Mad47

Both ways work well enough to win gold on the international level or get world records for the most formations turned in time. It would be difficult to say one is "better" when it comes to actual performace. Letters and numbers are easier to write as far as notations go, but to say which is better for the actual performance is perhaps a moot point. I was about to add this to original post but you were faster What really makes a difference, I believe, is the way how each individual imagines the objects which comes to the differences in fine synaptic organization. I was not trying to suggest that simple letters and numbers is easier for absolutely everyone.

Isn't it easier to think N-C-K-4 instead of Crank-Murphy Flake-Hook-Monopod-Monopod when you dirt dive, visualize or make a real skydive? After several month of every day (really) watching Airspeed tapes and visualizing I come to the point when I can clearly and quickly picture any skydive randomly selected in my mind as a combination of letters and numbers (from both my point of view and cameraman's point of view) during spontaneous visualization. Interestingly, it takes much more effort to remember the actual 'long' names of every formation and being able to quickly reproduce them in my mind. Frustration? Long ago, when we started our first team (February 2004) I was trying to help everyone by telling where to place the bodies on creepers and what grips to take. Not anymore. Not knowing the dive pool by heart should be frustrating. This of course only applies to those who do teams. Just my 2 cents

Congratulations, John!

Me! I hope to be on a team someday. But, Minnesota? Are you nuts? Hm ... you live in FL and jump at Z-hills. Why it is so difficult to be on a team??

I believe everything depends a lot on mentality and motivation of each particular student. The fact is most of the people never return to make a second skydive after their first tandem jump. What's a point of sitting through the whole AFF class is you are not sure whether or not you will make a second dive? If the person is not sure about taking it seriously, then I believe the tandem is a way to go because it is easier - requires less commitment, training and responsibility for students personal safety. The safety part, however, is questionable (as far as I know, the first student jump fatality rate is very low), but I am not instructor and do not have a lot of experience to argue about it. On the other hand, a lot of people (including myself) started AFF right away and they do not seem to regret about it. It is up to you to make a decision.

I think it should be illegal to post the stories like that I am not getting any tunnel time until October

true

PM sent

I, by all means, belong to new and not yet experienced generation, but I totally understand and support this concept. Pulling high in crowded airspace is more dangerous than pulling close to minimum deployment altitude.

yup ... the way how I think about it (and the way how I have been taught by my mentors) - 80% of what we do in free fall is mental. Establishing of right and, what is very important, positive mental patterns in your mind from the only beginning will help you to progress faster and better understand the basics. Most of the mistakes we make are very simple mistakes, they happen when we do not follow the simple principles applied to every dive. Do not tell yourself what no to do. Try to focus on positive aspects and keep the simple principles in mind and you will soon become a very good skydiver

It makes sense, however the business becomes more and more competitive. There are already several tunnels in US and Europe and more are coming. European skydives who used to train in US will now use the local tunnels. I bet the prices will go down at some point.

I wonder, if the prices will go down as they build more and more tunnels around the world.

And even on docile canopy. I induced the line twists on Sabre 170 by aggressive toggle spiraling in one direction and then initiating a turn in the opposite direction before returning to static flight. Stupid ... I had about 30-40 jumps under my belt when it happened. I was terrified when I found myself with twisted up canopy at about 900 ft. Fortunately, it was not spinning and I was able to untwist it quickly. Good lesson.

Again a very comoon error Alway dock on level and always stop completely before you dock Levels. Proximity. Grips.

I have nothing to add to Bill's advice on fall rate, so I will just comment this. The last thing you should think about is grips. Chasing grips is a very common problem. Most of the people who learn FS do chase grips in the beginning and even some very good skydivers who compete in advanced 4-way do it from time to time. Learn not to think about grips from the only beginning of your skydiving carrier. Instead of looking at the grips, reaching and chasing, try to maintain the visual contact with other people and think about putting your body in a right place in the sky because if you and your partners are in the right place, THE GRIPS WILL BE THERE. In contrast, if you are not in the right place, reaching for the grips will not help.

Looking at the impact of tunel training on the modern freeflying and FS I'd say it will not only survive but expand and become more and more popular.

It is kinda slow ... most likely because millions of skydivers are trying to log on to check the weather

Yup .. works fine for me too

The radio is good for assistance but it is YOUR responsibility to flare and land the thing even when radio transmission is not optimal or not working at all. In any case, I would refrain from calling a person who took you for one of the very first dives a lazy ass.

Isn't it amazing that during night freefall the body fells the air better than during a normal day skydive? My most memorable night dive so far was last August. We planned a 3-way drill dive but ended up playing around, passing kisses and howling at the full moon.

Sure ... if it is a very soft and small rock

It's ok, baby ... I was actually thinking about starting the next camp at 6 so we can stretch well and creep a few dives before the first load

Lloyd Lee

P.S.: Look at her signature – she surely got a right 4-way attitude

First of all, thank you all for the input. It is really amazing that we get so much help from 4-way community I believe Jess is trying to criticize herself little bit too much since most of our initial problems with exits were caused by the group effort: 1) not trusting IC and not being able to read the count and leave on time 2) not presenting properly 3) not putting enough effort to save the exit or stop the spin (spinning E's and B's is a good example) and 4) stupid Tail leaving a bit late. The thing is that during last camp (and only after 30 jumps together) our exits have improved 100% mainly because Jess did a great job making her count rock solid, easy to read and very consistent. As a result, we were sailing some nice B's, N's, H's and O's having only few funnels. She still needs to work on leaving the plane with her hips first instead or her upper body but I believe this is a secondary problem. Again, we are very new team (less than 1600 jumps all together) so we cannot expect to become great instantly. The learning curve is steep which makes our training fun. Sputnik