He's talking about a Deeter, I used one as well, loved mine and would not jump without it. I also used two altimeters, a chest and wrist mount, most people only used one. I worked with students alot and filmed for competition teams who were known for smoking it down into the "Prestone Zone", so I needed all the aids to help me stay safe. But you're right, I taught in class that only you are responsible for saving your life, you can't rely on instructors and you definitely can't rely on electronics like a Deeter or an AAD; but unfortunately there are individuals who have NO buisness skydiving in the first place, I have failed students many times and also I have refused to jump with students who had passed the first jump course taught by a different instructor but then they displayed a total lack of knowledge or control when taken thru a practical exam to demonstrate emergency procedures and techniques required for making the jump.
I see, sorry. There are many different aspects to skydiving, some like different parts more than others. Some guys were big on "Crew" or CRW which is docking under canopy. I played around with this but I jumped ultra high performance canopies which were very finicky and not suited to crew, those are usually big slow stable 7 cell canopies often made from F111 fabric. I would often do "Hop n Pops" which are low altitude jumps with no freefall just to practice high speed swoop landings. Some people enjoyed doing "cross country" jumps where you jump out at 14k then open immediately and run downwind for 10+ miles until you picked landing site which could be a parking lot, cow pasture, football field etc or even land right in the median of an interstate highway which I've done.
Haha ok Well I'm sure you guys all heard the mile high club jokes? Well that is actually a pretty common thing in skydiving; Nudity and voyeurism in general was strangely very common. A couple would come and ask about it, they would pay one of our pilots to take them up privately, they sometimes would even ask a videographer to go up with them to film it....lol. Sometimes they would ask if they could have sex in the plane with other people onboard to watch. Yes all kinds of stuff like that. Even single girls would ask if an instructor could go up and have sex with them....and all of these scenarios have actually taken place. Most common would be students who wanted to jump naked and some ask for video, mostly girls but some guys too; problem for the guys is no instructor would take the guys on a tandem, they were only willing to take girls. Also we would get nudist groups to come skydive and ask if they could have a nudist party that night at the DZ. Alot of us would camp at the DZ all weekend and at night it was kinda a hangout party environment. There were several nudist parties and they would go around naked hanging out with all the staff and expiernced jumpers who camped at the DZ. You have to understand alot of the DZs were located off the end of runways in a private area or in a big private hanger so they were not in the general public view. Some of these nudist events were actually expiernced skydivers who would arrange this stuff with their friends or club members. And yes in general if your a good looking and friendly instructor you would get many opportunities for hookups, sometimes I would get multiple offers in a weekend, like shooting fish in barrel, it was like you were in a position of power and there were all these newb wanna be skydiving students who were always ready for action at the drop of a dime. Fun fact, met my wife at the DZ, she kept coming back to hookup with me but I kept blowing her off, well we finally hooked up and about 6yrs later I gave in and married her....rofl
