MarkM

An AAD can kill you. I think that's why they should stay optional.

People seem to rage ahead in the sport a lot, pushing to try to get better. It's one of the appeals, there's so many skill levels to climb up to in the sport and when you reach a plateau and look up, there's always another hill to climb. Wind tunnel camps, coaching, courses on this, courses on that, it feeds that drive and it's a fun thing to take part of. Who doesn't like to tackle a personal challenge now and then? But it's easy to get caught up in that and forget about the beauty in the sport. I'm sure you've had moments where something took your breath away. Maybe it was looking out over the lake during a sunset, maybe it was witnessing the power in the moment where 2 AFF instructors track off like human missiles from a deploying student. Maybe it was watching someone do a really cool exit. Just stuff you see and experience that makes you pity anyone who'll never know those things. That's what you should do this weekend if you're stressing. Jump for those moments and not to gain mad skillz or be this perfect wonder jumper.

I would probably do this, except I don't think Pahokee has broadband internet access. I'm such a net whore.

You weren't running a warez site. Bitch at them until they give you a refund of the unused months you paid for. If they won't, ask one of the lawyers that read the forums here to send them a threatening letter. They'll buckle if you put up a big enough stink.

I've never been to Tecumseh but I've met a lot of people from there who visit Florida. If the people I've met are any indication, it's a fantastic dropzone.

There are two SL deployment systems that I've seen. One is direct bag, where the SL is attached to the D bag. The other is pilot chute assist where the SL pulls out he pilot chute which then deploys the canopy.

I'm afraid the planes going up and the "load X in 20 minutes" over the loudspeaker in the background might give me away over the phone when I called in sick.

Just ordered a Cypres 2 today, should get it tomorrow, that will finish off my rig which I should be able to jump for the first time this weekend. I also aquired permission to skip work Friday if the weather is good to get in some canopy control jumps at the dropzone. Told my boss I needed the day off to train on a downsized canopy before jumping my own rig. It's a safety thing ya know

Thanks for the offer. But I just need to stop having fun long enough to get the work done on it.

Definately not. And if anything, this thread has made me think more about that. Jumps 1-18 were SL progression back in 2000 when I lived up north. I did AFF on jumps 19-25 which I finished up early this month. Over the weekend I did 7 jumps, but I just played around solo with learning how to track and fun exits. It was just nice to have a weekend of play. My next time out I'll start getting signed off on my A stuff, but even then my next short term goal is getting off of rental and onto my own canopy, so it's not likely an immediate focus. Right now I'm competing with AFF students for rigs on the weekends and my own container is probably a little better for some of the more aggressive body flying I want to experiment with.

Which is taught in every course I have ever seen. You didn't teach this....They didn't come to you and ask you a question...About HOW to do a PLF. If they did I would hope you would send them to an Instructor. I was going to automatically say no(edit: no I wouldn't show them), but then I thought hard about a situation where I might. Say someone came from someplace else, had their equivilant of an A license but didn't know what a PLF was, then I might do a quick demo of one for them. Maybe this is a flaw in my thinking, but I guess what I'm trying to get across is I have sort of a mental filter between what I think I know and the person I'm talking to. The more experienced the person I'm talking to, the less of what I think I know I'd filter because I'd expect them to have their own filters in place, to already be in the 'I should know this' zone of what we're talking about. An example with the same guy in my prior post with the exit issue that I didn't give advice on. One other jump he was talking about when he went to pull at his deployment altitude he ended up in a spin as he reached for the handle. So he stopped, ended the spin, then deployed, but obviously went below his deployment altitude. So I asked him why didn't he just pull, it was his pull altitude even though he was spinning. I didn't say he should have(because we're at the same experience level, so I have little business telling him what to do), I just asked why he didn't to make him think about it. The priorities are: Pull, Pull at altitude, pull with stability, right? I wouldn't ever say what I said to a AFF student, but my "filter" for that situation was to go ahead and ask that question to him because pulling at altitude decisions are something he should know. Was that a bad way to handle the situation? I'd love to, could definately use any RW experience, but I doubt I'll have my A by March 7th and I think I need that before I can start jumping with non-coaches. When I get my A I'll do some hops around the other DZs down here. I figure visiting DZs up near Orlando would be a cool way to get away from home for the weekend now and then. It was one of the appeals of the sport.

I don't think it's so cut and dry. I'm a 32 jump know-nothing and have given 2 pieces of advice to the other students I talk to: keep your friggen hands in when you PLF and if you're on AFF buy the damn video. The hands in stuff I say because I've not done it too many times and hurt myself and the video I think really pays for itself when you're on AFF. It's only like 30 bucks and it shows you exactly what you're doing wrong on a jump. But on the flip side of that, I was riding with a friend who was just post AFF like me. Got to see him exit(I was after him), it was uncontrolled and he was bitching about it on the ground. Personally, I kind of thought it was just because he was too rigid. He looked tense and sort of fell like a board. But when he asked me about how it looked, I didn't say that, I just said something like "I saw it was unstable, but I didn't really know what I was looking at so I don't know why", because I really don't know enough to be sure why. If I drove up to ZHills to get some coaching from some other guy, saw you at the DZ and asked you why I potato chip after 3 or 4 seconds when I track, I'd hate for you to shut me down with a "better ask your coach that". I'm not looking for the "pefect correct" answer from you, just different answers from different people who have that sort of experience.

Same good experience as the others above. Went when I had 17 jumps and only about 40 seconds freefall experience and learned a crapload in the tunnel. Get a good coach and have them show you new skills and evaluate/critique your current ones.

Well said. If you don't want to risk getting hurt, don't skydive. Seems like most of the people I talk to have gotten some sort of injury from the sport somewhere along the way. Talked to one guy yesterday where his reserve broke some ribs during an unstable faster than normal opening. Could easily happen to anyone of us at any time and in no way would the gear manufacturer be at fault, because you put yourself in that situation in the first place by jumping out of a plane when you didn't have to.

This weekend was my first jumps post AFF graduation and the first jumps where I got to basically JM myself. 2 on Saturday because the AFFs were hogging the rentals and 5 today. Most fun I've ever had. Now I'm waiting on the cops to show up and bust me, because something this fun can't be legal.

On the forums here, I've always enjoyed seeing those types of threads. Because not only do I see the question answered properly, but I see a wrong answer shot down and why it's wrong. Here everyone is looking over everyone else's shoulder. Though I suppose at a regular drozone, that might not always be the case. On exits I've been told the 45 degree thing, been told to count 5 on one run, told to count to 6 on others. When I went out after another post AFF newbie, I was told to count 7 in that case. I figured the 45 degree rule was a "you're a newbie, you don't know what you're looking at, here's a rough rule" sort of thing.

You also need to define what a student jumper is though. Someone on AFF I think should pretty much be hands off. It's a fragile time, frustrating even. You really want to be supportive, but you shouldn't offer advice or do anything that can mess with their heads. Once they're past AFF though but still don't have their A, I don't see the harm in non-instructor advice even though they are still technically students. But I guess I feel that way because I'm in that particular student stage myself and I really like getting input on things from various people.

Hey grats. I finished my AFF a couple weeks ago and just did my first self JM dives today. It's a lot more fun when you don't really have to DO anything, you can just play with the sky, don't you think? Don't forget to buy beer.

Z1. Because I'm getting braces on Monday and I want a helmet that'll protect my mouth from impacts. Though I origionally got it for a tunnel camp.

Yep yep and yep. Also prices. Here's a nice example of a really good site, even though it's not a skydiving one: http://www.thefloridaridge.com/ In fact The Florida Ridge also has an email newsletter. For example, I recently got one telling me the weather will be great for hang gliding this weekend: "It doesn’t get any better. 5-10mph from the South. Suitable for all pilots, students, and Sky Rides. And soarable? You better believe it" If the weather's going to be good on a weekend they do a good job of telling me about it beforehand. They also send out notices about upcoming events and cool things that recently happened(like someone beating a local soaring record), gear being sold, and so on. I wish SOBE would do that. Maybe I'll forward them an example.

In the SE part of Florida, I'd say March and April are my favorite months. It's still the dry season so there's not a lot of rain, but the temps are warming up a little from the winter. You get a lot of days in that "perfect" 77-80 degree range.

Yep. Had a guy at work that likes the talk big, so I offered to take him out and do a tandem. He didn't want to be strapped to a guy so I said, "hey no problem, you can do AFF". He came back he wanted to go out solo, didn't want 2 guys holding onto him so I kicked back, "Hey no problem, we can do SL." Then it was about the money

Currently on a rented Triathlon 220 at around a .75 WL. Figure after some solid landings under that I'll switch to the Tri 190 that my DZ also has, which will put me under a .85 WL. Once I get good enough with that and my instructor says it's okay, I already own a Tri 160 that fits my own rig which I'll be loading at 1.0. That should last me for quite some time. A long ways down the road I can one day downsize my rig to a 135, which I'd be loading at 1.2. I have no real plans past that.

Wasn't SOBE started by the same guy that ran Tecumseh? I think I remember seeing Tecumseh stickers on our Otter and during the boogie a few weeks back we had a lot of people from Michigan down. They were a cool bunch.

So does that mean because my rig is tied dyed, I'm a metrodiver?