davelepka

Nice. Here's a fun thought - what if you used nylon screws to hold the mount on, the same type used on a ringsite, the same type designed to shear off in the case of an entanglement? Look at it this way, if you cutaway the helmet, you lose the $400+ helmet (helmet + chin cup + cutaway) and the $250 camera. If the camera mount shears off, you only lose the camera. I'm only kidding (sort of) but that fact that the cost of the cameras is so low, even less then the helmet itself, you can see where it's an idea. A concentric ring site actually costs more than a HoPro (I think), and they mount those so they disappear in an entanglement, so why not the HoPro? Of course, you would still want the chin cup and cutaway, so you would need to buy those anyway. There's also the chance that the helmet and camera will still be entangled with your main when you find it, so you would have lost nothing, and the idea that the prominently protrouding HoPro is more likely to be bumped and shear off accidentally then a low profile ring site, but it's still fun to wonder...

Of course. The whole thing sounds like a rush job to me. More like a class trip or a guided tour as opposed to a honeymoon. A honeymoon should be a little more 'loose' in the planning. Go someplace with plenty to do, and no real plans to do any of it.

If you fly direct from Houston to London, it's a 9 hour flight. Factor in time at both airports, and you're looking at 11 or 12 hours of travel time, more if you have a layover. So round trip, you're looking at 24 hours of travel time, plus 4 hours round trip on the train, all in the course of 6 days. Then, if you think about it, once you include time at the train station and checking in/out of hotels, you really only end up with 1.5 days in each city at best. It doesn't seem like enough time by a long shot, and then yes, add in time for your 'honeymoon time', and you're not going to see much of anything. Maybe just go to Paris of you're really 'married' to the idea of Europe. It would save the day of travel running back and forth through the Chunnel, and give you a solid 3.5 or 4 days in the city. Better yet, book a super saver deal to Bermuda or Jamaica. It's a half day of travel each way, and you can pop for a beach side room with a private terrace, eat like kings (and queens), and probably save $1000 over the trip across the pond.

Make your first s-fold, then find a way to secure it. You can put a knee on top of it, but be sure that your knee is centered, pushing straight down, and only pushing down hard enough to hold it in place (don't 'sit' on the canopy, support your weight on your other knee). Either way, before you make the second s-fold, 'dress' the remaining portion of the canopy one more time. What I mean is, push out all of the air, size it to the same width as the D-bag, and get it all flattened out before you try to make the s-fold. The idea is that while you are making the first s-fold, and working with the bottom part of the canopy, the top part is taking on air and spreading itself back out. If you go to fold it right away, you're folding something that's not the right size or shape to give you a final bundle that will fit in the d-bag. So rework the top part before you fold, and the bundle should be closer to what you want. Speaking of the bundle, remember to size the canopy to the width of the d-bag before making any folds. It will expand a little as you work with it, but that's what you want. If you can get the final bundle to be an inch bigger then the d-bag all around, once you squeeze it in there, it will fill the bag completely and evenly. If you size the canopy smaller than the d-bag before you fold it, your final bundle will be narrow and tall compared to the d-bag. Now you're trying to fit a square-ish bundle into a more rectangular bag. The corners will be soft (or empty) and it wll be hard to close the flap.

I hope not. To clarify, proper stall recovery should be the first priority if you should find yourself in a stall anywhere near the ground or under your hard deck. Prolonging a stalled condition will increase the risk of line twists due to asymetrical input or recovery, and minimizing that under your hard deck goes a long way toward preventing you from being too low to cutaway with the possibility of a canopy you cannot safely land. I would hope that student canopies are tuned such that stalling them is not a concern, and by the time a jumper has advanced to their own gear, they would be familiar with stalls and stall recovery, and would have properly set and become accustomed to the stall point of their personal canopy at a safe altitude.

I disagree this 100%. Raising the toggles allows the jumper to get behind the canopy and allow it to dive (recovering speed). In order to arrest that dive, the jumper needs to first stop that rearward swing, reverse direction and begin the forward swing (pitching the nose up), and swing forward to a point beyond the center of the canopy. Landing any time before the jumper is forward of the center of the canopy will result in an impact equal to, or greater than, full flight. It is true that you can modulate the degree you raise the toggles and when you resume the falre, but doing that successfully is dependent on the jumper being very familiar with the flight characteristics of their canopy, not something you can say of a student, or any newer jumper. The better advice is that the flare stroke is a one-way street. You can move the toggles down, and you can stop, but you cannot go back up again. If you find yourself having begun the flare stroke too high, hold the toggle position where it is, prepare for a PLF, and make sure you complete the flare stroke fully before impacting the ground. A full flare from full flight is big movement made from a 'fast moving' platform. As such, timing it properly can be tricky, and takes time to develop that skill. However, if you being the falre early, and stop part way through, you are now both moving slower and needing to complete a smaller movement, so the timing of the remaingin falre is easier to judge, and your chances of doing it right are higher. In any case, if you find yourself needing to stop the flare, that is your recognition that you have made a mistake and that you need to plan 100% for a PLF. Remember that a doing a PLF when you don't need to is not going to hurt you, but not doing a PLF when you do is probably going to hurt (maybe a lot).

I'll chime in for Alta in SLC as well. I was there in the spring, and there was fresh powder on the mountain every day, and temps in the high 40s/ low 50s down in the valley. Knee deep powder all day, barely needed a jacket at night. They got trees there, but they also have some sick 50 drop offs too, so be careful if you go off-trail.

As others have mentioned, the exact course of action will vary from DZ to DZ. Call the nearest DZ, tell them your story, and see what they have to say. Another option would be to post what's DZs are closest to you, and see if other posters have any opinions as to which would be best. Given your time out of the sport, I would expect that you'll probably have to sit through the parts of the first jump course covering proper operation of the equipment, malfunctions, and aircraft safety/emergencies. After that, expect a recurrency jump with an instructor, which will probably be nothing more than a fun 2-way with a practice handle touch thrown in soon after exit. Otherwise, not much has changed since 1990. Canopies are a little different, but the student rig you'll probably be jumping should be similar to what you remember. You'll have some new choices when you go to buy your own rig, but you can worry about that later.

If they are indeed city property, then there would be no need for any court involvement. Before the city would allow the matter to go to court, they would smiply instruct the police (city employees) as to who is permitted on, and control of, the property, thus empowering the police to arrest anyone else for trespassing. Just like when a private property owner calls the police to report trespassing, the property owner is the one who determines who is, or is not, tresspassing. In the case of city property, the city legal department would review the lease, and make that call. Like I said earlier, if you hold a valid lease on a property, you don't need to sue anyone for tresspassing, you call the cops have them arrested on the spot.

Again, the number of americans on this site is not the controlling factor. How about the fact that we have the longest history of sport skydiving, and equipment manufacturing and innovation, or is pointing that out just being arrogant. The problem is not that I'm opposed to other countries, it's just that you are so jacked up on the NZ way, which everyone will admit is far from the norm in any other part of the world. When that's pointed out to you, you respond thusly - It's pretty normal around there? Fine, if that's the card you want to play, I have to point out that you're talking about a literal drop of water out of the sea of skydivers. How many fun jumpers are there in your counrty, and by that I mean people (unlike you) who start jumping as a recreation, and not for a job? Nowhere else in the world do people 'take up' jumping as a job and do so with a structured training course. To use the people who do as any sort of yardstick for everyone else is retarded. So what is the fun jumper population in NZ? How many of them do you know, and have tracked their progress as they learn to jump? How long you spent in any one place to even watch a jumper progress through several years in the sport? I've been jumping at the same 2 or 3 local DZs for the last 16 years and watched between 20 and 30 new jumpers enter the sport each year. That's me at seasonal DZs that are only open 8 months out of the year. Take some of the other posters here who jump year round, and have also spent a decade or more in one location watching jumpers grow and develop. Between me and them, we're talking about watching literally 100's of jumpers from day one move through the sport. Are there even that many sport jumpers (non-professional) in NZ. Again, pardon me for not using that as the yardstick to measure the rest of the much bigger picture.

Cheap jumps is my guess. It's interesting, however, that Bill Dause's last plane to crash (due to poor MX) happened in Canada, but then this guy will leave Canada and go striaght to the location of Bill's other poorly maintained planes.

It's not a matter of that, it's a matter of the US having a much longer and more productive history in sport skydiving than NZ, and to use NZ as the example of 'what's right' ignoring that fact is a little shortsighted. I read that the first commercial tandem DZ opened in NZ in 1990. How many DZs were around NZ before then? How many of the new ones were opened to cash in on the tourist tandem trade? 95%? 98%? Back in 1989 when NZ had very little going on in the way of skydiving, the US had 100's of DZ, dozens of manufacturers who are still in business today (and represent the cornerstones of the industry) and multiple teams takign gold in international competition. Like it or not, sport skydiving was born and bred in the US, and we have the longest history and greatest weath of experience and knowledge of the sport in the world. I'm courious as the actual jumping population of NZ? 90-some % of all your jumps are tandems, and those are tourists. How many sport jumpers are there exactly in the whole counrty? To be conservative, the US has at least 15,000 current jumpers (figuring half of the 30,000 USPA members are current). Excuse me for being skeptikal about following the lead of a micro-cosom of skydiving when it comes to training and licensed jumper progression.

Based on what? NZ has a total population equal to Kentucky. It's not a big place, and when he makes comments like 'The majority of jumpers here.....', how many jumpers does that really equal? Let's go one step further, how many of those jumpers could possibly go through the 'skydivign diploma' program, and how many of them follow that up by actualyl working at an NZ DZ? How many DZs are there, and how many positions could possibly be open looking for new jumpers? From what he says, everyone working in-air makes a shit-ton of jumps, so that would lend itseld to less working jumpers than more. There are a limited number of jumps made, and if all the TIs and camera guys are doing 1000+ every year, NZ is probably not the place to look for info regarding the success or failure of their programs. The guy wants to shit on the US for a dozen reasons, but as previously pointed out, the MAJORITY of equipment and aircraft used in skydiving were designed and built in the US, to include the tandem rigs he jumps and the Cessna he flies at his DZ. Take what he says with a grain of salt, and remember that he comes from a country with the population of Kentucky and same number of DZs as TX, CA and FL combined. Between the 175 extra DZs in the other 47 states and the 300 million more people, it might be time to stop shitting on the US so much.

Just to echo that last point, read this website and see how many times the end result of 'advice' given over the internet is 'ask your instructors'. They are ultimately the best resource for making judgement calls related to your abilities because they are the ones who know you abilities better than anyone. Asking them things is easier to do when they're at your home DZ, and not several hours away. Of course, local instructors will help you out if you have questions even if you didn't train with them, but you might not get the same level of 'service' as one of their own students in the same position. Most instructors take a personal responsibility for their students that lasts long after they get off student status. It is nice to have the local instructors know you and your abilites, and generally be there to 'watch your back'.

Here's a copy of a post I made in another thread discussing the stall and stall point of a canopy. In addition to getting your lines set correctly, the following will also build a good deal of experience with slow flight. From the other thread -

That price is outrageous. Rhys is right, you can buy all of that stuff brand new for less then $5 million. If the plane and rigs are all used, $1 million bucks wouldn't be a bad price to pay for half of that stuff plus whatever earning potential the DZ might have. I'm not sure what good the 3 Pitts biplanes are going to do for a DZ. Beyond that, I looked at the website that comes with the 'deal', skydiveinc.com and there's not much useful info there. There is a calendar where they list a host of events for a place called 'Skydive Carefree', including a grand opening boogie in Nov 2010, which by my calculations was last year. Anyone attend that boogie? Or hear about it? The closest thing Google could come up with for Skydive Carefree was 'things to do in Carefree, Indiana'. I did notice the calender had boogies for the holidays and valentines day, and the last time I checked, Indiana isn't exactly a year-round location for a DZ, so those boogies (and the Nov grand opening) would lead me to beleive that it's not a DZ located in Carefree, Indiana (or really a DZ located anywhere, it's probably bullshit).

To be brief - AFF or A license in a week upsides - you finish in a week, sometimes it costs less (many places will let you pay the discoutned rate for the whole program, and then make the jumps at your own pace. If you could find a local DZ with that option, then the cost savings of the 'rush job' are cancelled out. Also, be sure to factor in any travel costs). AFF or A license in a week downsides - - You're on a schedule. This adds pressure to complete 'x' number of jumps per day, when the real measure of jumps-per-day should be your physical wellness and overall confidence. A 'bad' jump can rattle your confidence, and if you need a day or two to get it back, you should be able to take that time with no pressure to do otherwise. - The weather. This is related to the schedule issue above, but if you plan to travel and jump for a week, sometimes it rains for 3 or 4 days straight. In that case, you would have even less time to complete your jumps, or you would need to make sure of the refund policy of un-used jumps. Sometimes they give you a deal based on you making 25 jumps, let's say for $2500. If you don't complete 10 of those due to weather, you may not be getting back what you expect. They might charge you the goign rate for the 15 jumsp you made, no discount, leaving your refund a little short. - You might not like it, or get stuck on a certain level. Not liking it is easy to understand, you do a couple and find out it's not for you. See the above part about refunds. Getting stuck is another story. Each jump has certain goals that must be met, a set of learning tasks that must be completed in order to pass. If you don't complete the tasks, you repeat the level until you do. It might take you 3 or 4 tries to finish a certain level, and this will effect the cost and time of the program.

It's a personal choice. You chose to buy a rig from whatever company, which means you trust them to design and build your rig for you, so you should probably also be able to trust them to hire a good rigger. All riggers go through the same training to get their ticket, and most of them do a pretty good job, so when you add in the fact that a manufacturer would hire this person to pack rigs for them, it's probably a pretty good rigger. However, if there is any doubt in your mind becasue it was not packed by 'your' rigger, then by all means pull the silver handle (with your rigger present) and have it repacked. It is your rig, and you are free to do what you please with it. In addition to getting to practice actually pulling the handle on your own rig, you can also arrange to be present when your rigger does the repack. She can show you the 'insides' of the rig, how everything is hooked up, and how it all gets packed in there. A little knowledge can go a long way. The downside is that it will cost you the price of another repack.

Here's the bottom line - with respect to weight limits in terms of equipment survivability and functionality, 215 lbs. is well within what the equipment can handle. Does that mean that you are free to do whatever you please with it? No, you can easily exceed the speed limitations of the gear while freeflying, or in anything but a stable, belly to earth position. If you attempt to deploy, or have an accidental deployment at those speeds, equipment damage may occur. It terms of your ability to safely operate a 190 main or 170 reserve at your weight, that's dependent on your training and ability. The wingloading on your main is bordering on the high side of what is normally reccomended for your expereince level. The wingloading on your reserve is definately too high, and you should look into trading up to at least a 190 reserve.

You may have to drive a couple hours to an alternate DZ to find one doing winter jumps. You'll get to know some of the other jumpers at your local DZ, and you could take a group trip for a weekend. Lot's of DZ are actaully 'open' anytime the weather is jumpable and there are enough jumpers to fill the plane. If you have 4 or 5 guys all willing to make 3 or 4 jumps, you can sometimes arrange for a 'closed' DZ to open up for a day. Beyond that, just don't jump during the winter. Doing a recurrency jump in the spring isn't all that bad. There's a review of your EPs and general safety stuff, then you make a superivsed jump with an instructor. It's generally not a 'working' jump like when you were a student, it's usually more like a fun 2-way with an instructor. Really, after your first winter you'll need a recurrency jump, but by the end fo your second winter you'll either have enough jumps not to need it or the DZ staff will get to know you and just let you make a solo to get back in the swing of things. Like anything you haven't done for a few months, it will take a few jumps to get back to the skill level you had at the end of the last season, but everyone goes through that. By the time May/June rolls around, it will be like you never stopped jumping at all.

If there's any question in your mind, just buy the bike. Beyond that, northern jumpers will either just take the winter off, or make a couple trips to a warmer climate for a few days of non-stop jumping. You're really only looking at 2 or 3 months when it's too cold to jump all together. There are some colder months where you can still jump, but maybe from a lower altitude or maybe just one or two because of the cold. Currency requirements for an A license jumper are 60 days, so if you go beyond that, you just make your first jump of the season with an instructor. Typically, northern jumpers will jump harder during the summer, as in both days every weekend to make up for the winter layoff. Jumpers in Fla or Ca might be a little more casual about getting there every weekend becasue they have the whole year to jump. As an aside, I don't know what your budget is, but for a first rig you can buy used equipment and get a nice set-up for $2500 without an ADD, or $3500 with. You could spend even less get a rig that's not quite as 'nice' but still safe. If you were thinking about new gear, ditch that idea, and get a used rig AND a used bike. Do not, however, mix the two and ride your bike with your rig on. Secured in a bag or bakcpack, yes, being worn like you were about to jump, no.

You should not be afraid of your canopy in any respect. Open high on your next jump, and determine the stall point of your canopy. Slowly pull both toggles down to full arms extension. The key in this manuver is to keep your hands even, and all movements slow and steady. When you feel the canopy being to rock back and stall, note your hand position, as this is the stall point. Remember - slow, smooth movements entering and recovering from a stall. Do not get spooked by the stall and throw your hands all the way up, that will make it worse. Once the canopy beings to stall, you can stop it by easing your hands up tp a point just above the stall point. Once you see how nicely you can enter and depart from a stall, your fear of the stall should diminish. That's not to say you shouldn't fear stalling close the ground, that's pretty bad, but if you know the stall point, you can just avoid going there near the ground. On the stall point - if you find you cannot stall your canopy at full arms extension, your steering lines might be too long. You want to be able to stall your canopy at fulls arms extension, but only when you're really streching to reach as far down as possible. The canopy should still fly when you're at a 'casual' full arms extension, but when you really extend yourself, it should go into the stall. If you find that it stalls sooner than that, or not at all, speak to a rigger about adjusting your steering lines. Have them lengthed or shortened in 2" increments, and after each adjustment, locate the new stall point. Keep doing this until it's righ where you want it to be. Far enough down that you are unlikely to 'accidentally' stall the canopy at any time, but not so far down that you can't reach it when you really want to. Once that's done, play with it until you are comfortable with the stall. Get to the point where you can tell the stall is coming before it happens. Work with it until you are no longer surprised or afraid of stalling the canopy, and it's just another flight mode you are in full control of. Of course, you'll need to pull high for these types of manuvers, and you need to consult an instructor or senoir jumper on the load regarding your exit order and pull altitude. Be suer to check your spot, altitude and for traffic before and after each manuver, and stop all manuvers below 2500-ish ft, where you can shift your attention full time to traffic management and setting up for your landing.

I'll echo what popsjumper said, there is no excuse fro landing on your ass. Timing the flare, like many other things in skydiving takes practice. Real time, in-air practice. Doing a proper PLF, on the other hand, can be practiced effectively all day long off of a picnic table. You have three choices when it comes to landing A) land softy on your feet, B) execute a proper PLF, or C) risk hurting yourself badly. There is no 'in between' and you should avoid option 'C' at all costs. If it is not immediately and obviously clear that you will stand up your landing, PLF, no excuses.

And you do? What is your connection to this that gives you the insight to know such details? If there is none, your assumption that this is not a 'look at me' stunt is as valid as my argument that it is. If you are connected, can you verify that any sort of test jumping was done with experienced jumpers? I don't think anyone can argue that there are a long list of 'unknowns' when it comes to wingsuit tandems. I also don't think anyone can argue that two jumpers, both with experience doing tandems and jumping wingsuits would have the best odds for being able to work out any problems that might arise. It would stand to reason that any 'reasonable' jumper would want to investigate the situation with jumpers who are familiar with, and have experience actually using recovery techniques with both wingsuits and tandems. To push all of that aside and take up an unlicensed jumper is not the hallmark of the 'super instructor' that you're trying to paint this guy as. Even if he has the technical skills to make the jumps, he cleary lacks the judgement required of a 'super instructor'. A real life 'super instructor' is not the guy who will jump in the strongest or most gusty winds, it's the guy who knows when to call it quits and stay on the ground. It's easy to make the mistake that the guy still willing to jump is the superhero, but the one with the judgement and strength of character to stand down is really the more skilled of the two.

...and I never suggested that he did. I'll double space this so maybe you'll understand. If he wanted to correctly mount a GoPro to his helmet, the adhesive mounts would not do the trick, he would need to hard mount it to his helmet (which means drilling holes). In order to avoid drilling holes in his helmet only to be denied permission to jump it, I suggested that he ask permission first, and proceed forward according to the answer.