liloz

The trip is about visiting my Veteran friends. NC and TN are both on my list of states to jump in. I lived in VA when I was in the service. If I can ride motorcycle I can probably jump out of a plane as well. Perhaps I will take you up on your offer when I make it down that way. Thanks

I have already mapped out my entire trip. I was at my home DZ and talking about the trip and mentioned one of the DZ's I planned to visit. The conversation escalated how bad this place was to jump at. So I thought what better way to get great information than asking the people that have jumped at these places. I want to make this trip as positive as I possibly can. I know it will not be perfect, but that might be what makes it even better. Looking forward to hearing what and what DZ's people will suggest for me.

I am planning a motorcycle trip this summer to visit some military brothers and work on getting as many of them into skydiving as I can. Looking for some input from the experienced. Going to post the states that I will be visiting looking for input on drops zones you would recommend and ones you would advise I should avoid. If you have any suggestions the best way to plan the trip would appreciate that as well. (Is there an APP for that?) I have no time frame for the most part. I will be gone at least one month up to two months. What ever it takes to get the trip done and visit friends. Starting in Fairchild Wi, down to IL, IN, MI, OH, PA, NJ, NY, CT, MA, NH, RI, DE, VA, NC, SC, TN, KY, MO, IA, and finish off in MN. If you have ideas of routes to take places I REALLY need to visit or I should add a state or remove a state please let me know. Oh Ya I want to drive through Canada from Michigan if I can. Looking at jumping at Niagara Skydive. Looking for any HELPFUL suggestions (Del) have already had my fair share of smart ass suggestions. Thank you in advance for you input and if anyone has a month to two months off this summer you are more then welcome to come along.

How many jumps in total? 103 How many at that particular DZ? 92 What kind of (clear) goggles were you using? Bonehead Rev Opened Exit altitude? 7000’ Deployment altitude? 3200’ Weather conditions during the night, any moon? Mostly clear Almost a full moon (Ideal conditions) Were your lights set up in any way where they could blend you during the jump? Blind me? No What were you doing during freefall? I turned 90 found the lake we jump near, turned 90 again, which had me pointing toward DZ How much time went from you last seeing the DZ and your exit? I looked out the aircraft with my JM prior to exit Any reasons why you didn't check the landmarks that were shown to you inside the plane once in freefall/under canopy? I believed I was looking at landmarks. I also made a jump prior to dark and an experienced jumper pointed out several landmarks for me. Did you look out and tried to find the DZ by yourself prior (like 5 seconds) to exit? I looked at many landmarks on the way up. I believed I had the DZ picked out, but possible I did not. You had your cell phone with you, didn't you? I did have my cell phone with me, but after landing in the water it was no longer working. I also carried a strobe light and this is how the plane ID’ed my location. I turned the strobe light on as it flew overhead. For such cloud jumps, do you know where the aircraft really is, and what heading? I did understand our direction on jump run. Did you maintain knowledge of your own heading using the aircraft / sun / cloud features? I thought as I turned 90 twice I was pointed in the direction of the DZ. I was told my light was seen during free fall but never seen once I was under canopy. I wish I had more lights on my person. The thought is I had an off heading opening which pointed me 180 away from the DZ. I felt I was still heading toward the DZ. Inexperience for sure! Was the correct ground feature spotted? I thought I could make out the DZ. We had the two cars pointed at our peas (landing area) and one light on the clubhouse. Our briefing was solid. We had 18 jumpers (some twice) and I was the only person that did not make it back to the DZ. We also had a debrief and many issues were addressed to make sure it is easier to ID the DZ. I was at 2200’ under canopy and I believed I knew were I was. At about 2000’ I believed I should be next to one of my landmarks. I realized I was not in the right place and I prepared for an off site landing. I started looking for my outs. My biggest worry was power lines because I did not know exactly were I was. I posted this wondering if anyone else had issues with the different shades. The answers provided have been fantastic and for sure going to help me. I did the night jumps as required for my “D” license. I am not sure that I will be doing them again in the future other than to complete my “D” license. We had two other jumpers that have around the same number of jumps as I do. So I want to make sure everyone knows this was not an issue with my DZ or the briefing we received or the weather clouds winds etc… This problem was with me and I want to figure out what happened. I want to know if I have problem with my eyes after my surgery. Did I just not understand what was explained in the briefing? The issue that happened is on me and not anyone else and I understand that. I want to correct the issue as that is the most important thing. Thanks to everyone that have written in and expressed their thoughts. If you have any other questions let me know. I want to make sure that I learn from this experience so it never happens again.

I recently participated in night jump operations and it did not go all that well for me. I am looking for some experience input on my story to see if I can figure out what happened and if I can fix the issue and attempt a night jump in the future. I will be as detailed as possible but short. Our DZ was lighted by two cars pointing at each at the center of standard landing area. We had a briefing prior as required. On the way to altitude my JM and another jumper pointed out landmarks around the DZ. Prior to exiting the aircraft my JM pointed to the two cars and confirmed I could ID them. I confirmed that I did see them. When I exited I was told by people on the ground could see my light, but once I deployed my light was never seen again. Once under canopy I believed I was pointed toward the drop zone so I continued that direction. As I am looking down I could make out several lights I thought I had the DZ ID'ed found out I did not at about 2200'. It was at this point I realized that I was not at the DZ and I was uncertain exactly were I was. I remember training and I was looking for lighter shaded ground for an open field. As I flew I made out a dark area that I believed to be trees. I also ID'ed an area that was lighter that I believed was the field I was looking for. The skydive ended as I went through the top of several trees hitting my shins. As I cleared the trees I looked down and now realized I was going to either land on an island ladened with downed trees and lots of rocks or in the river. I am accomplished swimmer and chose the river which thankfully was the right choice. My pride was the thing hurt the worse which I am fine with. So now that is the basic of the story. If you want or need more information please ask I will be happy to answer any questions meant to help me figure this out. I have a few questions I hope can get answered with the help and experience of fellow skydivers. I thought I was landing in an open field looking at an area that was lighter in color. I am looking at this from a medical point of view. Has anyone else had a similar issue? I had Lasik surgery 12 years ago. I am not sure if that did anything to change my night vision. I am not silly enough to think I may have just screwed up. It is possible that I did just screw the pooch but I need to know. I have friends that are color blind and they see one color but it is actually another color. I am wondering if when I saw the light shaded area I was actually looking at dark shaded area. I have asked a pilot if we can go up in the plane again one night. I thought if we can get up to altitude I could look out and tell her what I see. If I see one thing and she points out something different then I would know I have an issue with my eyes and that an be fixed. If I can pick out trees fields etc. correctly then I know I screwed the pooch on my night jump and I need more training before I attempt again. Please give me any positive and negative feedback. Please ask me any questions that you may have. I just want to make sure if and when I do another night jump it ends back at the DZ. Thank you in advance for all your help and comments.

I started my AFF course and most of my JM’s jumped with a Viso II and suggested that unit to me. I started looking into the altimeters available and the Altitron caught my eye for many reasons. I LOVE no decimals. The big display is fantastic while in free fall. While on the ground unit is a clock. While in transit up to altitude at about 250' unit turns into altimeter. Have not read any comments about this but it tracks your time to altitude nice added feature. I have the finger mount which I find to be very comfortable and easy to wear and very easy to see during free fall. I really love this unit! I have around 62 jumps with this unit I can only compare it to an Alti 2 but I would not trade this unit for anything else. I wear an Optima II audible and the two are very close to each other while at altitude while coming back down. I have also compared it to the Viso II that are in the aircraft with me. They are all in a couple of feet of each other. The directions are very difficult to understand. I was on the phone with the person I purchased the unit from and it took her and I almost two hours to figure out how to get the unit to work. Once you get it figured out it is very easy to use all the controls and features. I have had two failures so far. One time it did not record my jump at all. Another time it had some really messed up information. I had a speed of like 300mph and my exit altitude was 1000’ some feet. Not sure what happened. I reset everything and I have jumped fifty more times with no more issues. I really LOVE the logbook feature. Records I believe up to 300 jumps. At the same time not sure how accurate the deploy altitude is. It seems it is recording deploy altitude as the altitude you get under full or near full canopy not when you actually deploy. Records exit altitude, deploy altitude, free fall time, max free fall speed, Ave. free fall speed, Temperature, time under canopy, and max speed under canopy. It also has an over all history that shows your highest exit altitude, lowest deploy altitude, and max speed. If you have 0 or thousands of jumps you can set unit up to start tracking your jumps. Over all I would recommend this unit to anyone. My unit takes one AAA battery so no problem finding one. Replacing that battery SUCKS. Wish it were easier to change the mounting system as well. The positives far out way the negatives so far. Again I have I think sixty some jumps with this unit with the two issues. I will always wear a second altimeter whether an audible or a chest mount no matter what unit I am wearing on my wrist. I am not concerned about this unit failing anytime soon. If you are looking at this unit and have questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer them for you. Thinking about making a youtube video to help people with setting the unit up so they don’t have the troubles I had when I first got it. BLUE SKIES!

QuoteWell first want to thank everyone for their opinions on the question posted. I did not think it would cause so much controversy and I apologize for that. I think those of you that sent photos. I want to be PERFECTLY clear. I am not worried about jumping with my camera anytime soon. I was just curious if anyone was jumping this camera and what they thought of the video that it takes. The scuba diving video is second to NONE including go pro in my opinion. I have side mount that came with my helmet and I modified it to hold the Sony. But again I have NO plans of trying to jump this early. I am not really counting down to the day I hit 200 so I can jump it. In fact I am a big fan of jumping with a person that has a camera that is focused on me. I have learned so much from watching videos of me. I do want to jump my camera one day but not a huge hurry for that day to come. My #1 goal has been and always will be to go home to come back and jump tomorrow. I want to thank everyone again for the comments. I received a private message as well on this post. The one comment that stood out the most from this message was I am probably two years away from making 200 jumps. (I hope not :+) In the next two years the cameras and the safety of jumping these cameras will change a dozen more times. The more I think about it makes me realize how true this probably is. I will NOT jump a camera if I am going to worry that it may not allow me to come back tomorrow to jump. I have way to much to live for to have a camera change that. Blue Skies all!

I am looking forward to jumping with my own camera one day and looking for some thoughts help ideas. I own a Sony HDR-AS 100V and I purchased it for scuba diving and not skydiving. It seems it will take some great skydiving video as well. Wondering if anyone out there is jumping with this camera. If you are what type of mounts to you have and what are you thoughts about those mounts. If you have any videos would really like to see those as well. If you have any photos of your mounts that would be greatly appreciated as well. Happy to read any information you have about safe camera flying. Thanks, Jim