Sigma currency reqirements

[ti2013 0]

What's your interpretation on what is necessary to maintian a current USPA Tandem-I rating for Sigma?

[pchapman 261]

This came up when I started looking into the 19 tandem commandments... which apparently now are 16, based on a seminar at the PIA symposium last week. (I wasn't there and don't know the details yet.)

UPT is terrible at answering emails, but I got an answer from Mark Procos (who represented UPT at the 19 Commandments process) after asking about the Commandments and currency. He said the currency requirements are those in the manual.

The Sigma manual just shows the old requirements for "Currency" and "Recertification" (Chap 1 Section 2). That particular chapter was last modified in 2007 according to the file date on the download version, which I re-downloaded just a week or two ago.

So the answer appears to be 25 jumps per year.


Despite my asking, I did not get an answer on whether UPT believes in any of the other 19 commandments. If they do not believe in one, do they believe in the others?

Perhaps the 19 Commandments are simply "recognized ideal practices" in their mind, not absolute requirements.

Although I'm not Strong rated, I noticed on the Strong web page that they do follow the Commandments version of currency requirements (15 j/year; different rules for <500 tandems and over 500 tandems, etc)

So I wonder, why all the hype about the 19 Commandments as being the unanimous opinion of US tandem manufacturers (and others), and then have one of the the companies involved ignore the Commandments without really telling us?

[TomNoonan 1]

Quote

So I wonder, why all the hype about the 19 Commandments as being the unanimous opinion of US tandem manufacturers (and others), and then have one of the the companies involved ignore the Commandments without really telling us?

Hi

Maybe I can help shed some light on this. The 19 commandments (Bill Booth actually came up with the name if I remember correctly), came from a series of group meetings in UPTs factory between UPT, Strong, and Parachute Labs that took place in late 2010 to address the relative lack of synergy in the field regarding tandem SOPs (or best practice parameters) across the board. Jim Crouch was there as well, as the USPA rep, with the intent of all involved, to bring a unified set of regulations and recommendations to help clear up some of the disparities between USPA and the manufacturers.

As we presented the 19 commandments in 2011, one of the closing comments made, was that this was a work in progress, encouraging feedback from the field. Over the next two years, UPT, Strong, PL and USPA received feedback. And when the 16 commandments were presented this time around in 2013, it was acknowlegded that the new 16 commandments were current SOPs based on feedback from the field on the original 19.

As for UPT, they support the commandments 100%. Mark Procos actually has done quite alot of work this year with them with Examiner courses. We're heading to Perris in 2 weeks to present them to the west coast UPT Examiners at the UPT Examiner standardization meeting at Perris, and I believe they were presented at Expo as well during the East Coast standardization meeting.

I don't work for UPT directly. I work across the street for PD, but have been very fortunate to have been able to help navigate this process with Mark and the company, and I can speak from a first person perspective, that UPT wants to see these commandments accepted throughout the industry. I have provided over a dozen Tandem IEs copies of the presentation at PIA to bring home to their staff and would be happy to provide it to any others that want it as well.

Closing thought. One of the coolest examples of manufacturer synergy on tandem operating procedures is Bill Morrissey's influence on this commandment creation. Even though retired as the Tandem Director for Strong, it was through his encouragement that these meetings kept to schedule and on track at UPT every few weeks in 2010. It was awesome to see Bill M., Bill B, and Mark all working together, alongside Nancy and Jim to bring the original commandments to life, and even now two years later, every so often, Bill still pops his head into UPT to check on all things tandem related and it's awesome to see him up here still wanting to push this project into the future and keep giving the tandem community anything he has to offer.

Namaste,
Tom Noonan

www.everest-skydive.com