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promise5

tandem weights

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I was just checking on the local DZ here in Alaska and it seems like the weights the person needs to be in order to do a tandem is on a light side. Am I wrong? The DZ hasn't been open in a year. Is it possible for a guy 5'10" 230 to do a tandem? Is it possible for someone that is 14 yrs old to do a tandem?
No matter how slowly you say oranges it never sounds like gullible.
Believe me I tried.

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230 is a common upper limit. Most tandem systems are rated for something like 500 lbs. The parachute and miscellaneous equipment can be 65 lbs, plus a 200 lb instructor, leaves 235 lbs for the student. Some lighter instructors are willing to take heavier students. The elevation of the landing area, the air temperature, the type of parachute used, the experience and judgement of the instructor, and the weight that the airplane is capable of carrying can all result in the dropzone choosing a maximum weight lower than the limits of the equipment.

Most dropzones won't take minors, but at least a few do. The ones I've heard of don't advertise it.

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thanks, Its my younger brother and he's a tank.
Is into weight lifting,wrestling and is the defensive lineman for his school football team. He's a tank,since it's not just fat I was hoping to find someone that would take him. I'll have to do some checking.
No matter how slowly you say oranges it never sounds like gullible.
Believe me I tried.

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since it's not just fat I was hoping to find someone that would take him.



The rig doesn't care if it is fat or muscle, mass is mass. These weight restrictions are not a social limit... they are a physics limit.
The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

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the rig dosent care no, but the instructor might. fat people are more prone to getting sick, not being able to pull their legs up all the way, passing out, harder to get out a small door, etc.. Also currency/experience has a lot to do with it. The more current/experienced they better they are with bigger pax. There is a big difference skydiving with a fat person vs a big person with muscle

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The DZ where i work will take a student at 16. They need a parental consent form signed and notarized. The parent or legal guardian has to be present at the time of the jump. I work at Skydown Sport Skydiving in Caldwell ID. Just west of Boise.

As far as weight goes, as long as they fit in the harness, we'll take them. But they pay extra for being over 220 pounds. Extra for the excess wear on the equipment. To cover extra fuel costs to haul them up. And for the extra work on the instructors part.

Biggest passenger I've taken weighed 275 pounds.He was charged $600 for the jump. I was paid $150 instead of the usual $35. I've taken quite a few students that weigh from 240 to 260 pounds. The dzo i work for has taken someone at 320 and charged $1000 for that jump. But he has over
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10,000 tandem jumps and around 5000 sport jumps.

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$35 that's all you get paid???
Dang!!!!!!!!I was looking at some that will do static lines for those over the weight limit but not by much. I just don't understand how someone that has never done a jump can do a static line. I mean how do they know how to fly the canopy? also landing? I just don't see it
No matter how slowly you say oranges it never sounds like gullible.
Believe me I tried.

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I'm also a static line instructor. When you do a static line jump there is approx 6 hours of ground school before the jump. Everyone is always scared at the start of class. By the end of class, they're still scared, but confident about the jump. I wouldn't let them jump until I'm confident as well.

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thanks, Its my younger brother and he's a tank.
Is into weight lifting,wrestling and is the defensive lineman for his school football team. He's a tank,since it's not just fat I was hoping to find someone that would take him. I'll have to do some checking.




Have you done a jump yet? 700 odd posts and most of them bullshit. Fuck off back to the bonfire and don't bother coming back to this forum until you've got something positive to offer and some credibility to back it up! You are a waste of cyberspace. [:/]
2 wrongs don't make a right - but 3 lefts do.

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. I just don't understand how someone that has never done a jump can do a static line. I mean how do they know how to fly the canopy? also landing? I just don't see it



That's the way everyone used to learn. Usually the student has a radio for help on where to fly and when to flare, in addition to having had abunch of practice on the ground. (But it could also be done without radio and some ground signals.)

But, you couldn't be a pussy. People actually chickened out and wouldn't jump. Nobody attached to you, nobody hanging onto you. You had to jump from a plane yourself. It was more of a sink or swim situation. You learned, then you had to perform.

Injury rates were slightly higher, as exit stability wasn't always the best (which could lead to some nasty mals), and there would be the occasional student who didn't have a clue and flew off into the distance and had to land by themselves off in a field. It was all more like some big hazing ritual that everyone had to go through to become a skydiver.

Yes it is like the military thing, you jump and (keeping it simple) a strap attached to the plane pulls the canopy out for deployment during the first seconds out the door.

But static line is still used and useful, and can be useful for focusing on canopy control. And in all forms of skydiving training, you do need to perform to some degree to progress and be safe.

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I was hoping to convince my brother in law to do a jump with my twin and I when we do our tandem. He's part of an airborne company here and is going to transfer out of it because he hates the jumps. I was hoping he would feel different after doing a tandem.
No matter how slowly you say oranges it never sounds like gullible.
Believe me I tried.

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You had to jump from a plane yourself. It was more of a sink or swim situation. You learned, then you had to perform.



As I recall, the scariest part was getting out of the plane. Fortunately for me, I was a military type, so when the jumpmaster shouted "GET OUT", I "GOT OUT".

:)



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I was hoping to convince my brother in law to do a jump with my twin and I when we do our tandem. He's part of an airborne company here and is going to transfer out of it because he hates the jumps. I was hoping he would feel different after doing a tandem.



Wait a minute here.....You have over 800 posts on this site and have yet to do even a tandem?

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No I haven't done a tandem,yet. But,I hope to be able to do the 3 I have planned. Will I ever jump on my own, hhhmm now sure. Am I still amazed by the sport. YES! I dated a skydiver and that what's kinda got me hooked. Also, the community of skydiving is very open and welcoming, a great group of people no matter where or who you are.

Oh I do have one fall/dive/jump but its still under review on whether not it can be considered an official jump. But, that's a thread in a different forum
No matter how slowly you say oranges it never sounds like gullible.
Believe me I tried.

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You had to jump from a plane yourself. It was more of a sink or swim situation. You learned, then you had to perform.



As I recall, the scariest part was getting out of the plane. Fortunately for me, I was a military type, so when the jumpmaster shouted "GET OUT", I "GOT OUT".

:)


.......................................................................................

When I went through Army jump school, they made us so uncomfortable in the airplane (C-130) that I would cheerfully have leapt out in the teeth of hungry wolves ... rather than stay with that obnoxious military jump-master.

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