wan2doit

Members
  • Content

    573
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

Everything posted by wan2doit

  1. 1 Question - Can a whuffo possible future tunnel rat with only 6 minutes in the tunnel participate in an iFly Orlando tunnel camp if still a whuffo?
  2. Well Did It Now - Happily Hooked for sure. What a great bunch of folks working there - So Helpful - Much thanks to Curtiss, Gabe, Kylie and Benji 1st minute was real good - got somewhat stable and dearched and ascended then came down pretty much on my own I think - hard to tell sometimes. 2nd minute turning was more challenging - said hello to the wall. LOL Went back the next day w/o the family for 3 - 1:20 flights. For some reason it was much tougher to do what I wanted to do - mainly belly fly and work on stability. Alot seemed to go wrong - couldn't get much above the mat even by dearching a lot.. Then when I reviewed the video I saw I did finally rise when the instructor gave the signal for more air. Then I felt better. I also learned what it is like to have air knock your feet out from under you - not as bad as I thought but my instructor was there to save me. Ha Ha All in all both days were fantastic and can't wait to return. I had imagined the flying part would be the highlight of it all but I was surprised at how much I loved feeling the immense volume of air flowing all around me. It was as if it was a semi solid invisible force that I could drop into and ascend from. I don't really even know how to put it into words except that I want more of it. LOL Anyway - 1 Question - Can a whuffo possible future tunnel rat participate in an iFly Orlando tunnel camp if they are still a whuffo? Fingers Crossed
  3. stayhigh I understand the 1st part but what is referenced by the "get good enough to share time" ? Is there time sharing in tunnel time? Does one have to attain a certain level of proficiency prior to "sharing time" being available? Thanks
  4. What can I say - I'm a procrastinator. I look to the tunnel as a preview of the freefall experience and have spent the rambling period to get myself into much better physical condition as preparation for the tunnel and tandem. Plus back in the late 1960's got scared off this by seeing a jumper before me and my friend were to jump nearly hit a power line and broke his leg by landing in a ditch. That caused me not to do the $10.00 static line jump. Then my friend did it and had the main and reserve both pop out due to him pulling the reserve handle instead of the dummy ripcord he was supposed to pull. Bottom line - I'm looking real deep into this rabbit hole before I jump in.
  5. Ha Ha - Believe it or not 2 friends have already offered to fund my 1st tandem just to see me do it since this type stuff is about all I have been talking about 7 months. In fact one wants to do it when I do. This 65+ is seriously considering it. Can't sneak out this trip though too many family things to be done. This whuffo hears you!
  6. Well I will finally get to IFly Orlando on Mar 16 at noon. I have also convinced 2 sisters,3 brothers in law (all of us well over 60) and one niece from 4 different states to also risk becoming addicted. Couldn't convince the wife though. LOL Personally it wouldn't bother me if some local tunnel experts looked us up to give my relatives a bit of confidence. I'll be the skinny old guy with gray hair. I have been looking forward to this since registering here back in Aug 2013 and can't wait. I am hoping to become a semi regular so as to become good at flying in a tunnel (e.g. tunnel rat). ? - Does tunnel flying remove the whuffo status? LOL
  7. Wish that vid was 5X longer at least. The scenery was beyond comparison.
  8. What about one in Dade or Broward counties in Florida with 4,000,000 potential customers within 50 miles. Seems like a perfect fit for the region.
  9. Thanks 3 Empire, Another poster WickedWingsuits recommended basejumper.com to me and once there I found this article http://www.flylikebrick.com/articles/flb_fallrate_vs_glideratio.pdf which seems to be quite authoritative and written in pretty plain English. Looks like down down down except for an almost stall causing flare. Thanks to all for the help on this. Frank
  10. Yes I may be being overly frugal (don't wan2 say cheap LOL) here but compared to the absolutely fantastic skydiving videos one sees today on youtube it seems like this old tech movie might be available just to look at one time to refresh old memories of it. . Is there any link available to view Gypsy Moths without a fee??
  11. When flying down the wingsuit's glide slope angle Is it possible to gain altitude if one sees that it is necessary to do so during a wingsuit proximity flight? Have seen videos of flights that seemed to be within 10-30 ft of ground as the flyer proceeds down a dry creek bed full of rocks and don't know if a person has a chance of corrections for minor miscalculations in terrain vs wingsuit glide angle parallelism.
  12. Just curious if any entrepaneur ever considered building and operating a tunnel in Miami region. Seems odd that an area such as Dade, Broward and Palm Beach with around 3-4 million people would not have one. Maybe an executive with Seminole's will read this.
  13. Sounds like you're on your way. The best of luck 2 u. Frank - wan2doit
  14. Totally agree with you safety and associated technology are way up since 69 or 70 without doubt. The old war story I told has no relevance in the sport today other than the fact that one needs to be damn careful, very safety conscious all the time and to seriously study the subjects to gain necessary knowledge before any real skydive. Thanks much for the assistance. Frank
  15. Possibly the site could include an info item in the blue panel to the left of the posts indicating the number of tunnel hours members have? That way newbies would see quickly that tunnels serve a real purpose since real skydivers use them regularly. Don't mind me I have been accused of having out of the box ideas often.
  16. Skymama do u think the site could include an info item in the blue panel to the left of the posts indicating the number of tunnel hours members have? That way newbies would see quickly that tunnels serve a real purpose since real skydivers use them regularly. Don't mind me I have been accused of having out of the box ideas often.
  17. I have watched tons of vids w/no problem when directly going to youtube to open them. My pc connection is averaging 28-34 mbps now that I switched to comcast. BUT I took your 240 advise and problem was solved - don't know why but really don't care - what counts is that it works. Thanks IT guru. Frank
  18. Back around 1969 or 70 me and a friend went to a little airport in Georgia to take a static line jump for 10 dollars. My friend had something to prove (a father son thing) I was just going to do it for the heck of it. Well some other Army jumper that day almost hit a power line on the way down and wound up breaking an ankle due to avoiding the line and landing on a ditch inclined bank. Then my friend jumped and was supposed to pull a dummy ripcord to get the feel of it. Oops - he pulled the reserve chute which opened along with the main. Ground crew was crapping all over themselves with worry and fear both chutes would collapse and he'd be dead. Needless to say I dropped the idea that day. Due to those incidents and at my age being a little wiser (not much LOL) I am being cautious in my re-approach to flying way up there. My friend that day did remark on how extremely quiet it was on descent and how he could hear us talking from way up. I do intend to experience that and the serenity that must exist in the sky. Thanks
  19. Thanks FlyingRenquest for the link but it seems all I can watch of videos here is from 10-20 seconds then most if not all of them freeze. Some that were youtube here I switched over to utube and entered the title and could watch the whole video. I have no idea why videos here load a teeny bit and then stop loading beyond a few seconds. Maybe they know I'm a whuffo LOL Thanks Again, Frank
  20. Hello Todd... and malooper, I've been watching many videos on many aspects of the real thing. I have seen tandem first timers involved in bad canopy deployments and luckily survive. Not that problems of others would stop me from the real thing. Right now I want to see how well I can control myself in a wind tunnel - it is said to be more challenging than freefall due to mistakes being magnified due to the space limits of the tunnel. My thought is that would help in the future plus make sure I really would like falling with a 100+ mile per hour all over me. Aside from all the above words I will be extremely careful as I approach the real thing - just me I guess or maybe when ur 60+ you have a better focus on the hour glass of life. I have a felling u 2 are a bit younger. LOL Thanks much for your help. Frank
  21. Thanks skymama I do appreciate your idea but it will be a while before I can get up to Orl. Due to your help here I now know there are coupons out there and will investigate that on google when I have more details on how and when the trip to fly will happen. One thing for sure is that I'm going unless something real real bad happens. LOL :) I can see there is a great cultural community here but some of the real skydivers need to lighten up a little on us whuffos. Ha Ha Ha Some of us gotta get our feet wet in the shallow water before going where it is 10,000 feet or so way up there. Thanks Again, Frank
  22. Due to my age 60+ I have learned to start new activities as tricky as these a bit slower nowadays than what I would have done in my 20s or 30s. I'm also sort of new to computers and it is also amazing to me being helped by a person from UK. Sincere thanks for volunteering your time here.
  23. Recently (past 6 or 7 days) watched many many wingsuit and basejump videos and became 100% enthralled with the whole idea of skydiving. You folks are the best and I am jealous of u all from novices to pros. LOL In fact months ago I 1st saw grinding the crack with Mr Jeb and thought it was totally cyber faked and didn't look at the videos again until recently. WOW am I glad I was totally wrong - this is all so fascinating. Am particularly interested in indoor flying to start. I have relatives in Orlando Fl and will be scheduling a visit from down South here with alterior motives. Ha Ha May even try to coerce the relatives to join in. One question - Do y'all here think that intensely studying training videos would help a first time flyer have better body control during a 1st fly in a tunnel??? I was a somewhat high level gymnast in high school with good body control not that would assist in any way to this but am hoping. What do you pros think? I am 5' 9" - 140 lbs Are their any particular exercises one could do to prepare for tunnel flying?? Thanks Much in advance for any and all help afforded this total newbie. Frank