MarkM

There's a lot of experienced wing suit guys that jump smaller and more highly loaded canopies than what you are. But a big problem is that when you're just starting out flying a wingsuit, you may end up having to relearn your body position on deployment. That can put you into spins and cause chops with a small elliptical. So it's not recommended to combine the two at first.

To me there's no doubt you'd be safer in your own non-AAD rig vs a rented AAD one. Your own gear will probably be better maintained. You'll be more comfortable in it. And since you always use the same gear all the time, you'll get used to any quirks it may have and just have a better feel for it.

Contact Aerodyne. They're handling PISA's sport canopies these days.

It's only extreme if you used a straight razor.

Below average. I've never been ace at landings. I've done too many solos on wingsuits so my flocking skills are lower than what people would expect and I never learned to back fly. I pack like crap. Because I haven't done RW or FF in years I totally blow at both. And since my WL hasn't ever gone much above 1.2, I can't swoop. But I manage to only kick someone in the face every 200 jumps or so, so the other kids still let me play with them

Owned 3 neptunes over 4 years and had them fail maybe 5-6 times. Usually when they've failed on me they've locked up on me, frozen the displays. Had that happen once in freefall too and it stuck on 10k. But without a doubt I prefer them to my analog altimeter. They're more accurate, log my jumps and I don't have to zero them out, ever. They just work... so long as I keep fresh batteries in them

It's okay, as long as the tandem masters and DZ instructors have already had their shot with them.

I don't think swooping a canopy is at all complicated, just stay well outside of the turn radius of the canopy and you're not going to collide with them. Wingsuits have very precise control and getting within a 100 feet isn't a big deal if you build up some experience flying close to slow objects. Except, when you deploy your canopy you have less control than a normal skydiver. Don't deploy next to anyone you're going to swoop. This is pretty much the main reason I bail on swooping a tandem or anyone else at my home DZ. If I can't setup to exit their airspace and deploy at a safe distance above my deployment altitude, I don't take the swoop. Also 95% of people who don't fly a wingsuit have very little knowledge of how wingsuits perform. Many people will freak out if you get within 100 yards of them and if it's a tandem or student, you'll probably hurt the wingsuit scene at the DZ. Make sure people are cool with it and build up some trust at the DZ you're at. The people under canopy have no control, you have all the control, so they really need to trust you.

In 2004 just did AFF, jumped a lot solo, filled out my card and when I needed coach jumps I just covered their slot. Didn't cost me all that much and I never even had to pay for a packing class. A packer just taught me, because someone taught them for free when they were starting. 600 jumps later I still haven't stopped jumping, but I am sorry to see newbies getting hit up for $$$ on training I got for free when I was just off AFF. If it's 3k to get a license and 5k for gear, it's no wonder more people aren't getting into the sport.

One thing you also need to understand is that different DZs have different vibes and flows. ZHills is a busy dropzone with people coming from all over, doing some jumps, then leaving. It's really hard for any local to see someone new and wonder if they need their hand held a little bit. At a smaller more family DZ you're much more likely to stand out. People are going to see you're new, ask about you, watch out for you, etc. ZHills is an awesome DZ with top instructors and a good owner. It just sounds like your personality would've been better matched at one of those slower, not as good facility type of dropzones, where everyone knows you by name after the first day of being there. Don't be hard on yourself or the DZ. Just get your A and look forward to checking out all the other awesome DZs in Florida. Maybe you'll find one with a vibe that just suits you better at the early stage in your progression.

Hmm, Florida rates: Skydive Sebastian: $1180 Skydive Palatka: $1075 Skydive City(ZHills): $1200 Figure you may fail a level or two which can add to that cost, but you can also just do some some tunnel time with your instructor to head that off. But you can easily get through AFF for less than $1500 and should be able to get your A without too much more cost at a DZ that doesn't see students as a money train.

Spend even more time than a weekend at each. Jump sometimes at one, then sometimes at the other. You'll make good friends at both and after a bit you'll just know which one feels more like home to you and wind up spending most of your time there.

Yeah. His book and papers focus more on the human fear response and how to "trick" your way out of it using mental and physical responses to it. But I'm sure he has done a decent amount of background research into the purely physical responses your body goes through while jumping.

You shouldn't have to "get" excited about, it should be just something that excites and interests you. It almost sounds like you're trying to convince yourself you'd like to do it. Maybe because it interests your wife so you want it to interest you. Skydiving isn't something that most people really want to do over and over. It's okay if you don't want to do it. Just go out, do another tandem, and if you don't really enjoy it don't get into the sport. There are a lot of other things you can get into that you may enjoy and appreciate more.

They're not telling you to go because of adrenaline, it's because they have a student and don't want their spot hosed by you spending more time than you need in the door. You should talk to them, find out how much time you should be counting before you exit do that.

If something goes wrong you have to live with the consequences, so you shouldn't always act based on how other people act. If the clouds look iffy while you're on the ground and you don't want to ride the plane down because of them and lose your jump ticket, don't go up in the first place. If you can't see where the DZ is on the spot and you're not willing to risk landing out, then don't jump out. You know what the area is like around the DZ. You also know your own canopy landing skill. Maybe that 2000 jump instructor just isn't concerned with landing 2 miles out in a small field and hitching a ride back. At 12 jumps you should be. You're off AFF now. Ideally these jumpers should be looking out for you and should've pointed stuff out for you on this load or told you to stay behind. But you also need to start seeking answers of your own for stuff like this. Ask around, keep learning, keep thinking about "what ifs" and know that you need to become your own safety net that says "Maybe this isn't a good idea".

If you're dumping at an altitude where the ST&A is mentioning it to you, you're probably dumping too low. You shouldn't need to pull out your protrack and argue what altitude you pulled at. You should have a good reason for why you pulled at that altitude that jump. I normally dump at 3k, my last jump Saturday had my Neptune showing deployment at 1600. It was noticed and briefly commented on, I had a good explanation why and people know it's not a habit. It was an "eh, shit happens" thing. Rules shouldn't be so maniacally enforced that personal judgement of a specific situation isn't taken into consideration. And at good DZs they aren't.

Recommended would be whatever you're able to fly into a small back yard dodging power lines and a viscous dog. A general easy to remember minimum size is something like your jump numbers / 1000 + 1. So 1.1 at 100 jumps, 1.2 at 200 jumps, etc. But that even varies. Sub 150 canopies are twitchy so you have to be careful with them. If you get into stuff like wingsuit jumping you'll want to downsize more slowly. And if you just flat out suck at landing or don't jump a lot, you'll want a bigger canopy. Just downsize slowly and for specific reasons, not just because "I have x jumps now, I need a smaller canopy". Small canopies are fun, limping around on the ground not being able to jump isn't

100% agree. The everglades boogie in Clewiston had balloons, a fighter jet ride, a huey and it was local to Florida. Personally if I was going to travel for a boogie I'd rather go to Elisnore, Perris or Puerto Rico than to some corn field in Illinois. There are a lot of really good boogies going on all over the place at DZs that have solid reputations and better views.

I lost 12 pounds on the stress and lack of appetite diet But I've been rowing 20-30 mins a day for 2 weeks straight and am getting my strength back. Making it a habit is definitely the way to go about it.

Was there that weekend too, but I don't know you from your dz.com nick handle. Anytime you do something new in skydiving you're going to be nervous. I was having a bad week a couple months back and the people I was flocking with put me on the camera step. I hadn't done that in a wingsuit before and it's tricky, so I was anxious and nervous. Normally that goes away right when you go through with it and things come out okay, but since I was already having a bad week I stayed anxious all day from it. Just expect to be anxious whenever you try something new. A night jump, new plane, new place, new exit, new canopy, whatever. It's perfectly normal.

Own a PHI and a Mach1. PHI is crap, but the Mach1 is a great suit. Great range, rock solid stable, doesn't tire me out and it looks great. There's a lot of good suits out there now.

Move to Florida so you can jump year round

I've heard that Palatka has some regular wingsuit jumpers. I know Art the owner has a wingsuit and used to jump it at the boogies. Worse case, Palatka isn't far from ZHills which always has wingsuit action going on.

The way the exits and deployments are. Normal skydivers go out before tandems and deploy at 3-5, students and tandems are next and deploying at 5-6 and have a pretty slow decent under canopy. Wingsuits go out last, stay up longer and deploy @ 3-5k and often have a moderate to high canopy decent. That means normal skydivers are landing before students and tandems while wingsuiters are often landing at the same time, often deploying above or on level with them and descending faster down to go past them.