peek

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Posts posted by peek

  1. On 6/16/2019 at 5:28 PM, Gordon in NC said:

    Okay, first post and I gota feeling it's not going to go over well.  First reason is......I understand that a static line jump is not "really" skydiving.  But, what if a fellow isn't really interested in skydiving, he just wants canopy time.  Would it be possible to just do static line jumps?  I understand that you'd still need to be supervised and the cost would be greater once you past the 25 jump mark but if you didn't care about getting a license would it be bad idea to ask your DZ about it?

    I'm a 68 year old male.  Past jump experience in the military (1969)  trying to relive some of those memories.  I signed up for a static line course and have made 3 jumps so far.  But I can tell that it's not going to be any fun from here on......I have to pass or fail different tasks.  Start free falling which I have no desire to do.  I'm not going to be doing this for decades....heck, I don't even buy green bananas anymore.   I haven't talked to my instructor about it but my last jump was my first PRCP and I was so worried about not getting it right....it took the fun out of it for me.

    Am I going to be shamed out of the family because I just want the ride?

    Thanks for listening and I'm open for suggestions........flame suit on........Gordon in NC

     

    There is nothing wrong with wanting to do only static-line jumps, but you are just going to need to talk the DZO and an instructor into it. Skydiving is oriented toward "progressing" toward freefall and licenses, and it is going to take a major mind shift for them to want to accomodate you.

     

  2. On 6/4/2019 at 10:06 AM, wmw999 said:

    Man I sure hope he was able to get most of the stuff out of there first! 

    Wendy P.

    Yeah, they did OK. The large hangar they use has a second level, and they have enough staff that they had a lot of help moving it. The nice part is that a nearby airport in Creve Coeur, 1H0, let us tie down our airplanes there for no charge, and is letting St. Charles Flying Service operate out of their airport and office. How's that for the brotherhood of aviation?

     

  3. Posted · Edited by peek

    I suppose that many of you have heard about the severe flooding in parts of the Midwest. Here is a photo of the owner of the FBO and flight school at St. Charles County airport (KSET), about 2 miles from the river. Fortunately he still has a sense of humor, but then again, he doesn't have a choice. I have a hangar there, but I don't think my airplane is going back there for quite a while.

     

     

    SETflood06xx19SCFS-LTF.jpg

  7. I have a Kestral 1000, and have found it to be very good, however, as I search for "handheld wind meter" I see many types and prices. I don't see why a cheaper one would not be as good as my Kestral if all you need is wind speed. Others have many other functions that you may not need to be paying more for.

     

  8. 13 hours ago, billvon said:

    ... but the BSR says you have to get "the advice of the appropriate USPA S&TA, Instructor Examiner, or Regional Director" before making them, period.

     

    Bill, you are right, I missed that one. I think though that any type of communication with any of these individuals would suffice, and with the communication options available nowdays, that it could be done. (Even defining "the appropriate" might be a challenge. Since the defacto Regional Director for foreign DZs is the USPA HQ Director of Safety and Training, I guess he gets the email or the text!)

     

    • Like 1

  9. · Edited by peek

    12 hours ago, pchapman said:

    The whole issue could still use some clarity about what exactly the USPA requires in its rules, and what it really intends the rules to do.

     

    Peter, I wish I could provide that clarity in all cases, but I cannot. At least people like Mike Mullins and myself think about and discuss these issues. Many members do not.

    To answer your main question, it is in the BSRs under "applicability". I would not argue with anyone who thinks that is too inclusive, or that it could be worded better.

     

  10. · Edited by peek

    23 hours ago, billvon said:

    Mike Mullins recently made this statement in the Incidents forum:

    =======================

    Any person who is a USPA member must follow the BSRs at a Group Member DZ, at a non-Group Member DZ, in a farmers field, in someones back yard, does not matter where you are jumping.  If you are a USPA member you are required to follow the BSR, period.  As USPA members were involved in this jump they were definitely required to follow the BSRs.  Someone who is not a USPA member, jumping at a non-Group Member DZ, needs only to comply with the FARs.

    =======================

    #1  One example is while I worked for a military freefall training program; the course instructor was not a USPA rated instructor (although he was certainly rated as such by the military.)

     

    #2  Another example were water and demo jumps made in another country - they were made without "the advice of the appropriate USPA S&TA, Instructor Examiner, or Regional Director" (but again, with much advice from the local equivalent.)

    #3  I've intentionally jumped through clouds while at a foreign DZ after the chief instructor briefed us on how to do it, and told us it was both legal and customary there.

     

     

    #1 This was a problem, but has been taken care of by a BSR change (from about a year ago I think). It added the verbiage "or those training personnel under military orders" SIM section 2-1: BASIC SAFETY REQUIREMENTS, A. APPLICABILITY

    #2 Advice for water and demo jumps is not BSR related in another country.

    #3 It is a BSR violation to violate an FAR, but in another country the FARs don't apply.

     

    Unfortunately, this stuff is often not easy to understand. Mike and I have often called each other to discuss what some things mean and how to interpret and explain them.

     

     

    • Like 2

  11. On 3/21/2019 at 11:12 PM, Elpnor said:

    I reverse s fold my canopy.  The end with the slider is the last thing I put in my bag, and I always give it a last push up against the stops.  Minus the movement of the slider under tail, is there anything else terrible about this packing style?  Yuri makes a convincing argument

     

    I took the attached picture back when this thread was new, and have been waiting to use it. This is my zero porosity Manta in the bag, waiting for me to check the grommet position and close the bag. (Yes, those are black Dacron lines.)

    It starts out stack-packed with the tail ever so slightly wrapped around the canopy. It is packed "wide", to fit the bag. (I don't fold it into the bag, rather I fold and stack the folds, then put it in the bag.)

    This is how I have packed all of my canopies for decades, including the Stiletto. All wonderful openings.

     

     

    slidergrommetposition.jpg

  12. On 3/21/2019 at 6:13 PM, 20kN said:

    That’s not the only downside. Dacron does not maintain trim well which negatively affects all aspects of flight. In fact, an out of trim lineset can directly cause a hard opening. 

    That is the opposite of my experience! What is that based on? What canopy? What era, etc.? Me and some friends have some older Flight Concepts canopies lined with Dacron, and have 500-1000 jumps on them, with little to no change in the lines.

  13. I suggest that the first thing to do is determine what kind of fear she has. Is it fear of injury or fear of looking bad? If it is fear of injury, someone needs to convince her that a good PLF will almost completely remove the chance of injury, however, some people will probably still comment on the "crash" landing, and she will just need to ignore them. Specific coaching from a sympathetic instructor that knows her will likely be needed.

     

     

     

    • Like 1

  14. 1 hour ago, Divalent said:

    ... the "Crowdsources the DZ BS detector" was never (IMO) of any importance anyway....

    Hey, wait a minute, that was my cool idea!

    I agree that its importance is long gone. I created it back when a number of people were wondering why they got so much grief for posting certain questions and not having any profile at all. (They looked suspicious and I wanted them to know why.)

     

  15. 19 hours ago, baronn said:

    Just curious who will be attending PIA and why you are going. No wrong answers and hopefully nobody gets into a pissing match.....

    I'm leaving this afternoon for the USPA BOD meeting, then I will be at the Symposium until next Friday morning. Why? It is because that is what I have been doing for so many years. The BOD meeting is "challenging" to say the least, but the Symposium is pure fun. I get to see people that I have not seen in 2 years. It is like a family reunion.

     

    • Like 1

  16. 5 hours ago, Meso said:

    And many of the feedback issues provided are things that will be worked on, if you're finding the site harder to use, don't worry we're going to still use your feedback to fix most of those issues, this isn't the final product by any means.

    You guys are doing fine! It takes time to do things like this.

    • Like 4

  17. · Edited by peek

    56 minutes ago, jlmiracle said:

    Horrible.  Can't find anything.   I think I'm done with this site.  

    You are going to need to give them some time to correct the problems. They had to start with a completely different software package and add all the features we are used. This is difficult and time consuming.

     

    • Like 1

  20. SethInMI

    The letter imagined a facility that was geared toward non-skydivers, with interactive exhibits designed to get people interested / comfortable with the sport.



    And how much do you think they are planning to spend to get that? Last number I heard was 14 to 16 million dollars.

    Quote

    What would I as a skydiver like to see in a museum? Just the gear and other old artifacts, please. The sword, some other trophies, log book entries, rigs, suits, boots, tuffets, chutes, one of those things to judge style from the ground, that sort of thing.



    When I asked one of the proponents of the museum plan why the costs of the planned museum couldn't be moderated a bit, they angrily said, "What do you want, just manequins with rigs?" (paraphrased)

    So there you go. There is the current attitude about how to spend donors (and USPA members) money.

    Quote

    I say find a good airplane museum and build it as an annex, one price for the whole thing.



    This is an excellent idea, and one that has been discussed by numerous people.

  21. ChrisD2.0

    Sections 3-1 up to 3.2 H Cover the responsibilities of the "INSTRUCTORS" ... PLURAL ... SECTON 4 ... again plural ... The largest section of the AFF in the IRM pertains to "INSRUCTORS." ... Anyone is free to see that in the IRM, the most written pages are devoted to 2 AFFis'.



    So why are you not complaining about tandem to single instructor AFF training too? The same issues and interpretaions apply.

  24. DJL

    Something I think everyone misses with this (correct me if I'm wrong) is that the tunnel time needs to be under the instruction of someone with USPA accreditation if not an AFF-I. It will also vastly improve the instructor pool to get them into the tunnel doing this work and will also put tunnel instructors in the air pursuing those ratings.



    Well actually, the AFF instructor could simply be outside the tunnel watching the (possibly AFF unrated) tunnel instructor doing the training, and then log the training much like a skydive.

    But I know what you mean. If I were that AFF instructor, I would be wanting to get in there with my future student!