christopherm

Actually, I agree with you completely. I don't think I conveyed this very well with my original post. Your situation doesn't bother me at all and I appreciate the extra work when I get a chance. However, its the people that don't pack there own chute because the just don't know how that upsets me. I hope my position is a little clearer now. -So how hard is the ground?!

Ok, I'm sending this out to all you rich ass skydivers who don't know how to pack your own chute. I'm a poor packer who has been broke for the past 4 months trying to get my A license. I work my ass off to jump. Even though I have my A, jumps don't get cheap till you got your own gear. Here's what pisses me off. Someone comes to the DZ, just off student status, and has at least 5g in new gear. Then comes and asks me to pack it while I'm slaving away at student gear. It would be different if he wanted me to pack because he just wants to socialize, or he is being nice enough to offer me the extry money. But ohhh nooo, he wants me to pack because he don't know how. Hell, if ya gonna have your own gear, KNOW HOW TO PACK IT. Just my opinion though, what do y'all think? -So how hard is the ground?!

I've had two. One was a spinning malfunction on my eigth jump, however, I must admit this was do to poor body position. My second was on my last jump, 22. I was on final and not paying attention to others in my area, someone cut me off and I over reacted by pulling my right toggle all the way down. I dropped 15-20 ft. on my ass. I'm lucky there was no spinal damage, just back muscles. Silly me, I was trying to slide in. I figure I might as well get all the bad stuff out of the way before I get good. -So, how hard is the ground?!

I have to say that I agree with you Jimbo. Though legitimate arguments can be made for both sides, I think it is simply a matter of people not knowing what goes on during an emergency situation and what people will do during an emergency situation. I can completely understand why people might think they would be usefull. First of all, the obvious, the World Trade Center. People were trapped above where the plane crashed and those people never had a chance to get down. If they had parachutes, they may have been able to jump and could have landed safely somewhere below. However, this situation is about the only one that you can give for having these parachutes. Why we can't have these parachutes far out weigh the pros. First of all, the incident in New York is the first time something like that has happened in history of skyscrapers in America. So what will happen is that you pay an enormous amount of money to outfit these buildings with parachutes. Then when you have a kitchen fire on the 60th floor, everyone above slappes on a parachute and jumps instead of going down the fire escape. A tough job of putting out a small fire, 60 floors up, has just become tougher from all the injuries people have aquired from trying to land a parachute among 300 other people, on their side of the building, and skyscrapers all around. I can go on, but I would like people to challenge my opinion so far, so that maybe I can learn something new.

I need some serious opinions here. I'm trying to make a decision on a new container. My first container. If everyone could give me some tips, that would be awesome. Is it a bad thing to buy a container without a main and reserve or is that ok? Are there containers that are definately a bad choice? How about a Reflex? Oh well, just looking for yalls opinions.

I need some serious opinions here. I'm trying to make a decision on a new container. My first container. If everyone could give me some tips, that would be awesome. Is it a bad thing to buy a container without a main and reserve or is that ok? Are there containers that are definately a bad choice? How about a Reflex? Oh well, just looking for yalls opinions.

This is a story of my first cutaway. I started skydiving on July 14th with my friend Scott. He and I both had always wanted to do it and now that we were both 18, why not? We started off doing the intro AFF jump and then switched over to static line progression for the sake of money. It is now August 25th and I am doing my 8th jump. I am one jump ahead of Scott but he is one level ahead of me. My last jump was my first actual hop-n-pop and I exited unstable. I have to do that level over again. Scott is doing his first 10-second delay. As the plane goes on call and we start getting ready, my nerves really hit me. I have been thinking about my dive going perfectly all night last night and this morning. I do the same as we wiggle into the jumpsuits and get our rigs on. To make my nerves even worse, our jumpmaster this time is the DZ owner, Jim Cowan. “Gee, I better do this right,” I tell myself. We board the cozy little Cessna and take off. The whole way up, I have my eyes closed, visualizing my jump going perfect. Then all of a sudden, “DOOR!” yells Jim, and it is time to go. I put my feet out on the step and look back at Jim. He then tells me to go all the way out. There I am, hanging from the strut of a Cessna and trying to arch before I let go. I look in towards Jim and he gives me the thumbs up. I look up at the red dot on the wing and let go. As soon as I let go I de arch. I’m thinking about how badly I suck as I pull my ripcord. I am tumbling as my parachute opens and at some point in that process, I stick my right arm right through the lines. I knew something was wrong judging by the amount of pain in my armpit and the position of my body in the harness. I look up at the canopy and see the whole right side is pulled down and I immediately start going into a hard right spin. Now I’m thinking a few different things: 1. Am I really having my first malfunction? 2. I can’t believe I was just talking about this last night! 3. Haha, I had mine before Scott. 4. Oh shit, I’m having a malfunction! I didn’t even know where to begin to start getting the lines untangled with my arm. I tried to pull on the lines but they were pulled tight from the spinning. I messed with it for about 20 seconds before I realized I hadn’t been paying attention to my altimeter. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway because I didn’t remember the altitude that I had to pull my reserve by. So I puckered up, looked at my cutaway handle, grabbed it, looked at my reserve cord, and then cutaway. My reserve had started opening before I even pulled the reserve handle because of the RSL. I was soon looking at the most beautiful white parachute I had ever seen. I was lucky that the main slipped off my arm so easily or the RSL would have meant certain death or severe injury. I thought I would be a little more relaxed about malfunctions now that I have had one, but it doesn’t help any. I realize how much time I had to think about this one. Hopefully I will have much more experience before I ever have another. -Blue Skies

I was wondering if anybody knew of any dealers who financed their gear sales or accepted payment plans? I really need a rig and really don't have the money right now. thanks!

Does anyone know of any dealers out their who finance their gear sales or accept payment plans? I really need a rig and I reall don't have the money right now. thanks!