Aviatrr

Safer at 300 hours than at 1000? Possibly.. Sometimes.. More thorough on pre-flight items, checklist use, etc.? Unfortunately, most of the time the answer to that one is yes.. Pilots that are not flying in a very structured environment - such as 121 - often get complacent and begin omitting things from their routine.. On that part I will agree.. Do you feel that a 300 hour pilot is better suited to handle a bad situation - such as what happened recently in TX - than a high time pilot? Ok, maybe not a high time pilot, let's say a 1000 hour pilot.. As you said, natural ability comes into play here(as well as type of experience, training, and currency), but overall, I believe the more experienced pilot is better suited to handle the situation.. If you are doing a Tandem jump, who would you rather have as your TM - a new TM with very little experience, or a veteran TM with a lot more experience? Yes, pilots get complacent and cocky - just as everybody else does.. Remember, though.. It's our butts up there, too.. If nobody in the airplane survives, that means us too.. Mike

Flying is not cheap, that's for sure.. I have read all the posts in this thread, and the costs seem pretty accurate to me.. I have been flying for 7 years now, and I have just over 5,000 hours of flight time, an Airline Transport Pilot certificate, 4 type ratings(ratings to be Captain on specific turboprops and jets), and a Flight Instructor certificate.. I am a Captain on a corporate jet(BAE Hawker 800) for a fractional ownership company.. It's kind of like time shares in a condo, but we do it with corporate jets.. I love to fly - I wouldn't be doing this for a living if I didn't.. I make decent money, and have every other week off, but I spend too much time away from home and shoulder too much responsibility to do it if I didn't love it.. The passenger jet flying can get boring at times, but it can also be qu

Flying is not cheap, that's for sure.. I have read all the posts in this thread, and the costs seem pretty accurate to me.. I have been flying for 7 years now, and I have just over 5,000 hours of flight time, an Airline Transport Pilot certificate, 4 type ratings(ratings to be Captain on specific turboprops and jets), and a Flight Instructor certificate.. I am a Captain on a corporate jet(BAE Hawker 800) for a fractional ownership company.. It's kind of like time shares in a condo, but we do it with corporate jets.. I love to fly - I wouldn't be doing this for a living if I didn't.. I make decent money, and have every other week off, but I spend too much time away from home and shoulder too much responsibility to do it if I didn't love it.. The passenger jet flying can get boring at times, but it can also be quite challenging.. I fly jumpers on occasion, but I hate being at the DZ on a nice day and not jumping, so not often.. I fly aerobatic airplanes now and then, and plan on buying one in the next few months.. To fly for any kind of a commercial operation, whether you are being paid or not, you must have at least a commercial pilot certificate.. That requires 250 hours under FAR Part 61.. If you're lucky, you could probably find a plane to rent for $45 an hour.. That is not including instructor, which will obviously be required for some of the time.. Once you get a Private certificate, an instructor will not be required for most of the flying you do towards a Commercial certificate.. It's just a matter of building time and experience.. Go to a local flight school and ask about a demo flight.. Most flight schools will do a 30 minute demo flight for $25-30.. The isntructor will takeoff and land, but you will fly the airplane once at a safe altitude.. It's kinda like a Tandem - just to get your feet wet.. Good luck.. If you do go through with it, and you come up with any questions, feel free to ask.. There are several of us here that are accomplished and experienced pilots that will be happy to answer your questions.. Mike

I hope I am reading this incorrectly, but are you stating that you are flying a jump plane on a Private ticket? If so, you are illegal.. Don't do it.. A Commercial ticket or higher is required to fly "for compensation or hire".. Even if you are not being paid, you are flying for compensation(flight time) in the FAA's eyes.. If a fed drops by, and finds out, you will be violated for it.. Mike

I've read all the articles and posts here and on rec.skydiving, and still have a hard time believing it.. Just last month, at the rec.skydiving boogie, Jan was talking about the potential for snags on a camera helmet.. Then the fatality in NC happened, and she became even more worried about it.. I hear that several of the camera flyers - Jan included - were talking about this very thing that morning at the DZ.. It's a terrible tragedy, and something that everybody needs to think about.. I have seen a lot of very low timers jumping video - up until recently, I never thought anything of it.. In fact, I was considering getting a camera for my own personal use.. At the rec.skydiving boogie, Jan and I talked about camera flying quite a bit.. She discouraged(to put it nicely) me from doing it until I had at least 500 jumps.. Well, I think I'll take that advice.. Fly free, Jan.. Mike

Hey, Wingnut....what do the Future Farmers of America have to do with aircraft maintenance?

Whoa, wait a second.. I know what you mean here, but most people probably don't.. The annual inspection is a pretty thorough inspection, but the 100 hour is not.. The 100 hour is pretty much an oil and filter change, check under some inspection panels, and check the brakes/tires.. All depends on the type of aircraft.. Mechanics are not perfect.. This past week, I picked up my airplane(a corporate jet that I Captain) from a maintenance base.. Whenever we pick up an airplane out of maintenance it receives an especially thorough pre-flight.. Mechanics have been known to leave tools, rags, etc in areas where they could certainly cause a problem.. Mechanics have been known to forget to finish a job they started.. Well, when we picked my airplane up, we found a rag sitting on top of some of the control cables, right next to the pulleys.. If we had not found it, it probably would have jammed the controls when the rag got into the pulleys.. Agreed.. The problem, however, is that we can't always check everything.. When was the last time you checked to make sure the wing bolts were torqued properly? In a lot of small airplanes, there are only 4 bolts holding the wings on.. Do you pull the cowling off on a piston to check the coil/spark plug wires? How about the 'p' lead? Ever check the 3rd(and most important) Fetzer valve in a jet engine? There's a lot we, as pilots, can do to help ensure the safety, but we cannot do it all.. Proper training helps to minimize the risk.. There are certain DZ's that I will not jump at because of their maintenance and/or pilot experience or training.. I don't want to get into a jump plane with a 300 hour wonder pilot with the ink still wet on his commercial ticket.. Granted, I am a major pain in the ass when it comes to jump pilots - I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I am more experienced than most jump pilots out there, and it worries me a bit.. It's a normal trait in pilots to be a bit worried when they are not the one at the controls.. Quite honestly, the plane ride to altitude is what I worry about most when skydiving.. Even when I am riding with a very experienced pilot who is a friend of mine, I am nervous.. It's the only part of the skydive where I am not in total control.. I never worry when I am the one up front, not one bit.. Like I said, a common trait in pilots.. Mike Oh, and as I'm sure(well, I hope) most of you know, I made up the part about the 3rd Fetzer valve......everybody knows there's only 2 per engine..

I live in Daytona Beach.. Where do you jump at now? Skydive Space Center in Titusville is my new hangout.. Great group, great facilities, not too busy, and lots of freefliers.. If you make it out there, look for the guy in a black/dark red tie dye freefly suit with black/dark red(and a bit of blue) rig.. Mike

Very unfortunate news. I wish him a full, speedy recovery. Do you happen to know what type of deployment method he was utilizing? Throw out or Pull out? BOC, ROL? Hackey sack or pud? I've seen people try to freefly before with ROL throw out with a pud on it. That's the most likely setup to have a premature deployment during sitflying. I don't think the Voodoo is offered with ROL, but of course could be converted by a rigger. Mike

One of the guys I used to jump with put a Sabre 170 in a J2.. I believe the Sabre and the Hornet pack about the same volume.. The Sabre was a pretty tight fit, but not too tight.. If it is a tight fit, try psycho-packing the Hornet.. It makes bagging it easier, and the Hornet responds very well to the psycho-pack.. That's how I pack my Hornet most of the time.. If this is your first ZP canopy, you probably will have a hell of a time packing it at first.. When you get it, pack it up at home a few times to see how hard it is for you.. The Hornet is very similar to a Sabre, but with a slightly elliptical planform(like a Safire).. Turns a bit quicker, maybe slightly faster forward speed.. Great openings no matter how I pack mine.. Mike

That one may be a bad example.. The Raven II is a TSO'd reserve but also are often used as mains.. Posting it in both categories in that case is acceptable in my opinion.. A buyer may want a Raven II for a main, or maybe for a reserve.. As for the rest of it.. Don't let it bother you so much.. You'll live longer.. Mike

Ya know, I read this a few times....and it still makes no sense to me. How am I the bonehead when I notice a problem, attempt to correct it(by turning), and HE FOLLOWS ME in the turn? During our pre-dive plan, he was one of the guys that planned on pulling at 3k. He took it below 2k. Again, how am I the bonehead for him losing altitude awareness? I had planned on pulling at 2.5, but was totally comfortable taking it down to 2k. If he had pulled as planned, there never would have been any problem. If he had not followed me, there would have been no problem. If you see somebody above you after tracking you need to improve your track? You can track as hard as you want - there are always going to be people out there that can track just as well and put you in a similar situation. Then again, you must be the perfect skydiver. Mike

Mirage does not offer a fully articulated harness. From the few jumps that I do have on a fully articulated Talon 2, the chest rings do make a bit of a difference. For belly flying, I saw no real difference with chest rings - but for some of the body positions in freeflying they seem to help a bit. I jump a Talon 2 with hip rings, so I was comparing identical rigs with the only difference being the chest rings. More than likely, my next rig will be a Rigging Innovations Voodoo. If Mirage offers a fully articulated harness at that point, that will be a consideration as well. I definitely like what Mirage plans on doing in the near future(or so I read not long ago) with container sizes. They are going to build containers for small mains and larger reserves. Something along the lines of a ZP120 main with a 143 or 160 reserve. I believe another one is for sub 100sqft ZP mains and 126 reserve. Great for the people that want a small main and don't want to have to go to a corresponding size reserve. Loading a high performance elliptical at 2.0 is one thing - a reserve is quite another. I hope other manufacturers follow suit. Reflex has been doing this for years - except they build a container to hold whatever sizes the jumper wants. Mike

Don't get in too much of a hurry.. I know of a lot of people that have gone hundreds of jumps without a mal.. One even went 1500 before he had a mal.. All handled it fine.. We had one today at Skydive Space Center than had his first mal with around 250 jumps.. Severe line twists, a brake came unstowed, and it started to spin.. He got rid of it pretty quickly.. He didn't know the brake came unstowed on opening(hence the spinning) until we later watched it on his video camera.. The spinning was just making the line twists worse, so he didn't really have much to work with.. I think he pulled around 2.5.. He packed it himself.. Mike

For some reason DZ.com put a couple characters in the address that shouldn't be there.. There's a " " or something like that in there that shouldn't be.. Delete that and it will work.. Or just type in the address displayed on the page rather than clicking on the link.. They do annual skydiving trips to the North Pole.. I believe they have pics and stories from the past several years.. I'd like to do that trip in a couple years.. Mike

Whoa.. Back it up a second.. I guess you didn't quite realize that my post was a joke.. I am not ashamed of a damn thing - and SoCal is a nice place with the exception of the severe smog.. Sorry if I offended you, but it was a joke.. Mike

My most memorable jump was the first jump that the head down thing clicked.. Sunset load.. Two-way sitfly exit, worked it into a stand, then decided to try it head down.. Transitioned head down, and nailed it.. My buddy (after wiping the shocked look off his face) transitioned head down, flew in close, and docked.. We kept it for about 15 seconds, then it was time for breakoff.. I was feeling so good, and the spot was perfect, so I took it down to 2k.. Sweet opening, made a few spirals, turned downwind, made my best ever front riser turn to final, got a bit of turf-surf, and put it in the peas.. God it was a beautiful dive.. Oh, then of course the beer light came on.. [drunkenfunnyface] Oh, that one's not set up yet.. Mike

Bad weather? The weather was great today.. 75 degrees, clear skies, 10mph winds.. Made 6 jumps today and one last night.. More to come tomorrow.. Oh, wait.....you're not in Florida, are you? Oh, and regarding the north pole thing.. Check out http:// www.north-pole-expeditions.com/north_pole_skydiving.htm Mike

Come on down to Florida....the weather's beautiful here.. After running a bunch of errands today, I stopped in at Skydive Space Center and made a jump.. Wanted to get on the sunset load as well, but it filled up before I even got down from the first load.. Oh well...Weather looks good tomorrow and part or most of Sunday.. Mike

Hmmm.. And you think THAT comment is going to help your point? We all know about the people in Southern Calif.. They're a bunch of fruity freaks..

Pilots with egos? No way.. I don't believe you.. I've never met one of those guys.. We know we're gods(while flying, anyways), but we're not ego-maniacs.. BTW, I hope you realized that my previous post (and maybe this one too) was a 99% smartass, 1% dumbass reply..

A few years ago we had a reaaaally interesting time after being weathered out.. The clouds moved in, the wind picked up(30-40mph), and the beer light came on around noon.. By 5pm we were all pretty trashed.. I won't go into details, but the incident involves a ratted out old (read: unairworthy) student canopy, a 4ft by 4ft board with wheels attached to the bottom(not sure where we even got that), 4 people on said board, a runway, high speeds, and lots of road(runway?) rash.. Oh, and lots more beer of course..

My lowest pull was 1500.. Pro-Track showed my opening altitude as 900 - and it normally shows 500-600 below my actual opening altitude due to the time it takes to decelerate to the speed at which it knows you are open.. I was in the saddle unstowing toggles at 800.. After an 8 way zoo dive, we were supposed to break at 4000.. We missed our break altitude by a few hundred feet.. We broke around 3600-3700. Ok, no big deal.. As I was tracking away, I rolled over on my back to check the air above me.. This was about 2.7 - I planned to pull at 2.5.. There's this bonehead flying about 20ft above me, tracking the same way, just looking at me.. I turn, he turns.. I wave off(still on my back), he looks at his altimeter(1.8 or 1.9), gets this funny look on his face, and immediately pulls.. I roll back over and pull immediately.. Landed about 10 feet from the center of the peas.. Thank god I didn't have an AAD in that rig - one less thing to worry about going wrong.. When I saw the guy on the ground, I was pissed.. He said he was confused, and just trying to figure out what I was doing below him.. He claims he didn't realize he turned when I did - says it must have been a subconscious thing.. He was totally unaware of his altitude the whole time.. His canopy snivels quite a bit(Stilleto), and he was in the saddle around 700ft. Why his CYPRES didn't fire I don't know.. He was definitely in the territory.. Mike

I collapse my slider, and pull it down over the connector links(where the riser attaches to the lines), but no further.. A good friend of mine used to pull his down as far as he could, and ended up having it bind one of his steering lines.. At 100ft he had one toggle stick at 1/2 brakes.. Not a big deal, but it could've been bad.. Not a problem with Type 17 risers, but can be an issue with Type 8 sometimes I guess.. Mike

Go with the full suit.. When you are doing jumps with lots of head down/sitfly transitions the suit will help.. Of course, you could always create the same thing by wearing freefly pants and a baggy sweatshirt....but then it'd be the same as a full suit, anyways.. At least with a full suit you don't have to worry about it coming untucked and covering up your handles.. Mike