tdog

I spelled "by" wrong, however in retrospect it makes it a bit funny... ;-)

N/A

I just watched this DVD tonight thanks to Netflix. I was shocked - not trying to make this a speakers corner conversation, but instead a recommendation to rent the movie... The movie documents the history of the EV1 electric car. Basically in a time line: California mandates a certain % of cars to be electric. GM Makes the EV1 - and leases it in California to consumers. Electric car charging stations are installed thru cities using tax payer money. A new battery technology is invented that will outlast the life of the car - that GM buys. The marketing person for GM has a waiting list of customers. Then A group funded by the oil companies and car manufactures protests the electric car mandates. The car manufactures sue California. The federal government sues California. The government committee removes the mandate for cars to be electric under political pressure. GM immediately stops making the EV1. Lease holders of the EV1 are not allowed to purchase their autos at the end of the lease or renew the lease. GM repos all remaining EV1s. All the EV1s get shipped off to the back country in Arizona - hidden from view - to be crushed - while a GM representative says "All cars will be recycled or given to universities, none will be crushed." Only a helicopter is able to get in to see the crushing. Texaco purchases the battery company from GM that has the new promising battery technology - and closes the plant and stops making the batteries. The remaining 90 fully working cars repossessed by GM in a Burbank lot are blocked in by protesters who have millions of dollars in cash asking to buy them. 28 days later they are crushed. A few EV1s are disabled and sent to museums. I would highly recommend this documentary.

Typically an instructor works for the tunnel and is there to save your life if you lose control - and give you general advice - but cannot talk to you while you are not flying because he is spotting your friends flying. A coach is in ADDITION to the instructor - who can dedicate his efforts and energy to you, both while you are flying, and while you are sitting waiting to fly. He or she might spot you a bit if you need it, but most likely will get out of the way for the instructor to do the spotting/safety. I will say, both from being coached, and coaching basic RW in the tunnel - getting a coach is a very good investment. In retrospect, the time I did not hire a dedicated coach, it shows in my progression. The tunnel is like a machine that blows dollar bills - you need as many hands to catch them as they blow buy to make the investment worth it. Without a coach, I often see people go in and have no real goals, and not be pushed beyond what they know. Sure the instructors will help a lot, but they cannot communicate with you when you are not flying to setup the next drill and debrief you from the previous. Now - a coach can be privately hired, or can be a tunnel employee who is dedicated to you. Either are great, just find one you like. In Perris, Pat McGowan was my coach, and he was absolutely wonderful for RW work.

I laughed at that... The power draw for a tunnel is often exaggerated to be huge. Yes a tunnel uses a lot of power for one task, but in the big picture, it is a small customer... The retail mall next door to SVCO for an example draws orders of magnitude more power - heck just one department store with their HVAC systems draws many times more power. And - those customers have much more to lose when the cash register stops working - those stores definitely sell more than $1000 per hour in goods and services. Heck - I do concert lighting for one of my jobs. The lighting rigs I install often can draw more power than a tunnel - and I have thousands of audience members who paid to see the show, and we can't get a service level agreement... (To pull 1600 amps or 192 KW on a concert rig is pretty normal - heck a college theatre often will pull that to light a stage, and these are not large rigs but middle of the road rigs.) I actually read the Colorado tariff for Xcel energy, the local power company, cover to cover - (because the HOA I am president of is installing solar power, not because I am insane) - and I did not find a reference to quality of service, even for power sold to public companies like RTD (The Light Rail Public Transportation) or traffic signals. Hospitals buy the same class of power as the tunnel, and that class has no agreement in writing. So all this is to say the power company expects amusement companies (roller coasters to wind tunnels) to fail safe if the power fails at any time.

The SOP for the security guys is to xray the rig, then do a visual inspection, then swipe it with a piece of cloth that they run thru a bomb detection device. This is all done with a supervisor present or by the supervisor. They won't even open the duffel until the supervisor shows up. I am not breaking any code of secrecy here, this is just what I experienced at every airport I have traveled thru. The one time I left my main stuffed in the duffel the supervisor thanked me because "it was much easier to inspect" - not really looking at the reserve tray... They are quite touchy when they come to their inspections... I would NOT put clothes in the rig if I were you, unless you want the higher risk of them asking questions. If the clothes have no metal zippers or buttons, it will look like parachute fabric. But all the buttons and zippers will make a difference. Why risk it? And, to your statement about a bag and the size of your rig. If you put it in a soft duffel bag, the duffel will take no more room than the rig. This is how I travel and it raises no eyebrows. However I have been known to take it out and wear it if I have a real long walk to the car/bus/etc.

I wonder if the type of canopy makes a difference.... Something that opens well even with twists versus something that is prone to spin up and dive? Experienced skydivers often jump more challenging canopies and know that there is a lot of luck of the draw on how it is going to open, whereas exit is predictable and if it goes bad, can be recovered from with ease... The fear of the unknown will raise heart rate, and the smaller and more elliptical you get, perhaps the more "unknown" it will become even if you have 1,000 jumps on the same canopy...

I have seen the instructors pull the throttle lever to zero quickly and the fans seem to take a while to slow down. Now I know there is a computer between the lever and the fans that might smooth out this curve - but each time the wind does not just stop but gives some support for a few seconds. Granted, I have flown a lot more in a recirc tunnel than the others, which might add a bit more "inertia". Just watching every fan in the world, from a ceiling fan in a house, to a prop on a plane, to a jet turbine - they all spin for a while after they are turned off - rotational inertia is a powerful force, especially with weight behind it. So lets say the computers were removed from the shut down(like a power outage or someone throwing a main breaker) - how quickly will the air go from 120MPH to 0? I just imagine that you would be "set down" on the net quickly but softly, especially if you are flying where you normally fly unless playing up high (0-10 feet off the net).

I would not want to be a single AFF instructor on the first let go skydive unless the student has documented (video) time in a windtunnel being able to prove well rounded flying skills. I have jumped with people who I thought would be fast who turned out to push my limits on slowfall. And I have jumped with people who fell like a brick while built like a feather. On the first let go skydive (level 3) - students often have nothing to do except hold heading and remain altitude aware after a practice touch and COA, so during the short circles they can get more and more and more tense as their brain has time to think about what they are actually doing and the upcoming pull, thus flattening out, maybe spinning, and slowing down right before pull time. On levels 4-7 typically they have flips, turns, and forward motion until the end - and typically these maneuvers cause the student to keep the fall rate fast - and mind busy so they don't tense up. I find level 3 (first let go two instructor dive) to be the hardest as an AFFI. I think the first let go skydive should have two instructors, perhaps with even slightly opposite body shapes/fallrates themselves, so if the student goes super slow or super fast - you have one instructor that finds that speed to be the center of their range and the other who is maxed out - just in case the you know what hits the fan. Then the instructors can notate in the schools logs - "this student floats like a feather" so the next jumps are assigned to an instructor who also floats. I just think until you know what the student is going to actually do when completely let go, two instructors is a good insurance policy. Now, I say this with only one season doing AFF jumps - so perhaps I am a bit timid and overly cautious...

Next time, more glowsticks and I will fly camera....

The problem is that - this video is fun to watch for wuffos... In fact, secretly, I enjoyed watching it myself - because it has a "everything works out for the best when you keep trying" message... The other problem is that the producer of this show wants to "rehash" the video - and if every reputable skydiver does not give them info they need to make a story, they will get someone less reputable or less knowledgeable or who enjoys being the center of sensationalism. To give you an example, I was at two different DZs during to different incidents. One DZO and all the jumpers left out the back door to avoid the media at the front door and never returned the calls to the media. The other sent out a well spoken spokesperson to make a statement and answer questions. The DZ who gave clean, fair, honest, and accurate info to the media basically controlled the situation, while the other incident had speculation... Completely different end results to the same issue... So perhaps an expert in this situation could still give the spin needed for our sport while rehashing the video. "What you see in this clip is incredibly rare, and an example when everything goes wrong, often times our sport has enough redundancy and safety measures that the outcome is still positive. For an example..." "In fact, while definitely an adventure sport with risks like scuba diving or surfing, it is not just for the daredevils, in fact we can use our sport to fulfill a life dream for children with terminal illnesses. We would appreciate viewers to consider donating to their local Make-A-Wish chapter with funds earmarked for children dreaming of aviation."

The reason I think they are real students.... Look at the deployment on the 2nd student... What experienced skydiver would spin 360 after pulling... It would take a "special type of..." to keep the eval dive that "realistic" on opening.... Even with a docile canopy, why ask for those line twists and hard openings, etc????

It looks like the WS was at a 45 degree angle, so that as he passed he was getting farther away, giving him a safety net for a sudden turn by the TI, plus the ability to bank away faster. It also looks like the camera flier was flying ahead of the TI..... I doubt this was the normal tandem video guy because they normally fall away from the tandem when they open - so this guy must have opened to intentionally take the photos - making the whole jump planned... So, how would you setup the same type of photo with your flyby in front???

Here are all the trims and then some for all of PDs canopies: http://www.performancedesigns.com/docs/linetrims/

When you make the post, there is a button that says "URL" under the box where you type... Press it before you paste your link. Then press it again after the link... Before the link you will have "URL" in brackets. After the link you will have "/URL" in brackets...

You just made me spend $$$.... I found Skydiving Magazine had a better price than Skydive U and Square 1 (thanks google)....https://www.skydivingmagazine.com/storeintro.htm I hope it is worth it...

Or uninstall the photogallery... .net is a tool programmers write software on. The .net might be a-ok, but the photogallery might be the problem... An unhandled exception means that the programmer did not enter error handling code in the code - and likely this photogallery software is to blame...

I believe Orlando got new motors and controllers a while back to make it "newer technology"... I hear the software that controls the tunnels is always being improved too...

I tend to make my skydives "entertaining" enough that I don't feel the cold because I am doing twenty other things in freefall... It is hard to be cold when chasing a level 7 AFF student who is showing off how good his track is - or whipping points in an awesome 4way But, if I sat down and thought about it, I probably would be cold...

Especially addressing the folks who argue that "the guy will believe he is too good to get hurt, that he is better than the idiots who do".... I think part of the problem is the way in which people approach others. I have seen 90% of the "don't do that" speeches go south because of the approach. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong person giving the speech, wrong words, wrong tone of voice, wrong method (asking questions vs preaching vs sharing personal experiences vs hearing what the other person has to say vs laying out goals). The 10% that went well, and the person receiving the information respected the concern - were delivered by people who understood how to communicate effectively with the specific person. Think of it as management skills. We all know those 90% of managers who we have worked with who range from terrible to average. Maybe 10% of the managers out there inspire their employees to be better than they could be without the inspiration. I would argue - if the person on the other end of the conversation is not hearing your concern, then you are the one at fault for not saying it in a way to command their attention (or perhaps deserve their respect). For the record, I think I am in the 90% of the population often times when managing at work, so I have no claims to be the expert - yet. If we want to have better communicators - perhaps the USPA in their instruction program should train their instructors to be better at "winning friends and influencing enemies".

Those crazy folks from across the pond use the term Kit instead of Rig - don't 'cha 'no?

This was indeed a weird day. The uppers were so strong we called the plane a helicopter - yet the ground winds were so light and variable from 3000 down that we could not determine a prevailing direction for the day...

Ya - but a canopy, in a minute, can fly almost the full length of a DZ landing area. If you opt to land at the peas, instead of right under where you opened - you are going to have to "invade" someone else's airspace eventually... In a normal upper situation - you can fly off jump run until you are confident the next group is open, and you will see them open maybe 10 seconds later. In a VERY high upper situation - if you fly off jump run for a minute waiting for the next group to open, you may be so far off the DZ that getting home is not an option. We are talking extremes here.... If the plane takes a minute to fight headwinds and cover 1000 horizontal feet on the ground/canopy opening altitude, and you like 1000 feet separation - then all of a sudden you need to take into consideration how far a canopy can fly in a minute - which is quite far - which means now each group might need many thousands of feet assuming... Now, there becomes a point where the group before you has already landed (like a few weekends ago, where group one was already landed when my group was opening due to how long we waited between groups) - so unless you hum it so low your cypres is going to fire, you still are going to have separation on the vertical axis as the group below you is landing or on final... BTW - I think our ground speed was 15 MPH (give or take) per the GPS. That is 45 seconds between groups for 1000 feet separation. That means the canopy at 3000 feet with no winds was actually flying faster over the ground up jump run than the plane fighting the super strong uppers! If I am not mistaken by high school level math - that means the first jumper out, if they wanted to, with a middle of the road 20MPH canopy could have flown up jump run and been completely under any group they wanted to be under - with the only limitation that eventually their own canopy must land eventually - because they were covering more ground than the plane. In this case, the only way to achieve absolute horizontal separation, regardless of which way canopies were going to randomly fly - would be to wait until the canopy landed.

A couple weekends ago... The uppers were so strong that we had nearly 1 minute pauses between climbouts - yet the winds at the ground were light and variable. I joked that - if the uppers picked up any stronger, we would simply "backup the plane" onto jump run, slow it down a bit, and have a ground speed of negative something, and do a backwards jump run. Actually, with an otter's normal jumprun speed, this was a real possibility, but we were flying a king air. Seriously though - this opened a whole new can of worms as a canopy can go pretty far in a minute, so a freefall/canopy collision became a concern if anyone opted to deploy considerably lower than another group that just flew "a hair" up jumprun. This opens a whole 'nother can of worms of discussion - with real long pauses and skydivers not taking into consideration how long the groups are waiting - how easy it is to fly in another skydivers freefall space. Typically with 10 seconds delays, you cant get your canopy that far... Within a minute, you better be setting up your landing especially with a canopy that is fast, so waiting in your own airspace for so long becomes difficult. I did not appreciate all the risks until the end of the day and I started thinking it thru.

Now, I am sure my friends at the NSL will be upset when I say this and all, being a league organizer for a regional 4way league and all where points are scored by formations - but I really like to watch the "Subjective Artistic Category" more than the "Objective Points". Something about the freedom and spirit.