flyingmontana

As the prop turns... Did my 100th skydive tonight (a high pull at sunset--beautiful) and broke up with the fiance last weekend. Very sad, but he isn't happy to see me flying, and I won't/can't stop. I wish the summer would go on forever...the start of classes and the coming of cold weather will mean I'll have to slow down, at least a little!

Perhaps the visa problem can be resolved by finding a sweet, single female American skydiver to marry you. :) What I'm saying is, don't forget to put a little effort into personal grooming and charm as well as skydiving skills.

As a newbie with 47 jumps, I made Skydive Orange my first trip to a dropzone other than my home DZ. The drive from Washington DC (where I was visiting relatives) was really long with traffic--try to avoid commuting hours. The area is really beautiful--great view from 13,500. The best thing about the place was the helpful, friendly attitude everyone had. I felt welcomed and since I'm pretty inexperienced I really needed a lot of help, which they gave generously. I rented gear from them and they helped me find someone a bit more experienced than me to jump with. Various regulars helped me with gear checks, with understanding the landing pattern, with spotting the airport, etc. I didn't feel alone at all and I would have loved to stay and skydive all day (or the whole weekend!) with these great people and get to know them better. The only real problem I had was that the landing area for students/A licenses was very hilly and I wasn't used to that at all, so I had a hard landing on my first jump. That hurt my foot enough that I had to stop for the day. (They kindly gave me some ice for it.) There are also quite a lot of cow pies in this landing area. Next time I'll know to flare just a touch higher! The hangar is decorated very distinctively and while I didn't have much chance to hang out, I could tell the atmosphere here is really cool. It's HOT though--no AC, just a couple of fans. This is a dropzone I hope to return to many times in the years to come as I continue in the sport. Wish I could have gotten to know everyone better--they seemed like great people. Excellent emphasis on safety; I would only suggest that they mention to newcomers that the hills in the landing area can come up on you FAST.

You say "PLEASE NOTE: To be in with a chance of winning please email me!!!" So we are supposed to email you separately to tell you we want a chance of winning money? How would you confirm that we actually filled out the survey? (I did fill it out--and thought many of the questions were extremely badly phrased, not to mention the difficulty of counting up the total number of BRUISES I've gotten while skydiving!!) I didn't see any feature at the end of the survey that allowed me to enroll for a chance to win money. Not that I really care about the money--I'm interested in the research--but this seems rather misleading or badly designed.

I knew you had so much to teach me, dudeman! Thank you for setting me straight before I inadvertently offended PP, as I have been intending to write to her soon...

I cant imagine how a beautiful person like her never found the right guy to marry. Someone missed out on a really special lady. *** I'd like to see any suitor get past her two fluffy white poodles now! They whined and pined while she talked to me. And yes, it seemed like she "got me" immediately.

The card she gave me has the name Purusha Crocitto on it...but on the back, she wrote "Purple Patty" with her number. I didn't get the impression she disliked the nickname. But I'll address her as Purusha just to be safe.

As a new skydiver, I'd like to say this: On May 22 I did my first tandem, at Elsinore, with an instructor named Matt who told me he's been in the sport for 31 years. The personal attention and the fantastic energy he put into our jump made me feel like I was his favorite tandem passenger in the world. He gave me an incredibly great experience and then I got to know Purple Patty in the gear shop and hear her life story! I was immediately so inspired that as soon as I got back from my trip to CA, I searched for the closest dropzone to where I live, signed up for AFF, and started the course a few days later. Six weeks later I got my A license and I have 35 jumps now, starting to fly formations too. I'm buying my own rig this week. I probably would have been hooked no matter where I did that tandem, but Matt and Elsinore really gave me a perfect jumping-off moment for the new love/addiction of my life. I'll always be grateful.

Hi everyone, just thought I'd update this with the news that I got my A license today. I have 32 jumps now and it's just amazing to me how the skills that seemed so frustrating a few weeks ago are now coming so easily. I've started doing some relative work already and am doing every acrobatic exit I can try out of the plane. Really hoping to start mastering the freefly and freestyle skills soon, but now I know that it's repetition and patience above all that brings progress. My coaches and all the skydivers at Tecumseh are amazing. I love the place and spend every day I possibly can there. I hope to be able to buy a used rig next week and start getting used to my own gear. I'm definitely in love with this... unfortunately it's causing MAJOR tension with my fiance, who thinks I've lost my head completely. Thanks for all the dropzone discussion threads--I've found them so interesting. (But who is this joker "Cocheese"?! LOL)

Thanks...since fixing the chin strap, the problem is better and my lip is healing. Full speed ahead: did 10 more skydives this weekend and am one parachute pack job away from my license!

I owe my instructor, who posted above, big time for figuring out that it was my chin strap causing the recurring abuse. Everything's much more comfortable in the air now! I doubt I'll need a full face helmet after all, although that did seem like a good idea.

Yeah, I'm very sure I'm not biting my lip. I was relaxed and smiling at my coach, while thinking, "I wonder why this is hurting so much!"

I'm working toward my A license, and last weekend, on my 15th skydive, I went through an ice cloud early in the morning, leaving me with a bruised and swollen lower lip. Today I jumped again and the weather was clear and beautiful, but all the way through freefall I felt like those knives were cutting into my lip again, and now it's even more swollen than before, and bluish/purple. It doesn't hurt much now, but I'm wondering if there's any way I can protect it while skydiving this weekend? There's no face mask helmet available at my DZ. My coaches say they haven't seen this before. It looks like one of them punched me in the face for tracking wrong. Any suggestions? Thanks...

The weather forecast for the next 10 days at least is partly to mostly cloudy. I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of time sitting at the DZ listening and waiting and hoping. I had hoped to get my license by the end of June, but I'll have to revise that timeline a bit. Luckily there is plenty of summer left, and I hope the weather will change for the better in July and August. But then in the fall I'm going to be struggling with major urges to quit my job and go live in Southern CA again! I did my first tandem at Lake Elsinore and that seemed to be a great place. It's too early for me to know for sure, but it seems to me that the people at my DZ are wonderful and really look out for each other. From what I'm reading on these forums, that is not unusual--people seem to form strong attachments, and my instructors have been so great that after only 5 AFF jumps I'd basically follow them anywhere. I feel like a complete newbie, and it's stressful to try and learn everything about safety and emergencies. But I'm already having intense skydiving dreams and feeling like I have a new purpose in life and I'd be surprised if I lose my passion for this anytime soon. I'm going to get some training in a wind tunnel next month too, so hopefully that will help me advance more quickly.

I'm new to this sport too, and trying to get through my AFF training. I live in Ohio, and have been jumping at a terrific DZ near me. But holy crap, the weather here is frustrating me. It's now been 2 weeks since I've been able to get up in the air, because almost every day has been cloudy, rainy, and windy. I'm starting to freak out about whether I can remember all the stuff I learned two weeks ago. I used to live in California and now that I've discovered skydiving I have half a mind to move back there. So it makes NO sense to me that you would come here to Ohio, when you're already in the land of blue skies where you can really spend your days jumping instead of waiting around for the clouds to clear. I also second the idea of the poster who suggested you invest in a dogsitter. The last thing anyone needs is your dog peeing on someone's parachute, right?

All these responses are fantastic! If I was wondering whether the expense of going to NH for training was worth it, I'm no longer wondering. I can't wait to meet this guy. Thanks for the helpful comments!

I'm going to Nashua, NH in July to have 2 sessions in their wind tunnel with Joe Winters coaching. Has anyone worked with him? I'd love some advice about how best to take advantage of this opportunity and learn as much as possible in the short time I will have. I am new to skydiving, will probably have just gotten my license when I go there. My goal is to do freestyle as I have a background in acrobatics. Thanks for any tips you can give me!

Thanks for the links and advice, everyone who wrote back to me! Today I did my first two AFF jumps. On the first I got a bit disoriented with the parachute and ended up in a cornfield, but the second was fine. Watching the freestyle videos really makes me dream of what I'd love to do up there. I hope I can continue to learn quickly and safely to pursue this goal! My instructors at Skydive Tecumseh (Michigan), by the way, have all been fantastic.

Hello! I'm just turning 40 and finally decided to try skydiving last weekend, out in Lake Elsinore, CA. Did a tandem jump with an instructor named Matt and had an absolutely fantastic experience. I'm an aerial acrobat--former flying trapeze artist, professional high diver, Acapulco cliff diver. As soon as I left the plane I felt like I was in my element. Can't wait to get licensed! I just signed up for the AFF course at my closest DZ, in Tecumseh MI. I'd appreciate any advice for a newcomer, especially if you know of potential directions I can take this that include any kind of acrobatics. I'm also wondering whether it's realistic for me to consider becoming a tandem instructor. I'm female and about 120 pounds--is that too light to be an instructor? These forums are terrific and I've already enjoyed reading through many threads. Looking forward to learning a lot from you all and from my coaches at Tecumseh!