NSEMN8R

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Everything posted by NSEMN8R

  1. I'm just talking about tandem students. There isn't much they need to do on the ride up besides a couple quick interviews for the video. I've never actually had a student want to, but I don't think it would be a big deal at all.
  2. Unless your rigger is really good at sewing, you might want to see if you can get one of the US wingsuit manufacturers like Tony or EG or Nick to do it. I definitely wouldn't send it to BM to have it done. F16Driver on here sent his Firebird-R out there to get the Mylar taken out and he didn't see it for about 6 months.
  3. The only time I jump without my Ipod is when I'm doing a tandem and that's only because it seems kind of rude to the student. If a student had one they wanted to listen to, I'd feel comfortable using mine then too. I don't see any real safety concerns with it at all. Certainly no more of a distraction than flying a camera. Looks like lots of people are afraid to think outside of the box though. Not saying it's a good idea for everyone. Obviously, if you already feel like your plate is full just dealing with the jump, you shouldn't add extra distractions like ipods and cameras... lots of people can handle it just fine though.
  4. How do the frame grabs from the cx12 compare to those from a 3 chip camera like the pc1000? How big can you print with reasonable quality?
  5. http://www.nitrorigging.com/tandus.htm
  6. Sounds like fun. At least 3 of us from Michigan will be there with wingsuits.
  7. I just started working at a new dz. This place is the most efficient, well run operation I have ever seen. It's got a great vibe and everyone seems happy. And they have a FAIR rotation. 8 TMs working in 2 groups. 4 TMs on each load so everyone is pretty much on every other load all weekend long until we're all done. I love it. I agree that it's important to keep the full time guys happy, but I think the surest way to put people at each other's throats is to show preference to one or two of your people at the expense of the rest of them. When a DZ plays favorites, the only one's that end up happy are the few who are making all the money. The rest of the people seem to end up with the animosity and resentment you mentioned. Those that don't want to be a part of all the bitching and drama will just quietly move on to another DZ. Then look what you're left with... That kind of stuff can really fuck up the vibe at a place.
  8. It seems to me that it would make sense for dz management to spread whatever work is available around evenly and include the part timers in the fair rotation if they want to keep part time help around. I worked for a little while at a dz that gave priority to their full time guy. When I got tired of watching him get on every load while the rest us part timers split up his left overs, I quit and went to a dz where I could get a fair share of the work when I wanted it. edit to add: To answer the original question, yes work jumps take some of the fun out of regular dz weekends, but it's those work jumps that pay for the trips I get to go on where I do get to have fun. To me it's worth it.
  9. Who's going? What days? SDC's calendar only mentions flocking on Mon & Tues. Anyone flocking the rest of the week? See ya there!
  10. I'm guessing he's talking about the crack of her ass. Crack ho or not, I can see how that would be a memorable tandem!
  11. NSEMN8R

    Mach1

    Sweet suit! Does the arm wing only attach to the body in the front now or can I just not see the zipper in the back?
  12. This is weird. I actually agree with you 100% too. That's what any responsible instructor or coach should do. And if a guy with 100 jumps and a solid sit wants to pay a FF coach to teach him head down, how many FF coaches do you think would tell him to come back when he has 250 jumps because he doesn't have the awareness yet? Do you think the FF coach is going to worry about Scott's "Butterfly Effect" and what happens when he goes home to practice it at his own DZ? I think most coaches would give the guy a good briefing tell him to stay perpendicular to the line of flight when he tries it alone and explain that he can cover a lot of ground very quickly if hes backsliding or something... take him out the door and hold him upside down so he can feel what it's supposed to feel like and send him on his way hoping he takes the advice about not sliding into other groups. At least that's what happened to me when I was coming up on 100 jumps. And I doubt anyone would call the guy who taught me irresponsible. Why is what we're doing now so much more dangerous? I still say that with the right gear and in the right environment, it doesn't have to be.
  13. When I said no big deal I didn't mean it was totally foolproof 100% guaranteed nobody is going to get hurt... I just mean it's no more dangerous than alot of other stuff that goes on up there. All that stuff can happen to a freeflier too. I've seen people trying to learn to fly head down cover HUGE horizontal distances. In fact I'd say that for someone with low jump numbers learning HD flying is way more dangerous than wingsuiting. But we don't tell them not to freefly. We tell them to get coaching.
  14. Are you serious??? That's the way you remember it? It's amazing how 2 people can be part of the same conversation and come away with such different memories of it. Can you give me an example of something that his facial expressions told you he didn't know could happen? Seriously, if there's some giant hole in the training I give I would really like to know about it. Did I really miss something important or do you think you may have misinterpreted his facial expressions? Again, I can't believe this is what you took away from that conversation! I'm starting to wonder if you're one of those guys who wants to be right so bad that they only hear what they want to hear? He & I both share your outook on safety and an instructor's responsibility to his students when it comes to tandems, but I'm pretty sure you misunderstood something he said (or maybe his facial expressions) if you thought he agreed with you about who can safely fly a wingsuit. In fact, after Summerfest he and I took the other guy I mentioned in my previous post for his first flight together! As far as Instructor Responsibility in wingsuits and base, you and I will always disagree. IMO the Instructor's responsibility is to give the person ALL the information and the RIGHT information. But it ends there. Everyone is responsible for his own ass once you step out the door or off the edge. They are not tandem students anymore. This is the way it was laid down to me by the people that taught me and I'm really clear about it with anyone I teach. If they can't accept 100% of the responsibility for their performance and the outcome of their actions, I don't want to work with them. They'll have to go find a BMI to teach them cuz as an EGI I'd want nothing to do with teaching someone who isn't ready to accept personal responsibility. I know you don't believe it, but I too am concerned with others well being and safety on skydives. That's why I seriously hope you will reply to my question about this supposed huge flaw in the training I gave Dennis. If I left something out I want to know so I can be a better instructor. Because I really do care. And I still think you're a pretty cool guy. At least in person if not on the internet.
  15. Yes it has. Just like jumping at a big dz has influenced your perception. It's stepping out of a plane wrapped in nylon that puts them in that situation. They decide to do that on their own. And they're not unwitting. Everyone I trained knows what can go wrong and what they should do about it if it happens. Not all wingsuit manufacturers want their users to follow your rules. And the uspa absolutely does not govern all parachutists in the USA. Yup. I agree with all that. Nick seems to be more concerned with giving people the information and letting them decide for themselves what is an acceptable level of risk rather than trying to keep them safe. I'll tell you exactly what happens. Last summer one guy had about 100 jumps and did his first flight with me. Then he did solos filling the extra slot on tandem loads and we did 2 ways whenever we could get on the same load for most of the summer. Then we went to Summerfest where he got his first taste of real "turbine flocking" with you as the organizer. He chased the flock around a bit at first but he got better and better as the boogie went on. I didn't hear anyone bitching about his flying there. In fact one of the last jumps we made at that boogie was his 200th. A 12 way that you organized. Then in January we did a bunch of nice 10 and 12ish ways at the Everglades Boogie with Heffro organizing and he flew his slot just fine. I'm guessing it went a lot like it would have if he'd had 600 jumps when he started. Another guy started after Summerfest with even less jumps. He did some solos and 2 & 3 ways with us and came to the Everglades Boogie. He had some trouble at first matching the fallrate with the forward speed of the flock, but he finally started to figure it out toward the end of the boogie. Then he went to FnD and he decided on his own to stay with the smaller "Flocking Skills Group". And again, I've never heard anyone bring up any safety issues regarding his flying. Of course I care about everyone I jump with. I just think you need to realize that not everybody is an idiot that needs someone like you to protect them from themselves.
  16. You and many others on here say people's big egos and their "look at me with my Mad Skillz" attitudes make them want to fly wingsuits "before they're ready" so they can be cool. At the other end of the Spectrum you have guys like NickNitro who say that the people who come up with and try to enforce these "rules" do so because they have a small cock and need something to make them feel special. Like they want the new guys to look up to them as the Elite and want to grow up to be like them or something. Just more ego shit. I think it's just a matter of perspective. I think a lot of the recommendations were designed with big multi turbine dzs in mind. I've taught a lot of my friends with 100 jumps or maybe even less to fly wingsuits. Not out of any kind of ego or because of any "Mad Skillz". I'm not the awesome instructor or jedi wingsuit pilot that a lot of you guys are and I'm fine with that. I'm a weekend warrior with mediocre ws skills. I just do it for fun. I taught them to fly ws because I wanted someone to fly with and they wanted to learn. I don't see how anyone can say I did anything reckless or unsafe by teaching them. They fly just fine now. Not trying to take anything away from you guys who take this stuff serious. It takes a lot of jumps and a lot of skills to fly a wingsuit really well but it's just not that hard to do it without dying. Even when things go badly. With the right gear in the right environment it's just really no big deal.
  17. If the guy fucked up and crashed into someone else then it was his own fault. You can't blame someone else for "letting" him do it. I agree with a lot of the rest of your post though. I've found that people on the internet are a lot more critical of low jump number flyers than in real life. I can see where some of the other guys are coming from though. Not wanting some 80 jump chump in a wingsuit coming out after an otter load of tandems makes sense. I guess the difference is I'm looking at it from the perspective of a single 182 DZ. I'd probably have no problem letting the guy Dave is talking about jump on a load where I'm doing a tandem. I'd just let him get out first and do a quick go around, but you can't do that at a big dz. I would agree that it would be safer if he waited until he had 200 or 500 or whatever jumps, but the fact is he's a licenced skydiver and a grown up. If he wants to do it, why stop him? Yes, a low jump number guy went in with a no pull, but no one can say for sure it wouldn't have happened if he'd had 1000 jumps. Or even if he wasn't wearing a wingsuit. Yes, more new guys will probably die wearing wingsuits, but there are going to be new guys hooking themselves into the ground too. Should we go back to the days of having to have X number of jumps to jump a ram air canopy?
  18. I'd say it depends on the situation. Under the right circumstances it could be done safely. I've seen people start out at around that experience level. Not all manufacturers have a 200 jump requirement and I certainly wouldn't blow him off just because of what the SIM recommends. A new guy with an S3 and an elliptical canopy at a DZ with a small landing area and few outs would probably be a bad idea. But if he's jumping an Intro or something like that with a big fat square canopy with a cypres at a DZ with a huge landing area surrounded by open fields, I'd say fuck it let him jump it. Especially if he's already jumped it before and has an experienced coach or mentor that has that much confidence in him...
  19. The waterfall at Exit 5 off Kjerag is my favorite so far.
  20. NSEMN8R

    TM elbow

    I'm going through this too right now. Except it's my elbow and shoulder. I assumed it was from wingsuiting, but I'm starting to think it's all the tandems. Cortizone shot really helped the shoulder, but the elbow is still screwed. I can usually make it through the weekend if I baby it. I try to be as lazy as I can get away with under canopy. I give the student the toggles after opening and I don't touch them again until 1000ft. Getting old sucks.
  21. Are you sure he wasn't just checking his handles?
  22. I jump a Rigor Mortis and SM1. Both are really nice suits. I also have an Eagle for our newer guys to start out on. Hopefully it will be a collectors item some day. It's actually the very first production Tony-wingsuit ever delivered. And still a really nice suit!
  23. Around here we encourage the new jumpers to freefly as long as their gear is ok for it. In fact our dz requires a head up ff jump as part of our version of the coach jumps. I think they figure we might as well teach them how to do it safely rather that letting them figure it out for themselves. I guess it's probably different here than at the bigger dzs though. With a single 182 most of the time they are just doing solos filling the extra slot on tandem with video loads. No point in making them lay there on their belly all by themselves the whole time. That gets boring. Freeflying gives them something to work on and we have to do something to keep them interested until they have enough experience to put on a wingsuit
  24. What did you do back before there were photocopiers??