heavydude

The tunnel as others have suggested is probably the greatest tool a beginer can use. Advantages are you can learn to fly your body and do so comfortably with no altitude stress and 50 sec time limit. After a 15 min session you have about same FF time as 15 dives. When I went through AFF I did a session w/ AFF instructor and it made a huge difference next jumps were no big deal after you learn correct body position, turns, speed ctl.Of course as everything else in Skydiving its not cheap but fun.

I just did these about 6 months back, heres what helped me..... -90 & 360 turns, regular and leg(if you learnrd them yet) -Wave off, turn 180 and flat track, just like a formation dive. -Flat Tracking(per DZ rules of course regarding direction) a good flat track requires some work -Lots of fall rate control -different exits, floating, dive etc...

Yeah but its hard to jump when there are not all the bikini clad women at the drop zone in winter, gotta wear gloves and a turtleneck,....we got it rough in Socal. Just kidding of course, I hear reports in winter of people jumping below zero etc...brrrrr.

Relax & have fun, you will probably fly better as a result. I was stressed during early AFFs and then discovered I flew better w/ no on hanging on to me ! If you can get tunnel time it works wonders.... probably saved me from repeating 3-4 levels.

PLFs work great for softening bad landings, one of the lasting lessons from skateboarding is that its way better to disapate forward velocity by rolling action in event of a fall. Also in my early stages of AFF I did a few landings on my but when I felt I was too fast for normal landing, never got hurt but then read about that as being worst way to mess up your spine w/ compression fracture, never did that again ! Now I contact w/ bent legs as taught, if minimum forward velocity, stand up landing. What you will find as you progress w/ AFF is that you will need to adjust flare w/ wind speed... low wind speed usally means faster landings.....higher wind speeds usually mean soft landings. If you are going faster then PLF it..... It gets easier w/ more jumps you do, trick is to survive early jumps until you figure it out.

Look at new FAA riggers manual, the new USPR one. I beleive you can view it online for free courtesy of friendly FAA. The instructions are very clear, they use hand wash ar machine wash in a pillow case(look at book..) and woolite. all the stuff must be out of course ! I did this on a used Racer and it came out very well. My Javelin also needs it due to swell PLFs at Perris. You can also Scotchguard it using instructions in same book.

I did exact thing you suggested about a year ago; spent time in the tunnel perfecting body position during AFF course. Best thing I ever did. My first several real jumps before tunnel I felt like a real air dork flailing through the air. About 30 Tunnel minutes later(in about 3-4 sessions) the coach verified all phases of AFF flight. You can get a tunnel coach there or have one of your AFF instructors coach you. Advantage of having your AFF instructor there is that they know your skydive weak points. The tunnel work is translated into confidence during real skydives...only difference was exits & deploying and you can practise stable body position for pulls. Tunnel time is not cheap but that vs. repeating AFF levels its worth it. Great option for days you cant jump cause of wind, time, etc., also. Perris tunnel is great, never had a bad experience there! Just took my 2 kids there today also for 1st time and they loved it also.

I was out there on Sunday, but not in the camp. Conditions were sort of different to me than normal..dust devils and turbulence were rolling right through dirt landing areas several times that day. However heat/humidity were sort of low as compared to what it is in summer. Ususally the dust devils are further east. Saw one of the big way jumps were everyone landed downwind, couldnt miss it as manifest announced it over the PA. Those big jumps look cool though....although scary...

I got about 30 jumps on my Aviator, not bad but its a fairly cheap helmet. had to reglue rubber parts here and there after glue got loose. Installed a pro-trck but pockets had too much extra glue there so had to scrap that glue out to fit protrack body. Fits good and comfortable though, not bad for price.

I think Perris limit is 240 Lb, they use an MC4 miliary rig which is TSOd for higher weight. Some bigger guys use these also.

Dont know much about jumping from porters, only have jumped from Otters & Skyvans. But I saw the plane about a month or so ago, looks like they are doing an excellant rebuild on it, fresh paint, engine, airframe, etc., looks like a new plane. Should be pretty nice when done.

Most of the jumpsuit dudes like bevsuit and Bodysport have sections on thier websites; overall summary- polycotton suits w/ grippers slow you down. They also make the suit bigger under the arms to slow you down, kind of like wings. When you order a suit just tell them you want to fall slower.

Thanks for the replys, by the way the 125 was with a freefly suit that wasnt too baggy. I just got my custom suit which I anticipate should slow me down; polycotton w/ lots of grippers and oversize for drag.

I am curious to what experienced skydivers fall rates are running ? Maximum for Dive and Avg. I just started tracking mine w/ protrack and its about 125 MPH.

You have no problems, I am on opposite end of spectrum @ 6.0, 240 lbs. You can get one of those cool small rigs that look like a small daypack.....I carry a rig that looks like an Everest assault. I just got an extra slow fall suit, have yet to try it. W/ my free-fly suit I drop like a rock !

Man its nice to know I have some brothers out there after happening on this thread, Im about 245 w/o gear and didnt skydive for years because I thought I was over the limit. Started jumping last July, finished Aff and have about 30 jumps. Did similar stuff mentioned in thread, I ordered a Crater suit because I get the fealing everybody I jump w/ puts on lead. I used to lift weights excessively, still have a 52 inch chest, 38 waist... trying to shrink. I busted my PD-300 yesterday w/ hard opening last jump of the day, split the center crossport on ctr rib. Could have been laszy packing but I have been real careful. Any other heay guys had problems breaking gear ? Dont know how fast I fall but I just bought a protrack ! Last jump was w/ freefly suit, so its not that baggy...crater suit is on its way.

I had real good luck buying rigs on Dropzone. I bought 2 rigs so far but so far have been jumping a Javelin used rig. It wasnt fancy, basically a student type rig but it had low jump numbers, people were suprised that it was used as the chute looked new. Rigs are usually a balance of price, age of unit, condition and type of Canopy. Newer ZP rigs will be pricey while older F111 will be considerably less. Age of Cypress also makes a diff. Most used rigs come w/o them. A old but low number F111 rig is working for me but I am sure I'll eventually upgrade. Also my Cypress is only good for another 3 years. Starting out unless you are wealthy its enough just to spend dough on jumping, etc. Several of my buddies who were on Military jump teams reccommended buying a used rig as beginners are usually hard on gear. Like someone else I read posted on DZ its rough to trash a new $2000 container but not that bad on a $600 unit. My whole rig was $1300 but I also spent $240 for cypress 4 yr and batt. Oh and you will find that if you are a "normal" size rigs will be more expensive most times, everybody seems to be a manly 170 or 190. Me being big moose can use those 260s - 300s, although I hope to shrink someday !

It gets easier w/ more jumps ! I redid several of my levels due to task failures but I think it really helped when my attitude changed from gotta pass this level to try my best & if it doesnt work at least I had another safe jump w/ good landing. Being a pilot also my canopy work was always good, I could always fly a good pattern, however 1st 5 seconds of freefall were tough, you gotta think of yourself as a airplane in slow flight for 1st 5 seconds or so of free-fall, minimum controlled movements/good arch. Later in the Free-fall w/ velocity you get airflow and woo-hoo the control surfaces work. Tunnel Time was a lifesaver for me and I highly reccomend it, it gives you confidence in your body piloting and reinforces muscle memory of good position. 30 mimutes in tunnel and your problems are over ! More jumps do same thing but you have other stuff to worry about, its no stress in tunnel.

Thanks for posting the movie ! I like that site w/ all the clips and stuff. Gotta get a camera myself. Did not know about the pilot chutes. I was there on Monday and they seemed to do a number of jumps, looked unique thats for sure.

I havnt jumped anywhere else but the weather has been killer in Socal lately. You could jump Perris, Elsinore, and San Diego all within 2 hrs drive of each other. Lots of hot SkyDive babes here also......

....checking out some freefly videos on Skydiving movies.com... looks like somebody filmed a short clip of this. Rest of video is OK also http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=6772

Check this out: I was jumping at Perris about 2 weeks ago; this dude is jumping w/ a small Kayak, freefalls with it, opens the chute and then swoop/surfs the pond w/ a big roostertail so must be going fast. Pretty cool huh. I wonder how easy it is to keep upright during freefall in kayak ? W/ Red Bull on everything it appeared to be a film stunt of some sort.

By the way I discovered during my AFF is that I am allot more stable alone...having the extra dudes during the early dives made for some interesting exits. After first solo exit it was like....wow just like on TV.. almost like I knew what I was doing ! The good Arch is critical however.

Thanks for the info, the idea of two knives really makes sense to me. I think I will go with one on leg pocket and one on cheststrap. By the way I just got the square 1 catalog and it had a interesting article about double bladed vs single bladed knives, dual blades being easily clogged. For the single knife I had on my rig I had a metal Sq 1 knife. I will add another in pocket.

Kind of curious about mounting position of hook knife. Assuming normal Belly Flying what is most common position for mounting: cheststrap ? I have also seen some dudes mount hookknifes in pockets on swoop pants, seems like a cool idea if you jump different rigs.