pilotdave

Look for just about any container made in 1996 or later. Then start narrowing it down from there. Not many rigs since then are really unsafe for freeflying... Dave

Just make sure you're unstowing your brakes before your decision altitude. Don't want to find out there's something wrong after you're too low to cut away. Dave

I think by "built for jets" he meant "built with long runways suitable for jets." But some airports allow intersection departures for singles, but forbid them for multi-engine planes or jets. I really think the skydiving operation can make a case for all that additional taxiing to add risk. Assuming they do between 10 and 20 loads per day, they'd be taxiing that plane nearly 10-20 additional miles per day. And that assumes they land long and have a short taxi after landing. I almost guarantee neither the caravan or the king air was designed to taxi 20 miles per day. They may very well run into unforseen landing gear problems doing that, which could increase the risk of landing gear failure on takeoff or landing. Is there another type of operation that might have a caravan or kingair taxiing as many as 20 miles per day? Dave

Taxiing an extra mile for each takeoff could cause problems too... I don't know what kind of plane they operate, but it could mean a lot of extra idling of the engine, which could be bad for a piston engine. Also could put extra wear and tear on the landing gear. I know of helicopters in Japan that ran into that problem operating out of an international airport. They were not allowed to take off from anywhere but the end of the runway, so they had to taxi for miles... which the landing gear was never designed to do. A plane is better suited to lots of taxiing, but it still could cause extra wear on the tires, wheels, and brakes. More runway ahead is good, but requiring them to use all 10,000 feet is a little much. I did most of my flight training out of an airport with a 9,000 foot runway and never once taxied to the end of the runway. Every takeoff was from an intersection about half way down. Towns make rules that contradict or alter the FARs all the time... and are often overruled by the FAA when someone like AOPA gets involved. Dave

Is the AOPA aware of this? They generally do NOT like local governments changing the FAAs rules to suit their own needs. They might be able to help if they haven't been contacted yet. How much runway do you have left (minimum) at the intersections you use? Dave

I don't get the feeling that the DZs that work with skyride are generally the DZs that give a crap about what fun jumpers think... or about ethics or business practices for that matter, since they're making money off of skyride's stolen websites and other deceitful practices. Dave

Not that I know of... but look at DSE's post about the DZO conference higher on the page: Dave

They can be shut down easily, but unfortunately many US dropzone owners don't agree that they should be. Or at least they're too scared to stop accepting the gift certificates because their competition may take all that business. But if everyone stopped, skyride would no longer have any legitimate business (except for the dropzones that they own). And since they don't really increase the overall number of tandems done, it wouldn't have any overall negative effect if they just went away. Dropzones could get all that business back just by competing the old fashioned, ethical way. Dave

I use Picasa too.... It's great and at the same time it can absolutely drive me insane. When it feels like working, I love it. But for example sometimes it just decides not to add new pictures. You can't "force" it to. You can try, but sometimes it just ignores ya. But once the pictures are in it, it's fast and easy. Picasa can also open RAW files (but can't edit them any different from a jpeg, as far as I know). It can save keywords, captions, and other info into the jpeg exif metadata, so you don't really risk losing data if the software ever dies. I choose the pictures I want to share online, add captions in picasa, crop, correct brightness/etc, then upload to smugmug, where the captions are automatically retained by reading the exif data. Do you store your pictures in one huge folder, or are they spread out among many? Picasa stores temporary data in a file in each folder... I'm guessing it wouldn't like one huge folder with that many pictures, but I dunno. Dave

Landing in snow is fun. So is jumping while it's snowing. http://www.skydivingstills.com/keyword/snow Dave

My fear with doing that is liability. If the DZ knows about an existing condition (ie it's written on the waiver) and lets the person jump, couldn't that cause trouble? Or if we have the information and for whatever reason don't relay it to medical personnel. Could the DZ be held liable? I'm guessing of course that depends on how well the waiver is written... but we're not doctors and we don't keep medical records. I think doing so could open more cans of worms. But I guess if it can save lives, worrying about liability is pretty silly... Edit: We do ask on our waiver if the person has any medical conditions that could affect their ability to skydive... if they do, we'd make them get a doctor's note to be able to jump. But I'm more thinking about experienced jumpers that are more likely to put "none" no matter what, because they know some minor condition isn't a big deal and they want to jump. Dave

Yes on my Vector3, no on my Reflex. I definitely think they're good to have and wouldn't order a new rig or risers without em, but I don't jump highly loaded canopies and my canopies have always flown nice and straight in line twists. (I'm just asking for my first cutaway, aren't I?). Dave

Yeah, I agree that this is probably more secure than what most DZs do now... But from the DZ perspective, do you want your customers to be able to remove your access from their personal information (name, email address, etc.). Imagine ALL dropzones and the USPA were on this system. If I decided to visit another DZ as a jumper, I can allow them to see my personal info. But after my visit, I can take it away from them. Good for me, maybe not good for them and their email list or record keeping. Are they able to (easily) grab my information and store it themselves in their own system? That'd be good for them, bad for me. Seems like it will be a challenge to get this to work in a way that benefits everybody equally, but I think it's on the right track. Dave

I don't remember ever seeing a waiver that included either of those. I understand why they ask for any medical conditions that might make jumping unsafe, but I don't know why a DZ would have to (or want to) know about allergies or medications. Dave

When you give your info to a DZ and they put it on a computer, how do you know where it goes from there? I believe many manifest systems can make at least some of your personal info available over the internet. Course this would be a bigger target, but hopefully it will also be thought out pretty well. What information do you give to manifest other than credit card info would you be afraid of "getting out?" Dave

I made my first jump when a skydiving club was formed at my university. I went to their first club meeting, and we voted on the dropzone based on a bunch of information that the guys running the club had collected (none of them had ever jumped). We went over location (including the scenery and percieved "redneckness", not just distance), price, plane, and jump types available (not all had static line as an option). I think we really ended up making the decision based on the scenery, since one DZ was near the beach and the rest were surrounded by farmland. We learned a lot on that first trip though and switched to a redneck DZ surrounded by farmland for our club's home DZ. We realized an ocean view isn't as nice as a turbine plane, more instructors, a manifestor, and good outs! Dave

That's what stickers are for! Can you share your process? Did you make a mold? Layed up right on the helmet, or attached afterward? Dave

That WAS her reserve. It malfunctioned after she cut away an almost perfectly good main. Dave

Wow... that looks good. I'd love to modify my FF2 like that to get rid of the gap under the still camera. Is that fiberglass or what? Dave

I don't understand what learning vertical moves has to do with (USPA) coaching. Hiring an RW coach isn't what's being talked about. It's about students jumping with USPA coaches to finish the requirements for the A-license. I doubt I've met anyone with 100 jumps that has the skill to jump with students and provide them with really useful feedback. But if there are people like that out there, great, give them ratings. If dropzones are hiring coaches that can't stay with students or can't teach them effectively, whether the coach has 100 jumps or 1000, they're short changing their students. But is bad coaching worse than no coaching? 8 years ago I didn't get any real instruction beyond the 7 AFF levels. I'm sure I could have learned a lot from someone with 100 jumps who was also able to pass the evals of the coach course, assuming they didn't get off easy! Dave

The FF2 has a flat top, not rounded. The Schumaker Quickshoe fits perfectly, but the Flatlock is just a little too big. Luckily I measured first, which helped me make up my mind. Dave

No, they shut down... Someone sent me the link to the message on their site that they were taking the site down. Must have been a few months ago now. Dave

If you can afford any one of em, I wouldn't let the price make your decision. As you said, this rig is going to last you a long time. A few hundred dollars now isn't going to seem like such a big deal 5 years down the road when you are still jumping the rig of your choice. Just looking at your plusses and minuses of each rig, if you remove price, you already made up your mind.

In case you haven't heard about it, Alti-2 has the Neptune2 coming out really soon. http://www.alti-2.com/sport/neptune/Neptune2.htm. Don't let that stop you from buying a regular old Neptune right now though... they actually upgraded the hardware to the Neptune2 a long time ago without saying anything. And the software can be upgraded for free (by you, Alti-2, or by one of their Field Service Members). Lots of great new features. Even very old Neptunescan be upgraded to the Neptune2 software and get all the new features except for the increased logbook size. You can also get a Neptune with some crazy graphics: http://www.alti-2.com/sport/neptune/NeptuneGraphics.htm. Doesn't cost much extra for that. And yeah, if you plan to wear it on your wrist, get the Armor2: http://www.alti-2.com/sport/neptune/Armor2.htm. Cheap insurance for the Neptune. Saw a test unit at Alti-2... maybe the one from that video, I dunno... the crystal lens on the Armor2 was completely smashed and the neptune was completely undamaged underneath. Pretty impressive. BTW, the batteries last me quite a while... at least a couple hundred jumps if not more. I buy em for under $3 each. Dave

I normally release my brakes before opening my visor. Just bring both hands to your mouth (with the toggles in them) and pop it open with one hand. Practice it a few times... it's not hard to do. BTW, this is one reason a full face might not be as appropriate as an open face for very new jumpers... it does add some extra stuff to think about. Dave