seminars, which will give you more theoretical understanding of how canopies fly, etc. So before giving out wrong information, consider at least reading into it first. I am working on a site which has a collection of safety related articles. So if you're interested -> http://safety.skyoasis.info/, and click on articles.

I jump in Germany and use US gear. I've never heard any inssues about JTSO vs TSO. I am supposing that if there was anything not "legal" about jumping a TSOed rig, you wouldn't get a Guetesiegel (seal of approval, not Gurtesiegel

The freeflying scene in Germany is very progressive right now. I think there are more people going in to freefly than rw, but that may only be around berlin. There are the "big boys" that meet every now and then to fly vrw 8 to 14-ways (there weren't enough people with the experience for more last year). Apparently there are a couple of groups that will probably be able to help out in bigger-ways next season. Then of course, there are loads of fun jumpers. Last year there was only 1 big freefly event, but next season, there are going to be afew more. I hope the sun wakes up soon.

I was agreeing with the fact that rw doesn't do much for you if you if you're interested in ff. Then how come it's almost always the rw guys that get left behind in tracking dives? I guess everyone has their tracking style, but the way it's done here, it's pretty fast, and if you don't have it figured out, you drift back pretty fast. The point of tracking is covering horizontal distance, and if you're slow, you're probably not really moving much. I can only speak of the DZ I jump at. Sometimes at sunset one of the freeflying DZO goes on a rw big way. If you see them separating, you would know what I mean. His separation is double the distance of all the others, an he has it from the tracking dives. That would make sense if was comparable, but it just is not. The way you would approach an rw formation is entirely different in body movement than ff. Docking is also not exactly comparable. And burbles are very different in location/size. Lower speed is a good point, but your learning curve to where you actually want to get is not accelerated by doing rw first, it is probably even slowed down somewhat. The lowdown is that it will take longer to jump with others of your level if you start with ff. with rw most DZO will allow you to go on a 2-way right after getting your licence. well, if you're on big-ways before you learn to fly stable, something is seriously wrong at your DZ. that is the whole point of getting proper coaching and solos before you do that. But the stability issue I was talking about (which you snipped out) is that a fflyer recovers a lot faster. A lot of rw people will get totally freaked out if something unpredictable happens, whereas in ff you grow up with unpredictables and are always watching for them. and no one said you should jump right into things you don't have the experience for. i am not going to say coaching again. If the experienced guys do a difficult jump, they only take the ones that can fly it. But over here things are probably more controlled and manageable than in the US. From what I hear, you spot before you jump ;) And I can't exactly imagine a hardcore 4-way rw spotting during a jump. Strange point. I have a good look around before and after the jump (on exit and on tracking), and I dare say that that is enough.

I couldn't agree more. If someone with a bunch of jumps is saying do rw first, it is probably because that's the way they started out. but it is not necessarily right. i am one of the 200 jump people, but one that was fortunate enough to be going out with one of the best freeflyers over here. freefall safety primarily involves not colliding with anyone and tracking away safely. well tracking is part of ff, and most freeflyers i've seen are much better trackers than flat-flyers. as for collisions, everyone agrees that doing coached jumps and a lot of solos before going with others of your level is the thing to do. as fedykin already pointed out, rw can give you really bad recovery habits for freefly. i have seen videos of really experienced rw people that were way more dangerous on their first ff jumps than any newbie learning ff. apart from that, when you're a fflyer stability is not an issue. you learn to recover much faster, and have a lot more space awareness. that is probably the 21st century equivalent of the student and square canopy debate of the last decade.

Ok, again, if Saddam is the problem, why not send a bunch of assassins? Cheaper, less damage, probably faster and more efficient to pull off. There are a couple of people here who have very valid and intelligent opinions (e.g. billvon, wendy), but others that seem to be living in a dream world. It's more fun to believe in conspiracy theories, I suppose (Saddam and the suicide bombers, e.g.) Saddam is a very unpopular man even in the Middle East (ohmeegod, you never knew that?). I bet any neighbouring country would be wholeheartedly helping take out the guy discreetly. But a war?? To take out one guy? Can you actually believe that? For the safety and prosperity of the world? That seriously is a joke.

The thing about pro choice is: is it fair to bring a child to the world that you are not fit to take care of? is it fair that it will be scarred for life for knowing it was given up? or is it fair that you might never be able to love it because it took your chances of a great career, for instance? what if it's a rape child? Would you be able to give up your born child at all? point is, you or anyone who is a bystander should not be aloud to make that choice for someone else. Besides that, until a certain age (i think 3 months) a featus has about the same mental capacity as a kidney. calling it a baby would be absurd. I had two girlfriends who have had abortions, and I can assure you they were really miserable about it. But at that point it was just not possible for them to have a kid.

from my experience, freeflying makes you learn rw way faster than the other way around. and as i already have said, i think you should do a lot of solos/instructor jumps before you go with others. the funny thing is that there are loads of high time rw people that are just sad to look at when they try to freefly. my point is, anyway, that it is totally insignificant what you do first if you ultimately want to freefly, and the rule about rw first has definitely proven to be crap. again i agree with freeflyz.

It always seemed to me that the "old" jumpers would tell you to definitely do some rw first. well i started freeflying at jump 12, although i only jumped with instructors my first 80 jumps or so, until i got an ok to jump with others. those "old" jumpers would tell me "you know what i was doing at jump xy, i was seeing someone else in the sky for the first time, and you're annoyed cause you have this or that problem in freeflying" in my experience, you don't need rw first, and having done some freefly first, rw was fairly easy to grasp in the 3 (boring) rw jumps i did. fact is, that in freefly you get more awareness of your movement, and unstability is not an issue anymore, you learn to recover in zero time. i agree with freeflyz all the way.

Mine's Gidget AppleLips

I was in the Middle East around Christmas/New Years'. The common thought there was "those idiots are going to take us from bad to worse". If the problem/goal was Saddam, there wouldn't be a war or an invasion. There are a lot of easier solutions for taking out a guy. If it wasn't oil, why is North Korea among others off the hook? Here's something from one of Bush's people that made me laugh for days: "Because Iraq has a face (Saddam), if you put some N. Korean generals and civilians in a row, the American public wouldn't be able to tell them apart." As the issue is not how the US president/pres. staff seem to see their public from this statement, I will not go into that. And finally, wouldn't such a war do wonders for the US economy, which one couldn't really call great at the moment?

Literally everyone I've seen get good fast in freeflying of freestyle had a gymnastics/acrobatic background. This guy who is an acrobat was doing perfect standups right off level 7. I guess that gives you more body awareness than other sports.

No Problem

Yay, now I'm excited, now I have to convince the plane owner that his baby will come back safe

That too is a load of crap. If that were true, I wouldn't be in University right now going for my Masters. If you have an Abitur you get into university. If you have bad grades, you can either accept that that won't get you into a popular university, or wait a couple of years and have a better chance at getting into that popular university. There is thing called waiting time that compensates for bad grades. So even if your grades suck, you get to go to a top university if you wait a while. Now tell me that you have that chance at an Ivy League or another top university. edit: there is no such thing as a Technische Schule, there's a Technische Hochschule, which is like a college and is for people who want a more practice oriented degree. (Technische) Universitaet is for people who want a more academic degree. Hochschule degrees are shorter in time than Universitaet degrees. Neither has anything to do with your grades, but what your goal is. (Where do you get your info???)

That's a load of crap. If we're talking about police brutality with no cause, then I think Germany is definitely on the nice side of things. I have a couple of friends with stories about police brutality in the states that are really movie material. Never heard of anything like that over here.

No that's not correct. You can choose where you wanna go. With some majors that are on high demand with limited seats, you may not get your first choice if your grades were bad. With all other majors, you just sign up, and you're in (providing you have a school degree, of course). And if anyone is getting everything on a silver platter, it's not the German students.

Does anyone know if you can jump out of a plane with floats instead of wheels? Say a Cessna 206. I guess the door would have to be taken out, would the water get inside the plane on take-off then?

*wishing i hadn't eaten before looking at this thread*

Here's another Happy Birthday

Pull out rocks, if you take care while packing it. It can't fall out or get tagged out, and it definitely looks waaay better on smaller rigs. I once got a hard pull cause I packed it using the flap order in the manual (Odyssey RS1) and pushing the grommet way too much in the center. But a very experienced rigger who also jumps a small Javelin suggested a different packing order, and it works great. Will never jump anything else.

I jump a pull out, too. So does my b/f, so does his former team mate. But I know a lot of people that will get you afraid of a pull out, so I figure that's why less people jump them.

23, but soon to turn 21 My little brother's friend called me Aunty Nadine last time I was home. That almost got me crying. Then my mother comes to me and says: "You know, you're old enough to start using anti-ageing cream."

I'll just look, OK? I'm taken, so I won't be treating anyone as meat anytime soon anyway .

Actually, no you don't have to do a military service if you go to college. I know loads of people who did not, because they were in college, and after a certain age you don't have to anymore anyway. But as I said, it appears only Americans would state the US as the freest country in the world, even Americans who've gotten both sides disagree to that. In the end, it's how free you feel, I suppose. Hell, I felt free living in Egypt, only restriction was my parents when I was still in school (but it wasn't hard to dodge them ).