jimjumper

Of course, I did have a student (an engineer) ask me how often we magnafluxed the hooks to check for cracks!

I did one with Cary at Cal City on an Easter morning and had a slow turning malfunction. People watching on the ground wondered why I was spiraling since we were so far off but figured it out when I cut away at 2K. Didn't have as much interest in the sunset while under my LoPo!

Just for your peace of mind, I watched a guy jump a 3 year old pack job on a hop-n-pop. He said it opened a little slow but was fine!

When I first started jumping, I was on a Cessna load and at about 3 grand there's a bang and the engine seems be maxed out. I was in the very back and the guy in front of me was yelling at the pilot. I got his attention and told him if the plane was going in I wanted out. He talked to the pilot again and then turned to me and said "The pilot says everything is fine and we"ll get full altitude. The muffler just fell off!"

The old Temecula airport your thinking about is probably Bear Creek. They were there for a couple of years.

I seem to recall being trained that if the canopy didn't inflate to reel it in and shake it by the skirt to spread it out and help it inflate! But I was jumping shot and a halfs so maybe the procedure was different.

There are some details I posted in History and Trivia but yeah the school closed 2 weeks ago.

You won't find a window or green on my pilot chute or bridle since I jump a bungee pilot chute. Make sure you know someone else's gear as well as your own before doing gear checks for someone else!

Jim is working with the military freefall school (TACAIR) in San Diego. Gail is working with Hollywood supplying props and gear for the movies.

While I took that last tandem, our last AFF student did his last jumps for his "A". While we did that Jim and Gail loaded up the school gear and memorabilia and closed permanently at the end of the day.

He's been working at the Perris school for some time now.

Landing!? I want to see that exit!

Did the last tandem at the Jim Wallace Skydiving School. It just happended to work out that it was a friend of my wife and he had a gift certificate he needed to use before they closed. It's been a long ride!

Today the Jim Wallace Skydiving School taught it's last student and closed it's doors. After 20+ years of existence in 3 different locations it was finally time. Jim Wallace is far from retiring however, he continues to teach and jump at Tactical Air Operations in San Diego. Gail, (his wife), is currently involved in the movie industry supplying props and equipment.

Outstanding! I left home at 17 for the Navy and never looked back. He's in good hands. You might hold off on the "care" cookies though, it used to be you couldn't have packages from home till week 4 and then the whole company got them all at once. Evrything had to be eaten at one sitting!

I had a radio on all my student jumps in 1983 but with jumping T-10's about all you could do from 2500' was change the view. Radios on students even then wasn't anything new. The dropzone was surrounded by scrub trees and it was easier to keep the students out of them than haul out an axe ad cut the tree down.

Off the top of my head, here's some I didn't see yet. Carl Boenish, Jim Handbury, Ray Cottingham, Sammy Ramos, Tom Sanders, and Steve Fielding. Let me get my nap and I can probably think of a few more!

I jst looked mine up and it doesn't show the original issue date. I switched from the paper version to the credit card type in August and it shows that as the issue date on both my card and the FAA website.

As a student I would pull just to find out what direction I was falling! I took 32 jumps to get off student status and since I was jumping a round (at 235 pounds!) for the first 50-100 jumps a stand-up landing was something I watched other people do. I thought RW was being able to keep the other person in sight. But I had so much fun I just couldn't quit.

Actually the post BigBearFNG and Wicked Suits are quoting is mine. And I have been around long enough to see the full evolution of the AFF program. I stand by what I posted and think that there are easier and more cost effective ways to do this.

It appears that the model that’s intended to be used for the WS rating program is the AFF program. The original AFF proposal resulted in an instructional program ruled by 4 individuals that held onto their power with an iron grip for over 15 years! The “I” course had a pass/fail rate of 50/50 and this was accepted for the sake of “quality” and “standardization”. For a long time pre-courses were not only discouraged they weren’t even offered. Course training was done by senior AFF I’s or by a few designated Evaluators. It was only when DZ’s and DZO's where unable to get certified Instructors did the Board step in and allow mere mortals to get Course Director ratings and prospective I’s didn’t have to guess about the standards of the course they were about to take. The current plan for Wingsuits calls for only 7 IE’s so it’s going to take a long time to make WSI’s a common DZ staff member available to the rank and file. For this system to work it's going to require a lot of traveling by either the evaluators or the evaluated. Of course, if you’re the one at the top, it’s understood that the person wanting the instruction pays. I see a lot of money in course costs, travel, and per diem, not to mention aircraft slots and classrooms. Somehow I don’t think that these new IE’s and I’s are going to hand out ratings for free. Also if I were looking for a job right now I’d be checking at USPA to see if all the Admin support jobs in the Safety and Training Department have been filled. I see a massive bureaucracy being paid for by both the jumper wanting to wingsuit and the general membership. I also see Wingsuiting as a discipline being severely restricted by this system in it’s creativity in the name of “standardization” much like progressive thinking was (and is) discouraged in AFF teaching techniques. I keep reading on here about current WSI’s that believe they won’t have to make any changes to what they are already doing but if WS becomes a rating, if they are teaching at a USPA GM dropzone, they will have to be rated by USPA and essentially teach the syllabus provided. If you’re a current WSI make sure you read the proposal and be prepared to attend a rating course and to teach the proposed syllabus. All this being said, I don’t think I can support the current proposal of a full rating system. The USPA survey question is supposed to be in the November issue which I haven’t seen yet but I’ll be interested in seeing how the question is phrased. I support more basic WS instruction but a rating system is excessive. Hopefully this won’t be handled the way the canopy instruction problem was handled and just passed off to some S+TA to designate someone they think knows what they are teaching. I am seeing that with more resistance to the rating idea being posted on-line that some people have ideas that would work and I would hope that everyone keeps an open mind when it comes to solving this problem with the least amount of intrusion and cost toi the average jumper.

Even a blind pig occasionally finds an acorn!

I had it happen with a tandem. Last out and as I set up for exit the door dropped right in front us. Since the plane was empty, I had my student help me lift the door and we slipped out underneath it. When I do tandems out of the Van now I make sure the person opening it knows how to latch it properly.

Try this article from the Press-Enterprise http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/perris/perris-headlines-index/20121001-perris-skydivers-help-with-a-planned-jet-crash.ece Sorry, cluesless as to how to make it clicky

Jim Wallace was one of the TI's and I think they got out at around 6K with the copilot and the navigator. Scott Smith was the Safety Officer and after the pilot turned the plane around and aligned the crash trajectory him and the pilot jumped from about 2.5. All exits were from the rear ramp door. The plane was then flown remote control to impact. It wasn't crashed at a steep angle because they wanted to simulate an actual crash landing.