Jeth

Ya, I would say that's a beerable offense.

Congrats!

Quote

Humps:Jumps:Beer Owed

1:3:1?

Do you owe beer when you get a new license? I mad made my 200th jump this weekend (C license)and also hit 2 hours of freefall time. Three awesomely fun skydives!

Welcome back!
The numbers are humps: jumps: beers owed

Quote

hmmm. Ok, I got that wrong. I was somehow thinking 0-0-0 = fri, sat, sun. So I am confused- what do the numbers represent?

Weather prevented me from jumping Sat. So, I did my AFF1 & 2 on Sunday. Actually, they let go of me on AFF1, which I thought I noticed, but was not sure. In the air I was like, umm do I see what I think I see... hey thats pretty cool!

Actually now I have 2 tandems, then my original AFF1 & 2, an IAF about 1 month ago to get my head back into it after injury.

Quote

Quote

Totally my fault. Didn't get a pin check in the plane before exit and my bridle had gotten caught on something so as I was exiting a 6-way, my container was coming open. Started out as a horseshoe and ended up as a twisted up baglock over my head at 11 grand. Needless to say, that mess had to go bye-bye = first chop.

Lesson learned: GET A PIN CHECK IN THE PLANE!

Glad you were able to learn an important lesson without injury or death, but I am curious about something –

Given your jump numbers and time in the sport, it was not all that long ago that you were under the supervision of instructors and coaches.

Where did you learn that it is okay to not receive a pin check before exit?

I am curious because if they are doing their job, Instructors and Coaches should be teaching the importance of pin checks, yet, there are so many skydivers who do not get them.

So where is this learned from?
-

I did not learn that from my instructors. I was taught to always get a pin check. But I agree that many jumpers don't. I know many "old-timers" myself who never get a pin check, so I suspect that when newbies look around the plane and don't see others asking for checks, they decide they don't want to ask a stranger for one. That was the reason in my case. I was jumping with a new group and I didn't see anyone else ask, so I didn't. (Now I get one every time.)

BTW, you and I had a few discussions about this and other topics when this happened, back in September of 2005.

Totally my fault. Didn't get a pin check in the plane before exit and my bridle had gotten caught on something so as I was exiting a 6-way, my container was coming open. Started out as a horseshoe and ended up as a twisted up baglock over my head at 11 grand. Needless to say, that mess had to go bye-bye = first chop.

Lesson learned: GET A PIN CHECK IN THE PLANE!

I wear contacts and have never had a problem. Mine are the 30-day ones. I am paranoid about making sure my goggles are tight, though. They do have the air vents, and that much air is fine for my eyes. But I make sure they are on very securely before every exit. I'm sure I'd be nearly blind if they came up or off and my contacts got instantly dried out.

0 : 4 : 1

Beautiful weekend at SDC!
As far as that goes, I guess the good thing is I learned that I can land in someone's front yard.

I have never wanted to be on load 1, because I don't want to be a human wind-drift indicator. But since we were weathered out on Saturday, I went for it. Well guess what? I landed out! Sure, the winds on the ground were fine. But the uppers were HAULING ASS. The pilot had taken jump run too far south, so some of us ended up over the river and trees. I was able to get clear of the trees, but then all I had to land in was someones front yard. Fortunately for me, I made it to the front yard. For one of my friends, they weren't so lucky. She landed in the back yard, which is a very steep slope down to the river. She ended up breaking her pelvis. (Heel fast, my friend. )

Of course, right after this load they changed jump run to be due west and made an announcement to not fly east of the runway. I don't like being a human wind-drift indicator.

At least I did it safely. It sure got the adreneline going because I had a small area between trees, a road, and a flagpole to land. But I was proud of myself because I landed right where I wanted to.
After that eventful start to the day, got 3 more in with my awesome teammates. We had a blast and improved with each dive, so it was an awesome time.

Quote

Quote

Beer owed for the virgin jump on my NEW WINGS!! She's a bitch to get closed, but looks pretty damn cool and is comfy in the air

I didn't seem to have a problem closing it.

Alright Sunshine, now that's just cruel. You know I can never be as good as you!! I paid you didn't I? That means you were supposed to keep our little secret.

1 : 2 : 1

Woo-hoo!!!! FINALLY the season has started!! We had gorgeous weather in Chicago this weekend and I finally got my ass back in the air! Only got 2 jumps in cuz we were backed up with tandems and I had to leave early, but that's okay. Did a fun 3-way to get reacquainted with RW. Funneled the exit (of course) but managed to stay together.

Beer owed for the virgin jump on my NEW WINGS!! She's a bitch to get closed, but looks pretty damn cool and is comfy in the air.

Wow. I am surprised how many people are so against this. You can count me as one who is looking foward to it. Just like Matt said, there are so many things I could do on a dz's web site if they had the capability. Forums, fund jump acct, see jump log, update gear info, etc. The way I see it, if I can fund my acct in a bored moment at work on a Wednesday afternoon, that is time saved when I get to the dz on Saturday, which means I get my ass on the plane faster. I also agree that it should benefit the dz as well because the manifest girl can spend more time manifesting because she doesn't have to process that update to my acct.

I realize these benefits are more for the realDropzone software than the skydivesecure. But I do see the value in having one registration that works for multiple sites. It's kinda like when you set up a profile on Avis.com with your personal info, credit card, car preference, etc. Then when you get to the airport, you can just go right thru and pick up your car. If all your info is in your skydivesecure profile, you should see equal time savings at the dz like at Avis.

I guess I'm one of those people that loves the instant access to information that the web provides. The security and privacy issues are far outweighed by the convenience for me. Out of all the web sites my info is on, it hasn't "gotten out" yet.

My two cents.

Beth

Hey Tory, speak for yourself! Oh wait, I like Corona, too, never mind....

Seriously, I jump at SDC too and it is a great place. Come on down. Even if you don't jump there will be tons of nice people in the hangar to chat with. And don't forget the Corona to enjoy later at the bonfire.

Beth

Quote

Seriously, SDC IS THE BEST and have instructors very very willing to help you on your jump. I reccomend asking for David E who manages the TMs and he will be happy to help! I look forward to meeting you there- I'm one of the Manifest girls so I'll look for you!

-Tory

"At 13,000 feet nothing else matters."
PFRX!!!!!
Team Funnel #174, Sunshine kisspass #109
My Jump Site

Down by 2 at the half...

Hi,

Here are a few pics I took from my balcony of the Bears spirit displayed by some buildings.

Note: The temp outside was -11 when I took these... I must've really wanted to get the shot. ;-)

GO BEARS!!!!

Jump 57. A nasty horseshoe at 12 grand. I learned to have my pin checked before exit EVERY TIME. That's not a good way to learn that lesson.

You can read about it here
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1814821#1814821

Will do. Thanks guys!

Ok, bottom-top-left-right. I'll try that.

My rigger assembled the rig and shipped it to me, "ready to jump", so I assume he was satisified with the pack job. But I will ask him if he tried to shorten the loop.

Thanks.

I don't know if that's it. This one starred Burt Lancaster and Doris Day. (And Gene Hackman)

Wow, I just caught a behind-the-scenes thing on AMC about this old movie. I think it was in the 60's. It was incredible. They showed the jumpers who did all the stunt work for it. They showed their first camera helmet, it was huge! And they were even experimenting with wingsuits! They put wooden dowels in the wings, but then they were getting impaled by them on landing, ouch! They were all using the para commanders and landing with hard PLFs.

It was really neat to see that stuff and see how far the sport has come.

Well I was wondering about that (the length), but this was packed by my rigger. (He's out of town right now so I can't ask him at the moment.) But I assumed he closed it as tight as he could.
It seems pretty damn tight, I don't know if I could get it any tighter. But it sounds like I'm just going to have to try to shorten it with each pack job. I'll also try the tip on pointing it the other way. Thanks.

Thanks for the tip. There is no velcro on it, but I could tuck it in more underneath the webbing. I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks.

Well the Dolphin was actually never-jumped, but I bought it second hand. And it was definitely lower. It was overall larger (it held a 190 and now I have a 168.) It sat about halfway over my butt, whereas this one is completely above my butt. So ya, it must've had a longer MLW.

Ya, I guess I could wear the chest strap a little looser. I was always anal about having my chest strap very tight in freefall. But ya, then on opening that might be bad.

I'm just bummed. I figured this rig being custom made for me would result in more comfort, not less.

Hmmmm... okay. Bummer that nothing could be done for yours.

I think I will ask Ankie. But I don't know how they could make it lower cuz the handles are pretty much just above the hip rings.

It's amazing the difference with my old rig, though. (Dolphin) On that one, the chest strap was below the bust, so the handles were lower, and then there was still room before the hip joint. I didn't expect that much of a difference with this one.

Ya know, I was wondering the same thing. I actually posted in Gear about it. The flaps don't come together enough for the grommets to be on top of each other. (So the last grommet is off to the right, so therefore the pin sticks out the right.)

Maybe my container is too small for my main? Anyone care to comment?

Hi,

Just got my new Wings, and I noticed that the pin is not actually covered by the flap. That is because the container flaps are not joined on top of each other. (i.e. There is a gap between the left grommet and right grommet.) So the pin sticks out the left side of the flap.

Is this just because my rig is new and the main is a tight fit? On my old rig, the flaps all came together so the grommets were all on top of each other. Is the Wings just not like this? The bridle is covered, but I'd prefer it if the pin was as well.

Yes, I'm going to ask my rigger about this, but I just thought I'd put it out here in case it's a normal thing with Wings. (My rigger doesn't see many Wings at my dz.)

Thanks.

So I just got my new Wings, and it's awesome! But on this rig, the chest strap cuts right across my boobs. That is definitely not very comfortable to have them squished. And also, that means that my handles are basically tucked underneath my boobs. On my old rig, the chest strap was below my bust. I think it is higher on this rig because of the hip rings.

It looks like there isn't really any room on the MLW to move everything down, so I think I'll just have to adjust.

So are there any other women who have this problem? Do you wear a sports bra to smoosh them down, or what?

Thanks.

Woo-hoo!! I finally got it!! My beautiful new Wings!
It's purple and teal with yellow accents. (For some people the pic looked blue, but its actually purple.)




Too bad I have to wait till March to jump it.