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[fanya 3]

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Along with what Tom Noonan said, apparently you do not have a tandem rating, nor have you had to deal with a real serious malfunction with 200lbs strapped on the front of you.

There is a lot of responsibility to any tandem jump and there is far more shit to go wrong than on any other 'normal' skydive out there. And we are expected to perform near flawlessly every jump because that is what the customer expects.

So the pressure is, in fact, 'on'.

I'd like to see you deal with the 150+MPH high-speed bag-lock on a Vector with a collapsed drogue that did not cutaway one side, but dumped the RSL and reserve into the trailing main resulting in the main-reserve entanglement and line knot the size of a football which then turned into the main starting to deploy with the already spinning reserve with a customer on the front who DOES actually know that something is wrong, and then flying that reserve with one brake at 75% and pulling off a stand-up landing in the peas under a malfunctioned reserve with half a main trailing behind it.

Because that is what I did - and for maybe just a short moment in my life, I was in fact 'glorified'.

I commend your performance and being able to get you and your passenger down safely after that shit fest but isn't it SOP to disconnect the rsl before cutting away from a bag lock?

[tkhayes 125]

Sure, I'll disconnect an RSL when I just accelerated from 120 to probably 160 with the collapsed drogue.

I did everything right and within a reasonable time and I was under a reserve at 2700' after pulling the main at 5000'. I lost 2300' doing the procedures in a normal fashion. Not sure how much extra time you think I might have had.

[jimjumper 25]

Let's see. From 5500 feet, recognize bag lock, disconnect RSL, pull cutaway handle and clear cables, manually clear the risers, fall away clear, pull reserve and clear cables. What could possibly go wrong?

[fanya 3]

I'm not saying you did anything wrong, it was a question

But I've seen video on a sigma with a baglock where the collapsed drogue wouldn't clear the magnetic risers...

[tkhayes 125]

Plus the dive was in 1992 maybe- different gear, procedures and generally lower pull altitudes

[wolfriverjoe 1,340]

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"200 lbs of stupid"

Not replying to you directly, more of a general statement.

I've never understood the "200 lbs of stupid" comment. I hear it occasionally, but it always puzzles me.

I'd have to check my numbers, but I think I've made 4000 tandem jumps, not a huge number by today's standards, but enough to be able to evaluate things I believe. I'm gonna guess I have made those jumps in probably 8-10 different countries over the last decade, and I can't think of a single instance of looking down and seeing "stupid" hanging off of me under canopy.

I guess my point is, if I have one, it's that our students are only as smart or "stupid" as we train them to be. If I were ever to look down and see "200 lbs of stupid" hanging off me, I would consider it a failure on my part, not theirs.

As an industry, we must remain vigilant in training our students to the best of our ability, otherwise someday we may collectively lose the privilege of doing so.

I know some TIs use that phrase as a joke, but there are those out there that genuinely believe it. Tandem skydiving is a serious business, a training business, and at it's core, it is a responsibility business.......we are in the business of acting responsibly. That responsibility starts with treating every student we work with as thought they are the most important person in our lives and training them accordingly, because for that period of time that we re with them, they are the most important person in our lives.

FWIW, I agree with you on that. I would never belittle a student by calling them stupid. And my old DZ did a pretty good job for the most part in treating them like "real" students.
Explaining what was happening, the gear, all that. It made them feel a lot more involved, like students instead of passengers.

The word "Stupid" is in there because putting in "200 pounds of ignorance and inexperience in an environment that is totally unlike anything they have ever experienced and is extremely stressful and frightening; all of which combines to cause them to sometimes do the most amazingly dangerous things at the worst possible time" is a little unwieldy

And I gotta say it:

Bill Booth liked what I had to say!

He likes me, he really likes me!!!

WOO HOO!!!!! That made my day!
Even if I'm not the one to say it first, I heard it a while back. Someone, JohnMitchell I think, had it for a sigline a while ago.

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[ChrisHoward 8]

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Why are tandem instructors glorified skydivers? they fly bigger than student size canopies and half the time land on their butt.

Can't say I personally have ever felt like that. Maybe some fresh TIs do. But if anything I seem to notice the cool cat skygods looking down on the career TIs.

[ChrisHoward 8]

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"200 lbs of stupid"

Not replying to you directly, more of a general statement.

I've never understood the "200 lbs of stupid" comment. I hear it occasionally, but it always puzzles me.

I'd have to check my numbers, but I think I've made 4000 tandem jumps, not a huge number by today's standards, but enough to be able to evaluate things I believe. I'm gonna guess I have made those jumps in probably 8-10 different countries over the last decade, and I can't think of a single instance of looking down and seeing "stupid" hanging off of me under canopy.

I guess my point is, if I have one, it's that our students are only as smart or "stupid" as we train them to be. If I were ever to look down and see "200 lbs of stupid" hanging off me, I would consider it a failure on my part, not theirs.

As an industry, we must remain vigilant in training our students to the best of our ability, otherwise someday we may collectively lose the privilege of doing so.

I know some TIs use that phrase as a joke, but there are those out there that genuinely believe it. Tandem skydiving is a serious business, a training business, and at it's core, it is a responsibility business.......we are in the business of acting responsibly. That responsibility starts with treating every student we work with as thought they are the most important person in our lives and training them accordingly, because for that period of time that we re with them, they are the most important person in our lives.

Good point Tom. I also believe that most TIs forget just how truly frightening skydiving may be for their passenger. So on top of training your student properly you also need to help them maintain their calm throughout the process so that they are able to think clearly when the time comes.

[livendive 8]

You have far more tandems than I do, but I've taken a few people I'd call stupid. Actually, I call them "mountain dew motherfuckers", the young males that show up with no interest in flying, just proving how "extreme" they are. They typically act like they already know everything there is to know about skydiving, and when I realize I'm being ignored, I reduce their training to 3 lines. "Arch, don't grab anything, pick your feet up for landing". These guys are not terribly common, and sometimes my first assessment proves wrong and they turn out to be attentive and fun to work with, but once every season or two I do indeed feel like it's nothing but a big ol' bag of stupid strapped to me. I don't get paid enough to try to magically make them smarter, so I just try to get them to the ground quickly and safely so they can go home and post their video on Facebook.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

"mountain dew motherfuckers"

You made my day


Chuck

[DARK 0]

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After i became a Ti i didnt like most feel the need to strut around telling B liscence holders what to do and listen to me because i am a glorified skydiver now that i take 260 pound men on tandems in high wind.

1. I don't have that many tandems

2. I don't think we get glorified by anyone other than our students and their families. If anything I think we are respected by the general fun jumper population for two reasons. The first has been mentioned already, we take their friends and families. The second is that we can rack up a lot of jumps in a short space of time and a lot of people automatically respect people (at least to some extent) with high jump numbers).

3. Unless its a fun jumper who wants to be a ti, I would imagine there is more pity then glorification in their heads. They get to come and do the exact type of jumps they want as many times as they want, with whoever they want, sleep in late if they want and leave when the weather rolls in if they want.

4. As for the telling b licence jumpers what to do, the I part of ti still stands for instructor by the way. I was telling low low timers what to do before I had my t-rating because I had a coach rating. It was always followed by but make sure to double check with your instructor. Now I do the same thing (usually only if I am asked tbh) and the only thing that is changed is be sure to double check this advice with your instructor or a more experienced instructor than me.

The whore that keeps the brothel going is a good way to put it.

[Abedy 0]

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... so I just try to get them to the ground quickly and safely so they can go home and post their video on Facebook.

Yep, had some of these MDMs here as well. Tongue out, "devil's fork" (i.e. index and little finger erect) that sort of thing is soooo important to them... But hey, I attend to them as I do to any other passenger. At least they usually are not too bad at getting their legs up when landing and that's something, huh?

The sky is not the limit. The ground is.

The Society of Skydiving Ducks

[raff 4]

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Why are tandem instructors glorified skydivers? they fly bigger than student size canopies and half the time land on their butt.

I'm surprised that so many do not recognize a thinly veiled troll when it evidences itself. And if the OP actually DID make 750 tandem jumps [very unlikely], that would make him the rankest of beginners anyway. Don't fall for this kind of drivel.

If you leave the plane without a parachute, you will be fine for the rest of your life.