pilotdave

I think the coolest look is getting all the same base color, but each person with different colored grippers. Then you can tell who's who on video too. How serious is this team? Been jumping together long? If not, I wouldn't be going and spending lots of money on matching suits. Dave

If you already have a good desktop, I wouldn't bother with such a high end video card. They use a lot of power and generate a lot of heat. The laptop version are of course not as bad (or as powerful) as the desktop versions, but still, you'll probably be able to get more battery life with a less powerful video card. Dave

I dunno but I had time for one practice flare on downwind before the real thing, and I had tried some up high before. Felt easy, wind noise dropped, and I seemed to be leveling off. When I did it for real, it was almost like I hadn't flared at all. Not sure if I was too late, or maybe too fast and stalled, or just didn't flare enough. I landed in some guy's back yard. He mentioned he was a paratrooper many years ago. I think my landing looked pretty standard to him. He just thought I was lucky because I missed some dog shit by about a foot. On my old PD 9-cell, I don't remember if I really could flare with the rear risers. Pressure was much higher. Probably not so bad I could have done a chinup but hard enough that I couldn't really turn with rear risers. Dave

Gotta flip your camera over when you jump down there... everything's upside down. Dave

Yep, I gave a direct link to the webmaster. Dave

FYI, Alti-2 does custom face plates for free (plus shipping): http://www.alti-2.com/custom_dial_faces.htm. Dave

You sure the pain and blockage of your ears had anything to do with noise? It's not THAT much louder. But anyway a lot of people just cover the ear holes with gaffers tape. Removes without leaving a mess too. Dave

It's just asking for trouble. If the pilot is doing it for flight time, even if he's paying his fair share, it's a no-no. It's definitely not legal when the jumpers are paying for their jumps. Closest you can come to making it legal would be a few skydivers that offer to share expenses to get a jump from a friend's plane. A one time sorta thing. Still probably not legal, but that's not the kind of thing the FAA is going to worry about so much. It's when a business uses a private pilot to carry paying passengers, even if the pilot pays too. Dave

FYI the link to the video on the site should now be http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1264 Dave

Art that doesn't have anything to do with flying or jumping? Nope... Dave

On jump 13........I certainly wouldn't recommend trying to land on rear risers. I wouldn't even recommend it on jump 130. Or in my case jump 192. Been out a month now because of a rear riser flare gone bad (stuck brake line), and I'm not even sure what I did wrong. If I have the same problem on my next jump, I'm not sure I'd cut away, but I'll definitely PLF! Dave

Got the video? Saw an AFF course evaluation video once. That's some funny stuff! Dave

My last jump... #192. Sabre2 135, loaded around 1.1 at most. Vector 3 Light winds One brake came unstowed on opening. Started off like a normal opening. Flew straight through the snivel, turned at the last part of the opening... but the turn continued, slowly. Looked up at the canopy trying to see if i had a closed end cell or something. Slider wasn't all the way down, but the canopy looked normal. Spin turned into a spiral and I realized it had to be an unstowed brake. Cleared em, turn stopped. It was a long spot and I was probably at 2000 feet or so by that point. Made a right turn toward the DZ and picked a field to land in. At about 1100 feet, I tried a left turn to set up for downwind to a back yard. Left toggle wouldn't move past my shoulder. Tried again...nothing. Decided I better use rear risers for the flare and did one practice flare on downwind. Never attempted a rear riser landing before, and really only used my rear risers to steer immediately after opening before. Once the flare started, everything happened very fast. Light winds made for a pretty fast approach. I must have flared late because I never really seemed to plane out. I guess it's possible I flared too hard and stalled or something. Hit the ground pretty hard, not prepared to PLF. I think I twisted my left knee. Not really sure. Hurt like hell but I knew it wasn't anything too bad. I was able to stand up within a few minutes and limp around. That was about 3 weeks ago. Almost healed at this point. Should be jumping again next weekend. Dave

If you're having trouble getting it to play, try quicktime. Plays it fine on my computer. Dave

Prolly forgot to pay your bill. With that attitude, access to the site will cost $10/month. Ask for help nicely and I'll get you in for free. Oh, and welcome to the FAQ. Dave

That's not the point he was making. The USPA worked with the TSA and DOD before that to get rigs approved by all airlines. Personally if I wasn't "forced" to join I probably still would. There's a lot I don't like about USPA, but as long as the FAA believes they're in control, skydiving will remain relatively cheap and widely available. The yearly fee is basically nothing compared to the POTENTIAL benefit we could get from them. I mean, I have no idea how much lobbying power they have in DC. Probably very little. But a situation could easily come up where changing one person's mind could have huge consequences for all of us. I'm also an AOPA and EAA member for the same reasons. Dave

I just don't understand why someone with 30 jumps WANTS to jump such a highly loaded canopy. Is that hornet 210 really THAT boring? I jumped PD230s until I bought my own PD150 (loaded around 0.86) at somewhere around 40 or 50 jumps. I downsized to a wingloading of about 1.05 or so at about 130 jumps or so. And I can't see a single reason why I'd want to go to a higher loading anytime soon. I'm nowhere near maxing out the performance of my canopy, and don't plan to try to. This canopy flies so much faster than my old one, and comes down MUCH faster. I found out the hard way on my last jump that I have very little time to deal with any problems with this canopy. Everything happens very fast. (Brake unstowed on opening, recovered from the spiral too low to make the DZ. Realized at about 1100 feet my left brake line wouldn't move past my shoulder. Attempted a rear riser flare and probably came close to breaking a leg). And it's a fairly lightly loaded sabre2. No jump on this canopy has been boring yet, and no jump on my PD150 was boring either. So, smack your friend upside the head and tell him not to even think about jumping the smaller canopy. And ask him what the fuck he's even considering it for. Dave

That blows! Where'd it happen? Coming back from cross keys? That's what ya get for jumping on a weekday! Dave

My first canopy was a PD 150. I'm loving my Sabre2 that I replaced it with now, but I have no regrets for not going to a higher performance canopy sooner. Actually I did my first jump on a PD 170, so obviously at very light loading it's slow and easy to handle, but much much much zippier than a manta 288 or something (which I jumped a couple times after finishing AFF). The best thing about the 9-cell is how easy it is to pack (relatively speaking). You can learn some technique before needing to apply it to a slippery ZP canopy. The 9-cell has a much weaker flare than most ZP canopies, and timing is very important. But it's predictable and definitely not hard to land. Just hard to get those tiptoe soft landings every time. My PD 150 was great for making it back from really long spots, as long as I was upwind of the airport. Penetration into the wind sucked. But I was often first one out of the plane and last one on the ground, even beaten down by tandems sometimes. Plenty of time to plan a pattern and all that. Also my off-DZ landings were never a problem because of the nice slow speed. But it was always plenty of fun. I could spiral and do all of that without losing crazy amounts of altitude very quickly. That canopy never really got boring to me. I ended up downsizing only after I had a chance to try out a Sabre2 150 in a javelin demo. The sabre2 has a much much softer opening and much more powerful flare. But I'm glad I bought the PD. I actually still have it but I'm afraid to switch back and forth because the flare techniques between the two canopies are so different. Dave

Hope they've got some LOUD speakers!

I think I'll start my own organization. It'll be devoted to the promotion of camera flyers that pledge to follow my rules and pay my dues. Any camera flyer that doesn't join is disrespecting the organization. Rule number 1 is no camera flyer may use

Do you know WHY his DZ isn't a group member? I just don't understand your reasoning at all. First of all you apparently support the GM program. Not all USPA members do. But what I really don't understand is why you associate dues of the GM program to, well, anything. Paying money to get your DZ's name published in Parachutist every month may not seem like a good way to spend money to some people (What's that? There's more to the GM program than advertising? Like what?). But just because he refuses to pay the dues doesn't mean he isn't making a genuine pledge to running a safe DZ (which is more important to me than saying he'll follow every BSR). I know one BSR his DZ would blatantly violate, and it doesn't bother me one bit. The age limit. His kids couldn't jump at a GM DZ. So why should the guy sign up to the BSRs if he doesn't believe in some of them? What is so magical about being a GM DZ? And (since I honestly don't know) why should any DZ support the program? Dave

Ahh thanks for the alternative replies guys. I think I found a way to entertain myself with this... Put your ideas into the skydivingmovies.com FAQ: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=user&usr=faq

So I got an email from a user of my website. Here's the whole thing: I'm inclined to write back something like "well now you'll have problems every time you try to access the site," and just ban the guy, but I don't know if I can be that mean to a stranger. Would you attempt to help him, ban him, or just delete the email and move on with life? By the way, anyone else have trouble logging in to skydivingmovies.com? Lemme know what browser version and operating system you use. Dave

I'm no expert but I'm surprised they told you to cut away. Happened to me a lot with student rigs. The spring has a lot more inertia than regular pilot chute and can get thrown over the nose sometimes. When it happened to me, the canopy was never deformed at all and flew normally. I was always told it was normal and perfectly safe. Dave