Liemberg

"O Well - I only thought it would become extreme @ the moment someone has to make sure we - as in 'you and me' - end up under a parachute, something I trust YOU to keep under your control, you being a professional parachutist and all..." Of topic: anyone that has a link to the video of that tandem with a "rubenesque" from a skyvan where that pax became completely 'over the top' and only went out - still cursin' if I remember correctly - second pass over the DZ? "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Attachment is NSFW No shit, there I was - one of the best bars in Holland and I said: "any female that turns up nekid on the DZ tomorrow is rewarded with a FREE tandem..." (where were you guys when I needed you?)

On a tandem, the handcam has some advantages- economical (no extra place in the airplane for the camera) and practical (facial shot more or less guaranteed, your left hand isn't going to crash into the tandempair on opening and most importantly the camera still there under canopy...) Since with AFF a helmet cam (that wouldn't catch anything worthwhile on a tandemmasters head) is a viable option that catches what YOU (the AFF-I) are looking at (which seems to be your student most of the time) the disadvantages in putting the camera on your hand far outweigh the few benefits (as in "certain shots would become possible") On tandems, handcams are not really flown (me thinks). They'r just so attached to the TI's left hand that the wide angle lense catches most of the students face most of the time - but if I need my left hand to stop us spinning under the drogue "you have to pay for the video anyway"

What would help, when it comes to "hurting their feelings" that there's a paragraph in the written "terms and conditions" of the place where you are jumping that allows the tandeminstructor (i.e. you) to refuse to jump with them without being obliged to give them a reason why. (Could be bad breath, could be racist prejudice, could be you being an ass***e, could be too much fat - they will never know...) In my experience, once they understand that this is a somewhat different business model (hint: everyone just signing papers that say they are OK with us breaking both their legs and them not sueing us for that) they are also OK with you, the TI, being in charge from the get go - you may not go and need not to tell them why.... The disandvantage is of course that secretly they expect to be kept in one piece, despite the contract they just signed... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

With some leverage out of the door & the blisfull workings of gravity in freefall?

I'm the worst sucker for gizmo's on the planet ("wannahave is my middle name") so I just have to ask: How much for the "power closer" and does it come with adjustable tension?

With all due respect - if I ever need the cameraflyer to save the day, I am in the process of making one tandemjump too many and should have quit before getting caught with my pants down...*) If you are a TI you either regret the instance when you weren't critical enough about lurkers or there's some learning in your future. Though I belong to the first kind of TI's ("Jeez, what was I THINKING when I allowed THAT on the skydive!") I wouldn't put a fixed rule in place other than maybe "I don't want you anywhere in the same airspace when I'm entertaining your missus!"

But it is also where a slow opening can continue. Five seconds to go when in freefall with the definite determination to always beat the AAD...

That's what I keep telling my tandem "students". But do they listen? Nah...

My favorite? Depends on the task @ hand. If a Strong Master 425R with no steering help from the passenger saves my old carcass I feel like hugging it, but it doesn't beat the HOP in steering comfort, the Contrail 390 in ease of packing (it's a reserve, after all) or the Set 400 in comfort from opening until landing - tough on windy islands sometimes you desire some more penetration than that canopy can give you with a light companion... Come to think of it, I try to stay within a certain range of wingload and meteorological condition but hey, beggars cant be choosers

You are incorrect in your assumption that I didn't read the complete post, before responding. Then again, maybe you didn't like my response. You'r willing to pay 3.5 times the amount of money for your ticket, compared to what you are paying now? You like packing on carpet, big screen TV to watch yourself on video etcetera? Go thank the next overweight tandempassenger you'll meet - she's paying for it... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

We are running for money? OK, let's see where the money is... Math 101 If a DZO has the last two places in the last load of the day to fill and the net revenue of a tandem (after paying the TI and the cost of the rig) is 3.5 times that of two funjumpers, what would be the sensible thing to do, from a business POV? Wanna fly first class? Pay first class. Just face it guys, at best you are the DZO's hobby*) ... *) Doesn't matter if it costs a few bucks but it shouldn't interfere with one's livelyhood... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Well, by stopping the skydive at least you responded correctly to the situation a lot faster than the online community can come to an agreement what the situation WAS...

Your airplane flies on noncombustible fuel with engines that remain so cold that they never can ignite anything in case of a crash? Ours doesn't... It makes you wonder what that firewall between the engine and the passenger cabin is for that you find in almost all single engine GA aircraft and why almost everywhere in the world fire extinguishers are mandatory in those aircraft. IMHO this is a real and serious problem that doesn't go away by just ignoring it. (which isn't to say that I have a solution for it...) "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Anything longer will send my editor into a frenzy - he aims at 7 to 8 minutes tandemvideo's and hates it when he has to look at too much footage "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

As this "hybrid" probably has the same issues as all other "hybrids" (not particularly good in any of the seperate tasks it combines) I haven't put my hopes up too strong, but I'm looking at it right now as maybe a viable option for handcamera. Anybody here that has some experience with this camera? Anybody that has some experience with camera's that utilise memory cards? This one supposedly can do 720p / 30 frames per second video, but it would fill a 4 GB card in 14 minutes. However, that is just about the amount of footage one would need for a tandemjump, sooo... Any comments would be welcomed. And yes, handcam with tandems is going to kill the sport, drive all serious videoflyers out of business and produces rotten video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5T2hNYAXKI "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Amen? Well. at least when you guys catch up with me doing stupid shit while tandeming, there probably will be video footage of it - if I screw up spectacularly... I must say that I could really look forward to a nice feeding frenzy between lawyers and mediatypes were I not to miss the event, in all likelyhood... As Michael Herr once put it: "The only body you really couldn't bear looking at you are not going to see..." - and a parent can always defend his kids actions....

Yeah, lets organise a lynch mob. That 'll educate the kid... (IMO we all lack in parental duties, from time to time. It comes with the teritory of being a parent. AND it is not as if this was the first footage of foolish behavior with ignorant passengers as innocent victims. But sometimes the "DZ.Com"munity sounds like they (the passengers) should consider themselves lucky just by having their harness adjusted and hooked up prior to exit, so as long as you don't loose them on opening, I think we all deserve some latitude... but hey, that's just me... YMMV...) "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

The backflying isn't the issue here. I would let you jump with me and film tandem in any attitude you are comfortable with. However, there are two virtual cones around me and my passenger, directly above and directly below us. From what I see in your video you regularly trespass into one of these cones, the one below the tandempair. You shouldn't. When you backfly under a RW group, not only do they understand and accept the risks, but NO ONE IS TRAILING A DROGUE. Just take a look at it like this (since you have done enough video jumps to be allowed to do it with tandems, I gather that you have made a few with unexperienced flyers also...) Would you fly video with a complete beginner if you were unable to take "evasive action" should you see that beginner approaching way too rapid? Would you be able to take "evasive action" as easily as you can do now, if you had a passenger strapped to your chest and a drogue trailing behind you? O and by the way - your dad is biased.

When it is about YOU seeing him (and not the rest of the world seeing him) You might consider artwork in the slider. (I jump several different tandemcanopies with artwork in them on a regular basis. I tend to recognise wich one is wich - apart from openingcharacteristics - by their color, not by what is written / drawn on the bottom layer of the canopy, since the slider blocks my view... A former cameraflier that jumped at my place had "filmed by Crisp" written inside his slider; worked like a charm...) "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Since all the canopy gliding and piloting experience in the world are not going to help you with a high performance skydiving canopy spinning up on you during deployment due to bad body position, NO is indeed the correct answer, IMHO. You might go as far as to ask him what part of NO he doesn't understand... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

In that case you might as well jump uninsured and pay your own bill - look at what you would save on the admin fees... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

That may all be true, the difference between a "thermal" and a "thunderstorm" (in fact it is) but "once upon a time" I came out of the trusted C182 as the second tandem and ended up in a towering cumulus cloud I thought I was going to miss. The weather could be described as "sunny but unstable, with patches of so called towering cumili that started at 2000ft and grew to 6500ft." I ended up right in the middle of that cloud and decided to spiral my way out of it. I started to spiral hard at 4000ft and after 20 seconds or so I was still at 4000ft (!), "going nowhere fast". Knowing the weather situation and the kind of cloud this probably was I decided to fly straight in a random direction (cloud was so thick I lost sight of both ground and sun) on the premise that the other tandem that I had seen in freefall far enough away from the cloud should be at below 2000 by now and that once out of the cloud, the parachute - which at that time was going up again (!) would start to descend normally. As I approached the side of the cloud, all of a sudden I started to go down with twice the normal speed - comming out of it at 2000 ft. As luck would have it I came out of it more or less where I would have wanted to be anyway, had I seen where I was going and the rest was uneventfull. Interesting phenomenon, towering cumulus...

Lift your legs, keep them slightly bent, grab your knees*), make sure you see your toes. "I might say STAND UP - but if I don't you 'll just slide in..." *) Actually, that's what I tell them the grips on their legs are for. No one ever asks why there are also grips on their arms..hehehe... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

But, to take it back to the "getting dressed for succes" analogy - the skydive starts earlier than the exit. Even if you would be able to "forget about your camera", you still have to make sure there's film in it, it is turned on, has enough power, is "zoomed out", has the manual focus @ the right distance, is aiming in alignment with your eyes etcetera. And the last time I looked it was rather hard to park an airplane @ 9000ft at the exitpoint for a couple of minutes untill I was completely ready to skydive... Furthermore, in the words of the dutch writer Cees Nooteboom : "Memory is like a dog, it lays down where it wants..." What he ment by that was that all efforts to conciously forget things are doomed from the start and a contradiction in terms. People cannot conciously forget things. "Must remember to forget about the camera" "Must remember to forget about the camera" "Must remember to forget about the camera" In reality every "young grashopper" I saw strapping on a camera for the first time started out with forgetting to fly his body "while keeping his head still" or was moving his head on a swivel while flying his body. Both produces lousy video. "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...