JeffCa

It's a holiday week in the USA right now. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

Has anybody ever landed a 3-out? "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

It's not the belly mount in your example, but I heard an interview with Bill Booth(?) about a triple-canopy container. He said that one had been invented and prototyped, but the increase in complexity actually made it less safe than the dual-canopy container. You needed 2 more handles that could not be mistaken for the other handles, and increased complexity in what's going on in the back with the risers, another set of 3-rings, etc. So they decided it was less safe and that 2 canopies in a container is the best number. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

9% are people who come here not to have conversations, but to try to shut them down. They tell people not to ask questions or not to discuss topics in which they are not interested or which they feel were covered adequately in a 9-year-old thread. They treat this forum like their own private clubhouse. Perhaps they are trying to save some KB on a server somewhere, perhaps they are drunk, or perhaps they are just disrespectful ogres in real life. They might even have "Making new friends" as a phrase in their profile, yet react incredibly poorly to the presence of new people. In future, before anybody posts anything, ask yourself some questions: 1. Would BigMikeH77 be interested in this post? 2. Would BigMikeH77 consider this post appropriate given my registration date? 3. Would BigMikeH77 approve of my username? 4. Would BigMikeH77 believe I had done enough independent testing and background work on my own in advance of asking this question? "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

http://youtu.be/sgAqlC8JBoI Starts at the 9:00 min mark. I'm 30 seconds into the video from the start, and I'm sure there's a perfectly innocent reason that you had this video so readily available to share. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

Have you looked at the PD sizing chart for Sabre2? http://www.performancedesigns.com/sabre2.asp It suggests that with your exit weight, you'd have to be an expert jumper to use it. Do you consider yourself to be an expert jumper already? I'm lighter than you by 10kg, have more experience, and I'm using a Pilot 188. Had a downwind landing today (first down sets the pattern and screwed us over) that I wouldn't have wanted to do on a smaller canopy. I'd suggest that if it was you who was doing it on a 150, you'd be in the hospital now. I also arrived at my 188 size after slowly stepping down through sizes one-by-one, 280-260-240-220-210-190-188. I'm passing on the same advice that was given to me. Move through the sizes one at a time, look at the manufacturer recommendations, talk to your instructors about when to move down, etc. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

But you'd do it on occasion? The odds do not change based on how often you do something...only the chances of meeting whatever the odds are. I'm very familiar with how odds work. I "most definitely would not be doing it regularly", but I don't know what my opinion would be of doing it once or twice. It depends on the degree of the perceived payoff. Something super-awesome like riding the Space Shuttle had roughly a 1-in-60 chance of being killed, but the reward was big enough that I'd have gone for it if given the chance. What odds would I take to try skydiving once? I don't really know. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

I liked it, except for the poetic statement that we don't care about the odds or the outcome. I very much care about both. I care if I survive the jump, and if skydiving fatalities were 1 in 100 jumps, I most definitely would not be doing it regularly. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

Find a dropzone near you, follow their instruction program, whatever it is. Nothing. You should be supplied with gear by the dropzone. Don't worry about this now. It depends on the age and condition. Don't worry about this now. It depends on where you are and the kind of training program. You really need to start by doing the basic research of locating and contacting a dropzone near you. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

"... student numbers appear to be decreasing at many DZ’s around the country." What are the numbers supporting this?

I've been paranoid about it this weekend! I did my leg straps up as tight as I could without risking cutting off circulation. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

I realised later that I forgot all of my emergency services friends (military, smoke jumpers, etc) out there, but I guess they chose "other". If you meant that IAD wasn't an option, I considered that as solo, along with AFF and SL. I was basically trying to tease out how many of us started on tandem, so all other options can go together. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

Our DZ may have lost a rental main today. Even though at least 3 people including myself saw the area it went down in, we've been unable to find it from land or air. Does anybody have this Plexus system installed on a sport container? "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

This wasn't in the brochure. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

I want full-face because I'm protective of my dental work during RW. But the Bonehead Revolve easily-removable face design intrigues me, for jumps that are lower risk. I have a Cookie G3, but would really like it to have the externally-accessible audible pocket like their Fuel model. A removable and washable liner is also ideal. I want more protection for my head, and would be willing to pay a premium to get it. And my perfect helmet would pack my rig for me while I sit back and reflect on the jump. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

Please don't be discouraged by one instructor. Despite my skydiving hobby, I think maybe the best thing I've ever done in my life is learning to scuba dive. My group had 2 instructors splitting our supervision. One was very nice, made the whole experience fun. One was not. He was the kind of guy who made people cry. I've often wondered what might have been if he was the only instructor we had. I might not have continued with it, which would have been an enormous loss, considering how much diving has added to my life. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

2000 feet scubadiving before equalizing? YOU'RE THE MAN!! Awww, I was going to make that jackass comment. I was disappointed when I scrolled down and saw yours. You're a faster jackass than I am, I guess. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

Oh, so you "well-respected" people get to be jerks to the rest of us? Thanks for letting us know where you stand in that respect. His post was abusive and uncalled for, "well-respected" or not. And yours was just lovely, thanks. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

It's a good video, and the best example of promoting skydiving that I've seen. I've often wondered why, for an activity in which there is so much public ignorance about everything from who we are to what we do to why we do it, there seems to be so little promotion going on. With the tools we have today, such as YouTube and easy video editing, promotion doesn't even have to involve a big budget. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

Thanks for the tips so far, everybody. I've been investigating all of your suggestions. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

Were you wearing earplugs? I've only done one skydive with earplugs in and I stopped for the same reason, but there was no pain associated with it. I'm not telling you it's the same thing and I'm not giving medical advice, but as a scuba diver, this often happens after I do repeated dives. It can take a few days to a few weeks to go away. Sounds will be muffled then suddenly there will be a painless "pop", and I'm back to normal. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

Jumping out of a plane is jumping out of a plane. Don't reduce the number just because some deadweight is strapped to your back, along for the ride. And the tandem can count towards the number required for licence purposes. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

Australian accents make the girls prettier. It's a scientific fact. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

I also found the post worthwhile. I'm not a Cypres owner, so I didn't know this stuff, but it might be useful in the future. The reaction you got was one of the most undeserved that I've seen on this forum. It got me wondering if the person reacting was a gear dealer, and a check confirms that he is. Perhaps he has an interest in people being ignorant of this? I'd hate to think that's true, but the angry and abusive reaction suggests that it's possible. It would certainly cause me to be cautious of this particular dealer, if I was in the market to buy. Not all of us have been on here since the beginning or spend our time going through the enormous amounts of old threads. We see topics when they come up again. Skydive Radio's Safety First segment has repeated topics because they acknowledge that not everyone has listened to the 200 or so back-episodes. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth

I've never heard of these things before or knew they were possible. You guys are scaring me. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth