davelepka

Your biggest problem, as others have pointed out, is that you're asking about what YOU can learn on a coach jump, when the purpose of those jumps is for you to teach. If your skills are limited to staying 'nearby' and observing, then you use those skills to teach the student. If your skills include being able to demonstrate the skills being taught, then you'll use those skills to teach the student, and if your skills include shooting video, again, you can use those skills to teach the student. The one thing you should not be doing, is learning those skills for yourself on the student's 'dime'. How would you view a coach you said, 'I'm not that good at tracking, how can I practice that when doing coach jumps'? Probably not very favorably, but that's essentially what you're suggesting. In terms of the equipment, the type of camera or lens makes no difference once you have the skills to shoot video for money. Learning the 'limits' of a lens only takes a jump or two for an experienced camera flyer, and it's not hard to fly a couple different lenses during your learning progression so you have an idea of what to expect, and when to use what lens.

With 2 1/2 weeks, it might make more sense to pick a 'halfway' point, like Spaceland (Houston, TX), drive there and jump for a day or two, then truck out to Elisnore. Stay in Elsinore a week, and pick another halfway point for the way back, maybe Mile-Hi (Denver), truck out there and hang out for a day or two, and then go home. The problem with DZ hopping is that it takes time, and with only 2 1/2 weeks total time to drive from Va to CA and back, you don't have a ton of time. It's 3 or 4 days on the road to drive direct, so that's a week of drive time round trip. If you start adding stops at various DZs, and time to go out of your way to get there, you end up with very little time in Elsinore. Any reason you're heading to Elsinore? You could do a lot with two weeks if you head down the coast through GA, FL, over to LA and then TX. You could swing up through TN on your way back. With that trip, you could hit 4 or 5 DZs in 2 1/2 weeks. If it's the summer, you could do a north loop, and hit TN, Il, Oh, Pa, Ny, Ct, NJ, etc.

. Look dickfuck, at least I made an attempt to be constructive and offer an idea. I also prefaced it by admitting I was playing 'armchair doctor', so the guy knew I had no medical qualifications. What did you contribute? The fact is, if he goes to a doctor for this, he's either left to lie on his next medical application, or risk having it denied. One thing I do know about is the difficulty in getting your medical back after having it pullled/denied, so if the guy can avoid that route, that's what will let him keep his ticket. You're an asshole anyway. How about you show me where you've made any contribution to any post anywhere, and not just shoved your dick in there to make some smart ass remarks. Fuck you.

Yes. Be super careful who you talk to about this, you could lose your medical in a hurry. Getting it back is not easy or cheap. Just playing 'armchair doctor' here, but have you tried the basic, non-medical remedies? Maybe start an exercise routine and new diet? Being more physically healthy can never hurt, and it will give you daily goals and activities to focus on. Maybe some sort of other 'lifestyle' change? A yoga class? A new hobby? I know that being a 'professional' jumper can lead to somewhat of a 'free form' lifestyle. You don't work every day, you don't work at the same times when you do, there's a lot of unexpected free time with the weather and such, and that doesn't always 'work' for everyone. Try to build some sort of structure into your life, and see if that helps. Get a routine or some kind, and stick to it for awhile. You said it yourself, the job is great and the money is great, but those 'highs' don't help you get through the times when you're not jumping and making $50/hour. Truth is, they probably set you up for feeling even 'lower' during your off times. Establish some goals for yourself away from the jumping (maybe even study to become a rigger?) and see if you can focus on those when your not chucking drouges.

Are you in the US? Check with Chutingstar gear store, they offer an escrow service for private party used gear sales. I don't think they charge for the service, but you have to pay them for the inspection. You shouldn't be buying used gear without it being inspected anyway, so it's no big deal. Alternatively, what others said about finding out someone in common between the two of you, and the two DZs. Another thought to keep in mind, is that you could send the money with the understanding that you can return the gear for a full refund within a week or 10 days if it doesn't fit or pass your inspection. This typically doesn't include jumping the gear, as that tends to make it 'yours' and adds significant risk to the gear. Let's face it, if you don't want to send $3000 in the mail to a guy you don't know, why would he want to send you $3000 worth of gear? Whatever you come up with, make sure you agree on shipping costs, methods and insurance before you get started. It's a cost that needs to considered, and if the deal falls through after an inspection, the cost doubles, and still needs to be considered.

Why? How does skydiving experience qualify you to make an external inspection of internal aircraft components? Did any of the 'top' jumpers at Lodi know the control cables were long overdue to be changed? Of course not, because this is only something you find out in one of two ways - either the FAA busts you on it, and tells everyone about it in a press release, or the plane crashes, and the FAA discovers it in their investigation and tells everyone about it in the accident report. Ditto for the skipped inspections on the wing attachment pionts. Nothing short of personally inspecting the MX logs for the aircraft will allow you to be truely 'informed', so your jump numbers are not a factor in determining the safety of a DZ. You look around, and take a guess, but certain things you have to take on the 'word' of the DZO, such as aircraft MX. When the DZO has downed planes due to short-cutting MX, and then been busted very publicly for flagrantly short-cutting MX on another aircraft, why would anyone trust that DZO again? Of course, I mean besides the cheap jumps, anyone who has such low prices must be a great guy... I'm still amazed at the number of Lodi jumpers willing to defend the DZO, even after he lied to them and put their lives at risk. Just because the plane didn't crash doesn't change the fact that the man did this to every person who jumped at his DZ, but saving $10 a jump makes it all OK. Crazy shit up there in Lodi.

Sort of, but no. Sort of because it does take more skill to fly an F-111 at 1.09 than it does a Z-po canopy at 1.09, so I guess you could look at it as being a higher 'equivilant' WL. No because it's not just a matter of WL, it's a matter of deisgn, or more importantly, design limitations. Regardless of experience, you would never want to load an F-111 canopy at, say, 1.4. The material and design of the canopies just don't allow it to 'perform' at those loadings. While a Z-po canopy can be loaded up to 2.0 and beyond, and if the jumper can handle the speed, so can the canopy. As mentioned in another post, the better way to look at it is that you really don't want to go past 1.0 on an F-111, and you don't even want to go that high unless you have a fair number of jumps on F-111 at a lower WL, and the canopy you'll be jumping has less than 200 or 300 jumps total. One of the reasons the rig you're looking at is so cheap is the main canopy. If you can get it for less minus the main, and find a z-po main to fit in there, that would be a good way to go. A 210 reserve is a nice size for someone your weight, and I'm assuming the harness fits and you like the rig (why else would you be considering it). If you can make a deal for the rig minus the canopy, or you can afford to buy the rig and a newer canopy as well, check with a local rigger than the rig is 'Cypres ready', meaning that it's set up to take a modern ADD (Cypres, Vigil, whatever). A rig that's not 'Cyrpes ready' will additional modifications made in order to install an ADD, and you should check on the cost of the work ahead of time. Also, check with the rigger as far as what size main canopies you can fit into the rig. F-111 does pack up smaller than z-po, so a rig that's a tight fit for a PD-190 might only be able to hold a 170 z-po canopy (given the 210 reserve, however, you can expect the main container to be about the same size).

Both of those WL would be on the high side for a PD 190 as a first rig. The PD 190 is F-111, and the 'rule of thumb' WL of 1.0 for a first rig was created with zero-porosity fabric in mind. Seeing as z-po has much better (and more reliable) flight/flare characteristics than F-111, you would need a WL lower than 1.0 on a first rig if you're looking at an F-111 canopy. For the record, back it the days before Z-po, when F-111 was the only choice, there was no 'rule of thumb', as most canopies were on the larger side anyway, and new jumpers weren't trying to jump the smallest canopy they could get away with. It wasn't until Z-po came along and made really small canopies possible, that WL even became an issue. Take the PD 9-cell line of canopies (of which the PD190 is a member) the smallest one they made was a 150, and even then it was by far the least popular, least produced size.

The Cypres2 has the best record in terms of safety and reliability. It's also the most expensive, has a limited life span, and requires two maintenance checks during that life. It's hard to make the ecominic argument when your life is on the line. Over the course of the 12 year life, the total cost of ownership is about $150/year, so we're not talking about a fortune. In 2012, it's roughly the cost of one days jumping per year to keep a Cypres2 in your rig. Split the difference, and sleep in on two jump days per year, and your Cypres2 is paid for.

I would suggest you call ahead to the DZ, and make sure that your military training will be accpeted at the DZ. I know that most US military training is NOT accepted at DZ, and they require soldiers to go through some additional training. In terms of used gear, the gear store on most DZs will deal in new and used gear. One of the problems with used gear is that what's available one month isn't the same stuff you can get the next month, so a big part of what's available has to do with when you're there. One thing you can do is put in a 'order' for used gear, and the store can help you locate and assemble the rig for you. Again, do this on your first visit, and the rig should be ready for you by the time you return. Just keep in mind that between the training you may or may not need, and trynig to find used gear, there are no 'standard' answers to your questions. The answers will all depend on the DZ you jump at, and the gear dealer you're working with, so make it a point to contact them directly to see what they have to say about your exact situation. Given that your situation isn't 'normal', I would stringly suggest that you NOT just show up at a DZ without calling ahead. You might find yourself not being able to jump because either you are not ready for what they need, or they are not ready for what you need.

I'd call bullshit. I was jumping around Cleveland 15 years ago, and this wasn't going on. Static line, AFF, tandem, all happening, solo freefalls for a first jump, not so much.

Poised exit - Pro - it's easy for anyone to assume a correct exit position, and retain full control over when they leave. Con - with points of contact on the step and the strut, it's possible to push off either one and backloop through the lines. Con 2 - it gives the jumpers the chance to jam their rig into the bottom side of the door. Con 3 - it keeps the jumper over the step, and if they don't jump out or back, they can simply kick their feet out behind them, and smack their face on the step. Hanging exit - Pro - there no way to backloop through the lines. Well, maybe there are some ways, but for the most part when all you can do is 'let go' it's tough to introduce rotational momentum. Con - jumpers who aren't strong enough to hang with either slip off the strut as soon as their foot leaves the step, or they'll slip off soon after that and before they are 'ready'. Hanging is probably more 'fool proof' in the end. Slipping off the strut isn't great, but it's better than pushing off and back looping through the lines, or risers, or maybe getting caught up in the lines, or risers, or static line.

Just the Otters though, not the King Airs. I don't think anyone wants their plane to crash, but if Bill thinks an Otter needs one level of maintenance, and Dehaviland and the FAA say otherwise, I've got to go with the canucks and the FAA as they might know a hitch more than Bill about Otters.

I'm not sure I get your drift. At first, it seems like you're asking if I would act the same way to a person in real life. Then you conclude it by saying that 'Dead is dead', which to me implies that it would be important to talk to people in real life, so they don't end up dead. But when I consider that the two points are contradictory, I'm wondering if you're suggesting that if I talked that way in real life, I would end up dead. Again, not sure of your intentions, but yes, I do speak frankly to people in real life. I do start off with some basic suggestions or comments, but if people have a refusal to listen to good sense, and are beginning to put others at risk with their actions (or by suggesting actions), I tend to let the veneer of 'polite society' slide, and 'keep it real'. I don't feel like there's a ton of room for 'bullshit' in skydiving. If you (not you personally, but any jumper) want to be stupid, be prepared to deal with the consequences, which may include being called stupid. I'm not a bullshitter, on the internet or in real life.

If you're looking to get into sport skydiving, the training and the gear will be different than military stuff you're used to. Anywhere in the US you go to train, they will provide you with gear and will not let you jump your own until you have a license. You might want to start your training on your first holiday, and look into gear then. You could buy used gear, or new gear off the rack, and it would be ready for you on your second trip. Custom gear will take closer to 2 or 3 months to be built. If you're going to be in Orlando, you can go west to Z-hills, or east to Deland. Both are great DZ, both are about an hour from Orlando, and both have gear stores on the DZ where you can look into buying gear. Shoot them both an email, and see what they say. Let them know there's two of you who both want to get a license and buy gear, and see what sort of deals they can offer you. Good luck, if you like the military jumps, you'll love the sport jumps, and should have no problem with the training.

The idea that experienced jumpers are trying to hold the new guys 'back' has come up before, and the question I always ask is why would I want to hold anyone back? What's in it for me? Let's look at what's in it for me if jumpers aren't 'held back'. More action on the DZ. More loads flying, more skilled jumpers to jump with, more skilled canopy pilots to flock with and swoop with. More skilled jumpers to freefly and track with. More jumpers to come on after work and fly loads during the week. Bigger, faster planes to handle the increased business. More money for the DZ to buy the staff pizza and sandwiches. More cameras around to get my awesomeness on video. More rigs with small x-braced canopies for me to borrow if I need them, etc, etc, etc. I have everything to gain when new jumpers stick with the sport, and develop themselves into 'experts'. What do I have to gain by holding anyone back? An ego stroke? Mabye 5000 jumps ago, I was looking to puff my 400-jump chest out, and be a 'big man' comapred to a 100 jump wonder, but now? I think I'm past needing to prove myself to anyone, let alone a 'new guy'. What else? Job security? Please, if anyone out there thinks they can steal my slot on the video staff out from under me, let them try. I've been at the same DZ, working for the same guy for over a decade. I show up on time, and deliver the product better then 99% of the time, and the product I deliver is consistantly 'better than average'. Do you really think I'm worried about a newbie stealing my gig? I could go on, but the simple fact is that there's no upside for to hold anyone back, aside from trying to maintain their personal safety. Truth is, I would prefer to have more skilled, experienced jumpers around, it makes for a better, more fun, and safer DZ, but the only way you get there is by keeping people alive, healthy, and in the sport long enough to get to that level.

First off, you need to make several fully-geared up climbouts on the ground. Have the pilot watch closely, and pay attention to every grip and step you take. Make sure you come up with a solid climb out that keeps airplane parts away from your sensitive rigs parts, and rig/jumper parts away from sensitive airplane parts. Be sure to remember the wind blast. It's like doing a door jam on an Otter on the ground, you can stand there with your weight on a foot forward of your body weight, but in flight, you'll find that the wind will puch you back, and with your foot in front of you, you cannot push against the wind. If your foot was aft of your body, you could lean forward against the wind and be 'balanced'. Just design your climb-out keeping in mind that the wind will always be pushing you back. Next, as mentioned, make sure the pilot knows that jumprun should be slow, under 100knots if he can manage it. Also, ask for a descending jumprun, ganerally 500 ft per min is a good number, and the reason for this is to keep the nose down, and the tail up. When you ask a non-jump pilot for a slow speed, they'll generally pull the nose up to slow down, and this drops the tail (not good). What you need is nose down to keep the tail up, and flaps down to keep the speed down. What you want is a 'stabilzed' jumprun before you start your climbout. The airspeed and attitude are set and stable, THEN you start your climbout, not before. Beyond that, you need to think about where you're going to jump, how to spot it, where you're going to land, wind indicators, etc. You should have spotters on the ground watching you jump, and they should have an aircraft radio to contact the pilot in case of a problem. If you disappear behind the trees with a reserve half-out, the pilot will be able to find you the quickest, and report your position to the spotters. Of course, the spotters need the number for local EMS, and they need to know the address where you're jumping so they know what to tell them.

That's right. How many more of those stories would we have if you had inexperiecned, untrained coaches also trying to 'save' a student? Consider, for a minute, your opinion of this instructor. Hopefully it's favorable, and then consider that this could happen to him. Imagine if lesser jumpers were allowed to pull for students, and how quickly things could go wrong. The 'real' truth behind an AFF rating is that you're there to 'save' the day. Teaching and training is good, but you could just huck a jumper out of the plane, and provided they pulled everytime, they would eventaulyl learn to fall stable and the like. I think that some branch or the military trains their freefall jumpers this way. Full altitude jumps with no instructor present (of course, this is after static line training, and I'm sure weeks of ground school). The point is that the AFF I is there for when things get 'messy'. Student get out of control, AFF I is trained to get them under control (or dump them out). Student forgets to pull, AFF I is there to pull for them. Student has a PC in tow, AFF I is there to yank on the bridle and reach into to the pack tray to pull the bag out. Student is tumbling below pull altitude, the AFF I is there to chase them, and yes, the student who previsouly wasn't doing what they were trained, might just wake up and pull a handle or two when the AFF is right on top of them (of course, you should never get above a student, but again, things get messy). Sometimes there are no good answers to problems presented in the sky. AFF Is and coaches are only human, and can only fix so much. For the AFF I, it's more than the coach, but they all have limits. For the AFF I, that might be 2001ft, and watching the students AAD fire shortly there after. For a choach, it's pull time when you need to get lost. Neither one likes to 'give up' when the student isn't doing well, but that's the job, and if you don't like it, don't do it.

No, I never expect a coach to bail out, I expect them to follow the dive plan and follow their training each and every time. If the plan was to turn a track, then turn and track, that's the essence of not 'bailing out', that's the coach following through on what they said they were going to do. Regardless of what the student is doing, everything they should be doing on the bottom end requires space, and when a coach doesn't do what they're supposed to, their in the students airspace, and not helping at all. Coaches, or any jumpers who have not spent time around students (or any jumpers, really) at pull time would not be aware of the movement that can occur during the pull seqence. Waving off, reaching and pulling can all effect the proximity and fall rate of a student. If you get 'up close and personal' with a student at pull time, it wouldn't be hard from them to drop under you during the wave off, and drive under you as they extend out and actually pull, right under you. Coaches should do what they're trained to do. In the case of an AFF I on a coach jump, if you're going to start acting like an AFF I, that's their choice (and, I feel, their right) but they have to see it through. You can't hang out like an AFF I, and just flash the pull sign and then track off or dump when it gets too low. If you're going to make an 'executive decision', and hang out at pull time, it needs to include actually pulling for the student. While it might seem like you should act like a coach on a coach jump, if you have the rating and feel the need, the more imporant thing is the safety of the student. I'd rather see an AFF I dump a guy out stable up above 3k, then to have him possibly tumble down low, or have an AAD fire/two-out.

Just keep in mind that Bridge Day is just one, very busy, day out of the year. The rest of the time is tresspassing, and possibly 'ariel delivery' charges against you and forfiture of your gear if you get caught. Trust me when I tell you that the minumum is just that, and that it doesn't apply to everyone. The best of the best can get by with the minimum, the rest of us need a little more 'experience' before diving in. Good deal, I've also heard good things about Chambersburg. Just getting back in the air is the first step, but keep in mind that you want to be 'good' with your skydiving canopy before getting in to BASE jumping. It's not just that you met the minimum requirement, it's that you are skilled and 'good' with a canopy. Ditto with wingsuits, you want to develop yourself into a 'good' wingsuit pilot before bringing a wingsuit on a BASE jump. There are many jumpers with your same goal in mind. I can recall one who pushed through and made it to the point of doign proxitmity flights, and shared his progression, and it was something like 1000-ish skydives with 600 or 700 wingsuit jumps, 200 BASE jumps without a wingsuit, and another 100 with a wingsuit before doing anything but flyng away from the cliff. I think it took him 5 or 6 years all in to get there. It's a hell of a goal, and hell of a project, with the good news being that it's just a bunch of skydiving and BASE jumping, and ain't nothing wrong with that.

Good choice. Don't ignore Perris, it's literally a 20 min drive over the hill. Both DZs will have load organizers, just ask at manifest when you check in, and they'll point you in the right direction. It never hurts to pop out a solo as your first jump at a new DZ. Have a look around, enjoy the secnery, and pull a little higher than normal so you can scope out the LZ and landing pattern with no pressure.

Not true. I jump a 103, and I can push all the air out of the canopy before I put it on the ground, while a larger canopy needs to be set down and pushing the air out of the canopy will take longer. Once on the ground, I can get it in the bag with one S fold, while a larger canopy requires two. Depending on the size of the bag, you might be able to make fewer stows with the shorter lines on a smaller canopy. When you get paid piece work, these 'time savers' can shave 1 min off a pack job, and that's real money by the end of the day/week/month/year. Of course, this is in Eloy, where the packers have a never-ending pile of work, and 1 min can make a real difference. At a lesser DZ, where packers have 'time off' between loads and such, I would disagree with the upcharge for larger canopies.

None really. It's two different things. What you could do is look for a skydiving container big enough to hold a BASE canopy, so you can jump your BASE canopy out of a plane to practice with it. You'll want a skydiving canopy for most of your jump, because they open nicer at terminal than a BASE canopy, but you can get a big 7-cell for skydiving and wingsuiting. You'll need a BASE rig as well. I'm guessing you'll want to stack up some BASE jumps before you hit Norway, so look into one of those, and maybe take a BASE course in Twin Falls. It's a 'lofty' goal to wingsuit off a cliff. If you plan to proximity fly the cliff, it's even more of a project. Fugre you'll need a couple hundred skydives to start with a wingsuit, and a couple hundred BASE jumps to take a wingsuit off a cliff, and then a couple hundred wingsuit BASE jumps before you start hugging the wall. The skydives and regular BASE jumps you can make in the US (if you don't mind breaking a few laws along the way, BASE jumping requires some tresspassing and maybe some light breaking and entering). The big wall jumps can only be made in Norway/Europe, so you'll need to find a way to spend some time over there to get your skills together. First order of business, get current and look into the BASE first jump course.

Could be, and that very idea came up in another thread about the 200 jump reccomendation. The real answer, is to raise the coach min. to meet the camera min., but even then, it's not a perfect solution. Even if you do that, do you really want a jumper making their first jumps as coaches, aslo their first jumps with cameras? Does that sound like a good idea to anyone? I had suggested a min. number of camera jumps before taking one along on a coach jump, and I think I mentioned 20 jumps as an idea. Someone esle mentioned that it was far too low, but in either case, it's all just talk becasue you can be a coach with a camera with 100 jumps in the US, and it's all 'legal'.

You are correct. The poster who quoted times and altitudes was probably assuming the where the student waved off. Lucky for the student, it appears that they did indeed begin the pull procedure on the high side. The AFFI maintains altitude awareness, and you can see their altimeter during the jump. However, the first time I watched the video, I was also 'uneasy' about the amount of time between the wave off and the eventual deployment. It seemed to go on for longer than it should have, but that was before I noted the AFFIs altimeter.