pilotdave

Thanks for the replies.... it's boxed up and ready to ship out tomorrow. Cordura with 12" zippers. Thought about getting a new jumpsuit but decided I don't wanna have to come up with a different color scheme and would feel dumb getting a second identical suit.

While I'm down because of a knee injury on my last jump, I figured it's a good time to send in my jumpsuit (Bev Suit) to have booties added. I'm trying to decide between the regular booties or cordura booties. I have a pretty slow fall rate. I've seen cordura recommended to faster fallers before. Would it slow me down more? I assume cordura lasts longer, but does it have any other advantages in booties? Any recommendations on zippers? Bev recommended at least the 12 inch zippers. Heard that zippers have been known to open on occasion, but I'm not doing any serious RW where a zipper opening would likely ruin my week. Any other recommendations? Is it a big mistake to spend about $80 on a 4 year old (with under 200 jumps) jumpsuit? Dave

Kinda sounds like a contradiction. Nope, your logic is flawed again.

Facts or did you make this up? In my experience, it is probably true that a higher percentage of first time AFFers finish training than first time tandemers. When I was president of a university club, we gave first timers the option. But I think scott's logic is extremely flawed. The people that finished their training started with AFF BECAUSE they planned to finish their training. Many people start AFF with the intention of getting licensed and only make one or two jumps. But there are a few people that know from day one that they will become a skydiver. And given the choice, they usually pick AFF (partly because that's what we recommended to people that wanted to get licensed). So yes, I agree that more tandem first jump students never make a second jump than first time AFF students. But I think a DZ that ditched tandems in favor of ONLY AFF would be out of business very quickly. DZs would make more money if they required tandems. Which, in my opinion, is why some do. Dave

http://www.pink.at/wald4tlfreefly.htm News to me! But I'm glad to help. Actually I'm pretty sure they meant to put skydivingmovies.de (or skydivingvideos.com), but I don't mind taking credit. Go me! Dave

Hehe it's nice to have it in context like that anyway. Nice quality too. Thanks for uploading! Dave

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1504 to be exact. Very short clip of skydiving mixed in with the top 9 baseball/hockey moments of the week. Dave

Not about a DZ, but this was published by Avweb recently: "In a fine example of letting the buyer beware, the Scottsdale (Ariz.) city council is considering putting up signs near its airport warning prospective buyers of neighboring homes what they might be buying into. "I think it is a brilliant plan, and I will suggest the council pursue it," Councilman Bob Littlefield, chairman of the city's subcommittee on aviation issues, told the East Valley Tribune. "If we did this it would be 100 percent clear, and we wouldn't have to worry if real estate agents are disclosing the noise issue." The signs are one option in a noise study being done by the FAA at the increasingly busy resort city's airport. As more and more subdivisions sprout from the desert around the airport, the number of noise complaints has skyrocketed but, in contrast to some other communities we can think of, Scottsdale officials appear refreshingly unmoved by the complaints. "If you don't want to get sea spray on your house in San Diego, don't buy a house next to the ocean," Airport Commissioner John Mack said. "Just as if you don't want aircraft noise, don't buy a house next to an airport."" Scottsdale's city councel is smart! I mean I think it's retarded that they need signs, but it's a great idea. A few airports in MD have had low income housing go up nearby recently. The towns are requiring buyers to sign all kinds of waivers saying they understand the noise and safety issues they're buying into. But I think the airport owners are well aware that it's only a matter of time before some idiot gets them shut down. Dave

I was president of the University of Maryland club for a couple years before I graduated. There are two things you'll need for a successful club. Money and help. Money is the easy part, believe it or not... well, not always but help is the hard part. First of all, sounds like you have a deal with your DZ already. If you really want to be a club, go through the paperwork with your school and become official. Then, instead of getting free jumps from the DZ for each tandem you bring, get cash and set up a bank account. Use the money to have t-shirts made, banners, bumper stickers, and advertising. Get the word out that your school has a skydiving club. Save some money and buy a jump for a school newspaper reporter. Your DZ (if they're smart) will do it at cost or even less in exchange for the free advertising they'll be getting. Set up trips to the DZ, advertise em like crazy. Put flyers on bathroom doors in dorms. Flyers should be bold and simple. Get a web page and get all your info on there so you dont have to answer the same questions over and over again. A domain name helps people remember the site so you'll get more hits. I bought UMDskydiving.com, which is pretty easy to remember and short enough to put on flyers in big letters. Work on getting funding from your school. They might not give any, or they might start off with none but give some after the first year. Funding, if you can get it, grows every year. But it's still not as useful as cash in the bank. Hold information sessions often. Offer free pizza. Use powerpoint to look professional and not forget any important information. Well, that's how I did it anyway. It's a lot of work and you really don't get much in return. But you'll meet a lot of people and see a lot of smiles. And somehow it's kind of fun. Dave http://www.umdskydiving.com

My sabre2 usually turns at the end of the opening too. Really hasn't bothered me much. But on my last jump I did have a toggle come unstowed, and at first I thought it was a normal opening. When the turn continued, I looked up expecting to see a closed end cell but the canopy looked normal. Then the spin got fast and I realized it must be a toggle. But yeah, the turn started off very gentle. Dave

Just teams, or clubs too? You can get a decent (but probably not 100% current) list of clubs at http://www.studentorg.umd.edu/cpsc/OtherClubs.html. Some of those schools have teams too. Dave

Yep, it's always tough to pay more for an inferior product. Dave

You should use the cost of a cypres2. At 2 years old my cypres1 was worth more than I paid for it. Oh, and you can beat those prices for a cypres2. $1150 is pretty standard, $1125 is the best I could find (a few months ago). Dave

You sure that's not the main pilot chute? I thought it was just a pullout. I can't imagine that's a freebag anyway. Rubber bands and bridle coming out of both sides... Dave

The A model was by far the most common. Cant remember the numbers off the top of my head but only something like 6 E models were made. Basically the same, but the E had bigger engines and associated changes to the engine mounts and landing gear. I think there is currently one existing E model, being restored in NJ, and an A model that was converted to an E for a round the world flight a few years ago. There are a few A models still flying...maybe about 5 of them or so. The one I worked on is being restored to museum condition...it'll never fly again. Dave

I actually spent about 4 summers helping restore a Lockheed 10A. Any Lockheed 10 person would yell at you that it's not an L-10, it's a Lockheed 10! Lockheed never called it L-10. I probably know the Lockheed 10A better than I know any other plane because I've been inside it everywhere from inside the nose (to work on the back of the instrument panel) all the way to the tip of the tail (to clean out 60+ years of crap). This particular one is 4 serial numbers from Amelia Earhart's. Originally the VIP transport for the Secretary of the Navy in about 1935. Dave

Just be careful. They make it sound easy. Do it wrong and you're gonna smack the ground pretty hard. I wish I had prepared to PLF. Dave

Good to hear. I've always heard terrible things about their service. Now all they have to do is work on their quality control! (I love my Z1 but there's no excuse for the way it looks like it was slapped together.) Dave

I think this is a pretty obvious troll, but I just wanna say that rear riser flaring isn't so easy. If anyone that has never practiced it needs to do it, remember to PLF! I had a stuck brakeline on saturday and attempted a rear riser landing. Didn't go very well (not sure what I did wrong other than not performing a good PLF) and I hurt my knee. Things happened very fast and I hit the ground pretty hard. I was landing in a back yard, but conditions were nearly perfect. Rear riser flaring is not something I plan to do on purpose again any time soon. Dave

1 stuck brake line:5:1 First injury. Hurt a knee (not seriously) trying to flare with rear risers, landing in a back yard. The good news (pointed out by the land owner while I was lying there in pain) is that I missed the dog poo by a couple feet. Had a toggle come unstowed on opening. But I didn't even realize I had a problem for a few seconds. Started like a normal opening. On heading while it sniveled, then a turn at the end. But this time the turn didn't stop and the canopy didn't look quite right (slider was not all the way down). The turn started off gentle and I looked at the canopy trying to see what was causing it. Pretty soon I was in a fast spiral and I realized it must be an unstowed brake. Grabbed the toggles, and the turn stopped. I dont remember checking my altitude at that point but I could see I wasn't making it to the DZ so I turned toward it and looked for a place to land. Then I tried to turn left to set up for landing. Left toggle would only move a few inches. Couldn't see any problem, but I was only at about 1100 feet. No choice but to land it. Practiced a rear riser flare once on downwind, and that was it. Came in hard and didn't do a real PLF. I think I twisted my knee. But I was able to stand up and walk with a limp. Nothing's broken but I'm probably out for a few weeks. If that's all it'll be, it was worth it for the jump. A simple 2-way with a guy who's been skydiving for 50 years as of last tuesday. Just a fun one. Not sure what caused the unstowed brake or the stuck brake line. There was nothing wrong with it by the time I was back at the DZ and a rigger looked at it. His only guess was it caught on the slink tab, which I'll get tacked, but I don't believe that was it. Dave

I switched when I bought my second rig. Started with a 150 main and 120 reserve. Now 135 main and 143 reserve. Dave

How sure are you he's not just a burglar? When he starts finding jewelry, something's wrong.

A skydiver that turns down free video isn't a real skydiver.

Wow I've never heard of a woman not being welcomed on a DZ with open arms! My DZ has quite a few older jumpers (even 2 active jumpers that have been jumping for over 50 years) and I've never noticed anyone discriminating based on age (only experience, which is gonna happen anywhere). The older jumpers only get mad when ya wanna break off over 2500 feet.

That was no autorotation. That demonstrates part of the danger news (and police) helicopters face by flying slowly at low altitude. Apparently they had a tail rotor failure of some kind. Only way to get out of that is to have airspeed and altitude. Gotta fly fast enough weathervane into the wind and/or reduce torque by autorotating. This guy didn't have enough airspeed or altitude to do either. I think he did cut power right before hitting the building so he'd remain upright. Pretty damn impressive that everyone survived. But they shoulda bought a good quality american helicopter in the first place! Dave