TALONSKY

When I was 21 I made the huge mistake of sleeping with my boss's wife and he found out. I quite that job but years later I was interviewing a another company and he walks up and says hi. The interview went right into how I knew him and all other question were then about working under him. At the end of the interview I figured the only chance of getting the job was to tell the interviewer the truth (and explain my old boss may not give me a shinning recommendation). I actually was offered the job later but turned it down.

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I dated a women that had it for a while, it is my understanding that the outbreaks occur only in the exact spot that they got infected on and generally it is spread by skin on skin contact while the person has an outbreak. So her’s was outside the vagina and just below the clitoris, she infected her ex-husband because they had protect sex (the condom does not protect the skin around it) while she had an outbreak. I never got infected.

I know that Strong and Sigma have a max weight limit of 500 LBS, so what manufacturer out there has a different weight limit ? Your right that a fit 270 person is safer to take than a overweight 270 lbs person, however weight is weight and you still have to stay under the manufacturers weight limit.(I am not aware of any manufacturer out there that has a special provision if the person is fit it is OK to exceed the 500LBS

It is possible (but not very likely) but it would be better if he lost weight. Tandems have a total weight limit of 500 LBS which includes a 55 LBS pack so the instructor would have to be under 175 LBS. I believe there are some places that will do AFF solo for heavy students, but there are not too many. Most containers are only rated for 250 LBS total weight. Kirk

IMHO, If you have to question more than once if it is landable or not it is time to get rid of it. Mals generally will not get better but worse as flight time cotinues. Kirk

I have talked to quite a few AFF solo students after their first jump and when asked what they thought of skydiving, most responded that they thought they could have done better. After taking over 700 tandem students most of their response on the ground is jumping up and down and saying that is the best thing they have ever done (oh yeah, the permagrin too)

I will go against the general opinion on this thread and suggest that a tandem is the way to go. When doing a tandem you have the time to really just enjoy the feeling and not worry about anything. We will instruct you on freefall body position, canopy control, and landings but in the end you only really need to do two things to make a successful tandem skydive (say "yes" when asked if you are ready to skydive and pick your feet up when landing). The other things a good instructor can fix. AFF is the first jump to get your license to skydive and as such you have a curriculum in freefall. While during the first jump the preformance critiria is not overwhelming it still is a jump where you have to concentrate on the curriculum instead of just kicking back and enjoying the feeling of freefall. Kirk

Anytime you combined wingsuit flying and high performance canopies it may end in a cut away. Having said that, I know a jumper (dploy on here) that has jumped a Katana with wingsuit for over 100 jumps without a cutaway loaded I believe somewhere around 2 to 1. Personally, I jump a VX 109 loaded at 2.1 to 1 with a wingsuit and in over 60 jumps have not had a cutaway yet (but I do know it is very likely sooner or later) Kirk

SIGMA system is in my humble opinion the best. The student harness is extremely comfortable.

When I have a heavy student that complains, I explain that they can try to move the leg straps more out to the thigh area (by shifting the weight to one leg and taking there arms and pushing the leg strap down). When I have a heavy student I will take the time on the ground to explain this. In the air I do not make any excuses for it if they are uncomfortable (I just do the above) and ignore any other comments. I would caution any instructor from using the words “I am sorry “ in any context other than if you are not going to take them skydiving, as it implies that you did something wrong. It could also be taken out of context in a lawsuit too. I also would caution too much against explaining that the harness has limitations as this may imply as an instructor you should not have taken them. Kirk

I did come across this problem on mine awhile back. I started accessing the function through the menu structor on the lcd screen. At this moment my button has started working again. Kirk

My bad, I agree totally about not having a lurker.

The original post and my post are about a person who is part of a formation that went low and did not make it to the formation. There was nothing in either post about a lurker. Kirk

The general rule of thumb that I use is if you go low move off to the side off the formation (keeping them in sight by turning side ways and turning your head to the side to watch them) and try until break off to make it back into the formation. When skydiving in a group and one does not make it to the formation upon break off all should keep their eyes peeled looking where the jumper might be. The jumper that did not make it to the formation should always keep the formation if view so they know where to go at break off for clear air space.