DSE

This is why tandem instructors might want to consider full-face. Who'da thunk skydiving instruction has biological hazards?

Holly is an aff grad. Gotta love LitePanels for fill.

you Air Force guys seem to have a strange way of expressing yourselves. Your suit, JT...is one of a kind, even tho it looks like me and Monkey. Keep flying well, it makes us look good.

I did a few hop n' pops to be sure my back could take deployment. After a dozen or so hn'p's @subterminal, I took it a bit higher for 3 jumps til reaching full altitude. I also upsized and followed an accelerated downsize progression until I had returned to the canopy size I was jumping prior to my accident. Then again, I had nearly 1500 jumps when I was injured, so our situations are a bit different.

It' *is* like Walmart. You're buying training. The only thing you can't do here, is "return" it. You can choose to alienate yourself from the other dz, you can choose to be angry. You can't choose to "undo." Or, you can choose to see the issue, avoid or fix the issue and move forward with a smile on your face. If there are only two DZ's in the area, I *promise* you'll have problems of some sort at the second DZ, too. Your approach seems to suggest you want it all to be perfect. Training doesn't work that way. Daily...I see students respond well to one instructor that might not have responded well to another. It's a "chemistry" thing sometimes. Maybe the instructor had a bad day. Maybe you were very amped up and perceptions are skewed, maybe your fear created a reality that isn't the same as the instructor, maybe he was a total jerk that would have stomped on your dog given the chance. Move on. Smile. Enjoy the skydive. If it's not fun, why bother doing it?

Ron gave you an accurate bottom line. We weren't there, and so this community only has your perception of what occurred (which may or may not be entirely accurate). I's should be professional at all times, but sometimes 'professional' means "getting it done." And that might be perceived as being brusque, rough, over-controlling, at times. "rude" should not be. Talk to the DZO, let him handle it. Don't jump with the guy again, and don't alienate yourself by bitching about what happened before, rather show your passion for growth by moving ahead in spite of the less-than-optimal experience. You'll *always* be running into jerks in this sport. I loaned my rig to one newbie skydiver for a double-dozen jumps. She damaged the legstrap, filled the reserve tray with dirt, and didn't have the decency to say "thank you." Now, she's a skygod that doesn't have the time of day for anyone that ever helped her in the past. It happens. People in skydiving are like people in general society. If the dude at Walmart treated you badly, you don't stop going to Walmart, you merely avoid his department. T'is the same thing here. Go have fun. Jump your tail off. Become a skygod and you'll be able to one day be an AFFI yourself, and use your experience to make you a better AFFI than the one you had. Smile. You can skydive.

to add to your comment;

One for flock, one for time, one for speed ? :) How about a 4th, for style ! Nah....just put on a weightbelt. You'll get the speed from the Stealth if you load it up.

Which is just another reason I pack my main toggles folded, they 'pop' right open when the canopy opens, and I can easily put my hand thru them. I pack all of the reserve toggles this way as well. I figure if you're low and jacked up on adrenaline your fine motor control is the first to go, don't need to be trying to fish your gloved fingers inbetween a couple widths of toggle that have been folded up for 179 days. Toggle had been in my hand for 3k. It was on flare that I lost it, due to frozen fingers and the stupid way I held my toggles at the time (wanted to look like the "cool kids"). Had zip to do with packing method, toggle type (but I also pack so they fold open and are square)

GO BETTY GO!!!!!

Valid information, however; we'd prefer the student focus on the tasks and objectives placed before them by their instructors.

We had this conversation. You did not "fail." You're going to knock it out of the park. Now...get some sleep. Tomorrow is another awesome day!

~Pelvis (5 partitions) ~Sacrum ~Coccyx ~L1-5 ~Bladder ~Colon ~Ureter ~ACL/MCL All due to not properly gripping a toggle on a cold day.

Indeed, the Phantom is an outstanding suit (my #1 go-to suit), but if long, floaty, sustained flight is the goal vs flocking and docking (OP), then the Stealth2 is da' bomb. My first three min flight from 12.5 came on my first Stealth 2 jump and I'm a massive fatass compared to the OP.

And that's what it's all about.

I think you'll find the newer, large suits to be less (not more) pressure on the arms than you might anticipate. Learn to exit, fly stable, cleanly deploy in a big suit for several jumps before anything else (big suits aren't great for acro anyway). Stable belly flight isn't terribly difficult in a big suit if you have a fair amount of experience. Floating on solo jumps is a LOT of fun, IMO. Good tunes, last one out, and 3+ mins of flight is sweet at sunset.

If long, sustained floaty flight is your primary goal, then it's hard to argue against a Stealth2. You're right; no one here knows how you fly, so you have to make those determinations yourself. Assuming you're stable in the Expert (still a big diff from the Stealth) you should be able to master a large wing pretty easily. Keep in mind; you're ordering a custom-made suit, so whatever you order and receive will be the latest possible incarnation of the suit. At your weight/height, you'll definitely be more a leaf than a rocket in any large suit, but since you've already stated that this is your goal....

It can be hairy at times. A few years back, I was recovering from corneal transplants and was doing my first or second jump back after the second transplant when I lost my goggles and glasses coming off the hill on a 4 way out of a 182. I was only eight weeks or so post-op and had the very real issues of busting stiches or rejection. Kept my eyes half open long enough to pick a heading away from my group and then tracked for about 20 seconds with eyes closed before a very quick visual scan then deployment. Very, very scary. No AAD or audible; just an awful, long count in darkness with the knowledge that the ground was waiting below. -Blind OK, that makes sense. Skydiving shortly after the bolts were put in my pelvis, or skydiving 8 weeks post ACL replacement probably would be problematic too. Wait...I DID do that.

And she is stunningly smart and beautiful.

Subsitute the word "smoking" with "drinking." Then you have a substantive number of precedent-setting situations. This is no different. Now...if you're providing services to the military, then you have a completely different situation.

Check out the 12th paragraph. It's relevant to this conversation.

If you and Matt start Team Close-Minded, can I be Tail? There are some that think it's OK to be a slob and call themselves "professionals." Glad it's not that way around here. So if someone plays with drugs on thier off time, "They" are now a Slob? BTW, I have been drug free over 16 years....So not a doper trying to stand up for my "bro's", Just an American that is sick of rights being abused... Read what I quoted. Good breath Haircut Shaved Polite No smoking in front of/around students I'd add not cursing in front of students, and acting like a professional on the plane, not making comments about "he doesn't own a Ferrarri," etc. The absence of the above would connote a "slob" in my view, yes. If you feel it's your right to be a slob in your job, that's fine so long as it doesn't reflect on my job, my DZ. No, smoking weed doesn't at all make someone a slob any more than drinking beer. But if you're going to use, then follow the same rules as responsible alcohol use proscribes.

If you and Matt start Team Close-Minded, can I be Tail? There are some that think it's OK to be a slob and call themselves "professionals." Glad it's not that way around here.

Skydive Elsinore Beginning 8:00 a.m. Contact Elsinore Manifest to book a slot. There is one slot available (3 person class) Whether you fly PF or not, this class will provide teaching techniques and fundamentals specific to wingsuiting. *IT IS NOT REQUIRED THAT YOU FLY A PF SUIT. We'll also be covering the 5 and 10 jump programs that we use here at Elsinore (not part of the PFC rating program).

It doesn't matter whether you know Mel or not. What matters is whether Mel knows you. She is overMELmingly filled with awesomenicity. Supermelifragilisticawesumnesspedocious. she's missed here.