JohnMitchell

Even though or DZ now has all Icaruses and I could do it by myself, I almost always have the student help me flare. I think every TM has had the gorilla student flare too hard, too high, thunking you in. It's the main problem with having the passenger help. A while back, I started using a 2-stage flare with my passengers. You teach them "ready, set, half brakes......flare." On "half brakes", they bring both toggles to the top of their head, and on "flare", they come all the way down.It gives you a higher level of control, and saves your arms for those long days. Makes for some nice, floaty landings, too. It also teaches the student what "half brakes" means on the first jump. Rarely do I have a student that isn't calm enough to help out. Just a little Valium on the plane goes a long way.

Three cutaways out of 750 tandems. Two were broken lines, and one was a wicked high speed streamer, never really left freefall. On the two low speed cutaways, the reserves seem to take forever to open. Each was nice and stable, good body position

***But I am curious... how many incidents happen on a regular basis (or have ever happened) because of insufficient separation? Again, I'm not knocking the value of separation - in my very short time jumping I've already seen a few close calls during deployments. Well, there you have it. You've only been in the sport a short time but you've already seen the close calls. I've seen my wife almost get hit by other groups twice. Must be she's "attractive." Hundreds of times each year, air traffic controllers get airliners too close to each other, losing legal separation. How often do they hit? Practically never, but it could happen, and it would be disastrous. Same with these close calls with skydivers. Each incident is a free wakeup call to fix the problem before someone gets killed. If you do have an incident, try to get with the parties involved and figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. Also, watch down and in front of yourself while you're tracking. Anything you're gong to hit, be it the ground, a canopy, or another person, is going to be coming from that direction. I was on a ten way once where a tracking jumper hit an open canopy, luckily no injuries but a blown out canopy. She was watching the horizon while tracking. No one has ever hit the horizon. I always go with time separation, seems to work pretty good.

I'm gonna go with "never thought to try it." Traffic's usually pretty light at tandem altitudes, and the toggles are prety handy if you need a quick turn. I've tried to front riser some but there's a hell of a lot of pressure. I'll give the rear risera a try on my next tandem. As for the broken brake line, I'm chopping.

This is a very good point. Even now with almost 200 jumps I still wonder how accurate my counting is in the door... my adrenaline definitely still flows. But I know for a fact that when I had 20 jumps my counting was VERY rushed,, what I thought was 8 seconds was sometimes 2-3, seriously. So how do we teach people to count accurately? Should the green light flash one time per second? Count out loud, One one thousand, two one thousand . . ., just like a student jump. I'll count out on my fingers if I have a student in the door, just to emphasize counting. Seems to work.

as long as you're tracking, make sure to look down for canopies and jumpers below you. If you ever screw up the exit spacing or tracking direction, this can still save your bacon

I think that may be the bottom line. You want to say wing loading is not a factor but in the situation that she was under a larger canopy and did everything the same, she would be more likely not to be hurt as badly or maybe at all. Doesn't that justify wing loading to be a factor? Amen, brother, most low timers are going to screw up occasionally. What used to be just embarrassing under a light wingloading has now become deadly. It's a crying shame.

***Front risers do not increase your groundspeed, only your airspeed. You can prove this to yourself by flying beside another canopy. When you apply the front risers, you will sink, not more forward. QuoteNow I'm confused. If your airspeed increases, how can your groundspeed not increase, unless you suddenly have a really steep glidepath. I've only got about half as many jumps as you, but on all the square canopies i have jumped, front risers got you at least a little increase in forward speed, both air and ground, although at a high cost in rate of descent. I've done the "next to another canopy" thing you talked about, and have always observed the front risered canopy moving ahead.

Dude - jumping through clouds is illegal - it was "industrial haze" Pretty thick too from what you say*** Check the dude's bio. He's jumping thru clouds in South Africa. Maybe not illegal there. Kinda like going to a boogie in Mexico or something, the USA rules don't apply.

*** -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Reply To -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would love a tersh rig. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's that? Always learning... Laters, The FAKE KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!!!!!!!!! Quote I think it's short for tertiary, meaning "third", as in third parachute you're wearing. I've worn the clip on front mount reserve when doing intentional reserve deployments while TSO'ing a new rig. It's fun to blast out the reserve knowing you don't have to buy beer or pay for the repack.

Some of the bullets hit the tin roof or the wood of the raft, and many of them made an impression indicating that they hit base-first. Others were point-first. None hit sideways. This would indicate that the bullets were still spin-stabilized on their return descent. I've thought about this. too. Going straight up and straight down, the spin axis and direction of travel stay the same, therefore the bullets could and would come down and hit base first, somewhat streamlined. When firing ballistically, say, a 45 degree angle, the bullets nose would always point upward, but on the downside of its trajectory it would be broadside to the relative wind, slowing it down some. Ya think? John

What are USPA's rules on doing tandems from objects other than aircraft, such as helicopters or balloons? I've seen pictures of tandem balloon jumps, but no idea if they were in US or not If it's an aircraft and you're high enough to do it safely, I don't think there is any prohibition on tandems from balloons and helicopters. In fact, I think it's a great idea. Sign me up! The base tandem is not for me. How would you like the passenger to go into the flail mode right as you're trying to track away from a cliff? John

. But I would say someone flying a 99sq ft at .85 is much more dangerous then someone at 1.4 flying a 190 sq ft. ////// QuoteI would say your statement is full of it. A smaller jumper and canopy combination does have less inertia, including, of course, rotational inertia, so for a given wing loading, turns will be faster. But from the deaths I've seen, the three biggest causes are wingloading, low number of jumps, and extreme insouciance. Remember, the bigger you are, the harder you hit

So that explains those shoes you see in the miccle of the freeway sometimes. . . . Always wondered how they got there.

My wife, with her Sabre, and I with my Stiletto were both having occasional hard openings. One of the less understood causes of hard openings seems to be slider bounce, where the lines stretch out quickly, then, when the bag opens and the canopy reaccellerates to your freefall speed, the slider rebounds down the lines a few inches or more. This can let the canopy inflate with the slider out of place, giving explosive openings. We both started double stowing our lines. This slows down the speed of the bag away form you during deploywment, reducing the possibility of slider bounce. It's a touch slower deployment, but I haven't had my bell rung since, even when I'm smokin' out of a head down dive.

[ There are no such regulations for skiing and that is far more dangerous than skydiving as far as I am concerned. Quote A few years back, I saw life insurance actuarial table that showed the relative dangerousness of various sports. Sorry, but skydiving is way more dangerous than skiing, safer only than hanggliding and, most dangerous, mountaineering. As a skydiver, I've had to go to a lot more funerals than my skiing friends. Always remember, you have to survive each jump, one at a time.

had a hard pull not quite a month ago...couldn't get the PC out (and tried hard enough that I actually flipped myself onto my back before barrel rolling while I chopped and pulled silver). /////// Congratulations on saving your life. I say you've had a reserve ride now, but not a true cutaway, since the main never came out. Do you have a separate cutaway handle and reserve handle? Or is it all done with one handle on your rig? Also, the rolling on your back? Try putting your feet up on your butt and arching on the next cutaway. I have 8 or 9 cutaways, tandem and solo, and all of them very stable, even from the spinners. Also rehearse gripping the handles as you go back into your arch after the pull. Nothing gets you back in the air faster than saving the handles.

Got a bunch of jumps, maybe two dozen, from 1200 down to a thousand, all regular freefall gear. You sure don't want a cut and you sure do pay attention to what's going on. Funny what low clouds and the itch to jump will make you do somedays.

That was really funny, but should I e-mail to my kids???? LOL. That would certainly pump up the Christmas spirit.

No, that's an old myth. Although the big airliners are about 17 times safer than driving your own car on the same length trip, the little airplanes and less trained pilots offer hundreds of ways to get killed. Also, if you read the actuarial tables that insurance companies compile, skydiving isn't that safe, either.You have to actively managed your risk on every flight, and on every skydive.

It could be done if it was flying straight, but a line over is so unpredictable. It ccn go from docile to ourt of control in a heartbeat, especially at higher wingloadings. Don't do it, just chop it. Besides, then you get the extra freefall.Quote

***QuoteIf this TSA guy was such a sh-- hot rigger, he should of opened it up, inspected it, and given Kate a nice repack right there in the airport. . Sounds like this guy ain't much of a rigger.

Hey man, doesn't Perris still have the Skyvan? You guys have got it too good! You also need to put up a pic of the new tunnel. There's a freefall machine for ya,Quote

That's a hell of a round canopy to compare it to a '62 Vette. I think comparing to a horse and buggy would be more appropriate. And yes, I have over 65 round jumps, from 28 foot flats to PC's. Best thing they ever did was make the chutes square. Second best was putting the reserve on the back.

I think you can get fined by the FAA, and jailed by the police for tresspassing. Not sure, but why not do it legally. I've jumped a lot of places, including my neighborhood. Usually you need to file a Notam with the FAA, get landing permission from the property owners where you'll land, and the pilot has a few responsibilities with air traffic control before the jump. Maybe the illegal thing might make it more of a thrill, but the chance for bad press for the sport goes way up. Besides, i'd rather jump without loooking over my shoulder for the sky cops the whole time.