fencebuster

Flown by a professional test pilot on a prototype without a load of skydivers on board. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

Join us for the resurrection of the Boo & Brew Halloween mini-boogie at Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures. We have Jim Smith and Rick Fetter organizing RW and Andreea Olea organizing flocks of wingsuiters and bringing wingsuits for those interested in a wingsuit FFC. Halloween costume party on Saturday night with catered dinner. $25 registration gets you dinner, t-shirt and opportunity to play with our organizers. It should be a hoot. Register at www.skydivenewmarket.com or call Melissa at 540-450-6070. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

Ding, ding, ding . . . . We have a winner! It is not about the instructor, it is about providing a professional and as risk free as possible experience for the student and, possibly, getting the student to come back as an AFF student. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

+1. That is what we do at my DZ. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

I am a TI and an AFFI, but don't have 5000 tandems or even 500. I am also a pilot with over 2000 hours flight time. But I am pretty sure I know how to safely land a tandem and have done it every time since I have been a TI. It requires identifying all canopies that may conflict with my pattern and it never includes a turn greater than 90 degrees in the landing pattern. Not identifying conflicting traffic, turning blindly and whipping a 180 is unsafe, and if you pulled that shit at my DZ, you'd be gone as soon as you walked into the hangar. No TI should ever have a canopy collision. The whole purpose of tandem skydiving is to land the student safely and send them on their way to promote their experience to their friends and possibly get them to come back and try AFF. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

Do Cessna formation loads with experienced jumpers, not tandems who have no idea of the risk, which is not included in the UPT or Strong Waiver. Why do stupid stuff with tandems? If the reason is to stroke your own ego, then you should be fun jumping, not taking tandem students. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

I have Liquid Titans I wear with my open face helmet. I do not have the foam inserts. As long as you make sure they are a tight fit in accordance with the instructions that came with the glasses (you bend the earpieces closer together every 10 jumps or so to maintain tight fit), I have not had any problems -- they don't move and I don't get wind in my eyes in freefall or droguefall. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

+1 Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

That is the way we do it at my DZ. If they have practiced and practiced and can't get it right, we suggest a tandem CAT A. FOr many it is the apprehension of jumping out of a plane and if they do it successfully on a tandem, we'll practice some more and take them on a CAT A AFF. Most of the time, we get them good to go in the FJC on the ground and they have successful CAT A's (to varying degrees of course). Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

When I am talking to our new A license grads, I suggest the D-ring. I can't force them to do anything, but I tell them the stories above and hopefuly they make the right decision. A spinning mal on your back on your first cut-away is not the time to have to figure out which pillow is which. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

I have seen and or know of two out of sequence reserve deployments where the jumper had both cut-away and reserve piloow handles. Both were on their first cut-away and both pulled in the srong order. One ended up with a broken pelvis as a result of a slight downplane on a two out just before impact. The other ended up spinning in on a ball of shit entangled main and reserve. Ended up with TBI, although the skydiver survived. I like the D ring because it removes the possible confusion in a stressful situation. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

I have 110 hours flying jumpers in the Super Twin Ottter. Never put flaps down. You can fly 80 kts with 4 people outside and maintain control and altitude with the left engine pulled back. High tail, no issue. I also started a DZ where we are running a Navajo (PA-31-310) and we fly jump run with full flaps to get the tail out of the way. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

+1 Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

We have a hill and trees adjacent to our landing area, so if the winds are from that direction, we generally sit down if they are more than 3-4 knots. Other directions where we have clear air and few obstacles, 20 is the limit; less if the gust factor is double the wind-speed, i.e., we'll sit if it is 9 gusting 18, etc. It just isn't worth it to hurt a student or a valuable TI. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

Yeah, I get it; but the student doesn't know it and fear is a good motivator for me. I tend to do my best when under pressure. I really havn't had any sketchy tandem jumps even with the ones who pike instead of arch or otherwise try to induce instability. Sooner or later, they'll become routine for me, just like AFF. In the meantime, I have a helthy respect for the dangers. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

I was a Coach for about a year before I decided to go for the AFFI rating. It was definetely more challenging than the TI rating. I got my AFFI rating at 460 jumps. Very challenging, although the ground prep/teaching part was a lock because i had been doing it for a year according to the SIM as a Coach. After spending 6 months as an AFFi, with students trying to kill me routinely, tandems were a less difficult program. But I will say,that I now have no fear on an AFF jump. Tandems . . . they scare the shit out of me, every time, because you never know what kind of knucklehead you will be attached to. If an AFF student goes spastic, you just pull them and worry about it later. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

Read the procedure in the SIM. Follow the procedure in the SIM. Those procedures are written in the blood of those who went before us. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

I an not so sure. I am an AFFI/TI with 1400 jumps. I wear a sony video camera on every AFF and Coach jump. I usualy turn it to the stanbdby mode at the 2 minute call and ON at "Door". If there is any problem from that point on, I stop f'ing with the camera and concentrate on the jump at hand. I don't need video to debrief; it is nice to have but not required. Fooling with the camera after that will just un-focus me from what I need to be concentrating on. Some dude with less than 200 jumps; I am not so sure they would quit working the camera problem and focus on the real issue. Just my opinion. And my DZ requires 200 jumps for Go Pros or any other camera -- we treat it like a BSR. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

I use a Cookie Fuel with an audible. With the quick release Go Pro mount on top, it is a good multi-purpose helmet. We just mandated that all of our TIs must wear hard shell helmets. They can use our student helmets if they choose or buy something they prefer. But I agree, a good helmet makes a difference to the potential hearing loss. And I was one of those guys flying in F-4s who never wore hearing protection on the flight line . . . just my flight helmet. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

To win a malpractice claim against a lawyer for damages, you have to prove that but for the errors you would have won the case. That's a pretty steep hill to climb and not many lawyers are going to take that case on a contingency basis. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

I watched Ken's accident in horror. We had no idea he had learned to hold his toggles that way. We instruct our students to grab toggles with 4 fingers and lock the thumb, "like your life depends on it." We had Ken gimping around to demonstrate why we train that way and I think the lesson has taken hold. But it was very sad that we had to learn that lesson at Ken's expense. Good news: He made his first jump last weekend 4 months and 1 week since his ambulance ride. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

Ken, (Southern Man) was gripping his toggles with two fingers and his thumb. Four fingers through the toggle locked with thumb is really the only way I would recommend holding the toggles. The "dropped toggle" accidents range from fatal to a femur and ankle as in Ken's case. The ground is very unforgiving of mistakes made near it. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

+1. I go for the landing toggles no later then 1500 feet and I have a death grip on both sets of toggles. My friend Ken demonstrated how bad a no flare landing can turn out and he got lucky. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

If you are under 40 years old, 3 years. Over 40, 20 years. Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

Bad idea . . . for this reason. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4563431;page=unread#unread Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208 AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures