pilotdave
-
Content
7,302 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Feedback
0%
Everything posted by pilotdave
-
Not really. The neptune reps can be just regular jumpers that don't sell skydiving gear. The protrack doesn't need them the same way because its software can't be updated. Dave
-
Am I the only person that thinks guys with purple mirages and closing pin necklaces are metrosexual?
-
Just got me a new Sabre2!!
pilotdave replied to Jskydiver22's topic in General Skydiving Discussions
Mine's loaded a lot lighter than yours, but when I had an unstowed brake on opening it wasn't too bad. Started off like a normal opening, but went into a slow turn. I looked up to see if there was a closed endcell and quickly found myself in a diving spiral. Grabbed the brakes and came right out of it. No linetwists or anything. Seen some videos of high performance canopies spin right up because of a brake coming unstowed. Didn't do anything like that to me. Also when I've had linetwists, it's always flown straight. Dave -
Just got me a new Sabre2!!
pilotdave replied to Jskydiver22's topic in General Skydiving Discussions
I have a Sabre2 135 loaded about the same as yours. Yep, like most people, I usually get a turn at the bottom end of the opening. Snivels nice and straight, then suddenly makes a quick turn. Usually 90 to 180 degrees, sometimes more or less. But it's usually not a big deal. Openings are soft, and I've only had linetwists a few times (in about 100 jumps on the canopy so far). But I'm perfectly willing to put up with imperfect openings because of how it lands. Gives nice landings even when I flare too high or too low. Just fly it right to the ground, flaring as much as necessary. Dave -
Same way we have no need for seatbelts in cars, hard hats at construction sites, safety glasses, and any other type of safety equipment? Just say no to having accidents, right? I'll have to use that one at work. "Naaah, we don't need crashworthy seats. We'll just tell the pilots not to crash." Dave
-
...wasn't related to skydiving. But a runner up was! http://www.avweb.com/newspics/hm_1029_med.jpg It's near the bottm of http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/265-full.html#187697 if you wanna see it in context. Dave
-
I got to fly a 2-seat Spitfire Mk IX trainer years ago. Awesome ride. Did some aileron rolls, a low approach at 200 kts, and the pilot let me fly for about 10 mins. He told me afterward he woulda done some loops and hard turns but he didn't know if I could handle the Gs. Wish he'd asked me cause I'd have loved to try it. Dave
-
They're up to the W version of the cobra now. Just saw a couple of em last week. Pretty amazing mix of modern and vietnam era technology. I agree that a UAV will eventually replace them.... but we've only scratched the surface so far of armed UAVs. Gonna be a long time before we give real decision making authority to an unmanned armed aircraft, and until then, we need pilots. And the comanche was not going to replace the cobra. It was a replacement for the kiowa warrior basically. Funny thing is the comanche is being replaced by the block 3 apache and probably new "little birds." Hey rocketscientist... where are you? Dave
-
We don't need to conform to the same standards as motorcycle helmets. We need to conform to the non-existant standards for skydiving helmets. Our helmets don't need to survive being dragged along a highway at 80 mph, but they do need to protect our heads from the types of impacts that happen to skydivers. Without standards, testing, and certification, there is no way to ensure the helmets will do what we expect them to do. Dave
-
I have a neptune but have never used a protrack so I cant really compare them. But what I do know is there are tons of people on my DZ with protracks that have no clue how to use them. I couldn't believe it last weekend when I asked another jumper what she had for a fallrate on the last jump and had no idea how to check. Then I noticed most protrack users dont change their alarm settings because they dont know how or it's too hard. I have no problem pulling my neptune out on the plane, checking out my stats for the last jump, and resetting my breakoff alarm if I have to. It's just a matter of reading the directions. But the neptune is so easy to use, I read the directions once and now know how to do pretty much everything. Just so easy to use. I use it as an audible, but it worked great as a visual for night jumps, with the backlight. Very happy with it so far. Dave
-
Well a horizontal wind tunnel measures lift vertically and drag horizontally. You'd have to go to all the trouble of renaming the axes on your graphs! Dave
-
I was so excited last week. The navy was flying me down to a naval air station in a C-12 (military kingair 200). I've probably done 40 or 50 kingair jumps but never landed in one, and was finally gonna get the chance. When I got to the airport, they had a piper navajo waiting for us. Guess a kingair 200 is a little big for 4 passengers. The flight home was on a fairchild metroliner... bigger than a kingair, with only 4 passengers. They were picking up a big group after dropping us off. I've landed in a twin otter once when I went along for an oberver ride. Man that's a fun approach! Takeoffs scare me a lot more than landings... Dave
-
Hehe whats the coefficient of lift of a human body belly to earth? I assume you're using the word lift because the force is pointed upward, but I'd call it drag (and coefficient of drag in the equation). Just words, no difference, but lift just sounds funny to me. Dave
-
Don't become a physics teacher... Dave
-
We do it once a year. I have been through it once so far and it got me a raise and promotion after being at the company for only 9 months. I was pretty floored by the review my manager wrote, but it was also right after my program was cancelled and he knew there were going to be layoffs. Dave
-
Look right at the top of that page... "Top Skydiving Search Results." I'm willing to bet that company owns hundreds of domain names and probably associates each one with keywords. Then related ads are automatically placed on the page. Call up John Eddows at cross keys and ask if he placed an ad on skydivingfatalities.com... In fact, look up the company that registered the domain... http://www.nameadmininc.com/ From their website: "Many generic domain names receive organic browser type-in traffic from people looking for the subject matter described in the words of a particular domain name. Name Administration's system, serves targetted content to generic domain names through an advertiser network looking for specific types of internet traffic for their businesses and websites." Dave
-
Backfire how? Nobody requested that their ad be put up on skydivingfatalities.com. Companies buy tons of domain names just to put up ads and to generate hits to make the domain name more valuable. They put ads that are related to the domain to hopefully get some click throughs. I think this is actually kinda funny. I'm sure it wasnt done on purpose. Dave
-
Well, you arent paying for a sticker, you're paying for a safer helmet. DOT ratings mean almost nothing. Dave
-
How close were deployment altitudes? I find my neptune shows deployments low. It might show the very bottom of the opening. For a deployment at 3000, it will typrically show around 1800. My flatline alarm is set to 1800 and it sometimes goes off slightly after the canopy has finished inflating, so I assume the freefall time is counting all the way through the snivel and beyond. I've had some RW jumps show 78 seconds of freefall which just doesnt sound possible. Tracking dives have gone over 80 seconds. No video to compare. I wonder if it has trouble because it's designed to be compatible with wingsuit jumps... Might be set to stop counting at a much lower speed than the protrack. Dave
-
The last 20 or so seconds of THIS video shows a downplane. Dave
-
Yeah I think you're right. They know very well that the skydiving helmets probably won't meet any certification, so they don't test them at all (or at least dont publish the results). What scares me is the idea that a helmet COULD make an impact worse. A poorly place rivet or bolt or buckle could concentrate a force that would ordinarily be spread out. Or a visor could shatter sending shards of plastic into your eyes instead. I mean, visors are PROBABLY shatter resistant and all that, but do we KNOW? I still think untested skydiving helmets are safer than nothing or frap hats but without any kind of standards, we can't know for sure... except from experience. Dave
-
Oh, I think its more for students just to make sure they have pulled all the way before they go for the reserve. If the cable is all the way out of the housing, both sides are definitely released. But HERE's a video of an experience jumper that got his right arm disabled by a premature deployment. Has to cut away from a spinning mal with his left hand. Cutaway cable seems to be too long for him to have the leverage to get both sides to release with his left arm. Looks like he has to take wraps on the cable. Clearly very slippery and hard to pull. Don't know why the pull force was so high for him, but damn it's ugly. Dave
-
To ensure they've pulled the cable all the way and both sides have released. I wasn't taught that way and dont practice that way. But I have seen instructors teach that. Actually I had to do that in a hanging harness years ago to get the cable to release on both sides. But no need on my real rigs. Dave
-
Ummm...with your free hand. I'm guessing I don't understand your question... Dave
-
You don't need to be able to really pull the cable itself. Just pull the handle to full arm extension, then use your other hand to swipe down on the cable to clear it. But anyone that owns their own rig should know how far they need to pull the handle out to clear the cables when they practice cutting away on the ground, before a repack. Dave