MakeItHappen

Makes it easy to see what's changed at a glance! That reminds me of part of last summer's BOD meeting. Someone suggested the vertical bar thing. (That was actually used before when the SIM was a loose-leaf binder.) Anyway, 'someone' replied that 'eventually the entire side would be a solid black line'. I just shook my head, thinking I can't believe I heard that. I guess the version to version change concept did not get across. That brings up another issue on the work load. Say you add the vertical bars, then the next year you have to go and remove those before adding in the changes for the new year. I can't see that as being a tremendously difficult job, but it does sound boring and time consuming. The SIM, IRM and SCM all change each year. One of the problems is the way the work is done. Legacy of these documents are typed pages that became a word processor document that became a Word/Word Perfect/ or whatever document that became a PageMaker document. This legacy inherently links the data to the display format. WYSIWYG. The two are interwoven so completely, that the 'average' office cannot separate the two. Compare this to programming updates or more technical document revision processes. Technical or programming documents always have separated the data from the display. Revision history has always been available. If we were to do this for the SIM, IRM and SCM then we'd have to put the text into data fields and then generate the pdf and html files. That is quite easy to do. Changes would be logged and you could always generate previous versions. A change log can be generated automatically. I think the reason we are not doing that is because the work process is very foreign to the people doing the work. It is a hard sell. The process is very common in the IT industry, but not in the paper document industry. Editing documents as a whole is the legacy. Editing a data field of a record here and there and then generating the final document is the more modern (and efficient) way. Also indexing a database document would be a snap too. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Usually the minutes from the summer BOD mtg give enough detail for you to figure out the changes, but not always. A lot of the 'typo' or house keeping type changes do not make the official record. As far as I can tell, that change was done between the 2003 and 2004 versions of the SIM. I only looked at my hard copies. This came at the same time with the increase from 20 to 25 jumps for the A license. Is there a problem with the changes or a problem with 'knowing what the changes are'? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

see The Birth of the US Licensing System The D license was added some time after Joe Crane set up the original license system. The early numbering system was not systematic at all. 'Some' people could ask for such-n-such number if they wanted it, aka they could 'reserve' numbers. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Sometimes DZ.com provides great insights to what new jumpers think ;) Ok - I just have to ask, would you jump without a cell phone? I can hardly wait until we have socially mandatory transponders for jumpers. BTW, for the original question - look for the jumper immediately. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

anyone know how to preserve logical drive letters among several windoze os on the same system (a muliti boot system)? eg what I called h: on NT becomes d: on Win2k and e: and XP. Is there a way to synch them up to the same letter name across OSs or prevent the new os from reassigning letters? Do I just used the disk manager to change that? Will it choke if I change the drive letter for the boot partition? If I run a defrag under one OS will it screw up the files reading/writing for the other OSs? I keep data type files on drives that I defrag and all the constant files (applications, etc) on other drives. What I want to do is install the same applications to the same drives/directories under several OSs. That way I won't have to duplicate the 'constant' stuff. For instance, I'll install office to P:\ms\office under each os. I want the files to be in the exact same place, not triple redundancy. The data files get placed on other logical drives. It's the same version of office for all OSs. (Yes I realize that I can change the path during the install to point to where the files are. It's easier to keep the drive letters the same across the OSs.) I've updated database files (of many flavors) via different OSs and web servers without a problem. Has anyone seen any incompatibilities among the Windoze OS flavors? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I did not have the straps sewn to the harness. It floats. See post 35 and 46 of this thread FMI. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Does an altimeter or hook knife connect two pieces of load bearing webbing, carry any load from the wearer, or transfer any loads? nope, unless a line gets hung up on them. Can't see how the tso would be invalidated. Two master riggers made the strap knowing where it would be placed. One of those riggers plus another master rigger have repacked my rig for the last 3 years with that strap on the rig. Heck, even Sparky, a senior rigger, commented to me a few weeks ago that mfgs have been trying to eliminate that strap and I go ahead and put it back on. And the strap is exactly the same as the two straps that the TI, I spoke of earlier, put on a tandem passenger harness for special needs people. The straps are shorter and more under the butt. He tacked the straps too. I may be 'retro', but I think the strap is needed. If you have not tried getting out of your rig with or without the main in the pack tray, then I suggest you do. You can do it just after you land. Imagine having a canopy collision or crw wrap that tosses your butt out that hole. I do not think this is a major problem on all rigs for all jumpers. It is a problem on smaller rigs, rigs with hip rings and, of course, tandem harnesses for special needs people that may be too loose or improperly adjusted. Last weekend I tried to wiggle out of a strong tandem harness. I could only do it if I loosened the leg straps about 2-3 inches. Funny thing was that I could pull the harness over my torso and then could pull the harness (legstraps PLUS the lower horizontal) off my legs. IOW, I went out the hole above the horizontal strap. If I loosened the leg straps more, I could get out below the horizontal strap. I wasn't able to try the sigma harness. This weekend I'll try that one. On the tandem harnesses, I think the 'problem' is more one of properly adjusting the harness than a design flaw. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Not any more than putting an altimeter or hook knife on your harness. pics attached. . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

EXACTLY! I never checked your sig block b4, but I thought this was good!! That is totally cool. Thank you . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

There are several agencies that MAY write a report. NTSB, FAA, USPA (or equivalent national organization), local police/coroner NTSB reports are done by trained accident investigators and are usually related to AC accidents, not skydiving accidents. There is a cross-over with premees that take down planes, any type of skydiving accident that takes down planes or AC/jumper collisions. Some jumper/AC collisions do not require reporting to NTSB or FAA. As long as no loss of life occurred and the damage was minimal, that stuff is not always reported. Sometimes it is. Generally, the FAA report is done by a DPRE or designated Master rigger. These reports can take weeks or months to finalize, if equipment has to go back to the MFG or is held by police. The final report is available thru the FOIA. Go to faa.gov, search FOIA and follow the directions. It may take a month or two to actually receive the FAA report, but it will come thru. USPA reports are voluntary. They are not available to the public and are destroyed after a certain amount of days. Only the person filing the report, the USPA S&T Director and the person writing the monthly/ yearly summaries are supposed to ever read these. I don't know how true that is in real life. It didn't used to be that way, but that's a whole 'nother story. Local police records are public information too. Just ask for the report about such-n-such. Most of the time it's free. There may be copying fees. Usually these reports don't have much of what a jumper would be interested in. Sometimes you can contact a local police to verify or deny a rumor. They can tell you if they responded to such-n-such at such-n-such dz on such-n-such date. Those 'bogus' fraps reports can be squelched easily at this level. It may take a day or two for media or online forums to do this. This route can also be used when someone goes in at a DZ that won't be filing any of the other reports or does not need to file any of the other reports. With all that said, read post #5 again. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

On rigs besides RWS, there will be a tell tale kink in the reserve cable when the rsl pulls the reserve pin. No kink means you beat the rsl. On RWS rigs, I don't think there is a way to tell. That would be out of sequence emergency procedures. Yes to answer your question. In the days of the Steven's lanyard (~15 ft long) You could tell you beat it because the handle was in your hand. Then the handle got yanked out of your hand when the lanyard became taught as you fell away from the main. (First hand experience on that too.) . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Eric's original post is a quote of a post I made on rec.skydiving. In fact, that text was a rough draft of the article many have been reading this week without the supporting photos. Sometimes it takes a fatality for people to take notice of a problem. In the recent past: We had lines snagging on grommets that was a miniscule problem before but then someone died. Then a few months later someone else died. We had AAD firings when a swooper, with a perfect canopy, made a HP maneuver. It happened a couple of times and no one died. Then someone did die from that scenario. In the distant past: We had cutaway mains hanging up on ripcords held in place by ripcord stops. We had hard pulls because gravel ban plugs kept gravel inside the housing causing a harder pull. We had pilot chute in tows because bridle lines were wrapped around harnesses. We had blast handles that had a directional dependency of the pull. etc, etc etc. For the vast majority of jumpers, the split saddle will work just fine. There is a small percentage of scenarios that a split saddle combined with a premme or canopy collision or CRW or something else that may it not work for them. When it fails, it will be catastrophic, ie death of the jumper. To reduce risk you can either reduce probability of occurrence or reduce severity of occurrence or both. In the case of falling out of a harness, you can only reduce the probability of occurrence. That is done by properly adjusting a harness (for tandem passengers or students) or maybe an extra horizontal strap (for sport rigs). I'd like to EMPHASIZE that a properly adjusted harness is the best way to reduce this problem, especially for tandem passengers. See RWS FMI. As far as I know, a properly adjusted tandem harness will prevent a passenger from falling out. This has been demonstrated millions of times. FMI on risk, hazards, probability of occurrence, severity of occurrence see: Risk and Safety . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I will this weekend. I do not have a digital still camera. I'll have to have a photographer at the DZ take pics. I had two straps made about 2-3 years ago by Dave DeWolf and Ziggy. I made them some drawings, but I can't find those pics. In the meantime, hope this pic and explanation of the dimensions helps. In the pic, the red lines are a conceptual representation of stitching. It has no resemblance to the actual stitch pattern. Overall Length of finished strap = the distance across your buttocks between the outside edges of the leg straps where you want the strap to float. Mine sits at the top of the leg straps. I have a Racer without hip rings. It crosses my butt at the top of the curvy part of the butt - sort of like the RWS pic of the tandem horizontal strap. The Sewn length of the loops = slightly smaller than the width of the leg strap where you want the strap to float. Slightly smaller means 1/4 to 1/2 inch. My leg straps are not tapered. For tapered leg straps you might want to taper the loop too. You should still be able to slide the loops over the wider parts of the leg strap with a little bit of squishing. (Does that make sense?) You want the loop to be slightly smaller so that it stays in place without any tacking. Tacking would probably break after a number of jumps. My strap stays in place. I do feel pressure from it on openings. The loops were sewn differently by Dave and Ziggy. I can't remember which way goes with which rigger. I'll have to get a rigger to tell me the names of the stitching, webbing type etc. They are significantly different too. One is slightly more bulky than the other. I think that generic sizes can be made that will work for most people. The strap may sit in a different place tho. It is probably better to measure what you need on a rig/person basis. I will do this at Perris this weekend for anyone that wants one. I'll get Ziggy or someone to make them. I do not know the cost or turn time. You can have any color as long as it is black. ;) I'm sure a MFG can get you color coordinated. For personal rigs, used primarily by one person, there is no need to have an adjustable strap. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

How does this pertain to DZ's and federations/associations that are making AAD's mandatory? I have 175 jumps and Im based in NZ. I need 200 jumps min to get my C and then I can jump without an AAD, but in Jan 07 AAD's are mandatory for everyone in the sport in NZ. Are we all gonna be DDA? First off, the DDA article is a spoof on the AA questionnaire. Secondly, if a jumper has an AAD save, as in the case here, it doesn't really matter if it's required or not. The fact is that the jumper did not do anything to save herself. What is even more amazing was that the jumper was depending on one gizmo (RSL) and another gizmo (AAD) actually saved her. That is a double problem. One thing that can be observed is that some nations are becoming device dependent faster than other nations. They pass these mandatory rules for required gizmos because they do not trust the jumpers to act appropriately. This is good because the gizmos save lives more often than taking them. It's bad in that the people entering the sport have a different perspective on 'what is safe' as compared to people that started before these gizmos were available. Some of today's jumpers won't jump without some of the gizmos. IOW, they don't trust themselves to do the right thing or they may think they'll be in a situation that dictates an absolute need for the gizmo. It is also bad because in some cases the required gizmo may introduce a greater risk than actually lower it. I have another satirical article at Fast forward to the year 2050 I am thinking of adding in a section about jumpers from 2050 reminiscing about the 'old days' that goes like this: "Geez, remember when they jumped those split saddle rigs. Why didn't they see that people were 'almost' falling out of those rigs and ground them? It took fatalities for people to do something about it. Remember when they had AADs that did not know you had a good canopy and fired when you did a swoop. Why didn't they ground those? Instead they made them mandatory. What were these people thinking?" In regards to this incident and the people talking about EPS as 'two-step' and talking about an SOS (aka a one-step'): Some people are taught 'cutaway-pull reserve' for both total and partial malfunctions. Some people are taught 'cutaway-pull reserve' for partial malfunctions and 'pull reserve' for total malfunctions. Both of these procedures are acceptable. On an SOS system, there is only one handle to pull. Pull it for total or partial malfunctions. The replies seem to muddle these things. IOW, one person talking about an SOS one step is confusing what another person said about the 'one-step-pull reserve for a total'. For the person that mentioned comparing altimeters at altitude: Usually, the uncertainty between altimeters increases with altitude. My altimeter can read 1000 ft different at 13k, but at 4k can read the same as yours. Be very cautious about adjusting altimeters at full altitude. Instructors have a SOP to set their altimeter to pull altitude when the student's altimeter reads pull altitude on the ride up. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Depends on how she reacts to Is Device Dependency Anonymous for You? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

You haven't seen my rig. A solution: I had a rigger make a connector for me. It is a piece of webbing with loops at each end. The loops slide over each of the leg straps. It is pulled up all the way to the top of the leg strap in back. The overall length should be such that the tension in the strap is snug when your leg straps are tightened for a jump. The loops are slightly smaller than the width of the leg straps so that it can stay in place without any additional tacking or rigging. I have been using this for a few years now. This strap looks very much like the free floating tandem chest straps but it is not adjustable. Every once in a while people ask me what that is for. I tell them that I can get out of my rig with both parachutes packed. It's even easier when the main is out. The strap makes it harder, if not impossible, to get out. Most people think I'm overly anal about falling out backwards. For most jumpers on most deployments, the split saddle has a remote possibility of allowing someone to fall out. This would result is a catastrophic event, the death of the jumper. For other jumpers the probability is higher and may be close to very probable. I think it is only a matter of time before a sitflyer with a premee gets his rig yanked off of him. I spoke with a very experienced TI about this and he said his school put those little bungy things on all of the tandem passenger harnesses. He even told me of one jump where the passenger almost fell out (before they had the bungy things installed). There was nothing he could do to help keep her in. He felt helpless, but fortunately she did not fall out. He also told me of a large student that went fetal when he pulled. The jumper almost fell out. The chest strap was up around his neck. The leg straps were down at his knees. The jumper could not reach his toggles either. This TI also modified one tandem harness for special needs people. It has two extra straps to hold the buttocks in. He also uses this harness for some elderly jumpers who may not have strength in their hips. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Doesn't matter if it's against USPA rules because it is beyond the 180 days that USPA can do anything about it anyways. But tandem MFGs, namely RWS?? --- may be a different story. Yaaaa - and others will say that it is my business and I'm derelict in duties if I 'look the other way' - just ask Derek. Most of the stuff I just keep for my personal parachuting history library and write a story about it many years later. I think you are a little bit off here. Great - go get the waivers ahead of time. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Don't know quite what to say about a post like this that would not be censored by the moderators. Photo attached again - in case you realize what you just did. I'll save the profile info, in case anyone asks. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I roll pack a Safire. I also rolled packed zp canopies I demo-ed when I was figuring out what to buy. I pro packed for about a year (way back in the 80s). Those pack jobs never opened very consistently and tended not to fill the corners of the bag as well. I've been packing this way since 1990 or so. I lay the brake lines on the d lines. Then fold that on top of the c lines. Then I fold the LE over an extended line drawn from the A lines I fold that over on top of the b lines. I pull the slider up and lay it on top of the end cell. Then I fold the cd stack over on top of the ab stack. On-heading openings 99% of the time. One of Strong's packing manuals has pics. A lot of new jumpers are 'shocked' or 'aghast' when they watch me pack. Except one time a new jumper said it looked much easier than a pro pack. His friends, other new jumpers, talked him out of even trying it. The initial unfurling of the canopy during deployment is asymmetrical, but the inflation part is symmetrical. The standard flat stack pack for zp is harder to do because you are trying to squish air out the TE. On the roll pack the air is pushed out the LE. Craig Girard uses a standard stack pack. I believe he jumps a PD elliptical. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I wonder how that will change the failure modes. On sewn together products, the needle essentially perforates the material. A failure can rip out a large section - sort of like ripping off a paper towel off the roll or a page out of a spiral bound notebook. On 'welded' together products, how would a failure manifest itself? Would the material break before the seam? Would the seams break apart faster or larger than the comparable sewn seam? Would the material and seam hold and the loads get transferred to the payload (ouch)? You remember kevlar lines. How does the overall elasticity of the final product change? Do the welded seams take repeated folds, crimps or creases as well as sewn seams? What kind of directional dependence would the seams have upon the shear forces? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

The perceived demand for 'more information, right now' sometimes depends upon who goes in or is injured. When a more experienced and current jumper goes in, there is usually more of a demand for immediate information than when a new jumper goes in. The reason for this is because we like to believe that an experienced jumper 'does everything right'. That implies that there must have been some sort of equipment malfunction or unusual situation. With that line of thinking, people want to know right now what the problem was because it could effect them. As it turns out, not all experienced jumpers that go in, do everything right. Sometimes the mistakes can be lumped into a broad pile of 'same story - different day'. Lots of loss of altitude awareness problems for both experienced and inexperienced jumpers fall into this, whether it's from a hard pull, hung toggle, camera geeking, too low initiation of a swoop or whatever else. Some of them do everything right. In those cases, the information ought to be disseminated as quickly as possible from whoever has the information. As an example, there was a jumper that died when a main suspension line hung up on a flap grommet. The jumper did everything right. This jumper was a friend of mine. Afterwards, I did some checking into the malfunction. I found out that it happened several times before, but no one had died because of it. I talked to several manufacturers and all of them commented that they did not realize that it happened that many times before. About two months later, another jumper goes in with a suspension line wrapped around a grommet at a different DZ and on a different rig. The information needed to get out, so I wrote Line Snags on Grommets Russian Translation As the SBs came out, I added those to the article. You, me or anyone else do not have to wait for 'the authorities' to tell us what we see, what we know or what to think. I disagree with your comment of For most accidents, people will get out the information. That is not the case in all accidents. Some DZs do not send in reports to USPA. Some DZOs will pull student gear off a student fatality so that it cannot be inspected by the FAA. Some reports are written poorly and have incomplete information. Even some of the USPA summary reports have been incorrect. Sometimes trends are noticed by the 'unofficial' jumpers. (see above example.) What I find strange about the thread you mention, is that several people posted something to the effect of 'I was there, know only a little bit, but I'm not going to say anything.' If you are not going to say anything, why make a post saying you are not going to say anything? Why not be silent? I find that to be more bizarre than others 'demanding to know, right now' what happened. This comment is true. I'd like to mention that suggestions and tips that get stuffed into a long thread or several threads may be lost to people that come by afterwards. How many times do you see a post that says 'I haven't read the whole thread, but did anyone think about yadda, yadda, yadda?' That point was taken up 2 or 3 pages earlier. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

sitflyer did not make a dz look bad. He left out any reference to a dz. You and ryand96 actually identify the dz. Here are two pics of the same area. One from the video and one from terra server (2000 B&W one). I think those two pics are of the same area, don't you? How long ago did this happen? I think this might be still winding through USPA. It also seems that if I post a link to the video, I can find out who's video that was because I'd get an email from his attorney. I'd at least know who the POV photographer was. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Thanks for the reply. I'm not wearing my high-waders tonite. I'll get back to you tomorrow. BTW, 144.80.233.144 is Indiana University of Pennsylvania OrgID: IUP Address: Computer Center Address: Stright Hall City: Indiana StateProv: PA PostalCode: 15705-1087 Indiana, PA is about 45 miles from PennRidge, PA Be careful out there. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

USPA Coaches are not allowed to teach the method-specific sections of the FJC. See SIM Sec. 2-1.E.2.b First jump Course "All method specific training must be conducted by a USPA Instructor rated in the method for which the student is being trained." So, why are you teaching the entire FJC? Is the FJC AFF, IAD or SL? BTW, have you checked your Yahoo email lately? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Yes, it is defending the DZ. You're making excuses for a DZ who isn't obeing FARs and BSR's. You're suggesting students and customers volunteer their time to help a DZ obey the rules? Quite frankly, that's astounding. If the USPA isn't going to take a hard line on basic safety issues, how the hell is a low-time jumper supposed to?!?!? _Am Let me give you an analogy. Say there is some newly minted A license holder that you happened to come across. This jumper has 'not tracked off', 'pulled underneath others', ' did not wave off', 'cut someone off on final', 'did a low turn', etc, etc. He endangered himself as well as others. Most jumpers would try and help this jumper out. A one-on-one jump, a mini-safety lecture, a tracking class etc Very few jumpers would tell this jumper to 'get the hell out of here - you are a danger to us all and we don't want you.' Now, with these DZs that are generally smaller, some people want USPA to just shout 'Get the hell out of here - we don't want you.' Other people realize that with just the right amount of 'training' these dzs can be just as safe and viable as the big-wig hot shot dzs. If you think helping a jumper is ok, then you should also think that helping a dz is an overall benefit to the sport. It is the same social mechanism at work, just different customers. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker