diverdriver

Hey Monk, it happens....they're always out there to screw you. I love when a competition four way team takes 30 seconds in the door.....they're so special. When I see that happening I usually yell to the closest person that they are going to be long if the people ahead don't get out. So at least they know they will be long and will have to pull high. But I usually get away with it using the hook pattern jump run. It gets everyone out on one pass even if the first group takes forever. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Have you heard of Jan Davis the BASE jumper? She did a protest jump off of El Capitan. Basicly it's as high as a skydive. She jumped gear that she did not jump normally. The pilot chute was in a different location than her normal rig. She went in groping for the pilot chute all the way. Now.....I'm not saying BASE rigs need Cypreses. What I'm saying is that a highly experienced jumper had the moment get away from her with changing gear. So, your idea that "it's just a solo" is not a reason, in my opinion, to jump without a functioning AAD. Especially when changing types of gear. The human brain is a funny thing. It has the ability to hone in and concentrate on things with great detail. However, this means that something else may get missed in the moment. I have two jumpers from my aircraft alive because they had functioning cypreses. That's two people that had the moment get away from them. Both were doing two-ways. Do you think you can only collide with something on 300-ways? What about colliding with the aircraft on exit? Brad Foster was doing a solo exit and hit his head on the horizontal stabilizer of a King Air. We will never know if he died on that impact. But for sure, a functioning Cypres may have changed the outcome of that incident. I bought my Cypres when they were $1,250 for a one-pin in 1997. Now you can buy them for as low as $850. Excuse me but that's CHEAP Insurance! What if you're diabetic and don't know it? What if you have your first episode just as you exit. Do your family and friends deserve to pick up your bloody, broken body off the ground? Sorry to be graphic, but I've seen the results. And you stand in the field going "Damn, why didn't he just turn that Cypres on?" "Damn, why didn't she buy that Cypres and have it installed for this record attempt?" There are things out there that you can't see coming by just doing solos. I ask you to rethink your decision about jumping without a Cypres installed and turned on for any jump. It's all about peer pressure. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

EXACTLY!! Look at all the backups and redundancy we have on airplanes. It is there for the "what ifs". You don't depend on it. You don't train to depend on it. But it's there. And you choose to only fly with all redundancies in place. Sure, some things can be "defered" but we are talking complex aircraft systems. A sport rig is pretty simple system wise so choosing to jump without a certain level of redundancy is not acceptable to some people. I started out jumping a rig with a Sentinel AAD. Any youngins remember them? Pin pushers? Soon I bought rigs without any AAD. I accepted that risk at the time. Now, seven years later and about 700 jumps, I choose to only jump with a properly inspected and functioning Cypres. I can only see pond swooping as a skydiving activity that you would not want a Cypres installed. But any hop-n-pop or high altitude jump I do I figure that I will do it with a Cypres installed on turned on. That is the level of redundancy I have chosen for my skydiving activity. Chris Schindler ATP D-19012 www.DiverDriver.com

Thanks for the correction Bill. Yah....what he said. Chris Schindler

Oh Pete. Oh man. I think about you guys in California a lot. I can't believe Tim is gone. That is like a mule kick to the chest this morning. Shit. Tim was such a nice guy. I really enjoyed flying him at Monterey Bay years ago. Timmy Dollars. You know.....you meet people through your life....you may have to move on and you don't keep in touch as much.....but there is that chance that you can run into them again at some boogie or just an email once in awhile. But now...no more. For awhile. Blue Skies Timmy Dollars. My condolences to Melissa and his daughter and all his Cali friends. Chris

www.skydivecity.com/news/events/jumpforthecause.htm For us lazy people.

Don't know anything about Monday really. The AFF course is going on so loads will definitely be going if the weather is good. I imagine there will be others still lingering around from this weekend. Come on down and see what's shakin. Chris

Well, depending on when you can get here......Chef Tim is cooking Chicken and Ribs with corn bread. Band in the auditorium and a DJ at the Pond I think. Come on out....it's gorgeous right now. (Saturday 7:25pm) Chris

Ok. I know I'm at my legal limit for posts in a row on a thread but I'll risk it. The proper way to do high altitude loads is what we did on the World Record flights at SDC in 1998 and attempts in 2000. EVERYONE started breathing oxygen at 10,000 MSL (what you read on the aircraft's altimeter) and had it on until the climbout command came. EVEN when we did loads to 17K MSL before we needed the extra working time for the record. It is that important to not let yourself get hypoxic. You need to breath oxygen BEFORE you get high so that you do not lose the level of oxygen you have. Once you get hypoxic it can actually take quite awhile to get your levels back up. Just like a hangover, hypoxic hangovers can linger and effect your performance on subsequent jumps. You will feel fatigue onset sooner through the day if you do not take time to replenish your blood oxygen. Chris Schindler ATP www.DiverDriver.com

Kelli, Be careful with this. Above 14,000 MSL (about 8,500 on your altimeter) your pilot is required by FAR to be using supplemental oxygen. Above 15,000 MSL (9.5 on yours) the passengers on the plane must be "supplied with" supplemental oxygen. It doesn't say you have to use it but you are getting up in the very thin air and the pressure is dropping off at an every increasing rate. The pressure is needed to push the oxygen through the wall off your lungs into your blood stream. Without it, even a person with a "high tollerance" will get oxygen deprived and not think clearly. As in my previous post: if you FEEL symptoms of hypoxia, it is too late. Your brain has already been affected and you will not think as clearly or as quickly. It is a fact of physiology and we are not gods. Time and time again we have proven our human limitations. Lets not make the same mistakes twice. It's worth repeating here. This is the link to the NTSB accident report of a King Air jump plane in Hawaii that crashed after spending time above 18,000 MSL with jumpers. Don't let this be you in the future diver drivers. And don't be a jumper who hooks into the ground because they didn't think fast enough about it. www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001212X18819&key=1 Chris Schindler ATP www.DiverDriver.com

Ok....putting in my two cents here without reading any of the responses. By the time you feel ANYTHING related to hypoxia (lack of oxygen in the blood) it is WAY TOO late! Your thinking and decision making ability has been degraded long before you can detect it. And everyone feels Hypoxia differently but the physical symptoms are common to all humans: numbness or tingling of the fingers or toes; floaty feeling; euphoria; warmth; cold or warm lips; numbness/tingling of the lips; diziness; blurred vision. Be very careful with altitude and no oxygen. It is not something to be taken lightly at all. A lot of it is caused by the decreased pressure in the atmosphere and that pressure does not decline evenly (linearly) as you climb. It actually decreases more as you get higher. So the onset of hypoxic symptoms will come quicker the higher you are. We refer to this as Time of Useful Consciousness (TUC). TUC can be many minutes at altitudes above 14,000 (the FAA mandated altitude for passenger use of oxygen). But TUC drops very quickly getting above 18,000. Above 20,000, TUC can drop to less than a minute. Above 30,000, TUC can be less than 10 seconds. And if you are a smoker or have any lung problems or aren't in very good shape, you will be affected faster than most others. BE AWARE! If you don't want your pilot to take you that high. Tell them to stop climbing! Or stay in the plane and don't jump. Chris Schindler ATP www.DiverDriver.com

Ummm...I'm at Skydive Chicago....30 minutes south of you. Having too much fun to leave. If you find your way south come over to the "Team Funnel" area with the red wrestling mats. We'll say hey! Me (DiverDriver); eeneR; Kallend, and others are here. Chris

Well, first off: you don't lose your Pilot's license getting a DUI. You have to break an FAR to do that. What will happen is that you will lose your medical certificate. That's how they get you. No medical. No flying. It's easier for the authorities to get at that. And why is this important to pilots to not have DUIs? Because it shows a pattern of behaviour. Can you follow the rules of the land while operating a moving vehicle? Then how can you be expected to follow the rules of the air when a lot of those rules can be broken without anyone really knowing it. There is a bit of the "honor system" in flying. Chris

One wing bent up at a 90 degree angle not too bad? Um....I think it'll take more than duct tape to fix. Chris

Yes. It could have been clearer. Chris

Here is the NTSB link to the Conneticut 182 crash. http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20020701X01015&key=1 Chris Schindler www.DiverDriver.com

More info needed. The aircraft is registered to Skydive Palatka, INC. IDENTIFICATION Regis#: 9996B Make/Model: C182 Description: 1957 CESSNA 182 SKYLANE Date: 07/02/2002 Time: 0600 Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Minor Mid Air: N Missing: N Damage: Unknown LOCATION City: SILER CITY State: NC Country: US DESCRIPTION AIRCRAFT INBOUND TO 5W8, DEVELOPED ENGINE PROBLEM, MADE FORCED LANDING SOUTH OF ARPT IN BACKYARD OF RESIDENCE, SILER CITY, NC INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0 # Crew: 1 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 1 Unk: # Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk: # Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk: WEATHER: METAR KGSO 020554Z 19005KT 5SM HZ CLR 22/20 A3010 OTHER DATA Activity: Unknown Phase: Approach Operation: General Aviation Departed: UNKN Dep Date: Dep. Time: Destination: SILER CITY, NC Flt Plan: UNK Wx Briefing: U Last Radio Cont: 1.5M S OF 528 Last Clearance: NONE FAA FSDO: WINSTON-SALEM, NC (SO05) Entry date: 07/02/2002

If you have a .091 BAC while taxiing an airliner out for take off then you have no self control. That, to me, would be the definition of someone with a drinking problem. An addict. They come in all shapes and sizes. Hard to accept but true. You don't have to be a jump pilot in rehab for crack addiction TWICE before you are considered an addict. There is definitely a problem here. Now.....let's say the coffee they were carrying was not poured by them but made by someone else. Someone else who had a plot to get these guys in trouble. They didn't taiste the alchohol in the coffee. It's happened before. A pilot tested positive for cocaine and it was found that the sandwiches that his wife was making were laced with cocaine. Not enough to get him high really but enough that he would test positive. So, I believe there may still be room for doubt in this case and the press is just running with this and only one side of the story. Chris

Oh good. I feel much better. :) Chris

I don't know. I think Lisa is ok for not selling something to a customer if she thinks they can't handle it. She's trying to take some responsibility for Square 1's image too. Do gun shops recommend training for first time gun owners? I think some require it. So, she isn't wrong for doing what she's doing. Chris

"8 hours bottle to trottle" is the FAA minimum. MY airline has a 10 hour rule. No alchoholic drinks within 10 hours of reporting for work. We then have 45 minutes before we depart for our first flight. That's almost 11 hours before flying. So if you get a random test or get tested because of suspicion and you test positive then you absolutely deserve to get terminated. It takes a lot more awareness to fly a plane than drive a car. I think that the .04 seems a bit silly but I guess they had to put a number on it somewhere. You could stop drinking outside the legal 8 hours and still be tanked that much. It's so unfortunate that these pilots did this. Makes me ill to think about a flying career with the airlines coming to an end. All that work and effort to get there. Just gone. Man..... I find it really odd that BOTH pilots were tanked together. Wouldn't be the first time, but I think that addicts usually try to hide their problem from others. So sad. Chris

Nathaniel, umm, don't be so hot to always land directly into the wind. That manuever has gotten many people killed over the years. The main thing you want to remember from pilot training is that you don't want to land while turning. So, under canopy, make sure that when it's flare time that you are still not turning. I've seen people walk away from crosswind and downwind landings. I've also seen people drill themselves into the ground on a Falcon 215 trying to get back into the wind for landing. Plan ahead. Have a flight plan for your canopy flight. Fly the plan. But if it looks like it isn't working out and you are low and going crosswind you can always do a PLF or slide it in. Dirt washes out better than blood. Chris

Ramon, this is NOT a cult. You are not a "traitor", as you put it, if you want to go experience another DZ. Go where you want to go and when you want to go. If anyone else has a problem with it you tell them to shove it. Chris

Oh...I'd stand at attention if she did.

Prostitution??!! Lummy, who said anything about prostitution? LOL