Di0

LoL. Well, forum jokes aside, making a straight guy uncomfortable stressing the sexual orientation of the TI, would be as wrong as a male TI making a female student uncomfortable with an inappropriate behavior or sexual references all the times. It's a job. And a fairly important one: you have to take care of somebody's life, sex as nothing to do with it. Professionalism is the way and if a "spontaneous and uncontrollable reaction of your body" happens... well... hopefully nobody will make a big deal out of it. I guess while in freefall, the student will be too overloaded to notice anyway (or blame it on the adrenaline lol) and under canopy, push away with you hips a little and you'll be fine. Bottom line, of the 1000 serious problems a TI might face, this is really not one of them, I think. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Add MIT to the list. http://web.mit.edu/skydive/www/ I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

You'll generally find a little table at end of a logbook that helps you do the math. They're very indicative numbers, but they work for most practical purposes. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Dude... that's your first time in the tunnel?!? You NAILED it! Congrats! I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

LOL, one of my instructors almost literally did that to me once, toward the end of my AFF. I showed up at the DZ not planning to jump, I had to take care of some paperwork. He saw me and he went: "how are you?" - "good" - "are you jumping?" - "no, man, I have to..." - "ok, now go get your rig" -"... but I wasn't planning on... I was... I wasn't only... I was..." - "DUDE. Go get your rig NOW, you're jumping with me". That day I finished my AFF and did my first solo right after that. God, I love my instructors. :) I can only wish to other people to find some as good as mine. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Again, never take up advices from a guy on the internet, even less since I'm a newbie, but the correct technique in these cases should be, once you're solidly on the ground, to let go one toggle and pull hard on the other one: the canopy will beautifully collapse itself on the ground without problems. Make sure you're no longer "flying" when you try that... if your weight is still even partially supported by the canopy, it might hurt. And ask your instructors, but this is pretty much what everybody else told on how to collapse the canopy at the end (especially tandem instructors who fly huge canopies). It might also simply be that a 280sqft is just humongous, I weight about ~150lbs and I started on a Navigator 220 (it's a canopy designed specifically for students, so you can go a little smaller because it has very forgiving flying characteristics), which I always found to be a very good balance for a beginner like me. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Yup, I was joking too, I know it is all in good spirit. :) I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

ugh... touche', sir. The things English as a second language speakers end up saying... (and get away with) I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

... and nightingale floors! Don't forget the nightingale floors! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightingale_floor I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Alright, I got my 15th jump in today. Now I'm sitting on the porch drinking a beer and waiting for those legendary mad skillz to come in me too. Meanwhile, I know USPA Nationals are coming soon, so if anybody wants me in their 4way team, I'll be happy to be the team leader. I plan on bitching a lot on several forums from now until then, instead of wasting my time skydiving, so I should be in tip-top shape for the competition! I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

As far as I know, nope. Lodi is probably the biggest DZ in the US which is not USPA member, so no membership required there. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Anyway I think that as long as you keep downsizing as aggressively as possible to get those hook turns in as fast as you can, you should be fine. Right? I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Well, even from the dumbest premises could spring an interesting discussion that could help somebody else. For example, the camera rule is one the rules that I hear to be disputed more often by newbies (like me, at the beginning when I first heard of it :D), although the general approach is "well, if there is a rule there is a reason that I'm missing to see right now, so whatever, they say 200 jumps? I'll wait those 185 that I still need". Then you get interested in the sport, you ask your instructors why is that, you start reading around and you realize that, indeed, that one rule makes a huge sense. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

If you did read the "pointless magazine" that you get with your useless USPA membership, you would have found an interesting discussion on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect But yeah, of course that's for people who actually lack skills, I do have them so it doesn't apply to me. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Don't touch other people's gear, especially their rigs. Unless you have a VERY-VERY-VERY good reason. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I see your point and it's a good one. As I said, that is how I approach the problem, from my point of view, which is not supported by any hard fact or "golden book of aeronautical definition" but just by how I see things, using the word descent without a mean of "ascent" is a little of a stretch, but then again... you made a very good point, so... agree to disagree? :) On the other hand, I totally understand what you mean, when under canopy I'm not in for the scare-rush, damn if done right canopy flight is actually quite relaxing, if anything that was the freefall and after all the efforts I put in controlling and fighting that fear, I don't certainly want to go back in that stage. Mine was more of a, quite pointless, arguing over term usage. Does english have the expression "splitting the hair in four"? Because that's exactly what I was doing in a totally lighthearted mood... :) I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Made my day*! And yeah, it's one of the first things I thought when I started hanging out at the DZ a couple of months back, it certainly made the studen wind holds a lot more enjoyable. ;) *it doesn't take much on the days I don't jump. ;) I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

It would be a "descent" only if you also had a way to perform an "ascent", but since you have only one option and it is to go down, all you can do is slow your fall to level where it becomes safe, technically speaking, yep, it is falling. It can be slow or fast, but I would use the word "descent", which is a very contextualized word, only if there was the relative option to control it and going back up. At least, my 2c. :) That being said, attacking another person for an hobby that really can only hurt themselves it's the wrong approach no matter how you want to look at it. I do respect people who say that in their views it is crazy, pointless, unnecessary, and so on. We can seat here and call them whuffos all day long, they won't change and we won't, but I admit that most of them do have a point. As long as they respect mine when I say my life would feel emptier without it. And as for those that are used to live so vicariously that they feel the need to verbally attack people who have the courage to go out of the bounds of ordinary every day life, wake up, coffe, go to work, go home, dinner, sleep, and decide to chase a dream instead, it's sad for them. But that being said, the comments I get for the most part and from girls are "wow, hot, amazing, please bring me with you". So, see, we win again. :D Again, just my 2c... I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Yup. Don't do like I did on my 2nd jump, when I realized I went there too soon, I "smartly" decided to let go the brakes, almost immediately visualized in my head my AFFI telling me not to do that for any reason at that stage during my FJP, went back to half brakes and flared the s*** out of it. It still wasn't enough to avoid me a PLF under a sinking canopy, but thankfully that was the only consequence of my stupid mistake. I was jumping a student 220, so that surely helps in forgiving you these mishaps when you learn. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

WELCOME!!! You'll never send your kids to college. AHAHAHAHAH! I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

And you plan on not using it until you reach your A-license, right? Until you get your A, you're still a student, although cleared for solo. That means you HAVE TO use student gear, your instructor will HAVE TO check your gear before a jump and so on. At that point, rent it from the school. Maybe, I think, if you buy an exact same equivalent version of what they give you in school, they would let you go, but I don't see the point. Renting gear also lets you try downsizing in very small steps (~10 sqf at a time, let's say) which is safer and more progressive, you can only screw that much more by reducing your canopy of 10sqf... When you have to buy a new canopy, you'll want to downsize with bigger steps (you're investing a few thousand $ at a time, you don't want to do that to go from 190 to 180, makes sense?), which is very dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. Incidentally, the canopy is not the only difference between personal rigs and student rigs, a lot of things are oversized in student rigs to make sure they are more forgiving and rugged than the average personal rig. I don't know if you've ever seen an advanced jumper rig and a student rig while open next to each other, if you have the chance to see when they are repacking them and it's not a busy day, ask to have a look at them side-by-side, I did and there is a lot to learn/understand. So, as also a student looking forward to finish my AFF, I promised myself to rent until the end of the season, where I should be done with my AFF and hopefully a at a good point toward my A and use the winter to read, ask questions, collect thoughts and decide what to buy: I'll probably start with non-skill related equipment that you need anyway: a couple of good altis (1 analog, 1 digital), a good open face helmet, very good googles, maybe a nice RW jumpsuit, all things that you can keep using for many years regardless of your skill level. Until then, there is nothing wrong in renting rigs. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Airplane seatbelt buckles are, nowadays, common use items to most people, since they aren't much different from what is used on commercial airlines. It is safe to assume that most people know how to open and close those seatbelts, if they ever took an airplane in their lives. A tandem harness? Not so much, I honestly wouldn't even know where to start and.... well, if I'm relaxed I could probably figure it out quite soon, but under panic during an emergency? Mmmhh, I'd rather have to deal with the familiar one action quick-release system of the classic airplane seatbelt that is used all over the world. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Eheh! I'm exactly the same (except, I'm a male), overly-cautious, always over thinking stuff and stressing for no reason. I could blame it on a too protective mother, but hey, my fault ultimately. And yet. I'm doing my AFF and loving every moment of it! It's weird. If anything, I can say that being that scared might stop us from enjoying it at the beginning but should not affect our safety as skydivers. Actually, most people (including my instructors) will tell you that not being scared is much more dangerous. If you're that type of person that over-thinks everything, you might find your first AFF jump totally different from you tandem and find asking yourself so many more questions, and also doubting yourself if you have "the right stuff" (at least, I did) but they way you talk: you already decided. Listen to your instructors, they've seen hundreds of students, if they say that you can proceed, than you can. It took me probably 8 jumps before I started trusting myself and at the beginning my instructors had to sit there and talk to me almost psychoanalyzing me because I was (and here I quote) "scared shitless" LOL. I was so blocked that I had to repeat AFF2 four times (I'm not kidding). There was nothing wrong with me, I was simply getting very scared everytime the instructors let me go and I would not perform tasks like turns and so on, or going unstable... well, I would still pull on time, so at least that means you can keep trying if you want to. I was over analyzing everything to the point that I kept psyching myself. At some point, one of my instructors had to take me to his place and started showing me videos of pros doing stuff, preparation and everything, just to get over my fears. It's part of their job, anyway. But my 2 instructors had to go over and beyond with me. But I wanted to do it no matter how long it would have taken. Hell, I only know how much I wanted to do it. So I sticked with it. This weekend on my first totally released dive (AFF IV, I think, something like that, basically for the first time the instructor never had any contact with me during the dive nor the exit) I went down with the dumbest and biggest smile on my face (I got stuck in that smile at about 9000ft and I still can't take it out of my face) and the best feeling I had in my life was when I looked over at my instructor, gave him the "peace" sign with both hands after I was done with the workflow for my dive, and he couldn't control the the exact same stupid smile stamped across his face. Do it. It's the best thing I've done in my life. Actually, it's the best thing I've done FOR my life. By far. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I got you, that's pretty much the very same philosophy I have. :D I'm an aero engineer, so I get the part on how gear works pretty easily and I hope faster than average. But I suck at everything else, classic example of theory VS practice kind of person. So I'm also a big fan of the safe "discuss first" approach, the things that we might be skipping are countless. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Well, i'ts not "people", it's from the Vigil II User Manual (http://www.vigil.aero/wp-content/uploads/Vigil-II-users-manual-II.0.6.pdf) “STUDENT Mode The Vigil® cutter activates at 1040 ft. (317 meters) and below until 150 ft. (46 meters), if the freefall speed is equal or superior to 20 m/sec. (45 mph or 72 km/h)" I assume Cypres has similar settings, but you should refer to Cypres manual if you use that device. So if it opens anywhere above 1040ft because of spiraling (or even still freefalling, for what matters), I guess it must be regarded as an AAD failure; on the other hand if you're spiraling and dropping faster than 45mph at 1040ft and the AAD fires, it is the student's mistake. Account some error margin for those 1040 ft and you get the 2000-2500 ft altitude they generally point out to stop any intense maneuver under canopy, for this and other very good reasons. That's how I see it, from the bottom of my little-to-none experience. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.