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You are so full of shit that I am surprised that it doesn't come flowing out your ears. It is definitely coming out of your fingers. Tandems instructors don't need to be Skygods and many aren't because they get stuck hucking drogues all day, but they are complicated jumps due to the equipment and the unpredictable cargo strapped on the front, and TI's need be consistent and reliable. You claim you have a tandem rating, so you should be familiar enough with some of the tandem fatality reports. Things can go really bad on tandems when procedures aren't followed. All of those fatalities prove the point that they aren't just another jump. Your average 4-way belly doesn't normally lead to a drogue entanglement if someone fucks ups. The jumpers on your average FF jump don't have a malfunction decision tree nearly as long or as complicated. I am trying to figure out your angle on all these asinine posts about tandems. I think I am settling on the fact that you were a shitty instructor, which is ironic considering how "simple" you make it out to be.

The children of those who vote for it should have to fight in it. Then we'd know they were committed to the reason.

What short-sighted people don’t realize is that when the bottom 10% is repeatedly eliminated, eventually they’re part of that bottom 10% Wendy P.

Oh! Now I get it! That stands for "We’re With Ghislaine 1 With Ghislaine All".

I don't. I hope he dies of a painful feverish infection and spends his last days in the same absolute terror he imparted on his own citizens knowing that his body will be left to rot in a shit filled ditch.

I think the proper saying is truth is the first casualty of war and the first casualty of battle is the plan. But I'll defer to your experience.

Truth is the first casualty.

Point made. I'd suggest that important "national interests" and a powerful military have made American politicians too willing to engage in military adventurism. Perhaps drones and robotics will allow risk free action in the future. But as every service person knows the first casualty of battle is the plan.

Furthermore those who vote for war should meet the returning wounded, the returning KIA and their families. On weekends they should clean the bedpans and wounds in the military hospitals. There is one country that understands the cost of war. The cost of defending "national interests". The Swiss.

Long gone are the days when a king would lead his troops into battle.

I think Westerly's been drinking again. Usually his comments are very safety minded and conservative, and oft i agree with them. The two things that make a tandem lurk inherently more dangerous than a four way rw is the long drogue bridle and the possible actions of a panicky passenger. That being said, I don't think it's terribly dangerous if the ti trusts the skill of the lurker and the lurker has plenty of belly experience with group jumps. If I did convince a ti to let me lurk a friend, I'd definitely flip them a 20 for the extra work. They now have one more thing to be aware of and take into account.

But that is not relevant to the subject here. The question is about a new lower time jumper lurking a tandem. Several things can and have gone bad in that situation. A normal tandem is not complicated. The decision tree and potential for things to go wrong make the possible EPs on a tandem jump extremely complicated.

I don't. Indeed, I hope that she becomes a stunning and complete failure as a pimp for underage girls, and that she loses the freedom to ever do that again. That is not, despite all the twisting of language in the world, "wishing her well." Indeed it is the opposite.

You're just your usual fountain of shit opinions and bad advice, aren't you.

There is a lot of truth to that. Also, those that vote for it, should have to join the front lines.

Q is mostly an online social support group for people who are powerless but want to believe they are insiders. It is a way for them to mitigate their fear. I have no fear of Q or it's believers. I only have pity for fools.

Copied from page 115 of the most current Sigma manual I have, CHAPTER 2: OTHER ACTIVITIES These guidelines are not optional. They must be followed, or the Tandem Instructor and Tandem rig owner will be in violation of the User Agreement under which Tandem jumping is operated and will consequently no longer be allowed to legally perform Tandem Jumps. PARTICIPANTS QUALIFICATIONS For any relative work (RW) skydiver to accompany a Tandem pair, one of these three criteria must be met: • RW skydiver must have a minimum of 500 relative work skydives • RW skydiver must be either a current Tandem Instructor or a current AFF jumpmaster • Have 300 relative work skydives and pass the skills set of the USPA coach rating In addition to the above, the following must be met • RW skydiver must have made at least 100 RW jumps in the last year. • Cameramen must have at least 100 camera jumps.

As previously discussed by several people in this thread already, a smooth release will help you to maintain that speed you worked so hard to build up with the "double front" you just did. A canopy has it's own natural recover arc. That is the distance, and length of time, it takes for your canopy to recover from a turn or "other" speed inducing maneuver such as "double fronts", a one-riser dive, or a "stall surge" like some tandem masters use nowadays. You figure this out at altitude by making a couple of hop and pops from around five grand or more. It is up there in the clean air that you first try any new landing maneuver. At altitude, pick up a heading on the ground then throw the move. Hold it as long as you think you would need to on your final approach. How do you know what altitude to start your move? Simple; check your altimeter at altitude, throw your speed-building move, then see how long it takes for your canopy to "come around the corner" on it's own, both time-wise and altitude-wise. Do the math, then on your actual approach, throw your move at around that difference in altitude above the ground. That should allow your canopy the opportunity to do the work for you. It has been stated here that when doing double-fronts, one should hold them down until you are either scared or at around five feet AGL. The "scared" part is actually true, at least in my experience. The actual safe altitude varies wildly according to the natural recovery arc of your main. A mildly loaded Sabre 2 is going to come around the corner quite quickly on it's own; a VX loaded at 2.8 is going to aim straight at the ground and take a long time to come around, thus one would release the risers smoothly at a much higher height. Also, as previously stated, one should always keep his or her hands in the toggles at all times. If your canopy bucks in a riser dive, then your brakes are set far too tight. A bucking canopy will not do a very good job of cleanly building speed. Likewise, a snapping release of those front risers will only shorten your swoop, as your canopy will be induced into an "artificial shortening" of the recover arc, which will generally mean that you will pendulum out from under your main, be laid back in the saddle, the the canopy will fly back over your head and not do a good job of stopping at the end of your surf. As for the proper transfer from risers to toggles upon riser release at the beginning of your swoop: I generally only have to "tap" my toggles, to get fully around the corner and on plane. If you have to "dig", then your surf will be similarly shortened as if you "popped" off your risers (artificially induced shorter recover arc). The main mistakes novice swoopers make is that they release their risers too soon; they hit their brakes anyway, thus planing themselves out three feet above the ground; and they continue to apply brakes even as their canopy would hapilly fly along without the parasitic drag they are inducing. That being said, most will grab double fronts after a too-high turn to final, let up too soon, let up in a "popping" motion, flare too hard to get around the corner, swoop too high off the ground, then subsequently bowtie their mains as they try to shut it down from three feet up. All of those things should be addressed in your search for that smooth swoop landing. Of key importance to me is the position my "landing gear" is in during my swoop. 99% of the swooping pictures you will ever see of me will have both feet under me and off to one side at the start of the swoop. This is so that if I catch some dead air, a contrail, etc, I will just do a modified PLF and roll out of it on one side. Once I am "around the corner", I put one foot out front, and have the other, toe down and under me, until I slow to under 20 mph ground speed. From there, I put the rear foot back under me, in trail but offset to the side a tad, like on a slalom ski. I skid every landing to a stop in that configuration. I NEVER run out landings, and might have to take three steps on a sketchy landing. I have been swooping since there way before the term was coined for parachute landing purposes. I, and my contemporaries made all the mistakes for you younger guys so you wouldn't fuck yourselves up as many of us did "back in the day". Those willing to set aside their egos and approach the smooth swoopers will be far better off than those who just "must" make the same mistakes over and over. I used to do some very nutty stuff by todays standard and lost plenty of skin trying to be cool. One key thing I would like to really have you avoid is doing double fronts and then attempting to drag both toes under you with your body squared straight to the front. Botch your turn or riser release in that mode and you will most easily tear your body up. Problems with that are: a- flaring late and piling straight in on your knees, thus inviting the old double-femur. Flare kind of late and only go down to your shins and bust up your knees and lose skin on your toes (if you are jumping in Tevas or barefoot). None of these is the hot ticket, so think ahead and stay with your legs cocked sideways as I suggested. Hope that helps someone. Feel free to PM me with any more specific questions, or just ask again in open forum. Chuck Blue D-12501 My webpage HERE