SkymonkeyONE

Nice! Glad you are enjoying it. You are correct that tandems will take a lot out of you if you are not in shape.

The pre-course is definitely recommended. Nothing compares to doing practice dives with the actual person who is either going to pass or fail you in the course. As to tunnel training, you can REALLY get a lot out of it if you are training with an AFF evaluator or even just another AFF-I. You can practice rollover drill after rollover drill after rollover drill in a tunnel. Same for spin-stop drills. You can also practice your proximity flying by having the "student" just zip around side to side and up and down while you attempt to stay with him. By far, the great majority of my time in the tunnel has been doing exactly those things. Either working with students or working with fellow instructors and instructor candidates. Chuck

You guys both beat me to it.

Since you said it was The Ranch, then I will assume you are jumping Otters. Exit depends on the number of folks you have on the dive, obviously, but I prefer to get as many people outside (at least three) as possible. I do not call exits like Scott stated. Instead, all the outside people exit on the same count, but perform different tasks. Front float gives the "ready, set, fly" or "out, in, out" count and head rock when everyone is ready and then pops out toward the wingtip then settles back to line of flight for a second. Center pops off just clear of the plane and pops half wings, keeping line of flight. Rear drops straight down keeping wings collapsed for a full second before inflating to hard wings. That should seem VERY familiar to people used to doing RW from Otters where super floaters are outside and the base exits from just inside the door. Assuming four or more people, the next two people line up shoulder to shoulder with the guys outside the plane, one in front of the other. On exit the rear guy does a little hop straight out to the side facing into the wind, just clearing the plane. The front inside guy gives more of a pop to the side, out toward the wing. After those first five people, the remainders are stacked in a line, just like larger RW dives. I personally prefer to dive out to the side, still sort of poised, but with my wings all the way back behind me and my head on the lead. On larger formations we generally have the point (or base in RW terms) exiting in one of the two inside positions. All the outside guys end up being on the left side of the formation. Amazingly, there are quite a few of us on this forum who have been in formations larger than 30-way. I guarantee I have been on at least 80 larger than 16-way. What comes from repetition is closer proximity on exit. Early attempts will see you stealing each others air on exit when people don't pop into the right spot. Early attempts will also see plenty of people zooing exits and going low. One thing I can definitely tell you that will help things along which directly relates to larger RW is that "there is no such thing as too close" in the exit lineup after the base has left. Wingsuit bigway exits get VERY stretched out for no reason because people start taking like a full second (or more) between jumpers when in reality they need to be bombing the door. If you are far back in the plane on larger-ways you have several options when you get to the door. As I have stated, I prefer a dive straight out to the side with my wings fully back and my eyes on the guys already diving to the formation. Others I know prefer to get out the door feet first and gainer. Others still are content to dive straight back and down, keeping their arms back behind them. The farther back you exit, the harder you are going to have to drive to the formation. Arms back, sometimes behind your back, legs fully extended to make up the horizontal ground while at the same time bleeding off the altitude you need. Getting out and popping your wings is entirely counterproductive as it will place you way too high and way behind. When closing from WAY back in the plane you are going to have to build up enough speed to overtake the formation while still maintaining enough altitude. This way, as you close on the formation, you will be able to flare your suit out and ease your way into your slot. Once again, this techinique should sound VERY familiar to those experienced in late-diving to larger RW formations. This is very common sense stuff to those who do have such experience, but entirely alien to lots of people. It is this inability to regulate closing speed which leads to what we call "zoominess" and the people themselves as "zoomies." The last thing you need on a larger flock dive is to have some kid rocketing in from the side and taking you out. Most of us with any degree of larger-way experience have been hit hard by such flyers. Thankfully, those problems work themselves out in pretty short order when the zoomie flyer is given the opportunity to redeem themselves. I could name more than a few examples right here in this forum, but I will refrain from doing so since most of them have actually participated in flocks over 30-way now. Any of them ever shows there ass though and I will gladly bust out the video of their fuck-ups and mock them in front of their friends! I hope this post helps you out. Take care and be safe, Chuck

Nope, you are misconstruing my remarks again, Dave. I am not "belittleing" anything. What I am doing is simply pointing out that your original response to me intoned that I simply must be using a flawed techinique. I don't care what person your school gets it's canopy control model from so long as it's understandable at the first jump level. Our dropzone has been in operation for 35 years and while the tools to get the job done have changed over that time, the basic techniques for getting a parachute to the ground, where you want it, have not. "The accuracy trick", which by the way was the topic of this thread, has been around since people were modifying cheapos. As a lifelong skydiver/instructor and now professional canopy pilot I have had the benefit of sitting through an aweful lot of seminars. I admire the people who have recently made a name for themselves (with great assistance from this very website) and now make a living teaching canopy flight, but I have not once heard either Brian or Scott teach anything on the basic level that was contrary to what most established dropzones have been teaching since skydiving became commercialized. Yes, I have sat through both of their courses. While it's true that there are a lot of really crappy dropzone schools out there, ours is not one of them. If Todd has found that Scott's sylabus is one he wanted to adopt in an effort to better his school then great; I am glad you guys got your money's worth. Continuing education is important to an instructor's/dropzone's health. I don't know where your last comment came from. Your jump numbers and current instructional experience and my knowledge of your past experiences have no bearing on how I respond to your posts. If you come across as condescending, then I will call you on it. That doesn't mean that we are not going to drink a bunch of Shiner Bock together in two weeks and barf in front of your truck. You're my boy, Lund. Chuck

Your are funny, Dave. Also, you are reading me wrong; I am not teaching any such a thing. The post was about "the accuracy trick", not how to teach an accuracy approach. What I meant in this instance was that if a person makes his/her final turn onto final and then finds, for whatever reason after doing that final accuracy trick, that they are in fact in danger of running headlong into the trees then they can THEN do whatever they need to do in order to get the canopy down safely (by means of small turns, sashays, or sinking it down). I don't care how good a canopy control class you taught, there will always be students who fly themselves into a corner. They either didn't pay attention to your "Scott Miller Approved" class and flew themselves in too tight or too long or, possibly, didn't respond to your radio commands. The intent of doing the accuracy trick after turning onto final (too late to change that now; it's done) is to let the person know in no uncertain terms where they are going to land now that they have committed to their, supposed, final turn. I hope you follow that. And as to the "experienced enough" comment, I figure I qualify in that regard. Chuck D-12501 AFF/SL/TM-I, BMCI, PRO, MFFJM

That is correct. I know more than a few skydivers who got their AFF ratings for free who have NO BUSINESS WHATSOEVER touching real students. Doesn't stop them from getting their rating renewal pencil-whipped every year though. AFF is serious business and ought not be undertaken by those with less-than-professional mindset and less-than-proficient airskills. Thankfully, some people are smart enough to know their limitations and will either refrain from doing so, or will be smart enough to only volunteer for the slots they know they can handle until they get their minds right and their reflexes turned back on. Chuck

I knew that I had written a post on that subject. Actually though, that post is more about target accuracy approaches than it is what we call the "accuracy trick". A general description of the technique that we teach would be "the act of knowing exactly what point on the ground you are likely to land when flying at your current attitude." By attitude, I mean what percentage of brakes you are applying. Ultimately, what you do (under canopy obviously) is look ahead of and below you and try to find the point on the ground that is not moving. If the downward angle to the point you are trying to fly back to is getting steeper and the point on the ground is moving closer to you, then you can make it there. If the angle is getting flatter then you are simply not going to be able to make it to that point and you need to reassess your landing options. First, find that point on the ground that is not moving, then find a suitable landing place between that point and straight underneath you. We teach our students to do it at least twice under canopy: first, when they are still flying downwind after opening and about halfway back to the landing area; and second, after turning on final to ensure that their current flight path is: a) going to get them to the landing area, and b) not going to fly them into an obstacle. This last bit is very important. Often is the time that a student wants to turn onto final too high and too "steep" to where we want them to land. The sooner they realize they are too high and too close (by using the accuracy trick), the sooner they can make additional sashays, easy turns, or get into the brakes and adjust their glide slope to facilitate landing where they want. Chuck

Once again, I grab my dive loops with my first three fingers on both hands and hold my toggle in my palm with my pinkie. When I get my canopy straightened out and inline with the course and I have eased out of my front riser/risers, I simply move both arms straight back over my head and grab my rears as high as my reach will allow with those same three fingers. Once my fingers are around the front of the back risers I loop my thumbs around and prepare to tug outward. Once I am done with rears, I simply release them and leave my hands out to the side. Since I was pulling them outward, the action of releasing the rears allows them to pop back in while at the same time taking up the slack in the brake lines, thus, no "drop off".

Well you did end up with a piece in your end cell didn't you?!

Nice response, Chris.

I put the toggle completely over my hand. When I reach up for my fronts (or back for my rears) I hold the toggle in my palm with my pinkie and use the other three fingers (index, middle, ring) for my dive loops. You will never lose your toggle if you use that method. Chuck

I pack both of my Wings W1-2 EXT containers with the lines to the backpad and the grommet to the pin.

You got that right, my brother!

MAN! What a GREAT meet! You guys fucking KILLED IT! I am so proud of you all. Speed awards: Jake Conrad and a local video guy who ran the course on practice day Distance: We ALL went the distance Accuracy award: Jake Conrad and Dave Wall who both obliterated course markers on speed runs Special mention must go to me (as district organizer) for doing a crappy job of securing my IPC/PST course markers in the back of my dually and losing two of them on the way out of town. Lessons learned: Never, ever transport IPC/PST course markers assembled and stacked on their side. They are squishy and that allows the impossible-to-replace-on-the-road fiberglass "shapers" to bend too far and break. We discovered that we had broken about ten of the loops in transport. No biggie, but it pissed us off. Also, it only takes about a minute to disassemble a marker and they take up MUCH less room and travel much better in that configuration. The loss of two of our markers ($180 apiece) really pisses me off. Good thing we still have 18 left. On a serious note, we will need to "double up" at either Parkton or Raeford in order to get the required number of meets in the bag prior to the cutoff. Anyone competing should be prepared to do two separate six-round meets at either or both of those locations. Chuck

I pull out on my risers.

Negative. The first two absolute-bad-ass swoopers were Rixter Powell and Jack Jeffries. The creation of the PD Excallibur made possible the "modern" swoop. We all did whatever piddly turf surf we could with our Bogys and Raiders before that, but things changed the instant we got ahold of the first "real" HP canopy (which I bought brand new immediately upon it's release). I could fly my canopy very nicely, but when The Deland Gang (four way Silver medal winner at Nationals that year) got invited to Raeford to train for the world meet with the Golden Knights I was just floored. History lesson: The GK's had won both four and eight way, but opted to only do eight way at the world meet and, graciously, let the second place team take the four-way. Rixter Powell not only did video for the team, he also was their packer! Anyway, Jack and Rixter regularly went the entire distance of the beer line, barely missing the power lines on their turn. They would also rip 180 degree circle surfs like it was nothing. Jack was jumping an Excal 120 back then. Chuck

Nope

All I can say to those people attempting a landing STUNT is "I hope I don't have to tell your friends 'I told you so' ". I have a lot more wingsuit experience than Jeb Corlis (as do more than a few people in this forum) and I am simply not interested in any media hype concerning "landing a wingsuit." I sure as hell don't need to see another wingsuit fuckup like Royal Gorge on the news. You huggers out there can take that anyway you like it. Chuck

Are you wanting a PC 109 just for shits and grins, Rob?

I didn't even look at his jump numbers; my bad. That said, it's entirely possible that a freeflyer with only 250 jumps who backflies alot might be completely capable of shooting tandems in that manner. It wouldn't happen here (nobody with under 500 jumps is going to film me because that's what Bill Booth says), but it's entirely possible that some places would allow it with proper proof of flying ability. Yes, a "standard" camera suit would be the best bet though.

If Lonnie does in fact have all his ratings then he is simply being stuborn and selfish. I would LOVE to swoop my velocity every skydive, but I am not about to turn down tandems (which I also really like) just so I can do that. If you want your share of the money, then do whatever it takes to get it. My PC-109 fits as well on the side of my Optik Illusion as it does in my handcam glove. If I want to work, then I am going to do whatever is needed (minus packing; that's not skydiving for a living). Another thing: I think it's pretty short-sighted to think that you have nothing to gain by jumping other than your "race" main. I can promise you that me making 33% of my skydives these days under a Sigma 370 or My Firebolt 350 does not hamper my ability to swoop the piss out of my Velo and my Sabre2 97. That's just me though. Chuck

I jump a .3 and get zero vignetting. That said, my "usable" range on the camera with the lens on is between .3 and maybe .45 before it blurs out. On all but the tightest flocks I fly with my camera zoomed out to just shy of blurring; about .45 with my Xdream Optics Skyline (identical to WayCool and Diamond). Chuck

That's a great point, BJ! Another super-simple anti-twist mod is the one that Sunrise Rigging puts on their Wings birdman bridles. That simple triangle keeps the bag from rocking back and forth on deployment, thus, in my case at least, nearly totally elliminating linetwists. I must also add that my corners are completely open and I pack either pin to grommet or "backwards" with the bridle coming straight out the bottom. CHuck

Yeah, I have a suggestion, get some more ratings. That may sound harsh, but if you intend to make a living skydiving you better have every means available to you. I do AFF, SL (when there is any these days), Tandems, "regular" video, and handcam video. I am not sitting on the ground. Chuck