leesamsiel

IMO that DZ is out of touch. We have had healthy people in their 50's take the S/L course and continue skydiving for 15 or 20 yrs. On the other hand, if you smoke two packs a day and are 100 lbs overweight, you might not be fit to skydive safely at 50. LS

You have also got to have functioning Mode C if you overfly the top of Bravo or Charlie airspace...which may often be under 10,000' MSL. LS

Unfortunately TCAS (Traff. Collision Avoidance System) will not show an aircraft unless it has a functioning Mode C transponder that is turned "on." Even more unfortunate is the fact that some pilots flying TCAS-equipped planes do not know this. Also the information from TCAS is not "real time." I would not be surprised if the tow plane did not have a Mode C transponder which is prefectly legal. IMHO pilots who rely upon the TCAS system for collision avoidance even when their aircraft is so equipped should not be flying. I have never heard of a glider carrying a Mode C transponder although I am sure some do. Even more scary: it is perfectly legal to fly in the traffic pattern of an untowered airport w/o a radio -- therefore obviously no position announcements would be made. So... "Look Out!" folks. LS

You are too fixated on wingloading. The absolute size of your canopy is much more important. By studying vids of hundreds of jumpers landing w/ various size canopies and wingloadings in different wind conditions, it has become apparent that the absolute size of your canopy is much more important than W/L alone. Example: a 200sqft canopy W/L at 1.0 is going to be far more docile than a 125sqft canopy W/L at 1.0. If you happen to be a very light wt. person & experienced enough to jump a smaller canopy, you can easily prove this to yourself by jumping a fairly small canopy at W/L 1.0 then wear weights and jump the larger canopy also at W/L 1.0. Jumpers w/ highly wingloaded canopies go through the air faster but their angle of descent is no different than a less wingloaded jumper under the same canopy. The message here is: A small canopies' descent rate is fast over anyone's head. This is an elementary fact of aerodynamics which applies as well to airplanes & is understood by few canopy pilots. Assume two GA planes with exactly the same wing surface & aerodynamics have an engine out at the same time side-by-side and one has 500 lbs more weight in it.....if they are both trimmed for max. glide, they will land at the same place, but the heavier one will land a bit sooner. This is equally true for canopy pilots. I suggest you get a friend who has exactly the same size canopy as you but weighs ~40 lbs more than you. Do a 2-way. Open w/ plenty of separation to be safe but close enough that you can compare your canopies' speed and descent rates after opening. See what happens. We have come to be preoccupied w/ wingloading more than absolute canopy size because you don't see many jumpers who are going to be lightly wingloaded with canopies under 125 sqft. How many people do you know that weight 100 lbs w/o gear? So we have come to think it is the W/L more than the actual size of the canopy. Very few jumpers under small canopies (

1. Wear a baggy FreeFly jumpsuit if you have one to get the most air resistance. You'll gain stability at the earliest possible time (~8 - 10 sec. off balloon). Don't be tempted to wear shorts and a t-shirt....it will take you ~1,500' or more of freefall to get stable. You are going to feel uncomfortable right after exit because you can't "fly" the air like you do out of a plane. 2. If you have more than one rig, jump the most docile one you have on your first balloon jump --- hopefully it is not a crotch-rocket. 3. Jump high. Try to talk the balloon pilot into going to 4,000' - 5,000' AGL. They don't like to do this because it consumes propane. Convince him you need the altitude. 4. Look for all possible safe landing areas BEFORE you jump.....land there. Look for hazards BEFORE you jump --- trees, fencelines, wires, power lines, buildings, etc.....avoid them. If you're over a large suburban development, wait until the balloon moves to an area where there is lots of clear space below to land. Don't try to "thread the needle" into a small postage stamp-size landing area (such as an inner city black-topped playground) on your first balloon jump. 5. Decide which way the wind is blowing in relation to the sun before you jump....do you want to be landing into the sun? Away from the sun? With the sun to your right or left? etc. Land into the wind. Usually the winds on the ground are light or the balloon pilot would not have flown, so this is not usually an issue. 6. Pull high (3,000') and make some slow 360 deg. turns to pick your landing area early. Then set up and fly the pattern like you do at your home DZ. 7. This is no time to practice HPL's. 8. Make sure to clear your airspace before jumping....you don't have the luxury of a jump pilot with ATC contact on a balloon jump. The balloon pilot is not going to babysit you on this. You're on your own. 9. After landing, give a big arm wave to let them know you're OK. Most balloon pilots have two-way radios to communicate with their chase van, and they can tell them where to pick you up. I would recommend making your first balloon jump with people who are experienced at hauling skydivers, although you can do them safely with any ballon pilot willing to take you up. Have a good one! LS

I did not get a chance to read this entire thread, and maybe this suggestion has already been offered, but my standard comeback is: "I know a bunch of airplane mechanics and they tell me, 'There isn't anything like a perfectly good airplane.' " LS

IMHO it's a little unreasonable to make a simulated emergency landing in a parking lot or sod farm just for practice. I would question the judgement of a CFI or CFII who would encourage/allow that -- however I am not a CFI, so what would I know. LS

1. Punch the CFI's F'ing lights straight out. 2. Re-power the A/C back up. 3. Land the A/C safely at my convenience. Blues, -Grant Yep, I agree. I guess there are FAA eximiners that are complete a**holes just like other people in the general population. LS

Huh?? I am not sure I understand what you are saying. What pilot would think he can make the departure runway under power-out emergency conditions? If you want to land in the same direction you took off, you are right.....it is a 360 degree turn. I was assuming the pilot would realize, in an emergency, he would have to land in the opposite direction of the T/O direction. There is no time to fly closed traffic and go all the way around. Yes.....this is going to be a down-wind landing, but if the winds are not too high, that should make little difference --- it is not a conventional landing, it is an emergency. Several years ago one of my friends was taking his FAA checkoff ride for his private pilot's license and, while on climbout, the examiner pulled power at ~800' AGL and said, "You just had a full power out, what are you going to do?" The airport had 2 runways: 31/13 and 26/8. He just departed 31. Winds were 320/5. He made a quick call to ATC, was given clearance for an emergency landing, turned ~190 degrees to the left, and made a dead stick "greaser" on #8. The examiner said, "Very impressive." He passed. I might add, pilots and their instructors have been killed practicing this maneuver during climbout. It can however be practiced safely starting at 2,600' - 2,800' AGL after appropriate clearing turns --- you just have to "pretend" that 2,000' AGL is ground level. LS

Not really. That's not the way probability works. That would be like saying, "If I toss a penny nine times and it is heads, the 10th toss has a greater than 50% chance of being a tail." Not so. Each toss is an independent event probability-wise. Similarly each skydive is an independent event --- the canopy, jump plane, turbulent air you may be falling through, etc. do not know if you had a reserve ride previously (or how many). If: (1) you maintain your equipment well; (2) you're a careful packer; (3) you jump a canopy larger than a table cloth; and (4) you do not do crew, experts say you should have ~1 in 1,000 chance of having a malfunction on any given jump. That probability should be the same even if you just had a reserve ride.....or haven't had one for 2,000 jumps. On the other hand, it could very easily be argued if you have had several reserve rides in the past 100 jumps, you may be doing something wrong repeatedly when you pack your canopy....or there is something mechanically wrong with your rig. So with that history, the probability you will have another reserve ride soon is higher than 1/1000. LS

I think you're right. I probably wouldn't try to pull my closing pin out myself with a PCIT mal --- I was simply stating the fact that experienced skydivers have done it successfully. BTW, that fish scale made some awful dents in the side of my car when I tried the experiement you suggested. (You didn't mention that could happen. ) LS

I don't agree with your assertion that it would be too hard to pull your closing pin by grabbing the bridle behind your back. I have never had a PCIT, but I know others who have and DID pull the bridle to initiate a normal, successful deployment. HOWEVER: (1) They were experienced skydivers (1,000+ jumps); (2) They had plenty of altitude to deal with the problem (~3,000'); (3) They were sure they did not have a misrouted bridle. If you are not an experienced skydiver, I would initiate EP's directly and not mess around trying to find your bridle behind your back in FF.......but it is not impossible to do. LS

I have jumped several size Tri's over the past 6 years. Once my 135 opened (~2,700' altitude) and immediately went into a radical spin. I had no idea why this was happening because there were no line twists and both brake lines were properly stowed. The canopy actually seemed to have opened in a dive attitude rather than directly over head. I believe this response was caused by an end cell closure on one side of the canopy, but I didn't see it myself....another jumper told me he saw the whole thing and thought there was end cell closure. Apparently once a Tri goes into a "spontaneous" spin, I don't think it will recover without control input from the canopy pilot. I released both toggles and turned in the direction opposite the spin, and the canopy recovered and flew fine the rest of that jump and hundreds more. I had plenty of altitude to play with it and still could have performed EP's above 2,000' --- if necessary. Needless to say it's a disconcerting feeling when your canopy opens in a spin without apparent reason...I am sure it would be much worse if you had a bunch of line twists. Not only are you losing altitude rapidly, but the more turns your canopy does, the more disoriented you will become. I believe you did the right thing by going directly to EP's rather than trying to kick out of the line twists, which could have taken quite some time. LS

OK. Lots of good advice for you on this thread. Here are a few more tips: 1. When other more experienced people are spotting, ask them if you may look out of the door when it is time to exit. You should be able to do this without interferring with the skydive. Take a couple of seconds to look around while the first jumper is climbing out to see what the DZ looks like from altitude with various upper wind velocities and directions. If you are very observant, you should get experience about spotting every time you jump. 2. Before you go up to spot, make sure you know what the upper winds are doing at various altitudes (velocity & direction) even though this information is not always reliable. You should be able to get this info from your jump pilot. If they are light and variable...often the case during summer months...exit somewhere near your desired landing site and you'll be fine. It has been my experience that many people try to make spotting more complicated than really is. Unless the upper winds are very strong (>25-30 knots), exiting slightly upwind from the DZ will almost always be a good bet. 3. When you're learning, don't offer to be the spotter on the first load of the day. That's the toughest load to get it right. Most small DZ's don't go to the trouble of dropping a wind drift indicator before sending jumpers out on the first load. Let's face it: the skydivers on the first load of the day ARE the wind drift indicators. Aviation information on the upper winds is derived from ascension balloons which are not 100% reliable. If you are jumping at a small, untowered airport, the information about uppers is probably from an airport many miles away. Plus the winds can and do shift from hour to hour...so reported wind directions and velocities may change from one jump load to another. 4. Always ask skydivers from the load before yours where they got out and whether the spot was appropriate. Make adjustments to your exit accordingly. 5. When you're unsure about the spot (first load of the day, inexperienced spotter, etc.), open a little higher than normal so you can make it back if the spot is long. If you're up wind when your canopy comes out, be prepared to ride your rear risers with brakes stowed to get the maximum glide out of your canopy. For safety, let others on the load know you are planning to open high before you do so. 6. Landing off is always more dangerous, so if you see you are not going to make it back to the DZ, plan well in advance where you are going to land. By the time you're at 1,000' you should have decided where you are going to land and be thinking about the direction of your final to land into the wind and avoid obstacles. Remember: spotting is an art, not an exact science. If you make a mistake, don't be too hard on yourself. If someone chews you out, shrug it off. Bill Gates once said, "640K ought to be enough RAM for anyone." Even very smart people are wrong...sometimes. LS "Flying is the second greatest experience known to man. Landing safely is the first." --Anon.

Not necessarily. If you donate a single unit of blood and your hemoglobin (normal: 13 - 15 gm%) drops from 14 gm% to 13 or even 12 gm%, an otherwise healthy individual would not notice any change in his/her activity tolerance after several hours, even at altitude. (I can assure you this is true from numerous personal experiences.) In fact, using the most sophisticated devices for measuring human physiologic and biochemical parameters, you could not tell they donated a unit of blood two hours after the donation. Forget about blood donation for a minute. Your circulating blood volume may actually vary as much as several percent from time to time depending upon mundane behavior such as the amount of fluid you consume in a 24 hr period. (Beer counts as fluid, but it is also a diuretic.) Undiagnosed diabetics can easily be 7% dehydrated and there are thousands of them in the U.S., probably some of whom are skydivers. With the compensatory mechanisms our bodies have built into them, 7% is not a great variance in blood volume. There are people walking the streets with chronic hemoglobins of 5 or 6 gm%, and they have no symptoms. I would bet there are a few people skydiving today from 13,000' with a hemoglobin less than 10 gm%, and they don't even know it, nor do they feel short of breath. The partial pressure of O2 in that person's blood at altitude is no less than someone with normal hemoglobin, although his blood has a slightly reduced total capacity for carrying oxygen. The effects of a below normal hemoglobin would be exaggerated in a smoker because of carbon monoxide in cig. smoke (see below). The human body has redundancies built into its ability to carry oxygen to provide for these deficiencies (such as a shift in the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve --- GOOGLE this for more info). These redundancies are too technical to go into here. Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is an entirely different problem. You would have to lose several units of blood to have the same profound effects CO has even in low exposures. CO has an affinity for hemoglobin 210 times stronger than oxygen. (Smokers take note.) So it binds the site on the hemoglobin molecule where O2 attaches and greatly impairs the ability of hemoglobin to take up O2. At sea level, 21% of the air is oxygen. As little as 0.1% - 0.2% of CO in the ambient air can be lethal. There have been many elegant studies measuring the effects of blood loss on the human physiology of which I am sure the FAA is well aware. The FAA makes these extravagantly conservative recommendations to err on the safe side and to cover all possibly circumstances so they can never be accused of permitting someone to pilot a plane in an impaired state. That's fine with me. Many pilots do not know if they become anemic between their required physical exams, so a single unit blood donation may affect them where a completely healthy individual (with a normal hemoglobin) would be unaffected. Long story short: a normal, healthy, well-hydrated individual should be safe skydiving within 12 - 24 hours of a single unit blood donation. People with chronic lung or heart disease, history of stroke, heavy smokers, anemics, diabetics, people on diuretics, and elderly individuals should get advice from their personal physicians. The compensatory mechanisms of these individuals will not be as efficient in making up for the blood donation as rapidly as in normal individuals. L.S.