livenletfly

lmao! thanks for the reply, ive been waiting 3 years! >

i cant disagree more. i think you will find that people that have put a good amount of jumps on the veng have alot of good things to say about em. most nay sayers either put only a couple jumps on the veng or never jumped one. they were a great canopy. the openings at the time where consistant with most of pds products of that generation. pd's are not exactly known for outstanding openings. >

i have close to 1000 jumps on various size vengance. they are an awesome canopy. at the time they were the best stepping stone to the velo. i never chopped one, and had pretty consistant openings. they are a pain in the ass on windy days trying to gather up after landing. i loved having airlocks, whether or not i was safer i felt safer in turbulant conditions with airlocks. the canopy dives great and has awesome rear riser range! honestly its a shame they dont make the veng any longer. good news is you can get used ones super cheap becuz they arent that desired. i flew a 135 and a 120 then went to the velo 96. it was a very smooth transistion. the velo was obviously different but to be honest it didnt feel all that un familiar after so many jumps on my veng. now that the katana and xcrss2 are out there it they have dominated the market. but imo the veng has qualities you just cant get from any other wing besides the big air sports airlocked samurai. >

i dont recall any "harsh reactions" to a stand down written by anyone on here. just people disagreeing. there were stories of jumpers saying some fucked up shit, but nobody here has done that. you yourself decided to make a jump after a fatality. you could have not got on the dc-3 if you felt so inclined to not jump, but you didnt. it didnt mean you dont care. nor do people that dont have a problem jumping in the aftermath of a fatality. leave the choice to the individual. thats all some of us are saying. "standing down" wont bring the dead back, it really doesnt accomplish anything. it wont make the un-compassionate compassionate, it just stops the jumping for no real ryme or reason. funerals and memorial ceromonies honor the dead. >

ouragan suits is a very large succesful company. i highly doubt they would take the time to fake a profile and post. they really are a good company to deal with. my suit cost close to a grand! however its exactly the way i wanted it to fit and look and will last thousands of jumps so to me its worht it. >

lets say there is a fatality from a low turn at an attempted hp landing. pure operator error that had nothing to do with the facility. what would be accomplished by shutting down for 24 hrs ? if i die jumping, the LAST thing i would want would be for my fellow flyers to not be able to do what they love beacuse i died doing what i loved. especially considering some people had spent alot of money and time away from their jobs to visit the dz and jump as much as possible. its not that i dont have compassion for the deceased and their loved ones. i just feel that we all know whats at stake and the risks we take to live our lives to the fullest. if we die, we die. at least we went out doing soemthing that is so meaningful to us. some dz's do shut down, other more busy, larger ones do not. if i go in feel free jump your asses off! >

they are working for you so i doubt anyone would have a problem with it. if they did i would get another coach. these things are very pricey so im going to get my money's worth anyway i can. ive had some caoshes that didnt want me to wear my vid in air. i dont remember why but it wasnt a big deal so i didnt mind. >

im glad to know its not just my coarse. i wonder why he still has a job as a cd. that nasty bastard kept taking his false teeth out, fucking gross! i hope candidates read this thread so they get their money's worth. its nit cheap and you should be treated with some respect and not humiliated on a daily basis. F that guy. >

sure that would work too. vid would be better so you can see the coaches body language but audio is way better than nothing. >

well sure if theres an issue with the dz thats related to the fatality then of coarse shut down so it can be addressed. if the reason is that people are shook up by the fatality then that should be left up to the individual to decide whether they can safley skydive. im just not in favor of that decision being made for me. a couple years back i was at sdaz when a crew jumper turned low and impacted in the desert. i was on the load that he jumped from. it was the second fatality i was present for. when i saw them take his body away it definatly made me think of my own mortality within the sport but i never felt it was wrong or odd that the planes kept flying. many people spend alot of money to go away to jump in the winter months. to have sdaz shut down for someone dying would be pointless. dont foregt dz's are a buisness and many people are there with an agenda to jump. although its very sad, ya just cant shut down cuz someone burned in. it happens. its part of the sport. the crappy part but part of the whole package. >

i really should have wrote a letter to the uspa after my coarse but i didnt. i just wanted to put it out of my mind and start doing real world aff. i feel a little guilty now because i think of all the other jumpers taking his crappy coarse beacuse nobody takes the time to let the uspa know how he hold his coarses. heres something ive always wondered. before i took the coarse i figured we would learn alot about flying during an aff jump. things like tips to get the student to respond, staying on them like glue, what to do when your student goes ballistic near pull time ext... i was blown away when i took the coarse and there wasnt one second of in air instruction. the whole damn coarse was about those f---ing tlo blocks!!! how come we spent countless hours on tlo's and not one min on the most crucial and life threatning part of aff, the flying!? its taken me years to learn all those goodies i listed whe they could have been taught in the coarse making me a safer and better affi right out of the gate. i think this is a major flaw in the coarse. they expect you to show up knowing it all in regards to the flying part. i really feel the aff coarse is rediculous. i wont say its easy by any means, it was haard as hell, but not having any flying instruction is freakin retarded! was it just my coarse or are they all; this way? thank you my fellow instructors, although i no longer do aff, (for personal reasons, pm me if your curios) my rating is one of the things i am most proud of achieving in my lifetime. i just think the coarse needs a major over haul. >

ive done quite a bit of coached jumps so heres my 2 cents. dont worry to much on finding the best of the best. like someone else said its more important to find a coach with a good teaching style and someone you feel totaly comfortable working with. dont disclude jumpers at your local dz's. if they are really good fflyers and have some background in teaching they can help you as well for a fraction of the costs. usually they will help you for slot and pack jobs. as long as they have vid you can get the basics down for much less cost. obviously they may not be as good as the top teer of freeflying but you dont always need a "rook nelson" to learn how to change fallrate, drive, side slide ext.... when you get coaching video your debriefs!!!! you will be suprised how fast you forget some of the details of their instruction and end up going back to your old bad habits months or even weeks after your back home. watch the videos over and over at home to get your moneys worth. ggod luck, babylon are freakin awesome and inspite me to fly my ass off!! >

thanks for replying. i thought of asking amy but she;s so busy these days id rather not add to her load. does anyone have an email for bryan b? >

im not sure if im reading you correctly. if your saying that there is a saftey concern for the mental state of jumpers following a fatality i think thats going way too far. maybe there are some that may find themselves in a fragile state but they should ground themselves. i would be pretty upset if i was forced to be on the ground because someone thinks i cant pull due to emotional stress! for me thats absurd.i can, i have, and i will safley jump following a fatal inceident. if i was too shaken up i would stand down on my own. imo, all this talk about standing down for MONTHS is rediculous! death is an unfortunate part of the sport but it happens. unless the deceasd was a friend, if you feel you need weeks or months off of jumping because someone died doing what they love, knowing full well that death is a very real possibility in our sport, then you should take a look at yourself and rethink if skydiving is right for you. name one other sport that closes down when a participant dies. i tried and cant think of one. a guy died in my gym playing raquetball just the other day, the same court was being used by the time i was hitting the showers an hour later. golfers die all the time, no one closes the coarse. the local race track has many fatalitiies each season. they resume racing as soon as the debrit is cleared from the track. why should we be any different? >

dont know about the other coarse directors because i had billy rhodes. but i will say this' other than getting my rating, my aff coarse with billy was a collasal waste of time! it sucked and i feel like i had to listen more about his retarded veiws of glenn bangs and the uspa, and why he was the best director and everyone else is a hack, than learn about aff! dont take his coarse if you can avoid it. although i did well and stayed off his radar i really dont have anything good to say other than i got my rating. it was the most boring and frustrating 8 days of my jumping carrer!!!! id rather go through 3 months of marine corp basic training again than sit in a room and listen to that jack off rant and rave for i more min! that guy is a lunatic and gets off on his little tiny bit of power. the canidates and EVALUATORS where treated like shit and the coarse went on and on for 8 days. there were ony 4 of us for chist sakes! i really cant believe that guy still has a job! did anyone else have a bad experirence with billy rhodes ? >