sparkie

You guys dont get that he actually posted his photo as an avatar. tssss

exactly! unfortunately there seems to be a trend that, around certain # of jumps, people are more at risk of doing stupid things until they really become very experienced after 1000 jumps or so. Periodically one just gets a little too comfortable and it takes effort to keep on top of your game by self analizing. It is in these episodes that you hear people say "jump numbers arent everything"and "i'm a fast learner" ;P I agree that jump numbers do not say everything. I now have 500 jumps, and see lower jump # guys doing the most crazy stuff....like I did when I had that little jumps. the more i jump, the more i realize how little i knew then, and how much i learned by just jumping since then, and still i feel i know little, certainly not enough. This is why the high jump # guys and girls keep giving the same advice. (frankly i'm amazed they even bother anymore) But there will always be "special" people that can handle "it" I'm just glad i have 500 now and eternal wisdom is mine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR6oQtWItwU OUCH!!!! nasty! was he okay?

well, you came to the right place, postings with stuff like "wingloading"or "Downsize" do very well here. In holland where i jump, we can go to wl 1,3 after 100 jumps but only a 150sqft minimum. Not sure in what cat if would fall here, i guess in cat 3, same as the sabre2. My own parameters for downsizing yes or no are simple: I want to feel completely comfortable under my current canopy, meaning that I dont actively have to think about whats above my head and no matter what happens and where i have to land, I feel comfortable doing it. The best advice giver is you, ultimately. If you are bent on doing something one simply tends to fish out desirable advice on forums and disregard the not so desirable advice. Usually the guys with tons of jumps will give solid advice though. But none (most of the time) of them have actually seen you jump. Some guys can handle a bit more juice in a canopy but others with more jumps perhaps can not. No one here can see which one you are. Do some neutral self reflection and combine that with the advice here, then decide.

Im not so sure about that!! MY girl ALWAYS speeds up when hitting the pole!! yeah, but thats porbably because your pole is significantly smaller, tiny maybe even

I believe he was using humor... If I was wrong... Sorry. I didn't believe that someone with a C licence and over 500 jumps really believed "required to initiate hook turns at 50' at Lodi" as i always say, sarcasm is a sport

base jumping is for sissies... (running for the hills now )

I wasn't even approaching the restrictions regarding entering Israel. I'm talking about West Bank Palestinians whose movement throughout the West Bank is reliant on the mood of the IDF officer at a checkpoint, fences, walls, Israeli laws etc. http://www.btselem.org/english/Video/200508_Soldier_throws_shepherds_off_their_land.asp http://www.btselem.org/English/Video/20060130_Separation_Barrier_Testimony_of_Abd_a_Latif_Odeh.asp http://www.btselem.org/English/Video/20070311_Shuhada_closed.asp yeah i guess one gets really cranky sometimes guessing which one is going to blow themselves up at a busstop.

I dont think there is such a thing as a grown up skydiver. (or a grown up man for that matter ;))

I agree, but since it looked like he was going to be unwise anyway, any help seemed welcome, be it in the form of a device. I should have added more nuance to the phrase. I do not want to propagate the dependency on devices, but some of us get into stuff a bit too soon, like hooking it, and in my very humble noob opinion some crashes may not occur had there been a beep at some point. What I meant was for it to be a tool for consistency at setup and initiate. Once you go for it it´s all eyes, you have to be able to see when to exit or maybe dive a little longer even. If you cant do that, you have indeed no business hooking it at all. There will ofcourse always be gods who can see precisely if they´re at 550 ft or 600 ft of maybe 580 ft. I cannot, even after flying gliders without incident for 15 years. And if they are out, I´m sure others will be there that have been skydiving so long that they have forgotten the learning processes of early noobdom. edit: to put even more blah blah in : Some guys will do stuff anyway, regardless of what you advise them. So then, by all means, please at least get a beeper. This is the context in which my remark is to be placed. I sometimes neglect to elaborate and just put the conclusion in there.

that may be so, BUT if you dont have enough jumps (i dont know how many it takes, I'm getting there but I cant say I'm 100% all the time) you just don't see the "sightpicture" spot on all the time, so you might end up too low. Digital helps you to be more consistent and to get used to the sightpicture, you should have before hooking it. It's just a tool tho, because there are more variables like how far you pull the riser, how hard, wind, down/updrafts, hot cold etc etc. That's why a higher start (longer recovery) is safer, because it gives more time to eject or adjust the swoop.

yikes, my lesson in hooking it low looked much the same, although my blue collored pattern was slightly different and my leg was more swollen up

be careful with hooking it too soon. It is very difficult to get it right but it is very easy to get it wrong. Getting it wrong hurts. I know. If you plan to go ahead with it at least get an optima or something and a digital alti. DO NOT try to hook it by sight!

You're a bit slow eh. By jump 85 i was swooping the crap out of a velo 90 after a 10 way hd jump. I agree that hd is easy, it comes so naturally for trolls. edit: I love some of your other posts as well good work http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3030986;#3030986 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1101147;#1101147

ok, well maybe not the best weather to do a demo in that small field surrounded by big trees and spectators... http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjf717Ai_Dc

A new jumper who has reached the 100-jump experience level, and thinks he knows it all, when in fact he really knows very little. They are a dangerous sub-species, both to themselves, and to others. yeah, when everybody knows ultimate wisdom comes @ 500 jumps So, if any of you ppl have questions, just come to me okay.

yeah i know, i was there ;P but low hop n pops because..brrrr! hehehe http://www.paracentrumteuge.nl/component/option,com_zoom/Itemid,489/page,view/catid,61/PageNo,1/key,14/hit,1/

i bought a s2 135 yesterday ;) Oh, and if i go to the toilet first or stop drinking jaegermeister my wl is 1,5 instead of 1,55 I feel much better now ive dicided to go with my 1st hunch and get a sabre2 135, the replies were very helpful. (That and the jeepdiver / stiletto / ouchie thread) If I were to try a stiletto I'd probably feel better under a 150 atm. Could also be that I'm overly worried, but I dont really feel the need to test that ;P I'm really starting to like the canopy flight and was planning on getting some coaching to perfect landings and improving allround skills under canopy so i might take you up on the offer.... when the temps outside are no longer -10 deg celsius brrrr

thanks for the input. I think i'll put the smaller sabre2 in and jump that this season and then move on to the katana.

nothing, but the 150 wont fit in my new rig ;P (it was too good a deal to pass up hehehe) There wasnt a sabre2 135 for grabs so the stiletto came up. Going to a katana 135 now seems a bit steep so i'd rather play a round a bit more. I found a 2nd hand sabre 2 135 that i could buy, but im wondering if the stiletto experience would be good or bad on my way to the katana.

I'm downsizing from a sabre2 150. I'm getting into swooping and want to go to a katana 135 after 150-200 jumps more. Is a stiletto a waste of time or could i use it to get used to the more elliptical canopies. (i know it has a short recovery so i dont want to use it to learn swooping) My other option would be to go to a sabre2 135 (wl around 1,55 btw) hmm what to do ;P choices choices

I wouldnt call the s2 an extreme snivler! 600 ft and im open. A pilot main, now thats a snivler. Also the s1 is completely square, where the s2 is semi elliptical. Maybe the s1 will get boring fast? (well not if you load it at 1,3 with your jump # ;))

On your next jump, look down when you are at 750 ft. Do you really want to wait for the aad to fire? Aside from it beeing scary low, I'm a firm believer of saving your own life as opposed to letting yourself be saved by something or someone. As others have said, a horseshoe mal is dynamic and there is no right answer. My advice would be to stop worrying about this to such a degree and just have fun jumping for now and stick to the EP's you're taught.

grats ;) No harm in fooling around and trying new stuff, but dont do it at an altitude where you dont feel confident cutting away.

yeah i discovered that i did that too still. Only This was when my 270 went perfect and there was a touch of tailwind ;) oh well, I managed 2 giant leaps before my gentle tumble. Very hard to get rid of the habit of bringing your weight on your feet too soon. You really have to focus on flying for as long as possible.