Monkeyb

Yea, I figured it has to be pretty damn loud, and I only intend on trying it a couple of times so I won't damage my ears too much (hopefully). But yea.. I'm only gonne do this a few times. The thought of having to deal with a malfunction while music is blasting in my ears isn't very comforting.

I know this thread has been made a bunch of times before, and I'm not trying to rehash the same topic, but I'm going to purchase an MP3 player this week and really want to try skydiving to some music. I don't have many jumps under my belt, and don't intend on making it a habit to skydive with music, but I do want to try it and see what it's like at least once. I know music can detract from important things such as altitude awareness and what not, but I don't intend on doing this often, so I figure I'll be safe if I try it once or twice. Do I need special earphones or anything? These mp3 players blast pretty damn loud so I can't imagine the noise of the air causing much trouble. Also, do I need to ask for permission before doing this? I don't want an instructor to see me with earphones in my ear and flip out. And for my last dumb question: will my ears explode from the pressure change if I have earphones in them? :P

I see. Atmonautis not for me. Way too early anyhow I'm still belly flying. I know this is slightly off topic but, I really want to learn how to fly a wingsuit. How many jumps should I have under my belt before trying wingsuits? I don't want to rush it but damn it looks like so much fun.

Get up to 200 jumps so I can join friends when I take them to tandem My DZ won't let me join a tandem til I have 200 jumps :(

1 reserve ride at jump #50, due to a big packing mistake (forgot to cock the pilot chute)

So you mean automnauti increases your freefall time? How does this happen :x I belly fly and I've never had 75 second jumps, even if I try to slow myself down as much as possible.

This post tried to be funny, and failed horribly. Sorry man but this thread is a failure, try again :(

I tried the Excel camp a month or two ago. It was alot of fun and I learned some new stuff that I didn't know before. I am really looking forward to going again for the next one. Melanie and Steve are very cool, and I felt it was a very pleasant experience. Plus the fact that it's free makes it a no-brainer. I had about 35 jumps when I went. I learned about "optimal" body position, and have been practicing it since. I can't wait to see what the next camps hold :) I absolutely encourage you to take advantage of it. It's free, professional coaching, and a crapload of fun.

...and rip you off.

I had one Saturday, because I forgot to cock my PC. I hadn't rented gear from the store before, and was used to jumping navigators, and had forgotten about cocking the PC since my packing class a month earlier.

Errr... yea I'm such a tool.

Oops, I'm sorry, it was a spectre 210 sundevil, when I looked up to check all I saw was the pilot chute, so the minute I cut away I think the main may still have been in the container, but at some point the main made it out of the container, because after the reserve came out my main was hanging off the reserve risers (but still in it's bag). I'm pretty sure the cypres handled the reserve opening for me after cutaway, but I was told to pull reserve handle always just in case, so I did. Dubbayab, I never cocked the pilot chute. Since my packing class I had forgotten all about cocking pilot chutes. I was jumping student gear for about a month after the course and the navigators don't need to be cocked, so I forgot all about it on the rental gear. I'm pretty sure that not having a cocked PC is the reason for my problem. In retrospect maybe it might even have opened if I waited longer, who knows. I'm just happy the cutaway didn't result in some other complication.

Yesterday I rented gear from the gear shop at my DZ for the first time. My first 50 jumps had been done on student rigs (Navigator 220). I rented a Spectre 190 (i think thats what it was) 7-cell, and there were some minor differences in packing the gear that I had forgotten about. Namely, cocking the pilot chute. My friend and I decide since it's our first time with new canopies to pull high so we can have some time to feel them out. I deploy main at 4k, wait about 5 seconds, and am still dropping. I cut away real quick and a split second later the reserve opens. Great relief. So I look to my side and theres a pilot chute wrapped in my risers, and beneath it is my main container (edit: bag) dangling with just one rubber band fastening it. I contemplate landing with it for a minute, but as soon as I unstow the reserve breaks and pick up speed the bag starts drifting up slowly. I thought it would be best to just drop it. After other canopies below me clear out, I unwrap the pilot chute from the reserve risers and let it drop. Standup landing, and the freebag and main were both found. I did lose the reserve handle though, bummer :( During my search for the main, my friend and I found a dropped helmet with protrack in it, which was return to it's owner, so something good did come out of the incident :) Shoutout to the champion (I believe his name is Bobby) who was able to find my freebag!

Add: Monkeyb :)

I want to do some night jumps, but I'm waiting on water training so I can get my B :(

Just because you stand by it doesn't mean it's a valid assertion, and with such a low jump number I think you need to take a deep breath and chill out. The tone of your post makes it seem as if you're a veteran jumper, which you clearly aren't. Now, on to the topic. I think it's ok to do some minor leg strap adjustments under canopy. My instructors never advised me against it, and it's helped me under painful rides. I'm new to the sport, so take this for what it's worth, but I don't think a small legstrap adjustment is going to make you fall out of your harness. Check with instructor's, maybe there's a better way to get around your pain than adjusting the legstraps while in-flight. Adjusting them worked for me, but I don't recommend you do this without first mentionig it to an instructor.

Sounds quite complicated compared to normal skydiving, but I absolutely love the thought of flight versus fall. In time, when I've learned enough and feel ready, I will deffinately take a jab at this. Long way to go until I'm 'ready', but god-willing, I will get there :) Thanks for the post.

So what are the dangers associated with wingsuit jumping? I'm still new to skydiving (got my A two weeks ago), and all I know about wingsuits is what I've seen in skydiving movies. Could you guys clue me in a little... pro's/con's? I'm sure it's a ton of fun, just wouldn't want to jeapordize safety.

Wow, I had a taste of that today actually. I was talking to my friend while gearing up, and in the distraction I only routed the chest strap once. At that moment, two instructors saw from far away and approached us. One of them asks my friend to give me a gear check. Friend looks at chest strap thinking it's ok, and totally misses the fact that it was only routed once (as did I). We both felt like idiots, but it makes me very happy to know people were looking out after me. I've read about these chest strap oversights before, and didn't think I would screw it up. Now that I've seen it first hand, I realize just how serious it is and will pay attention to what I do when gearing up. I will thank the instructors who spotted my error with beer next weekend.

signed

Well I don't really have a car, and my parents car has horribly fucked up transmission. I doubt it would make it to the DZ, and if it did, it deffinately wouldn't make the way back, so I sort of needed a ride. Whatever, I'm already shafted and have to do the retake. Although I would have felt alot better paying for someones tandem instead of flushing the money on a lame AFF retake. Someone would have a free tandem, and I would have had a friend who's never jumped come to the DZ with me.

I recently got off AFF and made a few solo jumps. Unfortunately since May 15 I haven't been able to get out to the dropzone again. My friend who I normally jump with had a big family emergency and from the looks of it won't be back within the 30 days required to still be current. I don't want to drive an hour and a half to the DZ by myself, so I figure since my currency is expiring I'll just offer to pay a tandem for a friend, instead of redoing level 8 after the 30 days are up. I'm already screwed either way cause I'm not gonna go out there by myself and my currency will expire if I don't, so it's basically a free jump for any one of my friends who wants it. Well, I couldn't get a single friend to come out with me. I remember when I'd try to get them to jump they'd always bitch about it being so expensive to do a tandem. Now I offer them a free jump fully paid by me, and everyone pulled some excuse to weasel their way out. This is so pathetic. I don't really care because I'm paying that level 8 retake anyways, but I mean, how can you refuse a free tandem when you've never jumped before? WTF!

Hmm. This is such a big issue for me right now. I graduated off AFF and had a few solo jumps. My last one was on May 15. I'm right on the borderline right now. What's the LAST day I can go before I have to retake level 8? Is it 30 days, or 31?

So how do the cliffdivers survive? They jump from pretty high places. Obviously there's a difference in hitting the water with your belly and chest as opposed to a perfect vertical dive. My brain tells me it makes sense, but everyone else says no.

Yea, that would deffinately make sense with a birdman suit. If you can slow down to a decent speed I'm sure a water collision would be survivable, and I hear good wingsuit flyers can flare down to like 60 MPH, which I would think is slow enough to survive impact since it's just water.