rmarshall234

There are certainly issues to work through and the safety features would have to be put in place as you point out, but I'm glad to hear from Platypii that people are working on this. When we were racing at Reno Charlie came up with what I thought to be a brilliant idea but none of us ever followed through: An audible slip indicator to let the pilot know if he was coordinated or not. There was rarely the luxury of looking inside the cockpit, and a small skid or slip would scrub a few mph off of your speed - which could make the difference between passing someone or not.

>Earning the experience by slowly gradually patiently pushing the envelope? Yes. There is no substitute for developing good basics and becoming gadget dependent is bad, but we clearly need another approach to this problem. One wouldn't stick a student pilot in an SR 22 Cirrus, and equip him with basic steam gauges from an Aeronca Champ.

>are you guys talking about canopy alarms? Yes. Kind of. I'm not a swooper but it seems to me that aside from knowledge and experience, it's the combined effects of available altitude, rate of descent, and air density that leads to these accidents. The first two are obvious and we keep harping on them and we have altimeters for the third, but the last two could be addressed with better instrumentation.

>However, a likely consequence between that and needing a safety margin to deal with >changes in the barometer is that it always sounds the alarm and one quickly stops using it. What I had in mind was an increasing tone as the rate of descent increased. Similar to how many stall horn warnings react to the flow of air over a wing. >Sounds like a good thesis project for a grad student. I couldn't agree more.

>calibrating your eyes simply requires a good digital altimeter and experience flying a >particular canopy at a particular DZ. What if in addition to an altimeter (which lets you know where you began the turn and where you started to plane out) you also knew the maximum rate of descent established in the dive? >There are plenty of competition pilots out there who can move from DZ to DZ and bust >out the big turns, but they are unique people Is it that they are unique people or that they just understand the physics of air density better? And, they apply that knowledge from DZ to DZ. From my experience knowing and working with Jonathan Tagle, I am certain that his knowledge and experience as an Instrument Rated Private Pilot makes him a better canopy pilot.

If anyone thinks it has merit that would be great. I'm not sure if the technical difficulties could be worked through.

Your sarcastic reply reveals your ignorance of how a VSI works and does not promote the discussion at all.

>Just another reason I advocate going back to basics and rethinking the current accepted >progression to high performance canopy flight. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I agree with your post, but what about the idea of better instrumentation like what we see in aircraft? I wonder if any of the manufacturers (like Cypres) are working on some form of a VSI. An (audible) Vertical Speed Indicator that would give real-time feedback to the pilot to help him calibrate his eye over time. Something that would allow this pilot to creep up to the edge of the cliff and take a look before plunging off – so to speak. I believe there is a slight lag in the aircraft instrument, but it compensates for field elevation, density altitude and ambient pressure and tells how fast you are descending. Something more than the wind in the face and the pucker in your butt provides. A half-baked idea I just came up with, but it might have merit. I’m a firm believer in the age-old adage “there is no substitute for proper training” as you seem to be, but maybe a tack into-the-wind would be helpful at this point. Just a thought.

Proper training and awareness is the key. As RiggerRob said, the general public is “clueless” as to the dangers involved. Even those that should be aware are often uninformed, lazy, in a hurry, complacent, or simply so caught up in their own ego that they are not “in the moment”. Safety needs to be taught, emphasized and reinforced on a regular basis. And when we see safety violations we need to speak out. Two weeks ago the Director of Maintenance at our facility pulled an airplane up twenty feet behind me, left the engine/prop at a high idle and ran 50 yards away to get a multimeter. When I complained he tried to defend the indefensible. A former boss tells a story of a line boy that was instructed by the pilot to disconnect the GPU after engine start. Although the kid had (presumably) been trained, he was so eager to do his job he ran directly through the prop arc to reach the plug. I seem to recall several years back where Skydive Chicago had TWO wuffos walk into the prop in a one month span.? The list of stories like this goes on and on. Every one of them, preventable. I am sure there is nothing more horrific than seeing a human being cut in half by a propeller.

And I'm sure I'm being overly sensitive. I work around pilots and spinning propellers all day everyday, and am astounded at the lack of basic safety practices and procedures I see out there. Including, from persons directly responsible for these things. Accidents like the one involving this model happen so quickly, and are so avoidable, and shine a negative light on aviation as a whole. Lets all think safety out there.

>"I feel sorry for the pilot who may need an expensive engine teardown because of the >propstrike." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Really??? How about the idea that this "Pilot" did not succeed in his fundamental task of assuring a safe outcome for his passenger? As for myself, I feel sorry for this innocent, promising life, that has been forever altered because she misplaced her trust in this "Pilot In Command".

Your personal observations are supported by the study. Here is an excerpt as reported by Wiki: Regardless of how pervasive the phenomenon is, it is clear from Dunning’s and others’ work that many Americans, at least sometimes and under some conditions, have a tendency to inflate their worth. It is interesting, therefore, to see the phenomenon’s mirror opposite in another culture. In research comparing North American and East Asian self-assessments, Heine of the University of British Columbia finds that East Asians tend to underestimate their abilities, with an aim toward improving the self and getting along with others. Sounds like they are at level 4.

You know sometimes, in the rarest of circumstances, an individual is as beautiful in death as they were in life. Ted Strong clearly, is one of those giants. The words, feelings and love demonstrated in this mail and so many that preceded it, show what a positive influence this man had on so many others. I did not know him, but when I saw him at Oshkosh one year I made certain to shake his hand and say hello. I’m so glad I did. As a Rigger, I'll look forward to the release of that 30 foot round reserve pilot rig.

Yes, however, I found the "people with true ability tended to underestimate their relative competence" to be even more fascinating.

Thanks, NWFlyer. I like your tagline too.

Did anyone happen to catch the Nov issue of Plane and Pilot magazine in which Patty Wagstaff wrote about Risk Management? The take-away from the article for me, is her mention of the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize winning study called the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Wikipedia gives a good explanation of it. (Can someone smarter than me please give an assist and create a clicky?) It is an interesting study/article and I would recommend to anyone involved in a high risk activity such as Skydiving. Instructors should find it very interesting.

Thanks for confirming that, Grimmie. I had heard the legend too. Which may explain: In my earliest days of learning to fly my greatest (irrational) fear was of suddenly finding myself in freefall and knowing that I've got two rigs sitting at home in the closet. Blue skies to Bungee Wallace.

I had always heard he was involved in an aircraft mid-air collision, can anyone confirm or deny that? I was very new to the sport but remember seeing him and Mirror Image in the Pope Valley days.

>>We do not know you, rmarshall, but thanks for posting this tribute. Not me, I was simply repeating Robin Heid's words from an earlier post that I felt deserved to be heard again. Clearly you agree.

"And while of course Ted would've loved to have another 15 or 20 more years with Marcie and parachuting, I'm sure he's content that it ended with a cool jump story: There he was age 75 skydiving hard at the cutting edge test jumping one of his own creations on a beautiful autumn day with young-enough-to-be-his-children/grandchildren friends and colleagues who all lived to tell lies about his last jump. Cheers, old friend. We'll miss you but you lived large, long and with a heart full of love and you can't do much better than that." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Very well said, robinheid. Thanks for posting.

I believe in the philosophy I applied when raising my two sons... "Let them fall, just don't let them hit their head on the way down."

Lance has it right. See and Avoid is the law of the land...or in this case, the law of the sky. Although a bit late for the comfort of all, the pilot did exactly as he should have - he altered course to the right. Fortunately, he was looking outside the cockpit when it mattered the most.

Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

I never met him but he looks like the kind of guy (character) I would have liked. Much like, Dennis Anderson in a previous post. Another skydiving brother, motorcyclist, or rigger, living a parallel universe from mine. We had 'Sketchy Dave' Peterson here in San Diego who is gone now too. Skydiver, photographer, friend, and dropzone character. We are all enriched by their lives and their presence. Blue skies, to Strange Dave.

And he continues to post here because he is compassionate about safety and because he CARES about others. (He has proven that through a lifetime of service to the skydiving community and to the community at large.) Also, and I don't know this but I suspect it is true; he quit skydiving -in part- because of the arrogance and irreverance of the common upcoming jumper that did not exist in years past.