ostrich

I watched that three parter and I'm unreasonably irritated we did not get a technical explanation on how those slinks were reached in the reserve container to be cut and the main packed with a malfunction in the few minutes the police say he was alone with the rig in a bathroom. Dang it, these are real questions that need answers.

Hi Mark! Good to meet you. Jump to conclusions much? This student was on her 24th jump. A self-supervised jump. Of course she gets 2 gear checks before she gets on the plane, and 2 before she leaves the plane from the person supervising her, but not the packing data card. Did she learn a lesson? Yes she did.

I'm the instructor who found it. I'm the instructor that was shocked at the packing data card and asked around till I found out what happened. The rigger in question had logged it but not filled out the card. End of story. No pencil pack. Complete lack of signature is what alerted me. This rigger takes care of 20+ rigs for us and its the first time I've run into this in my 6 years on staff at SOI. Move along now. --I'm also out at Skydive Orange every single weekend. My DZ.com handle is the name I'm known by everyone there, so feel free to find me if you have any concerns. I'm not hiding behind an anonymous name.

At our DZ we require all our instructors to wear jumpsuits. Our most experienced Tandem Master with thousands of tandems wears as baggy a jumpsuit as he can find for his safety and for his students. He's a bad ass at every thing else he does, free flying or RW, so I don't think he's using it as a crutch. That's the example I follow. Our camera folks wear big enough wings to stay with things when they go slow, and go head down or arch harder when things go fast.

I own a g3 and and Odyssey. My next rig will be an Odyssey. Sunpath has better prices, and better customer support. Just my two cents.

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My favorite was the student who showed up the night before and got real testy around the camp fire. Its a bad idea to pick fights with the guys who are going to save your life on a tandem the next day.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/09/08/genesis.entry.cnn/index.html So who packed it?

Read up on FAR part 105 , particularly 105.15 http://www.uspa.org/publications/SIM/2004SIM/section9part105.htm

When Spectres were first out and I got a brand new one, I was convinced something was wrong with it because of the slow openings. I had transitioned from a Falcon 195 and was used to something more brisk. I had my rigger verify that the slider was the right size, I sent emails back and forth to PD. I was thinking using a heated coffee can to put a hole in my slider to speed things up. Then, after about 75 jumps on the canopy, it stopped snivelling for 1000 feet and has some of the nicest openings of anytighin I've jumped. Just give it awhile to break in.

Congrats! Now the students can start really educating you on what it takes. When I first got my rating I thought I'd never see a student as bad as what we had in Don's course. Boy was I wrong! Just when you relax, that's when they'll get ya!

I just had a very positive experience with a student who was having confidence issues on her Cat D's. On her own, she decided to attend an organized tunnel camp. She came back with a new confidence in herself and really nice turns. The tunnel coaches adapted their program to suit her, and didn't push the mantis on her. It worked out great.

When I first saw them on our Mirage RTS', I wasn't sure what to do with it and thought it looked silly But once a more experienced instructor showed me how the belly band made the rig fit better on smaller students, I really like it.

I fly me first, the student second. I find that just yelling "ARCH!" into their ear usually has better results than wasting time on trying to trap them (though I've had to resort to that a few times)

The first 20 or so jumps on my Spectre were just like that. Took about 1000 feet to open. Now its about 500-700 feet, but still nice and soft. I never roll the nose or push it in, just quarter the slider, and barely roll the tail.

Funks, as the instructor who drew the short straw and was working with you for the day, I feel compelled to chime in. There were a lot of red flags, and I probably should never have let you get on that plane. Here’s how I remember that day: • You showed up at 3pm on and wanted to rent a rig. We had to quiz you to discover you needed a recurrency. • You had no paperwork, logbook or anything to show your currency. • I understood you had been out five months and were jonesing for a jump, so I handed off the paying students I had to make time to work with you. • When I suggested you should get in the leaning harness and practice procedures, you argued about it and sad “it would make me look silly”. That’s a way to get on someone’s good side, to think that practicing emergency procedures would make you look silly. I should have seen the red flag and stopped it right there. • I called the DZ your went through AFF at and they described you as “sketchy” and “always trying to cut corners”. Red flag 2 • When being quizzed on basic skydiving information, you were unable to calculate your estimated deployment speed for a 30 second freefall. You kept insisting that you would be opening at less than terminal after 30 seconds. Red flag 3. • We planned a simple two way where you would do a floater exit, back flip and dock on me from 10 feet. You expressed you weren’t sure if you could do these maneuvers on your belly . Red Flag 4 • On the 20 minute call, I told you I was going to get ready. On the 5 minute call you still weren’t ready. I checked that your AAD was on and your rig checked out, your alti was set to zero so down to the plane we went. When I asked if you had everything, you said yes. At 10k you discovered you didn’t have your goggles. Red Flag 5 • When we got down for attempt no. 2, I had other obligations, so I handed you off to another of our good instructors. You talked him into sit flying the jump with you and that’s when your exposed bridle pulled your pilot chute and gave you the preemie. I’m glad you’re ok from that and especially glad you probably weren’t at full terminal when it happened. • We all watched you backing away from the dropzone and were all hoping you’d spiral. I’m your size and I’ve spiraled that canopy plenty myself. It’s a semi-ellipitcal 280. • We sent a car after you, AND waited at the gate you were supposed to walk out too. You never showed, so after your buddy got out of the car to walk to you, we considered you ok. You didn't check in with manifest when you came in, just dropped our rig in a pile a took off. I reckon that's because you had already made your date an hour late for her son's birthday party. Dude, if that girl doesn't drop after that story of a second date, she's a keeper. Now I’ve got other local DZ’s asking for your description so if you show up there asking for a recurrency, they’ll know you better land on or you’ll whine to the world. As far as I'm concerned you are welcome to come back here and jump anytime, but I hope you'll have a different attitude.

Just a heads up. We've run into some problems getting the second otter. We're still having the camp, and activelt working on the second plane.

October 10,11,12 Guy Wright will be leading our camp in preparation for the 100 way. We'll have 2 super otters for formation loads. Contact me if you need more info.[email]ostrich@solloway.net

I went through the ISP at program at Orange and have been on the instructional staff for the last 2 years, so I'm a tad biased . I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about our program. If you enjoyed your tandem, skydiving only gets better from there!

Don't forget to make plans to be at the our big way camp Friday, June 27th - Sunday, June 29th. This camp will be the first of two to prepare for the 100 way at the end of the season. The cost will only be a $20 registration fee and the cost of your jumps will be the usual $20. So practically free coaching!

Love it. I've got 500+ jumps onmy 170 with a 1.24 wingloadiing. It does everything I want.

A coach rating was one of the best steps I ever took. Its fun, immensely rewarding, and a great way to see if you like teaching this stuff. As a coach, you get to be the first person someone deliberately docks on. I never get over the great smiles students have on their faces after their first swoop and dock.

We're not that far along yet. We had to pick up 2 new centers and we're still adapting. Once we get our A slots nailed, we'll start trying out B slots and switching.

This is a quality product. We bought a copy for every member of our team and have added a computer to our team room so we can use it on training days. Anyone who remembers the fun of fastforwarding and rewinding the 4'99 tape will love having exits and transitions one click away.

You've actually seen cans of whipped cream with the nitros oxide still in them? I thought the nitros is removed at checkout...at least that's what I tell my girlfriend by the time I get the cans home.