3mpire

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Posts posted by 3mpire

  2. Quote

    I'm an 'O' neg / universal donor so if I miss, they start calling.



    That's because you're the unicorn of blood donors :P

    I wish I could do double reds but I'm APOS so I can't.

  3. Thank you everyone who donates! When my partner gets transfusions we always joke that we hope it's some young blood.

    Getting on a bone marrow registry is great, too, because sometimes when you have a blood disorder that requires frequent transfusions a bone marrow transplant can be the only option.

    I'm happy to see that others also give, and for any of you lurkers out there reading this thread, join the party and fill some bags!

    If you can't donate because of health reasons, that's nothing to be ashamed of. You can help in other ways, like volunteering for the blood bank or helping to spread the word.

    we all can do our part, and families like mine are able to have happy babies at home as a result.

  4. I donated blood today, did you?

    If you have never thought about doing it, you might want to give it a try. It is very easy, and each donation can help save up to three lives.

    I have a seven week old baby at home, and the only reason he is here is because of blood donors. it's an amazing gift you can give!

    plus, it can't hurt from a karma perspective. if god forbid any of us pound in and need transfusions to survive, it will be because of a donor.

    so pay it forward! get motivated! :)

  7. Quote

    Guess I could go to a rigger or learn at the DZ.



    B| sounds like a plan.

    i hear these kinds of questions from time to time and really there isn't any other answer. just practice, over and over, until you get it. no short cuts. no easy way out. just do it over and over. it's not hard, it just takes repetition. your confidence will build as you do it over and over until you won't need anyone to look at it and you'll be totally confident jumping it.

    bring some beer or buy some jumps or whatever you need to do to get a little guidance to get you started. once you have it in your head, go home, and pack it every single day when you get home from work. 2-3 times a night. every day of the week. you'll be fast and efficient within a few weeks if not faster.

    then next summer when you're making 15 minute calls without breaking a sweat, look for a newbie and help them learn to pack. :)

  8. Quote

    he said he would enjoy a weekend getaway more because he's never been that interested in skydiving



    get away for the weekend and use the two hundred bucks you would spend on the tandem on some lingerie instead and make him happy.

    when it's your birthday, tell him you want to strap yourself to another dude and jump out of the plane. he can pay for that, and can't complain, because he got what he wanted on his bday

    B|

    sounds to me like you're the one who wants to skydive anyway, so win win.

  10. Quote

    my increasing situational awareness



    Want another fun one? See if you can count how long it takes the group exiting after you to exit as you're coming down the hill. Try to identify what type of exit they attempted and did it succeed.

    Another fun one: look at the winds aloft and determine where you think your opening would be based off of where you plan to exit. when you land ask yourself did you open where you thought you were going to. even remembering to look down after you open and take note of your position is an awareness thing a lot of new jumpers don't do.

    put it all together and you should be able to say how long the stick behind you took, how their exit was, and exactly where you opened. bonus if you can guess what the deployment altitude of the other jumpers was (even though technically you should know before you leave the plane, of course)

  11. Subjectively speaking I only recall feeling the "droppy" effect on my first non-static line jump. Having been accustomed to feeling the risers pulling on my shoulders a second or so after exiting, NOT feeling that familiar tug made it feel like falling.

    but that is different than what you are describing, because in the case of a s/l you are being decelerated almost immediately, so naturally free fall would feel different.

    ever since the only time i've gotten the droppy feeling is from jumping a helo

  12. right but if you look at the video it appear he has a spring loaded pilot chute that was released but wasn't pulling the dbag out and then he did something with his other hand and it released, so I don't know if it is a two stage deployment where first you get the spring loaded pc out and THEN you deploy or if it is always like that?

  14. Quote

    The key thing to keep in mind is that in most cases, the user has an idea that the battery is getting low via the on screen indicator or the unit acting funny while on the ground. I cannot tell you how many times I've watched people keep pushing buttons on the ground to coax the unit to come on and then being upset when it turns off on the ride up or in freefall. Like any piece of equipment, attention to maintenance is required. If you can't remember when the last time you changed your alti battery was, you should probably change it to avoid having an issue with it when you need it.



    this. replacement batteries for my neptune 2 are cheap, I have three or four new in packaging in my gear bag.

    if it gets say less than 1/3 remaining charge I just replace the battery and then you never have to worry about being in a situation where it might not have enough juice to make it through a single jump.

  17. Quote

    OK, so you didn't actually MEAN what you WROTE.



    now you're just being obtuse. i meant what i wrote and in both posts I said a jumper is responsible for their spot, even if by being responsible that means they designate a member of their stick to spot.

    Quote

    unless i'm dense and missing your point

    Yep.



    which is? lol (i'm not holding my breath for an answer)

    i'm done with this thread. but you can have the last word if you want, that's cool. just another day in dropzone.com paradise

  18. Quote


    Quote
    How would you evaluate it?

    In Reply To
    Make someone spot for the whole load, and require that everyone open up wind and in a position where people are able to promote a smooth pattern for landing.
    I would like to think that everyone could/would do as you indicated. I do similar. Personally, I totally agree with making them actually do it, just as you do, to determine success but with one exception.

    I let them do the math to determine earliest exit point, middle (perfect) exit point and latest exit point. Then take them up on the plane. I tell the pilot to fly off-line to check to see if the student does proper corrections. Then they tell me when they get to the first exit point and I verify or deny. I tell them on the ground, "If I land off, you will have to repeat the class and try again."


    I, like you, prefer to do this on a 182 or such so that there would be fewer jumpers involved in the process and I would always take back control if the student was getting it so wrong as to endanger anyone with off landings. If their spotting is "good enough" to minimize the danger to other jumpers, I'll go ahead and exit.

    On a larger plane involving more jumpers, I will let them do the same but I'll take control just before exit and take the responsibility myself instead of putting on the student.

    Once he can prove some consistency, he on his own.

    Good stuff, 3mpire.



    Excellent points. There isn't much point in having an evaluation without the evaluator, and the evaluator can also serve as a safety check to keep a dangerous situation from developing. Your method is very similar to the one I experienced as a student and it seems to work great for me.

    Having the pressure of spotting for other jumps as part of the evaluation is a great motivator to get it right. Because if you do it wrong not only do you not "pass" but you also inconvenience everyone else, so you have extra motivation to get it right. :D

    Which is why I'm a little confused why this is a problem. How to spot and how to evaluate that spot has been part of the sport from the beginning, so it's not like there aren't methods for solving this problem already available.

    To me it doesn't seem to be a question of "how do we solve this problem" it's a question of "why aren't we just making people do it over and over until they learn it".

  19. Quote

    ***I see, 5 loads of jumpers put at risk so you can evaluate someone's spotting ability. Got it.



    It's an A license requirement that you essentially do all of that anyway. You are supposed to brief the pilot, you are supposed to give corrections and you are supposed to spot.

    Nobody says that the rest of the load has to get out. Each jumper is responsible for their own spot. And everyone should know how to spot, right?


    Quote


    "Make someone spot for the whole load, and require that everyone open up wind and in a position where people are able to promote a smooth pattern for landing. "



    You are being inconsistent.

    I'm entirely consistent. You are conflating the procedure for exiting an aircraft with evaluation criteria for spotting. Requiring the load to open up wind is a criteria for evaluating the quality of the spot. If the entire load doesn't open up wind, if people land off, or if they require a go around, then obviously it was a bad spot and the person needs to work on it.

    Nothing about that evaluation criteria suspends the normal procedures for the rest of the load. It is still each jumpers responsibility to check their spot before they get out.

    You do kind of get into semantics with your 20 way analogy. So just to clarify, the rule about each jumper being responsible for their spot should not be interpreted literally. what it really comes down to is each stick is responsible for their spot.

    Quote

    Everyone spotting for themselves is not very convenient on, say, a 20 way.


    that 20 way certainly has someone designated as the spotter for the stick. everyone on that jump should be comfortable with that person's spotting ability as they are essentially trusting that they will make sure the whole group has a safe spot. but really that is still in the spirit of what I wrote, because they are taking responsibility, if indirectly, by designating someone in advance as the spotter.

    in context, you will see that this is all entirely consistent. and it isn't really that complicated. know how to spot, make sure you stick communicates with all the other sticks, communicate with the pilot, make sure your stick checks the spot before exiting. land. pack. repeat. ;)

    unless i'm dense and missing your point, and you're arguing that it isn't possible to evaluate spots and it isn't possible to expect each stick to know where they are getting out relative to the ideal spot, i'm not quite sure what you are arguing for. :S

  20. Quote

    I see, 5 loads of jumpers put at risk so you can evaluate someone's spotting ability. Got it.



    It's an A license requirement that you essentially do all of that anyway. You are supposed to brief the pilot, you are supposed to give corrections and you are supposed to spot.

    Nobody says that the rest of the load has to get out. Each jumper is responsible for their own spot. And everyone should know how to spot, right?

    So if the person up front has a bad spot the following jumpers should see that and take responsibility for themselves and make corrections with the pilot or ask for a go around.

    Nothing about that should be out of the ordinary. That should be happening on *every load*. If simply evaluating someone on something that should be absolutely routine puts jumpers at risk then we have a pretty big problem, don't we?

  21. Quote

    How would you evaluate it?



    Make someone spot for the whole load, and require that everyone open up wind and in a position where people are able to promote a smooth pattern for landing.

    If they are too early then people will be opening downwind. If they are too late the last people out may need a go-around.

    Make them look at the winds aloft and estimate separation times and have them communicate that to the load before leaving the ground.

    Have them tell the pilot what jump run they want and have the pilot fly that jump run.

    Have the pilot give them a MEGA early green light so they have to open the door and actually look, identify the spot, and then climb out.

    If they can do that say 5 times over at least two different days then you could argue they have an idea of how to spot.

    I love spotting. It's like a puzzle where you take in all the data inputs you have and then seeing it all come together is really fun. That's easier to do at a smaller DZ though.

    When it's a 182 you can ask for any jump run you want and you have more control over it.

    If you've got a tandem filled otter then you pretty much just get out when you are told because they don't have time to waste because they're trying to keep things moving.

  23. Quote

    I realize that the most precious thing I can give now is my time to my wife and son



    This is one thing I haven't figured out yet. I looked at my log book the other day and I did 196 jumps between Jan 1 and Dec 31. That's including bad weather in the spring, so I easily could have done another 30. Every Friday afternoon, all day saturday, all day sunday, and sometimes on wednesdays I would be jumping.

    obviously I won't be keeping that pace but I am curious to see what the balance will end up being.

  24. Quote

    You might try the windtunnel as a sport though, you could ask your doctor about that.



    As a new jumper you also tend to fly into burbles and have mid-air collisions so there is that risk as well.

    However even the tunnel shouldn't be considered a non-impact sport. You can have collisions or break bones in the tunnel, as well.

    If you have any major medical condition like the one described above, I would steer clear. I would however ALSO ask them (doctors) if they couldn't just go in there and take that sucker out, which would open this sport back up to you :) :)

  25. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O9cw4gv-Mg

    Has anyone mounted an Alti2 Neptune 2 on a BoneHead AltiMount?

    In the demo video above they recommend measuring and drilling to mount OR using Velcro.

    I'm curious if anyone out there has done this specifically with a neptune 2?

    Were the stock screws that you would use to mount to the wrist strap long enough to mount to the BoneHead?

    I hadn't heard of using Velcro, would that really be a good idea? I have some patches of Velcro with adhesive on the back--I used it to put on the inside of my helmet to make the inserts stay on better. I'm a little hesitant to use that to attach an alti...?

    Is there a different mount that people with Neptunes use with more success?

    Thanks in advance all!