DanglesOZQld

I am beginning to feel like a tired old bastard saying things like "in my day..........." IN MY DAY 1) I drove 2 1/2 hrs each way to a dz I loved and would not whine because weather or the amount of people at the dz kept me from jumping onto the next load available 2) Some jumps would be a repeat even though (in your highly experienced student jumper position) you thought they were not or that you had spent enough money on that stage 3) People would learn the aspects of canopy flight and how to pack properly and gain a lot of experience before downsizing. 4) The colors of your rig or jumpsuit would not equate to your jump number/s or ability to do a certain skydive. I could make a list of a lot more!!! I guess I AM an old bastard!! BSBD -Mark (33). "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

And onya for jumping outta and flying in at the same time......that takes some guts! Being a pilot as well as a jumper I HATE it when we have to land in the plane....sorta like the first couple of times you are a tandem passenger after having done a lot of jumps by yourself..not having the control lol! Nice weather up this end of Oz hey?? I used to live in Melbourne most of my life but get a lot more jumping here in Queensland. At least Australia in any part doesn't have to keep skydiving on hold due to snow or any of the like for any part of the year like some countries!!! BSBD -Mark. "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

Sorry to disagree but the bands do a lot more than just hold the excess from flapping into you like mad during the ff part of any jump. The bands position the excess in a way that makes the friction adapters work in a way they were meant to. I am sure you would have a lot more tension troubles with a helmet that had the excess going off even at a slight angle than one that had the excess sitting flat against the "tight" original part against your neck. Same with most of the adjustments on a Tandem harness. That is , if you keep the excess flat against the other part of the (tight) webbing rather than granny knotting it or putting it at some other angle it will have far less likelihood of loosening off under load or at other times. -Mark. "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

Going back to the importance of buckling up , imagine the forces involved with you near the pilot end of a decent sized aircraft with two lines of bodies say 5+ in front of your own and having an aborted take off or whatever with the aircraft coming to an abrupt stop for whatever reason. Then add to this the fact that there are G forces well above normal involved in the unwanted result. Lets just say that each person in front of you weighs 70 kilos and the plane was subjected to +3 G of force when brought to an abrupt stop at the end of the runway. You would not be in good shape!!!! BUCKLE UP DUDES! -Mark. "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

VERY VERY true. Hence I talked and answered the media as much as possible rather than ignoring them. The questions they asked were sometimes verging on the stupid but we all made sure they had a lot more fact than fiction when reporting the story later that same night on the TV news services as well as the printed media the next day. Also Chris my passenger has worked around the media before and I could not have asked for a better passenger both before and after the incident with regard to the media. He was utterly ice cool during the incident which made me able to deal with it a whole lot easier and also when one of the channel reporters started on the "crazy skydivers" routine he stopped them right there and then with an answer they were NOT looking for and directed the story to the fact that a VERY brave pilot happened to save our lives that day. He has also since started things rolling for a bravery award for Lisa our pilot and I have backed him on this as well. Like I have stated elsewhere the news service that best covered the story also came back when the Tandem Passenger Chris as well as Pilot Lisa did a skydive together so the story had a very good ending. The two things against good reporting from my own novice point of view are the need to get the story out quickly as well as the ability of gathering the information from the persons involved. If their is little time to get the story out as is often the case as well as no one wanting to shed any light on parts of the story then inaccuracies are bound to occur. Sorry to all for rambling on!! BSBD -Mark. "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

When I first started doing skydiving as a full time occupation I had many days when I thought to myself WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING THIS FOR!!! but then you remember the better jumps and why you came into and stayed with the sport. The reactions you see on people's faces who have never done it before and loved it ; the satisfaction of teaching someone to conquer their fear and do it all themselves and the scenery you have to put up with just to name a few good reasons for being there. It certainly beat being stuck in a factory as a printer doing 12 hour shifts for stuff all like I used to do before. You do have to keep the fun aspect going though when it starts being a source of paying the bills. I always said to myself that if I was going to do jumping full time I would still take time out to see the fun aspect of the sport. Too many people burn out when they do see it only as a source of paying bills not as a fab lifestyle choice that it can be given the right circumstances. Sure you will not be rich being a full time jumper but lifestyle is what it is all about and having done skydiving full time for over a year now I would hate to do anything else. After the Tandem Incident I went through some time ago I seriously looked at giving up the sport that I had loved for the last ten and a half years. Self doubt and what ifs still abound and I am still trying to get over a lot more than I let anyone see. Bottom line , if you love it then do it. Some people need some time off and some just need to stop certain jumps (IE - work tandems) for a little while to get the love back. We are each different people and have to go about it in our own way. I wish everyone who has been in anything like the situation/s above all the best. BSBD -Mark. "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

Trust me!!! We had a 4-5 foot tree in the middle of a HUGE open landing area and no points for guessing how many times that poor little thing got bashed into by people!! Murphy's law! -Mark. "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

For what the population in Australia allows , definitely the LET 410 for standard or the Skyvan for the ol 'gate. The Let is cool though as we all have seats facing each side of the plane and can easily gear up Tandems and walk rather than scoot on our bums to the LARGE door to exit. Also nice and fast to height! -Mark. "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

Having been on the end of a skydive gone bad that ended up in the media throughout most of Australia and some other countries I can tell you it REALLY sucks to see that some of the reporters just do not get the facts right. I was the Tandem incident in Qld Australia about six months ago and some of the inaccuracies in most of the reporter's stories were just incredible. We all made sure though that we did not ignore the media when they turned up and instead made sure we answered all their questions and clarified what they did not know. The end result was a slight dramatisation on the truth but that is to be expected. Hats off to channel 7 news (Queensland Aust.) who were the most accurate and unbiased to any sensationalistic crap that usually follows a so-called extreme sport incident. They even came back when my Tandem student and the incident Pilot Lisa did a Tandem skydive at a later date together to finish off the whole saga on a good note which was reported on the news channel later the same night. -Mark. "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

Yeah I was 23 when I did my first jump after realising that it was more fun jumping from rather than flying a plane lol! -Mark. "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

We are Skydivers - I think the party hard thing will be EASILY taken care of ha ha !! -Mark. "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

Not really had that much to do with Perth but do have cousins over there who love the place and have been there for some time. Ask me about the other side of the country and I have a much better idea North and south lol! -Mark. "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

Yeah Done about 2300 jumps now , 320 of those have been tandems done since the incident. They say it all happens in the first 50 , now I have to get to at least 3,000 tandems incident free to make up for what I have been through so far lol!! See also the incidents forum , we are there as well as I have since found out. Some of the reports are just soooo wildly inaccurate its almost laughable. You hear about such things but do not believe it until you are the one the reports are about! Like one example , they said the pilot was a male.......What the!!?!? "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

The incident was a Tandem Skydive BTW , and both Chris and Myself are in the process of nominating Lisa for a bravery award. "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

-Basically exited a Cessna 206 and got caught on the step and rolled through 180 degrees ending up head down underneath the aircraft. The student's left legstrap caught the step even though I took his weight and went further out from the door feeling no resistance anywhere at that time. We were hanging under the plane for what we worked out later to be 4 mins minimum. The pilot (Lisa) controlled the plane with her left hand whilst kneeling at the open door side and reaching out with her right hand to cut us off. Keeping in mind that the plane did not have auto pilot fitted and lisa had NO RIG ON! Very scary to say the least. If you do a search on goggle there are probably stories on there. It was all over the news here in Australia (Tv / Papers) and we all did live radio interviews after the incident as well. One good point was that the media came back when both Lisa the Pilot and Chris (tandem passenger) did a free tandem so it was a really good ending to what could have been a lot worse!! GIRL POWER IN ACTION! "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"

Hi all!! Mark here from sunny Caloundra Queensland Australia. Not sure if I have posted before.....but if I have it has been a looooong time!! Blue skies! "A Scar is just a Tattoo with a story!!!"