StealthyB

Well, I drove to Dunlap, Tx. to check in on them, but since I couldn't locate them I thought " what the heck? Georgia's not such a long hop, but couldn't find them there either! While I'm on the road I may as well run up to Tennessee? Anybody want me to pick anything up for them while I'm there, sandwiches or anything? No trouble, really it isn't, Regards B.

Any other pics with the leading edge being flown efficiently? This looks pretty crappy....

Bo is from Serbia, I see that when someone guesses a name that it is added to the list. I know some off the people here and they are not so accurate with logging, haha! There are a couple of longtime tandem instructors in Hawaii who have in excess of 15,000 tandems, I can verify that George Rivera and Richard "Dop " Dopplemyer are two. I see that quite a few of these names on your list have worked in Hawaii at one point or another. Congratulations when you get your 10,000 I should be there myself in about a year, Regards, B.

Just caught wind of this post and would like to add a little from personal experience, (27 years and 8500 + tandems ) The above quote is right on the money, it is very important to remember that no drop zone guarantees the safety of the healthiest and fittest individual on earth while assisting them to experience a tandem skydive. Two weeks ago I was part of a team of three Tandem instructors that took 20 spinal cord injured people on tandem skydives over a two day period. Although we used an assist device to lift the legs for landing, one participant broke her leg when she sat on it at the end of a high speed, zero wind landing. Having just landed prior I witnessed this landing and although the passenger didn't feel anything I recommended a Doctor's check up. The next week I was asked to jump with an MS afflicted person, and because of very favorable wind conditions I didn't even bother using the leg assist harness. In an activity where even the fittest person takes a risk of injury, it is unfair to a Dropzone, or an instructor to be asked to take any responsibility for the safety of a person that chooses to participate, but that said, when evaluating the jump conditions and the fitness level of the passenger the safety is due in a large part to the experience and judgement of the instructor. Regards, B.

Quote***I think it is fine to learn in a sloppy but safe fitting Wingsuit, perfection isn't needed. However, the tool you really want to perfect and spend years in it tends to be best to buy custom. You might get lucky on the used market but how long do you want to wait? You want a Wingsuit that is part of you. I bet you would borrow a buddies shirt or pants, but would you borrow his undies?

Hi Steve, Sorry for your loss, your Dad was a great guy, signed off on my D license sometime back in the mid 80's, condolences to you and your family, give my best to your uncles, Dutch and Archie,.. Brendan D9851

Thanks, interesting! Curious about other Wingsuit specific mods to gear? size of bridle? type of bag? ( stowed? semi-stowless? Freepacked? ) container? Model? Dynamic corners? Unstitched? any other wingsuit specific mods? Thanks,... B

Birdman Classic (15 skydives/1st Basejmp) GTI Vampire1 Vampire3 Venom In this present era of large wings, I am very surprised and a little freaked out that people are jumping large suits with very little preparation to entering the WS environment progressing from smaller, more forgiving, wings? Especially in their rush to fixed object jumping. Looking at this thread I see a normal, common sense, progression from small and intermediate size suits, yet in the last year or so, I have noticed a lot of low time jumpers immediately trying to begin wingsuiting in what only one year previously would have been the highest performance suit on the market. I am alarmed that suits that two years previously were "expert only " are now finding their way into the hands of first time wingsuiters. I have been an AFF instructor for over 20 years and can tell you from first hand experience that this is what's happening!!! I have a ton of respect for people like Simon at "Wicked ", who are trying to teach the up and comers, but am curious to know if anyone else is noticing this phenomena ? Regards, B

Agree with all of the above, how about main container configuration? dynamic corners? unstitched? any thoughts about these mods? enlighten me,.. :-) Regards, B.

It depends on the style of tandem instructor you are? If you like sporty or if you are looking for reliable good old standard style canopy flying. The Icarus is my favourite Tandem Canopy by far, but I am presently at a DZ where I am flying Aerodyne and while I didn't like the earlier A2's, I have really grown fond of them, at least the 350. You can have your Sigmas, the 340 is OK but take the bigger ones and throw them in the bonfire, I have thousands of jumps on Sigmas and I will jump Aerodyne anyday over them. I jumped at a DZ that had half Sigma 340's and half Icarus 330's, mega tandem factory and instructors all had thousands and thousands of jumps,...nobody wanted to jump the Sigmas. That's a lot of personal preference, so just my opinion. Regards, B.

Damn!!! very sorry to hear this, :-( Thanks for posting.

Very well put! Is 50% less income equal to 50% less wear and tear on the gear, the aircraft, the operating costs, and the TI ? because I would rather do half the tandems for twice the pay,... Regards, B.

Very good article, thank you, but there is another problem that has been cropping up with horizontal flyers and it's the large Tracking suits. I am currently at a DZ in Northern Europe and our only aircraft is a Twin otter, and of course we put AFF's and Tandems on the loads. We put Trackers out first and Wingsuiters out after the High opening AFF and Tandems. There has been some confusion as to where those wearing large tracking suits should exit, and they are often just before the WS'ers and after the Tandems. I have had inexperienced jumpers who are tracking without a suit attempt to exit after me on my Tandem or AFF telling me trackers go later (as has become acceptable with those tracking in PF and Tube suits ) personally I don't even want a jumper in a tracking suit to follow me as I don't consider him to be in the same slowfall category as a Wingsuiter.I know some DZ's have the TMs exit first, but overall I don't agree with this. And we have tried to keep a policy of no more than two tracking groups per load, although manifest doesn't always catch this. Anyway, Great article, Thanks.

As an active Instructor, and one who has always learned from the experiences of others, I still find the opportunity, once in a while to remind people of the lesson from this tragedy, I'm fortunate enough to skydive in environments that let us punch complete cloud cover from time to time, and in coastal areas, I have never lost site of the lesson from this tragedy, even today in the age of GPS. I have found myself in situations many times in my Skydiving career when this tragedy has come to mind. Thanks to all who have led the way, RIP.

Sad news. I have known Jim for many years and always enjoyed seeing him pull up to the DZ in his Bug. His enthusiasm and love for jumping was a delight, his appreciation for the jump or jumps he made on any day should serve to make us all reflect on how fortunate we all are.He enjoyed coming to the DZ, observing the goings on and getting his "fix". I remember when he realised that putting an AAD in his rig was going to stretch his jumping days out a little longer, a concession to the inevitable. Congratulations Jim, you lived a long life and you will be missed.

Hi Rick, thanks for posting this, Some of my best memories in the sport are of the times I had with Alfonz, I knew he'd been struggling in recent years, The words aren't there to express the sadness. RIP. Brendan.

I find this discussion on antennas and winds pretty interesting, and have to pretty much agree with Yuri's opinions. I have around 250 slider up antenna jumps and while I have never had an object strike I've had some interesting openings, and witnessed one person get hung up and require a rescue. In that incident the person hit the wire with his body and slid off on one side of the cable while his canopy flew over the other side and knotted over the cables as it brushed them as he slid down......I believe this may have saved his life. I think that one of the biggest dangers in hitting guidewires is canopy damage and especially severed lines if they take the brunt of the impact. I've always felt that antenna jumps are among the safest fixed object jumps available if there are winds. obviously strong winds down the center are optimal, but any winds off the wires increase safety proportionally as they move 5, 10, 15,etc.degrees to center. Also, I've known many jumpers to turn at varying angles in freefall towards the direction of the wind in order to open heading into the wind (don't overlook the potential for an off heading opening favoring the tower.) I think decisions to do this should depend on experience and how current you are. I am far from an expert in this sport and am curious to get some feedback, specifically what is the general consensus on slider down jumps off antennas in high winds, I know that there are people out there jumping bridges and antennas in stiff winds but it's always seemed to me that unless you have proportional downward speed that you are risking some unpredictable openings and possible potential for malfunctions? Also, there are more and more big towers being erected to accommodate Hi-def. tv, is there much wingsuit activity off 1500' + towers? Thanks, StealthyB