skydived19006 4 #1 June 17, 2004 This is the results form a question circulated through email by Skydive Las Vegas regarding DZ wind limits for tandems. I think that this is actually a good cross section, and responces are form DZOs and DZMs. I found it interesting! We limit our winds to 16-18 knots, utilizing catchers on the ground for safety. We have jumped in winds up to 22 knots but figured it not worth the risk to passengers. Our wind limit is 24 knots in clean smooth air. 20 mph Around 22MPH. Check out the attached listing. I hope this helps. We go to 18mph. Depending on the Tandem Master's personal preference, it is between 24 and 28 mph. For most of my Tandem Masters 28 mph is the upper limit. We have a lot of windy days here, like I'm sure you do, so we are used to it. Our wind limit is around 20 mph if it is not gusty. Our Tandem wind limit is twenty miles per hour. I would like to get the results back from your survey if I could. 15 Knots The question requires a few qualifications to answer correctly. 1. What are your landing area considerations? a. Are there trees or other obstacles that create turbulence? b. Is the area smooth grass or rocky desert? c. Is your landing area elevation above 5000' MSL? d. etc. etc. etc. 2. Are you jumping a new 'state of the art' canopy or a 20 year old Strong/Vector 500+ sq ft unit? 3. What are the qualifications of your tandem instructor. 535 jumps, 15 of which are tandems or Joe Cool who has 10,000+ jumps and makes 1000+ tandem jumps per year? 4. Is your passenger an 86 year old grandmother or a 22 year old gymnast? In short, I don't think you can set an absolute limit. Every responsible operator sets the limits he/she feels is necessary to insure the maximum safety of the customer based on a number of factors, some of which I have detailed above. 24 MPH depending on the direction. If the winds are smooth and not out of the north we will go up to 24 MPH. If the winds are gusty or out of the north we hold at 15 or so. Our Tandem Wind limit is no more than 25 miles per hour. 20-22 mph as long as the winds are steady 25 Whatever the tandem masters want – generally stop at about 20MPH, but many at 15 or so, depends on too many factors Anything over 18 mph we require catchers for the pair, we will go to 26 mph if the wind is fairly constant (not gusty) In gust conditions we cut it off at 22. Hope this helps. 25mph tops of the gusts. I as DZO do over half the tandems at my DZ with my partner doing the rest. We do around 250 tandems a year. Jump icarus tandem canopies, they're rock solid in wind. Our tandem wind limit is 7 m/s. depends on the gust spread 25 mph Michael I will go to 20 mph if it is a constant steady wind. When is gusty with large variations between steady and gust like 10 mph difference I will not go , those are far worse than steady higher winds. I am kind of a one man show so I play it a lot safer than some DZs. 15 mph is where I cut it off at. I'm a tandem instructor and only weigh 160 and even with a heavy student I still don't like the idea of landing off and not having someone to "shag" the canopy. I know some areas have uspa wind speed waivers for student activities, but those guys jump in those winds regularly and know their area well enough to operate safely in them. I also do not jump in gust of 8 or more from the low to high range. Example: 7 gusting to 15. We stop at canopy forward penetration it varies a little with instructor and student size. But it averages about 25 knots straight line wind. A little less if it is very gusty. Absolute - 22 Knots - 25.3 mph. AWOS on airport. It depends on direction, direction changes, gustyness and desire to not rescedule but around 20 plus a few if it's smooth None. It is up to the instructors. At our location we leave the wind limit up to the Tandem Master. We normally do not have to deal with winds such as is normal in Las Vagas. We have used 25mph for the last seven years, by then most tandems have zero ground-speed on final. 25 knots Maximum including gusts, 15kts. Discussed between Tandem Masters - Drop Zone Owner/Operator - Pilot - S&TA... When all is said and done... We pretty much look at things the same way... "Safety ":FIRST" the "Dollar" second... 23 knots We don't really have a wind limit - the winds need to be steady and not gusting - that is what we look at more than wind limit. We don't have one - it's up to the discretion of the jumpmasters. Also, because of our DZ's configuration, it would be silly to have a wind *limit* since we can jump in higher winds from the North or South than we can winds from the East or West. One more factor is that turbulence changes things. We can jump in winds that are strong but not turbulent, more than winds that are a little less strong but more turbulent. The idea of an absolute limit would not work well in all situations. With a good shagger 25mph without bad gusts 25 MPH. The strongest I let any of my staff jump in is 20-22. I will go higher up to 30 if necessary. 25-27 if the winds are steady. If gusty then not usually above 20. I'll let them take off with less than 20 mph. I give advisories up to 25. I call the load down at 25. I don't like to send a load and not have them jump, which is why they don't take off with more than 20. We do not have a wind limit.It is up to the Tandem master. being at 5000ft. 30mph wind only helps us come down nicely.(it blows 30 mph almost every afternoonExperience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
