The SIM...

[popsjumper 2]

Quote

POPs,
-it needs a real writer. with a lot of skydiving and Instructing experience.

-And it should be booklet sized so you could very well carry it around in your back pocket.

-It basically needs to be four separate

-Student/novice stuff in the beginning, experienced stuff in the middle, and all the rules and regs in the back.

All good suggestions for improving the learning experience.

Quote

-Putting lipstick on a pig.

Quote

I too remember the time before the SIM. As an Instructor I made my own, a lot of us did.

As a matter of necessity, yes. Now, at least, we have some commonality across the board. We have a general consensus. Left to the "old days", we would still have umpteen instructors and ummpteen different things taught umpteen different ways. Yes, come to think of it, we still do, don't we?

Quote

And I'm not totally anti-SIM as I look stuff up in it from time to time, it's that we hand them out to students/novices and then expect, sometimes even demand, that they know it.

And that's a good thing.

Quote

And in it's present format, that's lame . .

I have to disagree here. Hard to work with, yes. Lame? Never.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[popsjumper 2]

So, back to the original questions, please.

I think we can all agree that the SIM needs a re-do. No need to beat that to death here.

I'm trying to gain insight on how other DZs/Instructors present the SIM or, if not at all, why not.
Readability shouldn't be an issue in those replies.
It would be sad to think that all that information is being ignored simply because it a hard read. Damn, try reading a 4-course calculus book.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[billvon 2,396]

>And it certainly does not need a tech writer to fix it, it needs a real
>writer. with a lot of skydiving and Instructing experience.

I'm thinking it needs to be sorta dry and factual. It's a concise list of skydiving rules, not a novel. I sure hope we're not at the point where it has to look like Maxim magazine to have anyone at all read it.

[popsjumper 2]

Got any input on the original questions, Bill?

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[NickDG 23]

>>It's a concise list of skydiving rules, not a novel. I sure hope we're not at the point where it has to look like Maxim magazine to have anyone at all read it.
I said like the below -not a novel - and Maxim? That's still in print?

>>should read more like a Boy Scout manual. As in here's how to tie a knot, make camp, build a fire, and so on.
NickD

[kallend 1,623]

Quote

>And it certainly does not need a tech writer to fix it, it needs a real
>writer. with a lot of skydiving and Instructing experience.

I'm thinking it needs to be sorta dry and factual. It's a concise list of skydiving rules, not a novel. I sure hope we're not at the point where it has to look like Maxim magazine to have anyone at all read it.

Have you looked at any math/science/engineering text books lately? Dry and factual is NOT what anyone under 35 has ever been expected to read. If instructors and coaches don't push it hard, it doesn't surprise me that few people read it.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[livendive 8]

Quote

So, this thread was 2005...where do we stand today with respect to YOUR presentation of the SIM during the training process? Do you require as SIM? Do you mention it? Do you avoid mentioning it?

Lets' be honest here. I want to hear from both sides of the house.

I bought several copies of the SIM this year and have my students sign them out for a week at a time. I also spent a couple hundred bucks making copies of all the ISP stuff and hand out the pertinent section to each student as they advance from one category to the next.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[poe62 0]

My copy is highlighted and marked in like crazy. I know I'm a nerd. it's not that hard to read. I would rather it be dry and give facts than make a long winded beautiful essay with less than necessary wording. If the SIM is as big as it is now, can you imagine if it was written so it was easier to read?

~Nikki
http://www.facebook.com/poe62

Irgity Dirgity

[billvon 2,396]

>Have you looked at any math/science/engineering text books lately?

Yes! Introductory physics texts are indeed colorful and exciting. But procedures to follow during NMR magnet quenching should not be colorful and exciting; they should be as concise and as accurate as possible, because it is (like skydiving) both technical and dangerous.

If it's really important to have a fun, colorful, exciting document that lots of students read, then by all means write one and get USPA to publish it. Then we'll have a document to give to students that might compete with MTV Sports for their attention, and the SIM to use when an experienced jumper wants to plan a demo or make a high altitude jump.

To Pops - we tell students about the SIM around jump #4, when we talk to them about USPA. And they get a lot of info about the SIM when they graduate.

[NickDG 23]

>>than make a long winded beautiful essay with less than necessary wording.
Good writers are minimalists . . .

NickD

[matthewcline 0]

"Good writers are minimalists . . . "

I thought that was strippers?

Where I jump-
The SIM is introduced at the FJC and then used as a back up reference at each Cat brief for the next jump (we have a Cat brief card/s done for each Cat so it can be in the AFF-I's hip pocket). As the "A" license card suggests we too ask about joining USPA. We make the SIM available in a hard copy form so they can read it from jump to jump and show them the USPA web page so they can down load it if they want.

Matt

An Instructors first concern is student safety.
So, start being safe, first!!!

[azakeus 0]

Just for my personal reference, would I be right in saying the SIM is the equivalent to the BPA's Instruction Manuals?

"If your chute malfunctions, you've got the rest of your life to fix it"

[popsjumper 2]

Yes, somewhat so.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[popsjumper 2]

Quote

To Pops - we tell students about the SIM around jump #4, when we talk to them about USPA.

Thanks, Bill.

What's the reasoning behind introducing at #4 as opposed to some earlier point in time?

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[psychoswooper 2]

I'm trying to gain insight on how other DZs/Instructors present the SIM

At School of Human Flight/ Skydive Tallahassee, I quess we're kinda like Skydive Orange- It's like the bible. We present it as the "Text-book" that goes along with your license training & then covers other interesting topics way beyond your initial training. We show them how it works....how each level of the ISP corresponds to the topics on the (4 page) yellow card & where to locate the reading assignments. We also point out to them that they can know what they are in for each time they come to jump by reading up on the next level that they will do. We also actually do the quizzes (although admittedly we are sometimes playing catch up) They are expecting to be quizzed, so they read. The SIM is not an option here.
Our young jumpers often return from visits elsewhere very happy to have recieved such well-rounded knowledge & surprised that other "A" license holders cannot spot, nor pack, know nothing about runway directions or aircraft pattern altitudes or three rings, or exit order, or cloud clearance, and don't understand why they with their 30 jumps can't go do a 4 way so-called head-down with 3 other 25-30 jump beginners.

[billvon 2,396]

>What's the reasoning behind introducing at #4 as opposed to some earlier point in time?

When they first start they get a notebook with a LOT of information in it - TLO's and dive flows for each level, gear nomenclature, how to do a gear check, freefall/canopy safety, hand signals, basic dropzone rules, "where to go from here" instructions, how to join USPA etc etc. We figure that plus the FJC is a lot for a student to absorb on his first day. By the third or fourth jump we figure they've absorbed most of that and are ready for more.