bclark

I would guess that upon the container opening and the drogue leaving one of two things will happen: A. The drogue extracts the bag from the container and puts it into the wind / your burble. In this case I suspect you would see / feel things going on out there. Hopefully that bag catches enough wind to open the riser covers and load the 3 rings. Even more hopefully you end up with a deployment of the main. B. The drogue separates and leaves the bagged main in the open container. In situation A you may end up with a main, but it needs to happen quick. If it is not happening quick enough I believe cutting away is appropriate. In situation B even though the container is open you essentially have nothing out. There is no load on the risers or the 3 rings. I believe cutting away in this case is a waste of time. And for the reasons I stated in my original post I would rather deal with the possibility of a two out situation than an uncontrolled main / reserve entanglement with the main risers cut away. This situation sucks and you may still die no matter what you do. There are a lot of variables. So I say if you have signs of a partial deployment of the main ( bag leaves the container ) cut away. If the bag is still in the container deploy the reserve and if the main begins to deploy after that then deal with the results. ( Most likely a two out situation. ) Best plan of action jump well maintained gear, have a plan, and hope this does not happen to you. SCARY

Bob Metz was flying it in Utah in 2002-2003. We had it for two very fun seasons. I heard Metz sold it, and would love to know what happened to it after that. I have some GREAT memories of that airplane. Check your gear before you jump.....

you have to be careful with grey / charcoal. They have the tendency to fade toward that dirty pinkish beige.

Try Dharma Trading Co.

20 13 Saturday / 7 Today All tandems. We did 120ish tandems on Saturday. Not bad for mid / late October.

The book about Drew Thornton is called "The Bluegrass Conspiracy", by Sally Denton. It is a great read, and at the end does touch on the crash of Cowboy's Caravan. I know a bit off topic, but if you like skydiving, true crime, etc...

Funny this should come up again.... The "replacement" for my original problem Aviator has already fallen apart. I got it during the Texas State Record attempts 4/20/2007. So in less than 6 months a brand new helmet has completely fallen apart. The finish has flaked off, the trim has come off, the fabric that covers the bolt that holds the chin strap on has come loose. The helmet itself had what I can only describe as soft, thin spots where the audible ports are built into it that broke through leaving actual holes in the outside of the helmet. Saturday I went to pick it up to go to work and the chin strap came off. (Nut had worked it's way loose off of the bolt.) At that point I chucked the thing in the garbage and went and bought a Hurricane. They did right by me by replacing the original helmet, but the new one turned out to be just as cheaply made. Don't waste your money.

Or you can come to Spaceland. We will take you up to the TSO as long as you are in reasonable condition. Because everything is BIG in Texas!

We regularly take tandems up to the TSO limit of the gear here. (Sigma) With a properly adjusted harness we can not only do them safely but without complaints of discomfort from the student. They have fun, can lift their feet for landing, and come back for seconds. We are at sea level. I know that in the Sigma Harness Adjustment Guide they show an example of a "hefty" woman in a harness.

I have some thoughts on this. First, you can liken the debate to whether or not you should cut away a pilot chute in tow. Some people say yes, others say no. With either course of action you may live and walk away, or you may die. Either way you have to deploy a reserve cleanly past a pilot chute, and you risk then having the main deploy after reserve deployment. I compare the two situations because in the detached drogue scenario you no longer have anything to deploy the reserve past, but you still have the possibility ( or probablility ) of a deployment of the main after reserve deployment. Here are my thoughts: If you cut away first, upon deployment of the main it will either fall away cleanly leaving you to happily land your reserve OR foul your reserve and leave you with a main reserve entanglement you can most likely do nothing about. If you don't cut away first the main will PROBABLY open up into a bi-plane, a side by side, or a downplane. They MAY entangle, but it is more likely they will configure themselves into one of the above. I know how to deal with a biplane (land it), I know how to deal with a side by side, (land it or cut it away, I would land it) and I know how to deal with a downplane (cut it away). I would rather not cut away because it allows me several more survivable possibilities, rather than "it either works or it doesn't". This is a very dynamic situation with a lot of different variables. And as I said earlier, it is a bad situation and no matter what you do you may end up getting fucked up or killed. But I think that you should weigh the odds and possibilites for yourself and DO SOMETHING! I for one would NOT cut away first and those are my thoughts as to why. I would also NOT cut away a pilot chute in tow.

We had an all Icarus fleet for years. We bought 3 Sigma 370's when we got the first of our Sigma tandem rigs. They kept getting cut away for the same reason (tension knots). After a couple of seasons of this we fixed them...by replacing them with Icarus 365's

Bob Metz told me that story (drogue over the tail of the Twin Beech) about 10 years ago in Cedar Valley, UT. I was thinking about getting my tandem rating and he said, "why would you want to jump one of those DEATH RIGS?, they finally invented a way to kill 2 skydivers with one rig." It is interesting to hear the other side of that story. For once both sides of the story are essentially the same.

I have had Neptunes for 3 years. My original was replaced by Alti-2 for battery consumption issues that were a problem with the unit. My second one did very well for a long time then started resetting itself on the airplane and in freefall to the "press any key" screen. It started doing that more and more often until I stopped using it and sent it back to Alti-2 and they fixed it. I have not had problems since. I still use my Neptune because of the EXCELLENT customer service. But because of the problems I have had, and the problems other people I know have had ( one of my friends Neptunes was registering a 900 fpm climb on the ground, and logging jumps he did not make, including one from 54000 feet ) I would not buy another one. I don't trust any altimeter that I look at in freefall and it says "press any key to continue". The only reason I am ok with it is I do lots of tandems and I have my student altimeter as a backup. That said, it is a great concept. When working well they are awesome. And the problems seem to be hit and miss. Some people have no problems, some people have lots of problems. Most of the problems I have seen were definately not "operator error".

In the beginning skydiving is brand new and exciting in a way that changes the longer you spend in the sport. I think what changes more than the sport, is the participant who's perspective changes with experience. The new kids may fly funny, or look different, but to THEM skydiving is the same as it was for US when we started. I think understanding that perspective is the key to longevity in the sport. Gear changes, flying changes, even the atmosphere does change to some degree. But the people are still the heart and soul of the sport, and if y'all can't make skydiving fun there is something WRONG with you. All I do anymore is tandems, and I don't stay up and party all night like I used to. (I even quit drinking!) But skydiving is still as fun as it ever was, maybe looking from a slightly different vantage point.

If you have to do something to make the parachute land well ( turn to final or a braked / surge approach ), the parachute has poor flight and landing characteristics. I like a main that will land well from a straight in, unaccelerated approach, with or without turbulence. Then if I want to put some speed on it that is my choice, not something I have to do to get a good landing flare.

The HOP 330 is my least favorite tandem main. It does very scary things in turbulence and does not flare well ( at least compared to any other tandem main I have jumped ). It does open nice and turns fast. It's glide angle is very flat. ( It looks like a cross between a skydiving parachute and a paraglider wing. )

The Sigma Tandem Rig and Reserve are TSO'd to 500 pounds exit weight. The PD reserve in the Sigma is a 360 and lands great. At maximum TSO exit weight the reserve is wing loaded at 1.38 lbs. per square inch. My PD 113 with me at 160 lbs exit weight is wing loaded at 1.41. Per the manufacturers testing and TSO certification process the gear can be safely utilized up to the limit of the TSO. I certainly did not start out doing tandems that large, only through experience and developing techniques in jumping larger students did I become comfortable jumping up to the TSO of the rig. And it is still dependant on the students build and the conditions. I respect anyones personal limits. However, I do not do large tandems to "set records". I do them because I know that with the right conditions they can be done safely within my limits and the limits of the gear.

Today I took a 296 lb. 19 year old Male. Supercedes my previous record of 290 lb. Female. He was a tall football player type. He was of the proper build and we had good conditions for it ( a little bit of steady wind ). He pulled and we stood up the landing.

Here at Spaceland you do 2 tandems followed by 18 student solo jumps. After the 2 tandems the student program is $2200.00 if you pay as you go, or $1899.00 if you prepay the whole program. The class is $50.00 if you are paying as you go, or it is included in the package price if you prepay. This price includes instructors, equipment, video on every jump etc... THIS IS FOR 18 JUMPS! And it is an A license program, not just AFF. You graduate with your A-license proficiency card completed and 20 jumps. You then go do 5 solos at $20.00 a pop and send off for your license. $2250 for 7 levels of AFF sounds like robbery to me.

We got a Grand Caravan last year. Before the Caravan if we didn't have 10 for the Otter it was a 182 load. The Caravan is the perfect in between airplane for us. So good the 182 got SOLD. (YES!) The door is a little shorter and it is a little slower. Jumpers who are used to a Super Otter sometimes need to be reminded that the Caravan is not as forgiving of aft CG. The belly flyers (8 and 16 way teams) don't like it, but for 4 way, freeflyers, tandems, etc it is great. And I for one am ecstatic that as long as I am here I will never have to do another tandem out of a 182! Woo Hoo!

What happened to the Caravan?

Since when is Ogden flying a King Air?

I would say that giving someone a ride with minimal instuction may ALSO increase the odds of a side spin or unstable drogue deployment, as well as the possibility of some unintentional freeflying.

Seems that the only way USPA can really enforce this is through their "Group Membership" program. "Group Members" are required to abide by the BSR's set forth by USPA as a condition of their membership. But there is no LAW that you have to have a USPA Tandem I rating. Only a "Master Parachutist License" issued by an organization recognized by the FAA, along with time in sport, experience requirements and a manufacturers rating. So if you were jumping at a non USPA group member drop zone it would theoretically not be an issue unless the DZO made a USPA Tandem I rating a requirement.