tetra316

I did that when I was there for Rent. You arrive in the morning and put you name in a drawing to be held that afternoon for the enveings show. You have to be present when they do the drawing but you get two tickets for $20 each, they raffle the first two rows so i ended up with a front row seat. Pretty much everyone who returned in the afternoon got a seat. Not sure how other shows do this but I'm sure there has to be other deals like this.

He just has to come on down and get to know people. There are plenty at Mollala who would jump with him, myself included.

Aren't they aiming for a record 1,000 in December 2011 in Thailand.

There was already at least one sticker in there last weekend.

But notice that what you didn't see was anyone getting seriously broken from a canopy collision or low avoidance turn because someone decided to land against the flow of traffic. That's more than worth taking a downwinder for. Yes those 15 jumpers may have gotten a bit dirty, but they all landed safely as far as I know. Because they know how to land downwind. If they hadn't followed the set landing directly they may have been cut for safety violations. The landing rules were made perfectly clear prior to the first jump. If you don't like them, don't jump. Also keep in mind that at some big way events like this, they will have someone out in the landing area holding the wind direction arrow in place prior to the first landing. So there really was no follow the first person down at the 100 ways but rather follow the arrow that someone was setting in place. Even though there might have been some downwinders the organizers (almost always the first ones down) followed the arrow rather than go against it and set the stage for confusion for the rest of us. I would take a slight downwinder anyday over the confusion of multiple landing directions. Again if you cannot land downwind, upsize until you can. Simple.

Wind ? May I ask you how exactly do you adjust your initiation altitude according to wind conditions ? Wind can and will absolutely mess with your turn height. Wind layers are not uniform and when starting turns in the 1000+ mark as you regularly can flow through different moving masses of air. If there is wind shear, or a strong change in wind speed between certain altitudes (especially during the recovery phase) you better be well aware of it before you turn canopy because your canopy needs to recover the lost airspeed when entering a slower layer of wind thus costing altitude. Finally, I also turn according to the wind direction (as the DZ I jump at has a specific high performance landing area and we can turn left or right in that area) so I can get a “downwind push” coming out of the turn. This is what I was trying get at I think. If you all say basic wind does not affect altitude loss then why do we adjust our landing pattern based on the wind. After all they teach that in AFF. I guess I'm thinking of wind speed as just another variable just like humidity, temperature etc. If humidity and temperature affect altitude loss during turns why doesn't wind. I honestly want to know.

Maybe not the way/canopy type/whatever you fly. But I know if there is a 15mph wind that I will be landing into I start my turn lower. If I don't I will plane out too high as there is more resistance. On no wind days there is no resistance therefore my turn is started higher. This is with the same type/length of turn. Sure you can adjust your turn length/aggressiveness so that you can start at the same altitude regardless of wind conditions. Personal preference.

Wind ? May I ask you how exactly do you adjust your initiation altitude according to wind conditions ? With no wind you have no resistance once you face into the wind therefore it does not effect your flight pattern. If there is wind if will effect your canopy by giving you more lift. I'm sure there are others more qualified to answer the technical aspects.

That person signing should have known better than to sign you off. But not everyone knows or cares about the rules.

You cannot just pick an initiation altitude and try to force your turn from there. You need to adjust your initiation point based on the conditions such as wingloading, wind, humidity etc. You need to find that point at which your turn is too low as well as too high. Until you have that figured out, you will not have a correct initiation point and you will not progress. Better to sort this out now on a somewhat docile canopy and loading. The same logic applies to everything. You will not find the correct point until you know what it too high and what it too low. Gradually bring your turn altitude down until you find your self digging out of the corner by applying toggles to level your wing. Once you know that point that start bringing the turn point back up until you find that sweet spot. You need to be able to recognize when you are too low as well as too high. Right now it sounds like you are simply too high for your turn/wingloading/conditions.

There are gps devices that already do that. Not sure what it is but I've seen a few skydivers using it on their wrist. Tracks time, altitude, coordinates, speed etc. Check in the swooping forum as that's why they were using them.

I guess I will probably just work on my belly flying, put a hundred or so jumps on it, and will look for a different container in the meantime. Excellent idea. The best freeflyers are also very good at belly flying.

Meh. I'll hang in brakes while you hurt yourself. You would seriously ignore the stated landing direction and land opposite just because you may not like it??? I dearly hope I NEVER end up on a load with you! Sometimes you have to suck it up cupcake and acknowledge safety trumps comfort. If you cannot land in a slight downwind then you need to upsize until you can.

Coming in on half-brakes for your final flare only serves to reduce the flare power you have available - It is not coming in for your final flare with half brakes. The way you say it makes it sounds like the first half of the flare begins way early. Not true. You begin your flare at the same point regardless of using a one stroke or two stroke flare. It's just on a no wind day you will fly further over the ground once you begin the flare due to no wind resistance. So instead of flaring all the way straight down, right away, flare only halfway to 2/3 of the way and then hold it there as your canopy continues to fly. If you time this correctly you will be flying horizontally without any vertical loss. Once the canopy starts to lose that lift or feels like it is starting again on a vertical descent then you simply finish your flare bringing the canopy once again to horizontal flight while the remaining speed is bled off before putting your feet down. In this way you are bleeding off as much forward speed of the canopy as possible before touching down which can result in a tip toe landing even on a no wind day. At least this is how I understand it and try to do

Egos are a funny thing huh. What caught my attention was when one guy asked the rep if it matters what order the flaps go on closing the container...the reps answer was no it did not. I watched him close bottom, top, right, left and had to ask for myself...are you sure that's okay? That's actually the correct closing order for Infinitys

Battery dead? My display starts to fade when the battery is dying.

You cannot donate dreads.

(......but the safire and crossfire both open better....) I'll give you that, so far. I have a couple hundred jumps on Katanas and only a handful on my Safire2. I'll check back in after a few hunderd on the Safire2 to see if my opinion changes.

Honestly, you're not flaring it right. Seriously. The Safire2 has massive, massive flare power, but that flare power is located lower in the toggle stroke than the Sabre2. Finish the flare and it will reward you greatly. The only way that you're skidding that Safire2 on your arse is if you're not flaring to the bottom of the toggle stroke. I disagree. The Katana has "massive, massive flare power". The Safire II has merely good flare power by comparision But I do agree with everything else, if you are sliding in on your ass, no matter the conditions, you are not flying/flaring it correctly.

I have a load of full-face jumps too (>150). When I did a freefall with an open face helmet a couple of jumps ago I was surprised to encounter the same thing. It stopped when i realised that it was the wind on my face that i was not accustomed to anymore. Just relax and breathe. It worked for me

A friend sent me this a link to this website. I think it works beatifully for our needs. "It’s designed to give pilots, hang glider people, skydivers, etc the kind of detailed weather forecast we need. It is www.USAirnet.com. The forecast only goes out 2.5 days, but it breaks the forecast out into three-hour segments, which is great. But even better, it gives you the cloud base elevation, the sky coverage (clear, mostly cloudy etc.), chance of rain, amount of rain, temp, dew point, wind speed and direction, etc., etc. All in a very readable format. So if you want to check this out, on the home page, click on “Aviation Forecast” on the left side. Then select the “Region” ( State ) and click “Go.” [Gotta click “Go,” and I always forget to.] Then select a “Location,” and click “Go” again."

Okay I reread of these posts and it sounds like your issue is back ground checks for pilots. You complained to the USPA and expected an immediate reaction correcting this. It didn't happen right away because USPA was perhaps busy. I'm sure they have other duties besides responding only to you Then you got pissed and sent some inflammatory emails and then stated they banned you. I still don't see the whole picture. I find it hard to believe that's all you did to get banned.

You never said exactly what the first issue was but it sounds like a technical glitch in the website..?? Also I fail to see any problem with this reply. He is simply asking for more info. From reading what you've written so far the real issue seems to be your lack of respectful communication skills. I'm sure USPA has more going on than just dealing with your issues. I still haven't been able to figure out real issue here and USPA's response nor why you are banned. Perhaps someone else with knowledge of what happened can explain?

Exactly what I said: I believe you have to feel out the student as to what THEY want out of the jump, not what YOU want to give them. Of course if they show the slightest interest yes you should do your best to treat them like a student.

JP you don't seriously believe that every tandem passenger/student is a student and the jump should be treated like a steping stone training jump???? Maybe in an ideal world but we'll never get there I have very few (500) tandems compared to some of you but I believe you have to feel out the student as to what THEY want out of the jump, not what YOU want to give them. Of course if they show the slightest interest yes you should do your best to treat them like a student. However, as was mentioned, and speaking from experience most 60 year grandmas and a large portion of the rest, simply view the skydive as a fun thing to do, an item to check off their list before they kick the bucket. Nothing wrong with that, as long as they are aware of the dangers. And I don't think anyone here was advocating downplaying the dangerous part. Simply that it is unrealistic to treat everyone as an actual student, there to learn how to skydive and continue on. Yes you can do what you can to educate them but as to training them, probably not unless they want to be trained. Otherwise to force the training info on them, you are simply wasting their time and yours if they are not interested.