VTflyer

Thank you all for your help and generosity. Luckily, I have been able to make a claim with my homeowners insurance not only for the cost of the gear lost, but also for some of whatever more it will cost me to replace. Hopefully, the others will be as fortunate.

Yes, but is it covered if it was damaged in a fire elsewhere?

Last night, the rigging loft at Vermont Skydiving Adventures burned from an unknown cause. Except for a few tandem rigs and AFF rigs, everything is gone, including the gear of the employees and several regular jumpers. Needless to say, everyone is devestated. I lost all of my gear myself. Here is the insurance issue. The dropzone's insurance doesn't cover the gear that was owned by jumpers like myself. It was suggested though that our homeowners would cover it. Does anyone know how insurance might cover property damaged in a fire, but not in the home (it was stored in a secure rigging loft)? I know I'm covered for damage after $1000 in my home, but I don't know about this situation. There are several people in the same position. While I am not officially speaking on behalf of the dropzone management, I myself can say that any help or donations of old gear (altis, suits, anything), would be very greatly appreciated.

I jumped a rented sabre 2 the other day and it sniveled for a long time compared to other canopies i've jumped. But then again I didn't pack it either.

I saw you once I noticed another main canopy floating away (i'm the one that jumped with you 20 minutes later), my attention was on the first cutaway of the load Did you ever find out if there was an issue with your main?

I think I heard earlier that evening that he was commercial with 350 hours in a 182 but I could be wrong. The aileron idea makes sense as we were banking not too hard and then suddenly just kept going all the way around

Recently at an unamed location I was jumping with some buddies out of a 182 at a dropzone we have never been to. There were the three of us and one other jumper in the plane. The other jumper was doing a hop and pop at 4 grand and asked the pilot to cut way back for his exit. After a normal exit, the pilot began tilting the plane as normal to get the door shut but for some reason neglected to check his airspeed. He kept tilting back and forth with no success. On probably the fourth tip we had lost A LOT of airspeed and as he rolled to the left the stall alarms all went off and the plane continued into a half barrel roll. My first reaction was that this guy was just fucking around but that went away quick. I was sitting behind the pilot facing backwards. At that point I lost all sense of orientation (except for the fact that I knew we were losing altitude fast). One of my buddies was in the door frame and said that he thinks we came out of the half barrel roll into a spiraling nosedive. I could definately tell we were spinnign on some axis as the centripital g's held me in place. After about the third spin (knowing that we started at 4 grand) I was literally 2 seconds from pushing my friend out the door and going for silver. Just at that point the pilot regained control of the spin and pulled out of the dive with such force that we could barely lift our arms. The pilot turned around with a terrified look on his face and said "Sorry Guys." The rest of the jump was uneventful. What we later learned was a little disturbing. The pilot told us that he went into shock and froze for the first 5 seconds. All he could think of was that we were all going to die. The he said something kicked in and he pushed down into the dive until we had the airspeed to regain control. I noticed that he was not wearing a bailout rig earlier that day but didn't put much thought into it (someone now told me that it is the law). The pilot told me that if he had been wearing a bailout rig, he would have went for the door instantly. Now this pilot was a big guy and if he had tried that, he was dead for sure. I wonder if the pilot would have reacted differently and crashed if we had all decided to bail 2 seconds earlier. Upon landing on the ground my pro track had recorded the plane's stall as follows: Altitude 4100, Deploy, 2600, freefall time, 13 seconds. This pilot was about ready to quit flying as soon as he touched ground. I was later told that he hadn't received much training in flying jumpers. There are definately lessons to be learned here. For one, don't essentially ask the pilot to stall the plane so you can hop and pop. Pilots, pay attention to your airspeed. Also, don't get in the plane with a pilot that seems questionable (such as one not wearing a rig). Luckily everyone was alright and beer was had.

We are also trying to start one at the University of Vermont and we have been told by risk management that the university's insuranc can't cover that type of activity. That is of course BS because we have rock and ice climbing clubs, whitewater kayaking, and competetive freestyle skiing and snowboarding, all which can be equally dangerous. We are working up some sort of a rebuttal right now. Good luck

The University of Vermont is also in the works of forming a skydiving club. Presently our proposal and lots of safety information is in the hands of the university's lawyers I think we made a pretty strong case so hopefully we will have one up and running for next year

Hey thanks a lot

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Does anyone know of any dropzones in Sweden or Denmark that will be open at some point in January? I realize that it is a dark and cold place this time of year but I still want to jump when I go Thanks

We are trying to start a skydiving club at the University of Vermont and have been asked by the activities board to speak first with risk management (University's lawyers) about it first. I was wondering if any of you have any experience will this and how your club worked out an agreement with the university in order to be recognized? Thanks

Unless you are heavy a 210 is pretty big and shouldn't wingload you more than 1.0. With 50 jumps you should be able to jump it fine with a high pull to practice flaring. That is assuming that you already have good canopy control and can consistently land accurately and on your feet with the one you are on now. I got downsized from a 260 to a 210 right after AFF and landed fine. Just be prepared to slide or run out the landing if you time your flare wrong. I got a spectre 170 and was a little scared the first time I jumped it. I pulled high and practiced flaring. At 1.2 wingloading, my spectre doesnt approach all too fast. You will like yours and get the hang of it pretty quickly Obviously ask your instructors and make sure they think you are ready to jump it. Then again, you are in boulder and I am not sure what the elevation is at your dropzone, but that may be a factor to be considered

Panzie. in vermont we jump through the snow in t-shirts