bclark

Hey Dave, We have been flying the shit out of the T-Bone for the last 2 years and I have yet to see or hear of anyone strike the tail. There is, however a nice dent on the tail where some military dude exited in a climb configuration. I will rear float as far rear on that T-Bone as any other airplane, even w/a camera helmet. We have had 2 on the wing and three on the step before. (We do have an exceptional pilot). I have seen and heard of tail strikes on King Airs AND Caravan's. But I don't think that is the airplanes fault. I think it is jumpers exiting before the plane is in jump run configuration / pilots who don't know what the fuck they are doing.

I let my students help me fly down to 1000'. I very rarely allow a student to help me land. Landing is the one time where an uncooperative or brainlocked student can hurt you. We use Strong gear w/SET 400's and I can fly them all the way down by myself w/no problems, even with big students.

I have seen BIG airplanes pretty close in freefall, although never close enough to be scary. Early this spring I was taking a tandem out of our Twin Bonanza, and looked out the door to see a 757 about 1/4 mile to the west and maybe 500 feet below us, flying the same direction. It was a very cool visual. I can only hope that ATC was advising the pilot of the 757 of our position in time that he could tell his passengers, because they would have easily been able to see us exiting the aircraft and falling by.

My DZ charges $2.00 per pound over 200. 220 is max weight. The DZ gets $1.00 and the tandem pilot gets $1.00. I think it is good for a couple of reasons. First, it is harder on the tandem pilot. I weigh 160 and will take em up to 220. Once in freefall it is not a big deal but getting them out of the plane is harder. Also many people over 200 pounds are not in the greatest shape and have a hard time getting their knees and feet up to land. So, maybe having to pay extra money might discourage people who are not in the proper physical condition from jumping.

I would buy an Infinity. They are very simple rigs, and functional. I am very impressed with the design of the main riser cover tuck tabs and the secondary riser covers which are integrated with the reserve side flaps. They are well made and affordable and just plain good lookin rigs. I have only seen one Wings, and it was a BIG one. It is a very odd looking, misproportioned rig. Maybe they translate better into smaller rigs, but I was unimpressed with the big one. My rigger hates it.

We have a guy here in Park City Ut that will take you to 4 grand for 35 bucks. His balloon will hold 8 jumpers. He has been doing it for a while, and they usually occur in the wee hours of the morning due to winds. Also the LZ is @ 6000' msl.

1380 total jumps 7 reserve rides. All slow speed partials. 4 tandem malfunctions.

I lost respect for Metallica because of A:) that whole napster thing, B:) the shitty cover tunes they have been putting out, (Whiskey in the Jar, Bob Seger etc...) The impression that I get is that whatever joy or pride they took out of making music in the beginning has been overshadowed by greed. I used to work at an FBO ( airplane gas station ) at Salt Lake international airport. I had the "pleasure" of meeting the Metal- Licka guys once. I helped them unload hundreds of pounds of amps and other stuff out of the baggage door of a Gulfstream jet. The baggage door is aboot 15 feet up and they were handing this heavy shit down to us to load in vans for like a half hour. These guys never once said thanks or gave us any sort of gratuity for our work. ASSHATS.

Since when did Budweiser become CHEAP beer? Bud is just regular ole beer. There is the foo foo microbrew class of beer, which I can handle on occasion, but find too filling to get drunk off of. My favorite beer is Bud lite. Cheap beer for me is good ole Natty lite. The only beers I WILL NOT drink are Old Milwacky, Milwacky's Beast, Peestone etc...

I have not read the entire thread. I jump @ 5000' MSL in mountainous terrain. I have flown Stilettos for the last 4 years. I think airlocks are a great idea, and demo'd a Sam 120 last year. It was a great canopy. I still like my Stiletto more. I jump near dust devils, mountain wave shite, and just about any type of turbulence that one can experience in the U.S. My Stiletto has yet to lose more than an end cell on occasion. NOT TO SAY THAT IT CANT HAPPEN!!! Just my experience.

Old School! Steam Gauges.

We had a great party this weekend at the site of our former DZ. It was a memorial for Janet Gayler, who was killed on an AFF jump about 5 years ago. Anyhow, we got there, and the airport manager has a golf cart. We had never driven his cart before, so we sez, Hey Brent, how aboot letting us take your cart for a spin = 3 drunken skydivers on a golf cart. Started innocently enough, a little drive by mooning etc... Then the night goes on. I am driving and the guy in the right seat says YOU DRIVE LIKE A PUSSY. So he takes the gas pedal, I'm on the wheel and Mike is on the roof half naked. We start pushing the envelope, spinning out, shit like that. Then time for the grand finale. We plan a 3 way pants down pass by the crowd at high speeds. One on the wheel, one on the gas, one on the roof and POW, immediately roll the cart in front of everyone! RESULT= several stitches, alot of laughs, and a case of beer for brent for rolling his cart. WARNING: never drive a golf cart at high speeds while half naked and intoxicated.

Hey Dave, You are doing a great job! Come jump w/ me anytime. I hear that I am an easy target. That guy with the drool was pretty damned hilarious. He wanted to bring napkins on the plane. I said It's a 103 f-ing degrees out here and he said, "no you don't understand, I REALLY sweat." So we gave him water and he drooled, but you did a great job on the VDO.

I have jumped both the Stiletto and the Vengeance. I own a Stiletto 120 and love it. I jumped a Vengeance 120 and found it to have horribly unpredictable openings ( off heading like a mutha ) and a very steep glide ratio. I suppose one could get used to the flight characteristics, and even like them, but the openings SUCK. I demo'd a Samurai 120 and found that I liked it MUCH more than the Vengeance, but am still a die hard Stiletto driver.

St our Dz repacks are $50.00 for any sort of rig, including racer / reflex and other purported " pain in the ass rigs ". Assembly of new rigs is $25.00 additional. It seems to be a little higher than the average, but we have a very good rigger at our DZ who has personally saved my ass 4 times, and is very thourough and willing to do minor repairs free of charge most of the time.

We are using Rigging Innovations Telesis student rigs. They are set up with two handle systems and we are teaching students to hand deploy from their first AFF jump with two sided throw out pilot chutes. I like the Telesis because they have clear reserve pin covers and cypres covers on the backpad, also reverse tuck flap on the main pin cover. I think the dual sided hand deploy is a good idea, but could be a little more secure and is very packing specific.

I wear a frap hat while doing tandems, and have my student do the same. I pay attention to my head while exiting the aircraft. I can still hear my Dytter in a frap hat. I don't have to worry about a student with a hard helmet breaking my nose. I can still communicate with my student fine under canopy. I usually ask them to turn their head toward me and I put my ear close to their mouth. I am rated on strong gear and am coming up on 400 tandems.

I have always flared with my hands slightly out in front of me but more out to the side. It makes sense to me that flaring behind you would have the effect of adding rear risers to the equation without having to actually transition to them. I am just adding things in one thing at a time, such as loosened chest strap, different slider configurations, braked approach before a front riser turn, finishing on double fronts, etc... I guess I haven't tried the flaring behind me thing yet.

I have been a devoted Stiletto driver for years. 700 jumps on a 135 and 200 on a 120 so far. I have an opportunity to demo a Crossfire 2 109. I will be very interested in seeing what PD comes out with, as my next canopy was going to be a Stiletto 107. I would rather deal with PD as far as quality control and customer service is concerned, as opposed to Icarus, who I have heard less than good stuff about.

Hey Dave, That was really cool, you have more nads than I. I don't think that anyone really cares out there if there is a NOTAM or not, as it is in uncontrolled airspace, was a free jump (not a money making enterprise for the pilot) and was conducted over a private airport. We sure had fun jumping in there though. The ride out to the place in the T-Bone over the mountains rocked.

I like 4 grand. I can exit, freefall for 16 seconds and still pull by 2 @ terminal. I know this is not a true hop and pop. I just figure that for 8 bucks if I can get a short plane ride, play around a little in that fun sub terminal air, open, get to fly my canopy and swoop, THAT's as much fun as I need.

Hey Steve. You know me. I can't think of anything I would rather be doing that gettin my knees in the breeze. I skydive full time during the season doing tandems and video / packing. Anything I can to avoid getting that real JOB. Even when I get pissed about the inevitable bullshit that occurs on the dz, I can take a step back and ask myself, What the fU#K would I rather be doing?

Beer...Bud light, the occasional foo foo micro brew. Jim Beam and Coke. Tequila if I feel like going really big.

Main: Stiletto 120 Reserve: PD 113R Jumps: 1350 Wing loading reserve: 1.45 Landed my PD 113 once. Flew like a dream. Wouldn't want to land it unconcious, but that is a decision you make. Much like jumping without an AAD.

I agree. However sometimes even that will not help... If you really get someone hell bent on buying that small parachute. We had one of these at our DZ a while back. He would solicit advise from all of the experienced jumpers, including the DZO and S&TA. When we all told him that we would not support him flying that small canopy at our DZ he went to the DZ next door to buy it. Unfortunately, skydivers are ultimately responsible for their own safety, and ultimately (with the exception of kicking them off of the DZ) are free to be just as stupid as they want to be.