RandomLemming

Sheep... They make look all soft and cuddly, but they're big, solid and not likely to walk out of the way until the last second :)

You can get prescription lenses, but not if your sight is really bad. I think their cut-off point is about -4 isn't it ?

Do you know how many inches of lines there were between the risers and the last bungee on your d-bag ? The reason I asked is that I nearly knocked myself out with a Pilot pack job a couple of weeks ago. It was entirely my own fault, but I didn't leave enough slack towards the end of the lines, and I think I doubled over one of the last bungees in a way that caused everything to wobble and shake about instead of cleanly releasing the lines.

Do you have a decent video for the psycho pack? The only one I can find is tiny and I'm struggling to follow it.

I'm not sure about the Lodi programme, but Ed (bodypilot1) operates out of Lodi. His AFF is around 1k as well if I remember right, and I really got a lot out of it.

Confident, cocky, lazy dead. Can't remember the book I got that from. Confident is good - a lack of confidence leads to second guessing yourself, over thinking instead of just doing what you were taught, and can make a mess. Everything else leads down that slippery slope to dead :(

Well, I figure that gives you an exit weight similar to mine - around 80 - 84KG with your rig. That means you have a wing loading of around 1.18... call it 1.2 even. Personally, I wouldn't be jumping that high a wing loading this early in my career... I won't be there until at least 100 jumps, but I guess it's a personal thing.

Best advice ever! Fly with a mate, check in while they hold your hand luggage, then swap.

Seriously all, be very careful with catching your fingers in lines. I wouldn't want to cutaway unless I had no other way out, I'd cut the line about the entangled digit if I could, and THEN cutaway if cutting the line had caused one of the three S's to no longer be valid. My wife had a serious accident and lost half of her thumb while mooring a boat 2 years ago. Before that, I never would have believed what ropes were capable of, and the lines we use in canopies are far finer / more likely to cut.

In the UK, we are encouraged to continue to work on our canopy skills throughout or skydiving progression. Certain things (like permission to wear a full face helmet for example) depend on your ability to land in a 30 foot radius 5 jumps out of 10 . You can't get your A license without doing your CH1 (Canopy handling 1). This focusses on riser turns, extending distance on your rear risers, etc. At the time, I thought that this was a bit pointless as the rear risers on my canopy were a dog to hold down and the canopy was quite sluggish. Now that I'm on my own gear, I fully understand using these and how they work. Then, when you want your B license, you have to do your CH2 (Canopy Handling 2). This introduces the use of the front risers and requires a certain level of accuracy (5 jumps out of 10 in a 30 foot radius AFAIK), as well as reinforcing what you did for CH1. This is the only thing stopping me from getting my B... touching down within 15 feet of the arrow on a crowded load is actually very challenging for me, and I miss a lot of the time because I move a long way out to avoid people. Later on, there is the CP1 and CP2 certifications that will further extend on what I've learned so far (not sure when they are required).

Do you weigh 72KG or is that your exit weight ? I weigh 71KG, with an exit weight of about 84KG in the winter, and a 190 is plenty fast for me. Are your instructors happy with you at that wing loading ? I know that most people are better under canopy than me at similar jump counts :)

I hear this a lot - people stop because of the politics... But I've never heard this explained. What politics are we talking about here? I know that some dropzones can have very solid established cliques, but I'm not sure I see this as politics. Does anyone want to expand on this ?

I use endsleigh (http://www.endsleigh.com/) when I'm jumping out of the UK. They cover skydiving, I can buy just for the period I am going away, and all foreign DZs I've been at recognise them.

You have a significantly greater danger here: get addicted and spend all your spare money and free time on skydiving. Think again! This is not a thing dieing in, its living for... He's not joking! I was -just- going to do my AFF and the stop. It was a big joke, and it was just something I wanted to try. That was 65 jumps and about GBP4500 ago. And now the REAL costs start coming in as I ramp up the jumps. Be very careful - this is an addictive sport

No jumps until September? That's harsh!

I disagree vehemently! Some bad gnomes have control of my second hand pilot. They hide inside and make it jump all over the place at odd times ;) That is just brilliant advice. Someone showed me how to do this over the weekend, and it takes packing a new canopy from a nightmare exercise to a (relatively) simple task!

To be fair, those docs mean nothing once airlines bring size and weight restrictions in. My rig is _just_ at the size limit, but weighs 11 KGs which is more than most airlines allow. So even with those docs in the US, you can still find yourself SOL.

To be fair, airline regulations change on a regular basis these days, so I'm not sure it hurts to ask every couple of months and get people's more recent updates. It would help to specify the route that is being flown and the airline though to get more useful responses. I just don't think generalised advice can work in this space anymore. Having said that, take all of the advice you get here with a grain of salt... Things that work fine for one person on one day may not work for you another day. You might get a laid back happy person on one end who lets you carry your rig and a snotty ryanair drone on the other end who wants to stop you taking it home. Make sure you know how to cutaway and re-attach your main (don't forget to detach the RSL, but that's another story for another time :)) so that you can move that to main luggage, and always leave a space in your main luggage for your canopy if you can. This way if you have grief about weight / size you can still carry some of the expensive bits of your rig with you (container, reserve, AAD) and only risk losing the main. Not perfect, but better than other options.

The only downside I found in Seville was the speed between loads during the week. When I was there, it was summer, so thermal winds grounded us by 2 - 3 each day, and I was the only non-student there. They only had one packer, so time between loads was down to how quickly he could pack all of the rigs from the previous load. At Empuria, I was getting 5 - 8 loads a day. At Seville, it was 2 - 3. That might be different in Seville during the rest of the year, but it was just too slow for me in summer. The other BIG plus at empuria is that the hotel is really a 5 minute walk from the DZ. This meant that my wife could come and go as she pleased, instead of either having to come out to the DZ with me first thing, or spend the day at the hotel by herself.

Thanks - it feels awesome to be allowed to play with others now :) Which darkside would that be that I should join then?

I have had a reserve repack, but I did not practice my EPs then, no... Looking at my MOT form, there is an option about user test pull, but this is marked N/A. I think that this is because I sent my rig away to be repacked, and didn't get it back directly from the rigger. I guess that this means that he doesn't have the opportunity to put a temporary pin in place and let me pull the reserve handle.

The pilot opens pretty slowly anyway - looking at the video for Psycho packing, it looks like this may slow it down even further. Is that the case ? What are pilot openings like after being psycho packed ? And is there a better quality video than the one on skydivingmovies.com ?

The coloured linegroup markings are great, but I really wish I hadn't learned on these - I feel completely deprived when I have to pack something else now :D

I bought my Aerodyne rig second hand... Icon sport container, Smart reserve and Pilot 188 main. I've jumped a fair amount of kit, and I didn't find the Wings _that_ comfortable. I don't have any experience with any of the other manufacturers you mention. Just one thing about Icon options - if you buy one of their new elements rigs or whatever they are called, they can ship in 3 weeks I think. So that could be a helping hand? They also have loads of extras as standard, so you need to consider those when looking at costs. The only negative things I have to say about the Aerodyne kit so far are as follows: 1. The pilot opens a LOT slower than I was expecting... Takes between 700 and 1000 feet depending on the pack job. It's not a bad thing once you're expecting it and planning for it, but the first time it happened I was reaching for the cutaway after about 3 seconds :) 2. Packing the Pilot - I'm pretty sure this is normal for any new ZP canopy, but it's a bit of a challenge the first bunch of times until you get the technique down. 3. Weight - An icon sport rig sized for a 190 main is just 1KG over what most airlines here will permit as hand luggage. Again, not a big deal, just expect to be checking it in.

About the only advice I can give you is to relax. I found this on my AFF and I found this on my FS1 this weekend - if I'm relaxed, my body flies well and I perform well. If I'm tense and worried about passing something instead of just having fun, my body tenses up and I don't fly right. As for how you know when you're hooked? Well, my wife told me that after my second jump, she took one look at my face and resigned herself to spending a lot of time at DZs.