skydivefj

QuoteSkydivefj is my work log in and some things such as operational queries are not exclusivley for me, if I appoint another person to the operations role then they will be skydivefj, I am Rhys personally, and I could not make that reply under the skydivefj name as my personal beleifs are not necessarily representative of the entire company. It is not an alias.

That opinion would be common among those that have spent a small fortune rigging up a cumbersome and bulky flat top pro or similar. A couple of years ago you could strut around to DZ with a FTP fully loaded and you were da man, now it is not so much of a big deal. In fact big setups look stipud with small cameras on them... FTP's are not needed anymore, and there seems to be a bitter taste in a few mouths due to this unforseen circumstance. Go pro's are on one of a few tiny cameras available, they are only getting smaller, more numerous, better quality and less expensive. That is a real shame for the cool guys that used to be the only ones with the gear... Breaking the plastic mount on a go pro is easy, very very easy. a line may not break it on its own but a hand from a competent jumper will. Do I think sub 100 jumpers should use them? No, the same has always been the case, but with the Go pro the cameras have become more available for everyone. This issue is half safety and half ego. The cool guy is never the cool guy forever.

Oh I did not see the exclamation mark, is that some sort of txt shorthand? If it means; doesn't necesarily equal,.. then I agree. If it means does not equal... then my answer reamians the same. It is an unknown quantity.

dfrom what I am told, PD got a glimps of NZaerosports' NZbrace system and tried to copy it but couldn't get it right, they called it the z brace before aerosports had a name for it. I believe Icarus spain has been working on an 11 cell with inflatable stabalisers for some time, I believe the inflatable stabalisers 'are' the 10th and 11th cells. but that was from a sponsored athlete bragging not the company. NZaerosports has still got thier next canopy up thier sleeves I beleive also. Those that were around will remember the VX was announced, with printed brouchures the very moment the velocity was announced at the 99 pia symp.. PD being the big player needs to make a move before we get to see the next toys.... Either that or one of these more obscure companies getting podium results... But it apears that JVX and velo are kneck and kneck in performance right now, if this new canopy can do something to disrupt the top swoopers.... I sure hope so. Not necessarily, more cells equals more lines which equals more drag... More lift equlas a shorter recovery arc so less speed generated... The JVX has a much thinner profile and more cells than a velo, but they seem compoarable in performance even with a shorter recovery arc. This I beleive is why the JFX was developed, to test that theory in the feild. I know at least one company has experimented with quad cascade lines to try to reduce parasite drag... It seem though the orange dental floss that you PDFT guys are using is the way forward. so much to learn. But as I say, this is all my opinion, not necessarily the companies'.

Maybe a random thing like the fact that the word; Floccinaucinihilipilification Is the second longest word in the english language. The reason why it is more interesting than the longest word is that Floccinaucinihilipilification is an estimation of something being worthless.

The course was origonally intended for New Zealanders, when it was still the Christchurch Parachute School CPS in Christchurch City, at Wigram areodrome. it has since become the New Zealand skydiving school andakes many applicants from around the world. The course for New Zealand applicants is subsidised by 50% from the government, the other half you can student loan if you wish, and you are given a student allowance if your parents do not earn enough to pay for you (no repay) and this to live on by 'work and income' the government labour department. The allowance is paid while on the course and work placement, the dropzones are not supposed to pay for the work done as the government pays the allowance and you are essentially at school while, packing editing, jumping... It all adds up, it just depends on how much somebody wants something. English and Sustralian students also get assistance from their governments. The indusry is growing faster than the supply of sport skydivers can produce instructorsin NZ..., and work visas are going to foreigners to fill the slots. The tax money then leaves the country so it is in the best interest of the government to pay the $7.5 k subsidy and the $5k allowance as they get that back in tax when the instructors pay tax. If you only work a season as a foreigner for less than 6 months in New Zealand you get your tax back... and as skydivers are generally contactors, you don't even pay it in the first place... There are reasons for everything but some want to feel like they are getting ripped off, this stuff all costs alot of money, whichever way you do it. When I started the course I had a couple of grand to buy gear and that was it... Most of us were working class that would not usually have had the opportunity to participate in such an expensive industry. Subsequntly the course was quite successful in giving people that do want to be commercial skydivers to do just that, in the shortest time available. Many say, that simply doing AFF and getting experience is a better way to go about it, but how many people have you seen become full time skydivers in a period of 1 year from their very first jump? Many have travelled from overseas to do this, I could never have done that but plenty can... and it is very much like university, more a technical college.

This is actually Rhys here by the way I was logged in on the work account (skydivefj) when I hit reply... Trying to get work as an inexperienced jumper in new zealand is not easy as you have 9 years of diploma course graduates drifting around waiting for jobs with more experience, you are better to come to New Zealand either as a Tandem instructor and that is it really. There are lots of dropzones wanting graduates as part of the course is 3 months work experience, this is the problem that many have a problem with as they see it as slave labour, this is what I was talking about when i mentioned the half empty type... You begin work placement with 170 jumps that you have completed on the course, you choose a dropzone (worldwide) many re taking students now from quite a few different countries now US, Spain, Oz... It is up to you to show the dropzone you end up at that you are ther person to do that job but you have to have made sure you gained that from the 170 jumps that you had on the course, many will just goof around and will inevitably take longer. there is a dispensation from the normal 200 jump prerequeate to jump with a tandem to 150 jumps for the student as they do a coach rating or something, and you can get USPA coach rating i'm not too up to play with that stuff and there is a lot of trouble with the regulation of skydiving in NZ but that is all changing very soon with the new Part115 (adventure aviation) certification coming in over the coming months... At the end of the day you walk out of an 8 month course In many cases having no jumps whatsoever (as was my case and my friends) and 8 months later you have 200 jumps up to 100 with camera (if you have one!) and 3 months work experience (packing, editing, driving, stuff! and if you have the skill and they need you then you will be employed, I emptied trash cans and mowed the PLA etc. for months before working as a camera guy, but by the time i had 2.5 years in the sport, I had 2000 jumps, an aff rating and about 1400 camera jumps. I also moved to astralia to get my first camera job and returned back later. Travel is almost essential as the NZ industry is very easy to stagnate in as there is a serious lack of sport skydiving and for many it is just a job... that is not to say there are not some amazing flyers that do many fun jumps but, you know it is the staff and maybe a couple of fun jumpers if you are lucky among many tandems... Camera flying is epic, and was in higher demand 8 years ago, handicam is rife these days. Something to consider, but outside camera is far from dead and handicam outside combos are the new big dollar earner... You decide if you are going to do it and you and your desire alone determines the outcome, the informaton and opportunity is definately there. I was fortunate in the end due to perserverence, I definately have not had it easy the whole time though, there are some dodgy operations out there once you start travelling around and you just use your common sense to decide whether to stay somewhere or not.

True. Forgot that you mentioned that. I was quite tired when i wrot the last post and read and answered as if you akes how many are using PAC and answered as such.. my bad. I see you answered your own question yourself though despite my ranting tangent there.

I don't think so, since the aircraft we are and will be using are not ours and are lease aircraft it seem sill to me to spent in excess of NZ$10k for a system when we can legally and safely use a portable system the we can source for less than $1000. Yeah it is good and people have been as helpful as they could have been, but we still have been going around in circles. They kinda did, but when I asked them about the price of a lease Cresco (for comparison) they told me they do not make them anymore. We wen't on to talk about the two that are for sale right now, she got the gist that I was just wanting a price though... Thats sounds nice but expensive, down the track when we purchase that aircraft we may look at a mod like that, Pilatus has a facvtory mod that would be nice but it is about $10k too from what I have heard... That is an ambigous question, I beleive you are referring to the PAC XSTOL? There is 2 (nearly 3) of those I beleive, One or two of the DZ's in taupo have one, and wanaka have just purchased one (as seen on the DZ.com homepage stories). There are about 3 or 4 crescos out there now but the companies using them are moving to XStol and Caravan due to the booming market here... PAC also make the Cresco which is in the class that we would look at if we were not in our current position, It has much faster sortie times than an XSTOL and for a small dz with not much plant (rigs) would be more economical. If hotloading, you can easily do 3 sorties an hour in a Cresco. It is a real shame they stopped making them for the XSTOL, as the XSTOL is great but only for DZ's with 6-8 tandem masters and the plant to keep the aircraft in the air... I think many small to medium sized dropzones in America could do with a cresco, Porters are nice but they are expensive, we are using a Porter because of our unique situation but probably wouldn't even look at one if we were not, due to this factor. The nice lady did say if somebody or a conglomorate would order 10 or more Crescos they would make them... But there are 2 really nice ones on the market right now anyway....

It was only ever going to be aviators O2 as that is the most relevant, Duh, and fortunately it is the easiest to obtain (that would have to be a first in aviation history!) Funnily enough (peculiar), our instructions are all ambiguous, I cannot disclose exactly what was said because that would probably not be a good idea, but what we hve learned that this (for now) is still a grey area that is not covered well enough in the current part 149(sport aviation) scenario, that is currently in place in New Zealand commercial skydiving regulation. The NZ CAA has announced that they will be starting to administer a part 115 (commercial adventure aviation) with submissions starting this october I beleive... This will hopefully help eliminate the bullshit politics tha has tainted the indistry over the pst decade as the original (singular) part 149 (certifecate) in New Zealand was taken from the NZPF (non profit FAI affiliated) in 2001 (or so) and snaveled by a company that is owned by the old boy dropzone owners and labelled the New Zealand Parachute Industry Association (monopolyville). The ensuring political bullshit that is rife today prevailed. Why? Commercial skydiving in New Zealaand would have to 'take in' somewhere around 50 million dollars annually give or take. Skydiving is not the only industry that is effected by this and New Zealand only has 4 million people so this is all very significant. The CAA did not see it coming it seems... We will likely be among the first to gather the part 115 certification as we are already the first to operate our aircraft under part 135 (air transport operators) in the country. This is purely due to the source of our leased aircraft, but this is a direction the NZ CAA want to move towards. Too many busy DZ's smashing out loads all day with private pilots and aircraft serviced privately... Give em a cathida and a back of chippies and a coke, maybe a susuage wrapped in bread at lunch time and you make millions.... Slight exaggeration. At present it seems to me through actually talking to people that are supposed to know, O2 systems for skydiving in NZ have been more or less unregulated as they have been portable systems in private aircraft... We will be using the same portable type, but in commercial aircraft, also this Part 115 gig is on the doorstep, so we are researching more about it than others would/may have previously done before, and it seems not many/enough people know very much about the subject. I did talk to an engineer today that the nice lady up at PAC in Hamilton put me onto, about 02 systems. After telling me how to do it for about $10k by installing it to the airframe with aluminium tubing, he told me that if it is portable, then there is no certification needed as far as the aviation is concerend but the cylinders etc would have to meet their own industry standards.... which clarified a great deal really. We have basically been told by CAA also that we just need a system that works for our engineers. Round in circles... so I guess we are hovering around the top of the regulation. I am going to do a course in Oxygen Handling. I seems there is not much advertised for this, unless you want to spend a day or 2 learning about what to give to a punctured lung, or pnuemonia... or about deep or cold scuba diving and mixing gas... I'll ask the guy at BOC when I inquire about our account tomorrow. I do really appreciate all the replies here, as the thought processes in reading them have very much helped my endeavour to do this right... ... still lots to learn but definately getting there.

here's ours; Skydive Franz Youtube channel at the moment there is a promo and a video of out teams freestyle skydiving...

When the customer is asking questions about freefall, if you have a TM that is not too much of an asshole that has a sense of humor, you can tell the student to wait untill the instructor taps them on the shoulders to open thier arms out, then spit a big loogie and it will hover in front of them until the parachute opens. Of course you must tell them what will actually happen before you jump so they don't do it, but it sure makes a good laugh for a few minutes...

They certainly can be! If you jump shit gear they can be if you jump good gear they are rare... Any parachute can open fast/hard, but most these days are pretty good.

Hi Guys, I am ingesting everything you are all saying and this is all valuable information not just for me/us but for anybody. We will be going to 15k (oxygen is a requirement in NZ to this height) and 18k mostly tandems and in a -27 Pilatus porter. The airspace is busy here with scenic helecopter companies but they only go to 7k and in the mountains so we will not have much conflicting traffic. Up at 15k+ we will run into the odd commercial flight that is flying btween queenstown and auckland depending on the weather. Bill: it is interesting what you are saying about the flow, the regulations require a system that is capable of 15lpm but we have to learn about all ths still. The plane is still some way away (month or 2) but we want to have the oxygen here when it arrives and we would like to know all the ins and outs of it. I am urprised none of you have mentioned the dangers of using O2 systems and we are fully aware of the risk of explosions when contaminents are present and if the valves are opened too quickly etc. etc. By law we have to have a health ad safety manual here and our manual will be (is being) ammended to include these. i will post for reference and scrutiny once we are happy with it. I didn't consider welding tanks as something told me they were not clean enough but from the information you are al giving me it seems this is far from the case... If anything it is a very interesting subject. I have done around 1000 jumps using O2 but never considered the amount of thought that goes into installing such a system. We will not use conullas, we will use masks and every customer will get their own to use and keep for hygene reasons. They're about $3 each. I was concerned about these as the regulations stipulate they must meet the requirements of TSO-C64 but it seems all masks do that?

We have added a new video of our freestyle training and competition from 2006, we will make a more recent one and add it soon.... watch here