tdog

That is all hooknswoop needs, more DZ.com attention. Just kidding... Did you see him do the dive into the tunnel from standing on the bench? He makes it look so smooth and graceful it looks as if the air is actually blowing in the waiting area too... Sorry I missed you when you were here... I went to the tunnel coaching some guys when you were here and the team room was locked with your stuff in it but no team - so I at least can say I got within 10 feet of your gear.

Ya, I was watching a foreign national team train - and at 45 seconds they would all just stand up on the net and start again from their exit count... And, I am sure one person was the keeper of the time, but it was amazing how accurately they just "knew" when to stop. ;-)

Once you get used to the tunnel you will build a whole new internal clock - and instead of looking at your wrist, you will be looking at the timer on the wall... Last night I was coaching someone who had 2.5 minute rotations... It was amazing, at 2 minutes, how they normally rotate, I was thinking, "time to exit, time to exit" - because my internal clock was built for 2 minute rotations - in the same way I keep on thinking "time to track" when I am jumping at a DZ that has 5 to 10 seconds more freefall time than home... But, if you are getting free coaching - let your coach worry about that... Just pay attention to the coach and do what they say... The clock might have 8 seconds left, and they might give you a 5 second drill - so don't waste that 5 seconds.

Boys and Girls of all ages... I am not normally one to brag (well, maybe sometimes) or say super positive things just for the kiss butt factor... But this boogie was my best three days of skydiving ever... I think I logged 10 jumps with Craig - and we just had a blast. I am going to be there, and I hope to see you there, because this is not the mother, it is the MOTHER!

Very good question... Made me think... Someone should run some stats to see if all the extra procedures the UK actually reduces injury/fatality rates... If so, perhaps we in the US should adopt those things that increase safety...

I actually kind of found this post to be fun to read, which is kind of weird for a Untamed post. But, Untamed - every part of society from the Military, to Dropzones, to Corporate America, to clubs, to the staff at a restaurant work like a high school class system... But I guess you are right - dropzones are places where people optionally show up to socialize and entertain themselves and learn, so unlike a place of employment, people don't get asked to work there or asked to leave, so you get more of the fringe... But - I believe every high school has different class systems, sometimes one school might have a group higher on the list than other schools - for example, at my high school, teachers were much lower on the list than jocks. That being said, at my "high school" DZ, I would say that the "Special Ed" students are very high on the list... I see a lot of experienced jumpers going out of their way to bring them into the loop... So, perhaps you comments are very close to home, and something the leaders of the USPA should think about when they talk about the fact membership is going down - as the way to make students into skydivers is to make them feel welcome...

Cool... I am glad... I just heard the rumor from a few different unrelated people from different parts of the country, so it spread quickly... I would not have asked the question if only one person told me it. I am glad you were able to confirm and put it to rest. Travis

Everyone has different teaching styles and body positions... My first tunnel coach (very experienced world record holder) told me when I first started out with him as my coach in the tunnel, "we need to find your neutral position... There are a few key things to this position that everyone must have, but a lot of it will be individual to you. Keeping the torso straight is one of the key things..." Every coach I have worked with does NOT teach turning anything in the torso for any "textbook maneuver"... They equate the torso of the human to the fuselage of an aircraft... You can't twist or turn the fuselage on any axis, so neither should you (except for the arch which changes fall rate)... All the control inputs instead should come from arms and legs, keeping the torso neutral. So, what makes a center point turn? It is using your arms and legs to initiate the turn with equal force so you spin around the center. What is a side slide - the same exact movements with your legs and arms as the CP turn, but instead of opposite directions, the same direction... In the big picture, does turning your torso a bit cause you to not win world records - probably not, and the world class skydivers probably do.... But these coaches who have helped me learn never told me to do it when we are working on perfecting the textbook maneuver... I have put together a bunch of tunnel flying videos that show each drill, that I have on my laptop, that I use in prebrifing and postbrefing students when we go to the tunnel... I got a screenshot that I attached here. The coach is the one being pushed on, and he is overamping the side slide body position to push on the student. This would be a very aggressive side slide if the student was not there to push back, and in fact, in a few frames the student is against the glass because he failed to push... Notice how it is not really "droping a leg" - but instead "twisting a leg"... You need to make a rutter to deflect air, and pointing your knee out does that. I personally think in my mind, "point my knee where I want to go". Some coaches teach the leg position differently, but the one shown here is the one that works for me.

I thought students were taught always to say "chop and pull reserve" or "cutway and pull reserve". I know if I forgot to say the second half of that line in any casual or formal training conversation on the ground, I would be corrected and forced to finish the line...

About 10 birds have whispered into my ear that the Perris tunnel is closing down and the staff are unemployed for daily flying... They are going to staff it only for special occasions and camps, but it will not be open on a daily basis... I could not confirm on the Perris website, however the link to the prices page gives you a blank page at this point. So, is this tunnel now just a "boggie" tunnel, like aircraft are sometimes reserved for special occasions???

I am a novice skydiver, and even more novice coach in the big picture... I have 10-20 or so hours of tunnel time where I was coached by world class coaches - and another 20 hours in the last few months where I have coached in the tunnel, trying to share what I have learned with others. The tunnel has been so wonderful for my learning of how to fly and how to coach... I have learned the most, personally, by watching world class coaches in the tunnel solve problems, and internalize what they were doing, then trying to apply that to people I am working with. These coaching skills transfer to the sky.... So far I have faced the extremes of someone so tense they could crush the sweat in their palms into diamonds, and people that are such naturals that we were spinning two way blocks in their first 10 minutes of tunnel time. Adapting in seconds to the progression of the student is hard, but fun. For an example, the second I see a student tense up and struggle with a skill, I throw in something they are good at to build confidence - but you have to remember what they are good at for this trick to work... Example - a student is asked to side slide but they struggle with heading or fall rate... The second the learning stops - move back to turns to distract them, then come back to the slide without giving them time to think they can't do it... Little things like that, which I am still wanting to perfect. As it was said by wmw999, when the student "fails" - you still have to somehow make them feel like they passed so they gain confidence... I have picked my coaches for the ones that make me feel wonderful at the end of the session. The skill I am currently working on, is mastering the "relax, everything is a-ok, lets have some fun" face, while what my brain is really thinking is, "oh s*&t, this is bad"... It is amazing how much the coach's non-verbal communication changes the outcome of the student... If you don't have confidence in your face, the student will struggle to have confidence in their own ability... I learned this from analyzing my own personal progression, and remembering, for an example, when a coach was helping me backfly, how I suddenly got much better when the smile and thumbs up came... DiabloPilot being that coach, and my roll model for positive expressions in non-verbal communication.... That is my workon for this month.... There are pages, upon pages of things I still need to learn, and want to learn, and that is why I am having so much fun right now! If you can afford a 4way jump/tunnel camp with Airspeed or Perris Performance Plus, you will be more than ready for your coach rating in terms of raw flying skills - so as long as you have passion towards seeing others learn and can work on the teaching part.... If you have any specific questions, I have gone thru the AFF-I evaluation and Coach evaluation dives both in the last year, and if you PM me specific questions I can give you some of my experiences...

I am posting this online here, because I am so excited that the RE/MAX organization has chosen skydiving to be part of their promotional marketing. I think this is going to be a great opportunity for Skydiving to receive more positive publicity! Below is the official mailing that went to the Colorado Skydiving community... If you are near by, please feel free to show up, but I am not posting this here to advertise for the shoot, but to raise awareness of how skydiving is being seen mainstream enough to enter the corporate marketing arena.

Why don't you climb the pole and hook it back up???? BASE guys would tell you that you either should 1) Do it at night or 2) Wear an orange vest and hard hat and look official when you do it. .... Not that I am advocating cable theft ....

sorry.

The not yet built glass skywalk that is... http://www.9news.com/9slideshows/May%2010%2C%202006%20Grand%20Canyon%20Skywalk/Default.aspx?N=0

I wonder... What would the canopy look like... In a downplane, both canopies are flying like wings pulling against one another... If you chop the main and it gets hung up by one side... The shape of the wing is no longer held by the lines, and you have disturbed the way in which it will fly... So, at that point, what is the best guess of the main's behavior... Will it lose dominance and just flop around, or will it stay half inflated and spin the downplane? I know there are a million variables - and no two times will it do the same thing - but has anyone got pictures or video of a main 1/2 connected and a reserve fully inflated????

What is scary about this.... (Speaking from seeing a fatality first hand from a Cypres fire downplane that made me think about this over, and over, and over again)... Why will you have two out.... Most likely, it is going to be a AAD fire from pulling your main low. Of the three (still living) people I know who have had two out, they were all Cypres fires from pulling the main at 1500-2000 feet... So, when does a AAD fire... About 700-1000 feet. How long does it take for the reserve to inflate if you are already sniveling your main... Maybe a hundred feet or so... So, you now have two out at 600 feet. Lets say in another 50 feet it downplanes... 550 feet. Lets say the downplane goes 50 MPH. (Based upon autopsy reports - 50-60 MPH was the scientific guess of impact speed) 50 MPH = 73.3 feet per second... You would need to start your recovery arc from a downplane at 100 feet to land it without getting seriously hurt. You have 450 feet to end the downplane.... This equals 6.13 seconds to disconnect the RSL and chop. Put on a rig and imagine it is spinning and you are going fast and amped... You will take at least 1/2 your remaining life, if lucky, to find and disconnect the RSL. That is not including the amount of time it will take for your brain to say, "gee wiz, this looks like a downplane, are all my lines clear, should I chop this, no wait, RSL first!" So... The question becomes - the RSL connected in a downplane adds risk - but enough to spend 1/2 your life or more disconnecting it? I am not advocating change... If you are a student, you should follow the words of the instructor teaching you and the governing documents he uses (SIM, DZ Policy, etc)... I have lost sleep at night playing these "two out cards" and the dealer seems to win a lot... But he wins more often the closer you are to the ground...

Knowing another tunnel that is also manufactured by Skyventure corp... I believe the motors and the variable frequency drive units are both Toshiba in that tunnel - driving fan blades and housings made by others... 480 volts to the VFDs... I think a lot of what you ask for is proprietary and confidential.

Any one know the history of this photo?

Ok, in case anyone cares... I purchased the DirecTV R15 model DVR that does not run the TiVo OS... IT SUCKED 1) Crashed and locked up 2) Fast forward and rewind would be 5 minutes off when I hit play 3) Would not record a season pass of a news program - I.E. I could not get it to record the nightly news every night, but it would record the today show... So, I found a copy of the Instacake software online that reformats the TiVo drive and purchased a 200 gig hard drive from Best Buy... My old tivo is reborn with 176 hours of recording capacity - and I am so happy... Going to return that other POS tomorrow and pray that this one lasts many more years...

The Air Force teams looked good... The scores from the weekend are posted to www.coloradoskydivingleague.com

So it was you that text messaged me on my phone... The number did not come thru, but I guessed it was you... Congrats. Oh, remember when you packed for me a long, long, long time ago, like when you were still in AFF - yes, that opening was still one of my best... So ya ready for some night jumps? Last time I saw you, I think we were doing night jumps.

Spectre, Lotus, or Pilot. These canopies can even be loaded up a bit and still perform very well. Some would probably say that the pilot even performs better when loaded a bit. All three of these canopies (and probably the Sabre2 as well) will fly straight even in most line twist situations. They also tend to open at a moderate speed that does not hurt you and does not snivel for 1200 feet. They have produced on-heading opening for many wingsuiters on many of their jumps. EDIT: This post was entered by a friend under my username, and he said to me, "oh, BTW, I posted to DZ.com under your username..." See if I ever walk my dog and leave my friends in my house.

I had one jump on an Icon, and I hated it... It was all wrong for me, especially in the size department, and the owner had bad taste in colors, so I thought it looked like crap... I did the stupid thing we skydivers do and base my opinion on the rig from one jump, on one container, that fit like crap. But then, I saw a few icons that are for mid-sized canopies for mid-sized people, and I started to change my mind quite a bit... For example, the EP handles have these stiffeners in them, that really feel good, and I think I would prefer over my current rig's handles... If you really want a qualified opinion (from someone who is a teacher of teachers and rigger himself), you can contact Bram at Skydiveratings.com. He is sponsored by them, so realize he might have a bias, but he educated me a lot on the Icon, and I think he would be a good resource... I am sure he and Elly would appreciate an e-mail, because they love to teach and share, it just lights up their eyes when people show interest in learning - and they will tell you the truth, even when it is negative towards the product. [opinion]But what ever you do, don't get a solid navy blue rig, they just don't look good in blue.[/opinion]

Still... Those instructions assume you have the OS on a OLD drive and are COPYing the OS to the NEW drive... Unless I clicked on the wrong link... I need the OS - because my old drive is trashed... I can't hook it up to the computer and copy it as instructed. Do you have a link where I can download the OS?