Nabz

Socializing is nice and all but I recommend saving at least the last mins of your ride up rehearsing in your head as well as focusing on your breathing, helps more than you think. And as it was said above, jump more. The more exposed to this "stress" the better you become at handling it.

This is exactly the thing I wish I could do with my wife... one day lol. She went from never even wanting to think about a tandem to now wanting to jump (by end of summer she says lol) Congrats to you both !

Like you I have flown only rental and student gear until i bough my own rig. I know some say you're wasting money by buying a rig as a newbie but after factoring in how much I will jump (which turned to be a lot more than I thought) i am glad i did, rental fees + lift tickets + packing (for rental they only allow packers) add up very fast, especially if you plan on jumping a lot. Also when you buy make sure you get something that can be easily re-sold as to no be stuck with it. To answer your original question, i got a Sabre 2 and I love it. Flies great and is fun to fly even at low wing loading (1.07:1), as mentioned deployment is a little rough at times and needs a good 800-1000ft of snivel, might want to adjust your deployment altitude. Only reason i say that is i normally pull at 3.8-3.5k but noticed on alti that its opened at 2.5-2.8K which in the case of a Mal would be cutting it short, so I started to pull at 4K to be safe. Flare is great and landings improved but will take some getting used to the 2 stage flare. Hope this helps.

I dont think there is anything wrong with what you want to do. A lot of people do Hop'n'Pops only, this is where you jump out at 5K, wait 3-5 seconds to stabilize and pull. This would be the closest and most cost efficient thing to what you have suggested, but i am almost certain you will have to go thru the whole training process and FJC. Good luck and Blue Skies!

I had a retired Army Vet here in Canada, well up there in age, in his mid to late 70's tell me that his best friend died because he saw one of his SL students going into a mal and jumped out after her to help her "untangle", not realizing he didnt have a rig on.... I was like "Wow cool story" now the sad part is I have a hard time believing most of his stories which BTW some are pretty cool.... a little too cool now that i think about it lol

I had a student rig (rental) while on AFF (the two SOLO jumps) and I was working on backflips, did one and everything was fine did the second and BAM under canopy at 8500 feet...not sure if it was because it wasnt FF Friendly or the BOC/Pilot Chute was out. You can imagine how long it took me to come back to land flying a 280 Navigator

I just went for my first jump this past Sunday, I was pretty nervous too since the last time i jumped was October. As others have mentioned the second you are at that door the excitement takes over and the fun begins. But i always have that anxious/knots in the stomach before every jump, keeps me alive lol.

Thank you for the suggestion betzilla, will give that a try.

Need to work on my conversion tables a little more... Imperial to Metric

Funny you mention this is that after the flight to Jamaica (in my above post) I did just that and he said I have sensitive ear drums and that I could try to manually normalize which helps a bit but not much. And its not every time its only here and there with air travel ( i fly 4-5 times per year for work and pleasure) and happened only once or twice skydiving but was no where near this pain. I was also told that the cold could have affected this as I mentioned in my opening post that it was -19C at 14K

Thank for the recommendation yobnoc, I will give this a try. I have always had issues with air travel and my ears blocking/pain since I was a child... a while back I flew to Jamaica and it took me 6 days to get my left ear to unplug... I tried everything and then i woke up and they were normalized. Ton/Tonne, tomato tomatoe... same shit

Hey gals and guys, Went for my first jump of the year yesterday, first day of the season here in cold Canada (yes still cold)... was about -20C at altitude. What do you all do to minimize ear pain from the change of pressure ? I usually have a little bit of pain and by the time i land its mostly gone and ears are popped. Yesterday was different pain was pretty bad like an 7-8/10 compared to 3-4/10 and one of my ears is still "plugged", couldn't jump again as i was afraid it would make it worse. Can the cold have an impact on this ? Will it subside with time ? But man did it feel good to be back up in the sky

Its funny you say that as i am in the same situation currently. Did my AFF late in the season last year and then had a winter break as well and now im having some fear about jumping. I think its perfectly natural reaction to this kind of situation, we are jumping out of an airplane at 13,000 feet after all lol. I personally like a little bit of fear, keeps me on my toes I am sure that after the first jump of the season the fear will get better and it will be manageable enough to let loose and have fun. Thats what i am hoping for anyway lol...

For Yoga I just do the gym classes they offer and I try and replicate some of the poses at home. Stretching, I googled mobility stretches and dynamic stretching and follow that as well.

When I got into Skydiving I was 225 and like you was healthy and active individual and have no problem with physical fitness. What i found hard tho was being nimble and agile enough in the air. I got into a little yoga and dynamic stretching to help, seems to do the job. I also dropped weight to find gear to fit me. Hope this helps

Congrats !!

If you get into the sport with that attitude you most likely will be one of the statistics. I see it at my DZ people with 3-4-7 thousand jumps, they are still as careful as the newbies. Be safe out/up there.

You are absolutely right, however the reason he didnt continue was because of the waiting and location of the DZ being 90 mins away. The being expensive and risky part, I am almost certain he was aware of the costs and risks before hand.

I am very sorry for your loss.My condolences to his friends and family. That is very sad. Especially hearing the man filming worried about his son/daughter/spouse. Good for you for deciding to keep up with it to honor his memory, i agree that we do get a special bond with the person/coach that teaches you how to fly.

Good luck with your AFF and progression. Once you get the first jump out of the way you will feel ACCOMPLISHED. One of the best decisions of my life was to do it and i hope it stays in my life for as long as i am in it

Definitely a good step. As mentioned above as long as you know about the risks involved. I did the same as you, tandem then 2 weeks later I was at the FJC. I always wanted to skydive but I was competing in a different sport and didnt have the time nor the extra cash to do both so once I "retired" lol I went to what i have always wanted to do, fly.

Right on, that makes sense. Thank you for the explanation.

Newbie here as well. Might be a stupid question to some but can someone explain how landing at sea level and altitude are different ? Congrats on the weight loss Mac_la

The gym will help, not so much in the sense of flying but more so for overall fitness, doing many jumps in a day, tunnel etc... I was/am a bodybuilder and when i started my AFF i was 225lbs and it was TOUGH One of my coaches said to me the first time they saw me : "Skydiving is about finesse, you cant muscle your way through"

It's too bad you didn't at least get to experience it by yourself. That being said, the first thing I learned in skydiving was PATIENCE... I am a naturally active person and sitting there for a few hours, watching more experienced ppl jump (me not jumping due to winds) or waiting for an instructor was annoying at first.... But if it wasnt meant to be it wasnt meant to be.