AlRedler

Can't do that, it is an essential part of the mid life crisis. Especially as skydiving is so ordinary!

That is also why you will usually see British jumpers in the States checking each other out before getting on the plane. We have that as a habit and many would be very uncomfortable getting on the lane without having that check. As well as checking that the rig is on correctly, the check should include checking that the reserve is in date too.

or back to more modern rigs! This is mine, often get approving comments.

Yes, it is a shame that is the case. We seem to be going the same way too, since no win no fee was made legal for our lawyers. There are other differences too. It is not necessarily illegal for an under 18 to be in a bar, but it is if they are sitting at the bar. I do not think a DZO would be taking any greater risk under our laws, or insurances, for letting a 16 year old jump, compared to a 18 year old. Indeed, many dropzones in Spain allow 15 year olds to jump. The question of whether any particular 16 year old is sensible enough to be safe is a judgement that may have to be made in some cases, but it is not perceived to be a general problem in Europe. I think the OP has a point that it is a shame it is so difficult to jump under 18 in the States. I sympathise with the DZOs there who have to carry such legal risks to run our sport. Al

Well, she drinks in the same dz bar as everyone else, and lives on the dz as a full time camera jumper. She is also a tattooist and has tattooed a few of the other skydivers. Not all 16 year olds are kids!

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't know too many at the DZ's I go to that would desire to socialize with a minor. It might even been seen as creepy and possibly illegal at times. " Wow, that is a bit too cautious. My daughter started jumping at my dz in England at 16, the legal age. She stopped again but one regular jumper has just turned 18 and she has 200 odd jumps from the last couple of years. She is good friends with lots of us, many in their 40's and older. Nothing creepy here! Al

and variations, Really chuffed = very happy Chuffed as f**k = extremely happy, generally used when given something you really want

Those things that make me think "Most people I know can't understand how great this feels". Like being rear float at altitude, hanging on the back of the plane waiting for everyone else to get out and watching the Kent countryside moving beneath my feet, then looking up and seeing France in one direction and central London in the other. Or being in a stand and punching in to the top of a white fluffy cloud at 170mph. Actually just having a rig on my back and knowing the jump is on! Al

That would be our loss. I have learnt a lot from the incidents forum, sometimes from discussions that digress from the main thread. There are a lot of ways to be dangerous or be caught out and many of us never hear about them in normal dz discussions. Examples I recall include discussion on the moonshadow possibly spooking people on night jumps by looking like an impending collosion. Or even rapidly shifting wind directions affecting landing decision, common in California,very rare in England. However I agree there is too much noise consisting of the same posters making the same comments on every thread. What is valuable is when experienced skydivers make informed corrections or explain lessns learnt from past incidents. There is a good number of those to whom I am personally grateful for their efforts.

The Mamba is very comfortable but the visor scratches far too easily. I changed my visor in May after enduring quite poor visibility and the new one is already deteriorating. Maybe the dustiness of Perris didn't help when it was new, but I still think it is not durable enough. It also seems to pick up tiny stress crazing that adds up to affect the visibility.

My Odyssey has the pull out pad on velcro under the tuck flap. That takes a little more force than pulling a hackey from a spandex pocket, but not so much if peeled rather than pulled. It has never yet been knocked out of position in the plane though.

I jump pull out and ordered it on my rig last year against the current trend. I liked the way it seems more freefly friendly with no pilot chute material in the airflow in sit. Also it makes the container look neater and smarter. (Well looks are important too!) Two things against that I hear about a fair bit. A dropped pad needs to be either found quickly or left alone and switch to reserve. I have dropped mine once and it suddenly felt fast until I reached and found it first attempt. Also, a number of people develop shoulder problems from the angle and force of pull. I saw someone recently who found she could no longer reach and pulled reserve instead. She then got her rig modified to throw away. A smooth fast pull and throw is needed, not hanging on to the inflated pilot chute dragging the arm. As I see it there are pros and cons with both systems. it is worth reading up and talking to others to see what seems right for you. And learn the EPs for the particular system too.

Best wishes to all at Lillo. A really lovely bunch of people and a close knit group who must be hurting badly.

If you were too high when you tracked back over to the dz, why did you pull? Falling for a few seconds more would have taken you down to your intended pull height. I assume you would then have been in a safer position relative to others on the load who may have been falling through your deployment altitude. Otrherwise, it soulnds as though your cautious flying under canopy was the right thing. I flew in to a strange wind at Perris recently, possibly a dust devil, that partially collapsed my canopy and then brought me straight down like under a round. Very spooky feeling until I caught air again and restarted flying forward. Al

The CNN site is now saying that the launch has been scrubbed for today. If so, that is a shame. This is a seriously cool thing to do. I can't wait to hear what he has to say about going supersonic in freefall.

Both analog and digital can fail. My worst was when my analog broke and stuck after exit and on the same jump my audible (Neptune) didn't sound. I was back flying with someone else and didn't have visual ground reference. A bit of a low pull later I switched the neptune to my wrist and bought a Solo for my helmet. That works well and I find that I process the digital altitude better than I did analog, even on a quick glance. I think it is different for different people. As an aside, don't put cheap batteries off the internet in your audible!

I attended and had a great time. Being a late diver down to a 49 way or hanging out as rear rear float on a trail plane are still vivid images. Too many lessons learned to choose from, and all applicable to smaller rw too. Looking in to the centre is a key one. A 9 way after the camp with Dan BC and Lemonhead where I forgot to look in on the last point and the levels started to go awry illustrated that so well after being in a nearly flat 49 way where everyone was paying attention. That was not so impressive! Also that so many skydivers are nice helpful people with a surprising lack of unneccesary ego. One thing that did impress was the emphasis on everyone trying different slots and being encouraged to achieve rather than blamed if they did not. I gained a lot of confidence from that. From being solid and reliable in the base, being able to fly very controlled close to others in non contract waiting for the key to dock, and being able to get down as a later diver even to a fast falling base. Everyone seemed to achieve those goals. If only I had been able to stay for the 100 way camp. Al

I have visited once, turned up unannounced. The staff and club members could not have been more helpful and friendly. I was given a very efficient briefing and quickly invited to jump with others. The members love their club and are loyal and appreciative of the staff. The King Air is astonishingly fast and we got over 14,000 every jump except when the weather was closing in and we still got over 12,000. There is no problem getting enough jumps as manifest will come and find you to get your name on the next lift. I said I would jump every lift they could get me on and they certainly did that. The views are awesome, this is a beuatiful part of the country. I will be going back. I recommend others to give them a try. This is the atmosphere our sport needs.

I agree. Having consistent procedures helps to avoid that. Surviving through luck doesn't signify good judgement!

So you agree with what I would have done then? However. there are malfunctions that do not have clear decision path. For example line twists are usually not a reason to cut away, but can get to a point where chopping is the best option, especially on a high perfomance canopy. A line over that seems stable and where the canopy is flying smoothly may be another. It is not one I favour, but there are others who prefer to treat the reserve as a last resort, and would fly the main if they believe they can. As an example, I had a mal that was accelerating a spin. I cut away and then delayed deploying the reserve for a couple of seconds to get stable when doing so. I knew I had height to do so and was under the reserve at around 1100'. Otherwise I would not. I know the SP is to pull both handles as quickly as possible but was going unstable after a two handed pull. A year later one of my friends did exactly the same thing. We were both able to decide in that fraction of a second what was most likely to get us under a stable reserve. I would not tell others to do the same, but don't think I was wrong either. In the end it is down to the pilot. It is up to all of us to understand our equipment and know the SPs properly. Then we can make the right decision for what we end up with.

If you landed it safely then you made the right decision for the time. I think I would have chopped it though. The risk of something going wrong at low altitude and putting me in the ground would be high enough for me not to risk it. Even fairly tame modern canopies can behave badly if flying unevenly. 2,100 is plenty high enough to chop especially when stable. I would not want to rely on cutting a line of my main, I would actually rather trust the reserve. If the reserve had the same line over then cutting the line would be my choice but that is then the next best option. Not trusting the reserve and preferring to fly a defective main seems to me an odd decision to make. Al

What is it with the US military and mindless brutality? The UK special forces have nothing like that level of abuse during training and the SAS, Parachute Regiment and Royal Marines are among the best soldiers in the world. Look at Afghanistan where the UK forces in Helmand are killing a lot of Taliban for very few casualties, and the Falklands. There is a diference between the two countries. The US soldier is taught simply to obey, the UK soldier is taught to use more individual initiative from an early stage. Discipline is still instilled. I was a para and whilst the training was very tough, there was never any abusive behaviour or mindless shouting to try and break our wills. The training was hard enough that those who couldn't make it simply dropped out. They weren't even ridiculed for doing so. The ethos of the regiment wass instilled by inspiration not fear. Those that got through were already prepared to be elite soldiers and went on to learn by experience. My dad was a British Army officer who did a 2 year posting teaching Intelligence to US forces in Arizona. He was astonished that every letter that left that base (of a couple of thousand people) had to be signed personally by the base commander. How does that develop individual decision making? Of course the US, and especially the Marines, have done great things militarily. My point is that the brutal trainng is unnecessary and probably counter productive. Train recruits more effectively and maybe they will get a better quality of soldier.

That clip has a load of great explanations. I think I now understand my cutaway and my hard opening better just from listening to Bill's comments.

I recently moved from a Spectre 170 to a Safire 2 149, loaded at 1.28. I love the Safire so far. The openings have all been good. The landings are fun, fairly quick on a straight in but with a flatter glide than the Spectre which makes the flare more enjoyable. In the sky, I find that spirals and riser turns feel more progressive and controllable where the Spectre reacted quickly with more of a bite. I liked the Spectre too,(except for the one uncharacteristic hard opening), but am having fun on the Safire.

Just a thought though. On my last cutaway I couldn't get the cutaway hande off easily, as I hadn't released the velcro for a few weeks and was also spinning. I had to use two hands on it before going to my reserve. It did mean I fell away from the main slightly unstable but had no problem getting the silver handle. My preference though is for getting both hands on one handle each so that, all being well, the reserve can be deployed as soon as the main has gone. Al