wayne

Tonto was a real character. Always outspoken, always fun and always an inspiration. There are a few people I'll always remember from my early days of skydiving at Stellenbosch. Tonto is definitely one of them. I remember him renaming my mate Frank because Gerwald was too hard to say and it stuck. That was Tonto's typical irreverant sense of humour. I remember him and Gary Beyer arriving at the DZ with knuckles scarred and bleeding from KungFu training... that was the level of their dedication to everything they did. I remember him encouraging me and teaching me and I'm glad he did, I've had a great life in the sport. I remember him arriving back at Stellies after a year or two in the States on the cutting edge with his new Jonathan. I'm glad he was still living life to the full and striving for that edge. Go Tonto!

To be honest, I wasn't there to witness this event and am relying on my friends account of what happened, so I'm making no judgements here. I haven't been involved in student training for a long time (10 years) so just wanted some clarification on current methods. Whatever the AFF instructors decisions, weights, no weights, baggy jumpsuit etc. they should not lose their student. I do find it interesting though that on a previous jump they (same DZ different instructors) saw fit to give her weights because it was windy and they thought that would help her penetrate under canopy... Again I wasn't there so not my place to judge but I do agree that giving a 45kg girl 5kg of lead and a 10kg rig is likely to increase the risk of injury on landing regardless of conditions.... As far as throw out or spring is concerned, I guess either way has it's merits and shortcomings, so it's upto the instructor in the end. Thanks for the feedback, Cheers Wayne

I have a friend (small, light girl) who had a scary experience recently while doing an AFF level3. Her instructors chose not to give her weights and let her jump a rig with a BOC throw out PC system. They released her while she was doing dummy pulls and she spun out of control and floated out of reach... they couldn't get back up to her. She then panicked and tried to pull but couldn't - hard pull, so she went for her reserve. Considering she was jumping a BOC and was spinning out of control while pulling, I think it was a blessing in disguise that she couldn't pull the main since throwing a PC while unstable could have resulted in a far worse situation. So... when I was a student, all student rigs had spring loaded PC's. Is it common practice now to use throw outs for students?