pilotdave

They really should be more careful in Italy... http://www.PowerGenitalia.com

There is no B license check dive. When you fill out the B application you just write which jump you did it on. In theory if someone checks your logbook, there should be some proof in there that you completed the maneuvers on that jump. But as far as I know, no actual witness is necessary. Then again I could be wrong. Dave

I love the straddle benches they have in the Otter at my DZ. They're more comfortable than the floor by a lot and they raise you up so you can look out the window. I don't know what they're made of, but they're just carpeted boxes. The people in the back of the plane need to sit on the floor, but at least 2 of them get backrests where the benches end. I've never been in an otter with benches along the sides but i've been in casas and a skyvan. I find that a little uncomfortable because you have to lean sideways the whole climb and you cant really look out the windows. Dave

cyberskydive is looking into the upload issues we're having. Most uploads recently have been getting cut off for some reason. I assume you're uploading the chopper video. Do you have it somewhere else that I could download it from and get it up on the site? Dave

Unless there are naked men involved, I accept everything. Moved the SA_Swoop vids to /landings/. Dave

FaberBASE.mpg moved from /uploads/ to /BASE/ FaberBase.txt moved from /uploads/ to /BASE/ blopp.avi moved from /uploads/ to /freefly/ blopp.txt moved from /uploads/ to /freefly/ badfish_vid3.mpeg moved from /uploads/ to /freefly/ Deployment at Davis '03.mpg moved from /uploads/ to /misc/ DropTheCelebrity.txt moved from /uploads/ to /from_TV/ DropTheCelebrity256.WMV moved from /uploads/ to /from_TV/ KjeragBirdman2.wmv moved from /uploads/ to /BASE/ Freefly_Edited_By_Buzz_Skydive_Cuautla.mpg moved from /uploads/ to /freefly/ cutaway.mov moved from /uploads/ to /cutaways/ CO_Women's_Record.WMV moved from /uploads/ to /RW/ CO_Women's_Record.txt moved from /uploads/ to /RW/ SA_Swoop1.WMV moved from /uploads/ to /landing/ SA_Swoop1.txt moved from /uploads/ to /landing/ SA_Swoop2.WMV moved from /uploads/ to /landing/ SA_Swoop2.txt moved from /uploads/ to /landing/ SA_Swoop3.WMV moved from /uploads/ to /landing/ SA_Swoop3.txt moved from /uploads/ to /landing/ Thanks for the uploads! Dave

I was at the grocery store today. Went to check out and the cashier said "so, what's with your t-shirt?" I had to look down to see what I was wearing... a performance designs shirt. The front is just white with a PD logo in the corner. Nothing special. I said "oh... they're a parachute company." He asked if I work for them... nope. I asked if he's a skydiver. He said "no, but i'd like to do it. But it's really expensive and I've heard you have to blah blah blah blah blah...," the standard stuff. So I talked to him for a couple minutes about it and went home. Got back to my apartment, and when I was carrying in the groceries a woman asked me if I'm a skydiver. If I hadn't just talked to the cashier at the grocery store I'd have no clue how she knew I was a skydiver. She told me her husband is a pilot. Still though, how many pilots have even heard of PD let alone their wives. I keep looking down to see if I'm dragging a parachute behind me or something. I've worn plenty of shirts blatantly related to skydiving, but they almost never get noticed. This shirt, which could just as easily be for a web design company or something got noticed twice within 10 minutes. What's with my shirt? Dave

Oh man that sucks. Looks like the valve and cylinder that came out of the 172 I learned to fly in (I wasn't in it when it happened). They were lucky enough to have partial power and made it to an airport. Losing the plane you built has gotta be the worst feeling but at least you came out of it ok to build another. Any clue WHY it happened? What type of engine was it? Dave

Oh man, I get back from flying a really awesome Grumman Tiger at an airport 5 minutes from where I live and find this. Can life get any better? What's that? There's another day of work this week?? DAMN!

skydiving is far tougher on ya then flying. cabin pressure is usually equivalent to about 8000 feet. Being up high might even make ya feel better....till the descent. But i'm not a doctor so if your head explodes, dont blame me!

As someone else said, try it slower. Pretend you're in a pool. For a backloop, I find it easiest to think of it like leaving the top half of your body alone and just bring your legs down under you. You'll flip right over. Use your arms to push on the air to pull you around. I think it helps to remember it's much more about aerodynamics than momentum. You don't have to swing around very fast to make it happen. Front loops are just the opposite. Leave your legs alone and just bend the top half of your body down. Use your hands to push. They seem really tricky till you learn the trick, then they just become really easy. Keep practicing. Dave

Hopefully cyberskydive can figure out what the upload issues are. A lot of uploads have been getting cut off too. I don't know what the problem is. I get better upload speed than 10 kb/s but not nearly as fast as the download speed. Send me a link to the video and I'll get it up. Dave

I'm sure they want to ship it as much as you want to receive it.

Just found THIS. Lets you search skydivingmovies.com for filenames. No idea how often it gets updated or anything else, but I thought some of you might find it helpful (until our own web based front end is running). Dave

Check out James Boole's films in the /jamesboole_films (hows that for creativity?) directory. Lots of good stuff in there, and each file comes in 3 sizes. In /RW/ herc-o2_edit.wmv is great. Big ways out of a C-130. In /musgrave/ chasers.wmv (chasing a porter in freefall). In /MartijnVanDam/ planemania_large.mov (fun stuff with planes in freefall). Also cowswooping_large.mov always cracks me up. /wingsuit/5deMayo.wmv and WingsuitMovie.wmv /exits/dave_throw_speedstar.wmv (me getting thrown out of a CASA) /misc/wffc2002full.wmv, wffc 02.wmv (complete with a NSFW ending), ride.wmv, and litup_high.mpg. There are lots of other good ones but I gotta go... time to skydive! Dave

I signed up yesterday at work and haven't gotten the email yet. Hope it's working! Dave

Theres a video of it being done at skydivingmovies.com. ftp://ftp.skydivingmovies.com/public/misc/als-flying-machine.asf. You can see that the pilot holds on tight for a wild ride. Those things look like so much fun. Gotta try that sometime. Dave

The reserve pin is on the backpad of my rig. Reaching it would be impossible. I'll assume I don't have to worry about it though... if the RSL and cypres both fail, it's just not my day. Dave

YES. Has been happening to me every once in a while for years. I only found out what it was not too long ago. There are a lot of websites about it. I am lucky that I don't have it bad. Some people see and hear things... some scientists believe its actually a cause of reports of alien abductions. Many people believe they are awake...their eyes are open, they can see, but they cant move... but they can see and hear figures moving around them. In my case its more of an annoyance than anything. When it happens, it's usually just as I'm falling asleep. I can feel it coming now so I wake myself up to prevent it. I start getting sort of a dizzy feeling. If I just let it happen, its just as if my body has fallen asleep but my brain hasn't. I'm able to think just fine, I know whats happening, but I can't do anything about it. I become almost totally paralyzed. Sometimes I decide to just try to ignore it (after all, I am just trying to sit still and fall asleep). But that never works. My heart starts pounding and I can't relax. So what I do is concentrate very hard one one muscle. If my feet are touching I can usually get my toes on one foot to move and I try to scratch my other foot with my toenails. I keep doing that till it "wakes up my body." If that doesnt work, I'll concentrate real hard then suddenly try to "jump" to wake myself up. It's much freakier when it happens as part of a dream. That's what happened the first times I experienced it. I remember very clearly one dream that I died in a car accident. After the big explosion, all i could see was black and i couldnt move or feel anything. I really thought i was dead. Finally woke up covered in sweat. It doesnt really bother me anymore, especially since I read about it and found out it's pretty common and my case isnt a bad one. It gets really annoying though because if it happens once in a night, it'll happen over and over and over. When all i want to do is sleep, it makes me keep waking myself up to prevent it when i feel it coming. So what's it like for you? Dave

Sorry...I meant USPA (or even worse, FAA) rule as opposed to local procedure. Dave

What do you use your dz.com address for? I really dont use mine at all and get zero spam. So you probably put the address out there somewhere not good. I made a hotmail account that I only use when I need to give an email address and I dont trust whoever I'm giving it to. I only check it about once or twice a month, but it's pretty much always completely full of spam when I do check it. I use yahoo for my regular mail. I set up my own spam folder/filters. They catch about 10 times as much as yahoo's built in bulk folder. I just dont understand how I can take one look at an email and know it's spam and yahoo cant. Dave

It's true that it takes a lot more training to fly a plane, but you might be surprised that at uncontrolled airports there isn't always a whole lot more stopping planes from bumping into each other. I think what really helps is the fact that runways only have 2 directions. Parachutes land in every direction. On low wind days, many airports have preferred runways (usually for noise abatement or convenience), so there may be less confusion about what direction landings will be. Course most planes have radios. I think skydivers could use those... sometimes. But even so, I've seen planes attempt to land in opposite directions at the same time. I've seen the results of a plane that landed on top of another plane... 1/2 mile from the runway, in midair (they landed fine stuck together... happened again a couple years ago too). I once almost got hit by a B-25 as I turned final (coolest sight ever, by the way... passed a few hundred feet over top of me). My point is that it's not necessarily training thats missing (in the case of canopy collisions). It's procedures too. Maybe dropzones need more than one traffic pattern. One for slow people like me and a totally different procedure for the hook turners. I mean a left hand hook turn is NOT the same as a left hand traffic pattern, right? I've been on final (under canopy) facing a hook turner on downwind at the same altitude. Scared me first when I though we were on a collision course at a couple hundred feet and scared me again when he suddently went into a diving turn (is it just me, or do they always look like they're gonna smack the ground when you watch from above?). But anyway, I'm usually against adding rules to prevent stupidity. I'd rather see dropzones implement new procedures to keep stuff like that from happening. And just saying "make all turns to the left" isn't what I mean. Dave

Right click on the file you want and go to copy to folder. That'll save the video to your hard drive instead of trying to stream it. Media player doesnt seem to like to stream from the ftp server. By the way to the rest of ya... how's the server working for you? Speed alright? Today the server got 109 hits through the web page (plus probably more directly to the ftp server that I can't count). Server must be smoking by now. Dave

Gosh... thanks! Dave

First uploads to the new server. Thanks guys! Skyhook_Demo.mpg moved from /uploads/ to /cutaways/ TheManWhoJumpedBeneaththeEarth256k2ndTry.WMV moved from /uploads/ to /from_TV/ skydive-JT_Sit_Train.wmv moved from /uploads/ to /freefly/ Dave