cpoxon

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Posts posted by cpoxon

  1. For those from Andorra, France, Luxembourg, Singapore, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Monaco, Slovenia. Estonia, Australia, Iceland, Netherlands, Spain, Hungary, Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, Latvia, Brunei, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Lithuania, Denmark, Japan, Portugal, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Finland, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Republic of Malta, South Korea, and Greece who travel to the States to skydive under the Visa waiver programme will be aware that since the beginning of 2009 they have been required to undertake enhanced security requirements to enter the US in the form of the ESTA from the Department of Homeland Security.

    So far, it has been free to apply for this but there will be a $14 charge (to" promote tourism and attract foreign spending?!) from the 8th of September. An ESTA is valid for two years, so if you think you might travel to the States in the next two years (even if you have applied for one within the previous two years) you might want to do so now and save yourself a few Dollars.

    ESTA can be applied for here.
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  2. Quote

    For the UK, as best as I can remember ('cos I can't be bothered to look it up at www.bpa.org.uk)

    FAI membership (to prove your licence level)

    Membership of BPA or home country if it provides insurance of £1m (I think, it may be a litle less but it's a lot) - however USPA is NOT recognised as insurance in the UK.



    €1.3M

    Quote

    Medical form (under 40 and in good health you self-certify there and then, above 40 you need a doctor's signature).



    Section 11 (Medical) Para 2 (General) Sub-Para 2.6 (Foreign Parachutists) says,

    Quote

    A parachutist from a foreign country may parachute at a BPA Club if he/she fulfils the medical requirements of that parachutist’s own country.



    Quote

    Generally a logbook or proof that you are current.

    Reserve card for your gear - 6 month reserve re-pack (not sure if the BPA recognise longer re-packs for countries that allow 1 year).



    Section 6 (Equipment) Para 8 (Parachute Packing) Sub-Para 8.5 says,

    Quote

    Reserve parachutes that have been packed in a foreign country, in a manner acceptable to the parachuting organisation of that country, may be jumped at a BPA Club for up to 6 months from the date of that packing. This is provided that the parachuting organisation of that foreign country allows 6 months validity for a reserve repack; otherwise the foreign country’s lesser time will apply. In the case of visiting foreign parachutists the length of time may be up to 12 months, depending on the repack cycles permitted in their country.




    Quote

    If packed by UK packer then it will also have an "MOT" form stating what was checked, reserve pull force, serial numbers etc.

    You must jump with a reserve, which is packed by a qualified reserve packer/rigger or foreign equivalant.

    If the gear is grounded in the UK then you can't jump it.

    AADs not mandatory (individual DZ may have local rules requiring AAD).

    ALL jumpers in the UK have to wear suitable headgear (frappe hat is the minimum required - but you have to 200 jumps to use one). Oh and I think the BPA also required you to wear shoes for a jump (though no other clothing is specified).

    Good links to a local witch doctor to stop the rain, winds and clouds long enough to jump

    Blue skies

    Paul


    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  5. Quote

    I can not understand how anyone with more than a couple of tandems could not remember to throw the drogue.



    Nor can I. Yet nor do I fail to be amazed by people appearing to do the wrong thing. Quite often we've wondered why someone didn't do something to break a chain that ended in a fatality, as we haven't been able to ask them. Fortunately this one didn't end such a way. I'd be very interested to know why the drogue wasn't deployed. Stress and complacency can make people do weird things.

    This is not an unheard of thing though. I can remember three instances in the recent past where tandem instructors in the UK have forgotten to deploy the drogue.

    From the minutes of the Safety and Training Committee of the British Parachute Association, held on the 7th of December 2000

    Quote

    Page 4, Item 4 – Incident/Injury Reports (v). At the last STC a report was discussed regarding a Tandem incident, where an instructor lost his trainer on exit. He did not deploy his drogue, remained in free fall, pulled his drogue release handle, then deployed his reserve just prior to the CYPRES going off. He was subsequently ‘grounded’ from further Tandem jumps by his CCI, until the last STC meeting. The instructor was unable to attend the last STC because of military commitments. Therefore STC decided that because of the seriousness of the incident the instructor was to remain ‘grounded’ until this meeting. The instructor concerned was present at the meeting and gave details of the incident in question.

    He was then asked to leave the meeting, whilst STC considered this matter at some length.

    Following a lengthy discussion on this matter and because of the serious nature of the incident, Phil Cavanagh proposed that the Instructor’s Tandem Instructor rating is permanently revoked.

    A counter proposal was tabled by Pete Sizer that his Tandem Instructor rating be suspended until he was re-assessed on a full Tandem Instructor Course. This proposal failed to find a seconder.

    A vote was then taken on Phil Cavanagh’s proposal, which was seconded by Karen Farr that the Instructor concerned’s Tandem Instructor rating is permanently revoked.

    For: 11 Against: 0 Abstentions: 2 (Dave Wood, Pete Sizer)

    Carried



    And from the 27th of September 2007

    Quote

    Finally, a Tandem jump was being carried out from a Skyvan. The tailgate retaining clip had not been correctly closed, resulting in the tailgate descending towards the Tandem videoman. He left immediately without a problem, shouted to the Tandem pair to exit straight away, which they did. However, the Tandem Instructor did not deploy his drogue and remained in freefall until he deployed the reserve. There was no clear explanation for the instructor’s actions. He has since given up his instructor ratings.



    And from the 11th of June 2009

    Quote

    v) There had been 8 Tandem Injury reports received since the last meeting. 6 male and 2 female. There had also been 22 Tandem Malfunction/Deployment Problems reports received. One involved a Tandem Instructor with more than 1,200 tandem jumps, who forgot to deploy the drogue. He pulled the primary handle at deployment height, without any effect, and then deployed the reserve. The instructor did not know why he did not deploy the drogue. Following the incident the CCI did not let the Instructor carry out any further Tandem jumps until the majority of Examiners on a Tandem Instructor Course had cleared the instructor.



    So it is not uncommon, even in a small country such as the UK.
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  6. Danny, I followed this thread from the one in the wingsuit and watched the video with interest. I sort of see it working, but not sure, as it almost looks like the twists are working their way out when you squeeze the risers on the first one, and the second one is difficult to see from the belly angle. I'll give it a try some time.

    A way of getting out of twists is to not get into them in the first place. Do you think you might be inducing some of the twists by grabbing the risers early? I know they are just snapshots in time but see the attached screenshots.

    Also, has anyone commented or the stowing (or lack thereof) of the excess brake line. Sorry to say, but it looks like an accident waiting to happen to me. Be careful.
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  7. Quote

    whoever is suppose to be moderating this shit is not doing anyone any favours letting stuff get so out of hand and off thread.



    No rules broken that I'm aware of. I'm not here to prevent people making fools of themselves. The thread has already been split in an attempt to separate the flybys and the WSI parts. A further split wouldn't help and I'm not about to start censoring for no real reason.
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  8. Quote

    It might be nice to have a list of questions, descriptions of forces, potential hazards, etc to send with an older person to his/her doc. "Take this, and discuss it with your doctor, have him sign it, then come back." It sounds like you're already 90% there TK. Help me out man!



    Martin have you seen what those aged 40 and over are required to have signed by their doctor before they can jump? Particularly the Notes for Doctors on the second page.

    http://www.bpa.org.uk/forms/docs/form%20115%20-%20tandem%20student%20declaration%5B1%5D.pdf

    Those under the age of 40 are required to sign this declaring their fitness to skydive before they can jump.
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  9. Can't get it to work?

    Webpage error details

    User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1) ; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 3.5.21022; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30618)
    Timestamp: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:14:59 UTC


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    Code: 0
    URI: http://formations.relativework.org/WebFormations/WebFormations.aspx
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  11. Hey guys, I tried to split the thread between tandem flybys and WSI rating proposal but I guess I didn't catch it soon enough and the system is not sophisticated enough. Due to the way people have replied to certain parts of the thread, it's still a mix of both. I am not able to undo the split. Bear this in mind when people make calls on thread drift in these forums. I give people a fair amount of leeway in this forum but things do seem to be degenerating recently. We're a small community so try and keep it together, thanks.
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  12. Quote


    Specifically, I was told that the moment there is a tandem/wingsuit incident that involves any injury to the student, skydiving across the US will be *immediately* shut down, all tandem rigs grounded by the FAA, just like they ground aircraft that have an "unknown" or known problem that needs repair. This grounding would last for the duration of any investigation. Said grounding might be a day, month, or up to a year.
    Empty threat or serious concern? I dunno.



    I dunno either but it would seem disproportionate, especially in the light of two people falling out of tandem harnesses yet similar action was not taken.
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  13. They got a 145-way, then a 160-way the day after and are now (?) trying for a 170-way.

    поздравления!
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  18. Quote

    When I get back to the US I won't have jumped for 8-10 months.... my first jump back is going be a WS solo. I'm not injured or anything though, I'm just talking a small vacation ;)

    If you're putting one back on it's all about what you're comfortable with.



    Are you're jump numbers accurate in your profile? Whatever, what's the rush? After getting on for a year, don't you think it would be wiser to do a solo without the wingsuit first, just to familiarise yourself with freefall and your gear before adding a further complication?
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  20. In the crosspost Russell says,
    Quote

    Lesson for HCam shooters. When you get ready to chop and you have your hand on (through) the reserve handle... don't move the camera into "get the shot" position untill you actually chop.

    A very close look at this reveals that my hand movement into shooting the cutaway position popped the reserve a fraction of a second before riser release.


    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  21. kate Cooper-Jensen's Facebook status today reads,

    "Kate Cooper-Jensen is looking forward to World Team '11 500 way and the 2 point 200+ way "warm up" sequential event January '10. Both in Thailand. Game on. Yes, that's the VGN!" (Very Good News)
    B|

    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  24. Sorry John, didn't make myself clear. The conclusion of the linked thread was that Incidents should require registration to browse i.e. can not be read by guest logins, and that requirement was applied. However it now appears that Guests are able to browse the Incidents forum, and I don't believe they should be able to as per the decision in the linked thread. Something has changed along the way, allowing them access and should be tightened up again.

    Clear?
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live