azureriders

I have closed an otter door on a couple of departure flight jump runs. Like most things it is not that hard with some planing and thought. I can ease it down, no slamming, no snagging, and free to fall if I were to drop it. Just takes a little effort.

Damn, are you guys really that hen pecked

I agree. I do not, nor have I ever, considered my skydiving a quest for adrenaline.

Sorry, but that whole post was worth repeating, so there you go

I am not for sure what number I would use, but I know that it is no more than 6. I broke 6 on a seven cell, all below the cascades. So that is 6 broken of 16 total, not counting steering lines, which by the way were fine. All 4 on the right front, 1 on the right rear, and 1 on the left front. Yeah, I cut that away.

helmet with still fastened securely to a seat belt, or even better the nylon loop on the emergency door on the right side of the otter. Video removed from helmet and hand held with a safety strap fastening it to my jumpsuit sleave. This 1) gives me the most freedom of movement for take off shots, being that I dont have a huge helmet in my hand; 2) secures all my componets incase of a crash; 3) keeps me from dropping my camera out the door being that I keep this set up after seat belts are released and door is open, maybe filming a h&P. I am jumping an otter, not a KA but I think this should work in most any plane. I do like sitting next to the big door though, for take off and inflight filming alike.

Yeah, what he said

the coucilman pretty much summed up my opinion as to the answers of your questions, but I would like to add a point. Any time you have line twist, there are more things to thiking about other than just kicking. Altitude and air space being two, but also a square canopy. I wasn't there, you were, but I would like to think that you should probably have seen the line over before you ever got the the line twist free. Good job on remaining amoung the living, and walking.

Care to explain your math here. +300 feet means just that. 300 feet above the preset to 300 feet below the preset. Our student/rental gear has a mixture of AAD's, including several FXC's and I have never seen any of them fire because of spiraling. As someone else stated he should do, our pilot slows his descent if there is any jumper still on board, never a problem so far that I know of.

merlin wings suit with large wings, cause I got a fat ass

Well, Yes, doesn’t everyone

Because Tandem is the only place where the ability to make that decision may save the life of someone other than yourself??????? Myself, one on #249, broken steering line/tension knot, only a half inflated canopy. The second on #791, several broken lines from a hard open / over jumped lines combo.

I agree, and I think slider slump is way more common, although I may be wrong. I feel that is something close to what happened here. Slider slump => hard opening => old lines => broken lines. But as it was mentioned to me by some one I respect, do you think it possible / probable that one of the lines just broke, because it was time, and therefore caused the hard opening that broke the rest of them? Oh, and thanks for the reply, I was about to think I was going to owe beer for my first thread with no response. I have dial up here so it is slow, but I am in the proccess of getting the vedio on the web.

Fixed it for you. I prefer digital myself, but have had more than one fail on me for various reasons. Have a plan for it, it will happen sooner or later.

I had to chop one this past weekend and have a question for all you wise people out there. First let me say that the cause of this mal was obvious. The line set was way over due and in my opinion the best lesson to be learned here is to not over jump your lines. So, the following question is out of curiosity, not in an atempt to flame my packer. It was a video/still jump of a tandem. We got out a little low, some where around 10grand, under the clouds and rain. Jump was pretty uneventful, rolled over to film tandem deployment, rolled back over, pitched, line stretch felt normal, then the opening shock, SLAM, you can hear the loud grunt in the video, look up to several lines broken and a ball of crap, was under reserve some where above 2 grand. Inspection on the ground revealed all 4 lines on the right front riser to be broken, one on the right rear, and one on the left front, 6 total broken lines with no other damage. The comment was made, and I agreed at the time, that one of the lines could have broken from wear, causeing the hard opening and/or the breakage of the othe lines. From my line of work, I know that a failed structural member can, and sometimes will cause the failure of others. However, after thinking about this for a while it seems to me that if one line would have broken on a normal opening, then the canopy should have already been out of the bag enough that it would be past the point of being able to SLAM open. In this case, I can see where other lines may have broken due to the extra load dispersed upon them, but it seems to me that I would not have felt the SLAM. I am now thinking that this was indeed a HARD opening to begin with. What do you think? I am asking to get a better idea of what happened, but no matter what the conclusion I will not blame my packer, and I will continue to use this packer in the future. This was on my secondary rig with a spectre 230, loaded at about 1.15 to 1. Line set was spectra with some where under 1000 jumps on them. They looked good considering, but were in deed way out of trim, ironicaly, the openings have been getting slower and slower as the lines shrank.

Please dont take one sentence out of a post and then reply to it out of context. My very next statement was that I too know of published pictures taken with this lens. It is all that I shoot with for skydiving pictures, but I still stand by my first statement. If you are really looking for that money shot, you need a better lens.

ok, I am a little slow and these may be of no use to you anymore, but as I promised, here are a few pictures of my design. One key factor to this design is the removable work platform. The first three pictures show this. Once it is locked into place, it not only provides a work area, but also holds the doors in place. The right door at 90 degrees and the left at 180. You could have any combonation there of, this is what seemed to work best for our needs. The work platform itself is hinged in the middle for storage. There is another shelf in the unit that is not being used. It would raise the mixer and titler a couple of inches and allow for the work platform to be stroed under it. If I were to build this again, I would instead lower the VCR, DVD, and monitors a tad, and add the shelf right at the top, kind of a double ceiling and store the work platform there. By design this station should be totally self contained when closed. On the other hand, you could forego the hinges and just prop the platform up, or store it behind the unit when not in use. Originally was not built to hold a PC. We made the mod for the tower in the lower compartment last weekend. This weekend I we plan to slid the lower TV monitor to the right, and mount the PC monitor in its place. The key board will then store on top of the mixer and titler. Other mods: The doors will eventially have shelves in them to match the users needs. I did not install the sound mixer in the right door, altough it is in a good place, the two vertical boards on either side of it need to be removed. For now, my working drawings of this unit are just that. I do plan to finish them up and add them to my list of complete how to drawings. If you are interested let me know and I will rush that up. Also, I must add, my build time on the unit in the pictures was about a half a day, at the dz with limited tools, so please excuse the simple workmanship.

You should have no problem with range. I am 6'0" and 250 out the door. The only Tandem pair that I ever have trouble with is the small TI who just got his ratting and still wearing a baggy suit for stability and carying a 100# girl. Loose the baggy suit and I am fine. I can also fall with the pair that is testing the max limit on the Tandem rig, all in the same suit and all on my belly. Just get a slick suit with big wings and learn to fly it. I probably have at least 50 jumps where I went out and shot tandems at my own expense, I just couldn’t bring myself to shoot crappy videos and get better at the students expense. Quote Ditto and worth repeating!

Sorry for not replying earlier, it has been busy around here. The first pictures shows the three stow bands to be used and the manner in which to tie them together, simple. The second picture shows the stow bands in place on the camera and placement of the small band. The third and forth pictures show the camera from the top. One while being zoomed, the other in the released position. Hope this helps.

I shoot the cannon 18-55 kit lens, and keep it set on 18 for free fall. To do this I use three stow bands, two large and one small so that I can still zoom in while on the ground with out removing anything. When I release the lens, it automaticly goes back to 18.

I come from a realitivly poor family. My parents supported us well, roof over our head, schooling, good food, etc, but if we wanted anythign extra, we had to earn it, simple as that. Dad never gave me money, but always saw to it that I had the oprotunity to earn it around town somewhere. By the time I was 18, I had bought a nice second hand truck, enrolled for college, and was spending WAY more on my hobbies then, than I do now for me AND my wife to skydive. So, to answer your question, you WORK for it.

OK, I would normally stay out of such things as I am not an arguing type of person, but when it comes to old glory I am just going to have to speak up and be heard. I think all that are here need to back up and realize that there is a happy medium that can be reached on this topic. But in my opinion that happy medium is a dead straight fine line. Title 4, United States Code, Chapter 1 § 8. Respect for flag (j) states “The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing.” And this American believes that his living Flag should be given all the respect that one can give. Now, about that dead straight fine line. DSE > Should I forego a display of my patriotism >because an accident might occur? Is you idea of an accident the thought that a child may run out in front of you and be in harms way, or even that at all your best planning you missed something that puts your own life, or health, in jeopardy, then absolutely not, be the patriot and get a pat on the back for it. Just make sure you do what you can to still respect the flag and let the crowd know that you tried. In my opinion, your course of action at this point should be 1) care for the kid, save his life or make sure he is ok afterward 2) same care for the skydiver 3) get the flag up and show some respect 4) explain the gravity (no pun intended) of what just happened, and apologize to the crowd. Now, is your idea of an accident that at your skill level you may miss the ground crew just enough they can’t catch the flag, or that you only stood up 9 out of 10 of your practice flag jumps, which were hopefully not done with old glory herself, then you damn right. Stay your ass on the ground or let someone else handle old glory, simple as that. (DSE, I think the “I” in your question was meant as more of a generic “who ever” and that is exactly how my answer is directed, not trying to flame you) When on the battle field and the flag bearer falls due to injury or death, the soldier behind him picks up the flag, which is now flat on the ground, and marches on. The first soldier may receive a metal but is defiantly not dishonorable. When the same flag bearer falls due to a lazy clumsy step into a gopher hole, and the flag hits the ground, the soldier behind him puts a foot up his ass. Which may be the first of many to come by the rest of his squad. Now before someone goes off, no flying a demo flag is not the same as being a soldier, and no I don’t think you should die doing it (read above). The point is that there is a medium, there is a legitimate time and place where things can not be avoided, and there is also a place and cause to be upset over. Kallend, Of all the posters on DZ.com, I have probably taken more away from your posts than any other. I site your web site to almost every coach student I work with, and have even written a couple papers and hand outs, mostly based on your work and credited as such, to give to them. But in this case you really need to rethink you wording, in my opinion of course. You can not expect to make such remarks as >Good post. I've always wondered about the logic of >not wanting a flag to touch the good earth of the >nation it represents. I suppose logic doesn't enter >into it. Or reply to the comment > The prohibition against the US flag touching the > ground IS LAW: With such sarcasm, although you are correct, by saying > What is the penalty for dropping the flag on the > ground, then? And then not expect to be heckled as being disrespectful. If you do not understand why or how the act of letting the flag touch the ground derived into being a disrespectful act to our nation, then so be it. The fact is, it has derived that way, like so many other unexplained beliefs in any culture, and you live in this culture, so show some respect. In Kallends defense, and with the respect I think he deserves on this forum, the first two words of his post were “Good post”. The post he was referring to was one by Zing along the lines of flying the stars and strips in a demo not being the best idea because of the very topic of this thread. DSE, You are another DZ.comer from which I have taken much, as I am a full time weekend vediot and coach and your wisdom in the video world can not be overlooked, but in regard to: > no one intentionally drops the flag to the ground You are way wrong. I have seen the American Flag, more than once, laying flat and bunched on the ground while some !@#$% stows his lines and picks up his canopy and then says “Oh, its just a banner, its not a problem” Well it is a problem, and in that case I am sure you agree, my point is that it does happen. >I could be wrong, but I'd bet a banner representing >the flag would offend/upset some folks more than >seeing the flag touch the ground. I could also be wrong but I don’t think this would be a problem. There is a correct way to fly a banner, a true banner not the Flag called a banner. Red White and Blue banners are to be displayed Blue on top and Red on bottom, yada yada ya, I am calling from memory now but there is a place and reason to use such a banner. I think the original concept was to be used over a desk or table used to display other things, you know, a place where a flag should really not be used. >many times the Star Spangled Banner is playing > and/or people reciting the pledge as the flag >comes in. It's not appropriate to recite the pledge > nor play the national anthem when something > other than the flag is flying in, is it? Good point, and I believe that there may be a time and place for , I hate to say it but, a planed flag drop. If the situation is as described above, and the size of the crowd / viewing area dictates that a flag of such size that it can not be caught safely be used, there should be a way to handle this properly. Have the flag designated as a banner. I do not agree with this practice but in this case it gives the speaker, who is hopeful well prepared for the detailed speech he needs to give, something to tell the crowd. His speech should include the safety aspect of the event, I bet they don’t even know there is a weight there?? Then let the crowd see just how fast your ground crew gets the flag up, and folder properly, and placed wherever, with respect shown to it. And then, let the old man in the crowd, who fought for our freedom and who will never accept what you just did, hear your apology and thanks to him. I think this situation may be alright, but I highly respect the opinion of any one who disagrees. As if this post is not long enough already, flying a Flag at my home is something I have longed to do for a very long time, but I still elect not to do so. I am not home enough to get it in from the rain or night fall with the respect that it deserves, so I don’t fly it. The Flag Code has been amended, in 1995 I think, to allow for an all weather flag to be flown with proper lighting 24/7/365 as a patriot act. However, the Code that I studied, and wrote a few papers on in school, stated that a light cast on the Flag was acceptable for flying it during the rain or darkness only for a special occasion. Since the revision I no longer get upset with people that fly a flag 24/7/365 as long as they do it properly, but I still can not bring myself to do it, out of RESPECT. Disclaimer: please excuse my paraphrasing of the flag code. If I have misspoken, or if my memory fails me, please feel free to correct me. On the same note, if have taken any quote / partial quote, from any poster, out of context, please forgive me. I hate when people do that to me. Sorry about the length, if you made it this far I hope it was worth while.

1: Paragear

That is my line of work, carpentry and design. I built just such a cabinet for the editing staff at our DZ. The craftmanship, although adequate is just plain and simple, kind of built in a hurry. But the design impresses most that see it. I will take some pictures this weekend and post them for you.

IMO, its all you need unless you are really looking for that money shot for the cover of a mag etc. I know of several published pics taken with the 18-55. It is light, cheap enough to own a spare, etc etc. I keep mine bottomed out with a rubber band assembly that allows me to still zoom in for ground shots, but retruns it back to '18' when I release the zoom ring. This is just slightly wider than the the sony .6 lens on my HC-96.