danielcroft

Reply: "That's your ass!? I thought a whale had fallen through a blimp and landed in our lounge room!"

Part of the reason I got into skydiving was *because* I was scared of it! Overcoming the paralyzing fear and converting it into constructive action is a life lesson that is really important. I'm starting to have fun now but I'm always a bit nervous about everything. Hopefully that's in a good way.

I'm in a rookie 4 way team so I'm by no means an expert. What we decided was that if anyone goes low, we all break and fly to the low person. I've been on a jump where one person out of 11 went low I didn't see him at all and to be honest, I don't know what he did.

Thanks Dave. My second landing was even better than my first. I'm definitely up for some drills, still feeling the canopy out though of course.

Thanks very much. I jumped the 170 twice today (two great landings) and tried the harness. I was taking it pretty easy to start though so that's probably why I barely noticed a difference.

Going to a 1.092 loaded sabre 2 170, I'll obviously test it out up high but do you think that would make any major difference to my harness inputs?

I've taken to using harness inputs on final while my hands are all the way up and in the toggles. I'm on a lightly loaded (.97) sabre 2 190. Is this a good thing or bad?

General rule seems to be that if you walk away, you did well. Doesn't mean you couldn't do better of course. Clearly I could have. I'll go check the SIM again for those references, thanks POPS.

Sounds like your instructor rides a motorcycle... I'm in the former category FWIW.

That won't usually get you badly hurt or killed.

Wow, that looks familiar. I put myself into line twists @ jump 12 on a Student Navigator 200 at about the same WL. I think my "stupid happens" moment was due to opposite harness input. But I have no video because that would have been silly.

At the end of '07 I did my level 8 and was cleared for my solo. That never happened. When '08 rolled around I was allowed to do safety day, sit through the recurrency class & then jump with a coach. Your instructor should be able to tell you.

It occurs to me that all these would be moot if you lived at the DZ. Just sayin'.

Actually, it's the amount of mental energy it takes me on a dive that I'm concerned about. I'm a pretty competitive guy, if I let myself be. I'm not in this case though. That's part of the reason I joined the team in the first place. There's only one rookie team in the RSL. I've only got 58 jumps, what else can I do? It's very cool of you guys. Oh, I was in a 2 point 10 way over the weekend, that was a laugh.

I've been wondering about a system tied to the cutaway handle that does the opposite - prevents the main from leaving the container. The idea would be to solve the PCIT/PCH cut or no cut dilemma. Thoughts?

Not anywhere near a TI or anything useful but I was curious because I remembered seeing something in the SIM about tandem opening altitude. Here's what the BSRs say in section 2.1: G. Minimum opening altitudes [E] Minimum container opening altitudes above the ground for skydivers are: 1. Tandem jumps--4,500 feet AGL 2. All students and A-license holders--3,000 feet AGL 3. B-license holders--2,500 feet AGL 4. C- and D-license holders--2,000 feet AGL Just a BSR but still, might be worth pointing out to people saying shit about your opening alti? I have nfi of course so I'll stfu now.

It may be something along those lines (4 designated exits). I feel like we've had more than that but I could be wrong. For the record, I have 52 jumps and had (I think) 30 something when I started on this team. I honestly have enough going on in my head trying to just do anything let alone remember a bunch of letters. I remember some of the names & can picture the formation based on that but the further abstraction is not something I'm finding easy at the moment. I think the main reason I remember the names is because we say them when dirt diving. I guess if we said the letters instead of the names that would help me learn I certainly understand how that would save time but doing these four ways is about the limit of my abilities in terms of overloading mentally. I don't want to add an additional factor to that. Doing the RSL has really pushed my limits and is something, in retrospect, I wouldn't have done had I known this. Obviously, the more practice I get, the better I'm going to deal with the mental effort but brain fade is not something I want to tempt while skydiving at my level of experience. Tunnel time definitely helps me in free fall so I think I fly well above my jump numbers (that's what I've been told anyway) but that doesn't mean I'm ready for the mental workout of being on a serious 4 way team. We have one round remaining (I'm comfortable doing it), after that, I'm not sure I'll be on a team next year. With that said, you guys have really made me feel a little more positive about posting stuff on dz.com. Often it seems that you get kicked for sport around here, this thread reminds me more of my dz (that's a good thing!) rather than a school yard. Thanks.

Yep, no more rings for me. Pictures like that don't gross me out or scare me that much. I'm going to prevent it happening though!

Great advice, thanks everyone! Satellite (O) exit on the first dive of the last round of the RSL went very well, probably our best yet. We've tried every one so far except the adder IIRC.

I've been wearing gloves partly because I kept magically getting cut on stuff when doing RW and partly because of my wedding ring. I think I'll take the ring off now.

Maybe there's a coach on here from your DZ that could help you?

The problem we had with the meeker exit was that by the time we broke, we were spinning so much that the tail flew off. I guess everyone having their legs in might help? Really appreciate the advice everyone, there's so much to learn in skydiving let alone 4 way.

I'm sure this will amuse several people but the letters mean nothing to me. I'll point the rest of my team at this thread. I also have video online if anyone cares to giggle.

That's why I also said across borders. The reason it's more accepted in Europe is because proximity makes it pretty easy to have a higher comfort level with inter-country transactions. To be honest, I don't trust some random DZ any more than I trust some random skydiver. That's why I was saying that I would want a personal reference. That is kind of what you said anyway. You may know someone I know, if so, there's no issue. I can have my friend vouch for you after talking to you and I'm good to go. What I'm not willing to do is send gear off into space and hope for the best. From the other side of the coin, I feel the same way, I wouldn't be willing to pay for something upfront with no way to get my money back. As likestojump said, that's why paypal or a CC is the way to go because you can get insurance. Yes, we're a small community and people will prey on our trust of each other. My wanting to confirm your identity through trusted sources isn't suggesting that you're dishonest, it's protecting our trust in our community.

Thanks guys. We generally try to exit whichever the first point is but only if we're all comfortable in the mock up. We made the mistake of trying to exit a round the on one of our more recent jumps which didn't really work out. I think we generally get 70-80% of our exits, not always pretty but ok for the most part.