Reginald

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Yup, that's the exact same one that yall will have this weekend.

Its nice, sorta cramped in the back, but so if you're bigger, don't sit in the middle. I basically ran the seatbelt through my MLW and damn near hung out of the chopper the entire way up. The pilot is very good and good about putting you where you need to be for the spot.

Definately a fun thing to jump!

WhoooHooo! Helicopters rock! I got to ride shotgun and was first out. I just kinda stepped out onto the strut and then did a forward summersault into the nothingness. Exited at 5,200 and my Protrack told me I had 12 seconds of freefall and an open canopy at 3,800. Much more fun than a hop n pop. The dead air is just too cool; it was the first time I felt like I was falling going out the door, much different than a plane!

The weather was not cooperating this weekend but maybe I’ll play hooky from work tomorrow afternoon and go again!

I agree the pilot is good; he spotted us perfectly in difficult weather.

Yep, that's how it starts. It hit me like that 6 months ago on my first tandem. I have since finished AFF got my A license and bought a $6,000 rig, jump suite, altimeter, etc.

My best advice is to start robing banks NOW!

So, is this the Allouit II (okay I know i blew the spelling). I think it is going to be in Dallas this comming weekend, although the weather is looking like crap.

So how was it?

I'm right there with you brother!

I went to Orlando
It was VERY useful as a training tool. I was a struggling AFF student (repeated L4 four times and L5 three). I spent an hour in the tunnel and became a rock star of a student.
No my DZ does not have one. I traveled form TX to FL to get to one.
It was VERY cost effective. I was paying $150 per jump for AFF jumps and having to repeat them over and over. The tunnel is not cheap per se but it is much cheaper than repeating AFF levels. Money very well spent for a struggling student.

Don't think about Houston. What makes you think it's warm there this time of year? I'm in Dallas but the weather is fairly similar. Personally, I'm traveling to Z Hills once a month because 75 and sunny is much better than 50, cloudy and windy here in Texas.

Z Hills rocks...

PS: airfare to Orlando is very cheep from most major cities.

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Yes, its extra habit forming. Scared the crap out of me at first. Still scares the crap out of me but I cant stop doing it

LOL, this is exactly how I feel!

It took me 4 tandems before I decided I wanted my own parachute.

Welcome and enjoy!

Yep, skydiving is more addictive than crack and more expensive than golf.

Six months ago I was a mild mannered businessman and now I’m a skydiving junkie. I play hooky from work to go skydiving, my personal relationships have changed, my bank account is being drained, I keep thinking about quitting my job and robing banks to support my surfing and skydiving (or did I see that in a movie?)

My DZ is getting a helicopter in a few weeks, just for a weekend. I don’t know what kind it is but it is supposedly a French made, 4 jumper model.

Since, I’m a very low timer what can I expect in terms of altitude, etc. I guess it’s more like a balloon jump than a plane jump as there will be very little forward speed?

Thoughts?

I have a minor slipped vertebrae in my neck along with what they believe is a slightly bulging disc. I have probably had it for years but until I started skydiving it never really bothered me enough to see a Dr. about it. It feels like tight muscles in my shoulder so I never thought it was anything more than a muscular problem. Both my GP and a chiropractor told me it’s okay to keep jumping but to stop if I feel anything that concerns me. I am getting chiropractic and massage therapy and have seen a noticeable improvement. I also, use a heating pad after a day's jumping to keep the muscles from tightening up. In short, I have a minor spine problem and the Dr.s say skydiving is A okay. Of course I would have opinion shopped if they said anything else.

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Did 18K loads for tandems in Hollister on Friday, and it was -27F at altitude.

Neumann makes winter-weight lined (American)football gloves that work very well; they have tackified palms making it easy to feel and grab all your handles. Don't know where you;d find them in Denmark, though. Goog luck, stay warm!

Okay, I'll stop bitching about 35f on the ground and -10f at altitude here in Dallas on Monday. Of course it is Texas and we don't like cold weather.

I wore winter weight Neumann gloves and my hands were still purple on landing. The freefall was not too bad particularly since the leather side was typically down into the wind but under canopy they just about froze up. I was hiding them behind the risers to keep them out of the wind. I think the fact that they are above your head and the blood runs out of them under canopy is one of the bigger problems. I do like the tackified palms though.

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Actually, I thought that my acting in "Cutaway" was superb. I know...I know...Keep the day job.

Okay, I gotta ask. What did you do in the movie?

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If a roulette wheel has come up 'red' 45 times in a row, yes, statistically, the chances of another red on the 46th spin are the same as before. But in theory, it will be more likely to come up 'black', because otherwise the wheel wouldn't be adhering to the law of averages of being 'fair'.

I'm no mathematician either, but this one's been bugging me quite a while...

I'm a statistician my friend. Don't quit your day job. :)

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Funny thing is all of my co-workers' first words when they saw me Monday morning was "Skydiving, huh?" - hehe. The irony......

Ouch, the irony hurts more than the injury I bet.

Get well my friend.

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"Cutaway" had some great skydiving footage, but they dumbed it down for the whuffo crowd and--I hate to say this--the acting was lame.

But I could be wrong . . . .

Hey, the film stared Dennis Rodman and one of the lesser Baldwin brothers of COURSE the acting was lame!

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immediatly I could see the headlines in The Sun : 'South African eaten by Lion in England after bizarre parachute incident'

ROTFLLAMF!!!!!!!!

don't worry about the ears. On my first jump I had the same problem, and a headache for hours. 20 jumps later I've never had the problem again.

Hmm, I calculate about a 4.6% annual growth rate. More than the population growth rate of 2.5%.

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"just watch the plane as soon as you get out till your neck hurts" best advice on exit I have rec'd. Im now stable in 2 seconds.

That I am working on. I remember seeing the plane fade away on only a few jumps. It's both a really cool visual and a good training technique. Unfortunately, it's not easy.

I gotta jump out of one of those babies!

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Good job on getting yourself out of a potientially BAD situation!

Hey, what's the worst that could have happened...oh, wait a minute - don't answer that.

Seriously, I am happy that I keep a very calm and cool head and did what I needed to do. I'm beginning to see myself take action without having to consciously think about it.

I am working toward my A license. On the sunset load we were planing on going to 13,500 to do a coaching jump. After we took off some low haze suddenly appeared and the load was converted to a pure hop n’ pop. I needed to do one for my A license requirements but was a bit nervous. I was planing on making it my last jump for my A. Oh well no time like the present, I was on an airplane with a parachute…

The instructor gave me some last minute advice (which I should have listened to a little better). I got in position and jumped. Instead of a nice 3 count I reached to pull on a short 1 count. I threw out and managed to wrap the bridle around my arm! Damn! I’m amazed I was so cool, however. I simply reached over and unwrapped it from my arm and threw it into the wind without thinking. By this point I was head down. I paid the price of not being ideally stable with about 8 line twists. Fortunately, I had a good square main above me though so I had some time to think about it. I checked my altitude and had only lost about 700ft. from exit, so I still had a little time before my cutaway decision altitude. I looked at my handles just in case. I proceeded to pull and kick the line twists out. Fortunately they came out fairly easy. I flew down and had a good landing. I find out later the instructor and a birdman that were still in the plane had a great view of my little jump and looked over at each other with wide eyes. I can only imagine that in those few seconds where I was floundering, they were thinking about how they would fill out the incident report.

Self jump review: Good aspects- stayed cool and corrected all of the problems. Bad aspects – I created all of the problems myself. I’ll put this jump into the category of a learning experience. In fact I had a WHOLE LOT of learning going on!

I got some good advice over a few beers that night – on full altitude jumps practice stable exits with a calm 3 count and a practice touche. This will help prepare me for the next real hop n’ pop.

Blue Skies,
Ron

I did some tunnel time as a struggling AFF student. Let's just say I didn't struggle with AFF after the tunnel time.

I highly recommend tunnel time for anyone wanting to build particular skills.

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getting "ridden down" to pull time by Amanda(i'm guessing she's still the only female aff I at Dallas) ain't that bad.