mdrejhon

I hurt a finger during RW once -- but it was only a sprain (finger bent backwards). Probably during a burble moment (where me and another jumper interacted, can't remember whose fault) I don't know how it happened. I only noticed when I was back on the ground, that one of my fingers were in pain. I'm learning that RW is hazardous to fingers. And learning you don't notice very minor injuries until AFTER you land. I kept jumping, nothing broken, just was a little painful to bend one of the fingers for a few days.

My first time in the tunnel, I was wearing my own new RW jumpsuit with booties. That wasn't an issue for me. Sure, I sometimes bumped gently around a little like just any new tunnel flyer, but nothing that I couldn't easily correct, and I was still a lot better off than most first timers in a tunnel, because I had done over 100 skydives. By the end of the first 2 minutes, I was able to stay stationary in all 3 dimensions in the center of the wind tunnel.

I stress talking to instructors in this case, But personally if I had plenty of altitude and I wasn't descending remotely like a freefaller -- 4000 feet pull -- I know I'd try everything including everything that's said here including full toggle pump, deep toggle pump, pumping front risers, pumping rear risers, pumping opposite risers (left front/right rear), to attempt to stretch the slider in all kinds of orientations to get it to slip. One of these may put sufficient tension in the correct direction to undo a tension knot and get the slider to slide down. Assuming I had plenty of time and descent felt reasonably leisurely. However, I won't be hesistant to chop if all else failed by hard deck and the slider was too high up for me to trust a good uneventful flare to... I'm not an instructor though....I'm merely a 1-pie wonder....go talk to instructors...

There's also an explosion of market when prices drop too -- there's often an inverse exponential relationship with price reductions. If prices get cut by X%, there will be Y% more people -- i.e. prices get cut 50%, there could be 300% more people. There's not enough capacity on the tunnel market to absorb this, even if tunnels are still profitable at a 50% all-across-the-board price cut. (And I think it will be a long time before that happens). Also peak daytime electricity can be a lot more expensive in some places. While I agree that SkyVenture Orlando/Eloy/Perris will lose my business to the SkyVenture New Hampshire when it opens, I'd hope there is enough economics room I would hope to keep the tunnel economy sustainable for a long time to come -- whuffo or otherwise. Maybe one or two tunnels might close down, in a high-electricity-price high-rent-price poor-economy location when the motors get old, break down, and the tunnel can't afford the maintenance... But I'd hope this would only be an aberration or not happen. There's still a lot of demand because there are no open tunnels in Canada right now and the people in the Northeast has to fly to get to a tunnel. As long as SkyVenture remains regional and not open too many tunnels too close together, I think it's sustainable. Prices may drop, some of the tunnels may have a very hard time, get more whuffos...but sustainable nontheless.

Walmart and Home Depot has small saws for cheap -- something like $5 or so. Get one of these to save the tree. Drilling holes may work if you drill lots of holes from edge to edge, but you need plenty of surface area from side to side. since the wood is kind of like many parallel vertical straws.

The AFF type program (Progressive Freefall) at Skydive Gananoque, requires a minimum of 4 tandems -- so it could be considered a kind of a tandem progression. I think it helped me because: (1) The fun initial jumps (1997 and 2002) helped me get through my sensory overload and made me decide to pursue the sport later. (2) The third and fourth jumps were tandems (in spring 2005) proved my altitude awareness which remained excellent. (3) My deafness means I went for a 100% radioless AFF. I had to pay very close and careful attention to flaring under tandem, and help with the tandem. (4) My first solo landing was a well timed radioless flare timed 100% on my own for a standup landing. I stressed the importance in my head, the dangers of flaring too early. The previous tandems helped me get a rough idea of the timing of the flare under a big student canopy. I have never used a radio under canopy -- just a rotating arrow, and I have never received flare signalling -- all flare timing was solely on my own (Only 6 non-standups in my skydive career mainly scattered between jumps 60 through 75, mostly due to an accidental downwinder for one, plus brake line length changes for the others). The tandem was very important to me for the initial learning experience of the approximation of flare timing. I am sure that tandems are not the ideal progression for many people as you suggested, however, I think it worked very well in my particular case.

Not that there is anything wrong with either of that.

These are some silly ones of myself: http://www.zen93518.zen.co.uk/Stu-DWR-2005/images/p1040411.jpg (MAN, I was TIRED!) And http://www.zen93518.zen.co.uk/Stu-DWR-2005/images/p1040483.jpg (FIRST NIGHT JUMP!!!!!!!!!!) I wish there was a daytime photo of me wearing my skydiving gear though, fully standing up alone, facing the camera! Would love to see that... I'm getting jump fever again... HELP! I need a helicoptor "rescue" from up here.... Nudge, nudge.

Buy 15 minutes get 15 minutes half price Tuesdays. Man, I wish I was on the left coast at this moment. Especially if I can get 60 minutes for the price of 45 minutes, by doing this special twice Since it's much cheaper for me to drive to Skyventure New Hampshire, they'll get my upcoming business though. But if I make my way to Perris, I now know to extend my vacation to a Tuesday.

If it's not too late, I could use a pic of me too. Sent a PM.

Yay! Thanks for the pictures.... :-) The one of me sleeping with jumpsuit covering my head, is a funny one too...LOL Now I wish I was jumping...It's offseason now here in Canada. I'm gonna try to do 50 jumps during some skydive vacation this winter, just a question of which 20-way camps are in Feb/Mar/April... (I am going to try for the Canadian 80-way next June, hoping to have 250 jumps by then and another hour of windtunnel -- well, at least I am going to try to see if I can get that far!)

We've got a winner here.

I heard really good things about AAC... I was going to go there last summer but budget constraints limited me to combine Skyventure Orlando at the same time as a skydiving event at Lake Wales.

LOL, that's a funny one -- flipping the finger. I'll have to remember that.

That's correct. Largest bunch of Canadians -- an 80-Way record. The website is www.skydiveburnaby.com. The thread is Canadian 80-Way: June 22-25, 2006 - Registration I don't know what the requirements are, to be Canadian or not. But that's FOUR Twin Otters at a Canadian dropzone -- a rare opportunity. Come anyway just for the fun of a crowded dropzone! I'm going anyway even if I do not jump in the official bigways (Murphy's Law still has plenty of time and opportunity here) - should be a lot of learning opportunity.

I successfully learned to land a Manta stand up on my first solo landing without a radio.... because I am a deaf guy. My dropzone had to devise alternate methods.

Sounds like fun! But that's kinda too soon for my budget, and I'm not sure I'm yet ready to progress to 60-ways in just 3 days of jumping unless I jumped my ass off during Canadian Daze. Also got a response from Kate Cooper referring me to Laidlaw, since there is no smaller bigway camp before May, but to check Perris schedules for other events that may include 20-ways. If I win the lottery, I will get 250 jumps before the Perris bigway camp and still have money left over to go to the bigway camp. So, I'll be waiting for a Feb/Mar/Apr event...

The skyventure website says this opens May/June 2006, but you've mentioned possibly March/April 2006. Who's right? I'll err on the side of latter, considering Murphy's Law (the backhoe broke down, the cold winter caused the manifold to jam, whatever)

Isn't that's located one of the world's busiest tandem dropzones? Three skydiving companies (including this one) located at the same airport? I heard from somebody that a freeflyer tourist somewhere at that dropzone got asked something to the tune of "Need a job?" by the staff because he had a camera helmet! If this is the one, that might just be the easiest location in the world to get a skydiving career at. I think. Lucky you if you live near the world's busiest tandem dropzone (more daily tandem jumps than Perris and Eloy I heard!). Three separate skydiving companies running off the same airport. I leave it to others and your instructors for further information... However, I have heard from more than one source so that New Zealand apparently seems to be one of the easiest places in the world to get a full time paying skydiving career at. It's not easy in many parts of the world...

Hi, All your suggestions are excellent. I will be contacting these people sometime this month to evaluate my options... As a FYI... I've already aimed for an event earlier (Deaf World Record in October 2005 in Florida which I attended). So now the 80-way is my new goal. Although I was not on the jump that broke the record, it gave me a number of 10-way to 20-way jumps as practice. My 100th jump was a 9-way which was my first "bigway". So hoping I got a head start... But I worry about getting too uncurrent in the winter! Because of where I live, I won't be making much jumps (Mainly winter solo's with snow landings, just to stay current with landing skills and to have an occasional skydive fix between my skiing trips). I got over 130 jumps in less than 6 months because I was pursuing the Deaf World Record - I was still a student when I inquired back in May about the realisticness of jumping 100 times in 6 months without needing to go to the dropzone every weekend. I have so much to learn before I am ready for a 60-to-80-way jump. So I want to save money for a one-week trip where I can do 50+ jumps at some southern climate where I can pig out on jumps with more than half of them being RW related, preferably with several smallish big-ways. Perris: Already researched this one... A catch-22, since I won't be able to break 200 jumps without using up the vacation money before going on the trip. Plus I want to do the trip sooner than May. The other options are however, all feasible -- I will be researching my options during the course of this month... Once spring comes... Things will pick up awfully fast after, with a May Twin Otter boogie at my home dropzone and a June bigway camp that I probably would be able to attend (the camp before the 80-way). I can't wait for Skyventue NH to get built. They say May/June 2006. The Canadian 80-way is end of June. No room for much construction delay, it's the only windtunnel within driving distance. I could do Eloy, Perris, or Orlando but for a trip I'd rather pay for bigway camp and train at Skyventure NH on a separate trip after two months of replenishing my coffers... This is gonna be expensive $$ but at least I'm already all geared up with a B license, at least. So 2006 will still be cheaper... I'm going to contact Kate for ideas...

Hi, After having participated in almost ten 20-ways, I'm looking to refine bigway skills for my country's national record next summer (Canada's 80way). I'm encouraged by the fact that none of my instructors have told me I can't do it, just need lots more of the right kinds of jumps first... Are there any smaller bigway camps during the winter or spring speciallizing in 8/10/20/40-ways? I'm trying to keep my next 100 jumps very high in RW content. If Skyventure NH opens before end of June, I'll probably get an hour there too. At least I'm going to try and get on the 80way -- despite my limited jump numbers, I did get to the 10-way to 20-way level and want to pratice more of that. I'll look into joining a 4-way camp during the start of a new Canadian skydive season, I'm looking for a trip to make in the winter... Any suggestions for a recommended event anywhere in North America during the Feb/Mar/April timeframe?

Christmas time prevents me from buying advance reservation... Since I'd be buying for myself! Y'all can understand! Will the early bird prices still remain in early 2006?

Before I brought my rig to the US for the first time, I did some research on this. Foreign rigs can be repacked under foreign rules (i.e. 180 day rule can be OK) only if the entire rig is foreign and followed the foreign country's parachuting assocation rules. Tehnically, it's permittable it seems... However, many US dropzones override these foreign rules regardless (i.e. 120 day repack cycle enforced regardless) It did not apply to my rig, because a lot of it was US made, and therefore TSO'd.

I'm happy I spot myself from a Cessna well enough to know that!

Some clarification is needed about the statement since you both sides have points about control over falling in love. There are times that someone can fall in love with someone, and have no control over that. First date, love at first sight. An emotional bonding can happen unintentionally. Even whether or not the person is appropriate to you, and before you get to know the person. There are times that you know someone as friends, or date them, and you fall in love with them later while regularly dating them, because you want to fall in love with them but need to get to know them better before you do. Often, this does not always work but sometimes it does. An emotional bonding can gradually happen when encouraged by regular intentional friendly contact. There's no guarantee. It may stay kaput, no emotional attraction, and you two just are friends, but sometimes you can gradually bond. Dating because you think each other are interesting (you want to see if you can fall in love with this person, so you're willing to date) and gradually falling in love as you get to know each other better and still feel comfortable with each other, trust each other more, and gradually get more attracted to each other. You do NOT have complete control over your falling in love, but you CAN have partial control by consciously encouraging it to happen by regular contact rather than avoiding the person, etc. Obviously, not reliable, but I don't call it as "absolutely no control over falling in love". For some people, this kind of falling in love is better; because you know the person better rather than falling in love with somebody that might be inappropriate for you. For others, love on first sight works wonderfully since they miraculously seem to fall in love with the right person. Lifelong loyal marriages clearly exist that were started in either of the above cases. Both scenarios of "falling in love" have happened to me before. And many others. Not to everyone, but many people have experienced this situation. Some people only go by love at first sight, while others are willing to continue dating or be friends, even if they don't feel any attraction at first (and end up later falling in love with each other). All perfectly legitimate...