sdgregory

As you see I realize that I made a huge mistake. Thanks for pointing it out though. (j/K)

As a newbie I get alittle nervous when fifty people check my gear before I go out the door. I have only got 22 jumps and they have all been in the last thirty days and I get a little freaked when all of a sudden I feel someone pawing my gear without warning. Slap my back and say hey, let's check your gear. I can understand that, but I agree, that you should ask or forwarn at least. I understand that we got to look out for each other and I am greatful that 99.9% of us care about the rest off us. It says something about the sport and the people who practice it, but yeah, definitely do not start popping my flaps without telling me. Last jump I did I got my gear checked SIX times by six different people from 10,000 ft to 13,000 ft. All that flap motion was making me nervous, and the last thing you need before going out the door is to wonder if one them accidently messed up your rig. This can be avoided by saying "let me check you rig" and then I can say, "hey weren't you just watching, three other people did that in the past 30 seconds." But what do I know . . . I have only got 22 jumps. We all know that means I don't know Diddly.

I know how you feel. I have 3 more left for my A license and it is getting cold at my home DZ (near Cleveland Ohio) but I am going to finish this year no matter what. I think landing in the snow will be fun too. Definitely keep jumping in the winter if you can. I plan on it. And definitely do hop&pops, especially if you can do them out of a 182, that is fun.

I have to say that I will always wear mine for take-off and probably for landing. My DZ has trained me to do so therefore I do so.. I like to keep mine on and only take is off long enough to throw my goggles on then put it back on. That way if, as someone has already said, the pilot says "Get the heck off my plane!" I am ready. And after many military static lines I have banged my head enough that I will not land a canopy without one, especially since I seem to be doing a lot of PLF's lately. Helmet good (except on motorcycles - then helmet bad).

I only have 22 jumps but I have downsized from a 290 to 260 and now to a 240. this past weekend I had to go up to a 290 because all the 240/260's were taken. I flared way to early because I had gotten used to the 240. Maybe there is really no difference and in my lack of experience I just assumed there would be but I took a hard landing and I would think that the risk might be greater for you if you have lots of jumps with the smaller canopy, but then again, you prolly gots much more jumps than me, either way I would not risk it. Although it sounds like you already decided to go the common sense route. Stay safe for now, 3 months and you can return to the high risk behavior we all love so well.

Congrats!

Yeah skymama, how you get here so fast? You swoop the skies like you swoop through the forum?

Funny, everyone at work thinks I have lost my marbles too. But every Monday at least one person comes over to my office and says, so how many this weekend? I think deep down they are closet skydivers. Really. Even if they would never admit it. My plan? Lead them out of the closet one at a time! Welcome to the forums and lala land!

um I am not addicted. This sport is not an addiction. Really I can stop anytime I want to. Its not like I have jumped every weekend since I started. It is not like I have 22 jumps in three weeks. No really, I can quit, watch, I will, first let me finish this weekend. I made a committment to go and I would not want to let anyone down. But after this weekend I will quit, unless of course the next weekend there are blue skies, but definitely after that. See I am not addicted.

My first five jumps were all perfect landings. Then the next 17 I haven't landed standing up yet. Now the reason . . . my first five jumps were all with radio assistance of some kind. Definitely not easy to do. I got frustrated and my instructor said how many things have you ever mastered in 22 attempts or one month? Honestly? I cannot think of one. I'll get it someday and so will you. Stick with it and listen to what the experienced ones tell you. Welcome to the sport and the forum.

I am a father of 3 and a husband as well. Only I have two girls and a boy. I just started skydiving about a month ago and only have 3 more left till I get my A license. Definitely go back as much as you can even during the cold (does it get cold there?). I agree with skymama, it is not easy juggling work kids, wife and THIS but man is it worth the effort. I hope you are one of the lucky ones whose wife gets into it too. My wife said there is no way I was going to get her to do this. Actually she was more like "Are you stupid?" We'll see. Welcome to the forums and enjoy the skies!

Okay, I think there is an AFF student out there who just heard the scariest thing ever! Yesterday as I was doing level 22 there was a level 1 who was going to be the last one out and one of the JM's looked at him from the back and with all seriousness told him to make sure he closed the plane door on his way out. That guy already looked like his was going to wet himself and the look on his face was great! Took him more than a few seconds to realize they were trying to get him to relax. It worked too, he was smiling from that moment on. But he was certainly a little freaked at first. Had to be thinking "that wasn't in the jump sequence."

Are you serious?!!??? You are "The Yellow Dart?!" Well I like to say "Holy Crap!" and well what did you get on the English Paper? And do you now know Strong Bad personally? What about Strong Mad? or Marzipan?

I did my second one yesterday and it was cool! I held the positionf for . . . . 3-4 seconds! Woohoo! Then I was on my back again, fought for control of my feet almost had . . no wait the wind won and I was still on my back. But it was a helluva good time. Went through "industrial haze" of the wet variety and got a little freaked because of the total loss of visibility and when I came through I was so relieved to see the ground that I pulled and did not realize I was at 6500! A little embarrassing to say the least since my scheduled pull altitude was 3500. Got a deserved lecture on the dangers of pulling too early when there are others above you. Felt like a schmuck. But no one got hurt and I learned a lesson. But I am definitely going to get coaching on this I want to get it. It was so much fun!

Yeah, Definitely Check with your DZ about working for them to earn jumps. In know mine does that. Mostly for packing though. I am a college student too and I took a job for a quarter to earn money specifiaclly for this .

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I just did my level 17 AFF today . . . sit fly!. I was wondering, is it that hard for everyone at first? I do not think that any of my jumps were as hard as this one was. What a blast though! I hop off the plane with my instructor's feet in my armpits untill we get stable. Then he releases and I am all over the place until I finally fall on my back. I roll out and try to get back into the position only to do a double back flip. In the process my AFF/I, named Wink, comes into view and he is flying head down watching me with a big ole smile on his face. I had to laugh. Then I checked altitude (for the third time) and see I have time to try once more and almost got into position but then I ended up on my back again. So count of 8 I go and pull. What a trip but damn that was hard. Which sucks because I want to really learn how to do this one. How much practice does this one require? Wink, if you ever read this, you are a trip! Thanks for the laugh.

Mee too! I remember "Stand In the Door!" hmmm I also remember "Stand Up! Hook Up! Check Equipment!" The long sline of "Okay, okay, okay ..... okay. All Okay Jumpmaster!" Anyone else remember that? But "Are you ready to skydive?" Does it for me now. For one split second I think ummm no. Then my head clears and I say "Hell Yeah!"

Hmm I do not have a cool nickname either. Hmm, maybe I can be Alice, or Sue, or Hey You. Nah, I'll just wait till I do something dumb at the dz like put my seat belt through my reserve handle as the plane takes off. Oh wait . . . I did that already. And no one gave me a nickname. Oh well, probably because the only person who noticed was the owner of the DZ. Wonder why he did not tell anyone? Guess I will stick with . . . Sean . . . for now.

I just did my first solo this weekend! Man I was kinda worried about it at first because the owner of the DZ came up and said "Hey, you are on the manifest but we do not have enough instructors but if you want you can go up and do a solo." I was like umm huh . . . serious? And she said "Yeah, I would not offer unless I was 100% sure you could handle it." I almost chickened out (I am going through AFF) I thought I was not ready but I figured "What the hell. I'll do it. That is what it is all about anyway." So I did a floater exit and I had planned on doing 360's and a couple of front flips but when I dropped and was belly down I took a look and it almost brought me to tears. The was "industrial haze" at around 4,000 and the sun was at about 10:00. I could not see the ground through the clouds and I thought, "God is Awesome! Look at this gift!" And for the first 20 seconds all I could do was look around and I started laughing, then I did some 360's and thought man I bet I could do those faster and I kept doing it over and over and finally threw my hackey just above the "haze". Everyone could hear me yelling and laughing as I came through it. It was actually one of the most spiritual experiences I ever had. I am so done for the rest of my life. I will do this until I die. I have been wanting this since I was five and I cannot believe I waited till now to finally do it. I got a lot of time to make up for. But man is it going to be fun doing it! Dreams can come true!

Okay all those things but also you missed: Favorite books, musician, type of grass (as in Saint Augustine Grass, et al. not that other kind ya freaks), what cartoon character you most admire and why, number of fingers/toes, high school/college transcripts, political affiliations, oh yeah and the ever important favorite aircraft to jump from, yeah that should definitely be on there because someone might like to jump off the Wright Flyer and well we want to avoid them for sure. Hmm oh yeah and favorite wine to go with portabella mushrooms and chocolate cake. Yeah that is key.

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I am finishing my A lisence either this wekend or next. Then I am going to go to the Collegiate Nationals in Lake Wales, Fl. Anybody else going to be there for that? I cannot wait. Actually be going home for a week. Haven't been to Florida since 2000. I kinda miss it. At least I do when winter hits central Ohio. Hope to see some of you there.

Yeah I noticed this too. I do not work or live with skydivers and they do not get my excitement. Although my kids think it is cool and want to do it too. But it sucks not having people around that get jazzed over my excitement.

Got the five accuracy jumps on the first five jumps thank you. I know I have to pack unassisted but I do not see anywhere on my orange card about 6 self packed jumps. Where does that come from? If it is true I better get packing.