Boosters

[samyueru 0]

Hey everyone -
So last weekend I got to test out my new jumpsuit.
On my first jump, I went up with my boosters.

I found it really hard to control versus without them. Obviously, everything is so much more sensitive. I had trouble keeping a straight heading - I'd keep either turning left or right, even if I went into a Delta. And when I went for my pull, my body position made me facing almost head down when I deployed - which was very scary.
Any suggestions? Or should I hold off on using the boosters until I'm a little more experienced with FF?

My next two jumps that day I tucked in my boosters and had great jumps.

Everyone loved the new Jumpsuit!
haha.

Thanks
-Alex

[Jimbo 0]

What are boosters?

-
Jim

"Like" - The modern day comma
Good bye, my friends. You are missed.

[Hazarrd 1]

im guessing when you say boosters you are referring to the booties?

.-.

[andy2 0]

booties? Did you try some toe taps to get a little leg awareness? About the headdown on deployment thing just think about it. You have to fly every part of your body. If you're going headdown you're probably extending your legs out too much. You probably dont notice this because you're compensating with your arms foward in regular freefall, but as soon as you go back for the pull you start tipping headdown. If you find yourself doing this there's two thing you can do. One, bring your feet up a little on your ass. Two, if youre not at pull time you can catch a little more air by extending your arms out in front of you more. Obviously you can't do this with both arms when you're pulling but you'll see lots of people compensating with one arm in front of their forehead while they reach back with their other arm to pull. It's all about maintaining stability with the air column youre flying in.

It's great to fly naturally while you're in the air and not think about it too hard but it's also very good once you're down to review the dive and try to figure out the physics of what happened. Once you start analyzing your dives in this way you'll really start to gain a lot more from each skydive and will start to fly in a way you did not know you could.

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let my inspiration flow,
in token rhyme suggesting rhythm...

[andy2 0]

[QUOTE]My next two jumps that day I tucked in my boosters and had great jumps.[/QUOTE]

I noticed you had freeflying under your main discipline. In that case you could probably go either two ways. Forget the booties and just keep learning basic RW skills until youre proficient enough to step up to the demands of freeflying. Or, and this is what I would do, learn to fly the booties. Fly the hell out of them. Theyre a great tool for RW. Ask around some of the experienced freefliers and see if they want to do a tracking dive. You'll learn tons by going on tracking dives and will help your transition into freeflying.

Look at the booties as a challenge. If you can't overcome such a simple challenge as learning to fly with booties now then how are you going to start working on your sitfly later?

The great thing about skydiving is that it presents one challenge after another to you. Accept the challenges and grow as a skydiver.

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let my inspiration flow,
in token rhyme suggesting rhythm...

[ZoneRat 0]

You'll get it. Just keep working on it. Give yourself a weekend (say 10 jumps or so) of belly flying with your booties. By the end of the weekend, you'll have 'em licked. Probably.

It takes a while to completely dial in your first good jumpsuit... did me, anyway... but it's worth it when you do.

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

[samyueru 0]

Booties. Place I jump at calls them boosters. Same with the people who made my suit. (airsuits)

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What are boosters?

-
Jim

[samyueru 0]

Haha - 10 jumps in a weekend. I wish I could afford that.
Friday's my last day of jumping in Australia (good deal for the US dollar) and back to Massachusetts weather.

Definately going to try some of the tips you guys have given me. About putting my feet up on my ass a bit - one of the guys at the DZ said it might help if I bring my knees up towards my chest a bit when I pull though...seems like that may exacerbate the problem though.
I think what it was on that jump was that I took too long to pull.
I'll practice as much as I can on friday - aiming to do around four jumps. However, I'm going to try and do my conversion to BOC, so I'm not sure if I'll have time. Depends how smoothly it goes.
I didn't try toe taps - I thought about that after the dive - grrr!
Andy - Yea, freeflying is my discipline of choice from what I've seen so far, but I'm still largely in the dark.
What exactly entails a tracking dive? Obviously tracking, but what're the specifics? What type of stuff do you really gain from them?

Cool, thanks a lot!

-Alex

[ZoneRat 0]

The way we do tracking dives: One person is on his/ her back, tracking. Others form a v formation with the "rabbit" (the back tracker) assuming the point of the v.

Tracking dives can be pretty dangerous, dude. It's a specialty dive and has certain risks. Get a good pre-brief and follow the rules laid out by the dive engineer. If others on the dive don't seem very "switched on"... reconsider. Not sayin' don't go... but be careful.

Actually... don't go. To be honest, I'd rather not see anyone with 25 jumps doing any kind of specialty dives... (hoop dives, tracking dives, raft dives, big-ways, formation loads, etc). But whatever.

You have an excellent suit for RW. I'd wear something completely different for FF. (I hated saying that, btw. Seems I remember from another thread that your suit's a recent purchase)

Oh and hey man, welcome home!

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

[samyueru 0]

-You have an excellent suit for RW. I'd wear something completely different for FF. (I hated saying that, btw. Seems I remember from another thread that your suit's a recent purchase)

I'm going to be getting a seperate suit for FF once I get better at belly skills. I know I'll pretty much end up wearing two, so I bought the RW one first - since it's what I'll start out doing most, I'm sure. FF is just my favorite discipline - I know I'm nowhere close to being ready for it yet.

btw, what ARE the chatacteristics of a a FF suit that set it apart, besides no grips?

[Hazarrd 1]

where are you jumping in mass.?

.-.

[skymick 0]

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im guessing when you say boosters you are referring to the booties?

Booties? damn you yanks have to call everything by some gay name ..boosters sound so much better

[samyueru 0]

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where are you jumping in mass.?

Jumptown and Pepperell probably, since those are the two closest.

Got any feedback about some of the places around MA?

[samyueru 0]

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Booties? damn you yanks have to call everything by some gay name ..boosters sound so much better

LOL

[lazyfrog 0]

on a FF suit, you usually have more fabric, generally cotton to slow you down a bit.
boosters are great. I don't have a RW suit, and when I borrow one, I really love to have boosters... They make you track so fast. First jumps seem slippery/soapy for precision, but once you understand how they work... It's purrr-fect

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Fumer tue, péter pue
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ourson #10, Mosquito Uno, CBT 579

[andy2 0]

[QUOTE]Actually... don't go. To be honest, I'd rather not see anyone with 25 jumps doing any kind of specialty dives[/QUOTE]

Thats a ridiculous comment. You should be ashamed of giving a newbie discouraging advice.

A tracking dive is like any other skydive. If its planned very carefully and executed with care it is a very safe dive. True, it might take more planning than a 2 or 3 way RW dive but that doesn't mean that someone with 25 jumps shouldnt be able to track with others. In fact, at 25 jumps I think it is vital for him to track with others to start immediately working on a flat/fast track. Tracking with more experienced people will force you to push yourself to keep up. Like I said in my original post its a great chance to learn something.

Just make sure whoever is organizing it is aware of your experience level and you are comfortable with thier experience level.

Have fun skydiving.

---------------------------------------------
let my inspiration flow,
in token rhyme suggesting rhythm...

[Jasmin 0]

Jumped for 6 years before I finally got a suit with boosters I use. Don't mind 'em on the turns and tracks, but don't do me much otherwise
Serisouly, I went from being reknowned for having my crap together to two weeks of laughter, until I got it puuuuurfect!

xj

"I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with the earth...but then I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with a car either, and that's having tried both."

[riggerrob 643]

- one of the guys at the DZ said it might help if I bring my knees up towards my chest a bit when I pull though...seems like that may exacerbate the problem though.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

... a bad habit ...

[aneblett 0]

good I am not the only one that doesn't know....

S.E.X. party #2

..It is far worse to live with fear, than to die confronting it.

[Dagny 0]

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True, it might take more planning than a 2 or 3 way RW dive but that doesn't mean that someone with 25 jumps shouldnt be able to track with others. In fact, at 25 jumps I think it is vital for him to track with others to start immediately working on a flat/fast track.

Hmmm. At my dz it was recommended by the S&TA as well as two female skydivers whose opinion I greatly value that I NOT do a group tracking dive just yet. That was when I had at least 30 jumps.

Even if a skydiver with low jump numbers was able to flat track very well, they still have very little experience with being in close freefall with a number of other people. I think it would be better that they continue to work on RW skills and gradually increase the number of people they skydive with before taking on the challenge of a tracking dive. Things to consider are maintaining altitude relative to the rest of the group, being aware of everyone's position as the tracking direction changes to avoid collisions, and being aware of others at pull time. I don't believe someone with 25 jumps is ready for that, even with thorough ground preparation.

I went through the planning and preparation for a 8-10 person tracking dive and we were climbing to altitude while those two female skydivers talked to me about it. They didn't tell me not to do it, but they didn't recommend it. I withdrew from the tracking dive and did a solo instead. I think that was for the best at that time.

It is essential that the new skydiver learn to flat track well, but I believe they (WE) should start smaller. Just because we can, doesn't always mean we should.

Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic.
-Salvador Dali

[andy2 0]

You gotta go with your comfort level. I was lucky enough to have freefliers at my DZ with thousands of jump experience that were willing to help out low jump number skydivers. Their tracking dives were very safe. The rule was if you got left too far behind to not pull below 4.5k. This allowed good vertical seperation if for some reason you got lost.

But yeah, you gotta go with your comfort level, good point dagny.

---------------------------------------------
let my inspiration flow,
in token rhyme suggesting rhythm...

[Jimbo 0]

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You gotta go with your comfort level.

The problem, Andy, with jumpers who don't have a lot of experience is that they tend to not know when they might be getting in over their head. It's nice that the people on your tracking dive had thousands of jumps, that doesn't make it safe for you, or any other lowtimer, for that matter. The problem with not having the experience is that lowtimers are easily convinced when someone with more jumps than them speaks. The experience to know better usually comes after hundreds, if not thousands, of successful skydives.

Stay safe.

-
Jim

"Like" - The modern day comma
Good bye, my friends. You are missed.

[andy2 0]

I disagree to a certain degree, Jim. Obviously skydiving will never be "safe" but I've been on 5-10 way tracking dives and felt safe enough. I've also gone on 4-6 way freefly dives and felt safe. I've been on 2-way sitfly dives and felt unsafe. It really depends on who youre jumping with. Just use common sense. Its probably not a coincidence that the dives I felt "safe" on were the ones where we had a clear plan and everyone stuck to that plan. Skydiving only starts to get scary when people start doing unexpected things. Plan the dive, dive the plan.

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let my inspiration flow,
in token rhyme suggesting rhythm...

[Jimbo 0]

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I disagree to a certain degree, Jim.

I'm not the least bit surprised, Andy. That was kinda my point.

-
Jim

"Like" - The modern day comma
Good bye, my friends. You are missed.

[Dagny 0]

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You gotta go with your comfort level.

This is about so much more than personal comfort level. It is about safety! Thorough ground preparation is a necessary and beneficial component of the skydive for people at every level. However, I do not believe a low jump number skydiver has the skill to engage in a group tracking dive. A skydiver with 25 jumps has just completed the requirements for the A license. Unless they paid for coach jumps on all their solos, that skydiver has no clue how to jump with other people yet. Most likely, they aren't even aware of their movement in the sky and may be sliding all over or have fall rate issues to work through.

A group tracking dive is not an appropriate way for a new skydiver to learn body control. Consider what could happen if that skydiver tracks low, doesn't see anyone else, and deploys under the group. Or, they are in the middle of a group and the direction changes. Will they have the skill to change direction while maintaining altitude and body position? Will they be even be aware of a directional change or will they become a high-speed obstacle?

I am happy to hear experienced freefliers took you under their wing and assisted your progression. That is how we learn. The important thing to realize, though, is that the dangerous component of a group skydive is the low jump number skydiver. On a tracking dive, the focus will not be on the newbie, the focus is on the actual jump. That is why I believe new jumpers should progress into 2way and 3 way RW jumps in the beginning. This allows a more experienced skydiver to challenge the newbie in the air and then give appropriate feedback after the skydive.

As their abilities improve, the new jumper can begin moving into larger, more specialized skydives.

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you gotta go with your comfort level

New skydivers do not have enough experience to know the limits of their comfort level. Read the incidents page and you will see threads started by newbies looking to downsize too quickly, progress before they are ready, and jumping in winds too high. It results as a consequence of the new jumper being excited, eager, and motivated. While these are good things and a nice side effect of this sport, it is also enough to have a newbie getting in over their head without realizing it.

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Their tracking dives were very safe.

Yes, but were you?

Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic.
-Salvador Dali