degeneration

According to my site (linked to in my sig and in posts above) Russia and Ukraine are the cheapest places to jump at the moment. I hope Russia sort out their admin problems soon as I'm going there in August to jump!! Another place that might be more easy to get to is Sweden. Depending on which DZ you go to prices can be quite cheap there. Vasteras is currently the cheapest (at least of the ones in my site's database). I've been there too, and it was a really nice, friendly DZ. Depending on how many jumps you are wanting to fit in, overall cost won't be that much different for a lot of DZs in different countries - Poland, UK, Belgium... Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

The number of dropzones on the www.jumpticketprices.com database has been rather steady in the 220s for the last quite a number of weeks, but I know there are lots of other dropzones not on here yet. So many European countries haven't even got an entry yet, so if you've jumped in Europe somewhere that is not on the list, please enter the DZs details. There must be a few USA DZs not listed too? If you are local to a DZ that is not listed and you are reading this, please take the couple of minutes to enter the dropzone's info. I've had a lot of good feedback vie email from people who've liked the usefulness of this site, so please help the database grow. Begging over! Cheers everyone. Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

Well I'm in the UK where jumps are more expensive - adding up AFF cost, a further 120 or so jumps at average £19/20 per jump, cost of brand new rig, AAD, jumpsuits, and all other equipment and some travel costs I've worked out I've roughly spent: £52 per jump, which is currently about $73 per jump... Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

Cheers for the comments, and without meaning to sound too cheesey, I only provided the framework for it all, it wouldn't work or be that useful if people didn't enter the dropzones or wind tunnels that they know about. As for Lodi and the lack of kit hire info, people could interpret it that way, but unless someone puts in the relevant info then that is the way it will appear (I've never been there so know idea or I'd enter it myself!). Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

Very belatedly and apologies for taking so long to get round to this, I have now added a notes section to the wind tunnels. In there you can put any other info to do with the tunnel that you think is relevant. So the number of doors, inside/outside, whatever you think is appropriate. However I have requested it is kept short and to the point, and I will edit down info that has been written more verbosely than is really needed. Not being an overly frequent tunnel flier I do realise that I may not appreciate what are the important factors, so please use the info space to put those across. Cheers, and let's get more tunnels added. I know there are more out there!!! Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

I'm possibly going to go to Aerograd Kolomna in August for some jumping and figure it would be a shame not to put in some tunnel time at the 12' Freezone too given that it is so damn cheap compared to the tunnels in the UK. Having just google mapped the distances between the 2 places, it is just under 2hrs travel to the tunnel from the DZ. I won't be hiring a car while out there, so want ot know how easy and how expensive it is to get to the tunnel. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person to have wanted to do this, but I couldn't see anything with a quick search on here.... Edit in: Stupidly I never thought to look on the Aerograd website... see that they can organise trasfer to/from the tunnel and DZ. Doesn't say the cost though, so that is the info I'd quite like to know. Cheers! Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

I too had a turn problem during my AFF. Failed Lvl4 cause of it. Got it sorted ish on the next jump so got to level 5. It reappeared again so failed lvl 5, got it sorted ish, so I got to level 6, it reappeared again so I failed level 6! Then due to circumstances it was over 2 months until I did my next jump. As it was at a different DZ I had to repeat level 5 as well and when I did, there was no evidence of a turn problem. What I attribute this to is actually having a good length of time to think about it (granted 2 months was too long a time!!). So my advice is completely visualise what you are supposed to be doing, how your body is supposed to be positioned. If you visualise the jump in your head over and over again, hopefully when you go to do it next your body will do what you've been visualising. I can't think of any other reason why the turn problem I had in one jump, disappeared a couple of months later with no jumps or tunnel time in between. Also, as one of my instructors said, smile!! You'll relax more if you do! Best of luck in your future jumps, you will get it! Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

There are a lot of good coaches at Airkix. For flat flying I've used Chris Hollis and thought he was very good, enthusiastic and helpful. You can email him at: hollisc 'at' TTint 'dot' com Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

Well people in the UK are paying from about $28 minimum, $32 average (ish) to $37.5 max (using exchange rate of £1=$1.5) for a jump... Like has been said above, I won't quit if the prices go up, but I will just end up making less jumps. Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

I've had some Ukraine dropzones added to my jump ticket price comparison site and they seem like pretty cheap places to jump so am now tempted to have a summer jumping holiday there, but want to know some info first. As I'd be wanting to do about a week's solid jumping are there any DZs in Ukraine that are full time in the summer? Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

From what I remember from jumping there during my AFF, and now comparing it to places I've jumped in the UK, the landing area at Empuria is long and narrow and you land right next to the active runway. So as long as you don't NEED a huge area to land in it is fine! Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

I very recently had a Wings rig made with a Pilot 150 main and Smart 150 reserve. The info on te container says I've got a W11... According to that chart my container is made for a 170 main and a 160 reserve. That is not exactly what I ordered it for! Now is this right as there isn't a 150/150 option? Surely given the other options I should have got a W8, 9 or 10? Or is this because of something like the Pilot packs bigger than other canopies, so a 150 Pilot is equivalent to the 170 sized main that they used for this chart? Was very happy with my rig, but now thinking that the years of downsizing may not actually be possible... Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

Try being in the UK or other parts of Europe where jump ticket prices are often $30+ equivalent! In some countries in Europe you won't even get 3 tickets for your $100! But the sentiment is still the same, with the fuel price increase of last year, a lot of places upped their prices, but they have not come back down with the fuel price decrease. Whether aviation fuel has decreased in price, I don't know. Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

What you're saying is definitely food for thought... I could put a notes section up like I have with the dropzones, and in that section people could write that discount time will be available at wherever. My main concern with that is that people may write that cheap tiime will be available at some upcoming boogie or something, the boogie comes and goes and nobody re-edits the info, so the site then has information that is months out of date. The main thing I don't want is the site to become viewed as being an out of date resource. My view is also that the more info people have to enter, and the more frequently it has to be entered (for the time specific bits of info), the less likely people are to take the time to input the info. I'll give it a thought though and see if there's something that works for me Cheers again for the feedback.

Hey, cheers for the feedback. Like with the dropzones section, there are loads of variables that I could put in, but I want to keep it as simple as possible. I imagine with all tunnels, if you know who/where/when to buy time you can get it cheaper that the advertised price, but if I was going on holiday to Moscow for example, I doubt I'd know/find the people to talk to to get it cheaper - especially if I decide on the spur of the moment to have some tunnel time. I imagine the relative discounts will all be fairly similar from tunnel to tunnel, so a price comparison would still possibly give you a decent ranking order, even if not the actual absolute price you'll pay. Horsepower is something that I'm not sure people adding tunnels on to the site are going to know. I didn't know the diameter of Airkix in the UK for certain and I've been there, so if I don't know that chances of knowing the horsepower would be slim. Indoor/outdoor would be a reasonable addition... I like it being simple as it is just now, but will consider this one. Cheers. Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

Some of you may have seen, others may not, that I've set up a website that provides a database of the cost of jump tickets worldwide (linked to in my sig). Well after some requests, I've added a Wind tunnel section. It works exactly the same as the dropzones section. The prices are based on a standard 60 mins in the tunnel at peak and off peak times. These prices can then be converted into one of the listed currencies to compare the cost of the tunnels in one currency. Once the database gets filled, it could provide info for a tunnel in your holiday destination country... fancy 15, 30, 60 mins in the tunnel while the other half does something else? my site can give you a guide on how much it'll cost. Or maybe you can plan a holiday around a foreign country's tunnel... So if you've used a tunnel recently, please add it to the site so that everyone can benefit. Cheers. Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

I've added a Wind tunnels section to the site now. Works exactly the same way as the dropzones section. Prices are based on standard 60 mins at peak and off peak times. If you've used a tunnel, add it as well!! Cheers. Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

Well comparing to UK train prices they are quite cheap! The other day I looked into what a NY to Montreal train would cost and it was something like $70 and a 7 hour train ride I think. Would cost a hell of a lot more in the UK. A 2-3 hour ride from Cardiff to London can frequently be equivalent to $100+. Will look into those DZs, cheers. Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

Sorry, my bad with the choice of words. Was only meaning it in the terms of guidance - on my AFF I got things like "turn 90 degrees left", "pull the right toggle, hold it, hold it and straighten up", "you're quite deep so pull your knees up to your chest" etc... that's the sort of thing I was meaning, not a full blown step by step instruction for every eventuality or malfunction. Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

All the places I've seen AFF being done (UK and Spain) have radios attached to the student so they can be talked through what they have to do if necessary. Granted it is only there as an aid which could fail (as it did on my AFF level 1 jump!) so shouldn't be taken for granted. You'll do enough ground training before your jump that you'll probably not have as much of the bad kind of fear afterwards. Some fear is good as it will keep you on your toes, but mostly you'll be excited and nervous! You know what a tandem is like, so why not try something new? At the end of hte day, choose whichever you'll be most comfortable and happiest with. Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

It is looking more increasingly like I'll be doing a NYC to Toronto travelling summer holiday with the other half this summer, but when she heads home I'll be staying out to do about 5-7days of solid jumping somewhere... the question is... where? Is there any DZ within reasonable travelling distance of Toronto (I don't mind travelling quite a few hours if necessary, as long as the trains are cheap!!), don't mind if it is in Canada or the US, that is full time in August and would be a decent place to go? Cheers. Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

An alternative could be to get a cheap 2nd hand suit to start with, if any are available. This may be a good idea if you are new to the sport and still sliding in your landings. On the event that you rip/tear/damage your suit on a landing, which would you rather do this too? Your brand spanking new, shiney and expensive suit, or a cheap suit that is there to take the brunt of your learning curve while you get better at landing. Then once you have your landings consistently sorted you can get a new suit, made to measure and you'll look the part without as much worry of getting a huge mud/grass stain down it from a bad landing! As for brands... many people will go for different ones for different reasons. When you decide to get one made, search around, see what people at your DZ have for comparison and opinions and get whichever one appeals to you the most! Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

Thanks! At least now should the situation every arise where I have to flightline check a wingsuit, I'll know to ask "are your leg straps on?"... It is a great shame that for lessons to be learned mistakes usually have to be made. Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

I haven't been keeping up to date with incidents but have gathered from some of the posts (and probably the reason for this thread starting) that there was an incident recently where someone jumped without their leg straps on? Where this happened, was there no flight-line checking? I jump in the UK normally and on every lift once you've checked your own gear etc and suited up, before you get on the plane someone has to check your gear over as well to double check it is ok and then sign the manifest showing that they've done so. I thought this was the norm until I went to Sweden for jumping last summer and was surprised to find that this practice didn't happen where I was jumping. Now I'm not saying that people should gear up with llittle concentration then rely on the person checking to spot their mistakes (if any), but the double check by someone else has spotted things people have missed. I'm assuming there wasn't a flightline check for the person who jumped without the legstraps on, but if there had been maybe the incident could have been avoided? I am a novice jumper with a little over 100 jumps, so apologies for any ignorance I am showing in this post! Also apologies in advance if this topic has been discussed at length in the past and for any can of worms that may have just been opened by making this post! Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).

If freefall is your immediate aim then AFF may be the better option. It is more costly than RAPS, but you are in freefall from jump #1, being coached as you fall. With RAPS it is several jumps until you are on freefall. One big plus that I've heard for RAPS compared to AFF (I did AFF in UK and Spain) is that as you start off at relatively low altitudes, RAPS students are generally more comfortable exiting at these lower altitudes than AFF ones. I remember when I did my 5k hop and pop to finish my AFF, as all my other jumps had been from 12 or 15k, I was absolutely bricking it, thinking that the 5k was VERY low. But a 5k hop and pop is nothing for a RAPS student as they start in the system at about 3.5k I think (correct me there if I am wrong). Like on here, this discussion has taken place a lot over at ukskydiver.co.uk and it does seem to be that as far as the end result goes, it doesn't really matter which method you choose. If you get good weather and are good at the RAPS course, you could possibly proceed through it quite quickly, but the AFF course will probably be the quicker option. Check your budget and see what you can afford, then decide which option appeals more to you. You'll love both regardless!!! Whichever you choose, once you start kiss goodbye to most of your disposable income for the rest of your skydiving career!!! Welcome to poverty! Sky Switches - Affordable stills camera tongue switches and conversion adaptors, supporting various brands of camera (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic).