craig_b

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Gear

  • Main Canopy Size
    190
  • Reserve Canopy Size
    210
  • AAD
    Cypres

Jump Profile

  • Home DZ
    Perris, CA
  • License
    B
  • License Number
    28330
  • Licensing Organization
    USPA
  • Number of Jumps
    318
  • Years in Sport
    3
  • First Choice Discipline
    Formation Skydiving
  • First Choice Discipline Jump Total
    286
  1. with all due respect, that doesn't solve anything for the hapless jumpers who do turn because they panic. If someone makes a low turn on account of panic, what makes you think they will immediately become calm and clear-headed enough to correct the situation using information they have read here? "Superior pilots use their superior judgement to avoid having to use their superior skills." Or - solve the problem at 500ft, not 25 ft. I'm in the low jump numbers and try and read, talk and listen to everyone I can. I think of this situation a lot and realize I need to practice high quite a bit. But to discard this type of thread because we wont be thinking clearly in a panic situation is all right. What I hope for is that for a clear second I will remember that someone said "pull down on the other toggle". I understand that and will probably remember it. I'm a conservative skydiver anyway but I wonder when someone is going to hook turn down on me and all of a sudden there they are. I hope to be alert, cautious and still seeing all at jump 2000. This is a good site. We do learn and we do remember. Thanks to all that feed us and challenge us. _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.
  2. I see alot of conversation with some good some bad as usual. I think that all of us need to remember one important thing about any skydive..... who is responsible for it? The jumper. I commend you for asking the questions and with your knowledge from being a pilot some of it you can actually judge. Some of the best advice comes from those with the good experience (not me at 52 jumps, look for the bigger numbers!) and they brought up the good points. Is the DZ an USPA Group member? Is the school a group member also? I am like you I tend to analyze things..... but the best advise after you decide is "shut up and jump". The most common phrase heard by a newbie. Have Fun and Blue Skies!! _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.
  3. If you are still at terminal at 350 ft. you never did have a canopy out so chopping isn't in the picture. And having only 1.75 seconds to impact isn't enough to even think "damn, this is NOT good". _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.
  4. I finally found out this past Saturday what the "wind" is and how it is my best friend. I was in a 2-way camp at Perris and those first exits are something else when you first learn about "the hill" and that we must fly it. I was on the inside and my partner was the floater. My partner that day, who has about 2300 jumps, told me a secret..... (this is one that you go duh! on)..... when we are flying belly down the air supports us in flight as we push against it.... well... when we exit and present to the relative wind THAT is the same thing and we can fly it the same way we do belly to earth. We do have to fight for it but once you feel it the whole exit becomes the beginning of a skydive. Hang in there and it will come to you.... have fun with the wind. My heart use to jump into my throat with every exit.... the diving exit was so easy but that one heading into the relative was a tumble every time. Come out presenting and ready to fly it but stay parallel to the wing as long as you possibly can. Have fun..... Blue Skies! _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.
  5. Let's see..... I started at the age of 54. So, I figure when the body gives out, I'll come in right on time. Smiling of course. I figure I'm about half way there. _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.
  6. Once again, being a true newbie here agree completely with this. I had a short but important conversation with my "mentor", one who does have over 2000 jumps, 10 years experience and was the one that I watched that got me interested in this sport. This short conversation revovled around stand-up vs "butt slide". She literally chewed me up. Yes, she will do a slide and said THAT IS COMPLETELY WRONG TO DO and I had better learn PLF and stand up real good. She admitted to her learning errors, passed along her experience and told me to never ever butt slide again. I have not butt slid in since then. I hope this does give the experienced ones here the optimisim that some of us are listening and learning with each word you say. Thank you for ALL the input. _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.
  7. I'm not a pilot and you may already know of the web site but www.diverdriver.com has some good pilot information for all kinds of aircraft including twin otters. Hope this helps you. _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.
  8. I did my packing class..... first jump was great, good opening.... next 5 were ALL line twists.... had an 8 wrap and said no more! I had a packer do them at that point. I mix my packing with packers now and am still getting pointers on the nuances of packing. We need to pack our own and get on with it. _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.
  9. Tim McGraw..... "Live Like You Were Dying" but I switch to native american indian chants with great orchestration mixed in. _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.
  10. Excellent point for wind and our experience with cross wind landings! On the another point, all one has to do to understand the real point behind this entire thread is to watch a Big Way come in for landing at Perris. We better learn excellent accuracy and heads up landings. _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.
  11. I'm right there with you. The money, the pressure and bad, bad decisions as students. But I think what the experienced are saying is absolutely a must eventually. Maybe instead of the student jumps being just freefall and very, very little canopy teaching we could get both on each jump? I know it is asking a lot for a student to remember and do but I always felt the jump was four parts anyway. Exit, freefall, canopy and landing. If we could get freefall AND canopy on the same jump I think we just might get a lot more out of it. I had to practice on my own every time under canopy and landing. I think the only comment that was made on a landing was...... "you like downwind landings?". I had to figure a better way to detect wind on the ground from 1500 or so.... shadows, small movement, etc. all on my own... with the help of a few friends after the jump day was over. _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.
  12. A last note. Point very well taken. I have thought of this many times and in looking at the incident reports, which I do to remind me, I don't see deaths in freefall. I do see.... "under spiraling canopy", "impact with light pole", "collision under canopy", "failure to pull", "hard impact after low level turn", "collision on landing" etc. Our canopy is the only element truly between us and the ground so it should be of primary concern to have the best canopy piloting and landing skills that we possibly can. Thank you again. _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.
  13. I try not to climb into the aircraft unsupervised whenever possible. I was very fortunate to have a friend that introduced me to the sport to insist on coaching after student status. I have a few very experienced skydivers that jump with me to help on freefall skills. At my level solo jumps are, in my opinion, almost worthless if not detrimental because you can develope bad habits without realizing it. As for being stable and pulling at the correct altitude that is not a problem. I am stable and aware. After the pull and under canopy I do well, at least I think I do because I have no one else around to judge that. This is the area I want more instruction. So item #1 will be getting your book and self ground school. We just had a new course open up at my DZ that goes from packing to landing. This is my very next endeavour, to have someone with me or watching my manuevers on set-up, approach and landing. In an overall opinion of the requirements you suggest, I think they are excellent. Our instructor's will need to improve their teaching skills to handle the accuracy landing with stand-ups. If the teaching is good then we the students should have no fear or pressure that some others speak of. We have fear or pressure because we don't fully understand and comprehend the fine techniques involved. ie we haven't been sufficiently taught at that point. Since my B license is within sight, every jump is now a determined accuracy jump for the 10 meter circle. I make the best of the freefall for fun but when I drop into the saddle it is concentration, awareness and performing the job the best I can. I expect with the new coaching available to me that in about 15 jumps I can get the accuracy signed off. Even 10 meters though seems a bit loose when I see 30 or 40 coming in for a landing off of a formation dive. The Big Ways are impressive to me in the coordination, precision and knowledge in the landing. So I too will be constantly improving to the "postage stamp" standup landing. With good instruction, tighter landing areas will not be "harder" or create more "pressure", it will just make us better skydivers. Thank you to all the experienced skydivers that give us the input we need so very much. _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.
  14. I'm newly A Licensed and must agree with the accuracy... we are fortunate to come close to anything. At 40 jumps I still will land either in the student area or off the main landing area because I don't have the fine control for accuracy yet, don't have the experience for an emergency manuever at extremely low altitude and may get rattled with a hot rod doing a 270 right in front of me. I agree that we can and do present a hazard to ourselves and others around us. I personally am having coaching at present in freefall and will be taking a canopy piloting course very soon. I do think that a course in canoping piloting should be mandatory, maybe for B License? I know just getting use to a new canopy is quite the challenge when you are just off student status. Well, that's input from the newbie. I look for all avenues to become better and safer. _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.
  15. I've always liked your input Grant and you are right on the money with this one. I'm at 40 jumps, recently A Licensed off student and the term that was engrained in my head was that the canopy had to be "controllable". That didn't mean that it didn't have a malfunction in process, if you can clear the mal in time don't cut away. As a student I was taught to pull at the correct altitude (for a student) and as you say check it out for any malfunction. Some are absolute immediate cut aways under student status no matter what but most require evaluation, quickly and effectively. The other thing I was taught is to pull, decide, cut away if needed rapidly so you DON'T have an ADD fire and end up with two out. Great respect for that scenerio was once again engrained into my mind. Thank you for your great input and thank you for this topic. Blue Skies! _________________________________________ once you've experienced flight, you forever walk the ground with your head pointed skyward. There you've been and there you long to return.