dthames

Where in Texas do you jump? Welcome to the sport. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

John, I learned this trying to get the best glide ratio, working with the feedback feature of the Flysight. The best angle of attack for me was one that left my feet inside the wake that I was making. As the speed picked up and the relative wind angle changed, my feet would end up "outside" and start bouncing around and flapping about. A little adjustment and things would settle down, I would speed up some more, and need another adjustment. It was very interesting to try to keep everything quite and fast. It was surprisingly dynamic. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Welcome to the sport. If you didn't get sick-sick on a tandem, you will most likely do pretty well with solo jumps. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Consider the fact that you might be raising skydivers. Did you talk about that? Your photo shows you at Dallas. I jump there a lot. I have always wanted to skydive but never to the point where I was driven to make it happen. Even after riding with the Golden Knights 20 years ago, I was not motivated to pull the trigger. So it is easy for me to say that I am glad that I waited for my kids to be grown. It would be hard for me to be a casual skydiver. If you get into the sport, it is very demanding in both time and in money. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

This answer might not fit well with your question. I started skydiving so that I could fly wingsuits. As a licensed jumper I got a Flysight GPS device that gave feedback on my flying performance and also recorded a GPS track that I could study later. I learned a lot about using the Flysight. I learned some performance tricks related to tracking. I could practice my belly flying fall rate control even on solo jumps because I had audible feedback. Most important to me, I learned how to navigate over the ground which is important to me as a wingsuit pilot. I did a lot of early jumps at a small DZ, often filling in a tandem/camera load which meant I would jump solo. Many could argue with validity that I didn't learn a lot able being a good skydiver on those type jumps. But I was working toward my goal and enjoying the sport within the limits of where I was at. Someone already stated that group tracking is something that should be carefully worked toward. There have been a number of accidents in group track dives. But solo tracking where you have a good grasp of where the jump run is/was, how to stay away from it, and how to properly navigate relative to it, that is a skill that is something that I have always enjoyed working on. Without a GPS recorder, it would be harder to learn. Note that beginning jumpers, even jumpers with 100 jumps, can cause real concern to the DZ manager and other jumper if you say, "I am doing a solo tracking dive". One way or another you should plan to prove yourself to the management and instructors that you are not putting others at risk. You MUST always be aware of where other jumpers are, where you are, and keep more than a reasonable separation distance between you. Trust for that must be earned, so plan to work with people and let them help you. You might not like some restrictions. The DZ that I visit most often wants solo trackers to talk to the DZ manager before planning such a jump. That allows him to do his job, trying to keep everyone safe. If he don't know you or your skills, you need to get acquainted. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

A friend of mine is a tandem instructor and knocks out 20 or more jumps per weekend. But when he went with me to visit a larger DZ, they wanted to see his last logged jump, on paper. You still need paper in some cases. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Welcome to the sport. Waiting 5 years, must have been difficult. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

If you pasted your original email from some editor like Word, you might want to do that a bit differently because it made the page very wide on my browser. I have had motion sickness issues all my life and they were bad when I first started skydiving. I doubt there is anything someone could do giving you a wild ride that would do anything but make you not want to skydive. Every time I got sick I didn't want to jump any more, but I would come back after I got to feeling better. Things that made me sick feeling, I would work with the instructors to do anything we could to make it less of a problem. You talked about hanging from the strut and letting go. One of the first skydive T-shirts that I saw said...."mind over splatter". That largely sums it up. Your training, confidence in equipment, confidence in instructors, and confidence in yourself must put you into a position/attitude where you want to climb out and let go. Doing a good job on the jump must be more important than your concerns outside of "doing a good job". When you have that attitude, you are ready to leave the plane. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

What is the "no Gri" referring to? (part of the record group description) Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Once you start on your student program, you need to jump fairly often. If money is an issue you might ask and consider Static Line or Instructor Assisted Deployment. In both cases you leave the plane by yourself, first deploying right after exit and then later having an increasingly long delay before deployment. These jumps often run around $75 (give or take) each where the first AFF jumps can be more than twice that. It is not really cheaper by much but it is a way to have a lower cost per jump. This might allow you to jump more often (right at first) than with AFF. AFF, SL, or IAD you end up after you get cleared for solo practice at the same point in the USPA training program. Some people do better at AFF, some better at SL/IAD, and some places actually mix them for specific reasons. If you DZ is open at all during the winter and you are eager to start, then SL/IAD might be even more attractive. Talk to the DZ staff is this seems attractive. Some places only do AFF though. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

You might consider a demo (from a canopy manufacturer) on a 190. Get some jumps on it and then jump the 170, if you feel like it is still a smart move. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I fly wingsuits with a team that has the Uclear product. http://www.uclear-digital.com/home/ I know several others that fly with Sena. Both work well. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I know zero about small canopies but I have noticed in the past year, I am getting a lot better at flying straight from reach, pitch, deployment, snivel, to full inflation. In my case it just seems to be after X number of WS jumps that some things naturally got a lot better. But there was a pretty long process to get to some level of experience where those things were within my grasp. I am sure the guy that does 500+ WS jumps a year and is good with a small canopy would have less challenges than the guy with 200 WS jumps would be, regardless of canopy skills. Yes it is sad when an organizer at a boogie it taken out by a cutaway when some other canopy might have avoided the issue. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Sorry but I sort of chuckled at this post. Good questions. I have never done a tandem but I am on the plane with them most Saturdays. I have several young friends that are great TIs and I would trust them right away. However, if I had to do a tandem I might ask, "Do you have a IT that is an old fart? That is who I want to go with". Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I dunno, I feel I kinda regressed a bit between jump 4 and jump 5. I had a two week period where I couldn't even convince myself to get back in the air (I mostly attribute this to unexpectedly having difficulty finding the hackey on jump 4, I do practice touches on the ground and plane now for every jump). I'm feeling way better about everything though, so I have high hopes jumps 6+ will all be better. Now, if only the weather would stop being crappy... I know several people that between 5 and 15 jumps have had increased concern about, "is this really a good idea". I think it is pretty common and happens with the initial excitement decreases and the knowledge of what all can go wrong increases. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I have done XRW with a couple of guys that fly Valkyrie, but they are loaded more like 3.1 or higher. They seem to be good for XRW and you can watch the WS while you are the base. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

My speculation too. Being main side, I left when the pilot chute left. But I teach "hard throw to the side", not soft toss next to the head. That's so 1980's. I managed to hit an AFFI in the face with the PC after he told me that I couldn't. He bought me a soda. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

As I gain experience and learn to fly different ways, I am often surprised at how asymmetrical that I can be and still be flying where and how I want to. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Never in my life have I been able to straighten my arms at the elbow. It has something to do with the way the my joints are. My brother's arms are the same way. When I first started WS, I worried it was or would mess me up. My arms caused the leading edge of the wing to be bent the wrong way. But soon I started rolling my arms to put my palms to the sky. This caused me to have a gull wing type shape when viewed from the front. Wing types: http://i.imgur.com/TAZ76g2.jpg In practice many people fly like this in skydive formations. Bending more or less at the elbow alters your balance and causes side slip which is used to hold/adjust your position. So it ends up not a real problem. I have an Rbird and an X2 suit. I have not noticed any disadvantage because of my arms. Here is a photo of me flying. Not the best angle for this topic but you can see the downward bend. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/photos/jump.cgi?Detailed=122813 Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

Regarding the GPS fix, you can look at your data files, the last column and determine the number of satellites that it is locked onto. http://flysight.ca/wiki/index.php?title=File_format Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I would guess that many video editor type people that already work at a DZ would enjoy making a little extra money editing on the side. However, if you don't want every video to look and sound very similar, that might be a more difficult or more expensive task. Tandem factories knock out dozens of videos each day but most look and sound very much alike. If you are okay with that, then no problem. But if you want each one to be different or interesting in a new way, that is a creative challenge that you might have to pay a lot more for. Someone I hire will have different taste than I do. While their work might be great, it might not be to my taste. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I don't understand why it is so hard for you to understand this. Luke jumped without a parachute. That was also my guess that touching all three handles was a joke that only skydivers would get/notice. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

I love it, at about 1:56 he practices his pull and EPs. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

No more stair stepping in all the recent records I've been a part of. The rationale is that adding levels tends to lead to looser flying. You want to encourage participants to look for the chest strap of the person in front of them to keep things on level. As for sighting the base, it's more important to localize your references (even in a 'teenager-way').

Even without accidents and cutaways it seems there is a pattern with some jumpers that there is no apprehension, then an increase in apprehension, and then it goes away. From just remembering what others have said, for this to happen after 5 or 10 jumps seems to be fairly common. I think it is because you learn more about what can go wrong and the initial joy/thrill is replace by more reasoning type thinking. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”