dninness

There is a 2nd photo on the Internet from above, and it looks like everybody was turning to track away and the guy deploying was _not_ in the base. Here, see the attached. Great photo, but it looks like the guy in red turned off to track and got a PC and main in the face. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

http://www.skyjump.com/thespot (Thats is for Pepperell. Matt Veno, the wizard code monkey behind it, has made it available to any DZ that wants to put it on their website: http://www.flyingchipmunk.com/skydiving/spotter-now-generally-available/) Speaking from experience, it takes the forecasted winds aloft, so as per usual, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy." All the usual disclaimers apply. EDIT: Sorry, now with clicky goodness NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

The little mini "fishing bobber" glow sticks are great with a bit of gaffer tape as a hood on your altimeter. I've done the "strobe on a line' (I *knew* that old ROL pocket on my legstrap would come in handy!) before, and it seems to work fairly well. I let mine dangle 10-12 ft below me, which puts it mostly behind me and I don't seem to get any disorienting flashes off my canopy. Last time I did night jumps, one of the guys had affixed a very, very bright head lamp to the very top of his helmet and from above that thing lit up his canopy like the inside of a Chinese lantern. When he moved his head, from above, you could see his light, and when it was pointing directly at the canopy it was very well lit. It was, no pun intended, brilliant. I am already stoked to have that same setup on my next night jump. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Holy smokes, I honestly _never_ thought of this as an issue. But it makes sense! Wow. Things I Learned today. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

I learned a lot in the "prep jumps" I did, but I swear I picked up a lot more once I was rated and other instructors started sharing their tips and such. For example, the concept that the reserve side guy can (and often should) haul the exit around so the student is head down on the hill is not called out in the course at all. So there I am, all of about 3 AFF jumps to my name, and I've got a main-side telling me "You need to get a knee out and crank the whole thing around on exit.." and I'm thinking "Really?" (Mind you, up to that point I'd been operating on "don't drag the student out of the plane, don't screw up the exit, don't inhibit student learning" and not specific pro-active steps I could really be taking to improve the whole thing) But yeah, really cranking around a student who is on his back and spinning with you attached is a skill that is not covered much (apart from the ever-helpful "Let go and re-approach") NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

True statement. I go to Pepperell on my honeymoon to jump, I'm asking about the spot and Fran says "When Captain Eddie opens the door, thats the spot." Uhh, oookay, I think. Sure enough, 10K, Captain Eddie opens the door and son of a gun, thats exactly the spot. And every time thereafter. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

In 1988, the technology involved in getting live air-to-ground video of the Seoul Olympic Skydiving Exhibition was pretty rudimentary and not tremendously reliable. This was one of the reasons that they had THREE video guys jumping with the Rings team. Norm Kent, Ken Crabtree & Tom Sanders all jumped microwave packages on them with very directional horn antennas pointed at the ground. One (I forget which) had the antenna mounted on his shoe so that when floating the aircraft, he could be transmitting something they could lock on to for the exit shot. On the ground, it was purported that the receiver antennas were atop the stadium roof and manually pointed with the aid of a rifle scope to keep the signal solid in freefall. I would think the RC airplane style xmitter / receiver combos would work more than well enough to keep whuffos entertained, if thats the purpose. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

I did a demo out of a T-34 (tandem cockpit low-wing Beech trainer, much smaller than the Yak or T-6). The slipstream will be more than you expect. Remind the pilot to give you a good cut for climbout (I did not) and he should use a very shallow dive to maintain airspeed. I know on the T-34, the pilot asked me to be careful about pushing on the canopy frame when the sliding part was open, lest the thing depart the aircraft. He was also XC from his home base, and he asked me to try to close & lock the canopy after climb out so that he could fly home without landing, as the T-34 is speed limited with the canopy open. I was able to do that, but it was a pain. Practice, practice, practice. Watch for handle snags and when you stand up in the cockpit, because you've been sitting/moving around on it, check your main pilot chute handle for it being pushed in or whatever. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Sounds like a total blast. 40 jumps and a Go-Pro aside. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Skydiver fathers 100 kids. Accurate. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

I always tell my students "When you have the gear on, constantly be building up that muscle memory by doing practice touches. On the ground, practice touches are free. In the sky, a missed pull can often lead to a re-jump, and that is costly, so take advantage of the free training!" Students seem a little reticent at first because they feel it looks stupid them standing there waving their arms around.. Another thing: I was a static line baby. Ripcord on the hip. We were taught (right or wrong) "Arch, look, reach, pull, check." I had a serious dearching problem at pulltime caused by looking down at my handle. One of my S/L instructors said "Hey, reach for that handle without looking.." I said "But.. we were told to look!" He replied "Do you look back when you reach for your wallet?" Occasionally, when I get a student who is either not getting the practice touches or doesn't seem to want to practice on the ground, I'll relate that little anecdote about looking for your wallet. Its far more appropos now that student containers are BOC. I say "practice reaching for that handle so that it is as natural and practiced as reaching for your wallet." (obviously, this really only works for guys. Not many women carry a wallet in the back pocket) Its funny, but very quickly I learned how to recognize the ones who are going to have problems at pull time. Very early in my AFF "career," I had a CAT A student who did just fine on the horizontal trainer, the mock up, etc, but he was not very accurate about actually getting his hand on the handle. I was on the main side and did not properly reinforce him putting his hand on the handle the way I probably should have ("experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted" and I was about to get a ton of experience). We're in freefall, and he goes to do his practice touches. His first one, I'm reaching up to grab his hand as it comes back and before I can get his hand, he snaps back into the boxman. "WTF?" I think, and think "OK, here's come number two.." and again, I miss his hand (he did not even reach as far back as the level of his shoulder). I'm like "Oh, you sonofabitch!" and resolve that I'm gonna get his hand on #3. Nope. Fucking guy just made this half-ass twisting of his upper arm/wrist and back into the box man. Now, what I *should* have done was thrown "practice touches" at him again. We had plenty of time. But I wasn't thinking/anticipating that you could actually give 'practice pulls' again (of course you can! I just did not think of it), so I did not give him that signal. What happened come pull time? I should have anticipated this. I throw him the check alti, he waves off, and goes to pull. He twists his arm back just about shoulder level and pantomimes throwing out the pilot chute. Problem was, his hand never even came within 24 inches of the handle. I dumped him out, and on the ground he swore up and down that he touched the handle every time, threw the pilot chute, etc. I was seriously wishing for video on that one. Since then, I've gotten pretty good at identifying the ones who are going to brainlock at pulltime. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Wait... you have an 8 year old doing "front-back-go?" That's effing awesome. :) when he's 11 or 12, talk to me, there an Army Cadet program he'd love. LOL. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

A bit off our equestrian topic, but this just makes me happy. Me too. Great sig. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

There wasn't much analysis of the data in terms of brakes, no brakes, etc, but here's a map overlay from an XC jump using my Garmin 12XL about 8 years ago: I do recall that the uppers were quite strong that day, and at one point the Ground Speed indication was > 80mph. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Thanks TK, I did the same, but the @#$% NTSB database kept timing out on me. My database-fu was weak. I, too, called bullshit on page one or two, and he conveniently ignored my request for more data on the S-76 accident he claims he witnessed. Aircraft do not blow up "just because." WIWITA (When I Was In The Army), I was involved in a fuel spill during hot refueling a CH-47 that was caused by inattention. The (lazy) civilian fuelers who ran our fuel point had little wooden blocks they'd jam under the handles of the fuel nozzle to allow the nozzle to run without having to squeeze it the entire time (to be fair, you're dispensing 400+ gal per side sometimes, several times a night, you can expect your hands to get tired). The right aft tank topped out just as the refueler peered down to see where he was in the process. The fuel shot out of the filler neck, he fell backwards off the little two-step platform he was standing on, and about 15 gallons of JP4 shot out of the nozzle. At least 2-3 gallons of that went straight into the #2 engine inlet about 4 ft above and 3 ft aft of the tank opening. The other 12-13 gallons went up into the rotor system and right down on me. Nothing exploded. Nothing burst into flames. Just as I saw the thing happening I keyed the intercom, said "1 and 2 to STOP" and unplugged my comm cord. *splat*. As the engines spooled down, I calmly walked over to the emergency shower on the side of the building and stood there rinsing myself off in about 40 degrees of a cold March evening. Ruined all of my flight gear, my wallet, flight suit, survival vest, nametags, boots, etc. Only thing I still have are my dogtags from that day. My pride was a little hurt, too, to be honest. We filled out some paperwork, the civilians had to stop using the little wood blocks, and I elected to supervise refueling in the future from a position further outside the rotor path. But apart from some ruined flight gear and a very small fuel spill, it was a total no factor. And yes, my Hollywood-educated science brain expected that I would be testing the fire-retardant capabilities of fuel-soaked Nomex that night. *whew* NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

I beg to differ. You obviously didn't do enough research on all of the links on the web page. I'm sorry, I've read it all. As I stated "(you did not post a link about static electricity, however, but I think we can all agree that static electricity and aircraft refueling ops are to be avoided at all costs..)" I mean, no shit, static electricity and refueling ops don't mix. Got that. What part of that is not clear? I'm not saying that flowing fuel cannot create static electricity. I mean, come on, a 25,000lb cargo helicopter sitting at flight idle creates a shitload of static electricity just in the rotor system, never mind the JP-4 flowing into the tanks from a nozzle. But static electricity will exist with either hot or cold refueling ops. No news there. Hence the reason why you ground the aircraft to a static ground, the fuel truck to a static ground (preferably the same one), and the fuel nozzle to the aircraft (note: I've never seen civilian nozzles have grounding clips on them. The military ones had 1/4" plugs, like phono plugs, and a jack right next to the refueling receptacle to remind you.) Pretty easy. I am still curious, however, about your experience with an S-76 on an oil platform. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Wow. First, to address some of the earlier posts: - Its bad practice for the pilot to get out and hot gas his own plane without someone qualified to manipulate the controls in the cockpit, just in case. I think the FAA, the NTSB and your insurance company would frown on leaving a running aircraft with nobody at the controls, even if it was just to go take a leak. Brakes fail, aircraft jump chocks, props go from zero pitch to something else due to malfunction, etc. The risk of the aircraft doing something while nobody is minding the store are pretty high. - Hot gas is an acceptable aviation practice. I think if you were to query the NTSB or the FAA (or the Army Safety Center, for that matter), you would probably find there are more refueling accidents that occur while gassing an aircraft cold than when hot. - Refueling while people are on board is a total no-no, hot or not. 50 feet from the aircraft during refueling ops for all non-essential personnel. Even when cold-gassing the aircraft, we'd take people off and have them stand 50 ft away. I had a great conversation on the edge of the ramp at Kangnug AB with the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army while waiting for some ROKAF guys to finish fueling my helicopter once. That being said, hot gas can be relatively safe, and not shutting down the aircraft is definitely a "pro-maintenance" item, but not unsafe. BTW, rwieder, every link you posted basically refuted every statement you made (you did not post a link about static electricity, however, but I think we can all agree that static electricity and aircraft refueling ops are to be avoided at all costs..). I would be interested to hear, as would others I'm sure, your experience with S-76s blowing up on oil rigs. Please, enlighten us. Photos, video? An NTSB report, maybe? NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

We had a female pilot start flying at the DZ where I'd started jumping back in the 1990s. She was rumored to be a CFI and looking for more flying work. So she flew a couple times with the DZO, and then was turned loose on us skydivers. It was a small C-182 DZ. And you know that skydivers are not the sort to break in a "new to us" pilot very gently. One Saturday she's flying the plane, and by all accounts was a pretty good jump pilot. The usual hijinks in the plane, but nobody managed to get the aircraft key on jump run. Mid afternoon, the plane lands, taxis up and she gets out. We thought she was going to the ladies room or something, but she walks right past manifest to her car, gets in and drives away. There was a small store at the end of the driveway to the DZ, so maybe she's going to get a soda and a sandwich or something. And then she doesn't come back. About 20 minutes later, the DZO comes out, says "Where the hell is our pilot?" We all shrug our shoulders and make noises and point out that we think she went to the store. Someone hops in their car and drives out to the store. She's nowhere to be found. We later found out that she'd quit on the spot, just didn't bother to tell the DZO. Apparently one of the regulars was trying to stink her out of the plane all day and finally succeeded. Guess the smell offended her delicate sensibilities. I've had other grumpy pilots in my day, usually cuz they didn't get laid or someone drank their beer the night before. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Found a pic. See attached. (The GA-8 is used by Civil Air Patrol here in the States, and by various missionary aviation groups in Asia and Africa. Its a pretty solid "bigger than a 206, smaller than a Caravan" piston single) NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

This is a turbine powered Gippsland Airvan, isn't it? NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

I think I need to echo a prior poster: if you're building a "purpose built skydiving aircraft" and its got a side door, you're not purpose building a skydiving aircraft. In a perfect world, when you get what you want, the way you want it, thats the way you'd have always exited aircraft. Could you build a car with a trunk lid that only was accessible from one side? Sure, but why would you? Same goes for a purpose-built skydiving plane. The bigger problem seems to me that building a purpose-built skydiving plane in Oz has already been done, so you had better offer some key differentiators or you're not going to make much of a dent in a market that already doesn't have a lot of "dentable space." If you can't appeal to the operators, you're screwed. Skydivers, while picky SOBs, don't buy the plane or operate it and have to make a business case out of purchasing a new plane from 10,000 miles away. That would be like asking me what my preferred UPS truck looks like. I dunno, how about the one that gets the packages to me *instantly*? The bean counters are UPS are going "nooooO!" What are some key differentiators that you should be going for? a) Tailgate. People want tailgate aircraft. 90% of the aircraft in the skydiving world are side exit airplanes. You're going to be joining a long list of planes with a side exit, so the rest of your differentiators better be good. So, here are some other things you need to stick out if you stick with a side-exit: b) Low cost per head per jump. Lower per-head costs means you can fly the plane fully loaded and make $$. If my per-jumper per-load cost was, say, $17 in a Twin Otter, then the plane that works out closer to $14 a head is far more attractive. If I can make $3 more, maybe I don't raise my price, or I can absorb better fluctuations in the cost of JetA. c) Easy to maintain and operate. Single-point hot refueling capability, don't put the filler neck/single-point a foot from the prop arc, etc. Make a durable interior that doesn't have to be fixed with duct tape every 2 weeks. d) Related to b), but cheap to operate. You're already there with PT-6s (industry standard). Add FADEC and "push to start" to allowed computer-controlled starts instead of complex hand-jives in the cockpit. Lessens your chance of a hot start. How about making the engines easily accessible, so you're not blowing shop money taking the cowlings off. e) eye-level windows for the folks inside if they're on benches. I hate ducking to see out. f) Steps, floater bars, avoidance of pinch points, snags, things like the flap mechanism on the Otter, etc thats off the top of my head.. undoubtedly there is more. Operators, they really need to hear from you on this. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

FWIW, my "pretentious douche" comment was more angled at how he acted, not on what he did. His description, as written, was not bad and well couched in a way that would make most whuffos go "Wow, cool." But the whole time I couldn't help but think the guy was trying to paint himself as the Black Ernest Hemingway or something. I mean, it was a *little* thick. Can't wait to hear him describe something more mundane, like a game of ping pong. And for the record: I didn't nitpick his details. I can step around the 40,000 ft bit (40, 14? Whats the difference a couple thousand feet makes, right?) and whether he was truly "solo" or doing AFF (and clearly "not tandem"), which a lot of DZs bill as "solo" jumping. Not a big whoop, really. But I didn't even get a laugh out of the Pecos Parachute School reference, though. That part really hurt. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Pot meet kettle... Really? Wow, how insightful. Thanks! (goes off to cross "Be called a pretentious douche in a round about way on DZ.com" off his bucket list..) NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

The rec.skydiving S&TA? Not only do I remember him, I've tried to emulate him in all my skydiving endeavors since. (OK, not really) But gawd, some of that shit was funny. Nippleboy and Night Stilletto Backwards CRW. The absolute internecine warfare over spotting, exit order and separation (Helpful guy: "Here, let me help you think of it in another way: imagine you're in a balloon that's motionless over the earth, and a tractor is dragging the DZ in one direction..." Everybody else: "Wait, what?") until John Kallend, Winsor and others helped graphically unfuck the rest of us. (I just threw my hands up and volunteered to be the tractor driver when this shit would start) I dropped off USENET around about 1999 or 2000 and then Snuffy showed up, so I missed 99% of that. I'd poke my head back in and see just PAGES of incomprehensible drivel from this guy and go "Uh, ooohkay.." and off I'd go to do something else. IMHO, the funniest thing I ever ran into with rec. was being at Bridge Day in 1997 and meeting Winsor and billv, and like an friggin' excited fanboi I turn to my (now ex-) wife and say: "Honey, this is Bill V!!!" Of course not being a skydiving or on rec., she's got no damn clue who Bill is. So in that sort of droll "I'm nodding because it will make you think I know what the fuck you're talking about" way she says "Who?" I don't know who was laughing harder after that. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Except this is a very OLD joke. But to the characters, its not.... And to Sheldon, its factual. Which is even funnier on so many levels. Hell, Kevin Smith riffed on that in, what, 1995? Brodie Bruce: "He likes to have sex with woman in an uncomfortable place." Gill Hicks: "What, like the back of a Volkswagen?" NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19