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fcajump

Follow "first down" or landing direction indicator?

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Where I jump there are some issues with people landing in different directions. The swoopers sometimes intentionally land downwind so you cant count on them setting the 'first man down sets the pattern' rule as they often intentionally fly downwind. Thus, in general I think most people try to land in the same direction as the first person, but that does not always happen when the winds are light and variable. When the winds are more steady or calm, then everyone follows the same pattern. But once they start shifting direction, people start landing in different directions. Landing out is not really an easy option. We have some outs, but they are limited and small. Some of them are private property and are reserved for legitimate emergencies only. It's nice to be able to jump at an easy DZ where you can 'for fucks sake not have to land at the landing area all the time,' but at some more challenging DZs it's not that simple.

I am not sure what the answer is. Having a large orange arrow on the ground sure would be nice.

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This is by the rules of the DZ only. If jumpmaster said "land by arrow", then you land by arrow, nothing else.

Other ways - If landing area equipped with arrow, tethraedron etc (on DZ)
then you go for arrow. Even downwind. Landing downwind is not that killing thing as a cross courses landing.

If it is demonstration performance outside specially equipped areas, then you go "first down".

And if you are first, you should remember, that you are responsible for the rest, who will follow you.

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Where I jump there are some issues with people landing in different directions. The swoopers sometimes intentionally land downwind so you cant count on them setting the 'first man down sets the pattern' rule as they often intentionally fly downwind. Thus, in general I think most people try to land in the same direction as the first person, but that does not always happen when the winds are light and variable. When the winds are more steady or calm, then everyone follows the same pattern. But once they start shifting direction, people start landing in different directions. Landing out is not really an easy option. We have some outs, but they are limited and small. Some of them are private property and are reserved for legitimate emergencies only. It's nice to be able to jump at an easy DZ where you can 'for fucks sake not have to land at the landing area all the time,' but at some more challenging DZs it's not that simple.

I am not sure what the answer is. Having a large orange arrow on the ground sure would be nice. ***

The answer is that your S&TA and DZO need to figure their shit out before someone gets killed. You have the option of jumping somewhere else.
"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

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I hate the follow the first man down rule.

You have to take your head off its swivel and watch the first guy land instead of keeping an eye out for all the other canopies. Great idea.

There you are, ready to fly a nice, predictable, left hand pattern onto final and the first guy down lands in the opposite direction to what everyone had been doing all day so far.

Great. Now I'm hundreds of yards from where I need to be. So is everyone else in the stack behind me.

Now we all need to fly over to the other side of the landing area.

And now everyone has to switch from a left hand circuit to a right hand circuit so they don't overfly the runway below 1,000ft.



I prefer the follow the tetrahedron/arrow rule. Best one I've ever seen was at Kalomna in Russia. Great big orange inflatable arrow, like a bouncy castle, about 15ft long. You could see it from jump run. Tethered at the front so high winds moved it automatically but heavy enough that light and variable winds didn't.

Everyone knows from before they even get out of the plane what the landing direction is going to be simply by checking the spot before climbing out. Everyone knows what their pattern is going to be. Everyone knows what everyone else's pattern is going to be. Everyone knows where they need to be in the sky to start their pattern. Everyone knows where everyone else will be trying to go in the sky to enter their patterns. No one needs to stop looking out for traffic and focus for a moment on what the guy 2,000ft below them is about to do.

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mr2mk1g

I prefer the follow the tetrahedron/arrow rule. Best one I've ever seen was at Kalomna in Russia. Great big orange inflatable arrow, like a bouncy castle, about 15ft long. You could see it from jump run. Tethered at the front so high winds moved it automatically but heavy enough that light and variable winds didn't.




Sounds about like the one at Zhills. I can't see it from jump run, but definietly can see it from a good ways up.

Zhills.jpg

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