PixieUK

Members
  • Content

    257
  • Joined

  • Last visited

    Never
  • Feedback

    0%

Everything posted by PixieUK

  1. You don't specify at which level of licence it might or might not be mandatory. Perhaps optional after 500 / 1000 / whatever number jumps. Since I personally know a handful of people who lost altitude awareness and would now be dead without an AAD fire, I'm inclined to say make them mandatory for low level jump numbers and for infrequent / non-current jumpers. I've always used one but as a relatively new jumper, I've not really had a choice up until now. Obviously they're mandatory for students and if they're fitted to a rig they must be switched on and every rig I've ever jumped has had one fitted. Personally I wouldn't jump without one, I have had too many bumps and knocks in formation skydiving and have witnessed many more on exits and zoo jumps to take the risk that one day one of those 'bumps' might be more serious and end up with me dazed or unconscious in freefall. A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  2. If you mean the dz near Seville, it's a great place to jump with fast aircraft that go to 15k, but has a few challenges. We had a very thorough dz brief because the 'off-landing' options are somewhat limited. Landing is only East-West or West-East (due to significant hazards North and South), depending on wind direction so you can expect cross-wind landings occasionally. The ground is mostly dried earth which is pretty much hard as concrete, so if your landings aren't stunningly good, make sure you know how to PLF and don't be afraid to use it!! On West-East landings, it's better to land further away and have a slightly longer walk back than be caught out on the downhill slope to the East and end up landing in the ditch. Also, the camera guys, tandems and experienced local jumpers all land at the East end by the check-in point so it can get a bit crowded Make sure you have the dz office number in your phone before driving over - the gate is sometimes closed and you will need to phone the office to get them to open it remotely unless you get lucky enough to catch up with someone who has a pass going in or out. Even if it's open on your way in, it might not be on your way out! Have fun
  3. The questions listed don't really bother me, I think they're natural curiosity. Why else would they be the same questions that people ask over and over again? Though to be fair, most people just say "I could never do that" and we change the subject. If it does get as far as a decent conversation, I do get the "but you've got x jumps, don't you know all there is to know by now?" question quite a lot, lol. Yeah, I wish And many of my conversations end up going down the route of explaining that I skydive, I don't actually do proximity BASE and wingsuiting . Though it does occasionally get amusing when people are horrified I want to jump from higher up, like 15000' is scarier than 10000' We frequently end up at the 'acceptable risk' discussion (of dying, they rarely consider severe injury or disability) and those people always want to know if any of my friends have died skydiving, to which I usually ask if they've had any friends die in car accidents and it's rare that people say no. For me, if people are interested enough to ask questions, it's a chance to engage them, not so much about skydiving, but about different perspectives and how getting more information can change a viewpoint. A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  4. I met a guy last year who had learned parachuting via BASE jumping (off a bridge to start with, not proximity or buildings) as the friends who got him into the sport were all BASE jumpers. The first time he went up in a plane to jump, he was horrified at the thought of jumping from a moving vehicle and pretty freaked by the height!! I'm assuming most BASE jumpers start out as skydivers first, but it's not always the case, and that definitely altered my friend's perspective
  5. I had been jumping a Nav 240 and the instructors (including an AFF instructor) assured me I would be fine and that it was a docile canopy. They neglected to tell me it was a shaped 7 cell (i.e. rather different characteristics from the rectangular 9 cell Nav) and it was a shock [...] I don't think it is an aggressive canopy as such, it's just a big difference flying it compared with a Navigator and I was completely unprepared for that. An interesting example of where a difference in canopies is almost trivial to experienced jumpers, but a surprise to someone who really only has experience with one or two canopies at all. Unless it is a brand new instructor, they may not have flown the DZ's student canopies in many years, or those particular canopy types, ever. It can take some work to get feedback from students back to the instructing team so they know what to brief students on, other than to say, "You'll find it handles a little differently, have fun." That's where John's presentation was very interesting, in how he placed different canopies. He did actually say that the Spectre was steeper in its turn (no kidding! compared with a Nav, a Spectre dives at the ground, lol). If instructors used a similar chart for student progression, a Silhouette or Sabre2 would be preferable to a Spectre. A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  6. Hmm, I doubt that a survey will tell you anything useful. For one thing, it seems notoriously difficult to get any significant number of people to fill them in (for any sample, not just skydivers). And for another, the answers are only likely to be valid for a very short period of time and some answers could well skew your statistics drastically. eg I have less than 100 jumps, I have my rig on long term rental (very unusual in the UK and requires a B licence) so I haven't spent £'000's on a rig yet I spent around £700 recently on a brand new full face helmet, a digital altimeter and 2 secondhand jumpsuits. But those are one-off purchases and are not typical of my expenditure. Only my analogue altimeter, gloves and 2 of my hook knives were new, everything else is secondhand (open face helmet, audible, 3rd jumpsuit etc). The weather in the UK has been rubbish so far this year so my jump numbers are incredibly low for the times I've actually shown up at a dz (in theory I should have done maybe 20-25 jumps by now, I've actually managed 5). If the weather is good (highly unlikely but possible) over the next few days which include an FS course and a Bank holiday weekend, in theory I could get 20+ jumps in. So my expenditure on jumps is highly weather dependent - that's far more likely to be the case in Northern Europe than in Florida, for example. My travel costs are skewed far too high for the number of jumps - I've been to 3 different dz's on 7 visits for those 5 jumps, in the summer I could easily expect to do 5 jumps at a dz in one day. Similar conditions apply to associated expenditure. If I'm not jumping, I'm not likely to be getting beer fines, and if the weather is generally rubbish, I won't be hanging around the dz for hours to sit in the bar, I'll go home. In the summer I'm more likely to camp, then I'll have a couple of beers in the evening, but not many as I want to be up early without a hangover to start jumping as soon as possible. And if the forecasts aren't great, I'm unlikely to travel to dz's that are further away, even for boogies or special events - what's the point if I'm not going to get jumps in? A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  7. I had been jumping a Nav 240 and the instructors (including an AFF instructor) assured me I would be fine and that it was a docile canopy. They neglected to tell me it was a shaped 7 cell (i.e. rather different characteristics from the rectangular 9 cell Nav) and it was a shock to find out the differences on opening and doing my canopy checks. In the end, it was fine but I had too many "got away with it" moments and decided I wouldn't jump it again until I was a lot more confident with my canopy handling skills. I don't think it is an aggressive canopy as such, it's just a big difference flying it compared with a Navigator and I was completely unprepared for that. The Silhouette is also a very rectangular 9 cell and I have flown several sizes (dz rental gear). A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  8. I was also at the Expo and got a chance to chat with John after this presentation (and also his presentation on how to prevent hard openings at the same event). It made a lot of sense to me. I am still a very new jumper and at one dz went from a Navigator to a Spectre 210 (wingloading around 0.8). It frightened the bejeesus out of me and I felt I was lucky to land it safely (on my feet and well out of the pattern, a long way from everyone else!). The turns felt very aggressive compared with a Nav, I lost a lot of height in each full turn, the flare was sharper and I found it difficult to do full practice flares up high which didn't fill me with confidence for landing. I now fly a Silhouette 190 and absolutely love it. Lovely long glide, smooth flares despite being an older canopy, can lose height if I want to by steep turns but actually will do a 360 and not lose much height at all on toggle turns. I suspect that if I went back to the Spectre now, it wouldn't feel nearly so aggressive but I'm in no rush to move on, I just want to get down safely and comfortably after my freefall is over
  9. Ha ha ha How long is a piece of string?????? No such thing as an average person. You might as well ask how much the average person in the street spends on beer, smoking, clothes, food. In the UK, every person who does a tandem must be registered as 'a student' for BPA insurance cover. The vast majority never go on to make another jump. Ever. So if you take the average, from the stats on the BPA website, you'll probably end up with number of jumps as slightly more than 1 A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  10. For the UK, try the British Parachute Association www.bpa.org.uk Membership (not all full members are active skydivers) http://www.bpa.org.uk/member/ Dropzones: http://www.bpa.org.uk/where-can-i-jump/ A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  11. We use F with my tunnel team to get into the tunnel - having practised it over 50 times for the tunnel where everyone lets go the second we're all through the door, that could be interesting launched from a plane Only 2 of us are in the same team in the air though and we actually launch it 'backwards' for the tunnel (tail first) so will bear it in mind when we finally do get up in a plane (usually Caravan 208's though Otters and G92's are often available for competitions) A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  12. Would be good to say hello to some forumites in person
  13. Your argument is actually illogical if you read the replies of the experienced guys (like, thousands of jumps, not just hundreds) where they state that it is easily possible to be distracted by camera whatever your experience level, that any experience level can attempt to just 'switch it on and forget it' but in practice that often doesn't happen. The difference in jump numbers is the experience gained in how to deal with unexpected circumstances when things go wrong. I am nowhere near jumping camera and don't actually have any particular desire to do so yet anyway, but I would also prefer to jump with the 200 jump person doing their first camera jump. Experience with a camera is not going to save your life if something goes wrong, experience with canopy control might A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  14. I'm very new to 4-way, only done significant stuff in the tunnel so far (too cold to jump right now) but it seems my slot is likely to be O/C on a rookie team. I'm still learning the Randoms (are the formations by letter the same globally, I know the names vary??) and I know a few teams from last year who picked their favourite exit and used that every time, regardless of the competition draw, as it took one less pressure off the dive. What's your favourite exit formation and why? Variously I've been given B (Stairstep Diamond), H (Bow) and O (Satellite) though I'm struggling with figuring out how Tail manages to exit with O. Obviously I'll talk to coaches and dirt dive these for real before jumping, but just for some variety whilst trying to memorise the formations, I'm curious about your experiences
  15. Last solo consol jump (18th jump) before qualifying for my A, had a bad wind shear at 5000. CCI talked me through it and said if I was at all concerned about it, to pull a little high (I was routinely pulling at 4,500 at the time). Had been a real battle to get through my AFF and consol jumps so just wanted it all over and done with so decided to jump. Pulled at 5,500 - BIG mistake! Would have been better off pulling at my normal height. Canopy had fully inflated and I was just doing my checks, when suddenly I got whipped backwards as I hit the shear. Bearing in mind we had been put out what looked like miles in the wrong direction from the DZ, I was completely disorientated and it took me a few seconds to work out what was happening. I got down safely and landed in the landing area but refused to jump again that day. I didn't jump again for 6 weeks after that little incident, then ended up having a mal on my first qualified jump which ended with my first reserve ride. A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  16. One girl got a bit enthusiastic about getting into place in the doorway and managed to knock her teamie (who was outside) off the plane entirely. When the group got down, the girl who was knocked off the plane complained that her team-mate had barged her out of the way, though the perpertrator protested her innocence. The whole thing was caught on video and was pretty clear-cut so after that the she was known as "Barge" A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  17. How about doing a tandem, telling the instructor you're thinking of doing AFF and if you can do some basic things like steering the canopy and see how you feel about things after that? Some things to think about afterwards might be: did you have altitude awareness at all in free fall, could you look around and see where you were going, how did your back feel with your legs tucked up behind the instructor, how did you feel when the canopy opened and under canopy? Forget the landing pattern, that's not how you'll be doing it Give it a go, see how you get on and even if it turns out not to be for you, at least you will have tried
  18. I'm in my mid 40's and started skydiving just over a year ago. Most of my aching was in my lower back when I was learning to do a hard arch for stability, particularly when practising it over and over again in ground school! It is the same in the tunnel (though you probably won't have to arch as hard - they tend to turn the wind right down for beginners). To practice, put a mat or folded blanket on the floor (nothing too squashy, you just want to protect your hip bones, lol). Lie face down on it, bend your knees up about 90 degrees, put your arms flat on the floor with your upper arms in line with your shoulders and your lower arms turned up 90 degrees but palms still on the floor. Without pulling your elbows back behind your head, try to lift your chest and arms off the floor keeping your upper arms level with your shoulders, and then also lift your thighs up off the floor (really squeeze your butt and upper leg muscles). The first few times I tried it, it felt almost impossible. With practice and yoga-type stretching, I now get a very bendy arch, particularly in the tunnel and have a tendency to 'sink out' unless I concentrate on keeping my arms forward, at least level with my shoulders, rather than flared back behind my head. They will show you techniques in the tunnel, but 2 hours in 4 days? Man, that's gonna hurt if you're not used to it, lol. I started off with 10 minutes before my AFF and that was bad enough. Even now, I do 20 minutes in rotations (usually 1 min 40 in, then 3 mins 20 out of the tunnel) and my arms and back let me know about it A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  19. I did one tandem first but I never intended to do AFF, that happened because my tandem jump left me with a bit of 'meh', take it or leave it feeling. Everyone told me I should try it by myself before deciding skydiving wasn't all that exciting, lol. My ex, who had taken a long break from skydiving for various reasons, did his first tandem at the same time I did mine (he also did AFF many years ago). I would say get some tunnel time rather than extra tandems - I did 10 mins basic stability and simple turns and getting used to the noise (turned out to be a big part of my door monster!) and I never had an unstable exit until I had to deliberately go unstable to pass a level. A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  20. I am also very new to skydiving and tunnel and I really struggled with knee turns. One of my instructors stood in the tunnel and had me hold his arms then dig a knee down to spin both of us around, then stop it with a bit of opposite knee, then go the other way. (I tend to think of a knee lift or tuck rather than a dropped knee as otherwise my brain doesn't tell my body to do the correct movement, lol). Once I could really feel it, he hopped up into a flying position too and I spun us both around flying (rather than him still standing). It was a great way to actually feel the correct action. I learned to do it originally without booties and it does work. Once you have booties, the input can be a bit less, or else you spin much faster and have to counteract more to stop it. I've been trying to practice turning slower and more in control - great theory but doesn't always work in practice, lol. It also took me a while to figure out that the turn will start slowly and will accelerate even if I don't put more input into it so I have to be ready to stop it with a bit of opposite knee. A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  21. Where are you based that you are allowed to jump with headphones on playing music???? Pretty sure he wouldn't get through a UK flight line check with that! A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  22. Yes, in the UK we have flight line checks and the JM is responsible for ensuring that everyone on the manifest for that load has been checked (usually the checker signs next to the name of the person/people they checked). If you only have an A licence, whoever signs for you must also check that your AAD is switched on. I have been on a load where more than one person missed their jump because the JM was not happy that they were properly equipped (A licence jumpers with no hook knives). A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  23. Ah, I stand corrected. When I looked it up, the first place I found was on here that said it was "a truly elliptical canopy" and I queried that with her. She said she didn't actually know (!) so I didn't pursue it further. I assumed that "truly elliptical" was the same as fully elliptical. http://www.dropzone.com/gear/Detailed/301.html A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  24. Since the general consensus seems to be that many elliptical canopies (Stiletto & Katana have been mentioned among others) are a bad idea for new jumpers, does that apply to all ellipticals or are some more forgiving than others? My friend has a Safire 2 170 that she offered to lend me to jump when I'm ready to downsize (I'm in no hurry, only just started on my Silhouette 190 so this genuinely isn't about me, lol). What surprised me is that she has fewer jumps than me and had way fewer than me when she bought it (probably around the 35 jump mark). I had no idea it was fully elliptical until I looked it up and I know she had a lot of issues landing it at first (lots of crashes and tumbles). She's loading it at less than 1:1 (as would I, if I were to jump it). I suspect she bought it thinking - small container that actually fits, 170 canopy, has RSL etc - rather than actually researching the type of canopy. A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr