jfields

Hell, I have plenty of computer toys and shitty handwriting. I'm not a doctor, but I play one on the Internet. [Best Doctor's Voice] Please describe your symptoms. Hmm. That sounds like low altitude poisoning to me. I prescribe the following remedies: Liberal doses of thinned air, say, about 15,000 feet AGL. Repeat all day until symptoms subside. Upon completion of the first step, begin repeated applications of internal ethyl alcohol. Repeat entire course of treatment every 24 hours until immune to low-altitude poisoning or broke. [/Best Doctor's Voice] Justin Member of the Whuffo Conversion Team

Exactly. The end of the chairlift line would project about 30 feet beyond the edge of the cliff. The next logical thing would be doing 2 or 4-ways off the chairs. Not that I'd be ready for this, but it is an amusing thought. Justin Member of the Whuffo Conversion Team

Zennie, This would be a great resource. I just went through the hassle of lining up some insurance myself. You can add the info to your list. Company: First Colony (General Electric subsidiary) Product: 30-year term (they had others) Skydiving Premium: $2.50/$1,000 of coverage in addition to base rate I now have some insurance that covers skydiving, and some that doesn't. I did pick up the USPA-affiliated Accidental Death & Dismemberment insurance for the maximum $100,000 of coverage. I think it was $240 per year. Justin Member of the Whuffo Conversion Team

Hey Folks. I'm back from my vacation and thankful for low altitude. After 9 days in Colorado, I'm happy to be home. It was a great trip, but no skydiving and no DZ.com. The places I stayed were at a substantial height, which would have made jumping difficult. You couldn't do much more than a hop-n-pop in Leadville, CO. The ground is at 10,200 feet. Most of the other places were over 7,000. No dropzones anywhere we went, but the scenery was great. But it made me appreciate the benefits of living near sea level. 14,000 feet means about 14,000 jumpable feet. When I visited the "Black Canyon of the Gunnison", I started having really evil thoughts. Like, "Hmm. A 2,000 foot vertical cliff. I could jump that even though the landing area looks a little tight." I didn't and won't so you can relax, but my mind did continue wandering back to my rig when looking at all the cliffs and buttes. And some of the mountains even had chairlifts, so the returns to the top would be easy.

I've been there. It happened to me a few years ago, so I took the opportunity to finish my degree and make a career change. It could be tough for awhile, but try to make the best out of the opportunity. If nothing else, you are freed from your last job and can look for a new one with a clear mind. Justin Member of the Whuffo Conversion Team

Hi. My name is Justin Fields (heard all the jokes already), and I live in Maryland. I'm an IT geek, like so many here. Unlike many, I actually like my job. I work at a small law firm, where I get paid pretty decently to make sure the attorneys are up and running. I'm a one-man IT shop, so I do some of everything: net admin., printer repairman, database admin., web designer, technology purchasing manager, helpdesk, graphics, and general guru to the computer-challenged.

Wow. So if you live at high altitude, you are doomed to either hop-n-pops or expensive jumps with O2. Man, that must suck! At least people there get to live in beautiful mountains. That would make up for part of it. Thanks for the explanation. Justin Member of the Whuffo Conversion Team

Hi. As I get ready for a trip to Colorado tomorrow, I was wondering how skydiving worked there. Aside from the usual "jump and pull", that is.

I have to chime in in favor of the natural and practical look: No makeup. Sweats or shorts are fine. Random t-shirt pulled from drawer. Sports bra (uni-boob, as my wife calls them) Skydiving women are attractive in whatever they are or are not wearing. It is about the smile on their faces and the spirit in their hearts. If women want to get made up and decked out after a day of jumping, that is fine. But they should do it because they want to for themselves, not for what some guy thinks. I personally don't care in the slightest. As a side note, I can't believe that I actually descended into this ridiculous issue. It seems so obvious to me. Justin Member of the Whuffo Conversion Team

As boneheaded as they are about most things, the Army taught me a lot about emergency landings. I'm thankful to have gone to jump school. In addition to perfecting the PLF, I have gone over many different types of landing obstructions. Unlike many modern dropzones that are hurrying AFF students through the course, the Army took nearly a month of intensive training. If you took out all the pushups and running, maybe a week and a half.

Nothing at all strange about that part. Justin Member of the Whuffo Conversion Team

Let's just hope it is better than Zima, it's predecessor. That stuff was useless, except as a mixer.

I see myself trying freeflying, RW and maybe CRW. Depending on how things go, maybe camera as well, but not in any commercial way. I don't think I'd want to go for any instructor ratings, tandem ratings, or into serious competition. I work hard enough during the week in my regular job. When I head to the DZ, I want to skydive and have fun. For me, that means minimizing my role in DZ politics and BS. I'll probably end up jumping with low-time skydivers and helping once I have enough experience to be helpful, but not in a formal way. That way, I won't have to deal with students with bad attitudes, unsafe jumpers, or feel obligated to coach or instruct when I don't feel like it. Doing it on my terms without any contractual obligation seems like it would go a long way toward keeping everything fun. Justin Member of the Whuffo Conversion Team

Merrick & Pammi, I've read through this thread, and I hope you take everything the right way. I don't think people are saying you both have bad judgement. That isn't the case. Where I think people are headed is that you don't have hundreds of jumps worth of experience on which to apply your judgement. There is an immense amount to be said for time and experience, both in total and on a particular canopy. Merrick, you said that you didn't do much with your front risers because you didn't have dive loops. My canopy had them when I bought it, so I don't know for sure, but I can't imagine it would cost much to have a rigger take care of that. I plan on spending at least a couple hundred jumps on my Sabre 190, to know exactly how it flies in all conditions and to use it as a (relatively) safe platform on which to learn a whole lot about canopy flight. I think folks are suggesting you squeeze every last bit of learning you can out of your canopy. Maybe you have, maybe you haven't. You're right that I can't judge, but I'd guess that it is still fun to fly. Be patient. I'm not saying that I am the voice of experience. I'm not. You have more jumps than I do. But try to heed what the more experienced folks are saying. Generally, they know what they are talking about. Especially when they more or less agree on something, because it doesn't happen often.

Yup. That's why I think you should get advice other than mine.

Mouth, You replied to my message, but I'm sure not the one to give you night landing advice. All of mine were under round parachutes. We couldn't steer or flare. Just waited to hit and PLFed. So other than "Prepare to PLF", I don't have advice for you. Maybe some other folks will chime in. That said, the darker it is, the worse your depth perception gets. Justin "If it can't kill you, it isn't worth doing."

I'm dying to do some night jumps. Another 19 jumps until I hit 50. I'll try to get my reqs in so I can get the B right away. I've done about 6 night jumps so far, but they were different. All static line jumps on rounds. And we didn't have no stinkin' lights!

LOL! Ouch. I did think it was sort of funny, but I'm not sure my wife would. Not that I'm complaining about her, because I'm not. She just never lived "Life as a Guy" either. Justin "If it can't kill you, it isn't worth doing."

Hmm. What is the standard fall rate of rain anyway? What is your speed relative to the drops? Hadn't pondered this one before, but now I'm curious. Any ideas? Justin "If it can't kill you, it isn't worth doing."

Thanks for the back-flying & sit-flying advice, everyone. You all gave me lots of info I didn't know. I have a whole lot of work to do on RW and bellyflying, but it would be nice to take a break now and then and do something totally different and fun on solo jumps. Back & sit-flying seem to be likely candidates. It will be awhile before I do any sitflying or freeflying with other people, but it should be fun to work on those skills. Thanks again! Justin "If it can't kill you, it isn't worth doing."

Thanks for all the tips, everyone! I haven't had any bad openings so far, and with the advice given, I'll try to avoid them completely. I'll also look back through the gear forum for other info. Justin "If it can't kill you, it isn't worth doing."

Okay... I've read and heard about the notorious opening characteristics of Sabres. Of course, I didn't hear any of it before I bought my rig with a used Sabre 190. One person I was talking to said that the "spanking" potential got progressively worse as the size of Sabre went down. He said it wouldn't really be an issue on my 190, where it would happen with noticeable regularity on something like a 150. So far mine has been a dream, but that is only 14 jumps. The canopy is a good size for me and my rigger said it had a lot of life left in it, so I wasn't thinking of changing it. I'm still not, but I wonder if I'm in for some kind of back-breaking openings. What contributes to these nasty openings? I've heard people talking about bumpers and slider stops, among other things. What rigging types of things minimize the bad openings? Thanks! Justin "If it can't kill you, it isn't worth doing."

0:3:1 for a day trip to the DZ. The event prompting the case owed is what I have questions about. Unlike another time when I tried to get stable on my back, it worked this time. The first time, I flipped back over onto my belly after about 3 seconds of instability. This time, I watched the plane fly away clearly for the "pre-second" time. I was kind of in an inverted arch. My "badminton birdie" shape was butt down, with legs up about even with my head, and my arms mostly straight out over my head. Imagine a big letter V, with my butt at the point. All was fine. Then I tried it again on another jump. I held it pretty reasonable for about 5 seconds, then turned over. Then I tried it again, and everything totally fell apart. I ended up spinning like mad. At first it was a fast flat spin, but then I lost it and tumbled through about 3000 feet in some insane 3-axis gyroscope thing. I finally stabilized belly-to-earth by doing a really hard, sustained arch. By my pitch-out altitude, I was fine and deployment was normal. My first question is “What did I do wrong to induce the spin”? What comes to my mind is that I got my legs uneven. I’d think that would start a spin. Next, what could I have done besides just arching to get out of that crazy tumble I ended up doing? It worked, but I burned a whole lot of altitude recovering. On this jump, I was second person out of the plane. I gave a 4-5 second delay before exiting. I talked on the ground to the person that exited before me. Evidently, I fell like a stone, because when I deployed at 4000 feet, he was at least 1000 feet above me still in freefall. I know that sit-flying is substantially faster than belly-flying, but I didn’t think I was going that fast, because I wasn’t really in a sit. Everything I’ve seen shows people in a sit much more upright than I was. My legs were straight and my torso and arms were straight, so I thought I’d have a pretty normal descent rate during the part of the dive where I was relatively stable. Was it usual that my fall rate was so high? From what I was doing, what would be the progression to a traditional sit-flying position? Arms more in back of me, instead of above my head, with legs bent? Anyway, I’d love to hear other people’s interpretation of what the heck was going on during that jump. It was definitely interesting. Justin "If it can't kill you, it isn't worth doing."

She's done one tandem, so still pretty damned close to being a whuffo. Time will tell whether she reverts back to complete whuffo or gets the bug and starts AFF. Obviously, I'm hoping for the latter. Justin "If it can't kill you, it isn't worth doing."

Yeah, I kept those. But I ditched the medical stuff and the B,C,D license-related stuff from my study copy of the SIM. I have another complete one in a binder. Isn't that what your company pays you to do at work? Justin "If it can't kill you, it isn't worth doing."