skydived19006

I've taken 6'8 or 6'9, couple of WSU basket ball players, but then I'm 6'8". That was out of a 182 too, not an issue at all as long as everyone folds up well. Max weight that I've taken was 255 lbs, with me and the gear we were loaded to about 525 lbs. My rigs and reserves are rated up to 525 lbs. I wouldn't and do not go that heavy anymore, but the Precision 365 did land really nicely at that weight, even got a little swoop. I've jumped as student in front of a 5'4" tall 130 lb woman. (pic attached) Somewhat interesting along this line, I'm now a Tandem IE, so all of my tandem candidates will have jumped with a 6'8" (I keep my weight down to 210) guy right from the start! Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

In the late 90s I was jumping at a DZ that offered only static line training. Another guy asked me if I was interested in getting my tandem rating and purchasing a rig, sounded cool so we did it. A long time rigger and tandem IE in the area suggested that we take a look at Eclipse, seemed like a good deal at the time. We flew Shoobie out on a weekend we had the Mullins King Air and got our ratings. Shoobie even left us a loaner rig until the new one was shipped to us. At the time students would walk in on "word of mouth advertising" to do the SL FJC and we would try to convince a few of them to do a tandem instead. Bit of a strange situation considering that today many think that it's required to do a tandem. That DZ was bought out by a guy trying to consolidate a few Kansas DZs in order to keep his Caravan flying. We found ourselves at a Wichita DZ where the resident DZO had sold out to Caravan Man, but was given the tandem concession for a year. So, we sat on our thumbs for a year. By the end of that year my wife and I were running the DZ for the most part, the bank wanted the Caravan back, and Caravan Man wanted to move on. I purchased the C182, student gear, various stuff in the hanger and in November of 2001 I became DZO. That's the long story. Short version is basically if you want to own your own tandem gear and control your destiny, go ahead and buy an airplane, rant a hanger and hang our your shingle. You also get to work a 40 hour job, answer the phone scheduling (another 20 hours a week depending on volume), and be the first at the DZ and last to leave every Sat and Sunday. Maybe if the volume exists you can someday be a full time DZO and quit your day job. The timing actually worked out fairly well for us. About the time we purchased the DZ we also started our family. Angie quit her day job in 2002 to raise kid/s and "work the phone." Sorry if I drifted off topic there a bit. But that's how to make owning a tandem rig pay! I say go for it!!! Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I know that there are different methods. From my perspective, I've watched TIs exit and hold a large arch which works well enough, usually. The problem that I see is it looks like they are simply arching and waiting, arms and legs outstreached gives you no ability to work with your student. What do you do after a couple of seconds and the student is knees down or flopping like a rag doll and you can't get stable, just keep arching and time the drogue, or go to plan "B" and start working with the student? I like to let the roll go over because I can start reminding my student to arch as soon as we start forward movement. It generally takes, in my experience, a couple of seconds for the student to get over the sensory overload and start thinking again. This is also about the time that we're half way over and it's time to arch again. I consistently get the drogue off at 3 to 4 seconds. I've witnessed guys who do the "arch and wait" method going much longer before it settles out enough to get stable for the drogue. In my opinion, if you're out there arching while the student is de-arching, you stand the potential of ending up on your side in a )( configuration, aka side spin set up! I have in excess of 2000 tandems, and have never felt wind on my side for more than one second, and that only a hand full of times. All that said, I am 6' 8" with 6' 8" wing span. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I have the large oil cooler on my 182D, though I can't give you the part number off the top of my head. I have a Texas Skyways O-520U/TS on my airplane, but the case is the same as the O-470. You'll also need new baffles around the larger oil cooler since it's larger in all three dimensions. The early 180s ran the large oil coolers. Here's where I purchased my baffle kit http://www.airforms.biz/catalog/index.php?cPath=21_29&osCsid=f2aadcc1da399ed8b27d71db94f57b76, it also gives a few part numbers for oil coolers. Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

No other "friendly airports" in the neighborhood? Not everywhere in the US is populated by airports like the Wichita Kansas area. With a few calls, I'm sure that I could find two or three airports withing 20 miles of Wichita that would love to have a DZ. That said, I'm on paved private field, and really enjoy the fact that I don't have to deal with elected officials! This kind of reminds me of the cattle drive days in Kansas, not that I remember personally. Abilene didn't like all the cowboys so they banned them. The next year damned if they didn't miss the revenue, at that point it was to late to invite 'em back. Well, plus the railroad had also moved South. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I'll have to check that shit out on my next reline, likely this winter. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

..................................................................... Good start! Diving is certainly simpler. Are you starting from kneeling in the airplane or sitting in the airplane? Rob Warner Strong Tandem Examiner Same questions I was going to ask Kim. Kim, do you let the roll go over? I let the front flip go over. I've seen those who don't but you have to leave slightly different, more like stepping off toward the tail as opposed to just rolling. Martin Myrtle SAE (that would be Eclipse)/USPA Instructor Examiner. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Bump, What's the latest word on Sugar Alpha the book? Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

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If you set it up as $50 for one, or $75 for both, you can push the add-on as being 'half price'. Another thing that used to work well for us (on outside video, but the idea is the same) is to shoot both on every jump, and go for the after-sell on anything not prepaid. There's always the chance that non-video customers will pick up one or both, or that single option customers will kick in for the other one after the jump. One last idea, if you can figure out a way to do this without too much trouble, dump any unpurchased video or stills onto a hard drive of some sort and save them for a month. Print up a 'flyer' for any customers who didn't buy both video and stills that explains that you save the footage for a month, and that it's available for purcahse at any time during that month, with $5 added for shipping. We did this with stills back when we were shooting 35mm. We shot them on every jump, then tried to sell them after they had seen the video. Any rolls that didn't sell were labeled with the customer name/date, and tossed in a box. Pretty close to half of those rolls were purchased after the fact, and mailed to the customer. Once we transitioned to digital stills, the video/stills package became the only option, so this is not a factor any more, but the idea worked well at the time. Not a bad idea at all. With the GoPro stills, we dump them to a dated file with the student's name on the computer so it's easy to find. I purchased a 1 terabite external hard drive which I dump the contents from the 250 meg laptop drive when it's nearing capacity. At the rate our small DZ goes, the 1TB drive will fill up in 10 to 20 years. The video we're still running mini DV, those are dated and go into a box. As long as we don't run short of blank tapes, and resort to taping over they're there as well. One thought on the stills only thing was that the TI wouldn't need to carry the "large" mini DV camera, and just go with the GoPro in a glove. I'm all about making money, but would rather really soft sale the additional stuff. They didn't go for the full package because they didn't have or didn't want to spend the money. So, maybe simply show them the stills, or rough video and let it be go unsaid but obvious that they can "up-sale." We've all dealt with the student (at least those of us who deal with the money) who show up with a raged envelope full of cash. They start off with $20s, then $10s, and eventually a bunch of $1s. I feel like I'm taking their lunch money, of course I still take it. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Pricing is a bit of an issue for me. A friend told me about a video and still package that his girl friend and daughter purchased while swimming with dolphins. Something like $130 for a person to come out, stand at the end of the dock, run video and shoot some stills. Seems a bit over priced, but folks must be purchasing it at that price. So, do we set the price at what the market will bear, or more along the lines of what the value would be considering a high level of competition. I can see the argument from both sides. Though, my instinct is to set it at a point such that the DZ makes a descent profit, the TI is fairly paid, and the customer goes away with the feeling that they got a good product at a reasonable price. I'd rather have my customers bragging on the service they received as opposed to telling their friends "It was fun but that they gouge you on the video!" Have to balance profit with customer satisfaction. Customers walking away with a warm fuzzy feeling pays in increased customer traffic in the end. Contrast the situation with Skyride, every darn one of their "customers" ends up with a bad taste in their mouth and a bad opinion of not only Skyride, the DZ that trades with Skyride, but most likely the whole skydiving industry. All that said, I'm raising my prices next year, though probably to $75 for hand cam video with GoPro stills. Then maybe $45 or $50 for stills only. Isn't technology fun!? Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I'm sure that you've all seen the movie, it's fairly hokey but it does have skydiving and nudity! Old school style both on both counts. Chuck was trying to get the Beach 18 that flys at Silom Springs Arkansas. http://www.skyranch.com/skyranch/ The Gypsy Moths is a 1969 American film starring Burt Lancaster, based on the novel of the same name by James Drought. It is the story of three barnstorming skydivers and their effect on a midwestern American town. At the time, the sport of skydiving was in its infancy. The movie also features Gene Hackman (fresh from his role in Bonnie and Clyde) and Deborah Kerr renewing her association with Lancaster from their previous work in From Here to Eternity and Separate Tables. The movie focuses on the differences in values between the town folk and the hard living skydivers and features Deborah Kerr's only nude love scene in her movie career.[1] The director, John Frankenheimer, expressed his anguish and disappointment at the critical reception of this piece and subsequent narrow release in the United States. The film was widely seen in Australia and the local skydiving fraternity there were quick to seize the opportunity to promote their sport. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

So, the two GoPros are stacked one on top of the other, or side by side? Is the glove something that you guys put together? Would you post a picture of it? Also, nice job on the video it was pretty stable. Looks good. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I simply eliminated outside video a few months after we started doing the hand cam with go pro stills. Same reason, hauling one tandem at a time on the 182, and we don't have dedicated videots (tandem guys trade out). I think that we run hand cam video on 60% +/- of our tandems. Surely if we offered a stills only package some of the video customers would drop back, but some of the remaining 40% would purchase the stills. So, it could affect the bottom line in either direction. Sending more folks away with pictures that they'll post, print, email, hang at work, etc. is obviously going to be good advertising! In the end as long as the customers walk away happy your bottom line will thrive as well. Edit to add: I had not really thought about the fact that a low cost stills package could be considered an advertising item. If we push have 80% of customers walking away with some form of photo evidence it has to be good for business! Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I agree on the stills, but it seems that there's no image stabilization and the video is more shaky. Additionally for those of us who edit analog, mini DV works better. There is a market for stills only, it's an easy sell at the right price!! Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

That would have been Bob Swinson and maybe his ex wife, I don't know about the "Ol' Lady". Sounds like something out of Fandango. Anyway, Pegasus was at Jetmore Ks, Bob purchased land with or without a runway in Oklahoma I think in the early 90s, and moved Pegasus down there. He's still there doing his thing. "Interesting" guy, English transplant, old codger set in his ways, etc. I recently attended a IERC with him. Anyway, here he is: http://www.dropzone.com/dropzone/Detailed/1094.shtml Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I know of at least one that will not do HC. They train Tandem Progression so the instructor running video would get in the way of the training, or at least that's the thought. Another hurdle with it is bringing new TIs in the rotation. They can't be in the schedule to work a "share" since they have to get the numbers before taking on the task. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

We jump from 10,000' so you get about 15 shots in free fall, we'll pause on the step for a couple of shots, those are always good pictures. The free fall pictures are typical free fall pictures with faces distorted by the wind, but when the student smiles at the camera waives, etc they're just as good as outside video, just fewer perspectives (no pictures from the drogue looking down, obvious limitations. Lighting is just as much an issue as with traditional video. Low clouds below us give nice bottom up lighting, high thin overcast with harsh contrast is the worst, but that's the same as any pictures unless shooting with a flash. For high contrast clouds it works better to shoot more from the side as opposed to down looking straight up. The GoPro HD works ok with low light, but not if you're pushing past sunset, well not that I'd know since we're always on the ground before the sun officially sets (clouds on the horizon give an "early sunset"). I'd have to dig up a few "lesser pictures." Regardless, that's all off topic. Who's offering HC in the US? Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

What kind of photo quality do you get with that set up? Sounds like good money to the TI from over here. Here's a GoPro still in full res. http://www.aircapitaldropzone.com/images/GOPR0176.JPG Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

It's a Sony PC in a glove with a GoPro strapped in front. I don't have any pictures of the camera setup, but there's another thread with one or two pics. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Google isn't very helpful, but I did find pricing anywhere from $40 for an raw GoPro video, to $155 but that's South African dollars. Multimedia Packages & Rates Handcam Video from $40.00 Our least expensive way to get the best video footage of your life. This option is the raw footage of your skydive saved on file in a MP4 format for you to take home and edit yourself. This one was South Africa: PRICES EXIT HEIGHT - FREEFALL - PRICE 8,000ft – 25 seconds – normally $399.00 CURRENT SPECIAL 8,000ft $319.00 10,000ft – 40 seconds – normally $479.00 CURRENT SPECIAL 10,000ft $389.00 12,000ft – 50 seconds – normally $545.00 CURRENT SPECIAL 12,000ft $439.00 14,000ft – 60 seconds – normally $650.00 CURRENT SPECIAL 14,000ft $499.00 NEW SPECIAL - 8,000ft skydive and Handcam DVD for only $399! Another SA DZ: DIGITAL MEDIA >>> Hand Cam DVD $130.00 Hand Cam DVD & Photos $155.00 Dedicated DVD $174.00

We’ve been offering hand cam video as an option at my DZ since 05. This year we added a GoPro shooting stills, and late last summer (2010) I made the decision to eliminate outside video (that discussion has been covered). I was wondering how many DZs around the country are offering HC as an option. Well, I was also wondering what the going rate might be. We sell HC video with GoPro stills for $65, $35 of which goes to the TI. http://www.aircapitaldropzone.com/tandemvideo.htm So, who offers HC? Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

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Why not post a review on dropzone.com of your opinion? You might need to tone it down for the review to be accepted, but anyone thinking of going over there to work would likely see the dropzone.com reviews. There is one disgruntled camera man who put up a review who shares your opinion. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Good luck catching me, unstable and unconscious... but id go for main, never know could need the reserve later. I've witnessed a jumper fall on a formation and dislocate both shoulders. He went off on his back, fall rate all over the place, turning/spinning, and moving around on the horizontal access. One would have to be extremely aggressive to catch such a person to say the least. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ