elfanie

I can answer that...money. It is much less expensive to go the route that they did. They also said something about lighting...and I'm not sure if there was a question about the photo quality or something... *shrug* -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Yeah...I knew I was going to be in the ad...just didn't know when it was going to start running. It was kinda fun, actually. Harder work than I thought it would be (they strung me up by ropes...so I had to try to arch while artificially being held up by these ropes for 3 hours. That's why my 'arch' is so flat....I just couldn't convince them to let our camera jumpers take pictures of me actually in freefall...) but still fun. My husband was sure that a lot of ya'll were going to give me crap about doing it...but I still thought it was fun. -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Please give an example, this seems confusing....Unless you ment the Reserve loop, and that only works on a few rigs....A Jav will cut the loop even if you pulled the reserve. I took this to mean that they had a cypress fire before they had pulled their main... in other words..it wasn't a main malfunction, but a loss of altitude awareness that caused the fire... (could be wrong, but that was my guess) -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

ya know...when I had my first reserve ride...I couldn't get my handles away from my fast enough. My thought was "look red, grab red, look silver, pull red -ALL THE WAY *toss*, pull silver - ALL THE WAY *throws D-ring as far away from my body as I could get it*".. later that day, my DZO razzed me a little by talking to another rigger about D-rings...and looked at me as he said, "We need to get some more in stock...people keep THROWING THEM.." and he grinned. I looked him square in the eye and said, "my EPs consisted of look red, grab red, look silver, pull red, pull silver...at no time was I taught pull red - KEEP THE HANDLE- pull silver - KEEP THE HANDLE..." he got VERY serious and said, "absolutely...you did exactly what you were supposed to...good for you..." That was the last 'crap' I ever got for it.

I'll let someone else more qualified answer your question about different student progressions and options... but I did want to point out that when you are finished with your progression, whether that's 8 or 18 jumps...you are NOT licensed yet. To aquire your USPA "A" license, you have to have completed a minimum of 25 skydives as well as have everything on your proficiency card signed off. so regardless of what progression you sign up for - you don't finish the progression as a licensed skydiver. That takes a bit more time and work.... -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Ok...debated about whether or not to say this....but here it goes. for my #100 down at Rocky Point, I didn't go naked...but I did go in lingerie - very stretchy lace lingerie (catsuit type) with underwear underneith (the lingerie was open-crotch...not what I wanted to be landing on the beach in front of everyone in). Before this, the only things I'd ever worn were jeans, jumpsuit, etc. I didn't have a hard opening...but when I did open, I thought I was going to cry. the stretchiness of the lingerie did nothing to keep my butt cheeks together, so the leg straps yanked my butt cheeks apart from each other (I actually wondered if I didn't slightly injure myself) and my underwear went so far up my butt - I'd never had such a severe wedgie (and I have an older brother! ) I yelped...and spent quite a bit of time trying desperately to fish my underwear out from inside my butt. that was just not something I'd ever thought of happening when I was getting dressed...so yes, for me there was most definately a difference in what it felt like to open normally - and what it felt like without the protection of a jumpsuit or jeans or something like that... -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Nobody would get hooked into a tandem harness and jump out of an airplane unless they wanted to. If I talked to someone and "recruited" someone and they jumped and got hurt..I'd feel bad, of course...but certainly not responsible. they are adults, they are making an informed decision.. it's not for everyone...and everyone isn't going to jump just because one of us said, "it's awesome!". Nothing wrong with advertising and spreading the word...which is all that person was talking about doing. -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Just curious, what does your dz see wrong with putting a 100# girl under a sabre 230 even on jump #1? That is still a really light w/l. fwiw, I weigh more and made my first jumps on a sabre 190 and was fine. Angela. No comment on the instructor's choice.. but I was about 135 going through student ASP progression..and I was on a manta 288 until I was through my progression where I went down to a nav 240, then a nav 220, Sil210, PD190, and finally what I fly now is a Sab190. (although now I weigh about 145 and I'm pregnant...still flying my sab190) -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Hey Wendy...

I have had a total...a hard pull. I went through my EPs - red then silver. I landed with my main still on my back. My instructors (all of them, actually) who I trust explicitely (one has over 8K jumps, golden knight member for years, leap frog, 'big wig' in the skydiving world) said absolutely right...you touch it, you chop it...doesn't matter if anything is out or not. We lost someone about a year ago with a PC in tow (I know...that's a partial, but still) that went straight silver. Watching the video...most agree that he would have been 100% fine if he'd chopped first...not chopping killed him. My instructor explained that the only reason there is even a bit of controversy over this is because there was ONE fatality of a well known jumper who had chopped in which things got tangled up and it was questions that it might have been better in his one freaky instance not to have chopped...and thus the debate began. I had a hard pull...tried 3 times (yup, dumb!)...chopped and pulled silver. If it happened again, I'd do the same thing. it all seems to come down to training - follow your training. -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

I learned at a small DZ, although we ran turbines (still do, depending on how many people are there. occasionally we run the cessna when it gets really slow). I used a ripcord until probably jump #15 or so...around there. Maybe more l ike #20...I'd have to check my log book. -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

I read this thread because I half expected it to be someone commenting on the preview/commercial for it that I noticed....and I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned it. I've never watched the show...but did notice that they will be doing a tandem on the show. Things I noticed in the 1.4 second of preview showing the tandem.. first...they are jumping through what looks like AWEFULLY thick "industrial haze"..heh. Second...watch closely...his reserve flap is open. Thirdly...as they leave the plane, the tandem (whoever it is) is "flying" as they leave the plane...arms out, legs straight. I'm yelling for 1.4 seconds, "ARCH!" heh anyways...interesting. Anyone know what DZ they did that at? -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

-------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

This was several weeks ago...but I loved the video. No sound (sorry, no music yet)....but we did an awesome rodeo jump. Giving the count in the green/blue jumpsuit (ie. the horse) is my husband...on his back with the red/black jumpsuit is myself. We are flying with 6 other people... At one point you'll see one of the people we were jumping with (a VERY experienced jumper...8000+ jumps) come up and dock with us in a sit/backflying position. and what you can't see very well was the fact that at the very end, when I give a thumbs-up sign and right before a last alti-check and wave off.....everyone we were jumping with (who previously were flying all around us) had settled into this perfect little semi-circle in front of us...so there I am, sitting up on my husband's back, and everyone was in a sit in a semi-circle... it was so cool! I felt like breaking out a book for story time. heh. anyways...sorry for the lack of sound, but happy viewing! (and congratulations to my husband on his #100! Yes, we pied him with 3 pies afterwards..hee hee.) Rodeo Jump Video -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Would do you guys see as the increased risk of flying a pen-camera inside your helmet with the recording camera in a pack inside your suit? (belly mount) That eliminates the entanglement issue (the camera is inside your helmet and the size of a sharpie pen, about)...eliminates the weight concerns with a hard opening and flying and such.... the only increased risk that I can think of is if you are more concerned with the camera than what you're doing (flying) and your altitude... What other increased risk is there to flying this type of setup? -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings