Distabled

Thanks Lloyd, Mark 1 eyeball, roger that! Get busy living or get busy dying!

ok, looks like i'll be hooking it in from now on! YEEEEEE HARRRR! Get busy living or get busy dying!

HI JW, The Optima has 3 freefall alarms and 3 canopy alarms. I am asking you guys that IF you use canopy alarms for anything what are they? I can't turn the device off while under canopy so I might as well use them for something. I have no experience with what the canopy alarms CAN be used for, thats why im asking. I do have my landing accuracy very good, im just asking for some opinions from jumpers experienced in this area. Cheers D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Yo, I have a new Optima and was wondering what heights people set their canopy ride alarms to go off at and why it works best for them. Cheers D Get busy living or get busy dying!

I think that this would be highly unlikely. Aircraft get hit because they pic up and hold a lot of static electricity. They do have 'static wicks' off the tips of all control surfaces that help discharge this + build up back into the air. It normally works fine. A skydiver would need to pick up charge and store it and we just are not that good at storing charge. We are not in freefall long enough and not going fast enough under canopy to build up a charge. Moments before the lightning discharges from a cloud, the air is ionized from the cloud to the surface and when this connection takes place it gives a path for the charge to discharge through. What actually happens with an aircraft is it take the place of the ground. The lightning can hit the plane but is not absorbed by the plane and still needs to find an earth hence it jumps out of the aircraft and heads to ground. We will just never be an attractive earth for a cloud with billions of amps fready to rock. Those little bits of metal on our 3rings etc mean stuff all to a whopping great cumulonimbus cloud. Even in the cloud there are negative areas that the charge jumps to. While under canopy, you should NEVER fly under the base or close to the base of a towering Cumulus cloud. In these clouds are thousands of tonnes of water and warm air rising up to 15-20000 feet. When all that moist air gets up there and reaches dew point, BOOM big rain drops are formed and latent heat is released into the water drops. Down come those big ass drops, and down comes the now much colder dense air that held that moisture, tonnes and tonnes of water and air are now rushing to the ground at high speed and if you are under the cloud when this happens you will be taken down with it and slammed into the deck. It is called a micro burst or wind shear. It has taken down big jet airliners in the past and it will take you and your Icarus straight into the dirt. Hail is also a possibility if you fly under the anvil of the cloud top. I think that is why we say "Blue Skies!" D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Thanks m8, I really appreciate your comments. I am heading to the DZ on Sunday to do some tracking jumps and some rel work. Im also going to learn the dubbing system for the tandem videos so I can do that in return for jumps. Rock on Mike!

Here you go http://www.apf.asn.au/apf-op_regs-3.2-license.html Thanks for the concern, all under control. .... and I have 51 jumps not 13. Dale Get busy living or get busy dying!

Haha GS! That was the response I actually wanted to write! TY D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Hey Kath! I will do for sure! I would love to jump from the Otter at 14 grand. Dale Get busy living or get busy dying!

Nutz, I should buy shares in a brewery with the amount of firsts ive had over the last 8 mths! Thanks DZerz. Get busy living or get busy dying!

Thank you VSG, Ill see you at Perris one day for sure! I have attached my legstrap position from a jump i did yesterday. I made a major effort in positionong them right. It really made a BIG difference. When i get my rig made I will be considering the extra additions I could have to make the legstrap position as good as possible. Dale Get busy living or get busy dying!

No probs Merv! lol, Not at all m8, I know that many nights are spent on DZ.com while drinking. HA! Dale Get busy living or get busy dying!

Jumped yesterday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yfxuktSTBU Thank you for your support dropzoners. You rock! Dale Get busy living or get busy dying!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yfxuktSTBU YAY! Get busy living or get busy dying!

YAY! All sorted! I just did a jump and I fitted a strap across my butt to pull the legstraps in and it worked a treat. This jump was my 13th as a para and my 51st total. I need to go unstable and recover which i did and it was awesome. I have my A licence now! whoo hooo! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yfxuktSTBU Thanks for all your great suggestions. It is fantastic to take all these opinions to the DZ and sift through it with my instructor. It raises many good conversations and helps keep what i am doing safe. Rock on! Dale Get busy living or get busy dying!

If you are interested in stable freefall as a paraplegic read this thread. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3586496;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread Dale Get busy living or get busy dying!

Hello there Instructors, I would like your opinions please. I am a paraplegic with no control or feeling from my belly button down. I can not arch at all either. My hip flexor ligaments have shortened due to me sitting in a wheelchair over the last 6 yrs. This gives my legs the knee down position in free fall. I have mesh in between my legs to counteract this. The problem I have been having is that I rock up and down quite a lot in FF and on one jump I flipped over upside down because i rocked myself so much that i went into a stand up posn and then tumbled over onto my back before coming back around belly to earth. I think I have worked out why I am doing this. Please look at the attached picture. It shows me in three different jumps. Jump 10,11 & 12. I have drawn some angles on the pics to help compare the different angles that my legs were in on each jump. Jump 11 was by far the best and I was 100% stable. I have been looking at why this was the case and I think I have worked it out. I think that the leg strap position has been the contributory factor in jumps 10 and 12 being unstable. See how much further down the leg strap is on my thigh in jumps 10 and 12. This then pulls my legs forward more. In jump 11 the straps are much higher and my legs are in a flatter position. I felt so stable and in control on this jump and when i did jump #12 straight after I was expecting that my stability would be the same however it was much worse and I didn't know why. I did the same with my arms but i was far more unstable during jump 12. Here are the videos of each jump. Jump 11 - stability great http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNgnq89KRs0 Jump 10 - stability averagehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM5KG5yj_Ak Jump 12 - stability bad (nearly went over on back) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM-swFaf2xk Do you guys think that my leg posn has been changing due to my leg strap position? Thank you for any opinions. Dale Get busy living or get busy dying!

Thanks Mike. Im off to New Zealand soon to do some jumps there which will be awesome. Especially with the snow capped mountains in the background. Cheers! D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Ha ! Sorry m8, I was drunk at the time! Rock on! Get busy living or get busy dying!

No RSL HF, the rigs im jumping are dual systems with a cyprus. (cut away handle also deploys reserve)I know what you are saying but its all cool, no chance of 2 canopies out due to that with the rigs i jump. I have spoken with Curtis about it. I dont think there is anything that we havent spoken about! Briefings and de-briefings are very concise. As you could imagine! I reach for the risers for a reason, I use my elbows to protect my face incase my legs swing up. This has happend to other paras doing tandems. I havent had my legs hit my arms yet so i will prob stop doing it. These are the types of things I have to modify. D Get busy living or get busy dying!

No i didnt land after sunset. This is the video of the jump, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM-swFaf2xk as you can see, its not a night jump at all. The use of the camera flash makes the background in the photo appear much darker. I take a mobile phone on every jump to use if i do land off DZ. Plenty of people are there and know that I am jumping, its not really a concern at all. I mean, if there is a wheelchair at the landing area with no dude in it..................... Cant wait to do night jumps tho, that will be great. I have over 400hrs flying aircraft at night. It was my favorite type of flying. I was talking about it to some other jumpers yesterday actually. Once im happy with my freefall skill I would do a jump at night. There is a strict night rating process here in australia for night jumps which is good. D Get busy living or get busy dying!

Did 3 jumps on Friday. He is a pick of the last load of the day and me in freefall on my 11th paraplegic jump. I have now done 50 jumps total. Get busy living or get busy dying!

Here are some great pics too. Get busy living or get busy dying!

Here are the vids of my last 3 jumps http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3579417;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread Get busy living or get busy dying!

Hello peoples, Here are my 10th, 11th and 12th jumps from 2 days ago. I hadnt jumped since May 3rd when i went solo in freefall for the first time so it took a bit to get back into it. Jump 11 was fantastic. Check them out. Jump 10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM5KG5yj_Ak Jump 11 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNgnq89KRs0 Jump 12 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM-swFaf2xk No more head down deployments thank god! Rock on! D Get busy living or get busy dying!