tdog

I was actually going to post in the suggestions and feedback section a request to filter any thread from my view that has the word "skyride"... Just don't let it get on my screen. Kind of like a parent controls filter - but for someone who is SO DAMN SICK AND TIRED of seeing people discuss this one to death. If you don't like the skyride system, don't give your money to DZs that accept it. Tell them why too. That is what CUSTOMERS (and that is what we are) can do to BUSINESSES we don't like... Bitchn here does nothing. (Maybe this is why I don't turn on, and despise, AM talk radio too. Why get worked up over things you have no control over? Just vote with your ballot, vote with your money, and move on.) Sorry to hijack your thread... You guys now can go back to the 15th thread this week on Skyride. (Bigway, I actually like your idea - and I think you should post a link in all the skyride threads to this one so people "get it". Call it an intervention.)

I am a novice rigger, but perhaps 50% of my packjobs are on Mirage containers, lots of G4s. It seems I have been delivered rigs with at least one large wrinkle on flaps 4 and 5 (the side flaps). Once that wrinkle is "set", it seems impossible for me to remove on subsequent packjobs. I know it is not just me, I overheard a master rigger talking to a customer saying, "Mirages are difficult, once you get a wrinkle here, you will never get rid of it." I have assembled two rigs new, and I have not had issues with the wrinkle. Call it good luck, as they were early in my training... Last night I had a rig that I had to work real hard to "dress" to remove what looked like a old person's forehead across these flaps. I never got out the old wrinkle that was there when it was delivered to me. So my questions are: When delivered a wrinkled rig, how do you remove the wrinkle that seems "set" into the fabric? When packing a new, or previously packed rig - any techniques or tricks to the packing to prevent these wrinkles?

I think he would have a 12 minute flight, maybe longer, since it takes him 10 seconds to go tree to tree. I always have wanted to take my pets flying with me... I wonder if Calugos can be domesticated.

I think when we call wingsuits "bird man suits", I think we are far from the truth. After seeing this on TV last night - I think wingsuits are genetically related to the Flying Calugo...

Often tunnels have "skydiver rates", which is different than the rates they charge to the one time fliers who are coming for a birthday party or something. I think you should go to the DZ, start talking to people, and finding out the "in" to the tunnel. Well... I disagree. AFF is not about pass/fail, but about getting you ready to jump with YOUR FRIENDS. People with this mentality often don't stick in the sport because they never get good enough to have rewarding skydives and find the most simple docks to be difficult. Get a bit of tunnel time with good coaching - and you can have real rewarding jumps. I took a student up for a checkoff dive over the summer. He had some tunnel time. He looked at the requirements in the book and said, "this is way to easy and a waste of my money. I am going to fly this whole thing on my back." I played along. It was a crap load of fun. Skydiving is about QUALITY, not QUANTITY. Any fool can bust a hole thru the sky. These fools often leave the sport when they discover gravity works. A skilled skydiver does it with grace and control - and it takes MANY, MANY, MANY more jumps and money to learn this in the sky than in the tunnel...

What are the different materials that are used as tucktab and flap stiffener inserts? Where can you get these materials? Recommendations for cutting these materials, both for inserting grommets and cutting to size so edges are smooth and not razor like? Note - in the learning project I am currently playing with, there are no TSO/Manufacture Recommendation concerns I must follow, so throw out any and all materials you have seen used, along with the pros and cons with each.

1 down, 99 more to go. (See up a few posts if you are confused.)

Oh come on... I was just joking with the sarcasm. I apologize. I knew if I said WHY the drogue fell out, 100 people would turn this thread into a "TM Sucks" thread... It seemed irrelevant at the time to the fact that a student should know what is bad, and what is good, from day one... Now that I re-read my post, I see that I did not specify the drogue was on the floor....

Which part? Why it would be bad for a drogue to leave the plane, or why students should be taught to be confident enough to stop something they think could be bad from happening. Or... How the drogue fell out? Well, even the most careful tandem instructor (or skydiver) can get a drogue handle (pc handle) caught on something pulling it out on the way to the door.

I had an AFF student grab a tandem drogue that was on the floor. I definitely teach the "gear" and "safety" issues in the FJC, and tell the students the story about their peer that probably saved the day. EDITED FOR Clarity

Cool... While I used to live in LA, now I live someplace where I have not found a garment district. We have place here that is a specialty fabrics store, cost is good, but selection is weak and they don't reorder the same stuff, so you never know what they will have. Cost aside (I ordered a $2 sample so I can see), do you know what the difference between "packcloth" and "parapak" is? At this point, I have not looked up pricing, however I am really always impressed by how expensive paragear is. And, do you want to be my fabric broker the next time you go to the garment district? You buy some extra, I send you $, you send me the stuff with a markup?

Mine was brand new, and I put maybe 300-400 jumps on it. Maybe it was trim issues? Who knows? Personal preference?

I am working on a repair/build project. I see at Seattle Fabrics "Pack Cloth". http://www.seattlefabrics.com/nylons.html#fpc I am trying to match the fabric called "ParaPak" or "Para Pack" by most rig manufactures. Someone care to educate me on what the difference is between the two? If there is a difference, where does one get Parapak?

Yes, despite the fact I have strong opinions, I cannot agree more. Why?

Yes, I moved to a higher wingloading for the skydiving canopies I own, but I was at 1.1 to 1 on the pilot, and have flown other canopies in that same wingloading. In fact, the inspiration to sell the canopy came when I demoed other canopies at the same wingloading or one size smaller. In one weekend I borrowed 8 different rigs. I own a Katana (day to day canopy) and Sabre 2 (wingsuit canopy) each at 1.45 wingloading. I own a Troll and Blackjack each at .72 wingloading (like 300 sqft big). To me, my comments are not about wingloading - but the ratio of forward speed to downward speed in the flare. I can run - so forward speed is ok. I cannot run while using legs as a shock absorber, so downward speed is not ok. I just remember the Pilot always having a crap load of downward speed that I could not eliminate. This caused a fair share of "feet, knee, hand" landings as if I was jumping off a 5 foot tall box. It got worse when I tried to do a two stage flare as the plane out had sink. Again - opinion only. If you want, demo a Pilot. You might like it. Maybe at higher wingloadings you will like it more? For me, no thank you. I had enough.

I am not normally one to bash a product, but I hated my Pilot and am SO glad I moved on. (Granted, personal preference, but...) Opened nice. Flew nice. Hated the landings. If you flared like a student, you could get a nice landing if you timed it right. If you wanted a plane out, in a nice two stage flare - good luck. (Maybe my trim was off by the end or something, but I hated it from jump 150-300 when I finally purchased a PD product and fell in love). I know I am going to get flamed, bring it on, but I have flown (only to prove I have flown more than one canopy): Pilot, Diablo, Katana, Sabre 1 and Sabre 2, Spectre, Safire, Stiletto, Crossfire, Blackjack, Mojo, Dagger, Troll, Navigator, Triathlon, and - the only canopy I hated more than the Pilot's landing - was a "Laser" reserve that was in a container I borrowed not expecting to see the guy's reserve.

I never have met one, have you? They must be rare, I can't find them at the zoo either. But, with that said, you wanna put together a good waiver (a few lines perhaps at the bottom of a workorder to be signed) that basically says, "Parachutes fail even with the best rigging. I will do my best, but I make no promises, I may even screw up, accidents happen, I am human, so don't even think of suing me! If you don't like these terms, you may get a full refund for services rendered, your parachute will be unpacked, and you may use another rigger." Perhaps if enough people accept it and adopt it in the public domain of skydiving - it will protect riggers without each one of us having to find a lawyer to take our money. (Sorry, but my HOA just gave $100,000 in money to a lawyer for basically a month's worth of part time work, so I have fed the animals in the zoo this month.)

I have taught the FJC to about 20 groups in the last year, ranging from 3 to 13 students per class. I have dialed it in pretty well. Every time I change something to see how it works. When I see a yawn, I take note for the next class. Everything in the SIM FJC gets covered, but in an order that I found efficient. I actually never use the SIM with the students, who want's to read out of a book??? What I recommend - make your own lesson plan using the resources you have available. That way you will be comfortable with it. My lesson plan is now 100% memorized. I look over the SIM at breaks to make sure I am not missing stuff, but, I find I am not. It is because I have taken "ownership" in the flow and don't think of it as a lesson plan, but more like a conversation that makes sense to me in the order in which I would discuss something with a friend. I never read an outline in front of the students, or look to a lesson plan. I used to and found that it was boring for the students. I always welcome questions. When a student asks a question, I tend to answer it - even if it means moving a whole section earlier. I see this as a challenge to adapt, and to see if the student's thought process is better than my own. Beyond the nuts and bolts - I find spending a large chunk of time on getting the class excited goes a long way. I have for an example taken a lot of the "what is the USPA, what is the FAA, why we can't fly thru clouds" stuff out, knowing that will come in the progression if I can get them hooked - but put in "let me show you a sit fly video", "let me show you my wingsuit, anyone want to try it on." A FJC student needs to know how to be excited and how to do the jump - the politics and rules will come in time, once they choose to do more jumps. When the class sees what is beyond the FJC, and can already identify a discipline they want to work towards, they get so excited. I generally speaking know what each student wants to do by the end of the course - freefly, a single jump to get it off their list, etc. They are pretty honest, the one time jumpers will tell you if you ask. Here is my general order. But if you print it out and teach from it, you will bore your students because it will not be your own... I recommend you type yours up. Delete the file. Type it again. Delete the file. Type it again. Delete the file. When you can type it twice in a row the same way without thinking about it, you will be ready to teach spontaneously and confidently to your students: ------------------------------------ Pull Hand Signal - Most Important Thing in Skydiving. Introduce myself Have the class tell me about themselves (experience) Show videos of skydiving (I have a custom video I made for the FJC with every discipline). Show and tell - wingsuits, etc Talk about what it is like to fly. Talk about how to learn. Progression (AFF to Coach to A to D to Instructor) Medical conditions/concerns/medications Gear (Accessories SHAGGR) Gear - Rig (Reserve, AAD, Handles, PC, Main, ETC) while in classroom Gear - Tear open a main with student with most experience wearing harness. Teach all components. Quiz class on names Gear - while student wearing harness - toggles, rear riser inputs, break fire, and how to control with a broken line Bathroom Break and review Classroom - pull priorities Classroom - body position and all hand signals for body position corrections Classroom - dive flow for freefall and all hand signals for reminders of diveflow Mockup - practice exits, twice for everyone Horizontal trainer - practice diveflow, twice for everyone while wearing a rig and throwing the PC. Break and review Classroom - Canopy Ground Speed, Airspeed, windsocks, landing into the wind Classroom - major fatality risk, low turns. Brake turns, have students demonstrate with hands a brake turn. Classroom - how a canopy flares (advanced stuff I know, but they get it). Pendulum effect, angle of attacks effect on speed and lift. Classroom - flaring too high, too low. Classroom - landing pattern, adjusting Classroom - photos of landing area, obstacles. Outside - watch a load land. Find the worst flare and have a student repeat back to the class why the flare did not work using the scientific terms of angle of attack, lift, speed, etc Outside - identify landing area, outs, hazards. Walk a pattern based upon current winds. Outside - PLF into the peas LUNCH Aircraft emergencies Canopy - there, square, steerable Canopy - fixable mals, (line twists, hung slider, brake fire, horseshoe) Canopy - video - malfunctions (including two out, line twists, etc) Break and review EPS - hard pull, impossible pull. Vests - practice EPs Hanging harness - EPs Quiz verbal Quiz written Final questions How to pass AFF Jump Note - a lot of the breaks are not shown in my list. In a class of more than a few - you can tell people to take a breather when you are working one-on-one with others. The hanging harness and horizontal trainers are good times for people to get a few quiet moments.

Tonto helped me out cleaning up a thread about a friend who died on a very similar swoop incident as his own. His PM to me might be good advice for those who knew him well:

3,2,1, Cya. I started this thread to discuss public/publicity stunts in general (NOT JUST ONE STUNT/ NOT ONE PERSON), that intentionally violate FAA laws... Now the thread (which I don't mind) has shifted it's focus to one stuntman - and his other stunts... All threads shift, I am ok with it. For the record, I argued a strong point, that in my heart I only believe 75% as strongly as I posted here. But I hope some of us took away the token: "If I am going to break the law, how much could I be hurting my peers, now and in the future, by my own actions?" That is why I started this thread. Now go and discuss the grand canyon, this thread has taken it's course.

You have a very compelling argument. I could be swayed to agree with your argument. Here are some thoughts. Maybe for the average joe skydiver. But what about a jump into a stadium. What about a waiver for operations outside of the norm. I feel the more we publicly "play against the rules" the less confidence the FAA will have when it comes to giving us some extra wiggle room when it is needed. Without trying to sound like a childhood kid: "Only if you get caught." The more advanced argument being, if we found FAA violations occurring regularly, and found them to be causing incidents often, then we would have a duty to self regulate change. Looking at the current list of fatalities for the last few years, it will be hard to show enough incidents where breaking an FAR was a contributing factor. Your argument is compelling, and I would say, any time we disrespect the rules enough for the FAA to know - because of complaints by other pilots, injuries linked to FAR busts, or public stunts - we are jeopardizing the ability for our peers in the future to skydive.

I teach at a DZ where the field elevation is about 5,100 feet above sea level. We go to 12,500 above the ground. I have jumped at DZs at sea level. They go to 13,000 above the ground. If you go to a DZ with a large plane, the field elevation will not matter much.

You might be right... However I know my office manager, who has seen my progression in the sport from being a student to an instructor, and watches my skydiving and base jumping videos, has a hard time differentiating between what is a stunt and what is a normal skydive. To her, any skydive is a stunt. To the FAA, we are all skydivers. Punish vs respect.... I agree the FAA is not going to pull the military style of punishment and make us all do pushups, and ground us for a week, because of one of our peer's actions... However, the FAA, especially some individuals within the organization, could get a negative bias towards our activities. Next time someone tries to get approval for a difficult demo jump, or a modification to an aircraft, or a modification to a standard flight plan, the FAA rep could give the request less than 100% of their attention and just deny it, because of their lack of respect - or because they are fearful their approval will backfire and their bosses will question why they made the approval.

Yes. No... These can harm our sport too, however, are less likely to do so. My premise was more, "if you choose to intentionally break an FAR, and we all do sometimes to some degree, don't brag about it."

If they believe what I say as gospel because of some rating or jump number or job title or anything - then their instructors did not do a good enough job teaching them how to learn and who to believe. This is the first thing I teach students once I am convinced they are to stay in this sport. I had two guys at my house into 4 in the morning last week, showing videos, answering questions, and discussing how to learn. If I had a student who asked, "tell me about jumping a BASE rig from an aircraft" or "tell me about going thru a cloud on purpose", the conversation I would have with them would not be too far from what I said in these forums. I would want them to see the damage that could be caused to the community, and hopefully they would understand how careful you have to be when you intentionally break the rules. I would also be very clear that my opinions are my opinions, and that I do not represent the USPA or their opinions, especially in candid conversations about the ethical details of decision making.