skybytch

Fashion is way more important than having a reserve sized so you can safely land it in the worst possible conditions... Buy something that will fit a reserve sized such that YOU can fly and land it safely on your next jump. Don't count on your first reserve ride coming after you've gained the skill needed to safely land an F111 7 cell loaded at over 1.0 body weight. Don't assume that because someone else survived doing the same thing you want to do, you will also survive. Don't count on doing a particular number of jumps by the time your custom rig arrives; shit happens and you may not get those jumps in. In other words, get something sized for an Optimum 160 instead. Your ego will survive having to jump a larger container. Really it will.

Pelvis. It's the new femur.

Yes, that would be a problem, but it's not one we're seeing where I jump. They've got a nice crop of sub-200 jumps puppies, a solid core of jumpers with 200-500 jumps, a good sized group of regular and semi-regular more experience jumpers, enough AFF students (new and continuing) to need 3 or more instructors on a weekday, a handful of coaches who want to get AFF ratings... How did they end up with good student and post-A license retention? A lot of credit has to go to a 4 way team that trains there. They organize lots of skills camps and scrambles competitions that are open to pretty much anyone with an RW suit. Some credit must go to the generally friendly and social vibe at the dz. Students are encouraged to hang out after sunset and get to know people. But most of the credit goes to the fun jumpers, especially those between 25 - 500(ish) jumps. These are the people who always seem to be the most excited about jumping. They're always happy to talk about skydiving, even to a clueless whuffo. Even more important, without fun jumpers on the dz and on the plane, students have no example of what skydiving is really all about to get them excited about spending all that money to continue.

No metal, but I do have pieces of some dead person's bones in my lower back.

They were on a reserve that came in for a routine I&R (out of date, not after use). Velcro covers were fine.

The lower steering lines in the pics below were recently discovered lurking underneath the velcro keepers. On a reserve. Attention to detail...

No, it's not.

Wow. What an awesome gift she's giving. My thoughts are with all of them today.

That's exactly what I was hoping for when I posted this thread. Me too. imho, we need to start making a point of teaching it to everyone, not only to those who want to do some CRW.

Seven cell F111, 254-ish square feet. Best results when loaded at 1.0 or less.

You see right through me. The ISP suggests that new jumpers review section 5.1 of the SIM (what Krisanne posted) during Category G. I wonder how many new jumpers actually do so. We focus a lot on collision avoidance, which is great, but are we doing so at the expense of teaching people how to survive a canopy collision? I'd love to hear input from some low jump number (say sub-200) folks on this subject. How much of the information here did you know before you opened this thread? If you already knew it, at what point was it taught to you or did you have to seek the information out yourself?

Not bad for a CRW dog. How many people out there could have answered the same prior to reading Craig's post? How many people without CRW experience could have done so? Scenario #2 - You have a spinning malfunction. As you start your 2nd 360, your body hits the open canopy of another jumper. Whatcha gonna do?

Scenario: You are under canopy at 2800'. You've stowed your slider and unstowed your brakes and are getting ready to do a control check when another jumper's body hits your canopy from behind. Your canopy wraps around him. Whatcha gonna do?

Yeah, sad isn't it? Even sadder knowing that the original intent of these forums was to have a place where you wouldn't have to scroll through a bunch of noise to get to the signal, cuz noise wasn't tolerated...

Don't give up, get more help!! If I can learn to land standing on my feet, you can too. Take a canopy control course!!! If that's not possible, find someone with a video camera (not hard) who is willing to stand in the landing area and video a few of your landings (a bit more difficult). Then have someone who knows something (an AFFI, perhaps, although the piece of paper is no guarantee that they know anything) debrief your flare technique using the video. There are a couple things that you can try that may help with the mental block side of things. The biggest one is to do some jumps focused solely on canopy control - hop and pops, from whatever altitude. Removing the distractions of what you just did in freefall will help you focus on what you need to work on under canopy. Visualize your perfect pattern and perfect flare that lead to a perfect landing, just like you visualize what you're going to do in freefall. Practice your flare several times focusing on finishing it - the finish is where your canopy bleeds off the forward speed that may be scaring you. Flare once looking up at the canopy, once looking out at a 45 degree angle andonce with your eyes closed to "feel" the sweet spot and the finish, above pattern entry altitude, on every jump. As you turn to final, say - OUT LOUD - "Relax!" Do the same just before flare time. Be ready to stand up, physically and mentally. One foot in front of the other, ready to take a step or two, works far better than trying to "stick it" with both feet hitting at the same time. Allow yourself to risk standing it up instead of reverting to what has become your standard controlled crash.

I'd buy risers and toggles with velcro. They're more secure, they provide a place to put the toggles if I don't want to hang on to them (up high, of course), they provide for secure stowage of the excess line and they're easier to unstow when it's time. The only argument I've ever heard against them is wear on the lower steering lines. If non-velcro toggles are supposed to cure that problem, then why do so many people jumping non-velcro toggles need to have their lower steering lines replaced?

Nice shots! Mine are here (includes some from the road trip there as well). Good times... how many sleeps are left to next year, Shell?

Do you tip the guy who runs the Zipper at the fair? Same thing...

Anything made by L&B or Alti2. They know how to take care of their customers.

No you don't. That was not a good landing. She got lucky. Flare too high, let it up a bit and then flare again. But really, it's far better to flare once at close to the right altitude and hold it...

Almost back to normal already then. Excellent news. Love ya.

Menopause kicks ass, doesn't it? My current problem is that it isn't Thursday morning yet.

Personally, I don't see a problem with only the best of those willing to put in the effort getting the rating. The AFF and Tandem I/E ratings are the highest instructional ratings that USPA issues. The people who hold them should be the best of the best, and the rating itself shouldn't be easy to attain - the candidate should have to really want it to be willing to put out the large amount of time and effort that are needed to complete the requirements. As I see it, the point of the requirements isn't so much to prove how good the candidate is, but more to allow the candidate an "apprenticeship" time sufficient for them to gain the skills needed to run good courses on their own. I think very few people will be able to gain all of those skills through assisting in one or two courses.

While you may have been perfect from jump one, most other people aren't.

How many courses did it take you to get 30 in? Do you think that assisting in more than one course (if you have) was a good or bad thing - ie did you feel more ready to run your own courses after assisting in your second/third/fourth than you did after the first?