Tonto

Keep your eyes on the horizon when you track. Aim for your "vanishing point" (That's where you'll fly over the horizon.) Tracking slow and straight is WAY better than fast and in a circle - for obvious reasons. t It's the year of the Pig.

IAD is comparable to SL, but not to AFF. The advantages of IAD. For the student - never needing to transision from student deployment systems to modern sport gear with BOC. For the DZ - Needing only 1 type of gear makes logistics much easier, and the added safety benefit of the student not being able to put on the "wrong" gear. Negatives? The JM needs to be sharp. I often see poor SL contol that would have serious consequences id the student was IAD. AFF is a world apart, with Instructors with you the whole dive. Hope this helps, t It's the year of the Pig.

My reserve puff is super skinny, and double velcro'd. It was built that way after I had a premature in the door on a 4 way climbout. I wanted it hard to pull. First time I needed it I REALLY needed to pull hard, and it took some hand strength. That doesn't bother me much, as I'm a climber and have strong fingers/hands. I put mating velcro on the one side though, and the 2 times I've needed it since then have been efortless. Sorry to hear about the grounding of puffs. It seems a bit quick - the incident was recent, no? Wait a while till a plane crashes because of a premature. Then they'll change it back again. t It's the year of the Pig.

Go get it. Every course you go on, every rating you get, you will learn something. I've done my time of BIG demo's into 60 000 plus seater stadiums, but I keep my PRO rating, cos that way I know what I can do, and there's no bullshit about "the good old days" I see your path. Round them up and get as many ratings as you can. They'll come in handy later. What you still need? AFF, riggers, Pilot? Go get em. t It's the year of the Pig.

Our D is different. (South Africa, PASA) It's been 300 jumps for a long time - about 10 years. In addition, it's disipline specific, so for FS, you need to have attended nationals, a sactioned boogie, been on a 16 way, a couple of 8's docking 5th or higher, and some other stuff. For CReW, its Big stacks and BiDi stuff etc. We're also hoping on the FAI bandwagon around September. I think 500 for a D is nothing. It should be at least a 1000. I have nearly 4000 now, and I'm no expert skydiver - that I know. t It's the year of the Pig.

"I'd be way too embarrassed to not jump" And right there, you have the reason I did my 1st jump! About 2200 dives later, I was in a Bell Jetranger hovering 1800ft over a stadium filled to capacity with 68000 spectators at the 1995 Rugby World Cup final. Press choppers flying about, I had six visual, I hoped they had me visual too. The game had gone to extra time, the light was fading, and the 40kg flag between my legs was getting heavy. "Just a little pressure here, don't fuck up, don't fuck up," going through my head. Breathe, calm. Calm. All this is, is a 3 second delay, and then land on the field. You can do it. And off we went. It was SO worth it. Of course we doubt ourselves. I've felt that feeling pre-exit at a dozen Nationals, at the world meet, on the grid, in the days I raced superbikes, stepping up to spar with my nemesis in wing chun, aproaching the wall on a climb that had repeatedly kicked my ass. It's what makes us human. I wouldn't change it for the world. It signals life. t It's the year of the Pig.

I spent nearly a year on crutches after smashing my femur hooking it when I had 156 jumps. I remember the feeling you describe when, like a moth to the flame, I decieded to go again. I kitted up, limped to the kite, rode up, watched a 4 way with cam exit, and thought... I'm fine. I don't need to do this. I don't need to be on crutches ever again, and then, surprise, I was out the door. That was about 3750 dives ago... all without injury. Go for it. That feeling in your belly. It's not fear. It's energy! And it wants OUT! t It's the year of the Pig.

Listen to Billvon's voice. He speaks for your still silent bones who wish never to utter their 1 word vocabilary. "CRACK!" t It's the year of the Pig.

There is a line between inspiring confidence and making someone believe they're OK when they know they're not. It's my job to teach technique, and theirs to find the courage to jump. I'll show them where to look, but I can't give it to them. First refusal, I ride down. Second, I strap student into seat next to pilot, I turn cypres off, I leave... but there are exceptions to that rule. I have ridden down on 5 consecutive Level 5's with the same student. I knew she had it, but it took her time to find it. She does base now, after a 30 min debate on the bridge! t It's the year of the Pig.

Troll. Those damn Christians are to blame. t It's the year of the Pig.

Yeah, I'm not so good with the gentle stuff. I like people to understand right away. Thoughtless and inconsiderate. I apologise. t It's the year of the Pig.

3874 and I started in 1985. t It's the year of the Pig.

You don't need to meet someone to form an opinion. If he screws up and dies on national TV - you're saying that's good for the sport? Humility. Now that's a stunt I admire. t It's the year of the Pig.

Hi Ripple, My name is tonto, and I currently have a paraplegic student. I searched around for info and got the same stuff you've got - with reference to Relative workshop Tandem procedures and Alistair, so it became a task of doing it all from scratch. You're right about the differences between amputees and paraplegics. You're in effect a Tandem master, and your legs are passengers which never heard the briefing. Vana has been the instructor on the main side, and I've always gone reserve to help peter clear the step a little easier. We jump a turbine Pilatus PC 6. (Porter) This is where we're at. My student, Peter, had 25 jumps when he had his accident, and then spent a year out of the sport. He did 2 tandems, and after watching the video we saw some of the things his legs were doing, and we needed to get some degree of control over them. We built him a pair of trousers with a foam spacer between the knees, and the gap is filled in with mesh to prevent an entanglement/horseshoe malfunction type senario. The pants are heavily padded to deal with the butt landings and lower bone density. There are straps and rings velcro'd up the thigh to allow hook-up to a locking caribiner on the chest strap for canopy flight and landing. He's done 3 dives with us. We board during a refuel, and he's quite capable of making it from chair to kite by himself. Because of the mesh the leg straps need to be threaded through the suit. This also prevents the senario of the legstraps sliding down his legs if he's unstable or out of control at any point. The gear is completely unmodified except for the locking caribiner. (Don't use freegate caribiners if the reserve handle is a conventional medal D type for obvious reasons.) On jump run we are 1st out. We use GPS to spot, and I confirm visually on climbout, which is simply Peter swinging his legs into the airstream while sitting on his butt. When I'm happy, I look at Peter, and he starts the AFF exit checks. All exits have been stable. These are the dives we've done. 1. A dual instructor jump with COA, practice touches and a 180 degree turn. 2. An AFF L3, which in SA is a Left JM release with the student performing a 90 degree turn towards the left instructor. The dive was good wrt heading control, but there was a backslide. 3. We added external knee braces and locked them to provide forward movement, and the 60 degree setting had him streaking off to the horizon, falling quite slowly and in a slight head down position very similar to a Vector tandem passenger as a result of the lower body drag, so the next dive will be at 30 degrees. We have aborted 2 dives due to marginal conditions, and all his dives have been in very light winds, maybe 2 to 5 kmph (1 to 3 MPH) His landings have been quite good (No injuries

Point taken. Thoughtless and inconsiderate. I apologise. t It's the year of the Pig.

Do you know the thread is about ZP exe's and not Sabre 2's? t It's the year of the Pig.

I don't pack. Of those 17, 7 are from 700 tandems - Broken lines, bag-lock, pressure knot, colapsed drouge in tow. 7 are from wraps and entanglements doing competition CReW rotation. 1 was a broken line on my Stilleto 1 was a toggle not through the ring on my Jonathan 1 was on a borrowed pintail in the middle 80's. So if you take out the crew and the tandems, 3 in 2500. Yes. I hook my reserve. t It's the year of the Pig.

It has issues with turbulence, and reacts poorly to front riser input. It's a step in the right direction from the ZP though. t It's the year of the Pig.

Pull out is OLD man. Nothing new in the last 8 years. It satisfies its market who tend to be camera people with big burbles, and some freeflyers who if faced with a premature deployment, would prefer it not to be an out of sequence premature deployment. A pullout also clears up the old "to cutaway or not to cutaway" total mall debate. It's a good system. I have around 1500 dives on one, the rest are all ROL or BOC throwout. t It's the year of the Pig.

Aggie is right. It could blow up and you could die. Of course, I've seen sub 100 jump gear which is not overloaded also blow up. I'm 200 out the door. I jump a tempo 120. Used it 3 times, once at terminal - no problems so far. Only reason I've gone so small is to match main size, as with a Cypress a dual canopy situation is always a possibility. I have 3900 dive total of which 600 are Crew. t It's the year of the Pig.

Agreed. Step through. Can't imagine how the packer missed it... t It's the year of the Pig.

I have a 1 inch chest strap doubled around the lift web. Prefer that anyday to a sewn on 2 inch. Ask the dude that fell out of his racer which he would prefer. Oh. Sorry. He's dead. t It's the year of the Pig.

My flatline is set at 2000ft. The higher altitude warnings are dependant on the task, AFF level, tandem etc. I have 17 cutaways, and have never had Cypres interference. t It's the year of the Pig.

Limit wingload to jump numbers and a training program. When we were killing people in freefall we figured out a way to keep them alive. Now that we're killing them under canopy we should figure out a way to keep them alive. My wing loading is 1.7 I have 3900 skydives t It's the year of the Pig.

Depends on country too. My Daughter jumped at 8 and has done a couple since then. Youngest in SA is 3 years 11 months, and if you think he was scared, watch the video. Drove to boarding point in his own battery powered jeep! http://www.jsc.co.za/News.aspx?id=15 Normal jumping here is 16 with parental concent until 21. t It's the year of the Pig.