DvK

According to his profile he lives in the Netherlands. Not sure what the license requirements are there. But if he does only have 31 jumps is it possible he's still on student status? So he would have to jump with/pay for a coach? And even so, it sounds like the coach jumps there aren't too terribly expensive. I know that as a coach if the person is a student they have to pay for a coach jump (basically they cover my slot, I don't get paid, but hey, I get a free jump). And if they bought the A package at the Farm then it's included. Once they have their license then I just consider it jumping with a friend and I cover my own slot. I'm a little under 50 jumps, I'm doing my solo jumps. Jumping with coaches is indeed not ridiculously expensive. Seeing that I only have to pay for the extra slot, and even then my DZ pays half. The guy I approached to coach me isn't an off-season jumper (hates the weather) but likes my enthusiasm and likes to coach me. Like I said, I don't think he gets any money for coaching, unless the DZ pays him something...

No, I had all my skydiving gear with me at the time.. I don't have a rig yet, only an altimeter, gloves, goggles, helmet etc but that's still a couple of hundreds... I was looking around, seeing if I could find any good deals for a canopy... Oldwomanc6: my roommate was always a bit scared pretty quick, especially when she was home alone... Luckily there's a lot of students living in this neighborhood, so if I'm at the DZ for a few days, she'll sleep at someone else or someone will come to sleep over CSpenceFLY I'd only have to pay the jump for the coach, the coaches don't make money of it (well, maybe they do, maybe the DZ pays them). It kinda works on a freelance base here. And the DZ pays half the jump for the coach. So I'd pay 1.5 jump, 1 for my jump, 0.5 for that one of the coach... Can't really blame anyone, times change, plus, I think there's more people who start to skydive then ever before..

It's not all luck, I guess you can do a lot yourself to prevent something like this. But when you're not home (especially in my neighbourhood) if someone wants to break into your house and steal stuff, they just can... And they can get away with it. That someone has been wandering around in our house bothers my roommate much more then me really.. She was upset that a box of her private letters was searched by the guy for example, where I'm just filled with anger that our stuff is stolen and pissed off that I wasn't home... Because if I'd been home... Oh boy would there have been the need for an ambulance... Not a violent person, but if you come in my house uninvited I will hurt you >:(

My roommate had some insurance, we'll have to wait and see how much we can get from the insurance company (probably next to nothing, those guys are the real thieves) Spikes2020: You're not really allowed to protect your property where I live, had I'd been home and had I injured the thieve, he could press assault charges against me. The police really isn't doing anything eighter... I live in a pretty shit neighbourhood, and being piss-poor students, we're not really priority to the police And yea, this year will be awesome, dispite this... I've only been in the sport since Oktober, so plenty of goals to achieve the next couple of years.

Hi, so 2012 has a bad start for me... While me and my roommate weren't home for the night, some idiots decided to break into my house. They took a shitload of stuff. They took their time and looker everywhere for things that might be worth money. Including my monitor, keyboard, a guitar, guitar amp, stereo set, iPod, some cash, our f-ing microwave and so on.... Luckily I had my laptop with me and so did my roommate. And they didn't take my computer, which has tons of files and photo's on it. But it still sucks.... There's probable a couple of thousand euro's damage between me and my roommate. On top off that my roommate is scared to sleep at home now, she wants me to sleep in her room and probably won't sleep at home if I'm not home... This also means I have to take a step back in skydving. For now I'll still be jumping in the weekends, but less then I'd want to... I was also gonna start doing 2-way jumps, but since instructors cost money I've postponed that too.... Has anyone here ever had a burglary?

Yea I've seen that vid when looking to see if what I described matches the name of the malfunction some guys here gave... Makes you think...

A lot of good stuff said here allready. I'm still a new jumper, one of the things I try to focus on are EPs. Not just when gearing up, but also when I'm doing groceries and thinking about how I'll be at my DZ the next weekend. I just do a dry EP in the mall, when waiting for the elevator, when showering, whatever. Another thing I do (especially when a load isn't full, so when there's some space in the plane) while climbing to exit altitude is the following: At 1000 FT I look and reach for my reserve ripcord, checking if it's still secure. And pulling my left hand all the way down, practicing a pull. At 2500 (my cutaway alt) I check my cutaway handle and reserve handle in that order, physically touching them and pulling my arms out again, the way you would do on a cutaway. At 3500 (my opening al) I touch my pilot chute. Obviously I do a final check, prior to exit as well, but the above is just an extra to drill... Also, when doing these 'practice pulls' do it in a convincing matter, streching your arms all the way out. When doing it only 'so-so' there is the risk that you'll do it 'so-so' as well when you perform an actual EP. Most importantly: don't get in over your head, ask an experienced jumper or jumpmaster if you have ANY questions. Rather be a slow learner, and long in the sport then the other way around. Enjoy your jumping!

I indeed could steer fine. I agree with you when you say that you can't learn everything from the internet. I kinda have a learn-by-doing attitude. Oh and I did spent some time with a local packer today, to understand what I'm doing when packing. Only knowing the how-to isn't enought in my opinion. I want to know what it is that I'm doing and why, and how that parachute exactly works, how the RSL works etc etc. This guy really taught me a lot. While at it, I asked him if he could show me what a proper PIN-check should look like (like I said, I'm a relative new jumper, and only know this much so far).

Hey guys and gals, as an inexperienced jumper I managed to do something really stupid. I've only recently started packing myself. When I jumped a few jumps ago, I noticed something strange after opening, when I reached for my steering-toggles. My front and rear risers were twistet around eachothers. If I'm not mistaking it is caused by a packing error? When 'flipping' you container around itself when it's on the floor? Now I don't know if this is what happened, I obviously didn't notice it while packing, nor did the packers doing my checks. Obviously it's really stupid to make such an mistake, and I guess I could blame myself and the packers for it, but I rather take it as a very good lesson. I have 2 questions: 1: What's the name of this malfunction? 2: This one is more important, how do you deal with this kind of malfunction? When I noticed it, I first checked my altitude. I was well above cutaway alt. I decided to do a few practice-flares. Not the usual 2, I think I did 3 sets of 2 practice flares, to see if I could land it. I decided to continue flying under this canopy and flare on landing. Went just fine. But was this the correct way to go? If you can tell me how stupid/mindless my mistake might have been, take that elsewhere, it's not helping anyone. If you can tell me what to do and how to make sure to notice this in time, thanks a lot :) And yes, I did feel kinda silly when I noticed that my risers were a mess

The thing with props is that they are invisible when their radial speed is high. In other words: you will not see a fast-rotating prop. You have to know that it's there. I guess that it's a good idea to walk all the way around the wing of an aircraft, even if it's has a nose-prop. Just for habbits. I can actually imagine loosing situational awareness when you're bussy filming. There's so much potential danger in this sport, you have to force yourself to be very aware at all times I suppose....

When walking to the plane allways make sure you and other people don't get to close to that propeller! I make the choice of walking the 'safe route' even if the engine isn't running, just to make it a habit, some people don't do that when it's turned off.... There's enough risks in our sport, lets not make something that's completely avoidable hurt us or anyone around us..

would not start jumping in the first place... it sucks your time, it sucks your money, you get something back - but most of all you can get addicted and you're fucked up for your entire life... And yet that moment when you're giving each other the high-fives just prior to exit and wish each other a safe, fun jump makes it all so real and so worth it

tvanderbeek good to hear you're okay. I (as relatively new and inexperienced jumper) found out that it's reassuring, in a way, to experience some troubles now and then when my canopy is not fully doing what it is supposed to do. Managing to solve problems properly give some sense of confidence I suppose... Not long ago I've had quite a bad line twist. It was my own fault, unstable opening. I realized as soon as I was gonna pull that I was unstable, and expected a line twist already. But while pulling anyway, I was aware that pulling at the right altitude was priority 1, followed by a stable opening... Now I can imagine that you're not too fund of chopping your first solo, but it seems that you've done the right thing here. Making the decision to jump with an instructor 1 more time because you didn't feel 'fully ready' shows that you're a responsible jumper and not overconfident. Enjoy all those jumps you're going to have in the future!

My boss already taught me how to hurry up and wait :p Ah well... better luck next weekend.

dragon2 judging by the photo's, is that Teuge? That's my DZ I'm still home though, I've been watching the DZ's webcams, weather forecasts and fog-radar all morning, just frustrating myself.. Maybe I should do homework indeed D: Guess I'll be keeping my eyes upward next week... Hope the weather is good next Sunday, gotta work on Saturday :(

Hey guys, I had an awesome day at my home DZ yesterday. It has been the first day since my AFF course on which I could continuously jump and not be bothered by sudden fog or rainstorms! I also convinced a buddy to come along only 2 days ago to do a tandem. He did the jump and then signed up for an AFF course Yesterday I made a total of 4 jumps, learning a bit on every jump, and having more fun every next jump :D After a few weeks, I'm starting to get to know a few guys at the DZ (most are inexperienced jumpers as well) and we had some really cool jumps, the last one being just before sunset. There was a small layer of fog when we landed our last jump (visibility was good, but it gave a REALLY cool view) and it felt like the perfect ending for this perfect day. Today I wanted to jump again, the weather here is perfect, but my DZ is filled with fog, no jumps today :( Unless the fog clears in the next 45 min (which I highly doubt). So how do you guys pass the time when there's fog this thick? Unfortunately my DZ is only open on Saturday/Sunday off-season, so I have to wait until next week to jump again Shit I didn't think I could get this sucked into something...

Dan, I remember my first AFF jump, since it was only 1.5 weeks ago or so The first jump didn't really get my adrenaline pumping, at least I didn't notice it, since I was also focussing on doing things right. But every next jump gets cooler and better and more and more fun to do! Can't help you with the motion sickness, except maybe focus on something far away (something at the horizon) whilst maintaining altitude awareness.

Welcome, congratiolations on doing your AFF. I just finished my AFF, so a real beginner here: Don't worry about evrything being new to you and doing things wrong. Don't worry about the experience of your jumpmasters. Concentrate on having fun, just let it all happen... Concentrate on not worrying and having fun

Pun intended Hey guys, after I've done a static-line course a couple of months ago I did an AFF course a week or 2 ago. During this week I met some amazing people, did some awesome jumps and got addicted to this new sport of mine. I enjoyed it so much that I'll be going back to jump again next weekend. I'll go for my A-liscence for sure! One of the things I couldn't help but notice is how awesome the people are that practice this sport. There's a great diversity among the people who jump, but all share the same passion: skydiving! I can not wait to be back in that plane again, people smiling, joking around, pumping eachother up for a jump, high fives and so on! I'm hear to stay, this new hobby of mine is gonna cost me a lot of money, but will probably give me so much more! I will definitely go back to jump again next weekend! : D Nice forums, hope to learn and share a lot of good stuff here! I also couldn't help but notice that every skydiver seems to be a bit crazy Greetings!