JasonYergin

What up doc? Advice?? Talk to your instructors a LOT!! Go fly... have fun... and other than that, trust the arch. It'll work to keep you stable, 100% certain. Don't worry about failing a portion either. This is the kind of thing you want to get right and I'm pretty certain, unless you just have a poor fragile ego or something, that once you get that license and become a fun jumper you won't think twice about how many student jumps you had to do. I say that from experience because it was jump 24 or 25 for me to finally finish my A card. No worries though. It's just like the meaning of life which is: who gives a fuck?? Just live while you're here. That's what jumping is about (to a lot of people). _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

You can't make a good call on this or anything with asking about one persons experience, and I certainly don't mean any disrespect to a veteran jumper who has lost a lot of friends to this sport as I've lost way too many friends in the 4 services to Iraq and Afghanistan. It's about percentages. Example: many, many more Sailors get DUI's each year than do Marines. That's looking at the raw numbers but if you look at the percent of Marines that get DUI's they are about the same as the Sailors. The Marine Corps is just a much smaller branch than the Navy so looking at the raw numbers paints an incorrect picture. If you could find the total number of drivers, motorcyclists and cyclists then find the percentage of fatalities from that group in a year then you could do a comparison of that data to the percentage of jumper fatalities gathered from what the USPA publishes each year. Short of that how can you make the call either way? Either we can agree to disagree or continue with this digital equivalent of puffing up our chests and seeing which one of us can yell the loudest. I think I'll keep with my stance until I'm legitimately proven otherwise though. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

That's because its mostly not true.... Put another way if everyone spend the same amount of time skydiving as driving in a car, the death rate would increase much more than twice. You might be right and I'm not gonna sit here and argue it to death as if I'm an expert on the subject, but I do think if skydiving went up that much even more safety measures would come to be and things would advance at a much faster rate. We take at least a thousand things for granted in driving and riding motorcycles that could kill us and indeed we've moved beyond the dangers for the most part. You can't account for everything though. For my part I've been surprised at how safe skydiving is in this day and age. Yes, one little mistake can certainly kill you with a quickness and I won't deny that. What I'd like people to take away from this conversation, especially non-jumpers or brand new ones, is that the sport might not be what they imagined and it's not like 92% life threatening. It's awesome, cool, fun, exhilarating, eye-opening, a little scary and many other things but it's not totally insane or death wishful. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

Nice video!! ...and a very warm welcome. dropzone.com doesn't automatically make a link like some websites these days. http://youtu.be/QoGBTBTUg6o _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

Someone always gets blamed. It's usually the figure head, I mean president!! _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

Yeah, and thanks to you too. I've been telling people the same thing about cars and bikes being more dangerous since I started jumping but I'm pretty sure most people don't buy it. I know it for a fact though, because I've ridden dirt bikes for over 20 years and ride a street bike pretty regularly now days. It is SO easy to get hit by careless motorists and in fact I'm pretty sure it's not a matter of if you'll get hit but when you'll get hit if you don't watch out for them. Cars have pretty much always been statistically more dangerous than flying in planes too or at least that's what you always hear so I'm with ya. Jumping is about living and loving life while we have it not tempting fate or wishing to die. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

Yeah, this is DEFINITELY going to be the highlight of my year up to that point, without a doubt I'm trying to be there come hell or high water... It's been way, way too long since I got any good jumps in. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

I hope you put canopies inside before jumping

Very nice. The red trims are pretty hot _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

I definitely thought I was going to get attacked for my post then subsequently get pissed off and not know what to respond with... haha, but that kind of thing does happen and it's good if you can keep from getting into a pissing contest through the whole thing. It's about getting through to people though. What you want to be first and foremost in the persons mind is how badly they could've messed up and not how badly they want to choke slam someone for yelling at them, disrespecting or embarrassing them. Now days there is a LOT of attention to bullies, especially in schools around people of a very easily influenced age. I'm as much about being able to admit when you're wrong, learn from a mistake and even laugh at ones self when appropriate as the next guy but not everyone is there in life yet, to the point that they can swallow their pride and drive on. I haven't been skydiving all that long but already I've seen way too many people that think that just because they CAN use the "you'll ******* die, or get someone else ******* killed" line, that they should use that as an excuse to yell at people in an unnecessarily brutal way. Even in the military, where it's probably more likely that you'll get killed or get someone else killed if you're not careful, people don't just go around jumping on the chance to light people up every single time there's half a reason to do so. Hopefully skydiving will evolve to that point someday too. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

Welcome to ya. Glad you're doing it and have fun!! _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

Just remember to learn when not to jump while you're at it, as in quality over quantity. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

Great articles... I didn't realize there were 3 until I saw this thread though. Thanks for the info _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

Yeah.... I think we gotta try to draw the line between control and making life better. I hate that there are dangerous people out on the highways and we have to worry whether they'll endanger our loved ones or not but I still don't like the idea of a black box the insurance companies can access to see if you were going 2 or 3 MPH over the posted speed limit in order to deny you the service you paid for. I really hate technicalities like that. I care too much for the idea of a government agency being able to track my car with the built in GPS but then again I'd never commit crimes and go on the run. For criminals that need to be caught and delt with on the other hand, I'd love for them to get caught not knowing they were being tracked with technology like that. Survival situations... definitely. None of us want to hear about how someone broke down in the cold and couldn't get help in time. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

You said it!! ^^ I've never had a pair of goggles that fit me without slipping off, so call me odd or whatever, that's a pretty strong reason not to buy. That and I have enough high-tech, digital, GPS enabled gadgets that I've already spent too much on so unless I'm getting these from a sponsor or something I don't see it happening. All that said I hope the technology continues to evolve and possibly make it's way into dyters or wrist mounted devices. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

I guess you could call it a powered guillotine, or just guillotine... I don't know. Maybe if you insuated this thing could easily take someones head off the point would hit home a little more. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

Know-it-alls, can't-tell-me-nothings and desperate for attention dipshits are everywhere these days. It's just what a lot of people have become in this generation. It would be nice if people knew how to use proportionate force but that might be a daydream at best. I'm pretty sure the same people that like to disrespect new folks when they do something dumb instead of talking to them like a human being would get all kinds of butt hurt if a cop pulled them out of their car and put them in handcuffs if they did something stupid on the roads. In other words it's all fine and good being a belligerent douchebag until the shoe is on the other foot. Then it was someone elses fault. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

Is there a chance of a public poll thread to see the viability? I can't find anything but I think it's a good idea. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

Some say Germany should be the model for all of Europe. If they followed Germany's example Europe's economics might be fixed. I have no idea why they think that though... _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

Welcome!! Peace be with you _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

It should go without saying that you never approach the aircraft near the prop. I say it should but it doesn't because it isn't drilled into people often enough. I think from now on I will call people out no matter how much experience they have and of course they can choose to listen to me or be arrogant and say or do whatever they gotta do. Consistency with approaching the aircraft is the only way to go though because short of saving someones life or limb it's just never worth the extra 4 seconds you'd save by shortcutting it. Doing the right thing and setting a good example is the responsibility of everyone on the airfield. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

Seems like one of those that there just isn't a good insult for. Like I get called crazy all the time but I actually like that for the most part. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

Thanks Matthew! I'm glad to see someone else can appreciate what I was going for. Straight black was a little too simple but I'm glad I went with "silver" trims. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!

I say get on the same load and call it a day. _________________________________ ...Don't Get Elimated!!