Scoby

Very good point! Are there any exercises I can do to create greater altitude awareness, or is it an experience thing? I'll talk to the instructors at my DZ. I certainly don't want to start out with any bad habits. If an audible is a bad idea now, then I can certainly wait until later. Thanks!

I haven't jumped in a thunderstorm (I've only seen lightning a handful of times since I moved from Miami). However, I've been in lightning storms in planes a few times. One time, our plane was struck shortly after takeoff from MIA while the pilot was giving his speech. "Uh, we'll be climbing to altitude of 35,000 and cruise at a speed of..." *BOOOM!* ...utter silence for a minute or so, followed by the pilot in a shaky voice explaining that the good folks at Boeing engineered the plane to handle that sort of situation. It was odd, because the pilot really seemed rattled. Another time, while landing at JFK in a raging storm, our plane acquired some weird glow on the wings. I assume it was electrical in nature. Quite beautiful, really.

My girlfriend decided to do a tandem because I was doing AFF. I'm to this day a bit shocked that she decided to and then actually did it. However, when she talked about perhaps doing AFF, I gently reminded her how bent out of shape she can get over little things. I could see her having a malfunction and just panicking instead of doing anything about it. I certainly wouldn't want that on my conscience. Some (most?) people just shouldn't skydive. I do encourage some of my friends to try it, but I only suggest it to those I think are made for it.

I'm sorry if I was unclear. I didn't intend for that to come off the way that you understood it. What I meant was that I don't want to get in the habit of depending on the dytter. While I certainly will appreciate the warning if I manage to lose altitude awareness, I want to depend on my regular altimeter to know when to break and pull. On the other hand, I would really like to be able to log my dives so I can write it all down at the end of the day. To me, that will be worth the extra money over time. I really appreciate all the information and advice!

Hmmm, that is an interesting suggestion and I will take it into consideration. Perhaps I can get a suit when I go to take the canopy class. I would like something shiny and new, though. Something else to ponder...

Grippers and booties, it is. I'm inclined towards Tony Suits simply because their interactive suit designer is letting me test my design ideas. All the suit companies should have these (like the canopy and container companies do). I'll call my DZ and ask them if they have arrangements. I know they have the Tony forms. Any thoughts on fabrics?

Bunch more newbie questions: I need to order my first jumpsuit soon. I am strongly considering a RW suit, because it will be a long, long time before I should be thinking about freeflying. What suit companies are the best? Which companies are the fastest without having to pay rush charges? I am thinking about a Tony Swoop Suit. Do I need to get grippers? If I don't need grippers, would a relatively tight FF suit be ok? How about booties? Any thoughts on the various materials? I'm relatively light with respect to my height, so I could probably use a slightly faster fall rate. Thanks in advance!

I don't know if that was ever practiced outside of Ireland, or if there's any real reason to it, but my mother likes to tell the tale. I started finishing my dad's pints at the pub when I was quite young. To me, it is the most drinkable beer. I don't understand how Americans think of it as heavy.

Guinness Stout, room temperature When I was born, the nurse brought my mother a pint. I've always liked Guinness, even when I didn't like "beer."

Cool! I hope my DZ has a packing class soon. I'm almost certainly going to have to take a day off work to do it. Oh well... Thanks so much for all the replies!

Shockingly quick answer, thanks! That's pretty much what I expected. Fair enough too...if I were a DZO, I wouldn't want to deal with it. I guess I just need to get everything in order as soon as possible. I'm itching to take a canopy control course at Perris. Thanks again!

I'm at 19 jumps, off student status and a packing class away from an A license. I was curious about a few things. First of all, how long does the A license take to arrive after I send in the card? Secondly, am I stuck at my home DZ until after I receive it, or can I go to other dropzones once I have a certain number of jumps logged? One of the upjumpers at my DZ said he didn't get his A until he had 350 jumps (!), but I neglected to follow up with any questions about how that restricted him. Thanks!

RW suit it is, I guess. Are grippers important? I've been leaning towards an open-face helmet, like the Mindwarp, so that's cool. My only concern with a hand-mounted altimeter is reading it while tracking and under canopy with my hands on the toggles. As for the Protrack, what I want it for is the logging of the jumps. The dytter aspect is not as important for me at this point. Anyway, thanks for the advice! I guess I need to order the jumpsuit soon. Then altimeter and helmet. I'll wait a bit on the Protrack, if for no other reason than cost.

Well, I'm about 155 lbs soaking wet. How much should I add for gear, weights, etc.? I just assumed 25 lbs or so. I didn't really give thought to gaining weight, though. I used to be a tubby bastard, so I imagine it could happen again if I drink too much beer. So maybe I should be thinking a used 190 and a container that can accomodate a 170 later on? I certainly don't want to be scaring myself on a regular basis! I should probably take the canopy control class first and then worry about what kind of canopy to get. This is probably all very premature, but reading about various canopies is so much fun. It's like all the car magazines full of machines I can't afford to drive yet... It's like dreaming of presents as a kid when it's still September... It's pretty frustrating... What I can (and should) think about getting now is a jumpsuit, helmet, and altimeter. I'd also like a Protrack, as I'd like more accurate logs. I'm torn between RW and FF suits, full-face and open-face helmets, and wrist or chest altimeter... So many choices, so little money...

OK, I guess I'm going to come out to Perris and take the classes. I need to get my A license first (mostly just the packing class at this point). I did a tandem at Perris and was impressed, but I didn't want to do AFF at such a big DZ. All-day rental for $65 is extremely tempting, though, as that is reasonably cheap on a per-jump basis. I really want to jump out of the skyvan! I guess my plan now is to get my A license, then immediately take canopy control classes. After that, I'll probably do a tour of the other local DZs. Then I'll head back to my dropzone before they start to miss me. Well, there goes all my disposable income for the next while... If 190 is the right size for me, then I'll stop right there. I'm not going to let my ego get in the way of safety. However, 170 would be 1.05 for me, so that's my goal for a first canopy. I'd like to get a few hundred jumps out of anything I spend oodles of moolah on. :) Is a Hornet an appropriate first canopy, after canopy control classes and a bunch more rental jumps?

I fall into the really, really new category. I currently have 19 jumps. Since transitioning to hand-deploy, I've been jumping the PD260. Should I be looking for a canopy control class now, or should I get some more jumps under my belt first? I'm not too far off from an A license, so I'm looking forward to wandering from my home drop zone a bit (I have a feeling it's gonna feel like cheating). I live in LA, so I have some options. Should I drive out to Perris and take classes? Are there other socal dropzones with similar classes? What is involved in renting gear at most DZs? Sorry, I have lots of questions. What is a good sign that one is ready to go down a size? I was surprised by how noticable going from 300 to 280 was, and then again to 260. While I'm having plenty of fun right now, I'd like to get a little more forward progress into the wind. I'd like to be able to get to a 170 or so for my first purchased canopy (exit weight is about 180, is this realistic?), but I'm willing to go as slowly as possible to do this safely. How should I approach it? How many jumps should I have at each size before moving on? Or should I have specific goals to achieve at each size? I am having such a blast right now. Skydiving is the most amazing activity I have ever participated in. I intend to do it for as long as possible, and so I'm going to be as careful as one can be (while still throwing oneself out of a plane at altitude). Thanks in advance!

I'm actually not in a hurry to downsize, but I am in a hurry to get off the ripcord rigs. Our DZ has PD260-300s for the rpcord rigs, but the hard-deploy rentals are PD230s. I have a feeling that should be plenty of performance for a while. For me, that's a loading of .8. I'm going to go rather slow with the canopies. I'm more excited by freefall than canopy flight anyway.

Hey Andy, what's up? Oh, Beth guessed that we went skydiving without her this weekend. I didn't even have to tell her. She won't be upset, though, as long as we go again next weekend. She plans to do two jumps to try and catch up a bit. Fat chance. Anyway, my plan, for at least the next few jumps, is to work on my leg position in boxman and my body position while tracking. I have no intention of doing anything fancy until I'm sure that I can do those things well. My main focus on the next few jumps is to work on my landings. I'm annoyed that I still can't hit the peas and have trouble timing my flare. I know how to do everything and I've had a few sweet landings, so my goal is to be able to do it everytime. I want to be able to transition to hand deploy sooner than later, so I need to be ready to land the smaller rigs. Other than that, I think this is the time we're supposed to enjoy the sport and learn to relax in the air. The other stuff comes later.

Landing definitely seems to be my weakness. I'm still a student, about to take level 7. Everything seems to be going great in the air, only failed one level so far and not by much. I've progressed to the point where I'm comfortable leaving the plane, freefalling, opening, and flying the canopy. Landing, though, has remained a bitch. I always seem to come up short of the peas, despite getting to all of the markers at the right altitudes. But the real bitch is the fact that I've only had two landings I can be proud of. I just don't have a feel for when to flare. Last jump, I watched for the spot that doesn't move, but I managed to flare too high (I thought I was about to hit) and dropped the last few feet a bit harder than I'd like. At least I didn't go back to full flight this time (I did that a couple of jumps back and had a bad landing). I haven't hurt myself yet, but I'm starting to feel like ass, now that my friends I started with are having semi-decent landings. I think that part of my problem is that I've been jumping a month apart. My best landing happened on the second jump the one day I actually did two. Anyway, if you have any advice, I'm open to it. Mostly, I'm just venting. Everything else seems to be coming relatively easily, but I just can't seem to land well. Guess I'll never be a swooper. :)

When I was taking my AFF1 course (I'm still a student), a helicopter came to the DZ. It was already in the afternoon and there were a lot of students, so it was clear that some people weren't going to jump. I volunteered to go last, since I'd had a couple of tandems already and my friends had never jumped. Anyway, I was kinda bummed about not jumping and I wanted to get up in the air that day, so I asked if I could do an observer ride on the helicopter. I'd never been in a chopper before (I've since gone on a helicopter ride in Maui), so I probably annoyed the hell out of the pilot with all my questions. He flew to 5000' AGL and hovered. The jumpers in the back climed out onto the skids and then stepped off. The chopper bucked around a bit as they departed, even though they just dropped off. On the video, it certainly looked less controlled than leaving from a plane. It took them a few seconds to get stable. After the jumpers left, the pilot autorotated most of the way down. That was probably the coolest part of the ride. He said that the cost of running the chopper (a Bell Jet Ranger) was several hundred dollars an hour (mostly related to maintenance and parts) and that the helicopter company wasn't making much money on the skydiving. The pilot said that he did it for fun and because he is a skydiver also. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting enough experience so that I can jump out of a copter myself. The ride definitely made what could have been a disappointing day into a great one! I know that was slightly off topic, but if I were you, I'd take the first chance to jump out of a chopper!