pilotdave

On a laptop with no mouse...but here's a shot at it. Dave

From what I'm reading here, it sounds like following the first person down works well at big DZs with alternate landing areas. Don't like the pattern set by the first guy, land somewhere else. See people landing in multiple directions, land somewhere else. Want to avoid swoopers, land somewhere else. Problem is, that philosophy doesn't work at smaller DZs. Where I jump, for example, the landing area is pretty small, and narrow. There is no designated alternate landing area. When the winds are light, we land either to the north or to the south. We pick a direction before boarding (super otter... lots of canopy traffic), but someone will always chase the windsock no matter how light the winds are. And since we prefer north or south, that often means shifting the landing direction 180 degrees. Only outs are some small fields, back yards, and the grass next to the runway (where the otter lands and student helicopter pilots learn to hover...no thanks). Nothing I'd prefer over a downwind landing. But when an entire otter load is set up to land one way, except for one person who happens to be lowest, it can work best to let him land the wrong way (probably a swooper that'll be setting his brakes by the time the last jumpers land) and let the rest of the load land the right way. I've been yelled at for landing in the same direction as the first guy down and for landing in the other direction. It just doesn't work well. I'd much prefer a big arrow or tetrahedron, set before we get on the plane, and only moved if the wind picks up enough to warrant it. It just isn't always possible to follow the first person down. When you are flying a velocity or something, you have many more options than when you're flying a lightly loaded canopy. On a long spot, I can't always adjust my pattern once I've commited to a plan. There just isn't enough altitude to turn around sometimes. And with no alternate landing area, people WILL land in different directions when someone changes the predetermined landing direction. I think we need a new beer rule... anyone that changes the landing direction when it isn't necessary should owe a case. Dave

Why's it have to be paid for by tax money? The air national guard doesn't take credit cards?

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1732 Dave

This is one of the problems of high school physics... it leads you to far oversimplify real world problems. Without air resistance, yes, vertical and horizontal motion are independent. But we fall through the atmosphere. I mean clearly you can see that the fallrate of an airplane has a whole lot to do with horizontal speed . Same applies to a person. Other people believe that all objects will fall at the same speed no matter what, because that's what they learned in school. Low speed aerodynamics is very complicated stuff (supersonic aerodynamics is simpler in some ways), but you just gotta think reasonably about this stuff. Dave

Might be able to get a good deal on a C-141... it was retired last week. Dave

How many jumps you getting out of each battery? Using it as an audible or visual? I'm still on my first battery after 4 months/130 jumps...almost all as an audible and a couple night jumps with backlight. Dave

Thanks for the site... I'm enjoying reading the posts from 85 and 86... So the Russians have gotten better and the deland jumpers got better at naming their teams... Dave

Direct link... http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1716 Dave

What's the exact reason you keep failing? I had a friend that kept failing because his flips were sloppy...falling off to the side half way through. I always thought that was so silly. The whole reason we learn flips is to get unstable so we can prove that we can get stable again. If that's the case for you, maybe go finish AFF at a different DZ that isn't trying to suck all the money out of your wallet. (huddles in the corner waiting to get beaten by an AFF instructor) But don't worry. A trip to the tunnel isn't going to be a waste! You'll learn PLENTY that will help you get your A license. Dave

Gotta price it based on the options it has. Go to a dealer website and put the same container together and see what the price comes out to. My vector3 was about $1800, including the skyhook. No stainless, tie dye, or deluxe backpad. Dave

Ya know, I haven't exactly met you, but we were once on a load or two together in delaware a few years ago. You seemed so... normal!

I think a canopy course is also a good idea, but for learning RW, I'd say go to the tunnel. There are things you can't learn in the tunnel... exits, diving, tracking, etc, which are all a very big part of RW. You could spend some jumps with an experienced RW coach working on those sorts of things. But the tunnel is GREAT for learning about fallrate, turns in place, sidesliding, etc. Get a good coach in there... it makes a HUGE difference, especially if you want to do a whole hour. Also might wanna split that hour up into a few shorter sessions. The tunnel is very tiring and it's hard to get a good debriefing while wating your turn to get back in. It's more useful to get all the way out, get a video debriefing, think about what you learned, and get back in nice and refreshed. If you want to work on a particular RW skill in freefall, for example keeping eye contact during turns, you might have a bad exit and spend half the jump just getting close to your coach. In the tunnel, you're able to concentrate on one skill for as long as you're in there. One minute in the tunnel can mean a lot more "working time" than one minute of freefall. Dave

Windows media encoder is free. Makes .wmv files. It'll take some trial end error to get good compression while maintaining decent quality. You can get it at microsoft.com. Dave

Hmm...only 8.3 for me. I don't have enough to say to post more, so I guess I'm gonna have to jump less to bring that up.

The original software showed max speed. It was changed to average speed because of a lot of requests. I don't see why it can't show average, max, min, and your fortune. I'm sure it's on their list of to-dos. Dave

I'll take some credit for this. Back in January I got some tunnel time with Joey Jones. HERE I am (in black) teaching Joey (in blue) the Mantis position. Man he really sucked, but after a few session in the tunnel he was looking much better. Hmmm... wait a minute... my jumpsuit is blue. Damnit! Dave

I'm just getting more confused by the minute here. Exposing top skin to the relative wind? You'd need a negative angle of attack to do that. I'm assuming you'd end up with zero tension in your lines if you managed that. I don't jump a highly loaded cross braced canopy, but I'm pretty sure my top skin doesn't see any relative wind (directly) when I let up on my brakes quickly. Anyway, I get the concept, I'm just having trouble believing that there's more of a danger in letting your brakes up quickly than holding deep brakes while flying in turbulence. And, if I'm reading everyone's comments correctly here, we are talking about turbulence or gusts, not just high wind, right? Dave

Whoopsie....yep, I wasn't thinking of deployment (which was the whole point). She mentioned the tail is being pulled down a little in full flight, which could be fixed by moving the toggles... At least my suggestion was free even if it was wrong! Dave

I'm still lost. Again, are you referring to high wind gusts, or high wind speed? I guess I should buy the book and see for myself. I'm not a very experienced canopy pilot, but does the above statement sound right? The canopy is most likely to collapse while surging forward after letting the toggles up quickly? I am just having trouble picturing that. I understand the theory that the tension in the lines is reduced for that second while the canopy surges, but at the same time, the canopy is farther from the stall point, at a lower angle of attack, right? So I guess if you hit some really nasty turbulence that deforms the canopy right during the second it takes for the canopy to surge forward, it could collapse. But is that really the most likely time for a canopy to collapse? Anyone experienced a collapse like that? Seems to me that if you're flying in deep brakes, you're very close to the stall point. Turbulence changes your angle of attack suddenly. A little "bump" could cause your angle of attack to pass the critical angle of attack (stall point), allowing the canopy to collapse. Since you can sustain flight close to the stall point (minimum controllable airspeed, in airplane terms) and you can only get the canopy to surge forward for no more than, what, a second or two, doesn't it seem reasonable that your exposure time to possible canopy collapse due to turbulence is considerably higher in deep brakes than during a surge? Maybe the canopy will collapse more easily while surging (i'm not convinced, but i dont know), but it doesn't sound like something to really worry about. Ok canopy people, tear it apart. I'm wrong a lot! Dave

Buying rubber bands online is nuts unless you can find free shipping or are already buying something else. Both paragear and square1 have $25 minimum orders now. But a few years ago I wanted to buy some rubber bands online. A $2 bag was going to come out to like $10 including shipping. Just buy em at your DZ if you don't have a bigger order to add them to. Dave

I agree about a gust. But my point is the canopy reacts the same when the wind is 0 gusting to 5 as it does when the wind is 100 gusting to 105. I guess it's just the way I read what he wrote... When I think of a windy day, I'm thinking of high wind speed, not high gust factor. I mean I wouldn't think of a day with wind 0 gusting to 10 as being very windy, but it could be a nasty day for skydiving because of wind. Just words. Ya know? Dave

This whole post confuses me. A smaller canopy doesn't necessarily penetrate better... unless you're talking about one person jumping two different canopies. Penetration depends on airspeed, which depends on wingloading and canopy type. I've seen a lot of larger canopies penetrate a lot farther into the wind than me. Ok... now you say when you're flying in brakes, you're swung forward. Yeah, that happens temporarily due to momentum, but you don't stay swung out. You're a pendulum... you're going to hang basically straight down (not quite straight down because of drag) in the steady state. Not exactly sure how angle of incidence is defined for a canopy, but without pulling on your risers, I don't see why it would change by pulling on the brakes. Why is the canopy more likely to swing behind the jumper (aka stall) in high winds? Gusty winds maybe, but wind speed shouldn't make a difference if it's steady. Am I misreading what you wrote (or am I just plain wrong?)? Dave

Might not even need em replaced... might be able to just get the toggles moved down, which lengthens the brake lines. Only takes a few minutes and probably won't cost anything. Dave

Here's a video you'll probably like: Tandem 101. Awesome shots of tandem students on exit. Dave