bclark

I have two friends who just bought Hornet 170's and they have HUGE sliders on them. They say they open nice. I have heard from some folks with older Hornets that they are spankers. I don't know when they started puting the big sliders on them. From my understanding they are South African Sabre's, which might explain the opening characteristics. Pocket sliders work well.

Just trying to get an idea of how many of y'all do this shit for a living.

This past weekend we hosted hopefully the 1st annual dinosaur days at our dz. (Skydive Utah). A "seasoned" local jumper organized the event and produced probably 20 jumpers of varying experience levels from back in the day. Many of the jumpers had not jumped in years. The highlight of the event was that they pulled off a 16 way out of the Southern Cross DC-3. I think it would have been a POPS state record, but a few were not POPS members. It was a fun day with 4 full loads in the DC-3 and a couple loads in the T-Bone. The massive repack cycles between DC-3 loads proved time consuming. But, it was cool to meet some of the older jumpers in the state. I never saw so many Vector 2's, original Talons, old RW suits w/grippers in my life.

I am not a rigger. My understanding of the I & R is that the rigger is inspecting and maintaining the TSO'd components of the system. ( i.e. reserve container, harness, cutaway system. ) I would like to think that most skydivers have enough sense to LOOK at their main every once in a while. Untwist brake lines, check condition of bag, pilot chute, grommets, links, risers etc... and if they see a problem bring it to their riggers attention.

Can't say anything someone else hasn't already said. Heard and seen nothing but goody good.

I have not read all of the extensive debate in this thread. My feelings are that the PRO rating is a challenging rating to get. I think that if you get your PRO rating fairly you earned it. I have seen a few people getting their PRO's who have really half assed it. Examples: counting non pre declared open field demos as PRO jumps. NOT passing the PRO written exam, (not even close) and then having the test pencil whipped. Anyway: If people demonstrate the skills and discipline to get the rating, and do it correctly I think they are qualified. Also S&TA's, I/E's and others in positions of authority need to be stringent in making sure the people they are signing off actually meet the requirements.

AFTER the skydiving mag poll came out I witnessed the craziest thing. Our chief pilot, in retribution for years of eye watering, paint peeling, carcinogenic farts, took his shoes off in flight. He then proceeded to take off his sock and stick it in the open mouth of one of tandem pilots. ( Who was responsible for 90% of the offending emissions.) His new nickname is trenchtooth or athlete's mouth.

Because w/ Strong gear when you pull the drogue release the drogue does not immediately collapse. Therefore you do not accelerate appreciably before the container is opened and the bag is lifted off your back. It is comparable to a big giant kill line pilot chute.

*** No... 2 tandem students / 2 tandem pilots, 2 videographers.

I started noticing the noise at approx 500- 700 feet and started getting concerned with it thereafter. I pointed it out to one of the Tandem Masters on the plane and we pointed it out to the pilot. I have always been taught that in the event of an aircraft emergency rule #1 is remain calm and communicate. We made the decision to turn around and land at approx 2500' AGL. We elected not to leave the airplane because A: it was only a noise, there was no visible sign of any problem, the airplane was flying just fine B: 4 of the 6 people on the aircraft were tandems. It was not an emergency landing, just a precautionary landing.

I had an interesting experience yesterday. I went to work as usual, looking forward to doing some tandems and having some fun. Our chief pilot was out of town, and we didn't have anyone available to fly our T-Bone. We arranged to use a friends Turbo 207 for the day. We flew 2 loads in beautiful air with no problems. It was interesting figuring out tandem exits out of this new aircraft. The third load the winds had come up and it was getting quite turbulent. We took off and were climbing to altitude, getting bounced around pretty good. I started hearing this metalic popping noise. It caught my attention at first, and I decided to pay attention to it. It started to concern me more as every time we hit a bump in the sky we would hear this POP. It was a sound like two pieces of sheet metal shearing or bending. I was sitting behind the pilot and the noise was coming from the general vicinity of the rear wing spar. I started getting a little concerned. ( I was scared SHITLESS! ) We made the decision to make a precautionary landing. Upon landing we spoke with the owner of the aircraft and pilot. Upon closer inspection, we found that it was simply a gap seal on the bottom of the wing near the trailing edge. It was "oilcanning" in flight and causing this frightening noise. We all laughed and joked a little. I even felt a bit foolish now that I know what it was. BUT... we all agreed that it was better to make a precautionary landing than to continue flight with a possible problem. I know I have to go sometime, but I sure as SHIT don't want it to be in an airplane.

The biggest advantage to the Sigma is that the main container cannot be opened prior to releasing the drogue. The biggest cause of tandem fatalities, (besides TM's not following procedures) is out of sequence deployments where the main container opens prior to the drogue being deployed, or in droguefall. With the Sigma, you must deploy the drogue to activate the drogue release ripcords, and subsequently must pull the drogue release ripcord and free the drogue to open the main container. Strong gear is close to being as secure as the Sigma now, as it has a double closing loop system. This prevents one broken closing loop from opening the main container. Also the old curved style closing pin is now a long flex pin which prevents the drogue bridle from extracting the closing pin upon full extension.

Why did you refuse to get rated on Strong? I agree that the Sigma is probably the safest rig on the market, but I think Strong gear beats the shit out of the Vector 2 tandem.

DO SOMETHING! Nice thing about PC in tows is that if you cock your pilot chute, maintain your gear, and do proper gear checks you will probably never have one.

The answer to the question in my mind is YES! If the videographer can help an unconscious TM than by all means do it. The question though is, is the drogue out or not. If the drogue were out, I would want the videographer to deploy the main, instead of risking an entanglement with the drogue. ( I am thinking of Strong gear where trap door effect is not an issue. ) If the drogue is not out, I seriously doubt that the videographer could stay with the tandem pair, unless the videographer were a talented freeflyer. Especially if the tandem pair were tumbling @ tandem terminal. But if the videographer were able to get there I think that dumping the reserve would be the thing to do. The cypres SHOULD fire, but as someone said earlier, I would rather have someone try to help, as opposed to relying on a backup device.

Just thought I would get some opinions about different gear. I have 400+ tandems on Strong gear and just cross trained to Vector 2 / Sigma.

Aliengirl, I think I would stick with a bigger parachute for a while. Having downsized 4 sizes while still learning the basics of canopy flight is a bad idea. Even if your wing loading under that little parachute is considered acceptable by most. The idea here is that you are still learning the elementary concepts here, and learning means that you will make mistakes. A bigger parachute will probably allow you to make those mistakes, where as a smaller parachute may or may not. LEARN TO GO FAST SLOW...

1400 in 7 years. "give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will stare at the water drinking beer all day."

Hey I am reading these last couple threads, and it made me think of something I read in the newspaper this week. A girl was hiking, she had a tongue piercing and she was struck by lightning. It said that apparently the lightning was attracted to her piercing. She lived but was burned about the facial region. When I read this, it made me think of Wingnut, I figured I should give him warning because of his nipples and OTHER piercings.

Been jumpin for 7 1/2 years. Personally known 3 who were killed skydiving. I was only witness to one. Also knew 5 who were killed in a plane crash. Have personally witnessed more horrific injuries than I can count. I really SUCKS.

I also hook up the lowers as soon as the seatbelts come off. I figure in the event of an emergency it will take very little time to hook up the two uppers and snug up the sides. I know the manufacturers say you can go with just one upper, but I think that would be some pretty scary shit.

I agree. Dharma Trading is the only place to get tie die shite. Use Procion MX cold water fiber reactive dyes. They are very good with cotton, and good to varying degrees w/other stuff. These are the dyes that you see making all the bright colors you see in the head shops etc...

I am thankful that I had a great mentor who inspired me with what I needed to continue jumping. His name was Nathan Hall and he took me through AFF back in 1996 - 97. There were a lot of experienced jumpers / "SKYGODS" at the DZ back then. He was a very heads up, down to earth guy, and a hell of a skydiver. He took the time to make me feel comfortable at the DZ and to get to know me personally. When I got off of "student status" he took me out on my first fun jump. A 2 way horny gorilla. I had never experienced freefall in any other orientation than belly to earth, so it was very cool. I remember him saying to me "Brian, I never thought I would see you continue to skydive because you were always so damned scared on the plane." When he was killed in a plane crash back in 2001, with 8 other highly respected jumpers from my state, It was very rough. But now I am a S/L, Tandem Inst. with 1400 jumps and I think that without help from people like him I would probably not be here today.

I learned to skydive @ 5000' MSL ( Cedar Valley, UT ). Whenever I go anywhere else like Eloy, Elsinore... blah blah blah I marvel at the slooooow air. I guess it is all what you are used to.

I could never wash my dishes in a dishwasher again after It had had a pair of Stinky Tevas in it. I wear nothing but Chuck's ( converse ) and I occasionally wear them w/no socks. I think that is the greatest common denominator. Throw em in the damned washing machine w/some soap and let them dry. I do agree that wearing socks with Tevas looks dorky, but it is better than having stinky feet.