tdog

The tunnel is the number one way to guarantee passing AFF. Nothing is 100%, but with a bit of tunnel time, I don't see someone failing, and I have a track record of real students that proves this theory... When will you be ready to pass AFF??? It is not about tunnel minutes but about skills. When you can get in the tunnel and feel in your stomach the "oh crap this is going to be fun" instead of "oh crap this is going to be scary." These are the skills: 1) Fly straight down without going up or down or left or right (not perfect, but enough you don't need help from the tunnel rat) 2) Can do turns in both directions and stop them. 3) Can move your hands around a bit, like to the position you are going to use to "pull", without crashing into the net or anything. 4) Ability to smile and laugh while flying. With these skills - you will not only pass AFF, but be so far ahead of the curve your post AFF, pre licence jumps, will be easy. Note - I passed AFF without a minute of tunnel time without any complications, and so do a lot of my students... But the skills listed above will allow you to fly comfortably in freefall - so the only skills you will need to apply in the sky are: 1) Altitude awareness, 2) how to pull your pilot chute, 3) and the whole canopy thing.

The rumors on the street - so likely wrong are: 1) the fabric and design would not "scale to larger sizes". 2) that someone loading a traditional PD-R near 1 to 1 in a larger container would be less likely to spend a bit more for a canopy that packs smaller, thus making the money for R&D to make the larger sizes have a less ROI... In case either of the above are true, I think those of us who want the reserve in the larger sizes should all e-mail PD so they can judge the demand.

Because the canopy was built as a scale prototype, so the slider is in scale and for the sake of knowing how to build one I guess.

Balloon jumps are fun... You will not have wind when you leave the balloon, so you will fly your body like a diver jumping into a pool from a high dive - with gymnastic moves instead of aerodynamic moves. This makes it fun, and perhaps a training scenario for BASE. I disagree with the other poster about wearing something baggy. Wear something comfortable and you have jumped with before. If you have a baggy jumpsuit you fly, ok... But certainly not required. Here is my best tidbit... Every jumper should have a cell phone and know the phone number of every jumper and the balloon pilot and the ground crew for the skydivers and the ground crew for the balloon. Every time I have gone on jumps organized by others - we have lost the balloon behind a hill and could not find where they landed, or one skydiver landed someplace else and had to be found, etc... All skydivers should land in the same field negotiated before jumping... Also know the biggest risk is to the balloon pilot, not you. If the balloon pilot has not flown jumpers, you may want to talk to him about it. Specifically, when you leave, the balloon suddenly wants to go up real fast. The risk is that this happens so fast the relative wind pushes down on top of the balloon and pushes out the hot air. Suddenly the balloon pilot will be in freefall, and likely will not recover. The simple solution. Communication with the pilot. Make sure he has a very hefty decent rate right before you leave. The bigger the group, greater the rate. If the balloon pilot does not understand this, then put him in touch with a pilot that does for his own sake. Between groups, wait until the pilot says ok, and ask, "are we descending?"

Well actually the story is not done yet. Today Monte brought in more of his toys... His 19 sqft 9 cell canopy kite immediately took off when I threw it in the air... No wind, so I walked backwards slowly and it flew perfectly. The mini slider is about the size of the palm of my hand, and the cute mini risers are about 6 inches long with mini toggles. AND... He brought his own homemade container that he knows will never be jumped due to TSO, but he made about 10 years ago I guess... It is not a copy of any design, but modeled after the best of what was around at the time he made it. It was hard to tell it was not a modern container made by one of the top manufactures. It's reserve tray, freebag, bridle and pilot chute resemble closely a modern Vector. He made all of it, although I don't think he made the spring for the pilot chute... It was stuffed with a reserve he did not make. The main closes with a closing loop from the bottom of the container, like a Javelin. But the outside looks something like a Vector or Infinity. The main activation is a freefly handle with a pull out. At the time of construction - soft housings were "innovative" so he used them on his design. The reserve ripcord was given to him from another rig being decommissioned so it is just like you would expect in any modern rig. The cutaway handle is a soft pillow. I did not bring my camera today - so no photos... Sorry... Even so - I don't think I would share them because he clearly has a design that is worthy of the marketplace. Now, what impressed me... Some things were not on modern rigs - like the way he constructed his three-rings. He did not want to cut a hole and install a grommet thru the minirisers so he came up with an alternate method that keeps 100% of the structural integrity of the risers - which of course he made, including the toggle. It is not my design to share, so I will not give out more details as he might be onto something... The main D-bag was stuffed with another canopy he made, but I did not open that up.

I agree - no hard sells. But there is a point between the "I am going to know you for 10 minutes like the guy at the amusement park who puts down the restraint on the roller coaster who you would not recognise on the street the day after" and a used car sales person who you give your ex girlfriend's new boyfriend's number to when you visit the car lot knowing he will be calling you at least 10 times a day.... Why retention... If you read the USPA commentaries, they are pointing out our sport is on a downward trend right now. They have their reasons to be concerned... My reasons: (gear related) 1) More skydivers = more volume to manufactures... 2) With more volume comes more R&D money 3) With more volume comes Economies of Scale and cheaper products with equal profit and quality. 4) With more volume comes competitive entries to the market place that can challenge established companies to out perform their own expectations. (jumping related) 5) With more skydivers I have more variety in friends to jump with for new experiences and more fun times. 6) With more skydivers, the DZ will keep more planes flying for quicker loads leaving when I want to leave, not every 20 minutes when the single plane turns. 7) With more skydivers organizing things like Sunday night sunset bigways would be possible. (Bill I think you jump at Perris where putting together 23 free fliers or 23 belly guys to do a full plane load formation is possible. Not all DZs have this - sure you have more than 23 people jumping, but their skills or disciplines don't line up with a single plane load formation.) 8) With more skydivers more drop zones could open and justify their own existence. With more drop zones, you get places to jump more convenient to your own home, and competition to keep DZOs wanting to innovate ways to keep customers wanting to choose theirs - with say great load organizing or great coaching on staff or great boogies or great after the beer light activities or great pricing. 9) With more students entering AFF, and more making it past level 1, as an AFF instructor I would have more fun - as AFF level 1 skydives are much less fun than AFF level 7s where I get to let go and fly hard and see a student pass to being able to jump without my help. 10) DZOs would make more money as AFF is just as profitable to a DZ as a tandem... I calculate most DZOs make 50-100 after the retail price of the slots, gear rental, and instructor fees.... That is a good margin. One or two AFF students pays for all the front desk/manifest labor for the day assuming $12 per hour.... Another few would pay the rent. Another few pay for the slots and fees of load organizers. Soon, the AFFs pay for operations and tandems become gravy and fun jumpers become the keep the plane full requirement... Plus, it is "upselling existing customers", not bringing in a new tandem every day... It is much harder in my line of work to get new customers than to keep and grow happy existing customers. (Yes I know the numbers to run a DZ are expensive. I am just illustrating that a few $100 margin customers a day pay a lot of the bills. No need to argue the numbers as this horse has been beaten to death in other threads that can be resurrected.)

My two cents from a few larger DZs I have been to/jumped at. Say 100 tandem a day operations. Tandem instructors are not financially incentiveized to be "up-sellers" to "upjumping".... They make 12 jumps a day, meet their student on the plane, and only can make more money if they can squeeze in that 13th jump. Often, they don't even fun jump anymore themselves and barely know the fun jumper crowd, especially the ones who are not high volume jumpers. In fact, AFF instructors are not really motivated past the AFF instruction period either - once off AFF - the student is no longer a source of revenue. What would happen if the Tandem Instructor, FJC instructor, and level 1 AFF instructors all got paid, say, $.50, of every slot that jumper purchased for the rest of their skydiving career at that DZ - and were required to do a fun jump or two with the newbees, say a sunset staff-low jump number tracking dive, to keep the commission. Imagine how each instructor would become a mentor and sales person to keep that skydiver in the sport. Tandem instructors would start calling their customers after the beer light came on and would say, "thanks for jumping with me today. I had a lot of fun. You know the next step is AFF. Please call me or the DZ and I will introduce you to XXXXXXX who is going to be teaching the FJC next weekend." I bet we could "get" 10-20% more retention... To the comment about gear pricing... Today I borrowed my dad's boat and went wakeboarding with a few friends. $80 in gas for the boat. $35 for a new rope... If the boat was not 18 years old, there would be loan payments... But now it is just storage, insurance, and rebuilding of engines every few years... Considering it is stored for the winter - I suspect it costs $700 a summer month to maintain that boat. Thats 7 or 8 slots a weekend... I cry B.S. on the "expensive sport" line... Wakeboarding, jet skiing, motorcycle riding, golf... There are other expensive sports. The reason people pay the money is to socialize and have fun with friends... Return to the concept that started my post... If students saw the potential for friends right off, more would stick around... I never knew all my friends, on and off the DZ, would be skydivers...

So in my FJC yesterday a guy says his experience level is a few static lines years ago - and he worked on a DZ as a packer in the mid-90s. At lunch he offers to pull out something he made... "I made this canopy. It is elliptical and 160 sqft, so it will be a few hundred jumps before I can jump it... It is not done yet, but I have been working on it for months." We hung it up... Many riggers, including the head master rigger of the US Air Force Academy (hundreds of rigs maintained under his staff of riggers) - looked at every stitch, etc. No one knows how it will fly - as this student did a lot of research on airfoils and angles and line trims with a background in aviation, but he made his own design without copying anyone else... And to make it even more impressive - he had no prototype, he made it in a hotel room while deployed for the military with a sewing machine, cardboard templates, and hand tools. Completely his design. Completely from research. No copy. The riggers comments were all positive. They recommended a few bartacks be added here and there maybe a slight change in a few of the seams for wear issues, etc... But people were saying, "that is factory stitching like quality". The recommendations he was getting were all designed to make the canopy airworthy, not the "your insane to even think about jumping that." Many skydivers said, "can I jump it?" (all logically planning on using a terch rig and probably cutting it away not knowing it's landing characteristics) And, we are now changing the A licence signoff card from "Pack a parachute without assistance" to "Make your own parachute without assistance". Just kidding. Photos attached. Anyway - the reason I post... If anyone has info on canopy design that is not proprietary that they wish to share. Please send it to me or post it so I can share it with the student. I am also going to put him in touch with Brian Germain... With more training, this guy will go far.

I think it takes customer service and attention to detail... I think new companies should be given the benefit of the doubt and a few people willing to try something new should order up and have something unique... P.S. I ordered my jumpsuit years ago from a company no one ever heard of in the USA. Symbiosis... 600 jumps on the suit and except for a zipper replacement - looks brand new. Granted they are an established company overseas, but by your mentality of only ordering from "established brands" I would never have learned about someone else....

I was very impressed, both packing one for a friend, and watching him land the demo he played with before he ordered it... I thought he was swooping a main.

Since this is the second thread to mention the "iFly" name... Did Skyventure re-brand themselves as "iFly" - or did a few tunnels suddenly leave the nest and change their franchising agreements or something so the Skyventure name is no longer used??? When reading the websites - either intentionally or not - they seem to distance themselves from the Skyventure brand.... The don't use words like "using Skyventure techonolgy.... P.S. I have seen a few lawsuits reciently against things called "iSomehting" as Apple has strongly branded the "iTunes", "iPhone", and "iPod".... The lawsuit I saw today, seriously, believe it or not, is "iGasm".... I guess the ads were to close to the iPod ads??? he he he

I am not his friend (other than I tend to like people in general), never chatted with him online or in person, don't pay much attention to his posts, etc... Your DELIVERY of a VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE is what I am not buying into... Yes, I agree 100% that his actions are risking unknowing tandem customers. But, the message was lost in the delivery.

A few comments: 1) The internet alter-ego of us all is often completely different that the real life person. We say things that are often for the sake of argument and defensive, etc.... Raise your hand, who here has jumped with Jarred. You are the ones who know him well enough to give him harsh criticism when you know he needs it. 2) Jarred has posted a video that has some issues - and you all lost your lunch right away telling him not only about a safety issue - but suddenly that all his video work is crap. Adding salt to a wound, insult to injury, etc... You expect someone to respect you when you don't focus your constructive criticism to one "blow to their ego" at a time, starting with ones that are safety related??? 3) How many of you would tell a 10 jump wonder asking about updating a canopy: "The internet is not the place to learn this - talk to your instructor. Only they know how you land." But suddenly - you all (and I guess myself) have the responsibility to argue strongly with this kid, in the virtual world, in the name of safety WHEN MOST OF US HAVE NOT JUMPED WITH HIM? You assume his attitude on this website and on the internet is his true attitude??? If you are concerned so deeply, there are a few respected ways to solve this problem... Contact the S&TA of his DZ, contact a mentor he respects, etc. I have received a few PMs for my post... They often have the theme of "adults are treated like adults, children are treated like children. He has to make the first move, and until then I will treat him like a child." My response - I don't know a single child who ever grows up and acts like an adult, until they have roll models to learn from and emulate. You adults all started talking about him as if he was not in the room making strong insults about everything you could find wrong in the video. Would you have done that in the real world? Would you treat a wayward kid with good intentions at the DZ the same way? Did you establish an environment where a constructive criticism could be discussed? This is not about a "nurturing womb". This is about treating others in the way in which you would like to be treated. I actually respect a lot how the thread started. Davepend said: Within TWO POSTS, before any replies - people are posting about "ripping him a new asshole" and using words like "no goddamn excuse" But Jared keeps his cool and says: HE ASKED FOR KNOWLEDGE. Someone gave him the link and he read it. Suddenly people are going off on 7 point lists about the sun, his feet being in frame, etc... I just never have seen anyone - 16 years old, or 99 years old, ever respond positively to a wide bash of insults including "you are a safety risk to all." Not all - but most - will respond well, or at least hear what you are saying, if you say "I am worried about something... This is why."

Stratostar, I am not impressed with your and some of the other people's attitude on this thread. I see your posts lacking constructive criticism in way that helps a fellow skydiver. Instead of offering positive ways to improve - this thread bashes Jarred on his age, on his camera work, etc. It starts off with one of the first posts that immediately makes strong accusations about safety instead of saying something like: "Hey Jarred, read this thread about a fellow skydiver who caused an accident. I am worried about your back flying under the tandem pair. Consider the risks of premature deployment or sudden change in fall rate when you are in that position. I think backflying is cool, but if you back up just a hair and change your angle so you are in front of the pair instead of under the pair, you can solve this problem. Try flying that position this weekend and post a video, we would all like to see it." Treating someone like an adult probably will yield adult like responses. Comments that have been made do not teach, because they are just poking fun of and insulting instead of providing positive solutions , "He won't make it", "This video is shit", "this video would not be allowed at our DZ, I would want my money back", "his dad is the DZO so probably every other TM at the DZ can't say anything about his safety..." Honestly - safety issues aside, I much rather jump with a young and positive and energetic kid than an old fart who brags about being in this sport for twice the age of this skydiver. There is nothing inspiring to me in the "I have years of experience, do what I say" attitude. Not to say I don't want to learn... But there are so many people who have so much experience, but never brag about it and share their knowledge in a way that is fun to be on the receiving end of the conversation.

For me - it is communication... Example. There was a guy with 15 jumps on the plane last weekend. I was going to do a solo freefly - but anything in a group is more fun... So I asked him what altitude he wanted to track away, and what altitude he wanted to pull... I then said, "dive out, do a few flips maybe, and once you see me, lets do docks... Just remember to stay altitude aware..." In freefall I was able to tell him the rest. "Come here". "Altitude". "Hold On" (and I spun us and let go so he would get separation and had to redock). When I first started out coaching - I think I spent too much time prepping on the ground and not enough communication in the sky. I am just scratching the surface of my abilities right now in communicating in freefall, but when I evaluated a coach candidate a few weekends ago I really critiqued him hard on communicating in freefall... He saw what I did wrong, told me on the ground, but did not tell me in the sky...

I don't know... We have a pretty active tandem DZ. About 100 tandems per day on good weather weekends... Another 25 students would increase the sales of the DZ 25% - or $4500 gross. I have been to DZs that have only a few tandems a day. 25 would increase sales hundreds of percent. Heck, 25 would be over two otter loads of slots - with no video. Three otter loads with video. That is a lot of volume. For the DZ to get that much volume from any other sales source, they are likely paying a chunk of money to the website/yellow pages/sales rep/discounts/etc... If the DZ gives a bonus for one tandem - then for 25 - the bonus should be 25 times greater... If anything the bonuses should get greater with volume, not smaller. Why? You certainly acted as a great sales person to bring them in, did a crap load of logistical work, etc. The DZ should want to give you 25 tickets (if they normally give one per tandem) if you bring $4500 in revenue they would normally not have had!

In my case my "fire" happened while the slider was still up... The toggle came loose from some other reason while the riser went under tension and/or came out of the packjob.

I have seen one of my students do that very thing. He landed on rears on his "A licence" checkoff dive... I almost failed him for having a bad landing away from the spot. But since he actually did a very small PLF and walked away, once I saw his risers and how he had to manage one toggle and two risers, I realized he did great... Back on topic... Yes, if there is a large loop of line that is hanging loose on the back of the riser, putting your hand thru that loop before releasing your toggles will create a perfect knot connecting your brake line to the loops on the back of the risers. I have used UPT risers with everything from a Pilot (210) to a Stiletto and Katana. None of these canopies have too much line stow by the owners manual's instructions. But I have seen some canopies have huge loops between the cats eye and the toggle... If you don't understand what I am saying - please make sure you do - as it took me until I had a student make his own mal until I understood how to do the same thing... If someone asks, I can take photos and show how it can be done. BTW. If this happens and you have lots of altitude and a hookknife, cutting the tab off the back of the riser will fix the problem and be cheaper to repair than an I&R - however don't do this lower than you are willing to cut away from.

I am saying follow the manual word for word... That is what I did, and that is what actually helped...

Yes, do the tunnel time... Unless it requires you to wait a while to travel to a tunnel... In a state with a tunnel near the DZ, I almost think it is a moral obligation for the instructors to suggest tunnel time... In a state where there are no tunnel options - the "old fashioned way" worked for many years, so don't delay your AFF...

I never really thought about it until this post... When I land in a commercial Boeing or airbus model whatever - I have to admit the landings feel "weird". Why - because I now have 700ish more takeoffs than landings, so as a skydiver I am well trained in takeoffs, but not in landings, as a passenger. I can see even the best and most professional pilots flying 25 loads a day with a full load on takeoff, and an empty load on landing, get "used to the feeling" or "out of practice" on landing with a full load. I would gladly take off, land, take off, and jump, every once in a while so my already well trained pilot remembers and knows how to land a fully loaded plane... Keeping current... If this is for training a pilot not already qualified, then no, I am not willing to be on board. For those of you who say no... Here is my question back-at-ya.... If you don't trust the pilot to land the plane safely, why did you get on? I have landed in a fully loaded plane on average 1 out of every 400 jumps due to winds/weather and probably about 1 out of 150 for AFF issues with students (helmet clips breaking, weather turning unfavorable for student jumps, etc)

I went to their website and tried to click the English flag assuming that would make their website change to an English version... The picture is pretty but does nothing. I could not find pictures of their toggles on the website, so since you like them so much, please post a picture or link...

So I had my first brake fire yesterday... On a Katana loaded about 1.4. Made great video, I was able to stop the spin and kick out of the twists by pulling a riser before I knew the brake fired... (Since Brake Fire is not an universal term = premature brake release on deployment) I am now even a greater fan of the UPT/RWS true-locks. I am confident they saved me from a reserve ride and the costs of an I&R. I have attached a page from the manual so everyone can see a true-lock. The true-lock has a metal pin on the bottom, and the manual clearly shows to stow the excess line around that metal pin. The net effect of the top tap firing and the metal pin staying in = only a few inches of brake line released. It was released fast enough that it burned thru the tab on the back (melted clean thru). In the PDF file I annotated with an arrow what melted thru. Because the true-lock only let out a few inches of line - the canopy spun and dove, but I was able to fix it with a bit of rear risers while kicking out of the twists and doing other stuff that happened so quickly it just happened... In fact, I did not know the fire occured until I got out of the twists and thought, "why is my canopy diving every time I let up on this riser." That is how little line it let out.

Most freelance packers are not under supervision - right or wrong... But then again, I hire a packer for trust, and every coach I have hired post A licence I did not care if they had a USPA licence... The point being - once you know what to expect, the ratings are not as important. Closer the packer/instructor/coach is to the student's first jump, the more the ratings matter, except for rigger for reserves, where almost everyone I know expects the rigger to have the rating. (Yes, I once taught a guy to pack on a Saturday night. Sunday between his AFF jumps I asked him to pack for me. I paid full packing rates, and he did a damn fine job and I trusted him since I taught him. ) The only time I have seen people really care is when the packer works for a DZ on student equipment, because the students don't yet know what is right and wrong - and thus have a higher level of trust in their packer.

I have felt very little pressure changes in the tunnel. In fact, I have taken in a skydiving altimeter and the effect was about the same as going up an elevator in a downtown office tower... Not that much. Grated, that was Eloy, not a recirc, but still... So, if you think the tunnel is causing ear infections, stay away from office buildings (and hence BASE jumping is not for you either.) But in all seriousness, why would flying and ear infections relate? Is it that "popping your ears" draws in grody stuff??? I would think he would have asked, "been swimming a lot" instead....