chuckbrown

You're not missing anything. They're just fooling themselves. If a student gets hurt through gross negligence of the instructor, you can bet the plaintiff's attorney will be suing the DZ arguing that the IC was really an employee and therefore the DZ is liable for their conduct. A court won't rely on how the parties characterize their relationship; a court will evaluate their status based on who controls who. If the DZ controls the work of the instructor, he's an employee.

You know, it's not official until you participate in the sacred "Shirt Changing" Ceremony. _________________________________________________ I think Tristan said something about designing some Them Toadsucker panties.

Gee Tonedog, I thought the point of this forum (Safety and Training) was so that new jumpers (you) could learn from the mistakes of others. I can understand if you don't want to listen to the opinions of jumpers with less than 100 jumps (or even 1,000 jumps), but the moderators are correct; putting students out in 20 mph winds is really, really stupid. Everybody makes mistakes, even the moderators, and obviously somebody at Archway; I've seen S&TAs that I have the utmost respect for make really dumb mistakes. Mistakes are only bad if we don't learn from them. Nobody's trying to flame anyone; this forum is about safety & safety is serious.

I find it interesting that the JM or S&TA at the DZ on the day in question hasn't provided their perspective. I see that Canopycudler is an instructor at Archway, maybe she could get the instructor/ S&TA to provide their thoughts on why students were put up in those winds. I understand why dkf1979 wants to say that "Nobody is at fault," but there is fault here even though nobody was hurt. The reason his initial post got such a reaction is that winds are the 800 pound gorilla in this sport. They will kill/maim you if you're not careful. Students don't know any better & rely on the professional experience of JMs to determine what is safe and what isn't. What if one of these students did a downwind landing in 20 mph winds? Radios have been known to not work, and students have been known to not respond to landing instructions. IMHO, the moderators have done an excellent job in responding to the initial post and properly criticizing what appears to have been an indefensible lack of judgment.

I must admit that a major appeal of CRW was always the camaraderie and dark humor of its participants. One of my proudest days was when Wendy said I was entitled to wear a Them Toadsuckers tee shirt (I'm easily amused). I understand the need to be disciplined in order to perfect one's flying skills, but I'm in full agreement that without humor the sport loses most of its appeal.

Read the Section 7 of the SIM.

Nina, shouldn't you have sent this to the List? Or has your e-mail gotten clogged with all the "polite" banter issuing back and froth? On the serious side, I can't comment on the WR or Ballunarfest, but demos are governed by the landing area dimensions. Some you'll need a PRO rating, others you'll need a C or D. Others will be nothing more than an off-airport landing. It'll be up to the S&TA from the DZ (or the pilot who's ticket might get pulled if something goes wrong.) At my DZ we require a C ticket for intentional off-DZ landings.

Any camping on the DZ?

Read Section 5-2 of the SIM. Your S&TA will probably make you do a coach jump. Never mind. I just noticed you're in the UK. Don't know what the currency requirements are there. Sorry.

Sorry about Eddie. Since I don't do much RW, I'm not too worried about it coming out in freefall. To tell the truth though, I can't take credit for this trick. Dave DeWolf (D-1098, 11,000+ jumps, senior rigger instructor/examiner, and all-round Handsome guy) showed me this idea. With all due respect, I still think its a good idea, but reasonable people will differ.

>I know of at least on fatality caused by having the hook knife tied on with a lanyard. Do not tie anything to you or your rig! Sparky Details, please.

I have a Jack the Ripper on the right side webbing of my harness (next to the cut away handle) & another Jack the Ripper in a pouch sewn onto my jump pants. Whereever you put yours, a good idea is to connect the knife to the pouch with a length of waxed thread (longer than your reach), so that if you drop the knife when you need it, it can easily be recovered and used. Definitely get & wear a knife; I know of a fatality that could have been avoided had the jumper had a knife (that incident alone made me carry one). I just looked at your profile; if you do CRW, hook knives are mandatory. Do leave home without it.

I use a High Gear Summit watch as a alti for CRW. Works great.

I disagree Lauren. I think posting here was a great idea. You have tapped into an incredible resource of knowledge. I jump almost exclusively CRW and thought I knew something about parachutes; then I started hanging out in the BASE Zone & researching as much as possible about BASE. I quickly realized that BASE jumpers are on the point of the knife when it comes to parachuting. You should take their comments not as a flame, but as words of wisdom to help you get into BASE safely. I wanted to get into BASE, but then read the LIST and was very discouraged by all of the experienced jumpers killed by off-heading openings; I later decided I didn't want to get into a sport with such a high-risk of death/injury. Now after doing LOTS of research on the subject, I'm more comfortable with the risk calculations, and plan on doing a first jump course (I would have never thought about skydiving without professional instruction, and while I know I can go do Bridge Day with a Lightning and a oversized PC, that won't really teach me about the technical aspects of BASE). Just one more thing, the guys at Cross Keys are great people and great jumpers (I loved the video of the jump off a 100 ft. fire ladder into the pond), but you should try to make sure they're appropriate to teach you something that could kill you. I know nothing of their teaching abilities, so I can't comment either way. They are great (and talented) guys though.

Excellent judgment! Almost anybody can handle any canopy during the day landing on the DZ. The real test in choosing a canopy is whether you can safely land it in every conceivable scenario you might find yourself in, e.g., landing off at night, bad spot with nothing but keyholes for outs, etc.

Landing off at night is definitely a bummer. Good job of pulling it out. I always wear a head lamp with a xenon bulb for night jumps (under a half-shell Protec). Night jumping without one is sort of like driving at night without your headlights on. Not everybody uses them, but I've seen a broken back from an off-field night landing because a jumper couldn't see where she was flying (landed without a flare).

Those are brake toggles that are designed to stay open so they can be reached immediately without looking for them. To tell the truth, it's pretty tame compared to some rigs I've been on loads with. Ah, there's nothing like the looks you get from freefallers when getting on a plane with canopy sticking out of your rig.

When you exit you go from deafening silence to a deafening hurricane in 5 seconds. Really cool! Oh yeah, jumping into dead air for the pre-second time can be intimidating. I did the nestea plunge from 3,000 ft.

When Stilettos first came out PD wouldn't sell them to anyone with less than 600 jumps. I personally knew a jumper who bought a used Stiletto when he had 350 jumps. He went to another DZ, and had an off DZ landing in poor wind conditions while trying to avoid obstacles. His viewing was closed casket. He left behind a wife and child because he wouldn't listen to people who warned him he was exceeding the safety margins. I've never jumped a Vengance (and don't want to -- CRW is fun enough for me), but if a Vengance makes a Stiletto look tame, your boyfriend is increasing his risk of injury/death exponentially. I truly hope he survives his poor judgment, and I hope he reads this with the understanding that skydivers have a shared love for what we do and want our brothers & sisters to have a long and healthy life (if we didn't love life to the fullest, we wouldn't jump). Your boyfriend obviously loves the sport (we all do). He should take the time to get to know his mistress.

Start checking out the CRW forum Seriously, though, I'm in the same boat as you & got very tired of everbody playing "chase the Chuck." RW's fun, but if you want to try CRW come over to Maytown (13 miles W of Lancaster, PA) & I'll put my Triathlon 175 on you & show you the Dark Side. Or ask Kruse take you up for a CRW jump; they don't come much more talented than him.

I do CRW in the middle of winter. Here's my receipe to keep warm: 1) fleece base layer -tops & bottoms; 2) windproof tee-shirt, 3) windproof jacket (or 2) & pants -- zipper pulls all safe & snug. For hands, I use a windproof glove liner (or 2) with a leather glove outter; windproof balaclava (or 2) & I'm good to go. If its REAL cold, I'll throw on some long thermal underwear. Yes, I do feel like the Michelin man, but I'm warm & toasty.

It seems to me that the attachment point should retract several inches past the last ring, thereby collapsing (partially) the PC (or at least forcing the PC killer over the PC). I've seen Sonny's canopy in flight and the offending PC is completely inflated, and it appears that the attachment point is, at best, flush with the last ring. Any thoughts on how far the attachment point should pass through the last ring?

I did my first CRW jump at no. 52 and was instructed by experienced jumpers. Now, I return the favor by teaching anyone and everyone I can get my hands on at my DZ (I think most dawgs have this same mentality -- if we don't bring new jumpers over to the Dark Side, we won't have anybody to jump with). I see that you jump at Perris; a bunch of very experienced dawgs will be in Perris the weekend of Jan. 16. You should try to connect with them (dawgs are VERY approachable and VERY willing to help new jumpers see the beauty of the Dark Side). Even if you don't do any CRW jumps, you'll undoubtedly come away with a great deal of knowledge about CRW and make some new friends.

VHS!!!!!!!! Just kidding. DVD.

There's another post (somewhere in this forum) where the poster has several hundred jumps using this packing method without any problems. I think he uses a tail pocket. Something I do to lessen opening shock on my Lightning is to tightly roll the three outside cells on each side of the canopy anywhere from 3 to 6 times (depending on the jump plane's jump run speed). If I want an even slower opening I'll just rest the center cell between the two rolls without spreading it out. I then tightly roll the tail before free packing the whole thing. I've been slammed so hard I've literally seen stars, other times just really roughly. This seems to work pretty well, although I'm going to try the brakes unstowed method to see how that works. P.S. my Lightning was also made mid-2003. I definitely think packing technique/methods are the answer to dealing with Lightning opening shock (that and jump run speeds).