Praetorian

dont know about your otter but SDC's has no seats excluding the pilot/copilot Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

Maybe urban ledgend but those chemical heaters work on low level combustion, the forced air of free fall might make them a little warmer then you want (based on what I assume is an urban ledgend too long to post here) Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

did you actually pick that name at random.. when I was looking for gear I remember talking to a dealer whos name sounded a lot like that, and he spouted a bunch of crap, didn't have what I was looking for and told me it wasn't what I needed any way .. and he had in stock JUST WHAT I NEEDED .. which he proceded to tell me what I needed.. I thanked him and said I'd call back .. he never said anything really out of line but I just got a "used car salesmen at a lemon lot" sort of feeling Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

***Instead of looking at the fatalities think about all the near misses I am sure you all have seen them. I have seen a few new camera people get them selves into very dangerous situations and only by pure luck (not ability) did it not end with a disastrous outcome.*** Um .. not to get myself in trouble here but with my low time in the sport, NO I havn't seen a lot of near misses .. could you (briefly) tell any of these stories low or high jump numbers I think they would be useful to those of us who lurk here till we have the numbers to strap on cameras always tempted to start early, and to everyone with higher numbers who may not have seen or thought about the type of incedients that you (and others) might have seen Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

the advice I was given is to get into a slow track/tigth boxman position pointed at your target and then bend at the waist .. like a surface dive when your swimming, you will NOT go head down but you will "dive" at your target.. on the next dive I did what I was told and it worked one sentence of advice and on the next jump it worked so hopefuly it will work for you too .. ANYONE WITH MORE EXPERIENCE THEN ME, PROBABLY KNOWS BETTER but this advice came from a mentor of mine and worked for me Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

The math is as fair as taking a month with 1 or 0 deaths and saying yay the average for the year is 0! or 12! taking an anomoly and applying averaging math is a trick .. "there a are lies, Damn Lies, and statistics" Mark Twain (Samual Clements) Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

sorry to threadjack here but... I've heard of a raft dive where as the raft got soft at lower altitude it clamshelled and "swallowed" its passenger, I've been told there is video anyone got it? (not a fatality according to the story the trapped skydiver pulled his/her pilot chute stuck it out of the raft into the air stream and was extracted) so 1 is it true 2 anyone got the video, 3 is there a link? Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

I'm looking for an audible and have come across a White protrack for sale ... I didn't know they came in white.. do they come in white? any reason why I've never seen this before (was it one year or something, is it discontinued?) anyone have a white one? I would assume its just a color change and the guts are the same.. please correct me before I buy this Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

First let me be clear when I say "tackling" I don't mean otherwise hustle I mean get them away from the plane with all possible speed I do MEAN TACKLE. Get to door closed if they are far enough in yep I agree thats what happened to me but no one stopped to explain to me so there was no confusion I was GRABBED, if I were almost at the door and had my pilot come out of my BOC I don't want discussion or help I WANT TO BE AS FAR FROM THE PLANE AS FAST AS I CAN BE, I'll figure it out in the air and probably be buying beer on the ground :) Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

I'm asking opinions (not attacks or recriminations) state what you would do, why and if you've had a close call relating to this please add it too. Open container or loose pilot /main bag in the plane by the OPEN door or on the step.. you see it on another diver, what do you do? My response TACKEL them off the plane don't try to explain don't point or yell unless you are too far away to act yourself. This is based off the account from the recent fatality so some of my decision is "monday morning quarterback" I mean no offense My personal experience: I caught the 1 inch of exposed bridle on my container on the 1 fricking snag point it could possibly find AFTER my pincheck and on my way to the door (twin otter). My traling bridle was spotted and I was grabbed 1 step from the airstreem only after I was pinned and the bridle contained/door closed did anyone bother to explain to me what was going on.. AND I THANK THEM ALL as an aside I'm now better at watching my own gear and don't lessen my guard at all after my pincheck.. which was what lead to that almost incident . and my container is being modified to cover that 1 damn inch Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

Funney, in every country I've ever been in long enough to get to know the locals well .. all of them look for anyway to avoid "stupid/petty local laws" even the not so stupid ones including their tax code, I've read on these pages advice to um .. non americans .. how to avoid the taxes their country charge on new goods .. and on one accused them of being bad people, or casting a negative light on their countrymen Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

Just me .. or is the link nonfunctional? Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

Pardon me while I put on my devils advocate hat: What about the other services Hot air balloons, warbird rides biplane.. gliders ... bla bla bla anyone have any knowledge how they handle these things, is it possible that they are unintentionally being unethical talking with their management, discussing our concern... ok end of cute and fuzzy bunney answer The real problem is even if we could freeze them out of OUR DZs they already have one or more of their own AND they have other buisness that generate income; freezing them out would only give them more incentive to use the profits from their other ventures to open DZs. So maybe we NEED to talk with them, get them to change their pratices a little, enough to make the bad things they do to the sport balance with the promotion and intorduciton of new tandem thrill seekers (some of whom will continue and become studnets and as I understand it skyride isnt in the instruction biz .. yet). Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

Funnie when I did my first tamdem I made part of the decision on the aircraft.. (I wanted to be able to go on the same load as my friends doing their first, that ruled out the cessna DZs) but I'll agree that MOST people wouldn't know a fuzzy river creature from a twin turboprop plane Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

yep, you got it now (check out Bigairsportz.com) or the description of the PD vengence Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

all, most ... where do you jump? what is the training program like? I know NO students or "younger" jumpers who think a cypres fire is no big deal, I know some OLDER jumpers who think little of it but NO NEW jumpers. I've personally witnessed freeflyers giving a fellow free flyer a talking too for pulling "low" in this case pulling around 2500ft (probably below) all of these were younger guys(and a gal) all with around 1000 jumps. If someone talked like a cypres fire was no big deal then offered to jump with me .. I'd refuse. once again I CHOOSE to jump with a Cypres, I look at it like a helmet, yes people played hockey and football and rode motorcycles before helmets and most of them lived uninjured, but you would have to be pretty dumb to think that someone who chooses to wear a helmet is a lesser player or less skilled rider because they choose a helmet. sorry for the rant On a darker note ... in the old days someone who was "not cut out for this sport" failed to pull or pulled way too low once..... today with a cypres that same person will get the Chance to make another stupid mistake insted of just a crater and a black mark on the sport Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

I agree, at low enough level nothing is gonna save you, but up higher My Lotus deals better with turbulent air then open cell mains. I feel the jirking around a bit more but the wing holds its shape better. imagine one side of your main collapsing 500-150ft agl, now recover from that... with an air locked main it won't (or at lease is far less likely to) happen. and FrogNog your profile says you fly a sabre2 .. try a lotus (now in the MAX linset variant) I think you'll like it, a little less tapered then the Sabre2 but I think overall it flies better Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

N I C E !!!!! oh and bad ass music too Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

NICE! and I see your a fellow bigair pilot :) Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

post the video? ask your friend first if you want to be nice but damn thats gotta be funnie (give that we know he lived with mostly just wounded pride) Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

I did almost the same thing at Kapowisn on my "5 second delay" except insted of fetal I arched and got stable ... ON MY BACK FACING THE SKY so I freaked tried to claw my way over (I had no idea how to roll) finally arched my ass off and fliped "right side up" and pulled, no altitude awareness when it opened I was just OVER student cypress altitude .. got a good talking too but not chewed out and not grounded ... which still leaves me scratching my head ... Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

first tandem I've seen from a helicopter Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

I think he's talking about the pilot chute linkage to the top of the main, not the riser connection to the lines... I could be wrong Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

I understand that the world is currently falling all over itself to put demands on our military airlift capacity, disaster relief, war supplies etc... but in peace time the military's air cargo command (MAC when I was a kid) is very much UNDERTAXED, I lived on a MAC C-141 starlifter base as a kid, the crews flew about 1/3 of their missions just to keep clock time and get flight pay.. maybe 1/3 is a little over estimated. but the PR bennifit for the miltiary/the US to host a world record, good for the US military, good for the US economy, good for the airlines (from public confidence in flight) etc... I'm not seeing the "logic" that puts this down so quickly Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

I like the debate and discussion going on here but I was hoping someone could answer the question with some detail, nevermind before the WFFC or after.. WHY can't we get the USAF, Air National Gurard or Reserve to fly us in the big cargo haulers? where is the rule, what are the exact words.. what would it take to change that? If its a PR thing .. I think a pair of C17s dropping 400 skydivers in Red white and blue jumpsuits would be good PR. they cannot be that expensive to fly, get the Knights on the attempt if you have to 400people, some fundraising and a world record attempt over the USA! don't say we can't tell me why we can't and what it would take to change that Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.