pilotdave

Just be careful with t-shirts. My club has found they don't raise much money. Getting them printed is not cheap (We're looking at around $6/shirt for 50-100 shirts, which is a bit of money to put in up front). We expected a lot of the first timers that came with our club to buy shirts. They were only selling for $10 each, but the vast majority of people figured they had already spent enough money and even $10 more was too much. We started giving them away to all our first timers till we ran out. Hopefully the shirt I'm working on now (http://www.umd.edu/studentorg/cpsc/tshirt.html don't steal my ideas!) will sell better than the old ones and be cheaper to make, but we're still only looking at a few hundred dollars in profit once they all sell. Barely makes a dent in buying gear, and thats assuming they sell. I am viewing them as an advertising expense, not a fund raiser. By the way, what kind of deal does your club have worked out with a DZ? Ours brings enough people that we get a pretty decent discount on student jumps (nuttin off on regular jump tickets though). On top of that, we get a referral fee from the DZ and we collect an activity fee from first timers. If you bring enough people, that cash starts adding up quickly. We were considering a gear purchase but decided our club really can't justify it right now. Not enough people, and not enough assurance that the club will be around for many years. It's a future goal though. Dave

The scariest flying to me is takeoff in a jump plane. Airline flying and private flying don't bother me, but jump planes do. I remember sitting against the forward bulkhead in a packed otter one time thinking that if we had a nosegear collapse or came to a sudden stop for some reason, all those people with loose seatbelts in front of me are going to completely crush me. I'd be totally helpless. At a CASA boogie a few weeks ago we lifted off and stayed low over the runway building speed, a standard soft field takeoff. But instead of climbing out, we settled back down and hit the ground. No big deal except that the end of the runway was approaching pretty fast. I looked out the window to the left and saw trees right next to us. The way the runway is shaped, the trees on the left side start a little before the end of the runway but I knew we were damn close. The pilot suddenly pulled up, climbed at a steeper than normal angle, cleared the trees, then resumed a normal climb. I have no idea how close we were, but thats probably the most scared I've been in a jump plane since my first jump. I just don't like the complete feeling of helplessness I have when the heavy plane, on the short runway, is in someone elses hands and I don't know whats going to happen and I have no way of stopping it. Gear's not gonna help on takeoff! Dave

You'll find LOTS of info if you do a search. But, I'll just say I have a Z1 and I'm happy with it. I think their quality control SUCKS and customer service is apparently worse, but it's a decent helmet. They don't seem to age well, the paint chips and the neck liner comes unglued. I haven't had that happen yet, but some paint around the visor has chipped a little tiny bit (on the edge). Mine always seems to fog up in cold weather after opening, but I always just open it up so it's no problem. Never had it fog in freefall. Overall I'm happy with it but it definitely could be improved. Dunno anything about factory divers except that the visor doesnt open and the golden knights use em. Dave

What if you have an outy? Dave

Yes, yes there is. Someone's gotta record it and upload it though.

I'm not boycotting them, but I haven't ever actually tried the stuff and don't plan to. But, it's not because of that ad.

As I was landing a plane last wednesday a couple thoughts came to my head. The plane I was flying has a wing loading of something around 13 or so. There's no way to touch down at walking speed, obviously. I think parachutes are reaching the point pretty soon when they'll need to land on runways, using roller skates. I think this would have lots of advantages. There are some issues of course, such as crosswind landings. Thats where my other thought came in... parachutes need tails. I was coming in a little high, so I did a forward slip. Thats when you bank in one direction and use the rudder to push the nose in the other direction. The plane can come in at a REALLY steep angle when you do that. It's impossible for a parachute cause they don't have a tail. Add a tail and some wheels, and you've got yourself a hell of a parachute. Now someone go figure it out! Dave

Exactly what I was thinking when I picked a parachute. I think the head down guy looks cool, but I haven't ever even attempted head down. This shirt will be sold mostly to first timers after their jump, so they'd also only relate to the parachute. As far as using the terp, I thought something like that would be too complex (going for a single color, aka cheap, design) and not recognizable. Anyway, I don't have nearly enough artistic talent to make anything like that look good.

Red Bull sponsors a lot of skydiving/BASE jumping. Maybe they are "us." We don't broadcast jokes about death to mass audiences, but maybe that's just because we don't have TV commercials. It's a silly commercial, but I think it's pretty funny to be honest. I don't find it offensive, and I don't think it affects the public's perception of the sport. People think skydiving is dangerous because the parachute might not open. It's just the way it is. I'd rather see a commercial that portrays skydiving as a beautiful, fun sport, maybe clips from Crosswind or Willing to Fly, but thats not Red Bull's style. Dave

I'm putting together some conceptual designs for a t-shirt for my skydiving club. http://www.inform.umd.edu/studentorg/cpsc/tshirt.html. (It'll probably load a little slow... big images) Any opinions? Which looks best to you? Dave

As a lot of other people have said, it might be the canopy as much as it is you. I did a couple jumps on a manta 288 and found the ineffectivness of the brakes to be almost scary. Flaring barely did anything at all. You might want to try another canopy. I did most of my student jumps on PD230s, and those feel like a ferrari compared to the manta. And when you flare, they stop. If you get the timing right, standing up the landing doesnt take any thought or skill. You're basically stopped when you touch down. Dave

I think I'll submit a cost saving proposal to NASA. Maybe they'll hire me... I'll just tell them to go get one of those X10.com wireless cameras.

quick question... is there any indicator on dropzone.com outside of the email section that lets me know I have new mail (like there is for PMs)? I'd switch over some of my email usage if i didnt have to explicitly check the email page. Dave

Tried Red Bull? Dave

Ask your friend why that camera cost $760,000. It's just a sony for crying out loud!

probably Sport Aviation... the experimental aircraft association's magazine. Dave

I saw a couple people wearing those suits at the DZ last weekend. Only slightly brighter than the student suits I had to wear.

Boy are you gonna feel dumb when freeflying goes out of style. Dave

Hehe ya made her site reach it's bandwidth limit. Congrats! Dave

I have a skydiving habit and flying habit to support. I think I'll look elsewhere. Keep my resume on file though. I do wonders with a skimmer. Did I mention I passed my biennial flight review last sunday? Took my first passenger up in nearly 2 years on wednesday. Felt sooooo good. Taking another friend up on wednesday, then on friday i'm doing a 120 mile cross country to pick up a friend at another school and bring him down here for the weekend. Flying is soooo much fun.

Whats the starting salary? Any benefits? Will you pay for grad school? Helicopter training? I shouldn't make fun... I might need that job!

Yep, I've gone backwards under a PD230 (loaded at more like .5) a bunch of times. Now if it looks breezy I sit back, watch a few loads land, then decide if I'll go. I remember the last jump I was backing up on... I was over the landing field, looking great. Then I started moving backwards. I ended up landing right on a road at the edge of the landing area with a car coming (still a ways away, but too close for comfort). Luckily the wind dragged me about 15 feet off the road so the car wasn't a problem.

You design web pages huh? Did I mention I know HTML and am looking for a job? I'll just work from here, and you can send me my paycheck and jump tickets.

This is a portion of a National Public Radio (NPR) interview between a female broadcaster and US Marine Corps General Reinwald who was about to sponsor a Boy Scout Troop visiting his military installation. FEMALE INTERVIEWER: So, General Reinwald, what things are you going to teach these young boys when they visit your base? GENERAL REINWALD: We're going to teach them climbing, canoeing, archery, and shooting. FEMALE INTERVIEWER: Shooting! That's a bit irresponsible, isn't it? GENERAL REINWALD: I don't see why, they'll be properly supervised on the rifle range. FEMALE INTERVIEWER: Don't you admit that this is a terribly dangerous activity to be teaching children? GENERAL REINWALD: I don't see how. We will be teaching them proper rifle discipline before they even touch a firearm. FEMALE INTERVIEWER: But you're equipping them to become violent killers. GENERAL REINWALD: Well, you're equipped to be a prostitute, but you're not one, are you? The radio went silent and the interview ended

Can you (or someone else) explain this? Canopies are likely to collapse at low angles of attack? How about deep brakes? That would be a high angle of attack. I'd imagine flying slowly at a high angle of attack would lower the pressure inside the canopy so it would be less rigid. What's the problem at low angles of attack? Is it that the nose could fold over if the angle of attack goes negative from a gust or something? Dave