davelepka

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Everything posted by davelepka

  1. All true, but it's still not the same as the type of distance/separation you can get on a simple diving exit. Leave the plane literally one second after the base, you are dealing with distances far greater then the height or diameter of any tunnel. Two seconds, and it's even further than that. The tunnel is applicable to certain parts of the freefall, and for those parts it's a dead-on simulation that can really build bodyflying skills for both in and out of the tunnel. For other parts, it's just doesn't have the capability to replicate the actual freefall with enough realism to really be used as a training tool in those areas. You can't pull off exits and fly points on the hill in a tunnel. You can't swoop down to a formation and learn the fine art of 'stopping', and you can break off and fine-tune your max track position.
  2. Injury causing collisions are not caused by incorrect slight corrections in fall rate. Injury causing collisions are caused by the significant speed differential of a jumper diving toward a formation and a jumper already in the formation. That type of speed differential is not possible within the confines of the tunnel. Therefore, the judgment needed to know when to 'hit the brakes' to get stopped in time can also not be learned in the tunnel. The tunnel is a tiny little piece of the sky, and spending time in the there makes you good at flying inside of a tiny piece of sky. Anything that involves more separation than a tunnel will allow is not something you can learn inside of a tunnel.
  3. I cannot think of a single skydiving injury that could be replicated in a tunnel. Any injury that occurs strictly in the freefall portion of a skydive is the result of a collision, and that takes way more than the 14 or 16ft of space a tunnel affords you to build up speed, and then mis-manage that speed causing a collision. Tunnels make you a better at the easiest, least relevant part of the skydive. Aside from being able to be stable at pull time, the freefall skills required for a skydive are non-existent. Static line proves this as every static line jump is a complete skydive with no freefall of any kind.
  4. It's a two-fold approach, with jump numbers being the fist aspect, and the conservative expectations being the second. Let's look at camera flying. The 'powers that be' have deemed that you should have 200 jumps before putting on a camera. The '200' part accounts for the jump numbers, and the 'before jumping a camera' accounts for the conservative expectations, meaning that a majority of jumpers should be able to handle jumping a camera at that point. If you look at jump numbers, and say that Jimmy has 100 jumps, and that 'a few' people with 100 jumps have been able to safely jump a Velocity at a moderate WL, then you're not being conservative with your expectations, and you cannot expect a good outcome in that case. Even if you would suggest Jimmy jump a canopy that 50% of people with 100 jumps could be safe on, you're still not using the jump numbers correctly. You need to look for something that has an 80% or 90% success rate for people with 100 jumps, and then you're working with correct expectations. These threads are always fun because it's the people with lower jump numbers, like the numbers that stand to be effected by jump number related limitation who think that there has to 'a better way'. Meanwhile, the guys with numbers high enough to be beyond any of those limitations seem to think that jump numbers aren't such a bad way to measure. The main difference being the high-time guy has existed as a jumper with 100 or 200 jumps AND a jumper with 1000 or 2000 jumps, while the low time guy lacks the real world experience and insight of spending time in both pairs of shoes.
  5. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. What you're describing is that you had some problems on your first jump at a new DZ, but then you made another jump without accounting for those problems. So if the radio failed on your first jump, and you had a rough, off-field landing, why didn't the prep for you next jump include additional work in the area of canopy control and flight planning? You knew that the potential existed for the radio to fail, but you went up to jump again unprepared for that circumstance. Who is to blame for that? Let's say you didn't know how to pull the PC on the student rig at the new DZ, and an instructor had to pull for you. Would you make another jump without being trained how to pull the PC on their student rigs? The same holds true for goggles or altimeters. If they gave you equipment you could not work with the first time, why would you move forward and jump again under the same conditions? You are the only one who really knows what you are thinking and feeling, and unless you speak up and let your feelings and concerns knows, you cannot expect them to be addressed.
  6. The problem with that idea is that there's nothing in it for the TI. Let's say things to pick up, and you go back to working for full pay, you're still limited to the number of jumps that you as an individual can make. So if the DZ brings in 100 tandems per day, that's neat and all, but you still only get paid for the ones that you actually do, where the DZO gets a piece of all of them. If the DZO wants that reward, then they can take that risk.
  7. Speak to the DZO or head instructor about this. You will do jumps where you work on fall rate, floating and sinking to match the fall rate of the coach, but on all other jumps it's the job of the coach/instructor to match your fall rate. For example, swooping/docking is 100% easier when the target is falling at your 'natural' fall rate, that being the speed you fall when you are in a comfortable arch. You should not be fighting to keep up with your targets fall rate as well as swooping and docking, it's just not fair to you. Work with the staff and find someone who can match your natural fall rate, and then jump with that person as much as possible. Moving forward, being tall and skinny, you will need to take steps to better match the 'average' fall rate at your DZ so you can jump with the other fun jumpers. You can talk to other lightweights, and get some tips on falling faster. You will need a tight, nylon front jumpsuit, and you will probably have to wear weights, however, all of that comes after your primary training. During your AFF and coach jumps, your paid skydiving professional should be working to match you, not the other way around.
  8. Did PD turn around and discontinue the Sabre2? Like many gear purchases, it's not a 'good' deal unless it's the right gear for you, first and foremost. What you're doing is letting the previous owner of your friends rig chose your next canopy, and I can't see how that's a good idea. Wait until you feel ready to downsize, and then demo some different models in that size and see what 'floats your boat', then pick your next canopy yourself.
  9. This is the key (problem) to this whole thing. It's not like wind tunnels are an 'on the shelf' item that they are going to buy and put on a boat. It's going to be built to spec, and because of that things like space, and noise/power requirements are going to be high up on their list when spec-ing out the tunnel. So what you can expect is a smaller, weaker tunnel than experienced jumpers would hope for. All it 'needs' to be able to do is lift some tourist types a few feet off the net in a baggy tunnel suit, and anything more than that is wasted money, space, and excess noise and power requirements. Also, I would be very surprised if they ran it for more than a few hours per day. It's not going to be a 24/7 operation like the 'real' tunnels. It's a neat idea for sure, but look at virtually every other cruise ship activity that has a land based counterpart. They're all 'sea going' versions of the activity, and not quite as good as the 'real thing' based on available space and what the average passenger is going to want/need/enjoy. If you wanted to bowl on a ship, you could, and would have a blast. If you were a pro-bowler looking to fit some training time into your cruise, I'm willing to bet that the lanes on the ship are not going to be up to your standard.
  10. Minor update, the boogie has been renamed as Ta-Ta's and Twins due to the Skyvan having some (major) engine trouble last weekend, so it's been replaced with a Super Otter that will do 3+ loads per hour. Our regular Caravan will be there as well. Everything else stands, including high altitude loads w/ oxygen included (you do need to pre-manifest for those loads). Organizers, food (good food), beer, a kick-ass band on Sat, games, door prizes, and everyone who registers gets a raffle ticket for a jump out of a radial-powered Beech 18.
  11. I had a DZO calculate his cost to run a 182, and he came up with $160/hr, and that was minus the pilot. Keep in mind that was 'cost', so no profit. Also keep in mind that was for jump ops at a DZ, so figure on higher fuel burn than a long ride in cruise to a demo. I would say that 185/hr all-in for a borrowed plane to run a demo is a fair price. I think one of the problems with demos is that some of them are the jumpers idea, not the one running the event and paying the bill. In those cases, the jumpers want the jump to happen for one reason or another, so they're going to do their best to price it so the event can afford it. In cases where the event itself solicits the jumper, you just tell them what it costs (to include a tidy profit for the jumpers) and let them make of it what they will. If they can afford it, the jump is on. If not, you stay the DZ and skydive as usual.
  12. What do you do with your lines when they exit the bottom of the riser trough and come into the main pack tray? What you should do is have them continue straight down in the same direction all the way to the very bottom corner of the pack tray, then make a 90 degree turn in toward the middle of the pack tray, with the left and right ends meeting up in the center. The whole time, the lines are following the seam of the bottom and sides of the pack tray. Once they meet in the center, they join up as 'one' again, and the remainder of the line up to the last stow on the bag can then be coiled up on the floor of the main pack tray. Does that make sense? Here's why I mention this - what you don't want to do is have the lines make a 90 degree turn coming out of the riser trough and meet up in the center of the seam between the bottom of the reserve container and the floor of the main pack tray. The reason is that if the bottom of the reserve container is 'overhung', meaning that it's not a perfectly flat, vertical wall coming up from the floor of the main pack tray, and you run you lines under that overhang, they can get caught under there on the way out and it would feel just like a riser cover not releasing. On side would be free to unstow, and the other would hang up for an undetermined amount of time. Even if you don't deliberately tuck your lines up under there, if you don't deliberately route them straight down to the bottom corner, you stand a chance of them getting hung up. You mentioned a fresh reserve repack and being the only new factor, so your lines might be an area to look into. And yes, you should have enough unstowed, free line to make it all the down to the bottom corner, across to the middle of the container, and then still have a little slack before the last stow on the bag. With regards to your riser covers themselves, I had some hang ups early on with my Infinity (like in the first 20 or 30 jumps), and this was on a Velo loaded up at 2.5 to 1, and I never had any problems with the openings aside from feeling a 'bump' in the process. You describe being hit with the risers in various places, so I'm thinking that you're getting tossed around pretty good before the riser releases, and I just don't think a riser cover would do that. With one riser cover open and one closed, the difference in length is not sufficient to create that type of leverage to move you around that much, especially with a rig that has 140 trouble-free jumps in the bag. Now if one riser (or line group) was hung up under the corner of the reserve container, that another story and a difference between the risers 4 or 5 times greater than a hung riser cover. FYI - tighter line stows will not slow down your opening. If the lines are tight enough that they cannot 'fall' out of the bands, that's good enough. As long as they stay in place long enough to allow proper staging of the deployment, they're doing their job. You're not going to be able to make a rubber tight enough to slow the pilot chute, and even if you did, it's the pack job inside the bag that makes the opening, not the speed at which it get's to line stretch. Note that many manufacturers now offer D-bags with locking stows only, and a pouch to hold the loose, coiled lines that remain. There is zero drag on the PC from the lines as they play out of the pouch, and people report great openings with these bags.
  13. My guess would be that it's the vacation culture in that case. I'm guessing that 95% of their business in HI is people on vacation, and if you have the cash to vacation in HI, you have the cash to tip your TI. Not to mention that people are used to tipping when on vacation between cab drivers, bell hops, waiters, concierge, maids, etc. Here in Ohio, we don't get a big tourist crowd at the DZ. It's pretty clear that some of them emptied their pockets (or close) just to cough up the $200 for the jump, so you might not expect a tip. That's not to say that everyone who tips is Mr. Moneybags, but the typical tipping customer generally appears to be more affluent than less. The amounts match what others are saying. Between $10 and $30 is average, with anything more being the exception.
  14. I gave up ringsights over a decade ago. Really, once I went to a digital video camera with something wider than a .5 lens, it became extra shit I didn't need. When I was shooting an old Hi8 camera with a .5, it was another story. So know I use a mark on my goggles, but I've taken to drawing a square with a Sharpie marker as opposed to a 'dot'. I like being able to look through it, and more or less have it just be very thin fuzzy lines in my sight-line as opposed to something that could block any part of my vision. I actually use those goggles for all my jumps, and I don't even see the 'box' if I'm not looking for it. What everyone is saying about the precision of the ringsight vs a google mark are correct, the ringsight is the way to get it 'perfect'. While the wide angle lenses make up for any slop in the google mark system, I would suggest that if they backed off, say, 30 ft from their subject, and then took some exact measurements of a still frame and really checked to see how 'centered' the subject was, they would find that it was not really in the 'center'. It might be close, but not 'perfect'. HOWEVER, if you're not shooting for those distances, and not doing anything but tandems/students, or low-pressure fun jumps, there's no need for a ringsight. Truth be told, digital photography and photoshop have made it so you can even compensate for centering problems by just getting further back, and than cropping the photo as needed on a bigger RW jumps. Back in the film days, that would be a whole pain in the ass between processing, getting a set of proofs, then working with a lab on cropping, getting more proofs, and then getting enlargements done. Getting the shot centered and the frame filled, like you could do with a ringsight, would cut a bunch of those steps (and cost) from the job, and that was a good thing. Not to mention you would only have, at most, 36 exposures to work with you, so you couldn't just 'spray and pray' when it came to taking stills, each shot was more important in those days. But that was a long time ago.
  15. This should have nothing to do with your decision. Used canopies all cost the same, and you can buy and sell them all day long to make sure you have the canopy/size that is safe and appropriate for you. There have been a bunch of these threads in the last few months, and I'm surprised at the number of people who had enough time and experience in the sport to know the importance of practice and currency who seem to throw that right out the window when they return to the sport. You're not the same jumper you were when you stopped jumping. You're older, possibly fatter, possibly weaker, possibly less flexible, probably less likely to heal fully from injury, and definitely not the canopy pilot you used to be. With all that in mind, everyone looks to their performance on their last day of jumping, when they were the most experienced they had ever been, as the benchmark for moving forward. I know that for me, the end of the season is when I'm at my best. Several hundred jumping in the past 7 months, and I'm as on top of my game as I've ever been. Fast forward through the winter, and I'm pretty far from where I left off. When you operate at a high level, you lose the top end of that pretty fast. Spectre or Katana are nothing alike, and shouldn't be on the same page in any case, unless it's a PD price list. How about do what you know is the 'right' move, and find a used intermediate canopy at a reasonable WL, and get your 'sky legs' back. Put in 50 jumps and blow off some of the rust. Not going to be jumping that much? Feel like 50 jumps will take forever? All the more reason to take it easy with your canopy selection. Think back to your 'old' self, how long did 50 jumps take you then? Probably not that long. What would you have said to a jumper who had 50 jumps on any canopy and felt like they were 'good' on that canopy. Going to be hitting it hard? Good for you, 50 jumps won't take very long, and you'll that much better off.
  16. Take another look, you can see what appears to be a purple collar exactly where a jumpsuit collar should be. You can also what appears to be a bright pink seam running up and down the chest area near the right MLW. Just looks odd to me for sure.
  17. My guess is that it's a rubber band for stowing a static line. What's going on in the jumpsuit dept? Looks like there's something bright pink over the balck/purple jumpsuit. See how you can see the collar of the jumpsuit under the bright pink thing? Is that a weight vest? Worn over top of a jumpsuit? On a student? On anyone for that matter, with handles and the like in the same area?
  18. With only 4 years in the sport, I'm guessing he has no idea what F-111 is really about, nor ever jumped an F-111 canopy.
  19. The scam part, as far as the customer is concerned, is a bait-and-switch deal where photos 'suggest' one experience, but there is always some fine print somewhere explaining that 'your experience may vary depending on location'. Another 'trick' they pull is to charge for things that are generally not an 'upcharge', like a 'big plane fee'. They'll tack on an extra $20 to jump out of a turbine if a DZ has one, as opposed to them rolling out the 182. We all know that the DZ will run the turbine if they have the people to fill it, not based on tandems paying extra. There's a scam aspect that the customer doesn't see, and that's the 'scam' on the DZ. Skyride does little to no advertising outside of internet SEO, so the only people who Skyride gets their hands on are people who are already looking for a DZ. If Bob from Smithtown decides he wants to jump, he could look up Smithtown skydiving and go jump. However, instead he gets the fake Skyride Smithtown website, and books his tandem through them. They do send him to Smithtown skydiving, but only after they take their cut of the profits, so Smithtown Skydiving ends up providing services to Bob from Smithtown at a discounted rate only because Skyride got their hands on Bob before they did. So the real problem is that Bob was already a 'jumper' in that he decided on his own he wanted to jump, and let's say the internet didn't exist, he would have called Smithtown Skydiving and made a jump, no problem. For Skyride to really 'earn' a cut of the profits, it would need to find new customers, like Steve, who also lives in Smithtown but never thought jumping was for him until he saw a great ad that Skyride was running. In that case Skyride had created a new customer, and thus had 'earned' a cut of the profits. So the bigger part of the 'scam' is what Skyride (who is owned and run by jumpers) is doing to the DZs, not to the customers. They essentially 'snare' customers who are already searching for a DZ, and hold them hostage from the local DZs forcing them to service those customers at a discounted rate (tandem price minus the Skyride cut), or they will send them to another local DZ (or in some cases to a DZ 100 miles away). Without Skyride, these DZs would directly service these local customers and keep 100% of the profits, but instead Skyride sticks their nose into the business of local DZs all across the country, and weasels in on their profits.
  20. Given those facts, there's no way the rig can cost $60/jump to maintain. The rig owner in your example certainly isn't giving the use of his rigs away for free, so if he's charging $60/jump, the actual cost has to be something less. The DZO wouldn't take on the acquisition cost of his own tandem rigs if they were going to cost him the same $60/jump he's being charged, it would be like throwing the acquisition cost out of the window. He's buying his own because he can jump them for less than $60/jump.
  21. Currency is a big deal in the AFF progression. Especially in the Cat C/D area, there are some big steps up in skills/learning with each jump, and the currency helps you to retain that. Either way, Cat D can be tough. If you get 'lucky' and your Cat C goes really well, with you holding a heading the whole way down, or your instructors are super 'tight' and don't let your heading wander at all, you end up not having to make any corrections and you go into Cat D having to do controlled turns when you've never done anything but fall straight down. Here's a thought - forget about the turns for now, and plan on the next jump being a Cat C/D. Go out, and make the plan to get relaxed and stable, and hold a nice heading. IF that goes well and you feel great, try a turn. You're certainly not current, and if it didn't go well the last time, you might need a little 'pressure relief', and having the option to just fall stable and relax can have go into the jump with a more positive outlook. Nobody is look for quick, clean or concise on a Cat D. What we're looking for is control. Plan to turn at a slow pace, say 3 to 5 seconds for a 90 degree turn. Keep in mind that you have plenty of working time to do more than enough turns to move to the next level, so shoot for control over speed. That goes for just about every skill on every level of AFF.
  22. Failure and/or loss of control is the obvious. The other thing that is obvious, and I blame the 'Youtube factor' for this one is that the guy was clearly standing too close. Check out the youtube vids of any of the hotshot RC helo guys and it's not uncommon for them to be standing right next to their bird as they do the stunts. It might look cool, but it's just dumb. Those radios have impressive range, and there's nothing to stop these guys from standing back 50 ft and flying from there. Far enough away that you could correct a loss of control, or if you couldn't, the chances are that the helo would hit the ground before it covered the 50ft to 'get' the pilot. It's like anything. You can ride a motorcycle at 100mph all day long on a deserted road, and ride wheelies and be fine. When you do it in traffic, wearing nothing but jeans and a T-shirt, your chances for survival go waaay down.
  23. Here's the problem with your thinking, your reservation about the RSL is that you don't want to dump your reserve right after cutting away from a spinning mal and so what you're doing is building the idea of waiting until you are square and stable to dump your reserve, and this is exactly where people get into trouble. A spinning mal is also a diving mal, and that means you're losing altitude faster than you think. When you combine that with a pre-determined idea that you need to delay and get stable, you're creating a recipe for an incident. The simple fact is that the vast majority of RSL deployments from spinning mals have resulted in no problems what so ever. Let's go back to the first jump course, and review the pull priorities - 1. Pull 2. Pull at the correct altitude 3. Pull while stable In a mal/cutaway situation, the correct altitude is long past, that's where you threw your PC before the mal, so at that point 'pull' comes well before 'stable'. Monkey made a great, succinct point - Would you rather hit the ground with line twists, or with your slider still up?
  24. Unless you weigh 140, it's not the same. A smaller canopy at the same WL will fly and turn faster than a larger one. A 190 at 1.0wl is much different than a 150 at 1.0wl. Even if you weigh 140, you are two different people. You might be a far more talented canopy pilot than your GF turns out to be. The best advice for this whole situation is to step back and just let it progress naturally. She needs to start jumping and keep jumping on her own terms, and at her own pace. You can be there to support her, and share in her experiences, but always from one step behind letting her take the lead on all of 'her' decisions. It's a tough spot for you as her 'experienced' skydiver BF, and it will take a deliberate effort to keep yourself one step behind the process, but it is up to you to realize the influence that you could (and probably do) have over her, and especially her jumping, and make the effort to let her 'find her own way' (which is not to say she's going to be alone, she'll have the same oversight from instructors that everyone else has, but it just needs to be limited to them and her when it comes to the why and how she's going to become a jumper). Just make sure she knows that she can quit jumping at any time and that it's 100% OK with you. Lot's people tell me that they could 'never' jump, even a tandem, and the reply I've used for years with these people is simply, 'I understand, skydiving isn't for everyone'. They're not bad or inferior people, they're just not 'wired' for skydiving, and that's OK.
  25. A line check is part of a pack job, and the packer should be doing one every time. The other stuff (brakes/slider/PC) are nice, but also part of a pack job and no packer should be closing a rig without those things being done or checked. Now if you drop your rig off with nothing done and all twisted up, you're not going to popular with the packers, and you'[re rig will get packed past every time, but all of those things must be done 100%, and 100% of the time. As far as you're concerned, get an RSL. Your rig is open, and now is a great time to have one installed. This time you had the altitude for what you thought was a 'short' delay, and while it was short, note how quickly you drop away from the main. You may want that extra altitude one day, and an RSL will most likely give that to you.