Andy9o8

I recognize that, Mykel; I'm just saying there are genuinely two sides to this issue, and it's reasonable to discuss both sides.

I’ve been watching this interesting thread, but haven’t posted (til now) because I’m not an instructor & so I can’t put myself in the shoes of those of you who are. I understand and respect those who say that they will stick to a certain hard deck if the student freezes, and trust the student’s AAD. I also understand instructors who feel that nobody forced them to become an AFFI, and if a student's in deep trouble they have a responsibility to try to get to him as long, and as low, as humanly possible. I guess my attitude is this: If I were the student, I wouldn't want the instructor to endanger himself on my account by going way low. If one of my kids were the student, and got into trouble, I’d hope the instructor would take it down to Cypres fire if need be. Flame away if you feel the need.

I have a very similar one, except mine says "United Federation of Planets"

I'm just glad the jumper in trouble wasn't the very last guy out of the plane. Brrrrrr.

Learning visual altitude awareness is an important survival skill. (For those of us who learned on the S/L progression method, it may have come a little more naturally because we started low and gradually worked our way up higher, so we got used to seeing lots of different altitudes on jump run). You're right that altimeters can (and sometimes do) malfunction. Once you've finished AFF (if you're not off it already) it would be a good idea make a jump not doing any manuevers, but just spending the entire freefall alternating your eyes between your altimeter and the ground to start getting this dialed in.

It's very normal to want to talk about skydiving all the time, but you WILL bore the shit out of your whuffo friends if you do, so you have to learn to keep it in check when you're with them. You'll also find that YOU will benefit by not discussing skydiving around whuffos, because that will reduce the same, old, f%@#ng whuffo questions you'll be getting over & over & over again. Believe me, it won't be long before you get sick of hearing those, and giving the same answers, and basically having to have the same conversation over & over again, just with a new person each time. Because of that, I almost never mention to whuffo acquaintances that I skydive. Trust me, most of the time whuffos ask you to explain the sport, what they're really doing is asking you to explain yourself ("Whuffo you do that?"). After a while, it gets pretty old.

Is that type of mal covered in the SIM? Yes. SIM 23.22.87(a)(3)(ii) states: Interference from birds. Certain species of birds, especially raptors, can mistake the throw-out pilot chute for rodents or other prey. Some hackeys do look like gerbils. If a bird captures your pilot chute, creating a bird-pilot chute in tow, assume the track position to intimidate the bird into thinking you are the superior avian. He should drop the pilot chute. If that fails, treat this situation as a high-speed malfunction. Note: never use a hook knife on a bird if you suspect it is an endangered species.

Mapquest will give you a map-location of any city or town you plug in. You don't need an address.

As well you should have been. And that's my point. Like you're really gonna yell up to the pilot to abort the takeoff, right? (Maybe another skygod could get away with that, but not the mere mortals). I suppose you could blow the guy in to the S&TA, but again - unless you're a skygod yourself or are very friendly with a lot of the DZ skygods - it's really not that easy a decision.

Face it - your brother is cursed. Buy him a set of golf clubs.

You've obviously never been forced to go along to a Barry Manilow concert.

Tell them to kiss you ass and get off the plane. It's your life they are screwing with. Sparky In a perfect world he could do this. Unfortunately, in reality, it is often very hard for relative newbies (and especially novices) to speak up about safety issues without risk of getting ostracized. Sucks, doesn't it?

If no other canopies are in the pattern at the same time, sashaying (S-turns) to bleed off altitude might be ok. But if other people are also in the pattern, doing it risks, at dangerously low altitude, either colliding with other canopies or making other jumpers feel the need to make unexpected evasive maneuvers. At the very least, you may piss off other jumpers and/or the S&TA and get yourself a sharp talking-to.

I know that buying discounted season-long ticket blocks is pretty common at very many DZs. But it’s still a bit risky, even if it’s a well-established DZ and you know and trust the DZO to be honest and ethical. Face it, owning a DZ is a tough way to make a living, and just like any other small business, DZ’s sometimes go out of business, or need to file for bankruptcy, etc. If a DZ files for bankruptcy, holders of pre-paid ticket blocks will probably be well down the food chain in priority to get paid maybe pennies on the dollar, if even that. I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy blocks of tickets, I’m just saying be careful.

You really want to do 2 things: (1) Get some recourse for yourself, and (2) prevent him from doing this to others. For numerous reasons (which I won’t get into here), getting your money back may prove to be very difficult, so you may have to satisfy yourself with revenge rather than reimbursement. But if what you describe is accurate, he’s more than just a cheat, he’s a criminal, and should be treated as one. (He isn’t stealing other DZs' websites, is he?.....never mind...wrong criminals...). You (and the people cheated in Austria, etc.) are the victims of crimes. This should be reported to law enforcement authorities in Spain and Austria, etc. Let’s see how easily he moves around Europe once an Interpol arrest warrant is issued for him.

Agree completely. One good way the sport has changed in the past 30 years is that once you’re off student status, you don’t have to just hook up with your fellow 40 jump wonders to teach each other bad habits in the sky until you cross that magic 100 jump number, when the skygods would stop treating you like you have b.o. and be willing to teach you some serious RW. It was always great when an up-timer would jump with you and teach you great stuff just for the fun of doing so. Now, there’s a lot more willingness by up-timers to help low-timers with the learning curve early on. But I like to do it to pay it forward to novices, and it bugs me when I see it done by people just looking to avoid paying for what are essentially their fun jumps.

What did your instructor say when you debriefed the jump? Exactly. If you’ve already gotten an answer to this from your instructor, go with that answer. If you haven’t asked him that particular question yet, go back and ask him. He’s in the best position to give you the proper answer.

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed." "OH NO!" the president exclaims. "That's terrible!" His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the president sits, head in hands. Finally, president looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"

Same issue still arises. In most U.S. states, a waiver signed by anyone under 18 is not valid, nor can a parent or guardian waive a juvenile's right to sue. This is the case regardless of whether it's a tandem, static line, AFF, whatever.

Like others, if it’s a truly serious inquiry, I try to clear up the whuffo misconception that the main cause of fatality is equipment failure; I explain that sport parachutes, while not foolproof, are designed to be extremely reliable, and that the main cause of most fatalities is human error. Just this past week, my own (whuffo) sister-in-law, who’s known me for 25+ years, said, “Well, the biggest danger is you never know who’s packed your parachute”, to which my first response was, “Where on Earth did you get that idea?” Then I proceeded to patiently educate her a bit. But I’ve also developed a sniffer for the “questions” that are really just unsolicited, thinly-veiled value statements about my life’s choices, and in those cases I often try to just deflect the discussion, because frankly, after years of answering the same damn questions over & over again (“Hey, whadda ya do if yer big chute don’t open & then yer safety chute don’t open either?”), I get a little weary of it. I know, I should try to be a good ambassador for the sport, but to be honest, sometimes I just don’t have the patience for it. In those cases, a brief, dismissive answer like Spizzzarko’s “It happens” might be all they get. Put another way: if they want me to explain the sport, I'll give it a whirl. If what they really want is for me to explain myself, forget it.

Are you calling me little?

Just start off slowly, with 2 and 3-ways, and build up as you gain control and comfort. If you wish, do a few solo tracking dives just to get used to it. But for practice/training, it does help to have at least 1 other person for that point of reference.

This is exactly the kind of question you should ask your instructor. This can be a great forum, but online is no place for a new student to get life-saving training advice.

Tracking, and doing it consistently well, is an absolutely crucial skill to master ASAP if you're going to be jumping with other people; your and everyone else's life depends on it. For this reason, I think tracking jumps should be an integral part of every novice's training. Plus, they're a hell of a lot of fun, aren't they?

In addition to what everyone else has said here, remember that in the northern U.S. and Canada an awful lot of jumpers lay off for 4 to 6 months every winter, then get re-current every Spring. You'll be fine. Be safe and thanks for your service!