gale

Just to share with the stories of stupidity, here's one of mine from yesterday: I'm trying to learn to track and this was my second attempt. Last time I jumped with a coach and he had me track 90 degress to the wind line so I didn't get too far away from the field (5 seconds one way, 180, 5 seconds the other, repeat). Well this time, there was a two-way getting out before me and they had some trouble getting out of the plane because the door kept falling down, so the spot was going to be a little long. So I give them some seperation and then exit. Only I think to myself, seeing as the spot was long, and the field is OVER THERE I think I'll just try tracking to it. Well dumb me forgot to consider the jumpers ahead of me, I COULD HAVE TRACKED RIGHT INTO THEIR OPENING CANOPIES! Luckily that didn't happen, the jumper who came out after me just took me aside and reminded me why it's important to track 90 degrees to the wind line. I won't do that again, and feel lucky nothing bad happened. And yes, I felt stupid. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I'm trying to get a door dive exit working out of a cessna 182. I seem to have trouble right off the bat flipping over or rolling. I put my left foot on the step and my right foot just on the corner of the door ready to push off. (Looking fowards the tail.) I have a hard time holding this position in the wind long before leaving and I think that has something to do with the instability becuase I feel more like I'm falling off then pushing off. Does anyone have some tips or suggestions as to what I can work on to make this work? Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

"It's just another move towards more political correctness . I think parents should be doing sex education instead of Bert and Ernie . " Political correctness has nothing to do with it. We're talking about trying to stem the tide of an epedemic. Whole villages are beging killed in South Africa. It's not even about sex education. Do you really think this new character is going to demonstrate how to put on a condom to 6 year olds? Of course not. It's just about educating kids about the world. And for the record, seeing as so many parents do such a crappy juob of raising / educating their kids I say if someone (eg a school) is brave enough to try and fill in the cracks all the more power to them. If someone in my high school had of made gay issues more prominent and acceptable then maybe my friend wouldn't have gotten beaten to a pulp. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

That's actually a good point. Sometimes I'm just not mentally up for throwing myself out of "a perfectly good plane" and just want to hang out or get a packing lesson. It bugs me that then people try to push, pull, drag me onto the plane when I say "just not today". I know they just want me to have fun but this is some serious business and best be prepared fully for it. If I don't feel like it, I don't want to have to give 10 reasons why! Also, as I newbie I'd just like to say that a jump requires more mentally from me then I think it does for someone with 1000 jumps. Me doing it hungover is not the same as Mr. McSkydiver who has jumped his rig 300 times this year alone jumping hungover. I'm NOT a wuss for sitting one out! Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Well, not to get into a stats war or anything but the front cover of the Paragear catalog says 1 in 333 openings on a ram-air canopy results in a mal. I don't know where that's from but that seems reasonable to me. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

THat's hilarious! I won't be stealing the idea but it's really funny. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Interesting thread. I'm a newbie at our dz but I know all the "he doesn't like him and she hates her" stuff already. And there are more fundamental issues with the way our dz is run too. But the thing is, it's really the only game in town. On Vancouver Island there are only two drop zones about 4.5 hours apart from each other. To get to a bigger dz it's an $80 ferry ride to get there ($40 each way, and 4 hours) and that just adds way to much the cost of a sport I already can't afford. So visiting places seems like a good idea if you have the money, but not likely possible as a long term change around here. That being said, there are some great people where I jump too, and I wouldn't want to not have them around. Some of them are generous people who have gone out of their way to help. Oh, and I do have some road trips planned - going to the nationals! Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Well there was a first jump student a few weeks ago that had a memorable one. The winds were just on the edge for bringing down students but they elected to go after the "do what you're told or you'll die routine". (No, that's not exacly what they say, but it's the jist.) The student comes down for a nice landing and then takes a step and trips and brakes his leg. The speculation is that the wind grabbed his chute and he unexpectedly hit some uneven ground. Go figure. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I will try to relate this as the jumper told me last night (right after it happened). The jumper had a normal freeflying jump and got into a stand. He then felt a bump, his first thought was that he hit someone or something, but there was no one near him. His parachute then deployed at about 5000. He suspects the BOC pocket. The mouth on his pocket has lost all its elasticity and even though his pilot chute was tucked in AS FAR AS IT WOULD GO it still managed to get out all on its own. The jumper is fine and will be having a rigger modify the BOC pocket. Lesson: check yours out! After comparing his with another jumpers there's quite a noticable difference. This could have been much, much worse. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

lots:2:1 Well, I'm dating someone new and so there are many hours to put in the first column, I managed to work out my front loops in the second coloumn, and I jumped my first unsupervised pack job! Interestingly, I wasn't really worried, the guy who taught me to pack seemed to think I could do it and his confidence made me feel OK about it. I had a really nice opening. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I just did my first RW dive a little while ago and I know I felt really amazed when the guy asked me. He just wanted to teach me some stuff. He said that he just wanted to jump, and that jumping with newbies teaches him stuff too. Anyway that dive made me so happy and was so much fun it totally got me psyched to do more of it, I had a huge grin as soon as I got down (and in the air too). He seemed to really enjoy it too. So if you're experienced, maybe you could consider lending a hand to a flailing newbie so they will develop a love of the discipline you so enjoy. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Yes, we have to be packing endorsed by our A (in Canada) but you don't have to learn to pack until then if you don't want. And you need 25 freefall jumps before you can write your A so you have a while if you're not jumping all the time. I started learing after I sprained my ankle (nothing else to do) and it took a while to pack enough supervised to get signed off. I find most people put off learing how to pack as students unless they have to. Oh, and by the way, I jumped my first unsupervised pack job yestderday and it was beautiful! Nice snivel and everything. (Yeah, I know, BEER) Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Well, like most things in life, it's complicated. There's lots of what everyone else has been talking about, (challenge, people, scene, goals, etc) but there are other things too. Like it's a great antidepressant. There was a time not so long ago when if I had of lept out of a plane I wouldn't even have tried to pull. I would have been happy (ironically) to die. This was, of course, before I started skydiving. But now everytime I save my life I reafirm the fact that I want to be here. I choose life. I choose to fight. I choose not to give up. It's a powerfull thing for me. This isn't something I tell the people at the dz, but it is important to me. I want to live my whole life in the moment of exhileration after a skydive. Yes, other things in life are certainly worth doing, but few seem as powerful as the few minutes I spend flying towards the earth. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I can't tell you how sorry I am to hear that. I can only hope that your efforts have done some good in the long run for your son. Maybe if more people had of stood with you, you would have been more successful. That is my point exactly. You have showed the courage of your convictions and I just hope that others can too. Gale . I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

".....nothing was done.....it never is..... " I'm not saying this doesn't happen. I'm not saying it isn't discouraging. But we can't all think this and not even try. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

OK. That makes sense. I was getting really creeped out there! Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

The part that gets me about this case (and others) is that there were probably signs that this mother would endanger her children and no one acted. People just "minded their own business". Please, please stand up for people who can't stand up for themselves. Do what it takes to protect a child. It is worth it. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I can see why you're so frusterated. Working in the industry must be difficult if you care for people's wellbeing. As someone else mentioned, perhaps a waiver is in order when you sell gear. "We take no responsibility of your stupidity when landing this canopy..." As someone at my dz said to me though, this is an adult sport, you have to trust people to make their own adult desicions. And as a adult if you want to jump a hanky and hook in, well that's you're right. Just like it's your right to drag race your sports car and get run off the road. I applaude your efforts to try and prevent bad things from happening to those in the skydiving family, but there is only so much you can do. Good luck, keep at it. Remember that changing one persons mind and saving one persons life, is enough. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Great idea. It keeps you from having to accumulate information on your own and lets us get to the information without wading through the talkback chatter. Thanks! Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

This is not meant as a critism at all, but I have a question: Why do you skydive if you're only interested in the people (no need to hurl yourself from "a perfectly good plane" if you don't enjoy it anymore)? Do you still actually enjoy the act itself? Like I said, I'm not trying to flame you or anything, I'm just really intersted in your responce. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Yeah, that injury thing would be good to know, as an attempt to asertain their deadication to safety. It's too bad that there isn't any way of finding this out. I'd way rather jump with someone conservative (read, not foolhardy) but there's no rating for that. Maybe I'd also ask how many students they've coached. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I think I get a little better with every jump. I did one yesterday where I noticed things I never had before. There was a jumper in the air with me and I saw him part of the time anyway. Usually I find I'm concentrating on whatever (probably something new) I'm doing so much that it's hard to take everything in. And as far as seeing the plane goes, I've never thought to look for it! Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I would agree with this too. After carefully reading the article (not skimming it) it seems that he's really just making fun of the stereotype protrayed in the media and that if images of skydiving make you drink mountain dew - you're an idiot (on this most of us would agree) His point, I think, is that most people's (men's) lives are not extreme so they should stop buying into the marketing telling them that it is or could be with their product. Us (skydivers) happen to be in the much smaller catagory where our life is "extreme". It's not really about us. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

I don't pull low as I'm new too, but I will pass along a couple of things my instructors have said to me: 1) they have tried to wean me off pulling high like I did in the PFF course so that I pulled at the altitude considered "normal" for our dz, 3000ft. Above that and you're doing something that other jumpers may not expect. 2) It's good to get used to the idea that you CAN pull low and not get very anxious about it. No, I'm not talking about 2000 (necessarily) but I am talking about 3000. A hop-n-pop is good for this and is required for the solo certificate in Canada. It builds confidence, takes away the safety blanket, and maybe makes you more ready if you ever have to get out of the plane low. This is different then an advanced jumper pulling low, but I thought I'd pass it along anyway. Obviously you shouldn't change your behaviour without discussing it with your instructor. Gale (PS I also have the added worry of an FXC firing high and popping my round reserve (!) No low pulls for me, I have no interest in landing a round or in a two-out configuration.) I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind

Good point. I hadn't thought of the pilot's point of view. I wonder why our pilot wasn't more worried? Um, I will admit that I did feel like a big geek (read wimp) not jumping when the others were willing. Good to know that some other jumpers with big numbers might have made the same call. Gale I'm drowning...so come inside Welcome to my...dirty mind