tdog

I don't know if this http://www.omniskore.com/comp/2006/usnats/ae_102_1.mpg is Arizona Arsenal or not - however, it is awesome work. I am jealous - as my goal for 2007 is to work on my freefly, and the moves in this video are some things to put on my "wanna be able to do" list.

Well - Phree could LINK to all the manufactures for the recent versions of the manuals and just be a great one stop domain so you don't have to dig thru the manufacturer's site but just get to the right page in one click - if the manufacture has it online. I think Phree's services are best used for the manufactures who don't have their manuals online - or an archive of previous versions...???

I have a copier at work that acts like a high speed scanner. I can make a PDF out of any old manual that is not online. I then can send it to Phree... So Phree and guys, if you need my services, PM me for my address and you will have a digital version ASAP.

Our evaluators told us specifically what they wanted us to teach and required us to plan ahead with a written plan or notes to teach from. We showed up 30 minutes early and put together the plan. No memorization required. If you are teaching canopy landing emergencies, you can read the section out of the SIM, put together a lesson plan, and teach it. (One word reminders or outline in the plan - don't read from it - just use it as a road map.) Confidence. Treat them like you would treat a real student the day you get your rating. Go slow and accurate. Silly stuff might get you - like they might teach "SHAGGR" as an acronym for gear checks - then you follow it to a tee, but A (altimeter) is before G (gloves) - so having a student put on the gear in the wrong order using their acronym makes you feel clumsy when the student has to take off the altimeter to put on the gloves. I simply acknowledged my mistake in character, "oops, I guess we have to take your alti back off, most students use the DZ issued wrist mounts, but since you have a hand mount, it has to be put on after your gloves, my bad", and moved on. When in doubt - ask questions - don't guess. Hear what they want you to do, then prove to them you can do it. If they have advice, try it. Some might try to play mind games. Don't be caught off guard, they are just testing you. Out mind game them by smiling and laughing and staying focused on the tasks. It might be they were better jumpers, but worse teachers? I used my FF2 cam helmet. My friend had a similar helmet. We videoed all our jumps. Our evaluators agreed to review our footage with the same rules as outside video, should it be needed - it could only help. They even took our footage and reviewed it behind closed doors to self critique their own testing of us - to see if they felt they were giving us realistic challenges. Now they did not tell us why they took our cameras for an hour, we thought for sure we screwed up real bad, but we asked when they came out and they laughed, "no you are doing great. The evaluators have to be evaluated too, to keep their evaluation ratings, so we were just debriefing what we were doing from your perspective." They wanted to make sure nothing (and I mean nothing) was sticking out of the side of the helmet that would damage a rig, skin, or worse... They said that small screws or ring sights have actually poked thru rigs on tough evaluation exits and strongly suggested that this rule apply to real students too. Does your camera have a box, or is there a metal plate that is exposed??? We asked a lot of questions before and during the course. I think most of the questions you are asking us - you should ask them too. "What do you want to see out of me? What tips do you have to make us successful? Can I jump my own freefly camera helmet?" P.S. The week of my AFF course was one of the most rewarding and fun weeks skydiving I have had yet. I would actually go back and do it again for the fun of it. If you find a course director who is great, and you go in with the right attitude, it can be real fun and challenging.

It is pretty hard to convince people to drive much farther - and it won't be noticed as firm transactions that will be lost. Instead - spend money - lots of money - but with each purchase hand a flier to the cashier "I am a skydiver who may not be here next year because Skydive AZ may leave! Want my money, talk to the city to make sure the DZ stays - and I will come back next year too."

Bravo. I am truly inspired by your post. Hey, I am the biggest cat lover out there... Just thought this one was funny. If the cat died, or, if the photo was not photoshopped and it was a real loaded gun (look where the cat's eyes are looking in relation to the gun) I would have raised holy hell....

Now how in the hell am I going to search for someone's OLD avatar??? Now, if you really don't want to look at the possible reposts, hire the cat in this photo... No, wait... It is probably been posted before. Never mind.

on a complete side note... Is that plane not bigger, or almost the same size, passenger capacity wise, as a 747 - yet without that hump on the front end, or a small plane next to it, it looks like a 737 or something. See the attached photo that puts it in perspective.

Now imagine the marketing power of Tiger getting his demo rating and jumping into a charity golf tournament. This would be super cool for our sport.

Sounds about right, but move it all up 500 feet... The fake ripcord became ours at 3,999. (The evaluator pulled the real one when we pulled the fake one). We had the "dance" of "Altitude two three, Pull two three, Assist two three, Pull" - that if started at the right time, guaranteed we never got in the basement and we did our job. So, you are right, we were pulling between 2.2K and 2.8K every time. Your first post made it sound that 2K was the normal pull, but in your second post you said you had to pull by 2K. I guess I felt that, a few hundred feet or a few seconds, really do make a difference at that altitude - and that to be fair to people reading - get in your mind you have to pull by 2K, not pull at 2K to pass. Our CD also did talk a lot about canopy choice for AFFIs. He made it clear that in any debrief, "I pulled for you so I would have time to open my cross braced pocket rocket" was not acceptable - and made it clear that the students opportunity to learn should never be compromised by a canopy choice in real life and in the course. He begged of us to never, in real world, jump a highly elliptical canopy or any canopy that required us to worry about our own openings or landings. So I agree with your post to anyone going to take the course, canopy does matter.

I did a guy's level 5 AFF skydive last weekend, then mid week we went to the tunnel - and he had 30 tunnel minutes before - and was off the net in a sit.... Quick learner, learned belly and back in the tunnel before sit... He got done with his AFF and did a sitfly on one of his solos after AFF yesterday I believe. (He did approach people for advice and followed it). So, the answer is - yes... You can learn to sit in the tunnel with no jumps, or a lot of jumps - and it all pays forward to the sky.

Really??? I think my evaluators would have been real upset (meaning automatic unsat) if I was that low... In fact, it was priority one to end the skydive at the planned end - and pulling in time to have a fully open canopy by 2000 feet was a requirement. You might have had different experiences...

How many planes did they run hot? I know the Otter from our DZ went down there as some backup, I wonder how many total are flying? 20 minute turns with 4 minute stagger would be 5... My math correct? How many minutes between jumps to get ready for the next?

Watch out. I work with many Hispanics, and they are some of the best people out there. An example - an employee passed away in a car crash. The community found out he was sending money home to his mother to support the family. Suddenly all the employees chipped in and sent enough money "home" to pay for all the funeral expenses, AND BUY THE FAMILY HOME. I don't know much about much, but I remember being honked at in New York City - the culture capital of America... This is not a Hispanic vs White thing - this is a rude neighbor thing, and I am sure us white folk make just as many rude neighbors and other cultures.

Josh, I will miss you a lot. You did wonderful things for the sport. You also were watching my back, I know you went to someone and asked them to give me a piece of advise that I respected. I appreciated the fact that, instead of spreading rumors behind my back, or lecturing me, that you spent the energy to seek out someone who you knew I respected, and asked them to educate me on a concern of yours. I took your concern seriously, but more importantly, will remember your style forever - as you had it figured out. I will miss your "wouldn't it be cool if" mentality. In conversations with you about improving student experiences, your open mindedness and creativity were to be admired. You clearly thought the sky was the limit and had no reason to stop half way in finding new creative solutions. Thanks for everything, and I will make sure you live on in small tokens of appreciation to others with your name on them.

Hey... Last year I traveled to Eloy 3 times. Rental car fees Hotel fees Fuel Taxes for landing the United Airlines plane. Car Gas Taxes. Plane gas taxes for the 100 jumps I spent thousands in gross expenditures, hundreds in city and state taxes, on those trips... I promise Eloy and AZ one thing... Without Skydive AZ - that money would have gone to Florida or California. I think there has to be some middle ground on this one... It sounds like neither side really wants to sit down and have a discussion about the facts and what is reasonable. The DZ might have to pony over a bit more money to help keep the airport running, the city might have to look at it's study.

God forbid YOU go to the wrong slot - you could take a wacker line of 40 to the wrong side of the formation...

A TI friend of mine had bag strip on a skyhook equipped tandem rig... After the cutaway, the reserve stayed in the tray without the freebag. He reached back and grabbed the fabric/risers from the reserve tray and threw it out into the wind and "shook it out until it inflated" I still have a skyhook on my sport rig, but this TI did point out that the mass of the tandem reserve and the force of a fully inflated tandem main, does make him wonder about skyhook tandem rigs and the possibility of bag strip.

Doug, if you "killed" someone while running errands for work, that would be a different matter....they'd go after the Firm, and YOU...and probably rob your new accounting career of future earnings. I've heard about company drivers having this happen to them. Of course, as you know, I just play lawyer... Actually - they go after the firms "hired but not owned" liability auto policy for the 3rd party injury/damage. They go after the company Workman's Compensation insurance for any injury to the company employee... The person who owns the car would have to pay for any damage to the car - unless it was owned by the company, then the company policy would pay... All assuming proper coverage was purchased... This is why my company has to pay 2-5X the work comp rate on any employee who leaves the office while they are on the clock - and we have to pay auto insurance for non-owned cars just in case someone drives on the clock. Because most liability umbrella coverages are secondary and above work comp - it would take millions in claims to actually hit the owners...

I am working on a project... I have some questions about pay/pay practices/etc... If you or your friends are knowledgeable, please PM me... Depending on the knowledge earned, I may be able to get a stipend paid out of the research budget...

From the movie Pay It Forward. For skydiving - keep the number to three - but spread out the days to years because it takes a while before you can be a coach... It still means you could indirectly help 27 people in two years - if you told your students they had to (nothing should be forced, but instead "inspired") help others when it was time, in payment for your services... I know this works in skydiving... Why? We have a huge population of Air Force cadets that jump at my home DZ. They don't charge each other for coaching, and they have progressed far. Most start jumping their sophomore or junior year in college, jump hard, and are coaching by their senior year. Every year the old coaches leave and the new ones start... Ya, some might comment, "100 jumps and a coach rating" - but some of the best coaching I have seen has come from some of them. In fact, for a coach course I was an evaluator for a group. One guy had 70 jumps and was getting all the paperwork done to get his rating at 100 jumps. He diagnosed 100% of the mistakes I made and gave me solutions to fix them all. I was impressed... Now, I agree there is a huge difference between the basic coaching of how to safely fall and win nationals in freefly, canopy, or 4way... But this canidate was able to fix my tumble out of the plane, my backsliding, my floating on the dock, and my tracking problems... That is what a 12 jump student might need.

I have tried it both ways... TELL THEM, if it is a carry on... The time I didn't. The guy behind the XRay started to sweat like crazy. Like water on the forehead sweat and we waited 30 seconds while he looked concerned. I just smiled, thinking, "maybe now I should tell him?" He looks at me and says, "Is this a parachute?" I said "yes". He said, and I am not kidding, "Thank f*&king god, it looks just like a, you know" then says poof as his hands make the universal signal for something exploding. "I did not know if I should move the conveyor belt or just evacuate. Those wires make it look just like you know..." The end result was exactly the same as every other time... They called a supervisor over after the guy asked for a bathroom break. The supervisor started opening the duffel and got intimidated by the silver handles. Every time, they asked me to do all the work soon as they see handles and straps on top. Something about putting the handles facing up in the duffel... I typically will open all the flaps without asking, and that way they can swab everywhere and makes them feel they got farther into the rig without asking...

Unless of course the mentality is "pay it forward" - and you received free coaching with the expectation, when it is time, you pay it forward...

Read the patent... They patented any use of a magnet in skydiving, including attaching the toggles to the risers...