freakflyer9999

Not all reserve ripcord cables are designed to be cleared through the housing. My Vector's reserve ripcord actually pulls the pin that is directly attached to the RSL. The pin then blocks the cable from being cleared through the housing. The first time I popped the reserve before a repack, it surprised the hell out of me that I pulled about 6 inches and couldn't pull any further. Tried 2 or 3 times before I realized that the reserve container had actually opened and the reserve pilot chute was laying on the ground behind me.

That really brings back memories. The majority of my student jumps and my first 50 jumps were from a Caribou at Skydive Texas. I was their first static line student (my 2nd jump) out of the Bou. I had 5 or 6 guys from work making their first jump sitting there watching me (the experienced guy) as I nervously backed towards the tailgate. Biggest rush of my life as I stepped back off the tailgate.

You might want to chat with Dana Bowman. Dana jumps with two artificial legs. Not exactly the same as your situation, but he also isn't able to run out landings. I've assisted with one of his demos where he sank his canopy into a fenced area less than 20 ft square. I think that he told me that he sometimes slides in his landings. You might consider that as an option too. His email and phone info is on the contact page of his web site.

Totally off topic, but I still remember the tethered hot air balloon fiasco at the 1997 WFFC. Does anyone else? No, no one died from that, I think the winds were strong enough that the flames from the burner caught on the balloon fabric and burned enough of it that it couldn't stay up. Yea...I remember sitting in front of my tent drinking a beer because the winds were too high for me to be jumping. The tethered balloon was at an angle due to the wind and the flames starting up the piece of fabric below the actual balloon envelope. I don't remember if the jumper actually jumped or not though. I don't think that he did.

First of all, FAR's are not laws. Laws are written by legislatures. FAR's are regulations and are written by the same body that also gets to interpret them. Numerous posts have quoted the Advisory Circular that you have continuously chosen to ignore. No matter when the AC was written and no matter which version of the relative FAR was in effect at the time, the AC has not been superceded. The AC is the FAA's interpretation of the regulation and again, it is the FAA that gets to interpret its own regulations. There are some appeal processes, but the FAA will first pass judgement. With all that said, if you want to try it, then go for it. The only way that you will get caught is if someone squeals or if there is a fatality. Make sure that the spot is near a well-known base object and let everyone assume that any fatality is base related. Most likely the FAA would never be asked to be involved in the investigation.

That is incorrect. You do not need any license to pack for others while under the direct supervision of a certified rigger. I have known packers who had never made a single jump. It is up to the supervising rigger to determine whether you can pack for others.

Ditto... I still remember every detail of some of the worst incidents from more than 10 years ago, especially the Dead Mike Vederman runway crash at WFFC '97. I still remember vividly flying over Dead Mike's body lying on the ground. Of course at the time who could have imagined that he would have lived. I also still remember my best friends tennis shoes sticking out from under the sheet that the paramedics had covered his body with and his canopy still attached, catching air and turning his body over. It has been 9 years 5 months and a day and I doubt that I'll ever forget it. BSBD

For myself and for a lot of others that I've heard talk about it, 50 jumps seems to be the point that most of us switch off the constant nervousness. I still have times that I get nervous. I've even had days where I drove the hour and a half to the DZ and stayed on the ground just because it didn't feel right. Of course, one of those times that it didn't feel right and I jumped anyway, I had a malfunction.

But the attitude of the pilot/DZO may have had something to do with the student fatality. Lie and cheat in one area might lead to the same behavior in other areas. How well was the student trained? Sparky The fatality in the post that you quoted wasn't a student fatality. It was a D-licensed jumper who had trained at another area DZ.

When my best friend bounced a number of years ago, the pilot/dzo had only a student license. The FAA fined him (I heard $2000) and then allowed him to complete his private. Upon receipt of his private it was immediately suspended for 90 days. Of course the pilot's license was irrelevant to the fatality, but the fatality brought the FAA's attention to the matter.

http://www.paragear.com/templates/base_template.asp?group=29#S7080

I was once on a Cessna load with a new jump pilot. He had about 500 hours of experience, but only a couple of loads hauling skydivers. On the way to altitude, he failed to properly adjust the mixture and the engine died around 6-7K. Rather than addressing the problem by the checklist, he panicked and turned to the Tandem Master (DZO) and asked "What do I do?" He was quickly instructed to follow the F*#8ing check list and fix the g*0D*6n problem. Of course as soon as he checked the mixture, the engine fired right up and up we went. My point is that the Pilot is not always prepared for an emergency. Sometimes you do have to make up your own mind about the proper procedure. This situation was minor. Worst case we would have glided back over the airport and either exited or rode the plane to a power off landing. Either should have been a non-event. There were plenty of off-airport pastures to safely land in, so even if we had to exit away from the airport it wouldn't have been a problem.

The last time I was at WFFC (1997), all of the canopy manufacturers had their demo canopies packed on risers ready to attach to your rig. All you had to do was cut away your canopy and attach theirs, close the container and off you went. They did have some neat little packing mats that they velcroed the risers to, so that they kept left and right straight. Just make sure that you don't swap the left and right risers and go for it.

I recently bought a pair of Asolo's. Love them so far, but haven't gotten them out on the trail yet. I did wear them on the treadmill at the gym one day. No problems doing 3 or so miles on the treadmill. Will probably wear them tomorrow for a short 2-3 mile hike.

Eat a double helping of red beans and sit next to the pilot. He'll love you for it.

I've been on board 2 aircraft during emergencies. Rode both of them down. First was a Caribou with 43 jumpers, 8 of which were students sitting in the rear of the plane. Lost one engine climbing through 1500 feet. The DZ owner decided that we couldn't all crawl over the students and get out in the time we had, so he directed the pilot to do a nice 180 and land on the airport with the one engine. The Caribou was actually still climbing on one engine, so not really a big deal. The second, I was pilot in command in a C172 that lost oil pressure. I didn't have a rig on so there wasn't a real choice, but I just happened to have sufficient altitude to glide about 4 miles back to the airport and do a standard pattern. Never lost full power on the engine either, but I was sure that the big whirly thing was going to quit at any time.

I'm glad to see that BIGUN has gotten you the information you need. It is definitely possible for larger guys to learn to skydive, though you will find challenges. There will be times that you won't be able to jump with others, simply because they can't keep up with you (order a good jump suit designed for your weight). In some aircraft (C182, etc.), you will need to understand that weight and balance in the aircraft directly affects safety. You may occasionally be asked to bump from a particular load due to weight issues. I was 270 lbs when I made my first jump. Skydiving actually inspired me to lose almost a 100 lbs over the next 6 months. I think that I was in the low 200's when I graduated from the static line program. Unfortunately. I gained all of it back plus some. The last time I went skydiving (1-2 yrs ago), I was over 300 lbs. and exceeding the limits of my particular gear by about 20-30 lbs. I don't recommend that though. I have recently lost 60 lbs through Weight Watchers and exercise. I highly recommend Weight Watchers. If you will follow the program, it works. I had quit skydiving for medical reasons related to weight, diabetes and high blood pressure. With my weight loss and the right meds, my doctor has recently released me to fly and skydive, so I'm going to be starting back this month. If you're ever in North Texas, let me know. I'd be glad to jump with you. Kenny G. P.S. One important gear issue, that I've learned the hard way. Even gear designed for larger loads such as the military rigs that previous posters have mentioned, can still have weight related issues. I once had a military rig open extremely fast, due to speed, packing, etc. Fast openings translate to "HARD". I separated my ribs from the surrounding tissue, resulting in a hernia. Extremely painful at the time and even more so over the next few months as the hernia did its thing.

My High School English teacher assigned "God Bless You Mr. Rosewater" to me for a book report and even loaned me her personal copy. Vonnegut immediately became my favorite author and still today I consider him to be my favorite. One of these days I should look up my English Teacher to thank her and to return her book. I actually still have it along with the rest of my Vonnegut library. I own virtually every full length book he ever wrote as well as copies of many of his short stories. He hasn't written anything recently, but will still be missed. God Bless You Mr. Rosewater

Wouldn't it be 1?

Were people wanting to "Ban" gloves at the time? No, but I guess we should have banned 3600 degree turns, since he did at least that many spirals before hitting the ground.

There were a couple of incidents in a very short time (Jan 99) that involved heavy gloves getting caught in the brake lines. One of these was my best friend who was wearing neoprene gloves. The resulting spin either caused him to become unconscious or he experienced another medical condition that caused him to loose consiousness. Either way, his death was the result. His glove was still caught in the brake line when examined by DZ staff.

Though they made a mistake on my rigging work, they were pretty quick to correct it. I did have to pay to ship it back to them though after having dropped it off in person so they could make sure of everything they needed to know to make the new harness fit me properly.

In a computer lab that I set up a while back, we had a 60+ inch plasma with a device that hung over it to allow touch screen capability. It was pretty nice, but really a waste of money (>$25K) for our purposes.

I was standing in the landing area gathering my canopy when I heard a thud behind me. A student's protec was lying about 10 feet away. Later I overheard a student telling someone that he couldn't find his helmet to turn back into the DZ. After a few questions he sheepishly admitted to losing it in freefall.

After reading through the thread, I would venture a guess that as others have mentioned, the pilot was flying a non-standard jump run on the way to altitude so that you could exit as a solo jumper on the pass. In this case you don't need a long jump run following the wind line, just a few moments over the correct spot. Now with that said, it would have been nice, if the pilot had told you that it was non-standard. I personally would never exit without either confirming the spot myself or having someone I trust confirm the spot. In my opinion, you shouldn't have exited the aircraft under the circumstances that you described. You also don't mention scanning for traffic. As others have mentioned this is also a critical part of spotting. My suggestion would be to find a Cessna 182 DZ and fine tune your spotting skills.