deadbug

As far as the airplane goes, there is no restrictions as to what type of airplane can be used unless the jumps are performed for compensation and then you can't use a experimental category airplane. As far as the pilot goes if he/she has only a private pilot lisc., they must share in the cost of operating the aircraft. You can not compensate them, that would be a commercial operation and for that they need to have a commercial lisc. As far as where they can land you must obtain permission from the land owner if it is private property. The regs state that a pilot may not drop objects from a plane (you) in a manner as to endanger persons or property on the ground. Due to the fact that you have no formal training as of yet, this one might bite you. This type of operation (pilot friend trying to get you out the door of his A/C) if it were to result in any type of "incident or accident" might bring careless and reckless operation into play. Assuming you obtain the required experience and follow the FAR's (file a notam, contact the radar controlling agency having control over the airspace that you intend to jump through), it is both possible and legal to make a jump like this. Now head out to your local DZ get some training and experience.

Ah the Dajango Dragonfly225..my first canopy.

Why would you be jumping in a area where lightning is present? Doug

The input side experiences a decreased vertical component of lift and a increased horizontal component of lift due to the warping of the input side front of the canopy. This is a direct result of the warping of the canopy on the input side and a decreasing of the angle of attack on the input side. To put the process on a time line. Lets assume a left front riser turn. Left front riser pulled down resulting in a decreased angle of attack on the left side of the canopy resulting in a decrease in vertical component of lift on the left side resulting in a roll to the left resulting in a increased horizontal component of lift across the entire wing. Doug

I went to Dacron for my lower steering line this summer for this very reason. I fly a Katana at 2.0 and don't want any supprises at 15ft. Although I can land on rears there may not be enough time to react if a brake line snaps at the wrong time. Doug

Bills post is spot on. Bill and I were in the wacker from the right trail plane and on the first jump our entire wacker built cleanly and without tension in the grips. Unfortunetly as Bill said the base was taken out on every attempt by poor flying and over agressive docking. On attempt 2 and 3 there was nothing solid in front of us to dock on so we just lurked our slots and waited for the base to rebuild. I think there should have been some agressive axe swinging, unfortunetly although there was some very talented and capable bellyflyers at Couch that would have been great replacements, most chose not to get involved because they have been on many Couch bigways in the past that were a zoo and I think they felt this would be just more of the same. There was deffinetly 66 capable people at couch that could have built that formation, they just were not all on the skydive.

Tam and I are coming down on Thurs night. Gotta go look for some new polyester. See ya in the corn. Doug

Todd's contagious smile and enthusiasm will be dearly missed. Blue Skies Todd. Tammy

I don't know what to say. Todd was a great guy. It's rare that you meet someone in this sport with the level of sustained enthusiasm that Todd had for the sport. What a shock your going to be missed my friend. I raise my glass to a great skydiver. Blue skies forever, DA

Line overs and tension knots seem to be the common tandem mals. Line twist resulting in a spinning mal on hot sport canopies seems to be the common sport mal. Doug

$9 to 10,000ft early 90's small club. DA

Even though he was going to try to do sone tracking, his plan was to track 90 deg to jump run so the fact that it was planned as a tracking jump should not have been a factor in deciding exit order. As such common wisdom dictates that belly exit befor freeflyers, biggest group to smallest group within there respective groups. If he basically went no where in his track as it sounds like, and given the short seperation, he may have just been a victim of freefall drift and a good example of why belly should exit befor freeflyers. Doug

I have been jumping a Katana 107 at 2.0 for 3 years and agree with everything in the above posts with reguards to packing and deployment. Once you get it figured out you'll love it. DA

Nope, They do in my opinion however have a very good AFF and tandem program in place. My suggestion is to mirror those programs drawing on our own pool of talent. Designate someone with vast amounts of experience to head up the program, then designate examiners in various regions of the country to take it to the field. Require initial training and at least annual training to maintain your USPA jump pilot card. It has always amazed me that we have such well developed programs in place for the jumping side but no real structure on the flying side. My main point is that we have the ability to handle this ourselves without looking outside to the FAA.

I know who it's regulated by as I am a part 121 captain for a major carrier with close to 7000 hours of flight time and multiple type ratings. I also have flown around 1200 in jump operations and did my time in 135 ops too. My point is that there is nothing that says that a program taylored specifically towards jump ops cant be developed by the people that have the experience and expertise ie. jump pilots. There are many areas of aviation that require specialized training specifically to the type of operation outside of the scope of the FAA (AG, banner towing, bush flying). Of course there are regs in place that apply to these operations but most of these industries go above and beyond the requirements in the interest of safety and self preservation. We as a group can do the same without inviting the FAA in to stir the pot. A great example is the entire AFF program. Is there an FAA requirement for jump training in the US? The FAA recognises that the jump community is better suited to train jumpers and has taken a hands off approach. There is no reg that keeps my neighbor from buying a rig and jumping from his friends plane without seeking jump training. With the exception of some very basic regs that regulate all part 91 ops and the basic provisions of part 105 we have been allowed to develop our own training. We can do the same with jump pilot training. Doug