thomas.n.thomas

Reminds me of swimming. Stopped wearing goggles after I ended up swimming a 200 IM with goggles in my mouth for a longer than comfortable portion of it. Were those guys all testers? Seemed like some of them were futzing with the goggles quite a bit in freefall. Wondering if it was fit issues or actually messing with the display.

Learning about light - probably most important, and most difficult. Photography - it has "light" as the first part of the name, so you know it's important. After looking at the pictures here I feel like such a hack with my DSLR, but here is what I have to show for myself. www.500px.com/thomas_n_thomas I dream of the day when I start shooting skydiving.

From a theory point of view, I agree only a total will be a prototypic EP when in the wind tunnel. Is there any better way to practice partials? The harness is okay, and I can work through my EPs pretty quickly (slow is smooth, smooth is fast, get everything down to correct muscle memory), but I still have this apprehension that if I had to do it in the air, it would be completely different, more variables, and looking at a dynamic, flailing canopy/bag of junk while moving/tumbling is a whole lot different than a static harness. I defer to those with actual experience, and even those with more than 5 jumps to convince me that this thinking is overly cautious, but I just have a hard time believing I would be nearly as proficient in the real crisis as I would with the training harness.

A bit after the fact, but I have been busy with not-jumping related activities and finally wanted to share what I call my "no s*** there I was" story of ineptitude. Not quite the craziness that many of the seasoned jumpers have experience, but enough to rattle me a bit. The short version for those not inclined to reading: AFF D1 (5th jump), I flew into a tree and sprained my ankle (awaiting MRI results, but 2 sets of Xrays say no fracture, woohoo!) Long story: I made some critical errors and wound up extremely lucky. First: We drew up the landing pattern with final approach starting just beyond a treeline (first mistake, I didn't really appreciate the variable nature of flightplans and was rigidly adherent to what I perceived as the plan for that landing) - I didn't think about flying over trees on final as a bad idea in general, and even more of a bad idea for me because of my very very limited experience. I think for the most part, I misinterpreted and thought that my turn onto final had to be exactly that far behind the treeline, rather than "somewhere about right on top of it it." Lesson 1: Don't fly final over anything you aren't ok with hitting (given adequate room, which I had and then some on the other side of the treeline). Second: I started my downwind at the spot we had designated on the aerial, and when I got to the corner to turn onto base leg, I saw I was still at 800ft. All I thought at this point was, "darn, too high, swing out base leg to lengthen it and lose more altitude." I didn't think "more wind than light and variable here, I should plan on a shorter final." Lesson 2: If you're too high in the pattern, think about why...what the wind is doing and how it will affect your next moves. And finally, third: I get to the corner to start on the base leg at just above 300 and I think "perfect..." I turn into the wind and look for my landing spot and quickly notice it start to come back towards me as I lose momentum because of the greater wind that I hadn't thought about. Uh oh, I'm going to pass closer over this line of trees, and there's a fence that's along them as well. The only thing running through my head at this point is, "get over the fence and those trees" as I see my landing point continue to slide closer to the barricade of stuff I don't want to hit. I think to myself "no hook turns near the ground," which quickly translates into "no turns whatsoever on final" in my inexperienced mind. So with limited options, I end up trying to clear a fence and pass between two trees. I hit some turbulence, drop a bit, and get pushed right into a big fat tree trunk, but luckly have dropped enough that I hit less than a foot before the fence. I kind of went into a fetal position and kept my feet out in front of me, and my right foot took most of the impact on the tree trunk. Then my butt fell to the ground and I realized "I'm not dead, but that happened way too quickly, and much too close for comfort." Only later did I realize how insanely stupid I was to try and weave through two trees and over a fence instead of doing a braked 90* turn and landing crosswind in the plowed field I was over. Lesson 3: braked turns close to ground are definitely preferable to hitting large unyielding objects. After a thorough debriefing and some more tips/tricks from instructors on what to do in different situations and how better to plan my landings, I ended up limping away with my one jump done for the day and a sense that the next few weeks were going to be painfully boring. But, everyone at the DZ was great, not only in making sure I was ok, but also getting the chute out of the tree, making sure I learned what I needed to learn, and overall I think I am much better for the experience. I was pretty ashamed at my mistakes but I received nothing but encouragement and instruction. I think maybe everyone realized I would be beating myself up about this one for many jumps to come. Hardly something I'll forget. To the new AFF students like me, don't f around with trees. They'll win. And the version of the story I tell people who ask me why I'm on crutches: "Parachute....cool...turn...turn....Tree!...Thump!"

Well, I'm back from the wedding, and sad to say, there was no wind tunnel bachelor party (long story). Those curious about strippers in 120 mph gusts will have to find their answers elsewhere. If I ever do manage it, I promise to post video. Despite that, I did sneak in my own tunnel time afterwards and think I did fairly well for my 8 minutes of possibly the most fun I have ever had. After watching two guys before me I was convinced I wouldn't even be stable belly flying, but I ended up being able to control altitude, turn left and right, and sometimes could track back and forth, but was pretty inconsistent. I need some serious work tracking and maintaining altitude - when I was heading for the door on my own, I kept generating to much lift and flying above it. I even got a vid of the whole thing for $5. All in all a great experience. Thanks to everyone who convinced me this was something that needed to be done, party or not. Now...for my newest question - are there any jumpers in the VA area that frequent tunnels? The closest ones I can find are in NC and that's quite a hike. I want to go maybe 5-6 times a year, but 20 hours of driving for 30 minutes or so seems pretty rough.

"That's the way he jumps...ice cold." "You mean no mistakes?" "Nah, he just doesn't practice anything, ever. It's a surprise he's lasted this long." For the record, after watching a HAHO video I'm thinking that's got to be pretty awesome.

Don't listen to Andy. Skydiving is safe. Why shouldn't' we be able to jam out while we fall to the earth?? Agreed. I see no reason why we should not be able to jam out while we are in freefall. BUT, I gave it some more thought last night and while the N3A is a step in the right direction as far as trying to make music in freefall safe...it's not nearly there. There are to many situations that come to mind where I do NOT want to be hearing music. If anything a device like the N3A might be more dangerous as it could give a false sense of security. I think it will be a long while until recorded music in freefall becomes safe enough for me to revisit the subject. Soooo, be careful what you wish for....I'm going to get some vocal coaching....I'm going acapella!! Recorded music is definitely not safe. Jump with an electric guitar and amp and make your own tunes. Do a lot of people really jump with music? Seems crazy to me. I mean, how are you going to hear if you get a phone call?

Plus we're married, we don't have that look of....desperation, that women are so attracted to. sure, i make poor choices, but those are the only ones i have. women complain about how i treat them. i expect they'd date better men if they could. ;) "the default date" You have to have carnal knowledge -- of a lady this time -- on the premises. My favorite pickup line to date... "I can see it's dangerous for you, but if the government trusts me, maybe you could." It's tough to keep a straight face with that one.

What about electronic ear muffs (amplify soft noise such as speaking, but cut everything above a certain # of db). I use them on the shooting range all the time and it's much easier to hear people talking and still saves your ears from muzzle blast. There are a few helmets that are built to accomodate muffs like Peltors or Howard Leights, but I don't think these helmets are necessarily suited to skydivng (looser, more of an infantry style helmet). Could a new time of skydiving helmet with electronic muffs be the way to go if it were offered? ETA: in posting this I realize the muffs would need to change a bit because air friction noise is constant and might be amplified along with voice to drown it out, so some testing would be needed. Nice thing about the peltors is you can have audio input as well, so if you have an audio out capability on an audible altimeter, it goes right into the muffs.

I can't speak from a skydiving perspective, but my job for the last year and a half has been dealing with this very issue on production of many extremely high value things worth more than my life (seriously, my parents tell me I cost $50 from a hospital in CT). You have 3 basics - supervision, procedure, and training. You need a sufficient amount of all 3 every single time to make sure things go right, and if any one of those is lacking, the other two need to increase proportionally to make up for it. For all of you doing solo jumps, you aren't really supervised, so that means training and procedure are paramount. Training includes refresher training (i.e. practice, demonstration of proficiency, testing), which really gets at the routine deterioration. Put yourself on a schedule: if I have not jumped in x number of days...If I have not practiced ___ in x number of days...I will ____ prior to any jump. Then, make sure you know your procedures and that they are correct, and DON'T deviate from your procedures (e.g. hard deck). Again, I have no exp. jumping and only write this as someone with experience with it in the outside world. The response about making flashcards and always following the same steps is right on the money. Routine can cause complacency if it's viewed the wrong way. It can also create consistency -> safety if treated properly.

Thanks for all the warm welcomes. Just as a little update, I'm confident that I will be able to start AFF this Spring (long story involving a lot of paperwork bs from work). My hopes to take off time and do a whole bunch in a few weeks looks to be a bit unrealistic with my current workload, so I'll be going down to Skydive Orange on the weekends. Anybody from there on here? That's where I did my tandem jump and I'm really looking forward to getting to know everyone there. I'm also getting pumped for a little tunnel time (date and time still a subject of much debate based on a best friend's fiancee - see the tunnel forum for more details). Apart from toning down the OCD to reasonable levels as regards checklists and reading everything in sight that has the words sky, jump, or parachute in it, are there any other recommendations for getting prepared for AFF?

Hahahaha, thanks for the replies. I will call up and snag 30 min of tunnel time tomorrow morning. I found out that the two other groomsmen might not get there in time on account of them being lazy bums and not getting their plane tickets yet. So if that happens it looks like 15 min each...more power to us. I think we probably couldn't do the whole stripper thing unless they were the instructors. Then it's a safety requirement and we really have no say in the matter... Neither of us drink either, so before anyone gets ideas of hungover barf-fest in the tunnel, we'll quash that one right now. I think I'll get an instructor(s) to make sure the groom has fun getting pushed around and I'll try to focus mostly on training. Two birds with one stone.

Hahahah, well it's just for prior to the wedding. She's really concerned about the sprained ankle type injury resulting in crutches on the big day. Given that 1) it is an actual risk and 2) she has no experience to know how big/small of a risk it is, I can't really fault her for the concern. He is not pushing the issue because it isn't worth adding to her stress level to do something immediately versus after the wedding. Anyways, sounds like 5-10 minutes each is a decent amount? I was thinking to buy a big group package and just take 4 of us.

Looking for input on two aspects. The following is background. Best friend getting married in December. He wants to skydive and I thought it was a good idea for the bachelor party, but his fiancee said not before the wedding. So, in lieu of that, I thought that because we'll be in Orlando, might as well go for some tunnel time. We both have zero experience in tunnels. I have one tandem jump (so, essentially no experience) and only the knowledge I have acquired from reading in the past few weeks. Is it something that would be fun for someone who likes physical activities (e.g. hiking, camping, climbing) and how much time would you recommend I get? The sessions are one minute long, and I remember my jump feeling like it was over in seconds. But I also realize that it's probably a bit tiring. I've also got about a 4-5 hour window, so I need to account for the classroom time and orientation. I'm just worried that 3 -1 minute runs will be a bit too short to make it all worthwhile/fun for someone who's not going for practice.

I am the kind of person that gets about 20 feet out of my apartment building only to forget if I locked the door (which I did) and have to go back up to check on it....twice... Based on responses, it sounds like the simple solution is obviously to pay attention, which I would imagine is a prerequisite for repeated jumps. I'm slowly being convinced I am overthinking things - it's what I do for a living, so it comes naturally. I will definitely go over this with my future instructor and make sure I'm not trying to cover too many bases too quickly. Thanks for the responses and the perspective.

Brand new to skydiving, done one tandem and about 20 pages from finishing Poynter's manual. Getting ready to take on the SIM. I'm starting to work on a few lists like "what to inspect and how often," "what to check before a jump," "what to check during deployment," and so forth. Does anyone ever use something like a kneeboard (I'm thinking sewn in clear cover to slide paper in because obviously you don't want an actual bulky kneeboard on your rig) and grease pencils for keeping track of this sort of stuff (mostly just the pre-flight checks) right before the jump? I like the idea of being able to look down at my thigh and see all the boxes checked off before I yell Bonzai and take to the skies.

Looks like I'll have that book in 5-8 days. It will be all I can do to not be reading it at work. Thanks for the suggestions. Looking forward to hearing more from you all as I learn what questions to be asking.

Thanks so much for the replies. Those links are indeed what I was looking for. I can't wait to start training. I've considered trying to do it just on the weekends or taking a few weeks off of work and doing it all at once. If I were to do the latter, what recommendations as to DZ would you all have? I'm open to anywhere in the US. My stipulation is that I need it to be somewhere with stable weather so I can be sure to make a couple of jumps each day (I'm thinking southwest?) and a slow progression. I'm very intent on the "don't practice until you get it right, practice until you can't get it wrong" mentality.

Good day to all. I am completely new to skydiving, not yet even enrolled in AFF, but just finished a tandem jump and loved it. I've been reading as much as I can here since, trying to learn as much about the sport as possible before enrolling in training (I'll have to see if Uncle Sam will let me first, otherwise I've got another 3 year wait until I can). I'm in DC for the next few years - not sure where I'll be after that, but it seems like the nearest spots are at least a couple hours from here. Not sure yet what field I'll start on. Reading through, I've run across a ton of acronyms and terms that I'm completely unfamiliar with. More than likely, getting a USPA handbook is my best bet, but does anyone here know of a quick reference for all the technical language that gets thrown around here on a day to day basis? Thanks in advance! -Thomas