willhill

Hi Harry, A friend told me the sad news yesterday. He mentioned that there was a possibility of a new DZ opening near Henderson at some future time. Is it just a rumor? What's your take? Thanks........Will

Are you saying that the brake toggle was not threaded through the cat's eye in the brake line, so that the brake line was not packed in the half-brakes position? Yes, I think so. Someone else recovered my main after a long search by a bunch of us. He told me that the toggle's pin (Vector 3) was still stowed but the line was out. By the time I saw it, both toggles had been unstowed. Did you think to try and reach up and release both brakes to see if that would stop the spin? In retrospect, that's the first thing I should have tried. I was just stunned and surprised, whipped around and, frankly, didn't hesitate much to chop it. Also knew I was on a long spot and would probably have to quickly find a place to land out - and did. I don't have much experience but always appreciate feedback. Thanks, John........

Nothing new here, but a lesson learned. Pitched my Spectre 170 loaded at 1.1 at 3K and immediately went into a violent left spin that held my body at a near horizontal angle. The slider was crumpled below a couple of tight line twists. "If all I see are line twists, why the hell am I spinning like this?", I wondered - but not for long. Chopped it at 2K and, thankfully, the Skyhook delivered a stable reserve before I even had time to pull my reserve handle. After landing, first thoughts were line over or tension knot but, upon inspection of the main, we discovered toggles stowed but right-hand brake line out. Lesson: Be meticulous about stowing excess brake lines.

Make sure to spell/grammer check your paper before you hand it in. Good luck.

Great advice and well expressed.

Yes, like that. I also wanted to add that skydiving's just the most goddamn fun.

Here's a good quote: "The more improbable the situation and the greater the demands made on (the skydiver), the more sweetly the blood flows later in the release from all that tension. The possibility of danger serves merely to sharpen his/her awareness and control. And perhaps this is the rationale of all risky sports: You deliberately raise the ante of effort and concentration in order .... to clear your mind of trivialities. It's a small scale model for living, but with a difference: Unlike your routine life, where mistakes can usually be recouped and some kind of compromise patched up, your actions, for however brief a period, are deadly serious." A. Alvarez

Big oops. Meant 1000ft, of course.

Once, I had a Neptune beep at 1000K, like normal. Jumped at 14K and didn't hear anything after that. The battery went bad during the climb. Don't rely on it exclusivly.

Great skydiving question. I'm sure a lot of people will be real interested in this question. Go away....

A super cool reply. Too bad it doesn't begin to answer this person's question.

Thanks much for the info, Dawn. I'll definately schedule some coached time with Bodyflight at the tunnel later this spring. Good luck with everything.

Anyone know about Appalachian Amusement Center open-air wind tunnel near Ashville NC? There's an article by John Hoover (with Golden Knights) in Skydiving magazine. His take is generally positive. Just funny that I hadn't heard about this place from advertising or fellow jumpers. It's only about 3 hours away from me. I have some time in the Orlando tunnel which, of course, is enclosed space. Thoughts from anyone?

Ah....it's too bad some of us can't be in the same physical room together and discuss this subject. You are by far the most eloquent spokeswoman on your side of this debate. Your posts have made me pause and think. I'll bet if we were in a room, some people would not outright say that this man was an F*ing idiot, especially when faced with his friends. It's the kind of thing that's easy to say when you're pecking on your keyboard, alone, and posting your 'ideas' on an internet forum. But, the recurring problem I have with your argument is that you seem to believe that anyone who hasn't faced depression, in the way that you have, is ipso facto unqualified to form an opinion on the subject that happens to differ from your own. What's funny is I found myself agreeing with much of Ladyskydiver's post. I wonder if you agree that there are grey areas here? No one has a lock on the truth (however that might be defined). I'll admit to being bewildered by the fragmented missive you directed to me. You dismiss people who havn't gone through what you have, yet you don't know what the others to whom you direct your comments have been through. Clearly, folks here are divided into two sort of existential camps (though Skylark, with his 'tragic hero' thesis, appears to be in the process of forming one of his own). My point is pretty simple: if you're thinking about killing yourself, go get professional help; if you're intent on killing yourself and you happen to be a skydiver, please don't use a dropzone as the stage to act out your final performance in this life.

Agreed. They should feel free to ignore people like me. I won't be able to help them.

Here's a better idea: go ahead and make that last jump, land standing up, leave your rig at the DZ, get in your car, drive to a nice hotel, check in, unpack a bottle of pills and a fifth of single malt . . . . and have at it.

Thanks for your post here. Your views come from a perspective few of us have seen. Recently, I was involved in a brief exchange about this subject in the Incidents forum (Northern Ireland Skydiver...). Suicide is a subject that elicites visceral reactions from most people. I disagree with the opinions of Michele, Nightingale and others with respect to the mental state of a depressed individual bent on suicide. Most suiciders are not delusional schizophrenics. Regarding skydivers, I don't believe that a chemical imbalance in their brains suddenly transforms them into zombie-like lemmings who march into dropzones, strap on rigs and kill themselves in front of fellow jumpers. No, this is a plan; a decision that they contemplate and then carry out with cold deliberation. And I agree with you that these skydivers crave an audience for their final jump - a last stab at glory, pathetic as it is. Folks in the skydiving community should roundly condemn anyone who comes to a dropzone to commit suicide, even after they're dead. Don't we all want our friends to remember us with love and respect after we die? If a friend of mine burned in as a suicide at my dropzone, I'd be hard pressed to raise a glass to his poisoned memory. So, what are we supposed to do? We go to our DZs to have fun and be safe among a fine band of people. We aren't psychologists or therapists. We can't read minds, let alone try to detect a potential suicider hanging around in the packing area. Maybe every DZ should be required to have a trained counselor on call. Right. I don't fundamentally care if someone truly wants to end their life. We are the only creature on the planet that can choose whether we want to take the next breath or not. And that's OK. But if you're a skydiver, don't take that last breath jumping out of a plane. We won't buy you beer.

Thanks speedy, kallend, and others. Your advice was in line with my thinking. The wealth of knowledge and generosity on these forums is awesome. Blue skies.........

How important is it on breakoff to track perpendicular to jump run? I've heard different opinions about this at my DZ. Some say you'd better always do it - others say it doesn't matter. On a 6+ formation not everyone can track 90 from jump run. It's also difficult on cloudy days. Basically, I try to do it when I can, but don't worry too much if I can't. Any thoughts from experienced jumpers?

There'll be a lot more experienced skydivers than me giving you advice, but...........just keep jumping and try to recall which body position did what in the air. Bigger muscles don't really help (except maybe during a bad landing, and I'm not even sure about that) --- maybe you've seen 98lb women flying awesome in the sky. Jump and learn; it'll come.

It's inconceivable, not to mention irresponsible, that staff at a DZ would close manifest and pop open beers when jumpers are landing off. All canopies have to be accounted for and as soon as it's clear that anyone is landing off, someone better hop in a van and go find them. Unbelievable.

I agree with you. Thanks for the input. Take care..........

Thanks, Larry, I didn't know about the system you describe. I probably won't get a chance to try it since I'm not interested in becoming a tandem instructor. Anyway, in some sense I envy you for having had that one cutaway. Good luck w/ everything Blue skies..........

You say one of your chops was intentional. I've considered doing this just to have the experience. Yet the experience of flying the reserve for fun must surely be different, on many levels, than the necessity of doing it after a genuine malfunction. Is it worth it to try it? What do you think? Frankly, sometimes I'm tempted.Quote