CBRnick

Jones is right, its an Adze. Taken from Encyclopedia.com: adze Related: Technology tool similar in purpose and use to an axe but with the cutting edge at right angles to the handle rather than aligned with it. Thats that bit at least out the way. ANyone found out if its bullshit yet ?

Holy shit ! I read Groundrush years ago and threw it away after Id read it. I thought Id get it again after being reminded of it, so followed this link, and found the average price of this book in the UK is £175.00, with a good quality copy going for £240.00 from one vendor on Amazon ! Well I guess thats one book IM not going to read again then...

The direct link to the audio file on that website is http://mfile.akamai.com/12876/wmv/vod.ibsys.com/2005/1028/5200423.200k.asx That will open it up directly in Windows media player. Its a media stream so you cant save it directly from Media player, but you can use a freeware application such as Streambox to capture it and save it as an audio file on your local PC. Current vesion is avialable here: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_capture_tools/streambox_vcr_suite.cfm And the newer but unsupported beta version is here: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/audio_software/audio_tools/streambox_vcr.cfm PLease note the disclaimer on the download site that due to past legal issues, even though it is freeware, you are not allowed to use it if you are in the USA. If there are any issues with IP filtering on the download to filter out US IP blocks, PM me. Ill zip it up and email it to you as its only a small application. This is not breaking any laws so long as you promise me that if I send it to you in the US you will not use it on a public network and that you just want to inspect it. I hope that helps you my friend :)

Well Ive not been skydiving long and am only just starting down the road. There are quite a few people at my 'local' dz who I dont know, but thats just because Im still a new face. There also a lot of people i do know who always make you feel welcome. Ive yet to experience any form of bad feeling towards me, but then I dont give anyone reason to have bad feelings towards me. Something I realised while writing this reply, is that in the short time Ive been skydiving, Ive made friends in various dropzones, so that while my number of contacts across the country is still very small, I could walk onto any one of the four main dropzones in the UK I can think of and meet people who would be glad to see me and have a beer and catch up. I guess that makes me a skydiver then by definition :)

The closest drop zone to my home is an hours drive away if I get my finger out on my bike. If I am intending on going to jump on saturday and stay over to jump on sunday Ill stay overnight and take part in the social scene in the evening. If Im intending on going out with a group of biking friends for a fast blast around some twisty country lanes on Sunday morning, or I simply cant afford to jump any more that weekend, Ill complete my jumps that my budget for that weekend allows and just scoot off home after saying my goodbyes to prepare for the following days ride. Does this make me less of a skydiver because I often dont remain as part of the evening social scene or live the dropzone dream? According to some people posting here it does. Or maybe it makes me less of a biker because I dont spend my life at the bike hangouts and go skydiving. I normaly commute to work on my bike, but Ive heard it said that Im not a real biker because if its pouring down with rain I go by car instead. Damn, now Ive got the powerkite and kite surfing community on the beach saying Im not a 'real' powerkiter/kitesurfer because I spend a bunch of my time skydiving and riding my bike instead of staying for the social scene on the coast. Shit I dont even want to think what the kyak club thinks of me I spend so little time on the white water with them these days. What a strange world we live in... I skydive but Im not a skydiver. I ride a fast powerful bike but Im not a biker. I kitesurf and windsurf, but apparantly I cant call myself a surfer. I used to run grade four rapids in a spud and I often used a squirt boat, but Im not an (ex?)kayaker. I look after computer networks for a living. Am I allowed to call myself an IT professional?? Its all starting to confuse me. C'mon people. We do this for a blast to get away from everyday stuff. We all face the same danger, the same thrill. Sure Id like to spend every spare minute of my time at the dropzone, but Id also like to spend all my spare time on my bike. RhondaLee, Im living my life and having a blast, and I deserve it after the crap in life Ive been through. Dont think less of me or people like me because I dont fit in with your ideal image of a skydiver. Im sure Id have a blast jumping with you if I ever met you. If your ever over in the UK Ill take you out for a ride with the bike crowd. Im sure youll love it too :) I see this kind of elitist attitude at the dropzone near me and it causes far more damage than it should. I know people who have not taken up skydiving after trying it because they were not made welcome at the dropzone. Its not good for the sport for sure. Artist called Ian. I have met the person you talk of, only once, but Ive met him and got on with him great. Maybe it would pay to look at your own attitude rather than calling the bloke a wanker. From your post Id say you have something of an attitude issue yourself. Maybe you put his back up for some reason. As a side note, even though you didnt mention his name, from the description you gave you made it very crystal clear who you were attacking and Im suprised a mod hasnt picked it up as a personal attack, which it clearly was. Chill out dude. Im sure youll find people get on with you better, and publicly pissing off long timers at his home dz who have a lot of friends isnt a good way to go about things. Karma man. Chill everyone and just enjoy life. Trust me, im talking from experience when I tell you your lives really ARE too short to let shit like this get in the way of a good time. Blue skies.

This thread is the funniest thing Ive read in ages. I cant do much of anything at the moment due to a broken ankle. Thanks for a break in the boredem :)

Well after the last few posts, I went to visit my family in another part of the country. But Im back now so Ill see if I can find out anything about those incidents. Will give me sonmething to do tomorow instead of just sitting about waiting for this damn cast to get off my leg :) :)

Hmmm, going to see if I can find a more recent incident. Im interested to find out more recent documented incident.

A Russion this time, and another WW2 event. Russian Lieutenant I. M. Chisov was flying his Ilyushin 4 on a bitter cold day in January 1942. Im unable to find out if it was a bombing run or what the flight was, when he was attacked by a number of German Messerschmitts. Chisov bailed out at 21,980 ft. after his plane was hit He was scared of the thought that the fighter pilots would try to kill him while he was hanging helpless under his parachute, so he had a plan to freefall to around 1500 feet and open his canopy there, hopefully avoiding german gunfire. Unfortunatly he lost conciousness during the freefall (possibly due to a minor head injury caused by shrapnel). He woke some time later laying at the bottom of a ravine with a fractured pelvis and his parachute still firmly in its pack on his back. It turned out that by some tiny chance, he had landed on a snow covered ridge, that was at a steep enough angle to deflect his fall onto a steep snow covered slope rather than impact. He slid down the ravine slowing all the way till he rolled to a stop at the bottom. I cant find any details of how he was rescued from the ravine, but he appears not to have been captured because after he recovered from his injuries, he returned to active duty for the rest of the war.

Ok, this one is not a survivor of a ground impact, but its a pretty amazing survival story. Flight Lt. Joe Herman was flying a Handley-Page Halifax of No. 466 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force on a bombing run in the Ruhr Valley, Germany's industrial centre. After dropping the payload the plane was at 18000 feet when it took three direct hits. With his plane afire almost from wingtip to wingtip, Herman called for a bailout. The upper gunner, Flight Sgt. John Vivash, was going overboard when he saw Herman reach for a chute. Then the bomber exploded. Vivash was flung into the dark night and opened his chute. Moments later, as he descended swinging beneath the canopy, he felt a hard impact and a violent motion and believed that the parachute was dragging him over treetops when he realised that he was still in the air and there was in fact another airman hanging on his legs trying to climb up his flying suit. After having fallen from about 17,000 feet, Herman had miraculously collided with the gunner and, equally miraculous, had been able to hold on to him, literally for his life. With twice the normal weight on the canopy, their landing was quite hard. Herman suffered two broken ribs, but despite their injuries, the two Aussies were able to walk. They spent four days walking before the Germans captured them.where they spent the rest of the war as POW's.

Next up. Staff Sgt. Alan E. Magee of the 303rd Bomb group of the 8th Air Force On Jan 3, 1943, 68 bombers attacked a German submarine base at St. Nazaire, France. Seven planes were lost. One of the missing aircraft was a B-17F named Snap! Crackle! Pop!, which was set afire by German flak and then exploded. Ball turret gunner Staff Sgt. Alan E. Magee's parachute had been shredded by flak, and as he was franticly trying to find a spare the explosion threw him out through the open bomb bay at aprox 19000 feet. He said a prayer and then blacked out. Magee regained consciousness surrounded by men speaking German. One of his arms was badly broken. By sheer coincidence, he made a bull's-eye landing on the skylight of St. Nazaire's train station. The shattering glass and frame slowed his descent enough not to kill him, and he fell to the floor at the feet of a group of disbelieving german navel men. He was taken POW and a german doctor saved his arm. In the big World War 2 memorial services earlier this year he laid a plaque at the Nazaire in memory of the rest of the crew of his and other aircraft that were lost that night. A fantastic but very well documented event :)

Forgive the long post, Im laying on bed with a cast on my ankle due to a fractured Fib, so Im trying to break the boredem... Anyway... There are a lot more than two documented cases. The british airman was named Nick Alkemade. On March 23, 1944 he was a tail gunner in an AVRO Lancaster bomber that was returning from an allied bombing raid, when they were attacked by a Junkers JU-88. Due to the cramped space in the gun turrets, parachutes were stored in the main tail section of the Lancaster. When the body of the Lanc started to burn, Alkemade was trapped in the turret. Unable to reach his parachute, he turned his turret 180 degrees and jumped, preferring a quick death to being burned alive. He fell from roughly 18,000 ft, and according to his diary spent the freefall thinking of his death roughly in a head down position. His next recollection was looking up at the stars through some pine trees. He could not believe he was okay and after checking each of his arms and legs in turn and realising he was still in one piece, he sat back and smoked a cigarette while he thought about what on earth had just happened. It seemed that the thick pine trees slowed his descent just enough for the thick snow drift he was sitting in to cushion the landing. When he finally stood up he found that his ankle was sprained and he was not able to walk for more than a few steps at a time. A short while later a german patrol passed, and realising that he would die from hyperthermia if he didnt get help, he attracted them by whistling. The Gestapo did not believe his story of jumping without a parachute and thought he was a spy, but eventually believed him after inspecting his parachute harness that he was still wearing, and finding the burned parachute still in the wreckage of his plane. He remained a POW untill he was released at the end of the war. The burned parachute, harness and supporting documentation is still on display in the Imperial War museum in the UK. Im going to see what facts I can turn up on other cases now to fill my morning up :)

Punctuation is your friend...

Am I the only one to see the irony in the fact that you dont feel safe without an AAD, but you ride a CBR6000RR in a jacket that fits you very badly (and will ride up your back and arms in a slide) and jeans. Nice bike btw :) Blue skies AND Ride safe :)

A few weeks ago a few guys I was jumping with exited the plane in a four way. One of the four guys who just happened to be the heaviest of the four, funneled and flipped over the other three, taking one of the other guys arms over his back with him. one instantly popped shoulder joint. He landed ok, if a bit shaken up.

Ive not done a base jump, and Im not going to claim to know anything about it. Nor can I claim to know anything about the courses they offer. However I do know Ulli, the german guy who runs Baseeuphoria with his girlfriend. Both feature on the website. Hes a nice easy going guy with over 2000 base jumps between him and his girlfriend, and he is a very aproachable and chilled out. Ive just spent 2 weeks jumping with him in Spain (not base) and found him a very easy person to get along with and learn from. Hope that helps :)

Dont be sad. Although it took me a long time to see it, I now look on it in a more positive way. Out of my old life comes my new life. New happiness, new passion. Karma. :)

I know exactly what you mean. My reasons were not so different. Ive always been involved with 'danger' sports, I used to do a lot of white water kayaking and I ride a race replica motorbike a lot faster than I should do. Skydiving was something Id often thought about. The my wife got ill from cancer and after giving up pretty much everything and caring for her for almost 7 years she passed away. It was a tough time after she passed away, and it dawned on me that life really IS too short not do do anything that seems like fun. You can wake up tomorow and something outside your control takes your life away. So here I am in spain jumping my ass off and currently about to complete my FS1 course. I almost always get on the sunset load if I can and Ive discovered diving into the sunset from 14000 feet puts me somewhere I cant explain. I swear that for the moment Im flying alone in the crimson red sky that she is there with me, and I know she is grinning as much as I am. I dont know about being nearer to heaven, I cant honestly say Im religious, but for that moment, im definatly not alone. I probably wouldnt have posted this but for Perplexiti's answer. Ive got a smile on my face knowing that there is at least someone else out there that understands how it makes me feel :) Just for the record, I do have a new partner in my life now and life is GOOD. And its just getting better and better. Nick :)

Thanks for the replies guys. Im going to have a good read of those articles. Dont know how I missed them. I must have been searching for the wrong thing. Cheers. Nick.

Hi everyone. Im looking for information on what sort of rig and canopy to look at as a first rig. I have spent a while searching these forums and have read a few articles on new rigs here, but I havent managed to find exactly the information Im looking for. Im currently about to finish my last consolidation jump and go right on to my FS1 course. Ive decided Im going to buy new, not second hand. Im not going to rush out and buy anything on impulse and have been talking to a lot of experienced people including instructors and some master riggers about what sort of kit I should be looking at. The Aerodyne Pilot canopy (probably a 190) and Aerodyne Icon is the setup that seems to come up over and over again. So what Im looking for now is the opinion of anyone who has this setup or canopy. Id like to know as much as possible what people who use this canopy think of it. Handling, control, openings. Pros and cons. Anything at all that you can tell me about it please. AS I say Im not rushing into any fast impulse buy, and Ill find a test rig somewhere I can try it for myself somewhere as well, but when I do buy, Id like to be able to make an informed decision based on both advice and other peoples experience. Thanks in advance for your help. Nick.

The skydiving and base jumping is amazing, but dude why the hell did you stand there and let someone spray mace in your eyes. The rest of the clip shows skill and big balls. But the mace, well just.... WHY dude? I dont get it, but whatever floats your boat I guess.

I dont know. I still cant log on now. Nor could I last night. I get to the home page but when I try to log in it just hangs and times out.

Not so much focused on it, more like just intrigued and interested in the speeds they were achieving after watching some of the videos. Im very aware that any sort of wing suit flying, or any other discipline within skydiving is a long way off for me at this moment. My journey starts with AFF in 10 days. Thansk for all the replies guys. It does look fun and so maybe its something Ill lean towards in my skydiving future :)

There is not THAT much grade four water easily reachable in the UK, but Ive managed some. The Etiv, the Orchy and the Tae in Scotland are the Tre Welyn (think I spelled that wrong) in Wales are the biggest rivers Ive run. A few grade 4 stretches in there. I getting into squirt boating before I started to drift into other things. But hey, thats another forum :) I guess I just like doing things that scare me a bit. Maybe this will be the one that holds me :) I hope so, Im getting enough butterflies and I like the community :)

Hey man, Im from England, and your english is better than a lot of english people I know. Dont appologise for it :)