AMax

there is an update at NSL site: http://www.skyleague.com/pages/news/showArticles.php?story=5&PHPSESSID=f981dd0173bdd8c6358aea806ad137fd Anton

Disclaimer: I am not an AFF instructor, so this is my personal opinion that needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Leg awareness is one of the last things people usually learn. You will probably be working on improvement of position of your legs after 50 or 100 jumps. At this point, the most important thing for you is symmetry. Toe taps is a good trick that helps to achieve this symmetry. The rest should not be a big problem as long as you do not spin or loose control because of you leg position. Brining the legs out and feeling the pressure on your lower legs will come with time. If your lower legs are brought in too much, it may cause some backsliding, but I seriously doubt that this will keep you from passing the next level. And finally how wide is too wide? John Eagle, one of the best formation skydivers on this planet flies with his knees pretty wide Edit to add: I would keep focusing on being safe and passing the next levels. You will have plenty of time to work on smaller problems after you graduate. You do not really want to loose the altitude awareness or ignore the signals from your instructors just because you have been thinking about your legs too much. But once again, your AFFI is a best source of information ignore what I said if it goes against your instructors advice. Good luck!

Because of the danger of high speed stall ?

I am sure you will soon get some advice from experience instructors. Just want to say that you should definitely spend some time to go through emergency procedures. Good luck!

Dan BC's school pays off

One big weekend per month is better than two Saturdays or two Sundays. I learned this from my first 4-way mentor.

Video is priceless but good mentor will definitely help to understand the details. Communication, grip plans and visual targets are hard to figure out just by watching the vid.

Thanks SD San Marcos for letting my injured friend jump and letting me to lurk him for free for selling his soul will attach a pic soon

Thank you all for advice!I guess I will just take him to dz, talk to local TI and see what happens.

I don't think it is very serious. He didn't have a surgery and there is no pins. I think they plan to take it off in near future, but obviously he will still need to wear it this weekend. Waiting is a good idea. I was just afraid it will not hapen if i don't go with him.

That's exactly what I suggested but he did not like the idea That is the worst advice I have heard yet. The brace is there to protect him in the event of another trauma, no matter how small. We were just joking about the brace. Of course I would NOT advice to do something like that for real

That's exactly what I suggested but he did not like the idea

Lol ... looks like his chances are 50/50 I hope my chances to get to Dz are higer since he will be driving

I plan to visit a friend who wants to make his first tandem jump at local DZ. The problem is that he recently broke his wrist and still wears a brace. When I contacted a DZ, a person at manifest told me that it will be up to instructor to make a decision whether or not he can make a skydive, but I could not talk to any local TI since it was a week day. So the question is whould you take a person with broken wrist up for a tandem jump? ed to spell Thanks, Anton

I think a part of the problem is that many new jumpers (and not very new too) do not pack by themselves. Packing is a good way to learn about your gear (except for reserve system) and develop some confidence in doing some simple maintance (changing closing loops, cleaning the cables, flexing the risers near 3-ring, line continuity checks and so on).

Oh, absolutely. One of my AFF instructors (Zach, if you are reading this - wassap) was pretty young guy but I always had a feeling that he's very mature person. I agree to some extent. My point is that I do not want to get rating ASAP just because I have enough jumps and freefall time (and will probably pass). The main reasons are: 1) I feel that I myself need to learn more before starting teaching the others. 2) I want to be focused because I believe this is a best way to become good at anything. Currently, my focus is 4-way and it will probably be for quite some time. Well. I have a problem here. It is ok to become a USPA or SDU coach (I do realize the huge difference in requirements between these two and not trying to mix them together) just for a sake of experiment. I do not want to become an AFFI just to see how it feels. If I ever sign up for tryouts, I will do it because I feel that I want to teach the students and that I have some confidence in my leadership and teaching skills besides my ability to fly. Edit for spelling

As very young jumper I would like to add that some maturity is probably one of the key factors defining a good instructor. Of course this quality depends to some extent on everyone's personal characteristics but I doubt that one can become a mature skydiver by simply knocking 400-500 jumps in one or two years. Would you agree that being AFFI isn't only about personal skydiving skills? I feel that I am not ready to become an AFFI because I am not ready to teach, lead and make the other person feel relatively comfortable on the ground, on the way to altitude and in freefall.

I have relatively fresh impressions from the visit to ER. The injury was pretty painful - I was suspecting that I broke my ankle (not skydiving related) and could not put any weight on that leg. It took them six (!!!) people (2 MD's, 3 nurses and 1 technician) to take one X-ray and diagnose the injury. I was asked a bunch of questions and most of them were questions regarding the type of my insurance, home address, phone numbers and how I am going to pay deductible. No wonder the health care is so expensive

I like the new version better - it's more optimistic

I got mega Majik type on my new Bev competition suite and I love it

Make some jumps I am working today and tomorrow. Bloody science cannot wait

www.skyleague.com http://www.skyleague.com/pages/news/showArticles.php?story=256&PHPSESSID=3ba68866b799b26b25d5bc990f107024

It should not be very difficult to put it back together if you did not use a screwdriver to take it apart. The proven reliability of AK is based of it's relative simplicity. Old staff though, I loved my AKC-74 much better.

Wars are justified by politicians who do not normally suffer from immediate consequences such as getting killed in action. I don't think the thesis of "lesser of two evils" is that popular among those who risk loosing their lives. I do not quite understand the logic of this statement. The Germans lost over 6 million and the Russians lost over 20 ...

Same here. I only have 8 under my belt and I absolutely loved every one of them couple of things I would like to add: 1) Plan your day and advance - you will be jumping for few ours longer than usually. Make sure you are in good shape. 2) If you plan to make more than one, then get packed as soon as you land. Most likely there will be a lot of excitement after your first night dive. You will have plenty of time to share this excitement with the others after you are done jumping and grab a beer. You do not want to find yourself on a short call for a second jump when your main is still not packed. (I did jump a trash pack job once, but this story should go to Ron’s “stupid things I have done” thread) 3) Get the chemlights in advance - some times they run out of them quickly at dz gear stores. Have megafun.