AndyMan

I dove into Poyntner myself, and it doesn't say. He describes the rings and loop, but not the cable. Poyntner does recommend a light machine grade oil, such as 3-in-1, for cleaning cables. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Paragear says yes, Teflon is on the yellow cables. Maybe someone can check with Poyntner. http://www.paragear.com/templates/parachutes.asp?group=161&parent=27&level=2 _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It's not so much to lube as it is to clean. The yellow cables are already coated in teflon, which is a great non-stick and slippery surface. The problem is that they do collect crap over time, which reduces their natural slipperiness. The junk also gets trapped in the fabric loop of the cuttaway system, which adds friction and wear on that component too. Cleaning your cables is a basic component of gear maintenance. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I don't find silicon all that hard to find. I know ACE hardware carries it, in aerosol form. http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/ProductDetails.aspx?sku=12293 _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I don't take lazy bait. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

My students who do a tandem before jumping into AFF tend to progress a bit quicker, since they know a bit more what to expect and tend to be a bit more relaxed. I do recommend students do a tandem before AFF for this reason. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Nope, never. I've even seen DZ's with allegedly strict Cypres-fire grounding allow that person to jump for the rest of the event. And to a point, I agree - groundings make little sense. It usually just means that jumper will head to the other DZ down the road, where your grounding is unlikely to be enforced. The worst case is that once they get to that other DZ, they stay there - and you've just lost a customer to the competition. There are other ways to tell someone they're doing wrong. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

What are the playback options? Is there an HDMI port, or do I need to do my playback through a PC ? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

A Stiletto is a shitty student canopy for all the same reasons it's a shitty expert Canopy. Seriously? Who the fuck is buying Stilettos asnyways? Why the hell would a student want to jump one? If anything, go jump a Kitana or NEOS or something modern. Not some 20 year old canopy that nobody but Craig Gerard would be caught dead under! Honestly, the fact that this discussion is about a Stiletto makes me wonder what the point actually is. There's not a student in the world hoping to some day buy a Stiletto. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You should write for The Onion. Well done. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Consider this some friendly tips: PLEASE, review the SIM - http://www.uspa.org/SIM.aspxphttp://www.uspa.org/SIM.aspx[/url]. I hope very much that your instructors did teach the concept of a hard deck, and that simply you do not remember it. USPA standard is to teach 2500 feet to AFF students, so this should have been drilled into you during your first jump course. As a jumper learning to progress through the sport, I hope you would choose somewhere between 2000 and 2500 as a hard deck. Never go below that altitude without a parachute that you intend to land. 1500 feet is WAY too low to be making this choice, especially when you open at 3500 feet. Get in a habit similar to: Track, Wave off, and pull. Throughout the deployement, be aware of other canopies in the air around you. When the canopy opens, continue to scan for traffic, and reach up to grab the toggles. As you unstow the toggles, pull them all the way down and do a practice flare. Turn back to the DZ and ensure the parachute is flying straight. You don't need to do specific left and right turns as long as the parachute is flying straight and you're aware of how its flying. All together, the above should take you no more than 10 seconds and burn no more than 500 feet. Straight? Stable? Steerable? If no, ka-ching! Yes. I assume your altitimeter is on your left hand, which is the hand you counter with while you pull? It's right inf front of your eyes. Look at it. Always know your altitude. Anyways - I'm trying not to be too hard you - you did allright and got the important part done by landing ok. Good job. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Ignore the HowStuffWorks link. It sucks. The first source of good skydiving information is your instructors. If you've done only a tandem, then ask your tandem instructor about the gear you jumped. If you're in the AFF program, then stick to your AFF instructors. I can recommend two great books, both written by people who have AFF ratings (among other things). JUMP - Skydiving Made Fun and Easy, by Tom Buchanan: http://www.amazon.com/JUMP-Skydiving-Made-Fun-Easy/dp/0071410686 and Parachuting: The Skydiver's handbook, by Dan Poyntner: http://www.amazon.com/Parachuting-Skydivers-Handbook-Dan-Poynter/dp/1568601417/ref=pd_sim_b_1 Be careful about accepting advice from people who are not AFF instructors. Much of it will be wrong. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Without being too hard on you, because you lived: Some things to think about. A hard deck is a hard deck. We teach 2500 feet. As an instructor with thousands of jumps and every rating in the book, my hard deck is usually 1800 feet. Since you're not an instructor and don't have every rating in the book, I would recommend that your hard deck be more than a few hundred feet higher than mine. When we talk about a hard deck, we mean something quite simple - you simply do not pass through this altitude with a parachute that you don't intend to land. This means that you have opened your main with sufficient altitude to do a controlability check and made the decision to cutaway if necessary. If you hit your hard deck and your main hasn't passed, get rid of it. The narrative that you've presented showed that you opened with plenty of altitude, but did not do any kind of controlability check on the parachute. Your narrative did not mention any thoughts towards a hard deck, or a decision point. I hope that your (former) instructors gave you a hard time over this. Secondly, I'm a bit annoyed that you're reporting your altitude based on the audible tones. Audibles are backups, right? Remember, batteries fail without warning. I would hope that you're using your visual altimeter and (as you get better at it), your eyes to judge altitude before you depend on an audible. The malfunction that you had is an odd one - certainly not common. It may or may not have been preventable, but to me - that isn't the point. If you do enough jumps, malfunctions (both high-speed and low-speed) are inevitable. The people who have long skydiving careers are those that are able to deal with them. There's a lot of people who've posted to this thread saying that you did all-right because you landed ok, and to be honest - I don't disagree. You did all-right, and you walked away. Cool. But, you can do better. You can improve your altitude awareness so you're not depending on audibles, and you can improve your altitude awareness after the parachute opens so that you can deal with malfunctions in adequate time. If you open at 3500 feet you have plenty of time to identify and deal with a slow speed malfunction without being rushed. :) _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I agree. While "I'm here from the FAA and I'm here to help" will ALWAYS be a decently funny joke, it's clear we can do much better. It seems it's never more than a few years that go by when a plane crashes it turns out it's 5000 hours over TBO, or a jumper gets hurt because they did CRW under a thunderstorm(!!!), or something equally stupid that takes rule breaking to a level that's incomprehensible. I know that there are small DZ's all over the country that get away with a lot of shit, but when big DZ's act in a similar manner, bad things happen. I don't like bad things. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Of course, that's what makes it absurd. I have absolutely no desire to learn anything about chest or seat, but if I want to replace a lower brake line I have find 20 of them to pack? Ridiculous. We were better off before. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yup, I agree. I don't think this makes our industry better at all. I think the biggest impact will be to pad the pockets of Master Riggers, who will effectively be taking the work from Senior Riggers all over the country. I can't help but suspect the people advising the FAA are all Master Riggers. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

That may be true, but the 50's are long in the past. We have higher standards now, and those higher standards are a big reason why our accident rate is a small fraction of what it used to be. I certainly do not give any DZ carte blanche to run their ops are they choose. I expect DZ's to be run in a professional manner, following the spirit and the word of every FAR, but also best practices of the industry. It's true that there's a lot we don't know - but I have to say, what's described in the news article gives me great reason to be concerned. But, this issue is way bigger than any of us. I don't know how hard the FAA will be, but I do know that having your DZ tied up in lawsuits and media battles will help nobody but the lawyers and the reporters. It certainly will be bad for the DZ and bad for the sport. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I'm not yet organizing the mob for TK because of the FAA bust, only because the article is a little unclear. It says he does not have a Commercial rating for his single Cessna, but does have one for twin engines. That sounds to me like a type-rating issue. If he's commercial rated in a Twin-Otter, I can't imagine he's all that unsafe in a 182. I'm not a pilot so I don't know the legalities, but it does seem not as bad as your joe-average private pilot with 50 hours. I'm sure the FAA will be unsympathetic, and with good cause. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

A little bird tells me the embezzler was not an accountant, but rather a manifest employee who managed to steal $140,000 in small increments over time. Amazing. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

In 10 years of skydiving, I've never had a camera last more than 2 or 3 years at most. The first time through, I meticulously removed the hand strap hoping to put it back on some day when I sold it. Now I know better, I know that camera will be spent in a single season at least. There's just no value in keeping the camera pristine. Cut the damn thing off! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I think if you want to be 'the joker', then you have to have a thick skin, since not everyone will appreciate your humor. Also, being the guy that speaks up about safety is not always easy, there will always be people who question your motives, and your actions. Again, you have to have a thick skin. If you want to be both - the joker AND the guy who's being the safety guru, then you're going to annoy some people. I think it's that simple. Me, I try to watch out for safety, but do not try to be the center of attention. It seems to work. I do have a thick skin. Lastly, deciding who you want to work for is a decision you should take seriously. If your values differ so much from your boss, to me - that's a great indicator to find somewhere else to jump and work. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

In his defense, embezzlement by your accountant is one of the most difficult crimes to detect. There are not many business owners or managers who would detect it until it's too late. There's a reason CPA certification is so strict. Typically the damage is discovered when the accountant goes on vacation, and that's exactly what happened here, from what I understand. What really bothers me here is flying without appropriate ratings. Talk about poor judgment! Also, Billy taking his conflict into the courts is extreme bad form, and will benefit nobody except the attorneys. If the article, and what I've heard is true, it's really petty. I certainly would not want to go into business with the man. Still, the popcorn does make it entertaining! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I learned at 3 DZ's in the eastern Great Lakes in the 90's - always had a radio. As an instructor, I now work at, and regularly visit countless DZ's in the midwest, they all use radios. It's true that radios are not mandatory, but I certainly would question the logic of someone who runs a program without them. They are good tools, and ignoring a good tool out of principle seems... misguided. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Lots of dirty laundry suddenly got aired in Z-Hills. Accusations of Fraud, Unsafe operations, Violating FAR's - the whole shebang. http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/jun/01/accusations-fly-between-skydive-city-vendor/news-breaking/ _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

In the 12 years I've been jumping, I've never had this indicated for me on any one of my own repacks. As a rigger, I wasn't taught to do it and there isn't a column on the standard data cards - so I've never made a note of it. It sounds like it may have been common in certain circles, but this is the first I've ever heard of the practice. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.