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FlipperBizkut

How to set up time

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I am looking to get an hour of coached tunnel time. I have 47 skydives, and want to fast-track my way to being more competent in the sky. Currently, I struggle with everything, and think that focusing an hour in the tunnel would really help.

That said, I live closest to Atlanta, but could possibly make it to Orlando. I got on iFly's website, and it looks like either place is $975 for 60 minutes with all 60 minutes having to be used in one block.

Based on recommendations here, I was looking to do like 7.5 minutes per 15 minute block or similar. Also, looking at prices here http://www.jumpticketprices.com/...els.asp?currency=EUR shows much cheaper than $975.

So, how do I go about getting the best prices for an hour of coached tunnel time, and how much should I expect to spend? I will also take this opportunity to ask your opinion on how beneficial you think this would be. Tentative goals would be gaining competency on my belly to dramatically improve my ability to dock with others / turn basic points and I would love to learn to backfly as well as transition from belly to back. Are these realistic goals?

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So it depends on what you want. The best thing that I've experienced, if you have to travel a long way to a tunnel, has been Paraclete 1 week memberships. $1,000 for 15 min a day, for 7 days (if I remember right). Now the cool part is if you have a group, say 4 or 5 people, now there is 1hr+ per day you can fly, and it still costs you $1,000.

But there is a catch. You need to be decent enough to fly together, and at least similar-ish skill level. If your buddies want to fly head down, and you are on your belly, you won't be sharing much time.

Otherwise, get hooked up with an instructor you like, and go in small groups buying an hour at a time and splitting it. Like was said before, no one can fly an hour straight (except maybe some instructors, not the point). Even 1 hour a day broken up is brutal if you aren't use to it. From my personal experience, I felt like my arms and legs were made out of razor blades after day two.

If you can make weekend trips to a tunnel pretty regular, then that is an option too, just book 15 min coached. A little more expensive, but after doing it for a couple months, you won't have to ask for advice on here anymore.

Long story short, min for min, tunnel is cheaper than the sky, but it ain't free. And that membership I mentioned is without coaching. Last time I was there, coaching was $50 for 15 min (on top of the time itself of course). These guys get paid crap and do the job for tunnel time, so when a coaching opportunity comes up, it is expensive (it is also a lot of work on their part).

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Trafficdiver

***No one can fly for an hour straight, don't bother.



Absolutely not true.

My fat ass can't. But others certainly can.

That being said I agree that 10-15 minutes is a great starting point.

I'm sure there is someone that CAN, but the point being it does not help in progress when you are fatigued. This is what I have been told by several people that have 100+ hours of tunnel time.

I was ready buy an hour block and rock out, but they talked me out of it. I was told a few minutes flying and debrief is the fastest way to learning in the tunnel, how true this is I'm not sure.

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Yeah, I'm definitely not wanting to do a hour straight. What I read suggested doing no more than 7.5 minutes at a time, and making sure to brief/debrief between sessions. That is more in line with what I am looking for.

Anyone know any good coaches in Atlanta that can also get the off-peak/lower prices?

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For me it worked best with my team if we had a 10 round session (1,5 minutes per round) with 2 rotations of others between, so we could review our round on the screen and walk through the next round before entering the tunnel again. Mostly it was a freefly round or firsttimer round, so 2 minutes between our flights.
Means in total: we needed a minimum of 30 minutes to complete our 15 minutes flying time, up to 45 minutes if there were more flyers with us. With that, usually we were able to fly 2 hours/day without any problems.
As we mostly have been in prague, review on the screens and preparing inside the chamber before entering the tunneltube itself was easy because of the tunneldesign.
Also if there was no rotation with others at our specific session, they shutted down the airflow so we could fly with a small break between our rounds.
With an orga like that, if you start early with a coach on 1-1 and you give yourself an hour or slightly more between your sessions, flying 4 sessions with 15 minutes flying time during the day should not be a problem.
A good coach will give you enough time to prepare in the creeper area/room before entering the chamber and will take care of a good debrief afterwards on the screen to prepare for the next session. One hour a day flying time with about 8 hours in total of briefing/debriefing/wating between rounds/eating/drinking ... then seems to be comfortable even for new tunnel rats..
--------------------------------------------------

With sufficient thrust,
pigs just fly well

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I walk in tunnels all the time and just fly a quick 10 or 15 out of an hour and I am not in that great of shape. The 15's I am pretty spent at the end of but the 10's at flying 2 minute rotations are ok. Flying them at 1:30 or 1:40 is better for debriefing.

If you are in shape you can look at 10 minutes, if not grab 5 minutes and see how you feel then grab another 5 minutes an hour or two later.
Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

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