davelepka

Pay the DZ, and see what happens. There are several reasons for this. First, the size canopy you need for your first 10 jumps is 1.5 times the size you need from jump 25 or 30 onward. You start with a 'giant' canopy, stick with that for a handful of jumps, then start to work your way down to just 'really big'. If you try to buy your own student rig, it would need to hold a student sized canopy, which would make it way too big for your personal rig. If you're a smaller person, you want to go with the smallest rig possible once you get your own stuff. Not the smallest rig they make, just the smallest that will hold the canopies you need to jump. If the rig is too large, it will overhang your body and be in the airstream while you are in freefall. Having all or most of your rig behind your back, and out of the airstream, is a good thing. Next, once you get a rig, micro-size the harness, modify the deployment system and risers to suit you, it's going to be worth very little in terms of resale. it almost certainly need the harness resized and the mods reversed if you wanted to sell it, so once you factor those costs into your resale price, the rig itself will won't be worth much. The solution is to buy the right rig, have the mods done the right way, and jump it until it's old and worn out, and worthless based on that. With zero jumps under your belt, it's impossible for anyone to know what type of rig and mods will be right for you, whcih brings me to my last point. You're going to be needing a unique rig to get in the sky, but there are probably ten different ways to put that rig together. Exactly which way to pick is anyone's guess at this point, but after 10 or 15 (or more) jumps, and talking with the instructors and riggers about your experience and the performance of the rig, everyone will know 100x more about how to build a rig to suit you and your needs. This will go a long way toward making sure your rig is built right, and that you end up with the best option possible.

I'm guy who brought up the idea that some jumpers don't have a choice with regards to where they jump if they want to jump at all. The idea comes from my personal situation, which is as follows. There are two DZs within an hour of where I live. The one is actually just over an hour, the other is closer to a half hour, but that's because I moved to the other side of town to be closer to this DZ. In all fairness, they are both about the same distance from the center of town. Either way, one of them is a turbine DZ known for generally being a 'safe' DZ. They lease a plane from a part 135 cargo/charter operation that runs one of the top maintenece shops in the area, and own a 182 that's maintained by a shop and A&P that I know. The 182 is nice enough that the DZO keeps the seats in the hanger, and re-installs them to fly his young children to fly-in's and pancake breakfasts while we a busy jumping the turrbine. Without going into details, the other DZ lacks the turbine, or all of the extenuating circumstanes outlined above that lead me to believe that the aircraft is well maintained. They lack the lift capacity and confidence I have in the aircraft of the other place. The nearest turbine DZ otherwise is just over two hours in either direction, and I would be happy to jump in either place, but I'm on call for my 'day job' every other weekend, and can't drive 2+ hours out of town and still be available to work in a timely manner. On the alternating weekends, I have visitation with my kids and sometimes spend a half day at the DZ, sometimes not at all. The end result is that if I didn't jump at the DZ where I do, I wouldn't be jumping very much at all. I could rework some areas of my life to make it more viable to drive the 2+ hours to get to another 'viable' DZ, but even then I would be lucky to get out there once a month. Factor in weather, and other things that 'come up', and I'd be looking at making 50 jumps per season. I'm not saying that anyone who makes 50 jumps per season shouldn't be jumping, I'm just saying that it wouldn't be worth it for me to rework my life and dedicate the time it would take for me to make 50 jumps a year. In my current situation, I manage closer to 200 jumps a year, and that's without building my life around jumping. The point is that things are more complicated than they seem online. People sometimes do have to make a hard choice, and sometimes that choice is jump someplace owned by someone you don't agree with, or not jump at all. Anyone remotely dedicated to jumping should have no problem making that choice. Nothing lasts forever, things will change sooner or later, and if you're planning to be around the sport for a while, DZs and DZOs will come and go, and the next round might be better or it might be worse, but in the meantime, it's not worth giving up the sport.

Honesty? I've mentioned before that skydiving is not like going out for a burger. There are not DZ on every street corner, so sometimes it's either take what you can get, or just don't jump. So if you get stuck jumping at a DZ that happens to be owned by the Skyride crew, you would admit it becasue it's ture. That said, it doesn't mean that the person is happy with the situation. Of course, you can't come online and post how much you despise the DZOs, and how they do business, and what they stand for, or esle you risk going to back to the concept of not jumping if you do post your true feelings and the DZO finds out and gives you the boot. Again, let keep in mind that the majority of jumpers are good folks that we all have something in common with. If you go to AST on any given weekend, I would gather it would look just like any other DZ, full of interesting people, young and old, having a good old time. The tandems and students are the money, not the fun jumpers. In truth, a DZ could run smoother and faster without fun jumpers provided they have the tandem volume to fill the plane once or twice and hour. Beyond that, by only flying high profit tandems and students, a DZO could probably get another season or two out of hot section becuase of the reduced number of loads. Fun jumpers are a love/hate thing with DZOs. Half the time they're clogging up the system slowing down how fast they can turn the tandems, and the other half of the time they fill in the nooks and crannies on light loads. I worked at a DZ where ALL the fun jumpers grouped up and went to the Richmond boogie every year, and the staff all agreed that weekend ran smoother than any other weekend of the season. Demonizing the fun jumpers, their boogie, or any industry company that donates a door prize is really just dumb. It's a DZ, they're just jumpers like the rest of us, and yes, the DZO is a scumbag (along with 30 other DZOs across the country who also happen to be scumbags).

Just for reference, some EMTs use the formula that any fall from more then 3 times the height of the patient is considered 'severe'. Using that formula, anything between 15 and 20 would qualify as a 'severe' fall for most people. Let's keep in mind that once you land in a tree, you're no longer skydiving. You landed, and are now back to being a non-flying creature. So while 40 or 50 ft up in a tree doesn't sound like much in the world of skydiving, it's well over twice what would be considered a severe fall. A botched rescue can easily injure or kill an otherwise healthy (but stuck) jumper. So in terms of calling or not calling 911, choose carefully, and remember that the well-being of the jumper is the top priority. Just like a guy with a crushed skull and sucking chest wound gets the $30k helicopter ride, maybe the guy in the tree gets the professionals and deals with the 'bill' later.

Just for fun, I read the comments before looking at the photos. I was not disappointed. Do not jump that. There's a reason you don't see ANYTHING that looks like that,or is constructed like that, or uses materials like that. The reason is that it will not work, will not protect anything, will do more harm than good to you, your gear, other peoples gear, and other peoples bodies. If you really want to side mount the camera, get real and side mount it. Remove the thing from the 'post' that extends it out from the halmet, tuck it in close and build or modify a box that flush moutns to the side of the helmet. Other jumpers aside, you have some very unfriendly materials and shapes in the direct vicinity of your 'deplyment areas'. Just because you can't see it happening behind you, less than a foot from your head there are all sorts of things going on in the case of a main deployment, cutaway, or reserve deployment. It doesn't take much for that distance to be reduced to zero, the riser slap is a prime (and probably the most harmless) example. Those happen on a standard deployment where all other things are 'normal'. Fast forward yourself to a cutaway and reserve deployment where there's a good chance that things will not be 'normal', and the consequences of a snag or entanglement are much worse. See where this is going? Before you build anything else, mock it up with cardboard and take a good look at it. If it's not something you would want on your head when cutting away, unstable at 1000ft., then it's not something you want to jump at all.

Deland is a very large airport, and they don't seem to mind sharing a good bit of that space with the DZ for landing areas. More typical is a smaller (than Deland) dedicated landing area, with lots of open areas nearby you can land in if you need to. Everyone tries to land in the 'regular' landing area, so that's where your traffic will be concentrated, and where a big canopy and higher opening altitude will help out. There's a similar phenomenon that happens on a smaller scale, which is within the 'regluar' landing area, there will be an even greater concentration of jumpers landing in the quadrant nearest to the hanger/packing area/runway crossing. That's where the saying comes from, "Better to walk 300 ft. then to be carried 30 ft.", meaning that you take your chances trying to land close, and may need an ambulance one day because of it. Land out in the sticks, and you'll have a long, lonley walk back, but at least you'll still be able to walk.

Overall, just go to the DZ and see they want you to do. You've managed to survive 100's of BASE jumps, and it sounds like you have the right attitude about coming back to the DZ. You realize it's a different game than it was 20 years ago, and it's a different game than BASE jumping. If you just take your time, and ease back into the swing of things, I'm sure you'll be fine. Equipment wise, jump the student rigs at the DZ to start off with. Don't worry about 7 or 9 cells for now, all the student canopies will be big enough and slow enough that it won't make a big difference to you. Keep in mind you're going to be under canopy for 2 to 3 minutes, landing in a large open field in broad daylight, not the most challenging of situations. Also, traffic-wise it won't be as bad as you think. As a 'student' or solo with a higher pull altitude, you'll be getting out last-ish, and jumping a larger canopy you'll be landing last-ish. Both of which add up to the majority of canopies (especially the small, fast ones) will already be on the ground. I'm not saying you don't need to be mindful of traffic, just that the bulk of it will be down before you when you first get back in the sky. Once you start jumping with others you'll move up in the exit order, and when you start jumping a smaller canopy you'll be landing more mid-pack, but that's why you start slow and ease into those things. By the time you get there, you'll have adapted to the situation, and be able to handle it no problem. Best advice so far - don't jam your canopy in a stash bag and run for the car when you land.

Your situation, or how you presented it, is confusing. If you need to make a ton of jumps, the answer si smiple, go to a DZ and jump. There are DZs that fly virtually all day, every day, go to one of them and stay until you have as many jumps as want. I'm not sure what being a packer has to do with any of this, but if the idea is that you can make money packing to pay for those jump, then it seems that your problem is needing the money for the jumps, not where to make the jumps. In that case, join the club. There are very few jumpers who are not limited by the financial aspect of the sport. Either they don't have the cash to jump as much as they wany, or they don't have the time because they're too busy working. That said, what the hell is wrong with you that after 100+ jumps you can't pack well enough to be a packer? if the answer is that you don't usually pack for yourself, you're answer is right in front of you - stop spending money on packers, and learn to do it for yourself and in turn, do it for others so you can make that jump money you need.

The gear itself doesn't have to be modified for it to be considered a test jump, in this case it was the jump that was modified, and that most certainly makes it a test jump. The drouge/bridle system was not designed for wingsuiting. The handles, their placement, and direction of pull were not designed with for wingsuiting, and the concept of strapping two jumpers together was not disgned with for wingsuiting. The fact that you, or this TI can't seem to grasp that is the real problem. Just because it's 'kind of' like a skydiving rig, and the jump was 'kind of' like a solo wingsuit jump does not make it OK. It's new, unique, and UNTESTED. He was lucky that she did, and lucky that things went the wat he thought they would go. What would have happened if things didn't go the way he thought? What ability did that passenger have to adapt to an unknown, unusual circumstance? The answer is none. You see it all the time in students. They get an idea in their head, and stick to it no matter what happens. Sometimes they confuse 'legs out' with 'legs in' and they plant their feet on their ass for the entire jump. They are doing what (they thought) they were told, and sticking to it for the entire jump, but since they don't know how to evaluate the situation, and apply corrective actions, they do it wrong for the entire jump. You or I would notice that we were head high and back sliding, then we would simply put our legs out to counter that. If the instruction given to the student turned out to be incorrect, that's all you would have gotten out of her for the entire jump. Somebody mentioned that earlier, and I take that to be the truth. I have no information that there was anything going on between the two of them, I only asked becasue it has happened before.

What taxes? City tax to the city that provided the rescue? Yeah, the taxes should cover that. City tax and federal tax to a city and a federal gov that contributed nothing to the rescue? I'm not sure how you figure the one thing should cover the other. I live in a city that will NEVER have to pay to rescue a skydiver from anywhere (unless it's a really bad demo jumper) becasue the nearest DZ is 50 miles away. The city that DZ is in happens to be a tiny little farming community in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't have a GA airport, we jump out of a private field that's just a converted corn/soybean field. So this tiny community, with it's tiny little tax base is supposed to foot the bill for every skydiver that gets themselves into trouble? I'm not sure how that adds up. I do feel that it needs to be declared ahead of time that the local police/fire/rescue reserve the right to charge a fair and equitable fee for services rendered. Notify the DZ, who will then post a conspicuous sign or include a blurb in their waiver. The jumpers agree to be responsible for the 'excessive' part of any rescue that creates 'excessive' costs to the city, and the city agrees to only enforce the policy when costs become excessive and to only charge enough to put the costs to the city back in the 'not so excessive' range. Both parties agree to split the cost of an independent auditor to review the itemized bill from the city, and make any corrections deemed neccesary.

Here's the problem, you're not supporting liars, theives, and hucksters by subscribing to BSM. The people at BSM are none of the above. BSM isn't supporting liars, theives, and hucksters by sponsoring the boogie, they're supporting the jumpers who are putting on the boogie. I don't think those jumpers are liars, theives or hucksters (for the most part). You could say that those jumpers themselves are supporting lairs, thieves and hucksters, but that might be a stretch and they might not have another viable option for a place to jump. If you think the fun jumpers are the ones paying the bills at a Skyride DZ, you need to re-examine the Skyride business model. In any case, BSM is several steps disconnected from Skyride, and are really just supporting the jumpers at the boogie. How about a letter to the editor? If they're journalists, they'll either print or respond to your letter, because journalists don't hide from the truth, they seek it. If they ignore you, then maybe they are what you think they are, and then you cancel your subscription.

I don't think anyone thinks anything bad about for buying the rig, or intending to resell it. If anything, it's good to have it in the hands of an honest, current jumper, so if we do find out it's stolen, the owner can recover it for minimal cost. It's only natural to be suspicious of cheap, nice gear on Craigslist. Cheap, nice gear anywhere is 'iffy', but on CL where you generally don't see skydiving stuff, it makes it look a guy is trying to pawn it off outside the normal channels where gear is bought and sold. Check the SN with Sunpath, and if all is clear, you lucked out big time. If it really only has 20 jumps and is complete with pilot chute, reserve pilot chute and freebag, and risers, then it's worth at least $500, maybe more. You could probably do really well looking to trade it for a bigger rig that would suit your needs. It's a perfect size for a second rig, so if you can find a jumper looking to downsize from their first rig, you guys can trade and both be in business. Whatever happens, good score.

In terms of fires, which you have referenced several times, the owner of the structure on fire pays property taxes to that municipality on that property, and those taxes go toward paying for police and fire departments to protect the property. That's why they don't get charged seperately, they're already paying the bill even before the fire. In terms of auto accidents, it does get a little fuzzier there, but I think the bottom line is that automoblie transportation is a given in this country, and the risk associated is an accpeted part of life. If a municipality wants to have roads that run through it, providing an avenue (no pun intended) for consumers to come in to the city, and they want to accept state or federal funds to help maintain those roads, then they need to be willing to accept the costs related to possible accidents within their borders. They also have the option to lower speed limits and increase enforcement to minimize the number and scope of those accidents, thus limiting the financial outlay of the 'clean up'. While I don't like the idea of it, I have trouble blaming the city for wanting to bill a person from another city, who comes in to town, engages in a high-risk recreational activity, and then requires the use of city resources to save themselves from harm. I do think that the costs should be closely watched, and that the tax income the DZ provides should be considered in determining the final bill to the injured party. It shouldn't be a 'free for all' for the city to profit off of the rescue, and shouldn't be billed at the commercial rate of hiring private tree climbers and ambulance services, but if you're going to jump, you need to be responsible for the risks, to include the cost of rescue and health care if an incident should occur. That said, the jumper should hire a lawyer and fight case. I don't think there was an agreement in place to exchange money for rescue services. Even if it's not dismissed, it will get the charges closely examined, and most likely significantly reduced.

I think posting this thread put it into the world of skydivers, and JohnRich was kind enough to get us the serial number. I think it's public enough, and if the buyer didn't see the rig in the stolen gear section of this website, and nobody has stepped forward to claim it as their own (just yet), I think the buyer is in the clear in terms of resale. If it does turn out to be stolen, I think the buyer should be willing to return it to the rightful owner for just the cost of his expenses ($50 + time to pick it + plus time and costs to ship), so no more than $100. But if it's not posted online as stolen, and nobody claims it before the seller can pass it on for a profit, then I think he's in the clear from an ethics standpoint. There are a variety of ways that a container could come into the hands of a non-jumper. It might have been left behind after a move, or come out of an unpaid storage unit. If it was a complete rig, I'd be more suspicious, but individual components are easier to understand as 'misplaced'. Once you get past the point of needing to sell your rig to buy a another, it easy to forget all about thaty huge J1 in your closet when you have a sweet NJ or TNJ to jump every weekend.

I know, which is why I said it's sort of a 'grey' area in terms of bad it really is for BSM to donate to the boogie. I think part of what people aren't thinking about is that BSM is the only independent publication we have here in the states since the demise of Skydiving Mag. The whole point of the mag, and what people like about it is that it doesn't have to toe any 'company line' like Parachutist does. That's why they cover BASE jumping, and show Mirage ads that some people find offensive, becasue they can. So if you ask for an independent, 'no limits' type magazine, don't be surprised if they do something that pushes your own personal buttons. Again, they're not coming out and supporting Skyride directly, or endorsing what they do, they just donated some swag to a boogie at a DZ in Alabama. I'm as anti-skyride as they come, but like I said, this is issue is a little 'iffy' for me. As much as I'd like to wish bad things on any person or DZ related to Skyride, it's still a DZ full of (mostly) harmless local jumpers, just looking to have a fun boogie with some door/raffle prizes.

I wonder if he paid the full $50, or talked the guy down a bit? In reality, I'd be interested to know if he asked the seller where he go it? Maybe after he paid, and on his way out of the door, but it would have been a good question to ask.

A shoebox is rounder than a Porter. Seriously, looking good. Can't wait to see it fly.

I think they own the DZ. The way I read it, this is not a 'Skyride' boogie, it's a DZ boogie. I know that the Skyride guys own the place, but it's still a DZ full of fun jumpers who want to jump just like everyone else. It's also not 'Blue Skies Mag presents The Skyride Boggie', it's a DZ boogie that Blue Skies Mag is 'helping' to sponsor. This usually means they donated a couple of subscriptions or T-shirts to be used as door/raffle prizes. If the case was that BSM was the main sponsor/huge contributor to something called 'The Skyride' boogie, or something of the sort, that would be one thing, but the real truth of the matter seems to be something considerably less than that. Does that make it OK? I'm not sure, but it's something to think about. That's always been an area I have mixed feelings about the Skyride deal. I know they own a couple of DZs, and of course I wish them nothing but poor business performance, but in the mean time those DZs are full of fun jumpers who are regular people just looking to have fun. I'm sure if you showed up there on any given day it would be just like any other DZ, jumping and fun times in general. Sometimes it's the only DZ within reach, or people have other reasons they can't take their money elsewhere, so the decision becomes jump there or not at all, in which case I cannot blame them for jumping there. We all know that tandems/students drive the business of a DZ and that fun jumpers are barely profitable. Even if those people did 'vote with their feet' and go elsewhere, the DZ would still be there turning loads all day. The staff of those DZs, likewise, do have some of the same thing going on. I'm sure that some of them are stuck with those DZs being their only practical choice for jumping, so it's either there or not at all. I also know that plenty of weekend intructors use their DZ work to pay for their all of their fun jumps/equipment, so if they don't have a paying slot at a DZ, they can't afford to jump otherwise. Again, the Skyride owned DZ might be their only choice. My feelings about the staff are FAR less warm and fuzzy then about the fun jumpers, but I'm sure there are some of them who are stuck between a rock and a hard place. That said, there are also fun jumpers and staff alike who are well aware of who owns the place, what they do, and don't give two shits about it. Some of them even seem to enjoy flaunting those facts as if it makes them 'cool' to jump/work with the 'bad guys'. In the end, BSM is probably just donating some prizes to the pile for a DZ boogie, a boogie which has nothing to do with Skyride in the sense that Skyride sells tandems and boogies are for licensed jumpers. It's another one of the 'grey' areas the Skyride debacle has created. Does anyone plan to boycott any company that sends a door prize to this boogie? What if it's PD? Airtec? Bonehead? Is anyone going to sell their canopies and AAD?

Negative ghostrider. The bag stays with the container, so anything you can't fit into the bag, you can't fit into the container. The bag is cut so that it's the same size as the inside of the container. If you use a bigger bag, the container flaps won't fit around it, and if you just pull on them until they do, you can blow the grommets right out of the flaps. As for what will, or won't, fit into your container, it sounds like you'll be fine.

Not exactly. If there is an already existing DZ at an airport, and another DZ wants to open and have an LZ on the other end of the airport, that represents a much bigger problem than one DZ in one area of an airport. With two LZs and two planes dropping jumpers at the same time, there is no longer a 'safe zone' anywhere near the airport where pilots can expect clear air. When you factor in an already busy airport with an already busy DZ, you can see where trying to add another, seperate DZ to the field might be problematic.

In that case, FFE should have kept their mouths shut, and not distributed their version of the details regarding the event via mass e-mail to Ranch jumpers. As far as I can tell, TK only chimed in here to defend himself, and has done nothing in the way of revealing previously unknown details. True, however FFE admits that they proposed a rate hike, which means that it was not a part of the origianl agreement. If it was part of the original agreement, it would not have been proposed, but simply implemented at the scheduled date. I think the fact that really skews this in the favor of SDC is that any decisions made by SDC are the result of the partners voting and the majority ruling. What this means is that it's not the personal motivations of one single person driving the decision making, it's the collective motivations of the majority of the partners. The chances that all of the partners, some of whom have been in business and partners with Billy for a very long time, are all basing their decisions purely on the basis of screwing over FFE is very slim. Much slimmer than the chances that Billy, the sole decision maker for FFE, is making his decisions based somewhat on a personal basis.

I'm guessing that the kid that almost got killed in Lodi exiting in a climb had something to do with it. Everyone and their mother insisted that the kid was briefed multiple times on the exit, and he still dinged the elevator. The truth is that when you look at the situation, between the jumpers and the pilot, the pilot is clearly the more highly trained of the two. Additionally, trimming the aircraft is a strighforward procedure and can be more reliably performed than a specific type of exit, and if the PIC has any trouble trimming the aircraft, they can simply not turn on the light and go around for another try. If the jumper fails to perform correctly, there is no go-around. Once you have made an improper exit, you're stuck with whatever follows, possibly to include a tailstrike. As mentioned many times in the past, there are jumpers capable of exiting on a climbing pass, but there are also jumpers who are not. The way to avoid problems is to properly trim the aircraft for exit, something that every pilot is capable of doing with a high (almost 100%) degree of reliability.

By my measure, a wingsuit tandem is also a stunt jump made with untested gear. No difference there. It might not be so bad if all involved were willing to admit that it was nothing more than that. Not a 'safe' wingsuit jump with a paying customer, but a stunt with a passenger who had made a large number of tandems. The fact is that you simply cannot do a wingsuit tandem jump with the same level of safety you can provide on a standard tandem jump, even with an experienced wingsuiter as the passenger. The testing simply has not been done, and the risks are not known. I supposed this is as good a time as any to ask, but what was the relationship between the TI and the passenger? Guys have done dumber things to get laid, or continue getting laid, and seeing as the passenger was a felmale, it seems like a reasonable question.

It was nice to see this in writing, and in bold print no less - The part about restraint systems was also nice to see, but you mean to tell me that the FAA couldn't get their hands on a jumper with a tight jump suit and an actual rig for the photos showing the proper attachment and orientation of the belts?

Then don't. Buy a used container, jump it for a year and see how you feel then. If you find yourself thinking about a smaller canopy, maybe you can fit one in your rig or maybe you buy a smaller rig. If you still feel like you'll never want to go smaller than a 190, use your increased level of experience and knowledge to pick out the best rig that 2012 has to offer. Unless you are very oddly sized, you can find a great fitting used container. Even if you are oddly sized, you can have a used harness resized to fit you perfectly, and have the total price of the used container plus the resize still be less than half the cost of a new one. If you buy new right away, and quickly find out that you will want to go smaller, you're going to lose a ton of cash selling a 1 year old container with not too many jumps on it. Containers are like cars in that if you buy a new one, you need to keep it and use it for a few years in order to get your moneys worth when it comes time to sell it. A word on 'custom' fit harnesses, there really only a handful of harness sizes they make. For an oddly shaped person, they might bump a measurement here of there out a bit, or cut the leg straps or pads a little long, but when they say 'custom' it's not custom fit like a tailored suit. They don't test fit it, and pin it here or there to cut it just right, they look at your measurements and slot you into the closest size that will work for you. Again, if you're anywhere near normal proportions, you'll be able to find a rig that fits. In terms of the size, you can freefly in any size container if it's freefly friendly. You may find in a year and 100 jumps that you prefer to carry around, and fly in, a smaller, lighter, more aerodynamic rig, but from a functionality standpoint, the size of the rig does not matter.