tdog

If you have the skillset and desire to install a lineset (it is easy if you are detail oriented) - then finding a bartack machine to use should not be the part that holds you back... 1) There are places, other than riggers, with bartack machines. Start calling around to the commercial sewing machine repair guys asking, "I am looking for someone who owns a bartack machine that will let me use their shop and machine after hours for a bit of gratuity." Or even just ask, "What mom-n-pop guys own a bartacker?" 2) Riggers with bartack machines might be open to participation where for a small token investment they will train and let you use the machine. 3) A bartack machine is nothing more than a machine that sews a specific zig-zag stitch in an automated quick way. Even a consumer sewing machine can sew a zig-zag. With a bit of practice and reverse engineering - you could figure out what width and stitches per inch you need, dial in the machine, and sew a bartack like stitch on a residential machine. I am going to get flamed for this I bet, however I argue back - if the stitch pattern is a bartack, if you did it by hand with a needle, it wouldn't matter. Note - I am not advocating doing something you don't know how to do without assistance from someone who can teach you. But if you WANT to learn, and no one is willing to share knowledge (and their bartacker) for a pint of beer or a sincere thank you, in your neighborhood.... You got bigger problems.

Contact me if you are in the Colorado area, name the day, the load will fly.

How are the line stows? You want the lines to be tight when the bag opens. How much slop are you talking about? Photos? I don't think the canopy will slam you with a lose bag. Heck, CReW Dogs and Base jumpers often jump without a bag at all. Slider control is more important than slop in the bag.

If every dollar of revenue that would have been earned that day will be "earnable" on an open day (the customer can come on that day + there was open slots that can be filled) then maybe you can save some money. A quick and dirty spreadsheet with fixed costs vs variable costs could be made. There is a interesting theory about liquor stores that are open for 6 days a week (closed on Sunday). The theory is that people will buy the same amount of liquor per person. If you are open 6 days - your variable costs are 14.2% less than if you are open 7 days. Hence 14.2% more profit. This theory only works with the assumption that: 1) Everyone knows liquor stores are open 6 days a week and purchase all their liquor on those 6 days in preparation for the days the stores are closed. 2) No one ever screws up and runs out of liquor on Sunday at a party.... Skydiving is different. People in vacation destinations only can jump when on vacation (tandems) and fun jumpers might have weekdays off not weekends... I don't think the cost savings are worth it... If the DZ has enough people to fill the plane to justify the load, might as well open. It is not like an office building with tons of lighting and HVAC bills.... I think the #1 cost saving move for a DZ. LOADING TIME ON HOT TURNS. Say a DZ can make $600 an otter load on fun jumper slots.... 1 minute of load time saved * 20 loads = 20 minutes a day. 20 minutes a day = 1 extra load. 1 extra load = $600 more gross revenue. Plus 20 minutes of fuel/engine time saved. Lets say that combined the DZ can make $300 more net profit by that extra load. That is $31,000 for a weekend only DZ per year. That is 6200 gallons of fuel the DZ is able to purchase. That is about 10% of the same DZ's yearly fuel needs. Or.... $300 per day profit = $.65 per jumper/slot. Next time the plane sits on the ground for a minute - think about the fact your jump ticket went up $.65. Two minutes = $1.20! It adds up!

Nah... You need those ratings to show you UNDERSTAND the FARs and know the LIMITS of your ratings. I look at it like the AFF instructor rating (USPA, not FAA).... I am a rated instructor. But I am not the right guy for the job to take a 100 pound girl into freefall, but give me a 230 pound guy and I can handle anything he gives me. Part of my rating is to know my limitations and expertise. P.S. a wise man once said, it is not what you know that matters, but instead if you can find the answers... I have come across abnormalities in simple sport rig square reserves. I have a few people in my speeddial that have answered whatever I needed in milliseconds.

It is required for a rigger to only pack what he knows how to do by the FARs. Hence, if I do not have and understand what I am supposed to do, I can't pack it. So I agree, the type rating should/could go away with perhaps a bit more clarification to the other language that indicates unless the rigger has sufficient experience and skill to interpret the instructions he cannot pack it.

Those in the Colorado Area... The three day weekend of July 11th, I am hosting a PD Demo Day at Mile Hi Skydiving. With a bit of luck, the Storms will be one of the 20 or so canopies available to jump. I know I will jump one, and I think everyone else wants to too..... Everyone is invited, so keep in touch if you are at a neighboring city/state and want to come have fun!

How about 50 seconds, including a nice carving turn, from 3,000 feet. Jumping from lower altitudes eliminates the protrack 119 second issue. But then again, it was not from a fixed wing aircraft either...

Exactly my point... Fewer jumps. The the DZs have less loads, increasing overhead per load, driving costs up even more, not being able to afford the larger planes when they can't be filled... Then gear manufactures have less sales as no one needs back-to-back rigs or two rigs for training... Nor do skydivers rigs wear out as quickly, so sales volume goes down in gear sales... So as that trickles thru, everyone loses. Answer me this? How many DZs are in Canada (at $35 per jump) with two or three twin otters running all day long? How many have one otter that will fly 25 full loads a day?

It appears the "foreign invasion" has invaded this thread and burst my ethnocentric view of the world, although my original post was intended for the USA economy/DZ customers. I could mention that exchange rates, cost of living, and mean salary change the "value" of tickets outside of one's own home country... But instead, I will use your guy's examples to make my point. How many Eloy/Perris/Zhills DZs exist outside of the USA, where 2 otters will fly 25 loads a day full of fun jumpers? Or even the mid sized DZs that keep 1.5 turbines flying? It is my IMPRESSION from talking to friends that the DZs outside of the USA, in Europe and Canada, are not as busy, don't have as many turbines, etc... So, maybe you guys proved my point, as our jump prices escalate here, not only will our DZs become smaller, but the foreigners who came here to train for the cheaper tickets will no longer come, thus hit the US DZs with a "double whammy".

The fuel at the docks is typically $1.50 more than on the street. 17 gal/hr * $6 = $102.

I used to joke I wanted the bumper sticker: Skydiving: Burning Fossil Fuels for the Fun of It. Well, my home DZ (mid sized otter DZ) just increased the price to $27 a jump. When I started in 2004, prices were $22. I don't see the fuel bills, so I have to trust the DZ when they say it was because fuel prices skyrocketed last week... But we already had two price increases in the last year... So... It's only two bucks... But I used to say $100 would get you about 5 jumps and entertain you for a day, cheaper than golf. Now $100 does not get you 4 jumps... On top of that, I hear people saying, "I am not driving to the DZ today because it is to expensive to drive my car." It costs me $20 just to get to the DZ round trip. Yesterday I stayed home and got home improvement jobs done, and I have to admit, it was because I needed to spend money on a leaky shower instead of jump tickets, whereas a year ago when tickets were $23 a slot and I could get to the DZ for $10 round trip - I could have done both for the same price. The question becomes, with gas prices increasing, not decreasing - will our sport start to become a dinosaur, and/or just for the uber elite? I mean - I don't wakeboard anymore because filling my dad's boat up with gas went from $50 to $125 for just above an hour's entertainment, and I just don't enjoy it enough to spend $125. There has gotta be a lot of people, or at least some people, in skydiving who just don't enjoy it enough for $X per jump and will soon walk away...

Bigway, 1) I am not thoroughly convinced a 170 is not too small for some jumper's first canopies. Wingload, number of jumps, shown ability, etc.... All factors. A 170 for a lot of people is a 1 to 1 or 1 to 1.1 wingload. I have seen MANY new jumpers operate a 170 safely with a proper (albeit quick) progression from the larger student canopies. But lets not beat this wingload/canopy size debate to death in this thread... More importantly: 2) I think a gear dealer, especially the first dealer a student ever buys from, is JUST as important in the educational process as the student's instructor. I know Dominic (formally of Square 1) gave me about two hours of his life educating me and helping me make purchasing decisions. I believe the reason why a 1st time buyer should be buying from a dealer is that they need the help to get them the right gear. So my question is, why did you not "become friends" with this student and share experiences, discuss gear, and educate him? It seems like a gear dealer is somewhat excluded from the "talk to your instructors" clause as they should be an educated consultant qualified to be an instructor/educator of their customer too.... Also, the dealer can ask, "say, who is your instructor, where do you jump, lets do a three way call and get their advice too."

Actually, the story shown on 9news was that they broke a world record for flying 1 hour and 18 minutes straight... One night a few years ago I did 45 straight with a friend who had time to burn... It was fun. I hereby am looking for sponsors. I will fly for 2 hours straight if you buy me the time. If I have to get out, I will pay all the money back. The real impressive part of the story was when one of the kids knew down to the day, the number of days until his 18th birthday. I am happy to see they are so excited to try "outdoor" skydiving too.

LordRatner on these forums has that... And it was my idea. He showed me when the rig came in and said, "who is the bigger dork, the one who thought of it, or the one who liked it." I personally would have "mommie!" written on it. As in, what you yelled when you were a kid and the crap hit the fan. As a rigger, I would also consider "my fault, try again."

As others have said, the tunnel might be key for you. You have to believe you can arch before you will be able to arch. It appears you don't believe you can. That will get in your way. On the ground, stand on your feet and look at the ceiling. How far can you move your head back, chin up? I believe after working with a lot of students that is the root of the arch. CHIN UP in freefall. So what is the flexibility of your neck? Ultimately however, your instructors will have to help you make the final decision, but I wouldn't trust just one batch of instructors as there are a lot instructors with a lot of techniques and you might find one that can help you.

Dude, hoping this does not sound like a personal attack... But you even have me thinking, "what in the hell?" A high speed spinning mal happens on opening (OK, post opening damage like a canopy collision might rarely come as a "surprise".) You need to know your altitude at pull time and immediately handle the situation. Looking at any altimeter to decide "should I get rid of it" is not going to help if you can't land the canopy in the first place. Even the guy (Bill Booth) in the post you quote says it: Granted - you could argue, "below X feet I can no longer cut away, I might be too low". Well, at that point, taking your main into the ground, or adding your reserve to the mess, is going to kill you just the same when you are spinning that fast. Spinning mals, ones that could blur vision, have very little to do with analog or digital altimeters. I respect anyone's opinion, however you need to give me data to prove your point. Can you find an incident report that shows spinning mal that is not land-able + digital altimeter = problem?

I totally agree it is personal preference. I personally don't mind a newer jumper having a digital as they are less likely to be doing wingsuiting and/or video where a glance is required to see "approximate time left" and they can spare an extra half second to actually look at the numbers. Further, they are more likely to not handle a broken alti correctly because they are less likely to have trained their eyes to recognise various altitudes, have the internal clock to realize the needle is stuck or moving slow, or have the flying skills to read a teammate's altimeter instead of theirs as they will be less likely to be turning a lot of points in close proximity... Further, Alti's are not cheap. I disagree that a student should have to financially "upgrade" after a few hundred jumps if they like digital but feel they need analog for a while.... So therefore, if my best friend just got done with AFF and asked me, "digital or analog" I would say: "You have some jumps on an analog. Wanna borrow my digital and do a jump and make your own decision?" I then would tell them all the pros and cons as I have already posted. Then I would let them make their own decision and not mind them jumping either. But this is all about personal opinion and taste. I respect others who disagree, although I will continue to disagree that a digital alti hurts low time jumpers, as I have no real world statistics to show any injuries or fatalities or low pulls because of it. Everyone's arguments are based on preference, not data. Preference is ok, but without data I am not going to restrict someone from using them. And, I have data (video and my lowest pull ever as an instructor) to prove a broken analog confuses students more than a blank or error screen digital.

I would think twice about a Cordura BOC on any rig I would own. The only "student" reserve ride I have had with any "student" was a re-currency jump I did for someone with a good handful of jumps. His first jump on new gear. He had an impossible pull because the elastic band in the cordura somehow caught his PC on the way out. I watched him pull the *&^% out of his PC then go to his reserve right in front of me. On the ground the PC one out of 10 times got caught with "some resistance" where we saw the elastic band turn such that it turned into a "wall of added resistance". The guy replaced his BOC with spandex right away. I just personally don't like the design of cordura with an elastic band...

I agree - in the context of an aircraft. I am not a pilot, but I spent two days in a cessna with a completely glass cockpit. I remember seeing how the digital representation of various readings in barchart and dial and pie chart formats allowed easy comparison of many readings from different systems. I often watch the pilot in the Otter, and I can see how easy it is to look at the right and left engine gauges to see which one is running at a different power level by seeing analog guages next to each other. However - an altimeter in skydiving does one thing - go down. There is nothing that a user has to "dial in" to get the system to operate in the "green zone". It is not like we are measuring engine speed or temps... Hence, I stand by my argument... For me (and a lot of people I know): 1) The digital is more durable 2) The digital is easy to read for a lot of people 3) When a digital fails, most of the time the user will know But if you want the "best of both worlds", there are now models that run an analog dial digitally... Still, if they break, the needle does not "disappear", so I still don't like them.

1) I guess this proves I am better at abuse than you. (although I agree the older Altmasters seem more durable... However I had one of those break on an re-currency jump and I chased a the skydiver into the basement, the lowest I ever have pulled in an AFF jump) 2) Those of us who are model year 1975 (our brain) grew up in the digital world. I can "glance" at a digital device and read it just as quick, or even quicker than an analog. Unfortunately every morning I have to look at my alarm clock and quickly process if I can sleep more or go to work. I do buy the fact you get used to "if the needle is on that side I still have a lot of time" on an analog and that on an analog you get the "pie chart effect" where you get a sensation of "ratio of the pie left, ratio of the pie spent"... But my brain equally processes "9.8K, I have time". There is only ONE thing, with a lot of brainstorming, I believe an analog does better. "If you are in the red zone, go straight to your reserve." Because statistics prove that unintentional low pulls due to loss of altitude awareness, skydivers will revert to old hat skills and pull their main, causing a two-out cypres fire... I believe the neptune could have a software update where you can program "if still in freefall below X feet, flash "reserve" and altitude intermittently - to remind the skydiver to go straight to the reserve in the panic situation.... Before you flame me about if a skydiver should "know to do this", I am speaking of statistics that prove skydivers "know to do this" but revert to the primal fight or flight instinct of stopping the skydive in the way they are most familiar when they get in a bad situation...

I have no problem with it. I actually support it. While all altimeters can break - when digi altis break they often show a blank screen or an error screen - letting you know it is broken. When an analog one fails, it gets stuck at the wrong alti. Which one would you rather have? 1) An alti when it breaks will ALWAYS show you the incorrect altitude. 2) An alti that most likely will inform the user it is broken and very rarely reports the incorrect altitude. A higher level AFF student had a digital altimeter he was given. It was in good condition and he was very aware of how it worked. I let him jump it. My only fear was that it was too easy to read. I have abused my Neptune and it still works. I abused an analog one, and it broke and gave me the wrong altitude. If a student/younger jumper is spending money, might as well spend it on good equipment that will last a long time...

You know, the Pilot is known as a soft opening canopy, right? Well, my worst opening ever, the one that left marks all over my body for a month, was on a Pilot. Sometimes crap happens. The "once in a thousand" hard opening is different than the "one out of every 5." One is a "skydiving thing" the other is a "canopy thing". I have NOT had any hard openings statistically significant enough to say the Sabre 2 is a hard opening canopy. Sounds like you have not either. That is with EVERY canopy.

Yes. Make a playlist called: Wish List Drag and drop from the "store" into the playlist the songs you want.

Step 1: Walk to kitchen, open junk drawer, remove pen. Step 2: Write your favorite songs down on a piece of paper.