DesertDevil

A demo jump is not a skydive, it is a performance put on at the request of a client for the enjoyment of, in most cases, a paying audience. This audience will be most impressed with color, movement and landing on target standing up. *** I completely agree. A demo jump is a performance.

I think you should clarify your question a bit... It's like asking if there is a difference between a Caddy & a Corolla when getting a free ride home from the airport. A few years back I did a paid demo for somebody. The next year he asked me again to do it. I asked him to pay me the same price he paid me before, and he agreed. The day before the jump, he found someone to do it for free. The jump was into a small football game on a huge field. The jumper actually hit the spectator seats and broke some of his bones. Is there a relationship between the quality/safety of this jump and money? It seems like a lot of jumpers/dzos who organize demos don't want to pay for the demo. I don't do free demos because I spent a lot of money on my demo equipment. If I'm jumping in the middle of downtown, I'm not just going to jump. I practice and carefully scope out the landing area--all of which takes time and money out of my pocket. I do all I can to make it 100% right, but there's someone who will always come up and say they'll do it for free.

Perhaps AFF students with prior tunnel time isn't a common occurance? It will be my first time teaching an AFF student with lots of tunnel time next week.

I forgot to mention that there were a bunch of skydivers from Skydive Chicago here, like Whitney and Kenny. They were at the tunnel for a couple of hours last night. I think they're from your dz.

Here are some from last weekend

I love it! You can see the blue sky and the clouds

Right now, tunnel time is 10$ minute. Last month I got $500/hour. They seem to always have deals. It usually takes me about 40 minutes to get from the SLC airport to Park City. If you're a good skier, check out the Canyons to do some speedflying. Have fun in Utah!

How many people do demos without getting paid? Does money make a difference in the quality and safety of a demo jump?

If you know your AFF student has a lot of tunnel time and flies well in the tunnel, do you teach the AFF student differently than if the student didn't have tunnel time? Of course, all students need to take the ground school.

Cables are scary. On the practice jump before the actual demo, the cables were down. On the day of the actual demo, the cables were back up. Fortunately, the person who put the demo together was careful enough to call before the demo day to double check on the cables, so we were ready for them. It was an awesome jump. Over 50,000 people were there.

Scary shit.

He's the only one I know who can fly on his head with only 30 mins of tunnel time

Yes! It's my favorite guy at the dz

The people in this pictue did an awesome job on their first AFF. These pictures were their graduate jump. My advice is to talk to your instructor to get more ground school. If you feel like he or she isn't helping enough, you can always ask for another instructor. You may get inconsistent/false information on dz.com.

I put this group together a while ago. Most of them are now expereinced speed flyers. You might want to start from a small hill. Take your pilot chute off. If there's just a little wind, try using a big parachute, like a 170 or up. A small parachute will not work like a paraglider or a speed wing when there's not enough wind. If you have more questions, you can check out the paragliding forum. They'll probably have a lot of info on this.

some more...

Here are some pictures!

Hi Everyone, I haven't seen that many tunnel pics or videos? Post your best pics/videos if you have 'em. It's fun to watch and learn from them. Thanks. Faris

Welcome to the skydiving world! My first skydive was July 21, 1987. I like teaching both AFF and tandems. When the time comes, you'll know what you want. Typically tandem instructors make at least 200 tandems a month and AFFIs make around 30-50 AFF jumps, depending on the dz. Both are really fun and both have their scary moments.

In '03, I paid $100 for the packet. I can't believe it's still that cheap. You get so much great information for that price--it's definitely worth it.

Wow! Brendan, awesome work! Really impressive. I love the part when Elizabeth picks the blackberry. Ed put it on Facebook before you did so I suggested you guys be friends. If you're going to Mesquite, there's a movie contest. Make sure you submit it. If you're not going, I can submit it for you to win you a prize. Keep up the good work, and thanks for sharing!

From March to November, we're really busy. Sometimes we're a little slow, but I always make up for it by doing paraglide tandems or paraglide instruction.