ZoneRat

In the case of a friends non-fatal incident, I would ask permission from the injured jumper before I posted... or wait until he/ she was able to post it themselves. Quite simply, it's not MY story to tell. It's theirs. Theirs to tell if and when they so choose. If someone decided to post something about ME without MY permission, I'd beat them with my crutch the second they got in range... (The last thing I'd want to deal with during recovery is dealing with a bunch (albeit a smallish bunch) of Armchair Incident Nazi's...) To directly answer your questions: 1. I'd Never post without the jumpers permission. Ever. 2. I would probably ONLY post about a good friend. Assuming the story had value. 3. I would avoid posting if it felt wrong to post it. 4. I would only post something if it contained info that the average DZ.commer hasn't seen a million times before. Would I post about my own incident? Yes. But probably not in the incidents forum. I'd wait and post it as a cautionary reply somewhere else when I got the chance... and I have... I've found you don't tend to catch a rash of shit that way, and the info still gets out there. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Oh.. sorry... I didn't mean to post one of *those*. clicky Nevermind, then. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

You should discuss whatever answers (including mine) you get on this forum with your instructors. That said... When the jumper went rapidly to full flight it caused the canopy to "surge". (i.e. momentarily dive towards the ground) this may have caused the jumper to pendulum back for a couple sec's then pendulum forward towards the ground at the end of the surge... adding the pendulum speed to the forward drive of the canopy. The same principal applies to hook turns. It can be ok to *slowly* let up the toggles *some* if you've flaired too early (go ahead and flare at the end). If you lift the toggles judiciously, you don't get the surge. Or, just quit pulling them down until you're at the appropriate height and then continue the flare. I'd personally much rather see a young jumper moderate and adjust the flair by slowly lifting the toggles than see one stall the canopy at 6-15 feet. Ask an instructor to show you a good speed and distance to lift the toggles. It's not exactly *slow* it's medium speed. Then practice it up high. It's pretty easy to get the hang of it. _____________ A helpful Drill: A good way to know how fast to flair: Go to a stairwell. Start at the height you'd normally start your flair. As you walk down the stairs, push your hands down in a flairing motion... adjusting the speed of the flair as you decend. You should finish the flair on the second to last step. Do this several times... going down the stairs at varying speeds and tempos. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

A tandem into the stadium? Isn't that umm... cheating? (btw: NIGHT JUMPS into a STADIUM... YEE-ahh! !) “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

oh man... well... your friends were right... it opened. Friend of mine was grounded for well over a month when his sabre spanked him like that. Tore some connective tissue around his ribs. He didn't mention his nuts though... try not to jump over any hurdles for a while... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Yep. Last week. The first jump of the year, and the only load that got up that day. The DZ was empty so we were putting together what groups we could. One of the "Went straight FF out AFF" guys was gonna hang a 3-way hybrid with me. Up saunters one of the coolest old hand skydivers on the DZ. One of those guru's you never want to miss a chance to jump with... "Hey. Can I jump with yall?" So we made it a 4-way RW jump. FF guy never got in. Almost did... about 3 times... but couldn't quite pull it off. We had great fun watching him try... but I don't think he enjoyed flailing in front of that old hand skydiver and the 80 jump newbie that completed our group. --------------- Last year a group of us talked our favorite bartendress into a tandem. Those that chose to be all around fliers got to lurk it. A couple that only went FF couldn't go. -------------- FF is fun as hell... but if you don't learn some belly, you cut yourself out of a lot of cool-ass jumps. and ya know? I hate to see that... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

And when the neck liner comes unglued from your Z1, shoe goo works great at sticking it back in. Soaking the tube in hot water is a stroke of utter smartness... thanks for that. (Damn if there's not a trick to absolutely everything...) “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

I kinda liked the russian r. analogy you almost made, Elphanie... except that the number of chambers increases and decreases with experience and situation. Here's another analogy. Kids learning to drive. Get 'em through those tricky adolescent years and they'll probably be ok. I'm right in the middle of those adolescent jump numbers myself... Realizing that, I try to stay away from certain things... hook turns for example. 4-way or larger FF jumps (I'm a rw guy at present). Larger tracking dives. I would wear a camera now, but I wouldn't for several hundred jumps even when I wanted to and had one. Wing suits, I'd like to try that but am sorta waiting. I stayed with a medium performance canopy. That was a good call. I have no business trying Base just yet. I dunno. It's not hard to skydive safely. All you have to do is choose to be safe. Exercise a little self discipline. Stack the deck in your favor as they say. Even still, you can do everything right, and still get bit. So it goes. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Amazing isn't it? Dump a ton of money, thought and time entering into a sport that, in some ways, increases stress and anxiety... putting ourselves intentionally in harms way... for the adventure, thrill and challenge of it... graduate with a landing that kabooms your forehead into the ground... hard enough for minor whiplash.. eating a bit of dirt in the process... and still manage to be anxious- ANXIOUS to jump yet again... This is such a strange thing we love and do. Congrats on graduation! Was that the first jump you've made in 2004? That would be very cool if it was! “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

My SIM's in the car and I'm too lazy to dig it out right now... but it seems I recall something about students being required to wear a rigid helmet until they get their A licence. I'd recommend honoring whatever the requirements are in your area. I have no idea what the French require. It's your job to know that, not mine. If you've met those requirements, knock yourself out... I mean... go for it , and have fun! What's the weather like there? Cold? Reason enough for me to wear one... but hey... everyone gets to do what they want... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

You fell in love with a perfect moment. Explore. See what you can see. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

•To achieve SDU coaching cert through centerpoint by Feb 1st. •SDU cert through superpositional by April 1st. •Avg. 10 points/ round by nationals. •Earn Golden Eagle/ Golden Falcon •Mr. Bill. •3-way chain-pull •Helicopter jump •To watch 1 newbie whom I've mentored/ coached, fall in love with the sport, achieve his/ her goals, and pay it forward to someome else. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Don't forget to take your logbook, stamped A-licence card, USPA member card, emergency contact info, reserve repack card if you're taking gear... and an extra 20.00 for the obligatory t-shirt. and, as was eventually mentioned, beer... very important, the beer... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

This completes my first full year in the sport. 359 jumps Jan 3rd to now. Plus a little tunnel time at nationals. Still suck tho “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

No back problems here... but just as a layman's guess, I'd consider doing some exercises to stregnthen your back muscles to relieve pressure from the vertibrae. It might be interesting to take a day and practice arching hard... just to see if that's what's causing the inflamation. Might be something as simple as walking around the DZ all day. Too much time on your feet. Does it ever get inflamed when you're NOT jumping? Might consider trading that Tri for a spectre or omni also... A tri can occasional give a hard opening, I've been told. Just guesing tho... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Welcome to the forums! Have fun! Say, I realize this is short notice, but did you happen to notice this thread? http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=829934;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

ok. My first rig wasn't FF friendly, so I went belly. Then... I got into it and stayed there for the most part even though my latest rig is fine for FF. Many my friends went straight FF right off student status. Every one of them, and I mean EVERY ONE has, at one time or another quietly admitted that he/ she wished they'd spent more time developing their belly skills prior to going darkside. They get bummed 'cause they can't perform well on hoop dives, raft dives, and won't go on sunset formation loads. They are scared of looking the fool and won't attend scrambles meets. It seems to take much longer to get to a point in FF to justify attending State or National competitions, than belly. So... no competition to get excited about. Also, some would like to get coaches ratings... and you can do that in FF, but most DZ's support RW coached jumps prior to A licence. It takes belly skills to Instruct and at least some to TM. But then again... many don't care about any of that stuff. (Well, they think they don't until they're stuck on a 3 way FF, when everyone else on the DZ does an awesome formation load...) So... as experienced FF folk, what advice would you give to newbies? “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

I appreciate the corrections. "400 jump Wonder": Someone who thinks he knows more than he does. Say.. "tracking Dive" vs "Flocking dive". I assume the only dif is birdman suits? or are the terms completely interchangeable or what? “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Here's a couple that get used in two importantly different ways: Knee-turns and Chest-turns. Some people use those to describe what body part is initiating the turn. Coaches usually use those terms to describe where the centerpoint of the turn is. For example... if your chest and head are more or less staying in one spot in the air (like the center of a spoke on a wheel) and your legs are travelling around them, (like being the tire of the wheel), that might be called a "Chest Turn". Let's see... "FAZ": Final Approach Zone. When you want to dock onto a formation you want to approach it straight and on level. On an 8-way RW jump, this would mean that 1/8th of the sky (think pizza slice) is yours and you'd want to be on level, oh about 6'-10' before you go in for the dock. That 6-10' is your FAZ. "Noisy": A noisy skydiver is one that is constantly moving their arms and legs when they don't really need to. "Rabbit": The lead person on a tracking dive is sometimes called the rabbit. "T": When you fly in a basic box position, but then stick one leg down at the ground. "The O": Short for DZO. Drop Zone Operator. For example: "The O is an asshat". "Spiking": When you're launching a formation and you're inside the plane and, on the launch, you almost go over the top and have to arch really hard in the relative wind to avoid going over. "Chicken Wing": When light jumpers constantly fly with therir arms WAY back in order to avoid wearing weights. "Lawn Dart": Degrogoratory term for someone who flies head-down. "Meat Bomb": Derogoratory term for skydivers. Typically (I've been told) used by non-jump pilots, glider pilots, ultra-light pilots etc. "Meat Haulers": Tandem Masters (TM's) that are not taking an active personal interest in their tandem students. "Chowing": A PLF for a high performance canopy pilot. (i.e.) "Nice chow! Glad he didn't femur!" "Augering": Another landing error. Typically exhibiting multiple earth based barrell rolls. that's all I can think of off the top of my head.... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

I'm no premier guru... played with it enough to know how buggy it can be... never hurts to make things as normal for it as possible... that said... this might work... Record the video in slow-mo onto another mini-dv or vhs... then, if on vhs, record that back onto mini-dv at regular speed. The content will be slow-mo'd, but the tape runs at normal speed. Capture as usual. That way you get the slow-mo without using premier to do it. So the quality should be better. Record the sountrack separately on mini-dv then capture it as audio only. That way you have a separate audio track and video track to play with in premier- both going in at normal speed. This would sidestep any problems premier is giving you about caturing sound and video together or at odd speeds. Just a guess. Hope it helps. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Neither program is super at brochures. Usually Quark, Pagemaker, and In-Design are the industry standards. but... I think your best shot at success lies with Photoshop. Especially if you plan on getting the brochure professionally printed. Printshops like resolutions of 300 dpi. The file size will be huge, so don't plan on emailing it Provide the .pdf version of the file. That way minor corrections can be made at the print shop. It's a good idea to call the printshop and ask them what they want before you start work. If you plan on printing the brochures in house, then MS Word can work ok too. It has some built in brochure templates that you might find handy. The tricky thing when working with word is getting the image to stay were you put it. There's a couple buttons to click to get it to do that. Once done though... it's pretty easy to move stuff around. I can help with the How To details once you've chosen a program. Regardless of which program you choose, bank on this taking longer than you expected... and everone from the stockboy to the president's wife will have opinions on it. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

I've never heard anyone mention it. I'd guess that once you're in freefall, the wind'll be going by faster... so you have to push on it a little harder to do what you want. What I have heard almost everyone say when they have to wear weights is that lugging the extra weight around is a pain in the ass. Especially if they have bad knees. For anyone considering weights: It's not a bad idea to think about what adding 20 lbs to your exit weight does to your wing loading... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Yep. I know a gal that did exactly that. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Guess you can find out tomorrow... Hey. You faced down those fears before. You can do it again. I'd bet money on it. (And I aint much of a bettin' man). Besides...You're a hell of a lot more knowlegeable than the first time. Might not even be as much fear, but worried anticipation. Go ahead and take a drive to the DZ. I've read your posts... You're good for it. ((((calming vibes))))

Ahhhh, ok. Got it. Wasn't thinking no wind vs high wind, and that makes perfect sense. Thanks for that, Phreezone. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”