freeflyimpaired

Woo hoo. Did she take you on a Beer run? I have to be careful around her, she brings out my alcoholic tendencies. Love that crazy girl. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

Last year I recieved a bad cut on the palm of my hand that required stiches. I could use my hand with some pain to do any of the necessary emergency procedures and felt confident that I wouldn't have any problems that I couldn't handle. I made a couple of jumps the following weekend and of course I had a fast landing in which I fell forward onto my hands. Along with the excrusiating pain I ripped open the cut on my hand. I didn't jump for a few weeks after that as my hand was now worse than it was after recieving the cut. Your situation may not be the same as mine but if I could go back I would have waited a few weeks. Hope that helps with your decision. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

I can understand why. When I had 300 jumps the coolest jump I had been on was a 9 way zoo dive. At the time it was amazing, I wanted footage from every camera on the dive, I wanted to do it again on the next jump. I watch that footage now and cringe, I would definitely turn down the offer to be on that jump today and we are all lucky that we didn't hurt eachother. But at the time it blew my mind. Today, I don't really see freeflying as dying off. I see VRW pushing away some of the non competition types that originally came to Freeflying to get away from that. Here in Eloy with the locals and the tourist VRW is HUGE. I think there are currently 5 VRW teams that call Eloy home and plenty of others pass through in the fair weather months. There were 2 dozen people participating in Arsenals Mentorship Camp two weeks ago. Regarding the sub-topic of disipline skills check out the story in this tread Fate. I really enjoy the pride that Jim had in his twelve (count'em, twelve) hookups in just 166 jumps. Today you have that many docks before graduating student status. That story goes on to talk about not being able to build a 3 way. I find that entire story to be very applicable to modern "freeflying". 35-40 years ago you had to have hundreds of jumps to be on a successful RW dive, or to jump one of those dangerous square canopies. Now we are teaching that stuff to first jump students and we fully expect them to comprehend and complete the task set before them. I strongly feel that as VRW grows so will our knowledge of flying and our ability to teach it and as we get away from the mental block that says you have to be a world class freeflyer to fly VRW we'll see the learning curve of beginners get a lot steeper, just like it did with RW. At the risk of offending some, I do think that freeflying is a more difficult disipline than the others but I also believe that people think it is more difficult than it really is. Some of us are running the risk of alienating newbies from the ranks of the skilled. (I'm guilty of not giving back as much as I took when I was new.) We need to make sure that freeflying is still fun for the people that aren't able to turn points. It is my pet peeve to jump with people that aren't interested in getting better but we need to cultivate that interest in the up and comers not shoo them off with a condesending attitude that everything they do is a danger to others in the sky when they are trying to learn something new. How do we do that? "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

I'll second that. Thanks Arsenal! It will take us the rest of the summer just to implement all the stuff we learned this weekend. In just 8 jumps our team saw a huge improvement. Very exciting. Thanks again, Joe. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

Wow, looking like a good crowd already. See ya Saturday morning. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

Expecting my first Aug 19th. (ruined my plans for couchfreaks but thats a small price to pay) I'm excited about being a dad, can't wait to hold her for the first time. I don't see this changing the way I view the sport other than cutting into my skydiving budget a bit but I have no plans on quiting the sport. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

Who should I let know that I'm planning on being there? Is there any registration on Friday night or time that I would need to arrive on Saturday morning? Been kicking myself for missing the last one and can't wait for this one. See ya this weekend. Joe. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

Chili Doggin!! "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

Here is another perfect example. At our little make believe DZ you just ran off Sandy Grillet. And when Sandy leaves there goes half your DZ. I've known Sandy for years. I've never jumped with Sandy. (

- Let me preface this with "I don't know anything about running a DZ" I can see Jims point. As an individual customer if I were to travel to his DZ (which I would really like to do in the future) I would plan on making at least 12+ jumps. Lets say a tandem nets him 50 dollars and takes up two slots on the plane. One friend and I would take up the same amount of space and if we were to each net him 2 dollars per jump we would profit him 48 dollars over the course of the weekend. Not to mention we would do more for keeping the plane moving. If your not moving your losing. I can see how if your grossing the same amount over the course of the weekend it would help greatly with insurance and other cost along with giving your pilot the hours he needs to pay his bills more so than the individual tandem might. I realize that a tandem is definitely more profitable than an up jumper on a single load but they might not be more valuable. All of the "Great" Dropzones (at least by my standards) place a high value on the up jumpers and seem to reap the benefits from that. They get the cream of the crop when it comes to instructors (most instructors are up jumpers too :)) they get the word of mouth business since all the fun jumpers in the area jump at their DZ, they get the destination jumpers that have heard about how fun this DZ is. Their plane moves more often which gives them more options for larger aircraft and keeps money in your pilots pocket. Jim is a perfect example of this. Every friend of mine that has been there and dozens of people that I've met all sing praises of his DZ. I would go out of my way to jump at his DZ. The exact opposite could be said for the OP's DZ. Based on the experience of others I wouldn't go out of my way to make a jump at SD the Rockies. And that is the value of gearing your operation to up jumpers in my opinion. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

The last two posters have a good point. You're going to be kicking yourself the first time you have to turn away a 270 dollar tandem because the rest of the day is booked for up jumpers and you have to honor their reservation. If I were to see a web site or call ahead and learn that a DZ required a reservation and deposit for me to schedule a jump I would simply assume that DZ was strictly a tandem factory uninterested in upjumpers and making it difficult in an effort to disuade them from coming. I would do you the favor and not show up. Even if it was a fun DZ I would hate to meet some interesting people that I would love to jump with, only to find out that my "scheduled slot" is a solo following a tandem take it or leave it, you've already got my money. Good luck. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

How was the turn out? When its availible I'd love to see the final standings. I'm rooting for Team BLuR from work cause I'm to much of a pussy to compete. Hope everybody is having fun. Joe "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

I'll stop out for that. It would be cool it you could let me know when that is. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

Who all made it on? "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

No freefly organizer? What about Jimmy Coiner? Will he be there? "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

Lottery winner! "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

I'm sitting at work, bummed about not being able to make it out this year. Would anybody be able to give me an update on the current standings? Hope you guys are having fun! Joe. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

Sweet dude. Keep it up, one of these days I'm going to make it back out to the DZ and jump with you guys again. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

Although the Skydive Iowa crowd attends, the Des Moines Skydivers might be upset if they read that. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

My research over the past ten years at various boogies indicate that there is very little, if any, brain activity occuring at such events. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

SWEEEET!!! If I can get off of work on Saturday I'll be out there for both days but you can count on me being there on Sunday. Can't wait. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp4-FOO1dds This right here is some of the best freeflying on Youtube. Congratulations Supafly, Paul, Mick, Will and Punisher. You guys rock. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

No pie on number 100. Never saw it coming on my 1000th, and they got me good. I think its important to get someone the same day, before their next jump if possible, definitely needs to be that weekend. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

Wow, the same weekend that freeflying starts at Nationals. Bummer for me, but then again, after last year when you guys only staffed one pilot for the weekend, I don't know if I would make the trip out and sit around all day just to save another 10 dollars on a couple of jumps. Bring back the 270 and I'll consider it. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

I met Sean 2 1/2 years ago. I've crossed paths with him on 3 or 4 occasions since then. I would consider him a friend, just like I do many skydivers that I have only met a few times despite the fact that I don't know every detail of thier personal lives. That is a question you should have asked yourself before posting your original post and then having the pilot contridict you. For the 3rd time, I'm not striking down everything negative that people say, just they LIES that you are trying to tell. You didn't enjoy your experience at one of his events that fine, you won't return thats fine. THAT is your opinion and I never said anything against that but to come on here and say that he lied to people and didn't pay his pilot (who has now said he did get paid) is unexceptable behavior. That's not your opinion, that is not your personal experience that is slander and I have no respect for people like you. Do you really want to drag this out? Trying to change the subject to my relationship with Skydive Atlas is more of an attack than any of my posts, which have been based on facts. Insinuating things that weren't true is what go you into this mess and now your going to try and get out by insinuating that I'm being paid to say this. Whatever. "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."