flyer299

Are you talking about wedsday or saturday? Saturday it WILL be the caravan all day as long as the weather is good. We are also having free freefly coaching by several members of the G-Rat crew. So far so good on the weather... Lets keep that Caravan full all weekend! I sure hope to try out my new wing suit a couple of times. Any other wing suit pilots going to be around?

I've put up just about all the good pics I have, plus several videos... So enjoy! It was a blast meeting everyone there. Hope to cross paths again sometime soon!

Yes thanks guys. Thanks for showing me how much fun flying a wing suit is. I can't wait to meet up with more of us Texas Wing Suit Fliers to get some more flocking in!

This is a good deal. Don't forget that we will be flying the Carvan this weekend too... So come on out for some good times!

I want to post a Thank you to the staff at Xtreme Divers. It was very clear that a lot of planning and hard work went into making this boogie happen, and it all paid off. My Friend Jeff and I really enjoyed our time there. We were there Wen though Sat, and did 15 jumps each. I even got to do something I wanted to do since I started skydiving... I learned to fly a wing suit. Thank you all for a job well done! We will be back next year.

PICS! More at: http://www.veard.net/autopic.asp?folder=\pictures\SkyDiving\Puerto%20Rico%20Boogie%2007. I've got tons more to post as soon as I get back home. So Check back often.

My boss an I were able to work out a Business trip Monday - Wens. Of course we are staying until Sunday! I hope we can make it out Wens, if not we will be there 1st thing Thursday. See ya all there!

Although I agree that is not a desired trait of an AAD, and Vigil should address this and fix it. My question is: Does this make it an unsafe unit to be jumping? So far I do not see anything (providing I give the unit the proper care), would cause an unsafe situation while skydiving. Since this thread has started, I have payed close attention to the temps I expose my vigil (and my cypress 2 for that matter). If My rig ever gets left in the hot car, I make sure I let it sit for an hour or so in AC before I turn the unit on. Not sure if this helps, but it makes sense to me.

It would be nice if Vigil would chim in. I know they want to protect their software by not giving up a lot of info, but in this case a little info could help us. If it is just a matter of don't use a vigil that has been heat soaked in a car trunk, then I can deal with that and I think the Vigil is a good unit. If it is beyond that, then I need to look at replacing my vigil with something else.

I wonder if there is any chance that the same fireing parameter that caused the 4 vigil's to fire on the 400 way could be triggered by tempature changes. I am thinking that if a unit is turned on at 130F and then is cooled to 75F via an AC unit, the unit senses it is at 2000 feet underground. As I recall, the 400 way fires was because the pressure in the airplane reached a point that would have been underground? Possible? If so, it does seem like a problem that can be avoided by following some simple procedures. Just in case, I've been tracking the tempature of my vigil (just a rough mental track). If it is at all warm in my car, I make sure to let my rig sit in an AC room for as long as I can before I turn it on. It would just be nice to confrim what is going on so we know what excactly to avoid.

Can anyone do the math on how much tempature effects Pressure? I know a vigil is supposed to read both Temp and pressure to figure out where it is. Tempature does have a pretty large effect on pressure. Take 2 pressure readings at the ground, one at 75F and one at 130F, what is the difference the Vigil sees?

Please be sure to post what Vigil has to say about this? I assume the unit is being checked by Vigil.

The recomendation is to NEVER have a new Tandem Instructor and a New Video Flyer together. When I first started flying video (before I got my TI), there was a new TI. We had to keep working with Manifest to make sure we were never paired up until we both got a lot more experience. I guess the bottom line is, a new TI can benifit a lot from an experinced video flying with him.

My advice is to set your limits early, and let your DZ know your limits. I have a 220lbs student limit. That puts me about 10-15 lbs under the max weight. I orginally made the mistake of not clearly letting the DZ know my limit and they had issues with me turning away 240lbs people. (Do the math... Over the max weight of the tandem system). Like others have said... Remember you, and only you are responsible for bringing your student back safe. It is a huge task that you have to take seriously, but IMHO, the pay off is well worth it! Enjoy!

My tandem course director told me a story of leaving the lowers unclipped and having it grab onto a toggle during a spiral. Of course, it shouldn't be to hard to release to toggle after that, but it isn't a game that I want to play with. So I loosen all the way and rehook them. If I have my hands full and don't rehook them, I don't bring the toggles anywhere near the bottom to avoid such a snag. Sounds like the chances of it happening are slim... But I am all about stacking the odds in my favor.

Thanks for the advice... This is what I was thinking. They are in the process of converting the plane to a jump plane, so it doesn't have anything right now. But they have told me that they will be doing a bar and a step.

View the attached Wing Loading Chart. I think that it says it all. Student: Not Recommended Novice: Not Recommended Intermediate: Not Recommened (Until 170SQ or Bigger). I don't understand why we are even talking about this? Of course it is a bad idea for a student to jump a Stiletto at any wing loading.

Would anyone happen to have video of one of these exits? Soon as I get my hands on the plane (they are converting it to a jump plane now), I will start testing it with experinced skydivers first.

Yeah, I've heard of the seated exit before. Kind of wanted to just forget that I ever heard about that one . Floating the exit as you described, do both instructors float? Or just rear float the Reserver Instructor and let the main instructor dive out?

I am going to be doing AFF's from a 206 with a Rear Side door. Most of my AFF's have been from a 182. Can I get some suggestions on how to teach students to climb into AFF exit position, and what the instructors do? Thanks

Can you send me pcitures of how you did this? I've asked our riggers to do this before and they have told me it wouldn't be as easy as it sounds.

The housing of the secondary release handle was all the way out. Normally the TI tucks it in, but for some reason he didn't on this jump. I bet none of us TIs at this DZ leave it out again! Our rigger said he was going to stich the slot where the housing comes out a little tighter. It will allow it to come out all the way still, but will hold it in a little tighter. What do other TI's do with that housing to keep it out of the way? Please post your suggestions so we can all learn. Thanks

The TI went straight to the reserve because he knew he had a problem and could feel the dbag on his butt. He has 6,000 jumps total and prob 3,000+ Tandems. He felt that going straight to the reserve got a canopy over his head quicker. I quized him about it after the jump. I only have 1,000 jumps, and 200 or so Tandems. I belive I would have done what I was taught and pulled my handles in order. The interesting thing is that when he saw the main inflate behind him, he thought it nessiary to disconnect the RSL before cuting away. Later when I asked him, "Why?" he said it made sense at the time. He clearly understands after the fact that releasing the RSL had no effect. He said in the rush of the moment that he just wanted everything disconnected from him to get rid of it. I guess that kind of makes sense. Again, pull your handles in order would have work well in this. There was talk that he should have gone straight to the reserve without releasing the drogue. We all agreed that there was no way the TI could know exactly what was going on tho. I just wonder what the video would have looked like with a reserve and an inflated drogue playing together? Anyone have experince with that?

Here is a picture that shows it on exit before TI throws....

Video is at: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=3419