diverdriver

http://aviationweather.gov/fdwinds This is what you want to look at for winds aloft. It is given in MSL not millibars. Find a wind reporting station near you. Make sure you look at the effective time. It will be in "Zulu" time. Convert this to local time. If you need help doing that, ask your pilot what correction to apply. Before you make any decisions on what the jumprun should be talk it over with your pilot so you are on the same page. There might be something in this that you are not accounting for (like crosswind jumprun). Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

If both solos are new freefliers practicing headdown 500 feet can easily be covered by either or both jumpers without them realizing it. You really need to know what the groups before and after you are doing to apply proper seperation. Chris

One thought would be to stop paying for temporary workers at USPA HQ at higer rates than hiring a permanent worker with benefits to do the same job. Just a thought. That could save some bucks. Chris

What benefits do GMs get that do NOT benefit the general membership? I think it's going to be hard to seperate out the differences on some issues. Chris

Last time I checked, skydiving was commiting suicide if you didn't do something to change the outcome (deploy). Driving a car is not inherently commiting suicide even though there are risks involved. Chris

Nerds don't count in "everyone".

I'm not a pilot, please can you explain this to me? (Thinner air?) Yes, thinner air. It is called True AirSpeed or TAS. To calculate TAS you have to correct for nonstandard pressure and temperature. That said, typically with no wind and at altitude, your groundspeed will be about 105 knots when indicating 80-85 knots. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Curses you Riddler! But did you add in 2 minutes for the 2 minute call prior to first drop? That's not part of jumprun? Ok, I'm arguing semantics. Oh yah.....and Chris

No. You will not drop straight down. What everyone is forgetting is that once you are out the door you are in two completely seperate mediums. One, the plane, you have power and are moving through the air. The other, freefall, you are decelerating your forward throw of the aircraft and beginning to be acted apon by the upper winds. If you have ZERO ground speed you will NOT fall straight down according to the observer unless you are in a balloon or helicopter in hover. You will ALWAYS see the group ahead of you move back towards the tail. THE ANGLE METHOD DOES NOT WORK IN ANY FORM OR FASHION EVER! Please, everyone, stop saying that it partly works or is a good backup. No it is not! Also, a Twin Otter indicating 80 knots on the airspeed indicator at 13K will NOT be doing 80 knots over the ground in no wind conditions. It will actually be going about 105 knots. SURPRISE PEOPLE! So if you actually do have 80 knot upper winds does not mean you will have no ground speed. I personally have seen 17 knots on the groundspeed during jumprun. We were giving 45-50 seconds PER GROUP! It took 7 minutes to make one pass and everyone landed on and didn't have to make a second pass. If you had looked out the door as the first group left they would have gone back towards the tail just like on every other jump run you've looked out the door. The difference is that you have not gone anywhere in 10 seconds. Be sure you are checking ground speed. I've posted a chart of ground speed and seperation times many times on this forum. You can run a search and will probably bring it up. Right now I don't have it handy to post. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

If you aren't here you definitely aren't gonna make a jump so come on out.

Chris, could you state your views on the GM program also? You are running for National Director too so others here may want to hear what you have to say. Chris Buzz.....you have my vote. Contact Ed Scott if you need more information about my last PM.

I'm just wondering why you keep using "your" instead of "you're" which means YOU ARE. Chris

Whooa...never said they couldn't have a second pass. I give them. You might hear me grumble. But I do give second passes in the otter. There are even times when I'll agree that a second pass is necessary. Sometimes jumpers will continue to exit after I have turned the lights off. Ahh well. I tried. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Buzz, Thank you for your time. Question: Do you feel that the current state of aircraft operations in the US has a safety record that is acceptable? Meaning, should the USPA be doing something to ensure proper training and certification of jump pilots and aircraft. The current rate of jump plane accidents is twice the accident rate of general aviation. Is this issue high, middle, or low on your list of issues? Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

GPS is a tool. If yah can't spot with your eyeballs then you probably can't spot with a GPS either. It's an understanding of looking straight down (not as easy as it may sound) and knowing what the upper winds are doing, knowing how many people/groups you have on board, knowing how they will all be effected differently in drift if they are doing different disciplines, and knowing seperation between groups from the groundspeed indication (not easy to do with eyeballs from 14k). I've had people stop in the door when I was flying the Otter. The problem is, they don't know what they are looking for. I had someone call a go around after the first group went out and we were only .5 mile away with 40 knot uppers! Sheesh, the freefall drift alone will put you at .3 away from the middle of the landing area. If you can't make the landing area then you shouldn't be jumping. It's all a growing relationship with you, your spotter, and your jump pilot. If something isn't working out then something needs to change. But I, and other pilots, who jump and truly understand freefall drift are capable of spotting well. You should always ask questions before going up when visiting a new DZ or getting on with a new Jump Pilot. Make sure you both understand what to expect from each other on jump run. It will clear up a lot of possible confusion at a high stress time and you will know what to expect when you DO look out the door for other traffic below backing up the pilot's contact with ATC. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Bill, that would be "blown out" not "sucked out"........Sheeeesh....get your technical terms right before you post! This is just sad. But I think Mark Harju had the most correct assesment of this. Man, bizarre. Now, there was a case awhile back in a Twin Otter for Hewlett-Packard where their daily shuttle had a female employee intentionally jump from the plane using the back emergency (right side) door. Very odd tale. http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20010110X00078&key=1

Tom, all I have to say to your post is AMEN BRUTHA!!!!!!!! That was just refreshing to see posted. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Well, my personal opinion is that we have way too many accidents compared with other flying. I am not a statistical major or anything so I doubt I would do it correctly. But just reading the reports year after year I see the industry not learning at all from its' mistakes. Everyone seems to think they are impervious to having an accident. It only happens to "them" because "they" don't know what they're doing. People fail to see how it CAN happen to them. The only statistical data I can offer is that the General Aviation (GA) accident rate is 6 accidents per 100,000 hours of flying. The last estimate of flying by the US fleet of jump planes is 100,000 total hours that would put skydiving at TWICE or MORE the rate of GA accidents. USPA is working on a new estimate but it would have to double the hours to make us even with GA. My arguement is that we shouldn't be even with the GA accident rate. We should be better. The GA rate includes accidents with student pilots, private pilots, and other commercial pilots. And all types of aircraft including ultra lights. I'd say our record is pretty sad. Looking at flight instruction accidents, they have a better rate than GA. This is attributed to the fact that a commercially rated pilot is in the right seat. These flight instruction flights do about as many takeoffs and landings as skydiving. Some say that we do more cycles per hour than GA so we aren't as bad as I am making it out to be. But I just don't buy that. If flight instruction flights can have a better record than GA then we can too. It comes down to maintenance and pilot training. The other part of the equation is that not too many people agree with me or want to talk about it. I tried speaking to some of the BOD when they were here at SDC this summer. I didn't feel that I got too much support for my views. For the year 2002 we are at 14 reports with a month and a half to go. There are 2 incidents that I have been told about that have not had a report listed. We had a lull in 2000 after the deadly 1999 season. But we are peaking again and I fear we will have another deadly year in 2003. I started posting on rec.skydiving in the winter of 1998-99 that we had a problem in this industry. I suggested that standardization for jump pilots was needed. I was pretty well told to shove it. Then we lost 22 people in jump plane accidents in 1999. That was the second worst year for fatalities in jump planes. The worst that I show is 1992 with the Perris Otter and Hinckley, IL Beech 18 going down. We want lower insurance rates for our jump planes to lower jump ticket prices? We better start flying like we deserve them. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

You only get one chance to make a first impression. He failed misserably with me. No thanks. I don't want someone like that on the BOD. Voting him in as National Director would only condone his childish behaviour. Don has made his way over here to post before. Why doesn't he post on this topic and try to convince us otherwise? Because to be honest, there's nothing you can say Dave to convince me. It will have to come from him. Chris Schindler

In the late 80's, the Army Safety Center put out a statistic that the Army (the largest user of helicopters in the world?) averaged one wire strike a week since they started flying them. One of the reasons they got wire cutters. True, but would wire cutters help in this instance? I believe they are only mounted on the front of the chopper (correct me if I'm wrong). I think what would have been best would be to fly the route along side the road before attempting to film it. If you are going to be flying partially blind then you might want to know what's there before you do it. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Mountain man responds to DDs post: Um....wudn't me.

Think gloabally. Act locally. ?????????

Moby would put a whoopass on that wanna be punk entertainer!

What? Hit on all the women around in hopes of losing your virginity? Ummm, Lisa....you got a kid already. Kinda too late.

Keep trying Pete. You'll get there.