Reginald

I've never heard of it with video included, etc. I have been to a few DZ's where they have a skills day once a month and a coach jumps with low timers either 1 on 1 or in up to 4 ways and helps teach. It is not at all DZ's and is more the exception than the rule. I'd love to hear which DZ's have this plus free video?

I’ve got to say that I’ve never really had a problem, more experienced jumpers have been wonderful at volunteering their time and money to jump with me and train me - of course some more than others. ;-) Usually the experienced jumpers jumping with me had 5 to 10 times the jumps I did (my 50 or a 100 to their 250 to 600) and there have been several people with up to 11,000 jumps that have made the time too.

Honestly though, I don’t see everyone getting the same treatment. Some get more, some less. In my case I’m at the DZ a lot, in fact every weekend from early until late. The Sr. jumpers see this and I have to believe that this is part of the reason they are willing to help. Someone that shows up once a month is not going to get the same help. There are a few people in particular and one more than the others that I want to say “Thank You” to.

And in general if you want to get to know people obey the beer rules! It not just about getting drunk (well mainly) it’s also about bonding with more Sr. jumpers…well it’s mainly about getting drunk…

Good for you! I'm almost as happy as you are!
You did take a parachute with you this time, right?

Ron

You have a good general point. At the one point in my life where I was a finely tuned machine I could notice the ill effects on my concentration and other mental skills caused by one too many cups of coffee or even a single cigarette. That is when I was a finely tuned machine…now well it’s a different story. Between my crack habit (just joking people), drinking (lot’s of FIRSTS going on), eating DZ food, and with my workouts being para-hiking (from a long landing) and drinking coffee like a demon how bad can it really be? It’s just so much chemical background noise. In fact I’m pretty sure I would not have a pulse if it weren’t for a mega dose of caffeine each morning. Maybe if I were on Airspeed or something it would be an issue but my skydiving? Trust me it’s not going to mater.
Seriously you do have a point but I just don’t think it’s an issue unless someone is way, way overdosed on caffeine.

Congrats! I got a kick out of watching you haul Ernie around a week or so ago. It's funny to see a guy with 9,000 jumps going for a tandem ride.

It will be great to have an additional TM at the DZ.

Ron

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I got my SCR on my Graduation JUMP! (20th jump) ... It was definately an experience I will never forget and I owe it all to the staff at skydive spaceland.

Yep, only in Texas do we keep this tradition alive!

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Did you learn anything from your landing and debrief of your landing?

Yep, I learned don’t waive to the camera in mid flair!
Seriously, I talked to a couple of people about it and got some input. Most of it goes back to FJC. Flair smooth and even with both hands….not just one. If I had buried that left toggle instead of waiving my hand above my head I probably would have pulled it out no problem.

I’m getting a lot of video right now - probably half of my jumps. It really helps with the learning curve. I would have never known what I did on this one if not for the video, as embarrassing as it is.

Oops thanks dkf

Okay it was a bad landing...on video... Everyone at my DZ is laughing at me so we may as well get the rest of the skydiving world in on it.

It’s not just the I screwed up the landing but I would have hit the peas dead center if only...

http://www.heyrobin.com/skydiver_bs/ron_lands.wmv

Go ahead and laugh; I did!

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***Unfortunately, trying to find people to do four way with is not easy at 71 jumps.

Because of the whole fall rate thing you may spend a day just trying to hook up. And that's if you can get the more experienced jumpers to jump with you after the first time. Face it, many of you guys with experience don't find jumping a four way that doesn't hook up until the fourth jump very exciting.

So why are you trying to get highly experienced RW guys to jump with you? Why not get a group of low timers together and start a 4 way “team”? This gives you people to practice with and gives you all a chance to improve. Yes the fall rate thing is critically important and if you are jumping with the same group of low timers each week you resolve this in short order. Then you can start working on basic 2 way skills (with cross-matched partners) and then on basic 4 way. Unless you are at a small DZ there should be no shortage of low timers to learn RW with. Why do I say all of this? Because it’s exactly what I am doing. It’s interesting that the big time RW guys at the DZ are seeing us low timers working together and have volunteered lots of time to help teach us.

Great quotes on your cutaway and reserve pillows!

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"I figured out this whole skydiving thing, its all about looking cool walking to the plane". She gave me a dirty look and told me I wasnt a "real" skydiver. Felt bad when I started laughing[:P

Funny, that tagline comes from a friend of mine who posted it after I told him about that quote. The original source is a well-respected skydiver with 4,000+ jumps. I think he qualifies as a "real" skydiver. Good you laughed at the girl, it’s a freakin’ joke man! Well, it does help to look cool walking to the airplane.

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The people getting killed during low panic turns are not the hookturners - they know how their canopy reacts to a low turn. The people getting killed are the cautious ones, the ones who would never turn below 100 feet. Then one day they get cut off at 50 feet and all they know how to do is toggle turn, so they do it. And afterwards everyone says "But he/she was such a careful, conservative jumper! Why did they toggle turn at 50 feet?" Because that's all they knew how to do.

I understand your point and I agree with the flat turn education point but let's be honest a good portion of the high jump number hook turners are the ones getting killed.

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Pah. Failing L4 twice is chicken feed! I know folk that failed it over half a dozen times!

But... they eventually got it... and you will too.
I have one friend that snuck away embarrassed to the tunnel when he failed it. That little trip helped him tremendously! When he came back he completely nailed it... along with the rest of AFF.

LOL. Hey I think you are talking about me! It wasn't so much I snuck off embarrassed as I snuck off determined because I was NOT going to fail a level again (and yes it was 6 times)! Just the expense of repeating the levels was out of control and the wind tunnel looked cheap comparatively. I mean $160 per jump over and over compared to $185 in tunnel time for 10 minutes…no comparison.

Reese, GO TO THE TUNNEL. I had the same problem, uncontrollable turns/spins and it was frustrating as all hell. Within 10 minutes in the tunnel I could do everything I needed to do to pass AFF except flips (which they won’t do in a tunnel except in a very advanced progression due to safety issues). 10 minutes of coached tunnel time will do you wonders, 30 will let you have mussel memory. Dude, JUST GO TO THE TUNNEL! From someone that has been exactly where you are I can tell you it will solve all of your problems. Just do it!

Hey Zone Rat, at least I didn't fail L7...how embarrassing. No one fails L 7! I don't think I would tell anyone about that!

Hi I'm Ron and I have a problem.

Well, let’s see. I play hooky from work to go skydiving. I’ve lied to my friends and family to go skydiving. I’ve lied to women to go skydiving. I’ve lied to my boss to go skydiving. I spend all my money skydiving. I spend inordinate amounts of time thinking about when I can go skydiving next. No, I’m not addicted.

Seriously, I’ve been thinking that skydiving has all the hallmarks of an addiction. I’ve also noticed that a lot of people involved in the sport have addictive personalities. There are a lot of former “partiers” in the mix at any DZ I’ve ever been to. How many sports or hobbies cause people to quit their jobs and do it full time! I don’t know many tennis bums but I know plenty of skydiving “cutaways”.

Oh, I forgot something. An very old timer in the business told me one time that experienced jumpers pay for the planes and students pay for the instructors. That’s probably about right.

Yes, the economics of a DZ are an interesting subject. I've thought of diving in and working on a comprehensive analysis including statistical analysis to figure price elasticity of demand, financial modeling of the effect of tandem vs. experienced jumpers on planes, instructors, overhead, etc. It’s not a little thing but I’ve done much bigger projects. The problem is getting the data! How many DZ’s will open their books and financial records in total? Not many, if any!

On a tangent I thought about building a regression model on incidents. It could explain how the number of jumps, gear, type of flying, wing loading, etc. contribute to incidents. This is actually an easy project but obtaining sufficient data is a problem.

So this is what I think about at work all day. No, I’m not hooked on skydiving!

Yes the tunnel is almost as addictive as skydiving itself. I did an hour of tunnel time in Orlando last fall during AFF after failing a few levels (well okay after failing 6 times in a row) and then rocked through all my AFF and A license stuff. I’m hitting the Perris tunnel in early May when I’m in that part of the country. I’ll do 15 minutes of coached time to get my mantis down and then 10 minutes of play time with a friend that is going out too.

I think it is the best training tool ever invented! I encourage anyone to hit the tunnel weather you are an experienced skydiver or a novice it is great!

My problem is not selling stuff to find skydiving and tunnel money it playing hooky from work to go skydiving. It’s gonna cost me my job one of these days!

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'This one time, at tunnel camp....'

LOL!

A skygod once told me that skydiving is, "all about looking cool walking to the airplane, since that is just about the only time people will see you.” Seriously, functionality is first, but it never hurts to look cool too.

Really though just about all of us look like some Evil Kinivel (sp?) wannbe in our jump suits. Most Whuffo’s think we all look silly.

We do have a great DZ with world class instructors. I've had questions about hook knives too and while there will be one on my new rig (when it comes in) I have to admit I would not know when or how to use it. I plan on asking before I carry one up though.

As a tangent to the discussion where did everyone that does carry a hook knife learn how to use it?

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Ron that is so cool, I wish I could have been there. Congrats! Drink a cold one for me .

JR, if you’re around next weekend you can drink a cold one on me. Ya know I'm beginning to wonder if the staff didn't do this because the beer dues refrigerator was running low. I can see if now, "Hmm, we're almost out of beer. Where is a low timer that we can rope into a first? Well there’s Ron he’s always good for a case.” (Just joking people)…

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Wendy looks both ways, looks at fingernails and blows on them... SCSA 136 (I think)
NSCSA 26
Wendy W.

A NIGHT SCSA! OMFG You rock!

I got my SCR yesterday. Okay, many of you outside of Texas will go, “Gee I’ve heard of that, isn’t that something they only did in the 70’s?” Well, it’s not as big a tradition as it used to be, except in Texas where it still lives large. Most of the DZ’s here keep the tradition up as it’s kind of a nice way to bring low times along in the sport and let us get a merit badge so to speak. We keep up the beer pouring ceremony where everyone that got their SCR gets a case of beer pored on them in the peas. I might be out sick that day. ;-)

Anyway, it was late on Sunday night and in spite of great weather most people had left. So I started asking some of the staff and experienced regulars if they wanted to do a fun jump and I put together a nice little 7 way. A very high time jumper lurked us and came in on the formation. Hey, we had an open slot! So the 8 way made it just great. Of course on the exit we left docked. On the next jump one of the instructors said let’s leave UNDOCKED and form in the air. Hmm, sounds a bit challenging but 3 of the 8 people in the group were on the world record in Thailand , one is on the Canadian national team and 2 others had several thousand jumps each and various honors. The seventh was a packer/rigger at the DZ with 200 jumps. And of course I had 85 jumps! We went out of the plane at a generous altitude. I found myself a little low and tried popping up, the base that was forming dropped down and we met in the middle. The rest of the group came in on que. We transitioned a couple of formations before I funneled the zipper we were trying to form. At breakoff we turned and burned, and watching the experienced skydivers track away I realized how much I need to work on my track! They all covered at least twice the distance I did and then some! When we met on the ground all I heard were cries of “BEER!” It was funny because one of the instructors, the one that suggested we leave undocked and planned the dive had told a few of the experienced jumpers it was an SCR attempt but left me out of the loop. So it was kind of a “Stealth SCR”. It was probably a good thing as if I would have known I’m sure I would have blown it! I had done a few SCR attempts before with jumpers with experience varying between minimal and reasonably experienced and the attempts were unsuccessful. With the group of jumpers on this dive I could have flailed around on my back spinning like a top (like I did in AFF) and we could have still gotten the SCR!

As a thought to those DZ’s that don’t carry on this tradition think about reinstating it. The SCR does not really mean the skydiver receiving it demonstrated too much skill in the air (although I like to think I flew well enough to be in the picture) but it is really more an honor experienced skydivers bestow on up upcoming skydivers that helps keep some of the tradition alive in the sport and makes up and coming skydivers feel like part of the family.

I want to extend my thanks to everyone that was on the jump for their kindness and for helping me get my SCR. And a special thanks to the beautiful lady that planned the “Stealth SCR”! It’s the great skydivers like these paying it forward that is part of what makes me love this sport so much. Hell, I just jumped with a good chunk of the world record team and I only have 86 jumps!

Blue Skies!

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There was a guy on the plane that was 'responsible' for making sure I got out the door safely. He spotted and gave me a whack on the should and yelled go. I just looked back at him with a 'you've got to be kidding' look.

ROTFLLAMF!!! For some reason that struck me as funny as all hell.