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NSEMN8R

How many can you do in a row?

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The Saturday before last I did 14 from a 182. Started at 8AM and went until dark with absolutely no breaks in between. The worst part about a day like that is having to stay up all night editing handcam videos. The nice part is I made almost $1000 in 1 day.



Commercial airline pilots wouldn't be allowed to do this for obvious reasons of safety. Same goes for long disctance commercial tractor-trailer drivers. Why should this logic not apply to tandem instructors? This is a good example of how we need to regulate ourselves before "someone" steps in to regulate us. I'm not a TI, but it seems logical to me that if a TI jumps a passenger while exhausted, the safety level is less than optimal.




This came from the "Intsructional Movie" thread and it got me wondering...

What's the most tandems you guys have done in a day? How many do you think you could safely do? How much difference does aircraft make? Should there be rules like pilots and truckers have?

14 is my personal record, but we're a cessna DZ and the only reason we stopped is because we ran out of light. I'm sure I could do a lot more with no problems if we could climb faster. I was tired at the end of it, but I don't think I was ever so exhausted that I was dangerous.

Personally, I think it would be impossible to regulate fairly since everyone has different limits. But, I guess they don't always think about fairness when they make rules...

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12 from the 182 with out me packing, about five hours of jumping.

8 from the 182 with me packing, about six to seven hours of me jumping/packing.

14 from the tail gate A/C with out me packing, about six hours of me jumping.

Packing is what wears me out during the summer. When I do not have to pack it is because we have more than 1 rig and a packer is working his or her butt off. The jumps themselves always increase my focus and if I don't feel the focus leval on high I stop for the day.

Matt
An Instructors first concern is student safety.
So, start being safe, first!!!

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Without beeing a TI I would like to add some thoughts from my experience as AFF-I:
It depends on the jump. Of course you have to be focuses on every jump, but if something works not as it should, thís takes much more energy.
Packing, especially tandems is ver exhausting.
The weather also plays a role. Very hot and sticky days make jumping much more exhausting (thats a lot because in altitude it's much colder and other climate). Returning back to the ground is sometimes really uncomfortly.
And I guess, that for tandems the weight of the passenger is also important. If all passengers are at the upper weight limit you might not get closed to your personal records.

I personally never do more than 6 AFF-jumps on a day. Its too challenging and to much responsibility to take risks of beeing tired and not 100% focused.

On my DZ the record is 10 tandems a day, all packing themselves.

I'm not sure about regulating it. I would hope, that reasonable jumpers set personal limits. A problem might be, that the DZ expectes you to do another jump, although you do not really feel like it. Financially pressure takes the rest.
And maybe you feel OK on the ground, but if you get into a really difficult situation (sidespin, malfunction...) its too late to find out, that this jump was one too much for this day...

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I was an AFFI long before I earned my TI, so I really prefer doing AFF. Yeah, you won't get as many jumps, but to me it's more about instructing and educating.

The most jumps I've done in a day are 13: 6 AFF and 7 tandems. B|

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I did ten one day in 100 degree heat out of a C-182 with me packing them all.....outside. Two of the ten were over six foot six and both of those two were over 260 pounds. That about killed me and I didn't make a dime doing it as I was jumping at my Dad's DZ and became the default slave that day. That is as many as it was possible for me to do that day as the moon was brighter than the sun when I finished.

I just did eight in 100 degree heat out of a C-182 (with me packing them all) this past Saturday at St. George. It was very, very hard on me but the payday was worth it. I actually even woke up at 0530 in the morning and drove two and a half hours to get there by 0900 start time. I can't believe how much I sweat nowadays!:S I walked around completely soaked all day, but had a blast taking those folks up on their tandems. I was on the first load of the day at around 0940 (waiting on the pilot) and the last load of the day, so it was not possible that I could have made more jumps.

I have made 15 work jumps in a day (AFF/tandem/video mix) ,but that was using packers and jumping turbines.

Chuck

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I did 24 tandems in one day out of a 182. It sucked. It was in Arizona so you can imagine the heat. To make things worse I had broken my ankle about 3 weeks earlier, but since i worked in the industry and i had to eat, there was no chioce in whether i done it or not. This is something everyone should think about before taking up a career in skydiving.

And to make matters worse the DZO was a complete asshole, as his contribution to the day was to shout and swear at us to make us go faster. That day we also never climbed to above 9000'

[:/]
"Don't ever knock on deaths door, just ring the bell and run away - it really pisses him off"

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19 in in 9 hours out of a 182 and 206 back to back all the way. Ate lunch on the go. Even had a total container lock (neither drouge release would work) on the 18th jump (reserve ride), got down, switched rigs and went up again. Yeah I was tired once we had stopped, but whilst we were going it was fine. I guess we were just running on adreniline. If I remember correctly we had 6 or 7 TI's on duty, another TI (Egon Sussmann of RWS) tied with me and the record for the day was 21. We had enough light for at least 3 more loads but ran out of passengers.

A day I'll never forget.

By the way, after we were done I checked out the rig from jump 18. Both drouge releases pulled easily. We suspect that during drouge fall the strop at the BOC was twisted 180 degrees and forced up against the main creating too much friction.

Blue Skies,
Paul.

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I've done 14 in a day, had plenty of time to do more and plenty of energy to do more. Just ran out of students for me.

I don't pack tandems unless I absolutely have to, I quit being a paid packer for a reason...:D
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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The Crazy Good Ol days buddy... and then I am sure we equalled the day off with the same amount of Beer:P

When am I going to see your ass again? Come visit me in Deland!!!

Cheers
Egon

P.S. Cessna dz's still have my record on tandems in one day over turbine dz's!

"Start doing what's necessary, then what's possible, and suddenly you're doing the impossible!"

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I did 24 tandems in one day out of a 182. It sucked. It was in Arizona so you can imagine the heat. To make things worse I had broken my ankle about 3 weeks earlier, but since i worked in the industry and i had to eat, there was no chioce in whether i done it or not. This is something everyone should think about before taking up a career in skydiving.

And to make matters worse the DZO was a complete asshole, as his contribution to the day was to shout and swear at us to make us go faster. That day we also never climbed to above 9000'

[:/]

As a T/I in arizona.. I can probably guess which dz that was... Ryhme with poolidge? lol
Growing old is mandatory, Growing up is optional

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I did 10 in less than 5-HRS one winter at Z-Hills.

That was with me dropping the rig in the landing area and running to a spinning prop plane and student already in the harness.

The students were supposed to be there at 7:30 A.M. but went to Ybor the night before and did not get to the Dz until almost 12.

It was after Daylight savings time so therefore we did what we could. There were 50 students in that group and we did 43 of them all together. We had an otter to ourselves. Only had tandems and video on it. There were also some other students that day. I am not sure how many Instructional jumps were done that day alltogether. It was insane though.

I know what you mean there Chuck about sweating. I have noticed in recent years that I sweat way more than I used to. Do you think it is the alcohol or the age? :D:ph34r:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




.
The REAL KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!

"HESITATION CAUSES DEATH!!!"
"Be Slow to Fall into Friendship; but when Thou Art in, Continue Firm & Constant." - SOCRATES

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24 in a C182



Is that even possible? We've got some pretty nice 182s with wing extentions and dive brakes and all that, but there's no way we could do that many. 14 of them took me the whole day.





Get out lower.....



Be safe.
Ed
www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

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I'm not the only one who done that many. Another TI done the same that day, and it is not that unusual for that DZ. The record for tandems in one day at that DZ by one TI is 32 - all from a C182!
"Don't ever knock on deaths door, just ring the bell and run away - it really pisses him off"

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I'm not the only one who done that many. Another TI done the same that day, and it is not that unusual for that DZ. The record for tandems in one day at that DZ by one TI is 32 - all from a C182!



In case you have 12 hours for 32jumps
That means every 22 minutes a jump without break.
You need about 6 minutes to jump, land, take a rig and board again.
That means 16 minutes for take-off and flight
Well thats nice jumping tandems from 6000ft all day!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Using your droque to gain stability is a bad habit,
Especially when you are jumping a sport rig

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