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With that much time in the tunnel, I would go right to AFF. FYI, something to think about, although it may not apply directly to you: http://www.dropzone.com/safety/Disciplines/Indoor_Skydiving/From_Tunnel_to_Sky_1276.html

It seems like it was windy everywhere. Be careful folks. It is that time of year where it is sometimes windy and gusty, and if the landing area is downwind of a tree line, even if it is a long way off, it can cause dangerous turbulence. I saw some interesting landings yesterday. One jumper had the turbulence push his canopy around while flaring to the extent that he could not control it completely, and landed skidding sideways. A very experienced jumper had his canopy dive somewhat at about 50 feet, but he knew it was happening, flared early, and did a PLF. It was a good learning experience for one of the students that was waiting for the wind to go down to make her first jump. She very audibly gasped both times when she saw these landings. Some other people landed with no apparent issues. That's the problem, this turbulence thing is not consistent. You can be fooled watching the good landings.

Oh, goodness, that's not what I meant, but I can see how you thought that! I was asleep 10 minutes after I wrote that. I was surprised at how many campers had built fires. It certainly wasn't for staying warm. It is finally hot in Missouri.

The title of this forum, "The Bonfire", is so appropriate for this post. After skydiving today at Rapid Descent Skydiving in Hannibal, MO, I decided to stay the night. I have stayed at motels in the past of course, but I had been wondering what it would be like to stay at the Mark Twain Campground, just a few miles away. Only $19 for "tent" camping, just what I needed for staying in my van. A hot shower in the morning and off to the dropzone! The temperature is going to drop to a reasonable level for staying in a van. (This would probably not work in August.) The part that is cracking me up is that I am posting this message to you through the wireless internet available at the campground. I am literally sitting here at the picnic table at my campsite, typing on my laptop computer. Isn't technology wonderful? Isn't modern camping wonderful? Isn't skydiving wonderful? The girls in the campsite across the way have their "bonfire" built.

See the attached screen shot, from the msnbc.com main page. Do you suppose this is a joke, related to Trump's 'Covfefe' tweet?

I'm sitting here laughing out loud to myself. Too bad you spilled them all.

Perhaps of use:http://www.pcprg.com/hardop.htm See the section titled "Update November 2004". The only problem is that I never recorded the size of the original slider on my Stiletto, but you have that for your 190. Also keep in mind that just like the Sabre canopies I worked with, Stilettos of different sizes may have the same sized slider. See the last paragraph of "Personal Experiences and Research".

I consider it unfortunate that cards are being supplied that are difficult to write on. I have found that a medium to "large" point ball point pen will write on even the Tyvek cards if I do not press too firmly. ("Fine point" pens don't do this well.) I had some custom cards printed many years ago with my contact info on them and they are regular paper, and easy to write on. I'm not sure why Tyvek cards are needed. They don't really get that much wear.

In case you did not know, Flight Concepts now makes the Manta with 3 fabric options, including fully zero porosity. The opening is simply wonderful. It is still rectangular, so it does not have some of the issues a tapered canopy does. However, it has a "traditional" flare, so students would not be learning much about landing a canopy that "planes out" with partial brakes.

You know of people teaching that for a biplane? Are they doing that during initial training for students or during something like a canopy course, teaching people who have smaller canopies?

And what BSR violations are those?

To me, because it is more similar to landing an airplane than landing a medium performance (or large) canopy. Flare partially, let it plane out, keep steering, then land when the lift is finally gone. (I'm an airplane pilot, and this is my answer, and I'm sticking with it.) By the way, I don't necessarily want to go as fast as possible on landing, but it helps. I also like landing large canopies too, because sometimes I don't want to have to concentrate so much on landing, and just touch down on tip-toes.

I just got word that Dean Bickel passed away. Dean was a long time member of the Couch Freaks and operated Bickel's Boutique, where a person at the Coach Freaks boogie could buy polyester clothes for the party that night. He was also at the World Freefall Convention every year with the boutique. Dean had Alzheimer's for the last couple of years. If anyone has pictures of him, please post them. I have known Dean practically since I started skydiving. He was willing to jump with about anyone and really knew how to party once the skydiving was over.

Does anyone know this guy? Maybe tell him it was cool to him but not such a good idea? http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Balloonatic-Assessed-26500-228668-1.html Was this posted here in July when he did it? http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Man-Charged-In-Balloon-Chair-Stunt-224399-1.html

Well, that would be too easy! Yes, that is what I say too. I don't like buzzwords. Skydivers already have to remember so many technical terms.

www.butlerparachutes.com I took a quick look through some manuals and could not find definitive answers to those questions. You might save some time by just calling them.

I'm glad I got to talk to Jyro briefly at the PIA Symposiuma few weeks ago. RIP.

Agreed.

A possible solution to that issue- A tunnel student might be able to talk a skydiving instructional rating holder into observing their training in the tunnel and verifying it in a logbook. That's is why a good portion of the article suggested some training techniques to overcome some of those issues. Tunnel flying can replace only a certain amount of skydiving training. There are a lot of issues and a lot to talk about.

I apologize to anyone who is thinking that Kirk and I are proposing some type of new program. Not at all. We are just suggesting that we should all be thinking about how to use wind tunnel training (if available) toward skydiving training, and providing some examples and techniques of how to do this. Both tunnel time and skydiving are expensive, but I have already heard of dropzones that require a certain amount of tunnel time to begin AFF training. I hope that we can use tunnel training efficiently so as not to increase the price of skydiving training by too much. This is already being done to some extent with dropzones requiring tandem jumps before AFF. Adding a tunnel training option to replace the tandem jumps would give initial skydiving training some flexibility.

Yes! Someone told me about that and I like it. What it doesn't have (but hey, that could change tomorrow) is a "skydiver track" so to speak, with the skills related to skydiving that a skydiving instructor/DZ is going to need to see. And why would it if it was just to log tunnel skills? Hopefully we will get comments from some instructors and DZOs.

I started this thread for a discussion of the article "From Tunnel to Sky - Training Wind Tunnel Students to be Great Skydiving Students". Kirk and I would appreciate your comments and suggestions on tunnel-to-skydiving training. (If you read the article less than about 2 hours after it was first put up, you will want to go back and start reading again at the heading "Advice for Skydiving Instructors." Part of the article got truncated when it was first published.)

The deal is that you can only do so much in learning how to adjust your fall rate. If the people are different enough in size, it is going to be a lot of work to adjust. If everyone is wearing a jumpsuit that gives them an "average" fall rate, then the skydive will just be so much easier. Having said that, there are plenty of skydives that you will do with people about your size where you can skip the jumpsuits (when it is warm enough) and have a great time. When you get more jumps and with different size people you will understand all of this better. But in the mean time, have fun!

I had heard that some years ago, George Galloway from Precision Aero had some similar reserves that had been packed a long time, and had done test drops or was planning to do test drops with them. Please contact him with what you have. Any parachute like this can provide valuable data.

Yes, and to take that further, if you need a signoff, and the person signing off has a scanner or fax, you can send the form to them and have them sign off and forward to USPA headquarters. I do this for a lot of people. HQ is flexible enough to accept a graphic file (like a JPG) or a PDF. I actually have a graphic file of my signature that I could just insert into a graphic file of a form to be signed, but I haven't bothered to get that cute yet! Timewise it is a wash. (The normal caveats apply. Ask for a confirmation from whomever you send something. Don't assume the internet is perfect.)