BFK

Every time statistics come up in any discussion I think of this quote (by Mark Twain I believe): "There are 3 kinds of lies - Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics." I think statistics in the case of skydiving can lull people into a false sense of security. Statistics might appease the family to a certain degree. But positive and smart choices along with a healthy dose of self-discipline is what will save your life. I feel that driving is inherintly safer than skydiving. When I skydive, no matter how basic the skydive is, there is still a very real risk which is mitigated by preperation and education. But if I drive my 8 year old cousin to his baseball game at the park down the street, the risk is different than if I drive home drunk at 90mph on the freeway. The realm of risk varies greatly with driving. With skydiving the risks are more constant and less yielding. Statistically the odds may be 1 death in 100,000 jumps. But I think the guy who goes freeflying on a Wonderhog which was packed by his bitter X-girlfriend has a higher chance of dying than the diligent rookie who learns all he can about everything and makes smart choices on every skydive. Just my opinion though. This much is true-- Life has a 100% fatality rate. Skydiving does not. Skydiving is safer than life. Brad

Action Air Parachutes has great service both during and after you purchase gear. In addition they offer good deals. www.actionair.com Brad

Skydiving is not safer than driving. I used to think that too. But look at the numbers- Every year, about 40,000 people are killed in Auto accidents. Assuming that there are 200,000,000 drivers in the USA (a generous estimate) then that means that 1 driver out of 5000 drivers a year is killed in an auto accident. Compared to one skydiver per ever thousand skydivers that is killed every year. That makes skydiving 5 times more dangerous than driving. However skydiving is safer than SCUBA (statistically speaking). I compare the risks of skydiving most closely to those of driving a motorcycle. Skydiving is dangerous. But so is life. Brad

I asked Glenn Bangs, the former director of Safety and Training at USPA about RSL's a year or so ago. He told me that he himself wears one and will continue to do so. He related to me a story of his in which he had a highly spinning malfunction during a jump in which deployment was initiated around 2000 feet. He reached down to grab the cutaway and reserve handle and found that he could only grab the cutaway handle. The spinning malfunction caused his harness to shift which put his cutaway handle near the center of his chest and pinned his reserve handle behind his back where he could not reach it. All he could do was cutaway, which he did initiate at 1200 feet. Before he could continue struggling to grasp the pinned reserve handle, his RSL fired his reserve. He told me then that without the RSL it is likely he wouldn't have survived. Personally, I will use an RSL until I have between 750 and 1000 skydives. At that point I will reconsider my air awareness, malfunction handling and opinion on the RSL. For now I think it is a good safety net. Of course - It shouldn't be used (or should be disconnected) when flying camera, doing CReW, skysurfing, when cutting away from a dual squares situation, or in the event of a canopy collision which requires a cutaway. If I ever do remove the RSL, I will never pull below 3000 feet. I'll want that extra time to find my reserve handle should I ever find myself in the situation Glenn Bangs experienced. Brad

Hey Donna, I'm getting a Spectre 170 for my main and a PD reserve 160 or 176, depending on what will fit best in the container. I've heard universally that Spectre has very soft openings and is possibly the most forgiving canopy on the market. I didn't want anything other than the canopies most likely to cause me the least problems. I weigh 165 without gear if you were wondering about wing loading. Brad PS Thanks to everyone for great advice and information about the rigs. I really appreciate your opinions!

>The Voodoo by Rigging Innovations is also Tested to TSO >C-23D What does this mean? I hear a lot about TSO, but I don't know what it means. Does this mean the VOODOO is tested to higher deployment speeds? Brad

Okay, I checked out the Wings website and now I am VERY confused. Is there anything about the Vector, Wings or Mirage that makes ANY of those choices better than another??? Brad

Is Wings the same quality material as the Mirage or the Vector?? Does it have the same protection and retention of everything?? Brad

I've settled on what I am choosing for a main, reserve and of course a Cypres. But I am really struggling with what to get for a container. I will spare no expense when it comes to a container. I want the container that is the safest for all types of flight (freefly, freestyle, etc.). I think the safest is probably the Vector 3 or the Mirage G3. Does anyone have any reason why one of these is safer/better than the other?? Or is it a toss up?? I want to feel comfortable going head down or standing, or jumping in groups. I really appreciate any advice on this. Brad

Thanks for all the nice replies! I'll be sure to pass them on to Marie. She may be a skydiver one day too. MAYBE. Thanks again, Brad

The story I wrote about how I proposed to my girlfriend got published in the local papers of the east bay area (Northern California). They even published a picture from the skydive. You can read the story (minus the picture) at: http://www.contracostatimes.com/timeout/stories_feattop/x7celebrate_20010407.htm Thanks again Skydance and thanks a million Tim (who filmed it)! Brad Koch

I think a lot of skydivers smoke for the same reason that a lot of skydivers like to drink a lot. Skydiving attracts people that live full tilt and for some that means smoking cigarettes or pot or consuming large amounts of alcohol. All those things can damage and kill, but freedom of choice is what skydiving is all about. People should be permitted to live however they want to live. In the end everyone dies eventually, what we do between now and then is our choice. Smoking, drinking, drugs and all that is a philisophical choice about how you want to live and what risks you want to take. There may be addictive issues as well. I don't smoke anymore and I am trying to drink less. I have seen people die from both. I am trying to widdle down the risks I take to include only skydiving, whitewater rafting and foreign travel. Those highs don't leave hangovers and enhance my life, whereas other things can tend to detract from life, in my personal experience. To each their own though. Brad

If I'm not mistaken, Bill Dause, the owner of the parachute center in Lodi, has over 30,000 jumps. Brad

Thanks for the advice. It's funny because I do look at things in jump numbers sometimes. I was going to go whitewater rafting with a bunch of friends, but cancelled when I realized that it cost about 10 jumps tickets for the trip. Same goes for a ski weekend in which I went up to Tahoe, but didn't ski to save money. I think some of you might be saving money for 6-8 month jump seasons. But being from California (temporarily) I need to save for a 12 month jump season. I can't imagine being able to do 40 jumps a month! That would be great. Another consideration is that I am combining my money with my Fiancee's, so technically half of the money either of us spend is coming from the other person. She is very cool about skydiving though. I think I could talk her into 20 jumps a month when I own my own gear again (I had to sell my original set to pay a retroactive student loan bill that I had let slide). On rental gear it will be tough, but I will try and get off rental gear as soon as I can. I would like to say that I feel very lucky to have met such a wonderful girl that actually likes paying for half of my skydives because it makes me happy. If that aint love, then I don't know what is. Thanks everyone. Brad Koch

One question that I often wonder about is what is the proper response of an experienced jumper in an aircraft emergency? I remember in student training they told us to "listen to your instructor", but what is the proper response of the experienced skydiver? Say a plane gets to 2500 feet and then the engine dies, the pilot says he's going to try and land it, but you can tell the plane is really pitching. Is it wrong to throw open the door and bail out? After all, we are wearing parachutes. On the other hand, you don't want to risk the lives of people on board by making the aircraft more unstable with the open door. So what are we "allowed" to do if there is an aircraft emergency? I know that under 1000 feet you're at the pilots mercy, but it seems that once you reach 1500 feet or more we should be able to throw open the door and save ourselves. I would like to know what is the "proper" thing to do in this situation. Brad Koch

My Fiancee and I are putting together our budget and I am trying to figure out how much monthly money I should put toward skydiving. How many jumps a month do you need to make to get really good at this sport? I'm thinking of budgeting for 15 jumps a month. But I really want to know how many jumps the rest of you are making a month first. I want to be able to instruct AFF and Fly video for tandems one day and I want to know how many monthly jumps I should be making to get good enough to do that. Though I have over one hundred jumps, it seems that I am not progressing as quick as those people who have less jumps than I have, but who jump more often. How many jumps do you folks out there make every month? Any suggestions for me in terms of monthly jump numbers I should aim for? Brad Koch

Whats up skydognz! I spent 3 months in your country and 3 weeks in OZ back in your summer time. What a fantastic place New Zealand is. My fiancee and I would love to go back and work there, but it is hard for a Yankee to get a good job there. Something about keeping New Zealand for the New Zealanders. But who the hell can blame you. If I was from there I wouldn't want any Damn yankees coming over and mucking everything up. My favorite spot was Abel Tasman National park. Green forest, golden beaches, blue water...utter paradise. I'll tell you what, you get me a good job over there in NZ and I'll give you 10% of my income. New Zealand is Eden. Brad Koch (temporarily trapped in California)

HEY SKYMAMA!! I appreciated your story very much! I also loved hearing everyone elses. It reminds me of why this sport is so important to me. When I was a freshman in College I was going through an extreme depression. Partly because I was very physically ill at the time and partly because I was away from everything that was familiar. The depression seemed worse everyday and the illnesses got worse and worse too. Then, a friend's girlfriend asked me if I would go do a tandem skydive with him if she bought him that for Christmas. I said I would, I mean, if you are going to consider the ultimate, why not do EVERYTHING first, right? To make a long story short, 113 jumps later I have no problem with depression (except when I don't jump), and I feel like I've been baptized in courage. It has inspired a freedom of spirit in me that is astounding to those around me (and even to myself sometimes!). It carrys over into every single aspect of my life. The benefits of skydiving go way beyond just a "fun thing to do". I will make the rest of my life a wild adventure in a hundred ways for a hundred reasons and it's all thanks to skydiving. Brad PS I'm also healthy as an OX now too! No doctor could fix me, but skydiving was the perfect cure.

Thanks for the advice. It is very appreciated. I think I will order it with a hackey and change it after a while if I get comfortable with the idea or have a chance to try out the new fango handle. Brad

Reading the thread started by sis about flying has peaked my interest in it. And Josh (dirtsucks), WHY DID YOU WRITE WHAT YOU WROTE!? YOU MADE ME WANT TO FLY NOW!!! That was a great story about flying with the window open and your hand out the window. It made me want to go to a flight school tomorrow and sign up for an introductory flight. Flying sounds awesome. Being in a hiatus (very temporary) from jumping, these posts have made me start thinking about flying. So I got a couple questions for the DZ.com pilots if you don't mind taking a little time. For one- How hard is it to learn how to fly?? How hard is it to fly instruments or multi-engine planes?? It has to be more complicated and at least as dangerous as skydiving. Number two- How dangerous is it? Are they any stats on flying safety? Number three- How competitive is the job market for pilots?? Brad Koch

I'm looking in to buying a Mirage G3 and I want to know whether or not I should get the traditional hacky handle or the knew PUD type of handle installed(still a throw out pc, but the handle is like a pud and has an attachment that keeps it in place -but no velcro). If you don't know what it is, go to: http://www.miragesys.com/NextMiragesite/mirageframe2.html and then click on "Mirage News". I have 113 jumps, but I am uncurrent at the moment. I'll be making 10-15 jumps a month once my job starts. If anyone has this type of handle I'd appreciate hearing about how hard it is to get a full throw out of it and how hard it is to dislodge from its attachment . Should I start with the hacky handle or do you think I can handle the knew handle (accidental phrasing)? Brad

Hey Freaksis! Only thought I would add- If it costs conservatively 27,000 to get all the ratings you need to be a pilot, that is the equivolent to 1500 skydives (assuming you are paying $18 a jump). That's the thing that keeps me from learning to fly. If I ever give up on skydiving for some reason, then I will definitely learn to fly. But as long as I am jumping I can't afford both. But follow your dreams no matter what and if you really want to do ANYTHING, you should do it. We all get only one chance at life. Brad Koch

I am currently forced to take a hiatus from skydiving due to student debt. I have a contracted job that starts at the end of the summer (August 20th), and when that starts, I can jump again regularly. Has anyone ever experienced depression from taking time off of skydiving? Man, I feel like crap mentally. I feel like a total head case. I'm seriously depressed about not jumping. I took time off before to go to New Zealand for 3 and a half months, but that wasn't hard because I was hiking and white water rafting all over the place down there. Now being back in the real world with massive student debt, shitty and difficult classes at grad school that I am in serious danger of not passing (and if I fail one single class then there goes the job in August) and all the pressures of a "big" upcoming job, I really feel like I need to skydive to keep the sanity thing going for me. Until I was forced to take this break, I never realized how much I depend on skydiving to deal with the bullshit of the world. And there is so much damn bullshit in this world. I know I don't know any of you and that is probably why I feel I can dump all this garbage here. Thanks for listening. Seriously, and I mean this, when I start jumping again when this job starts in late August. I'm never going to quit. I need skydiving in my life, and I wonder if that is normal. Anyone else use skydiving as a way to cope with and escape from all the crap that is part of this life?? Brad

I think I can comment on this one. Being a student (first undergraduate and now finishing graduate school) I have been forced financially to take breaks from this sport. ONCE EMPLOYED I WILL NEVER QUIT! I have taken much longer than 5 months, so no worries. It really is like riding a bike. My advice if you have more than 50 jumps is to just find someone you trust to jump with you and just hang out in freefall. Pull at 5000 and plan a very mellow jump. Get thorough gear checks from qualified people on the ground and in the plane. Also, review all malfunctions thoroughly. If you are exceedingly uncomfortable or have less than 50 total jumps, then do a twilight level 4 with a certified instructor. After my times off, I was scared to death to come back. But isn't that a great part of the thrill? I personally love that part. It's almost like the thrill of your first skydive, but better in some ways. If you're like me, as soon as you leave the plane and enter freefall, it all comes back to you and you walk around for the next few weeks with your feet above the ground from that old feeling that you know and love so well that only skydiving can bring. Don't worry much. Make safety number one and if you're really scared (or have less than 50 jumps) then get with an instructor and have him or her walk you through it. Brad Koch PS RELAX! and ARCH!

YES! Skydance is the shit. I love that place. By far the best pro shop I've found out there is Action Air. Super duper helpful people to buy gear from. And Ryan is a great and really knowledgable rigger. And Skydance has great people to jump with. As soon as I have the money to skydive more I think I will jump there. Byron is very cool too, with really friendly people as well. Both are great places to jump. If you want a great person to freefly with at Skydance get a hold of Marcus. He's a super nice guy and great freeflyer who can fly in any body position imaginable and will jump with newbies. BTW, could someone at Skydance thank Tim for filming an AWESOME proposal video for my girlfriend on Valentine's day. That tiny sign had huge wind resistance. I hope our marriage doesn't have that kind of resistance. SHE SAID YES!! DUAL INCOME!! MORE SKYDIVING!! But I don't start work until the end of summer. :( Blue ones over Byron and Skydance, BRAD KOCH PS Blue ones for everyone else to!