skybytch

I've gone six months in the past and it's gonna probably be 9 months by the time I get back this time (already been 5 :-() Best advice I can give is jump a fast climbing aircraft! Seriously, plan the jump to be something easy and fun - a simple two way or a solo. Jump the gear you are used to - NOT your new smaller canopy; save that for later in the day after you've blown the rust off. Get a good thorough gear check, both before you load and before you exit. Spend a few minutes in the hanging harness practicing your emergency procedures. All of these will help you push the gear worries out of your mind during the plane ride - "well that got checked so I know it's not going to cause a problem..." On the ride up think about the fun you'll be having, not the bad things that "could" happen. It sounds funny but Lamaze type or yoga breathing is actually a good way to calm the nerves; if you don't know how to do it just focus on your breathing and try to make it slow and steady, in through the nose and out through the mouth. And remember it's only 20 minutes and you know that as soon as you clear the door you'll be home again... pull and flare, lisa

No Fear started with skydiving and base jumping shirts... then discovered that they could make a lot more money by including other sports. I have a couple of skydiving specific NF shirts. I have to laugh when I see a NF shirt on someone who obviously has never made it very far from the recliner, remote and TV tray... pull and flare, lisa

I know I can't do this in three words... 1) skydiver with broken wings who is jonesing to make a Jump really really bad! 2) curious - I want to know everything about everything! 3) writer 4) daydreamer see? told ya I couldn't do it in only three! pull and flare, lisa

The Sentinel was the product of Steve Snyder (Altimaster, ParaFlite...), and if I remember my skydiving history correctly it came out before the FXC. About the same in terms of reliability. Personally today I would buy one only for historical value. Anyone here ever see a KAP-3? pull and flare, lisa

If this is Anonymous Chris from another post... then he probably is jumping a canopy that has a collapsible slider - Skydive Chicago puts at least some of their students on Safires. Personally I'd recommend not even messing with the slider right now like Mike said, but you should do whatever your instructors have told you to do, Chris. For me the secret was pulling both lines at the same time and making sure that the little piece of line that "locks" the slider collapsed was all the way outside the slider before I let the lines go. Don't try to do it really fast and remember to make sure you have clear air around you before you start! pull and flare, lisa

See... that paintball stuff is dangerous!!! Next time just stay at the dz... Hope your metal removal goes well - are they sure it has to come out? Maybe you can at least talk the doc into waiting 'til winter! pull and flare, lisa

Keep that dream in front of you and you WILL be living it one day Chris! I know cuz I'm living my dream now (working in the skydiving industry... and making enough to support myself and my kid). One piece of advice though - don't quit your day job until you have more than one rating and you've been instructing part time for a while. It's pretty rare to be able to make a decent living if you are only able to do one thing (i.e. AFF, tandem, rigging...) and you'll want to be sure you ENJOY teaching if it's all you will be doing. There's a lot more to being an instructor than just the air time... pull and flare, lisa

Saw the Navy Leap Frogs jump into a county fair when I was a kid, then saw an all-female demo team jump into the Reno Air Races, then saw an 80 yr old women doing a tandem on a tv show... then my boyfriend found a dz only 40 minutes from the house... We were "supposed" to go do a jump at the same time. Well he went one Sunday "to watch" and did a static line without me; I punished him for that one! Wouldn't let him tell me about it for three hours after he got home. Course I had to go do it the next Sunday. I remember hanging under canopy saying "this is so &%$#ing cool!" over and over. That was all it took, I was hooked pull and flare, lisa

You might want to do your first jump or two back on the 190, then break out the new toy!

With a big student or tandem canopy I'd get the lines daisy chained then bend over and pick tthe canopy up like a pile of sheets. Tuck here, tuck there... until it was a managable sized ball of fabric with nothing hanging down that I could trip on. With a smaller sport canopy I daisy chain the lines then throw the canopy over my shoulder. When I was packing I preferred that the lines be daisy chained; I had fewer problems with those than with the ones that were coiled like a rope. pull and flare, lisa

I check my gear over completely before I put it on, then ask someone I trust to check me over again before I get on the plane - after the jamup/dirt dive. I then check handles and straps and reach around to feel that the main pin cover is closed, no bridle is exposed and the p/c is tucked into the pouch before I exit. pull and flare, lisa

Sis! Come to Southern California and get it done for under $1000 per eye! I've seen LASIK advertised for as little at $700/eye around here... The people I know who've had it say it was the best present they ever gave themselves.

Hey anonymous! Glad to hear you're getting back in the air! Where did you jump "back in the day"? According to Poynter's Parachute Manual the Strato Star was approximately 180 sq. ft. Now go register a user name... then come back on Saturday night and tell us about your return to the air!

http://www.news-journalonline.com/2001/mar/7/AREA99.htm pull and flare, lisa

I heard he's going to be alright. Busted up his hip and has some facial injuries but he's going to make it and walk and stuff again.

Troy showed up at my old dz when he had less than 100 jumps. He was always great fun to jump with and an amazingly good flyer considering his experience level at the time. He stopped jumping there and moved over to Taft when he decided to get into skysurfing (dzo wouldn't allow any skysurfing due to the "country club pilots" on the airport). As long as I've known him he's had a great attitude - he could have easily developed a skygod complex when he was at the top of the skysurfing heap but he didn't... always made time to say hi and chat for a few even on a busy training day. Even took the time to give me a hug when he was surrounded by adoring whuffos after he and Vic won the XGames. Personally I'm stoked for him that he's now a "celebrity" - and I'm even more stoked to say that I knew him "when"! pull and flare, lisa

Even though I think most of us here log every jump we make, there are jumpers out there who don't bother to log for whatever reason... I can see someone like that saying "50-100 jumps" on whatever cuz they have nothing to refer to to get an exact #... pull and flare, lisa

Gotta disagree with ya sis! When I say we can't land as well as men I'm talking from watching women with hundreds or even thousands of jumps biffing their landings on a regular basis (and my own experiences rolling through the dirt too...). As an example, during the womens world record attempts at Perris a couple of years ago I'd estimate that nearly one third of the jumpers on each dive landed other than on their feet. Not saying that EVERY woman can't land, just that it seems to me that a lot of us stand up our landings less often than the average guy with the same number of jumps. Anyway, I say let 'em laugh at us as we PLF our way through our skydiving day; we can still kick their asses in freefall! pull and flare, lisa

So true! I got my grandmother's '83 mid size Ford wagon last year with only 55000 miles on it. I love it! Enough room to comfortably take the kid, both dogs and an ice chest on a road trip, holds plenty of gear (or groceries). The only thing I don't like about it is the back windows aren't tinted yet; going to get them as dark as possible to help avoid theft... But the best part of driving a station wagon is... the cops DON'T EVEN NOTICE ME!!!! mwahahahahaha.... pull and flare, lisa

As far as I know it is totally legal as long as you have the permission of the person who owns the place you are landing. Might be kind of hard to exit a small aerobatic plane though... check it out with gear on before you decide to jump out of it. pull and flare, lisa

A Day at the Races!! That is such a kick in the ass!!! We did it a couple of times at my old dz. A couple of pointers to make it go smoother and safer if you decide to try - choose the right people to be the "pylons" (the ones with the streamers); you want them to be able to fall reasonably fast straight down. Wear helmets, full face if possible. Dirt dive the break off. Dirt dive an "out" - ie if someone needs to leave the race where should they go? Bring along a camera or two. And you might want to do the first one as a practice; hopefully that way no one will take someone else out in their rush to "win". Hoop dives are cool too. Take up a slightly weighted hula hoop, have two people hold it, then everyone else swoops through the hoop. pull and flare, lisa

I bought a 68 Camaro two months before I started skydiving. The plan was to restore it and have a sweet ride for once in my life... Managed to rebuild the front end (A-arms, tie rods, ball joints, etc.) and have a bit of rust around the rear window taken care of before I found freefall. A little later on I needed some cash...(three guesses what for!) Still had my ultra-cool 72 Dodge Dart 4 door that I was using as a daily driver. Just couldn't sell the Camaro though, so away went the Dart and the Camaro became my only transpo. So... At one point it had no reverse; if I parked it anywhere I had to put it in neutral and push it out of the parking place. Passenger side window mechanism busted and jammed the door opening mechanism so my kid had to climb in and out like a race car driver. I'd sanded and primed the back end hoping to get some new paint on it; skydiving ended that dream and the rust soon took over the whole trunk. Muffler was blown out so that little 250 straight 6 sounded pretty good. Headliner hung down just far enough to make the rear view mirror totally useless. Driver's seat upholstery was completely shot; had several springs that liked to poke me in the ass as I drove and absolutely NO padding left so the butt cheeks would go to sleep within 10 minutes of starting the drive. Lost the knob off the turn signal handle which turned that into a lethal weapon (still have scars from ramming my leg into it while getting into the car). Rust was growing around the windshield; finally got to the point where driving in the rain meant a nice little shower inside the car. There were no "rain flaps" (I've forgotten the right name for them...) around the wheel wells so if I went through any size puddle water would splash onto the distributor and stall the engine. Had an overheating problem; could only drive it during the summer with the heater on full blast (that's real fun when it's 105F plus outside...). pull and flare, lisa

My only question is where would the streamers end up at pull time? Not sure hanging on to a streamer with one hand and pulling with the other is a good idea for someone just off student status. Actually, not sure that hanging on to a streamer at pull time would be a good idea for any jumper; just thinking of the possibility of entanglements. How about sky paintball? Course we'd hafta come up with paintball stuff that would easily wipe off our gear/jumpsuits... but how much fun would it be to chase your buddies in freefall with a paintball gun? pull and flare, lisa

You can access profiles of the people who are currently on the site - click on "who's online", then the name of the person you want to see. I also haven't found a way to access all registered forum users. pull and flare, lisa

Much as I hate to admit it, grasshopper is right! The majority of female jumpers can't land for shit. This is why I think new female jumpers should be encouraged to buy canopies that they will load below 1.0:1. Keep 'em in the sport longer if they have a canopy that they can safely land. I like the theory that men have better depth perception than we do. Not sure that line length would have that much to do with it, but then I don't know much about canopy design. pull and flare, lisa