davelepka

I don't think there's any argument that outside video is superior to handy cam. You should have dropped the bomb about only having one TI in the first place. In that case, the spec video is a great way to fill one of the two open slots in the plane. It's nice deal for the camera guy too. He gets to jump all day, even if nobody pre-buys video. He might not make any dough, but it's better than sitting on the ground or paying your own slot.

Two tandems with two handy cams = 1 load. Two tandems each with a spec. video guy = 2 loads. Fuel cost for one load = $40 Fuel cost for two loads = $80 ($40 more than one load).

Holy hell that was frightening. Once the barber pole got all the way down the reserve risers, there was nothing left to do but throw out the main PC and hope for the best. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the main slider pulled the ball of shit reserve right down into the guys lap. He got a good canopy and contained the shit ball all at once. Just a drop of good luck in an otherwise terrible situation.

No, they're not. The d-bag is there to stage the opening. The slider is there to stage the opening. The rubber bands are there to hold the lines in place until they are needed, and should have no effect on the speed of the deployment process. If your lines stows are tight enough to slow the speed at which the bag is pulled to line stretch, then you are asking for line twists and a bag lock. Again, I'll reference the new generation of deployment bags which feature two traditional locking stows, and a pouch in which the remainder of lines are neatly folded. As the bag is pulled away from the container, the lines play out of the stow pouch unrestricted. Details of this type of bag can be found here, one thread up from this one - http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=3642915;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;

Here's how I see it. By the time you're ready to do a blindman, I would expect that you have experience (and success) with straight swooping, swooping with unusual body positions, manuvering the canopy during a swoop, and flying with half a line twist at altitude. Given that you posess that collection of 'tools', it's just a matter of combining them into a blindman. In truth, you should be just one small step away from a blindman by the time you try one. It shouldn't be a big departure from what you're already doing (with success), but just one evolutionary step in the process. It shouldn't be the sort of thing that you need explained to you, it should be clear to you as the next step in your logical progression. So when a dude pops up and says, "I'm going to try that, how do I do it?", my first impression is that he hasn't progressed to that point. As such, I'm not about to encourage it. I'm way more inclined to adivse jumpers on the individual skills. Landing with rears, or starting to carve a little during the swoop are singular skills, and the sort of thing you might need a few tips before you get started. I'm 99% sure that if you can't figure out how to do a blindman on your own, you shouldn't be doing one.

Here's the deal - locking stows can be double wrapped, but I don't do it. What size band you use for your locking stows will depend on how tight your canopy is in your bag. If the bag is stuffed full, then the stow and the grommet won't be that close, so you can use a bigger rubber band and stil lhave good tension. If the bag is larger and the grommet reaches all the way to the stow band, then you'll need a little rubber band to do the job. The rest of the stows are up to you. I prefer to use a larger band and double wrap the stows. It's worked well for me for a long time, but in all fiarness, there are 100 different ways to pack, and they all work. A word on the stows, all they really need to do is hold the lines place during the pack job and deployment. As long as they are secure, the exact tension is not that important. Case in point is the new generation of bags that have no stow bands. There are locking stows to close the bag, and the rest of the lines are neatly folded in a pouch on the bag. As the bag is lifted by the PC, the lines simpy play out of the pouch with no tension on the lines at all. If your pack job is solid, and the slider is all the way to the stops and split four ways, the tension on your stow bands will not effect your opening. As long as they keep the lines organized and in place during the pack job, that's good enough.

I don't. Before you can do a blindman, you better have the basic swoop down. You should be consistant with your turn, plane out, transition to rears, etc. You should have experience with carving and wingovers. More or less, you should be close to an expert level swooper before getting into the blindman. You should be comfortable enough during your swoop that kicking yourself around isn't a big deal. It's just a matter of doing it and working out the bugs. It's like a freeflyer who wants to transition from head down to sit with a hand dock. By the time you're ready for this, you can already fly on your head, in a sit, can transition in place freely between the two and fly a dock in both positions. Once you're at that point, you don't have to ask how to do it with the dock, you just go up and have at it. If you really have all the tools you need to do the blindman, you really shouldn't have to ask. You're ready to just do.

$10 for 4k isn't a bad rate at all. It terms of paying to jump from a plane, altitude is really what you're paying for, so more of it should cost more. Solo jumpers pay $15 to jump from 5k, $20 to jump from 10K, and $23 to jump from 13k. It does cost mroe to go higher, and in terms of doing a tandem, it's probably worth it. If you're spending $200 to make a tandem from 10k with an opening altitude of 5k or 5.5k, you're talking about 5k or 4.5k of freefall time. Another $10 to exit at 14k almost doubles your freefall time seems like a good deal to me.

Start with a helmet, a pond, and a rig you don't mind getting wet. From there it's just a matter of throwing yourself into half a linetwist, and back again before you run out of steam. Seems simple, and the kind of thing you want to get advice about from the internet. You can always count on the internet.

What the average is, or what the guy down the street is doing shouldn't matter. This is between you and the DZO. If they are advertising 13k or 14k ft for 'x' dollars, and you are getting out lower than that, then you should bring this up with the DZO. If, however, the DZ is selling slots on a 'high altitude' load for 'x' dollars, than you have accept what you're getting, or choose to take your business elsewhere if you're unhappy. Let's keep in mind that getting out at 11k as opposed to 13k will cut 2 or 3 minutes time off of each load. By the end of the day that's enough time to fit in one more laod before sunset (which makes the DZ more money), or 20 or 25 minutes less flight time on the plane (which saves a bundle of money for the DZ). The combines value of a Grand Caravan and a King Air is between 1 and 2 million dollars, depending on the condition of the planes. With that type of investment, I'm sure you can see why a DZ would do whatever they can to cut costs. Additionally, the tandems are the money makers on the DZ. The DZ will cater to their needs above yours, and if 11k is high enough, then that's where the planes are going. Keep in mind that without the tandems, neither one of those planes would be there. If the DZ still existed without tandems, you'd be jumping from a 182 at 10k. It would take 25 min to get to altitude, and you'd be wedged in there with three of your closest buddies.

Without posting videos of several 'bad' landings, there's nothing anyone online can do to help you with your specific problems. It does sound as if it's the flare/touchdown that's giving you problems, and not the pattern and accuracy. If that's the case, then you're already halfway to good canopy control because the patten work and set up are a big part of the picture. Without video, here's what I can add that should prevent further injury - 1. Finish the flare. Always, and everytime, you should make contact with the ground with your hands all the way down in the full flare position. If you begin your falre early, simply stop moving your hands until you get to a lower alitude (do not put your hands back up once you bgein to flare). If you begin your flare late, vigorously complete as much of the flare as you can before impact. Always, always, always finish your flare. 2. PLF. I don't care if you have 138 or 1380 jumps, I don't care of your jumpsuit and rig get dirty. Practice and employ a proper PLF on every landing. You have a track record of hard landings with some leading to injury, and you need to protect yourself moving forward. A PLF will help you to walk away from otherwise very hard landings. In a case where your landing is very soft, the PLF will simply happen in slow motion, but it should still happen. Once you can establish a track record of 15 or 20 consecutive landings where the PLF was not needed, then you can go back to taking your chances with the stand ups, but until them protect yourself, and your future in skydiving, with a good PLF. A note on the PLF - watch any swoop competition video. You will see the swoopers sliding in, rolling, PLFing, and everything but standing it up. These guys are there to showcase their canopy flying talents, but they realize that sometimes the touchdown itself will not be pretty, and they simply give up on standing it up. They end up walking away covered in sand, dirt, mud, grass, and the chalk they use to mark the swoop course, but the walk away. Keep in mind the true measure of success for a landing is one that you can walk away from. Standing it up, staying clean, and looking cool do not count for anything.

Being a pilot will help you in skydiving, but not so much at first. For your first few jumps, forget that you know anything about airplanes, and just take the class for what it's worth. If you've been trained in engine out procedures, you'll understand the concept of canopy flight. You're always moving forward, always losing altitude, and there's no way to stop it. Although, the big difference will be the glide angle, with the canopy being very steep in comparison to an airplane. In terms of flaring, the steeper glide angle will alter the look of the approach, so it will feel different than in an airplane. This is where you need to forget about airplanes, and just go with the training your instructor provides.

Where exactly did the reserve ripcord end up? The handle was out of the pocket, the pin was pulled, but you obviously had it afterwards as you've descirbed it's post-incident condition. I'm just curious really, did it ride out the deployment hanging from the housing, or what? Also, you descirbe damage to the housing, which end of the housing was damaged, and can you be mroe specific about the damage. I can onyl assume it was from the ripcord itself, and that damage should indicate the direction of the pull. Given that you have the video as a reference, I'd be surprised if you couldn't look for what was moving in that direction just before your PC came out to play. Maybe it got hooked over the corner of one of those goofy mega-grippers some jumpsuits have these days. Those things are built strong so jumpers can swing around on them all day long, it certainly could have yoinked out a reserve ripcord and shown no damage or evidence of such. Edit - After taking another look at the video, it looks like the guy in front of you, in the black, has his hip area up in your reserve ripcord area. Does he have cut-in laterals? Maybe the corner of his container grabbed your handle. What does his legstrap pad look like just behind the hip ring? Some of them come to a point or corner, and if that slipped over your handle, it might have created just enough tension so when you slid off the guy, your handle didn't immediately follow. Who's the guy facing you with the red, white, and blue Infinty? He's right in that neighborhood too, and just before your PC fires, his right hand is out of view. I don't think that was it, but you can't see the right hand, and the handle is within reach of that hand.

OK, so what about the 'full time' warriors? These are the guys who spend all week at the DZ, who show up to make one or two tandems on a Tuesday morning. The same guys who have no income if it rains or the wind picks up. No DZ could exist with just weekend warriors, and the full timers rely on skydiving to pay their bills and keep them fed. Don't they deserve to make a few extra bucks if the student feels so inclined? Let's remember that giving a tip is optional. I'm a weekend warrior who used to be a full timer. Back in the day if I could make another $30 or $40 in tips, that's like making one more working jump per day. Once I got a 'day job' I stopped taking a paycheck from the DZ. All of the money I make goes on my DZ account and gets spent on fun jumps or skydiving equiipment. I give 100% back to the sport, why is that if a student feels like I took care of them, they shouldn't be able to show with a few extra bucks? The days I work at the DZ (and don't take a penny) I spend money on gas to drive there and back, and I usually end up going out for dinner because it's late and I'm too tired to cook. In those cases, an extra $20 in my pocket pays for those out of pockets costs. Let's remember that giving a tip is optional. Let's remember that giving a tip is optional. I don't drink beer, so it's never been a tradition for me. I also have worked (in skydiving) with several people who were recovering alchoholics, and I shudder at the tought of a student handing over a case of beer to any of them. Cash is king. You like beer? Spend it on beer. Need gas in your car? Fill er up. Let's remember that giving a tip is optional. Alot of what I see in the way of the anti-tipping crowd are those who have never worked in skydiving. Being a full time jumper, financially, is a tough way to go, but we need people like that in skydiving. These are the people who make being at the DZ priority one, and keep the props turning while the weekend warriors and fun jumpers are busy with other things. Not to exclude the weekend warriors though, anyone who works on a DZ knows what it's like on jump 10 or 12 of a hot summer day. Manifest already has every load filled up through sunset, and it will take every instructor and every rig just to get all the students up before dark. You might be tired of hungry, but you need to be professional, and ensure that your last student gets the same care and attention to safety as your first. It's a job, and sometimes it's a bitch of a job. If a student can afford a few extra bucks, and feels like it's the right thing to do, then they should. If it's a college kid who spent his last dime to pay for the jump, nobody would ever expect a tip, or hold it against the kid for not tipping. Let's remember that giving a tip is optional. In the US, servers only get paid $2 or $3 dollars an hour, which is actually only about 30% of the legal minnimum wage, and the reason they get so little is because of the tips. Even if they only spend five min. with you, in the US the tips are their primary source of income, so when you go to a restaurant, be sure to factor in about 15% more than the menu prices to cover the tip. It might feel kind of like scam, bit without the tips, servers would be making $12 to $15 a night for a dinner service, and we can all agree that's not enough to live on.

I think the mistake you're making is twofold. First, nobody is asking the student to evaluate the instructors performance against a set standard, but only against how they felt they were treated. An AFF I could fly a sloppy skydive, and throw weak hand signals where the student can't see them, but if the student felt as if the instructor did their best, and cared for their well being, then that student should feel free to tip that instructor. Conversely, if an instructor flew a slot perfect skydive, and gave a spot on bebrief, but was short and impersonal with the student, then that student might not be inclined to tip. The tip is all about a personal feeling you get after service. If somebody takes care of you, you take care of them. The other mistake you keep making is thinking that a tip is going to buy you through training. The first part of this is that the USPA would yank your rating if they ever found out. Let's ballpark the cost of an AFF rating at $2500, so that money would be lost. Let's also say that at $35 a jump, a weekend instructor at a seasonal DZ could make $3000 to $5000, getting paid to skydive. That would be gone. Worth the tip? Hardly. Let's move on, past the money to the ethics. 90% of the AFF-Is out there are caring, motivated people who get the ratings out of a desire to help others, and pass on some knowledge in the sport. 10% are dickheads who enjoy lording over people, and like to be put in positions of power. The 90% won't take a bribe because they're not that type of people. The 10% won't take it because it's a case of the student assuming command of the situation, and telling the instructor how it's going to be. It's either that, or a case of some pud with a few bucks who thinks they're too good to pass a level the old fashion way, and the 10%-er's won't go for that either. It's not a situaiton ripe for abuse. The money invovled (even in a sizable tip) isn't enough to offset the consequences of passing a subpar student. This isn't a doorman letting a dorky guy into a club. It a highly trained professional dealing with potentially deadly consequences. Have a little faith that your lcoal AFF-I's aren't selling out for a $20 bill.

Again, you're barking up the wrong tree. I'd be more concerned about an instructor who would pass a student for a tip than the student. The student will encounter other instructors who will set them straight, and make sure they're up to snuff. The instructor who took the payoff (tip) will continue to operate with that same judgement for every student they encounter. Don't cock-block an AFF-I from getting a tip. They deserve them just as much as any other skydiver who does their job well enough to be recognized above and beyond the standard pay.

For starters, no harness grips. Grippers are for gripping, harnesses are for wearing. Protect your handles. Of course as you move around the plane and such, but also during the climbout and in freefall. If any part of a skydive looks as if it will expose any of your handles to possible grabs/snags, change the jump, or find other people to jump with. There should never be a struggle in the door. If you can barely get into position, how do you expect everyone to get a clean launch and present properly (the exit in your video is proof of this, not exactly what I would call 'clean' even without the reserve deployment). Chunk a clean six way with two divers. Then... Dirt dive correctly. Put the climbout in the mock-up, and be realistic about what can be achieved on the actual AC in flight. The front super floater who hangs on by one hand on the mock up won't be that far forward on jumprun. The need to not fall off, and the wind will have him way less 'super' during the real thing. Point this out when you door jam it, and get him in the right spot so everyone else can see what they really have to work with. Talk about handles in the dirt dive. Everyone outside the plane, who has one grip and one hand on the bar needs to be aware of where they're grabbing when they go to pick up that other grip during the exit. Make sure the inside guys have both grips in the door before you leave, so that's fewer hands grabbing around on the hill. Better yet, use those guys to help tie the outside guys together so they have an easier time picking up their second grip, less reaching and fumbling. All in all, you guys got lucky on that one. The camera guy could have taken it on the chin if he was high and tight on the exit. If it funnled, your PC and freebag would be winding it's way through the bodies looking for the clean air. The freebag will seperate itself from the canopy, but your buddy wrapped up in your lines may not. Cool video, and it looked like a nice opening.

That's a negative ghostrider. There's no telling who the instructor for the next jump is going to be, and needless to say, if you bought your way past a level, they would have their work cut out for them. Instructors count on the previous logbook entry to give them an idea of what they're getting into, and the that includes the line, "Pass to AFF Level xx". Besides, it takes more than money to impress an AFF instructor. Richard Branson, the billionaire, has been through some jump training in preperation for his around-the-world ballon trips. He failed many, many levels, including one where he grabbed his chest mounted main ripcord, and his cutaway with the same hand, and deployed his main and cut it away in one smooth motion. I don't think he ever actually graduated to solo freefall. They just gave up and figured if he had to bail out of his ballon, he'd be OK. As far as just buying beer, not all instructors drink beer. If you instructor makes you feel well taken care of, then take care of them and hand over some cash. It's a few bucks they can spend in any way they see fit. The concept of buying beer and hanging out is unrelated. If you're going to hang out and drink beer, you better put some beer in the damn fridge. Even if you don't like your instructor or think he did a shitty job, if he's hanging out at the end of the day, you offer him a cold one anyway. The jumping, the instructing, the tipping - that's business. The hanging out, and drinking beer - that's pleasure.

You have a misunderstanding of the situation. Without the assistance of the instructor, your son woul dhave very little chance of coming away from a jump unharmed. Now if your son is returned, not only unharmed, but excited, and feeling as if he had been a part in the success of the jump, learned a few things about skydiving, and generally feeling as if he was well taken care of, then it wouldn't be unreasonable for you to shell out a $10 for the guy who made it possible. Anyone can sit there like a lump, hook your kid up and drag him out the door. If the instructor goes the extra mile, and makes sure your son gets the most out of the jump, recognize it. You do it when a waitress makes you feel at home and well cared for, so why not this?

That's a negative ghostrider, I was not misled in any way. Either way, thanks for chiming in with the facts. I found it hard to beleive that a pilot and staff of instructors would fly all day in an airplane that wasn't up to snuff. In defense of the whuffo who started this thread, he did concede to the points I made in my post, and feels better about his experience now.

Stop doing that, it's not helping. If there's any wind at all, it's actually making your approach steeper by reducing your ground speed. Even if there's no wind at all, it's reducing your airpseed, and that's not helping your flare. Not to mention that your approach, even in full flight, will be steeper than on a 9-cell (like your other canopies). Additionally, the smaller canopy will come in faster than your others, so you're got steeper and faster, all at once. The trick is to not let it scare you and screw up your flare. Flare you canopy just engouh to get it level off and fly straight across the ground (aka the 'sweet spot'). Then FINISH YOUR FLARE. It a basic element of any landing, but you need to finish your flare before you touch down. It's common ofr jumpers transitioning to a faster canopy to flare most of the way, and then just try to run it out or slide in. They let the speed overlaod their brains, and they just want to get their feet on the ground. Just finish the flare, and keep your feet up until you do. It will slow down just fine.

I would hope they would not leave the student in the plane, and when it comes to getting two people out of the plane, it just takes longer. There's a fair chance that if there's a problem with the airplane, it's going to be losing altitude, so the longer it takes to get out, the lower you are when you actually exit. Tandem reserves are designed to open slowly because a handful of tandem malfunctions will involve the drouge chute not deploying, or not working properly. In these cases the tandem pair would be going well over 150mph, and a fast opening reserve could cause serious injury. So combine the extra time to exit, an extra few seconds in freefall to get the pair stable, time to open the main, and then time (and altitude) to cutaway, and get a reserve open, and you can see why a tandem needs more alititude than others to get out safely.

Is that engine transverse mounted? I think it is, and I think the problem is that the rear cylinder bank is right up against the firewall, and the plugs are not easily accessible. I don't know what's involved in getting to them, but I think there's alot of disassembly required to get in there, and thus the 4 hours of labor the dealership is quoting. I will say this, $300 is alot to spend on new plugs, but if the book says 4 hours, that's 4 hours for a professional mechanic in a shop with all the tools and supplies he needs. You doing it home may take longer, significantly longer if you need to run to the store for tools or supplies, or you break something else in the process of swapping your plugs. How much is your time worth? What if it takes you all day, and you spend $100 on tools, parts and supplies? How for ahead are you in the end?

To be fair to the DZ in question, it sounds as if they have a 182 and a 206. If one of those planes is down for any reason, the experienced jumpers won't be jumping beacuse the DZ will be using the one remaining plane to fly the tandems. Tandems are the money makers for the DZ, and if they only have the lift capacity to fly either the tandems or the fun jumpers, the tandems will win every time. There's a good chance that the fun jumpers were waiting until all the tandems had jumped, and were jumping after you left. On to an additional point, let's keep in mind that your knowledge of airplanes is somewhat limited. Let's also keep in mind that you state - - but you don't state this persons qualifications for making judgements about aircraft safety. What I'm getting here is that there was a pilot, and group of professional skydiving instructors who chose to fly in this airplane for the entire day, and those are people who are capable of making judgements about aircraft safety. Especially in a tandem situation, the instructor is stuck in the plane until at least 3000ft before they can safely bail out of an aircraft emergency. So the fact that they are wearing parachutes is of little use to them is something should go wrong below that alititude. Yet they still jumped the plane in question all day long. The pilot is a professional, and if he was to fly as unsafe aircraft that went down as a result, would not only risk serious injury himself, but the revocation of his pilots license by the FAA after they investigate the crash. Yet he continued to fly the aircraft all day long. It's entirely possible for airplanes to have problems. It's also entirely possible to fix those problems, and it's probable that a DZ would have spare parts and a mechanic on location (or on call) who could fix the aircraft in short order. A DZ only has a limited amount of time to make money, and when the weather is good and tandems are waiting to jump, you need your plane running ASAP. The point here is that there may not have been an issue with the plane at the time of your jump. Did you ask about the aircraft? If so, I would hope that you recieved an answer that satisfied your needs, because you were certainly due that. If you did not ask, then is seems short sighted to come here and name names when you have very little information to go on.

14 years ago in Deland, I was a new jumper with about 50 jumps in my logbook, and this was my first time at a different DZ. One load in the Skyvan was me, a couple tandems, and a four way team. These guys had matching jumpsuits and rigs, and looked very professional. They even stood up and did a 'dirt dive' at around 10K, and I have to say, I was impressed. Right up until jumprun, when one of the guys turned to me and said, 'Can you open the door for us, we're all too scared to go near that thing'. Needless to say, I was no longer impressed.