RandomLemming

I'm flying out of the UK, and I'm not convinced they're going to let me carry them onboard, so I was just planning on packing them in the hold. I'd rather risk them getting lost than risk the full 'probe' search because I can't demostrate that my alti is a skydiving accessory and not a giant one-handed timer for a bomb :(

Ah, cool - I just didn't know if the hold was pressurised to the same as the cabin

Hi all, I have a stupid question - does anyone know what altitude commercial airlines pressurise their holds to? The reason I'm asking is that I need to carry both my altimaster and my protrack in my luggage next week, and I know that these are only supposed to be used up to 18,000ft. Thanks in advance...

You need to get yourself into a 12 step program as soon as possible if you want to retain your sanity. I've found the following to be quite helpful... 1. Get in car 2. Drive to dropzone 3. Buy jump tickets 4. Check rig 5. Manifest 6. Wait for call 7. Gear up 8. Get gear check 9. Board plane 10. Ride to altitude 11. Jump out of plane 12. Land safely and go again Oh, wait... now I see why my wife says this isn't helping!

Is that worldwide or just the US only figure ?

I was very impressed by the professional impression given to the press. The article I read in the Metro (people put the weirdest stuff on my desk these days!) came across as articulate and well spoken. Getting that through the a journalist isn't always so easy :D

If you're going to be in Northern California, drop bodypilot1 on here a PM. He does everything that the BPA AFF requires, and makes sure that you cover all of the required activities on each jump. The BPA didn't give me any trouble about my A licence with his work, and both of the DZs that I've been to in the UK were very happy with his log entries and the work I did on each dive. And his penmanship... that gets mentioned a lot too :D

So you think alerting others to - False advertising - Unauthorised signature on official documents - Repeated failure to rectify a situation leading to greater incurred expenses is a whine? Fair enough. Hell, I would have stopped posting in this thread early this week, but FFU made public noises about rectifying the situation and I believed that needed following up on. I believe that their continued failures show that this is not just a case of 'people make mistakes'. Maybe I really don't want to take part in this sport after all. I would have expected the community to be more interested in policing itself and the organisations that claim to represent it. I'm not surprised the BPA struggle to find positive stories for the news if this behaviour is acceptable, and even condoned by the community. Screw it - I'm out. Last post. Someone kill my account please. Then me if it's not too much trouble.

You'd think so, but you'd be wrong. I trusted these people. Again, And got shafted. Again. David offered me the option that I proposed in an earlier post - I courier everything back to them, they sign it properly and then courier it back. He even offered to pay for the courier, and in retrospect, I should have taken him up on that. I've just had a call saying that after I shelled out for the courier, they won't be able to offer the solution that they proposed. So now, not only don't I have the CH1 in my possession any more, I'm further out of pocket and still screwed, That's another 2 hours of my life that I won't get back either, but I'm learning good lessons about trust here.

I did all of the required air work, but I think the DZ wanted to be sure that I could land _safely_. The instructors are also focus a lot on the big picture, and spent a lot of time helping me refine my landing pattern - like I said, they have great instructors! This drove the requirement for accurate landings. FFU are offering some options to fix this now that won't leave me out of pocket any more than courier fees, so I will update this thread when I know more.

Sounds like an Ok deal, except for the following: 1. Having spoken to the people at the DZ in question, they to see my CH skills (i.e. repeat CH1 or at least parts of it) 2. The DZ in question did not have capacity for me on my only day off for the next 4 weeks 3. The DZ in question is nowhere near my home, and means spending at least 4 hours in the car roundtrip 4. I have no guarantee that I will complete my CH1 requirements with them in one visit 5. By the time I can next visit the DZ in question, more than a month will have elapsed since I did my last consol / license dive. According to the instructor I dealt with at North London parachute centre, I only have a 1 month grace period from that last jump until I apply for my A or I have to repeat certain things (did not get clarification on what, because at the time that wasn't going to be an issue). 6. Only admits the mistake after much deliberation and argument and finally 7. I already paid for and did it once. There is a very simple solution to all of this. Courier my form to FFU at Ocana at my expense, have an actual legal signature put on it, and courier it back, next day delivery, at FFUs expense. This has not been offered at all.

If there were two planes flying, I would have been able to get all of the jumps I wanted, but I'm not sure there would have been enough capacity to fill it on the Sunday. I spoke to them about the mistake on the CH1, but they can't do anything to fix it. They can help arrange for me to retake it, but that's still not that useful to me because I'm still out of pocket and out of time.

I left with a few jumps less than I was hoping to get, mainly because of weather. That's just one of those things really :) The real gripe though is that they screwed up my CH1. They had an instructor sign it off even when he protested that he didn't think he was eligible to. David checked the ops manual and insisted he sign it off though, and the end result is that the BPA don't recognise my CH1. So I have to do it again, even though I followed all the rules and did everything I was told I have to.

I'd be back at Lodi in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the difficulties in emigrating to the US. I mean, how do you convince them that they have a piano player shortage ? :D

Feel free to check my posting history here. Also, I did my AFF with bodypilot1 in the US at Lodi which meant he saw me in the flesh :) So I definitely have nothing to do with either FFU or FFA. As for the other stuff, I hold in my hand my rejection from the BPA because of the FFU's actions - that is what this gripe is about at the end of the day. I'm more than happy to scan and post that if it would help prove my credentials? Basically, if I wanted to rant about FFU over FFA I would have done that in my original post, but I have no first hand experience with FFA, so I reserve judgement. I merely mentioned the other option that I know about when someone mentioned training at the FFU. I did not know about Empuriabrava, so I did not mention it. FFU have done the following to me: - Lied about their facilities (They had 1 plane and claimed to have 2) - Instructed an instructor to sign off on a CH1 when he wasn't qualified to do so - this action will cost me at least 200 quid to rectify I just feel that other students should at least be aware of what chosing to fly with FFU has cost me before they make a choice, and also that they have choices.

If you're just going to the FFU because it's sunny, they're not the only english run school in spain - there is also freefalladdicts.com I'm not going to tell you not to train with the FFU, but what I will say is make VERY sure you get a BPA ops manual and double check everything they sign for you otherwise you could end up having spent a lot of money and still not being able to jump in the UK. I'd also check that they actually have their 'second plane' that the website talks about. Because that's been on there since late February and when i was last there on May 21, they still did not have it. As for the instructors and the heroic feats statement - sometimes, no matter how good the instructor or how good the training, shit happens with a student.

Like I said, I understand that shit happens. But when shit happens and is compounded because of untruths, then I get unhappy. That doesn't seem unreasonable.

My numbers here aren't acrurate. I have 23 jumps. I was told (admittedly by the same DZ that signed off my CH1 incorrectly) that I needed 18 jumps + my CH1 to apply for my A. I've not bothered to update my jump count because I was planning on doing it when I got my A and had a license number to add. Now that won't happen.

To be fair, one thing that helps with individual expectations is not lying about your infrastructure. Claiming to have double the number of planes that you actually do isn't a nice thing to do to students. Mother nature, I can accept - she's a bitch, but I don't have any control there.

All, After much agonising, I have decided to make this post. Before I go any further, I would like to state that Freefall university has some amazing instructors and the people that make the place tick over are great. The dropzone is a fun place to hang out and the packers are awesome. Unfortunately, the business that is Freefall University leaves a lot to be desired. I've had a lot of bad experiences dealing with them, culminating in my A license being put on hold because of procedural errors on David Cowman's part. The net result of this is that I wlil have to spend at least another 4 hours in the car, more money on student jumps and redo part of my A license. I'll start from the beginning, with my first booking. This is partly my fault because I never thought to ask whether they are an IATA approved travel company. They offered to do all of my travel bookings as well as the AFF side of things. In two phone coversations I mentioned that I wanted the 4* hotel option as I was taking my wife with me and wanted somewhere comfortable for her. Unfortunately, when I actually made the booking I was dealing with a different person and this information had not been passed on. This resulted in several e-mails and phone calls between Mr Cowman and myself, with promises to get back to me by certain times and dates not being honoured. As this was my 30th birthday present, I kept following the issue up whenever a promised deadline passed which resulted in Mr Cowman sending a somewhat sarcastic e-mail stating "When we have news for you we will be in touch promptly. Several emails/ voicmails daily are not needed to remind us to work on your behalf." As already implied, I would not leave several messages if promised deadlines had been met or at least an update been given. On my second trip to make use of the money that I still had on account there (weather killed the first trip, so I did my AFF with the amazing Ed aka bodypilot1), I wanted to stay in the DZ hotel. Since I was unable to find a contact for the hotel, I asked FFU to arrange this for me. Long story short, the week before I was due to arrive there was a power failure that lasted two days at the DZ hotel. This was resolved by thursday, but somehow my booking was 'lost' because of communication issues between FFU and the hotel, and I was forced to stay in the hostal in Aranjuez. This meant 3 days of virtually no sleep, and paying an extra 20 euros a day for the privilege. While I was there the second time, my aim was to complete the requirements for my A license. This involved doing my CH1 which I had been told by FFU was included in my AFF course. After doing the observed jumps (standing 4 out of 5 and landing 4 out of 5 within 20m of the target), I completed the examination. When I asked my instructor to sign the exam, he checked it and said that he was not currently BPA rated, just USPA. I asked Mr Cowman if one of the other instructors could sign it, and he said this should be fine. Later, he approached my instructor and told them that he had checked the ops manual, and that it didn't need to be a BPA instructor that signed me off. My instructor duly signed me off and I came home to england. On submission of my A license to the BPA, I received a letter back saying that they couldn't accept my application as the CH1 is not signed by a BPA instructor. As my observed jumps were also signed off by a USPA instructor, I will now have to repeat these at cost to myself, both financially and in time. On my first trip there, problems with the plane killed about an hour of the only jumpable day we had. This surprised me as I had read that they had 2 planes on the weekends and I couldn't understand why they just couldn't drag the other plane out. It was only later that I found they only had 1 plane. But they're getting the second any day now. On my second trip, 2 months later, I found that an entire day of jumping had been lost earlier in the week due to mechanical problems with the plane. It turned out that at the time, they still only had the one plane, despite advertising having 2 running on weekends. It can get pretty busy on the weekends, with lengthy waits between loads. I guess that is the case everywhere, but with 2 planes being advertised and only 1 plane being there, I was a little upset when i got bumped from a load because a couple of tandem students wanted to go together. The repeated communication failures, lack of responses, sarcastic e-mails and issues like the CH1 have turned a hobby that I was in love with into a chore. I don't get a lot of free time from work, and with the unpredictable English weather killing weeks at a time, this truly hurts. The instructors at FFU are amazing. They put a lot of time and effort into the students and often perform heroic feats to get people down safely. But I won't be going back to Ocana.

I've done 23 jumps now in my SportRX goggles and I swear by them. The only PITA is having to carry a glasses case around my neck so that I can swap my glasses for my goggles before getting out. The goggles aren't great for the ride to altitude because the planes I've been in are normally fairly cozy, and the goggles mist up. They also suck for walking back to the packing area for the same reason. I ended up walking into the wrong hangar in Lodi on one of my hike-backs out there, so now I keep the glasses around ! I'm going to buy a jump suit soon, so hopefully they can build me a pouch.

Ok, so I just spent 5 minutes trying to get the little ~ over the n there, but I give up :) Is anyone from here going to be at Ocana this weekend? I'm going to be there from Friday to Monday, and it would be cool to meet some DZ.commers. This will be my first jump since the US and I'm stoked!

You're getting a 'busa as your first bike? What on earth is the insurance on that thing going to rush you? Not sure if you've ridden one yet, but if not, well, you're going to love it :)

Not sure if this belongs in here - I'm guessing it might get moved to the photography forum :) Anyways, what OS are you using? I've just got done editing my first video in Final Cut Express and it was a dream to use. Costs £200 which isn't so bad...

To be fair, just this morning I saw something skydiving related on the BBC. It was the breakfast sports presenter doing a tandem for his 1 mile charity thing.