Never dunnit but will go Indoor at least

[wan2doit 6]

Recently (past 6 or 7 days) watched many many wingsuit and basejump videos and became 100% enthralled with the whole idea of skydiving. You folks are the best and I am jealous of u all from novices to pros. LOL In fact months ago I 1st saw grinding the crack with Mr Jeb and thought it was totally cyber faked and didn't look at the videos again until recently. WOW am I glad I was totally wrong - this is all so fascinating.
Am particularly interested in indoor flying to start. I have relatives in Orlando Fl and will be scheduling a visit from down South here with alterior motives. Ha Ha May even try to coerce the relatives to join in.
One question - Do y'all here think that intensely studying training videos would help a first time flyer have better body control during a 1st fly in a tunnel??? I was a somewhat high level gymnast in high school with good body control not that would assist in any way to this but am hoping.
What do you pros think?
I am 5' 9" - 140 lbs Are their any particular exercises one could do to prepare for tunnel flying??
Thanks Much in advance for any and all help afforded this total newbie.
Frank

[adamUK 3]

There's not much you can really do to prepare yourself for tunnel flying. You're probably better stretching rather than watching videos. I've done a fair amount (14+ hours) of tunnel but the sky is where it's really at.

Welcome

[wan2doit 6]

Due to my age 60+ I have learned to start new activities as tricky as these a bit slower nowadays than what I would have done in my 20s or 30s.
I'm also sort of new to computers and it is also amazing to me being helped by a person from UK.
Sincere thanks for volunteering your time here.

[adamUK 3]

You're welcome. There's people of all ages here too
Good luck with the tunnel flying. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

[skymama 35]

Welcome to the forums!
Oh, and here's some extra incentive to convince the relatives to come with you. The coupon is good through February but you only have 3 days to purchase it. http://www.odealsdaily.com/iFLY-Orlando/deals/For-40-Get-Two-1Minute-Flight-Packages-and-DVD-at-iFLY-80-Value/57363/716 (note: I have nothing to do with the tunnel and this isn't advertising, I just like coupons! )

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[Toddnkaya1 0]

Dude, go do a tandem dive!!!
58 seconds of free fall can not be replicated indoors.
You got a pro on your back. Flying up in a tiny Cesna to 10,500 is awesome as well! Best fine minutes of your life.
Go for it!!

[malooper 0]

Toddnkaya1

Dude, go do a tandem dive!!!
58 seconds of free fall can not be replicated indoors.
You got a pro on your back. Flying up in a tiny Cesna to 10,500 is awesome as well! Best fine minutes of your life.
Go for it!!

Couldn't agree more!!

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
-Raymond Lindquist

[wan2doit 6]

Thanks skymama I do appreciate your idea but it will be a while before I can get up to Orl. Due to your help here I now know there are coupons out there and will investigate that on google when I have more details on how and when the trip to fly will happen.

One thing for sure is that I'm going unless something real real bad happens. LOL :)

I can see there is a great cultural community here but some of the real skydivers need to lighten up a little on us whuffos. Ha Ha Ha

Some of us gotta get our feet wet in the shallow water before going where it is 10,000 feet or so way up there.

Thanks Again,

Frank

[wan2doit 6]

Hello Todd... and malooper,
I've been watching many videos on many aspects of the real thing. I have seen tandem first timers involved in bad canopy deployments and luckily survive. Not that problems of others would stop me from the real thing.
Right now I want to see how well I can control myself in a wind tunnel - it is said to be more challenging than freefall due to mistakes being magnified due to the space limits of the tunnel. My thought is that would help in the future plus make sure I really would like falling with a 100+ mile per hour all over me.
Aside from all the above words I will be extremely careful as I approach the real thing - just me I guess or maybe when ur 60+ you have a better focus on the hour glass of life. I have a felling u 2 are a bit younger. LOL
Thanks much for your help.
Frank

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

Looking to start out as a tunnel rat eh? That's fine. I think technically I might qualify since I think I still have more tunnel time than freefall time. Got my wingsuit on order too, expecting it to come in November - December timeframe.

If you were a gymnast that might help. If you were a gymnast 50+ years ago, maybe not quite so much. I always feel like if any exercise is going to help you, it's probably going to be Tai Chi. It's slow, precise and relaxed. It doesn't take a lot to steer in the tunnel. First 5-10 minutes is probably going to be spent just learning to balance on the air column. I wouldn't advise more than 10 minutes in there the first day you go. Everyone always seems to tense up their first time and make it more work than it has to be to stay in the air. 10 minutes under those conditions are quite a workout.

I have all my tunnel sessions up on Youtube. You're welcome to browse through my channel and watch everything from my first session in there to my last one if you're so inclined. http://www.youtube.com/user/FlyingRhenquest. You'll have to click "Load More" to get to my first 7 minutes in there, last year between my AFF levels 2 and 3. I don't think it'd help that much though, unless you're the kind of person who can learn to ride a bike by watching videos of people riding bikes.

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[wan2doit 6]

Thanks FlyingRenquest for the link but it seems all I can watch of videos here is from 10-20 seconds then most if not all of them freeze.
Some that were youtube here I switched over to utube and entered the title and could watch the whole video.
I have no idea why videos here load a teeny bit and then stop loading beyond a few seconds. Maybe they know I'm a whuffo LOL
Thanks Again,
Frank

[nadominhoca 0]

Hey wan2doit, welcome to the forum!!

The tunnel can help you to learn how to get stable, etc etc etc?! YES!!!

The tunnel can give you an idea about the feeling when you are actually skydiving?! in my opinion NO!!!

This is something that I allways tell to people, dont go to the tunnel if you are expecting to feel what is skydiving all about... the tunnel is good for training purposes, and that's all! Ok, you can have some fun for sure, as long as you learn how to get belly stable.. but appart from that, it's a training session for me!

In really encourage you to go for a Tandem jump!! That you will be able to really skydive!! You will be able to understand how does the entire process works, briefing, preparation, set-up, exiting, diving, deploying and landing!!

I bet you will have the time of your life, and learn something as well. That will give you a lot of material to think about going tor a AFF + A-Licence later on!

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

wan2doit

Thanks FlyingRenquest for the link but it seems all I can watch of videos here is from 10-20 seconds then most if not all of them freeze.

Could be your connection rate. We occasionally have that happen at work when our firewall's acting up. You could try clicking on the little gear icon at the bottom of the video frame and set the quality lower (240p or something) and see if that helps. If you're watching on a laptop or smart phone, you could try connecting to wireless someplace that has a faster connection too. Starbucks, McDonalds (I'm told, I haven't eaten there in at least a couple of decades) or a local public library should have a wireless network you can access for the price of a cuppa joe.

'Course if you were able to watch Corloss' video, you should be able to watch mine, so I dunno. Most of mine are longer but I don't think that should affect anything.

Maybe someone's trying to tell you that you just need to go down to a tunnel and make your own video!

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[wan2doit 6]

nadominhoca

Hey wan2doit, welcome to the forum!!

The tunnel can help you to learn how to get stable, etc etc etc?! YES!!!

The tunnel can give you an idea about the feeling when you are actually skydiving?! in my opinion NO!!!

This is something that I allways tell to people, dont go to the tunnel if you are expecting to feel what is skydiving all about... the tunnel is good for training purposes, and that's all! Ok, you can have some fun for sure, as long as you learn how to get belly stable.. but appart from that, it's a training session for me!

In really encourage you to go for a Tandem jump!! That you will be able to really skydive!! You will be able to understand how does the entire process works, briefing, preparation, set-up, exiting, diving, deploying and landing!!

I bet you will have the time of your life, and learn something as well. That will give you a lot of material to think about going tor a AFF + A-Licence later on!

Back around 1969 or 70 me and a friend went to a little airport in Georgia to take a static line jump for 10 dollars. My friend had something to prove (a father son thing) I was just going to do it for the heck of it. Well some other Army jumper that day almost hit a power line on the way down and wound up breaking an ankle due to avoiding the line and landing on a ditch inclined bank. Then my friend jumped and was supposed to pull a dummy ripcord to get the feel of it. Oops - he pulled the reserve chute which opened along with the main. Ground crew was crapping all over themselves with worry and fear both chutes would collapse and he'd be dead.
Needless to say I dropped the idea that day.
Due to those incidents and at my age being a little wiser (not much LOL) I am being cautious in my re-approach to flying way up there.
My friend that day did remark on how extremely quiet it was on descent and how he could hear us talking from way up. I do intend to experience that and the serenity that must exist in the sky.
Thanks

[wan2doit 6]

I have watched tons of vids w/no problem when directly going to youtube to open them.
My pc connection is averaging 28-34 mbps now that I switched to comcast.
BUT I took your 240 advise and problem was solved - don't know why but really don't care - what counts is that it works.
Thanks IT guru. Frank

[wan2doit 6]

skymama

Welcome to the forums!
Oh, and here's some extra incentive to convince the relatives to come with you. The coupon is good through February but you only have 3 days to purchase it. http://www.odealsdaily.com/iFLY-Orlando/deals/For-40-Get-Two-1Minute-Flight-Packages-and-DVD-at-iFLY-80-Value/57363/716 (note: I have nothing to do with the tunnel and this isn't advertising, I just like coupons! )

Skymama do u think the site could include an info item in the blue panel to the left of the posts indicating the number of tunnel hours members have? That way newbies would see quickly that tunnels serve a real purpose since real skydivers use them regularly.
Don't mind me I have been accused of having out of the box ideas often.

[skymama 35]

I'm just a lowly Moderator here, I don't decide what goes into the site. But, you are welcome to post your idea in the Suggestions forum!

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[Toddnkaya1 0]

Things are way way safer now than in 1969.
I'm not sure what year but I heard one year there were between one and two million tandems with zero fatalities .if your excited about the sport, man up and take a tandem . IMHO
Or go out to the drop zone and hang out and watch the expressions on the tandem novices, then sign up for one. Your chance of an injury or death are so slim. At your age I would ask the pro to do a stand up landing though. I had a very soft butt landing and my ass and back were sore for a couple of weeks.
I say again , go for it man!!

[wan2doit 6]

Totally agree with you safety and associated technology are way up since 69 or 70 without doubt.
The old war story I told has no relevance in the sport today other than the fact that one needs to be damn careful, very safety conscious all the time and to seriously study the subjects to gain necessary knowledge before any real skydive.
Thanks much for the assistance.
Frank

[Toddnkaya1 0]

Hi Frank,
Not trying to give you a hard time . :-)
That said I may contradict myself. Even very safe jumpers with thousands of jumps have accidents and die.
The beauty of the tandem, is that you really need to know nothing before a five min. breifing.
All you need to do us trust the TI and trust his years of experienc and training. You don't need to go fly indoors. Really all you need to do is relax, enjoy!!, and kick the TI in the butt with your feet. He or she may let you steer a bit if you want.
Todd