xlh883

After 7 years without jumping due to financial reasons I am returning to the sport as a new jump pilot. Fortunately, or unfortunately I still have my rig which will need some maintenance. The big question is, will I jump again? I am 42 and have gotten hurt once already but jumped after the injury was healed, so that ain't the issue here. I am already feeling the desire to go jump having pent only a few hours at the drop zone talking to the owners and pilots about working there part-time. I am hired, just have to pass the checkout and training. So, can you all take me back? :) This is going to cost me money and BEER probably! LOL So, what have I done???? David

No relation to anything posted here nor am I responsible for you getting into trouble with the FAA, I just know of these as a pilot. http://www.aerovideo.net/ http://www.wingitmounts.com/ There is another out there but I cannot find it. David

In the summer of 2006 the day I got my A-License was the day my canopy collapsed. People on the ground thought I got into a dust devil that had just come up in the Perris student area. My canopy collapsed from 30 feet or so. I remember falling clearly, going onto my back, losing my breath and the ambulance ride to the Riverside Hospital trauma center. I got lucky with just a cracked vertebrae and no other ill effects except for the pain and back brace plus bruised tail bone in the short term and very rarely, a shooting pain through my back if I sneeze and am in a certain position But that is rare. I never saw it to avoid it. I went back to skydiving six weeks later here in Ohio once the new neurosurgeon cleared me. I was 35 when it happened. I only jumped for a couple weeks before quitting for financial reasons. Still miss the sport and keep up with it here. David

It was an Aerodyne Pilot 210 and I weighed about 185 pounds with a really light jumpsuit and wearing a t-shirt and shorts underneath plus carbon fiber helmet. So I am calculating the wing load as 1.13. David

Older, wiser. Don't want to get hurt again. That is the type of thing going through my mind anyways. I guess the age is not such a big issue in itself. David

I had a full canopy collapse of my new Pilot the very next jump after I got my A-License. Was my 60th jump or so. This happened July 19th, 2006 at Perris Valley. My instructor said I went straight down from about 30 feet but he said I did everything right. Had a very bruised tail bone and fracture of a vertebrae. It was very hot that day and was landing in the student area. Suspected dust devil. Went straight down. I went back up about 6 weeks later after the doctor's ok and have not jumped since 2006. Not sure whether to go back or not. Used to be financial, but now that I am nearly 40, just dunno any more. Stuck at 100 jumps and want to be a POPS jumper on my 40th in August. Just not ready yet I suppose. David

The always load images option doesn't work properly. I click it on the same email addresses over and over and over and it still does not always load the images like it is supposed to. Would like to see this fixed. Nice feature if it worked right. David

I am at +7.75 diopters and the Adidas sunglasses I have are only supposed to go to 6.5 but SportRX made them for me and they have been fine for, hmm, 4.5 years now. David

I wear glasses to. Don't let this drive your helmet choice totally. There are some options for you besides the full-face helmet, in eye wear. I have a set of wrap-around sunglasses/goggles that are made by Adidas, that have a prescription insert on the back. These come with a head band if you want to use it and also a foam piece that goes around the lenses completely and keeps air out. I wear them on my motorcycle and skydiving. I change out the dark lenses for a clearer pair for skydiving so others can see my eyes. I also have a pair of motorcycle goggles that are prescription only that I have used also. My Adidas sunglasses do not need the head strap in skydiving. They stay on well with my Bonehead composites open face helmet just using the temple pieces. I got both of these from a company called Sportrx in San Francisco via mail order. www.sportrx.com You can look through their website or go to the very bottom of the web page and browse by type of sport that you want eye wear for. One piece of advice. I wear my Adidas sunglasses skydiving primarily with a light grey tinted lens. I bought a full-face helmet at the dropzone's shop and only tried them with the Adidas sunglasses. I should have tried the helmet with my regular glasses also. Had I done that I would have found out that my regular glasses will not allow the face shield to close all the way down without crushing them into my face which is uncomfortable. I have had occasion to want to wear my regular glasses with it. Big mistake on my part. Do not limit yourself on sportrx.com to just skydiving recommendations. The model i have "Adidas Elevation Climacool ID # AD18 " is on the cruiser motorcycle page. They work just fine. SportRx will work with you on prescriptions to get you into eye wear even if the web page says it will not work with your prescription. This is a good option for folks like us that wear glasses. I hope this helps. It should give you another option to look into besides the geeky over glasses goggles, which I have and pretty much will not wear any more. They never worked well enough anyways. David

Like I said in my previous post, I do not have enough hours to get a jump pilot job currently. The norm seems to be 500 total time, I have 380. No money to buy a trailer. The majority of DZ's here have turbine's any way which require a higher total time, like 100 hours. My current dropzone only has one packer for the tandems. Everyone else packs for themselves and as of last summer, wants to pack for themselves. The season doesn't start here for at least another 1.5 months as there is still snow on the gound. Doesn't help me now at all and I can't afford to move right now without something pretty well firmed up. You must have a really nice cushy job with lots of money and no worries. Some of us are struggling to make ends meet. So, thanks for the help. David

Getting in the door is the problem. I have 380 hours total time and am a skydiver myself. I got both of my commercial ratings in November. I have been applying to every regional and any other possible flying job that I might even have a chance at and no one is interested. To make things worse, I have been working on getting my CFI for the last two months becuase it looks like I have to and that may not happen either. I am about of money for that. I think my flight instructor is taking advantage of me at this point. He won't commit to signing me off for my check ride. Anyway, I for warn any one that is trying to switch to a career in aviation. I am 36 and had to choose a new career for reason I won't go into here. It is very hard to get in and you will never have enough flight hours or money. I see in the near future I Will have to quit flying becuase I won't be able to afford to build time. Maybe I will get lucky some time. If not, bankruptcy is in the future to get rid of the educational loans I took out. And please save the "you'll get something some time" comments. As I appreciate people encouraging me, it doesn't help any more and makes me feel worse. I just wanted to let people know how rough it actually is, especially when you have to depend on your mother for a place to live. David

I have been receving sometimes 4 duplicates of emails over the past couple of days. Also emails I have received and deleted a day earlier are coming in again. David

Ripcord, I have an MT-1X that needs to be built up and a complete MC-4. Haven't jumped the MC-4 yet. Anything special I need to know before I jump it? Is it easy to convert to a BOC system? I am leery of using the handle as is. So used to BOC system. Is your MT-1X black like mine or is that rare? Several people I know were surprised that I have a black harness and container. Just curious. And before any one says anything, I AM waiting till I get more jumps under my belt before I jump the HALO rig. I am not comfortable enough yet. David

32 - tandems and static line 34 - AFF and A license

I don't have the answers you are looking for but a suggestion. There are aerobatic pilots that have oxygen systems in their aircraft that utilize at least the helmet and mask portions. You may want to contact someone flying that type of aircraft and see how they adapted to civilian O2 bottles. Also, I believe that certain types of hi-speed racing boats have requirements for oxygen/air systems for the operator to use. Anyway, just a thought or two to help you. Please post what you find out for others in the future to use. David

I did a recurrency jump in May after 6 months off. Was a piece of cake except the back flips were front flips because of my suit booties. Oh well, passed any way. Do what feels right for you is what I say. David

Thanks. Hope to get video of the 100th. Trying to think of something special to do like a hybrid or something like that. David

I totally did not expect to make my B license requirements this weekend other than the water training. Got that done Friday, got my first 2 six-ways, first 5-way, a 4-way and hop-n-pop this weekend with 2 accuracy landings. It was enough to push me over the top of the requirements and put me up to 95 jumps, close to that mystical 100 jump mark. Woohoo! I am so happy! Thanks to everyone at Skydive The Point! David

Ok, now you're scaring me! David

Hi Bryan. Hopefully we can meet up this weekend. I plan to be there NLT 0900 on Saturday. Will be there Friday evening for the water training to. Catch you then. David

Chock up a point for the good guys! Glad to hear you are open. Now I can come out from MD and check out your DZ some time. David

Thanks for the info. I did not know about this organizing. Right now, I can't make it on the 23rd , but the 24th is possible for the next coaching. Is there an email list or something to that effect which I might join to contact others at Orange? That would help my situation out to. I will be more proactive about trying to get people to jump with. I really don't want my 100th jump to be a solo. It is coming soon. I want it to be something fun. David

Thanks forth suggestion. New Jersey is little far for me right now. I live in Maryland and I have started a new job so no vacation for a year. Maybe I can get there some day in my Skydiving career. David

Wildcard, I apologize for forgetting that you sent me a message about jumping at Orange. Also, I did not mean to "bash" you home DZ I was frustrated and the internet is the wrong place to vent and I messed up. I was frustrated and hadn't thought things out enough. Anyway, I plan to go back this next weekend to include Friday night's water training. I will at least be there on Saturday and try to hang out late with the gang. I live 2.5 hours away so that is why I haven't stayed around yet. I imagine I could pitch a tent, but haven't talked to anyone about it yet. You didn't piss me off any more with your message. I purposely did something different yesterday (ride off-road motorcycle) to think about he situation and did not even receive the thread responses until today. I had already made up my mind to go back and be more assertive and ask people. No more solo skydiving! Unless there is a good reason. You got me on the rigger problem from before and I realize I way overreacted. I hope you can accept my public apology. I would like to jump with pretty much anyone. I don't think I am up to learning FF yet. I would prefer to get better at belly flying. Maybe I could try it in the Raeford tunnel some time. Anyway, I hope to meet you in person some time. I will be the guy with the mostly blue RW jump suit and blue and red Infinity rig. I wear glasses to. In fact, I don't think I look like a Skydiver. I would like Orange to be my home DZ also. David

OK- first bit of advice- ASK. There is regular RW organizing going on for all levels. More details can be found here. They were organizing Sat. Having been at your jump numbers a few years back, I can assure you that these folks are willing to work with you. The signup days are supposed to be a bit more advanced and/or bigger way dives that may not be appropriate for lower experience levels, but the open days should be OK. Sat. was a bit different as some senior jumpers that had been at Orange for a while but have moved, been restationed, etc., for a few months were back to visit. There was also a coach rating course going on. So someone new could have gotten overlooked. But it sounds like Brandon already made you an offer. There are also also a few (6-8?) folks that got a license somewhat recently and are in the 50-100 jump range around. And most of the belly fliers I know there (including me) would jump with you. But just like you, we want to improve our skills as well. So there will be days with 8+ ways that we want to do those. But as you gain the skills, the organizers WILL get you into those when they feel it's safe and appropriate. Ultimately, it's your choice whether to return to Orange or go elsewhere. Dave I thank you for the information. I wish I had known about the organized coaching but I hadn't seen that page on Orange's website. I may have over looked it. Rhonda at Mainfest didn't tell me of anything going on when I was leaving for the day Saturday. She just said she understood why was leaving. Anyway, I hadn't read any of the replies to this thread until today. Everyone is right that I need to step up and be more assertive and ask people. I overreacted to the situation. Saturday just wasn't my day to jump. My big thing is driving 110 miles each way and feel like I wasted a day. The one solo jump wasn't any fun. I should have stuck around. What I am trying to say here, it was my fault for not getting anyone to jump with me. I also had forgotten that Wildcard doesn't hold this against me. I apologize. Jumper03, thanks for the invite for the jump club. Reaford is one my places to visit list, specially with the Skyventure tunnel opening soon. The jump club sounds like fun and would be educational. Would make a weekend of it as you are 350 miles south of me. I will be going back to Orange next weekend. Hopefully things will be better. I like that DZ and want to stay there. David