davelepka

Sure, and how much do you stand to make off that investment in comparison to a guy who's just going to show up and do some work jumps? Based on what a guy could make in a season, his risks are no students, no weather, no airplanes, no rigs, all of these things are out of his control, and have the ability to 'zero' his income. With that in mind, he's taking a significant risk in relocating for work, and I don't think it's inappropriate to expect something for that risk. Case in point - you stated lawyer fees in your rundown of expesnes, what does your lawyer do for you? Make sure contracts are square? Make sure your waiver is sound? Make sure your interests are protected? Of course, because you're making an investment, and you're looking to guarantee is as much as possible. There's always risk when investing in anything, and the prudent businessman will do everything they can to limit that risk as much as possible. Let's say you're leasing your land for your airport, I'm sure you have a written lease with ALL the details spelled out. Even if your landlord is a great guy, you need to know that you have legal right to that land for 'x' number of years before you spend a dime on improvements. So let's get back to our travelling instructor. He's taking a risk in coming to a DZ to work. Nobody knows how much work there will be, or how much of the available work he'll end up getting. The risk he takes is that he's going to station himself there, and possibly give up the chance to be at a DZ where he could be making more money. That's the risk. Something like moving expenses is a risk that could be limited by getting the DZO to kick in for them. If they're paid out over the course of the contract period (like I said, $100/month for 5 months, or whatever), it provs that the DZO is 'real' about wanting to employ the guy and it makes the instructor hang-out and be there for the full 'contract' period in order to collect all the reimbursement. I know it's not the way it's done in this industry, what I'm saying is that based on my business experience outside of the industry, that's what I would be looking for before 'betting it all' and moving to a new situation for a season.

I was there, but have no recollection if I posted anything or not, or what name I would have used (if it wasn't 'davelepka'). I don't even really remember anyone or anything much, but I feel like there was a connection to some sort of comical online skydiving magazine, like 'The Onion', and that was pretty funny. They did this spoof on Olav and his 'Atmospheric Dolphin' rating, and they called it the 'Atmospheric Golphin', and somebody photoshopped a golf club into his hand in a freefling picture. It was funny enough that it's the only thing I remember from there. My best guess is that it was 1999 or 2000.

Just to play devil's advocate, read the 'regular' employment classifieds (as in non-skydiving jobs) and you see the same thing. "Make xx dollars per week!" or "Unlimited earning potential!". Everyone is going to talk up their gig to get bodies in the door. Really 'busy' DZs generally have a crop of up-and-comers to fill out the staff. Even if they don't, places that are known to be busy will always have phone calls/emails/ pop-in's from jumpers looking for work. Think about it, it's rare to see SDAZ or Perris advertising in the classifieds. People know it's a 'hub' of activity, and just show up on their own, no ad required. Truthfully, if I was going to move somewhere for a gig, I'd be looking for a contract and some sort of moving expenses. Even if they were paid out over time, say an extra $100/month for 5 months, or similar, I don't see why the employee should be the only one taking a chance on the deal. If the DZO needs the help and values his employees, it's not asking much and a real sign of 'good faith' on their part.

I don't think we were watching the same video. What I saw was a guy taking too deep, and panic flare/stabbing out of every lading, to the point of popping up on most landings.

No, because any dick with time and money can get into frequent flyer programs or get a balck or titainium AMEX. PD knows better than most that the pilot needs to match the wing, or neither will get very far. Unless you can fly the shit out of a Comp Velo, why even bother with anything faster? As far as the 'return on investment' of the Comp Velo, I doubt that they're trying to funnel customers into that wing to get their money back. For starters, it's just a modded Velo, and that canopy has been around for better than a decade, and is easily the most popular X-braced canopy out there. I'm quite sure they get their money back on that one. The other issue is that the Comp Velo itself is also an 'elitist' canopy, in that very few people are actually qualifed to fly it. If you're a Comp Velo caliber pilot, you don't need PD to try and funnel you in that direction, you'll end up there on your own. Personally, I love and hate the marketing position. Build it to sub-terminal standards, and you ensure that it's a swoop-only wing. Just like RDS and just like the Comp Velo, if you make anything that can survive terminal, somebody somewhere is going to use for everyday jumping, no matter what you tell them. Build it so it won't survive, and then they'll listen. The deal with it being 'invitation only', is great in principal that it really forces the pilots to 'put up or shut-up', but total shit in reality because it means that I end up having to 'shut up'. Despite 16 years of flying high-preformance PD canopies, almost none of it involved competition (there were no comps for a bunch of those years), and so I off 'the list' for anyone who will be flying one of these beasts anytime soon. Do I think I'm ready to step up and fly the thing in competition beyond Comp Velo standards? Not really. Do I think I'm qualifed to take it out and safely uncork the thing to see what it can do? Sure, but if the deal is that I have to wait for PD to call me, I'm not going to hold my breath. I'm pretty sure they're going to email me soon, but just to tell me my reline is done.

Whatever you excuse is, you didn't get any sort of training or coaching, and at 100 jumps you made an aggressive down size (skipping right over the 135/139/150 size canopies) and started high performance landings, practically from the first jump on the wing (as shown in your video). Then you took that wing to new-to-you, busy DZs, and proceeded to fly recklessly through traffic over, and over, and over again. I'm not sure how calling you out on that is 'jumping to conclusions'. You knew exactly what you were doing, and you thought you were hot shit because of it. Meanwhile, you can see you whizzing past canopy after canopy in the pattern all throughout your video.

Keep in mind that there's another factor to consider, that being the distraction of the display itself. If you're looking at the display, let's say under canopy, and someone is coming at your from your new 'blind spot', you'll never see them until they hit you. Let's not forget the other aspect, that being the disctraction from everything else considering your jump. Similar to a camera, it adds another piece of gear to your gear checks and another thing on your mind besides making a safe skydive. I can see the benefit to an experienced wingsuiter looking to maximize their flight performance, but outside of that, I'm not sure it would win the risk/benefit analysis for a 'regular' jump, or even for a wingsuiter without a lot of wingsuit jumps.

I'm not sure what you're trying to suggest about that video, but I hope you understand it's a far stretch from what you posted. I see some fairly consistant flying, where the pilot appears to be in control during all phases of the landing. I cannot say the same for the video you posted. It was scary and wrong in many different ways. Unless you've been living under a rock, there's no way you thought that what you were doing was a 'good' idea, or anyting close to what is normally considered 'accpetable' or 'prudent'. Truth is, based on the type of flying you were trying to do, it shows that you have indeed not been linving under a rock. You're clearly not some uninformed newbie from an old-shcool, backwwods DZ where they just don't know any better, you're tuned in to 'modern' skydiving, and you willfully chose to embrace the parts that you thought were 'cool', and ignore anything you thought was going to get in your way, such as common sense or any sort of reasonable progression or adavanced training. 'I hope I can get enough interest to get a class together and bring Brian Germain to Seattle'. Sure, but you clearly had the time and money buy a fast canopy and to take yourself to several Florida DZs for a good deal of fun jumping. None of that time or money went toward any sort of coaching or canopy control class. Put the cart before the horse much? Some might applaud you for coming forward after your video went 'viral'. I maintain that you're the same douche who made the video, and the constant and repeated bad decisions that went into making it.

This is the classic problem with people doing things completely wrong, but not getting hurt and therefore walking away under the impression they're doing it right. I'm not talking about the big downsize, the poor canopy selection or the high WL for his jump numbers, just the way he flies. Not even the poor traffic management and lack of a pattern, just look at his hand movements when he flares, every one is a 'panic flare' way down to 3/4 brakes, then a pop-up and shit landing. Again, because he's walking away, he thinks he's doing it right. One thing that the newbies don't seem to realize is that no amount of 'gear' is going to make you look like anything but a newbie. You'll see them buy smaller rigs, smaller canopies, fancier helmets and jumpsuits, and then strut around the DZ like a horny rooster. However, the moment they leave the plane, they're the same newbie they were the week before, this time just dressed up like a more experienced jumpers. The point is that it shows. Your lack of experience and skill shows through no matter what you jump. When you push too hard and jump the wrong stuff, you end up looking worse, not better. Before you were the new guy, and performed like the new guy, nothing wrong with that. Now you look like the new guy who's in way over his head. Anyway, the guys name in the comments, and it seems like he's from the Seattle area, maybe Shelton. Hey Shelton jumpers, watch you backs under canopy.

Not really. Talking to what is essentially a 'whuffo', I thought it was simple enough to explain it as 'deploying the reserve for you', even if we know that the AAD just cuts the closing loop. Let's face it, even if the literal function of the AAD is to cut the closing loop, the intention of the device is to deploy the reserve parachute, so when explaining it's purpose to a whuffo, that's what I'll go with.

Yeah, 10,000 jumps between us, a pile of ratings, world records, medals....hell, even you might be able to learn something.

Getting in to specifics now is a huge waste of time. Here are some ball park figures for 'planning ahead'. Figure on $2000 to $2500 to get an A license. That's 25 jumps, all the instruction, coaching and gear rental included. That will make you a 'skydiver'. A used rig will run you between $2500 and $4500, depending on what you want. That does not include an AAD (Automatic Activation Device), which is the computer that will deploy your reserve for you (more or less) if you get too low. Add in another $1200 for an AAD. Assorted accesories like a jumpsuit, helmet, goggles and altimeter will run you between $400 and $1000, again depending on what you want. You will learn a ton about gear and skydiving in general as you earn your A license. I would suggest focusing on that goal to begin with, and then formulate a plan for buying gear when you're most of the way through with your training. In terms of saving, come up with as much money as you can, no joke. Even if you save enough for your license, a rig with an AAD, and all the goodies to go with it, you still need to pay for jumps. Once you have all your own stuff and a license, jumps will run you about $25 each. It's not uncommon to make 4, 5 or 6 jumps in a day, and it's also not uncommon to jump both Sat and Sun every week. Add it up, $125/day for 6 or 7 days per month, it's in the area of $700 to $800 month on jumps alone. You don't have to jump that much, but you'll want to. There's a joke about how much skydiving costs, and the punch line is something like 'everything you have right now, and 50% of every paycheck for the rest of your life'. It's not far from the truth.

Become a good skydiver, then it's just a matter of learning to frame-up good looking shots (and remembering to turn your cameras on). The basics would be to learn good RW skills. You have to be able to stay with whatever you're filming, so being 'relative' is the key. If you can do good RW, that means you can stay with stuff. It also doesn't hurt to get your canopy control skills down. You may find that the sopt/opening altitude are sometimes not always within your control (to a point), so being able to get home or land off with no problem can be a plus. More or less, forget about flying camera until you're within 'striking distance' of actually doing it. USPA says 200 jumps, so get yourself to 180, and then look into picking up a camera and talk to the local camera guys about some tips for getting started. Too much planning ahead before then is probably a waste of time, time you could spend just becoming a better overall skydiver. Once you have some 'fun' camera jumps under your belt, it's up to the DZ how you go about getting on the staff. Each one will have different requirements, just ask what the deal is and get to work.

You're making the classic mistake that many new guys make. Look at it this way, you have 'some' success with a 190, but you want to make a major investment in a rig with a 170 main and a 160 reserve, two canopies you are not yet qualified to jump. If the winter has been such that you can't even remember the model of 190 you used, what do you think it has done to your piloting skills? Buy a used rig. One that will hold a 190 main and 190 reserve. Buy a 190 main and a 190 reserve (both used). New Cypres (good choice). Jump said rig until you are ready to jump a 170, then used said rig to demo several 170 mains. Buy the one you like best (used). Sell the 190 main to cover the cost of the 170. Bonus - your rig just got easier to pack. Get to 200 jumps, and buy an entry level wingsuit. Take a first flight course, and get started wingsuiting. Work through 100 or 200 wingsuit jumps, and get yourself to the point where you are ready for a top-line wingsuit. NOW go apeshit and buy all-new matching gear. This plan might take you 2 or 3 years, and who knows what new suits/containers/canopies will be out then? Nobody right now, but if you follow your plan, you're going to try to buy something now that will work for you several years down the road. Even leaving out the idea that you want to buy gear sized for canopies that you're not ready to jump, it just doesn't make sense in terms of your only 'reason'. Just buy gear that you can jump today, jump it until your skills are such that you can jump something else, and then buy that. Don't put the cart before the horse. Buy an inexpensive used rig and use the money on more jumps, canopy control courses, and more jumps.

That's absurd. The cost to bring one of them to life, and then to keep it airworthy is still going to be enough to limit the ownership to the very rich and very dedicated. I would guess that some of the current owners will just want to double up anyway, to have a back-up plane, and I can't see any of the new owners being willing to sell for a dime less than the current market value, so I would suggest that the pricing should remain quite stable. Supply and demand only applies to 'most' things. Antique aircraft, let alone legendary warbirds are not most things. Imagine if a collection of 100 previously unknown Picassos was discovered in a private vault, do you think the value of his other works would take a hit?

Send a PM to 'likestojump' on this site. His name is Paul, and he deals in used gear. He's got a great reputation (do a search for his user name), and does a good portion of his dealing internationally, so shipping and money transfers across the Pacific are nothing new to him.

A couple of general comments - I'm pretty sure that 88kgs is 194lbs, so you're more like 215lbs out the door. At that weight, a 175 reserve might be on the smaller side for a first rig. Truthfully, the 190 main might be 'borderline' too small, but just maybe. The 175 is a mistake. Another mistake is trying to buy gear for some time in the future. Buy what you can safely jump today, then outgrow it, then buy something smaller. By that method, you'll start off 'safe' and only get 'safer' as your skills improve. Then you can downsize to another 'safe' size, and begin the process over again. Doing it the other way means you start off 'unsafe', and then you just hope that your skills will improve to meet the gear you have chosen. This is why I suggest used gear for a frist (and second rig). You can buy and sell that stuff generally without putting out too much additional cash (after you buy the first one), and so you're less tempted to overstuff a rig, or under-size a reserve. None of this is mentioning the huge pile of cash you'll save buying used. Spend the money on jumps, canopy courses, and more jumps. Those things will be far more valuable in the long run than a brand-new anything today. Solid, airworthy used gear will do the same job as the new stuff, and leave you way more dough for jumps.

I don't see how one has to be mutually exclusive to the other. Are there questions you should ask your intsructor over and above the opinion of those on the internet? Yes. Are there things that are so highly improbable that regardless of how well someone knows you or your skydiving ability nobody can give you an answer with any realistic degree of certainty? Yes. Those are two seperate things. An instructor who has worked with you would be the best source of information with regards to skydiving decision making within the confines of common sense. Regardless of who your instructor is, that cannot tell that it will be OK to turn off your AAD and open your main at 600ft on your next jump. You may have had a clean, trouble-free pull sequence for your last 38 jumps, and the rig you're jumping might have opened clean in far less than 600 ft for the last 38 jummps, but regardless of those facts, no instructor has the foresight to be able to reliably forecest your future performance (or that of your equipment) when your life may depend on their choice.

Most DZs do require a deposit, and it's generally non-refundable in the case of a no-show. However, the only reason I bring it up is because they may end up having extra staff on hand to be able to accomodate your group, and those deposits generally don't make their way to the staff in the case of no-shows. Instructors get paid per-jump, and that's all. Also, it's harder than you think to organoze a group of people to go skydiving. It's fairly common for a reservation for 4 or 5 people to end up being 2 or 3 who actualyl show up. There are a million reasons why the others didn't make it, but regardless, it happens. On an average day, when the DZ can run (and staff itself) as usual, and they can schedule things and manifest things in the most efficient way possible, that's one thing. If you call ahead and make special arrangements for them to do otherwise, and then you have a couple of no-shows, it's just a waste of time (and money) for some of the staff people. I'm not sugggesting that you'll have any of these problems, I'm just pointing out some additional considerations to keep in mind when you do go to schedule the jumps. That said, get video. Outside video or hand-cam, and see if the DZ can edit it all together into one presentation, and just make 6 copies (one for each of you).

Jumping on the same load simply requires a big enough airplane, and enough instructors and rigs. If all of those things are in place, it's not a big deal. That said, do call ahead to the DZ and make the arrangements over the phone with a live person. Let them know the exact number of people who will be jumping, and if all or any of them will want outside video (which requires another person/space in the plane per person). It can be done, given that you plan ahead accordingly. If the DZ has notice, they can be sure to have sufficient staff on hand to make it happen. That said, it's just as important that you and your group show up, on time, and with everyone present. The DZ will be putting effort into being ready and able to handle your needs, and the participants need to do likewise. Make sure all in your group are 100% serious about showing up and making a jump, and make sure everyone knows that the agreed upon time is an 'appointment', and not an 'estimated time or arrival'.

Buy an RW suit. The fall range of RW is fairly narrow incomarison to freefly, and being a bigger guy, a suit will really help you to be comfortable when jumping with more average sized jumpers. Additionally, you 'need' grippers to do RW (you don't really, but it does make it way easier for who you're jumping with). Freefly is a little more 'loose' in its requirements. When you start out, you'll either be doing solos or jumping with a more experienced freeflyer, so the speed you fall is of little concern. You can send quite a bit of time practicing before you're ready to freefly with a wide range of people and might need the suit to slow you down. In the beginning you can get by with some cover-alls or jeans and a long sleeve T shirt (in that case, find a shirt that is long on you and tuck it way into your pants so it doesn't come out in freefall). FliteSuit or Bev are both good choices. They make nice suits that will last for a long time.

I doubt that's the reason it didn't work. Unions are for people who hate their job. They'll strike because they don't care about building cars or houses or whatever. The job sucks and the money is the only reason to be there. None of them would mind losing their job as long as they could make the same money doing something else. Skydiving instructors are different. They want to do that one specific job, and the money is a secondary benefit. Yes, you need the money to live, but if someone offered you a different job making the same (little) money, you wouldn't do it because then you wouldn't be jumping. It's not tough to make the same amount of money as a skydiving instructor working outside of the DZ. In fact, you can actually make steady money, with benefits, and maybe even a 410K. The reason that instructors don't just get those jobs is that they want to jump, and that puts a damper on your ability to negotiate the working conditions. You want to jump, and if you don't to the point that you're willing to go on strike and risk losing the job in the sky, there are others out there who do want to jump. Supply and demand, plain and simple.

No, you're blinding them, just like you would be doing with the same vehicle in the US. The headlights are aimed from the factory so the point down toward the road in front of the car. This allows you to see the road, and oncoming drivers are not looking directly into your lights. The 'high' beams are just that, aimed higher to light up a bigger portion of the road in frony of you. Great for you, bad for oncoming drivers who are now looking directly into your lights. When you change the height of your truck, like with a lift, you raise the aim of all the lights. So now your normal lights are aimed high enough to shine in other drivers eyes (or the rearview mirror of drivers in front of you). Adjust your lights. It should have been part of installing the lift kit.

While it may be possible, the harness was not designed to work that way. It would require modification and/or an unusual fitment for it to work. Tandem was designed as a training tool, to allow students to make a skydive with an instructor present for the entire jump. Due to that, the student faces forward as if they were in a stable arched position. No offence, but just go make a jump. The range of people who have done tandems spans every type of person you could imagine. From 5 yrs old to 95 yrs (maybe older), people with every physical disabaility you could imagine, to include a guy with no arms and no legs. Just go to the DZ, and make a regular tandem jump, like everyone else. Maybe you like it and want to jump again, maybe you're terrified and you vow to never leave the ground again after you land. In either case, you did it, and you can still post here and tell us all about it.

Don't attempt to dive this plan, and then you won't have to worry about making changes 'on the fly'. The rule of thumb is to limit the number of 'new' things on any given skydive. New people to you and new people to the sky are each one 'new' thing. One of each might be too much, multiples of each is clearly too much. That said, I would be weary of chaning the plan mid-dive like that when dealing with new jumpers. They are apt to be anywhere at anytime, and not always by choice. If you're someplace that they're not expecting you to be, that can turn into a problem. On virtually any tracking dive, there is a chance you will land off. If the weather conditions, time of day, or your own personal skills or comfort level make that a bad idea, then don't go on a tracking dive. Wait for a better day, or until you are more comfortable with your canopy/canopy control skills that an off landing is not a reason for you to switch up the plan mid-jump.