Orange1

Newbie confusion & question. What I was taught as a flat turn seems to be a braked turn. However, reading the description of a "true" flat turn it seems to me that it takes significantly more skill to get right. Obviously, a lot of practise as with anything else in this sport is required. But - while knowing it's better not to get into the situation in the first place, but us newbies do make mistakes - if a turn is needed, would it be safer for a low number jumper to do a braked turn than a flat turn simply because it seems easier to actually get right? (Btw, re another poster's comments, although a newbie I'm not scared of downwind landings. I've done one, after a turn induced by a half collapsed canopy from turbulence on final when i thought I was too low to turn back. Jump 9, and the look of absolute relief on the CI's face only became really understandable to me after I discovered the incidents forum here. The landing was a bit scary cos it was damn fast, but not as scary as some of what I've read here. ) Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

welcome to our world!! I presume one of the fears you mention is door fear? peej is right - some deep breaths before exit help. and one day instead of "aargh! they're opening the door" it'll be "at last i can get out!" and you'll be there probably sooner than you think Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Hey, well done! Cool feeling huh... let us know how it feels when you work your way up to altitude Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Like some of the other posters here I did bits of both. And I have to say, my first freefall (off SL) was a much bigger "deal" (big ceremony at the DZ!!) than graduating AFF (though that was a different DZ) I like the SL idea of getting gradually used to everything, but when the "gradual" bit got too much for me I switched to AFF. Having the video to self-evaluate is incredibly useful. But, I have a niggling feeling that AFF is a bit "too" accelerated but hey, it's been around for long enough that I'm probably wrong on that Downside of the way I did it... I have 27 jumps but have yet to get my A licence (still doing ISPs at the moment). That aside, I did learn something on every jump... and I suspect that if I'd gone straight into AFF, it would have been too overwhelming for me and I wouldn't have continued... but that's just me. At the end of the day I find that people tend to "defend" whatever it is they happened to do. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

What's "too warm"? we jump in temperatures in the 40s (celsius) here... warmest I jumped in was 42 deg (about 110 F) as long as the clouds, wind and rain aren't in the way... temperature doesn't matter, just jump Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

What on earth made you take up a dangeous sport like boxing? Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

From Dan Poynter's Skydiver's handbook: "No-one ever died from a pin check" Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

I'm not sure if this is the right forum but it is a 'skydiving' discussion - mods please feel free to move to bonfire if that's appropriate! Someone sent me a video (too large to download here) of an elderly lady on a tandem, she had her mouth open.. and her false teeth went flying out. It doesn't LOOK like it's been doctored... I'm sure others here must have seen it - does anyone know if this is a genuine video?? Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Welcome to the sport!! My 4-year old also loves imitating what she watches me do during briefings/dirt dives!! Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Another one here welcome to the sport!! my 4-year old daughter loves playing "the arch game" (has watched some of my briefings!!) Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Can you give an indication of, typically, at what kind of jumps #s that would be? Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

cool - will see you there then, weather permitting! Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Hi Neil, SCT or Citrusdal? (I guess only SCT open on the 16th...) btw guys - what is the official afrikaans word for "skydiving"?? want julle praat die taal so mooi, ek is oorspronklik van durban af en ek is nie baie vlot nie! Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Not even. You think you'll always remember all the details of your first few jumps... but just a few months later I'm already regretting just letting the instructors log and not adding anything of my own. I log most everything now. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

As Mark asks, isn't the risk going to be greatest right around the tandem's intended pull height? You've already covered that a 1 sec separation is enough for a HnP. Opening soon after seems very similar. The longer the delay up to the pull height, the greater the risk of covergence, no? Orange - clouds and mountain ridges can be very useful reference points. On the way up, look for anything that might help you should this sort of thing happen. Thanks... although I also think this is going off on one tangent of the argument ... I am pretty confident that before too long I'll be able to tell the difference between 4000' and 3000', not just 10000' and 3000'... but the other point - from a longer term perspective - was reading too many incidents where experienced jumpers had lost awareness eg fighting line twists right till the ground. That's really what I want to avoid... again guys thanks for the pointers, have lots of stuff to ask the CI now (if the weather ever clears and I can jump again ) Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

you guys crack me up!! LOL Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Or, to extend this argument further, no female or person of colour would ever have been able to crack into any of the white-dominated businesses/ industries, sports etc. It IS an absurd argument. I think the turn in the debate has gone well away from a "general skydiving discussion"... Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Um, I didn't mean to start an argument here. For clarity: I am a "less-than-30 jump wonder" who is aware of the flightline (our geographical cross-references make it easy) but you are right I am not wholly aware of other jumpers in the air on solo freefalls. To touch on another poster's points, I DO have a tendency to backslide (I'm working on it!!). The tandems were mentioned because on a recent load the TM asked me what height I pull at, and specifically said to me "don't pull higher because we may be right behind you". (I didn't think to ask about separation, but there were relatively strong winds that day - maybe a factor? or maybe he knew I backslide...or maybe he was just being ultra-cautious given my low jump #s) Whether or not I would THINK about tracking, flipping etc at this stage if something goes wrong... I don't know. (I went through SL first so my freefall abilities vs jump #s may be overestimated by those who are used to AFF grads with the same # of jumps.) I'm just trying to think all possibilities through and be prepared for what may happen. Thanks posters for the comments and PMs, what I wanted was issues to be aware of, and that's what I got. Oh, and the "he" is a she. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

After having read a number of posts in the incidents forum about fatalities resulting from people losing altitude awareness while trying to resolve malfunctions, it seems like a good idea to me to get an audible alti. I know there is a train of thought that newbies should not get audibles because of the "device dependence" issue, but my thinking was this: 1. While I kind of have a feeling for what looks "low", I'm still at the stage where I need to use my alti to check - I don't yet have a solid ability to eyeball altitude. In other words, I would still probably follow the principle of pulling immediately if something goes wrong with my wristmount and I become unsure of what my altitude is... however, I am now often on loads where tandems follow me out and I am worried that in this kind of situation pulling high and surprising the tandem could lead to an incident. 2. So, a back-up in case something does go wrong with my wristmount alti seems like a good idea, as does the idea of something shrieking in my ear if I do happen to lose awareness while trying to deal with an issue. 3. CI at my DZ perfectly happy with me getting an audible. (Yes, I asked my instructor.) Was just wondering if anyone has any comments on this line of thinking, or any potential problems that might arise? Are there any reasons I shouldn't use an audible? And if my line of reasoning is as logical as it seems to me wrt the altitude awareness issue, why doesn't everyone have one? Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

Funnily enough, after my previous post I happened to come across a report showing average household wealth by race in the US - it's a demographic report and only shows ages 65+ but I guess it's a reasonable representation, with white households worth over 5x that of black ones. Maybe that answers the question. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

yeah, i was 36 (still am) and got the "mid-life crisis" things from a coupla guys too there's a guy at my DZ who's been jumping since the year I was born Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

I have a lot more QUESTIONS than I have jumps... can I please still post them? Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

lawrocket - ROTFL!! PJ is right about SA, but happily as incomes are rising in general so the proportion of at least potential entrants is... (2 of the group of 6 friends who did the FJC with me are black... unfortunately, they stopped after 2 and 3 jumps respectively... one was fear, the other 'too busy' to jump enough to keep up with currency...) Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

I've noticed a few of the intro posts recently have been from "older" people... so i was just wondering what the kind of distribution of first jump ages was. I've started it at 16 as (tandems aside) that seems to be absolute minimum age most places... I'm starting the poll off with a relatively old 30-40 Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

agree entirely - also wrt my own experience as described above. as a matter of interest, did these guys stick around in the sport or not? I think experienced jumpers sometimes underestimate how important their actions are in keeping a newbie interested in continuing with the sport. It's scary enough as a newbie - to feel both scared and stupid or intimidated would probably be enough to make some people give up, no matter how much they love jumping. Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.