open air tunnels -- falling out?

[Bodyflight.Net 0]

wow.

I'm sorry it was interpreted that way.. the Skyventure crews are all very nice to us.. I cerainly don't have a bias against them and we recommend them to buyers & students whenever it's a suitable match. I'm not motivated by finances in this manner at all.

[diablopilot 2]

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When you fly whuffos nearly all the time at a tunnel, much more attention to detail is required.

With this statement you insinuate two things.

1) That SkyVenture does not handle wuffos. In fat both the currently operational SkyVenture locations in the US fly a large percentage of wuffos.

2)That SkyVenture does not pay attention to detail or handle wuffos well. That is very far from the truth. I can personaly attest to the training required to work for a SkyVenture facility, and the ongoing training and refinement.

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[bob.dino 0]

Disclaimer: I've never been in a tunnel, and I've never met yourself or bodypilot.net.

With that out of the way, I personally didn't see bp.net's post as an attack on Orlando's approach to training. While his phrasing may have been a little clumsy, the meaning I took was:

"These listed tunnels are 99.9% whuffo and so necessarily have a different approach to Orlando, whose primary customer base is skydivers and wannabe skydivers."

[diablopilot 2]

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whose primary customer base is skydivers and wannabe skydivers."

Acutally, it's not. They do far more Wuffo business due to local.

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[Bodyflight.Net 0]

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Acutally, it's not. They do far more Wuffo business due to local.

So your saying that Skyventure Perris flys more whuffos than skydivers?

[diablopilot 2]

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So your saying that Skyventure Perris flys more whuffos than skydivers?

I did not. I was speaking of Orlando.

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[PhreeZone 15]

Orlando during the day barely does any jumper flying I've been told many times. I was there for the better part of 3 hours last year in one day just hanging out and only watched one other jumper get in the air. A lot of whuffos came and flew, but only one jumper trying to learn to sitfly was around, everyone else was off at a DZ. Block time just pays the bills... Whuffo flights are the money maker.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[Avion 0]

I guess between 1/3 to 1/2 are wuffos in Orlando. I ask next time I'm there.

[Avion 0]

Let me rephrase that. I mean 1/3 to 1/2 of the tunnel time goes to wuffos. The rest to skydivers and instructor training. There are many more wuffos than skydivers, prehaps 3-4 to one or more, but they usually only fly for 2 minutes at a time 6 to 8 wuffos in one 1/2 hour class. 3 or 4 skydivers will get together and buy an hour or two at a time.

[Avion 0]

I asked one of the managers last night and he said that its usually about 50/50 and varies from time to time.

[billvon 2,397]

> I'd have to disagree with you strongly on that

It is literally true that you can turn up the air with no consideration to the skill level of the students. You just twist a knob (or move a lever in the case of the Perris tunnel.) There is no 'safety system' that prevents you from doing that.

Now, most tunnels don't do that; they are much more responsible than that. At Perris, there is always an instructor in the tunnel with any new student, and they don't give them more air than they can handle. Once you've proven yourself (over the course of a few tunnel sessions) they will start to listen to you when you ask for more or less air.