MakeItHappen

I'll put on my Square1 webmaster hat now and say go check out how you can buy PD canopies from Square1 vs the 'others'. 'Others' being other retailers, not other mfgs. My money is on Square1 having a better response time. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

As a consumer you should be dealing with your dealer. They should be dealing with PD for sales. When you buy a car do you call Toyota headquarters? Perhaps I was not clear enough. PD implemented a policy that has direct consequences on how consumers can buy a PD canopy. PD said to dealers, something to the effect "You may not advertise any discounted prices." and that "this policy goes into effect by 5pm on June 23". The reason I know this is because I am the Square1 webmaster and was asked to change the Square1 web site. As I said before, I am not speaking for Square1, I am addressing this issue as it affects me as a consumer. I do use PD products. If I was giving an answer as the Square1 webmaster, I'd say "WooHoo!! more work for me!" The implications are that a consumer MUST contact the dealer to obtain a price quote. This requires extra effort on the consumer's part to find out what the price is. It may also be an inconvenience because of work schedules or time zone differences or holidays not known to non-'whatever country the dealer is in' customers. It is now much easier to go buy Aerodyne or Icarus or Hi-Per or JumpShack canopies if you shop when the dealers are not open. A big advantage of an internet store is that it is open 24 by 7 to serve customers worldwide. PD's wholesale x many dollars for abc canopy is no different than a percentage off. Everyone can do the math to equate y dollars off such-n-such retail price to a percentage. Consumers will still be able to see who has the better price, albeit with more effort. The extra effort makes you want to go out and buy a non-PD canopy. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I'm gonna call BS on this one. I don't know if you are officially speaking for PD or not. First off I want to make it clear that I am NOT speaking for Square1 on this. I am speaking as a consumer. In case you did not know, I am Square1's webmaster. PD did something that absolutely infuriates me as a consumer. PD said all the retailers must now tell customers via their web site to 'Ask for prices'. This slows and delays a sale. First you have to email a message, asking 'what's the price of such-n-such?'. Then you get a reply - maybe a day later. Then you have to do the same thing with all the other retailers you might consider. More replies, days later. Most jumpers have the "I want the canopy NOW" mentality. I know I do once I decide on what I want. There's no fucking way I'd CALL all these retailers, even on toll free numbers. I'd only email them. Every canopy I've bought since 1990 has been an EMAIL sale. I just don't have the time for phone calls during their business hours. I work during their business hours. Hey PD, why can't I place an order at midnight my time, when US retailers are closed? I don't want to wait until the next day. I want it shipped the next day, so I can have it this weekend. To address PD's wholesale price increase based on how much it costs to produce each canopy: I think it's really good that PD's ERP software allows PD to determine exact costs to produce each canopy type & size. But your response to this information is just plain absurd. If I mfg 3 widgets, a, b and c, that only varied in size, then discovered that it took $10 to mfg a, $15 to mfg b and $20 to mfg c, I would ask, why is that? Ok- you say c is bigger than b that is bigger than a. It takes more materials to mfg c than a. OK fine, set the retail prices to reflect that and to garner the same level of profit per widget. IOW, retail price of a = $15, b= $20 and c= $25. The mfg gets $5 per sale. Or you could set it at a %. Say you want 20% profit, then a = $12, b= $18 and c= $24. Look, all these retailers are selling the SAME product. If a customer KNOWS what he wants, he'll go with the lowest price, including shipping and taxes. For the people that do not know what canopy they want, they already call the retailers and ask questions. All PD did was make it harder for the people that know what type of canopy they want to order. PD did not do anything to help the ''What canopy should I get?" people. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Paul did a great job on the video clips. More photos and the short and long video versions are now up on BarbDuke.com Send me an email for the roster updates for the Memorial dive. I was only going by memory and who I could recognize. If anyone knows how to get a hold of Karen Lewis, aka lewmonst@dropzone.com, let me know. She has an awesome shot from underneath. I want to put that photo up too. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Sentinel Hi-Tek 8000 . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I just received an email from Ted Strong with these files.: SB 24-5-06 Tandem Passenger Fatality Preliminary Report (previously posted) Harness Instructions large file +6M I couldn't find them on Strong's site yet, but thought you'd like to see them. Ted says the final report will take about another month to finalize. . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

You know, Terry, I just find this type of response to be a bit standoff-ish. What I'm trying to say is that people tend to have this "All knowing and all seeing'' view towards mfgs/riggers. IOW, the mfg/rigger can do no bad, say no bad, have no bad. In my limited lifespan and experience as a jumper of 25 years, I know otherwise. I know that mfg/riggers don't always say the right thing and may occasionally put out products that could kill people. IOW, I am saying that there are possible situations where a jumper could fall out of their rig. Not every situation, mind you. This jumper, propilot, found out that he could extricate himself rather easily from his rig if he was in a sit-fly position. If the mfg of his rig just blows it off as a 'Don't worry about it kid' thing, they have lost credibility. This jumper knows for a fact that he can slip out of the harness under such-n-such situation. This jumper is concerned about that too, and rightly so. It boggles my mind to see mfgs/riggers toss this situation off as a "don't worry about it thing". What will it take, an up-jumper with a premee at exactly the wrong time to illustrate the point? I hope not. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

What???? You're bored? Read the rest of the articles. Contact your local rigger and send him the url for the article. If you have any questions, contact me via email, phone or snail mail listed on MakeItHappen.com Over the phone I can describe how to measure for the overall finished length. It should only cost 15-20 bucks. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Naw.. make a list. It brings back the memories of the fun you had with them or the phone calls or emails you wrote back and forth. I actually wrote down all the skydivers I know that were dead about 4 years ago. It was up to 112. The reason I wrote the list was for the very reason Lisa posted her questions. At that time I had lost 20 friends in a two year period. It was very depressing. Every month I lost a friend. Writing that list was a good thing to do. I remembered jumps we had made, jokes we played on people, just hanging out times etc. The tragedies can make you mourn or make you act. Many people just mourn and then go about their life. Others like you do something. All these friends of mine and the jumpers I did not know motivated me to start SPSJ way back in the 80s, write articles, make posts etc. I went to a Texxas 20-way meet at College Station in 1988. Steve Haskett ran the dz then. There was an enlarged copy of one of my Parachutist articles posted in the hanger. I was flabbergasted. My next Texxas 20-way meet in 1998 entailed a dinner in Austin. I met Wendy Faulkner there. And you know who was sitting a few tables away? Steve Haskett. So, yes remember your friends, living or dead, and pass on what you learned from them. You never know whose life you touch. Even today, an article I wrote a few years back is being quoted. article quoting me . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

What ever you do, do NOT jump that crossbow2 the way it is rigged. The left main riser is routed UNDER the reserve cable housing. Don't know what's going on with the bottom main pin. Looks like the main is closed, but the cone and grommet are not being used. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Glad you survived. see High Wind Landing Approaches Get-Home-itis High Wind Landings: Winds Greater than 15 MPH . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I think Gary is right, in that the two methods you describe are 'almost' the same. One disadvantage of the back perpendicular to the floor for students using the praying hold grip is that they might inadvertently shift their cg too far aft. This depends upon where their feet are. You want their cg over the feet, not behind them. Try and keep a straight back, with a 30 lb rig on your back, within the dimensions of your AC door without ANY grips. Try it with a slightly bent forward position and it is much easier. That praying 'grip' is for side to side balance and should not be used to balance forward/aft. [The praying grip is really not supposed to be an actual grip-grip. It is open hands pressed together and there just happens to be an AC fuselage between the hands. This reduces the chances the student uses it to balance forward/aft.] Jumper height, size of door and athletic ability also come into play here. I always loved this exit from DC-3s. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Deja Vu . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

To continue hijacking John's thread….. People from the same plane I jump from do not usually buzz me. The high WLs land before me. The high WLs from the next plane may catch up to me if their exit is 'soon' after mine. Likewise, I may catch up tandems from a previous load, if my exit is 'soon' after their exit. I stay well clear of tandems. ha, ha, ha That's funny - me as a buzzer ;) Actually, I know the people in the following plane too. What I do is help stack the landing order. When I was jumping a WL of 1.0 the newer jumpers with WL of 1.5 or more would buzz me under 100 ft. They were from the next load. They had tunnel vision on the ground and never looked around. If it was Luigi or Clint behind me, I wasn't worried. It was the newer jumpers with only a few hundred jumps, high WL and sometimes out of towners from small DZs that posed the greatest danger. I have no influence on changing that. What I could do is land sooner. That's when I went to the whopping 1.1 WL I have today. I generally hang high and let everyone, except tandems and students, get below me, whether it's one otter load, two parallel loads, or a big way load. It's also easier to work into the pattern to land by the gate too. I only do that if traffic permits it. I'll take the dirt landings when I have to. Another advantage is that you get more photo ops ;) Of course, if you jump with a photographer that cuts into the pattern abruptly, you might get attacked as John did. Now we are back to John's thread topic, unless you want to ask me about my regular pilot chute, uncollapsed slider, no booties, no helmet and why I don’t put my hands through the toggles. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

No, Bill, that's not right. I just want to clarify something here. Footprint: There are two components to 'footprint'. 1. the distance between the maximum possible upwind and downwind distances. The distance between these two points is equal to 2 Vhc (Dv/Vvc) [In skydiver-speak: twice horizontal speed times hang time] It is independent of wind. The upwind and downwind points get shifted by the same amount whenever there is wind. 2. the distance this 'window' of possible landing sites shifts with respect to the wind. That 'shift' distance is equal to W(Dv/Vvc) [In skydiver speak: wind speed times hang time] The shift is downwind. The greater the wind speed the greater the shift. For a given wind speed, the shift decreases as canopy descent rate increases. The distance between the uprange point and the downrange point with wind is the same as the distance between those points with no wind. From a practical standpoint, if you had a bad spot and there was an open space below you and slightly downwind, you'd spiral down to make the open area. It would not be a good idea to hang high, get pushed back by the wind and land downwind of the open area. Or you could hang high (minimize descent rate and increase the time being pushed by the wind) to reach an open area further downwind. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

This statement is ONLY true if the L/D for both canopies is the same. Not true. The wind shift depends on: - the wind speed (assumed to be only horizontal) - the amount of time spent in the wind (Dv/Vvc = initial altitude/descent rate) - the horizontal component of the canopy system's velocity. Downrange distance = (Vhc + W) * (Dv/Vvc) Uprange distance = (Vhc - W) * (Dv/Vvc) where Vhc = horizontal canopy system speed W = wind speed Dv = initial altitude Vvc = descent rate Footprint = uprange distance - downrange distance A LARGER canopy with a HIGHER WL (higher total speed) and a LOWER L/D will have a SMALLER footprint than a SMALLER canopy with a LOWER WL (lower total speed) and a LARGER L/D. Think of tossing out a bigger payload out under a round parachute and then compare that to a smaller payload under a ramair. This generalized statement is true. Not true on this one too. I jump a smaller canopy at a higher WL than I really want to because I do not want the people from the plane after me to buzz me at landing. It is safer for me to jump a higher WL and to land with people from my airplane than to have the people from the next load under pocket rockets buzz me at 50 ft. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

WHO's WHO in Skydiving I just got a call from Dan Poynter, who is out at Fredricksburg, VA. He said that they are expecting 450 people for the festivities this weekend. People are starting to mill around. Four things are on the agenda: 1. Presentation of the USPA Lifetime Achievement Award to Gene Paul Thacker 2. Dedication of the new USPA HQs. 3. Bill Ottley's Memorial party 4. 60th year anniversary of USPA/PCA/NPJA Bill left some money for the party on Saturday, but did not know he had so many friends. The Museum and USPA kicked in $10K a piece. That supplemented the $20K from Mr. Ottley. Mr. Ottley also left the museum $1M, distributed over 10 years. Raise a toast to Bill Ottley this weekend. Congratulate Gene Paul Thacker. Buzz by HQs for a tour if you are in the area. Hob-knob with the 'famous' skydivers. PS WHO = William H. Ottley (for the new jumpers) WHO was a familiar tagline on many articles in Parachutist over the years. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I'd look into the detection schemes you are using. I can see skydiveperris.com/loader.swf just fine. It doesn't have the nav in it. The flash for another project you sent me works just fine on NT. These types of comments are so misleading. Users that have problems with your site don't hang around, so you may never get feedback from them. I have a multi-boot system, because I do the same thing you do, develop web sites. I need to check various OS and browser combinations. It's a pain to do, but multi-boot is better than dedicated systems. I'll tell you what bugs me the most. Two major things 1. usability. Your perris site has double vertical scroll bars. You cannot search for text or copy and paste text. If I wanted to copy the details of a FJC to my buddy, I couldn't do that with a flash site. 2. search engine friendliness. Disable flash, javascript and java to see how a search engine sees your site. Perris depends on referals from a search engine much more than a gear mfg. The search engine friendliness of an all-flash site is a big zero. I would never recomend an all-flash site to a DZO, no matter how 'cool' the site looked. As soon as google crawls the site, the existing links to any page on skydiveperris.com will show up as a 404. See attachment crawl.jpg There are ways to create one site that integrates the 'wow-cool' factor of flash with search engine friendliness. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

why is aerodyne-int in the source code? why do they program browser dependant code? why do they think I'll change OS's just for them? why did they break my bookmarks? why do they not realize search engines cannot follow flash? (Geez - this one seems wierd because the old site had content link spamming) Whenever I decide to reboot to a different os, I'll look at it. In the meantime, anyone have a sub-page url? I use sub pages via google to see aerodyne's site. All the indexed pages in google (that I tried) give a 404. At least they could have forwarded the old links. I don't understand why people do this stuff. They complain about their search engine rank then completely obliterate it. Why do I have to add empty tags to the word aerodyne to prevent content hijacking? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

The applicable section of the Governance Manual is Sec 1-6.4.B.6 Any USPA member shall be guilty of an offense justifying the imposition of the penalties set forth in USPA Governance Manual Section 1-6.4.C (below) who— 6. Willfully falsifies any document, certificate, or record connected with or relating to skydiving. See also SIM 2-1.B.1 B. COMPLIANCE WITH FEDERAL REGULATIONS [NW] 1. No skydive may be made in violation of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations. I know that both RDs know about this situation. The jumper lives in the Central region and jumps in the North Central region. Neither RD will talk to you about this in accordance with Gov. Manual 1-6.5.F.2 2. To protect a member who is wrongly accused and to protect the rights of all persons affected, the regional director will refrain from discussing any matter relating to the alleged offense with any person not a party to the action and shall express no opinion nor make any statement concerning the facts brought to his attention except as specifically provided in Governance Manual Section 1-6. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

You would *think* that the person would raise that much. I suspect that someone that raises, just over the actual cost of said jump will be allowed to jump for 'free'. It goes with the "that's more than they (the charity) would have anyway". The 'average' raised becomes lower, but it's 'for a good cause'. That link to skylineparachuting.co.uk is interesting. That domain was registered in 2000, but the business could have existed before that. The report/study was done by 1998. Interesting marketing concept. It has been adopted in the US in several forms by several charities and organizations. It always pays to research where your donation monies are actually going. It's not that hard (for US charities) - go to Guidestar.org. A caveat is that going thru third parties may 'hide' the actual amounts (percentages) that go to said charity. ThinkBeforeYouPink.org has a good explanation on this for all the pink ribbon campaigns. I'm trying to get the full article. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Where did you get this blurb? From those numbers you can infer that they are using a population of 1582 of charity jumpers. { 174/0.11 } That has to span several years, maybe decades. 110 of those represent the 'serious injury rate' { 63% (174) } and { 110/1582 } That seems way too high. Charity jumpers are tandems, AFF or SL. That injury rate seems way off base. Then, of course, charity jumpers may be people who really shouldn't be jumping and are allowed to because "it's for a good cause". -------- Google found me this reference Injury. 1999 May;30(4):283-7. Related Articles, Links Parachuting for charity: is it worth the money? A 5-year audit of parachute injuries in Tayside and the cost to the NHS. Lee CT, Williams P, Hadden WA. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Perth Royal Infirmary, Scotland, UK. All parachute injuries from two local parachute centres over a 5-year period were analysed. Of 174 patients with injuries of varying severity, 94% were first-time charity-parachutists. The injury rate in charity-parachutists was 11% at an average cost of 3751 Pounds per casualty. Sixty-three percent of casualties who were charity-parachutists required hospital admission, representing a serious injury rate of 7%, at an average cost of 5781 Pounds per patient. The amount raised per person for charity was 30 Pounds. Each pound raised for charity cost the NHS 13.75 Pounds in return. Parachuting for charity costs more money than it raises, carries a high risk of serious personal injury and places a significant burden on health resources. PMID: 10476298 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] ---- With this aditional info, I now ask if that 94% of so called 'first-time charity parachutists' were what we'd called first time charity parachutists or some whuffo version of that definition? In my original reply I assumed that the 174 were all charity parachutists, not the general jumper population. So that will change numbers too. {174 * (.94) / .11 } = 1487 { (63%) 164 } = 103 {103/1487 } = 7% What I think has happened is that the people doing this research have some how attributed people to doing 'charity' jumps when in fact they had nothing to do with a charity jump. The injury rate needs to be compared to total number of jumps, not a contrived population that some whuffoes have created in their lab. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Sounds pretty good. You lived and walked away. Can't beat that. Just kinda out of curiosity, how many times did you look at your altimeter during all this? When I get line twists, I always check altitude at the top end when I start unwinding and then at the bottom end when done. If it takes 'long' I'll check in-between. The altitude check is not necessarily 'I'm at 2454.43 ft' but a check of 'I'm above 1800 ft' vs 'I'm below 1800 ft.' 1800 ft is my decision altitude for being under the canopy I want to land. YMMV. Also, do you check to make sure the canopy is completely open and flying in a more or less stable configuration when you have line twists? I always look beyond the line twists to make sure the canopy is open and not ripped to shreads or tangled in some other way, before I go to the effort of unwinding the twists. I check that the horizon is not in the background of the canopy. This is also a check to make sure I'm not spinning on my back with mega line twists. I guess what I mean by that is if I can see the horizon behind the canopy, that means I'm spinning, most likely on my back. If the horizon is not behind the canopy, then I have a straight flying canopy that I can probably work line twists out of. Sort of an indirect altitude loss measurement. What altitude were you at when this all was resolved into a good canopy? What is your execute EPS by altitude? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

turbulence . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Hello Max aka Gawain, I never met you, but hope to some day. I just wanted to let you know that I have named my new puppy after you. I'm calling her Max. She was born about the time you earned your Purple Heart. My dog's name always have to mean something, well except for my first two dogs. I can't remember how I came up with Pete and Katie. They were short and sweet names. Phoenix was a replacement for Katie, who died of lymphosarcoma. RePete is the replacement for Pete. Now, Max symbolizes your courage and growth in a new world with new challenges. Raising a puppy does have its challenges, but no where near what you'll go through. So every time I take Max for a walk or train her sit, stay, down or come, I'll think of you. Max will learn a lot of new things in the coming months. RePete is teaching her how to wrestle and chase cats out of the yard. It will be a lot of fun and a new adventure. I wish the real Max the very best in recovery. Thank you for your service to our country. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker