bogwarrior

Hi Andy, Going great in Lillo thanks, the " Freefall U five" , our sponsored team got together for the first time and we trained along with the Swiss and German teams out of the Otter. Most have are post FS1 so this weekend the learning curve was steep , but its all good...the team is gonna kick , we intend on making it to a few Grand prixs in the UK . Brian Vach and Pablo are back after the world cup and the dropzone is swamped with Swoopers , many on Vach´s course. Get yourself out here man , theres a bunch of Russians in town " Moscow Freefly School " type heads...even got on a hybrid with Mike C on the sunset today.. To the original poster, check out a similar post a few weeks ago.. David end hijack :)http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1395853;

Lillo would be the better choice in Madrid. Plenty of fast climbing aircraft and its open seven days a week. This is important to allow you get a ton of solo jumps done after you qualify. The danger on a small part time DZ is that your progress on AFF is slow and you dont get to do much solo jumping over your week

Hi, Thanks for the replies. The main reason for getting a 3ccd is so that i can provide broadcast quality to a number of TV stations who my company will work with over the coming months. I was just curiuos as to what was best in skydiving terms for this and reckon 3 chip is the point to work from.

Does anybody who posts here own a 3 chip camera. I want to buy something that will give good results in particular when i burn the video on a DVD. Four way will be my main job, so lens advice would be helpful as i understand that the lens´s work slightly different than regular PC type cams ? Any tips would be most useful.

Interestingly USPA headquarters are examining a detailed submission i made on the matter. For them it is not cut and dry. Even though i specifically referenced the country for which i was seeking an excemption. What then if the regulations of the National Aero Club ( for example in terms of currency of instructors ) are more " relaxed " than those of the USPA ?

I tend to take the view that if its written somewhere you got to do it. For me its part of duty of care. If you start to selectivley apply the " rule book " you are IMHO on thin ice , and then where do you stop. 14 knots , 15 knots...cant have common sense by degrees.. What is the ISIA thread ?

Morning, Thanks for the replies. It does appear that it can only be two USPA instructors together which was my suspicion.

Ok, If we ignore the fact that USPA is not legally binding ( although a trial lawyer might see it diffferently ) but is a code we subscribe to. .. What im getting at is I cant find anything relating to it in the manual. That is to say that a secondary must be USPA rated to jump with a USPA main? I understand that the USPA is a vol. code, but assuming a DZ is a affiliated to it , they must follow it. What im looking for comment on , is if you follow the USPA guidelines , must the AFF I on the other side be USPA also ?

I cant find a relative reference in the USPA manaul to the requirements of the secondary instructor. Does this mean i can take a guy wirh 100 jumps on the other side ? Must he/she be USPA on a USPA affiliated dropzone ? I had to politley refuse the assistance of an instructor rated by his home federation. He had not jumped in twenty months but insisted there was no recurrency requirements from his home federation for AFF´- I´s. The DZ is USPA affiliated.

Hi, Would anybody be able to clarify the legal side of choosing a secondary. Do USPA mainsides have to jump with USPA AFF I ´s ? I have been offered in the past instructors rated by other " federations " and not meaning to question the standards of said " federations " I am concerned for liability purposes. Thanks David

Hi, I have only jumped at Z Hills and Deland and now make Z hills my florida destination. Pip and Judys trailers are perfect,dont cost too much but give you a degree of comfort. The sunshine factory www.sunshine-factory.com may be place to pick up a second hand AAD ( its run by a brit and they are physically located in Z hills. ) email him in advance.. he is a busy guy though to dont be offended if it takes him a while to get back to you. He is also a BPA AFF Instructor. Temp membership of the USPA is possibly your best option and Manifest In Z Hills will help you sort this out. The DZ sees a good deal of jumpers from around the place and the coaching there is quite good also. The bar is run by a nice chap called Paul Meagher and he is always happy to help you settle on the DZ ..he is an AFF Instructor also, so unlike most bar talk you dont have to ignore it.. Have fun out there, pack for warm and cold weather ( its very cold at night ..Judys trailers has heating.. ) David If your ever looking for somewhere in Europe check out Lillo.

Hi, Drop me a line at david at freefalluniversity.co.uk and ill hook you up with something. Let me know if you have a car on your email . how many , what type of accom etc. Also dates so we can check avail. etc. Ill then get right back to ya David

Hi guys and Gals, Anybody have an idea where I could order about 100 log books with a custom design on the front cover ? Thanks David

" Would it not be better to have a canopy with a longer recovery arc to learn swooping? With such short recovery arc, it seems to me that you would have to push your initial turn altitude dangerously low. " No is my immediate reaction. It is better to learn the fundamentals of swooping on a canopy that allows you get your ass out of jail that bit quicker. Granted you have to turn a little lower with the stil, but this is offset by a quick recovery in camparison to other canopies. For example a crossfire 2 , or X braced canopy will spend a period of time in the recovery phase where no amount of brakes will save your ass. Learn with the principles with the conservative canopy. Turn higher , put more speed in the dive and youll far outrun a guy doing a nosedive at 100ft! Also a conservative wing loading is the place to practice with the rear risers which will generally speaking have a longer range and hence lower danger of stall. There is so much to do on a Stilletto before moving on to a hotter canopy.

what happened in St. Louis ?

This was Brian Vacher who ran a course at the Freefall University a few months ago. He runs canopy piloting courses in the UK at Netheravon.

Like the book, im not sure if Pip will though...

perhaps there are better canopies out there . The original question related to Stil. V Sabre. Granted the recovery arc is smaller on a Stil , and this puts the Stil in the mid performance class ( in my eyes ) . This does mean turning lower than on this canopy ( especially with a conservative wing loading ) than one might expect on higher performance / wing loading. Superfletch what i would suggest is the experimenting high at first. Open high and practice differing type of turns to see what makes the canopy dive for you. Sit into the turn ( dont pull your weight out of the harness with your riser . Practice using varying amounts of each riser . ). All the time noting altitude loss on using your altimiter. Note your results up high and when you are confident of what height you need to turn bring it close to the ground. As another poster mentioned ,, know when to save your ass on brakes. Another objective on the Stil. is to find its " powerband " . To sum the Stil is a better canopy for swooping , and the techniques you learn on this canopy will serve you well on your next canopy. I have done about 40 jumps on a Sabre2 and my impression of it was that it naturally dove at the ground a bit more anyway ( might account for the lighter riser pressure ) , but did not go the distance. Happy piloting. David

The Stilletto should outperform the Sabre in the right hands. I spent a good deal of time getting the ' turn rate ' right on the Stilletto and appreciate what you are saying about it wanting to turn on the spot! I focussed on the ' angle of dive ' and hence the time in the dive for a given turn and eventually found a balance I was happy with. Quite commonly people can change canopy to get better performance without ' ragging the canopy they have ' . To quote Pete Allum , you will learn more on your second 500 about flying a given canopy than on your first 500 Open high and practice using the harness in combination with the front riser. You might also find that pulling down more on the direction of turn and a little on the other side will help slow the turn rate. Thats my two cents worth after 400 jumps on a STil 107 in the last two months. best wishes David

On their website it is mentioned about having to have a " medical certificate to fly " .,,does anybody know what the story was with this ?

Hi, a few of our staff have sabre 2 canopies and dont like them.. shitty openings. recovery arc at that wing loading should be quite short . Dont know anything about the other canopy. Have you thought about a crossfire 2 ? Sounds like maybe its up your street.

Hey tom ..since when are you nicknamed head down...surely its got to be " grimmace "

There are things that we can , and do do to ensure that our graduates dont have a difficulty. I have today spoken with the CCI of Old Bucks ( where donkey boy is hoping to jump when finished ). He was pleased to recieve our call and confirmed that skills transferance would not be an issue for our AFF graduates, provided they had passed our course and completed their consols. I am posting this for the public record only. Ally, you are assuming that AFF students abroad get a license. My understanding is that to gain a BPA license the signature of a CCI is needed. How many foreign DZ's have a BPA CCI. The fact is that the vast majority of graduate from whatever programme apply for a license when they return home? I do accept that there is the theoritical risk of a check jump to ensure the standards required are met. This is however also the case if a student who has not completed their consols at one BPA DZ in the UK moves to another one to complete their consols. " Why risk it " ? As you put it. I do not consider that the ' risk component ' to be all that much. I have on our records only two cases where check jumps were completed by our students in the UK and this would have been the case even if it were an inter BPA DZ student transfer. But why ? Well the cost argument for one , but this is not the only reason I would suggest people come on our course. My principal argument is quality. The principal point is that the requirements are met and 98% of our graduates have not had a problem. It is quite correctly at the discretion of the CCI what happens when a student turn up having trained anywhere else . This is correctly so , and is one of many reasons I have a lot of respect for the BPA system.

We can issue an FAI A license. We do not have a BPA advanced insrtuctor on Staff. I do believe that there is no such thing as a BPA course abroad , as a BPA course can only be run at a BPA affiliated DZ. Only a centre that is based in the UK can affiliate. We have checked... We are a USPA Centre with USPA staff, who have been quite happily training people from the UK who have not had a difficulty on their return at integrating into the UK system. Sibson, Nethers, Cark , South Cerney , Headcorn, Tilstock, Peterlee Hinton, Hibalstow , and Wild Geese to name but a few DZ's where our graduates have jumped and recieved their license without a problem ( or check jump ). The fact that we are not affiliated to the BPA has for us , or our clients ( 50% of whom take a second or third holiday with us ) has not an been an issue. We provide a quality alternative for people wishing to train abroad on a week long camp. I hope I have clarified , both the question and real issues for you.

Ally, perhaps you could clarify your question ?