bclark

Focus on good exits. Your odds of surviving a tandem go way up once you get a good drogue. Avoid "novelty exits" until you have a solid grasp on what is going on. (I still avoid them as a rule.) Train your students properly on the ground, focus on learnng how to properly harness a wide variety of students. Attention to these areas will help you avoid alot of those freefall problems. When all else fails, OUTFLY your student. Keep it simple. Remember most tandems come down to a few basic steps. Exit cleanly, deploy the drogue, release the drogue, evaluate deployment and take corrective measures as needed, FLARE. Learn how to fly the canopy. If you are letting your students help you land do LOTS of practice landings up high. (until you are confident in their ability to help you. If in doubt land them yourself.) Know your equipment, stay current on emergency procedures, have a hard deck and stick to it. These are the things I have found most important in 4500 uneventful tandem jumps. Oh yeah, don't forget to keep having fun. Tandems are as fun as you make them. Even if they get repetitive, keep it fun for your students and teach them something. This is where you will find continuing satisfaction. Hope this helps. Have fun!

Either response can result in a main / reserve entanglement. Answer yourself this question: I have had a pilot chute in tow and my main and reserve have entangled. Am I going to have more options / control of this situation with my main risers attached in a two out configuration or detached and flailing? The answer seems obvious to me. We are taught to deal with two out. How do you deal with a cutaway main entangled in your reserve?

I saw this problem on a Quasar 2 with my own eyes long before they introduced the "flinger". Rig up for repack, main still in container. The reserve handle was pulled and none of the reserve pilot chute escaped for at least 5 seconds. It then "fell onto the floor" as described above. This is no shit. I saw it myself.

First, a simple utilization of the SEARCH function will yield a wealth of information on this already extensively discussed topic. Second, 4000 jumps on icarus tandem mains and have had to cut away line twists ONCE. Don't worry about kicking (initially). Grab the risers, turn them together in the direction of the twists. This moves them down into the risers and allows the canopy to spread out more. The line twists in most cases will then promptly unwind themselves. If this does not work, commence kicking / scissoring ones feet / panicking or whatever method you deem appropriate until your hard deck.

1160! They were working jumps, but they were still FUN!

Yes! Even doing nothing but tandem jumps (4400 of em') and occasionally a demo. Skydiving was, is, and always will be fun. Of course you have job stress. Jumping in marginal weather is not fun. Jumping with scary students is not fun. The hectic pace on busy days can take it's toll. Interpersonal relationships on the job can be stressful. Seeing people get hurt is no fun. BUT, as a whole, skydiving is still a whole lot of FUN! Most of those things which detract from fun are due to conditions. If skydiving truly is not any fun for you anymore, It is time to quit.

If you spend all day on your computer listening to people on this website bad is all you will hear. Funny, but people who are stuck at work thinking about skydiving, rather than at the DZ ACTUALLY SKYDIVING, tend to be in a bad mood and bitch about whatever they can. In my experience if you are having problems there is a reason. And instead of passing the buck and ASSUMING that the DZ can (or will) look up your membership online, I would continue to courteously work with USPA to rectify the issue. 12 jumps and a year in the sport is a pretty short period of time in which to develop any objective opinion. Especially in the last 5 years service has improved dramatically.

What's wrong with that? 4 jumps friday, 10 saturday, 10 sunday. All Tandems Saturday we put up 68 tandems, 30+ videos, 20 solo students. Not bad for February!

Yes, I feel that a female or non-white could be elected. But I feel that it should be based upon their experience and aptitude for the job. NOT because they are female or non-white. Based on those qualifications I do not believe that either Hillary or Obama should be president. I am sorry Romney dropped out. I think that he was the most QUALIFIED candidate. Now I don't like any of my choices.

Two very important pieces of advice that will help you achieve uneventful landings: 1. FLARE. 2. Be prepared for a PLF. I know it seems simple. Sometimes that's what ya need though.

I sucked up a block full of water driving on the beach when I first moved here (Houston). But it didn't do anything like that!

We jumped into her car, away we started rollin', I asked "how much you pay for this?" She said "Nothin' man it's stolen!" Punk rock girl, you look so wild Let's have a child... Ok that's all I remember!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I concur!

This coming from someone who bases their opinion on what they saw in a Michael Moore film. And who doesn't even know how to SPELL mormon. If you saw it on TV or in a movie it MUST be true, right?

I was born in Provo, Ut. My father was a Bishop and Stake President in the LDS church. My parents, now that all the children (5 of us) are born and raised, are going to be mission presidents in a yet to be determined Spanish speaking mission for 3 years. I was raised in the Mormon church. I rebelled as many kids do, and made many mistakes regardless of what faith you believe in. I am thankful for the way that my family raised me. Think what you want about the LDS church. LDS families are among the strongest around. They teach personal responsibility, respect for your fellow man, hard work, honesty, etc... Mormons believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. I don't go to church. (Of any kind.) But I look at the people around me and am grateful for the upbringing I recieved. Anyone who bashes the LDS church out of ignorance should learn something about them before they form an opinion.

One of those unsuccessful go around pics looked an awful lot like an Otter...

I also like these articles. Aircraft are an aspect of our sport that many people could learn more about. Particularly about techniques / things to pay attention to when jumping different airplanes. I LOVED seeing an article devoted to Beech 18's. The historical aspect of the sport and the aircraft is attractive to me. More education, less boogie coverage, photos are cool. More members submitting material will help to diversify the mag. Skydiving is a relatively small sport. If you write something intelligent, or have a cool photo, you have a reasonable chance of getting in the mag.

They DO have a right to say whatever they want. But they need to understand that people may not like what they have to say. And based on that people may decide not to watch their films, or listen to their music, or buy their books. Just as they have a right to free speech, we have a right to not listen.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Drama) I hate Jim Carrey but this is a GREAT movie! Makes you think about things. Pan's Labrynth (Fantasy) If you don't mind subtitles. One of the coolest and most original movies I have seen in some time. Stigmata (Horror) Patricia Arquette plays a woman who gets, guess what, STIGMATA! Very cool too.

Paratissue...

Says something about the statistics and demographics of ACTUAL suicides, vs. "cries for help (or attention)".

Borgy, That is awesome! I was brought up the same way. My home DZ had a Beech 18 and Twin Bonanza. We did the same thing. When there was going to be alot of weight in the back we told the pilot. The rest of the load remained forward until that group left. We had signs in the airplane reminding people to think about CG. Now I jump at an Otter DZ. People who grow up jumping out of Otters don't seem to be taught this as much. You can stall em all, but some airplanes are much more stable than others.

Yes, I agree. In a perfect world all pilots do intensive W+B calculations to ensure that their CG's remain in limits during all phases of flight. And in a perfect world aircraft are never operated over max gross weight. But in the real world there are many circumstances (particularly in the skydiving world) where aircraft have been overloaded, and variations in loading and group exits cause aircraft to be operated outside the envelope. Have you ever seen a 16 way team plus cameraman stack a gripped exit in an Otter? I would be highly surprised if the airplane was within CG limits in this condition. (I might be wrong but I doubt it.) And when the airplane stalls and they all hang on / stay put what happens now?

I agree to a point. But what if the aircraft has stalled and entered a spin with a CG that is too far aft for the pilot to recover? Then staying put is going to doom everyone on board because the aircraft cannot be recovered until the CG moves to a recoverable position. And once you are outside of the aircraft (such as that camera guy) depending on the direction of spin you are going to be flung away from the aircraft as he was, or pressed to the side of it.

Funny how long that cameraman hung on to the airplane. You would think that upon recognition that the airplane was stalling, let alone SPINNING, he would let go! Amazing to see them get flung away from the direction of spin. How about that guy who hit the gear? And how about the guy trying to climb out and hang from the tire? The way he was scraping the back of his rig up against the forward edge of the door, HE was likely to take the tail off! I bet the pilot was turned around trying to watch that guy hang from the tire instead of flying.