rscott

The date for Linda's dive is 9/7.

Hi everyone. Here is an update for Linda’s ash dive and celebration. I hope to see everyone there. · Location: Skydive Perris · Jumpers arrive at the airport by: 2:00 · Dirt dive: 2:30 · Take-off: 4:00 · Ashes released: 4:25 · Appetizers and drinks in the pool area: 4:45 · Cost: - Jump - Optional donation for appetizers, no more than $10 If you are on the dive and have not confirmed with me recently, please let me know.

We will be holding an ash dive and Celebration of Life for our friend Linda Hardesty on Saturday, September 7th at Perris Valley Skydiving. The jump will be at about 4:00 PM, and we'll meet in the pool area for story telling, drinking, and such afterwards. Please let me know if you plan to attend.

I've been in contact with Linda's family. We're working on plans for an ash dive.

I'm very sad to hear this. Does anyone know about service arrangements or a family contact? She was living in Nevada. I know a bunch of people here in So. Cal would like to send her off properly. Here is her trademark smile going through the hoop at night time. LindaH.pdf

That's far too big, but it's the right idea. I think the LED bar should be about 1.5" long and 1/8" wide, with a wire running off to your audible where the electronics are. I'm glad to see someone is moving towards a display that gives you real-time altitude info without looking away.

I'm thinking that the next generation altimeter should be a small bar graph that sticks to the inside of a full face visor out of the main viewing area, but visible if you look off to the side. It would be green above 3,500', yellow until 1,500, and flashing red below that. Of course the altitudes would be user configurable. We could do a digital display too, but I think the bar would be more intuitive. A true heads up display would be nice, but is overly complex and not needed. With the display and electronics so small today the whole thing could mount on the helmet with a small display in view. Something like this: https://www.adafruit.com/product/459

Jack was a great guy. I'm very sorry to hear this Linda. I had many good times with you guys at Elsinore.

My second Cypres recently timed out after 12 years. I opened a drawer where it's predecessor Cypres 1 was still sitting. I keep meaning to do something with it. It had expired back in ~2005. Just for fun I tried to turn it on. To my surprise, the old unit turned on, calibrated itself, and ended up with a 0 in the display--ready to jump. Pretty impressive for batteries that had to be 12 + 2 years old.

I know that when I used to spot a lot, I was never half as good as GPS is today. And I thought I was pretty good. Now I spend the time I used to use doing marginal spots looking for aircraft. It's a better use of my time, and something the pilot cannot really do well. I'm watching the plane's path too, but as long as the spot is reasonable and the traffic is clear, I'll get out when the light comes on. I do get really annoyed when the person in the door never looks out and just goes when the light comes on. He has the only real opportunity to make sure there's no traffic below.

Nice front page article in the local paper today. I'll be out to try out the new DZ as soon as I get back from vacation!

I had two out after a total (floating handle) on the main, and I pulled silver without cutting away. After the reserve was open for 5-10 seconds the main opened behind me, flew up and smacked the back of the reserve, and then dove violently to the side heading for a downplane. I didn't wait to see what happened next. I pull the cutaway handle at light speed and rode the reserve down.

I once had two broken A lines in the center. It was flying straight. After extensive control checks I decided to land it. I did very little flare because it felt like it could stall if slowed down. All seemed well until I pounded into the ground like a ton of bricks. It hurt a lot, but a good PLF saved me from anything more serious than a lot of bruises. It turned out I was the only person on the DZ who thought landing it was a good idea. I guess it looked better from underneath than it did from any place else. I was disappointed in myself that I did not recognize that the decent rate was too high, but it seemed likie a good idea at the time. Next time I’d chop it if it has more than one broken line.

Back to the original question, thanks everyone. I agree with Bill. I was the person in the first group who did a 180 and tracked up the line of flight. When we talked about it afterwards, the two people from the second group explained to me that they were much more experienced than I, and that it was 100% my fault for tracking up the line of flight. Since I'm used to doing mid-sized RW, I don't usually give much thought to avoiding the line of flight during track, I just track away at 180 degrees from my group as fast as I can. Like Bill says, it's simply not feasible on most mid-sized group jumps to avoid line of flight, so the second group HAS to allow for it.

I'm curious what the consensus is on this: Two small groups exit an Otter. Both groups do RW or Freefly until about 4,000ft. At break-off, one of the people in the first group tracks up the line of flight, and ends up opening too close to two people from the second group. Who screwed up? A. The person from the first group who tracked up the line of flight. B. The 2nd group for not allowing enough separation on exit. C. Both.