pilotdave

Is waiting to downsize until you are ready out of the question?

Here's what a berkeley professor said during one of his lectures after his laptop was stolen: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jasperrinelaptoptheft.htm Dave

I've only known (in person) of one DZ thief... luckily not a local to me, but people around him know about it. It was a boogie, and a camera flyer had left his camera hooked up in his trailer to dub the day's worth of tandem and boogie videos. He stepped out to the bonfire for a while and spotted someone going into his trailer then coming back out. Later that night he realized his camera was missing. He questioned the guy that had walked into his trailer, who claimed he hadn't taken anything. So we searched the DZ for hours and couldn't find it. The camera flyer had been given permission to search the car that the suspected thief was riding in, but he'd only taken a quick look. It was packed up since everybody was leaving early the next morning. So we searched every bag in the car. Hidden down under most of them was the suspect's gear bag. Sure enough, there was the camera with the day's tape still loaded in it. Somehow the thief, who was sleeping in the manifest trailer, came out of it uninjured and only banned from one small dropzone 1000 miles from home. He got VERY lucky that someone at that DZ was opposed to violence because that camera flyer had already opened his can of whoop ass and knew how to use it. Dave

I'd say the tunnel I've been in (orlando) is much more anal than most dropzones, although in different ways. They don't care if you're willing to get hurt, they won't let you get in and start doing flips until you've got a ton of tunnel time. They won't let you wear whatever you want, and they won't even let you get in and out without help until, well, they still help me out every time so I dunno! No matter how much you want to get in that tunnel with no helmet, they're going to require one. Anyone want to complain about that? Dave

Depends why it happened. If you know and you can do something about it, jump again. If it was bad weather, don't jump. If you don't know what went wrong, find out, then jump. Dave

Totally agree. Stuff like that sucks. But that's a totally different issue. Making extra money by focusing the business on tandems is very different from setting rules to prevent fatalities (whether or not the choice of rules is effective). Dave

Alright, I'll ask: What is safer operaiting a DZ that allows jumpers not to have a AAD or operaiting a DZ that allows hook turns? I don't see how jump numbers change the validity of the question. He's leading to a good point. Banning hook turns would prevent far more fatalities than requiring AADs, assuming equal number of jumpers at each DZ and all else being equal. But like you said, it's a business decision. Most jumpers have AADs, so you won't lose as much business requiring them than you would if you banned hook turns. And a lot of DZOs like to do hook turns too.

Well, they have the right to require AADs if they want to. I think it's a misguided attempt at reducing fatalities, but it is their right. Hell, some entire countries have made that decision already. I think it would be awesome if we lived in a world where dropzones and manufacturers didn't need to protect themselves, but we don't. Dropzones have the right to make rules. I don't think a 100% AAD requirement is a great idea, but that's not the point. I think a dropzone should stick with what makes the most sense. AADs required for those most likely to need them. My DZ for example began requiring AADs for everyone involved in student jumps after an instructor fatality and a couple "near misses." Banning hook turns would be effective but horrible for business... instead, watch jumpers and enforce rules, and educate them. If you want to learn how to do hook turns when you have 50 jumps, do it on your own property. Dave

You kidding? That's exactly what the FAA is thinking. They aren't going after skydiving, they're going after commercially used aging aircraft. Jump planes just happen to fit that category. It's looking like there'll be an alternative for non-commercial planes that the EAA is working on with the FAA, a Vintage registration category. Aging aircraft is a very real problem that we're facing. Thankfully our aging fleet of jump planes hasn't started falling out of the sky yet, at least no more than over the last 30 years I don't think. But things will be FAR simpler to keep old 182s flying than 727s. Aging wiring in complex aircraft, which basically can't be replaced, is going to cause major problems in the years to come. But 727s have been facing those challenges for a long time already. This is stuff the FAA has been concerned with for a long time. Dave

I'm on CPI's board but don't have a copy of the bylaws. Hmmm... I probably should, huh? I'll find em... Dave

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=3627 Dave

USPA provides minimums... dropzones are allowed to go above and beyond. If the DZ says B-license is required, that's what you have to go by. Dave

BTW, I was offered a moderatorship over at another skydiving forum... Clearly those guys have no taste in moderators! I'd be the biggest jerk of them all. I'd ban people for typing in all caps or asking dumb questions. Then I'd ban everyone that replies with "do a search." I'd pretty much ban everyone.

Actually skydivingforums.com has been around over a year... they just revamped their site and made about a 3rd or 4th attempt to really get it going. Just never really caught on. I'm guessing the same thing will happen to skydiving-school.com. Dz.com was never the first or only skydiving forum, but it's got a huge amount of activity and a great moderation system (seriously, I'm not just trying to redeem myself). Un- or under-moderated forums just don't work. Looks to me like skydiving-school.com has way too many forums for a brand new site. I doubt dropzone.com has much to worry about. Dave

Hehe.... at least you coulda quoted my ""

Wonder if their moderators are any better than those jerks over here. Dave

Did I miss a bunch of posts about this already? http://www.skydiving-school.com Press Release Anyone know anything more? Dave

Try to format it in windows with the disk manager. Worked great for me... Dave

Well, calm wind and clouds moving up all day long. Maybe high enough for a night hop n' pop?

That's an interesting one... I was a little confused cause it's an australian paint job and says Wirraway on it, but it didn't look right to me and wouldn't have trained any british pilots AFAIK. Turns out to be the canadian version of the T-6, rebuilt as a wirraway (australian licensed version) replica. Dave

Replaced the old one... link stays the same. Dave

Is there more than butt sniffing in the full version, or just more butt sniffing? Dave

Actually it's usually the french that do that... like one of your previous videos: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=ratingdetails&id=3096. That's the exact reason I started breaking down ratings by country. I wondered if all the 1-star votes for the Jeb Corliss video were related... Sure enough! The french hate Jeb Corliss (or highly rated american skydiving videos... you decide)... http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=ratingdetails&id=1524. Dave

Do the laser pointers really work? I've seen it used, but every laser pointer I've owned (maybe 4 of em) doesn't shoot straight. They're all off a few degrees. Does that not matter over the distances we're talking about, or do most of em shoot straighter than mine? Dave

Yep, we did. I didn't really hear any comments. I was pretty neutral about it myself. I thought it had a good introduction... a little long though. And it ended after the intro. Musta been a faulty disc.