des

a jal 747 came awful close on Saipan back in 2000 , some body did not see us

rhys,don't worry about these guys. the rest of the world know exactly what u are saying

hear hear! well said rhys

i was 4 yrs doing tandems on saipan,most of the time a straight in,or surge approach was impossible,the ground winds would change 90 to 100 degrees constantly,and the turbulence was incredible. we would call it if we got gusts over 15 knots.it became mandatory to do at least a carving turn,and the landing area was relatively small,with no outs. it was a tough gig ,but the lifestyle was great.

i believe there is alot of luck invoved with tandem injuries. over 8000 tandems and i can only remember 1 sprained ankle,and that was a stand up landing ,with a step to the side. but i remember some terrible landings i've done, and being surprised the student wasn't injured.i have seen plenty of landings, that looked fine,and somehow the student has managed to break a leg. imho it is very seldom the instructors fault, though it does take experience to automatically read the situation and adapt to what is required to protect self and student

after 8000 tandems, i got burnt out. now enjoying driving a taxi. not quite the same customer satisfaction

i also had a girl say to me at 8000', "no way,i am not going",i said okay, no worries, but i have to hook u up cos the door will be open.after the others had left, i said lets go to the door and take an exit photo, ok, so we slide to the door, legs outside,thumbs up .and smiles for the camera,she then turns to me and says,"lets go"! she loved it. moral is not always is their 1st decision final. give them another chance or 2

easily the best canopy i have jumped,makes the icarus feel like a truck,i also think the turbulence thing is a fallacy,since they altered the trim to a steeper angle

over 8000 tandems on strongs,and i use that "secondary"handle under the cutaway handle ,everytime.advantges are its always in exactly the same place,u only have to pull it at most 6",and it doesnt put any extra pressure on a cutaway.i have never had to pull both drogue releases,i guess cos i am anal about gear checks.over 25 cutaways,only 1 required two hands,and btw i never have an rsl connected.in fact everywhere i have worked(except in usa ),had the rsl removed completely.

24 tandem chops,0 on my own gear,but i do have more tandem jumps than fun jumps

i guess i am a conservative tm.i was in hawaii in the mid 90's,did some fun jumps ,and a tandem on th front of arvil for his rating. they said "hey, come look at thes vids".they were headdown tandems, and i gotta admit i was impressed with the control and ability of the tm's. i have still never done it myself, but with the right tm , and the student who asks for extreme,(and there are lots of them),i reckon."why not",i really dont see a problem, if the instructor has the ability, and these guys have it.

onya rover, i agree with u 100%.after 8000 odd tandems , i learnt how to look after myself and my punter. the few people that were interested got as much training as they wanted, but i never allowed them to pull the the drogue release,or assist with landing,,except on a tandem aff jump.

we only do beach landings,so none of the ti's or the pax wear jumpsuits.there is just no need for them.

the dz i work at is a tandem mill, with 4 other similar operations , within 100 miles, we offer 6000' jumps at a cheap price ,mainly to get customers thru the door.probably more than 70% upgrade to 12 or 14000'.(we offer free upgrade to 8000',if they get handcam.) most of us tm's love those lower jumps.

different guy, oleg is now a scuba instructor on saipan, vasili mladinov, was always a few 1000 jumps ahead of oleg and was his captain on the russian 8 way team. i've worked with both of them, both great guys