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Now...if only the manufacturers would show their appreciation by registering more of their handguns on the California "Safe Gun Roster". ...FUN FOR ALL!

I would say that "nicest fleet" would not only include the level of maintenance and cleanliness, but also the mix of aircraft that allows operations for various load size demands in the best possible jump plane. I would think that the best fleet would include enough large capacity planes to handle continuous jumping when demand is high, then the ability to operate a big door/quick to altitude plane to meet lower demand levels. If you have to go to a 182 or 206 when you can't fill a load on an otter, that wouldn't make the "nicest fleet". So having a beech, king air, PAC, or some other plane that is good for jumping 1 to 10 jumpers would be a requirement, as well as huge bonus points for a balloon, helicopter, tailgate, or other specialty air craft. Who has a blimp? Best fleet? How about the US Army? ...FUN FOR ALL!

I agree with many in this thread, and have my own $.02 to add. The sky will always be there, and if you have the desire, you will always be able to get up into it. Life priorities are also very important. I stopped jumping 2+ years ago with just shy of 200 jumps. But really the way I think of it is that I never stopped, I just haven't jumped since then. I still have all of my gear, and it was never a conscious decision. I just blinked and 2 (or is it 3?) years have gone by. For me, it was the recurring cost and effort of re-packs and Cypress checks. Without a home DZ or a regular rigger, it was always an added effort to get those things done. I had gotten to a point where I was going to the DZ (no particular one) by myself and jumping with whoever looked lonely or invited me on a jump. In other words, I didn't have the family, and I didn't have any jumping friends. Everytime I watch a free fly video clip, or any exit (skydiving or base); I really get the itch, and know that I will someday be back. My problem is: do I sell my rig, or keep it? I keep it so that I can assure myself an easy re-entry into the sport. I feel if I sell my rig, I will be throwing in the towel. But I also know that I would be happy making 3-4 jumps per day 2-3 times every couple of months. I don't need to jump every weekend or 10+ jumps per month. I bought a camera helmet and started exploring the idea (5 or 6 solo jumps and 3-4 2-ways) when I reallized that I didn't stay current enough, especially considering my total jump numbers, to safely continue jumping with a camera. So I sold it. As far as comparing risks of other activities with skydiving and conducting risk analysis with regards to your family; you have to do what makes you happy. I would never want my dad to have given up who he was for me. Yeah, I am glad that he was there my whole life (so far), but I would be saddened if he had given up skiing or backpacking to avoid "unnecessary risk". I ride motorcycles (dirt bikes and sport bikes), I shoot guns, I surf, and I travel internationally for work. My biggest consideration as I start a family is: what makes my truely happy, what takes me away from my family the least (and still keeps me satisfied), and what has the least impact (financially) on our well being. It is a tough decision, as I feel I need to get rid of one of my high dollar/high risk activities. I am leaning toward getting rid of the sport bike and getting back into skydiving. I just need a family! You are doing yourself some good just by recognizing the fact that introspection is necessary, but as others have said; don't over think it. You can get killed any day of the week doing a normal routine activity. Evaluate your attitude, and continue to learn. Stay as safe as possible without sacrificing what makes you you. ...FUN FOR ALL!

I agree with you on this one 100%. But in a civil case, the fact might prove to be detrimental to the DZ and or Pilot. But that wasn't the OP's question. Back on track ...FUN FOR ALL!

I exited out of a Cesna from the step, so it should have gone really smooth, but....After I tossed the PS, I rolled over on it. I didn't know how close to a horse shoe I had been until the guy who left after me told me he thought he was watching a dead man! Everything cleared and there was no issue, but I think I was really close to being an incident. ...FUN FOR ALL!

Thanks for the advice! I am actually not bad at making friends at DZz. The multiple DZ dilemna, and homelessness is just another poor excuse as to why I have dropped out of the sport for a while. My real question is about currency jumps/procedures; and what is a common way of getting one's cobb webs shaked out. All good responses! ...FUN FOR ALL!

It seems to me that you, and many in the sport of skydiving as well as 2-wheeling, don't actually believe in wearing helmets. People are wearing them because they are required by law or social standard. To actually care about the protection it offers means to wear the most protective and functional helmet available for that activity. This is coming from a person that has a helmet for ALL activities (including but not limited to bicycle, mtn bike, ski, surf, off road motorcycle, on road motorcycle, skateboard, skydiving). I agree with the idea that skydivers (for the most part) are looking for a camera mount, audible mount, wind protection, and something to put on so noboby bitches at them for not wearing a helmet. Which really is OK, because the accidents that typically kill skydivers, would still kill them if they had the best helmet in the world on; but the death (internal bleeding, brain swell, etc) or extreme paralysis might be prolonged. I wear a skiing helmet for skydiving because there is actual protection built into it that would help in exit or landing mishaps moreso than your typical Freefly helmet. The Snell rating is also a point of contention among the motorcycle community, as the snell rating requires multiple impacts that some find causes the helmet to be too protective in a low speed single impact incident; but is better suited for high speed riding/racing. Scooter/Harley/Sportbike-it doesn't matter what you ride the impact will be the same if you t-bone someone that turns left in front of you. Why base your level of protection on the type of bike you ride? Long live the frap hat! (I think they should bring leather helmets back to Football too!) ...FUN FOR ALL!

Thanks for the encouragement. I have never had a problem getting along at different DZs. In fact, I have never really had a home. Of my 190 jumps they have been equally spread out amongst 5 DZs and I have jumped at 8 others as well. I can usually make friends and find someone to jump with. The sport is less appealing however if you don't have a good friend who jumps, or someone that you can progress with. My problem is that there are 4 good DZs 2 hrs away from me and 1 small (not quite as fun) DZ 30 minutes away, and I end up spreading myself thin, and have not made myself a regular at any of them. Then I got married, went on a honeymoon, bought another house, started spending more weekends on my motorcycles (my friends ride rather than jump) and skydiving has taken a back seat. My question is more intended for specific procedures I guess. Should I do some solos, should I do some tracking, etc prior to my usual freefly jumps with others? I didn't think of the term "recurrency", so I will do a search for the topic. Any body else go through one of these phases? ...FUN FOR ALL!

I have been Jones-ing to jump, but somehow 16 months have slipped by without a jump. What the hell happened?! So now the question is, where does skydiving belong in my life, and what am I going to do about it? I feel a bit detached, I don't have a home (DZ), I don't have a regular jump buddy, I don't have a regular rigger for repacks...and the excuses go on. I would like some advise on how to get active again, safely. I obviously need a repack, but what else do I need to do to make sure it all goes the way it is supposed to? Any words of wisdom would be appreciated. ...FUN FOR ALL!

Count me in. Been waiting for this event to actually happen. When will the plane be there? Friday, Saturday, and Sunday? Can't wait! ...FUN FOR ALL!

That makes me wonder what I would do if I landed precariously on a windy day. I think my instincts would grab one riser/toggle and start reeling it in. It seems like a lot of work to locate the rsl release, unlock it, grab red, and cut away. But this is a situation I have never been in and never rehearsed for. If you are being dragged across an open field, then you have time to mess with things before terminating your ass ride. Are there any documented cases of these types of event? I would like to read the stories to gain some perspective. ...FUN FOR ALL!

I try it all the time!! She always redirects the barrel to point at other things. ...FUN FOR ALL!

I use to use Limewire. It was ok. I am a little scared of downloading anything anymore. ...FUN FOR ALL!

I don't BASE at this point, but know people that do. I have heard that in some scenarios in Urban BASE, if you don't make the rendevous, you get left behind. I have come to understand this as part of the rules of the game. I would like to hear what more people have to say about making this type of plan. Is it accepatble to make a plan to leave people behind? ...FUN FOR ALL!

742, my final answer! ...FUN FOR ALL!

In my non-race to be head down, I had some great jumps yesterday that I would like to share, for the simple reason that successful jumps are more invigorating than any one orientation. The jump where my buddy and I hit 2 solid foot docks (one each) and a couple transitions, made me feel like I had a ccomplished something! HU is fun, and after reading these threads I have dedicated my efforts to becoming proficient at HU before I even dable in HD! ...FUN FOR ALL!

If you are still watching this thread, I have a piece of advice that is worth my jump numbers, so take it for what it is. Freeflying is fun, and is extremely rewarding to fly relative with other people. Grabbing a foot every now and then, getting close enough to touch each other in magical ways and having some badass let you jump with him because you are not completely cocky (or corky) and getting spocked out of nowhere is really exciting. But until you can fly down the tube in a sit, forget about all of that. I do mostly solo sitfly jumps (because I'm not really local anywhere) and do many drills to practice getting stable. Try these and I promise you will have a hard time getting bored: 1. 1/4 turns both directions 2. pass a pull up chord from one hand to the other, or touch you nose with alternating hands, rub your nipples, anything that takes your hands out of your "sit" 3. Sit to sit front flip and back flip 4. Cart wheels (hold it in the middle for a quick HD) 5. Sit exits with others, no contact 6. Stable docks on others If you start working on these things, you will forget about head down. By the time you can do all of these HD will be easy to learn and a lot more fun to fly. Consult a coach, make sure people on the load know what you are doing, and go have fun. I started freeflying at about 35 jumps because I bought a rig that was FF Friendly. I am glad I don't fly on my belly. But I only fly HD on exit and transitions. If you want the sport to FUN for a long time, don't go for then end game right off the bat. Have fun! ...FUN FOR ALL!

I am not worried about people doing other stuff on it, I just want it to run as quick as possible with its limited assets. It only has 64 Mb of ram. I have it running on my network right now with 4 computers on my dsl connected network and it runs faster than my GF's old PC Notebook (which aint sayin much). I just want to know if it is worth it to reformat the HD, and what OS to install. I think OS9 might be my only option because of the RAM, but the G4 boot disks have OS9 on em, cause thats all they had when I got the G4. Any other system configs that would optimize web surfing (DZ posting) would be helpful. I want to be able to post from every room in the house! (I do have a wireless network, but I can't get a signal in the next room, so I am going to workstations!) ...FUN FOR ALL!

I have an old I Mac G3 350 that I want to put to use. I thought I might be able to configure it to be a web station in my house. Any body have any ideas on how to optimize it for web surfing only? I thought about reformatting the hard drive to get rid of any quirks that might have been introduced to it by the non computer savy family members that have been pounding its keys for the last 4 years, but I don't have the original disks. I do have some later model G4 boot disks. Will they work? Any recommendations would help! ...FUN FOR ALL!

Maybe, but it looks to me like he should flare sooner. He does a decent job of hiding his injuries as he walks off camera, but you can tell that he hurt himself. I have jacked myself up pretty good at the skatepark and walked away like it was no big deal only to be layed up for a month. Balls? Yes. Brains? No! ...FUN FOR ALL!

Would you venture to Hypothosize that incidents that stem from altitude awareness have nothing to do with having an altimeter. I mean, if you lose awareness, its not like you looked at the ground for reference and couldn't decide if you were low or not. The only time I have lost altitude awareness it was my visual on the ground that caught my attention. I had an x6 for a few jumps, and can see how it would be useful under canopy, but I didn't really look at it during freefall. Not to mention I was wearing it in addition to my normal alti so having a watch on non-normal wrist was odd. The log book software was a little tough to use, and I was not a fan of it. I ended up selling it on Ebay for what I bought it for. But I did think the x6 had a better display than the Vector. IMHO. ...FUN FOR ALL!

1.25 on a Sabre 150 with 175 jumps. Been on it since Jump number 35. I am approaching the recommended WL for my experience with every jump! Maybe next year I will be legal. ...FUN FOR ALL!

Great Post!

Are there other techniques that you would advise so as to avoid people getting hurt trying the above tchniques? People will try stuff wether they are warned about getting hurt or not. Maybe adding information, rather than lecturing might have more possitive results. I difinitely agree with what you are saying about getting more information first hand, rather than trying internet based instruction, but posting educational info might help more. Please enlighten us with some of your acquired knowledge! ...FUN FOR ALL!

Again, I appreciate the input, and I am being open minded despite my instinct to feel defensive. Some points of clarity... I was on the cross wind leg with altitude overly sufficient for the 90. My plan (as usual) was to make the 90 and then bleed off excess altitude with double fronts. I understand that the whole point of doing the 90 with a front riser is lost if I don't do it low enough to plane out, but like I said I am taking it slow. The most significant mistake was not having my hands in the dive loops to begin with. When I grabbed the dive loop, it didn't feel right, and I glanced up to verify my grip, and adjusted for the turn. As I began the turn, I didn't feel comfortable with chain of events and aborted the whole thing altogether. I thought about and began to make a flat turn by puttin on the brakes, but decided not to turn at all because I preferred not to make a 90 to land into a light wind. I chose to land crosswind (with a slight downwind component due to shape of the landing field). I let it ride landed safely and enjoyed it. I know that people of different experience levels judge others differently, and some people learn to skydive in cultures that are predispositioned for major injuries. (I have been flying my sabre 150 since jump 25 based on recommendations from my instructor and DZO), but I understand what happens. I have been first on scene to somebody flying their canopy into the ground, I know how easy it is for things to go bad in a hurry. I did make some mistakes on that first jump back. I forgot that I can land straight in (I have been 90s for the last 75 jumps). I tried to do too much on a refresher jump. But I didn't try to force it, and I feel that is what kills. People thinking that they are good enough, people thinking that if they pull harder on the toggle they will get around before they get to the ground, people thinking that they need a faster canopy to have more fun, people thinking they need a smaller canopy to fit in their little rig, etc, etc are certainly a problem. People who make mistakes and end up low, or lined up with an object are no less likely to get killed turning too fast and too low. I understand these things, and wanted to share an experience where a BETTER decision was made once the circumstances had been established. I didn't mean to brag or pat myself on the back. I am not rejecting the advice or scrutiny, thanks for input. ...FUN FOR ALL!