Baksteen

Certainly not. And yet 97% of the people responding to the poll say they would jump anyway. So apparently having an AAD is not a make-or-break deciding factor in jumping. Did you honestly think it was? Virtually all the whuffos who first decide to take up skydiving do so without knowing that things called AADs even exist, let alone what they do. It only when they find out that AADs stack the odds a bit more in favour of surviving your next jump that they decide using one might be a good idea. Which for most people, they are. Besides, as I tried to point out earlier, the poll is too black and white: Quit jumping, or jump without an AAD. Perhaps a better question would be along the lines of: What will you do while your AAD is sent in for maintenance? * Jump without an AAD * Rent an AAD * Stay on the ground until you have your gear back * Other (please explain) "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

I'll skip over the BS AAD-pushing argument. A little quick to judge, aren't we? What about the father/mother who promised their spouse/kids never to jump without one? What about the sixteen year old who is allowed to skydive, but only on the condition that they use an AAD? What about the people who finance their jumping doing tandems? The list goes on and on and on and is every bit as ridiculous as your argument Fixed it for you. Me, I'd use a 9000 ft. static-line. "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

I just LOVE the flappity-flappity-flappity you wrote next to your slider. I well remember my early skydiving days and although I didn't do AFF many things you describe are absolutely recognisable. Keep 'em coming! Your stories are awesome! "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

They sure talk a lot of shit though... To the OP, what makes skydivers "different"? Talk to the experienced people at your DZ, hang out around the bonfire, and you;ll soon be a part of the skydiving community. That will give you a real starting point as to what questions to ask in your survey. Most surveys I have seen take it for granted that we skydive FOR the risk-taking rather than in spite of it. Questions generally are very leading in that way; trying to depict us as adrenalin junkies. In truth, the skydiving community consists of every kind of person you can imagine. So perhaps a more generic survey would suffice. You could simply focus on differences (if any) between skydivers versus non-skydivers. Same questions for each population and see whether there are differences in ways of thinking, decision making, budgetting, lifestyle, child rearing, sense of humour, home decorating - anything you can think of. Our DZ once trained some students who were learning to become teachers. They told us they were amazed at the different teaching methods between us and them. Student performs EP's: Our debrief: Well done! Here's a fresh rig, go jump. Their debrief: Well done! How did it make you feel? "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

Nice epitaph. "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

Well done getting out of that situation. Small point of criticism: I'm not sure it makes sense to swap places with the AFF. AFF-students open high. Instead, the two of you could have simply waited longer before exit, or the plane could have flown a new jumprun. I know that last option is like sacrilege at some DZs, but we were discussing safety. "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

Hah! Even I don't suck that bad at accuracy! "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

That what she told you? "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

I thought I was doing pretty well, until I read the following. Then I cried a little: The chaos A poem on English pronunciation Charivarius, (G.N. Trenite: 1870–1946). Dearest creature in creation, Studying English pronunciation, I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse. It will keep you, Susy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy; Tear in eye your dress you'll tear. So shall I! Oh hear my prayer: Pray console your loving poet, Make my coat look new, dear, sew it. Just compare heart, beard and heard, Dies and diet, Lord and word. Sword and sward, retain and Britain, (Mind the latter, how it's written). Made has not the sound of bade, Say–said, pay–paid, laid, but plaid. Now I surely will not plague you With such words as vague and ague, But be careful how you speak: Say break, steak, but bleak and streak, Previous, precious; fuschia, via; Pipe, shipe, recipe and choir; Cloven, oven; how and low; Script, receipt; shoe, poem, toe. Hear me say, devoid of trickery; Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore; Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles; Exiles, similes, reviles; Wholly, holly; signal, signing; Thames, examining, combining; Scholar, vicar and cigar, Solar, mica, war, and far. Desire–desirable, admirable–admire; Lumber, plumber; bier but brier; Chatham, brougham; renown but known, Knowledge; done, but gone and tone, One, anemone; Balmoral, Kitchen, lichen; laundry, laurel; Gertrude, German; wind and mind; Scene, Melpomene, mankind; Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather. This phonetic labyrinth Gives moss, gross; brook, brooch; ninth, plinth. Billet does not end like ballet; Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet; Blood and flood are not like food, Nor is mould like should and would. Banquet is not nearly parquet, Which is said to rime with darky. Viscous, viscount; load and broad; Toward, to forward, to reward. And your pronunciation's O.K. When you say correctly; croquet; Rounded, wounded; grieve and sieve; Friend and fiend, alive and live, Liberty, library; heave and heaven; Rachel, ache, moustache; eleven. We say hallowed, but allowed; People, leopard; towed, but vowed. Mark the difference moreover Between mover, plover, Dover; Leeches, breeches; wise, precise; Chalice, but police and lice. Camel, constable, unstable, Principle, discipline, label; Petal, penal and canal; Wait, surmise, plait, promise; pal. Suit, suite, ruin; circuit, conduit, Rime with: "shirk it" and "beyond it"; But it is not hard to tell Why it's pall, mall, but PallMall. Muscle, muscular; goal and iron; Timber, climber; bullion and lion; Worm and storm; chaise, chaos, chair; Senator, spectator, mayor. Ivy, privy; famous; clamour, And enamour rime with "hammer". Pussy, hussy and possess, Desert, but dessert, address. Golf, wolf; countenants; lieutenants Hoist, in lieu of flags, left pennants. River, rival; tomb, bomb, comb; Doll and roll, and some and home. Stranger does not rime with anger, Neither does devour with clangour. Soul, but foul; and gaunt, but aunt; Font, front, won't; want, grand and grant; Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, And then; singer, ginger, linger. Real, zeal; mauve, gauze and gauge; Marriage, foliage, mirage, age. Query does not rime with very, Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post; and doth, cloth, loth; Job, Job; blossom, bosom, oath. Though the difference seems little We say actual, but victual; Seat, sweat; chaste, caste; Leigh, eight, height; Put, nut; granite but unite. Reefer does not rime with deafer, Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Dull, bull; Geoffrey, George; ate, late; Hint, pint; senate, but sedate. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific; Science, conscience, scientific. Tour, but our, and succour, four; Gas, alas and Arkansas! Sea, idea, guinea, area, Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern; cleanse and clean; Doctrine, turpentine, marine. Compare alien with Italian. Dandelion with battalion, Sally with ally, Yea, Ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay. Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, receiver. Never guess–it is not safe; We say calves, valves; half, but Ralf. Heron, granary, canary; Crevice and device and eyrie; Face, preface, but efface, Phlegm, phlegmatic; ass, glass, bass; Large, but target, gin, give, verging; Ought, out, joust and scour, but scourging; Ear, but earn; and wear and tear Do not rime with "here" but "ere". Seven is right, but so is even; Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen; Monkey, donkey; clerk and jerk; Asp, grasp, wasp; and cork and work. Pronunciation–think of psyche– Is a paling, stout and spikey; Won't it make you lose your wits, writing groats and saying "groats"? It's a dark abyss or tunnel, Strewn with stones, like rowlock, gunwale, Islington and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict. Don't you think so, reader, rather Saying lather, bather, father? Finally: which rimes with "enough", Though, through, plough, cough, hough or tough? Hiccough has the sound of "cup", My advice is ... give it up! "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

Without seeing the video, Koppels post reminds me of an argument I hear way too often: Why cutaway a mal (in this case a lineover) when the mal on my reserve might be the same or even worse? I trust my rigger. Yes, riggers are human and all humans make mistakes, but really? Would you trust your capabilities to land an unpredictable, malfunctioning main more than you would trust your rigger? "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

A fellow student of mine was fined twelve euros for losing his ripcord. He didn't agree with the fine and payed grudgingly...only to land on top of the ripcord he'd lost when he made his next jump. He almost RAN to manifest in order to reclaim the fine "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

What hair?! Armpit? "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

+1 "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

Even during my brief stay at Perris I always jumped with gloves. It wasn't very comfortable in the hot Californian sun, I grant you. But one time (at some other DZ) me and a fellow student landed out in some nearly ripe grain. I was wearing gloves, they weren't. I had to buy new gloves, my friend had to have nine stiches in their index finger. "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

I think I'd be almost offended if someone offered me money. A nice cold beer after jumping hours OTOH... "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

Back when my collegues found out I skydived, they immediately asked how many jumps I had. "Four,"I answered truthfully. They all started laughing: "Man, I thought like it was something you'd been doing for years!" I think it the most refreshing reaction I've ever had

Please do not flare with a toggle and a rear-riser. Always use either two toggles or two rear risers. There is too much difference between the flare "input" needed on a toggle and a riser to reliably flare with one of each. "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

Hm.. I dunno - sounds like a conspiracy to me. Ah bet it wuz all hushed up by the gubmint. "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

That's it. I'm tired of this 'free country'-bullshit over and over again. You have no 'right' to kill yourself in a way that puts our sport in a bad daylight. If you insist on trying, someone will have to protect you from yourself. End of story. "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

When a first jump student thanks you and tells you you're a nice, calm JM and that they are looking forward to their next jump. "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

Replying to the OP but addressing the bashers: That's right, skygods.. Thrash the student. Feedback about his exit is necessary. Presumably his instructors talked to him about it, like back in 2007. But as for the rest of the comments; really. Speaking about extreme and stupid: Pot, meet kettle. Is it so wrong that a student is proud of their newly found sport? Can you really blame them for not being born wth all the skills necessary for jumping a velocity 99 and turning 25 points from 10500 feet? I for one can still remember how I started with student gear, pro-tecs and boxman. "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

Bagging on a persons spelling and grammar is just an oblique way of admitting they're right, you know... You're even lamer if the baggee is a non-native English speaker. Maar bewijs maar dat ik ongelijk heb. "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

The day I was at Elsinore there was at least one alien present "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

Very good, sir. Nice to see that people are always ready to bring out the good old tar and feathers. "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom

Yup. And then there won't BE no more old fuddy duddys to keep new guys back "That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport." ~mom