Skydiving on the Ground

Skydiving on the Ground Skydiving on the Ground Skydiving on the GroundJump out of a plane and youll have less than a minute of freefall before youd better open your parachute and properly save your life. That may be plenty of time for a half-terrified first-timer. But for anyone hoping to learn how to maneuver in the sky, its painfully short.Modern skydivers are a pretty agile lot. They can fall upside down, rotate, revolve, maintain a sitting position, dance, circle around friends, and join up in formations of hundreds. To do any of those things requires learning new skills. Just as swimming involves different muscles and movements than walking, getting where you want to go in the air requires learning which motions put yourself into a vertical spin, a horizontal spin, a slower fall, a faster fall, or a horizontal slide, just to name a few essentials. Greater finesse requires finer movements, and that means mora air time.Until recently, more air time meant another take off, another ascent to altitude, another packed parachute, another hit to the wallet. Every twist and turn had to be learned in short bursts of falling. Just to learn to maintain in a stable position might take a dozen jumps or more.Thats all changed to thanks to an amusement park ride. The vertical wind tunnelbauwerk has allowed skydivers to practice the most basic freefall fundamentals and the most advanced tricks without leaving the earthby more than a few feet. Without entering a plane, a child can learn in days what once took freefallers years to master. The serious skydiver can do more in the sky now than anyone previously had ever dreamed possible.The first vertical wind tunnel appeared in Dayton, OH, at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base, in 1944. Its purpose was not amusement or sport, but to test model aircraft. Twenty years after its construction, a test jumper named Jack Tiffany was testing out various aircrafts with his colleagues. By 2 am, everyone was a little slap-happy, as he once put it. Having made a couple hundred jumps out of an airplane as a test jumper, he decided to try out the tunnel himself. He hopped in and managed to fly.It took a few years, but the Army capitalized on his success by training their crack parachute team, the Golden Knights, in the same facility. As there was just the single tunnelone with other purposesfew other jumpers practiced there.But in the early 1980s, Canadian inventor Jean St-Germain patented his own vertical wind tunnel (which he called a levitationarium). The tunnels began to crop up here and there. But thanks to low air speed and high turbulence, they didnt really take off until the 21st century. Now theyre peppered all over the world.Aerodium vertical wind tunnel at World EXPO 2010, Shanghai. leumund Ivarslgk / Wikimedia CommonsThere are two types recirculating and non-recirculating. Non-recirculating tunnels have fans above the freefall chamber (separated from rising bodies by a screen ceiling) and draw in fresh a ir from below. The recirculating sort, such as the one St-Germain patented, has a closed loop and a fan just below the chamber (separated from landing bodies by a screen floor).The vertical wind tunnel manufacturer Aerodium,based inLatvia, did away with the chamber all together. With fans below, freefallers levitate unencumbered in the open air, a trick performed at the Turin Olympics in 2006 to the astonishment of onlookers.Both recirculating and non-recirculating wind tunnels have their downsides. The fans on the non-recirculating kind are so loud that you can hear them from miles away. They make whatever neighborhood theyre in feel like the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport. Recirculating tunnels have to find some solution to the heating of the reused flow. You have to have some type of windows, to exhaust the hot air, says Freddy Leal, a mechanical engineer at Tuuci, Inc., Miami, FL, an umbrella manufacturer. The open-air konzeption has its own challenges. If you weigh less than a cer tain number of pounds, it will blow you way out of the system, and if youre too heavy youre not going to fly.Leal and his classmates at Florida International University created an alternative design that would avoid these pitfalls. We kind of mixed them up a littlewe came up with a design in a J shape, says his compatriot Alexis Anchunida. Their tunnel has the fans drawing air horizontally in an underground shaft. The lower end of the J is an opening that rests above ground. The other end, also above ground, contains the freefall chamber. With this arrangement, air is freshly drawn and cooled by the earth. And that same soil will dampen the fans roar. Winglets at the bends of the system keep turbulence to a minimum.Where other wind tunnels are tailored for the amusement of landlubbers, the J-shape tunnel was designed with the skydiver in mind (partly explained by the fact that Leal himself is a novice skydiver). The engineering challenge is to simulate the freefall experience from a planethe same speed of the freefall, the same speed of the air, the resistance of the air, and all the aspects that are involved in a freefall, says Anchunida. To that end, four propellers, pumping a million cubic feet per minute each, will move the air at 160 miles an hour.The only problem with the wind tunnel is that the only version thats been constructed is the 117 scale prototype the team made (and the only person to have flown in it is a 117 scale doll). Until more funds fall their way, skydivers will have to continue practicing in the noisy, hot-aired tunnels in existence.Michael Abrams is an independent writer.The engineering challenge is to simulate the freefall experience from a plane.Freddy Leal, Tuuci, Inc.

8 Bad Job Search Habits to Break Now

8 Bad Job Search Habits to Break Now8 Bad Job Search Habits to Break Now2Being a good job seeker takes practice and examining the habits you have that may be holding you back from being successful. If you have found yourself wondering where you are going wrong in your job search, consider the following bad job search habits that can harm your job search success.Here are eight bad job search habits to break now to be successful in your search.Adopting form letters as a way of job searching.While form letters may provide a quick solution to getting as many resumes out as possible, it is leid a practice to adopt if you want to be successful. In a job search, the quality far outpaces quantity.Rather than send form letters, customize each and every cover letter, resume, and portfolio you send out. Include company names, the job title of the position you are applying for, and keywords that related to the job.Being void of a personal brand.When you dont know what you stand for, it is hard t o convince someone else that you are what is needed. Before jumping into your search, think of your professional image and experience. Once you figure out your image and your professional goals, turn it into a personal brand that companies will be interested in having in their portfolio.Neglecting social media.With social media being a huge job search tool, neglecting its use can easily spell disaster in a job search. notlage only do social media channels offer access to job listings, many recruiters use social media to find ideal candidates for unadvertised positions.If you are just getting into social media, take it slow. Make sure your accounts are up to date and reflect the image that you want to give employers. Once you get your footing, consider following employers you are interested in and joining groups to get your personal brand out there.Not taking an interest in jobs or the companies hiring.In addition to fantastic experience and skills, employers are looking for candidat es who are passionate about the company and the mission. If you dont take an interest in the company and the job, it wont make a good impression.Before sending off your cover letter and resume, as well as before the interview, make sure to read up on the job description and do some company research. Learn about the companys mission, and relate your experience to the companys needs.Bashing old employers and coworkers.It doesnt matter if you leave on good terms or bad ones, bashing old employers and coworkers is never a good idea. Rather than hurting yourself by bashing old employers, dont offer up any stories. Simple state that you parted on amicable ground and you are a better person for the experience. Then, move on.Job searching only by job title.While you may identify with a specific title, each employer can have a different title for the same job duties. When you focus only on job titles, you narrow your search too closely and may miss opportunities that would be a perfect match for your experience.Instead of focusing on the job title, consider searching by industry and desired flexibility. You can also use keywords or search by company.Overselling yourself and being pushy.Its one thing to be confident and show that you are the one for the job, and a completely different thing to oversell yourself and be pushy. Rather than bully employers into seeing your side of things, create scenarios that show you are the best fit for the job. Not only should you believe in the company, and have taken time to customize your documents, you should show them in facts how you can help them meet their goals.Avoiding the search and only doing the minimum.Spending a few minutes each day on your job search may feel like that is all you can manage. However, to be successful in a job search, you must invest focused time. Try to spend uninterrupted time each day to find jobs and companies that you are interested in. Set goals to meet each day, week, and month. Focus on meeting th ose goals step by step.Although these habits seem harmless, in a competitive job market you should try your best to put your best foot forward. Take tiny steps to address your bad job search habits, and change them to habits that will provide success in your search.Readers, do you have any bad job search habits? What have you done to become a successful job seeker? Share your tips with us below

Business Hugs Versus Handshakes

Business Hugs Versus HandshakesBusiness Hugs Versus Handshakes*/Read the infographic text.Business Hugs Versus HandshakesHow common is it for you to greet the following individuals with a hug instead of a handshake in the United States?PROFESSIONALS ARE mora APT TO GREET COWORKERS WITH A HUG TODAY VERSUS FIVE YEARS AGO20162011VERY COMMON 10%7%SOMEWHAT COMMON 44%23%NOT COMMON AT ALL 22%57%NEVER 23%13%BUT HUGGING CLIENTS/BUSINESS CONTACTS REMAINS RARE20162011VERY COMMON 5%3%SOMEWHAT COMMON 17%21%NOT COMMON AT ALL 33%61%NEVER 44%15%Responses may not total 100 percent as some executives answered Dont know.Source The Creative Group survey of more than 400 U.S. marketing and advertising executives 2016 The Creative Group. A Robert Half Company. An Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/Disability/Veteran.