An appreciated letter

[DSE 3]

This letter came to me via email last night, and it meant a lot to me, because:
A-The conversation referred to in this letter was not had with the person who wrote this email, they were at the table listening to me speaking to another skydiver.
B-The conversation was very terse. The skydiver I was speaking with had expressed how poor their belly skills are, and how they had a hard time flying on their belly with students, tandems, and RW.
My commentary was, "I thought you filmed a lot of tandems." The response was "I do. I sit fly everything."
Well...it bothered me that this person can't even do simple relative work, and so I told this person, "If you can't fly on your belly, you have no business being in front of a tandem. Accidents happen, and belly flight is the foundation of all forms of flight."
The discussion devolved from there, and I think both of us walked away from the table not feeling good about the discussion. The videographer in question is still only sit-flying tandems, and I'm still adamantly of the belief that one should be capable of solid belly/backflight before sitting in front of tandems.
I'm sure some here disagree.

In hindsight, I do wish I'd managed the conversation differently.
Anyway, this letter came as a welcome surprise from someone listening in on the conversation around the table.


Hey Douglas,

How is everything? I am not sure if you remember me, but I had dinner with you a little over a month ago at the _______ place down in _______ with _______.
I was reading your article in this months issue of Parachutist and I wanted to just write you to say that I thought it was awesome and I gained a lot of insight about camera flying that I absolutely never knew, especially about the safety aspects. I have 100 Jumps and thought about eventually getting into camera flying, but my goal is to become a Tandem Instructor.

I remembered the conversation that happened during that dinner regarding the importance of belly flying and mastering the techniques before moving to freeflying. I remember not too far after I got my "A" I couldn't wait to learn how to fly ways other than belly. Despite what
some of my friends said regarding mastering belly before freeflying, I went for it at around jump 40 - 60 in pure sit and back flying. When I
got down to Z-hills, I was extremely excited about jumping multiple ways on belly because of the relative work I could do. After that talk with you, I devoted the next 25 jumps purely to instruction on mastering Belly, and WOW did I learn and correct a lot that I didn't realize I was doing wrong. I get it now! I did 35 min of tunnel time with Sally and
Martin which was an awesome improvement on my skills.

Basically what I wanted to say was THANK YOU! Thank you for the insight to reiterating the importance of belly flying, and shining some light on
me to help improve my skills. I can safely say that by choice I probably won't be free flying for awhile until I am 100% sure that I have a firm
grasp on my belly skills. I am sure that I will be putting a few instructors kids through school after I am done, but I know that in the long run it will make me a better flyer, and hopefully in the end make
me a better coach and instructor. Though I do have the 100 jump minimum requirement for my coach rating, I want to hone my skills more before
challenging the class. In my mind I don't want to coach a student on a skill that I myself am trying to master.

I can imagine that it probably did cause some negative feedback, but unfortunately in this sport when it comes to safety you kind of need to be brutally honest. I know for myself I respond better to brutal honesty than a sugar coating. Despite that I did want you to know that you did get across to someone and someone did hear you out completely. Being a rookie still and trying to learn the correct ways to do things without causing any injury to myself or others is very important in my book.

Anyways, aside from that, the article was totally awesome and I did learn a lot. Maybe when it comes time that I want to pick up the camera I could pick your brain a little, cause it is very obvious you know what your doing and you have that safety aspect your primary goal just in front of gaining that perfect shot and having fun!

Sincerely,
XXXXX



I've removed all names/specific references to this conversation out of respect for all parties (I do have permission from the person who wrote this). No doubt at least one DZ.com regular will recall the conversation, I hope they chime in. Thanks to ________ for allowing me to publish the email.

[Bill_K 0]

I will second that your article in this months Parachutist is great! I very much enjoy reading your writings.

You are still going to be down in PR for a few days right? I really do want to meet you in person finally.

[DSE 3]

I wish I was coming to PR. It was part of the plan, and then PIA released their schedule, and they scheduled a second wingsuit class. So...I'm stuck in Reno until Friday afternoon, and it's not worth only being in PR for Sat afternoon and Sunday morning.

[Bill_K 0]

Quote

I wish I was coming to PR. It was part of the plan, and then PIA released their schedule, and they scheduled a second wingsuit class. So...I'm stuck in Reno until Friday afternoon, and it's not worth only being in PR for Sat afternoon and Sunday morning.

Bummer. Maybe later in the year somewhere else then.

[Laszloimage 0]

...I was thereAnyway, nice article Parachutist Spot. Congrats!
Agree, belly flying is the first and most to work in school enviroment which includes tandems. ...even if my self now days sit and back flying the most of the time. Everybody else I know (talking about good camera fliers) who "free flies" with tandems and studenst are first became very good videographers on their belly. And step by step they learned to do it in different body positions.