CanuckInUSA

But was that really Mujie that we met at Eloy? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I like your siggy. I was just there yesterday, yet this morning from my office I long to return to where I was less than 24 hours ago. Of course I must be grateful that I even had to opportunity to be in the air.

The winds played havoc with much of my weekend, but if you include Friday as part of my weekend jumps stats, I had some respectable numbers: 1:8:0 I witnessed 1 crazy assed manuever by a pilot (who I don't personnally know) at Jeff Sand's memorial (after most people left). This pilot not only put his life in danger, but also had a passenger who he was trying to impress. It was crazy I tell you, I thought I was about to see my first live plane crash. But thank god he pulled up just in time and missed the hangers. Shit that's the last thing we needed, another plane crash. 8 jumps, some in zero winds (good swoops) some in moderately high squirelly winds. no beers owed, but many beers bought Saturday afternoon for the post memorial festivities. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

That's some crazy shit. This dude is a true survivor. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Kelli I'm still holding onto a slim hope that I can make it to Perris for the boogie (it's too early to tell with work). But I doubt very much I'd be able to leave on the 20th. If I do go it'll be on the 22nd or 23rd and I will either be driving my car or maybe be a passenger in someone else's? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

As long as they don't have someone standing outside their tent trying to get the people passing by to come on in, I wouldn't be totally against it. But as soon as they try and coerce me inside, I have a problem. Agnostic (mean I don't know if there is or isn't a God). Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I can't give you any advice on headdown (seeing as I've got a ways to go before I've mastered my headdown). But isn't it the most awesome feeling the first time you nail it? The first time I really zenned-out was on a high altitude jump at Eloy during the holiday boogie. I must have held that thing for a good 60 seconds (the freefall lasted over 80 seconds). It was awesome. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Could VanillaSkyGirl be on her way to becoming a post-whore? Time will tell ... Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Waiting for DivaSkyChick to step in here as she's been known to do a little skysurfing. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Hey Brad, I'll sell you my Sabre2 so that I can get a Crossfire2. Just kidding ... I'm not ready for a Crossfire2 yet. I understand Jim will be flying a Crossfire2 very soon. But he's waiting until after he leaves CO on his year long x-country skydiving tour. Man the dude's going to come back as some hot shit freeflier and I'll be lucky if he ever jumps with me again. But it's all good. Hey I don't know squat about Icarus canopies except that they have a great reputation (in the future I will be demoing a Crossfire2). But the Sabre2 is also an awesome canopy. Anyway, best of luck with your canopy selection and hope to see you at another Bellas invade ??? boogie. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

It's highly recommended that once off student status that you do a fair amount of belly jumps before you try freeflying. And be sure to work your way up from doing solo belly jumps and coached two-way belly jumps before trying two-way belly jumps with other fun jumpers. Then at some point in your skydiving career you can try freeflying (if that interests you). Freeflying is fun (I love it), but everything happens much much faster and it's more dangerous than RW. Some of us don't like to assign specific jump numbers as to when you're ready to freefly (my first attempt was on jump #43), but you've got to be able to fly with others on your belly before you can fly with others while freeflying. Also, make sure you have a freefly friendly rig before you even think about trying it (god forbid anyone of us has a premature opening while headdown at 200+ mph). Also, there's is another often over looked discipline of skydiving that newbies don't think about (I know I didn't think about it as much as I do now) and that's the canopy flight and one way to work on your canopy flight is to do hop n' pops. Whenever the cloud ceiling is questionable (or I'm pressed for time) you'll find me on a load doing a hop n' pop. Because while I have my freeflying goals, I also have to land my canopy on every jump and what better way to become a better canopy pilot that to spend time learning your canopy. Good luck with your skydiving career. It only gets better from here on out. One of the beauties I love about this sport is the constant new things we experience and we never stop learning. I'm only 9 1/2 months into the sport and 217 jumps and I have so much more to experience and learn. To quote one of the Flyboyz "take your time, because it'll be there for you for the rest of your life". Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

There's a very good chance that your student canopies are not equiped with a collapseable slider (hence the reason your instructors have taught you a different opening sequence routine). And for the time being, go with what they are teaching you. In time when you get a little more experience and get off of your student gear, you'll likely find that you'll change your routine. By the way, the collapseable slider exists to reduce the parasite drag just as a collapseable pilot chute reduces drag. It makes your canopy fly a tad faster and allows you to convert some of that extra speed into lift come flare time. Also, most collapseable sliders have one or two draw strings with a little tab (mine has two strings). All I do is reach up with both hands and pull on the tabs not only collapsing the slider but also bringing the slider down over my slinks and behind my head in one smooth motion. I know some people say they don't like the slider behind their head, but it doesn't seem to bug me. But as I said earlier, don't worry about this right now. Do what your instructors have taught you. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Actually a couple of my co-workers know that I snuck out for a jump (so they could tattle-tail if they wanted to). You see they thought I snuck out to play some drop-in hockey. But I needed to jump and I feel so much better now. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Congrats on your "A" and your story was a very interesting read (Michelle may have found someone to rival her stories). I don't like to hear you talk about certain jumps being your last jumps. But I'm glad you seem to be over that phase. Good luck with your skydiving career. It only gets better from here as we constantly experience new things on virtually every jump and never stop learing. Also, I as well as I'm sure the DZ.COM community hope to see you at one of the up and coming boogies now that you have your "A". Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Now I'm not nearly experienced enough to be giving any hard core advise. But I kind of mix your step #1 and step #2b all into one step. Once I toss my pilot chute, I'm reaching for my rear risers to be ready to control a diving canopy and at the same time I'm monitoring how the canopy is opening. Then I'm looking for any immediate traffic, looking at my spot and when time permits I collapse my slider and bring it down over my slinks in one (hopefully smooth) motion. Then I lossen my chest strap all the way (continuing to monitor possible traffic), pop my brakes, check for a controllable canopy (I may have already done this with the rear risers but also need to do it with my toggles) and if time permits play a little. Then land that sucker hopefully exactly where I want to land it. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

You got that right. I was a little frustrated with work this morning and I just managed to sneak out at lunch and I got in a hop n' pop before returning to the meat grinder (or was that the salt mines). I'm still frustrated with work, but I got a big smile on my face now because of today's unscheduled jump. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Don't tell my whuffo boss, but I snuck out at lunch today and got in a hop n' pop. The whole process including stopping off at home to pick up my rig, jumping, packing and stopping off at Wendy's for some grub took a little over two hours. I wish I could do this more often. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Add me to the list of satisfied DBUYS customers. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Dude your posts/day aren't super high (if you compare yourself to someone like Clay). But you are a post-whore!!! Of course you're not alone. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I was going to wait until I had about 200. But when I mentioned to one of our TMs (who I've done numerous freefly jumps with) that I wished that I could start flying my camera sooner, he said "why don't you". And the rest is history. So I started on jump #148. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Yeah, but once they find out he's canadian, it goes downhill from there. (love you steve) Blame Canada eh? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Also one more thing about jumping in Colorado is that you need to be prepared for faster that usual landings due to the altitude that we land at. It's not uncommon on a hot summer day for the density altitude to be pushing 10000'. But any good canopy pilot should be ok. I mean look at Hooknswoop. He flies a VX 60 loaded at 3:1 here in CO and he's done ok with it so far (knock on wood). Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

"Mile-Hi Skydiving" is the closest to Denver in Longmont and it's the largest DZ in the state. We have a King Air and a Cessna 206 and are supposed to have a Super Otter coming online any week now. But in case you didn't hear, the DZO (Jeff Sands) was killed in a plane crash last Saturday. So it remains to be seen what happens with the DZ in the long term. "Denver Skydivers" is about a 90 minute drive NE from Denver (Brush, CO) and it has a King Air and good vibes all around. I only visited Brush for the first time last Sunday and wasn't able to jump due to certain issues, but I've never heard bad things about the Brush operation. "Skydive the Rockies" is in Canon City and is about 30 minutes SW from Colorado Springs and about 2 hours or so from downtown Denver. Unless things have changed they have a Caravan 3 out of 4 weekends and they also have two Cessna 206s (or are they 182s). It's a smaller DZ, but the staff is good. "Front Range Skydivers" in Calhan is about 30 minutes east of Colorado Springs and they have a very nice facility. But I believe they only have the Caravan that SDTR has 1 weekend out of the month. One thing that makes Front Range stand out is the altitude at which you land at (6500' if I'm not mistaken). There's also a non-USPA DZ right next to SDTR in Canon City, but I don't know much about them. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

With all due respect to the other worthy moderators, there's nothing like a monkey to make that dumb Survivor show interesting. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

If I had a skydiving girlfriend, I'd definitely tell her that she rocked because we all know that she would rock. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over