skydived19006

All I can think is that he'd come off as a lot more credible if he'd asked someone, maybe his instructor to look over his rough draft and suggest corrections. Doesn't mean that he'd change stuff like the 7 seconds to death, or use words like bridle as opposed to string, cord or what ever he said. I hate to think that he may have actually had editorial comment from a skydiver, and ended up with what he did have. It's likely typical of most things, I just happen to know skydiving. But the press in general doesn't seem to be very concerned with being technically correct. They figure that the public isn't any more informed than they are, so why dick with getting it even close to correct. Some novelists actually take being technically correct seariously. They tend to stick with what they know, and rely on research as opposed to just filling in the blanks with bull shit. Regardless, I'm sure I'll see a ten fold increase in tandem customers of African descent next season! Ironically, my observation of male Afrocentric tandem students so far is that virtually all of them are gay. Seems that gay black dudes have more balls than the hetero brethren, or maybe are just less concerned with doing what black folk are supposed or not supposed to do in general? At the end of the day it don't matter, the money all spends the same. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I'd like to point out that there are USPA rules, and FAA laws. In the US, you'd be breaking no laws taking a seven year old on a tandem skydive. You would be breaking USPA rules which are enforceable by revocation of ratings, membership, etc. I can't prove a negative, but if you disagree please show me the FAR proving me wrong. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Which tandem manufacturer's gear are these jumps being done with? Eclipse? Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Pretty cool! I've owned a few Bugs over the years, but all Baja, with one in my garage right now. You didn't mention spending any money on the trans-axle. They're always a week link even in front of a 1600. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I agree with most of what's been said above. I'll add that anyone with no skydiver driver experience should be trained. That may sound a bit obvious, but "old school" 182 jump pilot training amounted to "you ride on the floor once, then I'll ride along with you for a couple loads." I put the right seat and yoke in the airplane and require my new pilots to fly 10 to 20 loads under supervision before turning then lose. This wasn't exactly all my idea, it's a requirement of the insurance. Many DZs operate with their aircraft uninsured, but no reason not to train the pilots! There are way to many dead skydivers, and destroyed airplanes attributed to "stupid pilot tricks". Actual stall/spin recovery training is a good idea! I know of a few incidents where the pilot stalled the airplane and spun it to the ground one from 10,000'! As I recall, one in Oklahoma years ago the pilot while in a spin got on the radio and called down to ground asking for instruction on how to recover from a spin. His reply from ground was "full power and yoke full aft." Needless to say, he crashed that airplane. Another advantage of training is that we get to assess the potential pilots skills and ability to function under a little pressure. I've had more than one who just wasn't getting it, and/or my training pilot was uncomfortable with. These guys did not end up flying for me. The airport I operate from has had half a dozen jump planes destroyed over the years, no loss of life thankfully! I've had people tell me that the place had bad mojo, was built on an Indian burial ground, etc. My reply to that crap is, "Those crashes were due to poor maintenance, and poor piloting. I choose to maintain my airplane and train good pilots." Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

It was likely less expensive taking over an existing operation. Airplane with a high time engine, used student gear, and I already owned one tandem rig, got another used one a bit later. You could end up with 50k in gear easy enough. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

There are other options; Simply avoid the middle of the day rush, arrange with three like minded individuals to get out of bed and be at the DZ when the door rolls up. Then you're on the airplane as soon as you can gear up, and the pilot can preflight/fule/etc. You'll have three jumps in before the guys who show up at 11:00 am then complain about the backlog at manifest. Or, get an instructional rating/s. Then you can spend the day at the DZ, make a couple of fun jumps here and there, still be on short calls through the middle of the day with training jumps. Then at the end of the day when the "complainers" have long gone you can make the sunset/beer load! And, you can cover the cost of your fun jumps with your working jumps, packing, etc.!!! Or, if there truly is a shortage of lift at your DZ of convenience, you might ask the DZO if you could supply another aircraft. He'll very likely be willing to allow you to do just that. Granted, your airplane will only fly when the DZOs airplane/s can't keep up. Your DZO will likely require you to maintain said airplane at a high level, and that you provide competent pilots who are also willing to sit around just in case the airplane is needed, etc. Oh, be prepared to have your little venture operate in the red. If you're supplying a 182, you'll need to do a few performance STCs which will run you another $50k +/- on top of the cost of the airplane and jump mods. On the bright side, you'll be the hero for sure! You know, reading that last option, it doesn't really sound all that appealing. I have to wonder if the DZO has ran the same scenario a time or two and came to the same conclusion. Edit for spelling. Though I'm sure I still missed a few. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Another great reason to start small and grow if the market and staffing allow. From my perspective, I see DZs fail because the management is driven by something other than maintaining profitability. If you're starting a DZ in order to make friends, impress skydivers, and of course free jumps, you'll likely not be in business very long. Some of the recent DZ controversy in Missouri is a prime example. SD Arizona wasn't built in a day. Also, the issues that Fast brought up regarding competition for staff and customers in any market large enough to support a turbine aircraft. ST Louis for example as I understand has two turbine AC DZs and both run on the edge of profitability due to market size, etc. Just an example, my knowledge of the St Louis DZs and market are very third hand. [soapbox] I do have a fairly good handle on the Wichita market. We have one Cessna 182 (only DZ within 120 miles of Wichita), from the typical Wichita skydivers perspective, we don't have enough lift capacity. But from the business minded DZOs perspective, that one 182 sits on the ground quite a bit, and on beautiful summer days we'll fly 14 to 18 loads, eight of which are tandems, when if it were turning back to back from 8:00 am until sunset, it would do 22 to 24 loads (larger engine STC). Granted in this market the "typical fun jumper" will show up at 10 to 11 am, and leave by 2:00 to 3:00 pm (DZs only 15 min out of town), so they have a different perspective than those of us who spend 12 plus hours a day at the DZ. [/soapbox] Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

And the bills don't stop because you're not flying. My opinion is that in the majority of cases, it would be a much better idea to start out as a small DZ, and grow your way into a turbine. You need to be keeping 3 to 5 Cessnas busy before you'd have the traffic to justify a turbine aircraft. Start out with one 182, a couple of tandem rigs and 2 to 6 student rigs, you could get going for $100,000 (cash/loan combo) easy enough. I took over an existing DZ including airplane and student rigs 10 years ago for less than 50K. "Earned" enough the first year to pay staff (other than the DZO), cover payments, and replace the engine. IMO, you'll need to be doing at an absolute minimum 500 tandems, more like 1000 a year before you should consider quitting your "real job" and becoming a full time DZO. Currently for instance, nobody in Kansas is a full time skydiver or DZO. I have seen it done, you simply need to have a very low standard of living, single, trailer sitting adjacent to the hanger kind of thing. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

While we're splitting hairs, there's a difference between an acronym, and an initilism. Acronyms are pronounced as a word as "SCUBA", or "LASER". "ACDZ", "SDKS" are initilisms since we don't attempt to pronounce them as words, but as a list of letters. "Excuse me, sir. Seeing as how the VP is such a VIP, shouldn't we keep the PC on the QT? 'Cause if it leaks to the VC he could end up MIA, and then we'd all be put on KP." Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Well shit! Looks like they just went and made my HD Hero obsolete. Can't really upgrade one without upgrading half a dozen. We use the GOPRO with our hand cam for stills. I do like the low light performance they tout. The larger file size is impressive, but we're shooting 200 plus pictures, I don't know that they'd even fit on one CD, and I don't want to spend the time to pick though. The burst of 10 stills is really cool, but will not help with what we do. I like the .5 second time lapse, but again with 11 mp pictures, we'd have 400 large file pictures to deal with. I guess that we could raise the price $10 and load stills to a flash drive. What we'll actually end up doing is sticking with what we're currently doing, until what we're currently doing is no longer technologically feasible. I stayed with 35 mm film until we switched to 100% inside, so skipped a whole level of technology! Professional 11MP Sensor 2x Faster Image Processor 2X Sharper Glass Lens Professional Low Light Performance Full 170°, Medium 12°, Narrow 90° FOV in 1080p and 720p Video 120 fps WVGA, 60 fps 720p, 48 fps 960p, 30 fps 1080p Video Full 170° and Medium 127° FOV Photos 10 11MP Photos Per Second Burst One 11MP Photo Every 0.5 Sec Time-Lapse Mode 3.5mm External Stereo Microphone Input Simple Language Based User Interface Compatible Wi-Fi BacPac™ and Wi-Fi Remote™ Long Range Remote Control of up to 50 GoPro Cameras Wi-Fi Video/Photo Preview + Playback Live Streaming Video + Photos to the Web Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I have a couple thousand jumps on Icarus mains. They aren't necessary prone to line twists, but it can take a different technique with the full flight airspeed, especially if you're heavy. You'll weather vane, so need to get your knees out of the breeze. Just "stand up" in the harness, and ask your student to do the same. You can also stick an arm/leg out in order to have the wind assist, but shouldn't really be necessary. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I can't quite read if that's a satirical comment or not. I indicated that it's not specifically pointed out in the SIM if my 500,000 sf, or 250,000 sf can be a bit larger, but have a 200 sf area in the middle with a tree. Or, for instance a fairway that's a total of say 500,000 sf but not a regular shape at all still constitute an Open Field. I say "yes", you may have another opinion. (satire) As opposed to agreeing to disagree, I'd prefer we agree that I'm always right. (/satire) Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

You should study the BSRs before you go point fingers and accusing folks of something of which you don't really know. There is no BSR rule against doing a tandem as a demonstration, I've done it, and did the research before hand. What there is are minimum landing area requirements (which some regular DZs don't meet). It has to be an "open field" to take a tandem in. Insurance Technologies will not insure a demonstration with a tandem, unless maybe both under the canopy are TIs and maybe PRO rated, but I didn't research this specifically. What exactly constitutes an "open field" is a bit of a grey area in my opinion. Is an area "open" if there's a tree in the middle of it? Is a landing area an "open field" if you have to count the entire fairway to get the square footage? So, point out the specific BSR you think was broken and I'll be more than happy to discuss farther. BTW, within the SIM there are BSRs and "everything else". The BSRs are the only "rules", everything else is a "suggestion." You can't "break" a suggestion. If you're wondering, I do not have any involvement in this particular jump. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-19/corporate-jets-face-100-per-flight-fee-in-obama-deficit-plan.html President Barack Obama’s administration proposed a $100 per-flight fee on corporate jets and other turbine-powered planes that use the U.S. air-traffic system. The fee would raise an estimated $11 billion over 10 years, according to the president’s recommendations to the 12-member congressional committee charged with finding ways to trim the deficit. The fee is aimed at private aircraft, which currently don’t pay their fair share of costs of operating the aviation system, the administration said today. About two-thirds of the air-traffic system is paid for by aviation excise taxes, including levies on airline tickets and on fuel. Last year these taxes raised $10.8 billion, according to the Department of Transportation. There is a disparity between what airlines and their passengers pay into the system and what users of private aircraft pay, the plan said. An airline flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco would generate $1,300 to $2,000 in taxes, depending on the number of passengers and what they paid for tickets. A private jet, which requires almost the same services from air-traffic controllers, would pay about $60 in fuel taxes, the plan said. “General aviation users currently pay a fuel tax, but this revenue does not cover their fair-share use of air traffic services,” the plan said. Opposition Mounts A coalition of nine U.S. associations representing users and manufacturers of corporate and private aircraft issued a joint statement “expressing our unified opposition” to the proposal. “Mr. President, many foreign countries have imposed per flight charges on general aviation and the results have been devastating,” the e-mail statement said. “Please do not go down the dangerous path and cost jobs in our community.” General-aviation pilots pay their fair share of fuel taxes and a new fee would create “a costly new federal collection bureaucracy,” the groups said. The groups that issued the letter include the Washington- based General Aviation Manufacturers Association, whose members include General Dynamics Corp. (GD)’s Gulfstream and Textron Inc. (TXT)’s Cessna; the Washington-based National Business Aviation Association, with members including PepsiCo Inc. and Humana Inc. (HUM), the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, based in Frederick, Maryland, which has more than 400,000 individual members; and the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. NetJets Reacts Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A)’s NetJets, the largest U.S. firm selling fractional shares of corporate jets, issued a statement from Chairman and Chief Executive Jordan Hansell agreeing with the trade groups. NetJets, based in Columbus, Ohio, has more than 7,000 customers worldwide. A similar proposal introduced by President George W. Bush’s administration was defeated in Congress after opposition by the same groups. That plan, which was introduced in 2007, was supported by the airline industry, which argued that corporate aircraft owners should pay a greater share. This time, the Air Transport Association, a Washington, D.C.-based group representing airlines including Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL), has joined the opposition. “We oppose any new taxes on airlines or their passengers,” ATA President Nicholas Calio said in a statement. The Obama plan is aimed at pilots who fly under the supervision of air-traffic controllers. Nearly all small private, piston-powered planes wouldn’t have to pay the fee, the proposal said. It would also exempt aircraft operated by the military or other government agencies, air ambulances and any flight that doesn’t require air-traffic guidance. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Thanks all, It had this scenario had not occurred to me until Scrumpot brought this possibility up in the incidents forum. I just wanted a few more opinions. I do know that my Crossfire II at 1.5 will turn until stopped while in breaks, but had not thought to let it go to see what happens if no corrective input is added. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I figure that you guys would be the ones to ask. Would a Katana loaded in the 1.4 to 1.5/1 range while in breaks turn and remain in a turn. I'm talking about a turn similar to what you'd see if you were spiraling down to lose altitude. For instance if it were deployed with a half a turn of twists resulting in a spin/turn, but the twists self cleared, and the skydiver was unconscious, would it turn all the way to the ground without other contributing issues? And yes, this question is tied to an incident. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I agree wholeheartedly. I did one yesterday with a girl who's fun was manifested with laughter. I couldn't help but laugh along with her, and haven't had that much fun in recent memory. A couple of years ago I broke my arm (roller skating). Since I run the DZ, I still needed to be there. I figured out that I enjoy skydiving a whole lot less without the skydiving. And over 95% of my skydiving is tandem. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Ditto with pretty much every part of that right down to the age. Well except I wasn't much worried about being in trouble when I got home. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

This is similar to how we operate (not the tandem only part). All the TIs are over 200 lbs., we have 330 and 365 canopies so can keep the wing loading in excess of 1/1. Generally the wind will be increasing throughout the morning, when we start backing up, or the gusting is starts to make landing dicey we stop. In general if the wind is fairly constant and below 30 mph we're ok, anything over 30 we're done. If it's gusting 5 to 25 we're drinking beer. The "rule" is 25, but in the right conditions we'll push it a bit. When I have a light student on a 365 (around 1:1) and the canopy is oscillating around with turbulence, etc. I have to wonder what it's like being a 150 lb TI with a 100 lb student on a canopy that size (.8:1). Seems a bit ironic when we would prefer to take the 220 lb guy as opposed to the 120 lb girl. Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Damn Steve, I think that I bought a DZ (one airplane and a dozen student rigs) for about what you spent on ratings and gear! There's a way to make a fortune in the skydiving business for sure!! Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Ok, so the US Military doesn't comply with USPA rules so they can do tandem demonstration jumps into football stadiums, etc without even breaking any rules. That said, this was a demonstration tandem skydive (apparently not DOD), therefore requiring an Level 1 landing area. From the BSRs: 3. Demonstration jumps into Level 2 areas require a D license with a USPA PRO Rating for all jumpers, including both tandem jump participants.[E] 5. Tandem jumps into stadiums are prohibited.[E] Unless he had an Executive Committee waiver the TI is subject to disciplinary action. This video being out there is akin to putting up a video done in the US of a tandem with a 10 year old kid. And lastly, why the fuck didn't he nail the flair?! Could have pretty much salvaged that landing if he'd simply finished the flair. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Lisa! Why didn't you simply pull out your trusty .44 and "blow their heads clean off?" That'll learn em! Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Oh! I know! I know!..... Money, How much money did the Swedish versions earn in the US? Right, virtually zero. So, it's an untapped market. Americans simply are not going to pay $10 or $12 a head to see a foreign film dubbed to English. Edit for spelling. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ