skydived19006

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Article Comments posted by skydived19006

  1. · Edited by skydived19006

    "There is iron in your words."

    We do a lot of what Jen's talking about with our tandem students.  I intentionally put time in the schedule such that we (Instructors) have time to spend with our students.  We could do more, Jen's DZ was a prime example of doing tandem the "right way" for sure!  

    I will admit, I hadn't considered just how awesome folks are for simply showing up at the DZ.  And, when you do spend a little time with them, you learn some incredible stories of the how and why that person is standing in front of you at that moment.

    We're by far from the largest, and really a prime example of what a small DZ is.  We don't do the most tandems, or put the most seats to altitude, but with very few exceptions every student who passes through the place gets a handshake or hug from the owner! 

    "Endeavor to persevere!"

    Martin

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  2. Excellent advice! I've seen all of those mistakes over the years too. Had one guy with just a few jumps purchase a brand new rig on credit. I think it had something to do with the credit not working for used gear. He never jumped that rig, took a huge hit selling it. I'm very often telling students to slow down, get 20 jumps, and get educated before even considering purchasing gear!
    Depending on region, you could throw Racer in there too. Around here, Racer and Strong sport stuff would be considered Tier 2.
    Martin

  4. As Annette addressed in her 4th point, a spinning malfunction is not a glitch. A large percentage of skydivers revert back to their primary training with regard to line twists, and think that this is one that they can kick out. It doesn't work! As Instructors, we need to teach at FJC that a spinning canopy is a malfunction, regardless the cause. I've seen way to many folks end up at or below 1000' trying to recover from this, and also one fatality. Brian G has a great example of what is required to "fix" a spinning line twist on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-17AHJQQ8fA

  6. I would eventually like to move to one of these cameras for HC video. I don't really like GoPro for HC video because there's no image stabilization. Last I recall seeing, the AS30 was restricted to a narrow view when the image stabilization was active.

  7. I run a DZ in Kansas, so not in the same boat as someone in Florida! Nobody in Kansas earns their living solely from skydiving, not even the DZOs. There are only three DZs in Kansas (fourth one gearing up), and we're spread out enough that we don't really compete. We tend to corporate as opposed to trying to cut each other's throat. For the last 10 years, no DZ in Kansas has been so short sighted to "feed the beast" that are the third party boiler room booking agents. Nor have any of us agreed to do what we do for a fraction of our posted prices, by engaging in daily deals.
    The last conversation I had with a Groupon sales lady I asked her a simple question. "If your boss offered to double your working hours, and pay you the additional hours at 1/3 your normal hourly rate, would you do it?"

  9. Good article, good information. The MARS M2, and I didn't realize that the Astra was at the bottom of the heap with very few in the field. That said, I've a bit out of date on the subject, always had Cypres and never seriously looked at the options beyond that.

  10. It looks like the Sony AS15 would be a good candidate for hand cam with it's image stabilization. Lack of stabilization has been my primary complaint regarding POV/GoPro cameras for hand cam video. It looks like two, side by side, one vid, one stills would work nicely on a glove. But, the AS15 will only shoot stills in time lapse at 5 second intervals min. Could build a glove for an AS15 sitting next to a GoPro for stills.