Avion

Or, somebody reloads their rounds so hot they blow the slide off an otherwise sound weapon, which is less rare

You probably know the incident I'm refering to. The canopy might have been a 110. It happened durning a bigway out west about a year ago. To me, it means that anything can happen to anyone at anytime. So, it's good to be prepared. The RSL can alway be disconnected with just a tug on the tab, if you can find it. I've read a bunch of the threads about the pro and cons of an RSL and usefullness of the Skyhook. I just feel more comfortable with it.

Yes, that's actually one of the reasons why I decided to do AFF there. Also, I had The Relative Workshop install a skyhook on the used Vector3 that I bought. An incident keeps coming back to my mind about a highly experienced skydiver who had a canopy collision some where between 1000-600' AGL. When he checked his Velocity 96 for controllability, it went in to a spin. He immeadiately pulled his reserve, but it failed to inflate fully. Had he a skyhook, things might have turned out differently. To me, it's just cheap insurance. Every little bit helps. Brian

Good idea Dawn, I like it. The classifieds seems to be a bit of a hassle for just sharing tunnel time. BTW I'm looking forward to getting up to NC and meeting you and the L1 someday.

All that would be 'necessary' for me to jump is a 2 chute rig and goggles. I know from riding motorcycles that my eyes start to tear alot after about 60 mph. That means I for all practical purposes I would be blind during freefall. Plus, I were contacts when I jump. I have around 20/400 vision without correction. So, if they were to blow out, it would be a rough day. Having said that, I jump with all the 'insurance' I can get: Helmet or goggles, gloves, jumpsuit, Cypress AAD, Skyhook RSL, visual altimeter, and plan on acquiring a Protrack. Cheers

Thany you very much for posting this Bill. I think, I have noticed a touch of hypoxia on some 13.5 jumps, a distinct feeling, you called it fuzziness, and slight darking of the vision, like you get when holding you beath for a couple of minutes. I then beathed deep and slow and the feeling disappeared and the vision normalized in just a few beaths. I also noticed the symptoms would reappear if I went back to breathing shallow again. BTW this was in a Otter, 15-20mins to altitude. Without your post, I doubt that I would have recognized this for what it was. Thanks again, Brian

This one of those beautiful examples of professional stupidity. Several things come to mind after watching the vid and reading the posts. 1) As already been said: Always presume a gun is loaded, then check it. 2) Why did the guy leave the clip in, doh! When clearing a gun, drop the clip, then operate the slide to clear the chamber. 3) Why and how did the guy operate the trigger??? 4) It obvious to me, that he immeadiately when in to shock. Pretending he was alright out of embarassment of being so stupid. Thank God, he shot himself instead of someone else particularly a child. 5) I agree with the others that said, having loaded firearm in a classroom for a safety class was somebodies very poor judgement. There ought to be a law prohibiting such an act, unless it is carry by the school's on duty security personal. Finally, always avoid pointing a firearm at anything unless you intend to shoot it. I have almost been shot in just this manner. When a teenager, I was visiting a friend with a 22 semi-automatic rifle. As he was showing it to me, he operated the slide until bullets stopped coming out of the gun. Then, he pointed the barrel at my right thigh, and pulled the trigger. The gun when 'click', and I got angry. To calm me down, he then gave it to me to look at, I operated the slide an pointed it at him. He squimed around in every direction, squeeling, "Not me, not me!" So, I pointed the gun out the window and pulled the trigger, BANG! "You shot my dad truck!" he managed to exclaim Then, I really got angry, and chased him around for a while trying to club him. I have been handling firearms off and on for over thirty years. During that time, on a few occasions I have had firearms discharge prematurely, as in firing before being fully raised to a target. The moral of my stories is: Always presume a gun is loaded, and always point a gun in a safe direction, even when you think its unloaded. Cheers

I think a got a good defination of a carving turn out of Brian Germain's book. Basically, a carving turn is a turn that maintains a constant altitude while turning. That's how swoopers can turn up to about 90 degrees just inches off the ground. The turn is accomplished by braking, increasing the attack angle by using the opposite toggle, while turning. Performing a carving turn will use up your airspeed quickly. Also, the canopy must be leveled off before stalling, otherwise...

As far as general accuracy, I've noticed I do better with 9mm and 45s than 40s and 10mm. 40s are a little sharp on the recoil for me, and 10s are just too much. Bullet construction does matter, full metal jackets may go right through the target thus imparting less than 100% of its momentum to it, whereas a hollow point will often transfer 100% or close to it. My point also include the fact that in order to double the momentum of an object, it's speed must be increased by a factor of 2 that is twice the original speed. In order to double the kinetic energy of an object is speed must only be increased by a factor of 1.4 that's less than one and a half times the orignal speed. I'm rather interested in the results of my little experiment, if can ever get around to doing it. Cheers

That's mainly my point. One of the other interesting particularities of small arms ballastics is that on different days where all measurable parameters, temprature, pressure, wind etc, are exactly the same, rounds from the same lot of manufacture fired through the same gun will display different degrees of accruarcy. That is to say one some days the same lot of ammo will produce tighter or loser groups than on other days. This remains to be explained. As for the 'knock down' power, I am motivated to do some of my own experiments involving weights traveling at specific velocities impacting a board or some type of protection with a person on the other side, and gather subjective impressions of what double the impact or knock down power is compared to actual mass and velocity. Should be easy enough to do. Might take some time to get around doing though. My expectation is that double the knock down power as reported by the reciepent will equal double the momentum, and the double the kinetic energy will be less likely if at all to be reported as double the impact or knock down power. Maybe I can put some kind of gauge or get somebody to stand behind a piece of 1/4 steel plate and fire a 9 and 45 at 'em, and then see what they say about comparative impact I do know that 45s are prefered over 9s on pin nights, where the goal is to knock bowling bowl pins off a table. 9s are less reliable in getting the pins off the table.

I've only heard of carving turns as used in setups for a swoops using front riser turns. And these carving turns were different than toggle turns which were refered to as toggle or snap turns. Rear risers for swoops, interesting, is that a wide spread practice? So, let me see if I'm getting this right. A carving turn is a turn by any means which swings the jumper only moderately out from under the canopy?

The term 'carving' is used in two places here. Under canopy and in freefall. Under canopy a 'carving' turn equates to a front riser turn. In freefall it means to orbit or circle around a fixed point, person, or group. Cheers

LOL Go and watch for a while, have a look at the equipment, talk with the staff, casually rather than interview them Watch the tandems come down. You can always ask for a certain instructor, if you feel more comfortable with one than another. Visit more than one DZ, and notice the differences. Then go with the one you like best.

Prehaps, I should have said omitted any mention of.... There are a number of posts here about people using the rear risers to get side by side down planes back together. I think I've heard that a biplane can also go into a front back downplane. I'd suppose it would take pulling on the front canopies rears to get it to slow up and go back together. I have yet to hear any stories about that or a pinwheel one. I would check for entanglement, hopefully would have enough time to do that before a downplane gets started, and if clear cutaway. I've seen enough videos to realize it would be an all too intense situation, and hopefully with the pratice of good habits will be prevented from happening in the first place. Brian

I'm doing AFF now and noticed that the DZ uses the PVC tubes on the student rigs. I think they catch less air than a hacky and can be snugged up closer to the pocket too. I'll leave well enough alone for the time being. I got a bunch of belly dives to do before I get to any freeflying anyway

Read this: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1518634;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

It depends on who your talking with. Some people say to get them to got back together by pulling on the rear risers. My AFF instuctor told me to cutaway the main if the two down plane. She failed to mention anything about the riser concern though I hope to simply avoid the situation Cheers

The first four questions have been sufficently answered, so I will only reply to the last. Keep in mind I have only one tandem jump. Although I have been through AFF ground school and have been educating myself about skydiving for more than a year. A two out situation is very bad. It it best to do everything you can in order to avoid it in the first place: Do your gear checks, and pull at the proper altitude. To answer your question directly, after doing the search and reading the posts, it appears opinions are as usual, divided about the usefullness of cutting away the main. Two points stand out: 1) The most important, if the main and reserve risers are twisted together, and you cutaway the main, there is a good chance, quoted as 50/50, that the mains risers will pull the reserves slider all the way up to the reserve canopy and keep it there, very bad. 2) If the two canopies go into a downplane and the risers are clearly seperate, it might be a good idea to cut the main loose. Other than these two cases, if the canopies are stable, side by side, or biplane, it might be best to ride them both down and PLF. This is one of those cases where you should read as much as possible and ask as many people as possible before making your own informed decision as to your procedures for this situation.

What excites me most about the tunnel is that I can stay in freefall for more than 50-60 seconds

2x10min or 2x15min blocks would be a good start. And the tunnel instructors themselves will be plenty help to you. I reccomend 2 sessions because after reviewing the first you will want to go back in and work on certain things. Cheers And yes, book it now to make sure you can get in.

I've got 5 hours in the tunnel, seen many first timers and unstable AFF students. I did one tandem, got to practice some turns but forgot about flaring, and went through AFF ground school, waiting for good weather to jump. My obviously pre-speaking rights reply is... I like to see a progression consisting of: At least one tandem, 3 at most (student does turns and flares), if student wants to continue, At least 10 mins in the tunnel where student gets stable, arm turns, and prehaps some practice pulls. Then a modified AFF course to accomodate skills learned thus far. Cheers Oh yea, spoting, what's spotting I had to read about that in a book. Do they still use wind drift indicators, or call the weather station and use the wind reports with the calculations?

I just wanted to let you all know, I did ground school today. I'm goining to be back in the air soon

From the general information on small arms ballastics I have read in relation to target shooting and hunting. Momentum seems to be the more accepted indicater of knock down power. A high pressure 9mm round will have more kinetic energy than a regular 45 ACP, although the 45 will most likely knock the person over who get tagged by one, knocking someone over with a 9mm is less likely, according to the old guys at the range I go to. The weight of a 45 round is around twice that of the 9mm. This is an area where practical results differ from what science would expect. The study of small arms reveals a number of these unexpected peculararities. Hunters, LEOs, and the military have noticed this is the case through actual experience, rather than through scientific prediction.

You might find this thread helpful. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1326776;search_string=fear%20abatement;#1326776 Cheers, Brian

Cut the attachment tapes. That would require a rigger to fix it, and if you cut all of them it would be quite a bill.