theplummeter

Have I completely missed it, or is there guidance somewhere as to how to handle coming head to head with another canopy? Pilots have been instructed to aggressively turn aircraft to the right in the event of an imminent collision observed visually or in response to an alert from a Terminal Collision Avoidance System, but I have never heard it from skydivers, either as part of a canopy course or a manifest briefing.

This is the best advice so far in the thread. I finished up my private and most of my instrument rating by working for an FBO and renting their Cessna 150 for cheap. Between that and working a full time job delivering pizza I saved up $15k in just under a year and had 80ish hours of flight time. I financed exactly $9700 and finished up all of my ratings in a twin at www.allatps.com with a part time 135 job waiting for me based on my work performance at the FBO. I spent one year there and then got a job doing air ambulance where I have been since 2001. Most of my friends/classmates have gone the regional route. Of the five I regularly talk to one is at Skywest airlines and fairly happy, one just got on with Southwest and is excited, two don't work in aviation anymore, and one is about to start at the bottom of his third regional seniority list when Comair shuts down. All five borrowed everything to get their ratings and I am the only one of the six that has no student loan debt, and haven't for five years.

Also bear in mind that those payrates are not based on a 40 hour work week, but a monthly guarantee, usually around 70 hours per month. There are four regional airlines currently hiring and that consistently hire pilots with less than 1500 flight hours. Their pay rates are 14,400, 20,700, 21,000, and $23,400 per year. Second and third year pay is roughly $2k/year more than the previous year. So, lets say that you finished all your ratings quickly, instructed for the school for a couple years (at around $20) and got on with a regional airline. A loan of $75,000 at 6% (I'm guessing better than what you found) would give you a payment of 832.65 monthly. If you were to get on with the highest paying regional airline that is likely to hire you, you're looking at roughly $1950/month before taxes/deductions. If you pay an effective tax rate of 10% that takes out 195/month, health insurance at least 200/month, and make your loan payment you would be lucky to have $722.35 left per month. The salespeople at a lot of these flight schools are good at using terms like "accredited" and "airline style training" while attempting to sell an upcoming pilot shortage in order to get you to sign. The truth is that when Orville and Wilbur buit the first airplane there was one pilot too many in the world and that ratio has never improved. I say follow your dreams but every single cent that you don't spend or finance getting there are very helpful in the long run, and any training that doesn't include loggable flight time towards your FAA certificates is pretty much useless.

My full time job is air ambulance, I also fly most weekends for the dropzone here and frequently do contract work. I make a decent living now but the first five years were difficult with a family and I have a lot of friends who at the ten to fifteen year mark are starting a new seniority list with a regional airline and hoping to break the $25k mark.

If it's all you want to do, then I say go for it but be prepared not to break $20k for the next ten years. Flying was all I wanted to do until I started doing it for a living, now it's just a job.

The Astar 350 is likely to be the most cost effective option in Europe. Make sure you look for a B3 variant, the BA and B2 don't have the power of the B3.

I have spent the last several months jumping into a local park out of my friends balloon. The balloonists here got permission from the city to use an old park as a launch and landing area, and I managed to add landing canopies into their balloon waiver without the city attorney noticing, or caring if he did notice. I call 877-487-6867 to issue a PJE NOTAM with Lockheed Martin prior to jumping and provide them with a radial and distance from the nearest VOR station, altitudes MSL, and ZULU times of the jump and provide them with my cell number as a contact. If we get blown out of the area too quickly to jump the trip becomes a balloon ride instead of a jump.

Eloy. Bunkhouse is $8/night, weather should hold almost every day, loads turning every day, desert skies rigging on the field. They also have a $1000 special on fifty jump tickets but they come with a time limit.

Has anyone here used these: http://www.liquidpolarized.com/product_ng.html?prod_id=3 I wear contacts and jumped sunglasses for the first time a couple weeks ago. On my first jump I lost my right contact but I'm not sure I had the glasses fully seated before exit. Subsequent exits went without incident. I'm wondering if anyone has put these on the liquids and if they worked well or are more trouble than they are worth.

That sounds reasonable, but I'm looking for something lower drag, that looks like I was poured into and will eventually have to be cut out of with trauma shears.

Good skydiver: Plans and jumps plans and equipment within their skill level, makes safe choices when things don't go according to plan, fun to be around, creative, and can handle constructive criticism and grow from it. Bad skydiver: Everything else

Ah, but you do if you're flying jumpers. Ref. part 105. And not close. Class E airspace usually starts at 700 or 1200. The class E airspace that surrounds an airport with an instrument approach usually starts at either 700 or 1200 agl, but Class E over class G usually starts at either the floor of a victor airway or more commonly 14500. Part 105 does force the radio contact either way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y6AHvQjpO4

........................................................................ ICAO Air Space Classification (as I remember it) A - altitude, as in high altitude, above 18,000 feet mandatory IFR and ATC B- big as in big city airport, mandatory IFr and ATC C - as in big city airport, mandatory ATC D- smaller municipal airports,mandatory ATC E as in empty D, usually after midnight F - as in fire, riots and military firing ranges, only enter with permission of controlling authorities. G - uncontrolled airspace below 3,000 feet AGL Close. in many areas Class E starts at 14500 feet, and you don't need to establish radio contact with ATC to be in Class E under Visual Flight Rules.

I didn't even think of that. The Gloria Vanderbilt stretchy denim capris I pilfered have a higher Y cut, leaving me dealing with a mooseknuckle conundrum from which there may be no escape.

Hey all. I have nearly 150 jumps and have aggressively downsized, but only to make the Cessna look big and because I hate packing. Since I'm already on such a small aggressive canopy, swooping seemed the logical option, so I've been turning lower and longer using the toggles. It's working out perfect! The big drawback is this: I can't afford awesome swoop pants to get more speed, which left me wondering how many of you are stealing your wife/girlfriends capris (or wearing your own) for swooping? If I'm not going to pay a canopy coach I sure as hell am not going to pay for swoop pants.

Sabre, Sabre2, Safire, and Safire2 canopies are all nine cells. It has been my experience (and that of many others with whom I've spoken) that Icarus and NZ Aerosports canopies tend to have a deeper stall and flare point, especially student or demo/rental canopies.

I would go paragliding.

If you were above 28000 feet when you saw the other airplane chances are really good that you were separated vertically by exactly 1000 feet. Aircraft going east use odd thousands for cruise and aircraft going west use even thousands. Aircraft used to be further apart but a few years back the federal government enacted Reduced Vertical Separation Minima legislation that required better aircraft altimetry and allowed controllers to make use of less vertical separation.

Deregulation and bad investors have made American airlines so broke that they have to charge extra for everything. They have also furloughed anyone hired after 1988, so it's Jurassic Park in the employee pool. Also, retirement keeps moving back five years. Also carbohydrates, saturated fats and quickie marriages. I think that's everything.

My rigger made an 11" extension out of old bridle. It runs from the pilot chute attachment point to a french link at the standard bridle. I have an Infinity with a Safire 169, it works great.

I'm getting ready to order a jumpsuit and love the Vertical suits. I'm debating which one to order. Anyone who has one care to comment on who has what suit, do you like or dislike it, and which options are worthwhile? I go back and forth between trying to freefly, doing belly stuff, and a little tunnel from time to time.

Airplanes do not use reverse in flight. The propellers flatten as the power comes back to idle. The propellers are governed to maintain a certain RPM, so as power is added the governor increases the pitch of the blades to maintain the RPM and as power is decreased the blades flatten to maintain the RPM. At some point (every engine installation/fuel control/prop governor is different) the blades will go to their flattest pitch angle and RPM will decrease. Most pilots bank the aircraft to efficiently lose altitude. Negative G forces depend on how steep the pitch and bangles are during the descent. In a Cessna, more often the pilot is holding the nose slightly up with the elevator resulting in positive G forces but a steep bank angle and high rate of descent. I haven't flown jumpers in King Airs, so I'm not sure how they do their descent or what it feels like. An emergency descent in a King Air has the pilot idle both engines, use one notch of flaps, put the wheels down and then push the nose over and bank slightly until you reach the gear extened speed limit. In the airplane I last did a checkride in the nose was 35 degrees below the horizon, and I was losing over 4000 feet per minute at 156 knots.

In the case of the King Air (or most turbines for that matter) you simply idle both engines and they fall like rocks. Turbines aren't like reciprocating engines as there is no risk of shock cooling. Add big propellers to the front which flatten at low power settings and create a ton of drag and higher weights and it's really not hard to lose the altitude. Unless the pilot is really sloppy the airframe shouldn't take too much of a load either, although most airline passengers probably wouldn't care much for the descent.

I have sold two canopies and bought several items off of the classifieds here. After a couple phone conversations I shipped the first canopy off with a transfer of half the selling price and the buyer sent me the other half upon arrival. The second canopy I shipped to a rigger in Perris who inspected the canopy and held it in escrow until I got paid which was almost immediately once he received it. In both of those cases it was easy to ship stuff off having spoken at length with the buyers and with a well defined plan for payment. Avoid anyone who won't deal with a third party, but be prepared to cover the cost of inspection/shipping (at least half).