RozeAY

I bought mine right after student status. Being a very small girl I wanted a smaller canopy than the student/rental gear as well as needed a much smaller harnass.

If the rules of the DZ/pilot are to wear your seatbelt until jump run, I would consider not climbing with the door open to prevent this situation.

You could make a post on the team network section of the NSL page (http://www.skyleague.com) to help find some teammates as well.

I jump a jedei 105 loaded at 1.2 and my openings are usually wonderful. In my opinion it is a lot easier to pack because you don't have to be as picky with it as you would a velocity or something similar in order to still have a decent opening.

Why do you need to wear so much weight? I only weigh 105 lbs and the most I've ever had to wear is around 17-20 lbs lead to keep up with some big boys.

Yep, I'll be there to watch the rain fall :-) Come say hi.

Aww you make me blush Just pop into the team room next time you're around while we're training. We'd be more than happy to let you watch the video of our jumps.

We're pretty much in the same situation as AggieDave. We have a club here at Georgia Tech with about 10 jumpers right now. We have one 4way team, GT Inviscid. This is our only team though in any discipline. In fact, I think we are quite lucky to have found 4 people willing to make the commitment to a team (not to mention get second jobs to help pay for it). We have some other jumpers who do go out and jump regularly but we also have many who barely meet the currency requirements. I am on our 4way team and the president of the club. If you have any questions about either feel free to email me or post them here.

The nitron is very similar to the stiletto. It seems to be slightly less twitchy according to some people but it has much better bottom end flare.

There are a few freefly camps at Skyventure. Or you can get ahold of a coach as well.

Typically a good wing-loading for a first canopy is around a 1:1. Talk to some of the more experienced instructors and canopy pilots around your dropzone. They will best be able to advise you on a canopy and help you progress from the 288 to something best suited for you.

You know I have nothing but love for ya :-)

Hopefully we'll have about 350-400 training jumps this year. Unfortunately, all out of a King Air with the exception of 2 days of exit camps. We chose to launch one exit for every jump. So naturally when it comes around to meets we're only launching A slot formations. Even then we'll launch more round and stable formations depending on the first point since we don't get much exit practice this year. Therefore for us, we don't have to worry about seeing everything from the launch. I completely agree with you. In fact, our first training weekend we did repeaters and the front piece switched slots on them so we could see the entire dive pool from both slots. With the excpetion of the blocks we were training for the first time, things naturally were slower in our B slots than our A slots. But our last tunnel camp with Shannon and Joey we focused on the slot switch and mirror blocks. So we got to do a lot of random work with the front piece switched, which has been a help. But overall we are a very young team and have been doing things every way possible from the beginning. This has allowed us to be very versatile in how we engineer dives. And since we don't have hundreds of jumps doing things only one way, doing things in our B slots, while slower, isn't a drastic difference from our A slots. So far this year we've had 4 hours with Shannon and Joey. We have another 3 in August. In addition, Kyle Collins has been helping us out a lot back here in Atlanta. Needless to say we get the "versatility" way of thinking from Kyle. In our situation we've been doing things as many ways as possible since we've started. It works for us and its been an advantage. Granted we're not Majik or any of the other top teams. But we have managed to go from a 2.8 in the A class our first meet exactly one year ago to a 12ish average in the AAA class this year. But I do agree with you that depending on the amount of time you have to train that it might be better to stick with A slots. But then again it just depends on the personality of your team and what works for you. :-) -- Allison

What are "A" slots? They're just the way things were first done. Just because certain randoms and blocks were built and turned a certain way for a long time doesn't mean it can't be done a different way. Ron and Dave are probably going to yell at me :-) but we don't necessarily have a specific "A" slot. Sure we build things the traditional way most often but anytime there is an easier way to build a random we'll do it in a heartbeat. Its no fun if you don't try and do things differently. We've built different B, C, E, F, G, H, J, L, N, and Qs :-)

All you have to do to make it back from longer sports is go into rear risers. I love my Jedi 105. Like my teammate said it gives me a nice performance for what I do with a canopy. I actually ended up putting my stiletto 97 in my back-up rig because I preferred the way the Jedi flies. I looked at a Jedi 95 that was a prototype from 1996 but didn't have the stablizers. It wasn't as solid and the landings didn't surf as far as the 105. I think Jedies are a great canopy, but it definitely depends on the model you get.

I did tandem progression and in hindsight wish I had just done AFF. I had a lot of trouble with my first "AFF" jump because I was used to manuevering and turning with a large guy on my back.

Both us and Team Nexus are training tomorrow. First load is going up at 7:59 a.m..... :-)

When we asked Bev this winter about putting pads in the knees she said she couldn't do that. As far as the booties, I can get my Merlin booties on and off much easier than the Bev Suit (without zippers). I'm going to make the mods to fix that though. And in any case I love my Bev Suit.

Once you get the PC in the BOC you could always just pound it with your fist to flatten it. Then give it a light pull to make sure it will come out. This is what I usually do. Or you could try packing the PC a different way like everybody else has suggested. Just find what works for you.

The portables don't have the power that permanent tunnels do to get good air flow. To be able to fly in the portable you will more than likely have to wear a baggy suit in order to grab enough air to fly. At which point all of your energy will be spent in an awkward body position trying to stay in the flow of air that you won't be able to work on good body position or learn any kinds of turns or anything like that. I'd go to Skyventure in Orlando and work with a coach.

I agree that a wind tunnel (like Skyventure) is a very useful tool but is this post referring to a portable wind tunnel? Because if it is, it is possible that poor body position would be learned because you would be trying to grab air. And if it is more expensive per minute, it would be better to buy the lift ticket.

At the Sebastian Nationals a few years back they had a creeper competition while the hurricane kept them grounded. I hear it was pretty vicious.

Its sad because Merlin suits are great suits. But like Ron said the seams and zippers don't hold up well. And the service is disgustingly terrible. Trust me, it is something you never want to have to deal with. I'm in the same boat as Ron. I will never wear another nor recommend them to anyone.

Not to mention all the flaps are glued shut.... :-)

That rig is on display at Sunpath in ZHills in the lobby. Nobody jumps it.