Re: [BMFin] Why is tandem customer called a student?
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Well if you think Bill & Ted invented TDM's to make a carnival ride, your wrong...
The way I read the text on Strongs website is that tandems were invented so that people could take "their wifes or children" with them on a skydive. It doesnt give me the impression that tandems were inveted to train anyone towards a solo dive.
Actually the fact that they use quotation marks around the word "student" on the text, leads me to believe it is used to indicate a different meaning of the word than the one typically associated with it and is used to express irony.
According to this text the reason for inventing tandems came from the aspiration "to be able to share the thrill of freefall skydiving with someone else." Nowhere in this text it says "to train student skydivers"
It doesn't say that NOW in 2012 on a website designed to market an expensive parachute system.
Think big picture before you get all critical with your myopic view of how & what 'things' are.
Let me take you back to the early time, the mid 80's~
I got my rating when the drogues were 1st coming out...the guys jumping without them weren't taking mom on a thrill ride....trust me.
It most definitely WAS initially meant as a teaching tool. You were trained as such when you received your rating back then.
You were taught what to teach and how to present it both on the ground & in the air.
There was a training curriculum you followed regarding stability, turns & tracking...and of course canopy control.
You explained and demonstrated how to turn, and when in the pattern. The goal was to move a 'student' to solo but by utilizing a method of 'dual' flight instruction, as in flying light aircraft.
We were told in the 1st two minutes of the TM course that if you were just there to get the rating so you could take friends on a thrill ride filled with spins & stalls...you were wasting your money and their time... "there is a reason the toggles have a place for 4 hands"
Well..it's the U$A and good intentions often take a backseat to the spreadsheet.
It started generating interest with people that wanted to bucket list it.
DZ's saw the profitable advantages of amusement park 'turn-style' Tandem rides...get 'em in, get 'em up & get 'em gone.
The rest is history.
At least with the change came turbines!
The reason for the 'student' designation is because the Tandem system was initially designated as 'Experimental' and as with aircraft, you're not supposed to take paying passengers for 'ride$', ~but you can 'instruct' them how to fly it.
(This post was edited by airtwardo on Feb 6, 2012, 9:11 PM)
Edit Log:
Post edited by airtwardo
() on Feb 6, 2012, 9:06 PM
Post edited by airtwardo
() on Feb 6, 2012, 9:11 PM
