mdrejhon

Hi, I'm at the jump numbers where I am almost dozing off to sleep at the back of a Cessna, waiting for altitude. I just had my first high-altitude yawn above 10,000 feet recently, the door fear having been diminishing for some time now... Now is the time to figure out how to pass time. The most nervous moments in skydiving is often performance anxiety with an instructor, especially in a last-minute no-dive-plan "I'll jump with you" offer. As I am deaf, I always bring a notepad with me on the plane for communications (and give it to the pilot before the door opens). Sometimes I use the notepad to joke around with sketches and funny jokes. Sometimes the skydivers will ask for a small piece of paper each, to write a note on them they'll let go in freefall (like a bottled message that floats to far destinations). Other times I'll sketch a parody/joke based on decals I see on somebody's helmet. Other times I'll attempt to quickly sketch a landscape I saw out of the airplane's window, and complete it before jump run where I have to give the notepad to the pilot next to me (in the Cessna's I fly in, the pilot is always an arm's length away ;-). I've also made shadow animals in the sun projecting onto the wall (just like with a projector on a white screen, that you did in school days, you put your hand in front of the projector to put shadow animals on the screen.) I kept at least one skydiver awake watching "shadow Godzilla" on the wall. I have witnessed the following: - Sleep (Yessiere, sometimes they *actually* fall asleep and need to be kicked awake... Not even pretending to be asleep.) - Watch various videos on their helmetcam's screen. Sometimes videos unrelated to skydiving. - Two jumpers hook up their helmet cameras with a FireWire cable to copy videos to each other's cameras. (How convenient, one actually carries a FireWire cable in their jumpsuit pocket for this purpose!) - Invent new, funny sitting positions to be comfortable on the Cessna 182. Cozy enough for ya, yet, eh? - Or, heaven forbid, play videogames on their cellphone (which they keep inside their jumpsuit for off landings)

Not really. I needed to become a good enough of a bellyflyer to meet the "A", and my coaching was pretty much "now and then" so it was hard to pratice 2-ways often enough. Sure, I could have forked $1500 for a bona-fide "RW course", but I spent that on jump tickets instead. ... Plus a few "pay their slot" offers. Did 3-ways on my last visit. I finally praticed sideslides in 3 consecutive jumps. Something important when I eventually fly my slot around a medium size formation. And had the opportunity to make a few zero-wind standups under my Sabre 170. Yay! (Winds are easy, but it was the pesky zero winders...) I had gotten this rig at jump #59 and my landing problems were with low and zero winders since the 170 likes to turf surf a hell lot more. "Sitting in" in Scott Miller's course did help too. (He visited our dropzone, but it was full so I only paid the sit-in fee). Considering seeing him this October in Deland.

There's a good lightweight tandem instructor at my dropzone that's apparently very good at pillow soft standup tandem landings. I think he's the favourite tandem instructor for the kids (the late teens of legal jumping age, and the early 20's), since he works with them for a living in his other job. Stands the tandems up most of the time (as far as I've watched anyway). But he's not afraid to slide it in if it is safer. I'd guesstimate 80% of the time, he stands them up (from what I witnessed). I think (as far as I know), most of the others slide it in, but he seems to be the lightweight one with usually lightweight passengers. The passengers are absolutely delighted, as always!

Okay, I passed the exam this weekend. Getting the "A" license finally. Maybe next week, I'll have to find out. Just mainly paperwork now, I think. May have to be reviewed on EP's before being signed off. Can't wait. Could have chosen to take the exam earlier, but decided to wait until now, when I felt I studied well enough and my RW skills was up to snuff. Next, is the "B". (If, I do, indeed, get the "A" next weekend). Then I'll be able to do my Florida trip!

Not all of them though. Mine required 4 tandems followed by a dropzone variant of the PFF program. The more recent 2 tandems, I was allowed to help with controlling and flaring. I had to demonstrate altitude awareness by waving off at the correct altitude.

Lesson learned -- the gear check includes your plumbing. Hip straps tucked between thighs and your nuts, plumbing centered.

I think it really depends on the type of person you are and type of person you are looking for. But regardless, I agree it's important to support each other's hobbies. There's many ways things can go wrong either way. A whuffo who persistently nonstop tries to stop you from skydiving, might not be worth it in the long run. (Unless you're willing to give up skydiving for this love, some do!) On the other hand, a very independent-minded skydiver socialite that flirts with others at the dropzone and needs lots of independent time away from you, might not be your kind of thing. (Unless you like that type, some do!)

I'm somewhat nervous of performing in front of instructors. Or landing downwind accidentally (I did once.) Or zero winders under my new Sabre 170 (This will go away with pratice, only 9 jumps on this canopy). And a little nervous when trying new things with other people in RW (I'm still a floppy bellyflyer, since my RW-specific coaching is somewhat random and opportunistic at the moment). And at 10000+ feet during the jumprun pin check, and before the door opens. The door monster used to scare me until around the jump 40's or so, but not anymore, the air now relieves me and I'm anxious to get out of the Cessna! The airplane ride is boring. I'll yawn a few times sometimes. Solo freefall's and canopy flight don't make me nervous anymore, nor does normal landings in medium winds in an empty landing area. I particularly enjoy canopy flight and want to do high altitude hop-and-pops more often. I'll probably enjoy freefall more once I'm invited along on hoop jumps, 20-ways, and other novelty jumps though

It's easy but some basics about starting a forum. As a moderator of other forums, I should add some tips: - Start small. It's better to have 100 people in 1 topic than 10 people in 10 topics. Traffic attracts traffic. Don't succumb to topic categorization BEFORE you attract people to the site. Many forums make the mistake of creating too many categories and they're DOA upon creation. More successful forum sites often start with just 3 to 5 topics or so instead of 20 or 25 topics. Better to start small and grow as the site grows. You don't want your forum to be a ghost town with posts spread too thin. - Have a trusted willing volunteer or two to become moderators. - Don't be too quick to split topics too early, wait until there's just about too much traffic, not before that point. You need to attract the traffic in the first place. Traffic attracts traffic, attract a bigger crowd to fewer topics ASAP, to help increase popularity (Related in real life: A popular bar hangout, will often attract additional people just because it's popular, and people will often stay away from a dead dance bar because it's boring. It's an amplifying effect.) - Be a very willing volunteer yourself to reply to other people's posts. At first, it is normal for between 25 to 50% of posts in the forum to be by the siteowner or moderators. Posts that are replied to with useful answers, attracts attention. As a forum grows, more users will reply to other users, and the percentage of posts made by moderator/admins will go down. - Treat newbies with royalty. This is difficult for some moderators to do, but this is especially important in the startup of a new forum. Pampered forum users with every post getting detailed replies, will attract attention, and make your forum more popular. Once your forum reaches critical mass, people start helping each other instead, and you no longer have to do as much work replying to posts, in order to maintain the forum's popularity. - Where possible, try to avoid banning or kicking out problem users. Give them many chances. Edit out bad words instead of deleting the entire post or thread. Send warnings by PM before posting warnings publicly. Otherwise your forum gains a reputation for being a censor-heavy forum before it gains a reputation for being a source of useful information. Later, you can make rules tighter for efficiency's sake, but at first, you need to attract users and be as helpful as possible (even to the stupidest questions), to ramp up the forums' popularity. - Jumpstart the forum as much as possible by word of mouth, friends, blogs, your existing mailing list, existing website, paid advertising, etc. - Ask for permission before posting on other forums, such as permitted non-spamming shameless plugs on other forums that allow the pratice. You don't want to be labelled as a spammer by other forums. - Use a pleasant non-cluttered theme for your board that is easy on the eyes. Choose good software wherever possible (vBulletin, for example) for good performance. You could also choose to go for a Yahoo Groups or a Google Groups system instead, which is often easier and free when you only have a really small community. Former Moderator of www.avsforum.com Current Moderator of www.BlackBerryForums.com

My best jump was a solo when I did a 5000 feet pull in a clear opening of a complex 3D cloud formation. (The cloud stretched all the way up to well above 11K ... I freefell all the way alongside it). I surfed the edges of other smaller clouds under canopy on the way to landing. Very scenic sky that day! The other best one was my first 3-way jump (with people who weren't my main instructors), which meant I felt I was finally progressing on RW, and I wasn't as nervous as I was with instructors.

Said a 2000-jumper who only started 6 years ago.

Funny you say that. I wore a laptop backpack and did just that from time to time

That's cool, that reminds me of the 'Office Linebacker' commercial... Think I could get Relative Workshop or Performance Designs to sponsor me for a TV commercial? Nahhhhh.... Although I could use some more gear.

I must miss skydiving. Today, I ran down the office hallway pretending to do my final. Knees and legs together... 50 feet... 40 feet... 30 feet... 20 feet... standby... FLAAAAAAAARE... *imitates pulling down on a smooth flare* ... turf surf... wait for the ground to reach me... gentle standup, no steps forward. Yay! I must be nuts for doing that down the hall past the office cubicles. Although, that was after most people left for home... Anxious to jump again this weekend. It's been three weeks because I'm still paying off my damn rig debt (70% paid down thankfully!). Fortunately, my paycheck arrives in a few days!

Yes. Sometimes. Always get it checked. A slight bruise "in the unfortunate place" can turn into a weak muscle that can't ever be strengthened as much again for the rest of its life.... Or a small fracture turns "in the unfortunate place" into a fused joint that causes major problems.... etc.... (Or whatever. I don't know what I am talking about, but I've heard enough horror stories). It doesn't always happen, but there's always the odds that something seemingly minor leaves some lasting damage. Another way to think of it: 90% of the time, it's not worth it, but 10% of the time you're glad you did. It's insurance on your life. Anyway, I am VERY GLAD you're okay!

Invest in the money instead. Then you can buy a better rig when you're back into skydiving!

Don't quote me on this.... please talk to instructor.... I'm recently off student status.... but... There seems to be such a thing as "too little leg lift" and "too much leg lifting". Basically, feets and knees together, knees bent. i.e. don't reach out for the ground... but don't lift your legs up too much. Straight legs prevent aborbing harmful shock, more risk for injury ...but at the same time... Bent legs so bent that your arms are below your legs at full flare, more risk for injury as your arms hit the ground before your legs. I've made both mistakes (and still do sometimes -- the "reach for the ground" part, rather than waiting for the ground to arrive to my legs) Talk to your instructor of course, though.

I would suggest renting for the first 25-50 jumps and buying a longer-term canopy afterwards. Because very few people still fly their first canopy beyond the 50th jump... The student canopy flies very slow and will cause you to fly backwards in strong winds. You may end up being be grounded half of the time! (If you're put on a light wingload like the dropzone put me on, only 0.65 pounds per 1 square feet of canopy) I didn't buy mine till my 60th jump. Now I chose a size (1.1 lbs/feet wingloading) that I am pretty comfortable with yet allows me to keep learning for a long time now, probably for several hundred jumps!

A great idea, but here's a good workaround that already exists: Post a link to your very own personal "AFF progress" thread into the webpage section of your profile. That way, people can click on it and see your AFF progress. And reply to it. It'd be pretty much permanent, as threads on this forum tends to stay around for years, and could even be bumped up weeks later too. It's very easy -- just copy and paste the "Address:" line of the thread you've just posted, into the Web Page address of your Profile.

Most skydivers and riggers pack the main parachute, sometimes sloppily (depends on whom...some pack the main very meticulously!). That's where most of the worry should be, not the reserve. The reseserve is packed by a professional FAA-certified rigger (if packed in US). It's much more reliable!

And TIE YOUR SHOES TIGHT... I lost a shoe in freefall once. Never again! Sometime this fall, some farmer will discover it stuck in their combine, or a cow tries to munch on it. It's fortunately sparsely populated surrounding the dropzone. I was embarassed, to say, the least. Everyone seeing me walk back to the hangar with just one shoe.

One of my openings were 180 degrees offheading. Wouldn't want to BASE on this canopy

Did you arm the Cypres the day before during a sunset load? The 14 hour timer goes *poof* and the Cypres turns itself off. So you *may* not have broken a BSR, if you armed the Cypres in the evening on the day prior. That's why if the Cypres is powered up during my first load, I always turn it off and then back on. Just in case. Good habit

I had my first jumpsuitless jumps recently, including a few wearing just shorts and a T-Shirt (only when there were clearly winds, since I sometimes fall to my knees during zero winders ) Always shoes though, I'm not comfortable with sandals or barefeet yet. It is a slight additional risk because you feel more unstable -- especially if your shirt slips out of your pants and gets pulled up by the 120mph wind. Loose flapping clothes have a tendancy to "fly you" around a bit. You CANNOT tuck your shirt in freefall (I tried). Needless to say, I immediately did a pratice pull to make sure I could pull stable, and all went fine with the real pull at the correct altitude. Based on this unexpected inconvenience, I am glad I jumped with a jumpsuit on my test jump with my own rig. Stability did feel very squirrelly with my T-Shirt blown up to chest level and flapping, but I managed. Arch hard, be stable, do one or two pratice pulls early in the jump as a test... And TIGHTEN the belt a couple extra notches!

Don't do that during a Sabre opening, though.