fred

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Gear

  • Main Canopy Size
    190
  • Reserve Canopy Size
    218
  • AAD
    Cypres

Jump Profile

  • Home DZ
    Skydive Inc
  • License
    A
  • License Number
    44905
  • Licensing Organization
    USPA
  • Number of Jumps
    98
  • Years in Sport
    9

Ratings and Rigging

  • Pro Rating
    Yes
  1. Just a couple of newbie stories. At the first jump course, at a Cessna-182 dropzone, every student was dropped (on S/L) on their own pass. The jumpmaster would spot, give commands ("Put your feet out.", "Get out and hang.", "Go!"). After a few jumps of this, they'd say, "Why don't you spot this one." I was nervous, but it wasn't a big deal. With a single pass per student in a cessna, if you get out somewhere near the dropzone, you'll be fine. Switched to AFF at Skydive Arizona, on Skyvans and Otters, where we followed the light. On one jump, the JM looked out, and asked the pilot to do a second pass (it was probably a 180, but I didn't have the experience at the time to know the difference). That triggered in my mind that (a) you should probably look before you get out, and (b) it's okay to ask for a turnaround. Back home, at the Cessna DZ, on my Pre-A solo jumps, I was last out. After watching the first 3 solo jumpers go out, I spotted, and I was farther away than I'd ever been from that DZ. I asked the pilot to do another run. He did a hard rudder and bank--probably hoping I'd fall out--and said, "What's wrong with that?" But did the 180. After further jumps, I'm pretty sure he was right. I was way underestimating how far I can fly to get back. Fast forward a few years after a break, after getting a refresher and jumping solo again, I do my first two-way (since the break, so no beer, right?). I watch the first two get out, and then start my count to 7 for separation, before I start climbing out (winds were a little high). I failed to take into account that 'time taken to climb out' is part of that 7-second delay. Since I am somewhat clumsy, and since I probably count slower under stress, we were pretty far out before we actually left (though, I still think the initial spot was probably long and crosswind). Still managed to make it back in time for a downwind, crosswind, and upwind landing. But pilot and other jumper say that they were yelling, "Go!" though I didn't hear them. My point? None really. But these are some of the lessons I've had in learning how to spot.
  2. Hee. I'm an analytical thinker, and while my landings are solid, my landing pattern and accuracy need work. And throughout the landing pattern, I feel like a GPS constantly announcing, "Recalculating". If this is honestly true for you it means that you don't have the love of teaching and that's OK in my world ... but please don't say this like its the ultimate truth because is not and people who love teaching will be offended. And no, I'm not talking about the instructor who coached detached from behind the glass. I agree with the poster. Having a love of teaching is not sufficient to be a good teacher. Neither is being good at what you're trying to teach. These are three separate skills/traits (doing, teaching, and enjoying teaching). But certainly, I've had some teachers who loved teaching, who weren't very good at it.
  3. QuoteWhat works for me (but for you it might be different) is to 'plane out' using only the slightest toggle input (shoulder level) and then gently finish the flare as far as my arms will go down. Again, do not do it this exact way! Find out together with the canopy coach what works for you and stick to that. He'll see you land, I don't Is it really a 2-stage flare? Since getting off radio, I've always done more of a "continuous" flare. There's no real distinction between when I'm planing out and when I'm bleeding speed. Would it be better if I tried to divide it into these two moves? I would like to lose more horizontal speed in low winds, but don't really know how or if it's possible. Should I flare more aggressively at first to level off, then pause, and work on the second stage to lose more forward speed? I've had great landings, but usually have to run it out.
  4. That's why I thought we had one... to cutaway people being dragged from the plane, or to cutaway a rig on an injured person lying on the ground. I don't expect it to be much use in freefall.
  5. QuoteIf you flip a coin once, your chances of Heads is 50/50. Now let's say you flip 39 times, and each time it comes up Heads. So what's the chance of Heads on the 40th flip? Answer: 50/50. Each individual flip is its own statistically unique event. Okay, so that's statistics 101, and the bane of the roulette player. But what if, before you flip the coin 39 times, you want to place a bet that at least one of those flips will be heads. Suddenly, your odds get a hole lot better (or worse, depending on your perspective). And certainly, you can see that it's much more likely with 39 flips than with 390, right? So, let's take your odds of 1:90000; let's improve them to 1:100000 to make the math clearer. This is a .001% risk of a fatality on single jump, normalized for all other variables (see footnote). Now take a jumper who is going to make 500 jumps that season. His odds of surviving are (.99999)^500, which is about 99.5%. Or, about a 5:1000 chance of a fatality. Your math comes back if he's jumped 499 times this season, and he's looking at his 500th jump. At that point, he still has the .001% chance. Footnote: Of course, all other variables aren't equal. There's clearly a multivariate curve related to experience, currency, and other variables that aren't as quantitative (swooping, big ways, wingsuits, cameraflying, ability to plf, basic judgement, etc). And you could get as specific as you want, but when talking about the general safety of skydiving, it's pretty clear: It's safer to jump once than it is to jump many times. And if you jump a great deal, it's particularly unsafe, because eventually you will bump into the "even when you do everything right, things can go wrong."
  6. I'm with ya. I love jumping, but lately it feels like a chore. Assuming the weather is good (it's been spotty at best around here lately), I have to drive an hour to the dropzone. Then I have to wait an hour or two to get on a load, which means I get to crouch uncomfortably in a cramp aircraft for a half hour while we get to altitude in order to get a couple minutes of fun. Sometimes, it doesn't seem worth it. But I do still stare up at the sky looking at clouds, thinking, "There's a hole, we could be jumping." If I gave it up, I think I'd miss it dearly.
  7. What exactly are you upset about? That he took an elderly person on a tandem at all? Or that he didn't know the guy's exact age?
  8. Forgive the newbie and way-missing-the-focus-of-the-video question, but what kind of plane is that in the video?
  9. No, it does matter, and the Supreme Court has ruled so, and it has since been codified into law. It is one of the factors to be considered when considering a fair use defense. See Title 17, section 107. I agree with this. In legal value, the sum of all dropzones' videos far, far outweighs anything Skyride may have done. However, it's the actual cases, not the theoretical ones, that really matter, and in this case, such a suit against skyride could work, especially if we buy into your theory that any use is a copyright violation. They might be running legit as far as copyright goes. They're not running legit as far as mispresentation goes, as they are still pretending that they run a dropzone in my home town, while I'm very certain that no dropzone within 3 hours takes their coupons. ***BTW, FWIW, EXIF and other macrometadata can be fairly easily stripped from a file making it non-referenceble/traceable to the originating source. What does this have to do with anything? There are better ways to prove an image's source than the metadata in the file.
  10. Ouch. Excellent point. However, there are a couple distinctions: (1) Skyride appears to claim these pictures and videos as their own, and potential customers are likely to think that this is the case. Whereas with a tandem video, if I hear "Garden Grove" playing, I, as a customer, will make no assumption that videographer also has a successful rock band. This example is apropos, as after finding an AFF skydiving video that used this song (and "Same in the End"), I actually went out and bought a Sublime DVD (because I live under a rock and had never really been exposed to them before), resulting in a sale for the original artist. Skyride gives no credit, and no potential to the copyright owner to get paid. (2) For the song example, the music serves as a secondary feature of the product (the DVD). It certainly improves the product, but doesn't constitute a major factor in the product itself. In fair use evaluations, they'd refer to this as "the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole". In the tandem video example, the substantiality is minimal, even if the amount is high. I'd argue that in the Skyride case, the substantiality is high, as they are saying, "This is what you will do here." It's used as evidence that the place exists, whereas in the tandem video, it is pretty insubstantial which song they choose to use.
  11. I think you're falling blunder to one of the misunderstandings low jumpers (myself included) have about flying a camera. You think that having a camera on your helmet means you could hurt yourself on opening, through snags or riser slap or just having that extra weight on your helmet. These are valid reasons that a low jumper shouldn't jump with a camera, and they serve as a very effective deterrent ("You might break your neck on opening"). However, the better reason is a lot harder to grasp. A camera, even an iphone on your chest, distracts you. It gives you one more thing to think about when you really need all your attention on keeping you safe. The thought, "This might make awesome video" may just fleet through your mind, just long enough to make you do something stupid. Besides, you really want video of yourself, not other people, so why not buy a slightly more experienced jumper a ticket to record you while you freefall and practice basic skills. You can buy a lot of jump tickets for others for the price of replacing your iPhone. I'm also a low jumper who would love to have a camera, but at this point, I've decided that the experts are probably right and that I should wait awhile. You probably should too.
  12. It seems to me that it was his current order that was screwed up, repeatedly, by you and your suppliers. So offering him a discount on future orders is completely self-serving.
  13. Back on my 30ish jump, I was spiralling down on a navigator 260, I thought, "What if I let this toggle all the way up and try to spin the other way." I got to look behind me (about 180° line twist), but that was about it. Still scared the crap out of me. On my current canopy, I suspect I could spin myself up pretty good if I tried.
  14. A little geek never hurt anybody: The wind will do what it wants to, and what it wants to do is find the quickest way past you. You want to hold an arch so that the "quickest way" around you is even on both sides. But you don't necessarily want to fight it, as that's the path to the dark side. What you want to do is let the force/wind flow around you and through you, and influence it to make it do what you want. This involves a balance between relaxing and controlling. Symmetrical is good. Asymmetrical is bad.
  15. I don't know if this applies to AFF, since I started with static line, but one thing I'm really glad I'd found out: You can do your second jump that same day. A lot of students go out to do their first jump, take the class, and then leave. This is not the best way to get into the sport. You won't remember much from your first jump, so plan on landing, taking a break for an hour or two, eating a sandwich (that you might have to bring with you), and then doing a second jump. It's great the first time, and even better the second.