TampaPete

So that's a pass right? Congrats!

Sounds like more went right than you recognize. Relax and enjoy the ride.

That’s why the military practices real situations in extremely stressful conditions. These are my two benchmarks for not freezing. Both jumpers are right at the point of no return and make it out. The double mal is an experienced jumper. The cadet jumper is on his first jump. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpOCsQCKi7I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6klvGVtw-HA

Nigel – Just my opinion, but if you love your wife and she wants to be part of skydiving, teach her to pack. Military training, as Ridestrong points out, is done in a stressful environment to condition those who will not freeze how to complete the task under pressure. Those that repeatedly freeze during the training do something else. Mghanco, I too watch the Youtube cutaway videos. I want a library of mals in my head so I can look up and quickly say “this has got to go.”

Fun video to watch with various odd packs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i16HryVyRaI

Dave – A little business math: If I am going to pay someone $60k a year I need to collect $180k. $60k goes for salary and the other $120k goes to overhead (building rent, electric, water, companies portion of health insurance, paying the cleaning service, professional insurance, etc.). So, $180k per year equates to $30k per DZ.

My reaction too. The jumper in the video was very forthcoming with what happened. He’s in the thread. At our DZ everyone learns to spot. This thread reinforced checking the spot before you go.

Here’s a previous thread discussing spotting and what happens when you go on the green light. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=3934990;page=3;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25; Video of the incident. Watch the shadow of the deploying canopy against the mountain ridge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiGdqPfztsc

Something you may want to ask is if your arms are long enough to properly flare the canopy on landing. I’m pulling about 45 inches of brake line on full flare (from reaching the toggles on the risers to full arm extension below me). Blue skies, be safe.

It took six weekends. I did two consecutive Saturdays, skipped a Saturday and then three consecutive Saturdays. Dirt diving is practicing the dive on the ground (in the dirt) in the same sequence you’ll be expected to complete in the air. I dirt dived every AFF jump lots of times. Watch these videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_XpWCh8djc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_XpWCh8djc Blue skies, be safe

I’m closer to AFF than most of the others. Here’s what I did. One level per day mid morning. Spent the rest of the day reviewing the jump, practicing EP’s to develop muscle memory (as was stated earlier) and dirt diving the next jump lots of times. When I ran out things to do, I grabbed a chute and start learning to pack. During AFF I would pack next to a senior jumper and they would give me lots of instructions. Also, while you’re sitting there you’ll get lots of instruction through stories from the other jumpers. You learn a lot just being there and participating in the goings on at the DZ. Blue skies be safe

Hey Craig – Don’t be in such a hurry. You can get your A in a week (and safely), but I would recommend finishing your AFF in a week with about another 10 jumps max. If you pass all of your AFF jumps first time, that’s 15 jumps in 5 to 6 days. You’ll use one day for your FJC and your first jump. If you need to retake a couple of AFF jumps you’ll use more time dirt diving jumps. Say 17 jumps in 5 days. That’s good number of jumps. Take your time and enjoy the progression more. And do several dirt dives of your jumps during the week: from the plan to your EP’s.

18 - August 1976. 5 SOLO freefalls.

My DZO teaches the same pack method. I also did what Brian recommends in the video: pack the pilot both ways, pull on the bridle and watch which method clears and which method does not clear. His method cleared every time with ease. I also e-mailed Brian and he was quick to respond and discuss it with me. Try packing both ways and you’ll see for yourself.

The write-up from the Cypress saves list is below. This video was originally posted with sound. In that video you could hear a guy on the ground say something like “Holy $h1t” and the jumpers video camera picked up the voice. Why only one attempt at the silver handle is anyone’s guess. 24.May 2003 Germany, Gera Expert CYPRES After a normal freefall with separation in 1200 meters the skydiver attempts to pull his BOC pilotchute at approx. 900 meters, but does not find it. He decides to pull his cutaway handle. The first and only attempt to find the reserve handle is negative. At this moment the jumper decides to go into stable box - position and to wait for his CYPRES to activate. The skydiver was wearing camera and was filming the DZ hangar, which became bigger and bigger. 12 sec. canopy ride after CYPRES activation.

I still remember swinging in the harness going through hand deployment of the reserve while two instructors screamed at you. I bet I can still hand deploy a belly reserve.

Ron – That was my post, but it was a hypothetical question. My real question is “Do the tandem manufacturer’s have a minimum experience level for strapping on a hand cam.” I also referenced the thread were the tandem manufacturer’s are adamant about the minimum age for a student (18) and was wondering if they have a minimum number of jumps requirement before allowing HC with their systems.

Jim – An additional rating is an interesting question in itself. You haven’t chimed in on the “Letter from Tandem Manufacturer’s” thread. I think there is some connectivity between these two threads. Has anyone conferred with the Tandem manufacturer’s and solicited their opinion on hand cams? We know their opinion with respect to minimum age. What is their opinion with respect to hand cams. I would be interested in their point of view in relation to the safety aspects of hand cams and tandems. What if a hand cam entangles with the drogue and doesn’t allow a complete cutaway of the main and results in an entanglement with the reserve? Any thoughts?

I'm not a base jumper but I read Base 66 (birthday gift from my wife). It's a good read. I recommend it.

Two would only double the gyroscopic effect.

Faust Vrancic - Homo Volans Other early inventors designed parachutes, including Croatian Faust Vrancic who constructed a device based on Da Vinci's drawing. Faust Vrancic jumped from a Venice tower in 1617 wearing a rigid-framed parachute. Faust Vrancic published Machinae Novae, in which he describes in text and picture fifty-six advanced technical constructions, including Vrancic's parachute called the Homo Volans. http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/ss/Parachute.htm Base Jump first.

Here is Skydive Deland’s website with contact information. http://www.skydivedeland.com/ Here is Skydive City’s (Z-Hills) website. They have night jumps sometimes. http://www.skydivecity.com/index.html

We have a video guy at our DZ that packed a few thousand chutes before he ever jumped.

Hey Dave – I’d like to ask a question about I plane I thought might make a good jump plane. A low-hours (+-6,000 to 8,000 TT) Queen Air with Excalibur modifications can be purchased for under $200K. The Excalibur mod replaces the geared 540’s with normally aspirated 720’s. The fuel lines are replaced with armored lines also (eliminates the fire history). The QA Excalibur is generally noted to have similar performance to a King Air 90. Your thoughts?

Dave – I can understand why you guys were amazed at his presence in the air. He truly was at home in 3D space. One year we were at USTTA trampoline nationals in New Orleans. When we went to the gym there were three brand new trampolines for us to compete on. Two were Nissan tramps (the standard tramp for competition) and one was this yellow monster from I think Australia. We all tried a few jumps on the yellow submarine, as it was quickly nicknamed, and it was HOT! Tramps are designed to throw you back toward the middle but the yellow sub would throw you were ever it wanted to. We all chose to compete on the Nissans but not Bobby. Neely threw his routines on the yellow submarine. In finals he was in the middle of a very difficult routine when the yellow sub threw him off sideways. We didn’t even notice it until he landed on the floor on his feet and stuck the landing. Remember he stuck the landing from about 25 feet in the air. In the middle of the air in the middle of a double twisting double back summersault (two back flips with two twists all done together) Neely noticed he was gone and adjusted the trick to land on his feet on the floor (a really tough feat). When he stuck the landing he gave the big victory V with his arms that we all present at the end of the routine. The crowd went nuts. He had the best cat sense of anyone I’ve ever seen.