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Every so often a parachuter or similar gets caught in some wicked updraft which shoves them up and then, as such things do at the top, sideways a bit, out of the updraft. Such an event can transport you from a typical jump altitude to 30,000 feet in about 3 minutes. Here is another updraft account.

I searched DropZone.com and found this link: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=2005174;page=2;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25; which actually may not work for folks without an account on DZ.com.

As so many posters have mentioned the false positives which will be created by such a nutty idea will be huge. A huge percentage of people are terrified of flying. Even I hate it...unless I'm flying the plane or wearing a parachute.

One of the dumbest applications of physiological response knowledge I've ever read.

Where is my parachute? I want off this the planet.

Compare skydiving accidents http://www.dropzone.com/fatalities/ with auto accidents, motorcycle accidents, sporting accidents (hunting with Cheney is BAD!) and pretty much any other activity. It's safer than you think.

The Kirlin family runs one of the world's the largest chains of Hallmark cards and gifts franchises (Kirlin's Hallmark stores, based out of Quincy, Illinois). Two sons of founder Dale Kirlin Sr. (Dale Jr. and Gary) went into the family business.

The other son, Don Kirlin, pursued an aviation career with the US Navy and Us Airways before he started Red Air which is a company also based out of Quincy, IL. Don has lived in Quincy, in Boulder, Colorado, and also in Kyrgyzstan while working on acquiring a former Soviet fighter.

Red Air operates a fleet of Mig, Alpha, and Vodochody fighter aircraft in training maneuvers with US and Canadian fighter groups. Their former USAF and US Navy flight instructors flying foreign-built fighters make for a much more realistic training scenario than simulators or flying US aircraft against other US aircraft.

If you have the cash, the licenses, and the desire then check out his foreign fighter and trainer sales business, Air USA. Weapons systems are not included, of course.

Don's also the man behind the World Free Fall Convention, which brought visitors from every state and 70 foreign countries to Quincy, IL and Rantoul, IL for 17 years and featured during that time over 600,000 jumps. Jump platforms included everything from a B-17 bomber to the Family Channel blimp. Even a Super Constellation and a Boeing 727 have been featured.

So if you really want to talk about privately held air power, Oracle and Google take a back seat to the black sheep son of a greeting card and gift store magnate.

Ok, maybe not Mach 2, but you want boots that can let you keep your altitude constant, or even increase it? Here ya go Few years old too.

You mean like this... http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page.cgi?ID=613

I'm going to go with the generalisation that putting innocent bystanders at risk without their consent makes you an asshole.

That said, I've gone through the last 2 or 3 years worth of worldwide base jumper fatalities at http://www.splatula.com/bfl/ and US skydiver fatalities at http://www.dropzone.com/fatalities/ and whilst there are some unfortunate encounters with vehicles, aeroplanes, power lines, buildings etc. I can't find a single instance of a collision causing the death of anyone but a fellow airborne jumper/diver.

Compare that to over 40 000 road deaths in the US in 2006 alone (pulled from here). I know those numbers can't be compared directly, but if it's a choice between next to the Space Needle and next to a highway, I know where I'd feel safer standing.

Actually, there's another reason they would only use the flash based players. Hard disks do not work too well above 10,000 feet. It's well known problem: http://dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post= 1783396;search_string=hard%20drive;#1783396 So, they must only be considering using the nano or shuffle...Though, the article doesn't state that.

There's a reason why most records include being able to return to where you started from for it to count. We would likely celebrate Sir Edmund Hillary, the first guy to the top of Everest, far less if he got dropped off by plane and simply climbed down or Rould Amundsen if he got dropped off at the South pole and simply collected food caches along the way back.

He was able gain altitude and keep pace with his launching aircraft. He could have returned to the airplane if he was willing risk striking the plane, dying horribly, shortening his flight and just generally not having nearly as much fun. No, I'd have to give the man some credit. While, I'd say that this gentleman, his BirdMan suit and his rocket boots were the first that I know of to try this sort of thing, Mr. Rossy has done something really impressive and cool.

I don't know about California, but just one year ago some guy in Finland strapped two jets to the ankles of his wingsuit, jumped from a hot air balloon 7000ft from the ground, and ZOOMed through the sky!

M. Rossy's contraption looks much more impressive though.

Who wins in skydiving? That's easy, anyone who walks away from a landing and is able to jump again.

You make a point to specify that recreational skydiving is not sport and I could do the same with almost any other activity. When I skydive, mountain bike, paddle or even shoot pool, I do not keep score. I enjoy those activities as recreation, yet there are countless others who do compete in each. My original post was mostly tongue-in-cheek humor, but there are many forms of competition in skydiving:

http://www.uspa.org/competition/
The USPA Constitution binds USPA "to sanction skydiving competitions, to document officially all national and world skydiving records set by citizens of the U.S., and to select and train the United States Parachute Team for world competition."

http://www.fai.org/ - (covers all forms of air sports. Who knew flying a plane could be a sport?) FAI is the world air sports federation, founded in 1905. It is a non-governmental and non-profit making international organisation with the basic aim of furthering aeronautical and astronautical activities worldwide.

http://www.fai.org/parachuting/
IPC, the International Parachuting Commission of FAI. FAI's parachuting activities, in particular World Records and International Competitions, are conducted under the direction of the IPC.

http://www.tradoc.army.mil/pao/TNSarchives/Novembe r04/111604.htm
The U.S. Army Parachute Team, "Golden Knights," style-and-accuracy teams swept the 2004 National Skydiving Competition in Perris, Calif., last month, winning two team medals and 10 individual medals.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page .cgi?ID=58
Formation Skydiving has two different areas: recreational skydiving, also known as fun jumping, and the competitive arena.

http://www.skyleague.com/pages/images/nslTV/
Videos of formation skydiving competitions.

http://www.ground-rush.com/wind.htm
Partial global list of recreational wind tunnel locations - for those curious about what skydiving feels like, without the safety risks of jumping out of a plane and landing under parachute. The experience is in fact close to that of freefall but, the restrictive nature of a tunnel takes away the best part of skydiving - almost unrestricted flight. The visual experience of a tunnel sucks in comparison as well.

This looks like something out of a really bad scifi movie.

Still looks like fun, though.

Here is a good article on getting into BASE jumping from Tom Aiello

He recommends at least 200 skydives but in my eyes this is where you just start to become a 'novice skydiver'. In my experience a lot of skydivers wont even take you seriously if you have less than 200 under your belt and usually won't jump with you (exit at the same time).

8) Hop into a small plane, proceed to 5000 feet and jump out.

Hey, far better to take opening shock at terminal than to have to deploy you reserve with the main still wrapped around your leg! That happened to some poor static-line student at Walterboro on Feb. 2ncd, the canopies entangled and he landed on the runway. See the Incidents forum at dropzone if your interested. He lived, but he's in pretty bad shape.

Blue skies

ps: I'm sorry that I don't know how to use href.

And instead of staring at the screen trying to write one line of code, I'm staring at the clouds all day trying NOT to write one line of code.

But I feel much better now.