Liemberg

Make that two documented cases, in the Netherlands alone... Other than that, you can find interesting footage on youtube within a couple of minutes searching that suggest signs @ the door or at least 2 people checking might not be suchs a bad idea after all. Nobody is above making stupid mistakes and though at first glance this one appears to be beyond stupid, experienced TI's made the mistake in the past. Therefore, this mistake will be made again in the future or so the famous mr. Murphy tells us... Although it is tempting to see yourself being as much 'larger than life' as your passenger/student believes you to be, the fact of the matter remains that you are not. A few nervous passengers nagging you with the question 'Are we hooked up yet?' right after take of is a small price to pay for jumping with an extra pair of eyes that take notice Almost always those eyes have a fresh perspective on this whole endeavour of making a two person parachute jump

Well, at least it was funny.

Challenge game finished! You won the challenge with 16689 points against 15279. Funny how we both misplaced a beautiful red brick Russian church a few kilometers SW of Moscow while in fact it was way to the NE... Did you miss the road sign towards Milagres / Bahia - Brasil? Note to self: A road sign that points you to Milagres is not the same as actually being in Milagres

Don't be as long as you don't know how long it takes me to complete one round of geoguesrr...

Hey, I'm playing this on a laptop - using all the available resources isn't cheating, it is an interesting way to fill your head with useless information like "There is one 'rustic antique shop' and it is located @ Navajo blvd in Holbrook AZ according to their facebook page" or "Lewiston MT has a Yogo-inn AND a Central Feed Co Scale House"

That is in fact the best recipe to end up with your other leg also injured since you'll be concentrating on NOT landing on the injured leg in stead of concentrating on a good landing... Been there, done that, got the T-shirt... During week-courses we used to give this always came up a couple of times every season since students with mildly sprained ankles often wanted to finish the course in the week they had planned in stead of returning later for their remaining jumps. So much that I worked out a test where I let them run and turn 5 times at speed between 2 chairs that were 10 meter apart. Worked like a charm in convincing them they indeed needed 2 good legs to land on

Since I have been a "What do you want to know that fore?"- kindda person al my life, and a quick google search didn't turn up the answer, I decided to ask in the gear & rigging section in case anyone here knows. What was the weight of Felix Baumgartners presure suit? Much obliged.

Well in that case it looks like a good place to put it - if you don't tuck it away, once in freefall it will be floppin' all over the place. Maybe next time, put the chest strap through - just to make sure! "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

If you can't deal with scared people becoming professional tandem-instructor seems like an unwise carreer-move IMO

Well, in my book it is you who OWNS that list, so go right ahead!

Velocity "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Dropzone.com forums ought to be exploding! How come ye all so timid? OK - I envy the man to, but nevertheless: congrats Felix!

Depends on the amount of students per year. And they probably had a large roll of ductape in store already - No serious DZ can go without it since that stuff is specially made to keep skydiving planes from falling apart in midair. Never ceases to amaze me that some skydivers don't even know the most basic facts of the industry. "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

They have only one radio. And since they have 4 helmet sizes (S, M, L, XL) they found out that it was the easiest to just tape it

It had an FXC 12000 on the main and a cypres 1 on the reserve. We had one at my former club. The main issue with it was that you couldn't actually see what the student was doing since its free fall speed was so slow that nobody could stay up with the student. It held completely dearched students perfectly stable. When you removed the drogue, those that never practiced a good arch ended up on their back. "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Just build it so that the parachute only can come out if you let go the pole. (OK - maybe it IS rocket science - but I would start with a grip, if I were to look for a place where to put the little parachute in... If a drogue pull doesn't break my right arm, a discarded pilot chute coming out of the grip on a pole with a GOPRO probably isn't going to break my left arm - letting it go is letting it go, after all ...) Cutaway is not necessary. Just arm it in the door. Let go of the grip or throw the GOPRO away and it deploys its own parachute. Build a tracker into it. Then again, mixing these 'experimental handcam extensions' with taking paying passengers for their 'ride of a lifetime' is probably not the smartest thing to do in the current climate... You don't want to end up with camera-and-drogue knotted together and the footage on youtube

I fail to see the logic of competent, experienced skydiving professionals being responsible for the misconceptions of beginners. For instance, I guess with your 99 years of experience and 10000+ jumps you can pack more than twice as fast as someone who for the third time tries to wrestle all this slippery ZP fabric in that way-to-small bag. Following your logic you should slow down your packing to prevent the other guy from making mistakes that would invariably happen if he tried to pack as fast as you can. Somehow. I just don't think you are doing that. Other than that, with the modern light weight stuff there is indeed still the risk of getting carried away in wanting to get the shot (at the expense of surviving the skydive) but a whole lot of other issues that were part of 'bulky camera on the helmet and VHS-C recorder in the belly bag' are extinct nowadays... I don't think one has to sit up on opening with only a GOPRO or a Contour attached to the helmet, to prevent a neck injury. Then again, for a bridle it probably doesn't matter if it is caught on a GOPRO-mount or on a Newton ring sight... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

In the ideal world maybe. In the real world there's the documented fact of a +1800 jumps videoflyer smacking a + 2000 jumps TI in the head with the camera helmet on opening, killing them both in the process and leaving the student suspended at 4000ft with a recently deceased behind him to solve all possible issues... Where that can leave 'the industry'? Just follow the latest news on the recent double fatality at the Ranch, with all the lawyers of New York studying the case to see if there are big bucks to be made and all the networks screaming bloody murder over the lack of regulation and oversight.... On youtube there's enough footage to be found of "cameraflyers to the rescue" complicating situations that ought to be solved by the TI. The fact that no one gets killed most of the time does not make that a good idea to begin with - and one just never knows if not the otherwise competent camera guy suddenly decides it is time for some true heroism in the spur of the moment when the s**t hits the fan. Personally I have seen footage of a cutaway drogue + mainbag passing on one side of the camera frame while the freebag and reserve can be seen seconds later passing on the other side of the camera frame, both way to close for comfort... Granted, that was on a dutch TI's safety day, serving as an example of 'how not to', so it isn't a daily occurrence. A handcam however, be it in a glove or on a one-and-a-half foot pole cannot fly the tandempair out of the sky or dump a parachute in their face like a cameraflyer can and Murphy's second law clearly states that what cannot happen does not happen. ..

Let me guess - in your world the customer is always WRONG? Well in MY world the handcam doesn't interfere with the opening of the parachute (like outside video has done in the past with disastrous results) doesn't fall of the step of the C182 when the passenger is still moving out, is right in the customers face once the drogue is thrown, is still with the tandem to catch the first reaction after opening and only gives a different perspective in the free fall part of the jump. The customer (meanwhile) doesn't have that much aesthetic considerations about his 'prove on youtube'. 'Look at ME doing a parachutejump' is sufficient and handcam gives exactly that when done right. But lets face it: Logistics and economics ARE a part of the equasion. Safety isn't, except when you want to compare incompetent TI's doing handcam with pro's doing outside video. Logic, however, dictates that most of us must be mediocre at best in what we do - in which case, from a safety point of view, handcam is actually BETTER than outside video... Of course, in a wider perspective it is a pity that the 'job opportunity' which outside video provides for skydivers in the 300-1000 jumps range disappears for in the long run we'll run out of TI's - but that is a different discussion. Now back to the OP: Yes, you probably can jump with the GOPRO on a pole, as long as it is completely handheld, without a restraint. (Seen the footage already so it has been done successfully) It goes without saying that you risk loosing a camera once in a while. Then again, it wouldn't take rocket science to build a small parachute in the contraption that deploys when the grip on the pole is lost... If you want to do that or not is a matter of skill and economics... If not, take a handcam with the widest possible angle and/or spend half an hour daily hanging on your arms. If that doesn't sound appealing and all else fails you could try and train an Orangutan to do the job

Spank your packers more often!

Once in a lifetime I managed to leave a perfectly good airplane in midair with completely loose legstraps. (There's something to say for thread-through.) I ended up with a reservecontainer almost above my head an two barely reachable toggles. My chest strap was right under my nose. We are all sinners. Get used to it, fully knowing that complacency CAN kill you... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

+ 1! (we need a 'like' button...) "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Seems a lot smarter somehow than "crowning" the person who keeps jumping out of perfectly good airplanes without making perfectly sure there's a perfectly good main parachute on his back.

After reading through the complete thread I feel as if I have been listening to ongoing conversation in a retirement home for elderly skydivers; I'm waiting for someone to mention their prostate, amnesia, reading glasses (where did I leave them?) reduced sex-drive and old war wounds. I like that! *raizes hand* "Hey kids - upsizing may be for old farts but you better start with it soon enough if you are planning on joining their ranks in your skydiving future!" "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Whatever the canopy you are under, you will get a softer landing if you let it fly before you flare it. I also think it to be a misconception that there is an enormous difference between Zero-P fabric and 'fresh' F111. Granted, F111 wears faster and becomes more permeable relatively fast, but most reserve's are brand new if you compare them with F111 canopies with 100s of jumps. The thing can be 15 years old yes, but most of that 15 years were spent away from UV radiation. (Canopy didn't look like very old IMO) Nylon is relatively stable when stored 'in the dark' (like in your reserve container) Also, though it is a nuisance when a reserve has a built in turn, counteracting that turn with shifting your weight in the harness should at the very least reduce that turn significantly. (It may be that in this case, the turn wasn't so much caused by a flaw of the canopy but from the 'less than stable' opening shifting the harness...) When you are under a canopy with minor issues, preparing to do the best PLF you can should save the day. There's no reason to break your precious bones on a 1:1 loaded F111 canopy that - even in the worst case - has only a very limited exposure to actual jumps. Well, at least my Tempo 150 (loaded 1:1.4) saved ME twice without a scratch