Jeff.Donohue

I don't think it's Hinduism that bans that - I think the Taj Mahal simply prohibits you from taking pictures because then they can sell more postcards. Hinduism is basically a blanket term for a bunch of related religions, though, so who knows... I have heard of very devout Jews and some Muslims who opposed having their pictures taken based on the following logic: - Thou shalt not make any graven images [of God] (Exodus 20:4-6) - Man is made in God's image (Genesis 1:26-27) - Therefore, making images of man is making images of God (which is bad) /agnostic

Man, I bet it tastes awful.

Yeah, while I didn't see it first hand, he actually referred to it as a "rip", not a "hole". English is not his primary language, though, so I can't confirm what the heck it truly was until we talk again and I find out whether he had to get it fixed -- he was taking it to a rigger. I'll let you all know when I find out.

Remster, Unfortunately, I don't know precisely where it was. All, Thanks for the rapid feedback on this. I should have mentioned it was a 230 main, but my friend is kind of large-ish (I think his wingload on the 230 is about 1.0).

A friend of mine described a sort of scary event that happened to him. I'm curious to get the benefit of the collective wisdom here to see what, if anything, he could have done to detect this problem or handle this problem better. After a perfectly normal jump, my friend landed and started to gather up his canopy. As he did so, he discovered a hole the size of a basketball in his canopy. (Since this is second hand, I don't know if the hole was on the seam or punched through the fabric itself, but my guess is that it was a seam.) He packed his own rig, and he was certain the hole wasn't there when he packed it, so he's guessing it happened upon deployment. He told me that as soon as he deployed, he did a controllability check, and everything seemed perfectly normal. As he did his visual inspection ("there, square, slider down"), he didn't notice the hole, but he believes his view of the hole may have been obstructed by his slider. He's a relatively new jumper (about 50 or 60 jumps), and I'm even more inexperienced (as you can see from my stats), so I'd welcome any input on the following three questions: (1) Has this ever happened to you? (2) Aside from stowing the slider (which can't be done on most student rigs, I don't think), is there a way to check for something like this? (3) Assuming you were well above your hard deck and you discovered you had a hole this size (but it otherwise meets the control check), would you chop? We discussed in my class that "small" holes are probably ok, but large ones merit a chop. Is a basketball small or large? Of course, being a student, I will discuss this with my instructor next time I go, but in the interim, what do you think?

You all will be very happy that I always use my AAD whenever I'm rock-climbing. Unless I'm too close to the ground to safely do so...

Right before I exit the aircraft, I say "Praise Jesus! Allah Ackbar! Shema Y'Israel!" Nothing like hedging one's bets with all three major monotheistic religions. /agnostic

Fandango was the reason I first became hooked on skydiving. I saw it when I was 18 (i.e., over 15 years ago!) and became hooked. "Better to crater into the ground at 120 miles per hour than die in some senseless tragedy..."

Weather is cloudy I probably can't skydive Ophelia blows

I have a weird related experience. I'm in AFF, and I have no problem with exits. However, I'm also learning to spot. A couple of jumps ago, my instructor asked me to stick my head out the door, find the spot, etc. The process of sticking my head out -- when NOT getting ready to jump -- gave me a weird sense of vertigo. Can't explain why. Apparently, I turned pale white... People on the Otter were kind enough not to openly laugh (but probably should have...) At the time, my instructor pointed out something to the effect of, "ummm... you know you have a rig on, right?" Of course at an intellectual level, I knew it, but the experience of "stick head out of aircraft when not jumping" was just not being processed properly by my brain. My guess is that when I'm exiting, my brain processes "side of plane, prop, etc.", which is all in focus. As I shift from poised exit to freefall, my brain sort of recalibrates to "heading/horizon, freefall, etc." But when I spot, my brain is rapidly shifting from focusing on an "interior space" (the aircraft) to focusing on a very distant space (ground, clouds, etc.) The radical shift in focus gives the mild vertigo. Don't get me wrong, it's not enough to make me stop jumping, just an odd reaction I had. At other times, spotting has been no problem. For what it's worth, I had no problem exiting on any of my jumps.

Other than taking a packing class with a rigger at my DZ (which I plan on doing shortly), is there a good resource (book, DVD, videotape, website, whatever) for a student to learn how to flat pack? Basically, I'm looking for "Flatpacking for Idiots". I know that there are a bunch of resources for PRO packing, but I think my DZO has a preference for students to use the flatpack technique. Thanks!

I've noticed that things that are capable of flapping around during free-fall have a tendency of doing so. Do you take precautions to avoid flapping (e.g., duct tape) or does the temperature at 13,000 ft. handle that? - Jeff

Hi there. Another DZ you may want to consider, along with Orange, is Pepperell (website is www.skyjump.com). I'm in the middle of AFF there, and it's been a great experience. Good luck and blue skies...