tdog

We should invent the tunnel together, as I know I am working real hard on exits for 4way formations. There are 22 blocks and 16 randoms. It takes hundreds of jumps just to get practice on them all... Even with 10 or 20 training jumps per day, it takes a long time to practice them all and try out different things. The design I came up with... I am too lazy to get out the CAD software and draw it.... But here it is in words. Mockup about 8 feet above a pool of water. For DZs with plenty of extra otters, just pull the otter around and park it and crank up and engine to full. For those without the extra planes, you will need a few of those gas motor fans used to fill up hot air balloons. Maybe 10 stacked up. The team climbs in the mockup door and launches the 4way chunk... The part I have not figured out yet... How not to smash the tail. For an example on H (bow), the tail will have three other guys landing on him in the pool. Ouch...

I have one... As I flare, I land, and the canopy is pulled back into the container ready to jump again. I am way too inexperienced to use it, because the danger is that at 500 feet I might pull a toggle down too far and cause the canopy to pack itself up, causing me to be forced to redeploy. I really should have 2,000 jumps to use it, so the guys at the DZ tell me I am going to get hurt. Major controversy. (JUST KIDDING)

Super cool... You have the right spirit... But, the second (if) it turns boring or overwhelming, then you know you need to back off a bit on the books and actually go jump. Best of luck, and welcome to the family. Travis

Ok, so I am reading the IRM, AFF instructor section... Some of the sections can be a little dry, so I am finding the humor in some of the choice of words/phrases... Gives me motivation to keep reading and pay attention... So far I have found: I sure am glad my instructors did not use their footwear on me, even though I am sure I deserved a kick in the ass, when I was learning. I think if I was a student and you took away my parachute I would come back in the plane too. Or are they just worried about all that expensive gear landing out???

Next weekend according to www.weather.com is looking good... 29 tomorrow... That is still like 5 above my coldest jump to date... I just have not figured out if the de-icing procedures apply to our canopies too. And, anyone care to do the windchill math for -20 on jump run??? Never mind, don't let me know, I rather pretend it is warm....

I can't see why not as long as the coach is good... The problem about getting recommendations on coaches is that the perfect coach for person A might not be good for person B... Hence, I would perhaps try to chat to your prospective coach beforehand and see what kind of rapport you can build. Do you connect on the first word, or are you just not relating??? I have worked with 6 world class coaches, and so far I really liked 5, so the odds are good you will do well... That being said, once you determine the perfect tunnel (for your schedule and budget) - then just ask who are the best coaches there... Don't get too worried about which country has better coaches, because I bet both have great ones... Make this simple...

I have my TiVo set to record my favorite news programs with the "keep at most one episode" setting. So every day yesterday's news gets overwritten. Well tonight I was watching "9News at 6PM" and the weather for tomorrow was TERRIBLE... And I looked outside and said, "I don't get it, it was pretty bad today, and they say a change is on the way, so it is going to get worse than this?" Well, after watching 20 minutes of news I finally figured out I was watching yesterday's news, not today's news, and sure enough the forcast was accurate. So, let's hope the weather did not pay attention to my screw up because I want to get a jump or ten in tomorrow...

Now, you might want help from a rigger on this one if you are not 100% sure how to do it, but who says you can't install the demo canopy on YOUR risers that has the RSL loop? You will want to make sure the risers match in length and where the brake line attaches in the stowed position is the same so the brake line trim is not changed, but the process is not hard. If you have not installed a canopy onto risers before, this might be a good opportunity to sit down with a rigger and learn the process...

Tracking Cat sure knows how to arch!

The only one that really gets me... "'A Lot" is a lot better than 'alot'". I had my 12th grade English teacher tell the whole class. "If any of you make a lot one word, you will fail the whole semester." Between that and the "A LOT" wallpaper that covered every inch of the classroom, no one failed. Still to this day, when I see someone make it one word I feel the need to warn them that Mr. Boveri might see it, even if they don't know who he is.

I was actually hoping for an otter, an airport to fly it out of and jump into, and, say, 150-200 very satisfied and happy regular customers, with perhaps a wind tunnel too... You give me all this, I will promise a huge party and a month of free jumping for anyone who shows up and unlimited tunnel time for the gift giver. But if you just want to send me some jump tickets, I can give you my address, and I will be sure to share with all my friends too.

oooh gross... Your canopies were touching their cells.

I had a business teacher in college teach a whole 2 hour class where just about everything he taught was wrong, but not so wrong it was obvious... And, he used other people's books, news articles, videoed interviews, etc all as "supporting documentation". Someone finally caught on... The lesson was simple... We all learned it... Don't believe everything you see, hear or read, even if it comes from an instructor or teacher. Now in skydiving I believe you have to trust your instructors with your life for your first handful of jumps. If you don't trust "that instructor", find a new one... But once you are able to self supervise, then it is time to open your mind and read as much as you can, talk to as many people as you can, study as much as you can, and start to make opinions on your own based upon research and knowledge. I am a strong believer in reading this site - so as long as people with any experience level don't treat it as truth, but just an open forum to discuss. This site often gives me more questions than answers, which is good, because I go off and find answers that I can believe in. I really like how sites like this can open people's mind to other schools of thought, right or wrong. If I was skydiving at one DZ in a vacuum of info, I would only know what the "crowd" at that DZ believed. Sites like this, skydivingradio.com and others truly open minds... But what I guess I am trying to say is, I don't believe what anyone says, in my face, on the net, or in a book, unless I can research it, understand it, and substantiate it with other sources. I think we are on the same page about not taking this site as gospel... But, I see a few people posting that they discourage students from reading this site... I think that is wrong, instead, they should teach the lesson that not everything you read, are taught, or hear is true. Including, perhaps, what I just wrote.

If you want to put the poor guy to sleep...

I have used it on a bio before for a lighting design contract... Setting up a convention general session and running a show can be more stressful than skydiving. I often have $3000 per hour of labor I am managing and an audience of 10,000 knocking on the door to come in. For the right customer, I used it to tie it together... Something like (3rd person, this was a bio), "When not designing events, Travis is passionate about his skydiving hobby, where he has learned many valuable skills he brings to the table as a designer, such as to be detail oriented, work on a team, follow a plan, and keep a level head and clear mind when faced with stress and pressure." It has worked, because a lot of my competition tend to run around like chickens with their heads cut off when faced with what I have to deal with... Customers remember the last guy who did that, and the skydiving gets them to start reading, the close gets me the job. "If he can think in freefall, he can solve my problems when the band shows up late..." But, I am not asking to be the bank president either... Being a designer, we are allowed to be a little left field.

I bring my packing card and letter to the TSA I was able to download from the web to prove my tool is acceptable to go thru security, even though it is a little out of the mainstream... They normally swab it for explosives, but I don't seem to mind...

Good point, but you don't find the trustworthy ones by searching google or pricegrabber. I will look at dbuys.com, as I am looking for a new sony.

Crazydiver (who has the same real name as I) is a great guy... Proves that age has nothing to do with responsibility. When I hand picked the people who would tandem jump with my mother for her 60th Bday, I chose him and another person. The only reason Travis got the video slot was because the other friend did not fly video, but I would have trusted him in either slot. I have learned age has nothing to do with responsibility. Sure, it does have to do with years in the sport and general knowledge, but a hard working open minded "teen" beats a closed minded older person, in my opinion. Oh, Travis, I hope I did not boost your ego too bad. ;-) Travis. P.S. I also thought having a video guy named Travis was cool, because if my mom hated the jump and yelled, "I hate you Travis, look what you made me do" - I would not take it personally and assume she was talking to the video guy and not me.

why? because it robbed a human of 'air time' ? it is a training tool.. why not use it to train birds as well? hell who cares what anyone does in it really (that doesnt damage the tunnel) once they pay for the time?? I am glad the airspeed was low because I was in the perris tunnel the day a owl got chopped to pieces... But I was happy to see the story today on the national news (today show to be exact). Seems the bird really got to do some good belly work, but it's head down still sucks...

Pretty much, my rule is, if the internet company has a New York or New Jersey address on their site, or no address at all, I refuse to do business. In 1998 (birth of the .com buying world) I was burned on a laptop... Ordered one, never came, charged to my credit card. Called them back. Laptop was out of stock, wanted me to buy a much more expensive model... Last year my brother purchased a car stereo online with his new credit card number for a new account. I saw the retailer and I yelled, "New York, Don't Do It." He never got his stereo, and ended up with a maxed out card of fraudulent charges, and the only people he gave that number to was the store... So, this story is sadly not new news...

edit: Deleted my post, I forgot something that I wanted to calculate into what I was saying.... I will repost corrected version when I have time.

So... Lets say you get out of the plane and a few thousand feet below the winds are blowing at 40 knots, for the sake of argument, perpendicular to the direction that they are blowing above... Logically, you are going to get blown (or ride with) the winds in the direction the winds are going... But, there are a few variables... Since the winds changed direction, your mass has to accelerate to the new direction of the winds, while your momentum carries you in the direction the winds used to be going. The winds are not an inelastic hook pulling you, instead they accelerate you by the friction of air as it blows across your body... That friction is not 100% efficient in transferring the energy to your body - and I believe (but have no proof) that as the delta between your speed and the wind speed approaches zero, the acceleration changes, thus this is not a linear formula. Another example of this dynamic... Hot air balloons... They find equilibrium with the winds eventually, and once they do the wind across the basket is zero, even when the ground speed is hot... But when the balloon crosses into air going a different direction or speed, you momentarily feel a breeze in the basket until the new equilibrium is found and the balloon changes speed or direction to match the new wind... Anyone have some real data on how quickly a human body in freefall finds equilibrium with the winds in which the body is flying in??? Anyone know of any papers on the subject? I am trying to build a computer model to help disprove/prove theories I hear around...

I am always a big fan of public praise and private critique from how I learn as being a student... I welcome critique as long as the conversation is positive and not accusatory. Teaching items in skydiving are not always black and white, yes or no, true or false, 1 or 0... There are shades in between on a lot of things... So I would approach the other person and ask them why they believe what they taught, to hear their perspective. Then I would sell them on my beliefs, and ask them to consider the options... I would try to cite sources, like manufacturer's owners manuals, or articles/interviews by the experts in the field to justify what I am saying. I honestly don't think people on purpose give wrong information, sometimes they learned wrong, and sometimes they learned different, and sometimes they were too lazy to learn, and sometimes they should not be teaching in the first place... That is my two cents from the person who is learning perspective.

I am just trying to figure out where the tunnel rat stands...

Dear Student, We have talked about obstacle avoidance, Tree Landings, Water Landings, Power Line Landings, and Buildings... We are almost wrapped up with your A licence card. It looks like one signature line is still open. Let me ask you that one... "What does the SIM say the proper procedure is for plowing thru a snow drift?' he he he he