Reginald

LOL, I really don't care what the pilots get paid I only care what the AFFI's make! ;-) Seriously, I was trying to make a point that the numbers the OP put forth were a bit biased to suite his point. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Okay, it sure looks like you fudged these numbers to make your point. Let me make a few modifications to them. First, no TM is going to be able to make 20 jumps a day. 10 is just about the upper limit so you say a TM would make $1,400 but in reality that is cut in half to $700. Second the packers likely get $10 per tandem rig and there are almost certainly two of them so that becomes $800 if it’s one packer and $400 if it’s two. And the pilot is the one person physically capable of flying all 80 loads so even at the paltry rate of $10 per load he is now the highest paid person at $800. And just as a note, the pilots at our DZ get much more than $10 per load. So, it is likely in your own case that the pilot is the highest paid person. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

So the other jumpers are going high on you, eh? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

What were you doing your first 1,000 jumps then? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Thanks for writing this post it saved me from having to say the same thing. I think the article just goes to show that even the WSJ can get it wrong sometimes. Education is the most valuable thing a person can get. I advise people to choose wisely though and get one that will provide tangible benefits on the other side. However, the world does need a select handful of PhD’s in obscure liberal arts fields. Who else is going to transcribe ancient scrolls of dead languages for pennies a day? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I don't expect them to do everything right, just the learning objective - deploying their own parachute by their assigned pull altitude. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I agree 100%. It is unconscionable that a no pull student is moved on to the next level. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Um, really? Have you read that list? I think I'll avoid following the lead of most of these countries as far as aviation goes. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

No I did not, I didnt feel it was worth my time.... I will PM you the DZ name.... IMHO, that should have been your first move and posting a rant on the internet your last. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

You probably think Relative Work ( it doesn't matter if it is belly, vertical or canopy relative work) is fun too!! It is Relative Work not relative fun. Oh no! I thought I enjoyed 4 way too! I need to reevaluate all my skydiving. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I didn't realize how boring my canopy flight was until now! Sillly me I thought I was having fun! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Having watched hundreds of students land the primary cause of serious injury in cases like yours is “surging” the canopy near the ground. You stated you flared too high. Did you let up on the toggles again near the ground, even a little bit? Do you think you might have and not known it? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

So what's the question then? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Interesting question. I'm not sure that your assumption about A&B line tension being low is the reason the front riser pressure is so light though. Hmm, interesting question... "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Raft dives are dangerous jumps. PM "raftman" to get some advice. He knows as much about raft dives as anyone. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I've heard that pretending it's a gerbil is even better. I'm not quite sure why. Ask Richard Gere "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Jay is one of the best skydivers, instructors, and people I've ever had the pleasure to meet. Catch him at the end of the day when he has some time and talk to him. I guarantee he can help you. You don’t know how lucky you are to have had him on your jumps with you. And as a personal story, I repeated an AFF level 4 times and another level 3 times before going to a wind tunnel. After one hour in the tunnel I absolutely rocked through the rest of the student progression. If you are seriously dedicated to learning to skydiving consider doing it. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

So you expect instructors to work for charity? Here is the hard cold reality, instructors work for money. DZ's are in business to make money. Skydiving is not a charity. All of that said, the "money" I make as an instructor doesn't cover my expenses nor compensate me for the time I spend at the DZ on hopelessly un-jumpable weekends working on the ground with students for free. I work as an instructor for the love of it and go way above and beyond the call of duty for my students. But if there wasn't some sort of compensation involved I wouldn't do it. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

One of your instructors on your Cat A was Jay Stokes. My personal votes is he's qualified. What I'm seeing is that your knees are VERY wide. I also noticed instructors on at least one occasion signaling you to put your knees shoulder width (bring them closer together). It is impossible to arch with your legs spread that far. It creates an automatic DE-arch which puts your knees below you as is shown in the video. This is creating a major instability issue. Please review this with your instructors in more detail but in my opinion the first thing you need to do is to bring your legs closer together, then you can put your hip bone down and extend your toes. Until you fix the knees being so wide the “arch” issue is not possible to fix. BTW: a wind tunnel helped me resolve me body issues when I was in AFF. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I just hate these threads that bash DZ’s for “sucking money out of a new jumper” Geeze, your friend has less than thirty jumps, the ink is barely dry on his A license, and he’s highly un-current for his jump numbers! As an instructor I would require a refresher course and have him jump with an instructor, not a coach, and honestly if the DZ is close to water it’s not a bad idea to have him do water training. I think this DZ is working along common sense and USPA guidelines. I do recurrency jumps with people from dozens to thousands of jumps, and it’s shocking how little some people remember after a few months off. If you have any delusions that it’s 5 minutes of “show me your EP’s” and let’s throw you out of a plane with a coach that’s not rated or trained to pull for someone if it goes bad that only speaks to your lack of understanding of the dangers of the sport. Read the Incident reports it’s sounding like a guy died doing a recurrency jump this week. Even if that one pans out to be something different, don’t think for a second that recurrency jumps should be treated lightly. IMHO it sounds like this DZ is putting forward a reasonable plan at a decent rate to safely get your friend current. Why people feel the need to bash DZ’s for thinking of safety instead of throwing uncurrent, low-timers out of airplanes with no training or competent supervision is beyond me. But I guess it’s become fashionable on this board to criticize the amount of training that has become the industry standard in the US. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I’ve done one jump without a Cypres. It was with borrowed gear, exiting low, in an urban area, at night, from an unfamiliar plane, with a 25 lb. bag attached to my chest with a giant flag in it. I think it was called a “demo.” What could possibly go wrong? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I'm presuming that the people that came down on the plane were students or using rental gear that had a student Cypres? If the student Cypres was not turned off as the manual recommends it is highly likely that it will fire during decent. The student units are VERY sensitive by design. This sounds like good old fashion user error. What I’ve learned from this is not that there is likely a defect with a Cypres like you are implying but instead that you are uninformed about how different models of AAD’s function, their firing parameters and how to use them in various circumstances. Please read a Cypres manual and educate yourself about how they work. And if you haven’t done so read your Vigil manual too! I’m constantly shocked and disappointed at how few people have ever read the manual for the computer attached to their reserves. The shocking ignorance by the majority of skydivers of how AAD’s function scares me. Read the manual people… "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

No it's possible/likely that the 3 ring would be jamed on the RSL bridal on cutaway thus causing the riser to be stuck and thus not pulling the rsl at all. I sure wouldn't want to give it a test. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

So are you talking about traveling to boogies? Or simply one that happens to be at your home DZ? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP