DougH

With the stock slider they have the propensity to slam the shit out of you here and there. I got rid of mine before I starting jumping stills and other heavy stuff, but I would probably do something with the slider if I still had it. I tamed it by rolling the out nose cells and stuffing them inside the center cell. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

I probably already mentioned this months ago, but I think their lazy ass atitude is the only thing that kept her in the harness. If they put their students in jump suits, and maybe they sometimes do, instead of her wearing the general issue senior citizen windbreaker jacket, she would have slipped the rest of the way out. I think that jacket bunched up enough to keep the back strap behind her neck. With a jump suit it would there would have been a smooth path and whoops there goes grandma. Rather ironic. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

I recall the same on my Hornet at well, but that was 6 years ago now. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

Another one of Dause's faithful followers? We know you love Bill and his cheap jump tickets at all costs. It doesn't matter what she says on the Today Show, I am inclined to think that the drop-zone fed her a whole line of bullshit puppies and flowers. It doesn't even matter if she ACTUALLY wanted to jump. 1st and foremost her harness was not adjusted properly. Her willingness is irrelevant here. Here tandem instructor flushed her safety down the drain before they even boarded the plane. 2nd even if she wasn't refusing to go in the door, that exit was absolute shit. The instructor should have backed up and re-evaluated the exit. Instead he barreled over grandma, effectively stripping the poorly fitted harness off of her. If he put more effort on correcting the exit in the door, instead of rushing out, we probably never would have known what a shit job he did on the harness! "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

Can we please move the wingsuit discussion, which frankly in my opinion has nothing to do with tandem instruction, to another discussion. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

I broke down and got the cx760 myself... I was hoping to have it at home waiting for me today, but no one was there to sign for it. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

Is it possible it got damaged during the reserve deployment? What does a Vigil do when the cutter circuit has a fault? "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

Lets start a list of probable causes: 1. Promotion of tandem skydiving as an amusement park ride with little risk, for all ages and body types. 2. Tandem skydiving being a cash cow giving rise to DZ's that are tandem factories. 3. DZO's that would rather fire their instructors than let them refuse a student over safety concern. 4. DZO's that run operations where TI's are running to the plane to meet their student on route, with little prior interaction with their actual instructor, and certainly no time for their actual instructor to adjust their harness before rushing into the turbine. We keep going around and around about the Y-mod, when in my opinion the real problem with the industry is a profit motive that places cash in higher importance than safety. To the best of my knowledge there are only two students in the US who have fallen out of their harness on deployment, one was disabled student, and one was a heavier female with a poorly adjusted harness. We can add grandma to the list as a partial, an elderly student with a poorly adjusted harness. Where is the trend of healthy students falling out of properly adjusted tandem harnesses? Y mods on every harness in operation would be great, but it would be a small improvement in safety, but I am not against it. The following improvements would have a much better impact on tandem safety than Y mods on every tandem harness in operation: 1. Back to basics, your tandem rating course. Check the harness three times. At gear up, before boarding, before the aircraft door opens. 2. Give your instructors time to train and harness their ACTUAL student. If there isn't enough time for that you don't have enough instructors. Instructors you are going to have to jump a little less, and spend more time training. 3. Refuse overweight tandems and elderly tandems that have a poor level of fitness. Do this at manifest. 3. Give your instructors the authority to refuse a student over safety concerns without retaliation from the DZO. 4. Give your instructors a time out if their aren't checking the harness three times, aren't doing handle checks, or if they are dicking around on the skydive. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

No I don't think that is the problem, and it is a poor comparison because all of the individuals giving tandem rating courses hold endorsements from USPA and one of the manufacturers. Examiner ratings and endorsements don't ensure performance on rating courses anymore than a tandem instructor rating magically adjusts a harness. Your wing-suit example is perfect proof of this. The DZO you quoted could skip the group membership and offer stellar first wing-suit flight courses, but not be rated. Down the road a USPA rated instructor could be giving shit first flight courses. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

The "lights" were tethered balloons that were blowing back and forth. LOL "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

Is anyone else watching the live feed right now... it is dark, but there are little white dots zooming around? I am guessing this is a just a loop, and a video editor decided the be amusing. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

Brian, how many jumps do you get out of those F111 pilot chutes before they need replacing? "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

My personal tandem harness doesn't have a Y-strap and I have managed to not drop anyone... For the most part you seem a reasonable, intelligent guy Robert. Are you seriously going to stand by that statement as a reason to not get the "Y mod" If you adjust the harness correctly and don't cave to the pressure to take body types that should NOT be going skydiving them you never need the y-mod. Leaving out disabled tandems who certainly need one, the y-mod is designed for lazy instructors, and out of shape pear shaped students. No one has ever fallen from a properly adjusted harness. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

Horseshit. It was a negligent instructor, with poor harness adjustment and a bad case of get out the dooritus. He had to push Granny out that door, go go go, instead of paying attention to her. He couldn't possibly have been observant about the exit or his student because his head was up his ass at the time. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

Not just the raw footage... but an edited video that made it into the hands of the student. It is actually really easy to understand, the DZO, Vidiot, Editor.... are all a buch of retards. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

No kidding, the fine is light considering what could have happened, but it is also the start of a slippery slope. "We saw that you didn't give the student a drogue release, here is your fine..." We need to push out the likes of instructors that can't bother to properly fit a harness, and Tandem factories that don't give their instructors the time to do so. I would rather us do it internally, but that isn't happening. This is the first time I have heard of direct FAA action against the TI, has other instances occurred? "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

Another prolific poster with nothing to add. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

Why are you even posting here, STFU!!! You don't have a rating, your not adding anything, and if we wanted to watch some one blow Bill we would have asked in the General forum as there are plenty of people there already that don't give a shit about aircraft mx or safety, and will happily wipe their mouth off and ask for more. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

So your last post didn't leave you with the impression that you should STFU? POST LESS READ MORE... your not adding any value to the discussion! "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

Too bad your mother won't disconnect the internet in your little basement cave. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

Do they realistically have a rats chance in hell of winning? No. So why waste the time? Let's hear from the two guys, one of which will absolutely be the President. And that is why we are entrenched in a two party system with choices that suck on both sides. Republicans, Democrats... same thing. So little difference between the parties, the only difference is which hole of your they are going to violate. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

I got enough guns to fight off the zombie's long enough to get bigger and badder guns. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

Just a FYI, Sony and a number of other reputable dealers appear to be running a 200 dollar off sale this week, maybe next. I am sure come this January or February I will be cursing myself for buying it at 1299, but the price seemed bearable right now, and it is a tax write off. I deferred the pain a bit with an 18 month deferred interest deal from Sony. "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

It is a real fine line between speeding up an opening, and get a slammer opening that you weren't hoping for. Based n past experience with Pilot canopies that also open slow you can do a few things to help speed up the openings: Roll the tail less and make your rolls less tight. When you quarter the slider you can put more of the slider forward (away from you in a propack) this should block less air from the nose on opening. You can pull the nose forward a bit when you let it hang after letting going of it with your knees. You shouldn't be pushing it in to the packjob, or rolling it at all. Regardless of what you do make sure the slider stays at the slider stops, because you don't want to get whacked! "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P

I know of at least one professional jumper who turned his PhD grant into a tandem rating never looked back There have to be a few of those... He got thrown off his PhD track back in 2003... just saying! "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P