dninness

Bunch of years ago, probably my 2nd or 3rd year in the sport, none of the local DZs were open early in the season, but the word got passed around that another DZ, a bit further away, would be open for the upcoming nice weekend. Me and a couple buddies bombed out there, waivered and headed to probably the sketchiest Cessna I ever jumped. We arrive at 10K, door opens and I realize I have no goggles. First thought was "OK, if I forgot my @#$& goggles, what ELSE did I forget?" No time like the present to learn what freefall w/o goggles feels like. Yeah, do able. Not pretty, but it worked. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

When Bob D. got his insurance check for crashing the caravan, they threw a big ass "new airplane" party.... and I just knew sure as shit, when I saw this guy's 14 year old Daughter win the wet t-shirt contest that night, there was going to be a heap of trouble.... Last I heard she had run off with a packer from Jerry's flying circus... Thread is useless without photos. Wait, what? NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

The first two guys on the scene were a retired NH state trooper who is currently a chief of police, and an active duty Naval Aviator who is a former Navy rescue swimmer. He was a *ways* up in that tree, too. Not just 30 ft in the air. No, I think it was more like 60 ft or more. The professionals on the scene ascertained that more than one of the packers who likes to climb trees was needed. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

If you read the posted stories and comments here (esp. mine): 1) DZ is in Pepperell. Skydiver landed in Dunstable (across the river from the DZ). A different town. 2) The "Essex County Technical Rescue Team" is from a combined community area of Essex County, MA. The nearest town in Essex County to Pepperell is Methuen, MA, which is about 14 miles away. (I assume these guys got called cuz Middlesex County does not have technical rescue capabilities) 3) You will note that the skydiver is being billed by the Essex County Fire Chief's Association, which manages multi-town compacts, such as the technical rescue team, within Essex County. Not the town of Pepperell and not even the town of Dunstable where he landed. The town of Pepperell is actually pretty good about the DZ. We get along fairly well with our neighbors (you have the McNasty or two, of course) and when we have off-landings (*cough* J-Sho *cough* ), there have been instances of skydivers being offered beer and barbecue. Sadly, in the off-landings I've had, I *always* seem to miss landing next to the pool full of bikini-clad beauties with coolers full of beer. *Dammit* But I'm pretty sure that Pepperell isn't funding its fireworks thru a cooperative agreement with the Essex County Fire Chiefs Association. Call me crazy... NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

I haven't had to be attended by emergency services as a result of a skydiving accident/incident. (apparently to my good fortune) I shall endeavor to avoid it in the future based on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Taxachusetts' desire to offset their operating budgets on the backs of the unlucky and clumsy. (the Mass-NH border is about 1/4 mile from the end of the runway. If I think I'm gonna land in a tree, I'll see if I can't pick one on the north side of the border..) Something to consider is the potential chilling effect this may have on other DZs. The next nearest DZ, Jumptown, is over in Orange, MA. What happens when the town of Orange takes a cue from Dunstable and says "Yeah, uh, that last run is gonna cost you guys $1000.." Mind you, the Pepperell DZ is in the town of Pepperell. Dunstable is across the Nashua river from the DZ. So no matter if Pepperell pays taxes to Pepperell, they don't really pay it to Dunstable, and they sure as hell don't pay it to multiple towns that participate in the technical rescue compact. So WTF? "Sorry, but since your town doesn't pay us taxes, we're not going to send our technical rescue team to you.." After a few (maybe as many as a dozen) major lost hiker searches in the White Mountains, the NH Department of Fish & Game started charging people who they felt were particularly negligent or careless in their preparation and conduct of their hikes, climbs, etc. Now, in the last few years, I've seen some pretty stupid hikers just wander into the wilds completely unprotected, without supplies or equipment, and carrying little more than a cell phone for the purposes of self rescue (read that again: a cell phone for self-rescue is not really a self-rescue. Thats "I'll let someone else pull my cookies out of the fire in the event I fuck up"). Those people need to be smacked around and presented with a bill for the 60-100 searchers, helicopter fuel, etc, if they survive and are found. However, I think it was last year when a teen went missing in the White Mountains, and after search he was found, safe & healthy. He'd gotten misplaced (aka "lost") but had sufficient clothing and equipment that he was able to stay warm throughout the night and he either got back to the trail or remained in place till rescuers found him. I think he was an Eagle Scout, so he had some knowledge and it was just a navigation error that stuck him in the woods overnight. Now, should this kid get charged? I think you can say "OK, that sounds like a simple accident to me." Should the group of 4 hikers from the "flatland" who picked the wrong trail, carried no food, water, extra clothing or flashlights, be charged? I think so, because they failed to exercise due caution for the activity they were undertaking. But then, its "who gets to determine whether it was just dumb luck, or simple negligence?" The Fire Chief? Pffft. Thats a hazard. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

FYI, guys, I sort of misspoke (mistyped?). Deep brakes might be an overstatement. More like "started practicing more forms of braked approaches" rather than practicing "deep brake" approaches. My canopy (at the time) was a Monarch 195 and I was loading it about 1.1:1 or 1.2:1. No hankie-chutes for me, thanks. When the fecal matter is in the rotary air movement device, I want more nylon, no less, over me. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

My DZ is about 4-5 miles from the "city," but there certainly are built-up residential areas nearby to the DZ. Couple years ago, I made a series of bad decisions on a skydive, coupled with poor decisions on the part of others (suffice to say, when the S&TA looks at you and says "The wind is X, are you sure you want to go?" you say "Uh, yeah, good point.." ) and wound up landing off in a trailer park local to the DZ. This trailer park is pretty tight (narrow streets, trailers not exactly lock-step next to one another, but close enough), loaded with wires, trees, trailers, sheds, mailboxes, swingsets, cars, etc. I've driven by it on my way to the DZ, but never really looked "close" at it. http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XO8ZRcEMkFI/SF7NuEvS9WI/AAAAAAAABQs/MA7syEQakqg/s800/landing.jpg (thats an annotated pic of the trailer park). The week before, I'd been jumping a demo Spectre. That week, I was back on my tried and true, very familiar to me, Monarch 195. Had I been under the Spectre, I probably would have eaten it. As it was, at 1000 ft, descending into this maze of wires and trees, all I could think was "In the next 60 seconds I'm either going to be dead or seriously injured.." Someone very smart once told me "Fly it all the way to the chocks" and "Don't ever give up," and with that in mind, I gritted my teeth, though "I have no choice here but victory," and maneuvered to land in a little intersection by sinking my canopy over some wires. Sadly, I did not account for the loss of cross wind due to the lee of the 70+ ft high trees, and my canopy picked up a tremendous amount of speed when the wind went away down low. I flared about 1/2 second late and ate the asphalt pretty hard. Skinned myself up a little, dinged my left foot and my left ass cheek, but otherwise, I was intact. Got a little blood on one of J-Sho's loaner wingsuits. :( Since then, I've practiced deep brake approaches much, much more, using the beer line as the "line of powerlines" and trying to sink my canopy over an imaginary 40 ft barrier to land in the peas. Its an interesting exercise, to be sure. And a skill we should all at least be familiar with. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Good point. I was throwing the qualification thing out there as a potential "force multiplier," but its surely not a necessity or even a realistic requirement. And you're right: its not like you can say "yeah, you can carry on this campus, but only if you meet these 4 requirements.." sorta defeats the purpose right out of the box. Part of the deterrence aspect involves not knowing who or how many might be armed. Remember kids, "An armed society is a polite society." NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Wow, I know I'm going to regret this.. :) I used to work at a college. Not a big one, but we had about 1000 undergrads (about 750 in campus housing, about 250 in off-campus apartments, commuting, etc). Our campus safety department would have been outgunned by Barney Fife, and most of the time outnumbered by him, too. There was one campus "cop" on duty at any one time, usually, and a dispatcher. None were armed. The local town PD was not in much better shape. Their department might have 3-4 officers on during the day, not counting the Chief & the office folks, and the only "backup" to them would have been the County's sheriff (20-30 minutes away once called) or the State Police (15-20 minutes away, once called). (admittedly, if the town PD were involved at any time of the day or night, they had a lot more tools, and by "tools" I mean "firepower," at their disposal, from sidearm to M-4 retrieved from the trunk of the cruiser.) We practiced lock down drills occasionally, and the "active shooter" discussion usually got rolling after yet another campus shooting happened someplace (most notably VT and NIU) else. Those discussions petered out once the shooting news rolled out of the headlines and nothing was really done by our administration. (But let me tell you: the hue and cry and outright breast beating by the faculty when the subject of arming the campus safety department came up would have made you think that the administration was suggesting stationing the National Guard on campus to quell insurrection, too. One of the most adamant profs really made an about face on the subject following the NIU shooting, as he was an NIU alumnus. Funny how that works..) Several of us in my department were ex-military and owned firearms. We often spoke of our frustration as legitimate firearm owners (and in one case, licensed to carry concealed) that in the event of "the shit hitting the fan" there would be little or nothing we could do except cower under our desks and hope like hell a locked door was a sufficient deterrent. Honestly, it was a little disquieting to know that even the campus safety people were being told "run". Would concealed carry make much of a difference? Who knows, its hard to tell, and every situation is different. 1 armed individual out of, say, 100 might have made a difference in the Virginia Tech shooting, for example. Then again, maybe not. A friend of mine lives in Salt Lake City. His girlfriend's daughter's classmate was killed in the Trolley Square mall shooting spree in 2007. A shooting spree that was partly blunted by an armed citizen (an off duty cop from a nearby town, but it could have been Joe Citizen, too). Kind of puts things in perspective when it directly affects people you know, too. Honestly, I don't think every Tom, Dick or Mary should be armed on a college campus. Not every concealed carry person is necessarily capable of actually responding to an active shooter scenario in that kind of a place, and doing so in a beneficial way. Students, in particular, the majority of whom are under the age of 21, should probably NOT be armed in the dorms. I'm sure there are ways it could be done that would be safe for everybody, but at a certain point is a diminishing benefit versus the cost and complication, not to mention the limited number of students, age-wise, who would qualify to carry who would live in the dorms, would make that just a total non-starter. Now, armed carry by qualified students during the day (ie. commuter or off campus students who might be sufficiently inclined) is a definite "maybe." Staff & faculty? I'd say that with appropriate qualification (ie. an active shooter course once a year, maybe a drill 2-3 times a year with the local PD, some combination of the above), that could probably work. The "swamp Yankee" guy who did all our plumbing on campus, for example, was ex-military and if I recall correctly, he was an MP. Great candidate. Last place I worked we had a very adamant no-firearms policy, and I was cool with that (I was behind two or three locked doors from the lobby, so anybody with ill intent would have to come find me..). Earlier this year, they moved our HR manager to an office literally right next to the front door, and whilst moaning and complaining about that, she said "Oh, yeah, great, put HR right next to the front door so when some disgruntled ex-employee comes in here shooting up the place, we're first.." (The receptionist, who had to sit in the lobby right there, every day, was totally horrified at this woman's statement. I pointed out to the HR manager that her new office was incentive to avoid pissing off the ex-employees...) I think Utah has the right idea. Gun-free zones like college campuses are tantamount to throwing a big sign up that says "Large numbers of undefended people in one spot. Bring lots of ammo." (the argument that most shooters are associated with the individual campus is moot: of course they are, doesn't make the unarmed individuals contained therein any less unarmed and available for assault.) NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

I did that once when we got "ceiling'd out" at a boogie and someone shouted "hop & pops from the Cessna!" The Casa pilot & I both stepped off the plane just a shade over 2k and I pitched my pilot chute to.. nothing. Looked over my shoulder and there's the ol' bungee pilot chute flapping in the (non-existent) breeze. I'm thinking "You dumb shit, you know this thing needs 80kts.." just about the time the PC finally pulls the pin and extracts the bag. It took me like 8 more years to replace that pilot chute. :) My Sabre opens pretty quick with the kill line collapsible. I have no qualms about a 2000 ft hop & pop. I'm still pretty amazed at jumpers who literally freak out about a 3000ft hop & pop. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Its also a LOT bigger (physically) than a CX-100. Laszlo and I had a chance to finger-bang one at B&H last week, and it was pretty neato with the interchangeable lenses, but that big honking handle and the microphone assembly looked like they might be snag hazards. Wish they'd make that crap removable. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

I missed that part of software development on "Writing sexy apps..." :) NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

My demos have not been that cool, but still, they were demos. 1) Landing a flag demo at the HQ activation ceremony & 100th Anniversary celebration for the US Army Cadet Corps, Millersburg, KY in April 2009. (the KY ARNG AH-64 failed to get me...) 2) About to land on my (beer) flag demo, Phelps Collins Air National Guard Base flightline, 1998. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

I've wound up doing a few recurrencies for students this year, and of course, a good bit of that involves emergency procedures review. I teach the old "One, two, fuck you" method. Try twice to clear the pilot chute/bridle from where its still attached (ie. in the BOC pouch or wrapped around your arm/wrist/foot/mother-in-law's neck/etc). If successful in clearing that part, you *might* get a good deployment, but you should expect another sort of malfunction (tension knots, lineover, baglock, whatever) that you'll have to cut away from and deploy the reserve. If unable to clear the pilot chute/bridle after two tries, execute a cutaway & reserve deployment. I try to avoid suggesting to just blindly clear that bridle/pilot chute and then immediately cutting away and deploy the reserve, since you *could* get a good deployment of the main (depending on the type of situation that precipitated the horseshoe) and I think its a bad idea to chop a good parachute. If you clear the bridle/pilot chute (or whatever else has created the horseshoe), now you potentially have a "regular" malfunction to deal with.... Thoughts? NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Damn. Caught me. I still owe you lunch! :) NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

I even said that to Doug: "Man, hanging out with you is like hanging out with Jon Bon Jovi, but you're way, way cooler.." Spot was a total rockstar there. I poked my head into one presentation this morning before he arrived, and the presenter, while knowledgeable, was -flat-. Not anything like the 4 seminars of Spot's I went to, where its clear that he has a huge grasp of the subject matter at hand, and his stage presence is smooth.. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Light piston helos like the Robinsons have concerns about weight, and the skids aren't beefed up for stresses in "all directions." The skids are built to assume the weight of the aircraft while on the ground (the force is actually "up" thru the skid tubes into the fuselage when the weight of the aircraft is on the ground). They're not so much built to take a force "down" on them. People step on the skids when they're on the ground, but the ground is right there, so there really is no appreciable force being transmitted to the structure. Now, a UH-1 or a heavier turbine powered aircraft? I'm here to tell you that a UH-1's skids are BEEFY and the way they're held into the fuselage accounts for stress in both directions, up and down. I made a Robinson jump this summer, and the aircraft was equipped with deployable floats on the skids, and the owner/operator asked us politely not to hang from the skids, and really didn't want us doing a ton of repositioning on the skids, either, lest we jack up the floats. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Crikey, its been awhile since I've seen one of these. I'll go fire up the tractor. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Before I was a coach, my girlfriend was going to start AFF and she was quite the question hound. One day, she asks me "Hey, how do you spot?" I actually had to think about it, because, at the time, I didn't do all the mathematical calculation of the spot as shown in the SIM. I had tons of aviation experience (Army crewchief & flight engineer) and I started jumping at a 182 DZ (static line) with no GPS, so I learned the "dark art" of visual spotting from a very low jump number. She came to me one day and said "Where is the spot?" I looked up at the clouds, looked at the ground winds, and sort of waved my hand in a direction and said "I guess about thataway, maybe .2?" Well, that just flipped her out that I was so imprecise. In becoming a coach, I learned the "by the book" method of spotting (I was a "make an educated guess and then throw a WDI" guy from my 182 days), and started to get more heavily into that method so I could teach it. Now, as an instructor, I teach it, but I also tell my students that they need to be constantly observing the previous loads to see if the spot calculation based on the forecast is accurate for the conditions, where the spot may have been adjusted to, and to tell me if they think the spot should be adjusted further. As for the "Go! Go! Go!" idiots, well, they can pack sand. During my AFF course last year we were doing an practice eval jump and one of the jumpers further back in the plane started shouting like that. I waited till we got down to the ground but very firmly told her that she needed to calm down and cut that shit out. I think next time I'm in a spot where I have people behind me doing that, I'll just move to the side and say "here, you go first.." And we do teach it to our students, and I actually drag them out to the plane (when its not flying) and have them practice looking out the door. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Thats easy: Rowdy Roddy Piper and Keith David in "They Live." Oh, you said "best." This is "longest." My bad. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

I suspect someone was pulling your leg. 750hp a side sounds far more accurate. 6000hp, you'd need swept wings to keep the darn things from coming off on rotation. :) NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

We had a Skyvan in for our boogie last weekend and that @#$% thing is LOUD!! I jumped it one evening, and on my way to the DZ the next morning I stopped at Home Depot and bought a bulk pack of earplugs. The packaging said that properly installed they should knock about 30db off the noise environment. They did a pretty good job, and I've started wearing them in the Otter, too. They have not inhibited my ability to hear my dytter, either. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Wow, man, I wanna know what DZ you jump at, 'cuz with 12,000 hp combined, that Otter must climb faster than the Space Shuttle. :) NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

I showed the video and photos to one of our TMs this weekend (we're a Strong DZ) and he was like "Whoa!" and immediately gathered all the other TMs to see the pics and vid. I noted a slightly increased interest in the drogue releases during preflight this weekend. :) If that's the result of saying "hey, here's what happened," then good on ya, man. You may have just helped someone else avoid a potentially fatal accident. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

We have a small pack of dogs that run around my DZ. The DZO has 2, the rigger has one, the rigger's assistant has one, one of our AFF-Is has 2, the girl in the office brings hers occasionally, etc. For the most part, they're not bad, and we have the doggie poo bag dispensers placed out in the spectator area to remind people, and for the most part, they handle it pretty well. This weekend, during our boogie, however, the policy was "Dogs tied out or put up." I was at the DZ yesterday, guy comes in with a dog, suddenly there's the typical "Awww!" and "Oh, man!" and I look and the dog left a steamy sloppy one right on the carpet at the edge of the hangar entrance. The worst is the landing area: the dogs roam out there beyond the beer line whereas the spectators (and owners) read the signs and do not. Their dog does his business out there, and they don't bother to clean it up. After all, the sign says to stay out of the landing area. And then you're landing and *squish* you step on a fresh dog turd. The worst is when you don't notice until you've traipsed across 1/2 of the hangar... I'm all for well-mannered and trained dogs at the DZ. I don't even mind when the DZO's little Jack Russell puppy comes up and sticks her cold nose in my ear while I'm packing (she's just way too friggin' cute to be cross with) then licks my face. But dogs that start fights, dogs that crap all over, or dogs that can't be trained to follow the "rules", they need to not come to the DZ. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19