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Hi all, Sorry all for posting here, I know I only new and stuff. But I figured this site will be the only thing keeping me from going crazy from not being able to jump. Pretty much I was riding to work and then pulled into a car park area. I saw a car coming from a side 'road' in the car park to my left. So I put on my breaks slightly to see what she was going to do. At the T intersection she stopped, so I took my hands off the breaks and kept going. Of course she stopped, but didn’t even bother to look and T boned me. Fortunately she only travelled 5 meters or so and I was only going car park speed so it was only low impact but her car was on top of my bike and hence my leg got a few grazes and my fibula was broken. Fortunately it was a cute nurse that did the scrubbing of the wounds and needle and stuff. Also the doctor said that it was a bone that even left alone and nothing done would heal well. But my very prompt reply of, "how long till I can skydive next?" was answered with 3 months or so. My bike a Kawasaki ZZR-250 is a little worst for wear and probably is a write off. Thank god for safety gear else I might have been a write off. Will be buying proper bike boots as soon as I am able to return to the bike. Also it was on the way to work so it is covered by workers compo and she is fully insured. Ironically my skydiving A license should be in the mail as we speak, and I cannot use it. Also it means all my xmas jumping will have to wait for another day. I plan to save as much as I can, during these 3 months and then jump a heap when I return. Thank god the weather is sucking at the moment.

More money = More skydiving More skydiving = better than sex IMHO

My closet is full of daggy jeans and Tshirts and skydiving shirts are slowly making their mark. I ride motorbikes so leather jackets and pants with kevlar also take up a bit of room. I then have my winter clothes for going to the snow (yes we have snow in australia), and then climbing equipment, blades, iceskates, camping gear (for staying at the dz). Pretty much my weekend clothes have always been jeans and a tshirt, sometimes a good shirt but comfy. My work clothes are typical business attire. I used to wear clothes with no logos and plain colors, but i have found I wear more colorful clothes now. Yay for me. Mind you i dont count myself as a skydiver yet, i am someone who skydives.

Since I have only 27 jumps at the moment I have everything ahead of me. In the next 6 months I would like to: 1. learn to fly stable (do 50-100 jumps) 2. learn to land safe (do 10-20 crew jumps) 3. learn to fly with others (get my b license) 4. attend heaps of DZs and learn my butt off 5. buy my own gear In the next few years I would like: 1. 300+ jumps by herc boogie 2. learn to do RW 3. learn to do CREW 4. Get a packers ticket 5. Get signed off on big ways, night jumps, target assistant, beach jumps, demos etc.. Pretty much anything i can learn or do I want to have a go at it. But I am in no rush, but wish it would hurry the hell up. Damn those week days.

Hej Jasmin, thanks for the heads up. I was hoping to make my way to picton for new years, even been looking at tents for this reason (but found one to borrow). I only got 27 jumps so wing suits ain't for me, but I will definately enjoy going out by myself and getting the extra 20sec of ff. Btw fyi I actually live in Canberra. My plan for the xmas period is. 18-19th Dec - Nowra Xmas party (beach is awsome) 23rd Dec (or so) - Ramblers 30-31st Dec - Picton Just have to do conversion to the club 190 rig so i can borrow it. *grin*

I have heard a number of funny stories about jumping from blackhawks. I would love to jump from one eventually. But the one that I can remember is the load organiser asked the pilot to be told 6minutes, 3min, and 1min from jump time. They are gearing up on the ground before boarding the pilot approaches the jumpers and calls 6 min. Confused look on the face of the jumpers as it was like a 14000 feet jump.

Come jump the beach , swoop the water, have a bbq and a good time. Skydive Nowra will host their xmas bash at Jarvis Bay on the 18th and 19th of December. If you are like myself and do not have a C license (demo 'd' available on the day) you can always jump at the airfield not far from the beach.

I will post in this thread when I hear about event at Nowra that may interest fellow Aussies. They appear to be starting to get more organised and are organising in advance weekends which have crew, beach jumps, instructor ratings, packing etc.. I just like to clarify that I am only a regular jumper there and if you would like to know more about a specific even contact them by phone, or else join the yahoo group and send an email. Please if anyone hears of events in surounding areas that may interest a newbie like myself please let me know. Website - http://www.skydivenowra.com Yahoo Group - http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/skydive_nowra/

I am also looking at buying an audible alti soon and hence would like to get as many responses as possible. The advantages I see with the neptune is the easly upgrade, no extra cables, waterproof, canopy mode, can also be used as a wrist alti. The only disadvantage I have heard is how soft the beep is, as alti-2 is concerned about hurting peoples ears. Can anyone confirm if the beeps are too soft, also has anyone got it heaps wet or found any of these "advantages" are not quite so good. Btw you may also (if you have not already) want to check out the reviews of the neptune on dz.com. http://www.dropzone.com/gear/Detailed/425.html

If I was not skydiving I would buy a heap of shirts from here. Most of the gags wont be funny unless you are a geek but I like them. "got root?" "cd /pub; more beer" "no I will not fix your computers" "han shot first" etc.. http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/ Heaps of different skydiving shirts but I am suprised there are not better shirts around. http://www.paragear.com/frame.asp?main=shipping.asp "so you want to learn to base jump?" and then xrays of a basejump gone bad. http://www.totalcontrol.com.au/product-details.asp?iTopCatID=60&iCatID=89 What T-shirt have you seen advertising a dropzone. I saw a nice one saying "what and you would rather be working" or something silly like that, with a picture of a skydiver. I gotta say I do want one. Mind you I wear my skydive nowra shirt with pride even if it does not have any one liners. Mind you I refused to buy any skydive clothing before I got my license, i didnt think i deserved it.

Canberra to nowra. 3 hours if i dont stop. 3 and a half if i get breakfast and fuel and stuff. Of course if i do the dirt track it can take 2 and a half, but of course i would use a rental car for this. Mind you it is one of the most fun bike rides i have been on going up and down kangaroo valley. 210km one way. Normally 420+ km per weekend. My bike is clocking up the milage but I did buy it for the sole reason so i had a way to get to the dropzone.

Just have to say that a minor is a minor, and laws are laws. If the father is not interested in signing a consent form then I would wait for 3 weeks. I have seen police take these cases really seriously in the past (in australia) and it is not worth the hastle. I mean the cases I have heard about have been a little bit different but I am talking about kidnapping charges being discussed and stuff. I would suggest contacting the police, customs, border control or whoever the authority is and ask them. Mind you i think the saturday has past so what did you end up doing?

0:3:0 1 kick ass machine gun fellatio concert on Thursday. 1 Hope and pop, 1 funjump form 10000, and 1 bad attempt at stage 2 brels.

Sorry if this link has already been posted but below is a link to a video where is he freefalling with no chute. You wont see me doing that, ever. And just to clarify he has got a minder and is holding a chute the whole way down. http://galleries.markscash.com/bookmark/videos/freefall.wmv And just to make sure I do the right thing i originally saw this link on http://www.milkandcookies.com/keywords/skydiving/

These statistics don't suprise me. Out of the friends I have got into skydiving 1 has not jumped again due to money, one broke his arm on a landing so I dont know if he will go back, one is waiting for broken arm to return. My friend jumping this weekend probably will only do it once because its a tick in the box and I have another friend that probably wont have time/money but wants to do aff stage 1. This is probably meaningless but hey. I also think that the clickyness of dropzones can be a factor why people dont continue. I was fortunate I did mine with a skydiver and hence ppl talked to me. But I can see some people not continuing for this factor. Hence why I make a concious effort to pay attention to aff and tandems standing alone etc.. my 2 cents

Thanks for your reply to my posts. I definately agree with the seize the moment approach. My thought was mainly if you do not do it properly then people might think back on their handglide/skydive badly. I mean the photo/video is the only thing they have to remember and if it fades, takes forever, is really dark, way too expensive , too short, barely has you in frame, it can leave a sour taste in the mouth. It has been a long time since i have looked at printers and printing photos at any quality near that produced from the local camera store . And hence why I figured if you print it there it will give you a greater markup. But if you are out in the middle of no where then this may not work out, sorry i will stop rambling now. Again it depends what your business model is, typical customers you have and what you want to get out of it. I am definately learning from this thread, thanks all.

Basically its late so i can not be bothered to take screenshots but if you go to the below link there is a video where a static liner has a "ball of shit" type problem. Should help your whuffo friend know what you are talking about. http://www.headdown.net/movies.cgi?id=80

In Canberra (au) it has been raining a little here and there over the past few days, but today it was kinda sunny. Don't know I do not have windows at work.

Just keep in mind there are large distances to travel in australia. So if you are spending your time in Queensland it might be hard to get a jump or two in at nagambie unless you are visiting melbourne. And same for picton or nowra unless you are visiting sydney. Sorry for telling you to suck eggs, but I have had relatives who have asked to go for a day trip to see the opera house when I was living in Queensland. I hopefully will have my b license by then so I am up for a jump. Just say where you will be, if you go to nowra, nagambie or picton. Btw Picton, Nagambie and Ramblers all go to 14000 feet, which I believe is a little higher than your local.

Sorry just a side point. I have not heard many people addressing the "stills" side of this question. Again I am very inexperienced in this area, but like always will throw in a few of my brain farts. I would personally not try to print out photos for sale as the photo shop down the road has a printer worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and you can pay a pittence per shot. Are you planning on using an SLR or a digital camera, or ekkk grabbing from video. Have you thought of how this operation is going to work. Are you going to try to do as much as you can on the spot or do after and post to the client. Could you possibly develop negatives and ask if they also want to put it on CD, shops seem to do a great job now days and this way you dont have to learn photoshop etc.. Again taking photos is one thing, making them ready for print is another skillset in itself. I envy those who do it all, and do it well. How do most people do this? Btw I know if have said some things in this thread that might create flames, please send to my PM and not mess up this thread where possible.

First off you are full of BS to say "period" in terms of OSX and viruses. It does take alot of searching to find ANY virus that attacks macintosh, but there are viruses out there. Yes the macintosh is fairly safe from most expoits and viruses (if patched regularly). Gene Spafford uses macintosh for this reason. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/0,2000061744,39164062,00.htm Do find it amusing how mac people are now praising BSD and so forth when they used to bitch about it. But I have to say apple have done a wonderful job of using a very stable operating system and making it both user friendly and functional. You do have to find new friends to aquire your software and sometimes it is more expensive but it is normally easy to install and easy to use. Also you can use software like virtual pc so if you have manifest software that only runs on windows perhaps it might be able to run on your mac. Depending on what you are after you can do some basic video editing on your camera (depending on camera also) and then press play on the camera and record on the video. This works for some jobs but not for others. But it is a way to start out. If this is your first purchase for video editing I would suggest asking other people at the dropzone what they do, and to show you their laptop and watch them do a job or two to see if it is the kinda thing for you. A bad video can leave long impressions on a first time jumper so I would personally do it properly or not do it at all. Also if you have to spend an extra 30min - hour after each handglide/jump is this time you could make more money in the air. In this case you might be better off getting someone who is a camera person already and getting a cut out of what he makes. I have to say that I have only done a small number of jumps and have no experience doing camera work. I have had experence with avid, m100, premier, finalcut pro just to name a few systems (mind you i would still call myself a novice). With both mac and pc platforms and the product at the end is very similar they are just different ways of achieving it. As mentioned before, if you already have a system then try to use that to start with. If you are going to do all the editing at home then possibly a cheaper desktop might be an option. Mind you video is just fun to have when you jump with friends, do RW or do something different, i know for this reason alone i will try to get kitted up as soon as I get enough jumps (and money). Either way have fun and please let me/us know how you go. Sorry for telling anyone how to suck eggs, the long post, and if any of the above has been discussed to death before.

bob, i wake up 4-5 am to travel from canberra to nowra every weekend. That is if i dont travel the nite before and crash. Of course so i can get the first load (normally around 8am). Makes a long day if i ride back to canberra again that night. 4:30am through to 10pm just for a jump or more, and 6 hours on a bike.

Ya really should specify what the three numbers are for, else us newbies might post it wrong . Took me a while to find out. 0:4:0 Jumps - Basically did 4 hop and pops from 4000 to improve my exits and also play with my canopy. Did riser turns, stall recovery, different landing patterns and pretty much had a blast under canopy. Love hijacking tandom loads Beer - Should be one beer owed for finishing my accuracy, and hence earning my A license. But small dropzone and no one going out for beers after i got away with it.

Damn you will only just miss the funny farm boogie in Moruya (NSW). http://www.funnyfarm.com.au/moruya.html I have not jumped much, and only at Skydive Nowra (NSW) (which is a good small dropzone). Since I go to a small dropzone some of the locals travel alot and I have heard many good things about Picton (NSW), Nagambie (VIC), Ramblers (QLD). Since I am only starting out I will also be following this thread closely. Also there is a complete (?) list of Australian dropzones at the Australian Parachute Federation website. http://www.apf.asn.au/ Nowra - http://www.skydivenowra.com/ Picton - http://www.sydneyskydivers.com.au/ Nagambie - http://www.skydivenagambie.com/ Ramblers - http://www.ramblers.com.au/