GLIDEANGLE

Your answer is in this. Highly recommend all 22 pages! http://www.bigairsportz.com/pdf/bas-sizingchart.pdf The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

See if you can find an electronic version of The Skydiver's Survival Guide, Second Edition by Kim Emerson & Marcus Antebi. It is well suited to someone w/ 200 jumps. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

By "1:1" do you mean a wing loading of 1 lb / sq ft? The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

1. I never said a thing about preparing for licensing exams. I was talking about development as a skydiver. 2. I was approaching the issue as a question of how to allocate limited study time.... where to get the most bang for the time spent. 3. Here are examples of the trade-offs that I am talking about: Which makes more sense for this jumper to invest time in studying? Example 1: http://www.uspa.org/SIM/Read/Section8/tabid/171/Default.aspx OR http://www.bigairsportz.com/pdf/bas-sizingchart.pdf (all 22 pages) Example 2: http://www.uspa.org/SIM/Read/Section7/tabid/170/Default.aspx OR http://www.performancedesigns.com/docs/Turbulence-Hazard.pdf The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Simple: Get your ass (and your neck) to a NEUROSURGEON soon. Drive 6 hours if necessary... it will be worth it. Remember that the chiropractor has a potential conflict of interest when saying that no one will do surgery... that keeps you in HIS income stream. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

1. Knowing the entire SIM sounds admirable.... But may not be a good idea. Much of the back of the SIM is irrelevant for someone with 65 jumps. If I had to chose between you (@65 jumps) spending time to learn how to fly a predictable pattern, separate traffic in the pattern, track straight and far, use flat turns, and manage emergency procedures OR learn about wing suits, high altitude jumps, camera jumps, and demo jumps.....there is no contest! Mastering the essential stuff is is a much better investment of time for you than filling your head with esoterica at this point. 2. The act of creating your own quiz is far more helpful for learning than simply taking someone else's quiz. 3. Flash cards are a wonderful thing. I made lots of them to learn skydiving stuff as I progressed through my licenses and ratings. At various times I used both 3x5 index cards and electronic flash cards on my smart phone. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Nope.... In the strange world which is skydiving.... Many, many helmets are designed for everything except protection. They are designed to carry cameras, audible altimeters, or shield the face from the wind in freefall... but NOT to provide significant protection to the brain in the case of a blow to the head. Some skydiving helmets even carry labels which make it clear that they offer no protection! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Why settle for "off the rack" jumpsuit? Custom is the norm.... For VERY good reasons. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Not so.... In 2010 (most current data I can find), USPA membership: Age Percent of members 16-30 24% >= 40 47% http://www.uspa.org/Portals/0/MembershipSurveys/memsurvey10.pdf I love my big, slow, docile Spectre 210. "Docile" = It behaves well when I do not. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Smile, Breathe, Relax. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Wow.... I can't imagine what the reports would have looked like at the 2009 USPA Nationals in Rosharon, TX. There were many days when folks landed out on nearly every load. The clouds were dense and jumpers would accept any safe hole in the clouds, even if it did not allow flight back to the DZ. Pretty much any spot that didn't put us in the swamp was OK. The DZ had trucks running to pick up jumpers almost all the time. I would estimate that there were at least 100-200 individual "out" landings. (I know my 4-way FS team landed out at least twice... which is 10 individual landings.) I am not sure what the benefit of reporting every "out" landing would be. Does your governing organization find REAL value in reports of NON-injury "out" landings? The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Please cite where USPA REQUIRES DZOs and instructors to report injury incidents. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

This thread I started yesterday pretty much explains why reports are not being submitted: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4348536#4348536 The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

And exactly how do you check the routing of your reserve closing loop through the cutter now? The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

The USPA has acknowledged that the rate of reporting of skydiving incidents in the USA is extremely low: http://parachutistonline.com/columns/gearing_up/july%202012 Why are skydiving incidents in the USA not reported to the USPA? While the approach that the USPA is taking is to wag a finger at S&TAs and jumpers, I suspect that the failure is probably due to more than simple laziness. -Why do you report/not report incidents that you are involved in? -Why do you think that others report/don't report incidents that they are involved in? -If you are/were an S&TA, DZM, or DZO why do you report/not report incidents? Without good incident statistics it is very hard to identify our safety problems and/or evaluate the effectiveness of safety efforts. It is my opinion that if we had complete reporting of all skydiving incidents in the US, which required evaluation and or treatment by a physician, we would be astonished at the non-fatal injury rate. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Only six REPORTED cases. I know of two more which occurred to friends. I am fairly confident that neither were reported. The USPA incident reporting system is effectively dead. (See the "Gearing Up" editorial in the July 2012 issue of Parachutist. http://parachutistonline.com/columns/gearing_up/july%202012) It cannot be used to tell us about the rates of anything! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

The above recommendation about having a rigger supervise is excellent. However, there is a variant of this task that is commonly done and is relatively easy. Swapping canopies AND RISERS together is much less complicated. I have seen CReW dogs do that several times in a day to match canopies and jumpers (most common when training new pups.) This is also done when "demoing" (test driving) canopies before purchase. That said.... my only cutaway was due to doing this REALLY fast and mounting the main backwards. (Yes, I know that it is possible to land backwards. Yes, I have seen the photos and award cards for "backwards CReW". Yes, some of you have done it, or would do it. However, the canopy was a Lightning and was smaller than my usual canopy. Prudence dictated getting rid of it rather than attempting to land it.) The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

"Pack your own whenever pissible" Really? Packing had little, if anything, to do with this incident. The paid packers who I know generally pack better than many experienced jumpers. Admittedly, my DZ has high standards for packers. I know lots of jumpers who are better off paying packers than packing for themselves. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Re: braked approach & landing The landing area appears (to my eye) to have numerous concrete lined irrigation ditches. It is entirely possible that he may have been flying in brakes as an accuracy approach to avoid these obstacles. Yes, landing parallel to the ditches would have been an option. However, wind direction & speed may have influenced his decision about that. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Hmm.... Given that the canopy would not fly straight without significant compensation with the brake on the opposite side, he may have assessed that attempting a landing on rears would be too dangerous. There is a huge difference between landing on rears with normally functioning brakes, or a broken brake line (canopy flying straight), and attempting to land on rears with a canopy that won't fly straight without heavy input. We all make mistakes. This guy made a mistake with his toggle. However, he managed it in a manner that kept him from injury. May you be able to manage all your mistakes with the same outcome. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

If they advanced you to the next level... it is unlikely that the instructors were working very hard to impart stability. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I agree with the above. My contribution: One word: PREPARE Assume that you have forgotten lots, and study before you show up. That will help ease your transition tremendously. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I suspect that the "emergency landing" claim would be more meaningful if you reserved it for times when the aircraft had an emergency which dictated immediate exit, OR those times when landing under a reserve canopy. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Certainly, conservative gear can improve your odds of survival. Unquestionably, good training, developing good skills, and prudent judgement can dramatically improve your odds of survival. However, sometimes that isn't enough. A fair number of deaths in the last few years have been folks who were doing everything right... and were killed by the errors of other jumpers. Canopy collisions can occur in a manner that the lower party never has a chance to see and avoid the diving turn coming from above and behind. This entire thread reminds me of a jumper who thought that he was too smart to die skydiving. He made a serious error under canopy (NOT swooping) and broke his femur. After healing, he returned to jumping for a brief while. During that time he told me that his crash was good for him. "It taught me that I could die in this sport." The worry of his family, the doom and gloom in the wavier, the exhortations of his instructors.... none of that had an effect on his acknowledgement of risk.... until he crashed. This jumper stopped jumping and sold his gear shortly after his return from his injury. We can REDUCE risk in this sport... but we cannot eliminate it! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

DaveLepka is right on target. In addition, there is no telling how many jumps it will take you to meet the objectives of the program. Repeating one or more levels is VERY common. Further, there is no guarantee that the weather will cooperate with your plan. At my home DZ, weather is a HUGE source of delay for students due to wind. Smile, Breathe, Relax. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!