Dutchboy

If nobody has mentioned it you are probably in the middle somewhere if the DZ suits work well for you. Generally small women need tight slipery suits and big guys (> 200lbs) need loose draggy suits. I'm 6'3" and 205 lbs. Until I broke down and got a new suit RW was extremely difficult for me. I spent the whole dive trying to get up with everyone else. Now I have a loose polycotton Bev Suit with huge grips and cordura booties. First jump with that suit I turned 9 points on a 4-way. What a difference. Talk to some knowledgable, experience RW jumpers at your DZ who have jumped with you about your fall rate.

I heard about this incident. I feel for the people who knew him. I don't know anyone personally who has died in this sport, because I've only been doing this for 9 months. I can relate to watching someone else die. A few months ago we had a student die at our kung fu school. It was right in the middle of class. I was the last person to speak to him before he had a heart attack. I had never actually seen someone die before this. He had recently started at the school and was trying to turn his life around, but it was just too late for him. I can understand people who would rather die doing something they love than being killed in a random car accident. None of us knows how much time we have left on the Earth. We need to make the most of every day keeping this in mind.

I'm actually there till 9am on Friday morning, but unfortunately (?) I'm there to work and have several meetings on Thursday afternoon. Hmmm... very slight chance I could sneak in a jump before meeting clients at 2pm in the city.

My plane lands at 10am so I might have a hard time doing all three. Perhaps I can squeeze in at least two though.

I'm going to San Diego tomorrow and I'm trying to decide what to do with myself. I was thinking either: 1. Go to Perris and get some coaching from the Flyboyz 2. Go to Elsinore and do the canopy school thing 3. Go to Air Adventures and jump the boarder, but maybe jump alone. What would you do?

Hey in the software industry you will always have these sorts of last minute pushes. We did get everything done and I left after 23 hours to go home and sleep for 2.5 hours before spending 2.5 hours at the dentist having a root canal. What a day!

You ought to come out for the Easter Boogie (which I'm going to miss for a wedding). Sometime between then and May 1 we're getting a Super Otter!

What happened to the Dolphin in the container reviews? It was on the old site.

Only one problem. I don't get paid by the hour. So I'm not getting anything extra for this. Oh well, things will be much better after this week is over.

Ouch, Since it's only 7 hours away and I'm still at the office I'll probably sleep right through whatever they do to me.

Flying is way more expensive than skydiving. Getting a private pilots license takes an average of about 70 hours. You can expect to pay an instructor for 30 of these hours $30/hr. Even a small two seat plane (Cessna 150) will cost about $45-50/hr to rent so your private pilot's license is going to cost you about $4k. Guess what, you need 250 flight hours to be a comercial pilot which means you can get paid to fly other people. You might technically be able to fly other people if you aren't paid, but if you crash the insurance company probably won't cover you and you might have problems with the FAA. I don't want to discourage you from following a dream, but you should know what you are getting into. A comercial pilot's license is easily going to run you $15k. You could do it for less if you buy your own plane (figure $20k for a Cessna 150) and then sell it when you are done training and then buy something else (like a Cessna 182). Jump pilots and charter pilots don't make much. If you want to fly something that is multi-engine that requires an additional rating. You'll likely want to pick up an instrument rating as well along the way. To make the big dollars you need to get an ATP (airline transport pilot) license which requires 1500 hours. Then you can be a first officer making practically nothing for a few years till you make captain and triple your salary.

Well it is more like 19 hours now. What's really sad is that I'm mostly just making sure that somebody else gets something done. We really need this done by later this morning. All I can say is that I've earned a day of skydiving in either Perris or Elsinore after what I'll have gone through by the end of today.

Just had to bitch. I've been stuck at the office for 17 hours, and don't see an end in sight. I'll have to leave eventually since I have to go for a root canal in the morning. Wednesday I'm definitely going skydiving after all this crap!

I won't be there on Friday, but I may well be there on Wednesday.

Well since you didn't show, you'll never know. Turnout was pretty light. I suspect the forecast had alot to do with it. Saturday was great until about 3pm when it started to cloud up (ceiling at 11k). The huge majority of folks who did come are normal jumpers at Skydive Atlanta. Overall the turnout was very light at the DZ. When I left on Saturday they were only on load nine, compared to last weekend where they did 16 loads on Saturday alone. BTW, between now and May 1 we are getting a Super Otter!

Hope it will be better on April 13. I'll definitely be there to jump if it is. I'm still working on getting my brother to do a tandem.

All I can say about this is that the exit order completely depends on the wind. If there is no wind then the freeflyers should go first so they won't fall through anyone else. Belly flyers should give them a good delay before exiting (5-10 sec.). When the winds are strong the freeflyers should exit after the belly flyers because the belly flyers are more likely to get blown on top of the freeflyers because they are in the wind longer.

Froggie, know that you are not alone here. I've totally screwed up a student (and non-student) jump before. One of my friends that just got off student status had to do his IAF6 5 times. I know it's hard, but try not to push yourself to finish your student training and end up jumping when it isn't ideal.

I think you'll be happy with the Hornet. I've got 65 jumps on my Hornet 190 and still love it. If the container is sized for a F-111 150 you will have a heck of a time getting any ZP 170 in there because they pack bigger. I was told that going down one size without switching containers is OK if you have a container with soft sides like the Javelin or Dolphin. I'd probably go for the bigger container. You didn't mention what wing loading you would be at with the Hornet. I'm loading mine at about 1.24 and it is fun, but still forgiving.

Just a note on the fully articulated harnesses. One of the teams at my DZ uses fully articulated Javelins and they are always checking their reserve handles. It seems that the space between the rings is small enough that the reserve handles tend to work themselves out.

Welcome back. I'll be in Orlando in a couple of months, perhaps I'll see ya then.

We had a mal yesterday at Skydive Atlanta. It was one of our video guys, so it was all captured on video. This one was pretty wild. The canopy was fully open and flying backwards, then sideways, and then put him in a nasty spin before he chopped it. The canopy flew a long way after he chopped too. Looking at the video it appears that his packer passed the rig through one of the risers or something. You could see one of the line groups twisted around the other side. His packer felt really bad. I told him he should put that on the tandem video in place of the landing he missed.

Yesterday was beutiful as was this morning. Had a few folks out for the dropzone.com boogie. I think the forecast and the bad weather in Atlanta scared a few of them away. Tomorrow afternoon might be jumpable here.

So are you going to give us all yoga lesson at the boogie tomorrow before we jump? We can do the kung fu lesson after we jump (a few beers later).

I don't have experience with the Sabre, but have friends that have gotten pounded by this canopy. I have about 60 jumps on a Hornet 190 with an exit weight of about 235 lbs. I love this canopy. I also bought mine from Roy at Rigs-n-things. I have been so spoiled packing this thing. The color coded lines make it very easy. It always opens soft. I PRO pack and don't roll the nose, just tuck it in as they suggest. I have also psycho packed it and about half the time I pack it I get line twists. When others psycho pack for me no twists. Since I've figured out how to bag it with the PRO pack I don't bother with the psycho pack anymore, it already opens slow enough. It turns nicely and has plenty of flare power. The not-so-slippery ZP material is also STRONGER than that slippery stuff PD uses. I got this canopy brand new, custom ordered in about a month for