FemaleFlyer

Well this is not one that I would call myself, but I alwasy get a laugh when i hear it. You one of those parachute jumpers. I just giggle and say sure, if tha is what you want to call it. ______________________________________________________________________

I can tell you a story that I wish I had stayed in the plane. I was at a DZ Somewhere, their had been weather all day. Well the weather cleared up and their was a small hole, so we went for it. By the time we went up to alt, we could see a layer of clouds close to the DZ, but figured it was just the layer that was leaving, so we get out. Had a great skydive, but then I went to track off and the clouds were below us, but the edge was soo close. I pulled about 3 grand and the clouds were still below me. I had no clue were I was. Did not get out of the thin layer of clouds tell well under what I would like to be. I really didn't like it expecially being under a small canopy and couldn't see the ground right away. Doesn't leave a lot of time to figure things out and where to land if the spot was bad. Thank you Mr/Ms Pilot man/woman for the great spot. That is for sure the jump I wish I was on the ground and not in the air. I should have used my head and stayed in the plane, but thankfully everything was ok for everyone. ______________________________________________________________________

This is a very good idea, there are way to many people who do not get the twist out of their break lines. You can walk around the packing room after a jump and see that a huge majority of the people have twist going form the top all the way to the bottom. There is another way to solve this problem, don't let them get twisted in the first place. How they get twisted is you letting go of the toggles after landing and they twist from their. If you do not let go of them and just but them back on the Velcro or the toggle keeper this should help prevent the twist from happening. You still need to check ever so often so you don't have any, but by stowing my toggles in the landing field I hardly ever have to get twist out of my break lines and when I do their is only a couple. ______________________________________________________________________

I recommend talking to the DZ before hand and making arrangements to get the info out there to get other skydivers involved. The plane isn't going to fly with only one person in it. He may have to start really early with a Cessna or something like that. I say it it so doable. Go for it, let us know how it turns out. ______________________________________________________________________

beer,lots of beer congrates ______________________________________________________________________

where is the sun great weather, I know not here, the weather sucks here, sucks for long time now. we need sun, and more sun and NO WINDS. ______________________________________________________________________

I would have to agree that the standard has been lowered not for the interest of our fellow new comers. I believe that the reason why this took place is that there is a shortage of AFF instructors all over the country. You can't have new skydivers if their is no one to teach them. So they decided to lower the standards to allow more people to pass, get involved. I have seen some of the people who have passed the AFF course lately and I honestly believe that in the old course they would have had a chance to ever get their rating. Do I think these people are terrible instructors, maybe no, just that they were not ready at that time and place with knowledge and skill to successfully teach, save someone's life, at that current time. I think it would be better for them to fail the course, go back home, do some more research, practice, train, get better and then come back ready with no doubt in their mind that they can pass the course. I think instead of making the course easer they should have look at maybe the reason why there was shortage of Instructors and what were the complaints. Is it the pay in the industry? Is it the cost of the course itself? (maybe lowering the cost be even better then lowering the standards) Is it because maybe the lack of interest in being an instructor? Is it because more people just want to only fun jump? Why are people complaining? What are there arguments and are they legit? I think there are many other ways to solve the problem that is going on then lowering the standards of the course. I hope this is not a bash on the people who have gotten their ratings recently, you may have been one of the people who would have passed the course even in the old courses, I am just saying that I agree that the old course was harder and maybe we need to think on what do we want our final results to be. I think they should have done something as simple as lowering the course cost and doing it more efficiently. ______________________________________________________________________