VideoFly

From what I have read on some policies, skydiving may be covered, but working as part of an aircraft crew may not be, and I am pretty sure that includes working as a coach, instructor, videographer, etc. I have always been honest and thrown most offers away. I am presently covered by Optima and my policy covers skydiving accidents. In the long run, I would think that auto and home accidents exceed skydiving accidents just about anywhere.

I would have thought my Doberman would have learned to stay away from snakes after he was bitten by a Copperhead. He was swollen in the face and neck and very sick for weeks. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to put his illness together with the snake. Two years later, he was bitten by a Copperhead again. He swelled and threw up for over a week. He still messed with snakes, but those were the only times he was bitten by a poisonous one. I would have loved it if he knew to leave snakes alone.

I went from a 120 to a 150, which I jumped before going to a 135, 129, to the 120. I was lucky at the higher wing loading and it was fun, but thinking about safety,I returned to the 150. It was a great decision for me.

Money well spent!

I filmed my older son on a tandem, my daughter on two tandems, my two step sons on tandems, and have done about a hundred jumps with my youngest son. It is really great jumping with the kids!

I was in NYC and my first car was significant to me. It was a 1966 Buick Electra 225 that a cousin gave to me in 1972. After a few hundred pounds of Bondo and a lot of mechanical work, it opened the world for me to new adventures. I still have fond memories of cruising with Cream playing on my 8-track.

Exactly correct. Not only are school counselors not qualified to give a medical diagnosis, they are not allowed to. As a school principal with 25 years in schools, I would hope that parents would let me know when employees (counselors included) do not follow the rules. Who’s got ODD now? That said, as an educational professional, I agree that school faculty and staff members are underpaid, but that is no excuse for malpractice. One more thing. For your sake and the best interest of your child, try to support teachers by instilling within your child, the desire and ability to follow a teacher’s directions. In the long run, all involved are better off. If you feel a teacher’s requests are unreasonable, take your concerns to an administrator.

Yes he still jumps and he took my video job when I retired from jumping with cameras.

My son had 14 grand in his bank account when he started jumping at 16. He has saved wisely. Also, he has packed for almost all of my jumps.

My son started packing at 8 years old, but was not ready to jump until he was 16. Important legal issues aside, I think some young people may be prepared to jump at an early age.

I wouldn’t jump it if I were you. I’ve had 3 Cobalts and I love them. At low, medium, and high wing loadings, they are responsive and can be aggressive. With 20 jumps, I would think that a Cobalt could easily get ahead of you. At high wing loadings, they can also spin fast with line twists. My Cobalts have also had fairly slow opening characteristics, which could become a problem if you accidentally open low. Also, my Cobalts definitely opened better with specific packing procedures, which at 20 jumps, you may not be fluent with. Remember that Cobalts have not been made for years, so if you found a Cobalt with a good number of jumps (at 300-600 jumps, expect to change the line set), at a good price, you may want to purchase it and put it in storage until you have more experience and your dropzone personnel feel that you may be ready for it. All in all, if I had jumped any of my Cobalts when I had fewer than 300-400 jumps, there’s a good chance that I might have been injured.

In the seventies I often wore Chouinard Super Gators for mountaineering and climbing frozen waterfalls. They were heavy duty and stiff with a Cordura outside and a felt lining. They were held tight below the knees with a drawstring and fastened under the foot with heavy straps fastened to steel cables. They zipped up the sides with large zippers, which were held closed with snaps. They never fell down in heavy winds and weather and with a small modification of the toe to knee section would most likely make a good removable skydiving bootie.

6b) You and your fellow camera flyer spiral around each other at 300 feet in the landing pattern because you think it adds a cool shot to your tandem video.

I agree. If you don’t know the altitude you should be deploying at, based on your gear and other conditions, more education may very well be appropriate.

oxymoron

I once had checked luggage stolen on a flight. I gave the airlines the retail price of my articles and they paid me in full. I hope all goes well with your loss.

Listen to your doctor(s). You’ve had some bad damage done and it could possibly be made worse during the course of skydiving activities. I had a C5-7 fusion with a hip implant and titanium plate after a skydiving accident and continued to skydive after. I have since torn my spinal cord at C8 from a rear-end car accident and am presently recovering from that. You’ve got to be careful that as a result of your present fusion, your back is not in a position to be further damaged above and/or below the repaired area during another possible shock of some sort. Monitor your condition closely and keep in touch with your doctors if you have any concerns.

Thanks I needed that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCjTWYoRTzM Johnnie Ray - "Just Walking In The Rain"

3D enhances any video, however, the “need for the viewer to wear glasses” technology is impractical. New technologies that remove the need for viewers to wear special glasses may help though. Another concern is the size, weight, and price of 3D cameras. If they are significantly larger, heavier, and/or much more expensive than the cameras we now use, they may prove to be unsafe and impractical. If whuffos desperately want the “holy crap, I’m falling” experience, all they need to do is skydive.

I am not sure that adding flying with your eyes closed without appropriate instruction would be helpful. I have never been told to close my eyes by any instructors, but I have been doing it for years. I kind of discovered on my own that after ensuring clear air space, periodic flight with my eyes closed enhances my awareness of canopy flight characteristics. For me, it has been a valuable learning tool, but again, the practice requires a lot of explanation, analysis, and subsequent reflection. Unfortunately, I don’t believe we see a lot of those attributes in much of what we call skydiving instruction. The learning technique may be a good one, but not in the absence of quality instruction.

The thought of wearing that light makes my neck hurt. I know you are a competent flyer, but please consider the cumulative effects of wearing that kind of weight on your head, let alone the thought of a whacker like the one that broke my neck and left me partially paralyzed. I’m not being critical. I’m just being an old fart who worries about other jumpers. Have you considered some kind of chest, shoulder, or belly harness or neck support for a rig like that? Or perhaps, have you thought about some kind of removal system that moves the weight from your head prior to deployment? Even the thought of a premature deployment, freefall collision, or other unplanned shock worries me. Again, please take my comments with all due respect and concern for others. I believe we have to watch out for each other and I would hate for anyone else to have to experience the problems I will always have following my accident. Please don’t blow my words away like I’ve seen others do who look at me saying “I’m okay, what do you know, old man.” If we think hard enough, I’m sure we can come up with safer ways to carry and aim heavy weight.

+1 from a skydiver with a 1976 broken sacral plate; a 1992 removal of L4 and L5, S1 and a double laminectomy; later bulges of L1, L2, and L3; a 2009 C5-C7 fusion with a hip implant and titanium plate; and a rear-end car collision in 2011, which tore my spinal cord at C8, leaving my hands partially paralyzed. With all of that, my neurosurgeon is still okay with me jumping. Speak with qualified sports-medicine specialists. Every situation is different.

Wait until the kids pass through the late teens and become truly expensive to support. This was an unfortunate abuse of medical technology with no respect for responsibility by all involved, except for the children.

That was you?