Dazzle

What we get scared of is eruope creates a new rule and then all the countries except us ignore it, our over zealous authorities then apply it ruthlessly and interpret it in ways that extend it.

If you are going as a beginner I'd hold off on buying kit just yet. You'll be supplied kit for your jumps and you can rent after that for a while, then you'll know a lot more than you do at the moment about what sort of kit you want. There is quite a lead time for new kit so depending on when you want to go it might not be ready for you anyhow. there are "import" arrangements that can save you the VAT or better still you could plan a return trip to collect your kit. Personally there is enough good second hand kit available that I'd suggest waiting till you've qualified and check out what suits you for a first set of kit. You might be amazed of the amount of new kit that is put up for sale by people.

Give cpoxon a pm - He's been in the last couple of years and was recently giving advice on visas to some others who are going out soon. He's in perris atm but is online enough to respond to a pm there are some "tricks" to getting it done

I actually live in a marginal seat but couldn't get back from work in time to vote Hope it doesn't end up by 1 vote here

Maybe some t-shirts with that written on could be in order

Poor quality of service is pretty much a fact of life in the UK not just restricted to dzs. For dropzones this is compunded by the fact that experienced jumpers are not a major source of income to the dropzone, if the most regulars left and they just had tandems and students then they could make pretty much the same income. Fortunately I don't think that dz owners are in it just for the money (it isn't that profitable) Some places make more effort than others (Hib by reputation, Langar by experience, I'm sure others come into this list as well so don't be offended by not listing any specific dz) Dzs are by nature cliquey, the same people turn up week in week out and new faces take a while to settle in. Destination dropzones, Ampuria, zhills, eloy etc regularly get lots of new jumpers arriving for a while so learn how to cater for those jumpers. They also get the volume of jumpers to make enough money to warrant putting systems in place to handle strangers arriving. As to why Langar, I was looking for a new dz as mine was shutting down. I went to a few, had some difficulties with them (~50 jumps and just converted onto throwaways) and I arrived at Langar and they quickly got me jumping. For many years they had the best collection of planes that allowed you to jump well (that gap has closed now as most dzs have turbines but they still have 2 large turbines which is pretty good)

So you went to just about the least professional dz in the country had a shitty experience there (not that uncommon) and use that as an example to slag off all other dzs in the country?!

Maybe you guys should start to serve your food cold then... might help... Do you REALLY want me to dig out the report ifrom the last few days that says that London (once again) is the best place on the planet to eat?

Yep, what time are you heading down?

Americans! how did you ever manage to take over the world?!? A little bit of introduction from a ountry that knows about beer. Lager (the light coloured beer) is served cold (both the good stuff and the crap that you get over there) Bitter (dark coloured beer that is only properly made here) should be served warm - it just tastes beter that way. You guys just have to have everything served cold because it tastes so shit anyway

Nope, it really does cost that much If you can figure out why it costs so much more then please let me know! You can get it cheaper sometimes by bulk buying. I bought 100 tickets in Feb for £1600 (plus 6 friday tickets and another regular ticket thrown in) which makes the average price about £15. Regular friday jumps at Langar are £15. It is ocassionally possible to do jumps at South Cerney for £10 midweek (it was mentioned for yesterday) but I'm not too sure of the details there. Netheravon to a half price ticket for the first load (if it goes up at a certain time) but that also might only been from the crappy plane. Pick your dropzone right and you can jump ok in the uk, pick the wrong one and you'll be going back to europe!

216 - 160 in 4 months (a couple of years ago and still off) Run / Swim each lunch time, cycle every evening, mon to friday. Watch what you eat (ie eat breakfast / lunch / sensible dinner) work out how far you'd have to run to work off chocolate bar / bag of crisps (stops you from wanting to eat them!) Weekend are off, just be sensible but treat yourself / recover from the exercise in the week. Worked for me.

Yeah, another Katana 107 I've got #370 - what about you?

And although not Sweden or NL but not too far from NL www.espaceboogie.com in France at end July - that's if an 80 place Jet Tailgate might interest you

There is a big way boogie in Sewden last week in June - 600 FS jumps to get on the big ways but dont know if anything else will be on. See http://www.skydive.se/

So buy second hand, get whatever colours you get and justify it by the savings you've made. Personally I just went for the least yucky stock canopy they had.

Often said but what specific things do you think the UK needs? (not a flame lets get some ideas)

nigelh (aka Nigel Holland) who is on council was saying elsewhere today that the next council meeting will be approving it and it should go into action after that.

UK. We have so much tax (80% of pump price ie about 400%) that the change in oil price isn't that much. I think recently with oil going from $25 to $50 pump price has gone from £0.75 to £0.85 (albeit the $ has gone down the toilet in that time)

Oh please, somewhere above $6 or $7 here and has been for ages

I read this as John gets to jump your new canopy first rather than you! Not such a great deal, he has enough canopies to jump without jumping yours

Just do it at the dropzone. I fill in the form, put card details on and hand it in. All is then nice and above board

Should have popped up to Langar! Membership forms handed in on saturday no problem, plenty of loads stopping off at 5K for someone back to backing to make their numbers up for an AFF course, and loads going up with slots free to keep the planes running. 5 for me on Sat (AFF Candidate did 10 before being knackered) after a late start waiting for the cloud to clear and another 4 on sunday with a weather hold whilst the Grand Prix was on (!) Organising for flat and freeflying as well. If anyone spent the weekend waiting for a chance to get in the plane they should have been up at Langar.

Must be nice to whine about paying $22 for a jump ticket. I've just bulk bought 100 tickets that work out at ~$29 and thats the cheapest I've got them for a while. You lot don't know you're born!

You'll need BPA, compulsary at all UK dropzones, you can get temp membership for 1 month or buy full if here longer. AADs are only required for students and A license holders (not sure how an American B license might fit into that, I think they're broadly similar) Some DZs have an all AAD policy, if you know where you might be jumping then we can help you out.