Beachbum

Those cherries are dangerous!! As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

cool ... I wanted to jump the copter at the Deadman ... but the winds got a bit squirrely for my taste before I got on a load for it (am sure it'll be cool ... but you may want to pass that by Todd Spillers before just having it show up ... LOL!!) ... see y'all up there! As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

Searched several pages worth back and didn't find a thread on this, so I'll start one! Aggieland will hold the ... hmmm ... 6th??? this year ... Todd Bell is bringing the Otter up from Waller for this round. I know AggieDave and other locals will show ... anyone else going to make it? Will be the usual catered dinner saturday night ... if you've never had the food Todd's friend rustles up ... it IS good!! As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

Based on comment below the article on the news site ... sounds like it was a powered parachute setup. I've seen them around the bay a few times when I've been out fishing, and lots of times down at the beach. As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

="checkText(this)" onclick="checkText(this)" onFocus="checkText(this)" wrap=soft> I have to say a lot of thanks here ...

I just want to let everyone know that we WILL still be doing this tomorrow regardless of weather. Sooooo .... come on out ... jump if we get to, and eat and have a good time. With a little luck, it'll break open and we'll be able to get more than just some hop-n-pop loads up! Since this is (yep ... gonna actually admit to this!) ... my FIRST fundraiser out there, I'll be bringing some Shiner. As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

Hey Todd ... I'm out of town right now, but have been checking my email. I sent the team an email before I left last week asking them to firm up any tandems they have lined up ... haven't heard back from anyone so far, so I don't know if we even have ANY yet. The two maybes I had in the works both backed out. I should be back in town thursday and have access to my team email list again. I'll let you know as soon as I can find anything out. Henry Butler has consented to organize RW jumps. As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

If it was you who arranged for this ... thanks!!! And also a huge thanks to the Anvil Brothers ...

Skydive Houston is helping us to hold "Jump for Maddy" day on April 26th (weather date not yet selected). We plan to have load organizing, and serve burgers and dogs for lunch. Tent camping space is free and some bunk beds should be available at a nominal cost, for those wishing to overnight at the dz. This is a fundraising event for American Cancer Society Relay for Life. A group of us (mostly skydivers) has participated in this for several years, and this year our team is named "Scoring Goals for Maddy" in honor of Maddy, the daughter of one of our team members and fellow skydiver Angela Batiz. Last year, Maddy herself was an official teammate and did quite well with her own fundraising efforts. This spring Maddy was diagnosed with lukemia, so she is our inspiration for the 2008 RFL season. Come out and have a fun day of skydiving (you're gonna do it somewhere anyway, right??) ... and help us raise money for a good cause ... :) As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

This section of the thread might get moved to Safety and Training .... and I am only going to address the first portion of your post .... long answer first ... I don't think anyone is blaming the student, as much as speculating what the student may have or not have done. Yes, panic, spins, not pulling at the correct altitude (or at all), etc. are things that happen fairly often with students, but those (particularly panic) are more often than not on the first couple of jumps, not as frequent on the succeeding level student jumps such as this was. The normal progression of a student does begin with someone holding on to them. In a typical AFF progression, for instance, it is routine for the first 3 jumps to be made with 2 jumpmasters in the air with you, and the next 4 with 1 jm. IF you show good stability, altitude awareness, etc. ... then you are passed on to the next jump level in your training progression ... if not, then you should be repeating whatever particular jump gave you problems until you are able to complete it correctly. Holding on ... the jumpmasters who work with a given student decide when to release their hold on each student, since some require longer to demonstrate an ability to get and stay stable. By the time a student reaches the level of jump in question here, the student should typically be able to stay pretty stable, and to regain stability if it is lost. Although, as has been noted, a jm needs to always be ready for the unexpected, a jumpmaster on this type of jump is likely expecting to be there more to evaluate/observe the student so he/she can give good insight, feedback, and instruction to them after the jump, than they are to hold the student and keep them stable (that should hopefully not be necessary at this level). So ... the short answer is no ... the student is not out there entirely on their own, but yes, they are expected to perform at or at least near evaluated levels established on prior jumps in their training progression. You are not alone, but responsibility falls squarely on you at each step to learn and perform as taught, and carry those skills through to the next level student jump. As for not pulling .... I am not familiar with Spaceland's program, but I have met some of their AFFIs, and last year met one introduced to me as their head instructor ... all seem quite competent to me. Any program I've been around enough to see some of the method, pull priorities are stressed in each step of a student's initial training phases, right up to the time they get off student status, and wayyyyyyy beyond that if a person demonstrates a need for a reminder. I very much doubt that Spaceland omits this. Safety of the sport? Overall, for the right people ... it's actually pretty safe all things considered. But that said, if a person is the type who tends to initially throw their hands in the air and freak out to any extent when faced with an emergency situation, I would not recomm end that they take it up as a sport. Some people go thousands of jumps without needing to utilize their emergency procedures, and some people need them on their very first jump!! I don't know stats on it, but my take would be that if you stick with it, you ARE likely to be faced with using your EPs at some point, and when it happens, depending on the type of problem and altitude at which it occurs, you may literally have a very few seconds to make the right decision and act to save your life. Certainly something to think about for a prospective student!! As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

First I heard about this .. that IS a bummer ... we dropped in up there a few years ago and really enjoyed the dz and folks up there. I was looking forward to making a return trip sometime (aside from the jumping, the salmon fishing was FUN!!). As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

Sad thing about it is that he CAN be a good coach ... look at how effective both the offensive and defensive schemes he and his staff had in place for this game were ... and how fired up his players were against a pretty danged good UT team. Makes you wonder what happened to them the REST of the time ... !! All of his other shortcomings/antics aside ... beating UT 2 years in a row when nobody expected a win is an accomplishment. And the REALLY fun thing about it is that my diehard UT neighbor will be totally despondent for at least a week ... As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

Don't worry ... weights will be my next gear purchase, so "next time" I'll have my own to throw on, so y'all won't have to work so hard to float with me ... the ones I used last weekend at Aggieland were borrowed. And yep ... sure think John got dz's confused there ... .. I'll see if I can't find a way to straighten him out when I get home ... Dan ... I don't get up this way real often ... but it was definitely worthwhile, so the visit would be a definite repeat if I get back in the area ... thanks again!! As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

On my way up to D.C. on a trip to take my mom up there, and visited Skydive Orange today for a while ... very nice friendly dz ... :) ... They even went out of their way to find someone who could stay with MY skinny behind ... :lol: ... thanks Jennifer (Jennr8r??) and Terry ... really enjoyed it!! As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

Very good point about the descent rate. I did think about that, and realized I didn't have a good way to gauge it ... looking at the angle my collapsed pilot trailed was the only thing that I came up with on the spur of the moment, but it looked just about the same as always to me. I don't think it WOULD vary too much no matter what, would it? I'd never heard that about the spit ... thanks John! As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

Correct ... left them stowed. No doubt it does make a difference on the flare using rears, which ... aside from the testing aspect relative to the lineover, was another reason I did a couple while still up high. I was still able to crank down enough on them that if I had held it long, I could have stalled the canopy. I was holding the risers right on top of the links. About the line cutting thru the topskin ... I had thought about it possibly putting a slice in it, but did not figure it would be there long enough to put a cut of any real length in there. Is that a common occurrance with a lineover?? As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

Hook knife ... I now own one, but haven't gotten a place sewn on anywhere yet to carry it (a double bladed one, which I was advised toward by a couple of crewdog types). I know ... a lot of good it does to have it if it's not ON me! Have to remedy that. Questioning landability twice? ... not really. When I first found the lineover I knew it was NOT in that condition, but I had also been taught to try to clear that ... so didn't truly try to decide that until I had already attempted to get it corrected. Even after getting the line to move from the 3rd cell to the end cell, I had figured to chop until I had both hands on handles and realized it was flying well on it's own. I still had altitude, so THEN did a flyability check with the flares and turns and made the decision to keep it. The pump method ... taught to me also, but I've heard a lot of instances where releasing brakes made things worse (granted, I could not remember if any of those were lineovers, but I knew I could fly it ok in brakes) ... which is why I used the method I did to try to clear it, and it almost worked. Looking back, I might should have released brakes and pumped, yes. Altitude awareness ... I did check my alt a few times during all that, and think I stayed on top of that part ok. Airspace I always check on opening, starting as I'm getting stood up and during line stretch ... and all around before I look up to check the canopy. I was well clear of everyone. I agree that I probably should have caught the lineover on initial inspection. My eyes got as far up as the twist, and I went right to work on stretching risers to undo that. In this case, it didn't really matter, but there could be times when it could. Any input on what it might be that I did wrong packing?? I pro pack, and am pretty meticulous ... so I'm now wondering if the manner I was taught left me open to this possibility, or if I just screwed up! As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

Odd coincidences yesterday ... discussing riggers/reserve repacks with someone inside, then get to the loading area and someone is talking about a lineover. Board and ride up, jump, initiate deployment right about 4 grand ... open and realize I've got a minor line twist. As I start tugging risers, I begin a turn ... line twist out, release risers ... turn is now a bit of a dive, and it continues! Right rear riser levels me off, and I look up a 2nd time to discover I've got a line over ... 3rd cell from left. I pull left rear down far enough to get me into a hard left turn, release ... moves out to the 2nd cell ... repeat ... moves to end cell ... repeat 2 more times, but it doesn't seem to want to totally clear. I'm now at about 2,100 ... figure it's time to get rid of it, and have my hands on my handles when I realize it's now flying straight and level with no input (brakes still stowed). I actually thought ... well, there's a pretty good wind today, and that will help me if I keep it ... so quickly tried a couple of pretty hard rear riser flares, then a couple of turns ... everything stable, so decided to land it. Learned one thing for sure ... a rear riser flare does NOT slow you down nearly as much as it seems like it does when you practice them up high!! Landing wasn't pretty, but I came away with a minimally sore ankle and nothing else ... and that might not have been so bad if I hadn't gone and played construction worker for about 6 hours afterward ... LOL! I jump a triathlon 160 loaded just about right on 1:1. SOOOoooo ... 4 questions ... 1) Would you have chopped it anyway? 2) How do I figure out what I did to cause the lineover ... I'm always what I at least THINK is very careful packing?? 3) I figure I now need to closely inspect that whole end of the canopy ... including lines, attachment points, etc. ... anything else ??? 4) anything else I need to take from this? As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

I just got word that Steve passed away this morning ... no details yet. He did his level one AFF saturday, and made a downwind landing with no flare. We saw him land ... he face planted, then flipped up and over ... , coming to rest on his back. He was taken to the hospital with visible damage being a dislocated ankle and scrape/bruised face. We stopped by the hospital to see him later that evening, and he was in good spirits, ankle back in place, and family on their way to pick him up ... I don't yet know what took place following that. He was jumping as part of an American Cancer Society Relay-for-Life thing that I helped set up, and was very much a supporter of A.C.S. When we got to him after his tumble he was laying on his back, a huge grin on his face (and a little blood running down), saying "that was awesome". He told us that night at the hospital that even if he knew beforehand that he would end up in the hospital, that he still would have made the jump ... he enjoyed it that much. He will be missed ... thanks Steve ... and blue skies. As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

CHORUS ... excuse me!! ... see what happens when I miss a couple of years ... ROFL!! I guess somebody's gotta stay a little detached to yell "SHUT THE #@*& UP" ... Anybody do any trout fishing? I lost my fishing partner for those trips up there ... :( ... As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

If I can hide enough $$$ from the hospital bills I still owe ... LOL!! I've missed a couple of years ... MadJohn ... are you back to being choir director again?? Amazon Beachbum - trying my damndest! BirdWoman (& Mr. Feisty) Bolas (somehow, someway) ebusto grimmie Guppie01 JasonRose kharkness - Count me in this year Labrys Lauraliscious Laura J, Esq. Livendive madjohn McBeth monkycndo NDfallrate NWFlyer SeaKev Selbbub78 Shell666 The Outlaws TheStepchild Turtlespeed Tx Tom As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

Well ... was a thought anyway ... LOL ... I'm not a pilot, so am not familiar with their procedures and such, but it did seem to me that if there were a place designated FOR that type of thing, pilots would want to look at it once in a while. I can see your point about airports such as you describe tho ... spread out and not a good central place to do it. Do most pilots utilize many online resources?? ... maybe a way to get info to them thru the web in a way they would use? As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

First ... thanks to everyone for the informative discussion, and to Tom and others actively involved BIG THANKS for trying to help make the sport a little safer for us and other aircraft. As a relative newbie, I too question my ability to catch aircraft traffic when spotting. To this point, I've yet to see another plane when doing so. I guess we can't really know we WILL see something if it's there, until it happens once or twice. I AM in the habit of checking out windows some when we near jump altitude ... not something anyone ever taught me ... I just figured it made sense! I wonder if something to do with this should be in the ISP (or IS it these days ... I went thru ground school a lot longer ago than my #'s show ... just prior TO the ISP). About this ... have you asked them to designate a place on the airport for pilots to look for such info, and put a bulletin board or something up? I'd think any responsible airport manager would want to do things to help increase safety. Might even be someone at your local dz would be willing to make them a corkboard or something?? Seems a relatively minor expense compared to the things it could help avoid! As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

okay ... maybe I'm really confused here ... but how could the slack that is normally trapped when it's stowed be gone with the toggle still stowed,unless the loop the butt of the toggle is put thru gave way? If that was the case, that would mean the line itself would be flapping, but it would be from a much higher point (the canopy) than the ring on the riser as would be the case if it just came unstowed. Woudln't it no longer be considered to be "stowed" if the top of the toggle slipped out of the loop and allowed the slack to go out but the bottom of the toggle stayed in place?? As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

They've got a couple of tandems at 3 ... but I'm sure Todd would send it up before then if enough folks show up ... As long as you are happy with yourself ... who cares what the rest of the world thinks?