chrismgtis

I'll give you a pointer that helped me a lot. If you're not standing up consistently, every time you're on final start immediately thinking about having your legs together like you were taught, but try sticking them out in front of you a little bit sort of like you do in a tandem. As opposed to having them straight, which can sometimes cause a face plant. Consciously lift your legs up a little bit. That will usually help you with your over all PLF posture. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Fair enough. I can't say from experience how aware I would be with 1K jumps. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Haha. That was pretty good. Tandem skydive....we do it from behind. Skydive...because your soap operas are for sissys. Skydive...watch your high school bully cry like a baby. Skydive...60 seconds of heart pounding adrenaline. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I very much would like to do so myself, but I've only found one person interested and he isn't at the DZ near as much as I am. When he is, he usually is helping pack. People ask me all the time and there are plenty of people that have told me to just ask if I need someone to jump with. That's no problem. I can work on RW very easily. There is a shortage of people interested in high pulls though for doing canopy work. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I would be almost willing to pay you, if you could find one person on your next jump, which you don't specifically ask to, that knows anything about how you did under canopy while they were in the same airspace (coming from the same load) as you. It just doesn't happen. I can tell you where the canopies are near me when I'm in the air, but I can't tell you a thing about their skills. I'm paying attention to who is there and where they are, but as far as anything else I don't have the time for that. I'm worry about my own piloting. Anyone that is capable of more than that without purposely flying near you in CRW fashion is near super human. That is a problem that I am noticing. Too many people seem to believe that people notice your skydive. They don't. Unless they were right there with you. I don't even have my B-license yet, because it's not easy to walk up to someone in the LZ when you land and say "did you see me land within 20m?". You're lucky if you find someone 1 in 100 times that did. So many people are busy doing their own thing I don't want to bother asking them to watch me land. They don't have time, but that's another issue entirely. And popsjumper was pretty much right on with what I was saying. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

You're right. I'm not disagreeing with you. When a jumper is working on RW and other skills afterwards, then they are learning as much as they can in a single jump and that is excellent. I just don't see it happen too often. At least, people don't talk about it. All you really hear about someone's jump is what went wrong or went great from exit to separation. So are they doing anything else? Maybe, but most, I don't think so. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

When you say that you do not know if you are "backsliding" or something of that nature, if you are not the type of person that is going into doing 4-ways all the time like most, that doesn't really matter too much, especially weighed against learning survival skills. If that is something you are concerned about, this is why one important survival skill is exit separation. That would take care of that issue entirely if you are talking about getting too close to some other jumper in free fall on a solo. I'm assuming that is the safety issue you may be concerned about with a jumper that doesn't fall straight to earth. I've had a couple of people tell me not to solo and while I may agree if I cared about jumping with others, I don't necessarily. Someone pointed out that you still had the chance to work on canopy skills after a 4-way, which is true. Though to be honest with yourself, in reality, if you're mind is as set on the group skydive, that is all you prepared for and most likely when you separate from the group and are under canopy you're not going to think about much else except for just landing your canopy. I may gain the reputation as a rebel skydiver for the way that I think, but I believe in these skills that I preach being far more important. You do get the argument that "you need to learn these skills, because you might gain bad habits", which is a valid argument, but I firmly believe that us as skydivers who are so concerned about making this sport safer and preventing canopy collisions that has killed so many of your friends (I've not lost one yet), we need to rethink the current structure of what and how we do things. Realize that whether someone has 10, 30 or 200 jumps, when they do get into group jumping they are going to be learning from scratch and either way that group is going to have to largely cater to that jumpers beginner skills. I'm not saying I approve of learning bad habits, but at the same time I would rather learn a bad habit and be terrible at falling straight down from the exit point, than going through 200 jumps and not learning any life saving skills cause in that time I could potentially kill someone as compared to... well, what the possible dangers of not falling straight are, I don't know.

I'm still totally fine jumping alone. I'm more worried about canopy skills and experience than 4-ways or free flying. All of that can come much later. There are more important things to me. The only real skills I want to develop right now with others is getting good at closing in on another jumper to dock and adjusting fall rate. Honestly, as far as most of the rest goes, like learning all the 4-way skills, I could care less. I'm not bored yet jumping alone. Theres plenty to learn that most people don't think about. Do yourself a favor and don't rush into anything at all. Besides, if you get bored jumping alone that fast, you're going to get bored with everything in the sport pretty quickly. You'll find yourself wanting to get into disciplines that you have no business attempting. You will get a lot of coaches, instructors and other jumpers telling you that you should be getting into 4-ways and jumping with someone else all the time. I don't believe in that. It's good to jump with someone every once in a while, but developing those kinds of skills are very secondary to learning to survive, pilot your canopy, land in an safe area and react in an emergency. It's not to say you can't participate in jumps with others and those things, but I find that just about everyone that gets into these things after they get an A-license don't even think about what is really important. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I got "almost" entirely over the fear after about my 7th jump, or somewhere around there. I still get a little nervous sometimes. Mostly if I'm at the back of the plane beside the door. I hate that. Especially if the door is open. I get nervous when I jump with someone. If I'm alone, I mostly just don't care. I feel more in control that way and then the only time I'm not 100% comfortable is right before I step up to the door for a few seconds. So, yea you get over it. At least I did. It's different for everyone. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I repeated 3 levels. Level 2, 4 and 6. All for just to work on small details. I had a short lived issue with turning and on one jump I didn't feel that I was going to be successful and just decided to take the next 10 seconds and enjoy the view. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Christ. Some of you pay way too much. $24, to 12-14.5k depending on conditions from a Twin Otter (or a CASA on occasion). Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I cut a habanero once. I was on fire for several days. I wouldn't even suggest breathing in a room with a jolokia nearby. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

We meet at a local YMCA, go over the SIM, ask questions, talk about it, then head to the pool. Once we are told how to get out of the harness and away from the rig, one by one we put on a rig, jump in and canopies are thrown over our heads. According to what I remember we aren't encouraged to touch the bottom of the pool (it's about 6 feet in the area we used). Then we do it again. I don't think it should be any easier than that. Honestly, I wouldn't have any problem with them requiring us to jump from a diving platform. It would make plenty of sense to me. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I was taught one hand per handle. I have had one cut away. No problems there. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I doubted he would be able to afford to come up with it all at once. Most people can't, especially if they are in school. If you can do it that way, do it. It's cheaper. Just remember if you have to repeat any jumps you have to pay for that and it adds to the cost. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

If you're a skydiver, you're probably not going to be able to save up enough money in your lifetime to retire anywhere near that early. Skydiving does get cheaper when you get gear and a license, but the problem is we just jump more so it's not really any cheaper on our wallets. If you continue to jump, you're probably not just going to drop by and make 1 jump a week, because if you're sticking with it, you will want to jump all you can since you obviously enjoy it so much. Don't let it get in the way of college, whatever you do. You may want to do it NOW, but the fact is, if it interferes with school you're running the risk of not ever being able to do it, because you didn't learn anything in class daydreaming about jumping. It's better to wait, concentrate on school, get a job then go for it later. Unless you can handle both. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

It's pretty vastly different for everyone. You're paying for, most likely AAF in most places, which may be about $1200, then coached jumps to complete the objectives for an A-license and any remaining jumps up to jump #25. You don't have to buy gear, but rental is typically twice as expensive as without you're own gear. Though I don't see reason to spend $2-6k on gear until you're a licensed skydiver and it doesn't have to be a factor into "getting your license". It depends on how well you do (how easily you pass the objectives required). Some people can do it in 25 jumps, others take twice as many. You can maybe manage it in under $2000. It's mostly up to you (and what your DZ charges). Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Sweet! Thanks for joining the group.

Without the expertise to already know the answer to your questions yourself, you don't need to be doing this. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

A friend and myself take a lot of photos at Skydive Carolina. A lot of them get uploaded to a Flickr group we created. If you jump or have jumped at Skydive Carolina and have any photos, please join the Flickr group and upload yours so others can see them. Link: http://flickr.com/groups/skydivecarolina/ Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

It's a small world. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I'll stick with jumping without ear plugs. You guys go right ahead.

I was going to say just jump alone when I read the subject. You can't depend on any outsiders to ever come to the DZ and jump with you. I've been at it for a year and no one has jumped with me yet. About 10 people have voiced interest in it though. None have shown up. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

You need to take any photos in the aircraft with the camera not attached to the helmet. Resist the urge to take a shot when the helmet is on with the camera attached and wait till your head is at least outside of the door where the lens can get enough light. Once the camera is attached to the helmet, don't take any photos until you are outside. At that point you should almost always have more than enough light to prevent the flash from opening. If the flash attempts to pop up and does not open correctly, you will have to turn the camera off and back on to fix it. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I can vouch for Skydive Carolina as a great DZ, with great instruction and people. They have everything important there at your finger tips. A very large landing area being one of them. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan