Peterkn

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Everything posted by Peterkn

  1. Every DZ in the UK should operate within these limits : 2. WIND 2.1. Ground wind speed limits for Parachutists. - Student Parachutists jumping round parachutes - 10 Knots - Student Parachutists jumping ram-air parachutes - 15 Knots - FAI ‘A’ Certificate (Red) parachutists and above and Student Tandem Parachutists - 20 Knots 2.2. Suspension and Resumption of Parachuting. Suspension of parachuting will be ordered for the designations of parachutists concerned after two gusts above the limit have taken place within five minutes. After parachuting has been suspended it will not be resumed for at least thirty minutes during which time no gusts above the limit have occurred.
  2. Hi Chris, I think that incident "DHC-6 Fatal DeLand, FL April 23, 2005" has the wrong link attached to it. The link takes you to a report on a non-fatal @ Cross Keys in 2004. Keep up the good work. Pete
  3. In the UK, when a fatality occurs all parachuting operations must stop immediately, and they cannot be resumed until permission is granted by the National Safety Officer (or a person authorised/nominated by the NSO). In practice, the NSO usually attends the DZ and carries out an investigation, or he nominates someone else to perform that task. The person doing the investigation has the powers to temporarily suspend the ratings of any instructor involved in the fatality - if this is thought to be appropriate. Whilst it is possible for parachuting operations to be resumed at a DZ the same day as a fatality occurs, this is very rare. Personally, I think this system works very well. It's main advantage is it requires an independent person to visit the DZ and perform a "health check" on the way that it's being run, and the DZ can't start operating again until this has taken place. If there's a suspicion that an instructor isn't working within the rules than that person is taken out of circulation until a thorough investigation has been carried out. Pete.
  4. Yes, maybe I'll go home tonight, take the DVD down off the shelf, pop it into the machine and re-live the memories... Oh - silly me, we haven't had the DVD yet ! Never mind - maybe it'll be here in time for the 2nd anniversary. Pete.
  5. It's also missing the 282-way in Thailand in December 1999
  6. This place http://www.etravelinsure.com/index/Skydiving_Holiday_Insurance.htm looks like good value for money. Pete.
  7. I guess this really belongs in the Gear & Rigging forum, but as the issue has been raised here then I'll respond here .... There was a period (about 15 years ago) when reserve seals were banned in the UK. This is because they were thought to add to the pull force required to deploy the reserve. Reserve seals are currently acceptable in the UK, provided they comply to the guidelines specified by the BPA in this document : http://bpa.org.uk/forms/docs/Form%20215%20-%20BPA%20Reserve%20Sealing%20Method.doc If you're having a reserve repack in the States then it's worth ensuring that the rigger applies the seal in this way, so it doesn't have to be removed when you return home. The last time I was at Perris the person doing the gear check was surprised that I had a seal on my reserve, so it's certainly not mandatory at all DZ's in the States. As I understand the rules, if any part of your parachute assembly (including your main canopy) contains equipment that's TSO'd in the States then you are governed by the American reserve repack cycle rules. Otherwise the reserve repack cycle of your own country applies. This may not be the way that every DZ interprets the rules, but if the person making the decision stands to make money out of a reserve repack then chances are that this is the way they'll go. Pete
  8. The Skyvan went down late on Thursday, so we've been using 4 otters for the 6 jumps today. Hopefully it'll be fixed tomorrow. There aren't enough people here to break the 120-way record we set last year, so we're going for a sequential record instead. There have been about 86 people on most of today's jumps. A few more have drifted in during the day, but one or two have stood down because of injuries as well. Last jump today was the best so far, but we are still a few people short of completing the 1st point. If we carry on progressing at this rate and the weather holds out then I guess we'll be going for a second point tomorrow (Saturday). Pete
  9. Maria is now out of hospital. She's finding it difficult to walk because of the bruising. The hospital weren't able to supply her with crutches, but the other guys in the team are taking care of her. She'll be flying home tomorrow evening, on her scheduled return flight. Pete.
  10. I've just spoken to Gordon Hodgkinson, who has just visited Maria in hospital. She hasn't broken any bones. She has bruising to her legs and torso, and was kept in overnight for observations because she'd been unconscious. They've done some blood tests, and if the results are okay she may be discharged today. There is a slight concern over some abdominal pain, but they think that this is external bruising rather than an internal injury. If it gets worse, or if the blood tests aren't good the they may take her to another hospital for an ultrasound, but the general feeling is that she's going to be okay. It appears that one of the instructors attempted to top-dock Taz, but this was almost impossible because one of Taz's brakes was off, causing the canopy to turn. Taz landed in the sea about 50 yards from the shore and the instructor landed as close as possible on the beach. The instructor and a boat were with Taz very quickly and CPR was administered until the emergency services arrived. There were no life signs at all, and it's assumed that Taz died before landing in the sea. I can't begin to express my sorrow at the loss of such a great friend and a wonderful bubbly person. I can't imagine how Gav is feeling right now, but my thoughts are with him. Pete.
  11. I jumped on the other week when we did the 960 person world record demo into the new international airport in Bangkok. The Royal Thai Airforce have a few of them, three of which were used for the demo (along with 8 or 9 Herc's and a G-222). They refer to them as BT-67's and the World Team website says that are "highly modified turbo-charged C-47's which carry 44 skydivers to exit altitude in only 15 minutes". We took off from the existing Bangkok international airport (where this shot was taken by Gary 'Swoop' Wainwright), flew over to the new airport which is on the other side of the city and exited at 8000'. I've only done one other jump from a DC3, and that was almost 20 years ago, so comparing the two aircraft is a bit difficult for me. The BT-67 certainly felt smooth and powerful, and gave the impression that it was capable of climbing quite fast with a full load onboard. Pete.
  12. I was talking to Pat Thomas out in Thailand a couple of weeks ago. She was telling me that Reddy is in prison in Manila, awaiting deportation to the UK. The story is that Reddy was working on a construction site when one of the owners of the site was murdered. All of the employees were arrested. While he was being held for questioning Reddy's Philipino wife left him, so once the authorities were ready to release him they realised that he no longer had residency rights. Their plans to deport him failed on one occasion because he was to be flown to the UK via the UAE, and the UAE wouldn't accept him because he was still appearing on their records as being wanted for questioning over the murder charge, despite the fact that the Philippines had cleared him, and it was them who were trying to arrange the deportation. The prison system seems to move very slowly in the Philippines, so it's not easy to say when he'll actually be deported back to the UK. It appears to have taken almost a year to get to this stage, and Pat is having to communicate via the British consulate, which slows the process down even more. I'll let you know if I hear any more. Pete.
  13. You'll find both the Farringtons here[http://www.skydivekapowsin.com/] I guess they might know where some of the others hang out. Pete.
  14. Hi Steve, You seem to be saying that you can fly to the US and do your AFF & consols for around £2k. This seems a bit optimistic to me. Have you thought about accommodation costs and car hire or cost of transportation to and from the airport ? Also, are kit hire costs included in this ? You should also remember that if you learn in the States then you'll need to join the BPA to be able to jump in the UK. If you're learning in the UK then this will be included in your AFF course costs. At over £100 per year it's something to consider. I've been a regular jumper at Langar for 20+ years, and i've jumped at Eloy, Perris & Z-hills. All of these DZ's are top-notch and you should have no worries about any of them. Generally, regulation of skydiving is more strictly controlled in the UK than in the US, so standards should be higher. Having said that, all three of these US DZ's are first class and safety standards will be just as good as those at Langar. The team-building and feeling of belonging that you refer to won't happen during your 10 day trip to a foreign DZ to do your AFF etc. That starts to happen when you stop jumping with the instructors and staff and start being one of the normal weekend punters at the DZ. For that to happen you need to be committed to spending your summer weekends sitting around at a UK DZ waiting for the cloud to clear and the wind to drop. This is where many AFF graduates lose the plot. Skydiving isn't just about a couple of intensive trips a year (although many experienced skydivers do eventually settle down into routine where they do a couple of quality trips a year and do very little in between at UK DZ's). The other thing that most AFF graduates don't plan for is the need to buy their own kit quite quickly after they've graduated. When you're learning using slower progression methods you tend to get used to hanging around at the DZ, during which time you become a part of the scene there. You also tend to have a better idea about what type of kit you wnat to buy when the time comes. If the total cost of going to the US to do your AFF, then joining the BPA and doing your check-out jump(s) is cheaper than doing AFF iin the UK then you should go for it - it'll leave you more cash to buy kit with afterwards. Hope this helps, Pete.
  15. Hi Richard, who were the other 3 people on the 4-way ? It's difficult to know exactly how good/bad you are doing unless you're jumping with people who are reliable and consistent. The other issue is the "dress for success" factor. If you're going low on 4-ways it's likely you're going to struggle on anything larger. Maybe a slower jumpsuit is need ? I'm 6' & 220+ lbs and eventually realised that it's easier to wear a larger suit and arch every now and again, than to spend all my time de-arching and going low. I'm a Langar jumper too, and if you want to borrow a suit or need someone to jump with please let me know. Cheers, Pete Knight
  16. 1) 28th June '92 - My 1st jump after a layoff of over 2.5 years. (We'd landed a downplane on a concrete runway in October '89 and it took me this long to get fit again). It was a 2-way from 12K with my downplane buddy (Marcus Beck) and the only words of caution from the CCI were "no f***ing CReW" 2) 16th December '99 - my 1st FAI world record, the 282-way in Ubon, Thailand. Pete.
  17. At around the time I started jumping (1984) the BPA changed the requirement to it's current level of 200 jumps. Before this it was either the old blue C-licence (which was Cat 8 and 50 jumps) or C licence and 100 jumps. I can't remember which. This was a real bummer for me, as I was a professional photographer at the time, and just wanted to start jumping camera ASAP. I hindsight 200 jumps wasn't a bad lower limit - for all the reasons that other contributors have pointed out. However, some things have changed since then. At the time AFF was just starting to become available, and RAPS didn't exist. Most UK DZ's had piston engined planes, and the standard exit altitude was 10 grand (although we didn't break off until 3.5 grand). Most people didn't get Cat 8 until around 50 jumps. Also, serious video men wore a helemt mounted camera and seperate front mounted recorder system, which generally used full sized VHS tapes. Very few people had Auldible Alti's (although camermen sometimes went for the Paralert) and nobody who wasn't a student would be seen dead wearing a rig with an FXC AAD on it. So, bearing in mind modern training methods (including widespread availability of wind tunnels), advances in camcorder design, widespread use and avaiability of Audible's and AAD's, the might be a case for going back to the BPA and asking them to reconsider this ruling. In my view there may be a case reducing the jump numbers to 100, with the proviso that the jumper is Cat 10, has an audible alti and (possibly) an AAD. They shoulkd also have CCI's approval and have been checked-out/briefed by a suitable person. As the BPA Council elections are taking place at the moment, now might be a good time to see which candidates would be prepared to add their support to such a proposal (although it would STC rather than Council who would make the decision). Pete.