Halfpastniner

I havetwo VK's with different lines - a brand new one with 500 Orange Vectran and an older one with 400 black HMA.  I don't have enough jumps on the new one to really compare the flight characteristics of the two, but I can say that 400lb black HMA was highly recommended by one of the other camera guys.  In fact he sounded like i'd want to cut the orange lines off my new wing and put black 400's on.... but I think it would take a hell of a lot to convince me of that!  Once I get some more jumps on both of these hopefully I can make a better comparison between the two line types.

Took me 12.5 hours to go from Casper-Denver! Brutal for sure. That said - seeing the eclipse in totality was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Actually way exceeded my expectations.

Work tomorrow is gonna suck....

The only person who was throwing a tantrum was the "cop" who beat up a 69 year old passenger who was holding at ticket for the seat he was seated in. Sorta feel like if anyone should be going to jail, it should be the guy abusing old people.... but that's just me.

DJL

I was wondering about that. The guys were wearing blue-jeans and at best official looking ballcaps and jackets.

They weren't with CPD, they were the "Aviation Police" - which sounds like an entire team of Farva's or something. When I see a police department that isn't allowed to carry firearms, I am a little suspicious of the skills required for employment.

Regardless of the lead up to this, it is pretty embarrassing that they couldn't get a 65+ year old dude off an airplane without going to that level of force. Then after the injury, rather than arresting and getting medical treatment for the suspect - they drag him away down the isle (risking further injury). Finally, the cherry on top - 10 minutes later the dude ends up back on the plane running around mumbling to himself?!

No wounder they don't let those guys carry guns, passengers would be getting blasted left and right.

airdvr

******http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Groups-Concerned-About-Use-of-Police-Body-Cameras-During-Inauguration_Washington-DC-410581715.html

The ACLU says body cams are to be turned off, unless the officer is taking "action".

Good. The police shouldn't be videoing law abiding citizens exercising their Constitutional rights. That smacks of intimidation and is inappropriate.

You guys amaze me. Seriously. You wanted body cameras on all police then you only want them turned on at times when it suits your needs. Next you'll be having kittens because somebody forgot to turn on their camera. In my mind the camera is there to protect the police from bullshit claims of police brutality and to make sure the LEO isn't out of line. It's a win/win.

We live in a country that is loaded with surveillance equipment. Is that impinging on your rights as well?

This. If we are going to have them, they need to be on 100% of the time. Anything else will inevitably lead to a situation that isn't recorded and should be. Which is totally understandable - because if I was an LEO, the camera would be pretty far down the checklist during a high stress (and potentially deadly) confrontation.

It should all be recorded .... but I do think there should be a discussion on policy regarding how to secure all of that data so that it can't be abused in some way.

Yo TK,

I didn't see you answer the question posed to you multiple times above, you mind sharing your thoughts on that one?

Quote

An analogy would be a random plane overflying your DZ, someone jumping from it, unannounced, and bouncing.

Would that be your responsibility or fault? Would you accept that?

For the number of posts you have in this thread, you seem to keep skipping over that one.

Squeak

*********So, if he wasn't wearing a parachute, how come he was doing practice pulls on the way down? How do we know he didn't have a base rig underneath that floppy shirt... Oh,, and won't the FAA yanks the pilot's license for letting someone exit his plane without a dual parachute rig?

You are awfully quick to questions the man’s integrity. Once again no facts.

You didn't answer the questions...

Here's an answer, the guy has a gazillion tandem jumps and he did a tandem handle check like he does on every jump

I'm thinking he was just goofing off. If he had a secret rig on- what would be the point of practicing a BOC pull (or EP's)? I think it would be kinda cool to reach back and feel nothing there to touch, yet not feeling like a dead man.

So PD is going to make a KA2 that is "lower performance" than the Ka? Seems odd to me, I agree with poster above who said they should call it something else. I do think the Ka could use a stepping stone from the Sabre2 class in many cases since Katanas fall out of the sky similar to how a velo does. A Katana2 sounds like it would be a higher performance version of a Katana... not lower.

Meh... as a TI I don't mind the rule. I don't have a problem with people I know doing pre-planned, reasonable distance fly-by's.... but there have been enough sketchy non-planned ones out there for the USPA to have to do something, even if it is to cover their ass.

I always love how skydivers turn into sky-lawyers whenever a new rule they don't like comes around. We get it - nobody will know if it was 501' or 499'. Just keep it around that distance and nobody will give a shit. Or do it anyway (with TI's approval) and don't film/post it.

Personally, I don't like tandem flyby's because plenty of wingusiters I know suck at skydiving yet somehow grow huge balls when they put on a wingsuit. I don't need those guys aiming at me when I am not expecting it. Not for $30 bucks!

Compared to what? Since I started "freeflying" with tandems things have been a million times easier to get every shot I want. I can ride the wings and float with 110lb students, and punch out a stag and comfortably fly with the big boys too. Its fun switching between belly/sit/back/hd (for exit) to get awesome video! Tunnel time really helped my confidence in orientations other than belly. To me they are all just different tools to do the same job.

Go Pro angle

JerryBaumchen

Hi Half,

Quote

So if the FBI got a court order to make McDonalds build a fighter jet they would just have to figure it out?

Sort of 'Yup.'

I spent 30 yrs working in US gov't. contracting.

Now, I seriously doubt that Uncle Sam would order MacDonalds to make a fighter jet. However, let us say that you make bras for women. In a national emergency ( admittedly a rare situation ) you might be required to build parachutes. Why? Because it is a national emergency.

Also, because you have the technology ( could be argued ) and the equipment ( the feds may actually buy you a harness machine ) and you might have the capacity. You could be req'd to actually employ more people so that you could finish the parachutes on time.

Just little known facts regarding gov't. contractors.

Jerry Baumchen

PS) I hold numerous TSO's and have received more than one letter from the gov't. asking about my capacity to build parachutes in a national emergency.

Hey Jerry,

Thanks for the insight- very interesting. When I read your reply I googled "national emergency" read more about what that actually entailed. According to Wiki- The US has been in a "national emergency" for the past 14+ years stating 9/11 as the cause.

Quote

Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have renewed the state of national emergency annually since 2001, citing the 9/11 attacks, amounting to fourteen consecutive years. [8]

I'll admit I don't have a ton of background knowledge on this topic, and will defer to someone who does. But to me it looks like the Feds quite like the power they get under a "National Emergency", and at this point is just defacto new powers to the federal government. I never realized my entire adult life was experienced during a national emergency! I guess the next actual problems we run into will have to be a "super-duper national emergency" (which of course will require more surveillance).

I am really interested in how this shakes out now that the target of this overreach is one of the most valuable companies in the world. I was never a massive Apple supporter, but I am now. Hopefully they can send the message that claiming "national security" isn't a blank check to do whatever the federal government wants.

SkyDekker

***Can someone ELI5 here... why can't Apple just tell the Feds to go fuck themselves? The FBI is asking a corporation to produce something which doesn't exist, which could potentially harm their customers, and on top do it for free? How is that legal? And what if another government decides they also need access to this code to pry data, is Apple just supposed to just bend over and start handing out master keys to anyone who tells them?

I hope he tells the FBI to figure it out themselves if they want in so bad.

ELI5: FBI went to court and got court to order Apple to do what they wanted. Apple to appeal.

So if the FBI got a court order to make McDonalds build a fighter jet they would just have to figure it out? I just don't get it. It's not like Apple has the key and wants to protect it... it doesn't exist and now they have to pay people to break their own product.

Edit to add:
http://www.apple.com/customer-letter/

Can someone ELI5 here... why can't Apple just tell the Feds to go fuck themselves? The FBI is asking a corporation to produce something which doesn't exist, which could potentially harm their customers, and on top do it for free? How is that legal? And what if another government decides they also need access to this code to pry data, is Apple just supposed to just bend over and start handing out master keys to anyone who tells them?

I hope he tells the FBI to figure it out themselves if they want in so bad.

JohnMitchell

******Never heard of that, but myself and some friends have enjoyed a beer under canopy...

cross country jumps required two beers

I took a beer on my first CC jumps at Lost Prairie. Beautiful sunset jump, with the sky gold, rose and purple. Can of beer foamed all over, including in my face. Now nice and chilled, I tried drinking some of that foamy mess at 14K above sea level and just kept getting a mouth full of suds. Meanwhile I'm missing out on some great scenery. I finally poured out the rest of my brew and stowed the drippy, empty can in my jumpsuit.

The rest of the jump I spent wishing I had brought a camera instead. It was seriously one of the prettiest sunset loads I had ever been on.

I had the same experience. Small canopies and beer is kind of a pain in the ass- it just flew in my face. I think it would be fun under a bigger canopy, but probably not as fun as just swooping then drinking a beer.

An old timer once explained how they used to have a challenge where you had to drink a beer, smoke a joint, and do a bump under canopy. Pretty hardcore!

I still don't understand this "no front riser" business. I assume it is swoop related right? Are people allowed to use front risers for non-swoop reasons? Conversely- are you allowed to induce speed for landing with harness input of 90 degrees? Or a toggle hook?

I know some DZ's are not big on high performance canopy flight, but it seems like an odd way to go about that.

Agree w Chuck about needing more info. However- I went from my Ka107 to a VE90 after a few jumps on 103's and 96's. It's been awhile- but from what I remember the VE103 and 96 both felt like an upsize. The 90 felt "right" to me. I also came from a dz with a lot of HP canopy advice and plenty of wings to borrow as needed- hopefully you have similar.

I loved my KA... but the speed range, swoop length, and shut down power of the VE was a nice change.

I am curious if the (golf ball) deployment system is engineered to have a certain breaking point so that it will fail in a scenario like you had. Would love to hear Bill's thoughts on that- as I also have always been concerned with the snag risk of those handles.

Glad it worked out ok!

I'm wired the other way. Our local DZ's normal exit alti is 12.5K. Every foot over that is just more time of my life i've burned sitting backwards in an airplane.

hackish

***Now given that the AAD manufacturers know how much a new rig costs, (which one can not jump more than once without, and the jumper did pay for somehow), and knowing that the risk to the jumper's life "could" be reduced with an AAD, it could be argued that the AAD manufacturers have decided that profit is more valuable than a jumpers life.

Production costs being 10-15% of MSRP is pretty common. I think the issue is not "how much can we soak people for" it's more "how much do we need in order to to pay ourselves and stay in business each year".

Back on the canopy thing. Raw materials of $150, 10h of labor and a canopy being sold at $2500. Are all skydivers being taken advantage of or is that really the cost of doing business?

-Michael

I imagine major canopy manf have a quite a bit more overhead than that. R/d, marketing, all those fancy laser cutters and sewing machines, facilities..... it's not like Leblonc is just building this stuff in his garage (anymore).

I agree about talking to a lawyer. It just doesn't sound legal to make a sub-contractor sign a non-compete. Doesn't that go against the whole point of contractors? Imagine if an electrician was hired to wire a building and the General contractor demanded he never work for another contractor in town. That would never fly in a million years and shouldn't here either.

Trafficdiver

Going into deep brakes at 100' and letting up at 60' can do loads of damage to you including death.

Also I'm not attacking you I'm describing you. You've admitted you don't jump and it's obvious you don't really give a shit about 1/2 of what you say.

I love this website! You mean he doesn't jump...ANYMORE, right? What he said is absolutely correct given the circumstances he laid out. I fly in different levels of brakes all the time when I fly big parachutes (BASE and tandems). He was even nice enough to include the part about flying in brakes in turbulence.

I think the extra "but if you fuck it up you can get hurt or killed" should be sort of implied with anything you are trying to learn on the internet. These are just idea's that anyone reading should:
1. Take to a coach at their dropzone to discuss further
2. Practice up high (with supervision if available) to understand how the canopy responds.

Calvin19

***Holy shit....that was my first ever CD

No shit? I'm 100% serious it was my first CD too! I was 12. I saved my allowance for a month to buy it.

One hit wonder, but that whole album is awesome.

Wooah. Ok thats weird. This was my first album too, except I think I bought it on tape. Pretty sure I was about 8 years old as well.

Do jumpers have a certain predisposition to Chumbawumba?!

Overconfidence... I can see that. Most people that are Dbags were probably Dbags before the tunnel too though. Like someone said earlier-in the grand scheme of things noone really cares how well you can fly around in a tube.

Flying in the tunnel is super challenging and very fun and rewarding. Just do the sport a favor and spread the love by being the good skydiver/flyer who isn't a douche :)

Jumped AerOhio's a few weeks ago. Pretty sweet jumpship. Inside is very similar in size to a KA, but with the slow jumprun and big door of a C-van. I liked it a lot, and it is pretty cool looking up in the cockpit and seeing that G1000 glass cockpit! I wounder if we will start to see these become more common in the coming years.