dreamsville

Would that be Kieth? I think I met him the other day when I was out there. He was leaving our loads on a fairly good-sized board. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

Last point, somewhat related. If you see dust devils (as at Eloy, sometimes) repeatedly with squirrely winds, stay on the ground. I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

Some thoughts from those with more experience than I: 1) If limited low-timers, one or two in or near the base, else divide experience levels with more LO's. 2) Credibility of LO. 3) Ability of LO to spot subtle body language and cues of expertise level. 4) Simplicity (like no outward facing stuff) for lower-timers. 5) Supportivenes. 6) Know where to draw the line with expertise level. 7) Brain book of formations that work. 8) If possible with higher levels, try to keep much the same group so people on certain days get used to flying with each other. 3 or 4 15 ways may help generate a camp-type environment where people know what to expect of their peers. Veterans please join in. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

If you're getting back from a long spot, legs up for less wind drag. If you're in half brakes (not just short of a stall, though, or you'll sink more than fly). Some people loosen their chest straps after under canopy. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

Quote: Try going to a smaller DZ where there is a group of 20-30 regulars and very few visitors, then tell me there aren't politics. Just wait till you want to get on one of the "cool" loads and because you don't have 2000 jumps they laugh in your face. Big fish in small ponds. Regardless of how good they are, jumpers of this sort should try if possible to visit another DZ every now and then. Meeting more people and brushing up on social skills never hurts. Most DZs that are worth perpetuating have people who, informally or through organizing, reach out to outsiders or low-timers. I was at Eloy and jumped with someone who had 50 jumps a few times. He appreciated they way a number of us treated him and performed better than he expected (that's codespeak for he was having a great time). We had beers later. Helping others gives rewards and fun and frequently turns out to be a two-way street. I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

Quade, I have to ask. From what you know of the history of this sport, how often have you seen jumpers sitting in the door or on the tailgate of a plane WITH NO RIG AND NO BELT ON while in the air, as in Cutaway (cloudy Saturday so I watched it again). If that aircraft hit an air pocket, the guy falls off and it's his last jump. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

I think the only question about talking about cutaways is whether they ought to be here or on the "safety and training" forum. Often there are a lot of other subjects discussed here, and posts about cutaway stories and how to prevent/deal with them might get lost in the general post traffic in this forum. Incidents, and safety and training might be considered by some to be more reference-type forums (where to go to learn from others' situations), than this forum. Of course, if we talk about cutaways and learn, maybe we can keep them from ending up as serious incidents or from occurring in the first place. Be safe friends. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

Don't talk about total "haze" cover, in case others may misinterpret this on a public forum. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

I've only jumped a Porter 3 times (usually Otters), and 10 seems full, and the door is low. However, I'd do it if I had to. Has your brother jumped? | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

I guess that many first-timers (but I loved every second!!) wouldn't know the difference. However, the extra-pass inconvenience could be a money and a safety issue, especially if it's a fast Otter (and they are). Also, the local DZ often runs 2 otters, sometimes 3, if it's busy. In that case, fewer passes are better if they can be done safely without landing people out. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

Well, you've got me beat and many others, I'm sure. Anyway, I was a bit hung over before doing MSL four-way video practice on a Saturday. We had 8 jumps and then I drove to another DZ and did two night jumps after supper (had to wait for beer!), not cracking the first beer until 11pm. Then I drank part of a diet Coke and could hardly sleep. We did it again the next day, and I was grateful that they called it after 7 jumps on Sunday. For me that was a lot, although I know others train for more. Same thing happened before last year's first MSL meet, when it was miserable and cold at altitude. Lots of water, with some Gatorade for minerals and a good but not heavy lunch helped a lot. Tired during skydiving is just plane () tired. Get some rest. I'll shove a beer through the computer (keyboard shorts out). | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

When you take into account the drive, I guess that makes it a bit tougher. I'd prefer to go every two weeks rather than just once a month if I could for currency and to get my fix on a more even basis, even though you might not be able to blow off the rest of the world every other week enough to get in more than 5 jumps at a trip. Especially if you decide to go once a month, try to be flexible on the weekend in case the one on which you had planned to go is going to have lousy weather. Having said all that, my round trip is 167 miles, with no trailer at the DZ . . . yet. I am lucky enough to go every weekend. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

Sounds like a line twist, possibly with a hard opening. How was your body position? Anything you can remember about the pack job? | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

I did a video for a guy who wanted to send one to his daughter for her class. He was a bit unstable (did a couple of turns in wobbly fashion and didn't look so current). At pull time, he grabs the hackey, pulls it, and hangs onto it for at least a second as if to say "Here is the pilot chute.". He doesn't seem to be looking right at me, but I motion for him to get rid of it, and finally he releases it. The rest of the jump is uneventful. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

I used to have to fly from Detroit to Los Angeles to go to school when I was a teenager. I used to look out at the mountains and the Painted Desert (Arizona?) and the farmland, thinking about flying over them myself. Somewhere in the back of my mind was a feeling of confinement in the plane when having these fantasies, enhanced by the fact that I wasn't a pilot anyway. Could I really ever do this? Later, I fantasized about having a little plane akin to an ultralight that I could take off and land on my parent's street, even sometimes with thoughts of flying over city lights at night. To this day, I still look out the window looking for beauty and color when on one of those regular passenger flights where we end up landing with the plane. This last memory came flooding back on my first night jump. I'm glad that you pulled these thoughts out of the archive of my memory. Skydivers are the lucky ones, not because we survive, but because we get to do it. Others will never know this special shared pleasure that God has given us. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

I'm glad you mentioned the drop interval issue. Within the last year I was in a situation where the hop-n-pops somehow ended up gettting dropped at 9 grand, and the other groups in the same general area on the next pass at 13 grand. Since the latter ended up having to watch for the former (luckily no occurred), this caution is probably worth mentioning, even if it sounds so obvious. If there are multiple planes/passes, make sure the preceding groups can reasonably expected to be out of the way. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

Only take tandems to 10K when the rest of the load continues on to 13.5? What a gyp. I didn't realize that people did that ROUTINELY for any type of jump, except for 4-way teams, CRW, or other special requests. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

As Bozo would say, "Yesireeneedee!". It's much easier if you don't have to wonder WHICH WAY to kick out of what you THINK is a line twist. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

I didn't expect that this would turn into an exit order thread, but here we are. All I'll say is that you will likely have to provide more exit separation to allow for potential wind drift of the belly flyers over the free flyers (assuming an upwind jump run) if the free-flyers are first. We've almost always had the R/W groups out first based upon the fear that an opening malfunction with drift can put an R/W person right there with the free flyer. Horizontal separation is the only ultimate prevention. I know ZHills doesn't do it this way, and I free-fly a lot, but we agree to disagree. Back to the spotting issue. While GPS is just one tool (always do a visual prior to exit), certain pilots in this forum WALK AND MARK the waypoints on and around the DZ and store them in the GPS that will be used on the plane. I'd bet they'd tell you that, beyond that, number and size of groups and wind combinations from ground to altitude determine how they'd do jump run. Perhaps those more knowledgeable person(s) are reading and would care to elaborate. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

I have had one hard opening on my Stiletto 135 and a couple on the Sabre 170 I used to have. Neither one was really severe, praise the Lord. However, here are some contributions from riggers and other experienced people which I think help reduce the probability of slammers: 1) Slider well quartered and all the way up (previous post on this thread indicates that front quarter should stick out more. Haven't heard about this one but I will check it out). 2) Tail wrapped firmly around slider and lines with a little roll or two. Don't use any more material than necessary here to minimize the lines burning the tail skin upon opening. Be sure it stays this way through the S fold process, since the idea is to keep the slider in place until it really needs to come down. Usually give enough of a roll of the tail to hide the rest of the canopy before setting it down, but not so much that you start rolling the nose within it. On a Stiletto, I was taught never to roll the nose. It can spin up on you even without doing that. 3) Make sure the pack job isn't coming apart as you put it in the bag. On a humid day in Florida, I slipped when putting it in. Pulled it out and did it over. We'll never know if that next opening would have been a hard one. 4) Keep stows to no more than a couple of inches so one cannot lock within another. In my case (it's just the way I learned), I used larger stows and double wrap each one. This seems to keep the lines frimly tied, but I have never had anything remotely resembling a bag lock. 5) Allow about 12 to 18 inches of excess line in the packing tray. In any case, depending upon your risers, make sure there is not tension between the last stow and the risers, as in the case of too little excess line. Two riggers have told me that this can impede the bag releasing properly and can cause a hard opening. There should be a little bit of line coiled in the bottom of the tray away from the closing loop. This stuff seems to work. Anyone please add stuff to this. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

Maybe it helps to ask how it happened, if you know the system needed repairs (how sound is it?). Beyond that, I'm not very superstitious. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

I agree. Another point: "and without the potential risks of skydiving. " That's true, and no, I haven't been to the tunnel yet, but I hear it's also possible to slam into the sides at a pretty good rate if your body position isn't right. So I guess you still have to be a bit careful anyway. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

Did any veteran bother to jump with you shortly after you started, or were you just born a sky god? | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

Since you were planning on living, I know you weren't trying to cut the funeral home out of their share by landing where you did. | I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143

From the lack of any periods (".",s) anywhere in your post I can tell you were very excited and satisfied. Good for you. I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane. Harry, FB #4143