GoHuskers

Seems like the vacation home type of people aren't cut from the same cloth as skydivers though.

Jumping is what you make of it. If you're running into rude and confrontational instructors everywhere you go then you are the problem. Skydiving has its own culture and sometimes young Army guys have a hard time dealing with it. Some of us figure out how, we are the largest demographic in the sport.

There is a healthy market for folks who want to buy 159's. Its a half downsize for guys that weigh 200+ and don't want to commit to a 150 yet. I've seen Safire 159s listed and sold just like 170 and 150s.

Wife and I both jump. We're both a few short of 500 plus gear for each of us. Swapped gear 3 times each. 8 hours of tunnel.

Hi Charlie, I'm a fun jumper. I'm not in any way concerned with the business of skydiving. I've been a USPA member for 5 years and have never voted. How would you make skydiving better for weekend fun jumpers?

Hopefully the HOA smoking ban will give her the confidence to tackle more pressing issues like mothers carrying their young children with only one arm or people not centering their vehicle within the parking space. Without heroic people like KG to police the general public and their actions, which while lawful are annoying to the vocal minority, the fabric of society would unravel.

I flew a Sabre2 170 loaded at 1.3 for 165 jumps. Loved the way it flew. I had 4 really hard shitty openings and it was enough for me to change canopies. I have a Safire2 which opens much, much softer but isn't as fun to fly.

I just find it funny that those seated in the left aisle think every workplace deserves a union...except police.

Police Unions can't be trusted because they ensure a fair wage and benefits, protection of the employees in the workplace, and against wrongful termination. On the other hand, Educators, Fire Departments, and unions of corporate employees can be trusted because they ensure a fair wage and benefits, protection of the employees in the workplace, and against wrongful termination. Can't you see the difference?

8 in 5 years. Only paid out of pocket to travel once.

Seems to me that if you are releasing a trailer of your sweet new canopy showing 4 years of R&D updates then you should be very close to accepting orders.

See if your DZ will allow you to put your main into their rental. You will need someone's help swapping it out. Its worth learning how to do.

I have a set of Chutingstar Risers. They have a tru-lock style of design. I've never had a toggle fire with about 100 jumps on them or so. The slider blocks work pretty well, never had the slider get back above the block, never had a problem getting the slider over the blocks quickly. The slider will be retained about eye level behind your head. I'm perfectly happy with mine.

1. My wife had the same problem and couldn't get the tail to cup enough to cook off horizontal speed. Not really sure if single-wrap stall is the gold standard of testing but if someone films you land, you should see the tail cupping and get plenty of educated opinions from the video. 2. You shouldn't lean into the chest strap throughout the landing. If your weight is forward, your wing will be forward so your pitch will be steeper while you're flaring. At some point you want your weight more on the rear set of lines to aid in the flare process since it gets the wing more overhead and decreases your pitch. For me I lean into my chest strap on final and shift my weight back as I begin to flare. I suggest you read the Parachute and its Pilot. The author explains canopy dynamics and breaks it down with illustrations that really increase your understanding of canopy design and flight. A great read and worth every penny of it. Best of Luck

Jumping high is not a violation of a recommendation. It is a violation of Basic Safety Requirement. It is far more dangerous than jumping a GoPro regardless of how many jumps you have.

The POV Camera 200 jump rule is enforced beyond reason. 1. USPA is a seniority based organization. A year or so ago a jumper pulled dirty low high on marijuana, spinning line twists, low cutaway, fatality. Public outcry: Not Really, he made his decision, he was an adult, and he paid the price. End of story (condolences to the family and friends I might add) The Chairman of the Safety and Training Committee of the USPA hospitalized himself and an innocent spectator on a very poor and frequent decision to swoop the spectator area. Public Outcry: Yes, but it didn't accomplish anything but make people lose confidence in the USPA. 2. Its a recommendation. There is the group member pledge for separating landing areas from high performance landing and regular landing areas. Yet DZ staff exit last on AFF jumps and spiral down through the main landing area as the fun jumpers are landing because they don't want to walk an extra 200 yards. A lot greater potential for catastrophy there than a GoPro. 3. If you stick strictly to safety for the sub-200 jumpers, do you really believe the most dangerous thing they do is jump a POV? I would say the group jumps they choose to go on are far more dangerous than the camera they use to film them. Add risk? sure. The standard dropzones stick to as if allowing it will result in certain death? Come on. 4. Waivering a 2,500 container opening altitude to 2,000 feet to placate the grumpy old jumpers is far more dangerous, will always be far more dangerous than jumping a POV under 200 jumps. The dangers in our sport are HP Canopies and opening low especially with HP canopies. Everything else pales in comparison statistically yet these are senior jumpers who understand the risk so they make their choices and live and die with them. Nevermind the fact that you can't point to a single fatality that was absolutely caused by a POV on a sub 200 jumper. Every single year people die on opening low after big formations on spinning canopies with low cutaways. EVERY single year. I'm not saying that the recommendation for 200 jumps absolutely needs to change. I'm saying that community wide everything else we ignore or write off as jumper's choice is more dangerous.

Yeah, pretty much. There's nothing wrong with throwing it out of the plane after AFF. You don't have to be on a progression path to enjoy the sport. There are plenty of freefliers who just want to huck it out fly around and have a great time. There is also plenty of freefliers that want to learn something on everyone jump and there's nothing wrong with that either. You shouldn't be upset that some jumpers reason for jumping is different from yours.

Boom, we finally figured it out. The problem is the awkward crotch stares. If you stop doing those, you're in.

I've heard a couple Military Freefall guys say that below X altitude (generally 2-2.5k) to wait for the cypress. I'm not sure how they got to this conclusion.

You forgot the part were the state department was allowed to block the military plan to decisively winning the war by blocking the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos for about a decade. But generally agree with everyone. US intervention in the Middle East results in new problems which we feel inclined to fight. I don't understand why we need to be involved in their political climate. I buy gas from the gas station and don't feel the need to control who is working the register.

I'm considering buying a "why jump from a perfectly good airplane" tshirt and keeping it in my gear bag. That way if I don't feel like being social, I can wear it in the packing room and hope it cliche enough that people steer clear of me. A not very subtle way of saying, you don't want to talk to me anyways. Hopefully it also has a speed limit 120mph sign too. ETA: Tandems never bother me, they make the plane fly.

I think the tempo makes a big difference as well. A 20 minute turn with packing is very tiring. 40 minutes down is the right amount of time for me. 60 minutes or more down seems to break the rhythm and is the most tiring.

A lot of FFers have spent very serious time and money to get where they are. I know a lot of flyers that downsized their apartment/house, car, took on a roommate, left a 80K job to work at a tunnel or made other big sacrifices to put it towards FFing. Maybe they are looking for people with the same level of commitment.

In the argument of rules versus common sense, I would favor rules. Rules protect the DZ and the sport when an accident happens especially when someone intentionally breaks the rule and gets hurt/killed in the process and wants to sue. Rules give the instructor's opinion a codified backing from a governing body. Very helpful to new instructors. Rules are more easily accepted when you enter the sport thus making the new generation of jumpers accepting of the intended safety message. The common sense approach doesn't generally apply to people who need to be talked to or grounded. Either by having their defense mechanisms wound tight or being hopelessly stubborn. Some permanent, some temporary. At the end of the day, its still up to the DZ to enforce the rules, they can ignore the rules and take their chances.

Fitness is important. The first and most obvious is keeping a reasonable weight (which you have) which makes buying gear a lot easier since big boy rigs don't sell very frequently but the real critical issue for exit weight is being able to fall at a reasonable speed when deploying your canopy. Aside from that, fitness is good for accomplishing your goals and avoiding injury. Fitness is more than just cardiovascular fitness and muscular strength. Generally being athletic is important because athletics (whether running, aerobics, crossfit, weight training, or team sports) build and maintain neuromuscular junctions and your nervous system is a key component to strength since the muscle is useless without the signal to fire that muscle. Aside from having good muscle tone and coordination, you will have higher bone density from working out especially if your workouts involve some impact. Even low/no impact training will help since contracting muscles contract against your skeletal system. A good bone density can mean the difference between breaking a femur and walking away with a dirty jumpsuit. Coordination is built through repeating specific activities frequently. I having a semi weekly regimen of using weights and PT bands to mimic skydiving inputs so I can build muscle memory for free instead of 24 dollars for 50 seconds of training. I'm hopelessly addicted... You don't need a high level of fitness to obtain a license, but you will enjoy skydiving a lot more and be a lot safer by being fit.