Radio equipment for blind jumpers

[JuliaLot 0]

I know that blind people can skydive and use radio guide when landing.
The question is: what radios do they use (model), how thay ensure that the radio does not fail?
What whould they do if the radio fails in the air?

Maybe some other gear, not only radio is used?

Can anyone share experience or contacts?
All the articles on the Net are great and inspiring, but no practical advise or contacts, unfortunately...

[BillyVance 34]

Dan Rossi wrote up some awesome stories about his jumps as a blind skydiver several years ago. I'm having a hard time finding some of them though.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[JuliaLot 0]

I googled for information about Dan Rossi - hard to find exact technical advises, you're right.

The reason I ask: I'm a paraglider pilot and last week two blind guys made tandem flights in our club. Now they think of doing solo flights, and this made me really concerned about the radio guiding.

We use radio for all the students but sometimes radio fails, there're several reasons that can cause the fail. Thus, blind skydivers safety experience can be very useful for us.

I'm pretty sure our guys will succeed. I'll support them as much as I can.

[jackwallace 3]

Redundancy. 2,3,4 radios. Work out a system, where if the pilot doesn't hear a command after "x" seconds they turn on a different radio. Same thing with the radio person. Do you fly near them or ground control. If you fly with them, how about a plain old bull horn.
Long ago and far away before radios we used a couple bull horns with different sounds. High pitch for left, low for right. Tearing around on a motorcycle with a couple of bull horns, trying to stay as close as possible to the jumper. What a bunch of idiots we were.

U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
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[BillyVance 34]

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Long ago and far away before radios we used a couple bull horns with different sounds. High pitch for left, low for right. Tearing around on a motorcycle with a couple of bull horns, trying to stay as close as possible to the jumper. What a bunch of idiots we were.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[JuliaLot 0]

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Redundancy. 2,3,4 radios.

That we'll definitely do and test on the ground first.

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Do you fly near them or ground control.

First, of course, we'll ground control. There will be a long way of training to go till we're able to fly together, close to each other.

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Long ago and far away before radios we used a couple bull horns with different sounds. High pitch for left, low for right.

Sorry, did I get it right that you used this system for visually impaired jumpers?
How did you managed "pull both breaks" for landing or "let both breaks up" commands with horns?
In paragliding many students tend to pull breaks too much and this can cause a wing stall, so very often we have an instructor yelling "hands up!!!"

[jackwallace 3]

Quote

Quote

Redundancy. 2,3,4 radios.

That we'll definitely do and test on the ground first.

Quote

Do you fly near them or ground control.

First, of course, we'll ground control. There will be a long way of training to go till we're able to fly together, close to each other.

Quote

Long ago and far away before radios we used a couple bull horns with different sounds. High pitch for left, low for right.

Sorry, did I get it right that you used this system for visually impaired jumpers?
How did you managed "pull both breaks" for landing or "let both breaks up" commands with horns?
In paragliding many students tend to pull breaks too much and this can cause a wing stall, so very often we have an instructor yelling "hands up!!!"

d


Like I said, Long ago. Round canopies. No brakes, no flare, of course no forward speed either. And yes visually impaired jumpers with the bull horns.
Now days with the quality of radios available at low prices, you don't need the bull horns.
If you google. THere is a guy that sails a boat and rides a bike with the aid of a laptop in a back pack and helmet mounted cameras. People on the net watch from whereever and tell him what to do. Amazing how people can co-operate when they really want to.
Of the three visually impaired people I worked with, they all had different degrees of sight. The one that had the most visual accuaty (she could she shadows, and quite a bit of light and dark) had the hardest time with landing. Near the gound she could see the shadows moving and it freaked her a little.
So make sure you understand how much your people can precieve.

U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316