davelepka

I agree with a lot of what you're saying here, but there are quite a few circumstances where you suggestions won't apply. In the incident that spawned this thread, the pair landed off the DZ next to a home whose owner happened to be outside at the time. He called 911, and the police/EMS were first on the scene. As such, they went to work on the harness and related gear in an attempt to get to the victims and administer aid. The end result was gear that was cut up and moved around so as to offer little or no information as to what had happened. Additionally, many fatalities start off as severe injuries, so the condition or configuration of the equipment takes a back seat to the needs of EMS. I think another problem with your idea is that not every goegraphical area will have an impartial person availalbe who is qualified to do this work. I jump with a very respected Master Rigger who has the experience and education to do this type of work, but if there was an incident at our DZ, he's out because of his affiliation with the DZ. Additionally, if there was an incident at another local DZ, there's a fair chance he did some or all of the rigging on the equipment involved. Another area I see a problem is response time. The FAA accident investigators make a living working for the FAA, and understand that part of their job is to jump when they're told to jump. Take a local jumper who is asked to do this work, they may not be able to drop what they are doing that minute and get to the scene. If they're in the middle of important business at the job that feeds their family, they won't be available immediately, and I can't imagine the cops will wait around for some 'civilian' to show up before they can get to work. I do agree that we need some sort of formal appointment that would be recognized by all involved. Again, refering to the incident at hand, the police have the hand cam video, but are not in a hurry to provide a copy to anyone involved. I appriciate that they are not just passing out copies to anyone who asks, but the local Jump Shack I/E, who gave Dan his rating, should be able to get a copy for review, and see what the rig had to do with this. Either way, if there was a jumper with some sort of offically recognized endorsement, the cops might be willing to play ball with them. In regards to simply getting with your local authorities, and setting this type of thing up beforehand, that is absolutely a good idea, and every DZ should already have a relationship with their local police, fire, and EMS, However, in this case, the incident happned off DZ, over the county line, so even if they had a relationship with the athorities with jurisdiction over the DZ, they would still be daling with new people in this case. When you take this type of thing into account, as well as incidents on demo jumps which could be in any locality, you can see why there needs to be some sort of offical credentails that can be used anywhere to get a qualifed person 'in the loop'.

That's a negative ghostrider. You can look at your legs when you're belly flying too, you just have to look away from your heading to do it. If you're looking at your legs while backflying, you're not looking at your heading, or even in the general direction you should be looking. If you do have to look at your legs to stop the spin, the chances are that when you go back to looking at your heading (or in the direction you'll be looking when backflying with another person) that your lower body won't be in tune with yor upper body again. I agree, you need to have lower bady awareness, but it's mental, not visual, just like belly flying. Keep your eyes on your heading and your head in postition, this is key. Your body will follow your head at all times (thanks to your neck) so generally where you look is where you go. It works for turning as well as not turning.

How about follow your training? Just like during AFF, pick a heading, relax, and dip a shoulder away from the turn. Remember that you're upside down, so thinking in terms of left/right might get confusing. Stick with, "I'm turning this way, so I'll lean that way".

Ain't that the truth. Dropzones only need to compete with other area dropzones. So the size of the market, and in turn, the amount of business it generates will dictate the level of advertising. Between Perris and Elsinore they're both tapping into LA and San Diego, so I would assume that locally they both spend a pretty penny on advertising. Of course, they both do a huge amount of business 12 months out of the year. Compare that to Ohio, where I jump. We have a 2 or 3 DZ pulling business from a few hundered mile radius, and we jump about 7 or 8 months out of the year. None of the DZs are spending Perris or Elsinore type dollars on advertising, so it's easy for everyone to compete. When you bring in a thrid party booking service, which is really just a third party advertising service, you notch everything up for no reason. What the DZ are really paying for is the traffic these services generate, the exact same return they look for from advertising. Now if one DZ in the area uses a service, and the other sticks with only local advertising, the first DZ needs to continue with their own local advertising as well as paying the booking service. These booking services don't create new skydivers. All they do is route people who already want to jump to your DZ, and then they take a cut of the profits. So in a given market, the same number of overall tandems are still made, just with a hunk of the profits being shipped elsewhere. A booking service is great for national businesses. Airlines, hotels, car rentals, all benefit from these services because the size of their markets are unlimted. The more people they can reach, the more seats or rooms they can sell. On top of that, those business can expand with additional locations if the business is booming. A DZ is a local business, and doesn't need that tyoe of service. Their market is defined by geography and the fact that not everyone is a potential DZ customer. All you achieve by introducing a booking service to the mix is creating a false sense of 'urgency' where everyone needs to get on board, and ship a cut of their profits out of state to keep up with the other local DZs.

Rickster Powell, the godfather of swooping clipped a tree and did himself in good a few years back. At the time, he had more than 3000 jumps on the model and size canopy he was jumping. I'm not sure how wrapping a ring finger and pinky around that toggle is going to effect his swooping, but not doing so has proven to have a negative effect for several other jumpers. I'm 2000 jumps ahead of the guy, and I've been gripping my toggles securely the whole time. Everyone is going to do whatever they want, I know that. I just want make sure that the people who view the photo can see what I can see, and in turn make informed decisions about how they conduct their own skydives.

Dan's mother is holding a memorial service tomorrow from 4:00pm-5:00pm It will be held at Lakeview Baptist Church, 591 Ferndale Vermillion, OH

Is that a belly band he's got on there? I hope so, seeing as he's not wearing a chest strap. Also, ask DSE about 'holding' your toggles like that. It's all fun and games until you bounce of the pond, drop a toggle, and fall halfway out of your harness.

No, that cannot be deduced from the incidents forum. If you read the forum, you would know that there is a hand cam video in police custody, so we will be able to eliminate/include a variety of possibilities once the video is available for review.

Maybe I should have added a smiley face and written it like this - It's called a King Air I did read the website, and strapping any PT6 to just about anything is cool as hell.

Check out this book for an in depth view of the program http://search.barnesandnoble.com/At-the-Edge-of-Space/Milton-O-Thompson/e/9781588340788/?itm=1

Go back to the drawing board. For starters, how are you going to connect the rear risers, which are packed inside the container, to the harness, which is not in the container. Remember, complicated riging and lots of moving pieces are bad for control systems. They are critical for safety, and have to be 100% reliable. Think about current control systems. It's a string and a loop attached to the back of the canopy. Pretty simple. Moving on, even if you made it work, leaning forawrd and back in the narness is a poor means of input. You need to lean forward when you land to get your weight up over your feet in preperation for walking/running. If you're already leaning back adding input, what happens to that input when you need to lean forward? I have an idea, how about using your hands to work the rear risers. Grab on to them, pull as needed, release as needed. Game over.

Again, you're assuming that the weather will cooperate, and that the DZ will be flying every day. In that case sure, you could juggle days off and probably not take a hit in the paycheck department. But this isn't Applebees where people are there all day every day. It's a DZ where the business is there when it's there, and if you want to be a part of it, you need to be there too. One more time, the customers also play a role. Even if it's clear, you may have a very slow Wed, and very busy Thurs. If you're not there on Thurs, you'll be a few hundred bucks light at the end of the week. At Applebees, they make sure everyone has the same number of hours. At the DZ they don't schedule anything with you in mind, the customers jump when they want to jump. If you want to work, you need to be there. Between the weather and the customer scheduling, there's nothing predictable about the available work at a DZ. You can't expect to have a predictable schedule when you work an unpredictable job.

It's called a King Air.

A professional skydiver is essentially a piece worker, and most are independent contractors. You get paid per jump, and only per jump. If you arrange to have, let's say, Tues/Wed off each week, what do you do when it rains from Thurs thru Mon, and all the rained out students reschedule for Tues/Wed? Do you take the days off as scheduled, and make no money for a week or longer? What does the DZO do? If you are scheduled for Tues/Wed off, certainly someone else is scheduled to take your place for those days. Does he restrict you from working those days even if you wanted to? Again, you're tyring to apply the working conditions of a more conventional job to that of being a professional skydiver. There is no way to change the fact that you are paid per jump, and only per jump. The weather cannot be scheduled to work around your days off or vacation schedule. If you want to get paid, you need to be at the DZ when the props are turning. Students are another 'unknown' factor. If a group of tandems wants to jump on a Wed, the DZ will schedule them for Wed. Nobody cares if you're suppose to take Wed off. Even if it's the only group to jump that whole week, the other guys who work on Wed will get paid, and you will not. If you want to get paid, you need to be at the DZ when the props are turning. The job is what it is. Some DZs are better than others, take your pick. DZ 'A' might pay more, but they frown upon instructors passing out drunk next to the bonfire. DZ 'B' pays less, but they'll throw a blanket over you when you pass out drunk next to the bonfire. Figure out what's important to you, and choose your DZ accordingly.

There's alot of problems with what you're trying to do. Even though there are planty of people who consider themselves 'professional skydivers', there are very few who consider it a 'career choice'. The majority are weekend warriors who have 'day jobs' that pay some or all of the bills. The majority of the US is limited to seasonal dropzones because of the weather. How can you have a career where you can only work 8 months out of the year. Speaking of limited working time, how about the weekend factor. Even at year-round DZs, how many tandems and studetns can you expect on a Tuesday morning? Wed? Thurs? Enough to make a career out of? Then you have the weekends. As we all know, the weather can easily wipe out one or both days at any time. Here in Ohio, we had a run of about four weekends in a row where the weather shut us down for one or 1 1/2 days out of the weekend. The student schedule was full every weekend, but the weather didn't cooperate, so there was no work. Let's move on. I'm sure that working conditions would be a big factor, but better working conditions cost money. Bigger, faster airplanes, and new tandem rigs would be nice, but where does the money come from? Higher pay would be nice, but where does the money come from? On this point, I agree that an increase of a buck a jump each year would be nice, but I can't see how you would need an organization to make that happen. I think that if a DZ staff was professional in their appearance, conduct, punctuality, and teamwork, they could easily negotiate that type of pay raise. There's a ton of reasons why being a professional skydiver is different than being an employee in a more conventional job. You seem to be angling toward the examples set by corporate America, but this job isn't corporate America. Business isn't hard to understand. You can only pay an employee, in cash or benefits, a small portion of the income that employee can generate. Find a way for a professional skydiver to put in 40 productive hours per week, 50 weeks out of the year, meaning they are providing a service to a paying customer each of those 40 hours, and you'll have grounds for expecting the DZO to act like corporate America. But really, if you could put in 40 revenue generating hours with students every week for 50 weeks per year, you'd be making upwards of $70k per year, and wouldn't need a 'union' to help you out.

I'm going to 'modify' my thought a little. If the bridle is under the pin, and it does get pulled square with the pin, I don't think it would have a tendency to push the pin out of the closing loop as tension on the bridle itself would prevent the pin from 'backing out' of the closing loop. The pin would need to rotate (as the curved pin is designed to do) and be dragged out of the closing loop. I would seem that the pin would also have to be pointing downward as well, which of course is the opposite of the correct method where the pin points up (even if the bridle has slack above the pin, and is not tucked under the pin, the pin should still point upwards - a PSA for the kids). I'm not saying that a short bridle above the pin is not related, or not a bad thing. It may be related in some way, and is 100% a bad idea, regardless of the orientation of the bridle and pin. You must have that slack above the pin. The more I think about it, I seem to recall seeing a bridle tucked under a pin so as to make the pin check easier.

It seems very unlikely if the bridle is on top of the pin. The PC will pull the bridle away from the pin, and drag it out of the closing loop. If the bridle was under the pin, instead of slipping out off to the side, the bridle could pull up square with the pin so the PC is now pulling the bridle against the pin. Normally that would just push the pin out of the closing loop, or at least in that direction. However, if you combine that scenario with a short bridle above the pin, maybe the tension above the pin holds it in place, and the PC forces the pin through the bridle. It does seem like an odd situation. The tip of the pin isn't very sharp, and the tape they make bridles out of is pretty stout and tightly woven.

A Spectre 230 is more likely to get blown off heading than a big square student canopy in gusty wind conditions. You might need to 'fly' the Spectre a little more than the student canopies you have been jumping. At least when the wind is a little funky, you may need to make some small 'corrections' on final to keep it tracking straight. Do not use your rear risers for heading adjustment on final as someone else had suggested. Toggles only please, and no more than 4 or 5 inches of input. It might take a second for the canopy to come around, but there's no rush. If it never comes around, just land sideways, that's OK too. If you do come in sideways, ingnore the sideways component, just focus on your descent and flaring at the proper time. If you do that right, your speed and descent rate at touchdown will be low enough that a little sideways action is no big deal.

Does the heading change, or does the canopy 'crab' sideways. If the heading changes, you have a built in turn. If the heading does not change, there's a 99% chance your canopy is fine, and you we're not square into the wind on final. Let's remember that beign on final means you're up higher than the windsock. I'm guessing that for the last 100ft, you're keeping your eyes on your target, not the windsock, so your flying in wind 100+ft higher than the windsock. Additionally, if the windsock is shifting slightly, even just 10 or 15 degrees, you may be seeing one end of the swing, and not the other. Jump it on another day, and see what happens. Anything but a right-hand drift indicates your canopy is fine. On the off chance that the conditions are similar on that day, try turning the canopy away from the drift. If your drifting right, turn to the left slightly, and see if you can't get your canopy to square up into the wind. The last thing to do is get a more experienced jumper to jump the rig. Tell them your problem, and have them go up and see what's what.

Maybe, but when I first read the story over at basejumper.com, it made it sound like the guy with him was ground crew, and waiting at the bottom for him while Leroy was climbing to the exit point solo. After waiting for awhile with no sign of Leroy, he went to look for the guy and came up with nothing. Subsequent stories made it sound more like they were hiking together, and Leroy got far enough ahead that he was out of sight. After briefly re-establishing visual contact, the other guy went to where he had last seen Leroy, and found the end of the trail, and no sign of Leroy. At this point he began to search for him without success. Again, it just sounds like a guy who doesn't want to be found. A guy who knows how not to be found, and sure enough, he's not been found. I don't know anything else about this but what's here and on basejumper.com. The reason I suggested about contacting friends and family is that maybe he said or did something that nobody thought anything of in it's own, but combined with this situtaion would point toward Leroy wanting to not be found. Closing a bank account, cancelling his cable service, making sure a friend knew how to take care of his fish beyond feeding them for a week. You can't ignore the fact that a lot of people are putting in a lot of time and effort in looking for the guy, and as such you have to consider all the possibilities. For example, someone else brought up a possible fall with a head injury. In that case, he might be running from nothing, and in need of medical attention.

What are the chances that this guy doesn't want to be found, and the on going search is pushing him into a corner? I'm not interested in the answers, but they should be checking with his family and freinds to see if he said or did anything to indicate that he wanted to 'disappear'. Was there anything in his life he would have wanted to get away from? Looking at it from the other angle, anything for him to want to return to? Let's face it, this is a military trained guy, and he wasn't found by military search teams. He knows how to be found, and he knows how not to be found.

Just a few things - first off, an RW suit is supposed to cling to your body. If you're 5' 11" and 170, then you shouldn't need any extra drag, so you don't want a baggy suit. Also, the crotch area is going to be tighter then you're used to. It's not a pair of pants, it's a suit designed to be worn with a rig where the legstraps will be tightened right up into your crotch. If there was any extra material down there, like pair of pants, it would just have to be pulled up into your crotch anyway when you snug up your legstraps. If the body, arm and leg length are all good, take it to the DZ and see what the more experienced jumpers think about the fit. Snug around the torso is easy to fix with an elastic panel sewed into the seam down the side of the body. You have to remember that student jumpsuits aren't meant to fit anyone, they're meant to fit everyone. Your own personal suit will fit differently then those, and differently than any other piece of clothing you have ever worn. It looks like a nice suit, and it's a good price even if you need to pay for an alteration. Ask around the DZ about who can alter your jumpsuit. There's usually a local rigger who's handy with a sewing machine.

Of course this is the classic question many new skydivers ask with regards to shooting video. They go on to suggest that this camera or that helmet have almost no risk for snags, so what could it hurt? The reply is always the same about the camera being a distraction to the jumper and those around him, and if you don't know how to handle it, bad things can happen. I had forgotten about this until it popped up in another thread, but now I present to you, a bad thing happening - This was 12+ years ago when mini-DV was brand new, and sidemount cameras had not been released. As such, there were literally 1/10 the number of cameras on the DZ because not many folks were keen to jump the big stuff. Guy 'A' and guy 'B' are expereinced freeflyers with at least 500 jumps each, and many, many jumps together. Guy 'A' mans up and buys a camera helmet, and I present you guy 'A's first camera jump, where he did a two-way with guy 'B', alot like the many two ways they had done before. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoer1LmWTL4&fmt=18 Long story short, guy 'B' was stoked to be on video, and guy 'A' was stoked to be shooting video. Both forgot about break off, tracking, or pulling. Both well over 200 jumps, both got sucked right into the camera, and almost didn't get out.

That's a negative ghostrider. Loosening the chest strap allows the main lift web to form a straight line from the hip ring to the canopy. This is a longer line than you get when you have the chest strap restricting the MLW, in that case the straight line is from the chest strap to the canopy. The longer line gives you the greater distance at the end of the lines, and the flatter canopy. For starters, loosening the chest strap effects the entire canopy. Pushing out the rears only effects the rear half of the canopy as the front risers are stationary. Also, if you think about it, you're introducing an angle into the line from the hip ring to the canopy when you push out on the rears, and the last time I checked if you take a line of a given length, and add an angle, it spans a shorter distance. Canopies are fairly dimensionally stable in terms of span, chord, and anhedral. The only reason you can reduce the anhedral with the chest strap is that you're effectively lengthening the lines, and it only works because it effects the front and rear risers equally. Anytime you start to use the risers independent of each other (or in groups) the effects to the entire wing are going to be limtied.

Nope. It was probably about 2500ft, and his beeper went off, most likely on the second beep. It looks like he was slowing down when the Cypres fired, and he let them go by before dumping. You can hear his beeper flat line once the slider comes down. I know a guy who did this, but he set the drouge at pull time and then dumped the main. Later in life he fell off his roof hanging Christmas lights ala Chevy Chase in Cristmas Vacation, and then went on to crash helicopters for a living (or something like that). The good news is that he's not jumping anymore.