GoHuskers

I especially like this quote. "When you lose control of a freefly position, a collision with another freeflier can be fatal, or worse yet, make you look uncool."

Thanks for the link, lot of skills for us to work on there. I hear you on the dive flow, maybe its time to dive a more rigid plan. We are getting good enough to make that kind of adjustment pretty fast.

My wife and I feel like we've hit a plateau and are looking for some dive flow ideas. We have about 100 sitfly jumps together and 75 or so have been 2 ways. We occasionally jump in larger groups but really like the safety of the small group and we like to feel like we are progressing on each of our jumps. We reliably get hand docks from the side, we can get a few crossing the body from the front (more by luck than deliberately going for them) and foot docks. Our current dive flows are unlinked HU exits, get a quick hand dock, and then whoever is higher flies their foot down and presents it in front of the others face within easy arm reach. Then we reverse the base and foot flier, then a hand dock if time permits. We reliably get 3 docks and fly them very stable. We would like some suggestions about new dive flows that are fun, challenging, and within our skill level. Tunnel is not an option for us, its a financial thing Thanks,

I would start now. You can always go south to keep current or get that last jump or 2 to get a license. Waiting all winter would drive me up the walls in anxiety. Tunnel is an additional hobby and should be viewed as such. The tunnel will always be there. I wouldn't spend my money at the tunnel until I had a good rig, that way I'm not tempted to skimp. My 2 cents.

Canopy alarms are convenient but not very necessary. I set my n3 to 1500, 1000, and 600. Helps fly a standard pattern and keep track of key altitudes. I'm sure swoopers have a differing opinion. For the record, the analog altimeter was created to look like a watch. I've always used digital clocks so it took me a long time to read an analog alti in free fall. I bought a digital and now I can take a quick peek. Ask yourself which display you can read faster and if you have the mad managerial skills to ensure you can keep a battery charged and you've answered your own question.

I bought a used protrack that's gotta be at least 10 years old. Bulky, buttons are well worn and its still the most reliable freefall speed reading I can get. The logbook and audible altitude warnings function without fault. Its a great device.

You and I are cut from the same cloth. Everything I've gone cheap on has cost me more in the long run. Bought an Argus (600 off a cypress hell yeah). I am the pround owner of 6 jumpsuits. 2 of which I wear, 1 of which frequently. It is a mirage, do not be fooled. Think very deliberately before you buy something, never buy "because its a deal" don't surf the classifieds when you're bored. If you have interests in more than 1 discipline, you have 2 separate requirements. Think about your interests, calculate supporting each, choose if necessary. Good luck, look me up if you're ever in Texas.

I do not know of a single case where a non-hippie has ever shit on the city hall steps to make a statement. To be fair the act alone might earn you the title. The founding fathers lived in a different era. There probably was a mental transition at some point in our country where acts became protected as speech. I picked each example for a reason: Porn is not speech; its an industry. Even at the time that it was upheld as being protected by the constitution it was a for profit industry. Much like the Stolen Valor Act was largely rendered ineffective because the citizen has the right to claim military awards they didn't earn because of their freedom of speech, it is only a crime when it is done for the purpose of securing material wealth. Porn is done to secure material wealth, why then is it protected as free speech? Flag Burning is an act. I would argue in the era where aristocrats had commoners beaten for not deferring the sidewalk, they had no intention of allowing flag-burning as being protected as free speech. This is of course speculation on both our parts and neither one of us is particularly more empowered to put our words into their mouths so we'll have to agree that our assessments of their intentions differ. (An interesting side note to the flag burning topic is the supreme courts decision that people in HOA's are not guaranteed the right to display an American flag. Regardless of any agreement a resident enters with a HOA they should be constitutionally guaranteed the right to display the American flag.) Public Defecation is an act, not speech. Its infringes upon the rights of others in many ways. Hence the fact that it was illegal until it was constitutionally protected as free speech. It is my humble opinion that the supreme court is iconoclastic in some of its landmark cases. They won't guarantee the right to display our flag but they will guarantee the right to burn it. It is important to them to protect our right to point out what is wrong with our country, but not to show our pride.) I have no special hatred of porn, flag-burning, or other acts that apparently are "speech." The court rejects significantly more cases than they accept every year. Why do they shy away from a case which could lay the framework for our national gun policy for the foreseeable future. Why is the first amendment so important and the second amendment is of so little consequence? I'm merely pointing out that their rulings appear inconsistent with the founding fathers intent, if that is the driving force for their rulings. With respect to gun control it irks me that our national leaders don't stop to consider whether or not they are infringing on our constitutional rights. I get that a lawmaker can propose whatever law they want and then let the court system sort out what is protected by the constitution. But why draft the bill if you are reasonably confident that it infringes upon your citizens rights? Seems like a disservice to the citizens you serve. I bear no ill will towards the folks on the left side of the aisle. But if they ask me to respect their values, I'd ask the same of them. Any point about sedition as viewed in the eyes of oppressive governments in the world bears little relevance to the issue of gun control in America. I'm not even insisting that I retain the right to bear arms with high capacity magazines, armor piercing rounds, no background screening, ninja stars that deploy from ball rounds just after impact... I'm just saying that it is a constitutionally protected right to bear arms, that leaves a lot of finer details to be worked out.

DanG, We have all been on dives that have gone differently than the dirt dive. Not a mere flaw in execution but an unstated agreement between the jumpers to change the intent mid-air based on a trigger after exit. Lawmakers with gun control on the mind are talking about the ways and means of reducing the number of, reducing the ammunition for, making the environment cost prohibitive for... The business end of getting guns off the street. What concerns us is that they take it as an afterthought that they are taking away another slice of our freedom. I am undecided on whether or not ownership of a high capacity magazine is a civil liberty. My opinion on the matter is irrelevant to anyone other than me. I would like to hear someone in our government stating that it might be infringing on a civil liberty and thus deliberated on with the intent to effectively interpret the constitution as it affects millions of americans in the application of their rights. Not just an afterthought that it can be taken, no harm no foul. What I do know is that I have zero faith in our court system to have consistent rulings on the bill of rights. If a hippie shitting on the steps of city hall is protected under the freedom of speech, why wouldn't high capacity magazines be protected under the right to bear arms. I am reasonably confident that the founding fathers never intended the first amendment to protect flag-burning, porn, and biohazardous "statements" towards our government. They might have expressly intended for citizens to own modern, relevant, military-grade firearms to protect our nation. Setting upon the task of writing a law that is already written will certainly result in more restrictions. Is there a law enacted by the US Government this year that fits onto a single page of paper? That encompassed a single purpose? The internet background check act might carry a clause in the back making primer and shell casings illegal. The point is that we are opposed to new legislation with the stated purpose of enacting a law that is already enacted and enforced because it is the beginning not the end of the gun control process.

Terrible, haven't used this particular tool but I'm confident based on previous experience with Army-commissioned web interactive training before. Its kind of like the verbal section of the SAT. I know what the right answer is, I don't know what your right answer is. Ambivalent is to Apathetic as furtively is to ...? Just one more thing they will mandate soldiers to do since they already dropped the coin on it.

There are plenty of options that don't require a double downsize and still get you in your first rig. Low bulk canopies like zpx and PD Pulse can help you get into a container and have downward mobility for later. I was focused on DZ.com ads when I was shopping for my first rig and didn't even really look around my dropzone. With my wife's rig, we found it on our dropzone, test jumped it, bought it, had access to the owner long after the point of sale. With your weight, provided you are not abnormally short or tall, I would have a hard time believing that you can't find a suitable first rig locally.

There are two offenses here: 1) Tragically cliche tatoo 2) Needless Drama

For a jumper that states I have no idea why my hard deck is 2000 ft I think I gave pretty solid advice. I didn't really give solid advice so much as passed on solid advice I was given. Congratulations on finding a semantic argument where the hard decks differ by 10% and the general theme was completely ignored. If you keep typing you will finally be able to split the atom with your replies.

Playtime ends at 5k. pull between 4k and 3.5k. I never want to be in a situation where my only 2 choices are keep it or chop it. That extra altitude is not only a great insurance policy, but it allows more time to enjoy my canopy flight, progress in canopy skills, create enough altitude to separate from the other traffic,and work on accuracy. As far as malfunction situations, why deviate from the SIM? For guys like you and I it makes sense to accept the advice which has been agreed upon by jumpers with decades of experience and thousands of jumps. In fact every thing I wrote before the malfunctions was probably something I picked up from these forums. And why not, it makes perfect sense.

You are making the bold assumption that the feds have any collective effort to accomplish or assess anything. The only thing that federal elected and appointed officials and their thousands and thousands of employees have every seen to exercise a collective effort on is the proliferation of the federal government in size and scope. I would bet the majority of that sentiment is created by everyone else complaining about the gaps in the organization. 1 more agency and 1 more employee will solve the problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfTex1HCib4 awesome video.

I had some long openings on my Pilot 188. I used to push the nose pretty far into the pack job. The canopy would surge forward after opening and then rotate off heading 90 degrees or so. I have gotten a couple of brisk openings from the nose not being far enough into the pack job. Took me about ten packs jobs to dial in exactly where I like it.

I'd probably pop for a little tie dye.

Extremely expensive and time consuming.

The fun jumpers at Skydive Utah are very inclusive. The DZO jumped with my group. All in all, the DZ was welcoming and the aircraft gets to altitude really fast. If there is a downside, it is that they don't have running water so bring whatever you need to get through a day of jumping. Overall, this dropzone is really good. I didn't mind using port-a-potties or stocking up on bottled water because they make you feel at home, its easy to get on loads, and the atmosphere is very relaxed. I'm glad I came out here for a great day of jumping.

Congrats on starting the AFF program. Like all good advice so far: Listen to your instructors, no one else is gonna be there with you in the sky and the dive flow is a very critical plan for both of you to follow. At 120 mph, youtube shenanigans can be fatal. Relax, being relaxed just before exit starts the dive out right. Breathe deeply and smile. Force a smile if you have to. The right frame of mind is the best preparation for success. Don't rush to the finish line. I never did more than 3 student jumps in a day. Fatigue leads to complacency. Complacency kills. If you aren't chomping at the bit to go back up, stay on the ground. Start making friends at the dropzone. Getting an A license is the beginning of the journey not the end.

Great answer. If I ever become a coach that is exactly what I would do.

Kelly, thanks for posting this video. You have a lot of courage knowing full well that heat rounds will be inbound. On the topic of you're 3rd attempt and rig-shift I have a couple of thoughts. 1) Expert Trap 2) Low Order brain function 1: The Expert trap being that you've done enough skydives etc that you felt the standard rules you have taught your students didn't apply to you. When you deviated from standard EP's trying to get the main out. or 2: You had a huge adrenaline response after the 1st/2nd unsuccessful pull and were subsequently thinking with your hands instead of your head. As soon as your cognitive thought process kicked in, pushing silver. Neither one is a ding on you, just responses to life threatening situations. I'd like to see some of the more psychology-oriented skydivers weigh in on the subject. What I've taken away from this video is to practice my EP's every jump. Try to ingrain that response so that when I get there through bad decision/luck/fate I can execute EP's without having to think about it. Hopefully I'll never have to post a video like this to the forums but if I do, I hope to handle it with the class that you have.

The Bev Polycotton suit is a suit design not just Polycotton construction material. It has pretty large wings. I bought one last year with booties, afterburners, and megagrips. It really allowed me to slowdown so I ( 5'10" 220lbs) can jump with my wife (5'4" 120lbs). I also wanted the suit to add range. I falsely believed that a suit with a lot of fabric would allow me to fall slower and then speed up at will. When you are in a group where you need to speed up while wearing your big boy suit one you are not flying. Once you get small to match fall rate, then add some inputs to get into the group you change your fall rate and have to start the process over again. Its frustrating on a 4 way and I can only imagine how bad it could be jumping with an unstable student. If you need to speed up in a big boy suit, you have really poor control. There are some threads here about slowing down your fall rate. Cordura is supposed to be the slowest falling material, followed by polycotton.