dks13827

I downloaded the PC manual.... the author notes that test jumpers with intentionally packed streamers took 1200 feet to cutaway ( with capewells ) and get the reserve out ( and they knew they were going to have a streamer ! ). Obviously a real streamer if you pulled at 2K would be very interesting, to say the least.

Well tell us the good story about that early pig rig !! BTW, graduating to a paracommander was a terrific thing...... para-planes.... not that great.. strato stars = divine !!!! And they didnt even try to kill you, either.

Some very good jumpers with PUD's, gloves, twisted harnesses, shoulder separations and so on would likely still be here if they had used an AAD. Not saying to make anything mandatory.

I think the comment that some whuffo would jump off something with a garage sale parachute was kind of a joke !!!

So that's a hand deploy reserve with a pilot chute ? Things have changed since 30 years ago I guess.

hey Law... I was in college during most of Apollo,,it was great. I thought there was at least a chance I might get into space one day ( now, my college jump buddy did get a science seat on sts73... wow ) but it was not to be for me. so i thought.. i can ride the concorde anyway !!! not to be !!! things arent that great now.. but i hope you and your kids might get the chance... I hope !! dave phoenix C9293

Even with 2 accidents it was a wonderful machine..... never to be duplicated, sadly. IMO Watch the last lauch and landing if you can, so you dont forget what it was like.

It is best done in a Cessna with the door closed and you are pretending to doze off. The first guy it hits will snap wide awake and look accusingly around the plane, trying to determine the guilty person. However, we never did it when a female jumper was on the load. ( ok, I lied !!! ) ( we would laugh so hard that our sides hurt !! ) The 'D' licensed lady who jumped the most with us said so herself... her husband almost took out an entire DC-3 load !!!!

I watched your level 6 and it was outstanding !

Take it up to 14.5 ... dive out and stand on your head for 30 to 40 seconds or so.. then pull !!! Best way to test it that I can come up with !!!

I think I will get one of those red paint bombs that Banks use inside of cash bags.... the look on the skydiving thief's face will be................ PRICELESS !!!!

hate to say this but in 95% of the tandem videos I have seen the video guys dump right below the tandem........... with no horizontal separation. Maybe we have just been lucky on this.

' someone besides the rigger might have messed with it . " well was the rigger seal in place ? Also, I always find it really disturbing when I hear of anyone not maintaining tandem gear just as well as can be done. 2 lives, the student trusting the TM and the TM trusting the DZO and rigger. Poor maintenance has for sure caused too many tandem fatalities !! ( seems to have been much improved the last few years ).

I was like you, cause Annette really had a pair !

Hates lawsuits ?? Everyone hates 'frivolous' lawsuits. The Skydive AZ case is not that, IMO. I rate this incident as 99 percent the jumper's fault and 1 percent the rigger, just my view. Zero to the AAD maker. Too bad the jumper's family, when they smell the MONEY, will see things the way they want to see it. I recall from my one Law class I took there is a phrase, Last Clear Chance. If a kids runs in front of your car and you are shown to have not been paying attention, you are partially responsible for the incident. But not totally, the rigger is in no way totally responsible for this incident.

I have watched Bill Booth's comments several times since he made them at PIA and I had the distinct impression from day one that he is genuinely trying to prevent avoidable fatalities where just a little more time / altitude means survival.

for those who remember, or are interested.

I actually subscribed to Lyle Cameron's SKYDIVER magazine in 1961 or 62... I was still in grade school !!!!

In my flying club we had a Cessna T210. a guy joined the club just to get this 6 seat airplane to fly his friends from Phoenix to Laughlin, NV. He got checked out okay. The club owner told him NOT TO ARRIVE IN THE DARK at Laughlin, NV The guy did. They hit the powerlines. 6 dead. They sued the hell out of our club and said we wanted the guy to fly a bigger plane so we could make more money !! They won !! several million !!! The insurance company said.. no more neat, cool airplanes for your club !!!

look what NBC did to our Pledge of Allegiance

Back in the day AAD's were not common. Every year there were always several cutaways with no reserve pull that none of us could ever understand. Even highly experienced jumpers sometimes did that. Now I have seen the recent videos of jumpers in distress who wait for the AAD to save them, which fortunately did occur in the videos we have seen. There must be something to this... something that causes a complete freeze up of a person... maybe it is just plain old brainlock. IMO AAD's are clearly saving a lot of people's lives and the Indonesian accident could have had a much better ending if AAD's had been in use.

Style champ Doug Metcalf was in the super pro ad photos and all looked neat. Stylemaster contains, as I recall, were more squared off and boxy looking.

I've heard a few people say that. I have a hard time believing that g-forces can be accelerated high enough under canopy, as to not allow the average jumper to lift (or especially) flex their arms enough to reach their cutaway. Until I see or read proof... I call BS. Read between the lines on some fatality reports, some jumpers are blacking out before they can cutaway !!! That's what I think.... maybe it is not proven. Ask Ted Strong or Brian Germaine, though.. they have been there !!!

Totally agree ! I had a total on jump 15 and by golly I pulled that reserve right now !!! ( had a Sentinel on ). My T-10 then came out hanging below me and I chopped it immediately. My 2 cents. That is actually not too bad, 2 rounds out, no downplane !! ha ha. I saw a student with 2 rounds out ( totally stable situation ) and everyone screamed to chop the main. He did, and his 24 foot non steerable proceeded to oscillate him very hard into the ground.. no broken bones, fortunately.

Totally agree ! I had a total on jump 15 and by golly I pulled that reserve right now !!! ( had a Sentinel on ). My T-10 then came out hanging below me and I chopped it immediately. My 2 cents.