MarkM
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Everything posted by MarkM
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Whenever I ride my motorcycle.
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Saying just to RTFM doesn't educate people anyway. If most skydivers are starting up their AADs improperly, then there needs to be public awareness opened up on the issue: "Hey, spend the 10 seconds watching your AAD turn on. If it turns itself off after the check, don't jump the rig. If you borrow a rig with an AAD not turned on, make sure you can turn it on and off." I was part of the don't watch it count down crowd. I check to make sure it zero's out, but tend to do other checks while it counts down. I'll change that behavior after reading about these incidents.
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Really not enough info in the Oz incident to help general jumpers. Did it fail a self test, did it appear to be switched off? Etc etc.
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I'll be there, Jeff will be there. It's a safe bet we'll see quite a few ZHills birds at it. I'd imagine purple Mike will be there too.
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KA's scare the shit out of me. High exit speed, low rear stabilizer...
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Pretty much your best option. No one here knows your training, what you're flying, your capabilities, what the terrain conditions are where you're at, etc etc. So any advice we give you can be off and you don't really know enough to filter the poor or situational advice from the good. But if you walked away, you did something right, and everyone biffs it in now and then, so don't sweat the hard landings.
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The 150 @ 1.2 isn't bad, it's just that being able to demo a 170 ZP would give you a better transition to a 150, especially after an injury and not being current. In the states you could call up PD and have them send you something without much hassle. I've known quite a few people to use their demo program to experiment with downsizing. But in South Africa I don't know how well demo'ing is going to work out, especially now that PISA(they used to make canopies in SA) isn't doing sport canopies down there anymore. Ask some locals. If you're going to be off for awhile you may consider taking some time to sniff around for a good deal on a used 170 ZP. You could buy it, put 50 or whatever jumps on it, then sell it for the price you paid. Also check around your DZ and see if anyone has a 170 ZP you could borrow for a few jumps.
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This was a really good boogie. Looking forward to it next year. But you guys really need to add a packing tent for boogies. The current hanger had 1/3rd set aside for tandems, 1/3rd for packers and the last third just wasn't enough for everyone else. I had people tripping over my lines constantly.
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Good service. Good support. Good canopies. Skydivers are very loyal to brands that are good to them. Gear selection is less about $$ than that good vibe feeling you get when you know you can trust your gear. People trust PD.
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Own a 2002 G3 Mirage, have about 500 jumps on it. Never had a flap come undone on me, has never needed any maintenance work, got it very quickly after ordering and it's real comfortable. I'm sure other brands out there are just as good, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Mirage.
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USPA - Jan Meyer Impeachment??
MarkM replied to Thanatos340's topic in General Skydiving Discussions
I really disagree with this. There's no law requiring USPA membership to skydive and I've known large DZs to not be USPA members. It didn't hurt their business one bit. Frankly any group of people could start a new org, get the insurance set up, focus more on current DZ/skydiving needs and start to flip dropzones away from USPA if they really are doing such a crappy job. -
Chicks rock boogie. Should be a good atmosphere for you, isn't too far away and you'll meet a lot of great people there.
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Did you really know the risks?
MarkM replied to shermanator's topic in General Skydiving Discussions
I spent a solid month reading the skydiving fatalities list before really getting into the sport. From what I read there it seemed to me that while risky, you really had a good amount of control over that risk. -
Get a sympathetic friend with a C182 or learn to fly and rent one yourself. Find a nice remote area where you can mow out a grass runway. Bring in some fuel and enjoy your skydiving.
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I've been kind of wondering about wing size vs skill level as I see more and more new people jumping the larger suits. My Mach feels much more stable and forgiving than my PHI ever did despite the larger wings on it.
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There's two personalities in skydiving. The guys that do it just for shits, sort of a fun playtime where they don't have to deal with the stress of normal life, and then there's the goal driven self performance achievers. Things like record attempts really draws in the achievers. It gives them a specific goal to shoot for and keeps them interested in that part of the sport. I think well organized, disciplined, and yes even exclusionary events like this are what draws those people in and keeps them interested in the sport. It's hardly a bad thing and kudos for Scott, Jeff and everyone else involved in putting stuff like this together for those people. I know it's a lot of work. But whether or not wingsuiting becomes entirely that is very much up to everyone who's in it. It's a young enough discipline that anyone can really shape a part of it. Just put whatever it is together, give it a name, and work your ass off promoting it.
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LOL, classic.
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I think your sig says it all
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If I can manage not to get sick the day before, I'll be here for this one.
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From the Orlando airport area: Titusville - 35-40 mins away, C license requirement to jump. Deland - 40-45 mins away. Sebastian/ZHills are both about 1 hour 15 mins way Don't know about Lake Wales, but probably 40-60 min range. Deland, Sebastian and ZHills are all great DZs.
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Jump numbers are repetition of training which gets you more familiar with your environment and equipment. It's like the difference between spending 100 hours training with a gun vs 50 hours. The guy with 50 hours could very well be a better shot than the guy with 100 hours training, but in general the 100 hour guy will be better equipped to handle himself in a firefight. I don't think it's out of bounds for someone who's insanely current learning wingsuits at 180 jumps or so, but I think putting on a wingsuit at 100 jumps is just plain stupid no matter how skilled the person thinks they are.
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For the departing, worse case you can ride back to Orlando with me Sunday night, crash out on the couch and I can drive you to the airport Monday morning on my way to work.
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Post when you're coming in / leaving and see if anyone local can drive you. There are some birds in Orlando that are going to be going to the F n D.
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Pretty much the same experience as you. One of my neptunes was dead after 3 years of use and so was my roommate's. He went over and they replaced both free of charge.
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I've known people who were completely fine on their tandems, were heads up, pulled the ripcord and what-not then did their level one AFF and completely froze up from the door on out. Mentally I think there's a big leap between being strapped to some guy with 8k jumps and doing it on your own. And really the price of a tandem is the same as repeating a level 1 AFF jump, so you could do your level 1, get overloaded and have to repeat and be no worse off financially than if you did a tandem first. I've known some really good places that do tandem progression, sort of a mix of tandem jumping and AFF, and it's a really great program. But like Skybytch said, many places(even ones with really good AFF instructors) treat tandem jumps like an amusement park ride.