CanuckInUSA

No piercings on this camper, but I do have one tattoo (a tribal arm band around the left arm) with no real plans of getting any more. Besides, getting another tattoo would cost money and that would take away valuable resources from getting more jumps in now wouldn't it. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

1) Licensed Private Pilot (don't know if you'd call this a sport) 2) Hockey (still play, but used to play at a college level) 3) Skiing (ski patroller in the early 90s) 4) Mountaineering (including hiking, rock & ice climbing) 5) Biking (both mountain biking and road biking) 6) Motorcycles (my bike feels very neglected lately) 7) Volleyball (co-ed rec. leagues) 8) Softball (co-ed rec. leagues) 9) Soccer, Football & Rugby (haven't played them in years) 10) Golf (I haven't played in 3 seasons) 11) Ultimate Frisbee (play pickup games every once in a while) Hockey will always be my #1 team sport (as it should be for any good Canadian), but I am really looking forward to gaining more skydiving experience (starting this Sunday morning when I do my Level Three AFF jump). Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Grumpy Canada and the USA have an agreement between the two governments for people like ourselves. While we won't be able to collect the US Social Security with our temporary alien resident status, our payments into the system will be factored into the Canadian Old Age Security system and we'll be able to collect it in Canada. Of course that under the assumption that there will even be money in the system by the time we retire. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I like the "Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now." slogan. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Yes I also forgot ... 7) Never stop learning new stuff Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Here's mine: 1) Have fun 2) Don't kill myself 3) Shed my AFF student status 4) Become a licensed skydiver

Dang A life of fame and fortune versus a life of shear pleasure and adreneline. I think you made a good choice. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

So did the cop bite with your skydiving ploys? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

goose I was born in Toronto, lived in Winterpeg as a small child, grew up in Montreal, spent most of the 90s in Calgary but have been in Colorado since January of '98. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

DivaSkyChick The URL wasn't clickable but that's ok. I just copied it and pasted it into another browser. By the way, thanks for the info. It will come in handy. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Skymut You've got a good memory from Point Break. The 2nd free fall sequence was almost as long as the 1st (they jumped from an altitude of about 5000 feet AGL which by the way is the altitude I've been pulling at for my first few jumps even though I know eventually I will be pulling somewhere between the 2500-4000 foot level). Also, it's my understanding that Reeves wouldn't have been able to hold on to Swayzee after Swayzee pulled (if people will remember Reeves jump out of the airplane without a Rig). The forces from the canopy opening would have been too much. Now I'm just a skydiving newbie, but from my training so far, the action in Cutaway seemed much more realistic. The only big glitch I saw was that the jumpers weren't waving off before they pulled. Is this because the movie makers didn't want to confuse the public with hand signals? Or do some jumpers out there not wave off? To me waving off makes sense. If I'm near someone who waves off, I know I might need to do something ASAP to avoid a possible collision. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I have seen Fandango (with some good old time skydiving footage not to mention the freaky pot-head pilot) and Point Break (overall a good movie, but with less than realistic skydiving footage). But I have yet to see Terminal Velocity or Drop Zone. I liked Cutaway because they had almost non-stop skydiving footage. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Or was that a boulder of salt I should be taking everything with. I do know that the AFF Instructors and Coaches I may encounter at the Drop Zones should give me my best interactive information. But it's still nice to have something like Drop Zone to suppliment things with. I know thanks to Drop Zone I now know the difference between a ZP canopy and a F-111. As far as that addicition is concerned, I worried that my flying time might suffer (and I really do enjoy flying airplanes, though my finances wish I didn't). But one of the reasons why I got into skydiving was that after my student AFF training is completed, it will be cheaper than flying (the most expensive hobby I've yet to encounter). Happy Flying ... and for the daring ... Happy Skydiving Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

First jump: a Tandem on July 13th, 2002 at Longmont, CO Level One AFF: on July 20th, 2002 at Longmont, CO Level Two AFF: on July 21st, 2002 at Longmont, CO Level Three AFF: weather permitting on July 28th, 2002 at Longmont, CO So as you can see, I'm a newbie in more ways than one. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I just thought I'd introduce myself here. I am new to Drop Zone and new to the wonderful sport of skydiving. I've been wanting to jump for years, but for whatever reason I found excuses to prevent me from doing it like: I'm too busy, it's too expensive, WHAFOE (spelling?) you jump out of a perfectly good airplane, etc, etc, etc. But on Sunday July 13th, 2002 I did my first tandem jump in Longmont Colorado and quickly realized that it wasn't going to be my first and last jump. So then on Saturday July 20th I attended an all day AFF ground school class and that afternoon I was lucky to get the opportunity to make my first Level One solo free fall jump. Then the following morning I was lucky again to have scheduled and passed my Level Two jump. I will attempt to pass my Level Three jump this coming Sunday and I'm not expecting any problems, but I think things appear to get more difficult once Level Four starts. Now something funny happened to me yesterday as I browsed through the Drop Zone forums. By the time Monday evening rolled around, I was starting to become spooked with skydiving (which is really bizarre because I was not spooked at all during my tandem and two AFF jumps and I should also note that I am a licensed private pilot so I am used to being in the skies). But I guess reading about some of the skydiving accidents on Drop Zone (especially accidents happening to experienced jumpers) made me think about the dangers involved in the sport. But at the same time, I was trying to remind myself that learning to land an airplane didn't come natural to myself either and that maybe this spooky feeling I was getting was just because I wasn't all that familiar with the sport yet. Anyway, last night I rented the movie "Cutaway" which didn't win any academy awards (the plot was kind of lame as it usually is in these sorts of movies), but it did have tons of great skydiving scenes (most of which seemed somewhat accurate compared to some of the skydiving crap you'll see in other movies) and my spooky feelings faded away. So, if you're still with me. I know that this post was long and drawn out, but I just wanted to introduce myself to the Drop Zone community. I'll probably be pretty quiet reading the posts and trying to imitate a sponge with all the information pertaining to the sport. But I have a good feeling that this is a good community to be involved with. Happy Flying ... and for the daring ... Happy Skydiving Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Contacting ATC prior to the jump run may help with the IFR and VFR Flight Following traffic, but it won't help with the VFR traffic which is not listening to a particular airport frequency. So one would like to hope that ATC, pilots and drop zones work together to educate each other in our needs to make everyone as safe as possible. I am a licensed private pilot and a student skydiver and now that I have started skydiving I have a new respect towards making sure I'm as safe as possible while flying near airports with drop zones. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over