pilotdave

Has skyride considered admitting to its (blatant) illegal activities and lies? Oh and how about taking down the hundreds of websites that contain those lies, stolen pictures, stolen logos, and stolen text? How about paying the rightful owners fair compensation while you're at it? That might be a start, huh? I know that you don't deny Skyride's illegal activities. But you don't admit to them either. How about it? By the way, are you able to speak officially on behalf of Skyride? Dave

I must be missing something. If two planes almost hit, that's a near miss. I don't care if they're VFR or IFR or talking to controllers in bangladesh. A control tower is responsible for safely sequencing the traffic. That would absolutely mean keeping the VFR traffic away from the IFR traffic or vice versa. Why else would we have control towers? It's a little different for radar controllers because they might not be talking to the VFR traffic. But they still have to keep the IFR traffic away from the VFR traffic. I learned to fly at an A-10 base. I HOPE they don't do this in Boise, but where I flew, the A-10s used a UHF frequency and all the other traffic used VHF. The tower transmitted on both. It caused a lot of confusion... we'd here the tower randomly clear someone to land or whatever. Made it really hard to keep track of where the A-10s were. And yeah, the A-10s always used an overhead approach. Just to make things more complicated.

I just don't see it. I can see someone going off on a rant about swoopers that break femurs or worse. Or pilots that bring the FAA out to their dropzones by diving through the traffic pattern. But high profile, legal stunts for promotions? I don't see the threat. And I don't know that having backup safety devices for those kinds of stunts make much difference as far as public perception goes, at least when things go well, since most people don't know they exist. I think the everyday stupid skydiver tricks that don't get publicised do more harm than the big publicity stunts, which probably promote skydiving pretty well. Dave

So you're ok with picking a random round number as long as it's in kilograms?

Curtis Pitts is a guy, not a plane. He designed the Pitts Special, which is now made by Aviat.

Find the "save a copy" option. Where it is depends on what version you have. Dave

Anything that was popular on the radio in '98 to '99. That's what was playing at the DZ when I was a student, waiting around all day to jump. I associate a bunch of those songs with skydiving. Dave

I know a couple jumpers that (at least used to) swear by them for bigway RW (for outside slots of course). They said they helped with fallrate range and tracking. One described that with the webbed gloves, he'd track with his arms much wider and he'd get better speed and a flatter track. Don't know if they really work for those things, but I would definitely agree that they are a bad idea for someone with so few jumps. They complicate things for no reason, and they might really hurt the learning process. The people that I know that used them had thousands of jumps. Dave

At best they might get out of the skydiving business (but I doubt that will happen as long as there are scumball DZOs that work with them). But that's only a part, and probably a shrinking part, of their business. I'm willing to bet that in spite of the lawsuits and complaints, they're probably growing. I hope criminal charges are brought up against the owners someday, but I doubt it'll happen. And I'd also bet that they'd just change their name and start right back up as an unnecessary middleman. Dave

I wouldn't say that at all. There are places to have "serious stuff" printed, like http://www.whcc.com/. That's where a lot of pros send their work to be printed. I think a photo printer is best for convenience for small numbers of prints. And it gives you the most control. But definitely not the best quality available or the most print options. Dave

A few of the better shots I've taken of my team... Still haven't gotten anyone to get some pics with me in em... Dave

Yeah, reviews of online print shops (including walmart, etc) are pretty amazing... same equipment, same paper, MUCH different quality when compared side by side. But I wouldn't want to print a big stack of 4x6s on my R1800... I did compare the same picture printed by a high-quality online photo lab (EZ prints) and my R1800. Both were 4x6s. Can't tell the difference without a magnifying glass, but the pro print is noticeably better under a magnifying glass. Not that it matters! But I don't think the printer quality and print cost has anything to do with how much you can charge for prints... that has much more to do with the quality of the picture itself. That's why I'm still giving away framed 8.5x11 prints for free.

Got a lot of speed changes in your video? Slow motion, fast forward.... I've run into problems with that and had to remove some of those effects. I assume you've restarted your computer before trying again, right? That has fixed a lot of my movie maker crashes. Such an annoying program when it acts up, but so quick and easy to use when it's working. Dave

BRS systems are not a substitute for engine-out landings, unless there's no safe place to land (mountainous terrain, etc). But there is no substitute for a BRS system in the event of a structural or control failure. Most jump plane crashes wouldn't be prevented with a BRS system. They are useless on takeoff and landing. But they could possibly be really useful when a jumper takes out the horizontal stabilizer. Unfortunately, I can't see a retrofit BRS system for just about any jump plane being practical. Very very expensive, heavy, and they take up a lot of room. I'm sure a BRS system will come out for 182s, but I'm also sure it will take up most of the baggage compartment (aka where a couple jumpers are sitting). Haven't seen the reports of them being used as a crutch... I can't really see how it would be a crutch. When in doubt, whip it out. Dave

Yeah it could probably be better for canopies like spectres, but the loop of excess brake line is about the perfect length on my sabre2 to run down the back of the riser and come around the front for to be pinned into place. The loop is just too small to cause a problem. I must have almost 1000 jumps stowing them that way, and no problems. Course lots of people have way more jumps than that without stowing the excess at all with no issues. Dave

And travelocity doesn't pretend to be Delta. "No, if you read carefully, we told you that we're Delto, not Delta!" Dave

Got it, thanks. I'll keep this between you and me. Dave

I won't bother responding to rberger until I see ANY proof that he works for skyride. Has anybody? This thread is just on it's way to being locked. Arguing with someone that is, until he proves otherwise, nothing but a troll trying to stir everyone up is pointless. What skyride has done and continues to do is not debatable. We know that they stole entire websites including logos, changed a few words on each one, and copied them hundreds of times. We know that they have lied to customers repeatedly about a lot of things. We know that they've sent customers to dropzones that don't accept their certificates. And we know that they have refused to give refunds on the grounds that the customer didn't buy weather insurance or refund insurance or whatever else. Then some guy comes along who claims to work for them, but he skirts around every direct question that gets asked. He repeats himself over and over with zero content to his posts. Gets everybody all riled up. Then all they do is repeat the last 60+ pages of complaints in this thread. The skyride topic shouldn't be dropped or forgotten. They NEED to go away. Can we keep this thread as a useful place to discuss the topic? Dave

Ben Butler was interviewed, not Cary. Along with a bunch of former employees that explain how the lies work. http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=5254 I wish one of these news stories would cover their network of stolen websites. Dave

They're being manufactured in Canada now for the north american market. Dave

There are a bunch on skydivingmovies.com, but this is by far the most impressive I've seen: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=6154 Here's another from a different person's perspective: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=2648 Dave

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the pin is nowhere near my palm... it's on the back of the toggle and I can't quite picture how I'd have to hold it to end up with the pin in my hand. Dave

Why do you people keep feeding the trolls? Is there ANY evidence that he works for skyride? I can't imagine that an actual skyride employee would even attempt to defend them, especially not here. And the whole phone number thing is pretty nuts, but that's a tiny part of what makes skyride so bad. Unfortunately I'm sure there's no direct evidence for who it was that had that phone number switched. But skyride's theft and shady business practices are right out in the open. Those are the issues to focus on. Dave

Hmm... I'll have to pay attention on my next jump. I've never once (in ~900+ jumps on trulock risers) noticed the pin when holding my toggles. I do pretty much always wear gloves though... Dave

I actually had my FF2 cutaway completely fail my first tests. It was set up like in your picture. With load on it, the white loop was getting pinched between the small ring and the chincup, so it wouldn't release. The more pressure on it, the harder it locked. In practice, it PROBABLY would have worked because it only locked when the load was applied symmetrically. When one side got pulled more than the other, it would release. I ended up flipping the strap with the small ring over, so the white loop comes from underneath and ends up on top of the small ring. Works fine that way. I think I could have drilled a hole in the chincup where that pinch-point was to solve the problem too. I think the problem for me is that I have the strap about as small as it could be. The chincup is basically right up against the helmet when it's tightened down. I think that causes the strap to be very tight against the chincup... a longer strap probably wouldn't have that same problem, and obviously doesn't in your case. Dave