Eule

Hello all! In early 2006, Ron posted a summary of incidents in the US for 2005. I found a similar summary online for incidents in Germany for 2005, translated it (with help), and posted it. I knew that there would be another summary for 2006, but I just hadn't looked for it yet or done the work. I finally did it, so here it is, with the idea of "better late than never". The German Parachute Association (Deutscher Fallschirmsport Verband or DFV) has an annual safety conference, the proceedings of which are posted on their Web site. Click on Download, then "Sicherheitstagung_200x" to see what is available for each year. One of the DFV officers posted an explanation (in English) of how these reports and statistics are gathered. You can get the original report in German if you want to check my work. I have marked the places where I am unsure of the translation with '???'. I have included the section on accidents, plus some general statistics on number of jumpers and jumps in Germany. Note that some of the general statistics are for 2005, not 2006. As a quick comparison with the US, in 2005, Germany had 260,800 jumps and 5 fatalities. In 2005, the US had 2,177,007 jumps and 27 fatalities. Eule German Parachute Association - Safety Conference 2006 (PDF p. 16) Short report on 2006 fatal accidents No. 1 7 May 2006 in Soest Student jumper, 34 jumps (male, 41 years old) Student jumper, 26 jumps (female, 33 years old) Two freefall students in the final phase of training jumped next to last and last. The jump was normal until final approach. The wind was between 14 and 16 knots. Both jumpers were at about 100 m (300 feet) AGL and one was 100 m (300 feet) in front of the other. The jumper in front made a 180 degree turn to get closer to the landing area. The canopies collided, collapsed, and entangled. Both jumpers fell to the ground from about 80 to 100 m (240 to 300 feet) with fatal injuries. (PDF p. 17) No. 2 11 June 2006 in Saulgau Licensed jumper, about 110 jumps (male, 62 years old) After normal freefall and deployment, the jumper probably had a stroke under canopy. Without steering, the jumper flew towards town, hit the wall of a house, and fell to the pavement with heavy internal injuries and a broken neck. He died in the hospital after some days in a coma. (PDF p. 18) No. 3 15 June 2006 in Lützellinden Licensed jumper, about 400 jumps (female, 52 years old) Jump normal until about 300 m (1200 feet). At this height, over the peas, the jumper threw her helmet down and apparently without reason cut away a good main canopy. Jumper went into a track position and hit the ground without any apparent attempt to deploy the reserve. All circumstances point quite clearly to suicide. (PDF p. 19) No. 4 24 June 2006 in Flensburg Licensed jumper, about 3000 jumps (male, 62 years old) No pull during a demo jump (AL in Kaserne ??? *) from about 1000 m (3000 feet). Medical cause? No AAD installed. Accuracy ("goal jump") canopy. ??? (* Possibly a soccer game (A----liga) at a fort/barracks ) (PDF p. 20) No. 5 3 September 2006 in Worms Licensed jumper, about 380 jumps (male, 42 years old) Demo jump (AL *) into the harbor. Wind about 5-6 m/s (10-12 knots). Planned water jump by four jumpers in two approaches. This jumper went first, with a 120 square foot canopy that he only had a few jumps on. By bad set-up and bad canopy control (front riser turn), jumper flew into a boat at the edge of the harbor at high speed and died from the very hard impact. Main canopy Faqtor 120 with only 2-3 jumps on this canopy. (* Soccer game? ) (PDF p. 21) No. 6 16 September 2006 in Fehrbellin Licensed jumper, about 600 jumps (male, 45 years old) Normal jump with fully deployed canopy. Landing pattern too close to an obstacle - to fly over the obstacle, the jumper pulled and held a front riser too long. Without flaring, hit a wood bank at high speed, and died a short time later from severe head injuries. Main canopy Stiletto 120 with about 12 jumps on that canopy; previously jumper had a 135 square foot canopy. (PDF p. 22) No. 7 31 October 2006 in Eggenfelden Licensed jumper, about 300 jumps (male, 45 years old) 3-way jump with normal freefall and deployment. At opening, jumper flew about 6 to 8 complete circles down to about 150 m (450 feet) over a hangar. The jumper was probably surprised by the speed and altitude loss. Instead of flying straight ahead to an alternate landing area, (understanding the situation was too much for him??? "offenbar mit Einordnung der Situation überfordert") the jumper made another full turn and hit the hangar roof at high speed, then fell to the ground and immediately died from his injuries. Main canopy Icarus 139 with about 30 jumps on that canopy. (PDF p. 24) CAUSES of fatal accidents 2006 1 during off-field landing because of errors in approach, canopy control, and (risk assesment??? "Risikofreude") 1 error on approach; hit obstacle 1 low turn; hit roof 1 no pull, no AAD 2 canopy collision (students in landing pattern) 1 stroke after canopy opening 1 suicide (PDF p. 23) Short report on 2006 major accidents 22 July 2006 in SLS-Düren AFF student, 8 sport jumps (male, 23 years old) Repeat level 6 jump (8 jumps total). Wind on the edge of 16 knots; spot about 1 NM (1.2 mi) from DZ. Freefall OK until about 1500 m (4500 feet). At pull time, student stretched legs, became unstable (top-heavy), and dipped down and turned away. Hard pull on the main because of broken Teflon coating at the handle. Instructor tried to reach the student until about 600 m (1800 feet) but couldn't. The instructor pulled at 600 m and didn't see the student's canopy. The AAD fired the student's reserve low enough that full inflation and landing happened at the same time. Student survived with heavy fractures of both legs. (PDF p. 7) General jump statistics for 2005 Accidents Fatal 5 Major 65 Minor 40 Incidents Reserve ride 286 (including 72 student reserve rides) Low pull 8 AAD fire 11 Landing on/at obstacle 12 Canopy collision 4 (PDF p. 6) General jump statistics for 2005 (78 feedbacks) Total jumps in 2005 260,800 (down about 50,000 from previous year) including AFF jumps 4,750 static-line jumps 12,650 tandem jumps 22,530 (PDF p. 8) Training statistics 2005 (66 feedbacks) New students 1,460 including AFF 710 Static line 750 Student jumps in 2005 17,400 (down about 4,600 from previous year) including about 900 jumps in other countries (PDF p. 9) Statistics of the known jump accidents in 2006 91 accidents overall | Students | Licensed| Jump count | 1

Because Empuriabrava wrote me a big check and keeps me well-supplied with Spanish hotties. :) Seriously, the reason why there aren't more entries for Spain is that nobody has submitted any. All of the entries you see are user contributions - this is not an attempt to make a comprehensive list of dropzones. The dropzone listings here already do a pretty good job of that. A couple of months ago, I wrote an email to someone explaining the rationale behind the site, and it occurs to me that it might be good to also post it here: I first put up the site in mid-October 2006. I usually update it about once a week if there are new submissions. There were 34 entries on 19 October 2006, and that has grown to 170 entries as of 3 May 2007. I've personally only created two of the entries; the rest have been submitted by users of dropzone.com and skysurfer.com.au . I have solicited entries in the Spanish and German forums on dropzone.com, but not in the French or Russian forums yet - this is mostly because I am illiterate in both French and Russian. Here are some guidelines I try to go by: I don't intend the list to be commercial or a money-making venture at all. A DZ can't buy a spot on the list, nor can they prevent another DZ from appearing on the list. The only way to get on the list is to create an entry for a dropzone and submit it via the forum thread on dropzone.com . The list isn't intended to _replace_ things like the dropzone listings on dropzone.com . I did copy the structure used on dropzone.com for sorting countries into regions of the world but that's it. One thing the list _can_ do is provide a poor man's geographic search capability for the countries that aren't in the dropzone.com geographic search. The entries on the list are supposed to present a "jumper's eye view" of the dropzone. For instance, it's perfectly fine if an entry has "Farmer McNasty" placemarks. This is something that it might be difficult for a DZ to put on their own public Web site - Farmer McNasty might see it and get mad - but on a third-party list of user-contributed entries, it's less likely to cause a problem. There are some forums at Google associated with Google Earth and I *think* you can get entries added into the "official" list that is accesible to any Google Earth user via participation in those forums. So far, I haven't pursued this; I'm not sure that it's a good idea to share these entries with all the whuffos. The way it stands, you have to work at it a little to get the list. So far, I only include updates that are posted to the dropzone.com thread. This is a deliberate "filter"; I don't mind collecting and organizing the files, but I really don't want to answer a lot of email about the site. I do enough support email at work that I don't really want to do it for free at home. I also don't plan to "scrape" the dropzone.com listings and automatically create a point for every dropzone in those listings. Those listings have several old entries for a couple of states I am familiar with, so I think it's reasonable to assume that there are old entries for other states as well. Also, I'd rather have entries with more details than just "here's the DZ". I do have several user-contributed entries with only one placemark, but I don't intend to automatically generate any like that. (On the other hand, in some parts of the world the satellite photo resolution isn't too good, and a single "here's the DZ" placemark is about the best you can do.) The list only includes reasonably-current dropzones. I don't intend to list wind tunnels, etc, at this time. I might create another section of the list for "former dropzones" if anybody submits some - at least for those dropzones where there is still a visible airport/runway instead of subdivisions. For each new entry I get, I make a little effort to figure out if it's a real dropzone - I look in the dropzone.com listings, visit the dropzone's Web site if possible, etc. Web sites in English are no problem and I can deal with most western European languages well enough to check out a Web site, but for other languages I sometimes have to take the submitter's word for it. Some of the dropzones are seasonal or only used for a boogie and that's OK. The entries don't have to be in English. I may not be able to read all of them but I can at least make sure there's an airport there. If I get an entry for a dropzone already in the list, I will compare and merge the two entries, and update the date stamp in the file name to show that it has changed. Especially for US dropzones, I try to list both the dropzone name and the town or airport name on the Web page. I've noticed that some people will refer to to the club/dropzone name ("I jump at the Ranch") and some will refer to the town/airport name ("I jump at Gardiner"). Since I'm a relatively new jumper, I don't know where all the dropzones are yet, and it's not always obvious to me when two people are talking about the same place. This way, hopefully, people can find the right place no matter what name they've heard for it. Some countries have a simple list of dropzones, while others are further broken down by state, province, territory, etc. The dividing line on which countries get broken down further and which don't is kind of fuzzy. So far, all of the really huge countries with many entries (US, Canada, Australia) are broken down this way. If you jump at some good spots in Spain, make a few notes while you're there, then make and submit entries for those DZs when you're around the computer again. That's the best way to get more entries for a particular country. :) Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Piscine Vicious, Piscine Voracious - Piscine means "having to do with fish", but everyone will think you're saying "pissing". Pilotrema Verticalus, Pristiophorus Verticalus - The initial words are two genera of sawsharks. The second words are made up in the fine tradition of some well-known nature films. Pilotrema Vicious/Voracious, Pristiophorus Vicious/Voracious - combination of above. Piscine Volante, Pilotrema Volante, Pristiophorus Volante - as above with the Italian word for "flying". Or 'Volare' (the infinitive 'to fly' in Latin and Italian) or 'Volaré' ('I will fly' in Spanish, but all the older jumpers will think of an old Plymouth instead.) Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Maybe $50 a year for USPA membership. Around $60-$70 per reserve repack, which you need three times a year, if you want to always be ready. (If you live way up north, and you don't jump or plan to travel south to jump over the winter, you could probably skip one of these.) Other possible gear maintenance includes batteries for AADs (every 4 years for some models, not cheap) and electronic altimeters (maybe every year or two, $5). Sometimes you replace things like goggles ($20) that tend to get beat up and/or lost over the course of a year or two. If you go out to the DZ for more than just the afternoon, you probably need to feed yourself. This can be bringing sandwich stuff in your cooler, or eating at the DZ's restaurant (if so equipped), or getting food in town. Anywhere from $5 to $40 a day depending on how you like to eat. If you have to drive some distance to the DZ, you may also have to pay extra taxes on driving levied by small towns who didn't have enough foresight to diversify their economies. (For instance, the rat-f@ckers in Drumright, OK.) Then your car insurance goes up as well, so your insurance company can buy *MORE* radar guns to give to small-town cops. Rat-f@ckers all around. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

On the other hand.... you have had their money in your bank for 9 years, which has provided value to you. If you put the $125 somewhere where it would make a massive 4% a year, you'd only be out two bucks on that $180. If you're really concerned, maybe a way out is to not call it a "gift certificate". Maybe a "jump ticket" or something similar. That way it might go under a different set of rules. On the other hand, you have to be careful selling "tickets", because then you might fall under the rules for commercial airlines. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

What does that mean? This post (and the rest of that thread) may help explain it. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Hmm... they must not pay the maintenance guys very well where you work, if the pilots feel like they need to learn to skydive. :) Welcome! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

The site has been updated. There are 170 dropzones listed. I added a couple of dropzones in Germany that were emailed to me. I should check my email more often. :) Keep those cards and letters coming! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

The main chart (at http://www.dropzone.com/fatalities/ ) and the 2007 chart (at http://www.dropzone.com/fatalities/2007/index.shtml ) don't seem to be updating past January 2007. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

QuoteI'm trying to add additional server names to the list to exclude further spam messages, and they refuse to be added to the list. I don't know the answer to your question. But my observation is that most spammers rotate their "from" addresses enough that filtering on domain names usually doesn't help much. If you have one or two clueless spammers that always send from the same domain, it can help, but in the general case, other kinds of filtering are more useful. Depending on how much spam you get, it might be a useful experiment to copy-and-paste your existing domain list to a text file, then delete the list from dropzone.com, and see how much your spam load goes up. You may find that you've only got one or two domains that are spamming you repeatedly, and that the rest might be better caught by setting up an "advanced" filter. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

There is a slightly more recent thread (also started by Tom) with more sources of information. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I agree with tdog - get it made. In the Tulsa phone book there are about ten different places that make rubber stamps, so you shouldn't have a problem finding a place. You can either draw your own design or use an existing one - if you draw your own, draw it a lot bigger than you want it to end up. The stamp place should be able to reduce it and all the mistakes you made will disappear. :) If you want a ready-made image, I have attached a couple that I converted from Gary Peek's clip art collection. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Fun with math! See the attached Excel spreadsheet (in zip file) or PDF file if you don't like Excel. Yes, I know I have no life. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

$8000 for one little plastic street-spam sign on the side of the road? No. $8000 for a dozen bikini girls dancing around during halftime at the Super Bowl while singing "Jump at Joe's Dropzone"? The cashier's check is in the mail! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I don't think it really needs it. If it was a sticky, eventually people would get used to it being on top and skip over it. The way it is now, it stays on the front page for a day or two, which usually attracts a couple of new entries. It gradually moves off the front page, and when I get a little time, I put the new entries on the site and post a follow-up here, which puts the thread back on the front page. Then it gets a couple more new entries... lather, rinse, repeat. :) Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

The answer is probably in FAR part 43, somewhere, but you should probably get a professional opinion before you bust out the Krylon. Appendix A to part 43 has lists of things that are considered "major repairs", "major alterations", and "preventative maintenance". Painting the inside of the cabin probably falls under "preventative maintentance", as long as "removal or disassembly of any primary structure or operating system is not required". 43.3.g then says that the pilot can do preventative maintenance on any aircraft he owns or operates, as long as the aircraft isn't used under part 121 (airlines), 127 (?), 129 (foreign airlines in the US), or 135 (commuter and charter). I don't _think_ jump operations fall under any of these parts but I don't know. If you aren't the pilot, though, I don't think you're officially allowed to do it. I suspect that Hooknswoop is on the right track... the main concern is probably hiding (or causing) corrosion. Your friendly local A&P can tell you for sure. An alternative might be to clean the old glue off of the surface, if you can do it in such a way so as not to damage the aluminum. This probably has to happen anyway if you want the paint job to look decent, but cleaning off old glue is probably easier to justify than repainting. As I understand it, some places that paint airplanes want you to drop off the plane and a check and come back in a week, but others are more amenable to you helping. Like, you bring the plane, they hand you a pile of sandpaper and stripper and stuff, you prep it (the hard part), they shoot the paint (the easy part), you both sit around coming down off the paint-fume high, you pay them, you go home. You might also be able to work a deal as a slop-sucker... they call you when they're about to paint a Citation, you bring the 182 over, they paint the Citation and use the last two quarts to paint the inside of the 182, everybody happy. Knowing somebody at the paint place, and/or horse trading with them (find a painter who wants to do a tandem), may make this easier. If you do end up with a sprayer in your hand, and it's anything other than a rattle-can from the hardware store, you MUST wear the right mask/respirator. Most of the fancy kinds of spray paint out there now will straighten out your DNA in 0.2 nanoseconds. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

The site has been updated. There are 168 dropzones listed. I added Weichkeks' entry for Bautzen-Litten, Germany. For those of you just tuning in, I am collecting all of the files posted in this thread and putting them online at the above site. At that site, you can also download one file that contains all of the dropzones that have been posted so far. Keep those cards and letters coming! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Maybe a patch? How about something like a close-fitting sleeve that you could slip over one of your leg straps or chest strap, if it wouldn't be a snag hazard? The sleeve could either have embroidery on it, or you could sew a patch to it, or maybe screen print it. That way the logo/name/whatever is on something you _have_ to be wearing even if you're not wearing any clothes. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

That's less than one first jump course... how hard can it be? :) Who else will be speaking? Some of the "usual suspects" would be a commercial airline pilot and maybe somebody from the Experimental Aircraft Association. These people may have done presentations for little kids before and may be able to give you some tips. The teachers at the school can also probably help. Do you get the entire age range at each talk, or will one talk be first-graders, the next one second-graders, and so on? If you get all ages every time, you pretty much need one talk that has something for everyone, but if you get age ranges, you might need two talks - a simpler one for the younger kids and a more technical one for the older kids. Or at least, an intro and a conclusion that stays the same, but a middle part that you can adjust to the age range you're talking to. Passing stuff around is always popular, but not too much stuff - if they're looking at the stuff they're not listening to you. Small and not super expensive things like a ripcord, closing pin, pilot chute, etc. If the older kids are not too rowdy you might pass around an altimeter, but not your brand-new AltiTrack. You can probably use a little time doing the FJC demo of unpacking a chute and pointing out its features. Get a couple of the kids to hold on to your pilot chute and walk away and explain what's happening as it "deploys". (This does assume you have a reasonable place to repack it.) On the other hand, they might want more about the "job" and not the hardware, but I still think it would be an interesting demo. Video might be good but not too much. If you have to turn out the lights to show it, some of the kids will start going to sleep. The kids will all be half-asleep in the talk immediately after lunch anyway. If you can swing it, a good intro might be to be ready to jump - jumpsuit, rig, helmet, goggles, altimeter, everything - and then hide around the corner as the kids come in. Walk out in front of them like that and you'll grab their attention right away. Then you can take the stuff off and hold it up as you talk about each piece. Don't forget to explain about Ramen noodles and how to get a good deal on a used RV. :) Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I agree with this approach. Before I started jumping I did this (visited both Cushing and Skiatook) and I'm glad I did - it helped me decide where to go. One note - Cushing is having a boogie on May 5 and 6. This means they are having a special aircraft in and will probably be very busy with lots of jumpers. It's not like nobody will be able to answer your questions or show you around, but it'll be a little less hectic on a "regular" weekend. Skiatook is a few miles north of Tulsa, while Cushing is about halfway between Tulsa and OKC. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Just joined, 10 posts so far, all of them with similar subjects and content. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I note that the two that didn't get a thumbnail have a space in the filename. Maybe that's the problem. Otherwise they appear to be identical file types: $ file * 2005-10-02 14_01_0001.jpg: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01 20070422 001-scaled.jpg: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01 IMG_1815-scaled.JPG: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01 IMG_1820-scaled.JPG: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01 Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

And you know what the money shot in a gay porno looks like because... :) Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I'll try not to get this one backwards... 13500 - 2100 = 11400 feet vertically 11400 / 5280 = 2.159 miles vertically 102 sec * (1 hour / 3600 sec) = 0.02833 hour 2.159 miles / 0.02833 hour = 76.2 mph vertical 2.5 miles / 0.02833 hour = 88.2 mph horizontal 2.5 miles / 2.159 miles = 1.16:1 glide ratio Track angle from horizontal = arctan(2.159/2.5) = 40.8 degrees Track length = sqrt(2.5*2.5 + 2.159*2.159) = 3.30 miles Speed along track path = 3.30 miles / 0.02833 hour = 117 mph So yeah, I agree with your numbers. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

My other half gave me a ring and I've had it with me on just about every jump. When it was cold and I wore gloves, I took it off and put it in my pocket. Lately I've also been putting another small item from the other half in my pocket. It's not any bigger than a car key. This maybe falls under general dive preparation, but I've noticed that when I'm rushing around to get on a load, the dive tends to not go as well as it otherwise might. Once or twice I've decided to manifest on the load after next, instead of the next one, so I can get ready in a leisurely manner. I know a guy who has pillow handles for both cutaway and reserve. He's got Bible verses embroidered on them - a different one on each. Not the whole verse, but the book, chapter and verse, like "John 3:16". I don't now remember what they are specifically, but I do remember looking one of them up once and finding it appropriate. I file this under "religion", not "superstition". Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.