MikeStafford

When people don't behave according to rules/safety standards, you do tell them exactly how fast to fly. Especially if they are putting other lives in danger by doing so. Pilots can tell jumpers where not to fly, due to it being in the way of their patern. So either way, both do get to tell eachother how to do their job when safety is concerned. Its not rocket science, but a bit of communication never hurt anyone... The OP wanted a slower speed, which would require the pilot to raise the nose to maintain altitude. Combined with a bad exit technique that could favor a tail strike in some planes. Also low speed can contribute to a stall and wing drop when jumpers start hanging outside. No aircraft is certified with people hanging outside. Most jumpers have misconceptions about flying airplanes. Leave the flying to the pilot. He might know what he is doing. And any jumper who is anywhere near the airport traffic pattern is not going to land in the landing area. Conversely if the pilot is not using the pattern he is endangering other planes. Even if there are no other planes at that airport the pilot is required by the FARs to fly a proper pattern

I could be wrong, but I have never encountered someone who purposely misrouted their chest strap as some sort of convenience while putting their gear on. It's happened to me twice. Once I caught it myself on a gear check around 10,000 feet, and once someone else caught it for me before boarding. Neither time did I mean to do it half-way --- both times, I simply messed up. Ever hear of a pincheck? It's done before you get on the plane.

Relaxed isn't limp...you will eventually end up on your back folded at the waist. The center of gravity is in the rig/butt area and that wants to be lowest. Like a badminton birdie your arms & legs end up high & trailing. I suppose parachutes should be worn so they open off the front. That way stability wouldn't require any effort. Just go limp and there you are! The older you get the easier it is to go limp too.

Screwing up is normal and everybody makes mistakes. But I don't see anyone pointing out what you did wrong. Was it instability? Nope. That is par for the course and can be cured. But you seem to have tried so hard to become stable that you forgot rule number 1: get your freaking parachute open at the proper altitude! Hopefully your instructor has reamed your ass properly for that FU.

Seems pretty obvious to me that an unconscious body cannot jump backwards out of a plane.

As John Donne clearly said, it tolls for thee. The mortality rate has not changed in several million years. It is still one per person.

Yea, but he is averaging 14.5 post a day. I think Chris D is coaching him on how to use da net. I wouldn't ignore good advice. Unless it came from a guy with 37 jumps who knows nothing yet. The only bad advice given here for the noob was all the details about swooping, BASE and CRW. His instructor will be pleased that he knows all that great stuff when he finally gets out to jump. May as well tell him when bridge day is so he doesn't miss it!

I'm trying to classify this post. Is it silly like my posts and the poster is being funny? Or it it dumb because the poster is a skydiver trying to give medical advice? It's a tough call. I'll go with the second choice. Then you (& Dr.Dom) lost the bet. I see your point. Once again I failed to assess the pertinent variables and came up with the wrong conclusion. Giving up jump days for recovery is very selfish and irresponsible. Even if the valve pops lose it can't go very far and they will eventually find it.

He doesn't know what he doesn't now. Some people's default mode when they approach learning something new is to try to be ultra prepared and plan it all out. He doesn't know that's a bad approach with skydiving. He doesn't know what he doesn't know. At least I think that he doesn't know what he doesn't know. I don't know... lately I've been thinking that we're all being led around the room by an ever increasing army of ChrisD sock puppets Plato believed that we already know things and do not have to be taught. Just reminded of what we already know. Which means we can get rid of all the damn skydiving instructors and just throw students out the door. They'll figure out what to do as they remember on the way down. Or they'll prove Plato wrong and we will clear that point up.

Let's go back to post 1. Why does society saying you are mature at 18 mean you have a level of maturity? It doesn't. As other posters have said it merely makes you accountable in litigation. And as many have said, 18 is not the age at which people really mature, if they ever do. So worrying about age is just assigning an arbitrary number to something that can't be quantified. Also including smoking as something that something a mature person does is pretty absurd. Smoking is a sure sign of lack of rational mental skills. It would be nice if society could just trust a person's claim that their level of maturity was sufficient for various activities. However, we have had to set a seemingly arbitrary age limit for certain activities, I believe this is more rational than taking a child's word that their sufficiently mature enough to engage in various activities. Even though both child and parent may think it's not a problem for the child to ride in the back of a pickup truck while going down the highway, the "Nanny state" has decided that the child is not capable of making such a decision. I agree with this. I never said that smoking was a mature choice, the fact is there has to be an age where a person is allowed to make all the good and bad choices that they want. Again, it's impossible to judge emotional maturity on a case by case basis, going by chronological maturity, while far from perfect, is the only logical way it can be done. As I'm sure with most other jumpers, my friends, family, and coworkers love to ask me for an explanation of the latest publicized skydiving accident. In the last week, I have had several people ask me if you can really skydive at 16, and how did this accident happen. I think there's a world of difference to most people hearing about a skydiving accident involving an "adult" as opposed to one involving a "child". I really think the publicity does not (rightly or wrongly) shed a good light on our sport. As some people have talked about the pitfalls of a "nanny state" the same could be said about the "I want it now" society, I think waiting 2 years is not a big deal. I didn't mean to imply that you were condoning smoking. I just wanted to point out how "adults" don't necessarily do bright things. I don't care for a nanny state. We have way too many laws now. And your right - there is no real reason why a 16 year old can't wait until 18. The level of maturity needed is the ability to accept that you might die that day, despite the assurances you receive.

Fucking beautiful! I almost didn't get it.

You are probably quite young and start bar fights everywhere you go. Lots of testosterone in those arteries. As I said before, most of the posters were just enablers. Others did try to curb your search for the ideal discipline. My posts are to the point (or pointless if you wish). but I was saying the same thing others were saying. Just look at your original post. 100s of words asking about things which nobody can know about. You just need to learn to fall stable and land safely. When you try some RW way later you will learn you weren't falling stable and will improve. But slow the hell down or you will get yourself hurt. Forget BASE and forget swooping. Those will get you killed. You can choose to kill yourself later if you wish. Get to the drop zone. Make a jump. If you like it go again. Learn what you need to know to jump safely on each jump and don't worry about extraneous crap. Anyways....thats all i have to say about that That's the line Forrest Gump used!

Hi Mike~ I'm guessing fastphil got it, he was being super clear so that those without the background to understand the 'tongue in cheek' stuff yet ...don't make the wrong assumptions. You would be surprised at how often sarcasm is mistaken for instruction by n00bs. If anyone, however new, would think that tying some string on something they found at the Army surplus and jumping off a tall building was instruction I won't stop them. Just let me know so I can watch. Most of the "advice" this guy is getting here is nonsense. He has zero solo jumps and 2 tandems 5 years ago, according to his other post. His other post is about buying gear and this one is about deciding on a displine to focus on. Frankly neither makes any sense to me.

Mike, my apologies for suggesting that you are Chris Donovan. Yep, we made an assumption. I see that you have filled out your profile. Thank you! To tell you the truth, I have not cared to comment on the content in any of the posts in the thread. It is just that Mr. Donovan has been such a challenge to deal with lately that I thought that we should challenge him back, thinking that you were him. If you get a chance to read up on some of his posts you will see why some of us have gotten a little sensitive to his posts. peek: No problem. I usually post BS but if you read between the lines (and maybe to the left of the monitor) you will see some point to it, if very little. I do not agree with the saying that there are no stupid questions. Most of the posts here consist of stupid questions. I just point it out frankly and maybe too bruskly. Despite what some people think, skydivers are not more intelligent than others. There are alot of buckets of rocks jumping out of airplanes. But I see that ChrisD is a real person and heshe is interseting, although hard to follow.