AFFI

What does that convert to in good ole pounds and ounces?

This is starting to seem like a covert advertisement operation for "DZ#*" Jeez, enough already, just go skydive already. - Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

No they dont all use the same batteries, and they are getting hard to find. I have owned a PC5, 101 and 109 models that all fit in the same box. My 109 is still pretty new and I am already having problems with it. Looks like a change is on the horizon, so I will have to by 2 new boses, thinking of going with a camera condom and L-bracket to save $$$. - Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

I used to coach Little League. The technique I used to teach the kids how to catch a fly ball is somewhat similar to teaching accuracy. If the ball is in the air (and it is over its ascent arch), but it is moving toward your feet (it will land in front of you) then you need to move your body (run) forward, keeping your eye on the ball, until the ball appears to stop moving, this means that the ball is coming straight for you and you are in the ‘sweet spot” to catch the ball. If the ball is in the air, but it is moving toward the crown of your head (it will land in behind you), you need to move your body (run) backwards, keeping your eye on the ball, until the ball appears to stop moving, this means that the ball is coming straight for you and you are in the ‘sweet spot” to catch the ball If the ball is just hanging in the air, that means it is comming straight at you and you are in a good position the catch the ball. So for parachuting, just switch things around, now you are the ball. If a fixed object is moving toward your feet, you will land on the other side of it. If that object is slowly moving up and away from you, you are fgoing to land short of it. There is a point on the ground that does not appear to be moving, that is the general area you will land. *If you change your mode of flight (turns, flying in brakes etcetera) you are going to change the variables. Something like that… Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

I am curious, what were the speed of the ground winds when the plane took off?

Once again, great advice from rom Lisa - Just remember, when you are practicing this skill, remain traffic and altitude aware! - Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

I wonder what they would have done if you told them that you did bounce?

Smart ass instructors? Never heard of such a thing... KC, that was a great post, you so eloquently sated the essence of the good stuff that happens between the dives. You just might be a really great instructor yourself one day... Geez, I hope to get there myself one day. Mykel

thats it! I'm deleting my posts too...

What did your instructor say when you debriefed the jump? Is that what instructors are for? To instruct? Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

"over and over and over " Sounds like some student jumps eh? Freefly the top half and bellyfly the bottom half! - Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Here is a very effective method, at least it is for me, I do not use the word “Pull” with students. It might sound stupid, but we don’t pull ripcords anymore, we initiate the main deployment by “Throwing” the hackey (PC) out and into the Relative Wind. I do not like students to pull the PC out and hold it, not even for a second-it is dangerous to do so. Since I started watching my semantics here and using the word throw and emphasizing that, I have had a noticeable percentage of students not hold the PC. Deploy, Deploy at the correct Altitude, Deploy Stable if able? Something like that. Students where I work have to take a short pop quiz before each instructional jump and deploying at the correct altitude is emphasized on those pop quizzes through the course intermittently. How I personally began to teach it with the very best effectiveness is to quickly go through the drill with them about deploying on time regardless of body position, a short Q&A if you will. Most of the time, thanks to the pop quizzes reinforcement they already know to deploy on their back if that is their body position at deployment time or if they are on their own on non-release dives etcetera. At the very end of the Q&A about deployment time I say something like: “If you don’t deploy on time, don’t expect me to do it for you. We are all big boys and girls here so you should be able to deploy when you are supposed to, cuz I don’t open peoples parachutes for them and I don’t skydive below 2500 feet (hard deck reinforcement), so if you see my parachute open, that means you got around 12 seconds left, you better do something quick!” Of course I tell them at some point before the jump that I will in fact deploy for them if they aint gonna do it (interject the "I aint Superman speach") and after a student has worked with me more than once they are used to my banter and I will tell them that I aint there to deploy for them and they know I am only kidding BUT since I started using this technique 4 years ago I have HAD to deploy for only 2 students! 1 was at 10k because we were ape shit out of control and I needed to stop the skydive and 1 because of a loss of altitude awareness down low. So in my opinion, great results. “The Courtesy Pull”: When I first started, an experienced instructor told me that if they have a student that was not really paying attention at 5600 feet, they would give them a “courtesy pull”, call them on it during the debrief and then that person would never be lackadaisical at deployment time again. I have found that this works well also. Bottom line I think is repetitive reinforcement – over and over and over again… And over... Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

I am probably wrong about something here, my freeflying and understanding of it sucks... When the body is in a head down orientation the rate of descent increases and the amount of body surface area on the relative wind decreases thus making it more difficult to control oneself. The slightest adjustment in body presentation can cause a skydiver to “cork” which means they rapidly change orientations from vertical to horizontal and with the increased rate of descent it will propel the body across the sky at a very high rate of speed. I remember when I had around 175 jumps or so I was getting some freefly coaching from SS - just me and him in the air, he was my freefly coach. I corked and when I saw the video I was astonished how fast I flew by him, just a blur. If I would have collided with him at that rate of speed we both would have likely ended up dead, it would have been like him standing on the side of the road and me jumping out of the back of a pick up truck going 100 MPH and hitting him so it’s a good thing he was able to get out of my way /or/ that I luckily missed him. Now take that level of danger and put 2 or 3 or more skydivers in a head-down orientation on the same group, what you have now is an exponentially increased rate of danger (did I say that right? exponentially ? I am trying to look sophisticated here!). Learning vertical flight is much safer when you have one beginner and one experienced person coaching, then before/between coach jumps the person learning should make X number of solo’s to work on vertical flight with the sky all to themselves. I think SS had me doing 10 solos between coach jumps. To add to that before I was able to get him to coach me in the vertical I had to prove myself with an ability to sit fly proficiently (forward, backward, sideslide, turning, fall rate changes). I am not very good on my head, about as graceful as a hippo with a spear in it's ass... - Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

How much is that in U.S Currencey?

You are screwed! Unless you are wealthy, pretty soon you will be living in a camper or tent on the DZ eating ramen noodles! Still, it's a pretty good life while it lasts (at least it was for me). Enjoy, the best is always yet to come! - Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

If this were my only choice, if time and altitude permitted I would only cut one line at a time. - Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

That is a GREAT point... - Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Something else to consider, when experiencing a line over malfunction, it does not necessarily mean you will be flying stable does it? The canopy could be flying erratically and difficult if not impossible to get to fly stable. What a rush! Leave your camera on… - Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

My bad, darn dyslexia sneaking up again... Reserve Line over, shit wheres my hook knife? Ah there it is, oh shit I dropped it! Should have listened to that old timer that told me to carry two. Anybody know what the statistic is on reserve lineovers? _ Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

What would I do for a Lineover malfunction? Ummmm, how about - Cutaway, Deploy Reserve... _ Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

You are correct Dave; there are different ways to teach reacting to varying malfunctions. The jumper may have very well utilized the method they were trained with... Where I teach, we train the techniques that an “experienced” jumper would use and I have seen a couple students with less than 10 skydives react to a total (hard pull) as a total and went straight for the reserve. At any rate, continued training is always a good idea. - Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Great post Billy, Sometimes it is hard for me to shake my finger at someone for doing something unsafe. When I was just starting out in the sport (first 500 jumps) I did every unsafe action in the air imaginable, it is a wonder I didn’t get killed of injured doing some of the stupid shit I did! I would certainly feel bad if someone was doing something unsafe and I did not send out a message to that person to be careful and they got screwed up, know what I am saying? So even though some strong language may be used sometimes to warn someone, I believe there is usually a good intention behind it and not all of the postings in this thread were harsh - I have read some very good mentoring messages in here as well. _ Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

I feel ya John, and I feel the same way. Something else to consider though, it is possible that a jumper might not feel comfortable with a spot that is in fact acceptable. That is where it might be a topic of heated debate because we are bringing into the equation differing human perspectives. Likely, most DZO’s will side with the pilots perspective, no? _ Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Sounds like a case of "everybody has an opinion" Perhaps the jumper needs a review in a malfunction trainer with a solo freefall instructor as to how to correctly handle a total malfunction. Many jumpers stop training for malfunctions after acquisition of their “A” license which is a huge mistake - encourage this person to continue training. To me, in my small, narrow mind this is the jumpers responsibility to replace the handles (one of which shouldn’t have been extracted) and the lost gear. After all, this is a packing error that should have been caught during the pre-flight (the way I teach them) gear inspection. And don’t forget the case of beer for the beer fridge and an appropriate hook up for the rigger as well. Last but certainly not least, even though the jumper cutaway a total before going to the reserve, a pat on the back for living through what must have been a very exciting situation. If there is video of this situation transpiring I certainly would like to see it. _ Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Unacceptable compared to what? I know some of the student gear I have seen is really ratty compared to my personal gear and even though I wouldn’t jump some of them, that don’t deem them unworthy to jump. Has a rigger deemed this gear not fit for jumping? Yup, that will do the trick. Anytime I jump gear that I did not pack myself I always like to putt the PC and bridle out and stow the bridle and repack the PC myself, certainly I have saved myself a couple of headaches by doing this myself over the years. If I ever experience a difficult extraction of the PC (hard pull) or a PCIT as a result of a packing error, no one to blame but myself. That being said, the jumper is responsible for rental gear at every DZ I have been to and I agree with that to a certain extent. Canopy hooked up backwards or something like that would not be the jumpers fault. This quote was in the original post. If the malfunction was a total, did the jumper cutaway first and loose the cutaway handle as well? And what was the “other gear” that was lost? - Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…