zhark

Yeah, you're right of course. So far they haven't kicked me too hard...I know my full-face has saved me from grevious harm on occasion..., but generally we try to play nice......i don't think we're quite hardcore ehough to get the serious head strikes!

Here is my take on AAD's. Simply put - "An AAD is there to help protect you from things you have no control over". What does it mean? It's about level of risks I tollerate. For example: I skydive...that's a risk I take. I skydive in my 4-way team...another risk I take. I skydive with someone I don't know...yes, another risk. Now, where possible I try to control the risk. When I skydive with my team, whom I trust, the risk is pretty low that I will get knocked out, but it is there! When I skydive solo, the risk is very low that I will lose altitude awareness, but it's there! When I skydive with someone I don't know, the risk is higher that something could go wrong. So, let's look at the third option. I skydive with someone I don't know....do I (a) say "I have an AAD, I'm okay", or (b) say "Let's find out how much experience this guy has, maybe do a 2-way first and see how he skydives before doing 4-way. And then, just in case, I also have my AAD". Again, an AAD is there when something beyond your control happens. I have to jump with students, because I do coaching jumps. Now, if I jump with a student who I've never seen skydive before, I will take every precaution I can. These include a helmet, and an AAD. If the student is bearing down on me at a hectic speed, I will move out of the way, but just in case, I'd like to be wearing my helmet and have an AAD. You could argue that I shouldn't be doing coaching jumps if I'm unwilling to take the risk. Well I am willing, I just prefer to have the additional safety that an AAD affords me. "Just in case". Would I go and do a 100-way, because I have an AAD? No. I would be putting myself and others at risk. Would I go do a raft jump? Possibly, but before I do that, I'd attempt to find out what can go wrong, what to expect, jump with people who have had experience before. Decide for myself whether I am willing to accept the additional risk, and then "just in case" I would do the jump with an AAD. I hope I'm making sense... Jacques

Hey Punky I have 350 jumps and guess what....I STILL have a certain amount of fear just before exit. It may not be the same type of fear, but it definately is there.... I jump in a 4-way team, and often am sitting by the door. I am usually resposible for the spot, and have to be the first one climbing out of the door and HOLD ON while the rest of the team climbs out...it scares me, because I don't want to let the team down.... SO, this is what I do, and it really helps me.... Before the jump I visualise the dive. Not just the skydive, the whole thing. In my mind I see the door open....feel the rush of cool air...I look down at the spot...signal standby to the pilot...I see myself climbing out...perfectly calm...total control...my feet KNOW where they must go....I see my team members climbing out....everyone is calm and in control....I see the exit count...we all leave together...the exit comes off perfectly....everyone is smiling...we move to the first point....grips are there...I pick them up...calm and controlled...I can see my team mates eyes...everyone is focussed and smiling....we move together like one machine...it's break off time...and we just had the skydive of our lives...! THEN, I take a DEEP BREATH, give my team a high five and go do the jump!!! After a while, the skydives become more and more like the perfect one I visualise in the plane. And the exit doesn't scare me as much anymore....because in my mind I did it 1000 times correctly, and now I climb out like I've done it 1000 times before... Hope this helps in some way! Go have a good jump! Jacques

I do a gear check when I arrive at the DZ *every* time. Then I check all my pins when I pack and put my rig down. When I put the rig on, I just briefly check the main pin is okay, especially if the rig has been moved. Before I get into the plane I feel is the flap is open. Before exit I check it again, if somehow it's open, then I ask for a pin check from whoever is sitting behind me. When I used to ask for pin checks every time, I often used to find that my flap was open during freefall. I contributed this to the people doing my pin check not knowing exactly how and where to tuck my flap in. (I have a Naro container, where the flap is most secure between covers 2 and 3-4.) Our team knows eachother's gear well, and I have no problem asking anyone in my team for a pin check. In fact we check eachother's pins on team jumps. We are a bunch of anal f*ckers and don't like anyone touching our rigs, but we pack for eachother when necessary and check eachother's gear.

Awesome... sounds like a good drill. I think we'll give this a bash next weekend. We're training on creepers on Friday, so we'll start working on it there already... Thanks for all the advice guys!

lol - unfortunately no access to wind tunnel. We're hoping to make a trip next year for a bit of team training holliday... Question, what are "stop drills"? We were wonder whether it was a good idea to do "no contact randoms" and what the merit in that would be....maybe something like E O H....? Thanks everyone for the great advice so far...you've no idea how much you're helping!!!

Aaargh - no blocks!! We like them and wish we could do them, but just not right now! We're in South Africa, so we're not going to "Nationals", but going to do the local Nationals thing here....not quite as hardcore....

Thanks for the suggestions! We will only need to do 3 point randoms. We have done occasional 4 point random jumps, but that was before we had to replace a team member who dropped out 2 weeks ago. (Hence the situation we're in now...it was our senior member, so we're not in such bad shape as we could have been!) Hopefully next week we'll do out first random jump. This weekend didn't work out too well, since one team member hurt her arm (dunno how) and it rained today. Only managed 2 jumps

Hi We're a relatively new junior team going to compete for the first time next month. I was wondering what the best drill dives for our level is. (Jump numbers 300/200/75/1000) Got some info from 4way.org and we are currently doing the following quite successfully: 1. No contact star alternating hands in centre for stability 2. No contact star /stairstep / stairstep / star /stairstep (alternating) 3. No contact star / donut / donut We then repeat the above dives taking grips. Any suggestions for building on that? Any other relatively simple drills that we can work on before taking it to randoms? We don't have a coach, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jacques

Although I understand that regular gear checks are necessary, surely it should not be mandatory to clean your cables every - say - 30 days in order to be able to cutaway your main canopy?!? I ask because I know of the rigs in question, and it was not a "hard cutaway". There was no concievable way that someone would have been able to cut this away. 4 different people tried and no-one could cut it away. Eventually 2 people tried together and then the cable came out with much grating and effort. The other rigs (5 I think) all had similar problems although not as serious (i.e. they required excessive force, but it was actually possible to perform the cutaway). Also, why only the Icons? I jump here often and cutaway many rigs to swop canopies etc. Never had a hard pull or heard about one? Is there not something different about the icon's cutaway system? Is it definately "standard size cables and cable housings from the same manufacturers, used by most major container manufacturers"? 6 months from now there will be new jumpers on the scene, none of them know about this SB. Other jumpers will never hear about the SB. DZ's will have forgotten about the SB. Are these new jumpers going to clean their cables? If they don't and end up under a mal they are not able to cutaway from?? Am I missing something here, or am I right in worrying about this? Edit to add: I know our riggers do clean the cutaway cables with paraffin, but I do not know how often or whether it is just every repack (6 months).

If at all possible, I'm trying to avoid the indidents forum . However, I don't see how it's possible to avoid (1) or (3), since night jumps will probably NEVER happen at either of my usual DZ's. As for (2), obviously the more the better, but would you say there is a "minimum"? Or would it depend on stuff like how my accuracy and landings are going there. How much I've studied the lay of the land from above and such? Or is it more complex than that? As for (4), easy to avoid. I can just use my own gear. I'm happy with it, the only reason I considered upsizing is because I'm not sure about the depth perception thing (which appears to be a problem). Good thing I'm only getting my new rig the week after, just in case I smear this one... Would student gear be more hassle than benefit? Obviously I want to jump, but I'm not going to be silly about it. I'm more than happy to sit this one out, if necessary. I'm not in a hurry to get my C license. I'd just like to get as much information as possible, so that I can make an informed decision... Thanks for all the advice so far. It's been great!

Good point. Didn't consider the emergency exit or malfunction there for a sec....

I've also done a few jumps at other DZ's 4000ft ASL. I'm not too worried about 2000ft, but in an alien enviroment (meaning night time) if my height/depth perception is off, it may make a difference. I don't know if I should expect it to be? I'm going to see if I can get a few jumps in before the night jumps at the DZ. I'll chat to both ST&A's this weekend and take it from there. My first night jump will be a 10sec delay from 6000ft where I do nothing but enjoy the view (and make sure I can see the runway lights). I can't imagine that the spot could be bad enough on such a huge DZ to land out from 6000ft. Esp. since max winds are 10kts for night jumps here. If need be, I'll even jump a student canopy, just in case i find out I'm night blind or something . Think that's overboard? Thanks for the tips eveyone

Thanks. I guess I'd better go do my homework now... I suddenly have a lot of questions for my instructors that I didn't have before....but at least I've decided that a day jump is going to happen first.

I suspect that this will be the case here too. I didn't consider this when planning the trip (it's an 8 hour drive), but I guess I'll be going up earlier now Would you say that I should rather stick to my usual canopy, rather than go bigger? I would put a few jumps on it this weekend just to familiarize myself with it before going up anyway....thoughts? Thanks for the advice guys! Anything else that I might need to think about?