Grogs

Wow is right. What a sweet story. And what an awesome way to get your Eagle, totally by surprise.

A new Javelin or Mirage would be fine for just about anyone. They both make good containers (the Mirage is better for freeflying IMO). I don't really agree with your reasoning though. You'll probably start with a big canopy after you get off student status and want to downsize before too long. Once you drop your canopy down a size or two, you'll have to replace the container with a smaller one. Your best bet is to get a full set of used gear, jump it for a while until you've got a better idea what size you want and have something you're comfortable staying with for a while. The resale value of the used gear will also be a lot closer to what you paid for it than with new gear too.

This is absolutely true. It sucks to be stuck on the ground while all your friends are jumping. I've gotten used to it now though. I usually jump on the first and last loads of the day. On the first there's nothing that needs packing, so I come down, toss my rig aside and pack it when I get a break. For the last load, well, if it's not packed up by the time the last load goes up, an extra 20 minutes isn't going to matter. That really isn't too bad of a setup though, since the first and last loads of the day are often the most fun ones since most of the Tandem/AFF JM's are free to fun jump rather than working.

Our personalized plates are only about $10 extra, so it seems like half the cars in Virginia have them. A few that come to mind around the dropzone are: SKYDIVR GON JMPN 2 THE DZ JMPGIRL NOTMMRW

Outstanding job Zen-man. Sounds like you found some better people to jump with, huh? It's great when you can go group with a bunch of people and nobody really cares if you screw up isn't it? They might give you a world of shit, but they don't really care and they had a lot of fun.

4 point 106 way is freaking amazing! Wow. I would have loved to see that.

Actually, he did say it was his graduation jump, so he's not really a student anymore. Still, I think 5 cases would be a little excessive. We usually limit it to 1 case of beer a jump, but graduation is pretty major, 1st reserve ride is pretty major, and you'd better not forget your rigger if you want the reserve to open next time. In any case, however the beer math works out, sounds like you reacted appropriately up there. Congrats and good job handling it and remaining altitude aware.

Wow! If I ever get that desparate for a date, please shoot me. Or better yet, give me a rig to demo with styrofoam packing peanuts packed in it in place of the main and the reserve.

I was AFF myself, but from what I've seen, it looks like the 2 programs work out about the same costwise (up through the A license). Static line costs less on a per-jump basis, but there are quite a few more jumps. That's good for a person who is financially challenged and can only afford maybe a jump or 2 a month. On the other hand, if the person wants to get off student status in a hurry, you can theoretically do it in 8 jumps with AFF. Personally, I think either method works.

*sniff* I was all prepared to call in sick today and go jump, but I got this e-mail yesterday: It nearly broke my heart!

Ok, thanks for the correction Chuck. I thought most of the containers kept them pretty close for aesthetic reasons, but I would have to say a 79 main vs. 120 reserve is a pretty big difference. As for landing unconcious under a reserve, I counted 9 incidents on the Cypres saves page, and from the look of it they were all unconcious upon landing. There were also 2 jumpers who dislocated arms and (probably) weren't able to flare upon landing - the injuries ranged from broken legs to nothing at all. Those only the ones listed on the Cypres saves page, but I'm sure there have been others that weren't on there, and I'm sure there have been jumpers who landed under a reserve without flaring who didn't survive (such as the heart attack earlier this year). That said, I'm not advocating one philosopy or the other, merely stating what they are. It's your butt hanging under the chute, so whether you choose a 46 or a 288 square foot reserve, if you're comfortable with it, more power to you.

Hmm... we found a spider crawling around the plane and chucked him out the door at around 2k because he hadn't paid his lift ticket. No free rides on our jump plane!

He grabbed the wrong rig? What an idiot! Damn... This was really stupid Ummm... I mean, I can understand how that can happen. Yeah, that's it. Seriously though, as far as why guys like these are still jumping, I think the problem is if the DZO just grounds them they'll head to another DZ that might not be as concerned and end up bouncing there, so they'd rather keep them at their dropzone and try to talk some sense into them.

Well, there are 2 schools of thought on the subject. Some people claim they should be of similar size so that one canopy isn't spinning circles around the other in a 2 canopy out situation. Others believe that you should have a larger reserve because if they get into a bad situation (knocked unconcious, arm dislocated, etc) the reserve should still be able to land them relatively unhurt even if they can't flare. Most people jump with a reserve that's about the same size as the main just because that is how most stock containers are built. To put a large reserve and a tiny main in the same container, you generally have to have it custom built (if the manufacturer will do it at all).

Hmmm... I've thought about that too. I'd probably be ripping the flaps off my reserve cover or whatever right until the moment of impact. If I was sure it was inevitable, I see 2 possible alternatives - track for some trees (I think that's really your best chance of survival, it's possible as you went through the branches they would break/bend, slowing your fall to a point where you don't hit all that hard) -or- go in head down just to make sure the end is instantaneous. As for skydiving after a friend dies, I think Zennie covered that pretty well. The only certainty in life is that you will die. If you live long enough, you will probably have friends die in car accidents, from diseases, and from all sorts of other nasty things. Unfortunately, it's something you have to deal with. Given the choice, I'd rather people remember me having a great time at the drop zone and burning in on a bad jump than have to watch me waste away in a hospital bed for a year before I die of Leukemia or the like. I've even expressed that sentiment to my parents and they agree. That doesn't mean they WANT me to burn in (I hope not awyway) but they accept that if I do it was while doing something I love.

I was there the 24th and 25th of March this year. Saturday was a complete washout, but I hung around and enjoyed the bonfire and had quite a bit of fun. Fortunately Sunday was better and we got full altitude on Sunday morning but due to the clouds the loads in the afternoon were down around 6-8K. Being a bellyflier that weekend was quite interesting. On the first load of the day it was me and about 13 freefliers on the load.

You guys have calendars? Actually, I think I may have one on a wall somewhere in my place. It's probably on October 1989 or something like that.

The altitude limits for jumps are MSL (Mean Sea Level), so if you're at 5000' MSL to begin with, you can only go to 15000' MSL or 10000' AGL (Above Ground Level). I have heard people saying that since everyone is already acclimated to 5000' they tend to cheat and go a little higher at those dropzones, but that's not from personal experience. Some of the things to watch out for at high altitude dropzones are your parachute opening (it will open harder than it would at sea level) and the canopy flight - your canopy won't have as much lift because of the thinner air.

Nah, looks pretty fun actually. I'd probably go myself, but I've got a friend at my home DZ who's only going to be there this weekend and will then be gone for another 6 months, so I can't really go. I'm also a *very* fledgeling freeflyer. One of these days I actually will get up to Orange. I actually found myself right in the middle of a freefly camp by Mike Ortiz when I went to Skydive Dallas, but unfortunately I had never done a single freefly jump at the time, so I wasn't really that interested in it. It was still pretty neat watching Mike Ortiz surf that PD-113R in though.

We talked about this during our Coach Course last month. You have to go down to the County Clerk's office and file for a Small Business License (about $40 in VA) and claim that your business is Skydiving. You can then claim all you skydives (training) and gear (work related equipment) as tax deductions on your income tax. The downside is, you can only claim a business loss like that for 5 years, then you either have to show a profit, or declare your business bankrupt.

Hehe, that reminds me of a funny story too. A friend of mine was making his *first* skydive as a tandem master with a paying customer. The girl was nervous and kept asking him how many times he'd done it before and he kept answering back 'I've got about 850 skydives' The funniest thing was that when they landed, she told him she was going to come back and do it again, and that she'd ask for him by name because he was 'such an experienced tandem instructor' As for the wave-off signal, I personally like it. It gives the JM's a little heads up that the guy or girl isn't totally brain locked. They don't always pull just because they wave off, but there's a pretty good chance they will. It also seems to make it a little more unlikely the student will get massively unstable while pulling with a BOC system - the left hand is already up by the head when they go to reach. Finally, I like it because it's something they should get in the habit of doing on every single jump, so why not start right at the beginning. I don't really think it's that much extra to remember. But those are just my opinions. I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Welllll... if we're doing it that way, I took a look at the registered members from our dropzone and I found out that 6 of the 12 members of a 12-way we did recently are registered DZ.com members. Personally, I think it needs to be all DZ.com members in the formation. POPS doesn't claim a state record just because 20 of the members of the 50-way are POPS members, so why should we? As for a pure DZ.com formation, the biggest I've done is a 4-way.

Here's my favorite quote from your 'HALO Hero' Chuck: I really find that interesting and quite a bit amusing too, especially since I've had those "3 weeks of intense training" at Fort Benning myself. It was definitely intense, my knees have never hurt me so badly in my life. The real kicker in my mind though is we spent 3 weeks training for a parachute jump where we jump out of the airplane, have the static line open for you, and float down to wherever the wind takes you. Actually, come to think of it, 90% of the training in the first 2 weeks was how to do a PLF, and for good reason - I hit like a sack of potatoes every time I landed. Anyway, I'm not knocking Airborne school, just comparing the 2.

No, you don't have the time. I've been 12th out the door of a King Air, and at that point you're probably 4-5 seconds behind the base, even if you're just pushing on the container of the person in front of you. If everyone in the big-way stopped and glanced around for even a second, the last person probably wouldn't make it in at all, or at least not with any working altitude left. That particular accident was a tragedy certainly, but I don't think there was anything the skydivers on the plane could have been expected to do differently to prevent it.

Yes they will. It's called severance pay.