NickDG

Think over your in-flight emergency procedures. If the balloon envelope should fail on the way up, or catch fire, have a go-no-go bail out altitude, and decide which parachute you are going to use at what altitude. Balloons do sometimes fail, I know, because it happened to me. At 1700-feet the whole top of the balloon blew out . . . NickD

I wonder how many long time mods will use the Corporate Masters switchover to bail out and come over to our side of the fence? I've got a feeling folks, like Bill Von, have a couple of thousand "F-you-s" burning a hole in their gear bag . . . NickD

Perfect . . . . NickD

>>then go in at Level 3.

Be careful, you guys . . . What you are innocently joking about is exactly how it begins! NickD

Joshua, Sometimes I think students had an easier time of it before there were forums like this . . . Re-taking the FJC, although you can if you insist, is something seldom done unless a very long time elapses between your student jumps. And I doubt in your case it's necessary. But here's a couple of things you can do. Reading an altimeter in freefall during a first jump is something some experienced jumpers take for granted, but it's a big new thing for FJC students. And it can be difficult for some of them. One trick I use with students in class is to set an altimeter to a number like 7000 and quickly flash it in front of their faces and then move it away. Then another number and another until they get used to reading it quickly. There's no reason you can't ask for an altimeter and go sit with another student and practice that yourself. If the problem was your altimeter got moved or turned around so you couldn't read it, one of the Instructors should have fixed it, or one, or both, of them should have been wearing a chest mounted analog altimeter that you could see and read. Or, at least your reserve side Instructor should have an analog wrist mount altimeter on their left hand to put in front of you. Or, and be honest now, were you not able to read your altimeter just because you were flustered? You also said you radio didn't work. Did it really not work? Did they do a radio check on the ground while you were gearing up? Or was it working and you couldn't make out what was being said? Or were you so over-amped you couldn't follow what was being said. Again be honest about it because we only have what you're saying to go on, and it's very doubtful your Instructors were the cause of all these problems. (I know you didn't come right out and say that, but it's one of the conclusions you leave dangling). And in any case if the radio completely failed than you did a fine job as it sounds like you didn't land off the DZ or downwind or anything like that . . . As for the paddles for landing, any good Instructor, can tell fairly quickly when a student isn't following the radio, or there may be a radio problem. And any DZ I've ever worked at (and I worked as an Instructor at the DZ your at now) has a back up plan. Either its paddles, or a large arrow on the ground they can turn, or in a pinch an Instructor using his arms to mimic what you should be doing on final approach. So let's recap – You had trouble reading your altimeter, you didn't pull for yourself, and you landed hard. (Sometimes "hard" is subjective. Students watch great landings all day long and then when they land in a heap, it becomes a hard landing.) And I know you don't have the knowledge right now to compare, and don't know what true horror stories some level ones can be, but in your case, your jump sounds like a garden variety AFF level one to me. So drop all the drama and suck it up for level two. Oh, and please, don't go back to the DZ and say to your Instructors, "Hey, some guy named Nick on the internet said you guys all suck here." If you do I'll hear about it and someday you're going to run into me in the parking lot of some DZ and we'd to have a little "talk" about it . . . NickD

Don't remember what it looked like but wasn't it a "packing machine?" NickD

Took me seven . . . I was wondering if they were using throw outs in their S/L program. So I almost mentioned there'd be no "look" in the sequence. And while he said Static Line maybe it's really IAD . . . NickD

I'm not sure how your Static Line program is structured, but . . . Your first freefall should be a clear and pull, not a five second delay. The whole point of your last three static line practice pull jumps are to simulate your first freefall. So you are sort of doing it right. It should be along the lines of exit, arch, look, reach, pull, check. Not count to five and then do all those things. Doing a tandem can't hurt, but it's really not going to simulate what you are doing now. I'd say stick with it. Hundreds of thousands of us had the same problems on static line and we overcame them and so can you . . . Look, you already have at least six exits and six canopy decents so you're learning heaps and getting good experience even if you don't realize that right now. And if you complete the entire Static Line course you'll have a very good skill set on which to build on. Do you know which AFF level is most often the scariest? It's their hop and pop which is the last jump in most AFF programs. It's often very comical and very pathetic all at the same time. But, if you're ever in an aircraft that's on fire and going down at 2000-feet, you'll have no qualms about getting out and saving yourself while many so called "experienced" jumpers will be crying for their mamas . . . Keep us posted on your progress! NickD

Looked more like a kite boarder than a paraglider . . . NickD

That's fine Ralph, it's just shows there are small differences in how we, and others, go about teaching skydiving. But we all share the same goal of turning out safe and competent skydivers so it's all cool beans . . . And on the tandem thing, sometimes in real life you can get away with going off on something and it's soon forgotten, but once you write it down it gets set in cement. I was just kind of ranting on that one . . . And I know Tandem is here to stay . . . NickD

Nobodies looking left . . . NickD

>>Did I mention there was a skydiver involved too?

This is Arthur Godfrey, an early U.S. radio/TV personality, in a film about flying. The best part is where he takes an Eastern Airlines (anyone remember them?) Constellation up for a flight. Check out the part where once he reaches cruise altitude he says, "Boy, now I need a Chesterfield!" http://www.archive.org/details/Flyingwi1953 http://www.archive.org/details/Flyingwi1953_2 NickD

>>Find better instructors

Once when I was working at the DZ in Cal City we imported a new AFF Instructor straight from Italy to help out over the summer. And being an Italian myself, I was looking forward to meeting him. When we did met I mentioned, "I'm Italian too." And he said, "No your not, you're an American." Now I was born in New York City in a Italian neighborhood, I ate Italian food, went to an Italian church, celebrated all the Italian holidays, went to all the Italian parades and feasts, and banged as many Italian girls as I could. But he was right. I've been over to Italy and besides my name, and the fact I looked like people over there, I'm nothing like them. I don't act like them, speak like them, or do any of the things they do. Culturally we are from two different planets. Today, when I see American Samoan, Irish, Polish, whatever, pride parades I think get over yourselves. You are a product of where you were born and raised. So I've made peace with the fact that I am, and will always be, just an all American boy from New York City . . . (But I am serving pasta tonight!) NickD

If the new corporate masters don't donate some part of their income to the Home for Elderly AFF Instructors, I'm outta here . . . NickD

I see Yong was there, was she evaluating? I was her AFF Instructor when she started skydiving . . . NickD

>>I'm not a hard ass, but I couldn't give a student a "pass" on a jump where I had to pull for him. Good luck with your future jumps.

And you also made me think of this: Let's talk about being a square . . . In the 1950s being a square meant you gave everyone an even break. In the 1960s being a square meant there was revolution going on and you didn’t get it. In the 1970s there was Disco and, in hindsight, we were all squares. In the 1980s squares went to college to become MBAs and amass great fortunes no matter who it hurt. In the 1990s squares were the people who didn't understand why Curt Cobain killed himself, and were actually happy about it. In the 2000s being square meant leading a life driven by 24/7 hype. In the 2010s, I'm hoping anyway, squares are people who've become free thinking individuals again . . . NickD

It's all relative (work). Thirty years from now you'll look back fondly on tattoos, Batman movies, and 50 Cent! And, oh yeah, I did walk to school in the snow . . . when I didn't go play sled hooky instead . . . NickD

I'm with her, I don't get any ads at all either . . . If you use Firefox go here, and go right now! https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10 NickD

You can say this could go either way, but in light of recent events such as the "band bowling" I think if that roof hadn't been there this guy would have been into the crowd. And then Bill's axiom >>(or could have caused) serious injury

Yup, Fury, Jungle Jim, etc, were all great on a snowy winter Saturday morning with your steaming hot bowl of Maypo! What made these shows great is they all had some kind of hook that worked. Like ask any guy why he loves the movie Planet of the Apes and its, "Monkeys riding horses." With Sky King its, "Cowboys flying airplanes." NickD

It's a shame the AN-72 didn't make it, but it sounds like you you guys made do! And just to brag a bit, I, and a hundred other skydivers got to make a demo jump from the even larger IL-76 back in 1994. I was in New Zealand at the time and the Russians were using the IL-76 as a cargo hauler in that part of the world. There was an airshow slated for a military base in a town called Palmerston North and the Russians easily agreed to take up a load of jumpers to open the show. So the call went out and a hundred jumpers from all over Nzed came to Auckland for the ferry flight up to the show. The aircraft swallowed us and three or four vehicles with ease and this A/C could easily carry 400 jumpers. We had full reign to roam during the flight and we wandered the many levels and connecting passages. This is the largest A/C in the world and the Russians purposely built it just a bit larger than the largest American plane, just to say mine is bigger than yours. As an aircraft mechanic I marveled at how this A/C was put together. It had rivets the size and style you'd only see in big steam locomotives. The cockpit was more of a big room and there was something like seven guys in there. This jump was free of charge for us as a good will gesture on the part of the Russians. But I could hardly imagine what a flock 400 birds could do with an A/C like this. And a good thing about the Russians is money talks to cut through the red tape. So get on it you guys . . . NickD