dixieskydiver

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Posts posted by dixieskydiver

  1. Quote

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    Try this http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/software/Macintosh/osx/default.aspx



    That works adequately for downloadable files, but if they are not downloadable, WMV files are not supported.

    Is there a trick I'm missing? My browser is Shiira, but it is based on and renders pages like Safari.




    Right click the download button, or use your silly function key if you have a single function mouse, and click Save Target As or the equivalent mac function. The files on skydivingmovies.com are downloadable.

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  2. I accidentally killed a button buck night before last. Little bastard, cost me $100.

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  3. Thank you all for the lesson in FAA airspace restrictions and classifications, I didn't know about all the types and whatnot. I just assumed that when they radioed the jumpers out warning they would vector large airliners out of the way. I still believe that if the plane vectored in from the direction I think it did that it would have been nearly impossible to see, but I am probably wrong. I started jumping at a cessna dropzone and we were taught to use the long ride up to check for surrounding airtraffic. I had since stopped doing that when I switched to a bigger dropzone with GPS and all that hitech jazz. When I make it back up to Chester I will mention all of your concerns about the exit delays and I will of course increase my own. To Billvon, I happened to read your sticky post in this forum and it says beware giving out generic information because you don't know who reads it. X seconds giving Y feet of seperation is not necessarily true because you must take into account Z airspeed and A windspeed.

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  5. Monday morning quarterbacking is fun isn't it boys and girls? I'm sure you would have all seen it no matter where it was in the sky, even behind the plane. One day I hope to be a master of the sky like you all are.

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  6. Quote

    >So in the typical 4-5 seconds you have between groups . . .

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    If you're only leaving 4-5 seconds between groups, it would be a good idea to waste a little more time! 4 seconds is only about 500 feet at 80kts.



    Ah I forgot that you can tell windspeed and the speed of the airplane on video. Once again, the count between groups varies but I stick with what the senior instructor/jumper/pilot recommends unless I am not comfortable with it. I had good seperation from the jumper in front of me both in freefall and at opening time. You were not there, I was.

    >you check your ground spot . . .

    Yes. You must do that to avoid landing out in a bad area or punching a cloud.

    > maintain eye contact on the group previous to your own to make sure
    >you have good seperation. . .

    Uh, no. You can look at them, but I can guarantee you I know what you will see - them falling away. Looking at them won't help your separation any; only time can do that.

    The time between groups varies day to day and sometimes jump to jump depending on a variety of conditions. Jumping everytime after a certain number of seconds is not the best solution. You can judge horizontal seperation by maintaining eye contact with the groups in front of you. None of that 45 degree nonsense either.

    >but you also manage to check every vector around for aircraft who should
    > be notified by radio that there are jumpers in the airspace of a
    > permanently filed skydiving dropzone.

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    Yes. You have to do several things before getting out of any airplane -

    -check the spot/cloud clearance (i.e. look straight down)
    -clear your airspace (look in a 45 degree cone all around)
    -allow enough exit separation between you and the previous group
    -climb out and go

    The radio really doesn't have anything to do with it. They may not be listening, or they may not have a radio.



    I'm glad to see that you pointed out a 45 degree cone is a reasonable check of the airspace around, I feel like I did this to my own satisfaction.

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  9. Quote



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    First off, make your videos easier to see!! I've downloaded plenty of movies without having to get some DIVX. Find a way to make yours work without it, please.



    Divx is a pretty standard codec sparky, also it's what Dave reccomends on Skydivingmovies.com under the compression section. Your technical inabilities are no fault of mine and I would rather save dave some hard drive space than make it possible for everyone across every platform and OS to see my stupid video.



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    Anywho, back to the meat and potatoes. What was the first group doing between "door" and "exit"?? Picking their noses? That's the time to be looking out for traffic. Does your pilot only give the door seconds before exit? If so, you may talk to him about adding a few more seconds to that.



    There was a spot, however as I mentioned earlier the first group was around 30 or more before me and the jet would have been pretty far away and as far as I can tell it would have been near to below the plane of vision for someone inside the door and in front of the plane.

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    Next, unless you were on a downwind jumprun, you really should have had some more time between groups. The 2 way left on the video count of 1, the solo only 2 seconds later at the count of 3 and you left with 4 seconds of seperation between you and that solo on the count of 7. Remind me to leave last if I ever come to your DZ.



    Not my DZ, I was just passing through. Once again I follow what the pilot or the aknowledged "senior instructor/jumper" on the plane calls for. I physically counted to 4 with my hand in a downward sweeping motion, it may have been a little quick.

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    As far as ***Well, were every group to thoroughly check the spot and examine every quadrant of the sky, of course taking the time to get on their bellies so as to check underneath the plane as well, I think you may have a problem getting out an Otter load in one pass

    my rebuttal is what's wrong with asking for a second pass? If you are jumping at a DZ that berates you for asking for a second pass to make the situation safer, you should rethink where you are jumping. Too many people are hesitant to ask for a second pass if the spot doesn't look right. You are off AFF and you are your own jumpmaster now.

    You aren't acknowledging the reality that if every jumper on every plane went through that ritual everytime they jumped there would be 2 or 3 passes EVERY jump because by the time they got done the spot WOULD be bad. I'm not saying don't spot, I'm not saying don't call for a second pass if you think it's necessary. These are necessary for safety to be sure.

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    Finally, with that little amount of seperation you had it was even more important that you not get distracted by the jet or the "shiny Otter" as you called it. There was a good chance of a canopy collision on that jump. Be sure to look around and clear your airspace. Especially if you are on a solo and have nothing else to look at.



    I didn't call the Otter shiny, I said the jet was metallic. I opened with good separation from the other jumpers and maintained eye contact on the one closest to me after the jet passed, I cut that part out because after the compression you couldn't see me watching him anyway he got lost in the fuzz because he was so small.

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  10. Quote

    Im not saying that I would have seen it. But I have seen to many people just folow the first group out. And yes you can Check everything you have just said in the time between groups, And I hope you give more than 5 sec. You can make is sound like a lot to do by typing lots of words, why don't you try using the Active voice and get to the point.



    Well, were every group to thoroughly check the spot and examine every quadrant of the sky, of course taking the time to get on their bellies so as to check underneath the plane as well, I think you may have a problem getting out an Otter load in one pass. Not to say that I'm not guilty of following the first group out, especially if I'm doing formation work and the time between groups is short. Also I typically follow what the jump pilot says for time between groups unless I think it is really ridiculous. 5 seconds is pretty standard under standard conditions.

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  11. I have picked up on a couple of guys that weren't out of the closet yet, one of them was dating a good friend of my girlfriend and I said "That's the gayest straight guy I've ever met." upon meeting him. Come to find out about three months later his girlfriend found out he'd been cheating on her with a man. Do'oh!

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  12. Quote

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    if it was 35-40 seconds earlier when the spotter had his head out of the door it would have been nearly impossible to pick that jet out as far away as it would have been.



    I don't know about you but I spot MY jump. I don't let the first group out clear my airspace. NEVER ASSUME!



    So in the typical 4-5 seconds you have between groups you simultaneously check your ground spot, maintain eye contact on the group previous to your own to make sure you have good seperation but you also manage to check every vector around for aircraft who should be notified by radio that there are jumpers in the airspace of a permanently filed skydiving dropzone.

    This of course includes those vectors that would involve you looking underneath the plane to get the other 180 degrees of the spectrum depending on the jump plane. While this was only a solo, there is also getting everyone in position at the door to be accounted for as well if it is a multi person jump.

    You may be quick to say that YOU would have seen it because you are so much safer but I seriously doubt that you would have seen it unless it was straight down or back behind the plane in the line of sight through the other groups that had already jumped.

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  15. Quote

    I guess the question would be when did you, or the jumpers in the group or two before you, notice it. It's a damn cool video, but it would scare the piss out of me if I saw that in freefall. It's a nice reminder to all of us that a quick look down before exit is always a good thing, regardless of who did the spot. Conditions, as you noted, can change *very* quickly.



    Well I was on my back for the first few seconds of freefall checking out the plane (I just got my camera helmet, such things are still fun). You can see me latch on to the plane as soon as I get in a sit, it was metallic and thus very shiny. ("LOOK something shiney!!" "Where!?!") I didn't really talk alot with the guys that were in front of me but it freaked them out pretty good. There was alot of yelling and jumping up and down once we landed.

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  16. Quote

    Quote

    You should have dutch ovened her to give a longer lasting effect:ph34r:.



    what's a dutch oven?



    That would be when 2fat2fly farts in bed and then pulls the sheets up and over his wife's head to lock in the glorious aroma. Another fun variation is to use the window lock button, if your car has one, to keep anyone from rolling down the windows after a particularly juicy one. B|

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  17. Quote

    So do you guys just jump out on the green light with out clearing airspace or did you have someone who's blind spoting the AC.



    That would be a no. If you watch the video you'll see how fast it is moving and if it was 35-40 seconds earlier when the spotter had his head out of the door it would have been nearly impossible to pick that jet out as far away as it would have been.

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  18. Permanent NOTAM filed with the FAA, that jet reaaaaaallly shouldn't have been flying that low through our airspace, but yes this is true. However at the rate it was moving it probably was hard to see when the first guy stuck his head out the door to look around. Keep in mind I was the 7th person out of the plane.

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  19. Note to self: Remember to make it to WV in time for registration or like this year you won't be able to jump. DUMBASS. Is an attack on one's self still a personal attack? Argh.

    So I was in Atlantic City for a convention on Thursday and instead of driving over to WV to register and party and jump I flew home because I had already missed 2 days of class and couldn't afford to miss Friday as well. Only to find outFriday at 12:30 pm when I pulled into the university that it was, in fact, fall break.

    So then I immediately drove up to WV (it still hadn't dawned on me that I had to be there before 5 when registration shuts down). I get there around 9:30 pm and think, "No worries, you can register in the morning."

    Idiot! Everyyone is at the bridge in the morning. That of course dawned on me when I woke up considerably more sober in my car with a bad hangover. I then drove back to SC, almost dropped through a passenger jet on my only jump of the day and then drove the rest of the way home to go throw a blowout bachelor party for my older bro.

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  20. Video Here
    http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=2832&d=addgp :o

    Thanks Dave and the Skydivingmovies.com crew. :)
    Note that I was preceded out of the plane by a 3 way, 2 way and two solo belly fliers. In the full res version you can see on of the belly fliers is almost directly over it though I pass him while sitflying. Those other guys must have been and say they were pretty close. This happened on Saturday (Oct 15th) at Skydive Carolina!

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  22. 1:1:1

    Gonna have a good video once I get a firewire card in my computer. A passenger jet flew under me while I was doing a solo sit fly on my new free fly suit (beer time).

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

  24. Yay, my beer base container showed up today. I'm driving up tomorrow after class.

    Dixie
    HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
    "Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."