darrenspooner

Yes, I do have this problem exactly. If I want to slow down and hug the barrell then I can't get around much in the sky. And ditto in reverse. I think to really get your skills up you need to carry on jumping with very experienced people. I jumped with an experienced chap today and he was able to compensate for my inadequacy and stay on the same level such that we turned a few points, for the first time in my life. I tried loads of jumps with people of the same experience level, who are equally desperate to get some FS experience, and they all sucked (including me!).

The way I always explain it to people is that for 50 seconds the earth becomes irrelevant. You are there. Its spirituality. Completely free of everything on earth. Especially if there's cloud cover. Its like everything in the world dissappears for a few seconds. Its got nothing to do with adrenalin at that point. As for safety, well, I want to live. It could never be safe enough. I just want the spirituality. I had a mal recently and the rsl pulled my reserve. It did it for me, and I am grateful. If you want thrills then base jump, or just go nuts somewhere. SKydiving needs to be safe for most of us.

I'm guessing the things I said have pushed the buttons for you. Look, I do not mean to cause you any offence. I don't know you, I have no idea what you look like or what your skydiving ability is. So this isn't in any way a personal reflection on you. But I just seen the look on some of those instructors' faces when a chick turns up for training or tandem. The advice you got on here seems good - go with the ones that want to help you improve, not the ones with another agenda.

I don't know shit, so check elsewhere, but higher wing loading should make you more stable in turbulence. I had a canopy fold under 3 end cells at 200 feet in choppy winders. I binned it, and now make a very safe decision as to whether I should jump on those days. This Saturday just gone, I did one and went home.

I guess you need to talk to your bank first, and work out what info they need from you. This will help you decide how to structure your plan. You can bet your life that your bank has never had to consider funding a DZ, so your plan will be unique no matter how you look at it. Just write in the way you think will impress your bank manager the best.

No man, vestibular problems could fuck your life up. Get it sorted before you jump. This is like that guy that says "sure, I had a load of beer but I know I'm safe", just before he drives his car into a train. Just get checked out and cleared before you enter the air with your mates.

Why is it that the old dogs out there make us feel so insecure that can't just be ourselves. Hold on to your personality and don't kiss ass, grovel and compromise just so you can be accepted by people just 'cos they got a million jumps. That is, of course, not to say that you think you know it all, and never stop asking advice from those that have experience, but just be you. Its easy to evaluate yourself as an intermediate and be deferential, but if these guys are professional they will respect you just being yourself and asking the advice without thinking you know it all

My suspicion is that you're a babe and this has more to do with guys' lacivorous aspirations than their respect for your skydiving. No dis intended. I'm a guy and I know what its like out there. Its wierd here in the UK. You see instructors salivating over newbie chicks, and scowling and yelling at newbie guys. You tell me?

There are bad apples amonst all of them. I had a ZP170 that opened like a dream every time, a Hornet 150 that spanked the shit out of me until I tamed it, and a brand new sabre2 150 that dives to the right on opening. During training I jumped a fury220 that caused the worst bruising I ever had, but a PD F111 canopy that was like falling into pillows. The harder you look the more you will find people's experiences to be the opposite of mine. Hit and miss. Parachutes are too complex to be totally predictable.

I wouldn't buy one because it doesn't seem to add anything to what I already got, which is regular gear - wrist alti + protrack

Yeah, I think this is an aspect of the sport that you just have to learn to live with. Shit happens, occasionally. On my first own canopy (ZP170), on a choppy day, I got three end cells fold under at 200ft. Just got it sorted before I landed, but it was hairy, and lucky I think. You just got to accept the risk, and do everything you can to minimise it I think.

[However, #1 causes PTSD.] Exposure to a traumatic event in itself does not cause PTSD. PTSD is generally seen to result from the interaction between a person's personality and exposure to a traumatic event in which the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness or horror. Does anyone who has posted here have PTSD as a consequence of seeing someone go in? http://www.mental-health-today.com/ptsd/dsm.htm

I'm not sure its about connecting with human beings, and whether counselling might help. What's so bad about death anyway? One philosophy says its the only thing that gives life meaning. When I look at car accidents its not because I'm bored. Its because its novel experience and we all learn from that. It makes me question my own existence, it makes be consider my own safety on the road, and it makes me think I only got one shot at this so I don't waste a breath. Its not that I want to see cars smashed up or annoymous dead bodies. But it just makes me think about my own existence. Does that mean I need counselling? Does it mean the OP needs counselling? I don't think he's wishing someone died just for his own voyeuristic pleasure. He's just interested in the issues associated with seeing something horrific and the effects that has on others. This feels like a very personal issue because we all see fellow skydivers as kin. But I just think that there are many people out there who have been offended by this string that would think nothing of peering into a car wreck at a dead person because they don't know them. This has got everything to say about how we feel about death.

Is this really any different to all the people (me included and probably most of the people that posted here) that slow down at a car smash trying to get a good look at blood, guts and hopefully death? Why do we do that? We are drawn to it, we cause tailbacks and accidents because we are sticky beaking, rubber necking, whatever. Its such a well recognised phenomena that we even made up these names for it. But who here wishes that they saw the accident as well as the consequences?

Hold your wind in the plane There are only 2 types of skydivers - those that have had a malfunction and those that are going to Expect a mal at pull time and you'll be ready to deal with it

I'm always pretty careful about giving anyone advice because I don't have any expertise. But I was on a load on Saturday that had a really bad spot because the upper winds were changeable. Most people landed a mile away. I hung on the rears as long as I could, but still landed a long way away. On the walk back a newly qualified aff guy, who had just done his 4th consol, asked me if I thought it was wise to open higher if I realised I had a bad spot. Should I give advice to someone like this, given I only have 130 jumps? This is what I said - "best thing is to talk to your instructor, but my feeling is that opening higher than you had told the jumpmaster could be dangerous because people that left the plane after you might go through you, and its much better landing off and walking as opposed to increasing risk unnecessarily. Your best bet is, if you open and you're a long way away you could flatten out the glide by pulling evenly on your rear risers, or perhaps just stay on half brakes, but that won't be as effective as using the rear risers". But then this other guy, with less than 100 jumps, overheard me and then arrogantly told me that I should not be giving advice to a consol jumper. Thoughts?

Don't take this as a given, I'm inexperienced. But I jumped a few mains now and I had this ZP170 squeezed into a 150 d-bag. But that didn't cause any problems. I had done about 30 jumps and they were very snivelly. Like, 5 or 6 seconds. But I got used to that. I looked up and saw the 4 nice clean line groups going through the slider grommets, so I was sure it was okay. But then one day, at the end of a long day, I got a packer to pack it for me because I was tired. I didn't know but he rolled the nose a little. So there I was, 6000, 7000, and I peeled my cutaway just as it opened. Cutaway back in, the rest uneventful. It just so happened that my canopy was a sniveller and took a while to inflate. So I'd say, try to look up and see what's happening, and think about how you are packing it. You might just have a sniveller that needs to be teased to open a little quicker by keeping the nose out the front and the slider in the right spot.

Jeez, I didn't know David Beckham was a skydiver (middle of photo)

I make no judgement about the quality or legitmacy of anyone's aff. I did part of my aff in Australia a long time ago and it was not qualitatively different to when I did the full aff at Langar. What I am ranting about is that this bloke vents his anger onto a DZ here when he should have bloody well checked what he was paying for in the first place. If the BPA didn't have such good gatekeeping then we'd have more fatalities. I do feel for this chap. Please don't think me mercenary. If I had paid good money to go to Oz and do aff, and it seemed exactly the same as aff in the uk then I'd be pissed too. But don't forget that the dz is a business and as such has the ultimate right to say no to anyone it likes. People have posted here to say they have checked before they did aff overseas to make sure that what they are doing is bpa accredited. Seems wise to me. The thing I take most offence to is that the person who started this thread is implying negative things about UK dzs in general. That is wrong. The dzs I have jumped at have been very professional, very safety conscious, and sure, a bit antiquated, but they are have been nothing like this person has implied.

And yeah, I'm pissed off too, because I'm fed up with people on here making generalisations that all brits are arrogant, pompous, snobby, incompetent wankers.

Am I missing something here? Dropzones are businesses. Businesses need to make money. Solo jumpers do not bring any reasonable revenue to UK dropzones. Their jumping is probably subsidised by tandem students. An islander with 10 experienced jumpers makes the owners, like £8.00 or something ridiculous. Did you not check whether the course you planned to do in Oz was accredited by the BPA, or that it was directly transferrable? You are blaming a UK dropzone for costing you £1300 when you clearly didn't check what you were paying for in the first intance. And you want that DZ to "welcome you with open arms" when it would take their time and resources to make sure you are safe without making any money at all. Making comments about "snobby brits" and making speculations that the only people that can afford to skydive in the UK are incompetent southerners with too much money is unlikely to get you greeted with open arms at any DZ. This is your responsbility, not a DZ who chooses to not welcome you with open arms because you trained overseas.

Try Old Buckenham in Norfolk. They're cool, and there's an Aussie on staff in some form or another.

I don't think this is unique to UK. The 3 dropzones that I use in UK are fantastic, and can't do enough for me. Yet I visited a DZ in Oz a while back and was treated like a piece of shit by an arrogant instructor and an inappropriately aggressive and punchy safety officer for no reason at all other than asking some safety questions. He also called me a "fucking girl" in front of my wife because when I demonstrated my reserve drills and used two hands on each handle, as I had been taught. Additionally, one of the senior instructors put a tandem harness on his 3 year old and forced him, crying and screaming, into the plane and up to altitude and then back down again as a way of threatening him to behave. His wife was chain smoking at about 8 months pregnant, and the whole DZ made me and my wife feel like scum. Of course, these last two points aren't indicative of their skydiving expertise or their manner with visitors, but at the least it shows insensitivity towards two people that should be more precious than anyone to them. Your experience isn't indicative of the UK. It is, of course, saddening that you could have a poor experience at any DZ anywhere in the world, but please do not generalise your experience and summarise that the British are snobby.

I just came on here full of beans, wanting to read about high jinx because I didn't get to jump today. And I read about Gus Wing, a bloke I never met. Yet I feel sad and not interested in reading anything else. It is a sad day when an accident like this happens. And it makes me think. I used to post "die with your boots on". But right now I'm going to bed to hold my wife.

I know someone that intentionally put on someone else's main backwards, and he ran it in backwards and stayed on his feet. Yee haa