sweep

Hi Jamie, I don't really know enough to advise you where to go overseas, others on here will be able to help you with that. One thing you need to consider (which you may not know about) is that that UK has just introduced a new canopy handling training system, part of which (the CH1 grade) is a requirement for an A licence. This means that the UK training syllabus now contains a range of exercises and skills development under canopy which may not be covered (or not in sufficient depth) at all overseas centres. If you are considering going overseas for AFF it is well worth discussing your plans with the CCI at the UK centre you intend to return to in order to make sure this part of your training is covered and you can be integrated effectively into the UK system. Depending on the CCI's discretion, you could otherwise find your new licence not recognised until you have completed your canopy handling training, placing you on student status in the UK until that time. The centre you plan on returning to will be keen to help, but it will be much easier if you have discussed your options with them in advance of committing to a training venue etc. Remember also that (as previously) the UK requires you to complete 10 consolidation jumps (consols) after AFF 8 before you are considered to have qualified, if you do not complete these overseas you are almost certain to be considered still a student in the UK till these are completed. You would need to be dispatched and supervised by an AFF instructor, and could only jump at a Club where regular AFF parachuting takes place and where AFF instructors are regularly available. So certainly feel free to go overseas, you'll have a great time, but make sure you have discussed the plan for what happens when you return. Your local CCI may well be able to recommend places overseas that will satisfy the UK training requirements, or suggest questions to ask about the syllabus followed. Best, Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

I usually base my replies on the information in the BPA Ops Manual etc (obviously I'm UK based so I know that more than the SIM/IRM but I try and make that distinction clear), or on the way I answer questions when people phone or pop into manifest with them. That wee sarcastic tag line on the end of my posts is more to make clear that where I'm replying with opinions rather than statements of fact people should take a look at my jump numbers and not take my every word as gospel. And also that I don't actually consider myself to be a "100 jump wonder", just a person who's used to answering common questions and has a fairly good knowledge of the ops manual.... Hence the grins etc. Blue ones, Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

This is true, however some people with limited funds believe that shit will happen to them, but prefer to spend their money on remaining current, properly selecting and maintaining mains, reserves and containers, helmets, audibles, altis and other equipment, furthering their training and so on in the belief that spending money in these areas is more of a priority for the shit that is likely to happen to them. I'm fortunate enough to be able to do all this and have an AAD, were I having to make choices based on prioritising my spending I might choose not to replace it when it expires. Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

Just so you know, there are two answers to that first question depending on what you want to know : 1) How long is the maximum time I will be allowed to spend without jumping before I am required to repeat a level, do extra ground training, or fulfill some other requirement before I can make my next jump? 2) How long do you recommend taking between jumps? 1) has been answered above, precise timings etc will vary from centre to centre and country to country but those sound like ones I have heard before. However you should be aware that the answer to 2) is different, and is more along the lines that it is known that the more regularly you jump the safer you will be and the easier you will find it to learn. You should strive at all times to be as current as you can be, particularly in the early stages of your jumping career. AFF especially is designed to be taken as an intensive, continuous programme of instruction and you should really try and complete it in as short a time as possible. It's often suggested to be best to commit a week or two and rattle through it. This will benefit your skills, safety and wallet significantly. If you suspect you may not be able to commit to complete your training intensively you should discuss with an instructor at your centre the possibilities for alternate training methods which may more suit your commitments. An A licence is always yours, however depending on the discretion of the Chief Instructor (S&TA in the US) you may be required to undergo retraining, or coached jumps to assess your skill, or both if you have not jumped in a while. The amount of work required will depend both on how long you have been out, and how experienced you were when you stopped. In terms of learning to freefly, I don't really have the experience to suggest average jump numbers, but in the UK you are required to : (BPA Ops Manual) before being introduced to freeflying. How long this will take will depend on your skills, currency and the types of jumps you have been doing (eg 50 canopy 'hop and pops' will not really build these skills) more than the overall number of jumps you have. Just my 2p Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

I got single trip (14 days) travel insurance to portugal at Christmas from Marks and Spencers for £28.45 including tax. It's a pretty good policy, lots of benefits/inclusions and good cover. The skydiving is as far as I can make out and from my discussions with them pretty much unrestricted. You can contact them on 0800 068 3918 sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

My manifest team has only one girl out of seven (plus another girl in training). And all of them are good tempered and pleasant! I like to think that Michelle is the second-best person on the team, but in reality I guess she's probably better than me too... One thing I have noticed (at work as well as in the manifest) is that many girls seem to be better at excelling in different skill-sets at the same time. For example, creatively organising lifts and making the best use of aircraft time is a very different skill to customer care or keeping neat paperwork. Not saying guys can't do all this at once (presumably there's a reason I got put in charge...) but I have found more women that can than guys that can without a lot of practice. Also, could it be to do with the fact that you don't necessarily have to be a jumper to manifest and there are probably more freefall-widows than freefall-widowers trying to find something to do at the DZ so they can see their partners of a weekend? Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

At the DZ where I manifest, when I give tandem students the club indemnity (waiver) to sign, I say to them "This makes you a member of Skydive Strathallan, which you need to be to jump here. When you sign this you're saying you understand that skydiving is not an everyday activity. There is an element of risk,although it's highly controlled, and in the unlikely event that something were to happen you wouldn't sue the club, the landowner and so on". I think that strikes a good balance between reassuring them that we're not a bunch of cowboys and reminding them that they aren't playing golf for the afternoon. And it brings out the salient points of the indemnity. I'd be interested in what other people think though. We also have signs up all over the premises saying "Skydiving is dangerous. Just by being here you risk serious injury or death. If you cannot accept this risk go home now." Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

I don't know about dust devils, but I was on DZ control one day a while ago when a tandem caught a huge thermal and went from 4000 feet back up to around 6500. (The pilot radioed down to ask me why they had opened so high when he passed them at 6.5 in the descent). They were up there about 20-25 minutes, and when they landed had ice on their packs/gloves. Needless to say we stood the tandems down for the rest of the day.... Thermals are powerful things if you get caught up in them. Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

That's interesting, in the UK I believe we start much lower than that, certainly overhead my club. I know that when I call the ATC in the morning to take us active I report that we're operating up to FL105 (10,500 feet), and I'm sure I've heard pilots talking to Scottish speaking in flight levels right from the time they enter the airway overhead (FL55), and seen FLs used as the bottom limits of airways as low as FL45 etc on air charts. Perhaps someone could correct me if I'm wrong, I'd thought that generally altitudes were generally used for local traffic areas (eg approach lanes, patterns etc) and flight levels for transit etc. What altitude setting do you use for up to FL180? NB I'm not a pilot or ATC, just a geek that finds that side of things interesting Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

Going by his profile I'm surprised he did hop and pops from 3k to 4.5k. Could have fitted in a good long delay and felt comfortable ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

I believe the CAA has been putting a lot of pressure on the BPA to enforce the cloud-busting regulations recently. One thing I'm curious about, why do you have weather holds with blanket clouds at 5K? Why not jump at 5K? I find that 5K lifts are good fun for canopy time, practicing exits and launches and it's certainly better than sitting on the ground (from my point of view). Even a 3K or a 3500 lob is a good laugh. Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

From Section 8 of the BPA ops manual : It's not enough to be able to spot, you have to have a hole big enough that for every exit on the runin you can see all the ground between the opening point and the landing area. That being said, you are correct that there is no specific rule about freefalling/flying through cloud if the above conditions are met at the time of exit. Bear in mind that although clouds will often prevent full altitude there are very few days (at least in Scotland from my experience) where the cloudbase is below 2,200 feet which is about the lowest an A licenced jumper or above can leave the aircraft to have an open canopy by 2000 feet AGL. Just cos it's cloudy does not mean you can't jump. I get a feeling from posts on this and the UK newsgroup (though not from my club, where we are fairly strict about enforcing this) that this is one of the most commonly broken ops manual rules. There are even photos in this months club news at the back of the mag that look pretty dodgy (though none of the photos have a straight down view so it is entirely possible that all the featured descents were above a large hole and therefore legal). There have been two UK fatalities in the last year where poor spotting as a result of relying on GPS and jumping through cloud have been considered to be a factor. There have probably been many more off-landing non-incidents in similar circumstances - remember it only takes a small error to complete the chain of events once started. Jumping when you are unable to visually check the spot is dangerous, not to mention the increased risk of in-air collisions due to other traffic in, or hidden by, clouds. I don't believe it's worth the risk just to get that extra height for a jump, and I think people need to be less complacent with this activity. But that's just my opinion..... Sweep. ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

Tandem jumps will include provisional BPA membership in the price, this is valid for Tandem and Static Line jumps up to a year from the date of issue. As AFF involves solo freefall (eg not attached to anyone) from the first jump you will be required to take out full BPA membership, some places include it others charge it separate. If you do your AFF within a year of the Tandem you will be able to convert your Provisional membership to Full Membership, this is a little cheaper than taking out full membership brand new (only around £20 or so, but hey it's a jump). Kit hire varies a lot from place to place but it's usually not too bad, at the club I jump at it's charged at £15 a jump with £10 back if you pack it yourself : so if you get your packing certificate it only works out at a fiver a jump extra, not too painful in the short term till you're ready to buy. If you don't get replies from BKPC/NWPC jumpers on here, try uk.rec.skydiving. Or put BKPC/NWPC in a post title on here for a higher chance of someone from there spotting it. Best, Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

Bear in mind that the UK has just introduced a new canopy handling training system, part of which (the CH1 grade) is a requirement for an A licence. If you are considering going overseas for AFF it is well worth discussing your plans with the CCI at the UK drop zone you plan to return to in advance of booking anything. This will ensure your bases are covered when you return and allow you to be integrated into the UK system without difficulty. You can use the Drop zone locator at http://www.bpa.org.uk/dropzone/dzone.htm to find a DZ near you, I believe Cark (weekends only) and Black Knights (7 days May-Sep and weekdays only the rest of the year) are the nearest to Manchester. Haven't been to either but I have heard good things about both. I believe the going rate in the UK for an AFF course is around £1200 - £1300, plus BPA membership (£115) and of course any rejumps required which depend on how you pick things up and whether you need to repeat levels with two instructors or one. Following completion of the 8 AFF levels the UK system requires you to complete 10 consolidation jumps, pricing may vary but allow another few hundred pounds. Whether or not you go abroad it's best to try and commit to do the AFF in as short a timespan as possible as currency will vastly reduce the likelihood of needing to repeat levels. Kit wise it varies a lot with what you want, I bought my first kit for £1300 second hand and it's still going strong 100 jumps later and hasn't dropped a lot in value. Or you could spend a lot of money on brand new gear - it's your call. Hope that helps, Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

The one I've generally heard is fairly simple : Aim ----- Become a millionaire owning a DZ Pre-requisites --------------- Two million pounds I don't know how things work in the states but in the UK the government provides, directly or indirectly, a lot of help with starting new businesses. Small business advisors, enterprise agencies, even the taxman will spend a lot of time sitting down with you helping to prepare your proposals and make sure you have everything covered. Don't see why that should be different for a DZ than anything else. They may also be able to advise on start-up grants and government sponsored loans to encourage new businesses, these applications may be helped by information showing the number of people your DZ will bring to the area and the money they will spend on wet-weather entertainment, accommodation, food etc. As others have said though, in the end with the banks it comes down to the financials. If you can convince them you can repay their loan eventually and make them a rake of interest in the meantime they will go with it. Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

One fatality in the UK last year : jumping through cloud was felt to be a contributing factor, although the fatality was primarily a result of poor canopy selection and skills. A lift exited a long way from the DZ and landed not far from a wind-farm and numerous other hazards. One jumper on a small canopy is believed to have made a panic turn to avoid a fence identified at the last minute. While there is a possibilty this same fatality may have happened on a perfectly spotted load at the DZ the panel felt it was fair to suggest that the number of hazards in the out-landing area cannot have helped. ISTR hearing that cloud was a factor in one of the early mid-airs in the UK some time ago. Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

I was on DZ control last weekend when a guy stood next to me mentioned he could see the drogue. I was a little confused as there were no tandems on the lift. Needless to say the white jumpsuited sitflyer was less than flattered when I told him his arse had been mistaken for the Vector drogue.... Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

I wouldn't expect it to happen again any time soon Edit to add : and you know all the big words, which is probably why yours took longer to type ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

I believe it's to do with being able to focus your eyes. If you know exactly where the jumpers/planes are then your eyes can focus on them and you see them. Once your eyes are focused on them they automatically stay focused as the dots move around/get closer. If you don't know then your eyes will be focused on the sky (eg infinity) and so the small dots will blur into that. If you could pre-focus your eyes to 10k then you'd spot them every time. It's a bit like those wierd 3d pictures that you have to focus past to see... Using binoculars/telemeters isn't a real problem even on a sunny day so long as you take precautions to make sure you know where the sun is and avoid pointing them in that direction. Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

Our club's in Scotland and only open at the weekends so even if you did charge you'd be hard pushed to make any kind of living out of it beyond a bit on top of your 'real job' wages. Also most of our coaches are also club instructors which means they get all their slots free (for anything), so their only expenses are buying a rig or two, BPA membership, becoming an instructor in the first place, travelling to the DZ, eating, reserve packing and the like. Not too much outlay on beer though, which is the student's area of expenditure. I wasn't suggesting that where it is practical to make a living skydiving you shouldn't do that, but we've always been a club. As such the people who are now coaches didn't pay extra for their coaching, and I like that they want to pass those skills on to others. I suppose it depends on whether you look at it as they are working therefore they should be being paid, or they are jumping which they clearly want to do regularly, so they get to have the chance to jump free - and if they enjoy coaching as much or more than say competition jumping it works out well for them. Also nothing exists in a vacuum, it's not just the coaches that give to the club, so do the DZ controllers, people that clean up, people that maintain the building, pilots, the lot. Everyone does their bit. I like the idea of making a living jumping, but I also like the idea that instructing/coaching and progressing the future of the sport is its own reward. Nothing against people that think the other way but I think I will always have a day job to pay the rent and if I can save some money on my hobby by instructing, even better. Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

My club, our coaches don't charge at all. And if we jump at the club, the club pays the coach's slot and the student pays just their own slot. Most of the coaches if we jump elsewhere (eg on holiday) pay their own slots. But I know we're very unusual in that, we still have a strong attitude of coaching is something you should do a) because you owe it to the people who coached you and b) because you enjoy it. I guess our attitude is fairly out of date compared to the modern professional (eg money-making) direction of the sport but that's why I like the place so much... I did once while on holiday come across a coach who not only charged slots and a fee, but also charged a packing fee for his rig - when he was packing for himself. Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

Or "Learning to Fly" also Tom Petty. Sometimes I like to sing the music from Drop Zone (the film) to myself.... sad or what Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

Of course the advantage in Britain is that we have dedicated DZ controllers who are able, to an extent, to monitor traffic below cloud level that may not be visible from the acft. Also, in my experience on DZ control, pilots are very good at keeping in touch with drop zones when they're even remotely close to our dropping radius in order to get information on traffic etc. We have very rarely had bandits overfly at my DZ, and when they have done we have always known about them well before they were close enough to pose a hazard. And at our club, the overhead above 5,500 is an airway so we get a lot of help from Scottish ATC who are very keen to make sure that we aren't dropping people through other aircraft. All of which means that IMHO it is appropriate that our cloud clearance rules are that you can jump if you can see all the ground between the opening point and the landing area - since on the whole traffic clearance is less of an issue for us than spotting, ground hazards and other parachutists from the same or other lifts. I think a couple of UK incidents a few years back also sharpened the minds of many of our pilots and glider pilots in addition to our DZ controllers.... Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

The morning after my course and first jump I was woken by the sun about 7am (I was camping). The hangar doors had been left open and leaves had blown in overnight. For want of anything better to do I went and found a broom and started to sweep them out. Within two hours I had a nickname and a bunch of new friends Let people know you are in it for the long haul and you're willing to put back as much as you get out and you'll very quickly become part of the group. I'm now one of the DZ controllers and I head up the manifest team, not quite two years later. Or you can pay your money, make your jumps and go home and stay a customer. Some prefer the first, others the second. It's your call, go the way that works for you. Bringing beer always helps too People always try to get out of beer fines (how many times have you heard people talk about doing their "pre-second" something?) but they are a good way to get chatting to people about what you did to earn the fine..... Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..

Hey Pieter, Nice start! I head up the manifest team for a small DZ in Scotland, and I hope a few comments will be helpful to you. I haven't had a lot of time to look over this yet, but here are my first thoughts : First the positives, the interface is nice - the icons etc look good enough, as far as I can see they are pretty clear as to what they mean, and it's fairly intuitive to see how to do what you need to. You also seem to have most areas of the manifesting covered. Tracking the total weight of the lift as well as the number of jumpers is a nice idea. A few areas that I think need work from first impressions : - it seems a little slow and longwinded to enter the information. IMHO a computer system needs to offer significant advantages either in speed or functionality (preferably both) to paper,pen and calculator. At the moment, there's too much use of the mouse to get around the screens etc. Things that would speed up the entry of data would include : - shortcut keys to the various tabs, command buttons etc. - More filling in of default info - for example if I am viewing "Lisa Brown"'s packing list and I click on "add" the new record should start off with Lisa Brown filled in as the packer. Also if I enter an AFF student the descent type should default to AFF, an experienced to Experienced etc rather than me having to set this by hand. Obviously I still need the option to change it if I want. - Easier use of tab/arrow keys to move through the forms. There should be two options available to the user : the TAB key to go to the next box the computer thinks needs a value (eg bypassing anything it can fill in by default) and the arrow keys and mouse to go back into a box when you need to change the computer's default. Also drop-down lists should probably drop down automatically when you tab into them rather than needing a click to open them. - Any box you tab into should start with the text highlighted so that what you type automatically replaces the existing entry - for example I don't want to have to delete "0.00" manually before I enter the price of something. - Dropdown lists etc should have auto-completion based on existing values. If I enter a value that's not in the list (eg a new skydiver) it should automatically create a record for them (rather than having to go to People, create a new person, and then go back to the manifest). - There needs to be more scope for entering multiple info : I need to be able to put in several packjobs by the same person on the same rig all at once. Also although the packing log is a nice idea it's unlikely that the manifestor has the time or inclination to enter the packing notes, packing type etc for every packjob on the DZ. Even with only 20 Cessna lifts in a day if say half of them were tandems/students/kit hires that could be 50 or more packjobs. Then again I guess you can just ignore that function if you don't need it, but any DZ needs a consistent system for this so that there's only one place to look for the info on a packjob regardless of who's packing/manifesting that day. - I should be able to enter tandems/aff jumps in one step, rather than separately entering the TI, setting it to a TI jump, then the student and setting it to a tandem student, then setting separate altitudes for each. - When I've saved a new record, the system should take me back to where I came from rather than leaving me in the record I've just created and saved. - There are some entries where the default value is probably not the one I usually want (for example if I enter a new record in Finance it should really default to "Affects Account" rather than not. That way I don't need to set it myself every time). Other notes : - Waiver should probably be an expiry date rather than a tickbox, and I guess there should also be USPA/BPA/whatever membership expiry, club membership expiry, medical expiry dates tracked : and the system should check these when you manifest people. Even if I set Lisa Brown's "Waiver" to unchecked I was able to manifest her without even a warning message. Bear in mind here (and throughout) I should be able to manifest someone even if the computer says her waiver etc is out of date : so long as I've been warned. Maybe I have the new form on my desk and I've just not had time to put in the new date on the computer yet. - It would be good if when you add a team to a lift it shows the names of the people on the team so you can see that you have the right people (for example if the team is jumping an alternate that lift). Also when you enter a team descent it seems to calculate the price still based on one slot, rather than the number actually in the team. Also where do these charges show up in the finances? - If I leave a form having changed data but not saved it, I need to be asked if I want to save or lose the changes. - Kit hire and jumps should probably show up separately in the finances so you can track income from these as separate budgets. Those are just my first thoughts, I'll try and make some time this week or next to have a proper look at the system and see how I get on. Hope you don't think they're too negative - you've got a good foundation here but like I say there are various things which in my opinion need work if you want the system to be usable and fast enough to let the manifestors keep up with the planes. I'm sure you know how unpopular manifestors become if engine time gets wasted waiting for the next lift to be manifested and kitted up Cheers, Sweep ---- Yay! I'm now a 200 jump wonder.... Still a know-it-all tho..