davelepka

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Everything posted by davelepka

  1. The trouble is that these 'brokers' are not doing any real advertising to draw 'new' customers. If all you do is search engine optimization, every one of your 'customers' was already looking up skydiving and likely interested in making a jump. The interest and desire was already in place, hence the reason they were searching for a DZ. If the 'broker' was not in place, they would have located the closest DZ(s), and done direct business with them. With the 'broker' in place, they end up routed to the their website, and with no knowledge of the industry, maybe the customer assumes that working through a broker is the SOP (or assumes they they are dealing directly with the DZ) and end up buying there, and costing the DZ money (I have yet to hear of the 'broker' who does not take a cut of the proceeds). Now if the 'broker' was doing some sort of advertising, in order to draw in people who were not previously searching for a DZ or thinking about making a jump, that would be casting a larger net for the DZO for sure. As it sits, they are not casting a larger net by grabbing local customers who are already interested in making a jump, the 'broker' is actually fishing inside of the DZOs existing net, and then releasing those 'fish' to the DZ once they get their cut. The comparison to other brokers is not accurate. Take any of the travel brokers, like Travelocity, for example. For starters, they advertise. They run deals and offer services to draw more people into the industry. They put out some sort of effort for their rewards. Second, they're dealing with national markets and customers. Airlines, hotels, and car rentals are not local businesses, nor are their customers. The pool of customers any of those business are looking for is the entire country (the world for some), and as such is a much wider audience then everyone looking to make a jump in western Pennsylvania. Given the size of the industry and service area, the travel indusrty can support ticket brokers and still make money. Local DZs trying to pull in $200/head on tandems 8 months out of the year cannot.
  2. OK, so given the above, wouldn't more money have made it a more 'viable' career? Wouldn't the point where you 'gave up' have been further down the road if the financial rewards were more 'liveable'? Wouldn't there be more long-term, experienced tattoo artists out there, as opposed to the pre-burnout new guys, if the situation was such that you could support a reasonable lifestyle on the tattoo money alone? I would suggest that you apply all those question to skydiving instructors. While there will always be the problem of trying to make a living being paid per-jump, if the money was better, so would the instruction. There would be more full-time instructors. There would be more long-time, experienced instructors who would hang in there at seasonal DZs if they didn't have to make 95% of a living off-DZ, and then fit in DZ work when the sun shines. With a larger pool of willing applicants, and more of them being long-term, experienced instructors, you're going to raise the overall level of skill and knowledge. The key difference is that you're dealing with peoples lives in skydiving. If you can follow the basic health code/starilization procedures, an inexperiecned tattoo artsist is only going to give you a bad looking tattoo. The implications of inexperience are a bit more severe in skydiving.
  3. There's a huge point. It makes you a part of 'the team' and not just another guy trying to weasel his way onto the staff. I can tell you right now, that if any of the (non-jumping) manifest staff wanted to make a jump at my DZ, every TI, AFFI and video flyer would offer up their time and pay their own slot to take them. We've done tandems with 4 or 5 videos when it was one of 'the team' who felt like jumping. Everyone wanted to go on the jump, and everyone wore cameras. We have some packers who are going through AFF, and they have never had a shortage of instructors or coaches willing to take them up. We also have a couple of current jumping staff members who started off as 'grounds keepers' or packers. When they wanted to start jumping, they did, and when they wanted to get ratings, they had a slot on the jumping staff, no questions asked. They also had help preparring for their ratings, and I'm pretty sure the DZO fronted the money for some of them to get the actual ratings (to be paid back using said ratings, but still).
  4. I'm one of the 'nay sayers', but just to be clear, there's nothing 'safe' about what I suggested. I thought jumping it out of plane with a rig on was the best way to test the flight envelope, with no need for any 'flying' close to the ground. I don't know about you, but when I think about tyring to get that thing in or out of a plane, and then freefalling with it, and then deploying with it, 'safe' is not the word that comes to mind. It would be 'safer' than just trying to take off from ground level on flight #1, but still far from 'safe'.
  5. One new thing per jump is the rule. 'New' not neccesarily meaning 'jump #1' on something, 'new' meaning however many jumps it takes you to get used to the new item. It might only take one jump in some cases, in others it might take 10 or 20. Keep everything else the same, so you can focus (no pun intended) on the 'new' thing.
  6. Just to repeat, the jump that was posted really did look great. The exact manuvers planned for any jump simply depend on the skills of the jumper. In a student jump scenario like that one, the manuvers take a back seat to altitude awareness and stability at pull time, both of which were spot on.
  7. That did look like a great jump. However, please be aware (and more importantly, make sure your son is aware), that skydiving and tunnel flying are two very different things with two very different levels of responsibility. That responsibility is, of course, related to his own safety, but also the safety of those around him in the aircraft, in freefall, and under canopy. While the tunnel time has made him comfrtable flying in a high speed airstream, the freefall portion of the jump is really the least important in terms of skills, performance or safety. More or less, if you can fall fairly stright down and remain stable at pull time, you have succeeded in a making a 'safe' freefall. Conducting yourself in and around the aircraft, and your behavoir under canopy are the areas that will have th most effect on your personal safety (and that of those around you), and the tunnel training has no bearing in those areas. It's important for your son to remember that when he evelauates his 'position' as a jumper, his number of actual jumps is the measure of that. Even if he proves to be above average in all the non-tunnel related areas when he has 100 jumps, he is still just an above average jumper with 100 jumps. His freefall skills may be that of a jumper with 500 jumps (or more), and he may be ahead of the curve in other areas, but he shouldn't engaging in activites beyond that of a jumper with 100 jumps. I say this because it's proven to be a problem in skydiving, success in the tunnel notwithstanding. Newer jumpers with no tunnel time, who are not even above average have trouble recognizing and acting within their personal limitations. Young males being the worst offenders. I'm sure his instructors are aware of this, and hopefully drilling it into his head that he needs to actively work to avoid those pitfalls, but I thought it was worth repeating.
  8. davelepka

    Hate it

    Right, that's when the mess 'bothers him' and he'll have that place cleaned up in no time. I went through a divorce a while back, and I used to do a two-part clean up before going on a date. One was myself, the other was the apartment. Not to say that I was personally dirty, but I would make sure to shave, and iron a shirt or whatever, but I also gave the place a once over with some windex or whatever. I also found it helpful to develop my own 'life'. Instead of trying to live like I did when I was married, I came up with my own routines and set of standards. Maybe I cleaned the house and went grocery shopping one way or one day when I was married, but when I was single I could let that go and just do it my own way. As unpopular as this opinion is (and has been commented as such many times), getting laid is a huge factor in motivation/moving on after a divorce. You get yourself together (like above), get a boost to your self-esteem, and see that the world doesn't begin and end with your now ex-wife. I highly reccomend it with a younger, hotter version of your ex.
  9. davelepka

    Hate it

    Nothing. It's your place, live anyway you want. It's your dust/dirt/clutter, and if you don't mind living in it, then go right ahead. When it bothers you to the point of wanting it gone, you'll get rid of it.
  10. Like most things, plans like yours start off with the best of intentions. It's exciting to be a 'pro' skydiver getting paid to jump. It's exciting to have the status around the DZ and with the students. It's exciting to turn back-to-backs on busy days and really rack up the jump numbers. At first. Sooner or later, it does turn into a job. When the DZO/manager really 'needs' you on a big weekend, and something in your non-jumping life (wife, girlfriend, family) does too. Or on the same weekend, when there's a boogie at a neighboring DZ, or skills camp at your own DZ. Or on the same weekend when all of your buddies are just having a blast doing fun jumps. It's easy to sit on your end looking forward, and have the attitude that you do. Jump for 10 years, and invest tens of thousands of dollars in jumps, gear and ratings, see how you feel then. See how you feel about being told who to jump with, when to jump, and how long you have to jump for (all day, right to sunset, everyday). Some people get there, and stick with it, but most don't. I don't have enough fingers and toes to count all the of accomplished, highly experienced TIs and AFFIs I know who have quit the sport.
  11. You can jump as little or as much as you want (or can afford). The trick is to keep in mind that if you have 85 jumps, and you can only make 3 or 4 jumps per month, you're not going to be 'performing' at a very high level. Your buddies who jump every weekend are going to be doing jumps that you're not 'qualifed for' based on your currency. Bigger jumps, smaller canopies, wingsuits, etc, are not for the guy who jumps a couple times per month. Solos, 2-ways, or 3-4 ways with more experienced jumpers are the choice for an infrequent jumper. You'll also want to be more conservative with wind limits, standing down before others who may be more 'active' jumpers. Finally, look into packing or getting a part time job. If you can get a spot on the packing mat at the DZ, you could make enough to pay for your jumps. It wouldn't be hard to make 2 or 3 jumps and pack enough to earn $50/$60 in a day at the DZ, which pays for all or most of your jumps. You could also look for some part time work 2 or 3 niight per week, and make enough to pay for 4 or 5 jumps evey weekend.
  12. Mishaps mid-jump sometimes have a way of occuring without you knowing about it. I think you get so jacked up during the jump that it slides right by you, and you don't notice it until later. A number of times I have landed and looked down to see blood on my toggles from a cut or scrape on my hand that I didn't feel in slightest. I'm not sure that a drawstring liner on your helmet has the ability to cause injury by just cinching it down. Of course, I'm not a doctor, but I would lean more toward some sort of ackward bump or over-extension during the jump that you just didn't feel at the time.
  13. Buy an Infinity. I'm into my 8th season on mine, and it's been bulletproof the entire time. About 1500 jumps, no problems of any kind. I never had a problem with customer service when I placed my order, and they recently added a new staff member just to handle customer contact. I'm not sure what their wait time is right now, but with the money you save over the other rigs you mentioned, you can pay the rush and get your rig ASAP and still have money left in your pocket.
  14. Then why are you short-cutting your canopy progression? You're not putting in the work, you're tyring to skip right to the gravy. See the 'hooked it low' thread in the swooping forum to understand the scope of the mistakes you're making. A guy 2x or 3x your jump numbers almost did himself in on a JVX 99 because he 'misjudged' a turn from 800ft. 800ft fucking feet and he could tell he was low until the last second, and narrowly missed damaging himself badly. I can only guess he had 500/600 swoops min, and he lacked the basic judgement and familiarity with the sight picture to see his problem any sooner than the last second. He dug a couple chunks of meat from his leg and I think meesed up his knee. What that means is that if he 1/2 second slower on his reaction, he would have broken both of his legs. One full second and he would have broken his pelivs, suffered internal injuries, and probably done something to his spinal cord. Anything more than one second longer, and he would have been a stain on the asphalt. What you 'think' about your skills is of no consequence. The assertion here is that you don't know enough to be doing what you're doing, so if you're going on what you think you 'know', you're already two steps behind the curve. You're not even close or anywhere near 'borderline' for doing what you're doing. Making the decision to fly this canopy, in that way that you are, with the experience that you have falls directly under the heading of gross negligence. In a bittersweet turn of events, we have the Sangi story to use as a prime example. Look at his story, and his posts, see the things he was told and the things he replied, and then look at him now. To his credit, and due to his HUGE balls, he's back here and willing to admit to his mistakes and try to presuade others not to do likewise. On top of that, you have a guy (Vader) who's posting out of genuine and personal concern for you, and said very kind and acring things about you and the friendship you share, and all you want to do is shit all over that. My brief summary of the situation - lose/lose.
  15. OK, let's put that into context. I was jumping a Sabre1 107 with a WL of about 1.6. Not exactly a high-performance wing, but admittedly a higher WL. However, this was also in a different time, when swooping/high performance canopy flight was in it's infancy. These days, we have far more experience, information, and resources to fall back on, and because of this there is a new standard for what could be considered an 'acceptable' mistake or accident, and what is the result of gross negligence on the part of the canopy pilot. To take that one step further, when the negligence is in the area of pre-jump decision making, like what wing to fly and to swoop over a hard surface, it's that much worse. In-flight errors have a degree of 'shit happens' and 'brain farts' that can occur while in the 'heat of battle'. Going into that battle with no bullets in your gun and your flack jacket in your footlocker is inexcusable. To bring back another point I made, you don't really know how things in skydiving are going to work out until it's over. Was I ready for that Sabre 107 at that time? Looks like it, because I put 500 jumps on it with no problems, and moved on to another wing. Case closed on that wing for me at that time. However, to the same end, I'm not suggesting that my path is the best, or approrpiate for anyone else. I'm willing to admit that I had a fair amount of luck that played a part in my success over the years, but the simple fact is that I turned out to be a fairly good skydiver. I have the right combination of physical ability and mental acuity that I 'fit' into the skydiving world and have been able to have some success. Again, this is not something you find out until 10 years later, so for someone at the beginning of the road to look at my path and 'say that's for me' would be very short-sighted and probably a mistake. I've made this point many times when the good Prof. Kallend brings up that he was jumping a Stilleto when he something like 50 jumps. As we know now, he has gone on to jump for many years and many 1000's of jumps, to include various record jumps (both in and out of wingsuits). Kallend, as it turns out, is also not your average bear, and if you hitch your wagon to his canopy progression, you're doing so under the assumption that you too are above average. As we can see from the example that spawned this thread, that has proven to be a mistake.
  16. Seems like a lofty goal for showing up a new DZ for one day. Are you bringing two rigs with you? You might consider the 'quality' over 'quantity' idea. You'll need an easy jump to 'get to know' the DZ/procedures/LZ. Beyond that, you might be looking for an organizer, or meeting new people to jump with, but in either case those situations don't support the 'turn and burn' mentality that you need to make 8 to 11 jumps per day, they require some dirt diving and a little slower pace. If I was at my home DZ, I might run to make every load all day long. At my home DZ I know 99% of the jumpers and have jumped with most of them. I could group up with someone on the plane, or just lurk any jump with a camera and shoot some outside video. If I was at a 'new to me' DZ, I wouldn't want to impose on people I don't know in that way, and would either be doing solos, or slowing down a notch and making some more 'formal' plans for who I was jumping with and what we would be doing. Lodi is going to be flying a lot of loads. If you're renting gear they also have what appears to be the largest fleet of really nice student gear on earth. They have had significant issues with aircraft maintenance in the past which may (or may not) have been resolved.
  17. Have you ever heard the term 'harness/container' used when describing a rig? It's used because it is both a harness and a container, but not much else. So when you ask if you can resize both the harness and the container, you're more or less building a new rig. Let's say that the harness resize is $500. Let's say the container resize (which I'm not sure exists) is another $500. You're up to $1000 to keep your old rig. How about you sell the rig and add $1000 to the proceeds and just order yourself a new rig in the right sizes?
  18. Dude, that quote was made AFTER this thread popped up, so he's just doing damage control to keep the secrets secret. It means nothing. A bunch of guys who don't work for Icarus or PD or build canopies at all said it's a straight rip-off, and that means something. I'm not sure what, but something. Along those same lines Ian, be careful anytime you're in the factory. If you leave any DNA anywhere in there, they're going to clone you and drop the 'real' you from the team and just use the clone-Ian. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RcNG87wE2M
  19. Look at the tone of what you said. I've said it a million times, the trick with knowing when anyone is 'ready' for anything in skydiving, be it swooping, big-ways, etc, is that you don't know for sure until it's over. So let's correct your statements, and add that you thought you were ready for the JVX, and that you thought you made 'high quality' jumps (whatever those are). The events as they transpired seems to show otherwise. In terms of jumps, if you don't think that 5500 jumps is enough to be giving advice, or anyway below 'average', I'm not sure what planet you're from. So you have 1300 jumps in 3 1/2 years, which averages out to 371 per year. I have 5500+ in 18 years which averages out to 305 jumps per year. Do you know what the 'practical' difference is between those two? It's not the 66 jumps per year average, it's the 4200 more jumps and 15 more years in the sport. I started flying 100sq ft canopies when I had 300 jumps in year 3 of skydiving. I would suggest that 5000+ jumps over 15 years on small canopies might give me a place from which to speak. I would also suggest that the fact that you flew yourself into the hard-paved ground from 800ft, under your newly accuired, ultra high-performace, massivly downsized canopy gives me a place from which to speak. You can get mad at me for pointing out the obvious, or you can get mad at me for the way I pointed it out. The solution isn't to get mad, the solution is not to act in such a way that can be characterized as such. If you weren't pushing it in every way possible, and defending your actions with statements that make it appear that you think you or your situatuion are 'special', and that the common knowledge about these things don't apply to you, then I wouldn't have anything to say. Like it or not, nothing I said is untrue and nothing I said is anything but 100% your doing. That's the real lesson here.
  20. I can. I don't jump in the dark, and I don't jump when it's snowing and the dz is closed. I've been at it for 18 years, jumping every year, and averaged just over 300 jumps/year. Not hard to imagine jumping every weekend for 8/9 months per year. Wow, with all that jumping somehow I had time to learn simple math too, I'm super impressed with myself.
  21. Since I am 'that guy', I'm going to stick to what I know and be 'that guy'. Three months ago you were posting about wanting to start using your rears, on a X-fire 119 at under 2.0. Now you're on a JVX at 2.4. See the problem? Maybe pushing a little too hard? Part of the 'mixed emotions' you're having is that you found you that you're not bulletproof. I'm sure things have been a ball up to this point, but it all came crashing down (no pun intended, I swear) when you hit the ground. I know 1300 jumps sounds like a world of experience to you, but it's really just a foot in the door in terms of swooping a JVX at 2.4. One thing to keep in mind is that as your WL goes up, so does the net effect of a downsize. So when you downsize .5 all at once, and it also happens to be up above 2.0, you're biting off a big hunk of shit. A simple thing like not swooping over buildings or hard surfaces is something you should have known well before getting on that wing and that WL. I can only assume that the area you've made the mistake of swooping '100s of times' is close to the hanger, and it's no coincidence that there was a photog standing right there. Ever heard the phrase, 'Here, hold my beer and watch this....'. Use your downtime/recovery time to really take stock of your situation. You've put yourself pretty far out at the end of the spear, and there's not a lot of 'wiggle room' out there. Just for reference, I have 5 times the jumps and 6 times the time-in-sport as you, and I jump my Velo at a lower WL.
  22. The solution is to stop doing tandems, not introduce a new level of risk that the students are unaware of. No, they don't. Stall speed increases with wingloading, it's an aerodynamic fact. The 300s and 330s are very efficient canopies, to the point that I would expect very similar stall speeds from an x-braced canopy of similar size. Given that, there's no way that a 250 will slow down as much as a 330. Again, it's not about you (the TI). It's about the student and what they can/can't do. Seeing as the vast majoroty are making their first jump, nobody knows what they can/cannot do, so any plan that requires them to perform in any way is asking for trouble. If you can't safely land with them unconscious, you're flying the wrong canopy.
  23. You should have been taught how to check your gear, and the gear check should have slowly become your responsibility over the course of your jumps (with your instructor observing). Even then, it's still common for you to recieve a gear check from another (qualified) jumper as a back-up. As far as rigging mistakes, I'm not sure anyone wants to take the time to set them up. Part of teaching you to check your own gear should have been an explanation of how things should look when properly configured, so you can figure that if things don't look that way, they are not correct, without having to literally see the incorrect configuration. The other aspect of this is learning to pack. Part of packing is inspecting the 'inner workings' of the rig as you go, and the other part is properly configuring all the parts of the rig. By the time you get through that, you should have a good working knowledge of your rig, inside and out.
  24. Same reason it was wrong when you were talking about higher winds. The answer is not to find a smaller canopy and hope it can cut through the turbulence, the answer is to stop doing tandems until the turbulence has subsided. You're not a solo jumper making your own choices, you're a TI making a choice for yourself and a completely uninformed student who is trusting you with their health and well-being. The other difference here is the lack of ability to PLF. There is little you can do to mitigate your injuries if you should have a hard landing. You cannot PLF with a student attached to you, and they cannot PLF because they don't know how. The very mechanics of landing a tandem pair is dependant on a soft, slow touchdown. This is the only way to manage getting two people who are attached to each other on the ground and to a complete stop in a safe and relaible fashion. You cannot reasonably guarantee that when you jump in conditions that require to downsize to cope with higher winds and turbulence. You likewise cannot guarantee that when you come ripping in on a high-speed, 100ft swoop. That's 100 ft where the pax could plant a foot (or feet) and send the two of you tumbling.
  25. The problem is that the conditions you're talking about are higher winds. So you're making a trade-off, and not for the better. In no way is a higher speed landing a good thing for tandems, and I know for sure that people jumping these canopies are not putting them away when the winds are light, and only using them when the winds pick up. On top of that is the idea that higher winds equal more energy and less stability in the air. Anything that's going to go wrong is only going to happen harder or faster in higher winds, and simply downsizing to stop yourself from backing up is not a 'prudent' choice in a tandem environment. Maybe when the winds are too high for jumping a 'normal' tandem canopy, it's just time to hang up the rigs for the day?