Quake120

Only having one tandem makes me a "whuffo" now? How many jumps do I have to have to lose this "whuffo" status? I think if you jump once and retain an interest in the sport (which I have, I just haven't gotten to my second tandem/AFF yet), that should be enough.

Touche! ... I guess they would have deserved an extra special Darwin :)

Watch the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS9O8xK07do http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=3129&string=low%20freefly Your opinions? I think they would have deserved a Darwin Award had they been killed.

What is the song in this skydiving video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJOWZk9FeRM That is my home DZ by the way! ... if I can call it that. Only have one tandem :( Edited by slotperfect to make the link clicky.

Hey, while you are working on a canopy simulator, maybe you could add a multiplayer freefall sim too. All of the members of dropzone.com could do a massive like 12,000 way or something. Keep the canopy sim in there, but also simulate parachute malfunctions and such on opening. Make them as real as possible. Keep up the good work!

Well, this year I'm going to finish AFF (I only have one tandem, almost a year ago... financial issues :( ...I can't wait to jump again!) The only part I am really nervous about in AFF is the first landing. A few people have said that you can REALLY mess up your landing due to wrong flare altitude because of the ground rush, wrong amount of flare, bad PLF, etc. Any advice? Should I try to slide in on my ass or try to stand it up the first time? Any suggestions for freefall on all of the AFF levels? I'm also a little bit nervous about the first time I'm alone in freefall.

I was worried about that too. I've had two way radios before that picked up so many different people (mostly little kids playing with them) when I was on the ground. I can imagine being in the air with no obstructions between you and the source of a signal, it could get pretty noisy. Might have to buy some that have a lot of different frequency choices.

After reading the 'freefall communication' thread, I wondered if throat mics would work well enough for freefall communication. Anybody ever try this?

I think unless you can prove that somebody maliciously and intentionally cut your lines or intentionally just shoved your main and reserve into the container with the intention to kill you, you are pretty much out of luck when it comes to suing anybody for anythin when it comes to skydiving. It is your responsibility to also check your gear for any obvious problems. Even if you could absolutely prove that it was negligence on somebody's part, YOU are the one that threw yourself out of the airplane. That was YOUR choice. Nobody forced you to. Yes, it would suck if you got injured or killed, but... that is part of this sport. Jumping out of airplanes is not safe. If you are walking across the street and somebody who is not paying attention (talking on their cell phone is a likely reason...) slams into you going 40 mph and breaks your legs, you COULD sue them for negligence and have a pretty good chance of winning. It WAS your choice to walk across the street in this case, which carries certain risks too, BUT in this case, you didn't sign a waiver beforehand releasing any drivers from liability. If I am injured skydiving, I'll just have to suck it up and deal with it. Injury and death are very real risks in this sport... Remember, you and everybody else can do everything right and you can still die.

I know Jack Guthrie. He is the DZO of Skydive Utah. My brother just finished his AFF FJC and AFF Level 1 jump, having Jack on the reserve side. Lance, another instructor was on his main side. The AFF 1 went perfectly. Jack is an excellent skydiver (with close to 11,000 jumps), and a great DZO. He will be my instructor on AFF.

Thanks for the advice everybody. There were a lot of good points made here that I'm sure will help me after I finish AFF. Thanks for that advice for sure. I'll practice all of the turns, even if only for emergrency situations. I'm sure I'll almost always be the last one down since I'll just hang around in the air under canopy enjoying the scenery and the cool air.

That's one of the cool things about this sport. To a certain point, you can choose how much risk you're willing to take. That is very true. I definitely have accepted the fact that I could die/be seriously injured skydiving, but I don't think I'm going to do anything that would make that more possible than it already is. Like I said before... I like hanging around in the sky, probably because I'm a huge fan of heights and scenery, and quick turns seem to diminish altitude quickly. Very good point about emergency turns low, and the "I didn't know I was that low" turns.

After looking at the incident forum and various fatality reports, I'm beginning to notice a lot of people are killed because they try high-performance turns too low to the ground and run into something or lose control. It seems like the number of skydiving deaths per year would decrease by 5 or 10 if these turns did not happen. Are these high performance turns that much fun that it is worth the risk? ...Just my personal thought on this, but when I get to the point where I'm alone under canopy, I don't think I'll be trying any high performance turns for the safety reason, plus I just like hanging out in the air admiring the scenery. No rush to get to the ground. Skydiving is expensive and I want to get my moneys worth on each ride.

Ugh... Any songs other than -Freefalling by Tom Petty (THE most cliched skydiving song EVER) -Danger Zone (not sure who this one is by...another cliche skydiving song) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Parallel Universe usually reminds me of skydiving. There is a freefly video on Google with that song in it. I find most RHCP songs go well with skydiving. My friend got a video of his tandem and they used Never Gonna Stop by White Zombie. Not bad.

Well, I did my first tandem over a month ago, and sadly, I barely remember any of it, other than the fact that it was amazing. I had some stuff come up so I haven't had the money to go again. My brother is on his 4th jump doing AFF, so I was hanging out at the dropzone when he was jumping (I wasn't jumping) and was talking to a few of the experienced guys there and I've got a few questions now... What altitude do you typically pull at? (Not talking in general here, but your personal pull altitude) How many reserve rides have you had? When was the first? Was it exceptionally frightening? I would like to get certified. Would you suggest I save up the ~$1300 for certification and go all at once, or save up enough for each jump? If I did have the $1300, would it be possible to get certified in a weekend? Is anybody from Utah? Is your home dropzone Skydive Utah?

Yes it is. The weight of the object falling is the force that is balanced with drag when terminal velocity is reached. Gravity is not a force, it is an acceleration. When the acceleration of gravity is multiplied by the mass of an object, you then have the weight of the object due to gravity. Gravity IS a force, actually. It isin't an "acceleration", that makes no sense... The question presented in this thread was answered, though. Just took another point of view to make me understand it.

Not really a question, but I overheard some co-workers talking about skydiving, and one of them said "You don't even feel like you are falling for the 5 to 6 minutes you have in freefall." ... He must be jumping from like 70,000 feet! Maybe if he had said "For the 5 to 6 minutes of the skydive.", then I'd assume he was also referring to the canopy ride, but he said freefall... I think it is so funny that people ask if you ever had to use your parachute, or when you say "cutaway", they think you have a pair of scissors or a knife that you use to cut it away, haha...

I think you should probably be a science teacher of some kind... I was trying to find an argument(not that this was an argument, but rather a question about terminal velocity, etc) for the bowling ball thing, but I can't. After reading a bit online, I think you have answered my question! But...the only reason the weight affects something on earth is due to air. If you have a tandem pair, you have twice the weight, same quantity of air. On the moon you could drop a feather, and a 150,000 pound ball and they'd both hit at exactly the same time. Gravity affects everything equally.

So after my first skydive last week (I have to go again!), I got to thinking about the "drogue" used in tandem. They say it is to slow you and your tandem master down, but that doesn't make any sense to me. Let me explain... (I'm sure you all know the following physics stuff, but I'm just putting it here so you know I at least have an idea of how terminal velocity works, etc) Terminal velocity is caused when the force of the air on a falling object is balanced with the force of gravity, causing something to fall at a constant rate and no longer accelerate. Weight is not a factor in this. If not for wind resistance, a feather and a bowling ball will hit the ground at exactly the same time. The more wind resistance an item has, the slower the terminal velocity. Using the above information I would think that in tandem-freefall, your terminal velocity would be SLOWER than a single person. You've got twice the amount of legs, arms, a head, a much larger parachute, etc that can cause wind resistance. So...is the drogue used for stability, or is there some other reason why you'd fall faster that I am missing?

Just got back from my first jump about 2 hours ago... Wow...just ... wow! I LOVED it. I wasn't nervous when I got there, and I wasn't nervous in the plane. I was nervous when the plane flew overhead and I saw how high it was. I was like "oh...my...god...that is HIGH" After that, it was about two hours before they called our group to get suited up. I was assigned my tandem master, Lance, and went through the short ground school. It was another 10 minutes till the plane was refueled and it was our turn to board the plane. Prior to today, I thought I was going to be TERRIFIED when I got on the plane, but I was relaxed, and was STOKED to jump! Once we rode to altitude (a pretty quick 12 minutes), the door was opened, and the single jumpers jumped out. There were two tandems before me, which were my friend and my g/f. It was AMAZING how fast it was to the door. My adrenaline was flowing HARD and I was ready to go! Jumped out of the plane and into freefall, which lasted the shortest 60 seconds of my life. The canopy ride down was awesome, great scenery here in Utah! I landed fine, took my equipment off and had the greatest sense of accomplishment and euphoria EVER. I LOVED it and will be going again and again!

I hear a lot about wing-loading which I discovered to be the ratio of your weight to the square footage of the parachute, correct? I also see that people dive with high wing loadings like 2:1, 3:1, 5:1 and even one 6:1. Is there any disadvantage of using a parachute that is 1:1 either safety or fun? I weigh 135 and am 5'5", would the sq. footage of my parachute be 135 or is there some multiplier I didn't notice involved?

"I am told it is an experience like no other and the skydivers are some of the nicest people in the world. " I haven't even skydived yet and I already know that skydivers are some of the nicest people in the world. I have never been to a forum on the internet with this almost complete lack of flamewars. It's nice! The people at the drop zone when I called to schedule my jump were SUPER nice and immediately were enthusiastic about my jump I'm sorry to hear that you can't jump. At least you have your good friends to share the experience with you as much as they can!

A "spare" plane, huh? That'd be nice :) I know Skydive Utah uses a King Air. Come watch me jump for the first time tomorrow!

N/A

Well, I've been waiting since October or so to skydive and have been unable to since it has been cold. Now that it is springtime, I set a date and a time! Tomorrow, May 6th, at 2:00 PM! This will be my first jump! My brother and my dad did it last weekend and were immediately addicted, as is everybody that does it... Anyways, I've got a few questions, not so much about the tandem tomorrow, but just general skydiving questions... Where is it legal to dive? Can I jump over a park, school field, etc? This is assuming I'm certified and have something to jump out of. Have you had any reserve rides? Were they horribly frightening or was it just like "Oh shit, my main chute didn't work!" and pull your reserve easily? I know this is thrown around a LOT everywhere, and statistics are always thrown around to make it seem one way or the other but in YOUR PERSONAL OPINION how safe do you think this sport is? I've heard everything from it's safer than driving to horribly dangerous. I know jumping out of a plane cannot possibly be THAT safe. I am going into the sport with this attitude, so I hope it will prevent any injury or death from thinking it is super safe. Maybe some of you experienced skydivers can give me some insight here. I'll let you all know how my dive goes tomorrow!