froggie

brandon, this is definitally a serious situation. one thing that you might not have thought about... what hazards do you fly over when riding up to altitude? From riding near the door so many times i tend to look out the door the entire skydive. I know that theres some major powerlines (the kind that are about 40 feet wide, line after line, runing long distances, connecting lots of area together, in jersey they run thru breaks in the trees more often than not) that we fly over. and to add some more, their surrounded by woods. for the entire ride to alti im constantly trying to figure out where i would land if we had to do an emergency exit before reaching jump run. there is massive amounts of power lines and woods, not to mention reservoirs around my DZ.. its a lot to think about. but im glad their there. if they werent it might not have occured to me to look out for those kinds of hazards. What im getting at is this: being aware of where to land if an emergency occurs might let you see that option you might otherwise miss, it could possibly reduce your chances of having to land in/ near those powerlines. Id take (in this order): into the wind, cross wind, downwind, between objects, water, trees,ontop of something, and if i had to (which i shouldnt because one of the above would have already been an option first) the powerlines. If i forgot something, feel free to add it on. In what order would you guys land? kel

hello. my name is kelly and as some of you might have realized, my face is popping up on the back of milk cartons across America :) When Im not MIA i frequent this site as much as i can, but when i am missing, you can usually find me working on the DZ teaching the tandem briefing class, selling Tvids,Packing (rarely anymore), or helping the video consession run smoothly (read: running video guys their rigs, filling film, editing vids basically being the 'mom' of the video consession). Im also a volunteer EMT, but Im not as active as i use to be with it. I only run one night a week now. So thats me :) kel

blue, hey. there were cameras everywhere. still and digital. im sure that theres a lot of clips floating around out there. maybe the monkey claw site will have some.. or fruce.com.. stacy might have some pics too. It was an awesome site to see. The sun was getting ready to set, all the planes were running, the tankers were parked out in the field, the jumpers were swooping. people everywhere. it was so awesome. I went up about 70 feet onto one of the ladder engines and the view from up there was absolutely breath taking.. Looking out i saw the sunset over the trees, looking down i saw swarms of people milling around on the deck, i could see the parking lot, the airport.. everything. Too bad i was scared out of my mind and holding on for dear life. The whole 70 foot climb up there i was thinking "i want a base rig. i want a base rig. i want a base rig.." it was actually quite amusing. kel

gman, i had 12 jumps and was riding the cesna down to another airport down the shore just for the ride... i wanted to take a rig, since i know how to use it if i have to but i wouldnt take one with me because i strongly believed that if i took it with me, id be doing jump number 13, and it wasnt going to be planned. well, i did jump number 13 a few days later.. and it turned into an accidental demo into the golf course. it figgers that something off the wall would happen on my 13th jump.. i didnt count on anything less. kel

sangiro, hey. the 'read reviews' option isnt there still. can you please fix it? kel

kevin, i might be wrong, cause god knows i was stuck in the friggin box briefing about 2,000 tandems all day but im pretty sure that they broke the record at 106 way 3 point dive then went on and broke it again with a 106 way 4pt dive.

dz, thats an easy one. if you work on the dz youre more than likely an independent contractor. at least if you do anything besides manifest. Im an I.C. and all skydiving expenses are tax deductable cause im spending money to advance my career. anything skydiving related from renting gear to buying tee shirts are all for 'work'. so i can write them off. lift tickets included. kel

hehe. kev, that tent that youre talking about is danny's. we set it up back during the season opener back in the end of april. we havent used it since that first night. its not a general purposes tent, but im sure danny would say that he could stay there. its just that neither of us has thought to take it down. its in the middle of nowhere. id personally suggest setting up a tent right near the pool, behind the fence, near the compound. thats just my 2 cents

Whoo hee! dave got here on saturday night. hung out with him and his friend sean all evening after work. I seriously felt like ive known him for years. Sunday moring i worked till about 3pm. me and dave ran back to my house to grab some grub. Hung out sunday night. Lots of fun. quite an amusing evening. Monday morning woke up and started jumping. Wish dave and sean could have stayed longer but im sure they (or at least wingi) will be. now, on to the skydiving stories... okay, heres the second attempt at updating you guys on the whole skydiving thing. First time i spent half an hour typing away just to loose my connection when i was writing the last sentances! argggg! so here it is, shortened. Did jump number 13 this morning. It was going to be my high solo. Nice exit, leveled off. did a back loop, then turns. realized i had a long spot so did some flat tracking towards my holding area. waved off at 5 grand. pulled at 4'5. Realized after trying to penetrate the wind for about 1,200 feet that i had to land off at the golf course. No biggie. except that on that very same load they were doing a demo jump into the golf course with some tandem passengers that worked there. So jump no 13 turned into an accidental demo jump into the golf course. I wanted to land across the street in a field instead but i didnt know the land and didnt want to risk unfamiliar territiory when i had a better option. I so did not want to have to land in front of a bunch of whuffos. but I had to... Stood that landing up (thanks god for not embarrasing me!). Next jump was my low solo from 5 grand. As a joke i waved off in the plane (thats my normal wave off alti.). Three tandems w/ vid were on that load so the 3 camera guys all videoed my exit. Nothing like 3 cameras in your face for your pre second low solo. :) leveled out and pulled w/in 5 seconds. Nice stand up landing 5 inches from the X. After that i went ahead and rented some demo gear from square 3. For the next two jumps id be jumping a spectre 190 instead of the navigator 200 i had been jumping. The third jump of the day was a skydive U coach jump. That went really sweet. Wave off at 5 grand, turn 180 tracked for 4 seconds. I got a bit "Um, i waved off at 5, i should be pulling now not tracking!" so i ended the track early. And it wasnt anywhere near as good as the last time i tracked. Jump number 4 today was the same as number 3 but with more backwards movent in there. Nice rear float exit again, on the 'hill' i actually turned my body towards my coach. That really impressed him. Smooth freefall. 5 grand waved off, turned 180 started to track. Felt something smacking the back of my right thigh. a second later my coach is flying under and a body space over to my left. I immediately thought "pilot chute in tow, hes giving me clear airspace!". no parachute deployment but i was still bugged out. Turned out it was my damned leg strap. So i tried to track but my procedures got the better of me and i waved off and reached for the hackie. One nice hard pull, nothing. second pull, nothing, a quick third pull, nothing. grasping the silver with the left hand while giving the hackie yet another yank. Finally! it came out. Joe estimates i was under a good canopy at 2 grand. Thats scary. okay, heres the lessons learned: 1) landing off is going to happen. its okay. expect the unexpected. adjust the landing pattern. be very aware of other canopies in the air with you. what your comfortable with (as far as space goes) they may not be. You see them but they assume you dont. So give a little extra since youre assuming they doubt your canopy skills. 2) low solos are fun! sub terminal openings are schweeet! 3) A few more practices on the two stage flare up high are necessary. 2 or 3 just dont cut it. A good PLF almost gaurentees youre at the least limping away :) 4) pack your own gear. if you cant pack your own gear know the person whos packing for you, know their skill. After 2 attempts and having a no pull realize youre in a high speed malfunction and pull the friggin silver. Those extra 2 attempts could have killed me 70,80,90 jumps down the road when im waving off at 3,500 feet. Now i know. so, four jumps today. a great end to a great weekend. lessons learned on every skydive. id say it was a great weekend and an amazing day of jumping. kelly

hey sp, didnt see your post until a few minutes ago. its now monday evening, about 8:15. If you were at cross keys today you might have seen me, matter of fact, i dont know how you couldnt have noticed me. First two jumps i was wearing the ugly blue/pink student jumpsuits with a huge blue rig. for my second two i was jumping a black javalin and i had on a PEPTO BISMO pink jumpsuit. I was hanging out in front of the hanger most of the day, working on the creepers with joe Oconner. Sorry i missed ya! kel ps~ fruce was out today too. he has a purple freefly suit and matching purple shoes.

hey cyber. i think that i can mangage to walk up to him with a straight face, assume thats hes a first time tandem student and let him know that the next briefing will begin in a few minutes... :) that should get him good. hehe but seriously, whats his name so i can be sure to say hello? kel

finally.. after a long snowy winter, after repeated levels, bad landings, money holds, after hundreds of hours at the drop zone, after 3 jobs (one of which i quit), after everything that has gone on since i made the desicion to go thru the student program i have finally graduated! whoo heee! did my levels 6 & 7 on friday. It couldnt have come together more smoothly. Level six went awesome. the exit was smooth, backloops were amazing, altitude awareness was completely on, and the tracking was undescribible. Do you guys remember the first time you got those arms out from in front of you, and was truely flying, without any body parts in front of your face? the feeling was... i cant describe it. up a little bit later for level 7. this one was also a solo exit, but with one front loop and 2 360 degree turns for practice. Thanks to our very own playmate we got 15'5 on that one. by 10 grand i was done the frontloop and 2 turns. It was time to do some flat tracking. Jeff (my instructor) gave the signal and it all felt so natural. My arms came down next to my body, my legs extended and locked. my head was high, and I was ready. Tracked next to eachother for a bit. then jeff gave the signal to turn and track. This time i rolled my shoulders in, and dearched. I was actually flat tracking! The feeling i got when i changed body position; the view of truely flying, free of any interference, no arms in front of me.. I cant describe it. And i cant wait to do some real tracking dives. and an added perk? Actually 2... i burned jeff a few jumps ago when i went into a deep arch, he said i took off like a bat outta hell. and then he said that i was tracking like crazy, he couldnt catch up to me until i turned back towards him and headed that way. Its nice to hear things like that.. it really is. Cant wait to get vertical! (afer a lot of work on my belly) so how was your weekend...??

i hear whuffo at xkeys used fairly often. mostly after hours when were sitting around talking about the day and the people who were there...

mouth, at cross keys that isnt a joke.... :) 11 way tandems from 14'5 are pretty sweet hehehehe its all about 'takin one for the team'. extra altTITude benifits everybody.

mouth, at cross keys that isnt a joke.... :) 11 way tandems from 14'5 are pretty sweet hehehehe its all about 'takin one for the team'. extra atTITude benifits everybody.

marc, i was the typical student~ my legs were up on my butt and too far apart. no matter how many toe taps i did or how many times i got the legs out sign i wasnt getting stable. So my JM and i figured out a new solution: "knee taps". I get the sign and i do a head to toe check. when i get to my legs I say "knee tap" and tap my knees together. then i dont even pull them out. Its really weird looking actually, cause my legs are so close together. but thats what works for me.. its what i need to do to be stable. So get with an instructor, figure out what you need to do. by the way im really short (not sure if that has something to do with why having my knees and legs so close together works for me) kelly

hey all. figured id let you guys know whats been going on in my neck of the woods lately... Working full time at the DZ now. averaging about 40 - 50 hours a week. packing alot less cause im in the briefing room so much. Been staying at the dz most every night. Even have a (possibly temporary) room out there right now, sharing it with a friend. I did a really kick ass tandem jump about 2 weeks ago for shits and giggles.. Couldnt afford to finish AFF so instead i grabbed 2 slots and borrowed a tandem rig. It was absolutely amazing. Stacys pics (their on her web site) should explain why it was so much fun. Finally got up in the air to do some AFF jumps today. The first one i wasnt really looking to pass it, just to get stable. Being on the ground for the past 40+ days without making a solo jump caused me to focus on being stable first, then completing my objectives if i got stable. So the first jump went okay. Great exit, good altitude awareness, my legs were too far apart so i got a lot of the legs out sign. but that didnt even help cause my arch wasnt much due to the legs being so far apart. Nice clean solo wave and pull. Okay canopy control. rode that one in on my ass then stood up and PLFed (soley to amuse my JM who wants me to PLF even if i stand it up). That got a good laugh out of him. So we debrief and he says that were going up on the next load. weve got stuff to work on. So i spent the next 20 minutes dirt diving and doing PRCP's the whole way to the airport. ours is getting repaved so we had to take a van to a neighboring airport, board there, then jump into our landing area. that was weird. but i made sure that i kept saying "head, arms, pelvis down, knee tap, legs together, feet" and you know what? it worked. The exit for my second jump wasnt as good as the first, but still stable. Leveled out. did my COA, everytime i felt myself getting unstable i said outloud "legs together, feet out." and it totally worked. So my JM released me, came in front of me, gave me a couple of signs that we had made up such as tapping his helment ment i was to verbally say "head, arms, pelvis, knees together, legs out.." stuff like that. didnt get many arch or legs out signs. 360 degree left turn that was schweet. alti check. track forward. maintain stablility. 360 right turn. alti check. track forward. maintain stability. waved off at 5 grand. solo pull. good canopy ride. good canopy control. great airspace awareness (tandems everywhere!). good landing pattern. JM assisted with flare. flared too high. held the toggles about waist level when i realized that. finished the flare. dug the left toggle down a bit so that caused me to do a left sided PLF. Walked into the hanger and im still on a great high from those 2 jumps! so thats what's been up with me lately. sorry ive been so scarce lately.. spending all my time at the dz. so how is everybody else? kel

karen, those were some good questions they were asking. Im on ambulance duty right now so i dont have my EMT book handy (how ironic) but once i get home sometime this week i will find the chapter on spinal injuries. I distinctly remember seeing the picture and reading the SOP's for treating a trauma patient wearing a full face helmet. So ill re-read that and let you know what it says. 2 weeks ago we had a jumper land off at the golf course and break his ankle. Applying her coaching and training his friend landed off with him (if he's landing off, dont let him go it alone). because she did this she was able to know that he broke his leg. She told me that her first thought was "he's hurt. Kellys at the dz.. do i call her or call 911? call her or call 911?" She did the right thing and called 911. My point being, for certain situations our care might be enough but when our help isnt IMMEDIATELY available or the situation warrents our fellow jumpers should know that they have to go beyond asking for our help and make that call themselves. Thank goodness Liddy did. After that a conversation followed with quite a few jumpers that centered around what i just said. Other skydivers trust us and respect us, they rely on us if were needed. We just have to make sure that they know that sometimes they have to forget about what help we can provide and think long term. That trauma patient cant have help delayed. Call 911, then call for me. chances are ill get there before them, but at least their rig is rollin. kelly

wingi, we are soooo there. if work permits of course. but seriously, ive used you as my motivation to get licensed. saving money thinking to myself "gotta get the A license. dave will be here soon". and it works some motivation you are.. calling me flap and all. lol

Wingi, some how, in this crazy mixed up universe everything has fallen perfectly into place. Things are set, help has arrived, and i will be graduating AFF on the next weather permitting day. Will probably be doing my high and low solos too. Will be using the skydive U jumps that I won sometime next week. Will be doing some solo jumps too. I should be licenced by the time you get here. I already took the A license test and passed it a while back. All i have to do is get the jumps in. And that should be happening soon. Thank goodness Im working full time with the video consession/tandem briefing. I forgot how good it felt to actually earn a nice paycheck. :) kel

it's been a while since this thread was active and i was wondering how the safety records are maintaining themselves at your home dz's.. has the need arisen for you to step in and provide EMS? if so, did the dz support you? are you glad that you helped out? any feedback is appreciated. btw~we've had a few injuries, all landing based injuries, and everything has worked out fine. A few broken bones, but not anything that I couldnt handle until the ambulance got there. a medical emergency that at first appeared to be a truama EM. involving an elderly lady occured a few weeks back. I believe i put that story up (?). In any case, some quick thinking and the good ole' jaw thrust manuver cleared her airway and improved her health... The support that i recieve from the entire DZ staff is amazing.. always ready with a radio, my medical bag, a cel phone, using canopies to block the sun, gathering up gear and securing it in a locked office.. anything that i need, they're right there helping me and the patient out. hope your getting the same kind of support if your training is being needed. kelly

geeze. and i thought that fellow home dz'ers were supposed to protect eachother.. instead ive got dave, kevin and stacy all ratting me out. Whos next? fruce, got any dirt to share? :) lets clear up a few things. I got extra alTITude on my last jump. nuff said. And i am wearing bottoms in that pool pic.. whether they match the bathing suit top or not, it depends on if your color blind or not. and for the boobie shot, well, sometimes you dont realize things like that when your caught up in all the excitement. BTW wingi, just wait until you get out here.. Ill get you back for that doggie comment. :) ah, you guys make me laugh. kel

hey all. just wanted to start a thread wishing great luck to all of our friends going to the world air games in spain this week. Tonight the U.S. CReW team left Xkeys to head down there. I miss those guys already. the flying Gelardis leave on thursday.. Lets wish them all the best of luck! So are there any other teams representing the U.S. from your dz? if so.. tell em good luck. kel (sangiro.. see, im still around! :)

hey terrance. youve forgot about those of us whos job is working at the dz.. we dont have to dream about it, we dont have to play on dz.com to fullfill that desire, we dont have to hate it. of course we love it.. WE WORK AT THE FRIGGIN DZ! sometimes life sucks. sometimes life KICKS ASS. For me I finally found the kick ass job that i love waking up for. kelly

another tip for practicing body positions. All you need is a nice sized pool, another person (preferably skydiver) and some of those "noodle" pool toys. If you place the noodles the right way such as behind your thighs, under your feet, between you and the bottom of the pool (against your belly).. all different ways. We did that a few times this week and even though i have no freefly jumps, i was nailing my 'sit'. :) Another jumper is benificial cause they can help you judge what corrections youre body position calls for. all you gotta do is grab another skydiver, get yourself some water noodles and go hop in the pool. You'll figure out how to use the noodles to simulate the correct body positions. kelly