azureriders

I will second JP on the fact that I "trust" no one. With that said, I use a well established master rigger with tons of experience who has saved my ass four times now. Although I still do not trust him, I will let him pack my reserve with out my attendance. I will also let anyone with a ticket pack my reserve any where and any time that I need it packed with my attendance. What will my attendance do you ask? Although I have no ticket, I have read the owner's manual of all my rigs and reserves. The points that I did not fully understand, I asked my master rigger and now have a better understanding. So, yes I trust myself, even with no ticket, to observe most anyone who I am in need of to pack my reserve. I can't find the actuall quote, but Walt Disney once said that any horse back rider should 'know' how to shoe a horse, even if they had no intention of ever being a farrier. I think the same logic applies here, and even more so.

At the time my wife had around 30 jumps, had been flat packing very well but had just learned to pro pack. We had some clouds that day and she was not overly comfortable jumping so she said she would stay on the ground and practice packing and unpacking her rig. After the first load I tell her she can pack my rig instead, that way her efforts would not be wasted and I was jumping a spectre so she could not hurt me. After her first Pro Pack that would be jumped, I slip on the rig and head to the plane as she tries to go to kitchen, because she didn't want to watch. However, the DZO has different ideas and takes her out in the landing area so that the two of them can watch and see how the opening looks. Now, with the desire to show my lovely wife just how much I trust her, and after verifing a perfect spot (right over her head), I sucked it down to 2grand (she said my wave off looked as if I were waving at her) and dumped. The opening was nice and on heading, however slow enough that I was compelled to pump the rear risers for inflation. Of course this only made my opening look even lower. Yeah, I caught shit from her, and the DZO, but it was still all good fun.

Altimeters will fail. Forget to put batteries in them, slam them on the plane door, or simply leave them on the ground, for what ever reason, they will fail. For that reason, use the one that you feel is the most dependable, and perhaps use another with it. HOWEVER, even with only 50 jumps, you should not need a mechanical device to keep you from impacting the earth. Use your enternal clock and your eyes, however under developed they may be, your eyes will still not fail you. In time you will, or should, develop your eyes to the point that THEY are your primary altimeter, and anything else is simply a back up. Glad you did not hit the ground and now have a chance to learn from this.

Instructors, as well as other DZ staff, work very hard, trust me I know. However, if I were at the DZ unloading gear before daylight, jumping and working on back to back loads all day, and perhaps editing videos until the wee hours of the following morning, then and only then would that day even begin to ressemble the stress and fatigue I put my self through 3 to 5 week days of every week. I know my limits and would, and have pulled myself from rotation. The fact still remains that my work at the DZ is not as tiring, and at times not as dangerous, as my normal work week. My point: No, I don't need someone telling me when I have had enough, and no, the saftey of my students does not suffer from that fact. Saftey should be the top concern of everyone at the DZ, cuddos to you for thinking of and bringing up saftey related discusions.

As Terry has already said, get a routine, and stick to it. If you need it, write the routine down and use a check list while checking your gear and don’t worry about the embarrassment. Further more, you may consider putting accessories first in your routine. What I mean by this is if you are checking another skydiver, or your complete kit, then check Shoes, Helmet, Altimeter, Gloves, and Goggles First. Then when checking your Rig, check the AAD and the RSL, First. Some accessories are not designed to save your life, and the others should not be needed to do so, so why would you check them first? Because they are the things most often missed and forgotten. I do not follow the guide lines above, because I had a routine that worked for me long before I was educated on the accessories first thing, I still stick to my routine today. When I got my AFF ratting, Bram, my Course Director, insisted that all AFF candidates check SHAGG first. Well, maybe not insisted, as he realized that I had a solid routine that I had used on both myself and hundreds of coach students, so he did not try and change that. Bottom line is, Get A Routine. Oh, and don't hide behind your embarrassment, tell everyone at the DZ every stupid thing you do, as soon as it happens. That will insure you never do that again, trust me.

My thoughts on this, from an earlier thread

3 in the first 3 years. 1) Heart attack on the packing mat. 2) Canopy collision. The survivor was under line twist, the deceased thought to be unconscious before impact, so probably still medical related. 3) Swooping accident

Unless you've already deeply, deeply fucked up (ie. stuck toggles and too low to cutaway) why would you ever want to try and land on rears with the brakes stowed? I agree that a stuck toggle is about the only reason for this, but I would not address that as deeply f@#$ed up. I have landed a stuck toggle on rears, after making that decsion with plenty of altitude to have done otherwise. With a docile canopy, plenty of rear riser practice, and a good PLF, I dusted off with not a scratch.

Ok, I know this is off topic and I apologize for that, especialy being that this is such a good thread, but that was hillarious. However it does make me wonder how many ladies, or men, have read that and thought, what in the hell is he talking about.

Well I honestly do not know the answer to this question. I was not using my normal packer, instead I was using the neatest most thourough packer that I know. You know, the one that I send my students to, to learn to pack PROPERLY. My gear is well maintained, and I was doing nothing stupid, that I know of. So call me what you like, although I doubt it will be "lucky". As it has already been stated, this is a bad bad idea, unless it is properly planned with the proper gear. Not only dangerous, but illegal with the potential to get others, not just yourself, in trouble. Be sure to remind me the next time you are out and we can discuss this further.

I know that with most of the canopies discussed in “Swooping and Canopy Control” a break fire combined with line twist would be an instant chop. For the sake of discussion, lets say a spectre 190 loaded at 1.35 : 1, three or four line twist, a break fire, pilot on his back in a decent spiral, and enough altitude to work. Questions: 1) if the other break was released, would the line twists allow the steering line to slide up to the full flight position (I don’t know, but personally I doubt it) and 2) if yes to 1, would the canopy level out and fly straight while you dealt with the line twists. (While my answer would change with canopies and loading, in this case I think very possibly yes) The actual scenario was as described above except for altitude to work with. Therefore my answer was to chop now, discuss later.

Now that is funny, seeing how just yesterday I chopped a Spectre 190 loaded at at 1.35 : 1 because of, wait for it, wait for it, spinning line twist. I should go on to say that I have good things to say about spectres. Also, the mal was actually a simple line twist or three combined with a break fire, but yeah, I was spinning pretty good, on my back.

Really, then do you have a couple gigabytes of AutoLisp programs laying around that I can have, you know, those free non copyrighted ones. Leaving the legal ethics out of this, ethics in general should be enough to cause most of us to head our ways. After all, most of us here are videographers and would not like, nor stand for, someone stealing our work. As for myself, a videographer and more importantly a home designer and draftsman, piracy threatens my financial well being in a serious way.

I don’t know if what you are describing is the same exact thing some of the rest of us are experiencing. I have never had my xti “take a still, and it would be fine, then go to take another still and it would beep at me, not turn off or anything...” I have had my xti freeze up several times, green power light on, LCD screen off, camera unresponsive, resetting the battery always fixes the problem. From this experience it is my theory that this freeze is triggered by: first having the camera on with a shutter switch (factory made mouth switch of some type) plugged in, and then allowing the camera to time out and auto shut down. My camera does not freeze often, nor nearly every time I subject it to the above situation. However, I am fairly certain that this has been the situation ea time it has froze. I am also fairly certain that this has never happened when using my home made hand shutter switch, which is a completely open circuit on all three contacts until the button is pushed. This, along with the complications of a mouth switch and an O2 mask, is why I use the hand switch for HALO videos. Of course I also make sure not to allow the camera to time out on such jumps. I have a terrible habit of checking the battery and card capacity on the ground, then forgetting to turn the thing off, on normal jumps. Not for sure if this relates to you, hope it helps someone.

My experience: RW video = Hard work and boring Tandem video = Hard work and very rewarding Coaching = Very fun, very rewarding AFF = Fun, rewarding both from the teaching and flying aspects. I really enjoy my AFF work as it tends to focus on both my ablity to teach as well as fly well and react quick. These are all skills that I am proud of, but the truth is that the ablity to teach is by far the one that enjoy most. For that reason a post AFF, pre A licsense coach jump is my favorite jump to make, bar none, all work and fun jumps included. I do not depend on, nor use, my DZ income to pay bills, however I do work there. Work jumps come first, and video / AFF come before coach jumps. I am there from open to close and most of my jumps are work, however I still spend my whole week looking forward to the weekend. Hope that helps, but I must also point out that I have not been in the sport long enough to "burn out" yet and I am also one of those sick few who enjoy work, so maybe I was not so much help after all.

I am not a TI, however I am very familiar with the Vectors at our DZ and think the RSL on them to be a good thing. Being that this thread was started about disconnecting the RSL first in a horseshoe situation, in orther words In Air Rigging, a bad thing in most all our minds, I thought I would mention the Racer rig and the fact that you MUST release the RSL before cutting away the main in a two out situation. I have wittnessed the out come of not following this rule and it was not a pretty sight. Bottom line, and room for more discussion, if I were a TI and jumping a Racer, I would disconnect the cross over RSL. Vector would be left connected and I am not familiar enough with Strong (or others) to commment. Just my $0.02

The thanks that you speak of is due not to use, but to you, for listening. So there you have it, THANK YOU

Sorry for the redundancy, but I thought it worth repeating.

You are not likely to get anyone to commit over the phone as there are many face to face issuse to address before putting up someone of your size. With that said, we do have a "big boy" rig that will support you and have put guys of your size through AFF before. I dont know what area you are in, but check us out Here, or contact me if you any questions.

First let me say way to go on asking questions and thinking things through before putting a camera on your head. The rest of what I have to say is based equally on my experience, as well as my opinion. The USPA recommends 200 jumps. To me that is an absolute minimum. Useing this min, you should be very current, which you seem to be. You should also only add one component at a time. Maybe try jumping the helmet, with no camera for a few jumps, then adding the camera. Sounds silly, but it can help. The same can be said about flying the camera slot, without a camera. An rsl is great tool and I think every one should use one until two things happen. 1) you have the experience and comfort in your EPs to jump with out one (some say you need an actuall cut away to reach this point) 2) have a good reason to jump with out one. You have #2, but no one on here can answer #1 for you. If you do decide you are ready to jump with out one, talk to an instructor about disconecting your rsl, and PROPERLY stowing it. If you decide you are not ready to go with out your rsl, then you are not ready to be jumping camera. (I warned that my opinon would be kicking in) I jump camera a lot, and a big helmet with plenty of places to snag lines. These are the mine: -Decide to cut away -Look right, grab right -Look left, grab left -Arch -Pull right -Check up and/or over shoulder for canopy departure THEN -Decide that main canopy is free and gone -Hold onto cutaway handle -Pull left -Arch OR -Decide that the main canopy is entangled on helmet -Throw away cutaway handle -Left hand maintains grip on reserve handle -Right hand locates and pulls helmet release -Ceck for helmet/canopy departure (very alti aware here) -Pull left -Arch I have one cutaway that I was wearing a camera for, these EPs worked fine for me, although I had no entanglement. These EPs may seem like a lot, but if you practice them well they will come very natuarlly. They do leave a couple things else to consider, such as picking up your deployment alti a bit, and having the experience needed for such a drastic change in EPs. In the mix of a tangled line and my helmet is the last place I want my hand, as long as I have another option.

After getting a coach student through to his A license, I ALWAYS suggest that he/she find a partner at about their own experience level and concentrate on some two way drills. From there I have learned to expect these new friends to be coming to me for new drills and ideas to practice. At this point I will help them with some dirt dives and pointers, but at some point I will normally be asked to go up on coach jump with both of them. Sometimes a three way, other times I fly outside video, but coach and debrief in either case. I have found myself briefing/debriefing and "coaching" two such low timers and an up and coming videot. All from the video of a jump I was never on. IMO one important point to such jumps, and I any other drill, is to push, but yet keep it a level that will be successful.

It was also the main thing I wanted to do. I spent my first 100 jumps working on belly skills and trying not to worry about it to much. From 100 to 200 was almost totally spent towards camera skills, however not with a camera on my head. I worked with an Instructor who at first made a few fun jumps with me and then, and only then, allowed me to chase a few of his tandems, with strict instructions as to how close and when to track off etc. Purchased camera helmet at 200 jumps and continued working on the skills required. Made my first DZ paid video at jump# 288, when they were real short on videots. From there I started filling in when they needed me, and continued to hone my skills even when they did not. Around 500 jumps I got my spot in the video rotation. This is just my story, but I think it is about as fast as you should expect to progress into the video world. Both in terms of safety and skill (not meant to sound cocky as if my skill progression was the fasted anyone should expect, just don’t expect the DZ, or some team, to give you a job as soon as you get a camera. You have to prove your talent and earn your spot). I very strongly support the USPA's guideline of not wearing a camera until 200. There are many good posts scattered in this forum about the subject, just search for them. I now have aprox. 1300 jumps. I fly camera every single weekend. I average 5 to 10 tandem, 1 to 5 AFF, and 1 to 5 RW videos each weekend. Oh, and my skill level is NO WHERE close to where I would like it to be. So be patient, be safe, and do not forget to

First let me say, good point, and also that I know that only a very small portion of those people with only a few hundred jumps will fall into the category that I am about to mention. But, a designer is a designer morning, noon and night, always and every day no matter where he goes, and no matter how much experience he has at a particular subject. You take anyone of those guys with decades of experience that you speak of, and place them in a new (gear dependant) sport, that they know little about, and I promise you with in the first week all of them will have their own ideas about redesigning the gear. Although they will probably keep those ideas to their selves until they better understand them. Do you think that Bill Booth, Ted Strong, etc, etc had thousands of jumps and decades of experience when they first start running gear designs through their head, or farther. He did say that he bought the handle in question from the manufacture. It was not the one that came with the rig, but obviously one that they were comfortable selling for his particular rig. He is obviously in close contact with the factory and his rigger. Now after an incident he is reverting back to the factory original. Sounds to me as if this guy with only a few hundred jumps is really thinking, which is soooo much better than those that we all deal with that have no idea how their gear even works. I say kudos to him. But again, John has a good point. Although this got a lot longer than I intended and may sound as so, I am not flaming anyone, especially John. Just adding my $.02

sorry I have not been checking this forum lately, but it sounds like you probably already have the info you are looking for. At GoldCoast we do still have a big boy rig in service for AFF, as well as a little wirey tandem master who has been known to take some large guys, if they are indeed in decent shape and he is felling spunky. As Bigun has stated several times, 10 lbs puts you in a realistic range. I am not yet an instructor, so I could not make you any promises, but I can say that I have coached a few anvil brothers that have came through our AFF program. If you need anything, IM me here. Good luck, it will be the time of your life. edited to add: I was 240 when I made my first tandem at GoldCoast, with out a second thought from the staff. However, 30lbs is still a big difference.

plan to PLF on every jump, stand up only if you HAVE to. That was advice given to me and it worked so well that I pass it along every chance I get, so there you go.