Plaedouh

I love Steve-O for ruining his show like that! Adam Corolla is the biggest fat jerk on the planet. Adam was the co-host for MTV’s “Love Line” w/ Dr. Drew back in the 90’s. The guy is a way bigger idiot than Steve-O. At least Steve-O isn’t trying to pull a Jon Stewart by leaving MTV to become some sort of “respected TV personality”. I respect Steve-O for that. He’s not a sell-out. He isn’t trying to mass market himself. Keep it real Steve-O!!! Loveline is/was origionaly a syndicated radio show before MTv picked it up. And it's still running in a lot of markets on Thursday nights.

Sounds like a decent jump overall. You were stable, you were aware of your surroundings, you pulled, but brainlocked on what you were there to do. Good job. I have yet to meet any skydiver who had a perfect skydive. Don't get tied up in a "must do everything perfect" aspect, because while you will have great skydives that will be the highlight of your weekend, you will also have complete cluster-f**k jumps that you'll just have to learn from, laugh about, and take as an experience in itself. Don't let the bad jumps fluster you, you're going to have a lot of them, it is unavoidable and part of the learning process. One of the reasons instructors say "relax" is because you will have the greatest success in stable freefall when your body is relaxed with the wind, not tense and fighting to get into it. What you may find can help you is to rehearse the jump in your mind several times. It works well for me, it has a noticable effect on my students, and overall it can get you in the mindset to be a success. When I say rehearse, I don't mean review the checklist of things you want to do in 15 seconds, I mean take 60 seconds, close your eyes, and walk yourself through it in real time. Take a deep breath and visualize the paces... think about what you are going to do, and how you'll do it. Do it on the ground a few times, and if you have any questions or thoughts, that's a great time to grab an instructor, before you're on the plane. Then do it again a couple times on the way to altitude, take a deep breath, relax, and rehearse what you want to do, from climbout to exit to freefall to pull, to canopy, to landing. MAke it real in your mind, and then you have rehearsed enough to know what to do when you get there. You will notice a lot of jumpers will do that, even some 4-way teams, flailing their arms around like mimes on crack. You can't stop and restart a jump, so no harm in preparing yourself to do your best. And don't wory about bad jumps... sounds like you've already got good stability early on, and that is one of the hardest things to get control of.

I don't know a lot about economy, but I would think all the people overloading the stations today actually has an even more adverse effect on an already struggling market. Sort of the same way when traffic gets thick, people start driving more aggressively, cutting each other off, refusing to let mergers in, and basically making the flow of traffic even less smooth. A few dollars is a few dollars and I would fill up today if I could, but if I'm not near empty I will not go add to an already huge line of cars at the station. This time next week, gas is projected to be above $4 per gallon. Parts of western Carolinas and Georgia have already seen stations run out of gas. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/wyff/20050901/lo_wyff/2911958 It makes sense to fill up now and see if you can save some money while the market corrects itself. Look around the net, plenty of stories discussing this. But no one can predict the future, so if you want to wait and see, more power to ya.

Gas prices will be going up 30 to 50 cents over the next few days. there are projections there will be a gas shortage by mid weekend. this is all a result of the dammaged if not cripled oil processing system in the southeast. Places accustomed to ordering gas and getting deliveries in under 24 hours are being placed on 7+ day wait lists. Fill while it's cheap, and it's accessable.

This was my first time to the WFFC, and I had a blast. I'd love to go again, and probably will. I spent a lot more time bouncing from places and groups, meeting people and getting involved in whatever. Big props to the people who put that together, I felt a lot of things were done well. Hell, my favorite memory of this trip comes in the least expected way. After a good 8-way jump, I found I had tracked my way to behind the WUFFO parking and gathering area, and I was more comfortable landing back there than cutting into traffic back and perhaps landing on that big ass museum plane by the pond. So I landed in the outfield of the baseball diamond, and gathered my things, a little annoyed I landed off in plane view of the locals (but happy enough it was a clean landing). I shit you not 15 kids immeadiatly ran up to me to have me sign notepads and the shirts on their backs, and have pictures taken and answer 1,000 questions about skydiving for a good 20 minutes. I must have had 8 people thank me for landing there. I've been to my share of boogies and even done a few minor demos, but that big of a wuffo response was a first, and it was by far just the most awesome feeling to see the excitment in those kids eyes. Most memorable landing ever. So many people just loved having us there. But this thread is about feedback to improve the event, and I definatly hope we can keep it around, if not make it better. 1- Holy hell it was hot. I wonder what it costs to set up Cool Zones such as you'll see on football sidelines. 2- Everything has a price, so I can echo the idea of pro-raiting the registration fee somehow. I think it'd be great to enable people who can only make it for 2 or 3 days to still go and spend more on jumping than they do to get in the door. More jumpers makes everyone happy. 3- I don't go to boogies for the goodie bags, I go for the event. If I want a t-shirt or a cup I'll probably buy it. I can get all the pullup cords and goodies I need from the vendors. 4- Safety. You can only do so much with that at somthing this big. But why was het helicopter taking off and landing yards away from the swoop pond, in the "tandem/student landing area", while canopies were forced to land along side it, or flying over, under, or around it? 5- Bar was in a bad place, away from everything and completly uncovered when it would rain. 6- Better organization. I felt like there was a lot happening or a lot that could happen, but no way to keep up. How about 4-way competitions? Come with your own team competition, and maybe pot-luck teams are put together mixing high experience with low... could be fun and give more people a chance to join. How about a posted list of daily events, such as what time specialty planes will fly, who to look up for organizing loads, what raffles are coming up (only heard about Mirage when I was gearing up for a load, and by the time I got free chance to get out there, I'd missed it). Overall it felt like there was so much that could be done, and with some more structure and organized activities, there would be more for people to get involved in. This was a great vacation for me, and a lot of fun. I came wanting to get in some good jumping and have fun at night. I met a lot of great people to jump with, and when the sun went down we had a lot of freedom to go off the wall. I know the authorities looked the other way, literaly as they were driving through the party, while we were up to some real reckless behavior. The biggest battle ahead for the WFFC seems to be in trying to appeal to everyone, when everyone wants different things. Unfortunatly the bland middle ground won't improve things. Some want bigger bands, more social scene and more entertainment. Some want more low-key entertainment and more focus on the jumping. I think we can have both, but it'll take some creativity.

I agree... there is no need for those pictures to see the light of day.

I've done most all my instruction while I was in school in South Carolina. After I moved back home to the Boston area, I spent most of my time doing the career thing and afr less at the DZ. Well now I have more time to get back in the air, and just might hope to get more into coach/instructor roles here. Last weekend I overheard people talking about some Mass state requirment that coaches/instructors need to have before we can work with others. Could anyone fill me in a little better on what this is, and what I gotta do to get it?

if your profile is correct, I think you're a little early in your progression for an audiable. I'd rather know you were still focusing on your personal altitude awareness and not so much relying on the audiable. That said, if you're going to use the audible, I'll say your absolute minimum pull altitude (3rd alarm) should sync with the BSRs; in your case, you need to get things opening no lower that 3,000 ft. Put #2 at your target pull altitude, and #1 ar breakoff. But still, if you're worried about hitting 1,500 without realizing it, I highly encourage you to put the audiable on the shelf until you've had more time to develop a sense of altitude awareness. edited to clear up some termanology & sloppiness

That was how I learned. Great progression for the small DZ or the financially tight college student. Inspired me to get the s/l instructor raiting myself, but since I moved, it's not too easy to find DZs that teach that progression.

I've got a whole bunch of goals. Gotta find a Precision dealer around here and then put at least 200 jumps on the canopy he/she sells me. I want to put my bonus from work into all new gear, and enjoy the hell out of it. Wanna make it to the WFFC so I can finaly jump & party with all my friends there that keep making me jealous when they've gone. And I want to get back to teaching student jumpers a lot more, last year I did just enough to keep the raiting. This year's got a lot of potential.

Skydiving took a back seat over the last year as I put my energy to getting my career type things in the right direction after graduation. This year is gonna be a bit different, as I'll be jumping my ass off. Just annoyed I dodn't qctualy get the renewal form in the mail last onth...just faxed it the other day.

uspa membership expired on me

And here is my follow up... (again, names deleted because I just think it's apropriate). Other than the fact they were unable to understand that I flew on Continental Airlines, and I provided the specific flight number and departure time, I'm slightly encouraged with this response. ***** Hi Mike, Here is a response from TSA headquarters. From you information, they were able to counsel the appropriate TSA supervisor there. Hopefully there will be no more problems at Boston, thanks to you! Ed Scott Director of Government Relations -----Original Message----- From: xxx Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 12:48 PM To: Ed Scott Subject: Boston Follow up Ed, here is the follow up from Boston. Bottom line, they seem to admit they didn't do the right thing and have counseled the supervisor: xxx, our CS specialist, did a fine job investigating this. Although the passenger was unsure which airline he had been flying, we deduced from his direct knowledge of the supervisor's and a screener's name that matched another airline's checkpoint manning that he had, in fact, been denied access via TSA checkpoint. TSA BOS' Standardization Team has been directed to reinforce our policy on chutes and this supervisor has been counseled We'll keep chipping away, one airport at a time if need be!! xxx Supervisor, Screening Checkpoint Operations TSA Aviation Operations

Hey, I'm working on that hippie look. Perhaps my next step will be to have long (old-school) Crazy Ray Hair. UPDATION Immeadiatly after the incident, I emailed USPA. Ed Scott replied to me within 48 hours. He also CC me a letter he sent to a TSA Official in Washington. 48 hours later I had been contacted by a local TSA Customer Service supervisor, who had opened an investigation into all this. She contacted me a total of 3 times to be sure she had every detail right. She also appologized many, many times. I was told I would be informed regarding the results of the investigation, but have heard nothing since. She did however assure me the proper procedure here would be disgussed with all Supervisors so that this would hopefully not be an issue again. Since then I have flown with my rig again, once. No incident flying out of Boston. However, I attribute that to the fact I was walking through security at 4:30am and everyone was asleep. On the flight back, I checked my rig (call it a gut feeling), and when I entered security in Greenville, SC for my return trip, I was all but anal probed (though that redneck security guard did eyeball my hippie ass a couple times...). I can just immagine the fun I'd have had with that as a cary on (the rig, too). When I got to boston, I could tell my bag was inspected, but my rig was not removed from the nylon bag protecting my rig inside the cary on. However, I could tell they must have been facinated with my hook knife, as that had been moved to a different pocket of my cary on. Overall, I still don't trust those bastards.

Last week I attempted to fly out of Boston with my gear. Obviously that didn't work (or else I wouldn't be talking about it here, would I? ). I thought I might share my experience here, so that maybe others might learn from this. Please pardon the formatting, as this is a copied part of a letter I wrote to USPA regarding my experience. (Names removed because it's probably the appropriate thing.) *** After waiting in line for 45 minutes at security, I entered the security point. My rig and jumpsuit were packed alone in a carry on "roller-board" bag. As it passed through X-ray, it was pulled to be inspected. I identified the bag as belonging to me, and I we moved to the inspection table next to the belt. I was asked what was in the bag, I identified it as a skydiver's parachute, and told her I was a skydiving instructor. "Oh, I don't know about this." At this point TSA #2 stepped in . TSA #1 and TSA #2 discussed that they need to swab it and re-scan it. TSA #2 then asked if I was millitary, and if the rig had CO2 canisters in it. I told him I was an instructor (not millitary), and there was no CO2. "Well, we need to scan this again." TSA #2 roughly grabbed my rig and took it back to the X-Ray. 4 personell looked at the immage on the screen, and rescanned it a few times. TSA #2 returned with Supervisor X. "We're sorry sir, you can't fly with this." I asked why, and the only explination I recieved was Parachutes are not allowed on planes. I was told I can speek to the airline back at the check-in desk about the possability of checking the bag, but I cannot carry it on. TSA #2 then told me he will have to escort me out of the security area. At this point Supervisor X walked away. All this time I had in my hands my USPA card, my CYPRES card, and copies of "TSA advises Cary-Ons" from the USPA website and the "Parachutes" information from the TSA website (none of which I could get them to show interest in). As TSA #2 picked up my rig to escort me away, still out of my cary-on bag, I pointed out there may be some confusion. I said I believed the TSA allowed parachutes as cary-ons routienly, and asked if we could review the documented procedure on this. "Where did you hear this?" TSA #2 asked with an impatient attitude. I pointed out the material I had from the TSA website and the USPA website. "Oh, you read something on the internet? You shouldn't be trusting that. What might have happened once somewhere doesn't mean it will here. You should have called the airport in advance so we could have told you then this isn't allowed." TSA # began to walk away with my rig again, at wich point I gave up on getting through security and just asked we put my rig back in my carry on. "Do you really need to?" TSA #2 again asked in an annoyed tone. "I'd be more comfortable, yes. I have it there so I can keep it better protected." I placed the rig into the cary-on, and TSA #2 lead me out to the main terminal area. TSA #2 said I would need to get back in line (still about a 30 minute wait) after talking to the airline about checking a parachute, and that was that. It was approaching 3:00pm now. With the line at the Continental desk probably 15 or 20 minutes, and the still long security line, I was worried I might start pushing what time I had left. Moreso, after the rough treatment my rig got while I was standing there, and after the TSA ignored standard operating procedure, and they admitted it, I did not feel safe checking my rig, and losing control of it to further security treatment I can't predict. So I returned my rig to my car in the parking garage, and continued my trip from there. I can confidently say I maintained a polite and professional attitude during this experience. While I was unhappy with the treatment I was recieving, I realize that I would not help matters for myself or future skydivers had I lost my cool. *** Has anyone had similar bad experiences, perhaps learned something I might find usefull in the future? As of now I've been hoping to repeat this trip in a couple weeks, but after this ordeal, I'm thinking either I ship my gear for the weekend, or just have to cancel the plans.

pilot did that to me at 2,300. and the jumpers were using legit static line hookups. fortunatly it didn't come to actualy tossing anyone out, but he scared the bejesus out of my "student," and confused the hell out of me for about 5 seconds.

Hey now, don't get frustrated. It took me 13 jumps to get my first stand up, and probably 15 or 16 to get off radio. We all learn at our own pace. I was the same, fine under canopy, but it took time before i was comfortable flaring. It will come to you, just give it time. Damn, that's a big canopy you use. Biggest I ever jumped, or put students out under was Manta 288. What I can tewll you is everyone has their own flare. It is all in how the equiptment matches the particular jumper. How old the canopy is, how fast/slow they flare, how the wing loading is, it all plays a part. Just keep trying. And there is no need to stand up most of your landings. USPA used to require one good PLF to graduate to an A, and I'm annoyed they changed that. See, here's how I see it. Keep landing with a PLF until you feel you can consistently land softly enough you think you can stand it up. Don't pressure yourself to stand up. Pressure yourself to do the right thing so that you can walk away from your landings, and jump again. If you have instructors pressunting you to get off radio, they need to stop. You are the student. You are the one under that canopy, and you are the one who is a student landing. You are learning at your own pace. Don't take that for granted. You're jumping from a plane, and we all want you to be safe. And you are the best judge of how safe you are. If people do pressure you to do somthing you're not ready for, I really think you should bring that up, and tell them you are not ready yet, and ask they understand you're learning at your own pace. There are ways to work on this. Perhaps have a target master out in the landing area for you to watch, and have them visualy tell you when to flare. It would be ideal if you have the same person do this for the handful (2-5) of jumps you'll need them for, so you have consistency. There is also the option of wearing the radio, and having the instructor ask if you want falre help. "Yes" can be indicated by kicking your heels together, "No" simply by keeping your feet and knees together, preparing to land yourself. Ultimatly, yes, there comes a point where a student needs to learn to land themselves. But that point cannot be rushed. I think the target master would work well for you, especialy if it is someone who will be on top of the job. But do what you have to do, and don't let anyone push you farther than you are ready. You'll hit that point when you're confident in how you'll land. Ultimatly you will be able to land yourself. It happend for me, it can happen for you. It takes time. Just keep your priority on landing safe, and being able to walk away. PLF until you feel the stand up landing naturaly about to happen. Best of luck.

Well, I've just signed a new contract with Sprint. I did a lot of talking and researching, and in the end for me it was between Sprint (old carrier) and Verizon (new carrier). I like to travel up and down the east coast, so both coverage and nationwide plan were big for me. Verizon and Sprint seem to have the best coverage, followed by Cingulair, who has some noteable dead areas. Nextel is a step worse for coverage, and I ignored AT&T because so many people told me to. Verizon has ok customer service, it's solid from what i've seen. Sprint has ok service some days, and frustrating other days. But they are improving over the last year. Can't speak for the others, like Cingulair. Nextel is the only one without nationwide plans, and everything costs too much. My sister has Cingulair, and is content with the service. My mother has them too, and complains of frequent dropped calls. In the end I got Sprint because they had an ok price on equiptment, rates competitive with everyone else (prices just dropped $5 a month a few weeks ago)...and the biggest factor was that I discovered that I am entitled to their MVP program because of who my employer is. I save 20% a month on my bill. So one thing I highly reccomend you do is ask carriers if they have a corporate discount plan associated with your employer. Sprint has a history of really pissing me off, but seemingly they all do that to everyone now. Best of luck.

Your final answer will come from your DZO, and the Tandem master. Plenty of people here will give you their opinions, but there is no BSR that really has the definite answer. In my experience, until you get 100 jumps, AND you find yourself in a very relaxed DZ where you have a very safe and well known reputation, don't get your hopes up. I did my first tandem lurk with about 95 jumps. Never even tried to approach them, i was happy we could see eachother from a far distance. Still, looking back, that was too soon for me. If you think about it, there is sooo much involved here. First, how good a flyer will you be? Can you catch up safely with a tandem who throws out the drouge late? Are you so safe in the air that if you were to get too close, you could react fast enough to keep well clear of the drouge and bridle? Moving in, backing up, fall rate and tracking are all things you need to be proven at doing well, as well as having a good head on your shoulders. Anything can happen, but with what I have seen and done, I wouldn't anticipate you'd be ready until you are well past 100 jumps (and the agreeable DZO and Instructor stuff). A big final thought is this. That drouge is a unique piece of equiptment used in a tandem jump. If you in any way interact with it, weather or not you intend to, either during the attempted deployment, or during the tandem freefall, you can endanger not only yourself, but both tandem instructor and tandem passanger.

I second that! BTW, why is it that what is known as a storm everywhere else in the world is a "Noreaster" up there? Those people just can't stand to be like anybody else....so they make up shit like this, right?! Mike Aahhh, If only a Nor'easter was a mere snowstorm. Alas, these storms are the ones that make news for potentialy shutting down this part of the country. Here's a link if you're actualy interested to know the fun we endure year after year: http://science.howstuffworks.com/question595.htm But above and beyond that tidbit, it really is because we're special. Very, very special.

Just because you train and train and train and train and train a student not to put their foot on the step/wheel, doesn't mean that at exit time they will remember to. The student's eyes/head went straight to the ground, and there was no apparent practice deployment on exit. I'd guess this was a first jump for the student, and a typical exit (long exit pause, past 90 degrees on exit, poor body position) for 1 in every 7 first s/l jumpers. But yeah, lots went wrong. But there were fortunatly few consequences.

Damn. Lesson why we all need knives. Good to see it was a simple resolution in the end. That was driven home to me after witnessing a static line student in tow. Now I cary 1 when I'm fun jumping, 2 when I'm with a student.

I've got over 200 jumps from a Cesna. No complaints. While the ride to altitude is a bit long, it's just a comfortable space to me. I've put a handful of static line students out of an otter... there are a few ways to do it. I assume Kingair would be simmilar... most convienent on the otter is to hook the line up to the interior haindrail above the door.

It is rare to find a DZ that will do anything but welcome someone who wants to just spend time there. Well, unless that individual is a dork. But you don't seem like a dork, so you must be safe. Now if you want to become good friends with everyone, and be part of the DZ, become a packer. Get a little extra money, sure, but you will be as involved and entrenched in the scene as anyone else. And get people to hand you a beer now and then too, when you do really good.

Wow, why can't thins thread just DIE? I mean really, there's way to much attacking of one another here. Stupid Thread. DAMN YOU THREAD! YOU GO TO HELL! YOU GO TO HELL, AND YOU DIE!!! **runs away screaming** but really, maybe just lock this down or somthing before it starts spilling into other threads.