lanceav8r

Way too much ego and bullshit going on in this thread. Why don’t you guys actually try and help each other instead of this crap?Quote

An LLC will not shield you from liability as an instructor. The party suing will file against both the LLC and also file against you personally. Also the employment board will see through this ploy. This is an uninformed DZO.

Take a day trip to Mexico. Renews your visa for another 3 months I think. Or better yet drive down to Puerto Nuevo and have a lobster dinner. Make sure to hit Skydive San Diego and Tsunami Skydivers in Oceanside California. Rich at Tsunami Skydivers will probably be doing beach jumps around the 4th of July. Skydiving on the beach in San Diego. Doesn't get better than that.

Notice that the JM correctly says to not open the door below 1,500'. The sign in the airplane says 1,000'. The difference is important.  when opening the door of an aircraft during flight and while in the activation zone (below 500 m or 1.640 ft), it should be verified if there are any Vigils on board set in Student Mode. Certain aircrafts can create a pressure spike that can activate a Vigil AAD when it’s set in Student Mode.

DZ.com is full of these cashiers check scammers. DO NOT ACCEPT A CHECK of any kind.

The sky just cleared at my house which means the sky over Oceanside is about to open up. Heading out to Tsunami Skydivers Oceanside for my first jump of the day.

I will see you guys on Sunday. Very sad to hear. Strange, I remember being on a load with Adam, Dan and John O. A long time ago.

The jet is not Airworthy and likely won't be due to a cost prohibitive AD.

Send your post to your friend. Talk to him and try to share your concerns. There are some people that you just cannot teach and your friend may or may not be one but you should still try. If that doesn't work talk to his local S&TA and have him talk to your friend. The culture of skydiving has changed for the worse and our losses will accelerate if something doesn't change. Skydiving is very similar to motorcycle riding. Hi speed motorcycles and immaturity will nearly always end in injury or death. Skydiving with head down flying and swooping is the same.

I just want to throw something out. Aviation worldwide with the exception of China and a couple of other places have standardized on using Knots. When talking about wind we should only use the international aviation standard of Knots. If asking someone on the ground what the wind is and they reply "10 out of the north". We should not have to question what is it that they mean. 10 knots, 10 miles per hour, 10 meters per second????????

I am going to respectfully disagree with this. If the FAA TSO'd parachute is certified up to a maximum gross weight than you cannot legally jump it above that weight. This is no different than flying an airplane over a certified max gross weight. This is not a manufacturers recommendation, it is a certification limit. However the reality is that the FAA could care less what you do. Their view is your an idiot for jumping in the first place. What makes this even more interesting is he is totally wrong about FAA Regulations and American law. It has been covered in many threads, but there is absolutely nothing in the FAR's that pertains to exit weight and/or reserve wing loading. There is nothing in the FAR's that says you must follow manufacturers recommendations regarding wing loading. There is nothing in Sec. 91.13 — Careless or reckless operation that applies to operations of parachutes. In the USA you can have an exit weight of 500 lbs and jump any TSO'd reserve and not be violating any laws or regulations. No rigger will get in trouble and no pilot will lose their ticket. It is a bad idea to overload a reserve, but it is 'legal' to do so.

Try and touch any of my handles! You can teach the guy what he did wrong, you can try and mentor him and your DZO or Safety Officer may even have to ground him if he doesn't respond. But if you touch his handles...well that actually could be a really good way to get your ass kicked. Tampering with someones gear is no small issue. Grow up and handle issues like this professionally or find another sport. Maybe surfing or something. That sport likes to handle disagreements this way. I agree. However if one insists on pulling a handle on a rig, pull the cutaway and then don't give it back until the grounding is over or ship it to where they live if the grounding is permanent. This gives them the option of unpacking and rehooking up their main or paying someone to do it versus making them pay to get their reserve repacked.

I believe the usual ways to break your neck are: Head, forward (Hyper Flexion) Head, backward (Hyper Extension) Head, sideways (Lateral Hyper Flexion) Spinal column compression (Axial loading, due to the effect of vertical force on the helmet) Head/helmet, backward on the neck (Posterior Hyper Translation) I don't see how or why a full face helmet, especially the skydiving type would increase the risk to any of these injuries. I am thinking that maybe what you heard was the helmet could give a greater arm to twist your head or something. I don't think that is a typical cause of injury. But what do I know? I am just a pilot.

I am not referring to anyone in particular. The tone of the thread from more than a few is anti-helmet or "my decorative CF hat is just fine". I am not attacking anyone for their views. Hopefully a healthy discussion is a result of this thread and maybe a seed could be planted. I really would like to see helmets in this sport go from fashion helmets to protective helmets. We need to stop hurting or killing the participants in skydiving. Our sport seems to be dying a slow death since the mid 90's peak. The economy is largely to blame but the amount of injuries and deaths sure isn't helping things.

This thread is killing me. If you honestly think that a helmet is not necessary in this sport then feel free to go and get your brain damage. The reality is this: Your brain is responsible for everything that makes you who you are. It causes you to breath, it causes you to think, it causes you to walk, it causes you to feel emotion, etc. and it is fragile to the extreme. If you don't want to protect that then who am I to call you an idiot? It is your choice and your brain damage. If anyone cares to attack MY experience, I have a couple of thousand jumps from a while back. I am NOT current but getting current again. I have medals in US National 4 and 8 way open in formation skydiving. I also raced motocross for many years with a broken femur and a helicopter ride to prove it. I have broken more bones than likely anyone here HOWEVER my brain is just fine. It is ok ONLY because I was always wearing a high quality helmet. I have had several concussions while wearing those helmets. I can only imagine how I would have faired if I were wearing the skydiving carbon fiber decorative hat. After removing myself from this sport so I could pursue a real career and then recently returning, I seem to want to actually pay attention to little things like staying alive and healthy. Call that age or just plain getting smarter. A real helmet would make me feel a whole hell of a lot better about the staying alive and healthy. If I hammer in because of a dust devil, stupid canopy tricks, turbulence or whatever, I know I can survive another broken femur or whatever but only if my brain is not damaged or destroyed. If we can figure out some REAL protection I truly think this will benefit our sport. Yesterday I put on my motocross helmet while wearing my rig. I can see all of my handles just fine. Also my peripheral vision is virtually NOT affected. The only thing I see is that due to it's larger size it could possibly interfere slightly with the risers while under canopy. So I agree that a motocross/supermoto style helmet is not ideal but it is a starting point. If you are worried about the weight...Have you ever seen what Norm Kent or Tom Sanders jump with? Way back in the early 2000's, when many of you were in Junior High School, camera jumpers had to be real men. We didn't have these little baby cameras. We jumped big assed helmets with big assed cameras. We were fine and rarely did we run over each other under canopy. Some of the reasons a few of you have voiced against real helmets are complete nonsense. Are you guys afraid someone is going to force you to wear a real helmet some day? Well that would be the shits wouldn't it. Maybe you should protest the helmet laws with Gary Busey. Oh wait. Garry isn't against helmet laws anymore since his TBI while not wearing a helmet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Busey Then someone attacks the low experienced jumper when he is obviously making good points. Sometimes people can't see things because they are too close. Maybe just maybe someone that has stepped back or someone that hasn't had the same experience that you have can offer something intelligent to the discussion. Maybe they can see things that you can't because you are so close. Don't attack an intelligent response because his jump number is not as high as yours. It is your choice to not ask for a better helmet. You should honestly ask yourself why you wouldn't want one. If it is just your own protest against the establishment then pick something that won't end in your own Dame Bramage. Just my two cents, nothing more.

Bullshit. What is the difference between a packing weight, temporary pin, or a cleenex left in the rig. The problem is all the same. The rigger wasn't doing his job properly. The jumper NEEDS to know this. It is his life. Give him the information and let him make his own decisions.

I don't think anyone needs to read between the lines. There is no shot across the bow needed. Our brothers are dying as a result of canopy collisions. Do we really need to be told to fix this? The FAA does not have the resources or will to intervene. They are asking us to clean up our house. We have to do this ourselves. It won't take the FAA's intervention to kill this sport. We can do it all ourselves. I know of one DZO that is losing their passion due to the shear amount of deaths and injuries at their dropzone.

I really don't know. It wasn't on my radar to investigate those. I don't know if the USPA even kept statistics that would look at it. These are all good things to look at.

I jumped a custom made camera helmet for many of those jumps that would do nothing if not make an injury worse. I used a frap hat for most of the rest which is also useless. I am a little smarter now and realize after loosing lets say 100 or so friends and acquaintances over the last twenty years due to various reasons in this sport that I am not bulletproof. I just started thinking maybe there are ways to mitigate some of these risks. Trust me that I am looking for something that works. I really don't care if I look like Lord Helmet or Major Asshole as long as it works and is safe to use. I am sure I would look a whole lot less cool if all I could do is drool on myself. Are we as a group really as safety adverse as this group sounds? Personally I would rather live to jump another day.

These are all very good points. The last thing we need is conscious people running in to each other under canopy. I really don't think that with a helmet similar to the Arai XD that is made for the skydiving market would be much of an issue though. The line twist thing might be something to really think about though. As far as vision? Well that is the argument that has been made about helmets in general but let me tell you that it is largely false. Watch a motocross race some time and tell me that these guys can't see. Maybe we should learn to look around (with or without a helmet). As far as the Arai type helmet. I will do a little research.

You may be correct but that is just out of shear ignorance. We pay $1,500 dollars for an AAD to open your parachute if you lose consciousness. Wouldn't it be better to NOT lose consciousness in the first place? Some of you kids may not remember a time that AAD's were frowned upon and not allowed on experienced jumps. That was the case until someone came up with a better design, educated the public and made them available to the masses. Airtec claims they have sold 150,000 units with 2,000 saves. I would guess that there is a market if someone could come up with a suitable solution. I would. I think there are some on the market, and I jump them. I just think that the economics of a certification don't work. No one is going to pay $500 + for a skydiving helmet. Examples of helmets that do what you like include: ProTec SkySystem's Benny Cookie's 3DO Liners.

Sorry that was a typo. I am NOT saying that a SNELL or DOT rating should be required. The mechanism of injury are not the same as motorcycle injuries. I am just saying that if you put a helmet on your head that it should actually do something more than look good. It should limit impact related Traumatic Brain Injury. Also I am NOT saying that you should have to wear a helmet. That is your decision. What I am saying is that the helmets being marketed by skydivers to skydivers will not do what most people expect a helmet to do. We accept AAD's, why not a genuine protective helmet?

Awesome, now we are getting somewhere. Take a look at this. http://www.teamwendy.com/ This is the padding mentioned in the report. Maybe there is something here for us.

No, I am saying that I need a DOT or SNELL rating on the helmet. Ask yourself this: Does the current helmet that you use do anything at all to slow the deceleration of your head at impact? TBI is the result of the brain bouncing off the skull at deceleration. The only way to limit the damage done is to slow the deceleration forces of your skull. The current helmets might help limit facial injuries or help limit skull fractures but they still do near nothing to slow the deceleration of your head and prevent your brain from bouncing around in your skull. The current motorcycle type helmets may be a little bulky and many would limit your vision. I agree that these would induce their own set of problems. So how about asking the market to design something that would actually work for skydiving and help protect us from TBI? We are much smarter now since the frap hat days. We should use some of this knowledge.

The Arai XD helmet does not obstruct your vision at all.