psychoswooper

If I remember correctly, There is an alternative way to set an old style Dytter......turn it a ways over to the left , then once in the plane , at your desired altitude turn it to the right until it beeps. It will beep at the same altitude on the way down....a much more accurate way then trying to use those little bumps.. I may remember incorrectly, so try this first on a jump where it's not critical

This is mostly a question to other riggers/ and or very experienced Tandem packers.... Lately our DZ has had what to me is an unacceptable number of Tandem line-overs on our EZ-384 canopies...with 6 slider grommets. Some of these have been able to be cleared by the TM's some not...resulting in lost freebags, down time on rigs & general pain in the butt inconvenience.... Before you blame the packers...I should point out that 1 was packed by an FAA rigger with over 30,000 Tandem pack jobs and (if I am to believe my staff) the most recent by myself, an FAA Rigger with over 10,000 Tandem pack jobs. We are not careless with the steering lines. We go way beyond PD's "flip" method for centering the lines & actually pull the tail up & physically place each & every steering line into the center, then wrap the remaining tail around very carefully. Or we flat pack, placing all the steering lines right in the center. This has only started happening recently...The line sets avg around 300 jumps each......we have not changed the way we pack....Out of our combined 40,000 Tandem pack jobs 8 of his & 3 of mine have malfunctioned. Maybe these aren't really bad numbers, (1 per 3,636 pack jobs) but it sure is bugging us...And the numbers are worse for our lesser experienced packers, although they pack just like us....just have a lot less packjobs at this point.... The problem only seems to happen on the canopies with 6 grommets...any field info/ opinions on this would be greatly appreciated.

Yeah, wow I know, pretty wild title But that is exactly what was relayed to me as a direct quote of a TX DZ operator. So giving this some thought. On the one hand, freeflying has probably provided a nice boost at least to rig manufacturers, as jumpers get rid of their old flat flying rigs & purchase new freefly friendly gear. Also the visual appeal of free-flying seems to attract and yes, maybe even help keep some new "youngblood" in the sport. At my DZ, almost all new jumpers are turning to freeflying around 50-75 jumps or so. The problem is that they have developed only very basic flat-flying skills, and once they switch, never seem to come back to flat-flying. They all talk of being Freefly coaches at some point in the future. And therein lies the dilema.....If everybody becomes a great freeflyer & nobody wants to become good enough at flat flying to do AFF, Who will teach the next generation of students the basics?? I know some will argue that really good free flyers can do AFF in sit or head down, but realistically, because of the fall rates involved, while possible, I believe that jumpers with that skill would be few & far in between. So I pose the question...Who will teach the next generations of beginners?

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you :)

....put 100 miles on my golf cart...got stuck knee deep in mud twice.......got ejected going about 30mph after a person from Arizona (who I will leave un-named) "borrowed" it & souped it up.....jumped with Scotty & Tammy Carbone on their anniversary jump......attended the 2nd Saturday Night Rave "Squatters" party at the Mirage Tent (after the Mirage reps had left for home) Got Kyle Moss of MSF a bit drunk so that he'd be easier to tie up for his super-pieing...had the honor of applying the first 2 pies.......Got Grant of MSF drinking tequila shots, after which he stated. "You bitch, you got me drunk!" Had a great time. Saw many many old friends and made a bunch of new ones......oh yeah, and I had some kick ass skydives, too...Thanks everybody.......Thanks to Don Kirlin for another wonderful convention.

It's not so much a matter of being able to fly the plane or not, I've been in a plane with an iced-over windshield (on an IFR flight plan) but in VFR flight you are supposed to see and avoid other air traffic. I think I can safely say (1) a visual traffic scan is less effective if the windshield is blocked (2) the airspace during Lindberg's day was slightly less congested--especially on a Trans-Atlantic flight. Very little chance of running into another aircraft there, don't you think?

I was recently watching a Tandem video from a small USPA Group Member DZ & couldn't believe my eyes.....the pilot had one of those folding metallic type windshield sunscreens fully-opened up across his Cessna 182 windshield on jump run. This is not a joke. I couldn't believe my eyes. I asked the guy who owned the video..."Was that a sun screen I just saw across the windshield? How did (name omitted) see to fly?" He replied that the pilot was looking out the side. Nice. Another video showed him flying a load of jumpers in his C-182 with his small (3-6 yr old) son on his lap. The kid had on some kind of harness contraption, so I guess that made it alright--never mind that he was on his Dads lap--between him & the Instrument panel & controls.