Eule

In the past, I worked for a company that made flight simulators. My job was the simulation of the instruments. When I started I didn't know too much about airplanes; my boss (a private pilot) handed me a "flying for dummies"-type book and told me to read it. I read all of it but concentrated on the parts about all the instruments - after a couple of days I had a pretty good handle on it, I thought. I wasn't ready to step into the cockpit of a 777, but I felt reasonably good about identifying and reading the instruments in a business jet. You can also read the FAR/AIM - it's more of a reference than a "how to" work, but it has some good info. I think you can download it from the FAA, or get it at the bookstore. Since a new one comes out every year (like the SIM), sometimes you can get one that's a year or two old at the used book store for a substantial discount. If you're really going for your license you need a current one, but if you're just fooling around a recent one is probably OK. Sometimes I joke with people that the reason I started jumping is that I can't take my Leatherman tool on commercial flights anymore. Since I know, deep in my heart, that one day the airplane will break and I could fix it _if I had my Leatherman_, I need to have some other alternative. Besides, why not learn how to make the jump ship _climb_? If you can get it above one or two thousand feet AGL, you can use the aircraft you already know how to fly. This is true, and as has been mentioned, the flight simulator programs you can get for your PC are actually pretty good these days. If you're really into it, buy the yoke+pedals controller instead of flying with your mouse. Having a big monitor isn't essential, but it helps. If you can, use a 17" or bigger monitor. The nice thing about the simulator is that you can go flying when it's blowing 50 mph outside or when you're too broke to go to the airport. The layout of the navigation instruments is semi-standard. The layout of everything else (fuel, manifold pressure, tachometer, keg thermometer) is not very standard at all. As has been mentioned, figuring out how the radio works is important - basically, you've got several radios you can listen to, but only a couple you can talk into, and you have to make sure your headset is switched over to the right one. An acquaintance who is a private pilot has told me of airplane-magazine stories about private pilots being invited to fly a business jet for a day, and the pilots usually do OK. He also saw a story where an instrument-rated private pilot got to try to land a 747 on a simulator, and succeeded. Other than that, talk to your local pilot(s). Trade a quantity of beer for some time with you and him sitting in the aircraft in the ground, going over all the dials and knobs and buttons. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

An update to my original post: I was confused on the translation of the tandem reserve rides. I thought they were referring to different types of malfunctions, but instead they were referring to the model of canopy that had the problem. cengelbrecht explained this to me in the German-language forum. With his explanation, the "reserve rides" entry should read: Tandem reserve rides 2005 14 reserve rides including 10 on "EZ" (PD) main canopies (including 7 line-overs) 2 on "TWIN" (Paratec) main canopies 2 on "CONTRAIL" (PV) main canopies - center cell collapsed in both cases Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Skytash: thanks for the correction. FrogNog: I think this is the Incidents thread about this incident. I don't know how it is gathered. The DFV appears to have an annual safety conference, where a summary of the year's incidents is given. The slides of the 2005 report are online as a PDF, which is what I translated. I can't, but I think possibly Chrisky, Skytash or cengelbrecht may be able to. If there isn't a reply in a few more days, I'll ask about the process in the German-language forum. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I asked the DZO and he said that there wasn't any special procedure outside of the jump pilot and the medevac pilot monitoring and reporting on the advisory frequency for the airport. I assume that if the medevac needed to take off or land while there was a jump going on, the two pilots would co-ordinate it between themselves. FWIW, I have seen the helicopter take off and land a few times during jump hours, and it always seems to be between loads, or else the helicopter immediately heads in a direction away from where the jumpers are. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Hello all! This post is similar to Ron's summary of US incidents, but covers Germany. The German Parachute Association (Deutscher Fallschirmsport Verband or DFV) has an annual safety conference, the proceedings of which are posted on their Web site. Click on Download, then "Sicherheitstagung_200x" to see what is available for each year. With assistance from the German-language forum (Stammtisch), I have attempted a translation of part of the 2005 accident and incident report. The original PDF in German is here, if anyone wants to check or correct my work. I have marked the places where I am unsure of the translation with '???'. I have included the section on accidents, plus some general statistics on number of jumpers and jumps in Germany. Note that some of the general statistics are for 2004, not 2005. As a quick comparison with the US, in 2004, Germany had 310,650 jumps and 4 fatalities. In 2005 there were 5 fatalities. I think the US averages around 3,000,000 jumps and 30 fatalities per year. Edited: Late breaking correction for "Automat mit HS" in Stammtisch. Eule German Parachute Association - Safety Conference 2005 (PDF p. 14) Short report on 2005 fatal accidents No. 1 26 May 2005 in Soest Licensed jumper, about 200 jumps * Next-to-last jumper of 15. * No steering after canopy opening. * Landed without flare and with the wind about 2 km (1.2 miles) from the dropzone. * According to physician, jumper was unconscious under canopy and had severe head and neck injuries when landing. ??? * Jumper died shortly after arriving at the hospital. * Autopsy showed brain bleeding (aneurysm) as the cause of fainting. No further investigation necessary. (PDF p. 15) No. 2 3 June 2005 in Bruchsal Licensed jumper, about 700 jumps * Free fall jump from 4,000 m (13,100 feet). * Free fall, opening and canopy flight normal. * 180° hook turn started too low during approach - hit the ground in the turn. * Died of broken neck and internal injuries. * Main canopy Nitro 120. No further investigation necessary. (PDF p. 16) No. 3 18 June 2005 in Damme Two licensed jumpers, with about 180 and 140 jumps * 3-way formation jump from 4,000 m (13,100 ft) with free-fall maneuvers (Salti ??? and barrel rolls. One jumper with camera helmet.) * Jumper 1's pilot chute started to slip out (seen on video). * At about 2,500 m (8,200 ft), pilot chute came out and caused unintentional opening during barrel roll. * Jumper 2, only a few meters above jumper 1, struck jumper 1 with full force. (Jumper 1 just at line stretch. ???) * Both jumpers immediately suffered fatal head injuries. * Jumper 1 landed about 2 km (1.2 mi) out under main canopy. * Jumper 2 fell unstable until the AAD opened the reserve. Landed with bad opening (???) in tree beside airfield. Investigation by German Army. (PDF p. 17) No. 4 30 June 2005 in Fehrbellin Licensed jumper, about 600 jumps * Training jump for swooping match. * Opening and pattern completely normal up to last acceleration turn for downwind landing. * The turn was clearly initiated too low, but was not aborted. * This led to hitting the ground at high speed and fatal injuries. * Main canopy Katana 89, wing loading about 1.8. Technical investigation by German Parachute Association experts. (PDF p. 20) CAUSES of fatal accidents 2005 2 fatal low turns (and 2 low turns with major injuries) 2 free-fall collision (after premature opening) 1 by aneurysm after opening (PDF p. 18) Short report on 2005 major accidents 16 May 2005 in Bad Neustadt/Saale Licensed jumper * During demo jump at airshow, normal jump and pattern until about 15 m (45 feet), when a steep left turn started. * Jumper hit ground hard and fell forward. * Broken vertebra. No information on jump count and main canopy. (PDF p. 19) 30 October 2005 in Leutkirch Licensed jumper, about 1,000 jumps * Free fall jump with normal jump and pattern until about 15 m (45 feet), when a 180º turn was attempted. * Jumper was too low and hit ground hard. * Life-threatening spine and head injuries. Main canopy Stiletto 120. (PDF p. 6) General jump statistics for 2004 (99 feedbacks) Total jumps in 2004 310,650 including AFF jumps 5,070 static-line jumps 16,856 tandem jumps 21,560 New students 1650 including AFF 790 Static line 860 (PDF p. 7) General jump statistics for 2004 Accidents Fatal 4 Major 94 Minor 70 Incidents Reserve ride 302 Low pull 18 AAD fire 11 Landing on/at obstacle 21 Canopy collision 6 (PDF p. 9) Statistics of the known jump accidents in 2005 65 accidents overall | Students | Licensed| Jump count | 1

Betsy gave the basic info. When I was there, the common room was a little messy but nothing worse than I've seen around my home DZ after we've had lunch and dinner on the same table. The sleeping areas were very clean. The lockers are around 2' wide by 3' tall by about 2' deep (about 60x90x60 cm). You could easily put two rigs in one and probably three. When you check in, you get a pillow, sheets, and blanket. In the room I was in, the bunks were two high, and each one has a curtain that can be drawn all the way across the bunk. There were fold-out shelves along the walls you could put your stuff on. I _think_ there was a socket or two to charge your phone or whatever in the bunk room; I know there were sockets in the common room. When you check in, you need to put down $50 cash as a deposit on the linens, which you get back when you return the stuff in good order. Check-in is at manifest, so as I said, you need to do it while manifest is open. There is a little window that is just for getting on loads, and a door to a long counter where all the other manifest business (like bunk check-in) takes place - it'll make more sense when you see it. The bunkhouse was pretty quiet when I was there. You do have to go outside and walk about 30 feet to the building the bathrooms are in - it has toilets, sinks, showers, and washers and dryers. You get a key to your locker and to the bunk house - the door seems to always be locked, so only people who are staying in the bunk house "should" be able to get in. As far as hotel vs. bunkhouse - that's pretty much up to you. One nice thing about the bunkhouse is that it's right at the DZ and there is no law against drunk walking to get home at night. :) All of the motels are at least a couple of miles away from the DZ. There are several chain motels including Days Inn and Motel 6. If you do get a motel, I would recommend making a reservation as soon as your plans are firm, so you don't get caught out like I did. What to bring? I brought a sleeping bag and a pillow which I didn't really need. There are little battery lights in the bunks, but I also had a keychain flashlight that came in handy. There are lights in the bunk rooms, but it's kinda rude to turn them on late at night IMHO. The lights are on timers, so they will eventually turn themselves off. If I was going to be there longer than a day or two, I would have bought some groceries and used the refrigerator and microwave. If I did this I'd probably go shopping in Casa Grande, a few miles north, which seems to have a better variety of stores. For communications, cell phones seems to work fine, plus there is a pay phone. There is an Internet cafe, or (pay) wireless Internet. Random other things... The tunnel is maybe a quarter mile away from the "main" dropzone area. (I think I read on this forum that this lets the tunnel be on a cheaper electric grid.) It's an easy walk, but you can't stroll out of the bunkhouse at 9:00 for 9:05 tunnel time. There is some parking over by the tunnel so you can drive over there - just watch out for canopies! Driving down from Phoenix is fairly easy - during non-rush-hour it takes around an hour to 75 minutes to get from Phoenix airport to Eloy. During rush hour, allow more like 90 to 115 minutes. I had a 9 AM flight out, so I wanted to get to the airport at 8 AM, so I left Eloy at 6:30 AM, which was about right. When I got close to Phoenix, it took me about 30 minutes to go the last 10 miles to the airport. I hope this helps! If you have more questions either reply back here or PM. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

You may have tried this, but how about looking at the canopy manuals that some manufacturers have on their Web sites, or asking the manufacturers directly? Of course, it can be argued that a manufacturer has a disincentive to tell you how to make your stuff last longer, but in my limited experience, you can get an explanation for most things in skydiving, if you just ask. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

The Rooskies will sell you a lift ticket to the ISS for about US$20,000,000. Dunno if you get a discount for a hop-n-pop. As far as a Shuttle lift ticket... not sure I'd get on an aircraft type that has 14 fatalities in about 105 flights, and a 40% hull-loss accident rate... Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

At the Cushing, Oklahoma airport (KCUH), there is the Oklahoma Skydiving Center and an AirEvac Lifeteam base. I don't work here, but OSC is my home DZ. I'm at the DZ for the weekend and I will ask about any special procedures on Sunday; if you have any more detailed questions, reply or PM me before Sunday evening and I should be able to find out. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Caution: low jump number here. It's an interesting idea, but I think reducing it to a single number has problems. If some jump is rated, say, "1000" according to your formula, and somebody jumps it and it goes well, they may tend to think that they can do all "1000" rated jumps. If the "1000" rating was a simple solo jump with a bit of wind, that's still a different jump than a "1000" rated jump that involves a four-way team turning a couple of points. Similarly, I am going to attempt to work out the "risk factor" according to your formula for two different jumps. One is an instructor with 1000 jumps jumping his own rig out of a 182 over a dropzone he's jumped over many times before. It's just him and the pilot on the load and it's dead calm. The other is the same guy, jumping in 400-way they're working on in Thailand, assuming it's a steady 10 mph, there are 40 jumpers and 2 crew per aircraft, and each person only jumps regularly with 14 other people on the attempt. First jump (solo, 182): 1) 2 2) 0 3) 0 4) 0 5) 0 6) 10 (the DZ isn't that big) subtotal 12 xperience-factor 0.1 skill-level factor 5 5 * 100 * 0.1 = 50 12 - 50 = risk factor -38 Second jump (World Team): 1) 42 2) 10 3) 40 4) 400 * 400 = 160000 * 1 point = 160000 385 unknown jumpers * 10 = 3850 total 160000+3850 = 163850 5) 400 * 400 * 3 = 480000 6) 400 * 10 = 4000 4000 + 10 (some have to be landing near an active) = 4010 7) 10 for different exit + 10 for different pilots + 10 for different country = 30 subtotal 651982 xperience-factor 0.1 skill-level factor 5 5 * 100 * 0.1 = 50 651982 - 50 = risk factor 651932 I don't think this does exactly what you think it does. According to this, people with 1, 10, 100, and 1000 jumps have the same experience factor. I think what you want to do is left pad your jump number with zeros before doing this. Another way to say the same thing is to divide your jump number by 1000 or 10000 or whatever to get the x-factor. N zngurzngvpvna anzrq Unyy Unf n urknurqebavpny onyy, Naq gur phor bs vgf jrvtug Gvzrf uvf crpxre'f, cyhf rvtug Vf uvf cubar ahzore -- tvir uvz n pnyy... Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

...you postpone a visit to see your family on the weekend, because your local DZ is only open weekends and it looks to be good weather. (Yep, did it for the second weekend jumping ever.) ...you're at the airport, waiting for your first commercial flight since you started jumping. You have no rig with you, either carry-on or checked. They announce boarding and everyone lines up. Without thinking about it, you check your handles. (Almost did it without thinking. Realized what I was going to do and did it anyway, just for grins.) ...you're going hiking, and you decide to hike the easy trail, since you're jumping later that afternoon and don't want to get hurt. (Did it, but it was tunnel time instead of jumping.) Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I think so too. And this time I didn't even have to break an instructor to do it! Thanks! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Seeing that in isolation, it might be a little misleading. I don't mean that I passed L3 and then took 40 additional jumps to pass L4. 40 jumps was about what it took from my very first jump to passing L4. I can be really hard-headed when I want to be. :) In fall 2005 I was determined to jump my way through it, to the degree that I was somewhat resisting going to the tunnel. Finally I decided to stop being hard- headed about it and get some more tunnel time. When I had 10 or 15 jumps and it was becoming clear that I was a problem child, I used to joke that if USPA passed out licenses solely by jump numbers, I'd graduate AFF and get my A on the same day. Now I'm going for my B. :) Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

And somehow that page leads right back to skydiving. The general premise is that the author wants teachers to avoid teaching incorrect things. Then, he says and includes an illustration of the shape of the drops changing as they get bigger. Unfortunately, this seems to assume that all parachutes are the same hemispherical shape. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Hello all! I went to SkyVenture Arizona in Eloy over the weekend of 14-15 Jan, and thought I'd post a trip report. Hopefully it will be interesting to someone other than myself. :) Caution: long post. I originally booked the tunnel time right around 31 Dec, because I wanted to get a cheap Southwest ticket that required 14-day advance booking. My initial attempt was via email which didn't work; calling the tunnel proved to work much better. I got booked for 30 minutes of time on Sunday afternoon, 15 Jan. Slight digression: figuring out what you are paying for. I had read some previous posts in this forum about how paying for coaching vs. getting help from the tunnel person "on duty" worked, and I thought I had it straight in my head. But when I made the reservation, they asked me about coaching and I became confused again. I talked to them on the phone a bit and tried to resolve my confusion by looking at the SVAZ Web site. The Web site didn't help much, so I ended up booking just basic time. In my opinion, the SVAZ Web site doesn't make it very clear on the different ways you can get tunnel time, with and without coaching. The stuff on how to do what I might call a "tunnel tandem" (short fun ride for a first timer) is clear and well-presented, but the stuff for block time for skydivers or experienced tunnel flyers is less so. The basic pricing (no coaching) is there, and there is a page with the pricing time plus AZTC or Airspeed coaching, but there isn't really a place where all of these options are laid out in one place and compared. What I am thinking of is something like the following - these prices and packages don't reflect reality and are just for illustration: - Block time, $X/15 min, $Y/30 min, $Z/60 min. Includes earplugs and use of helmet, goggles, jumpsuit, and pads. Includes assistance from the tunnel person on duty. Video of your flying is available for $5. Contact the tunnel to book. - Time with AZTC coach. $N/30 min. Includes gear as in 'block time'. Includes video. Includes assistance from the tunnel person on duty PLUS direction from an AZTC coach. Includes pre-flight and debrief/ video review sessions with AZTC coach. Contact AZTC/SDAZ to book. - Time with Airspeed coach. $M/30 min. Includes gear as in 'block time'. Includes video. Includes assistance from the tunnel person on duty PLUS direction from an Airspeed coach. Includes pre-flight and debrief/video review sessions with Airspeed coach. Contact Airspeed to book. Maybe the options vary too much to have something like this on the Web site, but I feel it would help people, especially those relatively new to tunnels, if this were there. Or maybe I'm just dumb. I did find that once you are actually at the tunnel, there are various signs/charts posted that make it fairly clear what the various options and prices are - these should be on the Web site! End of digression. I flew out on Saturday evening and met some (non-jumping) friends in Phoenix for beer. I wasn't exactly sure what we were going to do or how drunk we were going to get, so I hadn't booked a hotel for Saturday night - I didn't know if I was going to stay in Phoenix or closer to Eloy. We didn't drink that much beer, so I headed to Eloy and got there about 0130 Sunday morning. I was hoping to pull a trick that I had successfully used in the past - pick up a free 'travel discount coupon' book at a rest area/visitor center/truck stop along the way, call a couple of hotels in the book, and get a reasonable rate. Apparently these books don't exist in southern Arizona. Plan B: go to hotels directly. There are several in the Eloy area, concentrated around three exits off of I-10. However, the first three I stopped at didn't have any rooms. The night clerk at the Days Inn suggested that the Holiday Inn in Casa Grande, a few miles north of Eloy, would probably have rooms, and she was right - all they had left was smoking rooms but at 0230 I didn't care. Had a quiet, if smoky, night. Sunday morning I checked out and headed for the tunnel. I was able to see a bit more of Casa Grande on my way and it appears that Casa Grande is the local "big city" - it is where the big grocery stores and Wal-Mart are. There are just fast food and quick-mart type places at the exits in Eloy. I had planned a route, but I also figured that I should be able to see the tunnel exhaust stacks once I got close, and I was right - you can see them from at least a couple of miles away. I got there and spent a bit of time checking out the DZ. When I got there at 1300 and heard manifest calling for 'Otter 21' on the PA, I began to realize that Eloy probably gets just a few more jumpers than Cushing, Oklahoma. :) I did manage to run into a jumper I knew from Oklahoma - I didn't know he was going to be there, but I found out he takes an Eloy vacation every January. Around 1400 I headed for the tunnel and got signed in. The tunnel office is currently a rental trailer, but the slab for a much larger office/support building has been poured just behind it. When you sign in, you get a wrist band with your name and tunnel time on it. I think it's free for people who just want to watch, but they have to sign a waiver down in the office before they can go up to the tunnel. My time was from 1600 to 1630, and since I didn't think I could do 30 minutes straight, I was advised to check in upstairs at 1500 to see if I could rotate with the group that was booked at 1530. I went up to the tunnel and hung out for a while, watching first-timers flying a few feet off the net and experts launching themselves up to the motors. I checked in upstairs and there was some confusion; the way it eventually worked out is that I didn't rotate with other people and flew as much as I could in the 1600 to 1630 time slot, rescheduling whatever I had left of my 30 minutes. I got my gear; they have Tony Suit tunnel suits, which are a bit different than the tunnel suits at L1/AAC in North Carolina. The main difference is that the SVAZ suits have the top grippers on your back, over your shoulder blades, while the AAC ones either didn't have these or had them on your arms - I don't remember for sure. Otherwise, both of the tunnel suits I have worn are fairly similar to skydiving suits, except the tunnel suits close with Velcro instead of a zipper. James (Punisher) was my instructor. We got in and the first thing I worked on was trying to stay reasonably in the middle of the tunnel. I didn't feel like I was "falling off the air" when I got near the edges of the tunnel; it just made it hard to maneuver or maintain a stable body position with body parts bumping against the wall. After a bit I was able to hold somewhat steady when I didn't want to turn, and make something like a turn when I did want to. James watched me do this and helped explain what I was doing (mostly with my legs) that made my turns not quite work right. After about 15 minutes of tunnel time, it was time for the next group. We got out and I got my DVD back from the control operator. I was wondering if the debrief rooms were reserved in some way, but I finally just walked into an empty one and started watching my DVD. I could see better some of the things that I was doing and how what James wanted me to do cleaned things up. I hung out a bit more, watching people do 4-way in the tunnel, then got James to sign my log book and went downstairs to reschedule my remaining time. I got hooked up for 1600 on Monday. It was about 1900 and I decided I had better organize a place to stay. I knew that you had to reserve a room in the bunkhouse, but I did not know that this can only be done while manifest is open. So I'd have to spend another night in town. This was annoying, and the only cure for it was to eat dinner and then go to the bar and drink beer. :) A dropzone with a full bar... is this a great country or what? James stopped in at the bar and I bought him a beer; a little later a guy James knew bought a round. Another guy was playing videos of interesting jumps on the big TV. Good times. I headed back to town around midnight and didn't have as much trouble finding a room, although the first place I tried was full. I had asked in Casa Grande if there was some event in town that was filling up the rooms, and asked again in Eloy, and none of the hotel people knew. On Monday morning I checked out and pondered what to do. I didn't really have enough time to go to Phoenix, do something, and get back to Eloy. I found "Picacho Peak State Park" a few miles south of Eloy on the rent-a-car map and that sounded interesting, so I headed down there. It's a small state park with several hiking trails around and to the top of Picacho Peak. I could feel my tunnel time from the day before, but I still went for a short hike. I didn't go all the way to the top, but I did go far enough to get a pretty good view of the valley. I _thought_ I could see the tunnel off to the northeast, but I wasn't sure - I tried to take a picture but the results were inconclusive. I came back down, and headed back to Eloy. This time I was smart enough to stop in at manifest and arrange for a room as soon as I got there. I went back over to the tunnel and got checked in. While I was hanging out, waiting for my time, I looked out the window to the southwest and was pretty sure I was seing Picacho Peak, where I had just been hiking. This time, Mick was my instructor, and I had 15 minutes, alternating with a family: mom, a son, and two daughters were flying while dad shot video. Mick started me out lying on the net and I noticed that the net wires sort of looked like they had the spiral wire around them, as has been discussed here before. This time I was able to stay in the center of the tunnel a little better, and able to work on stable/symmetrical body position and doing turns. Sometimes I would un-arch a little and head for the fans, but as time went on, I thought I was actually flying pretty well. When I got done with that session, I felt like my flying was much improved and that the tunnel time was well worth it. I hung out, took some pictures, and got Mick to sign my logbook. I tried to take some pictures of the tunnel at night, but the moon was behind the tunnel and it wasn't coming out very well. Knowing that I had a room at the DZ and nowhere to be until Tuesday morning, I headed for the bar again. At the bar, I met a couple of guys from New York, Hal and (I think) Eric. Their home DZ was the Ranch, but for some reason, they thought Eloy was a better place to jump in January, and had come down for a week. We drank beer and talked about jumping and generally solved the world's problems. When I first got to the bar, there were maybe 20 people there, but as the night went on, the crowd dwindled. Finally, there were maybe 5 people in the bar, and a guy came in and said that everyone was partying over by the east landing area. We decided that this sounded like a good idea and so did the bartender, so he closed the bar and we all went to that party. Turned out it was the Canadians, who also had some strange hang-up about jumping at their home DZs in January, and had invaded Eloy. They also brought hot dogs and chips and beer, and had parked a truck nearby for music. I hung out and drank beer and sang along and generally had a good time. Finally I headed for the bunkhouse to crash. I had to get up pretty early Tuesday morning to make it back to Phoenix in time. When I got up I noticed that the nearly-full moon was now in a better position, and it was just starting to get light in the east. I tried taking pictures again and got one that came out a lot better - see attached. Finally, I headed back to Phoenix and caught my flight back home. This past weekend (21-22 Jan), I went back out to Cushing to see how the tunnel time 'took'. On my first jump (AFF L5), I didn't pass but my instructor said I was flying better than he had ever seen me fly before. On the second jump I passed and got cleared to L6. Considering that it took me nearly 40 jumps to pass L4, I think this is a great improvement. So I am happy that I did the tunnel time. Some general observations about SVAZ: - It is still something of a work-in-progress. The flying part works just fine, but the building is still being completed. While I was there, electricians were stringing conduit and hanging lights on the outside of the building, and as I mentioned, the permanent office/support building is still under construction. There are heaters in the ceiling of the antechamber; some of them are mounted to structural I-beams but others are mounted on about 2" square tubing and it looked very much like one of these had vibrated loose and swung by its cable at some point. It didn't fit exactly flush on the tubing and there was a carbon mark by the cable entry. - The outside wall of the tunnel has a couple of sets of big louvers that open inward. I thought they might be for summer ventilation, but I was told they are for safety - if the side of the chamber breaks or the doors come open while the fans are on, it could conceivably damage the outer walls - the louvers provide sort of a pressure relief until the fans can be shut down. - The control console is a mix of mechanical controls and gauges and a (PC?) monitor. The 'speed' indicator on the monitor always said 98 or 99 mph, even when the tunnel was clearly being throttled over a wide range of speeds. I think someone said that this was a known problem with that indicator. - There is a monitor in the control room, visible from the flight chamber, which shows a countdown of your time, or "ENTER" and "EXIT". It can also display things like "ARCH" but I didn't see that used very much, probably because the people in the tunnel aren't always looking right at it. There are also strobe lights to let you know when your time is up. Some comparisons between SVAZ and L1/AAC. I have had 30 minutes of tunnel time in each one and I am by no means an expert, but here goes. - For someone who's never flown in the tunnel before, I think the enclosed-type tunnel is probably a little better. If you drift too far from the center, you hit a wall and can push off of it back into the center and resume flying sooner. In an open tunnel, you fall off into the net and have to get back on the air, which takes time. I know this will not settle the debate on this topic. :) - For someone who's flown enough to be able to stay in the center on their own, I think the open-air tunnel is better. If nothing else, the view while flying is a hell of a lot better. Advanced flyers may be able to get more altitude in an open tunnel, because there aren't any fans in the way. - I don't know if I have enough experience to judge, but both tunnels seemed to have enough power for the simple kinds of flying I am doing. The flow seems even all across the tunnel in both places. You can still "fall off the air" in the open-air tunnel, but it's not because the air is not as strong near the edges - it's because there aren't any walls to keep you right over the air column. - SVAZ is a lot noisier than L1/AAC. When you're walking around the DZ, you can tell when the tunnel is operating. From outside, I heard about three components to the noise - the higher- pitched "lots of air moving through a duct" like you hear with a forced-air furnace, a deeper rumble that might be the fans, and a whistling sound that I think is coming from the net. In the tunnel, it's mostly the sound of wind rushing past your ears, plus the whistle. You have to wear earplugs, and you have to shout at each other in the antechamber - some of this is the earplugs and some of it is just the ambient noise. Wandering around AAC when it's operating, you mostly hear the "air through a duct" roaring sound. When you're in it you don't _have_ to wear earplugs. You have to shout if you're standing on the net right at the edge of the air column, but take a step back and you can have a nearly normal conversation. - Despite my gritching about the Web site, it seems like SVAZ is set up to handle a higher level of traffic than AAC is. This has very little to do with the actual tunnel hardware; it's more of a staffing level and business process thing. Also, AAC may have changed since I was there in the summer of 2005. So, that's my overly-long trip report and wise (or wise-ass) observations. If you're still awake, I hope you enjoyed it. :) Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Expect a smaller group of people when it's actually time to go to the airport. I've talked to more than one person that was doing a tandem who said that when they first talked about it, several of their friends said they wanted to go, but as the big day approached, everyone else had to work, couldn't go, etc. Go now, it's a lot less crowded! :) I am not experienced - I started in June 2005 - but maybe some of these answers will be helpful. I've been told the same 4 F colder per 1000 feet as has been mentioned. Depending on what aircraft the DZ has, you'll probably be anywhere from 10,000 to 13,500 feet above the ground, so something like 40 F to 54 F colder in the air than it is on the ground. Don't let this number freak you out, though... you fall at around 5 seconds per 1000 feet, so you don't spend a lot of time in the really cold air. I've jumped when it was in the mid-50s on the ground. I really noticed it when the door first opened, but after that, I didn't think about it until I was under canopy and my face felt really cold. When you see the instructors and experienced jumpers bundling up, that is a clue. Once or twice. I'm glad I went through with it, though. That's sort of like asking "what does a car cost". I don't have a rig yet, but just looking at catalogs, it wouldn't be that hard to spend north of $5,000 on a brand-new rig with leather seats and CD changer. Used rigs are cheaper but I'm not sure what an "average" price is. The first few times you do it, it's somewhat of a pain in the butt. There doesn't seem to be anything for it but practice. I don't notice the acceleration as much. What I do notice is that I'm seeing mostly sky for the first few seconds, and then the ground "comes up" (really, I am leveling out) so I see about equal amounts of ground and sky. If you like to study up on things before you do them, there are some books you might find interesting. Skydiver's Handbook by Poynter and Turoff, and/or Jump by Buchanan. There is some information on these books and others here. You don't _have_ to read anything before you go - your instructors will see that you know everything you need to know in your first jump class - but some people prefer to have a little background. If you do read anything (including posts here), remember that what your instructors say takes precedence over what you have read. If you are unclear on something, ask your instructor about it. I got right in with an AFF Level 1 jump, and since then I've told people that if I was starting from scratch again, I'd do a tandem first. An AFF jump involves several tasks as soon as you're off the plane, but for the first several seconds all I was thinking was "Shit, I let go of the plane, shit, I'm falling, shit, I am nuts" and so on. I eventually started doing the things I needed to do, but I first had to get over that initial shock. I think it would be better to have this initial shock when you're on a tandem and you don't _have_ to do anything. I don't mean to imply that you're just "along for the ride" on a tandem - many DZs have a student progression that starts with a couple of tandem jumps, so you are learning things right from the first tandem jump. Even if your DZ doesn't do this, if you let your tandem master know that you're intending to go on and get licensed, he or she may be willing to let you try certain things, like flying the canopy some after the tandem master has determined that it is working correctly. VERY IMPORTANT! Find out what kind of beer they like at the DZ! Learn about the beer rules. I'm sure that even in Utah, the jumpers drink beer. If they don't, there will be some equivalent food or beverage, so find out what that is. I looked at the ground on the ride up in the plane and just for a bit when I first looked out of the open door of the plane and it didn't seem to hurt. If I remember right, my instructors were asking me to look down at certain things from the plane, like the layout of the landing area. Once you've let go of the plane, moving your whole head down to look down at the ground can make you unstable (ask me how I know this). Your instructors will tell you where you should be looking and what you should be doing during each part of the jump. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I thought it was kind of funny when I was at the DZ for my second or third jump and several people on staff were extremely apologetic when they explained that the winds were too fast. I knew it wasn't anybody's "fault" that the winds were too high, but some people must get really bent about it. But you make it up in volume, right? When I first thought about the economics of the situation, I figured that the normal lift ticket was probably pretty close to the marginal cost of putting one more jumper on the load, and so far I haven't found much to disprove that. I have heard another view - basically, that the DZO may have something to gain by (say) putting up students in marginal winds, but the DZO also has a lot to lose if something goes wrong - aircraft, lease, lawsuits, etc. An independent S&TA doesn't have nearly as much to lose as the DZO. Maybe, among DZOs, this argument is as popular as "AAD or not" among regular jumpers, or "Ford vs. Chevy" among race fans - I don't know. You forgot the hot female pilot in the bikini. :) Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Yep. That's Sangiro's decision. :) Another way to look at it, besides that "those people are getting a free ride", is that "those people are contributing content for free, which makes the site more valuable to other people and more attractive to advertisers". Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

And how many are moderators ? Looking at the user list as of the time of this post, which should be fairly close to the one I used for my original report, the most prolific 174 users include 9 Moderators, 1 Pixie, and 1 Head Honcho. Going back to the post counts in my original report, Moderators 4.60%, Pixies 0.461%, Head Honchos 0.244%, for a total of 5.31% for this group of 11. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Sometimes you can even do better than that. NWS operates several "wind profilers" which are special radars that sit on the ground and look up. The Midwest US (IA-NE-MO-KS-OK-TX) and California have pretty good coverage, but there are lots of them around. Check it out: http://www.profiler.noaa.gov/npn/profiler.jsp Note that if you take all the default options, the newest observations are on the LEFT SIDE of the graph. I typically switch the defaults to "Left to Right", "1000x750", and "PNG (Best)". Also, the wind barbs are in 5 m/s increments and the height is kilometers MSL. If you click on "Advanced Display Options", you can get the wind in knots, the height in feet AGL, and set the max height to something reasonable like 15,000 feet. I've attached a sample plot from a nearby profiler. In Dallas, I've jumped and watched loads coming down after looking at the profiler data, and the profiler data usually matches what's happening pretty well. Disclaimer: I've only got about 40 jumps, and about 5 or 6 in Dallas. When the weather is relatively calm, any nearby site is probably OK. As has been mentioned, if a front is coming through, you have to pay more attention, like maybe preferring sites west of you. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I've worn glasses for about 22 years. When I started jumping last year I used over-the-glasses goggles and bought my own pair (Flex-Zs) after a few months. It's a little bit of a pain in the butt to get the goggles, glasses, and Pro-Tec all arranged correctly, but once I do that it stays the way I put it, at least so far. My script is -6 on the right eye and -5.75 on the left. I have to use glasses to drive. In a dire emergency (like someone is going to die in the next hour or so if I don't drive a car) I would try driving without them, but I wouldn't do it for fun. I've never tried contacts. A couple of things I don't like about them (which might be different with newer types of contacts) is the idea that if you space out and leave them in when you go to sleep, they might stick in your eye, and that you always have to carry around the bottle of goop to wash them with. I've thought a little about the various surgeries you can have, but here's my problem with them: I am in my early 30s. I'd like for my eyes to last at least another 60 years. I will believe that the surgeries are OK when I hear about people in their 90s who had the surgery in their 30s and still have good eyesight. I don't know when the eye surgeries started but I'm pretty sure it was later than 1946, so I still have a while to wait. You may wish to ponder the fact that I can't see and yet my avatar is an owl... Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I've thought it would be nice to have a clickable avatar, but it should go to a page with a bigger version of that image and a short explanation. Lots of people just have mug shots in their avatars, but some are clearly shots of "interesting" landings, exits, etc, and it'd be nice to have a regular way to find out more about them. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

There's not an easy way to figure this out using the tools the site provides. But using my bird utility belt (containing oocalc, ethereal, vi, wget, bash, awk, xterm, less, grep, and a few other things), the answer is... 40. Because I know you're going to ask, those 40 Premier members have contributed 12.75% of the total posts. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Hello all! I've been listening to the back shows of Skydive Radio and on one of them, there was an interview with John Fleming, who is blind. One of the things he mentioned was that getting a flare over the radio is sometimes "interesting". I was thinking about this and wondered if an ultrasonic distance measuring system - as is used in the back bumper of fancy cars - would help. Basically it's an echo-location system: send out a burst of sound, time how long it takes to come back, and derive distance from that. It would get built into a little box with a battery, and have maybe a speaker or a pager motor (vibration) or both to signal the user. The ones I have seen for aftermarket installation on cars claim a range of 1.5m-2.5m (about 5 to 8 feet) and I'm not sure that would be enough. I also don't know how it would deal with things like tall grass or water, either. Just wondering if anyone had ever tried anything like this, or if there is a major reason why it wouldn't work. Thanks! Eule (student jumper, but experienced geek) PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Not the best pickup line I've ever heard, but not the worst, either. :) Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.