VTmotoMike08

Can someone please make a flashy animated .gif with a funny slogan to post every time some one gets busted posting a rumor that has been debunked by snopes?

I don't have it but my friend who does said it was pretty comparable to just wearing gym shorts or an under armor type shirt under the suit... not really anything special. And I wear gym shorts anyway.

>>for all of the young people who will never be able to retire because there will be absolutely no safety net called Social Securiuty *Shocking idea* Or you could work hard, make smart decisions with your money, and not depend on the government for your retirement... nah, that would be wayyyy too much work!

Ouch! Anyone know what his injuries were?

I just wonder if he really, truely believes the crap he spouts, or if he is just trying to piss people off?

GOING TO WAR OVER RELIGION IS LIKE FIGHTING OVER WHOSE IMAGINARY FRIEND IS BETTER!

I'm not really sure what your point is. Yes, I know I was a dumb ass and a quick check could have prevented it. It seems that you are hinting I should have kept it hidden from Strong Enterprises for fear of punishment. Apologies if I'm reading into your post wrong, but I disagree. When I became a TI, I signed a written "Tandem Instructor Code of Ethics" agreement and part of that is to fill out and submit the form every time there is a reserve activation or injury. My word means something to me, so I kept up my end of the agreement. As for posting it on the internet, I don't regret that either. No one person will live long enough to make all the mistakes themselves so I posted it here just as a reminder of what can happen. It seems that several other people have gotten the point.

Yes, there are several apps that will sync your iTunes library with an Android phone. Just search the market for it. I use one called Syncr.

Is this app known by another name other than Swype? Just searched the android market and couldn't find it. On an HTC Evo. Thanks.

With only 340 feet of water and 1400 Barrels/day, no way this one could ever get as bad as the BP deep water horizon. I bet it is a drop in the bucket, comparitevely. Of course this does not make it OK.

Well, like I said, she didn't realize we were under a reserve until she asked to steer and I had to tell her no because there are no toggles for the student on the reserve. We had talked about her flying the canopy earlier. On the ground, she seemed a little nervous that she had the reserve ride. She asked why we were under the reserve and actually wanted a real explanation but at the time I didn't know about the mis-rigged rings, I had to look at the photos later. She did email me (looked up on facebook) a few days later and said basically "did you ever find out what caused it and thanks for handling it. I'm OK with the whole thing.". I gave her the best layman's terms answer I could so I'm not worried about getting sued. I suppose I was a little paranoid, but she could have tried to claim emotional damage (?) or something. Yes, I know thats a stretch but you never know what some people will go to.

The worst is when you get someone who says they always wanted to do it... and they are in their 50's Well... must not have wanted it to bad, or ya would have done it by now! (and no, I don't have anything against jumpers who started in their 50's, but I don't believe they "always" wanted to do it, at least not that badly.)

I use that technique when the student has larger legs and hips and mine would be smashed against the side of the plane if I had them in front of me. I have not found it to be useful with average or smaller students but YRMV. Anyway, lets keep this thread on track and start another one to discuss lateral tightening techniques if you want. Thanks.

Ya, she half way tried to knee fly on me, especially after the first ripcord pull. I'm a pretty big guy and I've noticed on the smaller people that it is pretty hard, almost impossible, to get zero "washing around" with the student when they are significantly shorter and smaller than me. The difference in the width of our hips contributes to this. That being said, I assure you that I cranked down those laterals as tight as I could and I feel that any motion is due to her body position. In this attached pic, you can see that the laterals are pretty tight but she is actually bending at the stomach in a severely de-arched position and pulling her hips away from mine. In any event... the laterals didn't cause any problems on this jump. Also, I did check the 3-ring before putting on the rig. I just "saw what I expected to see" and failed to look closely enough to spot the missassembly. Stupid me!

He was actually plenty far away, I zoomed in on that photo to get it within the size limits for posting here. The camera guy is also a very experienced TI, I have no problem with him being up there.

Yes, the webbing probably had something to do with the failure to release... that is part of what makes me think it was a freak occurrence and not a malfunction that could easily happen again. When we re-created it on the ground, it would still release when the ripcord was pulled even with the rings assembled wrong. It's a very strange situation. I have not heard anything from Strong yet. Also, I wanted to add that I'm sure glad I initiated the pull at 6,000 feet, and I did not take it down to 4,500 like some TIs do. If I had taken it down to 4,500 then had that mal and taken slightly longer to react, I would have been flirting with AAD fire. I forget whether this rig had a cypress or vigil.

Alright, now that the incident report has been submitted to Strong Enterprises and I know the student won't be suing me, I will post here about my first tandem malfunction- a drogue in tow due to a mis-rigged 3-ring drogue release on the strong tandem system. Below is a copy of the report I submitted to Strong: ______________________________________ Date: 8/14/10 Equipment: Strong Dual Hawk Tandem with SET 400 and Master 425 reserve TI # of jumps: 606 total, 41 tandems Injuries: None After a normal exit, drogue throw and initial freefall, the student pulled the primary ripcord when prompted at 6,000 feet AGL. I observed a good pull to full arm extension but immediately noticed that the drogue was not released and we continued in free fall. I immediately pulled the instructor’s (secondary ripcord) and the drogue still did not release. I initiated emergency procedures and pulled the cutaway pud and reserve handle, and the reserve pilot chute launched clear of the drogue and the reserve inflated. After a visual check of the reserve and handing both handles to the student, I felt the main bag fall out of the container, hit my foot, and then begin to inflate behind me. I immediately reached over each shoulder with the opposite hand and cleared each riser (which had been successfully cutaway) off of the large harness ring, and the main detached. I finished a control ability check on the reserve above 3500 feet. I had an uneventful landing with no injuries under the reserve. I was able to inspect the high resolution still photos from the jump to determine the cause, which was a misassembled 3-ring drogue release that I failed to catch on my pre-jump inspection, which was performed. The small ring seems to have been routed through the middle ring and the big ring, and the three rings hung up on each other and did not release until after pressure was released by the opening reserve. The photos clearly show both ripcords were pulled. However, the conditions were just right for the rings to hang on each other and not release. The solution to make sure this never happens again will be for me to perform a more thorough pre-jump inspection and to retrain the packer who misassembled the drogue release. ______________________________________ Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPjctnA6Os0 Anyway, this malfunction has undoubtedly happened before, but the real point of this post is to share the amazing photos of an actual 3-ring hang up in mid-air. After the student ripcord pull, she really dropped her knees and this rotated us 180 degrees so the camera guy got a perfect shot of the rings hung up with both ripcords pulled. I doubt there has ever been a photo like this in such high resolution before. Contact me if you are a tandem I or IE and you want a full size photo for training purposes, these shrunk ones really do not do it justice. I also have several stills of the ripcords being pulled and a high res video. See attached. A few other points: -The student only knew we were under a reserve because she asked me if she could help steer and I had to tell her no, because there are no student toggles on the reserve. Later, she commented "it felt like it took a while for something to happen after I pulled the ripcord!" -We tried to re-create the malfunction on the ground. We could rig the rings in the same way, but we could not get it to "catch" and it would always release with even a slight tug. As best as I can tell, it was just a freak occurrence. -I'll be pretty happy if I never have to land a Master 425 canopy again... it just sucks to fly and land -Gotta get back up, I did 7 more tandems that weekend. -And finally, yes, FUCK ME! for not catching it on my pre-flight check. I put this on here so others could learn from it, and I really don't need 100 posts of people telling me how stupid I was.

So, how much will it cost?

No, most everyone that enters is a civilian on their sport canopy. I guess you could enter with an acc canopy if you want, but it would be unusual.

I use a soft pillow handle because of this incident that happed at my DZ: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=3636210;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25; In skydiving, you have to manage the risks and occasionally make compromises. I acknowledge that I am more likely to go in from a no or low pull on my reserve after a cutaway than a tail strike my accidental reserve activation in the door (or at another time). However, pulling my reserve after a cutaway is something that I can control pretty myself. Accidental reserve pull is something that someone else might do to me, and that is a harder risk for me to manage. I take the compromise of possibly taking longer to pull my reserve after a cutaway in exchange for making it harder for some other moron to accidentally pull my reserve at the wrong time. However, I understand why some might make the opposite choice. Pay your money and take your chances

Have a friend break the window in your car and say it got stolen from there?

Ya, most of it. It has a chart starting this summer and going out to Jan/Feb/Mar 2011 to show how much cooler it is going to be then. Well, no shit, it does that in the winter. I couldn't be bothered to copy and paste the second link. I don't like to get my science news from the opinion section of the financial post. It's more of the angry dribble that he always posts. I'm not getting dragged into another one of these posts, peace out!

Yup, February will almost certainly be cooler than July, nice one!! Seems you are still struggling with the whole weather vs. climate thing.

>>Your "tactics" of gaining knowledge? Mine is to listen about 4x as much as I talk.

Very little, much less than the bungees or rubber bands that some people put on their rigs. Interesting question, and if I can find a fish scale then I will measure mine, which I have used for 2 seasons now.