weavermc

Thanks for reporting - I also got contacted by this person.

I've dealt with him and had no issues at all

I'm late to this conversation - I jump at Monterey Bay and the above is true - it's a Tandem DZ but great for stopping by for a jump (just not a lot of jumps). The King Air 200 goes to 18K in 8-10 minutes (yes, those #s are accurate) and the view is incredible (you can YouTube tons of vids that show the view). Operates on a large (old Army) airfield with wide open landing, and its about 1.5 miles to the beach so views are great... Easy to get to (about 5 mins from CA-1 / Pacific Coast Highway), and easy to get back to US101 to head South Mark

He finally landed that canopy in California yesterday... It was definately an expensive start to his CA jumping stint...

I wish. I'm at grad school now with a transition team follow on. JD just got out here after 'high five-ing' with you. He was 2 years ahead of me and we're nothing jumping in Monterey now.

I learned at USMA '94-'98 and left with S/L I and PRO ratings. Since then i've earned my AFF-I & TAN-I ratings and am currently an S&TA.

I've had 1 refusal in 1500 tandems - although lots of "almosts" If they're nervous, I explain how it will work (and that I do the 'hard' stuff) - if that doesn't work, I remind them that they came here to jump and it's non-refundable. If they still say no - i'm not forcing them... Step 1 takes care of 90%, Step 2 takes care of another 9.93%. After that, is the liability of 'forcing' a jump worth a skydive? For comparison, check out the TI's face during this attempted exit - I think he debated going but knew better. Then it all turned out just fine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIyxHL2Og3Y

I've noticed on some SIGMA rigs I jump that the leg straps 'slip' slightly when I apply pressure (by arching after putting the rig on). This is part of my routine now, and if they slip, i tuck the webbing under the legstraps...

We had this 'debate' with our instructors last year and I emailed USPA and UPT for their input - simply put, it was "each skydiver requires their own seat belt during taxi, takeoff and landing." Backwards planning from that, each student gets their own seatbelt, and I (personally) hook up the lowers after 1,500' I do the full hook up and tighten down at approximately 10k (for either a 15K or 18K Tandem). If there is an emergency exit below that, I want to be free of my student (and vice versa) - above that, i'm assuming we've had a succesful takeoff, and can do a quick uppers-hook up and exit in an emergency (or disconnect lowers and re-attach seatbelt if a problem develops between 1500' and 4K).

Wow - lots of bad press on Cobalt's. I guess i'm lucky becuase i've owned Cobalts for years with no issues. My wife shoots video and jumps a Cobalt 135, and I've jumped a Cobalt 120 and 135. I recently purchased another Cobalt 135 for a backup rig (so we currently own 3 - all 135's). I don't roll the nose or anything fancy, just bury it by the tail before I cacoon it. On opening - leave the risers alone - it will improve your openings. That said - like the others suggested, demo the canopy first to see if you like it. Mark

Utah, Can you please elaborate on how the guy in the picture (me) screwed up? I recognized a high speed malfunction, pulled the cutaway handle and then the reserve handle in accordance with the UPT manual (I believe chapter 4). Also, the point of me posting this is to let TMs know that sometimes the collapsed drouge does NOT have enough drag to lift the risers off the 3-ring which requires manually clearing the risers (which is not covered in the manual) I'm also willing to learn so I look forward to any constructive input.

I have also succesfully yanked a baglock clear by pulling on risers on my personal gear. After watching the video, I did reach up to grab the risers, but made a quick decision to not lose precious altitude trying to clear the mal with a Tandem Passenger on front. This was a quick decision made due to my spot, because I had a video guy still in freefall (he still landed out), and I wanted max time to deal with the reserve due it being a Tandem. In retrospect, I think I made the right decision because pulling on the risers would not have met any resistance due to the collapsed drogue - unlike a sport rig which has an inflated pilot chute to pull against. On another note, I have seen the UPT mod for extending drogue kill lines to help prevent this. The file is a 3MB .pdf so not postable, but I have not yet found on the UPT website. While they recommend only mod'ing canopies with long trap doors, our owner is going to mod all of our SIGMAs to prevent this near fatal mal happening again (the alternative is potentially harder openings). I can email the file if wanted. Mark

I got to watch the video today and wanted to add a few quick notes. 1. Drogue release to pulling handles was approx 5 seconds. While I confirmed that I pulled in the correct sequence, I was surprised about how quickly I pulled the reserve after the cutaway. I think it was the "Oh S@$t" factor, but I do wonder if intentionally waiting a second or two would have helped clear the risers 2. Reserve pull to full canopy was about 3 1/4 seconds. I think its amazing that the video (Shawn Foust) got off as many great shots as he did during that time. Since my spot was a little long, I pulled arond 6200' and my altitrack recorded a 4450' opening. Like Mike mentioned above, stills capture moments and I wanted to put the sequence in some type of time and altitude frame. Mark