rhanold

At our DZ I try to discourage 180s, 360s or anything else that puts you in line with the landing direction before final. It puts that pilot in other's way. Someone stated that a 180 has a quick base leg the chord of the canopy. This is not true. A leg is a length of straight flight between turns. If you are turning you are not on a leg. As for training safety the progression from df to 90s to 270s is adequately safe. 90s, 270s and such are more predictable than 180s also. the 90s and 270s will turn at the intersection of their set up and landing direction while 180s could turn anywhere along their set up since they are flying inline with final. The direction of the turn is also unpredictable for 180s. they could turn in either direction essentially blocking twice the landing area during their setup. I am not sure where physics fits into this discussion but my geometry has always been quite good. Ryan

Phil says hello and he missed you at the last outing.

The girl with me is 24, wants to dance and does not like country. Any suggestions?

So I found a hard rock... I know its lame but it is all I can find. I still have the rest of the night and tomorrow for more suggestions... other than get out. ;-)

Wow. Really? No love for pittsburg? I just got here but I did not think it is that bad.

I find myself in pittsburg, pa for the next few days and have some time on my hands. Anyone know any good bars or clubs here? I am on the south side but have transportation. Thanks

His helmet is tight he is just twitchy. ;-)

I learned that everyone I jump with has something to teach me.

You are right about the more narrow landing areas but I think that applies to big ones too. First of all people seem to have a hard time staying on their side. Second is that most people want to land on the side closer to the hanger anyway. Also the middle of the landing area becomes a danger zone as there are converging patterns. Its better than no rules but why not just set standard pattern so everyone is on the same page? I see the disadvantage of having duel patters however I believe these are overshadowed by the advantages. Having duel patterns decongests the downwind and base legs allowing for the potential of more space between canopies and easier overtaking. It also reduces the occurrence of people joining the pattern at odd angles (where you would not expect them to be) due to the addition of an entry point. It also eliminates the need for flying across (or through) the pattern to join it if someone is coming back from a long spot. The pros to an enforced single pattern is the reduction of head to head paths at the intersection of the base and final legs. I believe this advantage to be minimal considering the stated advantages of the duel pattern. Again, this is just my opinion and I am assuming open field predetermined enforced landing direction and separation of High performance and standard patterns.

Hey ddettloff17, I have a feeling we have met IRL but I am not sure. Any way, I know some DZ's set a landing direction but no pattern if the landing area is on the larger side. The thought being there is more room in the pattern as long as you stay on your side of the landing area. Landing patterns become useful if everyone is filing into a narrow landing area IMO. Blue Skies, Ryan P.S. That is Larry with you in your avatar, correct?

I question if this was completely due to turbulence also. To me that second picture looks like a inflated canopy with left toggle input which suggests that the turn might have been started by a gust but was most likely accelerated by pilot input. I think someone already pointed it out but the pilot looks to be "flailing" also suggesting a panic mentality that could have resulted in a reaction that worsened the situation. This is of course my opinion feel free to disagree. Good advice I was given once that I will always remember is "Fly your canopy until your canopy is on the ground." whether or not it applies here is to be debated but good advice none the less. hope the pilot heals fast. Ryan

This happens to me a lot with my neptune. I look down and pull when it loooks right. You can use cloud layers too if you have them and know where they are. I do this if it fails when I do a tandem also. The neptune still records deployment altitude seemingly consistaintly and amazingly I am where I think I am within 1000 ft.

Very well said Billvon.

I don’t agree with that being poor justification in every case. I started jumping my Sony CX150 at 120 jumps with just that approach. I made it the least important part of my skydive, and that's exactly what it is. So much so that even 30 odd jumps with it later, a last minute change to an RW dive flow in the plane can make me utterly forget about turning it on before I go out the door. My purpose in adding a camera to my jumps: I have several buddies I started practicing 2-way drills with earlier this year. They both have cameras, and their footage from our jumps helped me a great deal in correcting body position problems I was having. As it had such a positive effect on my skill growth, I wanted to return the favor. I would never classify myself as someone with “Mad Skillz”, quite the opposite. It takes me many jumps to learn a specific body move, and I’m still dialing in 100% stand-up ladings with my current canopy. I’m in no hurry to learn anything specific, and I’m not trying to ‘prove’ myself to other jumpers outside of being in my allotted slot on a planed jump. I had nothing to prove with the camera either, I just wanted it to record footage while I was in freefall. I did my research on this site and talked to a few instructors about the ‘200’ limit, and the biggest concern is ‘being distracted’ by the camera and failing to follow the basic skydiving safety routine you had pre-camera. At 120 jumps in just under a year, I couldn’t imagine waiting another 8-12 months before adding a camera to help my buddies out on our 2-way drills. So my question for you: knowing my own limitations and by making the camera my smallest priority on my skydives, was I being reckless and/or unsafe in starting at 120 jumps? ~Gav Unfortunately I can't directly answer your question, If I could I could put an end to this thread with a definitive answer. I would say you were being less safe than I would like to see... IMHO. From your post it sounds like you describe your learning curve for skydiving as par or sub par, you then engage in jumping a new piece of equipment and instead of listening to advice from people who have been there you decide to jump it anyway because you think you wouldn't get distracted like everyone else. I know these are not your words, this is what I took from your post. Your motivation for jumping a camera might be unique but the execution is not unlike a lot of the things people in this thread and people on the DZ are warning you about. It is the "I can handle it" argument. One more point on distraction. How do you know you are distracted or not? Any person's perception of themselves are greatly flawed. You can see this if you ask your jump partner about the jump you were just on together and do not offer any input. If you don't provide any input there will most likely be a few things that you disagree with. Like they just got a few details wrong or sometimes you question if you were on the same jump. Point is you won't know you are distracted until something happens to drastically open your eyes. Could be too late. This is of course assuming you are distracted at all. Blue Skies, Ryan

We have protec's for students and I am sure you can borrow one if you need it.

The mystery was solved and it was a unsecured end to the chin strap of her helmet. Just to be clear... the jump with the ice was not through a cloud, there was ice for the first thousand feet or so.

Not a problem... hope to see you there.

We usually get between 13.5 and 14K. We have a pretty solid fun jumper crowd and should have organizers out that weekend so plenty of people to jump with. it takes between 20 and 40 min from Ann Arbor depending on where you are. Head south from Ann Arbor until you find US 12 (Michigan Ave) head west until Clinton and take a left (south) on Clinton-Tecumseh hwy. We are on the left. Just check in with manifest and they will get you paired up with someone to show you around. ~Ryan

Tecumseh will be jumping and there are quite a few people out there that are good at dodging meat missiles... I test their skills regularly.

I share your new found love of the dirty downwinder. There is nothing like the feeling going into your pattern knowing you will not stand this one up.

+1 This is how I have always interpreted this section. 500 RW jumps total plus 100 RW jumps in last year plus 100 camera jumps allows you to film a tandem.

I am not so sure... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yyFb-a2pl4 At 3:40 there is video of an engine out emergency of a twin otter and the prop is dead still. Take a look.

That is awesome! My stomach hurts from laughing.

The majority of my night jumps are out of Bravo. I was talked into my first one and now I do the scheduling and briefing for them. I have to schedule them twice a year to meet demand. Usually 6 to 10 loads. You should definitely come for a visit!

What do you use for wind drift indicators at night? I have only thrown a few and the ones I have were a small wire with some yellow paper taped to it. But that has to be hard to see at night. Do you use a glow stick or something? ~Ryan