davelepka

You said Springo. Anyway, I thought they might have been, but there are paraglidign companies producing speed flying canopies that look alot like thick skydiving elipticals.

I think that the design differences between a paraglider and a speed flyer make the experience only slightly helpful. I wouldn't expect my skydiving experience to make me an expert paraglider pilot. The aspect ratio, sq footage, and line lengths are all much closer to a skydivign canopy than a paraglider, and I would bet that they 'borrowed' a buch of ideas from skydiving canopies when they designed the speed flyers.

Seeing him hit the tree made me think of me comment that the speed flyers will be hookin it in pretty soon. I'd like to see what a top notch canopy pilot could do with that oppertunity. Wasn't there a video posted of jumpers doing the same thing with skydiving canopies? I seem to remember some more impressive flying on that one. Either way, if we could work that out in the sates, I'd take up skiing again.

I haven't read the profile, but I'd be interested to know how long he's been jumping. If it was any more than 8 or 9 years ago, that Wl isn't surprising. The trend with open canopy incidents was just begining, and ZP in general was still a pretty new technology. All the ZP canopies out were still in their first generation, and the jumping public was still getting. used to them. Things have changed alot since then. Open canopy incidents have increased, and the trens has shown it has staying power. Canopies have been tweaked and developed through several generations of models. Of course, eductation is still pretty much the same, but hey, two out of three aint bad, right?

Kinda, yeah. It's a risk that people take, but it is there. On a regular hybrid, the risk is the hanger, and his two closing loops. I would guess that a premie by the base guy would be no more than a good kick in the head to the hanger. On a tandem, the trap door effect makes a premie by the tandem an additional problem. Also, the complexity fo the rig adds to it. How many parts are there involved in keeping the drouge in place? All of them are potential failure points (in addition to the hangers two loops). On top of this, you have the higher body count when you hang from a tandem. It just seems that the small number of factors involved in a regular hybrid is an OK risk, while the tandem pushes the risk factor even further, and multiplies the number of potential problems.

It should be as long as you need it to be. Like any editing project, you need to consider your audience, and what you're trying to get across to them. If you just want some 'flash' to start your video, 30 seconds of upbeat music and some quick, high action cuts, maybe with the DZ phone number on the screen is enough. If you want to illustrate more about the skydive, the DZ, or AFF or SL, you may need more time. The key is make sure that you are 'saying' something with every clip you use. Don't put in things that you like, or that are special to you, becasue nobody cares what you like. Use shots that tell the story in the most direct and interesting way possible. Just be critical of your work, and when you look for opinions on the finished product, show it to your non-jumping friends, the ones who are sick of hearing about or seeign skydiving. Thats where you'll see if you've done a good job.

No kids, no house payment, no student loan payment, no car payment, no life, and credit cards just getting warmed up. Those would be my guesses. If you live at home, or in a dump, drive a POS car (paid for), eat ramen, and spend 100% of your cash on jumps, there you go.

Lexus is a Toyota sub-brand. Either way, the whole American / Jap car arguement is pointless as the US versions of the Jap cars are built in the US, and the American car companies all have brands in other countries. The bottom line is that when you buy any car, you're money is filtered all over the world. A while back, you could buy American, and it would only benefit Americans, but thats long gone.

I think another thing is that the more shit you see go wrong, the more gun shy you are to added risk. Especially the more unusual shit you see go wrong really makes you think about whats really possible.

It's nice when jumpers work together and help each other out.

At a higher WL, with a slow 270, it could happen. 1.45 is pretty low for a Katana, get it up around 1.8 or 1.9, and it will burn through some alti.

Does the car run? Unless the mechanic who gave you the estimate is a close friend, maybe look for a second opinion. It's their job to find things wrong with your car, and figure out the most expensive way of fixing it. Maybe call around to friends or family and see if someone has a guy they trust, or a friend who works as mechanic, and get them to look at it. Make sure these are working professional mechanics, not weekend warriors. You'll pay maybe $75 for another diagnosis, but it will help you make the right choice. You may be able to repair the car for alot less money. Then, you can take your time locating a new car, and you'll get more for your existing car if it's drivable. But yeah, be in the market for a Honda or Toyota. They will both top 110k mi, and last much longer than 7 years.

This is pretty much whats happening. The disagreement is mostly semantics. The pop up is a result of the manuvers the pilot makes. Without the pilot doing something, the canopy would not go up. In the course of flying the approach, events transpire to create a pop up, so it becomes a by- product of the appraoch. The other side of the coin would be to level off, then apply extra riser or toggle beyond what you need to level off, and make yourself go up. This is not what mark is doing, so he says it's unintentional. It really could go either way as far as who is right. As long as you know the difference between the two, you deciede who is right. It doesn't really matter anyway.

So I read the rest of the thread, and remembered about the student pulling early. Anytime I'm doing a tandem or student video, and I see any hands 'disappear' (as in reach for something) weather it's TM, JM, or student, I go into early deployment mode (which just means make sure I'm clear of what could happen). I've seen actually early pulls by tandem and AFF students about 6 or 8 times. It's kinda cool on AFF, because then me and JMs have a free time to play. Either way it happens, and would really suck in that situation. I've also seen drouge bridles snap. That one happens quick. Real quick.

How many ways are there to release the drouge or fire the reserve on a Sigma? Thats how many things are wrong with whats happening. If any one of them is activated, thats three people in big trouble. I'm sure the extra airspeed won't help at that point either. Thats leaving out the premature opening of the hanger. Yeah, hybrids happen all the time, but the body count will be one higher if it goes wrong this time.

Welcome to the club. Now you are a real skydiver.

Cut a Neptune sized hole in the side of your helmet, and cover is with a thin piece of lexan or plexiglass. Now start keeping your Neptune inside, where it's safe.

I could see that if a more experinced jumper was talking smack about an 300 jump wonder who could out-fly him. Once the 300 jump wonder walks up asks for help, he ceases being a 'punk kid', and turns into a guy who has real talent, but still respect for the more experinced guys, and their opinions. Of course, ten seconds later, he's back to being a punk kid, as he accuses 'the man' of trying to hold him back, and being jealous of his skills. But I do think that if you man up, and ask an experienced jumper his opinion about skydiving, that he'll give an honest, straight-up answer.

It's pretty simple. A guy wants to do 'X' and I reccomend that it's not a good idea. With the lack of a reasonable argument against my reccomendation, he has two choices - agree with me, or come up with a false premis to counter my statement. "You're just trying to keep me down" fits right in. The question here, is what benefit does any swooper get by holding back other swoopers? There's no money or prizes at risk; and swooper even close to beating me in competition doesn't need to ask me about anything. My ego doesn't need boosting, the fact that I'm the one being asked for advice takes care of that. Then if you look at the flip side, which is what benefit would the new swooper get by making the accusation, you have an answer. The guy is asking to do 'X' because he wants to. If I suggest otherwise, he stands to loose out on his desired experience. If he can argue agaist me, he may gain approval, and get to engage in 'X', which was his goal from day one.* * I know that nobody needs permission to do anything, but for the sake of this argument, it's the best way to put it. The whole concept is rediculous. How come you never such accusations coming from a highly experienced swooper in reference to another experienced swooper? "Hey Jim Slaton, you're just trying to hold that kid back, thats all! I mean that, and if I don't my name isn't Ian Bobo!" It's no coincidence that you only hear this from the less experienced guys. To all the less experienced guys - get over it.

This is what I'm talking about. Who is going to be more in touch with what is happening than the S&TA, who is on site, and taking questions from jumpers on a daily basis? Yet you get no consideration for your issues beyond lip service? What is the BOD doing then? Who are they responding to with the issues they choose to address?

Safety is a tough thing to measure. How do you quantify it? Does a situation have to degrade to the point of an incident to be classified as 'unsafe'? If not, what is the criteria for being safe or unsafe? It like this, tall tress upwind of an LZ, I would say is less safe than no trees upwind of the LZ. Does a jumper need to have a hard landing for that LZ to be unsafe, or can we call it unsafe based on the knowledge of airflow, turbulence, and tall trees upwind of other LZ's. This why you have to look at the situation, and make your best guess. Take the newbie jumpers - Situation 1 - Jumping with experienced jumpers who have no training or prescribed dive flow to follow. Situation 2- Jumping with less experienced jumpers who have a Coach rating, and are following a predetermined dive flow. In this case, I would vote that Situation 2 has the better chance for a positive outcome. Thats not to say that Situation 1 is inhernetly 'unsafe', but I think that Situation 2 shows more in the way of 'checks and balances' in terms of safety.

One point thats being overlooked is that landing with rears, or landing with rears and a toggle transfer isn;t the way people are taught from the start. Adding these things to a landing represents a huge increase in pilot workload on short final and landing. For this reason alone, you need to be careful in who you suggest this to. Even a guy who seems to have it all together can and will get distracted by the rears and the transition, and it will be at the expense of a properly timed or even flare. It's the most crucial phase of a canopy flight, and as such needs to be treated with care.

Do we disagree on anything? I'm starting to think no. What are we even talking about?

The swoop cord isn't an 'every jump' item to check. The idea now is to over-build both of them, and check them once a week. You'll find alot of things will need beefing up or improving. Finding them ahead of time is the trick. It does suck for things to go wrong, but thats sort of the way you become a better camera man. Reliability is a huge issue. You can fly your ass off, and dirty heads make it all a waste of time. The more stuff you can have squared away, and working right, the more effort and thought you can put into your flying. It's a whole big complicated dangerous process. Again, have fun.

Here's what I do, and it's worked like a charm for me - I make sure that L always have a grip on my toggle that is secure for whatever manuver I'm attempting. I also make sure that those toggles are attached to a canoyp appropriate for my skill level, and that the manuvers I use those toggles for are also appropriate for my skill level. By the time you are palying with rears on a Crossfire, you should be well past figuring out how to hold your toggles. Well past.