Pendejo

Here's one of me swooping the ditch and one of a "normal" swoop. (and yes I did pop up out of the end) Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

Dude.... You said that so much better than I did... Great post. Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

Ok, I will try not to be sarcastic (its hard not to be cause this conversation happens a lot in this forum)..... Here is what we would do at our DZ with your jump numbers and desire to fly camera. 1. You have to prove your RW skills with the guy who runs the video concession (that would be me). 2. You have to show that you can stay calm when the shit hits the fan (and yes it will hit the fan, and no its not that hard to simulate). 3. You have to drill (with me) on your rig and camera emergence procedures, as well as all the other stuff that goes with flying camera. 4. You have to have a camera helmet that you can "cut away" when (and I say when cause its not "if" its "when" ) the shit hits the fan. 5. You have to have the confidence of all the Tandem Masters (and no I don't care what the DZO thinks) that you can not just fly yourself in front of them, but can GET THE F..K OUT OF THE WAY if they are having a problem (from exit to landing). During all this time you will still be fun jumping without your camera. The first camera jump you would make is on step 6. 6. You have to go up with me (at least five jumps) with the camera on your head (in a 2 way) while I do my best (if its possible) to simulate how a tandem changes fall rate and moves around in the sky (on this jump you have to keep me in frame without running into me). 7. you have to fly "outside video" with ME on at least five tandem videos. 8. You get with ONE tandem master (no not a newbie) that has confidence in you and shoot at least 10 spec videos with him and his student. After all that.... You will have twenty camera jumps. Now we get to start working on RW video.... I think you kinda get the drift..... I have had one, and only one person that has been able to do all that shit at the level you would need to shoot paid video at our DZ. He started at 150 jumps. He now has over 500 jumps and shoots great video. He is the extreme exception to the rule. And even he will tell you that he now thinks he started to early. Here is a good (at least in my mind) comparison. I "could" land an 89 square foot canopy (my exit weight is around 240) on the DZ and be just fine...What I could not do is land it in a back yard with turbelance... Its the same way with flying camera. You "could" jump it 1000 times and never have a problem... The real question is, are you willing to bet your life and possibly the life of the tandem master and his student on your being up to the task. They say time (and in this case jump numbers AND time) will fix a lot of things.... Remeber that the person you are shooting is someones child, wife (or husband), brother, mother or father, and that your arrogance could cause that persons death. Its not just about you.... Remember that when you do start (regardless if thats at 100 or 1000 jumps). One thing to think about is your awarness in the sky. Have you been on a skydive latley that has had video and not remembered something that the video showed happening? Thats something that only you can answerer (no I'm not looking for you to respond to that here as it will just cause a flame fest). Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

Balance person freedom vs the collective. The classic [bad?] example is seatbelt laws. ------------------------------------------------------------ The difference here is that cars already had seatbelts in them. A better example might be having a drivers license. The problem is coming up with something that is workable yet doesn't have a lot (what ever level is deemed acceptable) of fallout in the jumper base. ------------------------------------------------------------ An easy call for the DZSO on a small DZ that knows and has watched the individual. Now what does the poor DZSO do at a boogie where there are international jumpers on gear they might not have even see before? ------------------------------------------------------------ Or just a visiting jumper on a busy day at a mid-sized DZ. ------------------------------------------------------------ Sadly it seems some can't listen and don't want to learn or will even lie to the DZSO. There is a not insignificant danger that non skydiving bodies (i.e FAA/CASA) regulate WL for us - If we can't get our shit together and stop these “he was on a what and how big!!” issues from occurring – accident or not. ------------------------------------------------------------ I agree. ------------------------------------------------------------ BTW: I believe the Dutch implementation of WingLoading opregs only applies to a new [for you] canopy. ------------------------------------------------------------ That would be a good place to start... But it won't help the immediate problem (but we do have to start somewhere.) Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

Its interesting... When you talk to some of the guys who have been around for a while about canopies, you start to see a trend in the story.... You can't jump that T-10!!! Its to high performance for someone with only 200 jumps. You'll kill your self... No way you can jump that PARA-COMANDER!!!! Its to high performance for someone with only 200 jumps. You'll kill your self... No way you can jump that STRATO-STAR(spelling)... Its to high performance for someone with only 200 jumps. You'll kill your self... For those of you that don't know me there is a lot of sarcasm in my voice when I say those things... I think Bill is on the right track. I do think that there are some concerns about what happens to a DZO when his volunteer manifest person is under the gun, dealing with tandem masters, vidiots (like me), and keeping the plane in the air, all at the same time. Then a new jumper shows up.... Manifest forgets to look at the canopy size.... The new jumper burns in.... We now have a new area for the scum of the earth (lawyers that would take the case) to come after the DZ while the rest of the skydiving community says.... "Well they should have followed our new program." I know that we need something to cause people to get the proper training to not kill themselves. I just don't think that giving another opportunity for a DZ to get sued is the best answerer. As to the other programs out there, it seems that both Great Briton and Australia run about the same percentage of landing and low turn incidents as in the U.S. (did a quick read through of the skydive fatalities web site). Telling people that they can't jump the canopy they bought less than a year ago (allowing time as was suggested) is a great way to cause people to quit skydiving. I've watched a lot of people purchase a rig that they could not really afford, now we are going to tell them.... No.... In our infinite wisdom.... Even though you have been jumping that size main at THIS DZ for the last year, today its to small for you and you have to buy another one or you cant jump at any U.S.P.A. member DZ. The short easy answerer is not that they would still be alive.... With that kind of short sighted thinking we won't have anything to worry about.... There won't be a DZ to jump at. I am interested in causing people to gain the education required to stop killing themselves. I am also interested in keeping the sport of skydiving alive. It seems there has to be a happy medium in there somewhere... Unfortunately I'm not smart enough to see what that is yet. Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

This one's not a skydiving pic.... But its still kinda cool. Its a burn off we did at a friends house (no we didn't burn the house down). Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

Steve, You will find that this is one of those subjects that depends on who you talk to. 1.) no 2.) I use 250 for tandems on bright conditions and 180 for lower light conditions. 3.) I use the "TV" setting and set the shutter speed (this setting causes the camera to set the aperture for you). 4.) The right sight debate will probly go on forever. I personally use a sight. One of the other video guys at our DZ does not (and will tell you they are evil and you will go to hell for using one). I think that if you are just starting to shoot video its best to fly with the helmet with the camera on and a dot for a while, then go with a ring sight as you begin to shoot paid videos. In the beginning it will be better to have fewer new things on the helmet and progress later to a sight. 5.) I use gaffers tape. 6.) This is another one of those personal preference things.... I use Kodak gold 200 for normal light and Kodak gold 400 for low light. I also included a pic with the settings I use. Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

I sent mine back to Mirage to have the mod done. It came back with no visible differences (to a non rigger like me). Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

Dude.... Call Ken Krueger with Paratec. He hooked me up within a week. Did it crack at one of the tabs used to open it? Thats where mine was cracked at. We looked at how I was closing the visor.... Never could really come up with a good reason for the crack, but now I pay a lot more attention to how I close it (I now use 2 hands instead of pushing the visor down with 1). Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

$40.00 if you do the ground prep and $35.00 if the other jumpmaster does the ground prep, or $40.00 for single jumpmaster dives Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

In South Carolina in the summer (100 in the shade with 90% humidity) its the best way to end a hard day of work!! Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

I like them a lot. We ordered 80 tapes from them and they sent us 3 racks. It was great to have the real racks to put them in. I've been using a make shift rack for a while. Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

Thanks for the explanation. Now I understand what you mean. I didn't understand the points system they had before. I was lucky enough to not have any un-sat scores or dives when I went through (shows what a great teacher Jay is). I think its sad that you witnessed someone get a rating that could not roll over a student... That would make me say the same things about the course I went through VS the course you saw. It seems from what I have read (mostly on DZ.COM) that there is a large difference from one coarse to the next. How is it that we can have a ISP to follow for students and yet have such a great difference between courses... I think the easy answerer is that its the CD at fault... But then again, their not the ones responsible for quality control.... And if they are, that would be the starting point for discussion as to WHY uspa would allow it to be that way... To answerer the question in the original post, it was my 11th AFF jump before I went with a student on a cat. D. The dive went well.... He will be a good skydiver someday!! Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

Kind of... Thanks for at least having something to back up what you were saying... I'm still unclear about the number of sat/unsat's allowed before vs now. When I went through (about a month ago) we were told we had to perform the roll over and spin stop maneuvers to be able to get a rating. Its interesting that the CD would have his evals doing a predetermined dive plan. At the coarse I went through I'm sure there was a general idea of what Jay (or Kevin) would throw at us before we went up, but looking at the dives again last night (all pre-coarse and eval jumps had video) there is way to much variance in the jumps for me to think that he had a "set" diveplan he followed. We were told at the coarse (according to what I remember) that you had to have more "sat's" than "un-sat's" to pass the dive. If you didn't roll the student over or perform a spin stop it was an auto unsat and the dive had to be done over. How is that different from when you went through? Did they require a all sat dive to pass? If so.... That would be a large change from the way it is now. As to being able to fail more dives.... I'm still being stupid.... We had to pass 3 out of 4 (performing roll over and spin stops on each dive). What were the old numbers? Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

The people at tape resources are the shit!!! I got my order very fast and it was just what I was told. They also (depending on how many you buy) will sell you the tape racks very cheap! Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

I have heard the same thing (coarse has been made easy compared to before). The only thing I have yet to see, is anyone give comments discussing the specific changes. So far it has been general comments like "it was watered down" and so on. I recently went through the rating process and like one of the other posters I have no thoughts of grandeur. I have no delusions about someone with as few as 100 AFF jumps knowing considerably more than I would (regardless of their flying skills). I am interested in specifically what they changed in the "air skills" portion of the coarse that has produced such inferior instructors. If the only SPECIFIC change that anyone can come up with (regarding the entire coarse) is that they actually put you in an environment where you can learn (I also went through a Stokes coarse) as opposed to taking your money and then spending a week trying to get you to punch them in the forehead for being an asshole and saying stupid shit like "I've got my rating" while they are generally fucking with you instead of instructing you and making you better. Then I believe that its ego talking not actual knowledge of the coarse changes (flame away sports fans, but be sure you list all those changes you were talking about). From what I have seen in the 7 short years (no that is not sarcasm) I have been in the air, there are both old and new instructors that have no business in the air with a student. I have a little over 500 video jumps and have seen instructors do some pretty wild shit. There are also some really good instructors that both systems have produced (time will tell which one I am to be). Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

Cool! I'll try that this weekend! Thanks Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

Lew, I must be doing something wrong with the phillips we have at our dz (I bought the one Cajones recommended). I only use +R dvd's but it will not play on any of my DVD players at home unless I finalize the DVD. Can you explain a little more on what you are doing? Do you guys still use the phillips model DVD recorders? If so, are there setting in a menu somewhere that I can change? I tried the DVD's on like 5 or 6 players. It would be WAY cool if I could get it to work with no finalize time!! Thanks! Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

Ward, Thanks for taking the time to explain about the reserve bridle. It sounds like it will be one of those things that we will never be able to explain. I don't think it had a lot to do with Mirage or the rigger that packed the rig. I also think that if the jumper had started his emergency procedures higher and had checked over his shoulder after a couple of seconds it would not have been such an issue. We can "what if" it to death.... But the bottom line is stay current on more than just pulling your handles... Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

Hey Ward! How is the new job treating you? I was on the ground when it happened in front of the hanger. I had a really good "profile" view of him when it happened. I really don't understand the bridle not pulling it thing... How can a 1/2 in. bridle cause my main pin to be pulled and the main d-bag to come off my back (classic horseshoe mal) yet a bridle that looks like its 5 or 6 times that size not pull the reserve out. No I'm not trying to start a hugh debate. I really am just STUPID and am trying to understand how that works... Its important to be because, from what I saw happen.... If it had been me wearing my wing jacket we would not be having this conversation. My real feelings are that we will never know the who, what, when, where, and how.... But it really makes me wonder how a rig with such a strong reserve spring could launch like that. They say there is an exception for every rule... Sounds like my friend is lucky to be that exception. Thanks for the congrats on the aff thing. It was without a doubt the longest week of my life (but well worth it). Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

To add a little to the story.... I was also there and witnessed the reserve deployment. The pilot chute didn't come off his back until the reserve bridle had lifted the freebag far enough for the lines and bridle to be completely extended. He was flat and stable at pull time (reserve and main). I was told that it is not possible for the reserve bridle to deploy the reserve that way (no that doesn't make sense to me either). When he fired the reserve it looked like the pilot chute lifted off his back about 6 inches and then fell back to his butt. My question was that if it wasn't "hooked" on something why didn't it lift before the freebag did. I'm sure this is a simple thing to understand.... But I'm far from anything even remotely resembling a rigger. Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

I have almost 400 jumps on my FreeZR and have yet to have any major problems with it. The workmanship is second to none. I had a Z1 prior (around 500 jumps) to my FreeZR and have found there is very little to compare between the two. The service from the factory people is very very good. When I call the rep he has yet to take very long to get back with me (and thats a big deal to me). Over all the helmet has held up well for the first 400 jumps. I will be replacing the pads soon (fat head = helmet is getting a little loose after all this time). It has yet to have any fogging issues (sounds silly unless you jump in SC in the winter). I would recomend this helmet to anyone (be sure to look at different pad sizes and mix and match a little before you let some sales person tell you its only for people with fat heads like me)

Just under 600 in the last 12 months. Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

I think it would definitely depend on the circumstances. At our Dropzone we had a reality TV show come and make tandems with us. The program aired both locally and nationally, and the DZ received a lot of plugs throughout the show. They repeatedly said both the DZ name and town that the DZ is in all throughout the 2 show series. The DZO came to the video concession and asked if we would shoot the freefall footage portion of the show (which we did). The DZO then made sure that all the vidiots involved were taken care of very well (no that doesn't mean more video work, we have plenty of that as it is). In that situation where its a great benefit to the DZ (and to the video concession) we were glad to give them a copy of the video (payment to the concession was $1.00). Since that time we have seen an increase in tandems as well as videos in general. I think it was worth it to both the DZ and the video concession (which I run) to have the footage run in the local market. That being said... If there wasn't going to be a plug for a specific DZ in that DZ's local market I doubt I would even consider doing it for free. Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!

I bought a Phillips DVD-R615 about 7 months ago for our video concession. The finalize time is good (for price range), It will do +R and -R DVDS. So for it has been great to use. It has firewire, "S", and RCA connections. I think they sell for around $250.00. I bought mine from B&H supply for $220.00 plus shipping. The only complaint I have is that to title a DVD you have to use the remote (takes to long and is a pain in the ass). Other than that its been great for us. Pendejo He who swoops the ditch and does not get out buys the BEER!!