Zoso

lars_d – Thanks for the pic. Another great one for my presentation, but still not the one I remember.

Michael – Thanks for the accident report.

Michael - also not it but thank you for adding to my presentation.  Any details on this, or could you point me to an article on the accident?

Binary93 – That is not it, but I can definitely use it. Thank you. The damage I recall was even worse than in the picture you posted.

Gowlerk – That is not it either, but thank you for posting it. Even if I don't obtain the pic I'm thinking of, these 2 pics will get the message across.

These pics are eye openers for those not aware of what can happen. The pic I'm remembering is even more shocking. I seem to remember maybe 5 feet of ripped fuselage.

For Safety Day I'm looking for a well known picture.  It is of damage to a fuselage that resulted when a jumper had a premature deployment in the plane.  The canopy exited the plane and took the jumper with it.  The jumper died and the fuselage looked like a huge can opener had opened it up.  If anybody can help me out I would appreciate it.  I've googled up a storm and failed to find the exact pic I'm thinking of.

 

npole,

I purchased a VOG which speaks the current altitude to you.  The only thing I don't like is the price and poor packaging it came in. 

For AFF-I purposes, I just wanted the altitude announced so I could focus on my instructor duties.  It does that.  Personally I don't care about all the other features offered by most audible manufacturers. 

 

What's your opinion on the best gear bag, and why?  I know many will suggest a large piece of luggage, but I'm not quite ready for that.  At this time, I'd like a conventional bag with compartments to organize goodies. 

Here's a comparison pic. Although the Sharpie always works, the Bic performed the best when it did work. In defense of the Zebra 301, there are many 301 models. I picked the F-301 fine point, and it did not do well at all. Apparently other 301's work fine. I did buy the fine point, as recommended.

I agree with Peek. If I'm going to jump in a swimming pool, I'll remove my wallet first. The hassle seems to outweigh the benefit. It seems odd to me that nobody sells non-tyvek data cards.

Betzilla - The bic was too obvious for me to try. I just did and a Bic "Round Stic" wrote perfectly. The new Zebra F-301 I just purchased was not up to the task.

The Bic Round Stic is commonly found dirt cheap everywhere.

Fast answers. Thank you!

I've always prided my Fisher Space Pen to write on anything, but it has found it's match. The wax-like treatment on most reserve packing data cards mocks my Space Pen, and all other pens I have at home.

What pen will write nicely on this fiendish paper? Specifics please (brand, model, where to buy...)

Thanks!

To everybody that provided suggestions – thank you. They are all good suggestions, but we all have different situations. Even though I'm going one way with the target, others will read this and settle on their own preferences. I like that.

So while shopping today for rope, I noticed they had yellow plastic chain. I bailed on the rope idea and went with the chain. I measured out 100.5 feet and spliced the chain back onto itself. The chain is nice because I can quickly pick it back up and drop it in a tool box. I will use wolfriverjoe's suggestion for truing up the circle. I spent more than I originally intended, so I will not be donating a C license accuracy circle to our DZ. If I did proceed with 2 different targets, I could do my label idea easily with keychain style labels. They would just fasten to a link. I will only have one target circle, so I don't need to bother with a label.

Lightning126 – I'm not exactly a newbie. And I wouldn't be seeking help about Pro Rating skills on the internet. Obviously that is something you do at a DZ, with a Pro Rated mentor. I already have one eager to recruit me as a demo jumper. Sorry to disappoint you.

This post was basically to get ideas about the target. I also like getting ideas out there for others to find in the future. This post will provide that.

As for me and the Pro Rating, it is basically a fun accuracy challenge. I would satisfy the pyro and flag requirements just to get the rating, not because I have a burning desire to do either one. For me the rating would mostly be a trophy, similar to my D license. Did I NEED a D license? No. Do I NEED a Pro Rating? No.

I also enjoy challenging my friends. The portable accuracy circle would serve that purpose.

Billeisele –

So by asking for ideas about making something, you infer I don't have the mental sharpness to do demos? That's laughable. I don't know, or care who you are but I do know you can go fuck yourself.

Thank you all for the ideas. My DZ airport is privately owned by someone other than the DZO, so I am inclined to go for something minimally invasive. My next priority is ease of setup and storage. In that regard, I like wolfriverjoe's idea the best, but with yellow rope instead of garden hose. Rope is much less expensive, and can be stored in less space (in the trunk of my car). So that's what I'm going to do.

Next question:

I could either fasten the rope back onto itself as a 100.5 foot loop, or leave it alone but with a simple method of fastening one end to the other. By simple I mean bungee style hooks or something along those lines. With the latter idea I could more easily pick the rope back up at the end of the day. Any ideas on fasteners for thick rope?

To take it to the max, it would be cool to have a nice “Pro Rating” label on the rope. That way I could make another one for jumper's working on the C license requirements, with it's own label. This would be very cool to spark interest at the DZ.

I'm tempted to work on the Pro Rating. I'm curious if anyone has come up with a good temporary target.

To be specific, I want to make a 32 foot diameter circle of something that could be packed up when not used. I thought of using garden hose, which could be made to the exact circumference, but it wouldn't lay out as a perfect circle.

Any ideas?

I just purchased a bluray copy from Finland off ebay. They sell "region free' copies which are necessary for viewing in the US.

I can't answer your question, but I can tell you I've experienced almost the same injury in the exact same scenario. I was in the same slot with the same grips on an 8-way linked exit. I had been warned to not take "death grips" but I did it anyway. My justification to myself was that I'd never had a problem before with linked exits, and I didn't want to blow it.

As soon as the group left, it caught the prop blast and popped into position as a belly flying 8 way. At that precise moment, I knew I hurt my right shoulder. If I had done as advised and taken looser grips for the exit, my right hand would have slipped off the grip and I would have avoided injury. The rest of the jump was uneventful and the injury was bursitis.

I ended up getting a couple shots in the shoulder and rehab exercises. My recovery was 100% but it took around 4-5 months.

My lesson learned - do like they say and don't take death grips on linked 8-way exits out of a tailgate plane.

Bravo! Very impressive.

I can't answer your question. I look forward to hearing about you jumping it though!

Here's the article Bill is referring to. It will answer all of your questions:

http://www.dropzone.com/safety/General_Safety/Jumping_Away_from_the_Normal_Dropzone_896.html

Nice! Thanks for your efforts.

I've attached a picture of my notes I use when planning cross country jumps. It elaborates on what obelixtim said.

My notes assume wing loading close to 1:1 and that the winds aloft are consistent in direction. I like a jump run perpendicular to the wind line with the door facing the DZ. The first jumper gets out before the windline, the last jumper gets out after the windline. After all have exited, the jumpers are in a reasonably straight line perpendicular to the windline.

My logic is to plan on being over the DZ with 1000 ft left and to plan on a 1000 ft opening (just for easy math and to be conservative with the spot). If exiting at 10,000 ft, that leaves 8,000 ft of canopy time. Loaded at 1:1 you will loose approximately 1000 ft for each minute. That means you have aprox. 8 minutes of working time. In full flight your canopy will have an air speed of approximately 20 mph.

Now average the winds aloft for the altitudes you will be flying back. Lets say the average of the winds aloft is 30 mph. Add your wind speed of 20mph (which is constant) and come up with 50 mph you will be flying for 8 minutes. Multiply the minutes of canopy time times the rate of speed to determine how far you can take the spot. In this example, 8 minutes times 50 mph = 6.64 miles.

Corrections welcome with my math or logic.

Here's a scenario to watch out for that happened to me. I planned a CC jump and we all agreed afterwards we could have gone twice as far. So we did it again and I spotted us twice as far - going for about 10 miles. We came up 5 miles short. Why? Because I did not monitor the wind speeds with the pilot while on the way to the spot. Winds had dropped in half during the ride up. I'm now the proud winner of the Helen Keller spotting award at our DZ! Not a big deal if all jumpers are heads up on off landings. Big deal if that's not the case. Then again, you shouldn't be doing a CC jump if you haven't heeded all the warnings already stated on this thread.

Here's another problem newer jumpers may not consider. On those CC jumps where "we could have gone twice as far..." it can be challenging for newer jumpers to not go past the DZ. Those jumpers may not be ready to face into the wind as needed to avoid going past the DZ.

I just called the Rosemont iFly and inquired about their specs. Rosemont and Naperville are both 14 footers. The person I spoke to did not know the horsepower, but she said she thought they were both capable of 170mph.

I would recommend obtaining a paragear catalog and reading about every canopy they sell. Brian Germain's book would also be very educational to you. I'll let you figure out the name of it so I don't look like I'm advertising.

First things first - you must own the airport. That way you can't get kicked off the airport, because you own it.