Airhugger

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Posts posted by Airhugger

  2. 4 hours ago, Bluhdow said:

    Pay for passion, work for income. 

    When you turn fun into work, fun just becomes work. 

    I've done both. For me, it's a lot happier/healthier to separate work and play.

    And on the other hand some people say: If you find a job you love, you'll never work again. 

     

  3. Posted

    Maybe as many of the skydivers out there, I'm thinking about working in a wind tunnel to be that badass tunnel rat.

    Pros:

    - Working with something that I love

    - Possibility to fly much more than what I'm able to now.

    - Spending work time with like-minded colleagues instead of whuffo colleagues.

    - Saving money through stop buying tunnel time

    Cons:

    - Varying/uncomfortable work times

    - Lower income

    - It's not as stable and economically safe job as the one I already have.

    - Monotonous work tasks (flying the first timers)

    Have you thought about it your self? what have you decided att the end and why?

    Do you have any thoughts which can help me choose which way to go?

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • Like 1

  5. I believe that Russia has the cheapest tunnel time in the world, and the Russians have many flying legends and most of those work as tunnel instructors. The visa though can be a bit bothering but it doesn't cost much and it's not a prob for EU citizens. Flystation St petersburg and Freezone Moscow are 2 of the most famous destinations. I've never been there but I'm planing to do it in the end of  this year.

  6. Wow Dolphinka, your first attempt is way more better than my first hour of trying to sit haha.

    I don't know if it's quick in general or not but it's quicker than me anyway.

    In the tunnel that I train in the kids are often the staffs children.

    At age of 14!! here you are not allowed to jump if you are younger than 16. I've done the static-line as well, I don't know I love it and I have no planes to quit one day :) 

    Skiing is good specially if it's mixed with parachuting aka speedriding xD 

  7. 12 hours ago, dolphinka said:

    Airhunger, I am not a skydiver, so all my experience is pure in the tunnel. I did hear that sitfly is easier if you don’t use your strength. I saw a couple of guys once who could sitfly and standfly after 5 hours total and they were super strong with huge biseps. But they didn’t look controlled or graceful. So while it made me feel like I didn’t progress as quick as them, I realised that my skills are more refined:)))

    Did it take you 3 hours to sit still or also move up/down/sideways? Sideways was the hardest for me. I am trying to figure out one leg stretched sitfly now.... I can’t get it and my leg doesnt want to bend the way coach wants me to bend it haha 

    you definitely didn’t start late, I am few more years older:) 

    Oh I wish that you start skydiving, with the skills that you collected from the tunnel, skydiving is gonna be even more fun for you :) Yeah using strength is just a disadvantage but it's an instinct reflex for some ppl.

    3 hours just to sit still, I still can't do almost anything while I'm sitting except going up and down with bad stability. And yeah legs and arms do whatever they want to do in the tunnel :D 

    Good to hear. You know sometimes you meet kids in the tunnel who fly like flying should look like, and then comes the feeling of (ok... what I'm exactly doing here!?) but I'm gonna keep working on it as much as possible :) 

  8. 2 hours ago, ty_tanium said:

    210 Skydives as of today, 32 years old.

    One thing that really helped me out was yoga.  I found that the body position awareness and flexibility helped more than any strength training did.  That and starting VFS - in my experience, the time limit/pressure of VFS really makes you forget about the details of how you are positioning your body and gets you to start flying on muscle memory.

    I totally agree that Yoga does help. I have a hard unflexible body with a bit shreded muscles which it was more like a disadvantage for me in this sport. I started doing some Yoga from Youtube with focus on stretching and flexibility, I hope it would help. I've never tried VFS though my coach tried to make me dock with him on some positions with the same purpose that mean, to fly with muscle memory. I'm 29 btw good to hear that you are 3 years older so it doesn't feel like I started too late xD

  9. 13 hours ago, dolphinka said:

    I only did 12 hours, I have signed off IBA level 1,2,3 after 8 hours, while also exploring all level 3 dynamic moves. Good with belly face in carving too:)

    By 10 hour I could comfortably sitfly carve, comfortable with help of a coach to do back to belly layouts and a bit less so with belly to back layouts. I was okay with back in face carving but at slow speed, getting there with knee flying and outface carving. I also did about 20 mins Head down by then, but I struggled a lot... I still do and I only lifted once for a few seconds with help of a coach and a spotter.... so that will be a long road for me. 

    I found it hard to compare to other flyers, I was eager to learn quick, but other who had more physic did learn certain things quicker. I had to learn to fly (especially sitfly) without using my arms as they are weak... hehe

    Nice, it's going fast and good for you as well. Level 3 wasn't that easy for me because of the sit flying it took me about 3 hours just to be able to sit still, and I've never sat in the sky before.
    I agree it's hard to compare to other fliers, everyone is good at something and less good at other things. The physic is not everything, I don't have any problem with strenght and I'm a Crossfitter, my coach used to tell me that I'm using too much strength against the wind instead of just relaxing and go with the wind flow. Ppl with agile bodies got som more advantages in this sport I guess :) 

  10. 17 hours ago, ty_tanium said:

    I've just passed the 10 hour mark in the tunnel, and I have just started nailing sitfly to head down backflip transitions.  Starting on the last Level 4 skills next week (front flip to head down).

    Checked off on all Level 1, 2, and 3 skills in IBA and I've started flying some Intermediate VFS with a buddy.

    Wow! good job, it seems like it's going very well and fast for you. How many skydives do you have? and how old are you if I may ask?

  11. Posted

    What tricks, flying positions and skills have you become able to perform after your first 10 hours in the tunnel? 

    The purpose of the question is to make some references to compare with, to know if one’s training is achieving the desired results. I know that everyone learns at a different pace, but I still think that it must be a general guideline to trace the progress keeping in mind the individual differences between fliers.

    I have 10 hours coached tunnel time, and now I’m able to fly comfortably as Class A static (European system) flier with belly carving from the dynamic part plus basic sit flying abilities. In the IBA rating system it’s level 2 plus sit fly position and belly carving. Is it good? Slow? Normal?

    What about you?

     

  12. I was exactly in your situation the last year, and I bought the Pro-fly suit.

    It's really worth the money, specially for a beginner, you can fall fairly fast as it's a tight design of a suit.

    I've done about 120ish jumps with it sofar and it works well.

    I'd say go for it, and invest the rest of the money that you could have paid for a more expensive suit in jumping tickets. At the end it's all about the flyer :)

  13. Bob_Church

    ***Hello sky friends,


    I've been training lately to dive at a speedstar formation, which I think is a good skill to have.

    The problem is that I can't maintain a good steep diving angle towards the formation, which causes a spiral like flying pattern, which most of the time, leads to that I'm flying faraway above the formation.

    Do you guys have ideas on how to train properly to get to my slot on time?

    Is there any wind tunnel exercises which can help learning this skill?

    I've done 150 skydives. Should I have taught me this skill by now? or is it normal not to be able to perform good dives at this level? -I've met skydivers with 60-70 skydives who have almost no prob with diving at a formation.



    Something you might want to try one some solo practice jumps is to line up on something straight, a highway or something, go into a gentle track, at least at first, and do all of your steering with your knees.
    It's way to easy to forget about using your knees in RW.

    Sounds interesting.
    Any special thoughts about the knees position?

  14. tikl68

    Here are some of my techniques. I often jump with a group that is usually 32 people and up to 50. When I am a late diver whether its out of the in lead(a skyvan) or the trail plane(an otter) they are basically the same. If I am close to the CHUNK I dont hold the dive for more than a second or two. The later I am in the line up dictates holding the dive longer, also be aware. the longer the dive the more energy you will carry, and need to pull out and start slowing down farther out.

    When I exit the air craft, I make sure to arch, see the base/formation. I stretch my arms straight out in front of me as I exit to stop my bottom half going over my head as I get steep, but it is only for a moment. As I feel the momentum of going over stop, I will extend my legs straight and pull my arms to my side while tilting my head up to keep traffic/formation in site. Its not a race, but i usually dont have a problem getting there when I am supposed to or a little bit early.



    The thing is that we jump from a Cessna 206 (extremly small door) in my DZ which goes up to 3000 meter max and the formation is often 3-4 ways speedstar, which makes the formations falling speed as fast as a fall rate of a solo jumper, in this case, I must be fast and accurate to catch up with the formation.

  15. Hello sky friends,


    I've been training lately to dive at a speedstar formation, which I think is a good skill to have.

    The problem is that I can't maintain a good steep diving angle towards the formation, which causes a spiral like flying pattern, which most of the time, leads to that I'm flying faraway above the formation.

    Do you guys have ideas on how to train properly to get to my slot on time?

    Is there any wind tunnel exercises which can help learning this skill?

    I've done 150 skydives. Should I have taught me this skill by now? or is it normal not to be able to perform good dives at this level? -I've met skydivers with 60-70 skydives who have almost no prob with diving at a formation.

  16. BigBUG

    It's a small (2.5m) tunnel, located in Zelenogorsk, small town 60 km from the city.

    Powerful enough to try all the position including headdown (but in the summer you'll need to wait quite a time until it cools off), wind is quite rough (as in any small tunnel) which could be both bad and good thing - harder to learn and way more tiredsome, but if you could fly in the small tunnel, you'll fly anywhere :)

    Instructors are good, some speaks English.



    Is it a good idea to start there for me as a total beginner in freeflying ?

  17. I've found Aero Butterfly wind tunnel on the net after some googling for a cheap wind tunnel time. But I'm wondering if someone has tried it and have something to say about the tunnel, instructors and training quality in this tunnel?

    Have you been there?
    what do you think?

  21. Quote

    If these are the worst mistakes you make in your skydiving career you're doing better than most. Don't worry about it - you reacted correctly to the situation that presented itself.

    At the same time as feeling a bit stupid about rushing a pack job (you are going to do this again, by the way Wink) you should also give yourself a big 'Hell Yeah!' and a beer for doing your first real emergency procedure correctly.

    Post situation analysis is a good thing, and a bit of 'shit - that was dumb' self reflection isn't too bad. But don't take it too far. Learn the lessons and move on with a smile. Smile


    I'm happy that you think so :)
    I really need to learn to move on with a smile :)

  25. Quote

    You had a malfunction. You reacted properly and according to your training. You survived. That should feel good, not bad. Everyone makes mistakes, don't punish yourself. You learned your lesson. Be happy about it.


    I should be happy about the lesson I agree

    pchapman


    You were a dumbass.
    We all do that from time to time.
    Hope you bought your rigger a drink (if that's a tradition where you are).


    Do all do that too? Hope i'm not the only dumbass.
    Yeah it's a tradition here also

    Bob_Church

    I don't exactly feel bad when I do something like that, I get mad at myself. I think "great, from now on I'd be remembered as 'remember that idiot who...".
    That hopefully keeps me from doing it again.


    Good way to remember the safety procedures