davelepka

You can verify that it seems to reading a valid static pressure, but that says nothing for the sensor's ability to measure the change (or rate of change) of the pressure during a skydive. The simple fact is that between Cypres and Vigil, the Vigil is the one with the reputation for firing when you don't really want it to fire. The parameters may have been met according to the sensor, but without filters to refine the info, you get things like Vigils firing when you open the door or the plane, or close the trunk of your car. No AAD is perfect, they all have incidents where they did not work as designed, or the design turned out to be faulty. The Cypres has had the fewest of the these instances despite the fact that it has been on the market 3 or 4 times as long as the Vigil, and probably has 10, 20, or 30 times the jumps. Like most things in skidiving, there are no guarantees, it's all an odds game. At this point, the odds are with Cypres.

Just watching the attempt at a climb-out, I have trouble believing that student had progressed to solo exits. If that was the case, we can add the instructors poor management of the student near the door to the list of fuck ups. The guy was nowhere near the student, and the jump started off bad becuse the student was allowed to fail the exit and fall out of the plane uncontrolled. Yes, the student recovered, but barely. If the instructor had grips on the exit, he could have thrown visible hand signals and corrected the body position issue long before releasing them. That guy was certainly not due a 'thumbs up' at any point, exit, freefall, pull time, or otherwise. Of course, the guy might have progressed to solo exit, and the instructor would have been in the correct slot at that point (with regards to aircraft position, once he left the plane, the instructor was never in the right place again). Yeah. Wonder how it felt to be spinning on your back, falling too fast for your instructor to keep up and then have your AAD fire with those loose legstraps. Quality instruction and customer service, who needs them?

What a great illustration of letting yourself get fucked over by life on a student skydive. Am I the only one who noticed that the students leg straps were loose? I could see in between the straps and his legs as he was 'trying' to climb out? Also, what sort of instructor gives the student a 'thumb up' while the student is both not in a good body position and look straight down (and the instructor is 20+ feet away)? How about tapping the guy on top of the head to get his attention? Who taught that hand signal? Speaking of those hand signals, who noticed the cuff of the instructor jumpsuit? Looks like baggy, heavy material for a student who appears to be a 'larger' fellow. Of course, aside from losing the student, not being able to chase him worth a damn with the result being a pair of AAD fires, that jackass posts the video online and thinks it's cool that his Protrack reported a 300ft opening altitude. How do these people become instructors and why do we let them stay instructors?

Ground reference manuvers are taught for the times when a pilot must fly in reference to the ground, like when flying in the pattern setting up for landing. They are not taught to prevent pilots from having their planes fall out of the sky based on wind direction.

Airspeed is 30 knots, and that will control the rate of turn. Far an airplane to turn fast enough to stall, it literally needs to 'skid' though the turn, seperating the airflow from the wings. That's the basic definition of a stall, and can happen at any airspeed in any wind conditions. Other than that, it you have 30 knots of airspeed, and you can keep the airflow attached to the wings, you will continue flying. None of this is mentioning that no certified airplane can maintain flight at 30 knots airspeed, but that's another story.

No shit. I didn't think they could hold up to many deployments, but I would have guessed more than 2.

Cool, but stay away from the dealerships, and any fancy garages unless they know you well. You're not looking for 'top shelf' service here, you're looking to get back on the road for the bottom dollar. Fancy shops or repair chains will sell you one type of job, but a little private shop just on the other side of the tracks may be what you're looking for this time around. All you need is the bare bones job, with little to no thought beyond 90 days or a few thousand miles. Take your husband or father with you, some places will take advantage of a single women bringing a car in alone. Tell them you just need it for a couple more months until you buy a new car. The guys at the garage might even know of someone in need of a cheap car, so you might find a buyer at the same time.

It's taking a a pretty big risk, like others said, it can let go at any time. At night in the middle of nowhere, or on the freeway in the middle of 100 other cars all going 75mph. Neither one is a good time to have your motor 'grenade'. Look into the cost of replacing the head gasket. Shop around and see what the lowest price you can find, then compare it to what you can sell the car for when you get a new one. Trade in is out of the question. With 300k, you're not going to get more than $100 out of the dealer on trade, and they probably won't even give you that. They'll inflate some other charge by $100, then knock $100 off the bottom line and mark it 'trade in'. But, if you have a solid, running car, and it's a new-ish Honda (10 years old is newish, a 1990 Civic would be another story) that gets good milage, that has to be worth at least $800 to $1000. If you can get the head gasket fixed for less than that, you'll be ahead money after you sell the car, and out of 'harms way' while you drive it. Another point is that if you wait until it dies, even if it's nice enough to die at the end of your driveway one evening, now you have to buy a car right away. No matter if they go on sale in two weeks, or the dealer needs week to get the color/model you want, you need one right away. By fixing your current car, and making it reliable again, you remove the pressure to buy and allow yourself the benefit of not byuing under pressure. You can shop around, haggle for prices, walk off the lot a few times to make a point, all while driving 'old reliable'. Then, once you make your purchase, put 'old reliable' on Craigslist for free, and sell her off to some high-school kid who needs basic transportation to and from school and the mall.

What sort of speeds are we talking here? You mention the trash bag technique, so should we assume that the deployments were all from jumprun speed? If so, what type of plane? Also, how many deployments did you put on any one wing?

If only there was some sort of Association, here in the United States that has some overview of Parachutes and the people who use them...... What if it was made up of skydivers, and was in the business of setting rules, regualtions and certifying instructors to teach skydiving to students.... Nah, fuck that. I'm shooting a tandem video on the next load, who's got an upper level wind forecast for 4000' agl? I need to know which direction to face on opening.

I think everyone wears low profile goggles, besided the 'over the glasses' crowd, and a mark on your goggles doesn't have a 'focal length'. The mark on your goggles, just like a ring sight, is simply a reference to show you the center of the frame. A ring sight does not denote the edges of your frame, and it was never intended to, it only shows the center. Determining the edges of your frame is up to each jumper, with their combination of camera and lens, and just something you learn over the course of many jumps. You'll start off too far away, with lots of 'dead' space around the edges of your frame, and then you'll creep in, slowly filling the frame. Eventually you'll get cocky, and be so close you start to cut stuff out of the picture, then you back up, then you're all set. I have not jumped a ring site in 13 years, and have never had a problem. I started with drawing a bold square on my goggles, and over time I have reduced that to two dots - one just left of center, one just to the right. Put something between the dots, and that thing is in the middle. It's just a center-point reference, nothing more, nothing less.

You're going to want to put masking tape over your helmet before you drill your holes, to prevent fraying or chip-out along the outside of the holes. So take your ringsite, flip it over, and place a piece of paper over the back. Poke holes in the paper where the mounting holes are, then place the paper on the helmet where you want the sight to be. Use a Sharpie marker to draw through the holes onto the masking tape, and there you have your locations. The pencil lead thing will work too, but it will also make a mess with all that loose pencil lead. What you should really do is sell that stuff in the classifieds, and use the money to buy jumps. Take the aforementioned masking tape, and with a friend looking through your viewfinder (the still cam has those neat little squares in the exact center of the frame) place a dot of tape on your goggles over the exact center of the frame. Double check this by choosing several objects and you framing them up with the masking tape, and your buddy confirming they are in the center of the frame. Now take the also aforementioned Sharpie marker, and draw a circle around the tape on your goggles. Remove the tape, and this is your new 'ring' sight. Safer, cheaper, lighter, and 99% as good as what you want to bolt on to your helmet.

Students fail level multiple times. It happens. As far as which levels and how many times, it's different for each individual. One thing I have learned is not to second guess AFF Is unless there is video of the jump, and even then you cannot replace actually being there when it comes to determining a students performance. Just becuase you see no reason you should not have passed, or other jumpers feel like it was wrong, they were not there and the ones making the call that day, that was your instructors at the time. They were there, they were the ones who either had to jump with you the next time, or sign you off for someone else to jump with you, and they didn't want to do that. It would be a rare case that an instructor would fail an otherwise good student who had the intentions of making another jump. If they knew you were going to jump again, they were going to get your money one way or another. On top of that, instructors in this business aren't in it for the money because there isn't much money to begin with, so when presented with an eager, interested student looking for more than a 'one time' thrill, they usually do everything they can to move them along and keep them learning and progressing. Additionally, instructors know that students who keep coming back sometimes turn into jumpers who keep coming back, sometimes for years and years. If they were just jerking your chain, and trying to bleed you dry for cash, they would be taking the chance that you would become a licensed jumper, a regular at the DZ, and eventually learn the 'ways of the world' and figured out that they held you back for no reason. Now if you were a one-time tandem student at a vacation type DZ, like in Las Vegas, where you were going to make your jump and then return home to Minnesota, and you feel like they overcharged you for 'custom harness adjustment', that I might believe. That's a customer the DZ will neve see again, and they have one chance to get their money and will never see them again. In your situation, it seems unlikey they would fail you for no reason. (Just to calrify, Las Vegas was just an example, I'm not suggesting they rip off toursits at any DZ in Vegas).

That's right, and there's nothing that says the green going out means 'don't jump' at the DZ in question. The pilot may turn off the green light after they have reached a certain distance from the DZ. Just like you give the pilot a location for the green light to come on, let's say '.2 miles before the DZ', you could also give them a location at which to shut it off, let's say '1 mile past the DZ'. This would give the tandem guys a heads up as to how far out they are, and let them make the call as to 'go and dump high', or 'go-around and get out closer to the DZ'. Beyond that, there may be a red light which is used to indicate 'do not jump' anytime the pilot needs to stop any further exits. As to the altimeter issue, there is also a lot that we don't know. Maybe an altimeter was dropped and broke that morning, putting them down an altimeter for the day. Then they were flying back to backs, and all of their altimeters were on the previous load and they couldn't get them to the tandem students for the load in question. Should they have held up the plane or bumped the tandems because they didn't have student altimeters? Again, the one report from a person who has been to one DZ and made one tandem should hardly be used as grounds to call 'foul' on a DZ. Just as easily as the problems could be persistant and systematic at the DZ in question, they could also be rare and not what they appear to be.

Northrop-Grumman. Cost is $1.6M each.

Some individuals also make you repeat levels if they don't feel you are ready for the next one. Without personally speaking to the instructors who made you repeat the jumps, nobody knows why they did it, and it's wrong for you to assume that they just wanted more of your money. Despite what you think you remember from those jumps, the opinion of the instructors in the air with you might be different.

I've got one of those on his last day of 7th grade as we speak. The project for next week is to teach him to pack, and the project for the week after that is for me to stop packing for myself after 5000+ jumps.

Packing is absolutely a 'service' industry, and often times the level of service you recieve is at the discretion of the packer. I'm not suggesting they would cut corners on a pack job for those that don't tip, but when you ask if they can have you packed for a 20 min call, or they have to choose a rig to pack first (yours or another), don't be surprised when the guy who tips gets better service. Another thing to remember, some DZ have a packing fee or packing consession that gets a cut of everything the packers do. So even if you pay $6/per, the packer might lose a buck to 'the management'. So while you might feel like you're paying them $30 for 5 pack jobs, they only pocket $25, so the tip helps to bring that up a little. My suggestion for compensating packers is to always go with cash. Some people suggest beer or food, or some other gifts, but a pakcer can buy all of those things with cash, and in the end, you're sure they get exactly what they want (because they buy it themselves with the money you give them). How much is up to you. Tip what you can afford to tip, and that's the right amount. If you can swing a five-spot at the end of the day, great. If you roll up in a Benz, and have flashy gear and an expensive watch, the fiver might not be as appropriate. It will be appreciated, for sure, but be honest and give what you can.

Problem solved, wingsuiting is not for you. Jumping a wingsuit is similar to skydiving in a straight jacket, except the wingsuit moves you around the sky, so you also have to navigate at the same time. This is not the situation for a 'casual' jumper. If you want to be a 'casual' jumper, you can do that. Smart 'casual' jumpers will limit their activites to basic skydives with only one or two other people, will only jump in the best of weather conditions, and will seek re-current training from an instructor at the beginning of every season. Of course, there are stupid 'casual' jumpers who feel that even though they only have 60 jumps, they've been jumping for 4 years and have 'been around', so they can do whatever they want. Those guys don't last very long. Wingsuiting is pretty far up the skydiving mountain. If you want to be a 'part-timer' then by all means do so, but limit your activites to the bottom of the slope, where it's easy. If you want to ride the lift up to the top, you better have your shit together, and that means practice, currency and dedication.

You don't need any rating to teach a canopy control course. Thanks to the USPA, there is no structure or system in place, so anyone can teach anything they want with regards to canopy control. That sounds bad, but the long and short of it is that if you want to target licensed jumpers, you are free to conduct any course your DZ will allow (if you intend to teach it at a DZ, you can teach ANYTHING you want at home in your garage). I'd be willing to bet, however, that if you presented a syllabus to your DZO that was correct and complete, and didn't contradict the primary training they do at your DZ, they would also allow the unlicensed jumpers (aka, their students) take your course as well.

Why would they offer you a loaner, only to consider reporting the canopy as stolen? Does that make sense to anyone? They're probably just looking for you to make a few 're-currency' jumps on a bigger canopy, just to make sure you remember your training, and are handling things well. If they can fit a bigger canopy in your rig, they'll set your canopy aside and hook theirs up, but I doubt it will be for more than a day, or that they would let you take the canopy off the DZ. Your canopy could be considered 'collateral', but mosly because it would be sitting in the corner of the packing room while the other canopy is in your rig. I think the problem is that you're thinking this is a long-term 'loan', while the DZ is probably taking about just getting you to 'step down' into your 210. If you started on a 260, I doubt they would take you back to the beginning, so maybe they just want to see a couple of good jumps on a 240 or 220 before cutting loose with the 210. They're just watching out for you, and I doubt they're concerned about the legal aspects of the 'loan'.

What is it about making two harness-hold AFF jumps that makes you think a student is ready for a solo exit, freefall, and un-assisted pull from a much lower altitude? By the time a S/Lstudent is making a 10-second delay, they have demonstated their ability to exit solo and stable on several jumps with the S/L hooked up, to include practice pulls on the last couple S/L jumps. An AFF student with two jumps has never exited solo, been in freefall solo, or pulled un-assisted (for the purpose of this discussion, 'assisted' means with an instructor docked on their harness, not an instructor helping (or completely) pulling for them). I don't know about you, but I watched many AFF students making their regularly scheduled hop n pops get very freaked out because of the lower exit altitude, and do some very odd things because of it. Put them in that same situation but with far fewer jumps and accomplishments under their belts, and who knows what would happen. If you wanted to put them out with an actual S/L or an IAD, that would be one thing. They would still have the benefit of getting to jump, making a solo exit, and fly their canopy, but it would subtract the need for solo freefall and pull.

Between needing to be rated to jump the thing by the factory, the significant cost factor, and that 99% of tandem rigs are 'business' tools, I would venture that very few tandem rigs of any brand are sold based on the website. I would venture that there would be a fair bit of one-on-one personal contact between a potential customer and mfg. sales rep before an order is placed. Sure, repeat customers may send in an order on their own, but customers looking to buy a 'new' rig, or swtich brands are probably willing to go a little further than browsing a web site.

A clue? Here's one for you - the 'show users posts' button in your profile never goes away. You can wipe the rest clean, like your jump numbers, time in sport, and the canopy you jump, but every post you ever made is right there at the touch of a button. The only way to really start over is to dump the DocPop user name all together, and start fresh with a new name and none of the details you don't want people to know about.

Step 1 - learn to skydive. Jump the rigs the DZ provides, and use your experiences to figure out what size main/reserve you need for your first rig. This will be based on your weight, and your performance jumping the DZ gear, as determined by your instructors. Step 2 - tell your instructors you're looking for a used rig. Ask if they can help you find one, or reccomend a rigger or gear dealer who can assist you. Step 3 - never, ever, never, buy anything unless it has been approved by the rigger who will have to assemble and pack it. This doesn't mean they have to inspect it themselves, but they have to be in contact with a person they trust who inspected it. The reason being that an 'airworthy' rig that your local rigger won't touch is a problem for you.