dthames

I have had a smoldering desire to skydive all of my adult life. But too many other things were in the way and I didn't give it serious thought, until I realized that in a few years I might be too old to start. I started at age 54 (3 years in the sport Oct 2014). I am not very involved with life at the DZ but I do have friends there. I am not the type to skydive for the thrill, so I am not looking for increasingly exciting and new facets in the sport. Someday the challenges that do interest me will no longer be challenges and my interest will decrease. As long as I am able and I desire to jump, my plan is to stay with it. But when the desire decreases, I expect I will move on to something else......and see if the sky calls me back. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

support for Imperial units, please. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Oh yeah, I remember you telling me that at LP.

Boogie or no boogie, if the DZ is new to me, I like to walk the landing area to see what the ground is like up close. You can find things that might surprise you before you find out the hard way. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I have been in the sport for less than 3 years but have spent New Years at Zhills the last 3 New Years. Once as a student and twice since. I have made 2 other trips to Zhills as well. While I am not much of a party person, I really enjoy jumping and staying at Zhills. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

You made it over the hump. Everyone is proud of you. Dan Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I don't know of any precise definition, but I don't see why crabbing can't apply to flights both upwind and downwind. So if the wind is from directly behind, and you turn say 45 degrees, you are both running (heading a significant amount downwind) and crabbing (heading partially crosswind). Those are sometimes referred to as, Running Crab Holding Crab Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

The PDF version is easy to search....more or less. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I may make myself look bad in some way by posting this video but I have run into a few people that want to fly wingsuits but are scared of what they hear about spins and control problems. This post is to encourage those flyers. While not the worst student, every aspect of skydiving related to control (except canopy flight ) seems to give me problems at the start. My first wingsuit flight contained moments of head down, rotating “flight”, and made me motion sick. I get motion sickness easily and so acrobatics of any kind is not what I do. This video is a collection of bad exits and loss of control over my wingsuit history. I have always stayed within what Tonysuits recommends as minimum jump numbers, but still things happen, at times. At least once, on each suit that I have ever jumped, I have had one or more instance(s) of control problems. Part of it comes from being too tired, to relaxed, or not focusing properly on the task at hand. But when things get sideways, I apply what I know and get the suit back under control quickly (mostly of the time) and without getting excited. Fly the suit! Respect the suit and what you are doing, YES. But worry of control problems should not create fear and restrict involvement in the wingsuit discipline. http://youtu.be/FsEaUPFhbA0 Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I'd say definitely get a larger/domed/pocket slider, it's cheap insurance against a slammer. You may also want to get an extended bridle and a larger PC. I will pass this on, for what it’s worth. Looking for a first rig, I was visiting a rigger that had been in the sport for decades. The rig that I was looking at had a Sabre I in it. With less than a perfect back, I was concerned about the reputation for a hard opening. This rigger told me that when the Sabre first came out that everyone was still trying to learn how to manage the ram-air canopies and that the first years were a bit rough. Things got better over time. He went on to tell me that the trim was a critical factor on the opening. He tried to explain the details of it, which I will not try to recite, as much of it was lost on me and that was 2+ years ago. But he said he had jumped and tweaked the trim on this specific canopy 2 times and he wanted to jump it one more time to be sure he had it like he wanted it, before he sold it. I trust him to know what he was talking about, enough that if I had a Sabre I, I would want to make sure the trim was correct on it and have it checked from time to time. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I jump a fairly lightly loaded Pilot. It snivels only if I pack it to snivel. It normally opens in 400-500 feet. It does not seem to matter much if I am on a wingsuit jump. how do you pack it not to snivel? I am not a really neat nor picky packer. I do use a reverse S fold to put it in the bag. I have the nose between my knees and after I release it, tuck the stabilizer in, and quarter the slider, I look at the nose and make sure it has not been pushed in. I try not to push it in or to pull it out. I try to keep it in a neutral position. Once in a while it will still snivel but not often. My normal deployment is all folded up, with a vertical speed of 50-70 MPH. I have found that it benifits me to get the hacky in hand, double check that my legs are tightly together and bent at the knees, before I pitch. By the time I pitch, I am starting to pick up some vertical speed and the openings are not much different than a belly jump. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Most things skydiving are a challenge for me, including wingsuit flight. So, I am not saying have a have better than average skills. But as Matt said, just fly the thing. It is very, very hard to spin if the top of your head is pointed to mother earth. Anytime I have a tumble, head down, counter rotation (on heading), and level out. It works way better than "spinning out of control". Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I jump a fairly lightly loaded Pilot. It snivels only if I pack it to snivel. It normally opens in 400-500 feet. It does not seem to matter much if I am on a wingsuit jump. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

In my training you were encouraged to PLF until you had the flare down good enough that you could easily land on your feet without really taking any shock load to speak of. When I went from student gear to my rig, I was instructed to get the ladder, go to the pea pit, and practice PLF before I was allowed to jump my rig with the main smaller than the student rig. Yes, people do PLF. But you are right, you don't see it practiced much. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Welcome to the sport and the forum. Did you have body position issues all the way to your deployment altitude? It sounds like you did fairly well. At least you pulled for yourself. Advancement requirements (freefall part) • reasonable arch and stability within ten seconds prior to planned deployment altitude • reasonable altitude awareness • initiate deployment procedures within 1,000 feet of the assigned altitude Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

The traditional Flysight firmware records GPS at 5Hz. New beta firmware at 10Hz for the newer shipset, is what I hear. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

The "beta" firmware currently on the wiki can sometimes produce corrupt CSV files, but shouldn't affect time to first fix. We should have an updated beta firmware available soon (most likely this week) which fixes the "corrupt CSV" issue. We've managed to get up to 10 Hz logging (on newer units) with glitch-free speech. I'll let you all know when the updated firmware is available. Michael I love the speech feature. I have no problem listening to it when I want to know, and ignoring it the rest of the time. I have been married a long time, so some would say I have a highly trained ear. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

It is always good to practice your EPs. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I noticed in June Parachutist, in the column Gearing Up, that Ed Scott asks that everyone jump according to regulations. One point specifically, was like don't jump in clouds and post video on it. Just don't jump in clouds. Not many days after reading that I exited in a large wingsuit on a solo jump. I spotted a cloud a mile or more away and thought....should I try for it or not.....which board member should I follow?.....lead by example type stuff, right? My junior high school football coach had a silly saying. "Actions speak louder than words....and you are making so much noise, I can't hear a thing you are saying." That was his way of saying, "Shut your mouth and show me what you are made of". I don't know Mr Winstock. But in general, a person's true self shows through in their actions. I am still looking at those clouds. I won't deny it. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

She did! It was actually a birthday surprise for her. I took her to the hangar blindfolded. Save for me forgetting that she gets motion sickness and her throwing up, it was a big hit! Really though, she wants to go again. Ha. Thanks though! So far I've had exactly 11 dreams about skydiving since my jump. Yeah... About that... we were molting?! It was a photo I took in October. Halloween and all that. Used bleached flour for effect. (MESSY!) I deal with motion sickness, using a prescription patch. It works. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Yep - I've noticed a definite increase in the time mine takes to get a lock (etc). I was jumping with one of my friends and his was noticeably quicker at getting a lock than mine despite me doing all the warm up procedure on the ground etc etc. I lost maybe a third of a jumps data on that one :( And it's been happening quite a bit for maybe the last year. I'm also getting patchy tones out of mine - sometimes it will just cut out mid jump and then chime back in 10 seconds later with a sound like a sound effect for a dying plant (tricky to describe...) Mine is a version one though so when I get some cash I'm going to replace it.. Have you updated the firmware? I have no idea if any of the firmware has a history of issues but the newer firmware might help. I doubt it would hurt anything. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I have a couple of specific solo jumps, one with a bit of a tail wind, and the other about 90 degrees to the upper level winds. Between those two, I have a fair idea of what my hard tracking looks like in an RW suit with booties. I will PM you later, today or tomorrow. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I always enjoyed tracking to get high forward speed. That requires being a bit aggressive use of your altitude. As you relax and stop pushing as much, you tend to "coast" more in the horizontal direction than you do in the vertical direction and your glide ratio can go up. Your mass to drag ratio moving forward is great than the mass to drag in the vertical direction, so you slow quicker vertically than horizontally, making the numbers look better. I say that based on practice with a Flysight and again, it was not a track for greatest time in the air but for forward speed, very aggressive. But as soon as I relaxed, the tone went up. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Where is it mounted? What type of aircraft? Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I don't think the duck girl returned after breaking her arm and all three major leg bones (as I recall). Part 1 http://tailotherat.blogspot.com/2012/09/how-i-broke-my-arm-and-leg-part-i-dont.html Part 2 http://tailotherat.blogspot.com/2012/09/how-i-broke-my-arm-leg-part-ii-lucky.html Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”