pilotdave

How bout a couple 90-degree clearing turns before starting a swoop? I would have failed my private pilot checkride if I didn't do clearing turns between every maneuver (without being reminded). Seems to me that anybody that causes or nearly causes a collision probably thought the airspace they were flying into was "sterile enough." Maybe a couple clearing turns would have helped clear up that confusion... Including approaches into a designated swooping area. Not an excuse to swoop through traffic in a main landing area. Dave

There are mouth vents in the Mambas I've seen, and in the pictures you attached. Yours doesn't have those? They're lower down than the vents on the Z1...no idea how well they work. Dave

But that leaves it up to the reader to decide what is a serious response and what is noise. People LOVE to ignore the serious advice that they don't like or agree with and to learn from the advice that they already know. Don't call it noise just because it's not presented in a nice and fluffy manner. "Stop jumping with tandems." Is that noise or serious advice? My opinion is to read everything and discount nothing. Ignoring most of the posts on here just makes this site useless. I appreciate that he posted the video. Experience tells me that he's going to ask me to remove it within a few days... happens all the time. But we don't need to see the video to learn from it. What went wrong here wasn't one guy almost taking out a tandem. That was just one event that took place on a skydive that had gone all wrong before it left the ground. That's just my opinion. You can discount that opinion as noise if you want, but then what do you learn? I think this person learned the wrong lesson, if he plans to continue to freefly with tandems for shits n' giggles. Dave

Exactly. The problem was the plan. That jump went all wrong before you guys got in the plane. Tandems aren't for your amusement... stop freeflying with them. There's a reason UPT requires 500 RW jumps before jumping with a tandem... Dave

Ha! http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=5298 Dave

The rules for accident reporting are found in NTSB 830. All accidents need to be reported (defined in 830.2), as well as a number of specific types of incidents. There are some differentiations made for large, multiengine aircraft (>12,500 lbs), but there's no difference for part 91 vs any other type of operation. Dave

Just copy the correct filename before right clicking, then paste it in, instead of pafiledb.php when you try to save. Or rename it after downloading. The correct file is downloaded, but the filename gets screwed up. Tried a lot of tips to fix that, but could never get it to work correctly in firefox. Well, I did get it to work for a few hours, but then the server crashed. Had to undo that fix! Works correctly in internet explorer. Dunno about Safari... it crashed every time I tried. Dave

That's the first question Parachutist will ask if you submit a photo. They won't publish a picture that's been submitted to any other publication. Dave

I tend to find the opposite... It'd be more confusing at an unfamiliar DZ, but at home I can tell who is going to to a 270 and where they're likely going to start their turn. They fly the same sort of pattern as most people, until they reach the point where they start their turn. The 180s drive me nuts. Only a couple people doing them, so I know who NOT to follow in the pattern. But they start off on a normal downwind. Then they turn around. Then they turn on what seems to be a final approach in the opposite of the agreed upon direction. Then, just before I think they're gonna land, they make their turn and they're going the opposite way again. VERY confusing. They fly their actual downwind leg at maybe 300 feet? I'm on final in the opposite direction at that altitude. Just a couple days ago I watched one jumper follow someone doing a 180... little did he know that he was about to have to make a really low 180 degree turn right over the DZ, since he thought he was on final for a downwind landing. I'm not sure I wouldn't rather share the pattern with people doing 270s than 180s, if I had to choose one. Neither type of turn has ever caused a traffic conflict at our DZ that I know of, but the potential is definitely there. Nobody's doing 270s anywhere near traffic anymore, and 180s are really only done by the first jumpers down, before there's any traffic. Dave

I've had line twists on my sabre2 a ton of times. Loaded at about 1.1. Never got it to spin, even when I induced line twists by accident at 1100 feet, nor when I've had linetwists due to a toggle coming unstowed. Not saying it can't spin due to linetwists, but at least at light wingloading, I don't think the sabre2 is at all prone to doing anything radical because of linetwists. I once had a riser cover fail to open... pretty much flew straight even when things were completely uneven (without linetwists). Dave

The large ADIZ is a major pain in the butt for the FAA. An area where anybody can fly, but you need to jump through a bunch of FAA hoops for every flight. I'm guessing this was a cost saving measure, not a pro-general-aviation measure. Still doesn't help the airport I used to fly out of, which is inside the flight restriction zone. Getting cleared to fly in and out was a huge pain. Got fingerprinted by the FBI, got my secret PIN number, but never had the chance to actually do it. The ADIZ was bad enough... Dave

If rain fell at 60 mph, and you fell at 120, rain would feel the same in freefall as on the ground. Rain falls much slower than that, which is why it hurts so much in freefall and not on the ground. Dave

Do you think that the dropzone that Ted died at should warn tandem students about his death before they jump? Were they irresponsible because he made bad decisions and paid the ultimate price? Accidents and fatalities happen in this sport. Some are easily preventable, some are freak occurrences. But all can be prevented by NOT SKYDIVING. We accept the risk we take when we choose to skydive. And new skydivers are already warned of the risk before ever making a jump. My point is, the number of fatalities at a dropzone does not necessarily say anything about how safe that dropzone is. In fact, due to the small number of deaths, even a single fatality can skew the statistics by a lot. It's VERY hard to use fatality data to show how safe or unsafe a dropzone is. Good luck, but I think you're going down the wrong path if your goal is to improve anybody's safety. If your goal is just to stir up dirt, I don't think you'll be very effective using accident data either. Dave

As far as a suit, well, what do you have now? Any reason why you need a new suit when you add a camera? I have an FF2 helmet. I think there are some things that could improve, but overall I think it's great. I'd definitely recommend it over something that you need to add a box to (assuming you're talking about a sidemount). None of the add-on dboxes I've seen get rid of the gap between the helmet and the dbox, which is a great big snag area. What I like about the FF2: Virtually no snags. Haven't seen any other sidemount helmet that has less for lines to snag on. This is THE reason I chose it. Adjustable L-bracket for the camera. Can fit a wide variety of cameras and can be adjusted in tilt, so you can get the camera aimed just where you want it. Captive thumb screws for the door and camera mount. Thumb screws don't come off, so you can't lose em. Big hole in the back of the door...you can use the camera's viewfinder with the helmet closed. Some things I don't like: I think it's ugly. Very bulky looking. I was SURE my left riser would hit the sidemount on every opening, but it turned out not to be a problem at all. The door is a lot wider than it needs to be (for a PC1000), in order to fit a wider range of cameras. The door doesn't stay open and it's got some weight to it. If you open the door to swing your LCD screen out, the door can drop really hard on the screen. I basically never try to film the the door open. Can't seem to get my camera to fit just right. Since the L-bracket is adjustable, it doesn't come set up for your particular camera. I had a bit of trouble getting my PC1000 to fit properly. Never did get it completely perfect, but it's close enough and my still camera matches my video camera almost perfectly. Whew...long enough? Dave

The flash WILL NOT pop up in sports mode (unless maybe there's an internal failure?). You can't shoot at a high enough frame rate with the flash on, so they disable it in that mode. Sports mode is meant for outdoor use in sufficient light. What's that have to do with the camera being connected to the helmet anyway? If the flash pops up, you were probably in the wrong mode. It will pop up in the full auto mode, portrait mode, and a couple of the other "creative" modes. I've changed modes by accident when turning the camera on when it's on my head. Really easy to turn that dial when sliding the on/off switch, especially with gloves on. I try to always turn it on before putting on my helmet. In-plane shots are one of the reasons I like the sports mode. If the camera is off my head, I'll usually just switch to full auto to take a quick pic with flash. But once the camera is on my head, sports mode can adjust my shutter speed low enough to get pictures. When in Tv mode, I almost always have it set far too fast to get decent shots inside the plane. Dave

I think you might be mixing up two totally separate issues. One is giving potential skydivers correct and sufficient information about the safety of skydiving. The second is to prevent skydivers like Ted from being able to make their own decisions which lead to their deaths. As for the first part, pretty much every DZ makes everyone sign a waiver that outright says that skydiving is really freaking dangerous. I'm not sure how much more clear that can be made. MOST dropzones have never had a tandem fatality. So dropzones could easily say "never had a student die here, so you're safe." But they don't do that. They tell every potential skydiver that by making a skydive, they're taking a very large risk. As for the second part, preventing experienced jumpers from killing themselves... a lot of skydivers support you in that we need more rules. I don't think we need non-skydiving lawmakers to come up with those rules. That'd be silly. We have the USPA, our self-governing body. We also have rules from the FAA. Skydivers are constantly discussing what rules are needed and where we should be focusing our attention in order to prevent accidents. People like Ted are the exact reason we might need rules instead of just education. That's the whole point of this thread. That's why people are discussing his death, and his attitude before his death. The purpose is not to knock him, it's to point out to the new jumpers that have joined us since Ted's death that attitudes can kill. Dave

This site, easily found by anyone wanting to skydive, has a database of worldwide skydiving fatalities. We don't make any attempt, especially in the US, to cover up any fatality. The information is widely available, including discussions of what may have caused the accident and what could have prevented it. Do you think Ted didn't have access to that information? What would you like to do different? Where do you recommend publishing the fatality reports (or worse yet, statistics)? Maybe dropzones should put up signs that say "Warning: Skydiving is Addictive!" for all those first timers to see. Dave

Really depends on what you mean by enhancement. What are you trying to do? For every day stuff like brightness, contrast, color correction, etc, I use Google's Picasa. Not as powerful as photoshop, but about a bajillion times faster to use. Dave

That's the funniest thing I've heard all year! The company with 900+ (what's the latest count?) websites for dropzones that don't exist has lazy IT guys. Yeah. Right. Never jumped in alabama, never plan to. Wouldn't ever go to this dropzone. Not because it'll suck or the people won't be nice, but rather because of who and what it supports. Edit: Actually there is one DZ in alabama I'd like to go to someday. BTW, is skyride still suing USPA for $10 million? I bet it'd be a really nice dropzone if they win... Dave

There's a spare parts order form at http://www.tridenthc.com, but I just found that the email address listed for trident is not in service. Haven't tried the phone number. Anyone know if they're still selling reflex spare parts? Dave

Thanks Bill. That bad, huh? I load it around 1.2 (never had to use it). Ok, next question. Anyone bought an optimum reserve recently? What's the going price? Few gear dealers list it on their sites, and the ones that do say call for a quote. Anyone shopped around? Dave

I have a Reflex (size R250 I think). Currently holds a MicroRaven 120. I'd like to put an Optimum 143 in it. I've seen some posts from people that replaced PD 126s with Optimum 143s. So maybe the best question is how does the MicroRaven 120 compare pack-volume-wise to the PD 126? Anyone have any idea if it'll fit? I did email Trident, but I doubt they have any clue. Are they even still in business? Dave

I've heard that from a lot of people (including pilots), but I don't think it's true. It'd depend on the plane and where the CG is, but an aft CG will normally result in a (slightly) faster rate of climb, shorter takeoff, and even faster cruise speed. CG has to be kept within limits, but I think a lot of people have a mistaken idea that a forward CG is always better. The horizontal stabilizer produces downward lift, to hold the tail town and the nose up. A wing generates a nose-down moment when producing lift, so the stabilizer is needed to counter it. But the farther forward the CG is, the more "negative lift" the stabilizer has to make. All that lift downward is exactly equivalent to added weight. Pull the CG aft and it's like reducing the weight of the plane. To create that downward lift, the elevator is pulled up. That adds drag. Aft CG decreases the aircraft's longitudinal stability. But as long as it's kept within limits, there's nothing wrong with an aft CG. Problem is that we can't see where our current CG is or know what the limits are in terms of where we're sitting in the plane. So it's safest to keep the CG forward. Especially true on exit when jumpers like to move toward the door, shifting the CG farther and farther aft. Dave

I'd start AFF... worst case is that you have to repeat some jumps after the move. There are eleventy billion DZs in florida, so finding one down there to finish your training at won't be a problem. Skydiving is fun... repeat jumps are skydiving too. Don't plunk down $2K+ at a DZ you don't plan to finish your training at though. Pay by the jump. DZs don't usually do refunds. Dave

I don't agree. Just as an example, I think belly flying helped my freeflying... and I didn't think I would learn anything useful to apply to sitflying. Ok, lemme just say that I'm NOT a freeflyer. I think I may have done 3, 4 tops, sitfly jumps over the last year. I can't have more than 50 total sitfly jumps, almost all solo, almost all before I had 200 jumps. And 50 is probably pushing it. I had about 700 jumps last year when a freefly coach came to the DZ. It had probably been at least a year since my last attempt at sitflying. So I decided to try one with the coach. I'm definitely no expert, but I was shocked out how much better I did than the last time I tried it. Felt like I was in so much more control. So I definitely think that belly flying helped my freeflying. But I think the real truth was what someone posted above... skydiving makes you a better skydiver. It's going to be easier to learn new things when you have more experience, unless muscle memory makes it hard to change. Dave