davelepka

Maybe. I see it this way, the wings are there to provide you with recovery and power. They give you a whole bunch of surface area to work with so you can move around your subject with authority. They also offer a 'safety net' in that if you should get caught in a burble, you can use the added lift of the wings to either fly out of it, or lessen the closing speed before you land on top of what you're filming. The trouble is that all that manuverability and power can be a very dangerous thing inside of the tunnel. If they set the speed at an average fall rate, with your wings you could easily shoot waaay up in the tunnel, or bounce yourself off the wall pretty hard. If they slow the speed down so you have less air to work with, you'll have to fly with your wings fully inflated, and you'll loose much of the advantage that the wings provide. You might as well loose the wings, and just fly in the tunnel without them. It's all that extra speed and power, in a confined space, that might not be a good idea if you don't have alot of time flying camera wings. Just for reference, when I say 'alot' of time, I mean more jumps with wings than you have jumps total. I guess it's really up to you and the people running the tunnel. I have to imagine that anyone who shows up with camera wings, and no camera or subject to film might meet some resistance from the management.

I didn't mean to imply that you were a bonehead, just that if you acted that way during your recurrent training, the instructors might not see that as a good thing. As far the canopy stuff, by all means you should be jumping a ZP canopy, and most likely one smaller than your Sharpchuter. The flare performance is much better, and it would be very reasonable to jump on a size or two smaller than what you have. The trick is to remember that all of your experiecne has been in the 220+ sq ft sizes, and you should return to jumping in that same range. You may later find that you are very comfortable on a 190 or 170, but you need to first get your 'sky legs' back, and then ease your way down by jumping one smaller size at a time. Along the same lines, don't expect to get on a 20 way your first weekend back. Ease into that stuff too. Start small, just get used to being back in the sky. Pay more attention to making a safe skydive, than being a on a big complicated jump. Overall, I think you'll find that not much had changed. There are equal amounts of good guys and bad guys on the DZ (and still not enough chicks). Just like the last time you were a jumper, stay safe, watch your back, and have fun.

I'm talking about skydiving students, not base students. Any retard can take up skydiving, and many do. Base jumpers tend to be a little more selective about who they will give a FJC. Any way you want to word it, there are skydivers who track improperly. They think they are tracking, but do have more of a dive to their trajectory. This does provide them separation from other jumpers, just not as much as a 'real' track. More than enough for a two, three or even four way. Here's the trouble - take a guy who has a little too much dive to his track, sometimes the extra speed will carry over into his pull sequence and he gets a 'firmer' opening. Now he sees this thread, and of course wants a softer opening, so he starts dumping before even trying to stop his 'track'. Call it what you will, many jumpers do not have a good flat track. Sure they could get further if they did it right, but if all you have is a Cessna, it's enough to get them clear of (at most) the three other guys they're jumping with. Right or not, it's the reality out in the world. Actually, it's not. The exact wording of the thread title is as follows - How Pulling At End Of A Track Can Lead To Softer NOT Harder Openings; If Timed Right. All it discusses is the possible outcomes from pulling in a track (according to the author). It makes no mention of the requirement for any behavior to ensure a good opening.

Look at it this way - even if you sat and watched the rig assembled, the reserve packed, and the main packed, would you really knwo what you're looking at? Even then, what do you know about aircraft maintainence, and what your DZ does about it? Furthermore, what do you know about the staff? Are they all qualified to be on staff? Do they hold the relevant certifications for what they are doing? As you can see, there are alot of areas where you just have to trust in the DZ and how it's run. What you can do is educate yourself in these areas, and then make an informed choice about jumping at that DZ. About the rig, stick with your standard gear check, learn to pack ASAP, and get your hands on your own gear once you have a license. Be present when your rig is assembled, and ask the rigger many questions about the assembly, and proper upkeep and regular maintainence. Pack your own main, and take the time to do it right.

Here's where you're at - as far as your gear is concerned, it is jumpable, but modern gear has gotten MUCH better. If you do try something more 'modern' keep in mind that your experience has been a 240 main. Don't let anyone talk you into jumping anyting much smaller than a 220 or 210 for your first handful of jumps. One questionable area is the AAD. Without a license, you may be considered a student jumper and the USPA requires an AAD for all studetns. I'm sure the DZ can figure out a way to get you a license based on your previous experience, but I would guess that's after you get current. As far as that's concerned, you may be asked to sit through the classroom portion of the first jump course, and pass the written test. Probably a good idea given your time away. You want to crystal clear on your emergency procedures and such, and I have to think that ten years has probably clouded our memories a bit. When it comes to the jumps, you won't be asked to do a dummy pull on a static line. There's not alot of static line training happening these days. You'll have to do some sort of freefall recurrency jump. It may be with one instructor, maybe two. They may have grips on exit, maybe not. There will be practice handle touches. All the details will depend on where you are, and how everything goes leading up to the jumps. If you come across as level headed, and sharp, maybe they feel good about taking you up. Act like a bonehead, and your instructor might feel like having a little back-up. Above all, shoot an e-mail to Perris, and see what they say. I'm sure they'll do their best to get you back in the air as quickly as possible.

Well, you're wrong. It is a skill that you have developed. I would think that big wall jumpers would know better than every one that not all trackers are created equal. You guys can clearly see that some guys just go further and stay flatter than others. Two things to keep in mind here, generally by the time a guy gets to a big wall they have a few hundered skydives, right? That's the time it takes to develop reliable tracking skills. Next, you have 2000 jumps. You can do whatever you want. If you work with students and newbies, you see what sort of tracking 'performance' they have, and you'd see that it's not a situation in which you'd want to toss out a PC. No, they don't. But they do care about airspeed, and if you have more 'dive' to your 'track', you end up wil excess airspeed, not a good time to pull. They also don't like unusual attitudes. If your track is head low, so will be your deployment, and if you've never seen jumper deploy head low, it generally does not 'improve' the opening. I agree. If you have to dump in a track to get a good opening, something is wrong. However, that is not the point of the thread. It was written by the guy who just did the article about big-way jumping. He was explaining how he uses this technique to get max. separation when doing big ways (a good idea) and that despite what some believe, he sometimes gets a 'better' opening by doing so. My opposition to this was that newer jumpers could read this and see it as a band-aid fix for poor openeings, or even just a piss-poor way to to make acceptavle openings a bit better. It needed to pointed out that opening in a track is not a good idea unless your track is very consistant. If it's not, you risk tyring to open your parachute in a situaiton where you are not in control. By all means, if your skills are developed, and you have a reason to (such as a wall, building, or large group of people behind you) dumping in a track is perfectly acceptable. However, if your tracking skills are not spot on, and you don't have an outside factor influencing you, please ensure that you are stable, in control, and at an acceptable airspeed before opening a parachute.

Indeed, and without the 'key', the whole concept of pulling in a (bad) track doesn't sound like such a good idea. There are many body postions and flight modes in which you can successfully open a parachute (and even get a good opening). The trouble is when you introduce any additional movements, or directional components to the picture. It is entirely possible to manage the additional factors, and get a good opening, but if you are not correclty managing all the additional factors, you are essentially opening a parachute while you are out of control.

Here's the trouble, you've written a piece that takes several minutes to read but what it's describing is a three second procedure, and that math just doesn't add up. If you're a jumper on a big enough dive that you don't have time to flare out of your track before dumping, then you already know how to take care of yourself. If you're a jumper on a dive where you have the time to return to stable, straight down freefall before dumping, then you should take that time, and pull from a standard, straight down freefall. What you're suggesting, while technically may be correct, is something a jumper should learn through experience, and only use when needed. The problem is that if not done properly, you can easliy get slammed, and if you're not 100% square in the shoulders, that slam turns into multiple line twists. The bottom line is this, your messing with the 'chain of command' when it comes to deployment. Let's remember that the #1 priority on any skydive is to successfully open a parachute. The entire system is designed around deployment at terminal while facing into the relative wind, and any alteration from that is ill-advised, and should be avoided if possible. I realize that if done properly, your method can work, but can you see how when you require actions with precision down to the .5 sec at an already busy time can be an invitation to mistakes, and the consequences of those mistakes? This manuver should be reserved for jumpers who are VERY stable and controlled with their track. It should be practiced on jumps where it is not required for maintaining safety. Jumpers should be preparred for a harder opening when first attempting this manuver. Jumpers who have not mastered this manuver should never sign up for a skydive where this will be required for maintaining proper seperation.

If you spoke to anyone running radials on a '3', give them a call, they should be able to get a great deal on a turbine conversion - engines, engine mounts, props, nacelles, the works. I don't think they're going to rebuild that bird.

Not to mention the 100% loss of directional control after the rear wheel comes up. 10 years ago that comment enver would have come up. Now, the stunters are out there doing all sorts of cool shit up on the front wheel, every squid out there thinks that's the way to get things slowed down in a hurry. I wonder how many riders out there actually have a plan to haul the rear wheel up in the event of an emergency? On a not-really related note, here a cool vid of Nicky Hayden fooling around on a Supertmotard bike. He wheelies all the way down the straight, switches up to an endo to slow for the corner, and gets it sideways almost before the rear tire comes down. Not the way to do it on the street, but fun to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDbWSkTwJdk

The other thing to remember is that you have to judge her reactions based on your reaction the first time you saw the video, the instant you saw the video. She only had the one chance to see what happened, and one chance to take action. It's easy to go over the video several times, and analyze the situation and her performance, but she did not have that luxury. I, for one, was surprised as hell when I saw what happened. Since I knew that an accident was coming, I was looking for it, and I thought for sure the car on her right was going to change lanes to the left, and cut her off. I never expected what actaully happened.

She was on the brakes, you can see her spped reduce as she went for the hole. You have to keep in mind that the Civic wasn't just on the brakes, he was sliding sideways, and I have to imagine that the car will slow down pretty fast when you swing it 90 degress to the direction of travel. I think she did a good job with what she had. She managed to avoid object fixation, and went for the only opening she had. As far as her braking skills go, the article attached to the story said she had attended a race school, and had some success in club races. I don't know what you're track experience is, but you can't go fast anywhere until you get good on the brakes. BTW, I'm with NickDG on this one, the view down the shirt of the 'helpful motorist" would have made me feel instantly better if it was me laying in the street.

Finally, they built a product that doesn't turn into a paper weight in 12 years. Provided that the price of gold doesn't go into the toilet, you can mail that thing to cashforgold.com in 12 years, and get a check in the mail the very next day!

I learned on a MLW mounted ripcord. The main reason the DZO gave for not switching to BOC or just a hip mounted ripcord (around the time everyone was switching over) was that you could see the ripcord when it was on your chest. The DZ was heavy on the static line students, and he liked that they could see the handle on dummy ripcord pulls. The idea was that a student would have a hard time finding a handle they coudln't see, but wouldn't have too much trouble transitioning over to BOC once they were off student status. I'm not sure what they're doing these days. I think it's a combination of rip cord and BOC hand deploy. I do know, that much like the DZ the OP jumps at, they are still rocking the round reserves.

You do realize that those risers are older than my Infinty, right? When I bought them, I was still jumping my Racer. In fact, I bought those risers when I was still jumping a Stiletto. How long ago was that? I'm not sure how many years that is, but I know it was two Velocities ago. Just think, if you ordered new risers, you could get any color you wanted, and they would match your rig instead of matching my rig. Get a fresh set of Slinks while you're at it.

Here's your probolem - you're looking at the rip cord by moving your whole head/neck/upper body. When you do this, you break the arch, and go unstable. Practice on the ground at home before your next jump. Stand in a good arch postion, and look toward the ripcord by only moving your head. You end up pivoting your head around the top vertabre in your neck, while keeping the rest of your neck still. Also, be sure that you're trying to look at it just out of the bottom corner of your right eye. You're not going to be able to look at it head on, or possible even with both eyes. As fas as your count, stick with what you're trained, but maybe change 'look' to 'look by moving my head only'. Saying it outloud to yourself as you go through the sequence generally helps things to go the way you want. Ripcords are fun, but they get expensive when you drop them, so hang on tight. Of course when you switch over to hand deploy the last thing you want to do is hang onto your handle....

A Racer is a solid rig. I've got 1000's of jumps on them, and know a couple of other guys with similar numbers of jumps on them without any problems. The two sided RSL is different. It MUST be disconnected in a two out situation if you intend to cut away the main. Aside from that, get it assembled, and just jump it.

I'm not sure what companies you're speaking of, but I'll guess Wal-Mart is somewhere in there. I personally don't shop at Wal Mart, but I'll be honest, it's not because of their international wrong-doing. It's because their stuff is junk, and the stuff they have that isn't junk you can get some place else. Back to the topic. Lets say I do shop at Wal mart, and in turn I support everything they do wrong. Then I come online, and chastise you for working at a Skyride DZ (which I'm not even sure you do). Am I a hypocrite because of that? I can see arguments for answering 'no', but I'll suspend them, and say sure, I am a hypocrite. How does that justify you working for a company you know to be involved in dishonest and misleading business practices, and that is clearly taking advantage of a great deal of DZs in this very small industry we're involved in? How does anythng I do justify your affiliation? How does anything anyone does justify your affiliation? How do you justify your affilitation?

The real question is what can you offer the DZ? That's how a DZO would look at a request for team rates, and the answer to that question will determine what sort of discount you'll get. Are you willing to commit to certain number of slots for your team in a given season? Are you willing to pre-pay for those jumps? Are you willing to pay for half of them up front, and the other half mid-season? Are you looking to just pay as you go? Are these jumps limited to being used for team jumps, or can you use them for fun jumps as well? what happens if the team breaks up? Is this for four way? If so, what sort fo plane is your DZ running? A 206 is good for a 4-way team, and thats it. No tandems, no students. I wouldn't expect a discount if you'll be hogging the plane on training days. Got an Otter, or two? Now you have a better chance at getting a deal. What is your competition schedule? Are you willing to commit to 'x' number of competitions, including nationals? Are you willing to re-pay your discount if you don't meet those commitments? What about running mini-comps or skills camps at the DZ? Are you willing to put up some of your time and expertise to promote fun jumper activity? In terms of a casual team situation, there are a million different ways to structure a deal. Your best bet is to pony up the bucks to pre-pay. If your team can show up with $5000, and say 'how many jumps can we get for this', I can't think of too many DZOs that won't wheel and deal with you.

Is 'slaver' even a real word? I know what you're trying to say, I've just never heard that word. Anyway, I do look at holding slaves a bit different than running a Caravan or DC-3 full of blow. We could go on and on about the trickle down effect, and the underapid wrokers growing the cocoa leaves on one end, and the junkies on the other end, but that would be silly. Like you said before, we all have a closet full of clothes built under 'unknown' circumstances. But if you do choose to run a load of blow, and get caught, then you have to deal with the US legal system before anyone has a chance to have anything to do with you. Once you have repaid your debt to society (as handed down by said legal system) a guy has a chance to turn things around, and have a shot at a straight life. By the time I came into the story, said DZO was well past his prison time, and well into his second shot, and doing pretty well at it. Yes, he probably used a pile of drug money to get the ball rolling, but he could have easily just kept the cash for himself, he could have lived like a king in one of 50 tropical countries for the rest of his life. Instead he jumped right back into skydiving, and put his money there. So yeah, I gave the guy a second chance. Do I agree with every action he's ever made? Not in the least, but the judicial system called it even with the guy, and he seemed like he was on the up and up. It's like I said about Skyride - I don't like what they're doing now, but I don't see that as a death sentence. If it was to stop, and they were square with the legal system, I'd patronize their DZ if they opened one, and operated it under good faith for a period of time. But right now, with their current and ongoing business practices? I don't know. I'm the first guy to point out that skydivers aren't gods gift to polite society, but when you have a crew of them fucking over other skydivers, that's a stab at the brotherhood, and just wrong. The skydivers they're fucking over aren't just average jumpers either, it's the selcet few who put their lives into running a DZ, which as we all know is a piss poor investment, and not for the faint of heart. They're not bringing anything new to the sport, they're not attracting any new jumpers. They step in and snipe people who are actively looking for a DZ already. If these people didn't get intercepted by a Skyride website, they would have located a local DZ site, and made a jump in a one-on-one transaction with the actual DZ. Instead, Skyride grabs them, sells the jump, and takes a cut from the local DZ these people end up jumping at. The end result is less money for the local DZ from a local customer who made the choice to seek out a DZ on their own. It's not like Skyride recriuted new business by marketing to new demographics or with new methods that attracted those who previously would not have sought out a DZ. In that case they would have garnered new business, and would be entitled to a cut. All they did was reach in and a grab existing business out from under the local guy, business that the local guy was entitled to by opening a DZ in the proximity of that customers home town. It's a straight up mafia type operation. The day that the law catches up with them, be it criminal or civil, whatever your argument may be in favor of Skyride will be proven wrong, and that day will come.

Maybe not, but let's keep in mind what we're talking about. Maybe a guy does run some drugs. Then he gets busted, and does some time. When he gets out, he opens a DZ, which he eventually builds into one of the biggest and best in the country. At the same time, this guy develops marketing and management ideas that allow DZs to grow, and realize great profits, and he shares these ideas with other DZOs. Is it wrong to patronize his DZ? After he paid his debt to society (he did the time), and repaid his debt to skydiving by investing all his time and money into a DZ, and then helping other DZOs to succeed? I think not. If the Skyride crew would cease and desist, repay society or skydiving in one way or another, then give it a decade to blow over, I would jump at their place if they then opened a legit DZ.

No wrongs? Is the DZ you're defending a Skyride DZ, or do they do business with Skyride? If the answer is yes, then I have some sad news for you. Even though the thread was deleted until interested parties were ready to make an announcement, I did have a chance to read it beforehand, and it seems that a certain DZ has indeed won a lawsuit against Skyride, who has been ordered to hand over any profits gained from Skyride doing business in the same state as the DZ that brought the suit. I believe the basis of the suit was unfair or misleading business practices. Now I've heard all the pro-Skyride arguments, and most of the them are pretty flimsly, but in the end the final stance is usually something to the effect of, 'If it was wrong, how come nobody has sued or nobody has gone to jail'. As sad as it seems, that was a vaild point, as the problems most have with Skyride were ethical questions about how they did business. It appeared that they were just inside the law, but still not quite 'upstanding'. With this legal victory, the tables have turned, and I guess that there really is something wrong with Skyride. How long will it be before other DZ owners in other states follow suit (no pun intended)? With a vicotry in one state, much of the legal 'heavy lifting' has already been done. So now Skyride is on the hook for the profits realized doing business in the state in question. I wonder how this will extend to the DZs affiliated with Skyride? Were they not complicit with Skyride? Could they rightfully claim they had no knowledge of their misleading business practices? I wonder how many unhappy customers actually made the long drive to the participating DZ, and complained to the management about the situtation? How many of them noticed that they were charged extra for services that off-the-street customers had included at no extra charge? Did any of them complain to the management? If any of these dis-satisfied customers were willing to come forward, or at least submit a written statement, DZ managemnt at Skyride affiliated DZs should be worried. They had full knowledge of what they were doing, and who they were in business with. Just because this place is your home DZ, don't sign on to whatever it is the DZO does. The guy is running a business, and trying to feed his family. You don't know what's happening behind the scenes. Have you read up on the business going on in MO these days? Non-existant aircraft maintenence, and mis-matched parts? Do you think the general population of jumpers there know about that? How about the missing rig parts after their latest fatality? Why would you remove parts of a rig still on a dead body before the cops showed up? Do you think the other jumpers would have expected that from their DZO? Did you see the thread about 'Home DZ Blues'? It's all about the treatment that some jumpers get after switching from one local DZ to another. These were staff memebers, and friends to all who left on good terms, only to return and be called traitors, and made fun of. Do you think they thought that in a million years their 'friends' at their first DZ would turn on them? Just to be clear, I'm not accusing your DZO or local jumpers of any of the above, but for your own info, just know that these things happen. It'a easy for newer jumpers to get roped into one DZ, and the way they run things, but things are not always what they seem, and the first place you happen to jump is not always the best. Hell, run a search here or google Ted Mayfield. He ran a DZ, and I'm sure had a bunch of people who thought it was a great place. Read up, and see what you think of his (long gone, thank god) operation.

Who are you jumping with? A guy with your description will have a natural rnage of speeds you can fly, and you need to be jumping with folks who have a similar range. It doesn't have to be indentical, but they should be close. I know everyone likes to jump with the petite 105 lb. hottie on the DZ, but sadly that might not be for you. Also, maybe look into some one-on-one coaching. See if you can recruit an AFF I to do some slow fall-rate practice. You could probably do this with anyone, but an AFF I will have the most expereince with matching fall rates, and will be able to teach you both in freefall and during the debrief better than just 'some dude'. Beyond that, maybe get a wing sewn into your armpit. A small wing will go a long way toward helping your fall rate, and will just make things more fun since you won't be worried about your fall rate. Some folks will say that it's 'cheating' or that it's a 'crutch', but you'll notice that folks that say that are generally not ones that share your natural fall rate. If anyone gives you any shit about your jumpsuit, let them know you'll be happy to wear any jumpsuit they want, as long as they are paying for your jumps. Edit - I just read your profile, and I second the idea of the tunnel. That would be a great use of a tunnel, and in an afternoon you could get your slow-fall and recovery techniques ironed out. Even once that is done, still look into a little wing. Even if you can fall slow, you don't want to have to. It's great for recovery, or the odd dive where the fall rate is unusually low, but for the most part you want to be in the middle of your fall rate for most dives.

Chances are that he ended up under you as opposed to you ending up on top of him. The freeflyers fall faster than than you. Let's say your belly group is doing 110 or 115 mph, and the freeflyers are doing 150mph. Six seconds of seperation equals about 600 or 700ft vertically, so I'll leave you to do the math, but as you can see, the freefly group will overtake your group at some point in the skydive. Add to this the fact that the higher airspeeds of freeflying allow higher horizontal speeds as well. A little backslide on your belly might be a walking pace, while a little backslide in freeflying could be two or three times that speed. Again, figure out the jumprun speed of the Skyvan, and how far it traveled in six seconds, and you'll see that it's just a couple hundred feet. Over the course of 45 seconds of freefall, you can see how easy it would be to backslide your way rght through that seperation. Finally, head down freeflyers have break off manuver they can do where they go from facing in towards their group into an intentional backslide, which they just continue the rotation into a track. The result is a very smooth transition from head down to a track, where they enter the track with all the the speed from head down and flat out haul ass away from their group (possibly right towards another group, possbily right under another group if they managed to fall faster than that group). That's my guess. Edit - As fas as your part in this goes, maybe next time try to track off the jump run as opposed to up/down the jumprun. With only three in your group, there's plenty of sky for everyone to track well clear of jumprun.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I'm not sure I would take editing notes from a guy who wrote this - 'Parity' is defined as equality. The word you were looking for was 'parody', which is defined as a 'humorous version of a serious subject'. I'm all for letting spelling/grammar errors slide on the net, but if you're going to cast aspersions against anothers writing, please expext the same in return. Your technical abilities aside, what exactly is your problem here? You really have a great deal of sand in your vagina over an issue that really doesn't merit such attention. Who are you to judge the content of Ian's piece? I could see if you were editing the technical aspects (as I did to your post above), but the content is what it is. The whole purpose was to share his impressions of the event, which he did.