davelepka

I knew that thing at least looked like an Aero Commander.

OK, so your opinion is that I'm A) adversarial, and B) not really offering a complete answer. I'd like, then, to take this oppertunity to point out that your post was both adversarial - -and at the same time didn't provide and facts to back up your opposition to my posts. That aside, what do feel is lacking from my proposed flight plan? If you know the location of the DZ, and location of the exit point, you have directional awareness. Combine this with your knowledge of the wind speed and direction, and bingo, you're informed. You know where you are, where the DZ is, which direction to face for landing, and how for downwind to get before turning onto final. What more do want? In the case of L&V winds, the direction you land is becomes only relevant for the sake of working with traffic over and around the DZ. If you're landing off, the direction has no meaning. Are there days when the wind is up, and shifting a significant amount? Yes there are. Are they in the minority in terms of weather phenomenon? Yes they are. Do they predominatly occur on days with a high level of atmospheric instability? Yes they do. The same type of days when skydiving, especially for a newer jumper, might not be a good idea? Yep, those are the days. So really, what's your problem? This issue here, I got it covered. Trust me. For longer than you've been jumping, I've been thinking about how to relate the nuts and bolts of canopy flight to newbies. You keep focusing on how to figure out wind direction from under canopy. I'm telling you, figure it out before you take off. How far off field are oyu that you can't see the DZ as a reference? Why would you jump out on that type of spot? Getting out of the plane would have been your mistake. Instead of teaching jumpers how to dig themselves out of the trouble they get into, why not teach them to stay out of that trouble in the first place. A guy with a written flight plan will have an active role in the jump operations. When they get to the door they will check that what they see matches what they planned on seeing. If it's that different than what they expect, they won't jump. See? If they jump anyway? They're an idiot, and couldn't think their way out of a paper bag, let alone determine wind speed or direction from under canopy.

It might be an Aero Commander. Thats my best guess.

Here's what you do - Mount the camera without a QR. Cut a hole in the top plate that will allow the tape door open (I'm guessing that the mounting surface where the tripod screw goes is not part fo the tape door). Cut a similar hole in the top of the helemt, and remove your tapes from inside the helemt. OR Get a D-box, and cut whatever hoels you need to access the various functions you expect to use. You shoul dbe able to get by with zoom, focus, and maybe if there's an effects button. Are you doing tandem vids? If so, alot of guys will just pull the cam out of the box to shoot inside the plane, so they don;t have aproblem. In truth it will be easier to get more and better shots without a Batrack hanging off the bottom of your camera.

Read the thread. I explained how he could inform himself so he knows what he will do before the plane takes off. Unless his off ifeld landing is 300 miles from the DZ, proper flight planning will have him well infomed and ready for all sorts of eventualities. Thats a useful approach if you find yourself under-informed. If you are aware of wind direction, jump run direction, and your exit point relative to the DZ, you don't need to land on the DZ to know which way is into the wind. You don't even need any outside indicators (water, smoke, etc.). As far as your night jump example, if the winds went from L&V to 15+ during the course of a ride to altitude, the conditions were not condusive to making a night jump. In the unlikely event that rouge winds gusted to 15+, at night, ground personel should contacted the pilot via aircraft radio, both for the safety of the jumpers and the pilot.

Help has arrived - pay no attention to kelpdiver. Yes, the wind can shift, and typically, the shift will be less than 15 or 20 degrees either way. Your plan will not change until maybe when you are on the downwind leg of your landing pattern. At this point take a look at the wind sock, and if it has shifted a bit, you can over or under turn your turn to final to line up with the wind. Wind shifts greater than this are on very light wind days, often times conditions will be stated as light and variable. On these days, confer with an instructor when making a flight plan to see what the DZ policy is on this. Some DZs will pick a direction, and thats the way you land all day. In this case it's easy to make and use a plan. Other will have you follow the first jumper down. In this case, you will still know your exit/opening points before the jump, and make up two plans to cover the two directions you are most likely to be landing. Under canopy, once you see the direction others are going, simply follow the appropriate plan. The more you work with these factors, and see how one thing leads to another, the easier it will be to make a plan. Soon enough you won't have to write anything down, and at some point just a glance at the wind sock on the way to plane will be enough. There are times that I don't even do that anymore. Figure on writing stuff down for 30 to 50 jumps, and ease into doing the figuring in your head. Try to log 1000 jumps or so before you ignore the windsock.

Keep in mind that 'a while' is however long it takes you to make several hundred jumps. All of your skills with cameras and such won't help you with freefall video. Sure, you know how to turn the cameras on, what settings to use, but once you hit 'record', it's 100% skydiving skils that will get you your shot, and keep you (and everyone around you) safe.

In refernece to the altittude concerns already stated in another post, if a doctor has a problem with the high altitudes, see what he would consider a reasonable altitude. Tandems can be done from 7500 or 8500 ft with no problem. many DZ's will have a smaller aircraft that can take your son, his instructor and a camera man to what ever altitiude is deemed medically safe. Also, if he is physically capable of making a solo skydive, a static line jump can is usually made from around 3000 or 4000ft. This is a common method of making a first jump, and I have personally seen a 93 year old man make a successful jump this way. Both of these options are perfectly viable, and would be 100% of the fun of jumping from a higher altitude for a first jump. Keep these options in mind, and get your son up in the air.

I was jumped that way for the entire boogie? Not one single person noticed it, the owner included? OK, I have to ask, where was this, when was this, and who affixed the zip tie?

Note to self: Skip THAT boggie.......

Why carry on with this topic? Lets hope that nobody ever has to witness a fatality again, and leave it at that.

I think it's amistake to go into it with a plan with regards to what you're going to pull on and when. Each landing is different, and uses a different set of controls in different pattern. Set up anyway you want, I don't think wind direction really matters. Just make sure you have outs straight ahead, and beyond the degree of carve you're planning. This way you can not carve at all, or carve more than you planned with no problem. As for the actual carve, just turn your canopy whatever feels right for your landing, and don't hit the ground. Make sure your on the deck, and flying straight and level before you start. The more speed you start with, the further over you can lean your canopy, and still get it back over your head. Start off keeping your body close to the ground during your carve, so if it doesn't go well, you don't have alot of vertical speed when you hit. Work your way into swinging yourself way up in the air. Other than that, just have fun with it.

Would it change your feelings any if you considered that a line breaking on a non-cascaded lineset is half as bad as a cascaded lineset? If you think about it, only one line attachment point is effected by a line break with non-cascaded lines. A cascaded line breaks, two line attachment points are set free. Also, the cascade has always been the weak point on a line.

Yeah, OK. If you edit with a linear board, you should be able to fade out to a color screen, then start the start with the same color, and fade in to the landing shot. Or, you could wait unitl you land, dub your tape to the end of the tandem opening and use a an overlap or wipe effect on your camera. If you really are tryng to clean up the video, you need to stop recording before you flip over. Keep the camera rolling. You'll want to footage if soemthing goes wrong on your opening, and you can review the video, and pinpoint the problem, as opposed to just guessing. Not to mention, you should have your focus on other things down around 4k. Pulling, clearing the tnadem, traffic etc. I hear what you're saying, and even did it myself for ahwile. I stopped. You should too.

I used to do that, when I had about 500 jumps. I was editing my own stuff with just a camera and VCR. The only cut I had in my videos was after the tandem opened, I would have to pause the VCR, and then start it up when the footage of their landing began. Anyway, I figured out if I shut the camera off right after they opened, when I was still on my back, and the next time I recorded was filming their landing, I just record the video straight through, and get my rig packed while it was dubbing. Why anyone would do this with digital (I was shooting Hi8 at the time), or why they would do it after the flip over, and the opening shot had ended is beyond me. My guess is that he figured out that he could do it, so he does. I grew out of it pretty quick.

What you're missing is a better understanding of the jump you are about to make. Before you board the plane, make sure you know the following - wind speed and direction, direction of jump run, your intended exit/opening position, and your intended landing area, and the pattern you will use to get there. Before you leave the plane, and once you are under canopy, make sure you know where the DZ is. Combine this with the information you gathered before the jump, and you should have no problem figuring out where to go, and what to do.

Think about a 170 for a first canopy. Make sure you work your way down to that level with a few successful jumps each on a 230, 210, and 190. That would be smart.

If your line stows are against the bottom of your container, and the loose line is on the floor of the pack tray, how could there be a conflict? Take care to place the d-bag straight down on top of the loose line, and you won't have a problem. If you are in the habit of placing the stows on the floor of the pack tray, and rotating the bag down in to place, just don't. Look, I made 1000's of jumps with my lines routed up under my reserve tray. I never had any premature deployments, or other problems, but once this issue came to my attention, I just switched. It's entirely possible to be wrong for a long time, and never suffer because of it, but it's still wrong.

Whoa there Jimmy! Take your real life examples, and old fashioned good sense and back up a moment. Read the man's post - his JM, who jumps a Mirage said it's cool. As we all know, JM + Mirage = end of discussion. Some people.....

What happened to the 'ban the word 'gay' thread? It was just getting good.

Yeah, interesting PM, chock full of non-applicable experince. I can land the fuck out of any canopy without thinking about. It's built into me. I cannot land any airplane in any way. I might have some good ideas, but the brain to body co-ordination is not there when it comes to stick and rudder work. This guy will learn. Sooner or later, he'll learn. I'm glad he's a pilot and such, and maybe he could learn faster than others, but there is a limit. How long did he fly planes before he was allowed to solo 'those hot little planes'? How many times has he called missed approach, or for any reason aborted a landing, and went around? I'd like to see him try that with a canopy. Just once. I know a really nice guy who went in two weeks ago. It's not about being nice, it's about being real, and having respcet for yourself, and what you're doing. I know for a FACT that his attitude around ariplanes when he had 56 hours was very different that his attitude about parachutes is now. This guy doesn't need to be taken aside and helped. A guy who was raised by wolves, and then taught to jump on a desert island, and given an x-fire with 56 jumps needs to be taken aside and helped. This guy knows exactly what he's doing. Just ask him, he'll tell you.

I don't think it's supposed to go that way. I'm pretty sure you run the risk of a line group hanging up under your reserve, and removing the container from the harness. I also think that a brief hang-up in that area will contribute to line twists, not making regular sized stows, as you indicated elsewhere. Run the lines down to the bottm corners, and then go in, across the bottom, meet in the middle, and S fold the rest. Be careful when placing your bag in the pack tray, not to disturb the loose line in the bottom.

OK, keep in mind that a jumper or aircraft trailing a rope or person, or just about anything isn't going to work the way it's supposed to. Just jump out, and leave it at that. Really. What if - something gets stuck in the figure 8, something happens to the plane with you halfway down the rope, something happens to your rig with you halfway down the rope, the rope releases from the plane with you halfway down the rope. I could think or more, but isn't that enough?

It looked like an AFF 1 or 2 with video to me. It also looked like a collision-to-be to me as well.

How can even begin to defend your position? It's rediculous. 56 jumps? Dependign on what sort of training you did, at least 15 or 20 of those would have been on a student rig at less than 1.0 to 1. Even if the unthinkable happened, and you managed to go straight to your x-fire right off student status, that leaves you with 30 jumps on a canopy not set up to protect your ass. Buy, yeah, make up your stories, and tell the world how cool you are. 56 jumps in three years. I can see the dedication. I can see the currency. I'm sure with all that dedication and drive, your skills should be off the charts. This whole thing doesn't even seem real. Is this really true that a guy with 56 jumps in three years is allowed to jump and x-fire? Is the DZO blind? Or retarded? Or both? It just fucking stupid. Plain and simple.