Westerly

https://www.roamright.com/

Still kind of expensive by US standards. I think I paid about $36 for my last skydiving vacation and it included several other benefits beyond just health coverage.

So I guess the revised moral of the story is don't buy an old Wings container?

https://www.skydivecsc.com/blog/the-worst-marketing-gimmicks-in-tandem-skydiving Does your DZ try to pull any of this? Some of them sound ridiculously stupid.

I am just saying someone is going to put two and two together. You dont serve 20 years in prison for a serious felony and then expect to get out and no one will ever know. Everyone knows. It's public knowledge. People will always figure it out sooner or later. You also assume this guy has a standard skydiver personality and no one will view him as strange. I am pretty sure it takes a certain personality to try to murder your wife for money and that personality might strike others as strange which will further prompt them to do some research.

I'm not sure about the license thing. Technically you're absolutely correct, but the reality is that we ask people to prove their capability despite having a valid license if they've been out of the sport for a while before they get in the air on their own... That implies that a licence does indeed have an expiration or can be revoked if capability can't be shown, doesn't it? The only thing the Operations Manual says is, All that would be required in order not to raise the suspicions of an instructor would be to be able to satisfactorily talk the talk, claim that logbooks had been lost in house fire (not too far from the truth with Cilliers) and say jumps had been made recently (perhaps overseas making it harder to verify). Given what this guy has done, I can't imagine he'd be averse to telling a few fibs. And all it would take to blow that whole plan away is for someone to Google his name on their phone while sitting around waiting for the next load. If the guy did in fact show up to a DZ and started jumping, I seriously doubt it would take long before someone figures out who he is and tells everyone. All it would take is 15 seconds on Google.

That's not true. The reserve PC is doing what is supposed to do. It is fully inflated. Its pull force is determined mainly by its size. You are ignoring the other variables in the equation. Falling on the back (so the bridle is not pulling on the bag directly as the first point of contact is the jumpers body), and a tight reserve tray with boxed corners. I doubt any other reserve PC of that size would pull the reserve out in that particular situation. Reserve systems are intended to work when deployed in any orientation. A reserve that only works when you're in a perfect arch is not an effective system. There are tons of videos of people having AAD fires and such while on their back and the reserve deploys just fine. Regarding pack tray size, overstuffing the reserve tray, while not ideal, is quite common. I have seen countless jumpers who overstuff their rig so they can go with a smaller container. Their reserves still work when they deploy them.

No pilot chute has a lot of drag in that configuration, but pilot chutes with more fabric do a little better than those that are 50-50 fabric-mesh. Sure, but there is always a compromise and I suspect that comes in the form of less performance when the pilot chute is orientated correctly. If the hole is smaller, then I would suspect it might take slightly longer to inflate? In any case, I am curious how much additional fabric on the side matters on a side deployment. If the PC is not inflated, as it probably would not be if facing perpendicular to the relative wind, then in essence what you have is the equivalent of an uncocked pilot chute. Uncocked pilot chutes dont seem to be effective in doing much of anything. In reviewing film of my openings, I've noticed even 30" PCs wont even lift the bag out of the container if uncocked even at terminal velocity. Looking frame by frame, what I notice when I throw my PC is at first it does not inflate, it pulls the pin out, and only when the bridle becomes tight and stays tight does the PC start to inflate. For the couple of frames where the bridle is tight but the PC is not yet inflated, the PC does absolutely nothing to pull the bag out of the container. It generates enough force to pull the pin and that's it. So I would question how effective an uninflated reserve PC is regardless of how much fabric it has on it. Hell, the reserve PC in the video is inflated and it still doesent work correctly!

No it means if he behaves he is eligible to be out. That's not the same thing as being out. There are millions of inmates that are eligible for release but will never actually be released early. The board can decide not to release the guy 'just because'. They dont really need a reason to retain him. In any case, this is worthless discussion as it's extremely safe to say the guy is never skydiving again. Even if the aero club would grant him a membership, no DZ would ever let him actually jump. They cant. They would create a libility for themselves. Imagine if a DZ let a convicted would-be killer on it's planes and he tried to kill someone again. They could be sued into oblivion. Plus consider the PR. Would you share an airplane with someone who was known to be a parachute saboteur? I dont think many jumpers would.

Depends largely on the person. It could be your next jump or in 50 jumps. Hard to say. It's rare that an AFF student is not nervous so you're not alone. I've seen guys with thousands of jumps who had to quit skydiving for a few months because of an injury get nervous on their first jump when they join back in. It will go away eventually, you just have to jump more. The more you jump the more likely you are to get used to skydiving quicker. If you only do one jump per month, I wouldent expect you'd ever really get comfortable with it. At least not for awhile anyway.

So the moral of the story is dont buy a Wings container?

The guy was sentenced to life in prison... He's not showing his face anywhere except a jail cell.

So you're asking whether it's a good idea to smoke drugs while you're healing? I am going to go with probably not. https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/features/is-marijuana-safe-web#1

I find it rather interesting that you are defending your decision to delay pulling your reserve because "RSLs don't ever fail", yet you are delaying your pulling your reserve because you are worried about the risers not releasing properly... Which I can't recall ever happening. It may have, but it certainly doesn't happen often. You have some interesting ideas. New ideas will always receive resistance (We've never done it that way before, the way we do it works just fine, ect). Ask Bill Booth about that. The problem is that you are choosing to chase some ideas that are flawed and ignore folks who have seen and done a lot more than you have yet. Much of the resistance you are getting is based much more on experience (we tried that and it didn't work very well) rather than simple inertia. You need to learn to listen to that experience. Someone has a sigline to the effect of: "Learn from other people's mistakes, you won't survive making them all yourself." (maybe not exactly that, but close enough). I'm not saying you should stop coming up with ideas, you may well come up with something really innovative and useful. But you really need to start listening more to the criticism. You are missing some really valid points about the flaws in your ideas. You also seem to have the idea that there are 'best' ways of doing something. That isn't always true. There are often different ways for doing something that each have their own flaws and merits. One hand per handle or two is one. There are valid reasons for doing either. And valid reasons for not doing either. Cutting away a PCIT mal or going straight to reserve is another. Both can save you. Both can kill you. It's up to the individual to decide which is best for them. And that isn't the same for everyone. I already adopted some of the advice in this thread so I am listening. The idea behind looking up to clear the risers came from an incident that an instructor I know had. He had a bag lock, the risers did not clear and he ended up firing his reserve into his main. It resulted in an entanglement which cleared just a few hundred feet before the ground. So this is a real scenario that has happened before. As such, to me it seemed like a perfectly valid thing to modify my EPs based on a scenario that has in fact happened to someone I know. None the less, I see the concern in trying to clear the risers in a limited time scenario. After reading the posts, I agree that it is probably better to keep the procedure as simple as possible and not add extra steps. On a note, I recall the austrilian's version of the USPA (whatever they are called) teaches their students to give a nice hard arch and tilt their head up before cutting away. Obviously the idea being you want to be arching if you're going to go back into freefall. So what do you think, is it better to look down the entire time through the EP procedure to more easily see what you're doing, or look up once you have your hands on the handles to enable a good arch after cutting away?

The other day one of the camera guys on my load mentioned he had a bit under 8000 jumps and only two cutaways. I know another guy who's been jumping 30 years and said he has never had a cutaway on a sport rig, (two on a tandem though) which seems absolutely remarkable considering he doesn't pack himself (at least not on the day we were jumping). I knew a few other guys who have gone over 1000 jumps and never had a cutaway. Not sure if it's true or not, but I've heard the story of a DZO who has 5000 jumps and zero cutaways... On the other hand, I know a few sport jumpers who jump highly-loaded, crossbrased canopies and have had more than one cut away in just one month. One instructor I know has had almost 30 cutaways... So how long is the longest you've ever seen someone go without a cutaway, and on the other side of things, what is the greatest number of cutaways you've ever seen someone claim?

The coach gave roughly nine seconds of separation between his student and the group that left in front of them. If the winds were moderate or light, then that would have been sufficient separation. Regarding the group that left after them, it's impossible to say when they left but typically exit order would put all the fun jumpers out before the students, so whoever left after them would have likely been an instructor (tandem, coach or AFF) if that DZ follows standard exit order prescience. If there were no other instructors on the load, then the last three remaining groups would have been possibly a tracker, wingsuiter or high pull, but none of those should have been anywhere close to the student upon deployment. The blue canopy that opened might have turned down jump run and that's why the canopy is close. It is possible to get out with sufficient separation, but then close that gap by flying down jump run as soon as you open your parachute. By doing that in essence you're flying your canopy directly toward the other people that are still in freefall. Otherwise, the dive looks fairly normal for cat G other than the student was unstable while deploying, went head low and that's why her feet swung in front of her upon opening. But for less than 15 jumps it's not unreasonable for her experience level.

I just dont get how that happens. It's a simple procedure with minimal steps. Look and locate right, look and locate left. Peal and punch right, peal and punch left. I practice my EPs at least 5 times per jump. That means after just 200 jumps I've practiced my EPs 1000 times. I'm genuinely curious how someone can practice something that often and still get it wrong. Was there some unusual circumstances, like they attempted to pull both handles at the same time or something? Do they never practice their EPs on the plane? (I see many people who don't.).

You shouldent be in freefall with an RSL. On that point, has there ever been a case of a properly connected and functioning RSL failing to open the reserve container after the malfunction separates? I've been looking and so far I cant find one single case. The only thing I can think of is if the mal does not produce enough drag to extract the lanyard and pull the pin (e.g. horseshoe).

I know I'm getting into heresy here but I've always pulled my cutaway then went to my reserve. I've never done the one hand on each handle thing and I've never understood any advantage to it but plenty of disadvantages. It's faster and you can keep your handles. If you put both hands on each handle, you're probably not keeping your cutaway or you're going for your reserve handle with something already in your hand (not ideal) and its going to be slower. If one second is the difference between life and death, you can shave that one second by using this method. The other method is since you're grabbing both handles before initiating any form of action, when your harness shifts after you cut away, you dont have to try to find the reserve handle again since you're ready holding onto it. What are the disadvantages of the method?

Interesting. I know this thread is on tandem rigs, but it seems most people recommend clearing the risers: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=2679209;page=2;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;t=search_engine

I do the standard one hand on cutaway, one hand on reserve style EPs. That is, right hand cutaway handle, left hand reserve handle, right hand peel-punch, left hand peel-punch. I noticed that everyone I've ever seen practicing EPs on the airplane looks down during the entire sequence and they pull their reserve immediately after pulling the cutaway handle. However, I have considered changing my EPs to: Look down, locate cutaway, right hand on cutaway. Look down, locate reserve, left hand on reserve, then look UP at the malfunction and initiate peel-punch on the cutaway and peel-punch on the reserve while continuing to look UP. The idea is that you should verify that the risers have cleared your rig before deploying the reserve, and if they do not then in theory I would take my hands off the reserve handle after cutting away, clear the risers, look down and then locate and pull the reserve. One person argued you dont want to waste time looking up, you just want to cut away and get the reserve out ASAP. My counterargument was that I jump an RSL with Skyhook, and so with near certainty the RSL is going to beat me to the job regardless of how I conduct my EPs and thus it's worth taking the extra second to LOOK up to ensure a bag lock, streamer or other high speed, low drag malfunction has actually cleared the risers off the rig before pulling the reserve. Otherwise the obvious risk is that if you're looking down the entire time while conducting your EPs you have not verified the malfunction has cleared and you could be firing your reserve into the bag lock/ streamer/ horseshoe/ whatever. Thoughts?

Yes, you can set the dive mode to student instead of standard.

How long is it going to take us have that same sea change that we've had on DUI and domestic violence about that? Domestic violence is taken seriously in many places. If you are convicted of domestic violence, you cannot own a firearm. On the other hand, you could have 5 DUIs and still own a gun as long as they are not felonies.

On top of that the PC has been redesigned since this happen. So what was the problem?

Where I live the road blocks are set up in which by the time you see the signs there is no way to legally turn around. They put them at the end of a bridge or something like that where the only option is to go through them or turn around and do an illegal U turn, in which there is a cop waiting to pull you over.