freeflygirlz

HI! I have never heard before, that DZs require three tandems!! To me this sounds just like making cash. Just my opinion. We _recommend_ 1 Tandem before starting AFF Level 1. This is, to let the student get freefall feeling with less stress level, than on his first aff. He / she can work on canopy skills together with the TI. We have had students without any tandems prior the aff-programm, due to weight limits (which is approximately 200 lbs on our dz for tandems). They we as good as the students with 1 or more tandems before.

Just a thing I thought about today: Recently one of my students lost his helmet on an aff-jump, just as he was pulling. The helmet landed on the DZ, far away from the landing area without any problems, no damage. The student was very surprised, but no problems. In the plane we checked the helmet, and it was closed, the lenght was all right. It just opend on its own. So I started thinking about weight belts. What if someone would loose one?? Have you ever heard about that? Would be pretty dangerous... What else, other than helmets did you drop or loose unintentionally??

Hi! i just want to add: make sure you get proper training on packing and using a pull-out. I have pull out and would never change back to through out, but is needs some knowledge not to pack a hard pull malfunction and other safety things. If you do not feel OK with pull out, you should consider changing back to BOC through out. It is not a lot of work (just sewing a BOC onto your rig and changing the handdeploy. If the number of jumps and time in sport in your profile is up to date, think about it. Its not expensive and if you want later on, you can easily change to pull out by just changing the handdeploy! I do not recommend pull out to rather inexperienced jumper. blue skies!

I am AFF-Instructor and would not do AFF-jumps without AAD. You never know whats going to happen on an instructional jump. I've been in the situation, that my AAD refused to work just before an AFF-jump. I used the gear of a friend the next few days for aFF, for freefly and everything else I used my gear without AAD.

Our school has set an age limit of 60, but we are open to take older students, if they are in good conditions. We would talk to them and make sure, they are aware of the the physical and mental stress and the risks of getting hurt. But in fact, since I'm AFF-I in this school, which is 4 years now, our oldest students were in ther 40ies... I definitely do not want an offical age limit (FAA, USPA), as it depends on the individual student. But as an AFF-I I personally keep the right not to jump with a student, if I am of the opinion, that he is not capable of managing it. Just my opinion blue skies

I used to have a skytronic PRO which started beeping in the plane etc. after about 2 or 3 years and a few hundret jumps. My dealer sent it to italy and it also took quite some time. when I got it back I did a few jumps and it was gone again. I sent it back again and they offered my a upgrade to a new skytronic FX. I have this one for about 700 jumps now without any problems. My advice: send it back again and see what you get, It will take some time for sure (I waited 2 or 3 month the first time, Austria is next to Italy, with doesn't see, to help anyway). Getting money back? I don't know. Maybe if your dealer does it, depending on where you got it from.

Our MUST HAVEs are Licence (including a minimum currency of 10 jumps the last 12 month and 20 in the last 24 month, signed logbook), insurance and repack. As we are a small DZ we are constantly checking our jumpers (equipment, being fit, being safe, attitude) Check Jumps only on students. AADs are not needed, but we hardly ever have someone without. And if, I always ask them about (why, rental gear wanted etc.) blue skies

Hi! You just have to open the slinks and remove the slider bumpers. If you are not sure how to install them again, check out the webpage of Performance Design, there you can find the installation guide. Or ask an experienced jumper on your DZ. It's quite easy, but making a mistake could put you on the reserve... Of course you could also try to cut the bumpers to remove them, but I personally consider this too dangerous. You could damage your risers and / or lines! blue skies

Glad to hear I'm not _that_ slow... Sometimes I'm too not happy with the outcome of my work, esp. with putting the reserve into the freebag and I start off again. Loop length is a another thing, but now I think I got the clue, the last few packjobs were pretty nice, good pressure. On our DZ there are a lot of pilots who would like to get their reserves repacked, we have 2 guys who are doing this, but I don't. Als I have never seen a round parachute in the air so far, I don't feel comfortable with them. But this would be a little bit more money, as most jumpers are quite good friends and I don't charge them much. For me it's packing season now, spring is coming!!! blue skies

REDUCE alcohol intake prior flight??? 12 hours before jumping NO ALCOHOL, as fare as I have learned...

Hi! Thanks for the very interesting Checklists! Just curious: how long do you need for a comlete check of a sport rig (gear, reserve, aad and main)? And how long do you need for a standard repack (easy to pack - gear, no pop top or stuff like that)? I'm rather a hobby-type rigger, doing less than 50 repacks a year. I'm doing only inspection and repacks, no sewing or complicated stuff. If I find anything or there is a certain bulletin I tell the guys on our DZ that they need to send their gears to a master rigger about 200 miles away. Anyway, a standard I+R takes me usually about 3 hours and I'm interested in how long others need. blue skies

A lot of good stuff so far. If you want to describe canopies on the market, I would recommend you to make a list with 3 or 4 categories, like: very easy (Navigator, PD, most 7-cells..) middle (Silhoutte, Sabre..) aggressive (Stilleto..) _very_ aggressive (cross braced..) Which canopy is in which category might be subject of disussion, but it gives the guys a bit an idea. I always recommend, that a change of category (eg. from middle to aggressive) should not be together with downsizing. You should make quite a lot of jumps with a more aggresive canopy _before_ downsizing too.

If you want to try the windtunnel with your boys, I would recommend you to make sure you can leave the tunnel immediately, if they panic. I only know the Skyventure Orlando Tunnel and there you are usually in there for 30 minutes (not really flying, but in the chamber). So you should either choose a tunnel, with you can leave anyway or talk to the instructors, so in case they shut down for a minute to let you out. I'm not an expert, but just an idea you might think about. I wish you and your family the very best! PS I'm nutrition scientist and I have heard about effencts of certain food on autism. I'm pretty sure you are very good informed about autism, but if you need more information, send me a PM.

I did my AFF-rating together with a guy from my DZ and when we started jumping, we did backup-videos for each other on level 4. If there would be any problem, there would be a second aff-Instructor nearby, just in case. Now we both have about 150 aff jumps and with difficult student we still do back up videos.

I do not wash my rigs. Its not good for the material and its getting dirty more quickly after it. There is a kind of impregnation on the material, which is removed by washing. If its really necessary I wash only certain parts (leg straps), but usually time, air in freefall and sun are doing there job and the dirt will vanish on its one.

so if he could use artifical arms just put him in a hanger (sorry, don't know if this is the correct word - I'm talking about this thing where you train your EPs) and check out how he is doing which steering and flaring and of course the EP. With a main deployment ripcord on the front of the body he can see whatever he needs to see, so it's not that much of a problem. I would recommend a spring loaded deployment even after student status, because he only needs to pull it out and not through it away. Of course a very docile canopy is important, RSL and AAD are a MUST to me. Another quetion you should consider: do you have Instrutors who are willed and good enough to teachhim skydiving? I have been to Eloy a few times and there are a few jumpers who are both side leg amputated above the knees. So I guess, they could help you. So I would check out on ground training with him, get Instructors and then contact relative workshop for special gear modification (they are the biggest manufacturer, experienced in student and tandem rigs, tecnically they are very experienced, so I would recommend to contact them first) hopefully I can help you a little bit, but of course it's not so easy without knowing your friend.

Hi! Just to make sure I got it right: he would need a main deployment handle which he can reach - boc is to far away. cutaway und reserve should be ok to reach, and he should be able to pull the handles far enough to activate the cutaway and reserve. I have already seen a gear with a spring load ripcord on the front of the gear below the cutaway, this is no problem for the manufacturer and no need for special approve. The second and IMO larger problem is to make him reach the steering toggles. as soon as he got them he should be ok steering them and brake the canopy far enough for a nice landing. As you describe this guy's disability he can not drop out of a "normal" gear. Is this correct? Was he jumping yet? Tandem? Please correct me if I misunderstood anything in you post.

Hi! Thanks for explaning! Do you personally think it does make sense to have so many different ratings? Do you need to renew every rating on its own? What do you have to do therefore? How many I-jumps? what are the minimum-requirements for the different ratings? In most european countries we have a basic Instructional Rating, which allows you to teach a student all the ground stuff, attend students in the plane, spot them, do the radio, teach them canopy flying and packing and so on. You can also do S/L with the First-Jump-Students and jump with freefall-students as soon as they finished aff or S/L. So we don't have coaches. Additionally we of course have AFF-Instructors, no discussion about the need of a specific training and examination of AFF-Instructors. Tandem-I are of course a own category. I personally do not name them Instructors. Doing a Tandem is not really the same as teaching a "real" student. TIAF is in discussion right now, but I do not see any advantage for the student - compared with AFF. IAD as you explane it, doesn't really makes sense to me. I would never do that!! Any specific risks or advantages? What kind of openings do the students have? What percentage of students is instructed with this methode? What do you think about the USPA-System? I'm very interested to hear what you think could be changed? Blue skies PS sorry for one or other mistake in english grammer, it's been a while...

HI! As I'm not familiar with the USPA-Instructor-System could you please tell me, what 4 types of Instructor-ratings exist, and what's the difference between them?! I am AFF-Instructor but no Tandem-Instructor blue skies

Hi Freeflyers out there! I'm working on a present for my friend and freefly-teammate: a little book with cool freefly pictures and short lyrics. thats where I need your help, please post all quotations, lyrics and whatever else. they should rather be philosophical, about flying and mental freedom I do have alot from richard bach thanks and merry xmas

Thanks for your answers so far! We are a rather small DZ and school and I do know, that we should have a 240 canopy, but as we don't have so many gears, I prefer to have 2 or 3 canopies of the same size. Otherwise students would either have to change the canopy-size too often (down and up again, as the gears are available) or I would even be forced to ground a student. After the 210 canopy we put them on 190 PDs (sooner or later I would like to get Sabres or similar canopies instead of PDs) I'm pleased to hear your opinion and advice blue skies

Hi! I'm head of our Skydiving school and I want to buy new canopies and want to hear your advice. Our Students start jumping on PD Navigator 280. After about 20 jumps they jump 7-cell 210s, which we want to change now. The canopy should be a 210 again and a mix of zero-P and F111 material oder zero-P only. It should be more agile than the Navigator to prepare the students for high-performance canopies, but docile enough to prevent landing injuries. I'm thinking about: Silhoutte (PD) Pilot (Aerodyne) Elektra (Parachute de France) Safire (Icarus) Please post your opinion about these canopies and tell me which other I should consider. Thanks a lot and blue skies

Sorry folks, I was being funny. Those are all antique pin-puller type Automatic Activation Devices. _____________________________________ Thanks for your info I don't want to change my aad, i'm very happy with cypres, but i am writing on a little essay about aads (history, technical stuff, pros and cons) and so the "historical" aads you write about, are very interesting to me. I really thought, that Kap 3 was the very first aad. if you have any pictures or details about these old aads, I would be very interested. it's hard to find information about things bevor the internet-area...

I have never heard about these two, do you know any details? Manufacturer, manual.. -Irvin Hitefinder -High Tech Are Kap 3 and FXC 8000 still available? Whats the differnce between FXC 8000 and 12000? Thanks a lot

Thanks for your posting and the picture. I heard that Sven Zimmermann has Olavs old Stiletto. blue skies