NickDG

>>belly-to-earth and stable. If you're in ANY other position on a base deployment, you f***ed up.

Very Cool . . . NickD

>>Is everyone evacuating or will there be people staying and taking their chances?

No, I think being that way all her life made her all the more careful in the regard. But I did learn woman don't need to smell liquor to know you're plastered . . . NickD

>>they can do this in part because they tend to have the best instructors, which often mean their students progress more quickly.

>>"when I complete getting my A license I'll pass this helmet along to someone new".

>>mitigating ecological impacts of skydiving

>>Has anyone noticed how many times this thread has been viewed

Another green light tragedy . . . NickD

Sweet dreams, Princess . . . Thinking of you and your family, Mike. NickD

We had a young guy with a film crew come through the school one time doing a spec show for MTV. He went from no jumps to his "A" license in five days, I think the show was called, "Zero to Hero" or something like that but I never actually saw it . . . NickD

The AFF program isn't written in stone. A good experienced Instructor can and should tailor things to individuals students. And in your case, your level two was actually your sixth jump. And even though they were long ago they do count for something. On the other side of the coin, while still on the ground, if your Instructor asks you to do something in the air you aren't comfortable with, for whatever reason, just say so. You're the boss and you're paying the freight. And lastly, as the other poster said, "Dive the plan." And that goes for your entire skydiving career. It can really get your Instructor's heart going when you suddenly change the steps in the middle of a dance. And once you do it becomes that much harder for them to stay a step ahead of you. And that's where Instructors always need to be. Welcome back, BTW . . . NickD

The main lift web (MLW) needs to fit you. The MLW measurement is taken from the bottom of the harness ring to the top of the rig's hip junction. And that corresponds from the hole in your throat diagonally down to the top point of your hip bone. Too short and the hip junction will ride too high. Too long and you can't tighten your legstraps properly. The laterals (from the hip junction to the container) should fit you. Too long and the rig will side around on your back, too short and it's uncomfortable and restricting. Plus being too long makes the "hole" in the rig that much bigger. (The "hole" is the part of a rig a lot of people worry about falling through, even though it's never actually happened). The yoke (the part around the backside of your neck) needs to fit you. Too small and it's also uncomfortable and restricting. Too large and in the plane while sitting down, even with everything cinched down the rig will want to fall off your shoulders. The running ends of the chest and legstraps (the free ends that are passed the hardware that secures them) need to fit you. Too long is annoying and they need to be stowed. Too long they can also come lose and interfere with your doing something else. Too short is just scary looking. A Master Rigger can somewhat adjust all these things, except for making the running ends of the chest and legstraps longer. And on the more important stuff generally you can only make these adjustments once per rig as sewing, unpicking, and then re-sewing does fatigue the harness webbing somewhat. One mistake I see often is the seller telling the buyer, "Hey, I'm five feet, eight inches tall too, so my rig will fit you." And that's not always the case. So, when buying used, you have to shop fit, and not color. That means you might have to pass on something that really floats your boat. But if you end up with a piss ugly rig that fits you it's better. And who cares anyway? Once you put the rig on, it's the rest of us that have to look at it . . . NickD

>>n the real world they are a nobody.

No, you're not all that bad, and you know how our dreams accentuate the bad stuff . . . Ninety nine percent of all students are fine and just have the usual problems you see across the board. But there is that other one percent . . . At most DZs I've worked at I usually get a rep for being a trouble shooter. And when my head's down packing I cringe just a bit when I hear some Instructor finishing a debrief with, "Go get with Nick." It's not that I'm any better than anyone else, but I do have unending patience, might know a few more tricks, and as long as a student is trying I'll never throw in the towel. I had a woman student once who was seriously stuck in the early part of AFF. I think she had eight or nine dives already when I met her, and she'd only done one release, and it was horrible. And nobody wanted to jump with her anymore. When I looked at her logbook she had almost every issue there was. She freaked out on the ride up, she'd refuse a lot on jump run, she couldn't do any kind of smooth exit, she kicked and flailed going down the hill, and she couldn't remember the dive flow. Her altitude awareness was slowly getting better but her pulls were always panicky. Canopy control was her only stellar trait but she got goosy again while flaring. But she was game and kept coming back. Her, and her husband (a non-jumper) always hung around with us after sunset, she was always brining in food, and she wanted it badly. But even so, "She's her again," became a weekend morning refrain on the DZ. I first sat her down and started going over things almost from scratch. But it soon became apparent that wasn't her problem. She knew it, she just couldn’t do it. So then since no student can afford endless AFF jump prices we put her on the "Frequent Flyer Plan" to make it a bit easier on her. The first few jumps with me where as bad as any. And I even started wearing a hard helmet (which I hate) because she walloped me a couple of times. Her problem, plain and simple, was fear. Fear of the freefall and fear of even flying in the plane. And not that garden variety performance anxiety most students have, this was paralyzing mind numbing beads of sweat on the forehead terror. I decided to try a new tack with her and asked her to come to DZ during the week when things were a little more subdued. I then taught her to pack mains, which she picked up on quickly. And I showed her how to hang and inspect some reserves and also let her assist me in repacking a few tandem mains and reserves. I even got her to the point she could dress other AFF students and gear check them, all of course, with me standing right there. I took her onto the LZ when it was my turn to talk down the students on the radio. After a bit of asking her, "So what should this guy do now?" I let her talk a few students down herself. Mainly, I wanted her out there to see happy and ecstatic students right after they landed. As so far she's always very down on herself after her own touchdowns. In trying to get her over fear of the aircraft I got our pilot on board and whenever it was feasible we stuck a pilot's rig on her and put her in the plane just for the ride up and down. The pilot got so into helping her out he'd let her steer on the way down. And he'd explain how everything worked. At night when we put the aircraft away I'd most often taxi it over for fuel and then to the hangar. And I always took her with me. Eventually she started to come alive. Her skydives began smoothing out, she stopped refusing to jump at the last moment (I must have come down in the plane with her a dozen times) and I could let her go and watch her really skydive. She'd pull gracefully on the tick, and landed softly letting out a big, "Ya-Hoo!" We have one of those goofy bells hanging on the wall in the hangar. And an Instructor would ring it every time a student completes the AFF program. But this time I let her ring the bell for herself. She deserved it. All in all she did over 40 AFF jumps. When she reached up for that bell, I don’t mind saying I had tears in my eyes. I would have been very happy and content to have seen her become a weekend fun jumper. But she didn't. She became a very competent woman's big way participant, a FAA Parachute Rigger, and she runs her own AFF Instructor Certification Courses. And sometimes that's what we foul smelling dirt bag bums who live in trailers can accomplish . . . NickD

Yeah, okay ya snob . . . It's stupid to think that's the way it is in totality! What started out as self effacing humor on our part has become fact in some people's small minds. Many skydiving professionals manage to do all right for themselves. I know a bunch of them, but here's just one example . . . I know one woman who came to Perris from New Zealand, in the early 1980s, the only way she could. She signed onto a tramp freighter ship and sewed up the crews work clothes to earn her passage. Then she lived in the Perris parking lot for a year in a beat up old Datsun that didn't even run. She became an Instructor, a Master rigger, and the loft manager at Square One. And she lived in the Perris Ghetto for probably ten years. She's now a well respected skydiver the world over, she's very financially sound, and I'd love to see you call her a "bum" to her face. And while it might surprise you. We do have soap, mouthwash, and showers in the Ghetto just like real people . . . NickD

In addition to that other dream I mentioned upboard I occasionally have this other one . . . It's a beautiful day at the DZ but I'm in a classroom full of AFF first jump students. The perspective changes to outside with me at the window looking out. And the window has bars on it like a jail. Behind me all the students are hideous looking zombies and they're all grabbing and clawing at me. My girlfriend says I sometimes wake up screaming after that one. SkyBytch will start having this dream soon . . . NickD

Yes, I'd think if it had been the passenger's knee restraint they'd have been hanging more inverted. I looked at your other posts and see you also have lower limb issues. From experience I know everyone in this situation is different, with no one thing that works for all. So I won't give you any specific advice in that area. The best thing is get with others who deal with the same thing. But I know there aren't many that are experienced jumpers, But there's Russel Metlitsky, who skydives, paraglides, and B.A.S.E. jumps. He lives near me in Pasadena, CA. He's done it all, and is a genius with coming up with work arounds, and he'd be someone good to get in touch with. You can do so through his website which is here: http://www.zerop.net/website/pbase.htm NickD

I'll take a stab at it . . . I'd say some part of the running end of the left lower lateral strap became caught between where the backside door frame meets the bottom runner. I'm not saying the TM didn't stow the running end as it probably came undone as they brushed it against the door frame. And you can't totally fault the TM for not using the center of the door as his passenger wasn't the easiest to move around. There is usually a hook knife stowed on the back of the passenger harness right below the yoke. And it looks like the TM used that to cut themselves free. It's the green thing in his hand in the second photo. And in the first photo it does look like something is caught in the corner of the door. Nice job by the TM all in all . . . The only funny part (maybe sad really) is the jumpers still in the plane yelling for a knife. I wonder if any one even had one . . . NickD

Back in the day, before any of us could even spell environmental, Jean Boenish like to say she enjoyed B.A.S.E. jumping because it didn't involve carbon spewing airplanes. But in the end BASE is as bad as anything else. We burn fuel traveling to and from sites, We use equipment that is petroleum based. And we consume copious amounts of wheat and barley that could be better used in bio-fuels. NickD

Meh, Florida, a lot of really old people from New York, it's hot and sticky, it rains everyday for twenty minutes, there's bugs as long as your arm (and some of them FLY) and if you land out you'll be eaten by alligators and never heard from again. Have you ever met a Euro jumper who actually returned from Florida? NickD

>> I can't believe those retards were in it while they were hoisting that thing!

I had a girlfriend once who had absolutely no sense of smell. It's called chronic olfactory dysfunction. It really saved me taking a lot of showers, changing my socks and things like that . . . NickD

This may interest those old enough to remember the Zodiac Killer of the 1970s. There's some similarities to the DB Cooper case here, but it's a lot more, excuse the expression, clear cut . . . http://cbs13.com/local/zodiac.killer.kaufman.2.805799.html NickD

Thanks for becoming an "I" Lisa! I'm proud of you . . . NickD