Albatross

Quadeyou are right it is 499 that I was thinking of. But Skydive U has one that explains the basic body position. As for the other RW stuff, I am not sure. I ahve never seen or heard on a good Big way tape. If you want that come to Perris when you have 100 jumps and do one of Kate and Tony AND DAN BC's camps.

Skydive U had a good video on basic body flight. For 4-way the is the Airspeed video 401, the New GK tape and I am sure some others.

Welcome to Tail Bi$^* as I have been so eloquently told. It is the burden of a tail flier to be late and screwed. Deal with it!!! I jsut got back from a weened in Orlando and spent much of my 4-way tunnel time trying to keep you slef on the right side of the line as I felt like I was behind and that I was last.
Here is the advices that I got. 1. deal with it, you will be last often, you will get screwed as the formation build to the point, you will have to chase. 2. stay calm and methodical about grips and moves. 3. fly to the slot, avoid the temptation to grab at grips and be on because it will put you further behind later in the sequence.

As for the exit, leave on time but agressively launch down with the right side or your butt. When you do this avoid the temptation fo rocking up and then down as it will put you high and late on the launch.

While I agree that the resault of the exit is that the tail is down and the point is up. Having flown both I find that the Tail exit is a launch down (ie try to hit you head), but the point is a much more delicate exit where you watch the formation begin to leave and then place yourself above the centers as you see the OC leave. Ah point vs tail totally different mentalities agrssion vs feel.

OK I am going to put in the disclaimer. I can't tell you everything here over the net and so on.

Exits consist of 3 parts, Presentation, Timing and placement. They have the priority of Presentation and timing and then everything else.

In a star, meeker, sat, and so on the tail(*) is lowest and often away from the plane, Inside center ($)is low and near the plane, Outside center (#)is up and away from the plane and the Point (@)is upand nearer the plane.

http://4way.org/cgi-bin/gallery/gallery.cgi?func=show&file=200141&Category=100002&Page=2

Michele,
Try using the basic 4-way/8-way team debreif of your jumps. Come up with 2-3 things that were good about the jump before you go on to focus on what you can do to improve. Make the positive happen, even if it is just something like I was in the air with my friends or I landed and didn't die. There are positives on every jump, make sure that you see them. When you move to improvements make them constructive not bitching. Say I need to arch while tracking to help me get down not I was too high.
Remember that the mind only see pictures so if you think about what you did poorly and not what you will do to improve it you will repeat the mistakes and just get more frustrated.

BTW EVERYONE I know has some degree of this issue. That is everyone. if we weren't concerned about what we could do better we would not be driven to improve.

Ugly as Hell but perfect. Congratulations. I hope that it gets you up in the air a bit more.

Bill and Amy that was very cool of you, but nothing unexpected.

Easy there Lisa. Don't get your panties in a bunch. See you Iron Crank tomorrow.

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. . . but the tail was brainlocking his ass off . . .

Who was that again?

What I have never seen a Tail Brainlock. Certainly I never have. BTW remember which side your bread is buttered on

I agree with Mel. Random I is any formaion that is not in the dive pool. Just like Block 0 is anything you want.

It is no the premature opening that I would stress about. I would really be concerned about the pin you could not extract and no cyress.

From the inside it seems more like Sept-Oct than Aug. That being said we did break ground on 5/3 so we got that going for us.

Totally agree with BikerBabe. In a small group (ie 4 way) meet in the middle. However, with low time jumpers or people without high body flight skills meeting in the middle often results in people switching places (person who was low then floats) as they overshoot. Especially if you have a coach follow his/her lead. The coach is the person who will make better judgements and the person that you want to work with and the one you are paying. SO simple go to the coach.

Orlando, NO Question. THe Vegas tunnel as people have said produces a cone of air and especially in the begining you need to work hard and well to stay inside it. Orlando is air everywhere and you can fly. Orlando has higher speeeds, more stable air, better coaches, better video, wil let you wear your own jumpsuit, and so on.

I have seen a cypress misfire in freefall at 4500 while I was above the jumper. The firing was verified by 2 other jumpers. If I remember Shark was one of them.

I agree that moving things to a B slot make it slower. I think that it is something that can be minimized with good mental work and visualization because the formation is the same just your sight picture is different.

Now bottom line like Allison, Ron and the others have said learn one slot, one way to build a formation then think about other builds. You will build a familiar formation cleaner and faster thatn an odd one and thus unless you have a lot of TOB you will actually lose time by building an unfamiliar "faster random.

Yeah buit all the good one are multiples of 4. 4-way, 8-way, 16-way, 20-way, 300-way??? I thought that the rest were jsut FF jumps that corked

Get the manufacturer to send you a new one overnight or call a retailer and have them send you one. Don't mess with this yourself. Tape will come off and sewing with a cut away handle is not the best idea. Just take the $$ and spend it.

If you are competing in the rookie or junior class focus on building the blocks from you A slot. While it is faster to build some of the B, AA and so on formations, it is ALWAYS faster to build the formations clean. Get the As down clean and then worry about Bs.

I know that you are in Colorado, but SCUBA shops have great selections of item that atach well and tons of chem lights. Military surplus and hardwear stores as well.
Becareful about putting lights on your front especially bring green one as they affect your night vision. The other side of that is that the human eye sees green very well and the other people will see the light. The best one I have seen was a strobe that people turned on under canopy. It was visable for miles.

I agree that chicks rock. As for giving them the respect they deserve. Kate Cooper, Tayna O'Brian and Eliana should end that discussion. All amazing people and great skydivers who happen to be beautiful women as well. All world record holders, champions and able to out fly most if not all of us. What more could you ever want.

Bottom line is that if you are denser, heavier, fatter, whatever you need to, as Kate once put it, "Dress for success". Get the right jumpsuit, learn to fly and all the problems will go away.

I think that Quade has it covered. Many LO programs are undrstaffed and/or undersupported. The LO has the impossible problem of being all things to all people at the same time. Talk to the LO about it and see if it is the LO or the DZ or something else.

Lisa as usual I am right behind you. This is a bad idea for someone with 160 jumps unless he is just the most amazingly aware and natural canopy poilot out there.
From his comments I think that he has not been able to get the maximum preformance out of his current canopy. It seems that with the 170 he should be fine. A 9 cell say sabre2 or safire or piolot like Lisa said will do everything that you are asking. Personally I think that you should be at closer to a 190 for your size and jump numbers.
The issues of Stilletto's line twist spinners, getting cut off on landing or needing to put it down tight are a lot to sacrifice just to get back from a bad spot. Which brings me to the last point, why not just wait for a better spot?

If we lookat the article published about the performance of different canopies, sizes and wing loadings, we can conclude that the facts behind this are not very strong. A 210 at 1.5 and a 97 at 1.5 are no more the same than a Xaos and a Spectre. Now that I have made that side fo the argument. It is their dropzone and they can have any stupid rule they want. Why won't some DZ allow Vadiballs or rafts. Why do some require AADs. All these are rules that can be argued to make things safer in this sport. While i don't agree with the choice, I do see the argument and support their right to make it. Heck at least they are trying to address the isue of rising landing acidents.