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

I agree that in some cases that better jump pilot training is needed and I have been in this sport long enough to know that sometimes maint is lacking, but the idea of trying to adapt part 135 or require an additional FAA issued rating to fly jumpers is not the answer. With very few acceptions all US DZs are USPA member DZs. We as a community have found a way to structure a training program for the jumping side of the operation in tandem, AFF, static line, and coach programs, requiring a hierarchy of examiners to issue skydiving ratings. If there is going to be additional requirements to fly jumpers (and there are many good arguments for just that). Why not develop a program within our own community, using the expertise that we already have to structure a program and issue a non FAA issued rating to fly jumpers at USPA affiliate DZs. As far as the maint side of things go, there are already regs in place to address that. If a DZO is willing to brake those regs adding another layer is not going to change anything. Adding a group of people that know very little about day to day jump operations (FAA) and giving them more power to regulate will open a can of worms that is better left shut. Doug

I have been jumping a Katana 107 at 2.0 for 3 years now and for the most part all of the above posts are spot on. Start high enough to let it mostly recover on it's own. It will require either some light rear riser or light toggle to plane out even it you execute perfectly but try to keep it to a minimum (without leaving a divot). If you find yourself stabbing, not only is it dangerously deep in the corner, but there goes all your speed and distance. The best tool that you have to improve your technique is a video camera on the ground and a good debrief of the footage with the best canopy pilot that you can find that's willing to help. Good luck and have fun. Doug

I don't know what kind of rig you have or what kind of leg strap hardware it has but there has been some issues with some batches of stainless hardware slipping in the past. I bought a used Vector 3 with stainless hardware and about 400 jumps on it and the legstraps slipped much like what your talking about. I called Relative workshop. They had me ship it to them and even though I was not the original owner they replaced the leg hardware for free. Problem went away. Doug

I jump a Katana 107 at 2.0 The Katana is not a flat gliding canopy even at your wing loading in normal flight (no canopy inputs). It is trimmed fairly nose down resulting in a fast forward speed in steady state unaccelerated flight. However it does flatten out quite nicely with some rear riser input (by this I mean at altitude as in trying to get back from a poor spot, not on landing as I wouldn't recommend that you use rear riser input as a regular landing technique until you gain some experience on your new toy. Have fun and be careful, Doug

If you want to fall into the trap of paying a coach feel free but at many DZs there is plenty of people that will jump with new jumpers for free including me. And although I don't call Wissota my home DZ I do ocassionally jump there and I wouldn't be surprised at all if you were able to get your lisc for less than a grand. Doug I was going to say the same thing Dave. At $1000 for the AFF program you are still looking at another ~18 jumps to meet the rest of the requirements to get your A licence. Some of those are going to be coach jumps at close to $50-75 plus gear rental charges. Gear rental is $15-30 a jump or a flat rate of $50-100 per day depending on where you are. Its not uncommon to spend $2500 to get your A licence then you need to either continue renting gear or buy your own. It might be a better idea to look at doing something like AFF level 1 now and then spend some time over the next year or two to save up some money to jump again once your baby is born. Jumping is a large time commitment also, its not really a "I'm running out for 2 hours, will be right back" type thing. With a new baby it might be hard to find the time to jump all the time.

Provided the canopy is made of ZP fabric and has been stored and cared for properly, there will be very little if any decrease in porosity with jump numbers. F-111 canopies do loose porosity with jump numbers, but thats not what were talking about here. Doug

If it's a Triathalon and it's not your primary main, why wouldn't you want CRW lines on it. A long time ago I had a TRI 160 with CRW lines on it and of all the canopies I've had and sold, I wish I still had that one. At the wing loading your talking about your not putting microline on for performance. By lining it with the Dacron CRW set up you have a canopy that is much more versitle and will most likely be easier to sell of you decide to eventually. DA

I don't know what you all think but it occurred to me that landing with the aid of a tunnel or a slope of some kind isn't really landing in the true sense of the word. We land every day with the aid of purpose built equipment a parachute. Don't get me wrong, it's going to be a cool STUNT and I hope he pulls it off. I just don't see it as getting us any closer to jumping flying about and landing without a parachute. With the cost to construct the ramp and the skills needed to hit the hole, I just don't see this happening on any kind of scale anytime soon. Go Jeb.

Thats why all of my previous posts say that it's important to make a plan and that the plan varies depending on what type of load your on. I totally agree that if there is a wingsuiter or a tracking dive on the load that it's not a good idea to track off. The bottom line is please use your head and plan accordingly. every dive is different. Doug

I like more seperation rather than less. I agree with you that if I see someone that I know does not track well tracking off it concerns me because if I track in there direction I might well catch them. Thats why I don't advocate this to newbies.