hackish
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Everything posted by hackish
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Simple single engine aircraft are not that difficult to fly and land. Short of ground effect that we don't really get with landing a parachute, skydivers are already familiar with many of the concepts. Yes you could bail but worry about how far the AC will go before it crashes into something (school, hospital, uninhabited soccer field?) Spin the roulette wheel... I think the majority of skydivers would be successful on getting the AC on the runway. (It may not be pretty and may not fly again). However, calling mayday will get you priority and emergency vehicles. Doing a forced landing in a farmer's field is far less desirable because it could be 1/2h before anyone gets there to help. If the pilot has had an MI or stroke he/she may not survive anyway. Who cares about the AC, it's the lives of those on board (yours) and the lives of those where it might crash. -Michael
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Look up in the Quebec (Canada) civil litigation for Andre Lemaire v. Michael Richards. My apologies the statement of claim will be in French. 3+ years later I'm still waiting for it to go to court. In my case the lawsuit resulted from a documentation error extracting a serial number from a rigging logbook. The particulars are published in the claim. While you don't expect things like this to happen, especially in Canada where lawsuits are rare, it is a concrete case where incorporating a company would probably have provided some financial isolation from litigation. Until you receive some notice that you're being taken to court you really don't think about these things, so my advice to the OP is look into it now and protect yourself the best you can before you have to worry about it. -Michael
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I have spoken with many riggers who have seen every brand of AAD out there fail in some way or another. I do not accept that some brand out there always fails while another never fails. Millions of jumps with AADs are made every year with an exceptionally small percentage of failures. Do not forget these are complex devices and all of them can fail. If it does show a sign of failure as the OP stated do as he did and contact the manufacturer. All the manufacturers I've dealt with were exceptionally helpful in rectifying problems quickly. -Michael
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I don't remember how many jumps I had when I bought my Diablo 150. I think about 300ish. It was a handful with similar weight to the OP. I wouldn't say it's in any way appropriate for the experience level. I would definitely vote against the canopy as well. In fact I think I'll put mine up for sale. I still jump it but there are so many better 7 cell canopies available. The Diablo opens nicely, flares poorly and is generally bitchy when you let her out of the bag. -Michael
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GPS tracking/location for cutaways
hackish replied to clustermagnet's topic in General Skydiving Discussions
I think about 2 years ago I posted a hacky transmitter I built. It was about the same weight as a normal hacky. I used a cell module that supports GPS and reprogrammed it with a LIPO cell from an RC helicopter. All said and done it cost about $250 in parts. The downside is that the battery only lasted about 3 days so you'd always be plugging your rig in (I used a USB). In the event you had a cutaway you'd send an SMS to your canopy and it would SMS back the GPS coordinates. Was kinda cool but I could not find a cost effective way to have a cell subscription. $30/mo plus the cost of the device made it a poor investment. In the event you had an off-DZ landing someone at manifest could potentially also "locate" your canopy with hopefully you attached... If anyone is that interested I can probably find the unit in my pile of unfinished ideas. -Michael -
Think about the size of a nose opening and it's exposure to relative wind versus the size of a cross-port. The nose is going to win every time. -Michael
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Somewhere in all of that jungle there is also wording to the effect of making an "intentional" parachute jump requires the TSO & reserve. This excludes the argument that a PEP rig would be legal to jump. It looks and quacks like a duck so you're going to have trouble convincing the FAA that it is something else. The pilot could claim that the guy was uncomfortable with ultralights so he allowed him to wear the parachute, then without authorization he jumped out. That would be a 1 time deal. It only takes one report of a prior jump to sink that ship too. -Michael
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I have a customer affected by: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4307686;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread That's the SB for his Vortex 2. I just packed the rig 5 weeks ago. I may be able to do the inspection without needing to repack the rig but the toggle repair may not be so easy. If the toggle must be removed I do not want to risk adding brake line twists. What would most riggers charge for these services? A complete repack + repair fees? Or do you try to save the packjob and charge some lesser fee? -Michael
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I apologise if this has been already answered because I skipped most of the bickering... Is anyone aware of hot fuelling being done in Canada (legally of course). I did speak to someone at TC only because I know the guy and he said there wouldn't be a snowball's chance in hell that it would be allowed in Canada. Obviously most of this discussion is related to FAA regs and such. Anything for us Canucks? -Michael
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Starting next year at my DZ all tandem video guys will be REQUIRED to have a CX-100 or similar and a DSLR (Rebel) or similar. My neck took a beating this year so I'm still trying to find something a lot lighter than my 50D but still up to the quality. Owners of these new iphone4s and gopro2's claim they're as good as a DSLR but when you put them up side by side it's absolutely night and day. It's like comparing build quality between Kia and Porsche. -Michael
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Although the OP question has already been answered I feel a far better approach would have been to power off 14h after the last change in pressure. I believe i brought this up with AAD a few years ago but was told that the unit has enough power and low enough drain to run continuously for several years. -Michael
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Mark, I don't know if you remember my ratty old blue & black Javelin, but I recently washed it and it looks a million times better. Maybe you could try this and see how the colour comes out before paying to have it re-done. -Michael
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If your car & gear goes missing make sure in the haste of dealing with finding serial numbers and photos and putting it up in the stolen gear database you don't accidentially post the wrong serial number. Potentially in this situation you could be sued if the owner of the gear with that serial number feels it hurt his reputation. Of course this is purely speculation of what could happen if you were in this position but it highlights the importance of accuracy in this sort of issue. -Michael
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I'm kinda siding with you on this one but it's not uncommon for little 120lb jumpers at do their 10th+ jump on a 150 sized canopy where I jump. Usually they will start on a 190. To the OP there is no way people on the interweb can judge what's appropriate for you. Ask the opinion of more than one instructor and if you're still not comfortable with their advice maybe go a size bigger. -Michael
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It's not the size that matters- its how you use it :P I've seen people with 15 jumps putting gopro's on their helmets. It's a big problem and while it might be a recommendation I don't think it's a BSR. -Michael
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I was hoping you'd find some serial eeprom on it where you could save a log of the jumps. As soon as I have more hours of spare time I might order one of those watches and contribute a bit. As a side project I was thinking of hacking the firmware in my L&B so it could do some extra special things :P -Michael
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Some organizers will say f-them it's their responsibility to stay with the group. Others will bust the formation open to go to the low jumper. In our informal 4 way group we usually try to get our speed up to help them get "up" to us as everyone should be working for a uniform goal. I think the choice needs to be made so it's appropriate for everyone's skill levels but there isn't really a hard and fast rule on this. -Michael
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Mounting a GoPro on the outside of plane
hackish replied to frequentfaller's topic in Photography and Video
I looked into that sort of thing in Canada. Unofficially I was told the difference is simply in how it's attached. Tape = no problem, any sort of permanent fixture is a nono. -Michael -
Why separate camera for stills and video?
hackish replied to jephprospect's topic in Photography and Video
I've looked into it pretty extensively with the ML project for higher end Canon cameras. The simple fact is that the hardware (sensors and frame buffer) is not able to do it yet. You can't move the sheer amount of data required for a high resolution frame in the required amount of time to get a clear and jello/blur free image. Stills are shot with a shutter that "exposes" the sensor and then in the few ms that follow the complete data is read. I am looking forward to the new mirrorless SLRs that are coming out as they will hold promise in much lighter setups. My neck is always sore from a BH flattop CX100 and 50D so I've been paying close attention. -Michael -
I've used Keystone as well and can second Jeffrey's comments. Very knowlegable and helpful. -Michael
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I like the shot of the round opening. You can see the self-reefing they do on opening. I wonder how much was left of the vehicle after a 22fps impact with terra firma. -Michael
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This question came up during the Javelin/SkyHook packing demo at the PIA in Reno 2009. Derek Thomas responded that to get a SkyHook fitted to a Javelin to send in the rig & a check for $267 and they would send you back a SkyHook equipped Jav. Hi Jerry, I think mine is too old - I asked once. This does bring up a valid point for the OP. Are there any other MARD systems that were finally offered? Althought the skyhook is the best researched out there maybe there are other options. -Michael
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Nice work! I took a quick look at the source and it's nice to see something well written, formatted and documented. Does the watch have any sort of NV storage associated with it? If so maybe you could also implement jump logging as well. -Michael
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I have a Vector 3 and a Javelin. I've had a lot of cutaways on the Jav. If it was available I would pay to have a skyhook installed in the Javelin too. I also find that a significant proportion of riggers also prefer the skyhook. Frequently you hear the canopy collision argument as fodder against the skyhook but understand the skyhook RSL can be disconnected as easily as any other RSL. Despite the arguments against, more lives have probably been saved with skyhooks than lost because of them. Some people will still argue against using an AAD too despite the lives saved because of them. Finally, the skyhook brings in another safety innovation with the colins lanyard that is also worth considering. Maybe give UPT and Sunrise Rigging a call and listen to what each has to say about your concerns and questions. -Michael
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I'm defnitely not saying the following is appropriate for you - only your instructors could answer that, but at some dropzones students of your size are started on 190's and their first rigs usually have something in the 170 size. I've seen some of the 120lb girls flying 150's on their 20th jumps without problems. This is only to say that the sabre 210 you consider is not outside the range of common beginner canopies flown at some DZs. -Michael