diverdriver

If the weather is jump able we will have a "simulated engine failure load" in the Otter. Let people do a hop-n-pop from 3,000. It's good practice for the pilots to go over emergency procedures. There's certainly not near as much tension as during the real deal but it at least shows the jumpers that a Super Otter will climb on one engine if flown properly.

Thanks Bill.....oh yah and.......NERD ALERT! We're such geeks.

Guilty as charged. Bwahahahhahahahahha.......

Oddly enough, we had one of our BAE-146s run into the terminal at O'Hare because of a hydraulic brake failure. Aparently the system lost all pressure as it was coming into the gate and was unable to stop or steer out of the way (do a 180). THAT'S WHY WE TELL YOU TO NOT UNDO YOUR SEATBELT UNTIL THE LITTLE LIGHT HAS BEEN TURNED OFF! (yes, that was shouting) Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

I just got done watching Band of Brothers on DVD. If you don't know what it is it is the story of Easy Company during WWII. They were paratroopers dropped on Normandy. It is an amazing take and Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks have really done a great job with all the actors involved to bring Hi-Fidelity to this story. The reason I make this post is because it reminds me of the many relationships I've had during my skydiving career. All 7 years of it. The buddies you make in training. Your first jump. Aircraft emergencies (ok engine failure is not the same as getting shot at. Didn't mean to make it sound like I understand combat when I've never been there.). Helping out wherever necessary. Losing friends. Meeting the "replacements". Promotions, coming up through the ranks. It all seemed a bit familiar. It also made me once again appreciate what fathers, grandfathers and the whole country endured during that time. We all know how the war ended. We read about it. But how did they feel when the war was going on? Were they sure of the outcome? Maybe, maybe not. I asked Australian George (a summer regular at SDC who's still jumping at age 70+) what it was like during that time (Pearl Harbor) and comparing it to the events of Sept. 11, 2001. He said that even though they didn't know what was going to happen they did know that the world was not going to sit by and let things continue as they were. And yes, things have certainly changed in the days following Sept. 11, 2001. We fight what we think is a righteous fight. Some say for oil. Some say for our freedom from Terrorism. We don't use the word Tyranny anymore I guess. But one of the Easy Company veterans who were interviewed at the beginning of each episode in Band of Brothers said that even though they fought and killed Germans that probably under other circumstances that the man he was killing could have been his best friend. Maybe they like to go fishing or hunting too and they could talk about doing those activities. But they both knew they had a job to do right there and they were going to carry it out. I think about skydivers the same way. Maybe if we could get more people across the world into skydiving then we could have more common ground. They wouldn't want to blow us up. And we wouldn't want to retaliate against them. What a missed oportunity it is. And also I see the "tribal warfare" among DZs. Not really among DZs that are in other states. But the DZ down the street. "Us" vs. "Them". What do they know? We're skydivers remember? We are a Band of Brothers because so few understand why we do what we do. We don't have to be doing this activity unlike being drafted for the Army. We do this because we want it to be fun. We have to spread information so that we can survive doing this voluntary activity. We have to look out for each other for no one else will care. Ok...I think I'm done rambling. If you have the chance get the Band of Brothers box set and watch all of the episodes. It's truly remarkable and well done. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Well, I'm not so sure about that. Wouldn't a low pressure be created inside the vehichle with increased driving speed? It would probably be miniscule but then again has anyone messured it? I would think with the windows up it would be a greater error than the windows down but I do see your point. Simple answer, stick to the plan of setting it back at the packing area. Don't they pay a quarter to a kid anymore to redo all the Cypreses there still? Also to add....I base my points on the fact that when you use the alternate static source in a C-172 and add power you will get a "bump" in pressure and an reading error because the source is inside the cockpit. The flowing air around the fueselage creats a lower pressure inside the cabin. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Exactly. It's hard to keep the emotion out of it. But we need to try. State your point. Let others state their point. Even if they call you a name don't buy into it. Take the higher road. If you feel that further postings won't improve the thread then don't post. You notice how I posted a long time ago and haven't since on that thread? Cuz nothing I have to say will further the thread after what I have already put. Just a suggestion to all involved. And signing your posts with "psycho" may also lead people into a different view of your words than you intended. Chris

It's a good thing it's not a kitten. Clay might be killing one right now. Ooooooo......Claaaayyyyyy!!!!!!!

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GO my favorite sports team! Do good in the skirmish!

Is anyone pushing for more efficient solar panels? Covering the desert sounds good to me. I mean....who really ever jumps at Eloy. Would we miss it? (just kidding folks, don't throw rocks at me or anything)

Actually, I believe you can extract it from sea water the best. If my memory serves me right.

I say let's get off the "oil standard". Let's make the hydrogen fuel from plants powered by solar power and then make the rest of the world buy OUR fuel. Then we run an embargo and see how they like it. Yah, yah,.....if I was president. I think it totally can be done. We just have to decide to do it and spend the money on R&D. We figured out how to put man on the moon we can certainly figure out the infrastructure to use fuel cell technology here. We just have to decide to do it. I think the President should challenge our scientists like Kennedy challenged them to put man on the moon. They should have a goal of making fuel cell technology a reality by the end of the decade. That would be a worthy goal.

Murray, I can name about 3 reserve rides in the past three years due to an impossible pull on a pull-out system. They do happen. From what I've seen it was from having the grommet that the lanyard from the pud to the pin runs through pushed so far up under the side flap that it created so much tension as to be impossible to pull while in freefall. Chris

Did anyone go the the talk by the NTSB representative? I'm very interested in hearing what he had to say about jump plane accidents. I emailed him but never got a response. Don't know if my addy was incorrect. Anyone?...... Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

So Tim and Johnny are still messing with the sunset controls huh? Good.

Just to add.....Airlines have banned certain groups from ever flying with them again. One story comes to mind where a marching band (this one time, traveling to band camp) all ran to the back of the aircraft and almost caused an upset in cruise flight. That probably wouldn't have been recoverable had they actually stalled. The airline banned that school from traveling on them. And they have every right to. You think you're different? Think again. Menacing the passengers will not be tolerated. And if you do it on one of my flights and I hear about it I can assure you that if we haven't taken off you won't be making that flight. If we have taken off, I'll give you one chance to knock it off and then we divert to the nearest suitable landing area where you will be "deplaned". And it won't be a place where you will find many rental cars or services. You'll see me close the door. And jet right on out of there. Find your own way home. I was jump seating once and a skydiver in the back was making remarks to the Flight Attendants about service and how he was going to report them since he was with the NTSB. I got asked if I had any friends in the back. I said that I knew some people on board. They asked if anyone was with the NTSB and I said not that I was aware of. The CA of the flight was about to send a message to ops to have this person arrested apon landing for interfering with a crew member. I was able to get everything settled down and apologised profusly to this United crew for the skydivers behaviour. You think it's a joke? Don't be surprised if you have coffee with some "Blue Suits" instead of taking a flight or heading to the DZ. It's no joke. Don't mess with the other passengers or flight crew members. Period. Chris Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

I assume it landed on the main tires instead of having an asymetrical main gear configuration? Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

No, it was being reported as though this was some sort of new policy. Which it isn't. It was reported in this manner just to whip up anti-American sentiment in my opinion so I did bring question to the source. Just as we hate seeing "parachute failed to open" it ticks me off when I see something to the effect of "the Americans are just now thinking about nuking Iraq" and nothing else. It does not tell the whole story of our response to WMD during PGW1 or any other conflict where the use of WMD was possible against us. Chris

Kevin, Good for you. This should go to show to everyone that when we check our gear or check someone else's gear we should check what's there. NOT what we expect to see. The mind is a powerful thing and it can trick us very easily in this respect. And especially if we are in a hurry or have distractions. We will see what we want to see and not what is actually there. That is why it is good to have a gear check (not just pin check) in the aircraft just before exit by another jumper. Chest straps, bridle routing, 3 ring assembly, handle position......and of course pin position. It is all important. A jumper a few years ago had a 3 ring mis-assembled and made around 20 jumps like that. Not one person sitting in the plane looked at their buddy's 3 ring to prevent a very preventable fatality. Situational Awareness. It's not just what is going on with yourself. Chris

You know, this only goes to perpetuate the image that many on here have tried to dispell. That we are not insane, crazy, or risk takers. You really missed an oportunity to dispell this man's fears. You never know. One day he might be sitting on an airport board somewhere and deciding on whether to allow a DZ to start or continue operations there. Far fetched, but as some here have pointed out.....it's a small world. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Kevin, First, nice job on staying cool and using your emergency procedures. Nice job on breaking the links in the chain leading to a very different outcome. Now, you did say not to repeat what you already learned in your comments at the bottom. But, I do have a question. Did you check the main pin before that jump? Or did you check it and not catch it? And believe me, you are not the first to have done either one. Also, did you have a gear check done by a buddy before exit? If you did why did they not catch it? Thanks for sharing with this group. I know many will learn from it. edited: Just to add that I didn't mean to harp on this point but Freakallguy beat me to it. -CS Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Um.....was that Celine singing at half time? I thought that was Shenia Twain (sp?). But yah, I think she's Canadian too. What a hotty. Hubba hubba.

Umm....maybe a show of support for a neighbor? I don't think we have to go down the road of "them" and "us". She is a good singer even though I don't like all her work. And it's a beautiful song. It's not our National Anthem so why should anyone be offended?

I was on that dive. I remember landing and looking around counting team members. We were like "Where's Radio Dave?". We look up and he is way up there still coming down. He lands and just falls over and lays on the ground. We go running over and he is seriously messed up from having his bell rung. He lived because he deployed as soon as he came to in freefall. Otherwise we would have had another fatality at SDC and you all would have been chastising us about how dangerous we are. There are things out there that are going to be out of our control. People have been exiting solo and been knocked unconcious. They had no functioning AAD and they went in. Jumpers who choose to have a funtioning AAD (I prefer Cypres as do 10s of thousands of other customers) should not be chastised or made to feel "unsafe" for choosing that piece of safety equipment for their personal skydiving career. Comparing this situation to a pilot wanting an autopilot to fly VFR Bill is a bit of apples and oranges. Deploying a parachute has to be done on every skydive in order to survive. The cypres is a backup to that mandatory action. An auto pilot is a backup for flying in straight and level flight (not necessary for landing). When I got my instrument rating I was told by a wise instructor to "set your margins wide until you have more experience". He wanted me to not attempt IFR approaches in actual inclement weather to minimum visibility and ceiling values for that approach. That I should call a No-Go if I didn't have a wider margin until I had done more "actual" approaches. In skydiving we can't remove the limit of the ground. It is the ultimate limit. Once we takeoff in a plane we will land. If we jump the landing has to be performed by us. In order to land we need to make sure we have a deployed canopy. The Cypres is a backup tool. If a jumper chooses to have that tool then they should not be belitled. Discuss it with the jumper to find out if they understand the limitations of what the system can do. But that doesn't make them an unsafe jumper. I've made my share of jumps without any AAD. I was doing headdown in 4-ways. I also exited solo for a head down FF. I had a bag lock when I dumped at 2,000 AGL. I got an open reserve at 1,000 AGL. I don't think that my emergency procedures are that bad and it still took me 1,000 feet in freefall to get the reserve open. I recognize that I human limitations of physical strenght and of the brain. Anyone who believes his or her brain can think through a stressful situation better than everyone else probably hasn't been through a real stressful situation. (I've had my share of aircraft emergencies too so I've had more than one experience to draw from.) Choosing to have a Cypres as a back up is nothing to be ashamed of. A newly rated multi-engine pilot who chooses to have a working auto-feather system onboard doesn't make him a weak multi-engine pilot. Their procedures were good enough to demonstrate on the check ride. So why should they feel worried about their procedures? They shouldn't. And probably don't. But they recognize that having an auto-feather on board is an added level of safety. In the pilot world you don't hear AOPA making fun of pilots wanting auto-feather systems on their multi-engine aircraft. They encourage people to have the level of backups that make them comfortable. Nothing more. Nothing less. And it is NOT logic ringing through. It's an opinion. We all have them. I've voiced mine. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125