davelepka

Quick story from this past season, a local jumper returned to the sky from a 5 or 6 year layoff. This guy was a highly experienced jumper (into the 1000's of jumps), AFF I, and gold medal 4-way competitor who worked and jumped at the same DZ where he got 'current'. When he showed up and said he wanted to jump, he didn't say, 'How about I just do this or that?', he said to me, 'Tell me what you want me to do, should we do a refresher, hanging harness, do you want me to take the test from the FJC, just name it'. The point is that this guy who was by all means a 'top' jumper, at his home DZ dealing with people he jumped with for years was willing and open to do whatever we deemed appropriate, and wasn't trying to 'get away with' the least amount of effort possible. The conclusion to the story was we did a 3 way 'currency' jump with another AFF I. We launched a 3-way round, and the 'new guy' dropped his grips about 1 second out of the door and bolted to the second point up on the hill with a perfect center-point turn. Granted, he turned the wrong way and set up for the 3rd point, but that's another story. 850 jumps is a nice total, but it's not 8500. Go to the DZ, and let them figure out what it takes to get you safely back in the sky, and invest the hour or two and coach jump that they're going to want from you. If you feel like you're 'too good' for that, just quit while you're ahead, because you're not.

That's exactly what the DZ gear is for, it allows you access to a variety of canopy sizes without having to invest any more than the rental fee. Keep in mind that most rigs can hold 3 sizes of canopy, one tight, one 'just right', and one on the loose side, so you can downsize twice without having to buy another rig. The idea is to buy gear that you can safely jump on the day you buy it. What's available locally, how good of deal you can get, or how badly you want this rig or that has nothing to do with what gear you can safely jump. All that matters is where you're at with your skills and currency, nothing more, nothing less. So what you need to do is first figure out what that safe choice would be, and then look for what 'deal' makes the most sense among your choices in that size. Putting the 'deal' ahead of the main/reserve size when buying gear is the classic (and worst) case of putting the cart before the horse.

Leaving out your awful idea about a new rig/canopy, please understand that even when you were 'current', a 150 sq ft canopy would have been a very aggresive choice for a jumper of your weight with 50-some jumps. Did you weigh the same then as you do now? In any case, plan on jumping something larger than you last canopy when you return to jumping, not smaller (or even the same size). You're going to want to start off somewhere in the 210 or 220 range, and go from there. The idea being that you want to start off big, and work your way down once you make a few jumps and prove that you're ready for the next size down. If you have to choose between going too large or too small on your canopy, the better choice will be too large every time. If you're looking for gear, look for a rig that will hold a 190 main/reserve 'snug' and go from there. If need be, you can probably go down to a 150 main with the same rig, so you're covered if things go that way. Otherwise, you need to realize that a lot of things will have to happen for you to get to that point. You'll need to get current, and begin jumping frequently enough and make enough jumps to warrant that sort of downsize, and having that sort of canopy in your rig. Even if you get back to the sky, and pound out 20 or 30 jumps right off the bat, unless you plan to keep up that pace, you need to buy gear for the skills you will have down the road. If your time at the DZ is hit or miss, and you're not making a ton of jump, the last thing you need to the smallest canopy you can 'get away with', because currency is a big part of 'getting away with' jumping a smaller canopy (or at a higher WL).

I'd be interested to know if the rig in question was packed in accordance with the factory recommendations in terms of reserve side and closing loop length? Given the variations in different reserve types, sizes, closing loop lengths, and rigger techniques, it would seem like a harsh reaction to ground all Icons based on a single event. Granted, it's a real 'deal breaker' of an event if it happens in freefall.

First off, I'm willing to bet it wasn't the DZ that painted the aircraft. It's probably an ex-military aircraft, and they got it with that paint job. Unless you plan to cover the cost of a repaint, I wouldn't fault the DZ for the color of their plane. The bigger issue is that the runway isn't painted camo, and the plane wasn't in a place you wouldn't expect it to be. As a jumper present at the DZ at the time of the incident, the canopy pilot should hve been well aware of the DZ operations for the day, to include - wind direction and the landing/take-off direction for the day, the number of planes operating that day, and the status of those planes at the time of his jump. All of this would have pointed toward a check of the upwind end of the runway and approach path before crossing the runway. Take a look at the video, it's easy to see the plane sitting at the end of the runway in the one frame when the camera catches it. Seeing that it's the far end of the runway, that plane was either sitting there the whole time this jumper was under canopy, or was taxiing (making it even more visible) the whole time, in either case, the jumper had ample time to locate the aircraft.

Honest question, was this DZ on the verge of closing down? In that case, sure, anyone who wants to keep the ball rolling is a good thing. The problem in this case is that once the prince decides that skydiving is 'old news', what happens to the DZ? Along the same lines, what if some sort of power-shift or political events puts his fortune at risk? The problem with those deep pockets is that they are indeed very deep. What that means is that his life and fortune don't rely on the DZ succeeding, like it would for an 'average' DZO. Those guys have the need and the drive to make the DZ survive against all odds, where this guy could buy and sell the place in his sleep, and it wouldn't bother his bottom line to shut the place down and liquidate all the assests at a loss. An average DZO would try to avoid this as he would be down a huge pile of money, maybe all their equity in the DZ, but the prince doesn't have that sort of concern. So if the place was going to close, it's on borrowed time anyway, and it's great that anyone would keep it running. In any other case, the ownership has been transfered to a relative 'new guy' in the sport, who has no financial pressures to keep the place open, and that puts the DZ on shakey ground.

As a beginner, you can look at tracking just like regular RW. If you are high on the formation, arch harder and you'll sink. If you are away from the formation, stick your legs out (further) and you'll move forward into your slot. There is the added twist that you might be ahead of the formation, in which case you just pull your legs in a touch, and they'll catch up to you. As you progress in your flying, there are other ways to approach tracking dives, were you use the pitch of your body to both control your altitude and forward speed, but that's a more advanced manuver. It's not well suited towards explaining online, as there are a bunch of 'what ifs', and it also puts you in a position where you can easily build a ton of speed, and speed without control is not so great when flying with others. Stick with the RW-like approach for now. Just stay focused, and stick to the basics. Arch/de-arch and legs out/in as needed. If you're long and lean, make sure you're wearing a tight suit. If you normally wear lead, keep it on for tracking dives.

That's about right. A flip through is generally not cause for a cutaway, it's just a screaming clear sign that you, or your packer, don't do a line check and you're asking for a more serious problem in the near future. But yeah, just do a control check, and then take it easy for the rest of the canopy ride. Be sure that your control check includes a full, deep, sustained flare, the same way you would do it for your actual landing.

Good point. A good rule of thumb is to lay out your pattern so that it's all on one side or the other of the runway. You may have to modify your pattern, or land in a different area than you're used to, but those are far better options than getting hit by a plane making a go-around.

Granted, if there is no traffic, you can land anywhere you want. However, in this case, as I described, overflying the runway wasn't an 'essential' part of the line he swooped, and when faced with the choice to overfly the runway or not, with no benefit to overflying it, the pilot chose to overfly the runway. I cross the runway at my DZ sometimes. Certain lines I like to swoop require you to overfly the runway, and I only do so after checking for traffic and locating the jump plane in the pattern (we only fly one jump plane at a time). If there's any traffic (canopy or aircraft) or I cannot locate the jump plane, I choose a different line.

I'll bet UPT knows. In fact, I'm willing to bet that UPT has a chart of container/canopy sizes somewhere on their website.

Agreed. You can see that the guy is pulling a fairly high degree of turn (I didn't count exactly), but he hasn't developed the basic airmanship to know that he shouldn't cross the runway at a low altitude. It's classic 'putting the cart before the horse' behavior, he knows how to throw a big turn, just not where to do it. If you look at the layout of the airport, and the direction of the resulting swoop, you can see that he could have started and completed his turn on the other side of the runway with just a very slight change in the final direciton of the swoop. Really, he could have even done the turn on the correct side of the runway, and carved about 15 degrees right on the roll-out, and ended up swooping the exact same line.

Does that include the rig and O2 bottles?

Just a couple of my favorite live performances. No second takes, no over-dubs, just one shot and it's done. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZciQCe7KZo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJllJvv10Rk This last one might be the finest use of an electric guitar ever. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB-78-uXMr4

For starters, it's generally a mistake to buy gear for what you 'think' you'll be able to handle at a later date, or how much you 'think' you're going to weigh at a later date. Buy what will work for you the day you order the gear, and go from there. That said, you need to give the newer canopies a chance. If you got out in 1991, you missed out on all of the ZP canopies and everything that came with them. They are very good, and are a much better choice for just about everything, and in my opinion, including accuracy. Even at an exit weight of 185lbs, a 265 is going to be way too much canopy for 'everyday' jumping, and is going to require a very large rig to hold it. I think you would be very surprised to see the type of performance and flare that you can get out of a 190 sq ft ZP canopy. It will provide you with softer, more consistant landings than F-111 ever could, with better glide and wind penetration as well. Given your time out of the sport, you're going to need some training to get back in the air. Take advatage of this, and jump the student gear at the DZ. They should have some more modern canopies by now, and you can see what it's like. Furthermore, you can demo other canopies from different manufacturers, and the DZ can probably rent you a student rig to put them in. You get a canopy to try, the DZ hooks it up in a student rig, and you're all set. Another thing to keep in mind is that ZP canopiues will literally last for 1000's of jumps with no loss of performance. The lines will wear and go out of trim, but the fabric can last 10x longer than F-111. What this means is that you can buy used canopies, and provided the lines are in good shape and in trim, you can expect the same performance as if the canopy was new. You can buy used canopies, try them out for a while, and then move on to try another. Finally, before you commit to a rig with a 176 reserve, make sure you downsize yourself to the point that you can safely jump a 170 sq ft canopy. i'm not sure how you think you'll find a rig that will hold a small-packing 176 reserve and a 265 sq ft main, but in any case, if all you have jumped recently was a 265, I don't think a 176 would be a good choice for as a reserve. What you need to do is jump canopies for long enough to get the hang of them, which could be anywhere from 10 to 50 jumps on each size. Once you are 'good' with a certain size, then you can move down one size and start over. Keep this process up until you can safely jump a main the same size as the reserve you want. Even if you go back to a larger main, you need to know how to fly whatever is on your back. My reccomendation would be this - use the student gear at the DZ to safely downsize to about a 210, and then buy a rig with will hold a 210 main, and similar size reserve. Buy a used 210 main, which will be cheaper and easier to pack than new, and just jump. The rig will hold a 190, and probably a 170 main as well, so you have room to downsize if you want in the future.

I remember watching that stuff on ESPN when it first aired. I think that was the closest skydiving ever got to 'commercial' success. It's amazing how much better we all got at freeflying, even from comp to comp in those days. If you compare it to the VFS stuff that's out there today, you guys all look like amatuers out there, but that's the problem with trying to market skydiving to the general public, they don't recognize the level of difficulty in any of what we do, nor the slight differences from formation to formation or from move to move. Thanks for sharing.

The turbine is the way to go if you have the choice. I rode in one of those planes not too long ago at an open house for the shop that rebuilt it. It's a nice plane, and I can't even imagine what the price tag was. Our deal was that we did a demo into their open house, and got a ride in the plane (and free food), but they wouldn't let us jump out of it. They stated insurance problems with jumping, so I would ask that question before you go too much further in the planning stages to make sure it's a 'go'. From what I saw, all you would need to do is pull the air-stair door, and you'll be good to go (in terms of the airplane. There was pleny of room in the seats to sit with a rig on, and of course they have seat belts in place. If you can get the 'go ahead', I would make a call to Skydive Arizona, and see if one of their experienced DC-3 jump pilots and can talk to whoever will be at the stick when you jump. I don't think it will be too much work for the pilot, but a couple minutes on the phone with an experienced jump pilot would probably be a big help.

First off, get on a scale. 22 lbs is shooting low for gear + clothing for a guy your size. A rig that will hold canopies your size is going to weigh more than 22 lbs on it's own. You're not far off here. When it comes to the 'difference' between one canopy and the next, wingloading is a big part of how much difference there will be. A guy who's 175lbs, going from a 240 down to a 220 will not notice as much difference as you will. The higher up in WL you go, the more noticable the differences will be between sizes. As an example, think about the difference you feel between jumping a 280 or a 260. It's not going to be as noticable as when you move from the 260 to the 240. Moving on WL as it relates to canopy size, you are correct that a smaller canopy at the same WL will perform differently than a larger one. This is the reason that the '1 to 1' rule of thumb for beginner WL does not apply to smaller jumpers. A 95lb girl with an exit weight of 120lbs should not be jumping a 120 sq ft canopy in her first rig. The smaller size of the canopy, even at a 1 to 1 WL, will not be as forgiving or easy to handle as a 170 or 190 at the same WL. However, that knife cuts both ways. Larger jumpers can often err on the side of a higher WL due to the same factors. The larger size of a canopy will reduce the performance to a degree, that you can get a reasonable level of forgiveness at WLs north of 1 to 1. With all that said, none of those details matters when it comes to downsizing. All that counts are your skills, the opinion of your instructors, and your confidence level. If any one of those three do not point toward downsizing, then don't do it. If you can demonstrate the skills on Bill Von's downsizing chart (and by demonstrate I mean that you do each of them at least 5 times successfully), and you have the backing of your instructors or a local canopy coach, and you feel like it's a good idea, then try jumping a canopy one size smaller. Before your first jump on a new wing, get a briefing on how to evaluate a canopy in terms of glide and the flare/stall point so you enter the landing pattern with a good idea of what to expect. Pick a day with calm, steady winds, and plan to pull higher than normal to give yourself extra time under canopy and a better chance to land last (with no traffic). Another idea is to see about a demo 230. PD has a great demo program, and they offer a good number of 230 sized canopies. Talk to the people at your DZ and see if you can rent a rig for the day, and have one of the riggers hook up the demo into the rental rig (it's not that hard, they come on risers).

All things being equal? Sure. At the expense of things like aircraft maintenance and the public opinion of skydiving in general, not so much. That aside, I think the $10 jumps are on the opening weekend only. I would imagine that after that the jumps will go for something close to the 'average' price in the area, whatever that may be these days. Truth is, given the price of gas (auto gas), a DZ would have to offer some real savings or other incentive to draw jumpers away from closer DZs. Once you factor in the cost of dirving another 100 miles (round trip), plus the time you lose in the day by making that drive, it becomes a tough sell to draw jumpers away from their 'home' DZ. If I had to drive an extra hour to the DZ, that would knock two hours off my jump day, and cost me another $20 in gas. I'd rather jump at my home DZ, have time (and money) for another jump, and be able to get home earlier, or go out for dinner and still get home at a reasonable hour.

Speed equals lift. Get enough of one, and you'll have too much of the other. Wingloading is a factor, less weight requires less lift to result in a climb.

I'll give you a tip on being an editor. Get used to watching the manifest and looking several loads in the future. What you want to do is plan out your time so you get to jump too, and not get stuck in the editing room all day. You want to look for loads where there are no videos, and get on those, or the loads just after, because that's when you won't be needed on the ground. Best case scenario is that you're on the plane with all the video guys. You're there to jump, and they're there to shoot video so you can make money to pay for the jump. Whatever happens, just don't land off. Beyond that, if you plan to be on the video staff, actually watch the videos as you work. This includes the ground and plane footage, as that's part of the project, but study the whole video and see what shots, angles and techniques the other guys are using. The more you get used to seeing things the way the camera does, the better you'll be at shooting your own videos. I know that the freefall is the 'sexy' and fun stuff, but the other stuff is part of the product and part of doing the job properly. You need to get that right, as well as the freefall, to really produce a 'good' product.

Wasn't the DZO a crook who went to jail for stealing people's money? Larry something? Don't get me wrong, he was a fun guy and a blast at boogies, but I'm pretty sure the whole thing ended with him in jail.

At the same time, do you think the FAA would waste it's time filing a complaint they couldn't uphold if the operator wanted to fight it?

New gear will run you twice (or more) the price of used gear. If for any reason you need (or want) to sell it before you put 500 jumps on it, you're going to lose a ton of cash. If you don't put 500 jumps on it within a 4 or 5 years and try to sell it, you're going to lose a ton of cash because it will be 'old'. Financially, new gear isn't a great move for anyone who isn't in a position where they know they can really 'use' it for a number of years and several hundred jumps. For example, I have 8 years and 1500 jumps on my current set-up, and will replace it over the winter. For me, that was a 'good buy'. Send a PM to 'likestojump' on this site. He buys/sells used gear as a business, and does a lot of business internationally. I know him personally, and he can be trusted with your money and that he will deliver what he says, when he says, and in the conditions he says. You can literally save $3000 (or more) buying a used rig over a new one, and the used rig will hold it's value pretty well. You should be able to jump it for 3 or 4 years and 200-300 jumps, and sell it for 80% (or more) what you paid for it. Take the money you save, and spend it on a trip to some place with sunny weather and a busy DZ, and make 50 or 100 jumps. That's a way better investment in skydiving than a brand new rig. The used rig will serve you well, but the extra jumps and time in the air will serve you even better.

I don't know the details of either of those programs, but Armstrong held a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and was an accomplished Navy pilot and military test pilot before becoming an astronaut. Kittenger was also an accomplished military pilot and had worked on various experimental programs before getting the nod to be 'the jumper'. Did they have anything more to do with their respective programs, other than 'fitting into the suit'? I don't know, but they both had the qualifications to do so if they did. Felix, on the other hand, was an accomplished skydiver and BASE jumper, which made him a natural for the skydiving part of the jump. As for the planning and technical aspects, and commenting on the vailidity of space travel, I maintian that he's a little out of his wheelhouse on that one. I'm not discounting is accomplishment. Even with a support crew doing almost everything for him, for planning everything and building everything, he's the guy who had to suit up and take the ride into the thin air. He's also the guy who had to slide that seat forward and hang his feet out of the capsule, over a 128,000 edge. That's huge, and in those matters, he's the world's authority, but in terms of the space program, it's purpose and benefit to mankind, and it's budget, not so much.