jdfreefly

They are the same incident. Spotty was recalling it as best he could and using it as an example of why a helmet might be a good idea. I was attempting to exit by swinging from the floater bar out but did not clear the door. As a result the bottom of the rig hit as both the student and I were begining to arch. The rig was pushed up my back and slammed me in the back of the head. My head was then thrust into the students head. My nose was broken and bleeding and I believe I received a mild concusion. They say every tandem master has their one story. This was mine. I took it very seriously and considered quiting tandems. I was quite lucky that it was not worse. I don't mind telling the story, and I tell it often, because it is a great oportunity for others to learn from. I did some things right and some things wrong. I was careless in allowing the contact with the door. I hope this clears it up for you. Methane Freefly - got stink?

I know some teams don't compete due to outside influences. Actually going to nationals is a big comitment. It takes money and time. Some of the teams that are comprised of full time professional skydivers just can't afford the financial sacrifice. Some of the teams that are comprised primarily of weekend jumpers can't find the time to make it happen. I will say that the time and money I devoted to training and going was well worth it. I intend to beg, borrow or steal if I have to so I can do it again this year. Methane Freefly - got stink?

It should be noted that before the first round, someone got me to agree to do this if I posted a goose egg in the first round. I had agreed because I really didn't think I was going to zero the first round. As a matter of fact I had specifically chosen a conservative aproach that I thought would guarantee me some score. Had I not missed my dive loop, I would have put up some sort of score. Next time I'll go through all the rounds. I agree that these things are about learning, that was why I put up the ten bucks in the first place. Hey, we got a good laugh out of the crowd...and Shani, I only proved that I very occassionaly rarely sometimes choke under pressure, hardly ever. I will just have to focus a little on my swoop accuracy for next Sunday's comp so I can redeem myself. Methane Freefly - got stink?

Depends on the situation. Too low in a flat field, stab! This sounds like it was more of an obstacle in the way kind of problem. Obstacle in the way..carve! I learned to carve my landings as a survival skill when I was still coming straight in and it has saved my ass on more than one ocassion. Methane Freefly - got stink?

So this weekend, we hosted a little competition at x-keys. The fee was 10 bucks plus 2 hop and pop tickets($13 each). At first I wasn't even going to enter. I said, "I don't need to pay ten bucks to find out that Danny Koon is a better canopy pilot than me." But then I figured what the hell, it sounds like fun. There were two rounds. On the first round, one of the other locals got hosed on the spot and posted a goose egg. I set up pretty well, but when I went to execute the turn I missed the front riser 3 times in a row and ended up coming up short, so I also posted a goose egg.... On the second round, me and the other jumper with a big fat zero in the first round elected to tank it and took a down winder over the pond. Which I gotta say, was fucking fun as shit. Some people accused us of quitting or giving up....We felt like we went out in style. We could have gone for the course and tried to reedeem ourselves, but I figure we can do that next week since we are going to be doing these mini comps every week. Methane Freefly - got stink?

Replying to my own post after talking with Spotty this weekend. The point of his post was that to say, "..... will never happen to me.." in the world of skydiving, is just a bad idea. I agree with that. If you have your own reasons for not wearing a helmet, fine. If you know the risks and willingly take them...again, that is fine. But to say you don't need one because you can't possibly hit your head....not a good idea in my opinion. Methane Freefly - got stink?

Spoty, If this was me you were referring to, this is not what happened. I was swinging out from the bar at the top of the skyvan. I had gotten into this habbit and it is a terrible thing to do in that airplane. What happened on the jump in question was that I swung up, not out. I was not trying to do a back loop from the door. As a result, I came down and caught the back of the rig on the edge of the door. The rig was pushed up my back and pushed my face into the students head. The main injury was from my face hitting her head. There was no trauma to the back of my head. I have been in a few bar fights and never have I been hit in the face so hard. I nearly blacked out, my nose was broken and blood was gushing everywhere, it felt like I was going to black out. A helmet would have done nothing to stop this or make it less scary. That was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me since I entered the world of skydiving...bar none. Just wanted to get the facts straight. Methane Freefly - got stink?

I had this student last year who I will never forget. At 5500 feet, he put his hand on the ripcord, turned his head to the side and shouted, "Should I pull it?" I shouted, "YES!". He pulled. I have never seen a student that calm in freefall, and at pull time no less! He asked what was so funny once the canopy opened because I couldn't stop laughing. I am still a little bummed I never saw him again. Methane Freefly - got stink?

I bought one of Clancy's "collaboration" books...it was a piece of shit. It was obvious from the writting style that it was primarily the other authors work with Clancy's name printed on the cover. I loved his previous books when he actually wrote them...but now...I won't be buying another unless it is printed on toilet paper... At least then I can get some use out of it. Methane Freefly - got stink?

Too...many...jokes...can't...choose...one... going....to...faint....from....internal.....laughter Methane Freefly - got stink?

Just curious what everyone's personal limit is on the weight of perspective tandem student. Also post the heaviest tandem you ever took, and how it went if you feel like it. Throw in their build too. Our weight limit is 240 lbs. I took a guy who was around 6'9" (I am 5'8") and weighed exactly 240 lbs. When he weighed in he was a smidge over 240 lbs and they told him he couldn't jump. Then he took his keys out of his pocket and kicked off his shoes and made weight! I spent a lot of time with him on the ground drilling the exit again and again. When we were hooked together, my feet were more than a foot off the ground if he stood up straight. The exit came off great and the landing was a very fast with him sliding on his ass and me sliding on my feet. On a side note, this guy was in terrific shape and in his late 20s to early 30s. That was definately a factor in my decision to take him. Look out for overweight unathletic types. It is much easier for them to get hurt. Methane Freefly - got stink?

my opinion: swooping a tandem with a turn to final is unsafe. I know I don't have thousands of tandem jumps and I am comparitively unexperienced next to some tms out there, but I got that opinion from other tandem masters with over 5000 tandems under their belt. Some people swear by the tandem swoop landing. I preffer a nice braked approach and then letting it up to fly. When I am current, which I am not at the moment, my landings are fairly consistent. Worst case is sliding in on the ass. Methane Freefly - got stink?

In the past, the landing area was in between two long peirs near splash zone, a water park located on the beach end of 35th street. The airport is cap may airport. The ride to the airport usually ran about 30 minutes, if memory serves me, which sometimes it doesn't. If they are using the allouette for the competition jumps that is good. It will make things run much smoother for the competitors. I usually could get in about 5-7 jumps in a day what with packing, bus ride back to the airport etc. I would imagine that, due to the competition, their will be another landing area set up closer to the ocean. The normal one was quite a distance up the beach. The only concerns for landing are clearing the town and the boardwalk. If you get yourself low over the town there are outs but they are very tight. You better have your shit together. I will say, I was deeply dissapointed last year when this did not happen. It is one of the best times and coolest things I have done skydiving in New Jersey. We were packing up on the boardwalk( areas of it are concrete ) and little kids were running up and asking all kinds of questions...it was great! Methane Freefly - got stink?

One of the instructors at my DZ had his shoulder seperated on a skydive. He has his rig setup left hand. I believe he actually got a rigger to make him a pouch that could work either left or right by having an s-fold of spandex that was sealed on the ends in such a way as to make it work without the possibility of the pc sliding all the way through. He was fine jumping left or right, as he often borrowed gear from others that was righty, but preffered left on his on gear. I'd say as long as you are confident in your ability to perform your emergency procedures, it shouldn't be a problem. Methane Freefly - got stink?

I agree that you shouldn't throw the drogue around your ankles. But regardless, shit happens and believe it or not that velcro on those sandals is strong enough to colapse the drogue and keep it pinned to your foot. I like to eliminate the possible "bad scenarios" . As I said, it is just my opinion. I think it adds a small risk to an already risky skydive. Of course, I stopped jumping in tevas altogether after I screwed up a swoop, had to avoid something and came down sliding hard on gravel with my right foot pinned under my left leg, kind of a baseball slide. Tore a good bit of skin off of my foot. I love the feel of jumping in them, but since then I have only done it once and it was because I had forgotten my jumping shoes. Methane Freefly - got stink?

I am of the opinion that tandem masters should not wear tevas. Methane Freefly - got stink?

I doubt there is anything wrong with that bridle that a rigger couldn't fix in ten minutes. You might want to get it fixed so now you have a spare. Rigging Innovations uses a metal loop like the one found on a key chain. And when my girlfriends rapid link somehow dislodged itself, we used a key chain ring to fix it....after getting a rigger to inspect it. Also, if you want to use a slink, a rigger can probably make one for you. Methane Freefly - got stink?

My current config is a 113 PDR for the reserve and a 119 Crossfire 2. If I were buying a new rig and money was no issue, I would stick with the 113 PDR and would probably buy a velocity 111 or 103. Or an icarus gx 111, but since they don't sell it I guess I will have to switch to PD for my main :( Methane Freefly - got stink?

A back flip out of the Skyvan is one of the easiest ways to get out of the plane and be stable inside of one second, so that's what I do. Also, let's play out a couple of scenarios. The student's body position is pushing you over onto your side, you can either fight it or throw in an impromptu barell roll. Let's say you fight it. But you started fighting it too late and it has just enough momentum to flip you over onto your back. Now your on your back and you have to find a way to fly it back over to your stomach. Not an unrecoverable position by any means, but definately one I prefer to stay out of. Let's say you roll with it. Tuck yourself up and flip with them until you are 3/4 through the rotation, just as you start to feel that relative wind coming around again, and them BAM! Start flying again. I have found it is easier to roll with it than to fight it, but it depends on how soon you catch it. Also, how long you have been in droguless freefall should be a factor in your mind. Also, as far as haning outside the plane and exposing the rig to the wind in any way goes, this is expressly forbiden at our dz. Methane Freefly - got stink?

I love this thread! Bill and I have dissagreed before, it happens, but I couldn't agree more with him on all of these points. I have only been in the sport for 7 years, but even in those seven years I have seen changes. Some for the better, some for the worse. I have talked at great length over many a beer with some of the people around our DZ who were around when cutting away meant dealing with the capwells! If you don't know what they are, find someone at your dz who you think is old and obsolete, he'll tell ya with a gleam in his eye! While your at it, ask him for all his stories, they are always worth the listen. Part of the problem, as I see it, is that there are now 2 types of skydivers. Those who are truly a student of the sport, and those who just want to be cool. The true student of skydiving is in it for all the right reasons. They want to learn and they want to teach. They never stop learning. They don't know how. The others, are the type who get a new parachute, drop it off in the loft, pay their money and go to the snack bar. They don't want to be involved in any of that scary rigging stuff. That's what riggers are for. They are, for the most part, the people who get hurt. They are also the ones who sue. Skydiving is dangerous! Get used to it. Shit goes wrong, and when your doing 120, it goes wrong real fast. If you can't get used to that idea, don't jump. And if you rent a rig and can't be bothered to look at the packing data card to see if it is in date, then you shouldn't be suing anyone. Furthermore, people make mistakes. If you are going to trust your life to someone, you better be ready to deal with what happens when they make a mistake. The first year I worked as a packer, I pakced a mal for a woman who completely blamed me, wnated me to pay for her repack, stiffed me on the 5 bucks and generally bad mouthed my packing abilities to the rest of the fun jumpers. I got real down on myself and was thinking about quiting packing, which would have pretty much meant quitting jumping since that was where my jump money came from. One of my mentors took me aside and said, "Hey, you put your rig down, you pay your money and you take your chances. If she can't handle that, she should pack for herself." BTW - the mal was a spectre that sniveled too long. The bad news is I have seen people in this sport who are in it only for themselves. They screw other jumpers over and they expect skydiving to be a nice cushy world with no risks. The good news is they rarely stick around. Methane Freefly - got stink?

FS is freestyle, not RW! Methane Freefly - got stink?

FS is all but dead in the US...look at the number of FS teams that competed at Nationals last year. In the US, we don't have any of those qualifications. We do have awards that show some competency in different disciplines, but they aren't licenses and aren't required for any of the most basic instructor ratings. to see our licensing go here: http://www.uspa.org/publications/SIM/2004SIM/section3.htm Methane Freefly - got stink?

Well then they won't be able to get their D when they have 500 jumps. It might take some people more than 500. I don't really see a problem with that. Can you do an 8 point 4 way rw jump and a 4 point 2 way freefly jump? Those were the ideas I threw out there, I never said anything about a 4 point 4 way freefly jump. Those requirements aren't impossible with those low jump numbers. I'm not saying it would be easy, but it certainly isn't impossible. Just because someone has the numbers for the D does not mean they have to have one. I waited until I had 800 jumps to get my tandem rating, mostly because I wanted to be sure I was ready for it. I never said people need to have mastered a discipline to get the D, I just suggested that we up the requirements and make people show some profficency. EDIT TO ADD: I'll bet those 100 canopy dives have paid off more than the others....ever have to land a tandem in a back yard? I'll bet you could. This is a very good point. A side effect of requiring FF would be that the people described above, who would probably make very good AFF instructors, would not be able to attain a D license. In my opinion this is the best argument against my idea yet, especially since this idea is birthed from my concern that we are going to have a generation of skydivers who have no RW skills and that this will in turn cause a shortage of skilled instructors. This would have the exact opposite effect of what I was attempting to accomplish. Do we really want D licensed skydivers who can't even stay level, or hold a heading on a 4 way RW jump? That is what would happen if we started allowing people to skirt the rw requirements. Don't get me wrong. When I am not chucking drogues, I am freeflying. But I still believe that rw is the basic skill set. Methane Freefly - got stink?

You want reaons...fine I'll give you 2 reasons why I trust the aircraft at Crosskeys. Reason number one: I know John Eddowes. I have known him for 7 years. I would trust him with my life, and I do so every time I ride in one of his airplanes, or his helicopter. He was telling me about replacing a part on one of the planes that probably could have made it to the next maintenance window. If you know anything about the weather the northeast saw last year, you will know that money is tight. I asked him why not just wait. HIs response was, "Some of my best friends get in those airplanes every day." That is good enough for me. Reason number 2: My uncle was, until he was promoted, the FAA safety inspector for our airport. He had personally grounded planes leased by other companies before Eddowes went out and got his own. He is fanatical about safety, maintenance, and every little rule he can find in his rule book. In short, he is a real hard ass. Since the dropzone started supplying their own airplanes, he has had nothing but great things to say about the operation there. Also, to the best of my knowledge, not one of our planes has ever been grounded by him or one of his underlings. He speaks with admiration and approval when he talks about our opperation. Also, he knows, that if I die in a plane crash that was the result of something he let slide, he will have to look my mother in the eye and tell her that. If that isn't good enough for you, you can go pound sand. I hate fear mongering and as far as I can tell, that is all you are doing. Methane Freefly - got stink?

My goal isn't to "appease all the fliers in the skydiving world". My goal is to bring us to a place where a D license means something more than having 500 jumps. A secondary goal is to see that people with D and C licenses have at least a rudimentary understanding of both FF and RW. As it stands now, I see no reason why someone who was B qualified shouldn't be able to perform the maneuvers required for the C. Notice that there are no manuevers required for the D. How does that make sense? Once someone had met the D requirements, if they decided they wanted to pursue a D license, then they could concentrate on a specific discipline. I don't believe this would turn out "jacks of all trades, masters of none". Again, how would this benefit the sport and how would it hurt? Methane Freefly - got stink?