skybytch

Yeah, cuz it's so vitally important that he jump as much as possible today, regardless of the conditions. The world could end tomorrow and he'd be so bummed that he didn't get a few more jumps in.

Wow, and the dz's in Nevada aren't fighting that?

Welcome home.

I put myself on wind hold when the students go on wind hold or when it appears from watching others land that it's getting bumpy up there. I skydive for fun. Neither bouncing around under canopy or coming straight down (or close to straight down) on final fit my definition of fun.

Reasons to get an M4 instead of an M3 - Overstuffing a container puts unneeded strain on the flaps and grommets. That you just paid thousands of dollars for. Packing 190 sq ft of slippery snot into a space designed to hold 170 sq ft of slippery snot is, to most people anyway, not the most fun you can have on the packing floor. Hating to pack an overstuffed rig has led many people to downsize before they're really ready. Which usually leads to that pretty container being all scuffed and dirty (if not worse...). Overstuffed rigs look like shit. No matter how new the container is or how well the colors match your jumpsuit. An M4 holds a larger reserve. If you aren't comfortable jumping a 170 main on your next jump, how will you feel about jumping a 170 reserve on your next jump? You can go as small as a 150 in an M4. By the time you're ready for a 135 main - if you ever decide to go that small- you'll probably want a smaller reserve too. Buy a container sized for what you are jumping now. You can safely downsize twice in an M4. A well-maintained used container that holds a 190 will sell so fast and therefore retain so much resale value that your head will spin when it's time for you to downsize beyond a 150.

I remember you!!! How's your dad doing? Tell him Lisa Briggs says hi. If you make it up to Davis, let me know; would love to jump with you.

But it's so much easier to bitch and whine on the dorkzone than it is to turn off the computer and do something in the real world!

You'll need to do at least two jumps with a coach or instructor to get the requirements in Cat F and G signed off on your card. Personally, I think you're better off doing solos where you pull high and work on canopy control until you have the A license, for two reasons. First, once you have the A license you can jump with anybody instead of only with an I, coach or D license holder. Second, more people die or hurt themselves from mistakes made under good parachutes than from mistakes made while doing RW, thus it makes sense to me to focus on survival skills instead of group freefall skills at this point of your skydiving career. We do have a couple of groups of fun belly fliers at Davis that will likely be happy to jump with you (at no extra charge) once you get the license. Find me next weekend and I can introduce you to them. For the solos you will be doing, check out the canopy sections of the dive flows for Cat D-H in the SIM and plan to do some of those drills on each jump (I'd be happy to help you plan your jumps if you aren't sure which drills to focus on).

Welcome home! Where were you jumping in the early 90's?

Easy solution to the problem. Don't sell your current gear until you have it's replacement in hand. If you can't afford to buy new stuff without selling the old stuff, you're gonna have to accept that there may be perfect weather days when you won't be able to jump. Not because someone didn't come through on what they said they would do, but because you sold your old main before you had a replacement...

Why in the world would you want to pollute good scotch with coke? Isn't that what plain ol' whiskey is for? Unless you aren't talking about good scotch, in which case whatever floats yer boat.

This is probably going to come off as snarky, but oh well. If you think that people shouldn't be trying to freefly at 25 jumps, why encourage the behavior by doing video for them?

A better question would be who didn't fight. Watch the highlights on the Sharks website, it's right at the end.

Great brawl at the end. I love hockey.

A coach can do recurrency jumps with licensed skydivers. Recurrency jumps with non-licensed skydivers must be done with an instructor.

My bad. It's in Abu Dhabi, according to the Skyventure website.

Say hi to Billy for me if you go.

Hmmm... you mean you're going to watch the Sharks have a Duck feeding frenzy. Have fun. I get to do a few jumps with Amanda on Saturday - two coach jumps and her A license check dive. I was on her last Cat C, it's way cool to see her progressing so well! Sunday afternoon/evening is D&D night. Either Cedric the Good gets to hack and slash or Brittni gets to throw offensive spells at goblins, ogres and kobolds. And maybe some undead things too. As long as I don't have to DM this week, it's all good.

Call PD. I'm fairly sure they have demo canopies available in sizes above 200 sq ft.

Most. But some aren't. The student who died last year while he was doing everything right under canopy last year? Wasn't much he could've done to avoid the collision that killed him, he didn't even see it coming. Or James Martin, who went in back in 2000 after a line from his main snagged on a grommet and his reserve had no clean air to deploy in? He did everything right and yet he still died. Or the (far too many) people who have died in skydiving aircraft accidents recently. They weren't doing anything different than you do. You can quote numbers all you'd like. None of them change the fact that we can do everything right and still die.

I asked my s/o this question and he said "I dunno.... some bitch, I guess."

Agreed. I bought a 1200+ jump Spectre for $300 once. Put less than 100 jumps on it before a couple of lines broke. Upon having a rigger inspect it to see if it was worth putting another line set on, it was determined (with a pull test) that the center cell topskin was in desperate need of replacement. Since the cost of repairs was going to exceed what I'd paid for the canopy in the first place, I chose to sell it as unairworthy - managed to get almost $100 for it. The only person I had to blame was myself - I'm the one who chose to buy a canopy for $300. Caveat emptor.

One really great thing about threads like these? They let all the female jumpers know which male jumpers they should avoid doing more than sport fucking with. Be honest. How many of you guys going off about man cards and pink panties and growing some balls would not say "you can't do that" if your whuffo wife or girlfriend decided that she's going do a death camp and jump off the Perrine bridge a few times? How about if she's going to do it without you?

PLF practice. They are a survival skill, y'know.

In the middle of the pea gravel pit. Woulda used the 182 but another couple had already claimed it.