dthames

Welcome to the forums and the sky. It is always nice to hear the excitment of new jumpers. When is your first AFF jump? Be sure to report back afterwards. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Great story and now the real fun begins. On early jumps, I find it interesting that so many people have a hard time with the arch (or anything else) the first two seconds out the door. Just Saturday a young man was going to do his first AFF jump. He had 30+ SL jumps in the Army. While waiting, he asked me if it was hard to get stable right after exit. I told him, not if he would do what the instructors said and ARCH. I told him how hard it was for many people and he might try to focus on making sure he arched right away, after exit. He returned after the jump and said, It was just like you said, for the first couple of seconds I was all over the place, not arching. One tee shirt says “Mind over splatter”. I guess that is really the key. Funny how hard it is to break that pattern and arch right on exit. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Welcome James and congratulations on the A. Dan Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Traditional skydiving is a fairly mature sport. With proper training, proper equipment, and good discipline the final factor (to me) is “Do you want to jump more than you want to worry about what might happen?” Helen Keller quote often used: Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Contrary to popular belief (on DZ.com) you do not automatically lose half your brain when you make your first jump and then slowly grow it back as your jump numbers increase. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I did some student jump there. I thought the training was very good and while the equipment was a bit old, it appeared very serviceable to me. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Thanks. So if a person ordered a custom container some options for weight pockets might exist. That was basically what I was asking. Thanks. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I am a bit tall and skinny and have been told I need to think about a weight belt to help in RW. I am not flexable enough to have a wide range of options with my arch. My lower back has given me a little trouble over the years but so far in skydiving it is not an issue. But I don't want to expose my back to any more stress than is required. I was wondering if anyone had worked toward the goal to allow the main lift web to take on the weight of a weight belt so that during opening the weight belt load is pulling on the harness and not compressing the jumper's lower body. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Welcome to the forums and the sky. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Me too. I was 12. I would get mad when I would get up at 2:00 AM to see what should be important to be on TV and the one TV station was off the air. I even have the $10 bronze metal they sold on TV afterwards. Very nice, about 2-1/2" in diameter. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I hope I didn’t come across like I think this form is a good belly flying form. That is not what I intended. Pops said it is hard to take off the instructor’s hat. I think it equally hard to recall (for long) the actual feelings that many students have with those first few seconds of free fall. The feeling of not having control (I think) often lead to the swimming and other things that prevent proper control. I recall during my first 5 and 10 second free falls that I as stable enough to stay belly to earth, but not comfortable enough to take charge and manage good control. I would wobble and slowly turn, but was timid to take charge. I had been doing a hanging exit and the boxman. I knew about the big-X and had not tried it. The DZ, I visited (two weekends) taught big-X and also did not teach/like the hanging exit. I hopped back off the step for the first time, went face down, felt like I was falling, wiggled for 2 seconds, and then got into the big-X. Suddenly I was very comfortable. I took that position on exit for just 3 or 4 seconds until I was falling faster and went into a boxman. I used that approach until I started with the coached jumps. Sometime later I did my first jump in shorts and a tee-shirt. I was (again) not comfortable with my stability at first. The next time I jumped without a suit, I did the big-X right on exit and then went to a more “modern” style as my speed picked up. It was better to have that feeling of control. Today I am not timid about exits and have been trying new things. But if today I wanted to solo exit at 5,000 in shorts, I would most likely get BIG because it is fun. And everyone says, Have Fun. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

While I was struggling to learn basic stability I tried to read and learn as much as I could, looking for help. I came across several stories of jumpers having stability problems and some of the stories had a common solution. Most were old stories. The solution was something like, “The instructor finally suggested I try to just get really big and make a large X……..and it worked!” I thought, why did it take so long and why did they wait until there was almost no other option? It really made no sense that if that form would work, why not try it sooner. Not too many weeks later I ended up visiting another DZ. The only type of training jumps they did were static line. Not tandem, not AFF, just SL. I signed the waiver, showed my log book, and I was queried about the exit style and free fall form I had been trained on. At this point in time I had just started my SL free fall jumps. I had not been trained to use the big X and I continued to exit and work on stability with my arms 90/90 (boxman) form. A few jumps later, after studying some of the problems that I had with exits and after seeing the attached photo in the training room, I tried the big X right on exit. Bam, I was stable and steady in less than 2 seconds. I felt like a big leaf, sort of. As I got up some speed on the hill it was easy to change form to a more conventional free form style. I had the ticket. From what I read it is fairly common for students to have exit stability problems on their early solo exits, and on hop and pops. With this form available I have felt very comfortable getting out and getting stable. Is this is form something that is overlooked in today’s training? Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

John, Welcome to the forum and to skydiving. The US Parachute Association published Skydiver Information Manual (SIM) is a good and also offical source of information. Section 4 is the student training program. Study section 4 and it's suggested additional sections. You can download it and study it while you are waiting to start your training. http://www.uspa.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=MjZZfstaczQ%3d edit, the download button does not seem to work for me right now. Here is the link to read it online. http://www.uspa.org/SIM/Read/tabid/245/Default.aspx Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Great job on early jump stability. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

It had an FXC 12000 on the main and a cypres 1 on the reserve. We had one at my former club. The main issue with it was that you couldn't actually see what the student was doing since its free fall speed was so slow that nobody could stay up with the student. It held completely dearched students perfectly stable. When you removed the drogue, those that never practiced a good arch ended up on their back. As part of a SL program the frist couple of freefall jumps with a rig like that sounds interesting. But you still have to learn to be stable, in the end. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Static Line or Instructor Assisted Deployment will be cheaper per jump but will take more jumps to get to solo status. Most of my SL jumps were at a DZ for $75 per jump. At another DZ, $45 if you packed the rig. If you have money issues, you might consider other training methods. Most smaller DZs offer one of the two methods listed above. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

What davelepka said was dead on. My first 3 day weekend, I got a total of 2 jumps. Most people need some time to learn and study between jumps if you really want to learn what you need to know. Plan to go slow. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Trouble under canopy and didn't get hurt, wonderful. A.A. good and pulled on time, great! Someone already posted that almost everyone has/had problems on the first few jumps, so you are fitting right in. My wife told me something like, "I think this might be the first thing you have ever done that was not easy for you". (but I don't get out much either) Learning to deal with the struggle was one thing I never considered up front that I would have to learn. Hang in there if you want to jump. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

That system sounds very interesting to me. I was a static line student but I am not a seasoned expert. I am sure more experience jumpers will add their comments. I have noticed on the early SL jumps some student can’t keep good form and have some rough, twisted, or even dangerous openings. The drogue sounds like a way to prevent that. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Welcome! I enjoy the learning and beating problem like BKS60 has. Same here, 50's, stiff.....but with exercise and moving over to static line I got there. The actual jumps, I enjoy the challage of the dive plan, but it is not a "rush" for me. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Welcome! Do you mean IAD? Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I am sure there are many answers to that question. I can tell you what I looked for. An AAD with a year or more of service life left on it. A main that was know to be good for beginners but still have a lot of other good features. A main with WL that was within my skill range and would keep me on the light WL side, because it seems many can't wait to injure themselves. A reserve 15 or less years old. A harness that will fit well. Once I had such a rig in service I expect to be able to use it will only small additional cost until the AAD or the reserve needs to be replaced. I went to my own rig on jump 21, with a 0.93 WL. My comfort level went up, because the student rigs just didn't fit well. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

On a Mars mission several years ago they discovered a parachute problem late in the game and scrambled to fix it. I recall seeing a documentary on it. This link is related to that series of events. http://marsrover.nasa.gov/spotlight/20040826.html Parachute design problems have existed for these spacecraft before. This new rover is a LOT larger. I am very interested in seeing how well they do. The last few have functioned well. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I got the bowling speech early on and I recall the phase, "....you have nothing that you have to prove...." That came from a mouth from someone that jumps out of airplanes to a person that has jumped and wants to jump out of airplanes. Over all we should not really be surprised by who someone is, in this sport. Odd balls are more likely the rule rather than the exception. Just my 2 cents. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I weigh 195 out the door, am 54, got a Pilot 210 at jump 21. That puts me at 0.93 WL. This is a very good fit for me and I will most likely stay with it with no real desire to downsize. I jumped a 210 Pulse twice, a few weeks ago. I did fine with it. I don't think I would favor it over the Pilot, but with only 2 jumps, I can't really say. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”