nigel99

Sure - If JM goes gay it leaves his other half available and you are complaining? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

That totally means you're not getting laid, fer sher. I'd be outta there too. You know how this reads? It reads like you are pissed that womens world doesn't revolve around you. Sorry dude but this whole thread reads like an insecure girly thread I really used to think that you were a wind-up artist and deliberately bated the chicks on here (and did a masterful job of it). Stop obsessing over gender and start having fun. If you must have the attention of women get your tandem rating and pull your passengers. Otherwise just go gay - I think you'll find less to bitch about Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Very interesting book. I figure that the author must have jumped as she seems to know about dz politics and a lot of little details regarding everything from tandems to static line. http://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Fire-Nora-Roberts/dp/0399157441 Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Only has or mainly has guy friends? My wife finds it MUCH easier to relate to men than women. I've heard women skydivers say how they like being involved in male dominated sports as there is so much less "drama" than female sports. If they are nice people I don't care what the gender of their friends are. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Yes it is me. It was C9 that was a student canopy. It was in Africa not the UK. No anti-inversion netting, it was steerable. I was light enough that I could generally stand up the landings. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Read the Incidents forum. This could be an interesting thread. We already have Ron's stupid things I have done that is both informative and entertaining. Downsizing lessons may not have resulted in an incident but scared the crap out of a jumper. I'd certainly like to hear the "no shit their I was" stories. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

And it wasn't all that long ago that 200 jumps qualified you for a 'D' license. Some areas consider you to have expertise in a skill after you are authorized to teach that skill. USPA allowing someone to become a coach at 100 jumps would indicate to me that 100+ jumps makes you at least an intermediate level skydiver in their eyes. (For the life of me, I don't know why the requirement isn't a 'C' license to become a coach). The times surely have changed and guidelines failed to keep up. 15-20 years ago where I first jumped a person who did more than a 100-200 jumps a year was very active. I don't think that anyone in our club had over a thousand jumps. Last weekend I was chatting to a young guy who did 114 jumps in June! It has been an interesting discussion. Based on what I have gathered, the following form my personal views. 1) Student Category (as per PD website) would be

A very common cause is the canopy being slightly out of trim. As an instructor, you have to teach the students that it's normal to have to actively steer the canopy, that if left alone they will often drift in a turn. So do you teach the shoulder rule that has been mentioned? Or do you have a different guideline? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

You know I am really glad that at home we have specially trained armed cops, and that not every half brained idiot wearing a uniform carries a gun. FOUR bystanders injured in the crossfire, Florida police firearms training is obviously based on the spray and pray method. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

But the ladies don't swoon over the guy who can squeeze the last ounce of performance out of his 125. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

This past weekend I didn't really feel like jumping. I would normally itching to be on a load and yet Saturday I didn't even bother to jump. Today it is pouring with rain, I am miles from a dz and I am like a crack addict without their regular fix The good news is that I get to go home!! 3 weetk trip on business is a long time to be away from wife and kids. 2 excellent weekends at the Farm though, definitely brightens up the trip. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I hadn't thought about canopies with built in turns, I guess un-even legstraps could cause a turn. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I think that successfully probably means a situation where the instructor felt that the actions taken were appropriate. You can say that walking away from any skydive unhurt is success. I would expect a controlled flare to be success. The reason I asked for instructors viewpoints is that whenever I notice instructors have a difference of opinion, I like to try and get some background. Not everything is black and white and it helps to understand how they reached their preferred option. You've probably got more experience landing a crippled canopy than many of us, now you just need to go out and get experience landing working parachutes. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Yes, but that is more an issue of the USPA not really being up to date. If you are looking for a USPA license to PD alignment.... Well, I doubt it can be found No not looking for alignment. It is just a mixed message that I was commenting on. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Who is Troll? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

There's nothing anywhere in any USPA recommendation I've ever seen that mentions training a student to do anything other than cutaway a main that won't fly in a straight line with both toggles released and the canopy in full flight. I think that's what Pops is saying and I totally agree. If you didn't come up with the "shoulder level" rule out of thin air, then one of the (how many is it, hundreds or possible just 1 or 2?) instructors you know has come up with out of thin air in that sense. It's bad advice for a new jumper. It introduces too much grey area into the decision process at that stage of training. See Skybytch's post. I had never heard of that rule, but clearly she has. While I understand the logic of it, I would like to hear more of her thoughts and other instructors who condone the rule. Have any instructors had students successfully land in this manner, and how did the cope? My biggest concern, is that it would make flaring more complicated. I can imagine a flare ending up being a braked turn into the ground. I am still trying to perfect not popping up on landing Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Then those with less than 200 jumps would still be considered "Novice". Everyone wants to think they are not a beginner.... People want to envision themselves as experts... But "want" does not make it real. Someone with 200 jumps IS a novice. Someone who is "Expert" is the guy that is making many hundreds of jumps a year (AFFI, team guys etc). An "Expert" is not a guy that makes 100 jumps a year, even if he has been doing it 10 years. I don't disagree. But at 200 jumps you can have a C license which is the second highest license. My personal choice is to stay on the conservative end of the spectrum. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

You know I am going to have to stop jumping, so that you keep calling me a youngster. It feels good, like being asked for ID when ordering a drink. Makes a change from the fact that most of the jumpers are 3 or 4 years older than my daughter. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Nearly every one. I disagree with you pops. I would say that most (if not all) first jump students do NOT know, if this is safe to land, and should therefore go through with their emergency procedures. An experienced jumper might be able to make a judgement call, and decide to land it regardless. Feel free to burn me at the stake if I am wrong Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

A control check includes a flare. I can understand on a first jump that you missed that step, but it would have shown you that it was not possible to flare the canopy. Just remember that at altitude it can be extremely difficult to gauge a "safe" rate of descent with no frame of reference. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

There is a common misconception that you need to "downsize for safety". I have been jumping both Sabre 2 190 and 210. I have had at least 2 people tell me that a smaller canopy would be "safer" as I would get better penetration. I am happy to be corrected on this but both of these canopies have approximately 20MPH forward speed at a 1:1 wingloading. I wouldn't be happy jumping in much more than a 15MPH wind, so I still have 5MPH in the bag. I feel that spotting and canopy control are better ways of staying safe. Even if I ended up landing off I only have a 5MPH forward speed to deal with in my example. I would rather that than have to deal with a "fast" canopy on my first off landing(s). Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I completely agree with you. But I do feel that it would be helpful of PD to provide clearer guidelines. Something similar to the downsizing checklist that Bill Von wrote. We need to keep in mind that by the time the average jumper has 25 jumps they have gone from nothing to being able to self jumpmaster, a huge learning achievement by any standard. It is not difficult to see how they can believe at 50 or 100 jumps they have "mastered" canopy flight. Leaving vague definitions does nothing to highlight how little they actually know. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Interesting, downsize to a Katana for safety Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I have seen that and it is still very vague. Personally I would feel happier if they provided a more detailed outline that mentioned specific skills. To quote from the Novice category "people who haven't had a whole lot of experience with a long spot, off landings etc" I would imagine that the vast majority of people with less than 200 jumps have limited exposure to these situations. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.