Gators1240

There is a little bit of a learning curve to it if you have never used one or owned an iPhone. The keyboard takes a little bit to get used to but after a bit it's actually quite easy. When typing in usually just set it flat on a table and type that way, much easier that trying to hold it and type. For the most part it really is like a huge iPod touch. But the difference is the size, and the apps that they have for the iPad. One of the biggest things I like is the very very long battery life. It's really easy to take around with you and takes a long time of use before the battery will die so I generally use mine more than my laptop. As far as the apps go it rally all depends on what you use your iPad for. They have some amazing apps for productivity, iWork is amazing. The abc news app is pretty cool and one of my personal favorites is weather bug, especially on jump days. It shows hourly forecasts, current winds (speed, direction, and gusts) as well as a doplar style overlay in realtime so you can see exactly whats going on. I'm sure there is a way for you to return it if you like, but you may find that it will grow on you

Not sure if this was mentioned because I did not red all the posts (I got tired of reading through the debate about who should or should not give advice). I myself have low jump numbers but I know what worked for me. Talk to your instructors and see what they say first, secondly if it's available to you I would suggest getting some tunnel time in with coaching. You have a great visual reference the whole time to see exactly how your body is moving through the air, video to debrief with to see how your body is being positioned, and a coach standing there that can tell you exactly what you are doing wrong in real time so that you can adjust your body position accordingly. Just my .02

I agree. I just got off of aff about 2 weeks ago and had planned on advancing my belly skills a little while and then get into free flying. I had no intentions of doing rw at all. But then I made a few jumps with some people and I have to say I'm hooked. And will continue trying to get better with rw as fast as I can

It is definitely annoying to pay $80 for rental gear first thing in the morning to end up making only one jump because of the weather...

I had the same thing happen on my aff 1 jump. Good thing I had a good fjc because I knew immediately what to do without thinking about it or even worrying about it

So before I get flamed a did search the forum and could not find an answer quite what I wanted. What is the difference between student rental gear and a regular sport rig? I'm looking into buying a rig sometime relatively soon and the only real difference I have been able to find in this forum is that student rigs are generally not safe to freely in. The student gear I'm using now is a vector 3 with a navigator 240. I was really wondering how much of a difference, If any, that I should expect in the flight control of the canopy/landing difficulty once I switch to a new one, assuming I keep the wing loading the same as the student gear I'm using now.

I'm new to the sport but one of the biggest things that worry me is either no wind or very light changing wind. The last couple jump days that's what it was like and I had my worst landings so far. Yesterday I jumped and the winds were maybe 1 mph and changing constantly. I jumped once, had a little bit of a hard landing and strained a muscle in my leg as a result of it. I could have continued jumping that day (it was very bad) but decided that I wasn't comfortable with the current conditions. It's a personal decision and in my opinion if you don't feel comfortable or are questionable about the conditions you should just stay grounded. It's better to miss out on a few jumps because you are unsure then have it be your last.

If you are that worried about health insurance you could always sign up for the military. 100% coverage for free and a 400k life insurance policy

In my opinion the only time it is to early is before you repack

Yeah he was one of my affi's fr a few jumps and did the video for the last one

Well they only had a little over 100 jumps a piece so they wouldn't fall into that category. So I guess I wasn't supposed to do it but oh well. The jumps went fine and no ones seemed to mind and it was a huge benefit for me learning to control my levels.

Well I wasn't sure about the accounting side of that. I kinda figured the same that it would be better to use something like quicken for that. One of the biggest things I had thought about other than the actual manifesting was tracking personal record. Number of jumps, jumps at that specific dz, currency, etc...

I searched the threads and found that jump run seems to be the premier manifesting software to date. I dabble in some programming myself and was thinking of creating a complete dz software suite. For all of you DZO's out there, what functionality/features don't you currently have that you would like to see in a program like this? Now before I get flamed for this I am not planning on selling or even distributing this its just a side project that I am doing to keep up on my programming skills and it's a good way for me to learn uspa requirements even more (I am planning on tracking user accounts for number of jumps, license requirements, etc...). I may give this program away eventually if it turns out that well but like I said I have no intentions of trying to sell this at any point.

I'm in that situation right now, started aff by myself and didn't know anyone at the dz prior to going there. People are very welcoming and I myself am somewhat shy at first but still had no people meeting people. Although I was unaware of not being bake to jump with people prior to getting my a. Is that a uspa requirement or more of a suggestion? I did a few 3-ways with a British couple last weekend after I finished my aff since I did not know about this and it helped me learn a lot that aff did not teach me, such as how to really control my fall rate within a group (during aff I just maxed my arch and I fall like a boulder)

Yeah they are pretty new and well taken care of. It's funny inside the plane is a sign that reads "please treat this brand new million dollar airplane like a brand new million dollar airplane" lol

Thats interesting while I am very new to the sport I have been talking about it nonstop for the last 6 or 7 years after I did my first tandem and I haven't heard a really negative reaction like that. People like that kinda bug me actually. If you have an issue like that with something someone does then don't be a part of it.

Yeah I know what you mean but it is a little expensive still having to rent gear. A jump day for me isn't worth it unless I can get at least 3-4 jumps in. I would be pissed to spend $80 on rental gear for only one or 2 jumps

I had video done for my level 7 and thought I would share. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvwupG0dpxs The exit could have been better but overall I think it went pretty well. I was done with everything I had to do other than pulling by 10500

Ive somewhat noticed the same thing. They will ask about skydiving and then I start explaining a few jumps ive done and use terms like tracking and docking and get the deer in the headlights look. Then explain all of that and they still have the same look so I end up just changing the subject.

Thanks for the great advice. I actually ended up doing a bit more tunnel time before aff than I had planned to (26 minutes) and I flew through aff with no problems. Never had to repeat a level and because of the control I learned in the tunnel and aff, on my level 7 we jumped from 13500, and I finished all my TLO's (front loop, back loop, 3-5 second track, left 360, right 360) at about 10500 which was much quicker than I had thought it would have taken. Although it seems flying flat in the tunnel never really happened for me and I have an insane arch which made it difficult for everyone I've jumped with to match my fall rate. I'm doing some tunnel time and coaching now to try and correct that

That makes a lot of sense, I will probably do that. But more than likely until a have a little more experience (I currently only have 11 jumps) I will stick to using the one I started with. I'm comfortable with it and although it's slow I think that is a good thing for me right now. The last landing a had with the smaller one was the worst landing I've had yet. I ended up flaring way too early and started to stall at probably 10 feet up, resulting in the first PLF I had to do.

How long does it take most of you to get used to a smaller main? I just finished aff and went from a 260 to a 240 (0.76lbs/ft to 0.83lbs/ft) and I know that isn't really a huge difference but before downsizing I had pretty good judge on speed and distance but the few jumps I have had with the smaller main I have been either flaring too early or too late.

I just finished aff yesterday and I find that a get a little nervous/anxious once we are at about 11000 but fine as soon as I am out the door. The single best advice I got while going through my aff is have a plan of exactly what you are going to do on the jump before you get on the plane. Then on the ride up, close your eyes and visualize everything about the upcoming jump. The wind getting ready to exit, the exit, free fall, everything. That helped me tremendously

Thanks. My it her jumps were good and I only really need little adjustments (my exits weren't "bad" but needed a little work) and it her than that I just needed to relax more.

Ok so before you get to the rest of this post I dont want you to think i am over confident or conceded or anything like that I am just curious. I did my level 6 AFF jump today and at the end went to get a debrief to see what I needed to improve and was told "see you tomorrow for level 7, everything looked perfect". Has that ever happened to anyone? I mean I felt great about every aspect of the jump and thought it went perfect but I also have a tendency to think things went better then they actually did.