skydiving (original) (raw)

Summer in May? At Oppdal?	May. 31st, 2008 @ 10:46 pm

magnio

Another great day at Oppdal today. For a change it was also warm - about 25C on ground, and between 15 and 18 at altitude. This in an airport with an average above 10C for two or three months a year. On the other hand they had fresh snow 2 weeks ago.The view is also fantastic. We climbed above Gjevilvatnet and around there today, so the view was different from the usual one (we usually climb south of the airport, above Orkelsjøen and around there). Actually slightly stunning - with the snowy mountains, and us in shorts and t-shirts.I did three jumps. First one with an upcoming AFF instructor, who wanted someone to train with. I did a really tumbling exit, with absolutely no arch and no attempts to assist my buddy in a smooth exit. Then I tried to get unstable when making a 360 turn, but without booties on my suit I didn't get enough speed and boost and just did a very fast turn, but without flipping over. Then I pulled when I was supposed to, because he had told me he didn't want to pull for me, and had a long, nice canopy ride down from 4000 ft (normally 2500) - definitely not the worst day to pull medium high on! The other two jumps were solo freefly jumps, without much excitement. I won't try to claim I can sit very stable as of now... The good news is that my new suit arrived in mail today (so I can't pick it up until Monday), so I can finally jump a suit with more fabric than hole on the bum.Below is your truly about to land. Not a very good photo (or posing), but at least you can see a bit of our dropzone right now. The white stuff in the mountain behind the LZ is snow.

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Urban skydiving	May. 11th, 2008 @ 12:08 am

magnio	I just had to post a picture of my latest landing area - in the middle of Trondheim, a city of 200,000 in Norway.This is the view from the air (or from freefall or canopy, whenever you look):Wonderful, isn't it?So where are you supposed to land?( Read more...Collapse )(8 comments \| Leave a comment)

How not to pack.	Apr. 20th, 2008 @ 09:24 pm

magnio

I went to Japan for Easter, and let a guy just off student status borrow my rig (an old Javelin from 1990) during the annual Easter boogie. It was a bit of a rush for me before Easter, and he was not in town, so we arranged for another jumper to bring my rig to the boogie for him. The jumper who borrowed the rig had quite a lot of experience with packing hand deployed rigs, as he had been using that for most of the freefall part of his training (he did static line), but the closing order is different on the PdF student rigs, and they have non-collapsable pilots. On the first jump he packed for himself, on the second a rigger packed for him as he was on a short call.On his third jump he packed himself. He was in a hurry, and probably got a bit stressed, especially when things started being different (the closing order). He then managed to route the bridle between and under all the flaps, and then up to the loop from below. Sounds confusing? Here is a picture, notice the bridle under the flaps.

He didn't land the smooth Spectre. In stead he tested my 5-cell Swift 177. According to rumours, not a smooth canopy, and almost without flare. But still, a canopy. Luckily everything went well, and all his scars will be in his mind.This is someone lifting the rig afterwards - holding the bridle. Yup, it's tight.

Unfortunately the freebag and the pilot are both lost, and as they are rather expensive to replace, the rig will probably not come back to air again. At least I finally found somebody who "wanted" to buy it ;-) (He could either pay half the price as compensation for the lost parts, and get nothing, or pay the "regular" price and get a slightly incomplete rig. He chose the latter and can at least sell the Cypres and the main.)Lessons learned:* Don't rush. Ask for help or wait for the next load.* If in doubt, ask. There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers.* If asked, answer if you know the answer. Never ridicule. Don't be dumb.* Pull high enough to have time to act.* Know thy canopy. Pull high.Thanks to Berge for the pictures, and to the jumper in question for letting me post the story. He has confirmed what happened, and read the entry before I posted it.I post this mainly as a lesson to avoid rushing and to learn to ask the right questions, not to avoid exactly this problem - so you don't have to do a fullscale dz.com discussion about his packing...(10 comments | Leave a comment)

The last skydive this year :-)	Dec. 30th, 2007 @ 07:26 pm

magnio

I did my last skydives of the year yesterday :-) Yay - not for that being the last ones, of course, but for skydiving in general :-) For the first time (yeah, there will be a case so no need to be careful with the f-word) I was in charge of the jumping, which was pretty nice. Luckily everything went smooth and no bad things happened :-) Anders also accompanied me to the dropzone, and took care of the work on ground. For student jumping the person on ground has to have a B-license (in our club we say an A-license is sufficient, since we know our students well and they are at the DZ so many times that they learn what to do - we do static line, and the average students uses like 9 months to get her license, not like a 2-week AFF course), but for independent jumpers the person just has to be accepted and briefed by the person in charge, and since I have been talking about skydiving and skydiving rules over dinner and breakfast and in the car and everywhere since the very first week of my course in September 2004, he has been sufficiently drilled :-) Of course he did a very good job!Weather wasn't at its best, but since forecast had been rather bad for both Friday and Saturday, we didn't complain. It started snowing at 9:30, but stopped again at 11:30 and the first load could go up. We did 4 loads before heavy snow came it around 14, and we called it a day after cleaning up a bit.The bad thing was that I pulled a tendon in my right shoulder yesterday, probably because I almost dislocated my shoulder at some point after landing. I don't know exactly when it happened, just realized it hurt after I carried my biggest canopy (the Spectre 210) from where I landed 600 metres away from the hangar (through rotten snow with a layer of ice that held me only every second step). I thought it was just normal soreness from the static work of the arm when carrying it (like Santa carries gifts in his bag), but it didn't get better after a couple of hours, and I almost cried when lifting my arm to hang the canopy for drying afterwards. One of the other jumpers said the symptoms sound pretty much like almost-dislocated shoulder, and since it sounds reasonable, I suppose it's right. No treatment except time, so I don't bother with waiting for hours in an emergency room crowded with people with broken arms and legs, crying children and sick people. I can lift my right arm about straight out, but with out-stretched arms I can't lift above the shoulder. When holding my hands in front of me, I can only bend my arm about 30 degrees out from the body. On the other hand I have no problems lifting my right arm in any direction if I am fully supporting it with the other hand, it's just adding weight that hurt. It doesn't hurt at all if I don't use it outside its "working range" - so typing is for example no problem.Well, Happy New Year to all my fellow skydivers, hopefully a year with lots of blue skies and no accidents!(4 comments | Leave a comment)

Blue skies and pink clounds :-)	Dec. 15th, 2007 @ 08:46 pm

magnio

Yay, skydiving again today! And what a fantastic day! On the second darkest weekend of the year we went out to jump, and did 8 loads.8 loads may not be all that impressive for many of you, but it was between 10:45 and 15:45 and included a long manual fuel-break. Sunset is around 9:30ish, but we can't start jumping before 10 on Saturdays, and we had to de-ice and heat the plane first, so the first load didn't leave until ca 10:45. It was about -15 C on ground then, so we wondered a bit about what altitude would bring? The answer: +3 C! Really weird, but probably scientifically explainable. The dropzone is in a valley, and in cold weather the cold air will sink down and make the bottom of the valley really cold. A bit further up, sometimes only 20 metres up, it may be a lot warmer. Of course the mild temperature could also be due to the sun shining straight at the thermometre, but it also did that on ground so the sun heating should be visible there as well.We also had to fuel the plane manually - by hand pump. The old electric fuel tank is removed to be replaced with an underground tank, but until the new tank is mounted we have to use barrels with a hand pump and cans to fill the plane. It wasn't that bad, filling 100 litres took less than half an hour including finding out how to open the barrels and use the hand pump, and it takes some time even with a powered fuel tank with all the general hassle around it.I got two jumps, and practiced my sit on both. I have a feeling that I am stable, as I try to lift my chin and look at the horizon, and the feeling definitely changes when I "fall" and start tumbling. But I have no idea how my feet are or whether I am backtracking, sidetracking or just sitting perfect, so hopefully I can find someone slightly more experienced to jump with next time just to have a look at my feet.We started with 12 people in the morning, later four more arrived straight from their exams. Pretty nice when students start to leave their exams early already at static line ;-) (Well, I could skip an exam for jumping under such conditions as today.) The weather was great, with blue skies all day, no wind (how many are going to be impressed by our skills to survive zero-wind landings now? ;-)), snow (although not fresh snow - it was icy, a bit hard to stand in (you fall through) and very hard to walk in if you landed more than ten metres from the road), pink and orange feather clouds half the day (because of sunrise and -set) and lots of happy jumpers. A really nice way to end a lousy season :-)(4 comments | Leave a comment)

Other entries

» How low will you go?
Today we did a load with experienced jumpers to see where the ceiling was. Unfortunately it was at 2200 ft, and I only wanted to go above 2500, so we went down again (which was super-scary, of course - landing the plane is not fun!).My comfort limit is 2500. A friend said his was around 2500 since he didn't have a LOR/RSL on his rig, but he'd go lower with that.I have a Spectre that uses about 800-900 ft to open at terminal velocity. At lower speed it opens slower (since the initial drag on the pilot is less), but on less altitude since I am also falling slower. If have have a baglock or a container lock so no canopy is above my head, I will have fallen about 500 ft during the five seconds I give the canopy to start developing, and I may actually be higher than if I decide to cutaway a main that is out of the bag. In both cases I will be above 1500 ft, which is acceptable for my emergency procedures.Actually I may have a greater risk over getting low during a normal altitude jump. I dump at 3000 and have a canopy at 2100-2200. A cutaway will then be higher than if I do the same from 2500. If I get a highspeed mal from normal altitude, I will be 5 seconds below 3000 ft, or at about 2000 ft.These are ideal times. But they are for a jump where the opening is not my main mental priority. The first part of the jump is - the exit, the formations, my jump-mates, the separation. THEN I pull and start thinking about the canopy. On a hop'n'pop I concentrate on nothing but the opening - I focus on getting stable fast, then pull, maybe even pull as fast as possible to see how fast I can do it. Not least do I definitely know I am jumping from low altitude and thus that I have little time. If anything fails then, I am probably more alert and prepared to take action than if this happens at the end of a 45-60 second long period of concentration.The Norwegian rules states 1500 ft as the lowest jump altitude and I have often thought about the possibility for a mal when people want to jump this low. Even here you will have 1000-1100 ft to get a reserve after a mal (5 seconds to develop a flying main, but experienced jumpers will sense something is wrong and maybe cutaway earlier if this doesn't happen), and you will be really alert since it's awfully low (I looked down at 2000 today and thought "oups, this is low"). Ok, the 1000 ft will take you about 10 seconds to reach to the bottom of if you don't pull immediately, but then you HAVE pulled your reserve...I won't go as low as 1500 with my current canopy. I have a big Spectre, wingloaded about 1.05 or so. Spectre is known for smooth openings, which gives you comfort, but also take quite some feet from your altitude (even if it's braking on the way). But I feel 2500 is ok, and when I add the extra bonus of a Skyhook RSL, I feel this is within my comfort zone.Sep. 30th, 2007 @ 08:45 pm(7 comments \| Leave a comment)

» How low will you go?

Today we did a load with experienced jumpers to see where the ceiling was. Unfortunately it was at 2200 ft, and I only wanted to go above 2500, so we went down again (which was super-scary, of course - landing the plane is not fun!).My comfort limit is 2500. A friend said his was around 2500 since he didn't have a LOR/RSL on his rig, but he'd go lower with that.I have a Spectre that uses about 800-900 ft to open at terminal velocity. At lower speed it opens slower (since the initial drag on the pilot is less), but on less altitude since I am also falling slower. If have have a baglock or a container lock so no canopy is above my head, I will have fallen about 500 ft during the five seconds I give the canopy to start developing, and I may actually be higher than if I decide to cutaway a main that is out of the bag. In both cases I will be above 1500 ft, which is acceptable for my emergency procedures.Actually I may have a greater risk over getting low during a normal altitude jump. I dump at 3000 and have a canopy at 2100-2200. A cutaway will then be higher than if I do the same from 2500. If I get a highspeed mal from normal altitude, I will be 5 seconds below 3000 ft, or at about 2000 ft.These are ideal times. But they are for a jump where the opening is not my main mental priority. The first part of the jump is - the exit, the formations, my jump-mates, the separation. THEN I pull and start thinking about the canopy. On a hop'n'pop I concentrate on nothing but the opening - I focus on getting stable fast, then pull, maybe even pull as fast as possible to see how fast I can do it. Not least do I definitely know I am jumping from low altitude and thus that I have little time. If anything fails then, I am probably more alert and prepared to take action than if this happens at the end of a 45-60 second long period of concentration.The Norwegian rules states 1500 ft as the lowest jump altitude and I have often thought about the possibility for a mal when people want to jump this low. Even here you will have 1000-1100 ft to get a reserve after a mal (5 seconds to develop a flying main, but experienced jumpers will sense something is wrong and maybe cutaway earlier if this doesn't happen), and you will be really alert since it's awfully low (I looked down at 2000 today and thought "oups, this is low"). Ok, the 1000 ft will take you about 10 seconds to reach to the bottom of if you don't pull immediately, but then you HAVE pulled your reserve...I won't go as low as 1500 with my current canopy. I have a big Spectre, wingloaded about 1.05 or so. Spectre is known for smooth openings, which gives you comfort, but also take quite some feet from your altitude (even if it's braking on the way). But I feel 2500 is ok, and when I add the extra bonus of a Skyhook RSL, I feel this is within my comfort zone.Sep. 30th, 2007 @ 08:45 pm(7 comments | Leave a comment)

» Update from Bergstadboogie
Therese picked me up on Tuesday morning, and we arrived at Røros just in time to pick up a jumper who landed out after load 1. An ambulance drove in front of us the last leg to the airport - no blue lights and sirens, so we weren't too worried, just a bit confused. I did 5 jumps that day, 2 of them with Therese and RM, the last 3 with only Therese. Semi-quality, but we might be getting there :-) I am learning to fly my canopy now, I have landed in on all jumps and had several standing landings and on the rest I have been falling backwards (progression from my usual belly-first-approach). 202 jumps now, only 8 left for my C license :-)Yesterday we woke up to rather blue skies (at least a nice hole just above us), but strong winds cancelled jumping. After an hour at the airport we were invited for coffee at one of the veteran's who live in Røros, and we spent the afternoon there (never open your home to 15 skydivers for a short visit when there is no load to hurry for!), listening to old stories about jumping 40 years ago, watching skydiving movies and an Hercules landing and taking off again at the airport (he has an amazing view over the airport and our landing areas). The Air Force and NATO has an exercise in Norway now, so the air space above Oppdal is restricted. On Tuesday they did a drop of materials at Røros, and also made a low-pass afterwards. Yesterday they landed, and today rumors say two Hercules are landing and we have made an humble request for a load. Fingers crossed :-)We live in small cabins here, and have no common rooms or cooking facilities for social events. It's also dark-ish when we come back to the site after jumping. At evenings people have mostly been going out for pizza and perhaps drinks if they haven't been tired (I have always been!). This will be better at Oppdal, we'll have bigger flats with kitchen and space for more people, and we also have a common room there.The big advantage with Røros is that everything is compact. We can walk to the airport in 15 minutes, all stores are 5 minutes away, and car is just convenient, not absolutely necessary. At Oppdal we drive 15 minutes to the airport from the cabins we live in, and "downtown" is about midway. Yesterday we went to the swimming pool at the most remote hotel, which meant the first load spent 20 minutes getting lost and we walked back in about 15 minutes in total. The pool was also great, we had a lot of fun in the water and in the sauna. For some weird reason we weren't thrown out - quite amazing considering we are skydivers. (Use your imagination, multiply by two and you are not there yet.)Sep. 13th, 2007 @ 07:49 am(Leave a comment)

» Update from Bergstadboogie

Therese picked me up on Tuesday morning, and we arrived at Røros just in time to pick up a jumper who landed out after load 1. An ambulance drove in front of us the last leg to the airport - no blue lights and sirens, so we weren't too worried, just a bit confused. I did 5 jumps that day, 2 of them with Therese and RM, the last 3 with only Therese. Semi-quality, but we might be getting there :-) I am learning to fly my canopy now, I have landed in on all jumps and had several standing landings and on the rest I have been falling backwards (progression from my usual belly-first-approach). 202 jumps now, only 8 left for my C license :-)Yesterday we woke up to rather blue skies (at least a nice hole just above us), but strong winds cancelled jumping. After an hour at the airport we were invited for coffee at one of the veteran's who live in Røros, and we spent the afternoon there (never open your home to 15 skydivers for a short visit when there is no load to hurry for!), listening to old stories about jumping 40 years ago, watching skydiving movies and an Hercules landing and taking off again at the airport (he has an amazing view over the airport and our landing areas). The Air Force and NATO has an exercise in Norway now, so the air space above Oppdal is restricted. On Tuesday they did a drop of materials at Røros, and also made a low-pass afterwards. Yesterday they landed, and today rumors say two Hercules are landing and we have made an humble request for a load. Fingers crossed :-)We live in small cabins here, and have no common rooms or cooking facilities for social events. It's also dark-ish when we come back to the site after jumping. At evenings people have mostly been going out for pizza and perhaps drinks if they haven't been tired (I have always been!). This will be better at Oppdal, we'll have bigger flats with kitchen and space for more people, and we also have a common room there.The big advantage with Røros is that everything is compact. We can walk to the airport in 15 minutes, all stores are 5 minutes away, and car is just convenient, not absolutely necessary. At Oppdal we drive 15 minutes to the airport from the cabins we live in, and "downtown" is about midway. Yesterday we went to the swimming pool at the most remote hotel, which meant the first load spent 20 minutes getting lost and we walked back in about 15 minutes in total. The pool was also great, we had a lot of fun in the water and in the sauna. For some weird reason we weren't thrown out - quite amazing considering we are skydivers. (Use your imagination, multiply by two and you are not there yet.)Sep. 13th, 2007 @ 07:49 am(Leave a comment)

» Time for a community post again :-)
(Most of this is also posted to my regular blog, but I thought I would liven up this community a bit with a new post.)This weekend I am at Æra. The plan was to skydive, but today we have done exactly zero jumps, and when the pilot set a case you know it isn't gonna be any skydiving either. I really hope weather is better tomorrow, going home without any jumps at all will be pretty sad.In the morning it was raining, but it stopped before I got up (which wasn't that early in the morning, since my cunning plan about going to bed early didn't quite work out and suddenly it was 0230). But the clouds were at 500-1000 ft, then around 1800 in the early afternoon. The cloud ceiling is dull and grey and they look like they are a lot higher up, but the cloud base altitude is checked with a Cessna and is unfortunately real enough.I got a lift here with a friend, we arrived at 20:55, just in time for the scheduled veterans' talk. It was postponed, though, because the last load was about to take off when we arrived, so I had time for making my bed and having a beer first.The talk was given by three of the skydivers who started the sport in Norway 40 years ago (they had about 110 years experience between them), and was really exciting and interesting - and scary! They have some experience - and since they made the handbook/operation manual afterwards, they have made sure we won't be allowed to gain the same experience... at least i know a bit more about why they made the rules they did now :-) I feel quite ashamed about my own precition and spotting skills when they told about their competitions: landing on a 15, 10, 5 and then 2 cm disc with round canopies.My club is 40 this winter, and I hope we will have a celebration. I spoke a bit to one of the veterans, who was on the very first load with our club back in 1969. It would be great if he and some of the other in the area could give a presentation during a celebration event. The 35th anniversary was celebrated with dinner and historic jumps in Trondheim. They jumped old equipmen, and made it to the new by forgetting to remove a 2.5 kg packing weight from the canopy before packing it (nobody really knows how they managed that!), it fell down during opening and made a hole in a garage roof in Trondheim. Quite convenient to use a celebration to make a new history for the next celebration :-)Today I have mostly been reading newspapers, eating, going to Rena (the nearby town) to buy sweets and generally done nothing. Conveniently enough I didn't have any books at hand that I hadn't already read, and I never got around to buy any books to bring either. I am pretty sure weather would have been better had I brought some books I was really eager to read...On Wednesday we jumped at Dyva. We only did two loads, since the winds were weird, turned and made itself into turbulence. I did a freefly jump with Lene, the freefall part of it went very well, and we both enjoyed it. But the spot was horrible (it's hard to look down when you are the last out on your two-way, and the first person begins to get out just after the first group), and we were way off the landing area. I pulled above the forest and just though "I have to get outside the forest, I have to get outside!", cleared the forest, saw I wouldn't reach the landing area and planned for some nearby fields, hoping there were no other power and phone lines than the three (only one high voltage, but as obstacles cables 10 metres above ground is badenough) I had seen (plus some fences between fields) - and landed in a field next to a house where the family was having dinner on the veranda and looked quite perplexed at me. Lene came just after me, and the car arrived to pick us up just after that. My landing was horrible, I did a landing fall and ended up wrapped in canopy on the ground with lots of snags and lines everywhere....Aug. 11th, 2007 @ 07:37 pm(Leave a comment)

» Time for a community post again :-)

(Most of this is also posted to my regular blog, but I thought I would liven up this community a bit with a new post.)This weekend I am at Æra. The plan was to skydive, but today we have done exactly zero jumps, and when the pilot set a case you know it isn't gonna be any skydiving either. I really hope weather is better tomorrow, going home without any jumps at all will be pretty sad.In the morning it was raining, but it stopped before I got up (which wasn't that early in the morning, since my cunning plan about going to bed early didn't quite work out and suddenly it was 0230). But the clouds were at 500-1000 ft, then around 1800 in the early afternoon. The cloud ceiling is dull and grey and they look like they are a lot higher up, but the cloud base altitude is checked with a Cessna and is unfortunately real enough.I got a lift here with a friend, we arrived at 20:55, just in time for the scheduled veterans' talk. It was postponed, though, because the last load was about to take off when we arrived, so I had time for making my bed and having a beer first.The talk was given by three of the skydivers who started the sport in Norway 40 years ago (they had about 110 years experience between them), and was really exciting and interesting - and scary! They have some experience - and since they made the handbook/operation manual afterwards, they have made sure we won't be allowed to gain the same experience... at least i know a bit more about why they made the rules they did now :-) I feel quite ashamed about my own precition and spotting skills when they told about their competitions: landing on a 15, 10, 5 and then 2 cm disc with round canopies.My club is 40 this winter, and I hope we will have a celebration. I spoke a bit to one of the veterans, who was on the very first load with our club back in 1969. It would be great if he and some of the other in the area could give a presentation during a celebration event. The 35th anniversary was celebrated with dinner and historic jumps in Trondheim. They jumped old equipmen, and made it to the new by forgetting to remove a 2.5 kg packing weight from the canopy before packing it (nobody really knows how they managed that!), it fell down during opening and made a hole in a garage roof in Trondheim. Quite convenient to use a celebration to make a new history for the next celebration :-)Today I have mostly been reading newspapers, eating, going to Rena (the nearby town) to buy sweets and generally done nothing. Conveniently enough I didn't have any books at hand that I hadn't already read, and I never got around to buy any books to bring either. I am pretty sure weather would have been better had I brought some books I was really eager to read...On Wednesday we jumped at Dyva. We only did two loads, since the winds were weird, turned and made itself into turbulence. I did a freefly jump with Lene, the freefall part of it went very well, and we both enjoyed it. But the spot was horrible (it's hard to look down when you are the last out on your two-way, and the first person begins to get out just after the first group), and we were way off the landing area. I pulled above the forest and just though "I have to get outside the forest, I have to get outside!", cleared the forest, saw I wouldn't reach the landing area and planned for some nearby fields, hoping there were no other power and phone lines than the three (only one high voltage, but as obstacles cables 10 metres above ground is badenough) I had seen (plus some fences between fields) - and landed in a field next to a house where the family was having dinner on the veranda and looked quite perplexed at me. Lene came just after me, and the car arrived to pick us up just after that. My landing was horrible, I did a landing fall and ended up wrapped in canopy on the ground with lots of snags and lines everywhere....Aug. 11th, 2007 @ 07:37 pm(Leave a comment)

» Why radios suck
Finally saw someone biff in yesterday. Student on AFF2 jump was flying a good pattern, but apparently decided she was going to land too long. Right turn at ~75' points her towards a tree line. Decides that's no good, so makes a left turn at about 30'. Neither turn was very aggressive, and I'm guessing her wing loading was well below 1:1. Unfortunately she never fully came out of the 2nd turn and spiraled in. Broke her femur and ankle.Being a student, she was being talked in on radio by her instructor. Apparently the radio took a dump about the time she was turning final.I've heard that back when SSM was owned by Steve they didn't use radios and had very few issues with student landings, partly because a lot of instruction on canopy flight was given during the tandems. When Phil took over they started using radios and the rule became tandem students don't touch the toggles. Apparently incidents went up dramatically.I think radios would be useful as a supplement, but that they're currently used as a crutch. AFF students should be prepared for landing as if the radio wasn't there. Not only does that mean a lot of classroom work, it also means teaching students during their tandems. And by teaching I don't mean talking under canopy... students should be taught what kind of pattern to expect, etc. before doing the tandem.Jun. 3rd, 2007 @ 12:10 pm(6 comments \| Leave a comment)

» Why radios suck

Finally saw someone biff in yesterday. Student on AFF2 jump was flying a good pattern, but apparently decided she was going to land too long. Right turn at ~75' points her towards a tree line. Decides that's no good, so makes a left turn at about 30'. Neither turn was very aggressive, and I'm guessing her wing loading was well below 1:1. Unfortunately she never fully came out of the 2nd turn and spiraled in. Broke her femur and ankle.Being a student, she was being talked in on radio by her instructor. Apparently the radio took a dump about the time she was turning final.I've heard that back when SSM was owned by Steve they didn't use radios and had very few issues with student landings, partly because a lot of instruction on canopy flight was given during the tandems. When Phil took over they started using radios and the rule became tandem students don't touch the toggles. Apparently incidents went up dramatically.I think radios would be useful as a supplement, but that they're currently used as a crutch. AFF students should be prepared for landing as if the radio wasn't there. Not only does that mean a lot of classroom work, it also means teaching students during their tandems. And by teaching I don't mean talking under canopy... students should be taught what kind of pattern to expect, etc. before doing the tandem.Jun. 3rd, 2007 @ 12:10 pm(6 comments | Leave a comment)

» Everyone pass this along!!!
My wife already posted to her journal about this, but pass it along to anyone you know, especially if you like your chocolateGuittard, a chocolate manufacturer who believes in the quality of their product, is helping to fight the proposal that is before the FDA to change the standards for what can be called "Chocolate". Right now, they must use cocoa butter and real milk to make a product that can be rightfully called "Chocolate". The proposed change allows for COMPLETE substitution of all cocoa butter with other fats, such as vegetable oil or almost anything. On top of that, milk can be substituted with whey protein or other material. This is not just replacing some of these ingredients; other countries outside the U.S.A. allow substitution of up to 5% of the cocoa butter and milk. This allows for them to replace ALL of these ingredients. There is little to no limit to how nasty they can make it and still call it "Chocolate". Imagine the nasty 'chocolatey' or 'chocolate-flavored' cheapie products that cost nothing right now being passed off as REAL chocolate.This isn't to make it more healthy. This isn't to make it higher quality or taste better. This is to make money for the manufacturers who replace these essential components with cheap substitutes.This is somewhere that sending off your comments CAN make a difference. Show this to everyone you know, especially anyone who hates seeing the degradation of quality of U.S.-made products to the point that foreign knock-offs meet higher standards. Go look for yourself, read, educate yourself, and then decide.May. 3rd, 2007 @ 03:58 pm(3 comments \| Leave a comment)

» Everyone pass this along!!!

My wife already posted to her journal about this, but pass it along to anyone you know, especially if you like your chocolate DON'T MESS WITH OUR CHOCOLATE

Guittard, a chocolate manufacturer who believes in the quality of their product, is helping to fight the proposal that is before the FDA to change the standards for what can be called "Chocolate". Right now, they must use cocoa butter and real milk to make a product that can be rightfully called "Chocolate". The proposed change allows for COMPLETE substitution of all cocoa butter with other fats, such as vegetable oil or almost anything. On top of that, milk can be substituted with whey protein or other material. This is not just replacing some of these ingredients; other countries outside the U.S.A. allow substitution of up to 5% of the cocoa butter and milk. This allows for them to replace ALL of these ingredients. There is little to no limit to how nasty they can make it and still call it "Chocolate". Imagine the nasty 'chocolatey' or 'chocolate-flavored' cheapie products that cost nothing right now being passed off as REAL chocolate.This isn't to make it more healthy. This isn't to make it higher quality or taste better. This is to make money for the manufacturers who replace these essential components with cheap substitutes.This is somewhere that sending off your comments CAN make a difference. Show this to everyone you know, especially anyone who hates seeing the degradation of quality of U.S.-made products to the point that foreign knock-offs meet higher standards. Go look for yourself, read, educate yourself, and then decide.May. 3rd, 2007 @ 03:58 pm(3 comments | Leave a comment)