nadominhoca

Hey wan2doit, welcome to the forum!! The tunnel can help you to learn how to get stable, etc etc etc?! YES!!! The tunnel can give you an idea about the feeling when you are actually skydiving?! in my opinion NO!!! This is something that I allways tell to people, dont go to the tunnel if you are expecting to feel what is skydiving all about... the tunnel is good for training purposes, and that's all! Ok, you can have some fun for sure, as long as you learn how to get belly stable.. but appart from that, it's a training session for me! In really encourage you to go for a Tandem jump!! That you will be able to really skydive!! You will be able to understand how does the entire process works, briefing, preparation, set-up, exiting, diving, deploying and landing!! I bet you will have the time of your life, and learn something as well. That will give you a lot of material to think about going tor a AFF + A-Licence later on!

Again, i didn't understand my point... I agree that probably FAA is not a good source after all, but USPA definitely can help him to start the DZ. For someone who has lack of expertise in the Skydiving, USPA can help him to understand better the business, providing him valuable information, guidelines, safety standards, procedures, etc etc etc.. I believe it worth to try (jn a second moment maybe).

I agree with you in some points grimmie, my suggestion to contact USPA and FAA, is for someone that needs to understand a little bit better the dynamics of this sport.. how is "regulated", controlled, safety standards, etc.. which I think it's the case here.. I totally encourage entrepeneurs out there helping to develop the sport and investing their money to open new DZ, Tunnels, ets... even though they are not so familiar with the sport... if they are really interested, they will find people to support them to manage the business..

"Further, whuffos tend to think every jump is the "fear" adrenaline rush. They think each time you jump it is that crazy, scary, oh shit I'm going to die, heart doing 180BPM kinda rush. They don't understand that the rush as you keep jumping is that you are flying... you are in control... you get to do what people dream about, instead of overcoming a basic human fear of immanent death." Couldn't agree more!!

Hehe I know pretty well the feeling! I took my A License in a big DZ, with lots and lots of students... so sometimes when the weather was good, you had to compete with the other students to get the instructors!! hehehe "Presumably at least one would have to stay to shut the door and make sure the students didn't freak or try to jump anyway" -> Yes, in my DZ one instructor stays in the plane with the students, so he help them to turnoff the AADs, make sure everyone is using the seat belt, etc...

Welcome to the Sport!! There is something that we usually forget when we apply for the AFF course... Weather conditions!!! When I applied I thought that I was going to finish my AFF + A license in 2-3 weeks... it took me 3 months!!! (ok I had a couple of business trips that made me stay away from the DZ, but i can tell you that I can't count how many times I went to the DZ and couldn't do one single jump!!! Also, I had lots of plane rides.. I would say 6 or 7 within my AFF course... If you don;t know, Plane ride is when you are actually inside the plane, in the air, and the pilot gets a message from the DZ guys on the ground, that students can't jump... yeah... believe me... that sucks!!! But at least, I really appreciate the satefy standards of my DZ!! They are really strict with security and safety!! Keep going to the DZ!!! Even if the weather doesn't look good.. at least you will meet people, get along with them, and make some friends for you future jumps!! You will learn a lot just going and spending time at the DZ!! Have fun, and have patience!!

I think the better way to do it, is contacting USPA and FAA. Also you need to contact your local aviation govern entity... different rules may be applied in different countries.

Hey bro, I'm not directing my post to you specificly.. But for real, i understand people judging the Middle East rich spoilled guys (they are in general), but in regards to the Dubai prince, his skydiving passion is really admirable! The guys is trying to make SD Dubai one of the largest DZs in the world! They are about to inaugurate a big ass wind tunnel and a hotel, in our DZ... its gonna be legendary!!! For the ones who wanna jump in Dubai, we have two DZs, one at the desert and one at the ocean (palm). The second one you need to have at least 500 jumps!!

It's incredible the amount of BS that people wrote it here.. I've been jumping at the DUbai DZ for a while now, and one thing I can tell is that the people that are running the DZ are very professional. I honestly never seem the prince there, but the guy is crazy about the sport.. you can check some of his videos on Youtube. I don't know if for you guys that are jumping on Empuriabrava, things will change, but SD Dubai is a serious company, professional, and people are passionate for the sport. They have instructors from everywhere, US, UK, Romania, Spain, Germany, Japan, Brazil, etc etc etc... and all of them are extremelly friendly and well trained. The DZ has a very cool atmosphere... it's a very nice place to go to hang out with your buddies.. I made several friends there! Come to Dubai, and have a fun weekend jumping, you will probably change the idea about the "greedy prince"!!Quote

ARCH, ARCH, ARCH!!!! I really believe that this is the main objective of an AFF course!! I had problems with my CAT C jumps.. had t o repeat a couple of times... and i was feeling the same.. I'm pretty relax during the exits, i'm pretty relaxed during the freefall, i'm arching as I suposed to do, so why the hell I'm getting unstable!?! Trust me.. i wasn't really relaxed, I wasn't really arching enough... Went to the tunnel for 6 minutes only... just to have fun, to get stable, without any objectives... my next jump was a completely different experience.. now I could really feel how relaxed I wasn't before... I could really feel that I wasn't arching enough... For me the tunnel was my breaking point.. it really worked pretty well!! I am almoust getting my A license now, did several solos, and I'm finishing the coach jumps.. since my third CAT C attempt, skydiving became a complete different game for me!! It's so much fun!!! It's so realxing up there!!! Try the tunnel!!! and ARCH!!! believe me, ARCHING is a tool that will fix 90% of your freefall "problems" during your AFF course!! Don't give up bro!!!

My first solo jumps were actually the Hop & Pops from 5.5k and 3.5k, and being honest, I wasn't nervous at all!! Actually I fetl very prepared at the time, and everyone on the plane was very nice, also, my instructor was also in the plane with other student, so it was really easy for me.. After the H&P I did right away my first solo at 12,500ft! That was awesome!!! As I did at the same day of the H&Ps, again, I wasn't nervous... and again, by lucky my instructor was in the same load! hehe (she is kind of my babysitter at this point).. Just get yourself prepared before the jumping from the plane... like you do in your AFF jumps, have a plan for it.. even though you are not gonna do any tricks, just being stable during the entire freefall... But I reccommend you to have a plan (Type of Exit, Freefall, deployment altitude, etc) and them you certainly will be fine! I think someone mentioned, but now that I have 20 jumps, I'm getting bored doing the solo jumps! I really prefer to jump with my instructor... where we can do some stuff together...

Jesus!!! I counted 23 spins before your instructor helped you.. i really don't know how you didn't pass out.. What is this technique os grabbing your leg to spin?!?! it seems that doing that you put to much energy on the spinning move...

nigel99, I was about to say the same!! Believe in your instructor! I'm 100% sure he is a professional that knows how to judge pretty well his students in order to let the "pass" to the next level. They wouldn't let you go for the next Cat if they thought that you wasn't prepared!! I have nearly 20 jumps now, and I am almost getting my A license. During my AFF, I had to repeat the Cat C two times! Both I thought that I was very relaxed, but by some reason, things didn't work as I was expecting up there... I never thought about giving up... actually, for me it wasn't any issue at all to come back to the DZ and repeat the jump.. I was actually happy just for the fact that I would jump again from the plane on that day!! I think someone mentioned before, but skydiving, as well as other sports, you are suppose to enjoy it!! If you are trying to find reasons to cheer you up everytime that you go to your DZ, maybe you have to sit down and think about it... maybe is not for you.. Or maybe, just don't think too much.. just relax and enjoy it... you cannot imagine the difference when you jump with a relaxed body... things just flows better!! put a big smile on your face, and enjoy the jump.. not only during the free fall.. but try to do that for the entire process.. drive to the DZ listening to a music that you like, get there, have a nice breakfast, say hello and talk to your buddies, get prepared, do your briefing, and jump... easy as that!

It's amazing how people can judge something without even knowing what's happens for real... I live in Dubai for a year now, and although I'm not a real big fan of the place, I have to admit that things works here. First of all, you will be surprised to see how western this city is, specially because 85% of the population is not from UAE. Second, the rules are very clear here! If you try to be a smart ass, you will have to face the consequences.. because here, the law is applied!! I prefer living in a place where the rules are applied, instead of living in a place where corruption dictates, and the security doesn't work! I known a lot of people, and I never heard about anything weird going on with them... if you live your life normally, you won't have any problem in this town! The city has everything that you can imagine. An amazing infra structure for leisure, sports, entertainment, etc etc etc... You are just trowing some news trying to generalize the whole place... things like that happens everywhere! Don't be too American, ok?! Open your mind, just a little bit! I will say again, I'm not a real big fan of this place, there are some stuff that bothers me, much more related with the brainless people (expats) that you will find here.. but what the Arabs build here in 15-20 years, is really impressive!! I never seem anything like that in the entire world! And by the way, Skydive Dubai is legendary!!!!! Amazing people that really embraces you!!