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Thanks for the comments and questions! I was hoping that I had covered that in the original post. One needs to know if it is OK to do a sliding landing with little risk. A PLF is usually better. No, and it is definitely not covered in a Pro rating. I was told a while back by USPA HQ that most Pro ratings are now being earned using small canopies anyway. The competition called "Sport Accuracy" that was created a while back actually encouraged people to learn accuracy (similar to what you would need to use at an exhibition jump) using your normal canopy. Some of the people in the competition could get really close to the target, and stand up too. That would definitely be the preferred thing. I was just suggesting a technique to think about using if things got bad enough. I was just wanting to talk about a "back pocket" technique. Kind of like, "Now where did I store that fire extinguisher? And I wonder if it is still charged enough to work".

I understand how you feel about that. I realized about a day after I started the thread that people might focus on the "comments on demo jumper hits spectators" thinking that we moved that discussion from the Incidents forum. What I would have liked to see was people discussing the possibility of teaching people how to "stop short". We got some of that. Anyone want to keep going? (By the way, no one responded to my example. How would you keep from hitting the child?)

Yes, one of the reasons, but Pro ratings are not required for all exhibition jumps, and having Pro rating does not guarantee good judgement.

I don't know the numbers but I would guess that is true with people putting 2 or 3 tandems on a Caravan or Otter too, and justifying to themselves. It sounds crazy but I have seen it done more than once. Makes you wonder doesn't it?

That's the reason I started the thread, to introduce the idea to others that may not have thought of it. I can't remember when I first learned this technique. It was not taught to me. Maybe I saw someone slide in long ago and it lodged in the back of my mind. Maybe it was when I was sliding in a tandem landing. This is not an easy thing to teach because it is difficult to convince anyone to practice, like a PLF on their new gear. It must simply be mentioned and hope it is remembered if needed. I must admit that I think through many situations, both in skydiving and in other things, where I plan what I would do in an emergency. Here is an example, a practice exercise for everyone: You are driving down a neighborhood street lined with cars, a child steps out between cars, and your brakes have failed. What do you do (that you have never before practiced)?

Quite honestly, I don't understand why anyone would even consider accepting one premature brake release, much less both of them. Please, get this fixed. And make sure that there is a good way to stow the excess brake lines. Start by contacting Rigging Innovations. Any premature brake release has the potential to cause a serious problem, even a fatal one if your problems compound.

Although he is too young to skydive in the US, there are other forms of aviation available to him. Check with your local small airport for introductory airplane flights, or depending where you are, introductory glider flights may be available. The instructors will let him do some of the flying and he will learn a lot. There are careers in that flying stuff too...

Agreed, he would have needed to sit down and create drag as soon as he had any idea that things were not going well. And that is about the time he started doing things with his toggles that did not help. It is just one more technique that I think people could possibly use sometimes if they at least included it their bag of tricks, and if they admitted to themselves that they needed to use it.

The referenced thread included a video of a jumper landing at a demo, and overshooting enough to get way too close to the spectators. I have seen people getting way to close to obstacles too, when they have misjudged how far their canopy will fly. Please allow me to suggest a solution. It is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and it requires some knowledge, and perhaps even some practice, but it can work very well. If you have flared and your canopy is "planing out", it might fly a long way before slowing down to the point where you are ready to put your feet down. However, any part of your body that is touching the ground will add a lot of drag and slow you down quickly. You may need only to let up on your toggles a small amount and allow your canopy to sink closer to the ground where you can slide in the landing. Granted, the normal caveats apply. You must evaluate (or have knowledge of) the landing area, and protect your tailbone. You might need to forgo this method if the landing area is rough. There are risks to anything out of the ordinary. It will also require considerable concentration, and confidence that this technique will work, all the while getting closer to your obstacle or spectators. One must also be willing to accept the wear on their legstraps, and getting their gear dirty too. However, I think this is a small price to pay for not flying so close to spectators (or an obstacle). Think about it. Would you rather get your gear dirty, or hit that chain-link fence? (By the way, a PLF will add enough drag to slow you down too.)

Congratulations on your progress! Show us your landings in future videos. We are interested in how those are turning out.

I keep updated with the latest Firefox and use Adblock Plus. It has been so long since I experienced any kind of problem that I would consider a "bug", that I don't remember one.

Folks, what I think Marius is asking with the poll is if you would prefer using skyclear.ro or other weather web sites. Marius, I have bookmarked 30-40 links to my favorite local weather information, so I do not need skyclear.ro It looks very nice though.

As crazy as the idea might seem, try "running the numbers" with one tandem pair in a "stock" C182. The simplicity of it all might work for you despite the lower volume. Everything else is going to involve a much more expensive airplane. It depends on what your profit margin and maintenance expectations might be.

But isn't that a neat and simple tent? Only 2 poles, and really easy to set up. Of course I'm 6'-2" so I guess everyone can figure out the math - there wasn't much room. I have the next bigger sized tent now, but I'm disappointed. They lose their simplicity when they get bigger. I still have the 5x6 though...

"Telling people to just eyeball it...." You guys are trying to make it a black/white issue! From what I have read, no one is telling anyone to abandon their flight plan. One needs to develop secondary ways of making decisions in the flight pattern, because flight plans can change due to changing conditions. Andy was noticing that Vanessa is still having difficulties with canopy control, and she has 120 jumps. At this point maybe incorporating bits of another method will help. You'll need to ask Andy what he meant.

I'm always up for learning a new method. What have you got? The things Andy is suggesting to Vanessa. They are not new though.

Perhaps I did not make myself clear. I do not think that the references should be abandoned, but instead, augmented by letting the non-verbal brain give you some clues. If the clues work well enough, then you can begin to reduce your dependency of references. We of course need to teach references/altitudes to skydiving students with very few jumps, and see how they learn from that, then suggest other methods.

Because it is difficult to teach. Specifying altitudes and positions in the pattern is much easier. Formalized instruction (classes) more or less requires specifics. So much of skydiving is a "non-verbal" brain activity, but most people (understandably) teach to the "verbal" brain. By telling Vanessa to "eyeball it", Andy was in a way suggesting that she focus less on the verbal part of the brain and more on the non-verbal.

i have to disagree, thats the funny thing about skydiving, you can get hurt on either side Do you have an example? I honestly can't think of when having a more conservative (canopy) can be a bad thing, unless you jump in high winds and are more likely to be drug or have a bad spot, or if the canopy is so large that you don't have the strength or flare stroke length to flair it properly, or something like that. Or perhaps if you jump at a DZ with multiple aircraft and you stay in the air long enough to interfere with the next load.

Aside from not agreeing with their perspective, on what grounds do they qualify for that designation? Using one of the definitions of terrorism I found, "systematic use of intimidation to achieve some goal", I would think that describes them. A search for "peta terrorism" reveals a few opinions, but you are correct, they are only opinions. We are in the middle of deer season here is in Missouri (and probably a number of states), and I am reading Facebook posts from numerous people talking about hunting. They are so excited. I have never hunted personally, but I'm happy to sample some of that venison sausage that friends bring to the DZs sometimes. When my late father used to deer hunt, I got a lot of venison. Cool. To me, People Eating Tasty Animals is pretty "natural". But that is just my opinion.

Just trying to find something positive in their ridiculous campaigns. Nudity usually works for guys around here!

Guys, if you can get past the ones of Dennis Rodman and Ron Jeremy, you'll be OK. http://features.peta.org/StateOfTheUnion2010/naked-slideshow.asp If it is Monday and you are at work, well... Probably NSFW.

I would agree, but sometimes they create some ads that I know you guys over here will appreciate: http://www.mediapeta.com/peta/Images/Main/Sections/MediaCenter/PrintAds/evaMendesNakedFur.jpg If you search you can find a few others.

QuoteHold short lines - Use them! http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/05/14942417-duck-home-video-shows-plane-hitting-top-of-suv?lite That is a bad piece of luck for both parties for sure. You don't usually think of "see and avoid" with one vehicle on the ground and one in the air. There are "displaced threshold" markings on both ends of the runway due to roads being close, and those are supposed to tell the pilots to not to land close to the end of the runway, which should ideally keep that kind of thing from happening. I'm thinking that some "yield to landing aircraft" signs for the roads would be a good idea.

Search for "lead acid battery self discharge" and you will find some numbers. There are a lot of variables. Can't argue with your success with your boat batteries though. Isolating them when not in use can't hurt.