ZoneRat

These are non-USPA sanctioned awards honoring the memory of Bob Buquor, an early RW pioneer. The Star Crest Recipient (SCR) is the most well known. http://www.scr-awards.com/ “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

The reason I thought to set up the poll is that a group of skydivers got the hoop dive award SCSA. I wrote Bill Newell, who manages the Buquor awards if we were the first group at Skydive Dallas to get it. We werent. Another group did about 10 years ago. And it turns out that no one's sent in an application for that particular award since 9/12/1999. I began to wonder if anyone really cared about awards anymore. One DZ friend actually expressed contempt for them. He felt it was just another way to squeeze yet more money out've skydivers. Just curious what the general consesus might be. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Skydiving awards... like the USPA Eagle, Falcon, 4-Stack, etc. or the Buquor awards: SCR & SCS etc. What do you think about them? What awards have you gotten? “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

As far as the 128 way sequential goes. My feeling is that the actual jump numbers tend to get shifted about as the attempts go on. Folk get cut or benched. I don't know much about how these things work, but I believe you have to officially designate exactly what you're shooting for every jump as the numbers and attempts at sequentials change. After they nailed the 127-way, they worked towards a world record 2 point sequential, but it was not to be. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

The cypress fire and cuttaways were on the early attempts. The award jump was clean as a whistle. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Congrats to the 127 skydivers that achieved a new Texas State Big-Way record at Skydive Dallas last Sunday mornin'. They not only built it... they held it for 14 seconds. There were a few cuttaways & a cypress fire, but no serious injuries. All in all, a pretty amazing thing. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

bluest of skies to you and yours, Pops. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

(Heftee printed out the SIM Study Guides for me). They're great! Thanks again for that, darlin'. Let's night jump together this weekend. (NSCR? ). heh. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Thanks Rick. You are amazingly succinct. Under load, is it easy to control how much or little the leg straps loosen? I suppose I could test all this in a training harness... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

So, I'm studying for my C & D License Exams and I'm running across some things I don’t understand. Can yall help me out? 1. Under extraordinary Skydives the SIMS state: "Pre-planned breakaway jumps are to be made only by class C- and D license holders using FAA TSO'ed equipment. [E]". ok... what's a "breakaway jump"? I'm guessing that they are referring to an intentional cutaway. Am I right? Surely it's not referring to a Mr. Bill jump where Bill "breaks-away" from sluggo... 2. On water hazards: It's been a while since my water training... So, you're under canopy. Odds are your hands are in your toggles when you realize you're just not going to make it to terra firma. You need to remove the chest strap and loosen your leg straps prior to entry. (Plus inflate any flotation device you might have... ready your PLF etc.). My questions: Should you remove your hands from your toggles to do all this? If so, attempt to re-stow them temporarily? (It can be tricky getting your hands back into un-stowed toggles...especially with gloves on). Or should you just fly weird- messing with your straps with your hands still in your toggles? Can't you fall backwards out of your rig with really loose legstraps? When you loosen your legstraps under load, do they zip down to the stops or do you have to work them loose? 3. This is just an unrelated question I had while musing over the materials... During a full rear riser stall up high, once forward inertia is bled off, do you fly forwards, backwards or just sink? Anyway, any thoughts or observations on these questions would be greatly appreciated... Robin “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

My best and oldest friend was sailing around the world and asked me to join him on a leg of the journey (Phuket Thailand to Israel… about 4.5 months of sail with stop offs to check out places). I quit my job and took him up on the offer. During the sail I made a stupid mistake (one that he'd specifically cautioned me about...but I'd forgotten) and ended up wrapping a 1" nylon floatline around the propeller and shaft... in the middle of the Indian ocean... at night. Someone had to go cut that line off the prop... and, as I said it was MY stupid mistake. We turned off all the lights on the boat so as to not attract fish, which attract sharks and other things. I put on some flippers and a mask. I had a little maglight on a lanyard and took the best knife we could find which was a crappy steak knife. I'm a decent swimmer, and I'm not particularly scared of sharks (unless I see one), but what got me was that boat going up and down in the ocean about 5’. It just scared the hell out of me. I knew intellectually that the same waves pumping that boat up and down would do the same to me, (keeping me relative to the boat), but I just couldn’t shake the idea of that boat would conking me in the head and I would float off unconscious into the darkness of the Indian ocean. I tried anyway. Had to try. I was scared shitless. My breathing was shallow. My heart was trying to leave my chest. I'd crawl down the ladder and sit there feet in the ocean, working up the courage to swim beneath and cut a line. About the time I'd get there I'd loose my nerve and bail out back to the ladder... Only to fail again in a couple minutes. I understood that I was physically capable of swimming down and cutting the rope off the prop, but my body just wouldn't comply no matter how hard I tried. My friend sat there with his chin in his hand quietly fuming at me, waiting for me to finally give up and surrender the mask, knife and flippers to him. He'd never been so angry with me before or since. Eventually I gave up. 15 minutes later he had the rope off and we were back in the wind. I'd never been so ashamed. Anyway. That was about 7 years ago. It's always bugged me. I needed to find a way to test myself. To see if I could put myself in a situation where I understood intellectually that everything would be ok if I could just make my body do something it was instinctually not designed to do. You just can't recreate that kind of thing easily, so I needed a suitable approximation. Eventually I came up with the idea of Skydiving. Could I make myself jump out of that plane? I found Skydive Dallas on the Internet, arbitrarily choosing it over other DZ's in the area. I toyed with the idea for about a month before I gathered the courage to give them a call. I signed up for AFF LVL1 as I felt that a Tandem wouldn't provide a true test. I only had to do one jump to know. I went there alone, in case I failed. I didn't fail. I jumped. I also passed, performing all the things you do for AFF1, but still felt dissatisfied. I could tell that mentally I was still overwhelmed by the experience. Performing the exercises more out of trained habit on the ground than actual awareness in the sky. "Could I actually get to where I felt this to be a normal experience?" Well. sorta. Later I asked myself "I wonder if I could actually learn to fly?" The rest is history. Sorry for the novelette, but that's why I started skydiving. Just writing that part about the boat made me all tense again. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

315/1 Cypress fire. My bad. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Don't worry about it, Beev. It's just one exit. You'll get 'er next time. Another tip for poised exits: Watch the plane go away during the launch. Claim your victories. Analyze what you think might've gone wrong with it, make a mental note or two, then move on. Don't waste time being bummed out about the exit, be excited about your kickass 360's!

I can believe that, Rick.... Stopping the perpetual spin. Fall rate all over the place. I have no idea how you'd get a student in a decent deployment position if he or she were spinning on their back in a fetal position... How difficult is it to guess which students might zone out? and, If I may ask... What's the trickiest moment you've had as an instructor? “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

A couple friends and I ("Heftee" and Todd) were at the DZ. It was an off day and there weren't many jumpers around. Todd was demo'ing a new canopy and was considering a Hop N' Pop, leaving us stuck with a 2-way. Which is fine, but I just wasn’t in the mood for a drill dive. Instead, I talked Todd into letting Heftee and I pretend to be his instructors and he an AFF level 1 student. We were surprised to discover that we had no idea how to launch this kind of three way. As students go out last, we'd never actually seen it done. A little ground instruction from a real instructor and up we went. "Are you ready to skydive?" It's a fun exit, and we managed to launch it. (It's still a little tricky even with a "student" with a 150 some odd jumps under his belt). Todd did well. Too well, completing his first COA on the hill. So we did the practice touches. It was fun guiding his hand to the hackey. A second COA was completed and now were at 10k... Sorta staring at each other with not much left to do. So we did what any good friends would do. We messed with him. Heftee and I made him potato chip like crazy, spinning the formation and giving bogus hand signals to see what he would do. He flailed his arms and kicked legs, acting all scared. (I guess he was acting...) At 6k we stopped all goofiness. At 5k we deployed him as per plan (I somehow resisted the urge to spin him as I pulled him), We turned onto our backs and watched his opening. I flipped back over catching Heftee's eyes just prior to our track. She was grinning ear to ear. That was a cool jump. If you haven't done it, I recommend it. I'd like to do it a few more times with a more rambunctious student to get a better appreciation for what the real instructors go through. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Well. You're right. Not everyone will want to downsize in 6 months. It may be a year, two years or never. I didn't mean to advocate rapid downsizing, but reading through my post, it looks like I sorta did. My apologies. That was irresponsible of me. Silverfox, there's quite a bit of info on this site about the potential dangers of downsizing. When to do it (what skills you have with your current canopy)and when one should wait. Might do a search and take a glance. Then please be sure to discuss it with your instructors before you come to any concrete conclusions. They will have seen you under canopy and are best able to provide good advice. Nice catch, Blahr. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Dont forget that you'll want to slowly return the canopy to full flight prior to landing. If you lift the toggles to position quickly you'll surge the canopy. That is, you'll be pitched back a little as it surges forward. Then your body will pendulum back beneath it. If this happens close to the ground the additional body speed generated by the pendulum action could prove painful. Try to be in full flight for 10 seconds before the flare. Play with it upstairs. I don't know much about Classic Style and Accuracy type landings, but I think those folk do things a bit differently than the rest of us. I've heard they use special canopies that are big and fat, not designed to provide soft landings as much as accurate ones. I'd guess they land in breaks so they can be in the middle of their range for tweaking in the landing with small corrections. Others can answer better than I. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

I wouldn't buy anything until after you've completed student training... but it's good that you're already doing the research. I don't know anything about Silhouette, but the Sabre 2 and Safire 2 are both excellent canopies. Nothing wrong with a Vector III. That's what I jump and I love it. IMHO new gear isn't going to be safer than most well kept used gear and it will cost considerably less. A few caveats: 1. There are many older rigs that are not great choices for freeflying... I'd get one that is whether you intend on doing any freefly or not. It's safer and will be easier to sell later, when you want to downsize. 2. Buy the smallest rig that will still fit your main, reserve & AAD. That way you can probably keep your container when you downsize your main. 2. Lines on canopies change lengths with use which reduces the flight efficiency of the canopy. If you buy a used canopy have a rigger check it out for you. 3. Seriously consider an AAD. I chose a Cypress myself. It'll make the wife happier. Whatever gear you buy, you'll probably want to sell it in 6 months anyway. It may be more difficult to sell gear sized for a 6.3" 205 lb. guy than gear sized for more common body types. So the more you invest on this initial purchase, the more risk you take having to hold onto the gear waiting for the right buyer to come along. Used gear would entail less investment, hence less financial risk. Maybe you can explain to the wife that used gear has "proven itself in the air". That jumping new gear that no one else has ever jumped gives you the willies. If you can pull THAT off, it'll save ya several grand...... and that, my friend, is a lot of jumps. In any case, don't buy anything without talking to your instructors first. Oh, and get your wife jumping too. It'd be a really cool journey to experience together. Plus she'll be more likely to understand why you want to spend every weekend at the DZ... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Oh yeah. He's addicted all right. I was around that day. You could see it in his eyes. btw: It would be very very cool Ron, if you can graduate AFF during the SkyFest boogie this weekend... I'd recommend bringing a tent... and a case or two of beer... Things will be happening that you'll not want to miss... We'll have one of the origional SCR members as master of ceremonies for the for what we hope will be the largest SCR ceremony in the world. (scr ceremony: http://www.scr-awards.com/). Balloon jumps. High alt jumps. Probably a few late night drunken ass pyramids as well. Try to talk Mandy into letting you do your grad jump out of the Casa... That would rock. Anyway, hope to see ya this weekend. Robin “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Until you get your A license (and possibly for some time thereafter) I would recommend that you stick with your DZ instructors. Religiously. They're trained to give you the info you need in a measured, structured, accurate, complete, yet succinct way. Your instructors take a personal interest in you and your skydiving. They'll watch you in the air and under canopy and will augment your training to best suit your current needs. It's very easy (and very common) for well intentioned skydivers with hundreds of jumps to provide incomplete info or info you're just not ready for yet. Being inexperienced, you won't have the ability to tell good info from incomplete or inaccurate info. After you get your A license, as you progress into the sport, you'll make friends that will just naturally act as mentors. I have several myself. Some that I go to with questions about RW. A couple for packing tips. A couple for help with freeflying. A couple for bouncing ideas I have for "really cool jumps!" One for help with the mental/ emotional (sports psychology stuff) aspects of skydiving. I’ve noticed that my mentors have mentors of their own. Also understand that just because a person has a lot of jumps doesn't necessarily make him/ her a good choice for a mentor. All it takes to get 1000 jumps is a lot of money and some basic survival skills... doesn't automatically make you a skilled skydiver or good teacher... One of my mentors actually has fewer jumps than I do, but owing more time and study in the sport, greater knowledge. And there are times when I trust only the instructors that were with me through my initial jump course. Bless 'em. They still keep a watchful eye on me, providing advice when it's needed. Congrats on your tandem, btw. I'm glad you're getting into the sport. You've got a fantastic journey ahead of you. Blue Skies, Robin “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Another consideration is flight characteristics and line lengths of both your canopies. Smaller canopies have shorter lines. If you have a 2 canopy out situation it's nice when both canopies have similar flight speeds and levels during a side by side or biplane. I'd imagine that well matched canopies would be less likely to downplane on ya. Currently I have a 149 (1.34:1) main and a 170 (1.18:1) tempo. I'm thinking about downsizing my reserve to more closely match my main at my next repack. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Another thing to think about when landing in higher winds: Flaring problems are exacerbated. Small mistakes that you can get away with in low winds are less forgiving as the winds go up. An uneven flare, reaching towards the ground at touchdown, not flying your canopy until it's deflated and on the ground... all these mistakes as well as many others may provide a wonderful show for those jumpers that opted off the load. In addition to the flare, there are other things you may wish to consider should you find yourself in higher winds. Your landing pattern will change considerably. That is, how you fly to your holding area, when you chose to turn to cross wind and final, will be very different than you may be used to. It's very easy to find to yourself in the wrong place on final approach. Here's something to think about: You're on final and find yourself over an obstacle... you're not getting the forward drive you need to clear it. You might be tempted to try a low altitude sachet. Don't. Even a rear riser sachet can drive you into the ground. If you have the altitude, you can go to quarter or half brakes, allowing yourself to be blown backwards away from the obstacle. After a bit, you can *slowly* raise the toggle back to full flight and land. Keep them even. Stay in the wind line. Something else to remember is that burbles/ turbulence from hangers and other structures will increase in intensity and range. Once you're on the ground, and you've collapsed your canopy as much as you can by pulling one toggle line, step on the PC bridal. Walk up the bridal to where it connects to the canopy. Keep a foot near that connection while you gather your canopy. In any case, the best bet is to stay off the load if winds are high. Get a sandwich and watch the show as the other jumpers come in. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Skydiving teaches you things you cannot otherwise know. About yourself About your life About the nature of comraderie About friendship About competition Not sure you can get much of that from a single tandem jump though...

Don't forget...you and your wife are doing this to HAVE FUN! And it is fun!!!! Even when a dive doesn't go as planned! Don't forget to claim your victories. Hey, you and your sweetie not only pulled when you needed to and flared a beutimis landing (her first...ahem...beer!), but yall probably did a whole lot of other good stuff too! How was the launch? How was your altitude awareness? How well did you follow your JM's hand signals? You got stable!!! (Maybe a couple of times...lol)! How was your practice flares up high? Did you remember to look before you turned? Your other canopy drills? You found the dropzone ok way up there? Excellent! Cut yourselves some serious slack! It's mind bogglingly freaky up there when you're first starting out. It takes a while to turn freefall into a comfortable, if exciting experience. Goofy, imperfect things will continue to happen for a very long while (I hope they stop...someday...). Forget the money. You don't go into this sport to save money. It's ONLY money...you'll make more. If you have to take a few levels over...and most people do, it's worth it to safely fly. Skydiving remains pricey until you get your own gear. Then...it remains pricey... but it also remains amazing. Relax, have fun, recognize your areas of challenge, and claim your victories! “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”