MakeItHappen

Wow only 25 secs from exit to pull. Pull was at 4k as seen on vid. So what does that make the exit altitude? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

You could do that in the 1980s too. You could get an AFF JM rating and go out with any level AFF student. IIRC, the only thing that an AFF JM could not do that an AFF I could do was teach the FJC. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I will soon, but it's much too long for a post here. No, not really. More on that later. The tandem industry has taken a hard hit recently because of one incompetent TI and contributing factors from other companies. You'll hear that story soon too. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

There are issues that you have overlooked that will trump the arguments that you have given. Getting people into training others starts early. At 100 jumps you can teach all the non-method specific topics. These topics are not complicated and every jumper needs to know them. Flying skills may not be all that great, but you don't need to be a world champion to lay base for a student. Practical issues that occur at small DZs are that jumpers may only get 50-100 jumps per season. Today most of the coaches that come from small DZs already have 2 years in the sport. It would severely limit the number of people becoming coaches if you bump up the rating to 200 jumps. That limits what the DZ can provide. Some large DZs don't use coaches. They have plenty of people to choose their staff from. Why choose a coach when you can have an I? At the larger DZs is where you usually see people getting the coach then AFF ratings back to back. Look at the whole picture - including the economic aspects. At a big DZ you get to choose between a multi-thousand jump jumper that got back to back ratings v. a coach with 100 jumps. At a small DZ your only applicants are the 100 jump coaches, who may leave the sport sooner if they don't find more meaning to their jumping. The major reason of bad coaches or Is out there is within the rating courses, eg the IEs. Several years ago someone gave me a DVD with every jump from an AFFCC. Every jump was recorded. There were jumps that should have been zeros. There was one evaluator that turned his dummy handle to be in better position for the candidate at pull time. etc, etc. At the next AFF standardization mtg I brought up the idea of using real AFF eval jumps to distribute to all the AFF IEs. Then they would watch each jump and grade it. Then the grades would be compared. That would help ensure a more uniform grading policy. The idea was shot down because several AFFCD did not want their vids distributed and there was a model release issue. There is also the difference between watching a dive 3rd person and actually being on it, & off-screen issues. But I think that enough vids can be gathered to help get the grading standardized. FMI The End of Level One . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I'm repeating verbatim what I was told by the RD. Take it for what you will. Yeah I know that. I was saying that the party line was BS. Well, suppose an RW or CRW or Swoop 'instructor' failed to notice a mis-fasten chest strap on someone on their load. Would that person be held accountable to the same level of an I supervising students? So, you have numbers for one group, but not the other? I'm referring to the printed 2008 statistics report from APF, as reported to the FAI by the USPA. This iwas handed out at the APF conference in May. The figures for 2007 jibe with what Ed presented at the BOD meeting in January of 2008. I don't have the APF report. Is it online? He he he - You look at two year slices? Yeah bend the 'stats' the way you want to. I can claim that from 1981-1987 - AFF had 0 fats 2001-2007 AFF had 4 or 5 fats. I don't know the # off the top of my head. Nope, that's not right either. You can go read each year's summary fat rpt and the individual incidents and correlate them to media rpts and get a much clearer picture. I think the type of incident matters too. Stuff like tandem fallouts and experienced jumpers crashing into students just did not happen in the last century. None of the 3 persons causing those accidents has ever been reprimanded by USPA, yet those are the most egregious accidents of this century. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

That is pure BS. USPA has revoked memberships of people putting out students without ratings. But in the WS case, I am not so sure that in can be assumed that the 'WS coach/instructor' had the same level of duty as a SL/IAD/AFF or T instructor that works with students. I call BS on this claim too. AFF was adopted by USPA in Oct 1981. The first AFF student fatality was after Oct 1987. During the 1990's IIRC, there were two AFF student fatalities, two AFF student suicides and two AFF JM/I fatalities. During the last decade there has been an increase in AFF student fatalities. I will note that student fatalities in the past couple of years in both AFF and tandem have risen and are alarming. The tandem fatality rate in the past 5 years is comparable to the tandem fatality rate during the 1980s. FMI see The Chase annual fatality reports SE tandem fatality report from Reno 2009 . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

It is also a good idea to put your weights in the checked luggage and not in the bag with your rig. The lead in the weights is a big "I can't see that" on the x-rays. The funniest story I've heard was someone flying out of ONT. Some new jumper type happen to be the TSA agent and 'knew all about parachute rigs'. He pulled out the packing data card and the rig was out of date. He did not want to let the person onboard with an out of date reserve. After some delicate discussions, the person was allowed on. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

It's SR-99, not I-99. Big difference in the exits. But to answer your question, I landed over on the east side of SR-99 in the grapes many moons ago (on one the access roads). No big deal. All the grape fields have access roads that you can easily land on, no matter which way the wind is blowing. Lemme tell you about this one exit that happened back in 93. Bill had his group in the porter to exit before our 4-way team. Now, one guy on our team habitually pulled low- like around 1500ft. Let's call him 'Andy'. Bill did not particularly like Andy pulling low all the time. So this one day, Stretch was flying the porter, Bill was first pass, as usual. Bill and his group climb out. Then Bill pokes his head back inside the plane to converse with Andy. He says to Andy "You know Andy, you can't pull low on this jump because your spot is going to be way long." Andy says "Well, hurry up and exit then" Bill retorts back "Hey Andy, you know I don't like you pulling low. You know that might mean your team can't jump here anymore." Andy says "Well, we'll just go to skydance." Bill says, "Yeah, but that's gonna cost you guys a bunch more money." Andy says, "Will you just exit now Bill - our spot is going to shit." (by this time Bill and his group had been out on the step for about 30 seconds.) Bill says "Andy will you pull above two thousand on this jump?" Andy says 'yeah - just get the fuck out." Bill pulls himself back out to the center floater slot and gives the count for his group. They exit and all of us immediately stick our head out the door to check the spot. We are right over the top of the DZ! They exited as they crossed the highway (SR-99). We waited another few seconds before starting our climb out. Andy pulled above 2k the rest of the summer. Now that's planning. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Lodi is off of 99 not I-5. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

RIP Herc. On the bright side, there is a new slot open for another dog in your heart. Happy Holidays from me and Spock (RePete's legacy - big pointy ears) and Max. pic of RePete and Max. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I imagine that is for the "conditional student" who will do everything right. DSE- I seriously doubt that the EC is reading this or any other thread. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

So - ummmm - does this mean I won't be getting a circular saw re-gifted to me to replace my gate? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Yeah I know it is not cool to give a gift that you got from someone and then give it to someone that could actually use it. But from the practical standpoint, suppose someone gave you an upgrade gift to something you already had and made the old item obsolete? For example, suppose you got a new circular saw with wizbang features that busted out your old circular saw. What would you do with the old circular saw? Wouldn't it be cool to give that old circular saw to someone that needed it for a one time project - something like replacing a gate and then did not need it for anything else who could then re-gift it again? What would you do? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Thanks. That gave me the distance I needed. Turns out that the hooks can be rotated. They are independent. So I rotated them to be inline. Hooked the bottom one on and used the eyelet holes for leverage to extend the spring with a screw driver. New spring in. Door works fine. Cost $18. Time spent about 1/2 hour. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

You guys are thinking torsion springs, not extension springs. Torsion springs are a job for the pros. This is a simple extension spring replacement. The only hard part is stretching the spring to the fixtures. And all extension springs made today have internal cables that prevent the spring from careening through the garage when it breaks. The one that broke did not go anywhere. It was when I tried to open the door the next time that I noticed it was broken. It was a bitch to get the door up and propped open, but very doable. After I put on the counterweights, it was not that much different than with the springs all working. Found out just now that the replacement part that I bought is not correct. The hooks at each end are 90 degrees offset. I need a spring with the hooks inline. Part of that error came from not being able to read one letter of the label on the existing springs. It looks like I'll have to stretch it about an inch total to clear the hook over the retainer. Also - this is a one-piece door, not one that is segmented and rolls up on a track. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I haven't had success on the diy forums, so I thought maybe someone here would know. I have to replace an extension spring on my single piece, swing-up garage door. It appears that when the door is open the other spring (2 each side) is stretched about 1/2 inch. One spring broke & HD only had one spring on the shelf. Second one is back-ordered. I put some counter weights on the door to keep it open, but it is still hard to lift it into place. I will also put in stops to prevent the door from falling down when I replace the spring. Does anyone know of a good technique to stretch the spring and how much force it will take to put the new one on? I want to do this in the morning when the sun illuminates the garage. I'm thinking a long screwdriver with a helper or suspending weights from the top of the spring, if my brute force arms can't stretch it enough. I tried to stretch the new spring last night and I can only pull it about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. I was standing on a screwdriver holding the lower hook and pulled up on the spring. (The lower hook was offset on the edge of the walkway.) The geometry of actual installation gives me a better grip and leverage than that. Any ideas or tricks? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

You have it backwards. Life without teeth sucks. The dental work makes your life better. I used to ask for 2 dentist visits for my birthday present when I was a kid. That was long before all the trauma of teeth being knocked out over and over again. I have LOTS of experience with dental work. First, novacaine comes in two flavors nowadays. One is the regular novacaine and the other is spiked with ephnephrine(sp?). The spiked one acts better and is more localized. I have a sensitivity to it - it keeps me awake for 12 hours. I always ask for the unspiked version. Second, pain after root canals is minimal - at least for the ones I've had. I never filled the pain prescriptions. Only took one generic aspirin about once every 12 hours. Wisdom teeth pulled is mild too, unless it's impacted. I've only had two of them pulled and that was back in college. The dentist kinda OD me w/ novacaine and I fainted when I stood up after he said I could leave. About a half hour later I was fine. I had a lower molar root canal in 04. It was actually one of TopDock's fillings that cracked during the high altitude jumps in Thailand for the 257-way WR. That one was pretty straightforward. The only pain was during the jumps and the extra time I waited until I got back home to get it fixed. Another root canal was on a front tooth that was knocked out & re-implanted when I was in 6th grade. I don't remember it being painful - just really weird sensations during the root canal. My most recent root canal was last Dec on a tooth that holds my 6 tooth bridge in. It was the tooth between the front tooth and incisor. It is a very important tooth because it holds the bridge in. I went to an endodontist for that one, same guy for the 04 RC. It was not painful, scripts not filled or taken. But about 3 months later, it started tingling again. He redid the RC (for free). It still seemed to be infected, but I ate lots of garlic and it became better. Garlic is a natural antibiotic. Today it's fine. My 3 RC were all related to trauma that the teeth experienced. Teeth that are re-implanted, capped or have broken fillings have a greater chance of needing a RC later on. The only time I took the pain killers was when my 3-tooth bridge was knocked out. The two good teeth that held the bridge in were broken off and my lower lip was split open by a bad hop softball down third base. That was an ER trip too. I also got my plane ticket to nationals refunded when I went to the travel agent and showed her my mouth without front teeth. I had to go about a month without front teeth. That was not fun. Grocery shopping was a challenge to self-esteem. I finally got a 3 tooth flipper hours before an interview for a teaching position. Since my speech had not corrected itself, I told them that in a day or two I would be able to speak normally. I got the job too. Temp crowns are not all that bad. In 6th grade I had a cast on my front teeth after they reimplanted the front tooth that was knocked out. I ate cheese sandwiches that were cut into thin slices for a month or so. There were many foods I could not eat when I had the 1-tooth or 3 tooth flipper. To this day I don't eat corn nuts, corn on the cob or apples. I really miss corn on the cob. . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I have fond memories about that demo and the happenings in the months that followed. Read about it my book. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

In the real world though, the complaining party would have to expend time and funds to remedy the 'failure to remediate' as agreed. Read these cases: http://domains.adrforum.com/domains/decisions/749489.htm http://domains.adrforum.com/domains/decisions/757483.htm Now look up whois records for the pertinent domain names http://whois.domaintools.com/skydivingarizona.com http://whois.domaintools.com/arizonaskydive.com http://whois.domaintools.com/skydivearizona.net http://whois.domaintools.com/arizonaskydive.com Two of these domains are still listed to IGOVincent, aka CQ, aka SR. Two domains were let expired by SR and picked up by a domain squatter. Gee whiz - How did that happen? I know some of the details on that. Just because there is some court order or settlement agreement where SR promises to do things is not assurance of compliance to the court order or agreement. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Here is an excerpt from one of the chapters. It only has 'the facts', not my take on it. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Nice Simon. One idea that has not been brought up in this thread is the fatality rate at FAI or (any nation) nationals compared to non-competitor fatality rate. Based only on my IIRC memory, the absolute number of fatalities at comps is very low. It's not zero. I tend to think the fatality rate is, on average, nearly the same fatality rate as the 'fun jumper' crowd. IOW, competitors do not have super powers that the rest of the mere mortals don't have. Competitors make the same kind of mistakes as the average Joe jumper. Those mistakes include mis-swoops, mis-rigging, canopy collisions, mid-air freefall collisions, biffed landings etc. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Wow this is cool. Check out the DARPA Challenge I registered already. So if you see one of these balloons on Sat. email me the location (lat & long) plus what balloon number it is. Aerosoftware_AT_MakeItHappen.com Prize money to be split among those that provide the right location and balloon number. Be aware that there might be imposter balloons out there. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

With all respect I don't really agree with that. Saying that I perfectly agree that when tracking in a group and following the leader shows the real ability to track, nevertheless to know how to track lots of dedicated jumps while playing with the body position and checking that against the numbers needs to be made. The key is how relative you are to the others in the group. That group might be a tracking dive, first wave, second wave or third wave of a bigway. Video is the best teacher. Each wave in a bigway tracks slightly differently too, and they all need to flat track. If you brought your numbers up to any bigway organizer and asked how you could improve, they wouldn't know the answer. The answer would be to look at the video and see if you are tracking relative to your group and not passing the group in front of you. Also the turn everyone makes to track has a big influence on the initial setup of the tracking group. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

...that's gonna make it tough. Knocked out my best 4 suggestions. There's always chapter titles. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Fast Forward to the Year 2050 . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker