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I now hang out with my instructors and people from my DZ and they have helped to put my mind at ease. Some of them have hundreds of jumps and no cutaways while other have jumped for 20+ years and have 20+ cutaways. You just never know. I love all the advice though and the time people take to answer questions from the new jumpers like myself. The skydiving community is great. I really appreciate it! Thank you!Quote

I apologize for my very delayed response! lol but thank you for the links and advice. Over the past couple months/reading these threads I feel better about all of it. I'm a collegiate wrestler who has wrestled since 2nd grade. I had to learn plenty of new things I wasn't comfortable with. So many people teach moves in different ways that work for them in my sport. I think skydiving is similar. I will catch on with practice. I really appreciate the skydiving community. Very tight knit and have yet to meet anyone who was not willing to help me out. It's really great!

What does everyone think about this altimeter?

Thanks so much for the advice! I am like a sponge lol I appreciate any advice you have to offer. My instructor talked to me about flat turns and said I could have restarted my pattern. I had the thought go through my head and thought I was high enough but being so new I didn't want to risk it. Here is a question for you! What if I am on my final going towards power lines and make a 90 degree flat turn. We are taught to land against the wind. I know that avoiding an obstacle is number one priority, but what happens when you land with the wind at your side instead of with the wind or against it? Say if I didn't have enough time or altitude to do my full pattern. Also, I'm a little curious about what it's like to land with the wind.

My instructor talked to me about flat turns. Definitely something to work on. I will definitely do canopy courses in the future. What exactly do you do during a canopy course? Just curious.

lol I think the accent is calming!! I really liked the Australian videos. Seeing an actual cutaway happen helps. That is great advice though. And I agree! I will take some shit for cutting away over risking getting hurt or worse. I am a very detailed person. I think there is a perfect way to do everything and I sometimes over think it to where I make it harder than it is or has to be. I hope to God if I was ever in a cutaway situation I would be able to deal with it! Seeing some injuries recently mixed with my altimeter situation freaked me out. That's why I posted this. It's nice to hear from experienced skydivers. I figure that's the best way to learn.

I enjoy the videos because I am a very visual learner. I could read my emergency procedures in my handbook a hundred times and not be able to picture it in my head because I have never actually seen it. I am working on thinking about my gear checks and procedures when I have down time. Running through them in my head. Thank you for listing the malfunctions! That is very helpful. I definitely need to work on my landing pattern. All of my previous patterns were great but having my altimeter malfunction scared me and threw me off. Does it just take some time to be able to estimate altitude? I'll be thinking I am going to land in one spot and end up going way further than I expected.

I watched the Australian videos. They were awesome. It's nice to actually see a cutaway in action. I know that I will cut away if I am not 100 percent sure I can land safely. But obviously I want to be sure I'm confident enough to know if a malfunction is something I can easily fix. Thank you so much for the advice. I feel better about it already.

I understand where you're coming from completely. I'll be able to save enough this winter to knock out the rest of my jumps by the first month of summer. Right now it is just such a nice thing to do to get away from school and sports for a little. Makes me very happy!

This totally makes sense. I am an over thinker as well. I want to do everything the exact right way which at times I think might be to a fault. We do sprints a lot at practice. 10 minute go's back and forth and I have started to think about my procedures during that haha really gets my mind off of how tired I am too so that's a plus! This is great advice, I appreciate it.

I wish I could jump more often. I agree with you completely. However, I am an athlete in college playing a very time demanding sport (wrestling). So most weekends I am out of state for tournaments and of course money is an issue. I only have time for an on campus job which pretty much pays shit. Next summer I will finish up my license at the beginning of summer and will be jumping every week. Maybe that will help with the confidence.

Thanks so much for the reply, I appreciate any advice I can get. My drop zone is in my home town and I'm currently going to school out of state so I'm jumping once a month, usually two jumps. I like my drop zone (Aerohio) so i want to do my whole progression there. It's definitely easy to forget to go over my emergency procedures. I get so caught up in each dive flow and trying to do it right that I don't think about if something goes wrong. I'm glad to hear cutaway's aren't super common but I know it could happen at any time. I'll definitely talk with my instructors more about it when I jump this month. I've heard of a lot of injuries because of people making sharp turns too low. So I'm weary of turns on final in general being so new. With anything I know I will learn more the more I jump. I really enjoy it and just want to be as informed as I can be. Thanks again! I could ask you a billion more questions lol skydiving is a whole new world for me! I have mad respect for you all!!

I am 13 jumps into the AFF progression and feeling a little nervous. Now that I have some facebook friends who are skydivers and research more skydiving online it seems that it is a little more dangerous than I had thought. I've heard of/seen a few injuries. I understand skydiving is a risky sport and I love it so much that I am okay with that. If I go out skydiving so be it lol BUT I want to be prepared if something does go wrong. I am more nervous about emergency procedures under canopy. I watch a lot of Youtube videos on safety procedures. It seems that there are quite a few different things that can happen that require different emergency procedures. I guess what I am curious about is how often have more experienced jumpers had to cut away, how do you know when it is necessary to cut away, and how familiar is everyone with the different issues that occur under canopy? I am currently off radio for landings and my last jump my altimeter must have been bumped. When I went onto final approach I was way too high (was pretty much just going off of my altimeter and then realized it was not right) and passed over the drop zone into a field further down. Came a little too close to the road/electric wires for comfort. I know low turns on final approach are no no's so I knew that wasn't an option. Not having a good eye for altitude/an altimeter that was not accurate I was not sure when it was too low to restart my pattern or make a turn. I did a stand up landing and was okay but it was my first time feeling scared on a landing. Looking back my instructor said I would have had time to restart my pattern and would lose less altitude making braked turns. I think that this made me realize that things can go wrong and equipment can malfunction. Being a student so far I have kind of just figured everything would be okay always. Looking for some tips! I look up videos, study my manual, and try to think about my procedures when I'm doing everyday things. I just want to feel a little more prepared I guess. Any tips on safety will be awesome