kevin922

Man.. I unfortunately missed this, but heard all about it. There is a jumper at my DZ which is fairly new (under 100 jumps, probably under 50 still) - when he only had 15 or so jumps I met him. He was reaaaal cocky trying to do head down on STUDENT gear with only 20 jumps behind him. I just knew then he was going to be a future statistic after he stated his attitude was "i'm not worried, if something goes wrong that's why I have a backup parachute" not to mention landed a canopy in trees (tore it up) and lost an altimiter in freefall. Anyway his luck caught up with him this weekend. I was on the beach watching the load come in there, another load was being put out back at the DZ. Evidentally he was doing some radical left & right turns @ about 500 feet (he uses a hornet 150 he weighs maybe 140 at most). He put the canopy into a line twist malfunction and I guess by instinct cut it away... by the time his reserve inflated he was at around 150 feet. I'm sure he's not going to be talking the shit he used to :) Some people just need to slow down and be safe. Blue Skies.

Well someone even made a post about a crazy nut trying to open the emergency exit while in flight but couldn't due to the pressurization (sp). So even if I wanted to jump (and was in the emergency exit isle) I am not strong enough to depressurize the cabin. At any rate, I was reminded while taxing and looking at the rears of 747s (with their stairs down) of not only the 7?7 jumps in quincy but also the whole robbery that took place years ago (can't recall the guys name) does anyone know what it takes to make it so those planes can open those stairs while in flight?? Kevin

Zennie - Funny you should post this. I was going to be taking a trip to england this summer on Delta so I called them. The lady had to put me on hold to talk to her supervisor about it (she had never heard of such a request) when she came back she said it would be okay (if it met all the carry on space requirements of course) but I could not sit in an exit row... (for real, they said this) :-)

Great idea ! :) http://www.interone.net should we vote as well?

Why the hell would you want to stand on your girlfriend's head?!!?

Note To Self: So I really can't open the emergency exit door while in flight. Damn. :-)

Ok guys, I need your help! After I made the comments about all the "Bad News" that dropzone.com was reporting, Sangiro wrote a nice post about "getting involved" with dropzone.com. So that is what i've done. I have lined up not one, but two telephone interviews with two very accomplished skydiving stuntmen. Troy Hartman (Sensless Acts of Video, MTV, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Coke, & various other commercials) as well as Carl Naspoli (Good Stuff, Charlies Angels Stunt Crew, and various other commercials) have both agreed to do an interview for dropzone.com. Here is what I need from you guys: I am going to be asking a series of questions that i've come up with, but I might be missing some good questions. What have you been dying to know about these guys? Respond to this forum and I'll make some notes, I plan on doing at least one of the interviews next week! Thanks for your help guys. Kevin

I've started doing camera jumping at a low # of jumps (around 70). I don't agree with the comment on start with tandems and students. I think due to the high unpredictibility of tandems as well as students they are the last you need to practice videoing with. You definately need to start with solos, and small ways - that is what i'm currently working on. Furthermore, I feel with the developments of smaller cameras - the need for large #'s of jumps in order to safely do camera flying has been reduced. Yes, there is still a large amount of safety concerns when having any camera gear on your head - but still, i feel if you are confident in your abilities and you know you're safe then go for it. Just my 2 cents.

You missed my point, it isn't a part of the site that ONLY experienced can view - but a part of the site where experienced know where to find it. I.e. not on the very front page. Anyone can view them, and even non experienced can find them if they look for them. That poll totally sucks. Of course everyone is going to vote for #1 according to how you worded it. Edited by kevin922 on 4/22/01 11:24 AM.

Perhaps we need some clarification from Sangiro as to how HE sees this site being setup. If it is like a newspaper, then yes the top news goes on the front page reguardless of type. However, newspapers (at least mine, nick named the Clarion Liar (instead of ledger) due to the large amount of mis-reported news that they report...) seem to be ruthless - they blow death way out of proportion because that is what the american society ironically lives off of. We are constantly going to see the new gruesome movie out (hey BTW, along came a spider is quite good, and morgan freeman is from my home state!), love to hear about the disfunctional familys jerry springer presents, and can't wait to read about the latest murder mystery. Okay, that may be a bit of a generalization but still part of it is true. I'm simply saying (and standing by my point) i personally saw/see this site as not only a tool for experienced jumpers (gear reviews, safety issues, and a place for exp. skydivers to hang out) but also as a resource for people wanting to get into the sport. I knew people would argue that if you get scared away from IRs then maybe you shouldn't be in the sport, but c'mon that isn't necessarily true. We are doing a sport that goes against all of our god given instincts, of course people who aren't doing the sport are going to be a little reserved about getting into it (unless you're just a "true" skydiver at heart :) ) but once they are into it they either love it or hate it. I think everyone should try a tandem once if nothing at all. For the person who made the point about moving the IRs to a place not as "in your face" saying that "how is that a way to remember your friend who died in the sport" (or some variation of that statement) - you'll have to take into consideration, (from what i've heard) just about after every one of these deaths they continue jumping that day, that urks me more than moving IRs. If someone died at my DZ the day i was jumping, I would stop jumping that day to sort of pay my respects to them.

Will, You are obviously a jumper with the same ideas as me as far as my personal views. I don't care (personally) about all of the incident reports, it isn't going to stop me from jumping. I can learn from them and such but i'm not going to stop jumping. HOWEVER - I still feel you are wrong in your statements about tandem masters and not loosing their lunch over an IR. Yeah they aren't going to go hungry, but i'm not looking at this from a money making point of view. I'm looking at this from the point of view that skydivers are not around every corner - they are a close nit community which has been progressively getting larger over the years (partially due to movies such as drop zone and the such). I personally like to see new people getting into the sport, and would love to see it grow. The more people involved the more different talents you will bring into the sport thus new innovative things will come out of it (take dropzone.com for example, the talent of a few people who are skydivers put together a great resource online for jumpers). Who the hell knows, the guy who gets interested tommorow may be the guy who thinks up the thing that makes hook turns safe *shrug*. A computer that can bail you out if you do something stupid? Hey, it could happen - and it could happen from the engineer who just thought it would be fun to do a tandem one weekend. I live by a few mottos in life: "f!ck it", "be careful of the feet you step on today, they might be connected to the a$$ you have to kiss tommorow" "what goes around comes around" and finally "you never get a second chance to make a first impression". DZ.com may be the first impression some people get from skydiving, and if an IR is the first thing they read it will stick with them - now you could argue that is good and bad, good because maybe they'll be super safe when skydiving or bad because they won't do the tandem they were thinking about. I will try and do my effort to help out around here and submit some storys.. I've talked off and on with troy hartman in the past (The Sensless Acts of video (MTV)) parachutist and probably can interview him with no problem... At any rate, I still don't think those incident reports need to be front page. I understand the delimmas with finding stories and such - but I don't see the problem with putting the incident reports in a seperate section.

Oh by all means I sincerely think that skydivers need to know about these things - i'm simply saying that it should be in a spot that the experienced people know about, not on the front of the website where it is the first thing everyone sees.

C'mon.. dropzone is turning into the Incident Reports page that Parachutist no longer has. I think it is important to learn from others mistakes and what not, but it seems like I sit on the edge of my seat to see what the new "FrontPage" of dropzone.com is going to be - and undoubtedly it seems to have something about a person dying every time. (This update has 2 such articles, one of which doesn't even state the source of the article, date or where the alleged incident even occurred). Again, I'm not saying we shouldn't all learn from these incidents or forget those who die doing the sport - but c'mon. Lets have some good news as well. What really is motivating me to write this is this scenario: Lets say you are someone interested in getting in the sport - searching for parachuting on yahoo (Recreation > Outdoor > Skydiving) brings up what? dropzone.com. (#1). So you go to dropzone.com to find out about the sport and the first thing you see are 2 notices about people who have died from the sport. You think that person will continue their interest in the sport? Parachutist (when they had the IRs) didn't stick it on the front cover, I don't think dropzone.com should either. Dropzone.com has become (In my opinion) one of the best resources for experienced skydivers as well as for those who are interested in getting into it. I would hate to think it is deterring more people than encouraging them. Just my opinion.

I just started camera flying as well.. I use a bonehead mindwarp with the PC5 dbox with the PC5 mini dv camera. Starting off doing solos and such, haven't worried to much about a still camera mount. I'm thinking eventually there will be no need for still cameras - with the improvement of still from Mini DV capabilities (like that with the PC5) as well as on site photo printers (which are like under 500 now) you won't need the still cam. Anyway that's just what I have...

He had enough time to land fine.. took his camera helmet off turned it around and said "i'm f*cking done for today" :) that would just freak me out man.. I don't know the whole story as far as the rigger and such.. but the video was enough to make me think twice about the kind of sport i'm in to.

Man, I recently was skydiving in TX @ Skydive Spaceland and was reviewing some of the videos they had there.. They showed me one of this guy who deployed and had a broken steering line I believe -- he waved at the canopy and then chopped it.. deployed the reserve and had a lineover.. he faught the thing to about 300 feet or so and it corrected itself... it was crazy.. can you imagine a double malfunction!?

What is the deal with these shirts? I haven't seen any of them, just heard about them.. what is on them?

Sorry, that was me who posted that comment.. wasn't logged in at the time :)

I use adobe premiere, but it is the type of software you will pull your hair out trying to learn. It isn't as easy as 1,2,3.. Also make sure you have a beefy machine to run it - it takes a good bit of disk space, memory, and processing power.

Hey man.. you can thank your country's strict laws on that one. The PAL version was designed that way due to some UK "copyright" laws or something. I read about it in an issue of T3 or some other tech magazine. No way around it that I know of, that was how the UK version was designed. Kevin

Well you'd just be on your back, I don't have any problem staying somewhat stable on my back. How is the parachute gonna wack you on deploy if you're on your back when you deploy it? Like I said, it has been done with the old reserves.. they didn't get wacked (well my dad had 3 reserve rides, he didn't mention getting wacked on deploy). I've tried my rig on backwards.. it is somewhat uncomfortable around the neck but if you're on your back, again I don't know how bad it would be. I saw on some video a guy under a round attached to his chest strap - he cut away and did a freefall from that and deployed his normal chute.. that looked awesome too :)

Hey guys.. I know I might get burned here for asking this, but I've been brainstorming all kinds of crazy stuff to do with parachuting. My dad (who no longer takes part in the sport) was a D-Licensed skydiver who jumped rounds (they didn't have square back then). The reserves for these rigs were chest mounted, I got to thinking about the emergency procedures for that and how you had to be on your back to deploy the reserve and what not. Sooooo.. here's my idea. Has anyone thought about putting their main on backwards and wearing their rig on their chest for an on-the-back deployment? I know the emergency procedures would be hell on that one since the handles will be behind you - perhaps with some modifications or what not it would be safer. At any rate, i'm not planning on trying this - just curious. :) 'Kevin

I've actually talked with Troy a few times via email, he seems like a pretty cool guy - would love to do some of the stuff he does w/parachutes... (Like get my rig paid for by MTV) :)

What's the point? Most Mini DV cameras can grab any frame from the video and turn it into a picture. Furthermore, minidvs which take pictures take a few seconds to actually write the image to the memory stick or what not.. Before I got my PC5 i was really interested in such a thing, but now that I know how the PC5 works - it would actually be more of a hinderance. just my opinion tho. I haven't played with the other DVs, but I know about sony.