sky4meplease

I have no reason not to believe John Mitchell and his hyper flexible wife's story. Actually with my experience in life and skydiving I find that story quite believable. That's what happens when you see things in color as opposed to black and white. My comment about his story though sarcastic (sorry) was directed toward those who have replied to this thread that believe it's not possible to come out of a properly adjusted harness. Just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean that it can't. Overkill is under rated.

My hyper flexible wife Vskydiver fell out of her own harness after a hard opening, literally hanging by her knees from her legstraps at 2500 feet. She climbed back up into her harness to survive. She will NOT jump a rig without a cross connector between the leg straps. WELL... you had better teach her to properly adjust her harness then because there is NO way she could slip out of one otherwise. Overkill is under rated.

The USPA are like hockey referee's. They want to let you play the game without calling too many penalties because that is what the players and the fans want. Unfortunately, things get out of hand from time to time and you wind up with a bench clearing brawl. Overkill is under rated.

Signatures like that though you hope you never need them would be quite valuable. Overkill is under rated.

I will do that. I was referring to the seconds before they approached the door of the aircraft just prior to exit. I couldn't even see her leg straps because they rode so high on her thighs. At that point it looked to me like the leg straps were in the proper position. Overkill is under rated.

Suppose for a moment that not only was the y mod implemented for the lazy and or sloppy instructor who improperly geared his student but it also: held a tandem passenger who had a heart attack or seizure in free fall and went limp. prevented a tandem student from slipping out on a reserve deployment when body position is compromised. kept a tandem pair together during an emergency aircraft exit where you might only have time for the uppers and leaving an unstable airplane. It seems there are plenty of reasons to have this feature in place and the only reason not to is that if you properly adjust the harness there is no need for the y mod to begin with. Overkill is under rated.

I'm sorry if "my opinion" of this near incident is offensive but it is what it is. An opinion. Where I hang my hat I jump with the young, the old, big, small, sick, disabled and the scared. You don't have to be able to do pull ups, be under two hundred pounds or look a certain way for me to introduce you to the greatest sport in the world. I can't do my job as an instructor without the proper gear and in my opinion a majority of my tandems are not safe without the y strap. I still think Grandmas harness looked ok until she pushed back against her tandem instructor in the door of the a/c sliding her leg straps up toward her knees. Should the tandem instructor have stopped the jump? Probably. Was it worth fining him $2,200.00....apparently the FAA thinks so. Just an opinion and for what it's worth I think Ive earned my tandem rating and I am proud of what I have done for this sport. Overkill is under rated.

QuoteI know exactly what's gonna happen when I do a tandem...a nice stable exit and the drogue out in 3-5 seconds. That is what you call complacency. Overkill is under rated.

This is scary. The FAA doesn't know what a good skydiving exit is let alone a good tandem skydive exit. When you strap two body's together one with no skydiving experience and throw them out of an airplane at 100 knots its anyone's guess what will happen. In my opinion every tandem harness needs a y strap and if we don't self regulate the FAA will regulate for us. It was unfortunate that Grandma was pushing one way and her TI was pushing the other and the harness she was wearing allowed her to nearly slide out. This was a gear issue and not a harness adjustment issue or a negligent TI. To my knowledge the FAA did not issue fines in tandem fatalities where the student did fall out of the harness. The FAA is off base here and if we're not careful this will only be the beginning. Overkill is under rated.

I jumped tandem with a gentleman a couple of weeks ago in West Michigan who is paralyzed from the chest down and after the jump he asked if he could jump solo. I am wondering where he can go since we are not have an AFF program. Somewhere in the tri-state area would be nice. I did try to search the forums but everything I found was dated and nothing at USPA website. Thanks in advance for any and all responses. Overkill is under rated.

When I watched this video I thought the TI was going to break granny's legs trying to force her out of the aircraft. It seemed to me he felt rushed. Plane full of jumpers behind him, jump run being strung out, camera guy filming from outside the jump ship. Maybe they should have taken a step back to regroup. Most tandem students are scared to shit and will act unpredictably in the face of that fear. Knowing when that fear may affect the safety of the jump is the mark of a true instructor. Once you think you have seen it all.... it's time to find a new discipline or sport. All students are different, there is no magically safe tandem exit and skydiving is dangerous. That's what makes being a tandem instructor so awesome! Overkill is under rated.

Remember when people would buy sport cars when they had a mid life crisis? Overkill is under rated.

Groz-Beckert has twenty needle tip styles with seven of them being round or ball style and the remainder wedge, diamond, triangle or square. https://www.universalsewing.com/tek9.asp?pg=needles_groz_beckert#needlerecsize Overkill is under rated.

I would be interested in reading more on this. Is there any information published on the topic of needle selection and performance characteristics? Overkill is under rated.

Thanks Unstable. I was looking at that as an option but was wondering if I may have been missing something in the way of a machine adjustment. I have sewn through this configuration before on someone else machine and will probably give a shout out to them for advice as well. I didn't have this much trouble previously. Mark. If these were TSO'd components would it make it easier to sew through? Overkill is under rated.

I have been working on a sewing project where I am sewing through two layers of Cordura sandwiching a stiffener material ( thin plastic I think ). The machine ( Consew 199r ) is tracking all over the place, breaking needles and generally giving me heart burn trying to get a straight stitch pattern with proper thread tension. I tried heavier needles ( 16, 18, and 20 ), played around with the thread tension, and the presser foot pressure and nothing seems to help. I am wondering what configuration works best for this? Any and all help is much appreciated. Overkill is under rated.

I agree... the vertically challenged have to work through some hurdles in that regard but I too have seen good hancam work from TI's shorter than 5'-8". In my world the word can't means you are too lazy to try. Overkill is under rated.

Handcam video being " generally " cheap low quality video doesn't make sense to me. We use Sony cx150 video cameras for handcam which (correct me if I'm wrong ) is what most outside videos are shot on. As for the stills (we use GoPro for stills ), I have a 16"x20" blow up of a GoPro still at home that looks awesome! It's not dlsr but most people can't tell the difference. And, just to reiterate what I stated earlier in this thread, I think outside video/stills is worth more money if it's done with better camera equipment than used on handcam video/stills jumps. I personally would stack the tandem stills from my dz against outside stills any day. It is just another angle. It seems like handcam is being labeled " low quality " because it's relatively new or it's not being done properly, not because it's " handcam ". And for handles checks and grabbing toggles, if you watch the videos I linked to earlier in this thread, I use my free hand ( right ) to do checks on right side and visually look over to the reserve handle. As a rule I am in the toggles before I turn on the camera after opening so any hand movement just changes the camera angle. Full flight is actually a pretty cool angle except for the shiny spot on top of my head. Overkill is under rated.

Great replies so far. Thanks everyone. Much more positive feedback than I was getting from the other forum. Obviously quality can vary greatly from dropzone to dropzone in both disciplines. Aircraft, camera person, weather, camera equipment and yes even students all have some impact on the final product. As for price, it seems fair to say that paying for an extra person on the load doing outside video and or stills would cost more money. If that person is carrying better camera equipment than say a handcam set up can carry then that is worth something also, but I don't necessarily agree that one in itself is worth more or less than the other for any other reason. I uploaded some handcam video and stills to youtube here http://youtu.be/38XU5mwStKE. For no other reason than to hopefully show some different camera angles than you would see from outside video and stills. It's a little longer than I wanted so I apologize for that but I thought it captured some of the nuances that come with that discipline. Overkill is under rated.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4277871;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread Overkill is under rated.

Sorry for reinventing the wheel here if this topic has already been covered. I couldn't find anything in a weak search. I replied to a thread in the instructor forum about unprofessional behavior caught on video that veered off topic to handcam video and stills on tandem student jumps are a " cheap low quality alternative" to outside video". While I agree that handcam video and stills has become popular at Cessna dropzones where aircraft space is at a premium, I strongly disagree that this method of capturing the experience of a skydive for tandem students is " garbage ". In my professional opinion anyone taking this stance either hasn't done handcam for a student tandem skydive or isn't trying hard enough to capture it's true essence. Although I am not a dropzone owner, I am a business owner so I understand the financial side of this though I do believe the customer should have the choice to purchase whichever video/stills package they want at whatever the dropzone feels they have to charge to make it cost effective. In a constant effort to retain students and project a positive image on our sport, I welcome your thoughts and criticisms. Overkill is under rated.

Handcam vs. outside video is a topic for another thread but I have provided quality video and some of the most amazing stills you will ever see from a handcam to my tandem students. It is just another angle and you will never get that angle from outside video. Overkill is under rated.

Balloon and helicopter skydives are great fun and give you a chance to try out those new suits! Good fun Have luck. Overkill is under rated.

Making the " my passenger is crazy for jumping out of an airplane" sign doesn't seem too unprofessional to me. Unless you have jumped tandem with 250# or more hanging from your uppers, you won't know what it's like to get good solid video ( handcam ) and make a decent flare with almost 500# hanging from a 400 sq.ft. canopy. That is why students sign waivers and are given the respect they deserve to make decisions on there own to do things like eat a big juicy cheeseburger, smoke a cigarette, or jump out of an airplane. All of which are likely to hurt or kill you eventually. Overkill is under rated.

As a TI and or camera flyer I think we tend to get bored doing the same thing jump after jump and in an effort to keep the energy up and make things interesting we try new angles. Unfortunately, reinventing the wheel here is a slippery slope. Not everyone wants the TI to play with his gum, cover there eyes in free fall ( they did just spend hundreds of dollars on this jump and I am not covering there eyes for even one second ) or have the video guy spin the camera 360 every time he turns it on or off. Also, pulling out these moves on a corcky twenty year old might be more acceptable than a checking it off the list sixty year old. It's called tact. I have fought the urge to try new things for the camera several times. Normally after careful consideration I decide not to do it or I save it for a friends jump or re currency dive. There is also the preconceived notion that we are skydivers and this is all expected behavior. Overkill is under rated.