nightjumps

To a certain extent that is true. I used to work EVERY weekend, but eventually learned that if your job is also your fun, you have to make specific dividing lines of time and environment. I spend about two weekends a month teaching, the other two are mine to go somewhere else to have my fun.

Sorry Brother, but the telcom situation is a product of its own demise and has nothing to do with either President. Like you, having worked for more than one Telecom company... I watched as companies financially over-extended themselves into oblivion. The quest (no pun) for more market share; business & marketing plans based on a pseudo-trend of bandwidth projections, billions in debt based on phony and inflated sales forecasts, partnerships based on executive stock options and Board appointments rather than quality of product, a myriad of other bad business decisions, people buying stocks based on daily volume chasing rather than good financial practices of P/E ratios, et. al. Any second year business student should have been able to predict that outcome.. Blaming a President, any President as the model of wrong-doing is unfair. Telecom got what it deserved. It was all about executive greed. Nothing else. We should have learned from the Roman Empire that any entity that begins to build up, rather than out is doomed to fail.

Hell, yes. I've done 16 skydives in a day and as many as 6 tandems in a day. I think some of it has to do with being "charged up" all day, situational senses on overload, and then when you get down from that last jump of the day, you tell yourself that was the last one, you give your mind and body permission to turn those senses off = tired. Students add to the situation. They can put you into hyper-gear. I'm more exhausted on those days than when I'm fun jumping.

I use an Eclipse Tandem rig. Icarus 365. Sweet. Its a Vector II and if you're Vector rated, you won't have any problems transitioning. Jesse @ SMB is the man to call.

I do so miss the military sense of humor. I had a friend of mine who was my barracks buddy pull the same stunt on me years ago. I got the letter and was reading it, scratching my head, thinking, "NO F!@#$ing way this guy was on the other side." My buddies in the barracks all busted out laughing and I knew it was a joke. He got payback. When he was out on a date one night, I hired a transsie to give him the treatment. I won.

This will probably become one of those never-ending preference debates... here's my $.02: I've found that getting a brand new ZP in the bag is a lot simpler using the psycho-pack. However, after the ZP is "broken-in," I go back to pro-packing. I am old-school and still believe the best prevention against malfunctions is line order and line tension. IMO, the psycho-pack does not maintain either. I've only owned Icarus canopies. Well... that's kind of a fib... My rounds were Paracommanders, Sparrows, etc...

Ref: AFF p. 3; IRM A USPA AFF Instructor who cannot meet the annual renewal requirements or whose rating has expired for less than one year may renew by performing all of the following: a. Audit a USPA Instructor Rating Course, b. Under the supervision of a current USPA AFF Instructor, teach or assist at one complete first jump course, c. With an AFF designated evaluator, satisfactorily conduct one complete AFF jump to include all jump preparation, supervision during the jump, and debriefing, d. Acquire the signature of a current S&TA, I/E, or member of the USPA Board of Directors on the renewal application to certify that the recurrency requirements were met, e. Pay the annual rating renewal fee. For more than one year, but less than two years must: a. provide to USPA Headquarters a written endorsement from an appropriately rated USPA AFF Instructor Rating COurse Director verifying that the candidate has: 1. received retraining and is again qualified to supervise students, 2. completed one successful ground preparation training session, 3. Made two evaluation jumps, including- 3.1 One Category C (Dual AFF Instructor) evaluation Jump, 3.2 One Category D (Solo AFF Instructor) evaluation jump modified with 360 degree turns and forwrd movement b. Once the endorsement is obtained, the rating holder must meet all the renewal requirements for a USPA AFF Instructor that has expire dofr less than one year. 4. An AFF Instructor whose rating has expired for more than two years must perform the following: a. reattend the entire classroom portion of the AFF Instructor Rating Course, b. Complete one successful ground preparation session, c. Make one Category D (Solo Aff Instructor) evaluation jump modified with 360 degree turns and the forwrd movement.

You get down to 270 and I'll get you skydiving. Don't give me any crap about 300 is as good as it gets. Not for 6'2". You wanna skydive bad enough, do it. Then let me know.

20-25 times with "correct form" until "muscle memory" for the maneuver has been solidly developed. 28 more if incorrect form is demonstrated even once. The short course is: the brain must "unlearn" the incorrect form and "re-learn" the correct form.

And then there's some folks who should buy an SOS system, just cause. Glad it worked out. Practice your ass off. Actually, you should do a minimum of 28 EP's in a practice harness. 28 is the number required to embed a performance-oriented behavior into muscle memory the first time. Don't make me make you do pushups.

Exactly why I each left-handed folks the two-handed method. Nuff said.

Ron, I really, really like this. My mantra is; "How well would you teach them if they didn't have AAD's, RSL's, or radios."

I can see how "safer" was implied by my

Amen. Can you say Swing-landing Trainer boys & girls?

There are advantages and disadvantages to the one-handed (one hand to each handle) and the two-handed method (two hands on each handle). At our DZ we teach the one-handed method for students since they are jumping large squares at no more than .75 wing-loading. As they progress, we teach the two-handed method since heavily loaded ellipticals with a line-over can induce a spin and subsequent line twists that can require additional force to extract the cutaway cables. We do preach riser hard housings, but that doesn't always result in their being purchased. As Ron states, whichever method you finally choose as "most comfortable" for you... the key is to practice them with such frequency that the methodology becomes rote. I too, practice emergency procedures prior to boarding the A/C, on the way up and a couple of times prior to exit. An interesting by-product of my practicing emergency procedures is that when everyone else sees me doing it over & over on the A/C, others will start doing it also. I also close my eyes and "feel" my gear. I place my hands on the main lift web above and below to do a follow until found... not unlike teaching the follow the legstrap until you reach the main ripcord handle instruction just for the scenario you mentioned of not being able to see one or the other handles. Practice, practice, practice. Finally, one example I can give you of how well practicing works is; The owner of Skydive Tulsa did 104 skydives in 12 hours earlier this year... gettiing out at 2500 and dumping at 2100. On one dive, he had a pilot chute in tow (or hesitancy... it was hard to tell since he was using the count method and it was cutaway), his hands were so fast at cutting away and pulling the reserve handle, that on a frame-by-frame review of the video, it was less than one second between cutting away and firing the reserve handle. We had to watch the frame-by-frame more than once just to see that both handles weren't pulled simultaneously. That comes from practice.

Exactly why I won't psycho-pack the Icarus tandem canopy. In fact, I won't even completely wrap the tail around it on a pro-pack. I start at the tail and only run a tight wrap about 3/4 of the way up to keep those stabilizer lines away from the nose also.

You should not violate the max wing loading printed on the main canopy's panel. Chances are it would be safe. You are taking enough chances, do you really need to compound them?

After you've filled out the top portion of the Incident Report, we'll discuss it.

Congrats on finishing AFF, Blondie.

Personally, I think its irresponsible and a true lack of leadership for your CO to task you with writing your own evaluation. It would communicate to me that s/he didn't think highly enough of me or him/herself to put some time, thought and energy in my career. Course, I only taught the NCO development courses up to and including the First Sergeant's Academy. It could be different for Officers.

Well, you don't say what kind of canopy, so my frame of reference is the Icarus Tandem (which gives me a woody). My biggest concern with psycho-packing the Icarus Tandem is the concern of the eight brake-lines on either side. There is no "setting" the brakes, so there is a considerable amount of brake line "slack." Flipping it over and then rolling it does not allow (or perhaps just doesn't give me the warm fuzzy) for good solid line order and line tension. I'm still a firm believer that line order and line tension are the most predominate factors when packing ANY canopy. For me, pro-packing allows me to ensure the lines are where they are supposed to be - as best I can.

Don't take these disagreements as whether one is wrong and one is right. Its more about preferences or technique than right and wrong. Just as computer geeks have male hormonic displays of chest-thumping bona-fide sessions about more or less RAM, or processors, or weapons experts pary and thrust about which hand gun is better... In the end its what works best for you and them. Its about difference, not wrong. For example, there's about fifty different ways to pack a pilot chute... all of them work, its just which one do I like better. Let them have their chest-thumping session and take it for the cultural theme it is.

Maybe it was Version 3.2

That fraction of a second where you're trying to decide - IS your decision. Take the PLF. Its better to PLF and be wrong, than to not PLF and be wrong.

Sparky, I am laughing my ass off here. I was expecting the usual who has the right of way discussion and yet you crystalized my sentiments exactly. Thanks for the chuckle.