inextremis

Whether or not you have loss now, wear hearing protection. I have damage to my hearing, and I think much of it is from skydiving. I'm over 50 and also was exposed to a lot of noise in the military--I was an artillery officer and also shot competitive skeet. But I also used hearing protection for all those activities, and only tended to be inconsisitent with hearing protection when jumping. My loss is high frequency, to the extent that I wear hearing aids much of the time. I have a couple hundred jumps from UH-1H Huey helicopters with the doors off, and the turbine is right above your head. Turbine engines generate very high noise levels that can damage hearing, and some of the engine noise is too high pitched for us to hear. I do some camera work, and when you climb out of an Otter right behind the engine, if you don't wear ear plugs you will definitely damage your hearing over time. Same goes for audible altimeters, they can be very loud in an otherwise unprotected ear. I now wear ear plugs religiously, from the time I approach the aircraft until I take my helmet off. I also got some custom injection molded ear plugs, and they are easier to insert, but no better protection than the less expensive varieties. If you're just going to make a couple hundred jumps no worries, but if you're a serious, long term skydiver, you need to wear ear plugs if you don't want high frequency hearing loss. And the FAA flight physical for tandem has a hearing standard!

There is very high quality video, shot by Lazlo Andacs, one of the best freefall photographers in the world, but I don't feel I should post it because of privacy. It's like any other well edited tandem video we've all seen, but I flew most of the jump with my left hand cupped back by my thigh and my right leg extended (hard left turn) to keep us flying straight on heading. And of course I had the sun to my back and I landed way too far from the camera but Lazi made it all look good anyway

Had a postiive, if complex, experience giving private instructon to a tandem passenger with autism. There is not much in these forums about autism, so I learned as I went and developed some lessons learned: 1 Prep. I started by asking his parents about his capabilities. They were skydivers and had taken him to a vertical wind tunnel as a 'check dive." Because people with autism vary in how much sensory stimulation they can handle, I would strongly recommend a trip to a VWT first. I also spent an hour with two volunteer experts--a school psychologist and a special ed teacher from the local public school district. They taught me a lot about the communication and learning styles of people with autism. For example, when my student said he was afraid and paced anxiously, I interpreted that as his autism--I don't think he was any more fearful than the typical first jump tandem passenger, but people with autism express their feelings with less social appropriateness than other people. I also failed to ask the family about OTHER physical issues--as it turned out his torso was asymmetrical and he had significant weakness on his left side, along with an arm that was half the size of his other arm and palseyed. Very difficult to even get a glove on his curled fingers. Because people with autism are very sensitive to sensory input, ear plugs are a must--I used the foam pillow type, which are good for noise reduction but hard for me to help him with insertion. If I had it to do over I would have used the reusable rubber "triple flange" variety. And he needed his helment and non-vented goggles even for the walk to the airplane. Noise inside the plane and in the door was no issue for him. Training. I walked through every aspect of the jump with him, including hookup in the actual Otter. As it turned out, his physical problems also included significant lack of flexibility in his legs--he could not duck walk in the Otter once hooked up (6'2", 210). I wound up seating him on the floor by the door and doing a "Porter type" hookup and exit, which worked fine. Rehearsal is important with special needs jumpers--don't assume any capability without a physical walk through or you could be in for a surprise. Ride up. Normal. His parents, brother, and two cousins were on the aircraft either solo or as tandems. Huge confidence boost for this young man facing a significant personal challenge. Exit and Freefall. Aside from needing me to help him position his left hand on the harness, he was as good in the door as any student I've taken. In freefall he was inherently assymetrical, requiring a lot of compensation on my part to hold a heading. I do tandems in bootie pants and a freefly top, and that made flying straight a cinch. Landing. Because he could not lift his legs much, or for long, and his arms were no help, we did only one practice landing up high. and told him I would tell him to lift his legs at only the last moment before touch down. We had a good, steady 10 mph wind. As I flared, I did a tiny carve to the right and we slid in on our right legs away from his weaker left side. He stood up, grinned, and told the photographer it was good and he'd like to do it again someday. I'm glad I took a lot of time with this student, separate from the normal commercial tandem ops at my DZ, and I would recommend that for sure, rather than the more routine train up done for those without special needs. It's pretty fulfilling, definitely worth the time and effort--I left with a lot of respect for his parents, and especially him. Blue skies

First, this has nothing to do with tandem drogues or main pilot chutes, this question was about reserve pilot chutes. I quickly called two manufacturers of the two rigs I own about this issue--both said "replace," because the system was tested under circumstances where the pilot chute was not damaged. A rigger cannot seal a reserve that he/she knows is damaged, and is required to pack the reserve according to the manufacturers guidance and specifications. You could reference either Poynter or the FARs for that. Both manufacturers also felt that attempts to patch or repair damage to a reserve pilot chute were not appropriate because the patch could further reduce structural integrity, and because the level of difficulty of the repair makes it impractical (relatively inexpensive and easy to replace). I got my first rigger rating in 1980 and have seen a fair number of reserve pilot chutes--I can't recall ever seeing one repaired--though some Master Rigger may have done that. And remember, it's not how big the hole is when the reserve is packed that's important, it's how big the hole is when the pilot chute is launched. And since no one can predict that, it's best to spent the 80 bucks or whatever and replace the reserve pilot chute with the hole in the fabric or mesh. Mu $.02.

Any hole in a reserve pilot chute makes it non-airworthy. Will a small hole be OK in the practical sense? Probably. Is it airworthy and are you accountable if you pack it? No and yes.

Agree with the recommendation to replace it. I'm certain that even a tiny hole in the nylon makes the pilot chute not airworthy. Seems to me that the structural integrity of the mesh is an important issue once the pilot chute is loaded by the airstream. On a main, darn away. But on a reserve, I'd replace it.

It would be extremely difficult, perhaps impossible, to hit the tail rotor of a Huey with a pilot chute. The IAD JM can throw the pilot chute down and away, below the step, almost even with the skid. Our normal flight profile for skydiver exits is NLT 70kts forward speed--nothing even close to a hover, and there is little or no perception of a "downdraft." That puts the tail rotor high, and well to the rear--significantly further to the rear than the tail of a Porter or Cessna, for example--esp the tail wheel of a 180, famous for snagging pilot chutes. When we used static lines, I believe they were 12 feet from the snap to the direct bag, and the attachment point was on a cable high and in the center of the aircraft, not anywhere on the deck. It would take TWO static lines hooked together to get anywhere near the tail rotor. I have about 500 Huey jumps, the Huey is actually a very sweet jump aircraft, and by modern standards, fairly inexpensive to operate--biggest drawback is 10.5K ft MSL ceiling--and the pilots say the control is pretty mushy up there. We take 6 jumpers when full of fuel, 10 when we burn some off.

West Point parachute team has used direct bag for at least 40 years, squares since students started using squares. Our students are on a mix of Mantas and Navigators. It's a very fast, very positive deployment, line twists are fairly common but no big deal. We have had no problems with static line entanglement with jumpers, although we have a dream door and water-ski sized step on our Hueys. We collect each static line after each jump and stuff into a sack suspended in the aircraft, so no snakes on the floor--no more than two students per pass. This year we've decided to try IAD--we'll see how it goes, but so far looks good and eliminates some annoying rigging changes to go to BOC. We'll see how that goes.

Watch the tacky palms on some Ironclads--I tried a pair of Boxhandlers and the black rubber tacky spots started staining my toggles, handles and other parts of my gear. My favorite gloves for summer are a pair of Glacier Gloves--fingerless fishing gloves. Very light weight, Kevlar and leather palms prevent line and riser burns but the open fingers let me work with cameras and other gear as if I have no gloves on. Still looking for the perfect cold weather gloves and reading this link with interest. T

I've seen several people come back after layoffs of a year or more--I personally came back after a multi-year lay off. It seems to me that basic stability, EPs, and most of the book knowledge really sticks. What has to be rebuilt over several jumps--in some cases dramatically so--is altitude awareness. For some reason, gauging time in freefall and distance from the ground goes away, and they have to work their altitude checks very mechanically for a while until they begin to do it naturally and consistently. Just one observation.

I'm one

Well, THIS will probably be unpopular, but Bodysport USA sold me a suit called a crater suit about four years ago--I got it in lined supplex with "max wing at 104 MPH" and the range was unbelievable. I have since had some of the wing cut out of it and the wrist velcro replaced but it is wearing like iron, very well made. I also have a lot of Tony separates and like them, but this crater suit works great--even for tandems. I'm a fun jumper and instructor, though, not an RW competitor.

Thank you.

As I look forward to 1000, I'm trying to figure out how to make it special, but not about me.

Early squares were flat packed, and so the slider was brought up after the canopy was cocooned. There was a small fabric loop (like on a bag) and rubber band installed at the center of the tail on the end seam right below the data panel, and the middle of the slider was pulled up through that rubber band. It helped keep the slider up until the tail deployed and seemed to work pretty well. Not sure where you would put the rubber band for pro-packing--a good pro pack seems to lock the slider up even higher in the pack job. Magnets sound like an interesting variation.

I guessed before scrolling down to Miami's post, and my guess was "tension knots involving D or C/D lines on the right side." I've not seen a reserve like that in quite a while. Blue skies, Tom

Since there has been a lot of talk about line twists, I'll toss in that one of the two times I've had line twists (after about 250 jumps on my 170) was after the canopy was opened. It's relatively easy to induce a twist by going to deep brakes and then letting one side fly. It's not a deficiency, but a characteristic common to most moderate to high performance canopies. Not a problem to kick out of such a twist IF you're high enough and IF you don't have end cell closures that drive the canopy in the direction of the twist. Love my Spectre--went to that from a Stiletto after I demo'd one and I'm really satisfied.

There are a lot of ways to use bad judgment in skydiving that have nothing to do with athletic performance under high speed, high adrenaline conditions. Kids do dumb things as they play their way to solutions. That's one of the reasons why they learn so fast. Young adults, and old adults, also do dumb things, but we seem to do them less and less as we age. Skdiving is a very poor school of hard knocks. I think legal age of majority is a good place to start, and my opinion on that has nothing to do with waivers (although I appreciate the legal arguments as well). Blue skies,

If you don't have much in the way of property or equity, this isn't an issue, but to coach for free is much less exposure to litigation than to coach for money. I know litigation is a bad word, but to connect a coaches activities with an accident is much, much easier for a lawyer if money is changing hands for the jump. I don't do any instruction for money outside my military responsibilities, where I'm protected from lawsuit. If it's a living, then the exposure is probably a cost of doing business, but if it's not your living, you might consider coaching without the formality of payment. Just one consideration.

I had Lasik at 47 yrs. old. A month later I was in Iraq (April 2003, remember those dust storms?) God bless Oakleys. Within a year I was back in the air and had my goggles blow off twice--just squinted, no big deal. Had chosen the flap business over PRK at the recommendation of a skydiving physician. Went thru Military Freefall School(HALO) in late 2004--no problems--left the tailgate of a CASA with goggles on helmet--oops--but no big deal. It's great not to have to screw with glasses. Great surgical technology. Follow your Dr.s recommendations.

My first square, a five cell Stratostar purchased new in 1978 for $475, had the relatively "new" slider system, and had a rubber band on the tail attached to a loop similar to those on a D bag. The slider was to be "stowed" in the rubber band after being pulled all the way up the lines to the slider stops, prior to bagging the canopy. I now prefer to quarter my slider in the usual pro pack, but it's interesting that at one time, manufacturers used a more "positive" method of keeping the slider up.

I actually once managed to grab the left slider kill line in my toggle hand and not realize it untl my flare (Spectre, so a long flare stroke). I had done a controllability check with turns in both directions and the canopy was flying normally, but as my hands went down to just above my waist in the flare, I felt the tug on my left riser. My landing was fine, but would not have been on many canopies. At that point I got rid of my slider stops--had been thinking about that for performance reasons anyway--and now stow my slider behind my neck.

Not much of a problem. If you have brass grommets, you could replace your slider with one with stainless steel grommets, which are a bit heavier and will take your slider down a little faster as a result. Slightly quicker opening. But I would just get used to pumping your slider down a bit and enjoy your nice, soft openings.

"CYPRES is not perfect....This CYPREs that misfired under the Accuracy canopy...1 or 2? I have not heard of any C2 misfires." I think it was a C1.

You're right. They need to be much more clear about the temperature/pressure combination that caused the ground activation. It's a lot more complex than the unit simply getting hot.