DARK

You cant guarantee anything in this sport, thats the point. There are people out there who can fly these wings as well as most can fly the bigger ones. Of course you cant guarantee anything but I would rather jump with a confident 5000 tandem ti, who knows the ins and outs of canopy flight and has tested himself under all sorts of wings, under a 250 than a guy with 1000 jumps total under a 365. The funkier the conditions the more I want to be attached to the former. You're missing the point entirely. Of course you'd rather be attached to the more experienced instructor - so would I. But would you rather be attached to the experienced instructor doing the safest possible landing, or attached to the same guy NOT doing the safest possible landing? Which would you rather a member of your family was attached to?? Likewise, I'm not suggesting that technology of the wing itself is a bad thing. I'm all for advancements (particularly in canopies!) but this isn't about that. It's about instructors wanting to have their cake and eat it at the potential expense of a student - to get paid for skydiving by being a tandem instructor AND getting their swoop on and thereby INCREASING the danger to a non skydiver. And THAT'S the unacceptable bit. I understand that is your point and you might be right that might be what it is about but I dont think it is. To answer your question about who I would want my family with, I would want them with the expert pilot flying the equipment he felt was best suited to the job / conditions he faced. Also I dont think being conservative and doing the most conservative landing is the same thing as being safe and doing the safest landing. There can be situations that warrant a more aggresive approach / style whatever. I just dont think its as simple as higher performance wing = more risk. I think its more complicated then that.

You cant guarantee anything in this sport, thats the point. There are people out there who can fly these wings as well as most can fly the bigger ones. Of course you cant guarantee anything but I would rather jump with a confident 5000 tandem ti, who knows the ins and outs of canopy flight and has tested himself under all sorts of wings, under a 250 than a guy with 1000 jumps total under a 365. The funkier the conditions the more I want to be attached to the former.

The problem is that the conditions you're talking about are higher winds. So you're making a trade-off, and not for the better. In no way is a higher speed landing a good thing for tandems, and I know for sure that people jumping these canopies are not putting them away when the winds are light, and only using them when the winds pick up. On top of that is the idea that higher winds equal more energy and less stability in the air. Anything that's going to go wrong is only going to happen harder or faster in higher winds, and simply downsizing to stop yourself from backing up is not a 'prudent' choice in a tandem environment. Maybe when the winds are too high for jumping a 'normal' tandem canopy, it's just time to hang up the rigs for the day? So first of all I concede to your higher experience, but for arguments sake. its not necessarily higher winds I am talking about although they will certainly help in those conditions, its more turbelence that I think it makes a difference in. I have seen 330's and 365's fold up on straight in approches due to turbelence, I have been flying my tandem canopy in full flight and watched one side fold up and then reinflate at about 200ft. Now maybe this isnt anything to worry about, everytime I have seen this the canopy has reinflated immediately with no apparent loss of control or heading, but it can be scary looking. Now, is the tfx cross braced? the fx is afaik. I assume to help with the high wingloading that is is but I could be wrong. If it is then it should go through turblence like a knife through butter. The other thing that seems to happen in turblence is getting dropped out on final and not having enough flare to stop it. now this could be pilot error in many cases but I have seen this happen to very experienced people. My guess would be that with the higher wingloading you get better penetration and stability in turblence and also more speed, speed = lift and lift = a soft landing. I am not saying I am right I am just wondering why this reasoning is wrong?

Its understandable that you would think that but its not really true. The apf gets $30 from every apf dz for every tandem they do. The company I worked for owns numerous dzs and just one of them was sending $500k a year to the apf in fees for this alone. Also their materials are seriously dated, my packer b exam included questions on fxc's and the original cutaway system before 3 rings came about. That is just pure laziness on their part. edit; their 'thesis' programme for people who want to become chief instructors is a great idea though and as a result the apf has the best intro to freefly, intro to crw etc booklets I have seen from anywhere

afaik these canopiies( I thought they were 285's though so dont know if these are the ones I am thinking of or new ones) are in operation at dzs with very high winds like guam and hawaii. having seen thousands of 330's being hooked in in high winds and turbulence and seeing thousands of tandems being landed 'traditionally'. in the high winds and turbulence I will take the power and pressurisation that comes with the turn over the mushy semi-collapsing straight in approaches. having said that not everyone should be allowed fly their tandem canopy like that. If you have the skills for it I do think its a better landing but unless you are a top of the ladder canopy pilot on your own canopy you shouldnt be messing with these types of approaches with a tandem imo. personally I dont have enough experience to do it myself but I do believe in certain conditions and with the right pilot it is a safer landing. /flame gear on

Someone should just beat that guy to death. What are we trying to prove by keeping him alive in a cell for the rest of his life? He is a damaged human being, there is no place for him here.

Do you pay the TI?

So I am a new ti so this has only happened once to me and in all the years I have been in the sport I have only seen it happen a handfull of times. My student was a small asian girl, cool as a cucumber throughout the entire thing until she saw the tandem ahead of us go and as soon as that happened she freaked out. I kept us moving to the door but the closer we got the more cat like she got. we landed with the plane. So this is the part that I am wondering what other people think about. As I am a new instructor and because I felt like I 'gave in' too easily I told manifest that I was happy to go again if she wanted to. She said she wanted to try one more time but this time I asked her on the ground if she freaked out again did she want me to force her out. She said yes. So we went up again and she was terrified all the way up. Everyone on the plane knew what was going on and tried to calm her down which only made it worse. She wouldnt let go of my sleeve the entire ride and would just stare at the corner. We got geared up and this time she kept it together until we were right in the door and then she went cat like again so I turned around and made sure her arms and legs were not grabbing anything and I went out backwards. When the parachute opened it sounded like she was crying for about 30seconds which got me real worried but then she sobbed ' that was the best thing I have ever done thanks' It could easily have gone the other way I guess and she could have hated but what do you guys think? Student says yeah force me out, do you do it? Is it right to do it?

I would be fine taking anyone that fit in the harness as far as safety goes common sense says that if they are not at least 13 they probably have no idea what they are asking to do and while they might enjoy it I dont think its a very good idea. my kid will hopefully get to be in the tunnell weekly until they reach 12/13 and I convince someone to let me take them on a tandem(assuming they want to) for aff I think I would be ok with a 15 yr old doing it if it was a pretty mature or well clued in 15 yr old but not younger than that.

There are people recomending that I overstay so that if the path to citizenship gets opened up to illegals I will be here illegally and can apply. I am not going to but its pretty crazy that that might be the easiest way for me to do it. Also I have no intention of becoming an american citizen I would just like to be able to work here and come and go as I please

there is a split between the people who learn and progress in the tunnel and those who only skydive. There is also a huge discrepency between the number of people who can freefly and do those 8 way jumps you were taling about and the number of people who have those skills and are willing to jump with the noobs and bring them along step by step. To an extent its understandable, people spend a lot of money in the tunnel so that they can go on these more complicated freefly jumps and they dont want to invest more time with the noobs but it is leading to this big skill gap. In my experience experienced belly flyers are a lot more welcoming and helpful to inexperienced belly flyers than experienced free flyers are to inexperienced freeflyers. edited to add; it seems like to the belly flyers a free slot is good enough reward to organise and jump with the noobs but that the freeflyers dont feel the same.

Yeah I was being overly simplistic I am fairly familiar with how it all works. Yes I can get sponsored for h1b1 but then I am locked into that company unless I find a new to take over the sponsorship. when you are on a h1b1 you can apply for permanent residency which puts you on a list. a friend of mine has been here for more than 7 years, has a degree and an mba and her promotion opportunities and everything associated with that has been super limited because the company knows she has no other options. The sponsorship process is complicated enough that companies just don't want to even bother with it in my experience adn there is a limited number every year. This year applications open on the 1st of april and the lawyers I was talking to expect all available visas to be filled that day. I am not going to work illegally I have been legal here long enough and now I am in a situation were I cant risk not being allowed back in in the future so thats out the door. I really should find a lawyer and ask if working remotely for a company back in Ireland counts as working while in america. Depending how you look at it doing it that way avoids all of the disadvantages the immigration laws are trying to avoid (like taking jobs americans could fill, having people arrive and get on welfare etc) and has all of the benefits of a person working here for an american company accept for taxation.

No particular story inspired this post just a general question about what people think about immigration reform? I am specifically NOT asking about weather or not current illegals should be given legal status, I don't really care. I think its dumb not to but ultimately it dosnt effect me one way or another. I am talking about the ridiculous state of affairs currently in place which affect SKILLED workers who want to come here to work legally, pay taxes and fill roles that americans are currently not filling for wathever reason. Personally. I have lived and worked and paid taxes legally in the US for the majority of the last 5 years. In two months my work visa will expire and I will return home and try and upskill again and see if I can figure out a way to return legally. Ultimately if nothing changes I can still come here for up to 6 months out of the year on holiday. I dont know if it is legal but I can work from anywhere I have a laptop so I could just hang out here for a few months at a time work from my laptop and get paid into my account back home and pay taxes in Ireland. Dosnt that sound ridiculous though? I currently have an honors bachelor of science degree in one of the most sought after areas right now and in 12 months time I will have a masters and industry experience. My earning potential would probably be twice the average industrial wage and therefore pay more than twice the amount of taxes but the best way for me to get a greencard is to enter a lottery every year were they give out 50K (I think) a year and treat everyone equally so people living on welfare back home with no skills or qualifications have the same chance of getting one as I do. Not only that, but you guys welcome people who want to come and study here, the universities take their tuition fees and train them up to a very high level (you guys have great institutions no doubt) and then you make it so hard for the students to stay after they graduate (which many of them would) that they are forced to go home were their skills are of no benefit whatsoever to the US. Discuss

1. I don't have that many tandems 2. I don't think we get glorified by anyone other than our students and their families. If anything I think we are respected by the general fun jumper population for two reasons. The first has been mentioned already, we take their friends and families. The second is that we can rack up a lot of jumps in a short space of time and a lot of people automatically respect people (at least to some extent) with high jump numbers). 3. Unless its a fun jumper who wants to be a ti, I would imagine there is more pity then glorification in their heads. They get to come and do the exact type of jumps they want as many times as they want, with whoever they want, sleep in late if they want and leave when the weather rolls in if they want. 4. As for the telling b licence jumpers what to do, the I part of ti still stands for instructor by the way. I was telling low low timers what to do before I had my t-rating because I had a coach rating. It was always followed by but make sure to double check with your instructor. Now I do the same thing (usually only if I am asked tbh) and the only thing that is changed is be sure to double check this advice with your instructor or a more experienced instructor than me. The whore that keeps the brothel going is a good way to put it.

if you overly subsidize education - then don't be surprise when the cost of getting it skyrockets This is not evident in the numerous countries that offer public / subsidised education. Quality, appreciation, waste are all things that can be debated intelligently but there is no evidence that cost increases follow subsidization. In fact in Ireland its not only subsidized but completely paid for until postgraduate level and if you happen to be one of the people who have to pay full price it still works out far far cheaper in Ireland then in an equivalant university in the US and in many cases cheaper then the US equivalent.