Newbie

most deranged, hedonistic, chaotic, exuberant etc etc Speak from personal experience if poss Edited to add: drop some stories if you can to back your claims "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

hope you guys had a great day! Congratulations to you both "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

if so where? Thanks "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

don't worry it doesn't take that long to cut the time it takes for you to pack in half - it took ages for me to learn, and even longer before i was happy to jump my own, and once i did, i was saving one jump ticket out of every 4 jumps from packing fees, feeling happier that i was learning more about my equipment and was more responsible for my own safety (even though i trust my packers to a tee, i think it's important to know your gear, and take responsibility for yourself and your own well being, and packing certainly helps). 50 pack jobs or so down the line, you will think it's alot easier, that's for sure - just keep at it. And when you do get quicker, and are happy with your packing, try not to get complacent and pack quicker than normal/cut corners just to make a load. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I really don't understand this attitude. You could say exactly the same about any epidemiological study. It's possible to get lung cancer even if you don't smoke, vegetarians die of heart attacks, and it's possible to die in a car crash even if none of the parties has been drinking alcohol --- Murphy strikes in many places. However, statistics are a good indicator of what's happening to the population as a whole. They certainly are a good indicator, i'm not disputing that, but as far as im concerned there is no way to know what life will throw at you, and therefore they remain nothing more than an indicator. The most important thing is to not be lulled into a false sense of security by the fact you aren't anywhere near 20,000 jumps or what have you. Vigilance on every jump, regardless of what the statistics say, is more important than what the statistics say, is what im trying to say. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

stats in skydiving should be taken with a larger than usual handful of salt as far as im concerned. Im new to this but reading the history it's obvious that you can do everything right and still die. When Murphy strikes, that doesn't have much to do with statistics. Realise that you are not "safe" because you are nowhere near a magical number; rather, be vigilant and practice your reserve drills on the ground, in the plane and just before exit everytime you go up, and think that the next jump will yield a mal and you will need to be calm and react to that situation. That should help you out when the shit hits the fan, and if all fails and Murphy shows up, well you went out doing what you love, that's the way i look at it. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

i just wanted to know what the deal was with the boogie as i can't get on to www.robharris.org or www.robharrisboogie.com for some reason. Is it still on at Eloy? Can someone provide dates please, i want to see if i can get out there for it. Thanks! "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

that's weird - i didn't post this. Does anyone know why this post has appeared in my name? Newbie "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

If you catch them do you give them another chance or pull the "red handle" as you guys say... My FJC taught me it was a silver handle, so what's the red one? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I don't get why I read so much about people cheating on eachother. Here's the question for the skydivers. If you're S.O. cheats on you, what do you do and why? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

you actually only need to be Cat 9. You can then do solo FF jumps within reason (i think if the CCI spots you attempting to do some headdown by yourself you'll probably get a talking to at the very least). If you want to jump with other FF'ers they need to be FF1. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Hi - landing your canopy on target is not the only factor to be taken into account when downsizing (although i'm sure you are aware of that) After 60+ jumps, what are your coaches evaluating you on to tell you you are ready to downsize 2 or 3 canopy sizes since coming off student status, i'm just curious to know? Coaching jumps on a canopy control seminar cannot replace going up and experiencing adverse conditions (turbulence, dust devils (prevalent at Eloy as you know), someone heading towards you at 100ft from the ground etc) that going up and just being under canopy can, and experiencing that stuff first hand. The smaller you get, and the quicker you get there, the harder it is to safely get yourself out of a hole when you experience these adverse situations and have to react quickly. I'm sure you have learnt a lot of invaluable information from your coaching jumps/control seminars but just make sure you are happy in your mind that you are downsizing because you have experience to do so, rather than someone saying you can because you can just handle the extra speed/penetration of the higher wingloaded canopy and still land on target. I don't know what your wingloading is, and again it's a personal decision, i'm just reiterating what a lot of experienced guys on here have told me (which is why i don't plan to downsize anytime soon) Please don't take this as personal criticism - it's not -and im far from experienced, it's just out of concern for you and the thought you might be getting yourself into a tight spot. As my canopy coach said, you need to be able to crawl, before you walk before you run before you sprint. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

6 month cycle? IS that a UK thing? yeah "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

and then reassembling it? I read that you should do this to keep them from maybe seizing up. I've only disconnected them twice so far - on my 6 month repack cycles when i cutaway and pull the reserve. Should i do it more frequently? I usually just flex them and "roll" the rings to check for wear and tear. Thanks "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

as in stroke palms, then point/bounce fists etc? I'm just curious to know when/why/who this started with, and what accounts for regional differences (in the UK people generally give some skin then point, whereas in Spain they bounce fists) What do people in the US do? Why? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Anyone going to this (or has anyone been in the past?) Have been speaking to the organiser and it sounds great - just wondering if anyone has had any experience at this boogie, and what i could expect etc etc. Thanks "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I don't know about telling the entire load, but i normally will tell the person/group after me/us if i think they need to know (i'm a newbie too, but i'd rather tell someone who i haven't seen before at the dz, or someone with not that much more (or even less) experience than myself). I'm not saying everyone should do it, but all you have to do is ask "experienced" jumpers at the drop zone on how long they are leaving for separation on the previous load to be greeted with the astonishing "wait till the group/jumper out before you is at 45 degrees" to realise that even those with 1000s of jumps still use a method for separation that guarantees nothing. I'd rather have someone roll their eyes, and give a sarcastic response to me politely and cheerfully reminding them - with a smile - about distance and/or time to leave for separation, then have the threat of collisions and compromising safety for the sake of some pride and/or the assumption people on the load all are up to speed on something as basic as leaving adequate separation. I'm sure the newbie you are talking about is taking it a little too far telling the entire load, but newbies reading this should not feel like they can't tell people what to leave separation wise if they feel they need to. Peace of mind on exit is all too important for a good, safe jump so do what you feel you need to do to be happy mentally before exit is what i'm saying, especially if the guy/girl going out after you is doing some freeflying and "only has 10 sit jumps and a few attempts at headdown!!". You get the idea. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

if anyone saw this, and knows how to use the net to find out what Arthur Agee and William Gates are up to now, like who they are playing for etc etc, post up - i was watching it again for the first time in years last night, and i'm really curious to know what happened to those guys. Thanks "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

hi - i have a mac (15" Powerbook) which i use for video editing at work (and the "odd" bit of skydiving editing), but i want to keep work and home stuff separate. Also for some reason, broadband suppliers here dont seem too well equipped to handle mac users - dont know why. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

man oh MAN it's hard to buy one of these things if you haven't been following technological advances! I need some advice - preferably from any UK based peoples - on what i should look at - price and a good after sales support are the prime factors here. I don't need anything super fancy, it will be for home use only, nothing more intensive graphically than playing a few games, mainly for MS Office use and browsing the web - the usual home usage stuff. I was looking at the Dell Dimension series, which seem pretty decent, but have had mixed reports about their after sales support. I want something with 512mb RAM, an 80gb hard drive and that's about it (a TFT monitor would be nice to save some space, but not essential). I have about £700 ($1000) (+ or - £100) to spend, which will have to include tax and delivery etc. It's budget end basically. Any and all advice would be much appreciated! Thanks all. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

i know some camera flyers on tandems that have to pay their own slot. Is this not the norm? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

yeah anyone. I just want to know who jumps for free and how. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

if you do, how? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Dave, L&B have been clever and prepared for "user error"! Check out page 43 of the ProTrack manual which "enables the user to Program the Pro-Track to the present altitude (if it was switched off during the climb". Nice one thanks Craig "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

this should probably be in safety and training, but i figure more people are likely to see it here. Having used a Protrack for the last 80 jumps or so, i thought i knew what i was doing. When i didn't hear the beeps at 1000ft, i realised i hadn't turned the damn thing on. Now this might sound stupid, but i took it out and turned it on at approx 1500ft. Thankfully while doing something stupid like that, i did have the common sense to think "hold on, will it set 1500ft as ground level?" and realised that if it did do the first beep at 6000 instead of 4500 i wasn't going to worry about it and think my visual alti was out (made a mental note to check the ground too just to be sure!) - i was on a simple 2 way, so i wasn't too worried about it. Anyway lo and behold it went 1st beep at about 6000ft, second at 4500 (which was slightly disconcerting as normally i'm hearing that just as i pull, and 3rd and final "DO SOMETHING DAMMIT!" beep just as i'm deploying (pretty disconcerting, but interesting to hear what it sounds like) Anyway just a reminder to those who might be using a protrack for the first time or are new to it - don't turn the damn thing on in the plane, unless you want to see amusingly low deployment altitutes! "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts