Skylark

Hi Alex, I'm a brit, also going to be in Seb taking a freefly course in mid June. I'm leaving in a few days and I simply can't wait

More accronyms? It's getting worse. Why not simply write things out in full? That way, everyone can read and enjoy these posts. What are: FJC FL CCW "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

Hey, Lou. That's one of the most encouraging things anyone has said to me It's so difficult sometimes to know whether I'm doing the right thing wanting to jump and wanting to 'fly' and pouring all my life savings into getting enough experience to be able to fly a suit. I have a feeling that in a few years I'll have no money, no house, no relationship and no job. But knowing that there's others out there doing the same as me and having the same feelings about flying and the same goals, then it will make it all worthwhile. "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

I've been wrestling with a few psychological questions recently regarding what we do. I now realise that the reason I jump and why I started jumping was because I have a deep-rooted yearning to actually fly like a bird, rather than just participate in a high-risk 'sport' and falling like a stone. I've wanted to fly ever since I saw 'Peter Pan' as a child, and my dream diaries from my youth are filled with accounts of soaring flights across rooftops and trees and green fields. I watched Peter Pan again yesterday and the magic still remains. I much prefer to jump solo and track, rather than perform stunts and acrobatics with others. Just me and the sky. Watching Lukas Knuttson track into the valley with his wings, or Loic swoop around mountain peaks never fails to snatch my breath away. Am I the only one? How many jump because they have an innate, secret longing to be fly like birds rather than just compete with others and perform mid-air acrobatics because it's 'fun'? "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

Hey, thanks very much

Hmmm, not very helpful. Can anyone else help? Roughly how long will it take? How long did it take 'you'? "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

How many jumps will it take a novice to be able to learn how to competently fly head down? "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

Not MORE accronyms Could someone please tell us all what these mean? IIRC SIM Surely you're not in such a hurry that you can't type out these in full? "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

Thanks very much...but the links dont work? "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

I live in London, UK and I'm keen on getting a riggers licence so I can pack reserves. How much will it cost and how long will it take to be trained? Do I need to have a certain amount of jumps first? "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

http://chat.msn.com/chatroom.msnw?rm=Dropzone&cat=II&lang=1&codeconduct=on&des=For+skydivers+and+BASE+Jumpers&welcome=Welcome&loc=EN-GB&newroom=1 If you have a hotmail address, click on the about link and enter your password...it couldn't be easier. "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

First, yes, you have to have a hotmail address, but most peope have that anyway. It's not an 'account' at all and you dont have to fill in anything, you just sign in with your hotmail address and password. Second, you also have to install a chat applet with the dropzone chat room and no you dont have to shut down your browser and start again. Thirst, the 'blazing huge fuqing(sic) ad flashing at the top of the screen' is called a 'banner ad' and it's not different in size than the one on the dropzone forum page. Fourth, if it was empty, why did you leave? You missed all the people that arrived after you who you could have chatted with. All you have to do is not close the browser window and you'll be notified as soon as someone else enters the room. Doh! Try again... "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

Well I just tried to connect to that and I couldn't. The room space is rather 'small', too. Drop in at the one above and let me know what you think... "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

http://chat.msn.com/chatroom.msnw?rm=Dropzone&cat=II&lang=1&codeconduct=on&des=For+skydivers+and+BASE+Jumpers&welcome=Welcome&loc=EN-GB&newroom=1 You will need to have an MSN passport. If the link doesn't work then it means the room has closed. Is this a good idea? Comments welcome. "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

Please, please, please can we get rid of these? Once you've read somebody's clever quote once, you've read it a thousand times. It's really confusing whether or not I'm still reading someone's post or whether I'm reading their quote. Why not keep them in the main profile pages? "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

How many people here have managed it and how did you do it? How does one skydive professionaly? Surely one would need several hundred jumps before being taken on as, say, a camera flyer and lots of training to become a jumpmaster.....how does one do that when they have a full time job etc? "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

When I learned AFF I used what I was told was 'student gear', with a rip-cord. After passing AFF, I then had to graduate to a BOC throw-out. My question is, why is rip-cord gear known as 'student gear' and why are students not AFF trained on BOC throw out gear straightaway? Looking back at my AFF video, on several jumps my rip-cord pulls took much longer to deploy due to the burble. Surely BOC throw outs in this case deploy faster and are thus 'safer'? "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

How common is this and what would actually happen to the opening sequence if it occured? What I'm talking about is when you throw-out your pilot chute and you throw it out too far forward rather than out at 90 degrees to your body, and it bites air in front of your arm. Does this make sense? "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

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How tall are you? It occured to me a few weeks ago at Empuria, that a large proportion of male jumpers were a long way below average height; enough jumpers to make it noticeable. Many appeared to be below 5'5" (1.61m). Is this because many shorter men are naturally better at confronting fear because they have always tried 'harder' in life? Or maybe it's because the image of a fearless skydiver makes up for the lack of inches when attracting a female mate? This is a serious post regarding the psychology of humans who choose to participate in high-risk sports. All comments and explanations from females and males alike, welcome. "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

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What is it? Which track by whom with the best lyrics makes you yearn to be just out the door at 15k in a blue sky? A few: 1. Signs of Love - Moby 2. Fly Away (accoustic) - Lenny Kravitz 3. Sunset (Bird of Prey) - Fat Boy Slim 4. Are You Still Having Fun? - Eagle Eye Cherry 5. Everloving - Moby 6. A Beautiful Day - U2 any more? "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

Obviously I dont jump if its too hairy up there. I'm talking about sudden turbulence thats unexpected. Can it collapse a canopy? What do you mean by just letting my canopy fly? Should I be facing the wind or away from it? "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

The best thing you can do is download all the malfunction videos from skydivingmovies.com. I only had 12 jumps and didn't jump for a year but watched them over and over and over again. Last week I went to Empuria and had bad line twists on my second jump. I felt fine and kicked out of them instead of panicking and cutting away as I did on my first mal, because watching those clips hundreds of times, it almost felt like I'd had line twists hundreds of times myself and it was no big deal. "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

How often does this happen? And what should I do to prevent it from happening? Should I fly into the wind? Downwind? "Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience