mrbiceps

mine was $1000

this is the best plane i have every jumped from the mighty skyvan. from what i hear nothing gets to altitude like this puppy. awesome.

In australia waivers dont really mean much. If the dz is negligent and you get hurt you can still sue them. dont know about the usa rules though.

Thanks for the help guys. i rang a local rigger up and he suggests trying a bigger slider first and seeing how that goes. if that doesnt work a pocket may be the go.

can u explain to me what is involved in putting pockets on the slider? thanks

So i brought this ripper 95 javelin from the states with only 20 jumps on it. It came with a 215 monarch zero p main with 90 odd jumps on it. This is the first zp canopy i have ridden and man this thing opens hard. I am sure that it opens harder than the 235 falcon f-111 i have been jumping. Is this common for a zero p canopy to open harder than an older f111? I flat pack it and wondered if this was the reason but the guy who did the reserve re pack packed the main and it still nearly snapped me in half when it opened. Or are monarchs renowned for hard openings? thanks for your help. i was doing a bit of freeflying at the time but always arch before dumping. Maybe i need to arch for a bit longer to slow myself down more?

I know how your friend feels mate same thing happened to me. It is absolutely stupid in my opinion. All the dz does is loose aff students who in the long run will spend more money at the dz than a 1 off tandem. I started my aff with 7 others. 6 of them got pissed off and went to another dz. they will never return. i would have done the same thing had i not paid upfront. Now i have my A licence i will onlt go back to that dz to do my b rel jumps and then i doubt if i will ever go back.

The way i see it any licenced skydiver has been warned about the dangers of making low turns close to the ground. Apparantly they are the biggest killer of skydivers. Im not into low hook turns. You obviously love them mate and the fact that you have survived over 6000 jumps proves that u know what u are doing. I say that as long as you dont endanger other jumpers you go right ahead and do your hook turns. You know the dangers and you are happy to take that risk then good luck to you.

Everyone moves to Australia whee the season NEVER ends...

Let me get straight to the point. This DZ fucking sucks. All they care about is getting you out the door and dont give a crap about your safety. You should name this dz on this forum and they should be held accountable. Pack your bags and go elsewhere. In this case you should feel comfortable to ask for a go around seeing you were so far away and had no chance of getting back. You are a paying customer and i believe that that means you are paying for a plane ride and exit to a spot that u can get back to the safety of the dz. Lucky you are an experienced jumper. A novice like myself could have easily have gotten into big trouble in this same scenario. If not DEAD. That pilot and dz are a joke and i say they deserve a slap in the side of the head for not giving a stuff about your life and safety.

Go the aussies, im from sydney. by the way 182 s suck big time, crappy little things

leaving an unpacked rig lying around is asking for trouble if u ask me. I never youch another persons rig. If i saw anyone at the dz touching mine i wouldnt be happy. Thats my life. Same goes for scuba gear.

Welcome buddy. I have seen new students say that they will wait until they can buy a nice and new rig. They then blow $35 per jump to hire gear. Next thing you know they are over 100 jumps and have blown $3500 in hiring gear. I took a different approach and brought a rig on day one that owes me $1500 with 4 year cypress left on it. It was a 93 model rig with less than 100 jumps on it. Sure its not the newest rig on the dz but i bet that by the time i get to 100 jumps i could flog it easy for $1000 over here in australia and have done well. I may even get my money back on it. Just a thought as to the rip off that i think hiring gear is. cheers

if u buy it make sure you can pay via paypal from your credit card as you have 100% security should it not turn up. if u western union it you are sunk if u get scammed.

sounds like a scam alright. how is he going to pay taxes? refund u the money when u get the bill?

If there is one bit of advice i could give that is to concentrate on pushing your hips forward as soon as you jump out. The position of your arms and legs is really not a big deal. If your legs are a bent a bit to much you will slide back a bit but if your body is flat you will be unstable and start failing jumps. As soon as i let go i would concentrate on pushing my hips towards the ground and you will have a stable freefall. Hope this helps.

I failed my stage 4 jump because i was unstable. I was shattered. For 3 weeks i re lived every moment of the jump and looked at myself in the mirror and tried to get the perfect arch. I tried to get my legs and arms in exactly the right spot. On my next attempt i had a new instructor and he told me that i was way to tense and worried about the whole thing. He told me to push my hips forward and put my arms back and dont worry. If i do that in freefall i will be as stable as. Anyway the dive was no worries and i was stable and passed. So i learned in this to relax and have fun. Sure i was scared as to get out the door but sometimes there is so much going through my mind that i forgot the most important thing to me in the skydive and that was to concentrate on one thing. As soon as i am in freefall to push your hips towards the ground and you will be stable.

The things that helped me out were. Making sure you look down between your feet to work out exactly where u are in relation to the dz. Dont look out in front of you. On the ground before the jump speak to the instructor and tell him what u think and where u think you should be at 1000 feet so u can start your landing pattern. I normally have that in mind and if the winds havnt changed then i head for that exact spot that i had planned to be at at 1000 feet. I would normally arrive there at more than 1000 feet so i would do a few spirals on that spot until i was at about 1000 then start my landing pattern. being a beginner myself i would sometimes be unsure where exactly i should be at the 750 and 500 mark to make my turns but i eventually worked it out. hope this helps.

Welcome buddy, go for the AFF course for sure. It is an amazing experience. Just finished mine and loved it.

Thanks for the advice guys. It was pretty much all tiger counrty between me and the drop zone and no way was i going to go down in that. I figured that i would make a decision at 2000 that if i wasnt going to make it i would divert to the right and land in some dudes farm. There was alot of clear open space to my right. I would rather walk a mile than crawl a foot...

I jumped for the first time at a big dz in sydney yesterday. We jumped out of an xl. There was about 16 people on the load and i was the last one out as i was a single and the rest were groups. There was a fairly strong wind blowing. I was told to wait for 8 sec after the last group before i jumped. As there were 3 other groups before me it took them all a little time to all get organised before they jumped and i started noticing that i may have a long ride back to the dz. As i was falling i realised that i had no idea where i was, as i couldnt see the dz anywhere. Jump run was straight upwind with the dz behind us. I opened at about 4500 to give me some height to work out where i was. After opening i found the dz that was along way away. Maybe like over 5 klms (3-4 miles). i turned and powered towards the dz. There was nearly all tiger country between me and the dz and i was hoping that i could make it back. So my question is when so far upwind from the dz should i fly full power to cover the most distance or should i have used some brakes or risers? Thanks guys and gals. Oh yeah the wind was howling so i made it back okay using full power. Some others didnt get back though.

welcome buddy. just got my licence myself and am having the best time surfing the skies. You will probably be the only guy at the dz who has tried dying before...

i had a bit of trouble arching. I learned to kind of forget about the position of my legs and arms and concentrate on pushing my hips out. you can have legs and arms perfect but if your hips arnt out you will potato chip like buggery and be unstable and fail the jump. push those hips out.

I was scared out of my mind on my first AFF jump. when i finally held my "A" licence in my hand i felt that i had really accomplished something. Having something that in australia only 1 in 10000 people hold. The thing in life i am most afraid of is one day lying on my death bed and thinking "i wish i had tried that, but now im to freaking old to wipe my own bum let alone jump out of a plane..." im not here for a long time, only a good time...

This sounds like pretty crap service from this dz if u ask me. I have just done aff in australia. Over here you dont move on to the next stage until u pass the stage u are on. No matter how many goes it takes you and how much it costs. How you can get to 5 jumps and then they tell you to rack off is pathetic. If they felt you were unstable you should have failed the first jump and kept trying it until you passed it. You dont just show a student the door especially when you owe them money. You should have been encouraged to maybe get in a tunnel and work on your stability. I would have thought a student who is struggling would be a godsend to a dz as they keep paying for the same jump until they get it right. Hold your head up buddy. Move on to a dz that will look after you and dont give up. Getting that "a" license in the mail is one of the best feelings in the world.