HeyRobin

Fair enough. I know that Skydive Dallas likes Corona Extra, Aggieland likes it's Shiner, Gradbury liked Good ol' workin-man Bud, Monterey Bay likes Sierra Nevada Pale Ale... But I'll get somethin' decent and surprise yas.

I thinking about visiting Skydance for the beer time this weekend. Yall have a favorite?

Later on down the line, good RW skills also make for more successful hoop dives, raft dives, lurking your friends and family when they do their tandem jumps... stuff like that. Learning basic 4-way is also kinda like learning to read and write music. You can get with other 4-way folk and quickly design a dive. Since you're all 4-way proficient, you all kinda undertand the argo and conventions. Also learning solid RW means you can eventually get invited on "Big Way" jumps at boogies and such. Finally, should you desire to video tandems, coach, jumpmaster tandem, or perform AFF instruction, good RW skills are nice to have. Good luck with it, and have fun. Robin

Whatever you decide, I hope part of the plan is to go tie streamers or something onto that pole. or better yet, remove it if you can.

hmm... could you elaborate on this? Did you need a lot of toggle input to keep flying straight when faced directly into the wind line... like on final approach? or... did you need the 80% toggle input to keep flying straight towards the landing area (possibly against some crosswinds)? I'm wondering if you may have been "crabbing" into the wind. (There might be a semantics misunderstanding of the situation happening here). If you were crabbing into the wind that's one thing... keeping one toggle at 80% input to fly straight into or with the wind is something very different... btw... this is one of those "ask your instructor" questions... so verify any thoughts you may get with them.

Good call on the canopy control course. Also, I'd recommend working on that Downsize Checklist thang (could someone post a link to that?) with your current rig before downsizing. Also. Consider jumping your current rig at Empuria until you're familiar with the area. No sense jumping a totally new wingloading with a totally new rig at a totally unfamiliar DZ if you can avoid it... and you can. Just a thought. edited to add: For that matter, you might wait and ask whomever's giving the canopy control course what they recommend.

There arent many sports around where you can still talk to those that fathered it. Cant do that with baseball or football. But we still can with Skydiving... at least for a little while. Hat's off to those that gave their all- paying the dues and making the mistakes that had to be made in order that the rest of us can have something fairly safe and incredibly cool to do on the weekends... I would imagine those old timers still among us had to say goodbye to a lot of friends along the way. That alone is worth respect. My thanks to our current pioneers as well.

You're doing some really smart things. I'm a big fan of non-docked exits. I also like the fallrate drills you've done. Great diagnostic tools, those. It's frustrating at the beginning. The trick is to allow for it. Understand that hey, it takes time. Of course you're going to funnel the exits. Of course there will be body position problems. Of course some folk'll relax once they've got on grips. That's just how it goes. Gotta pay your dues. Growin' pains. It's ok. They'll get there. It's easy to find things needing improvement. What can be tricky is keeping a tone of fun in the group throughout all these frustrations. Screw the points for now. The points will come. Forget about analyzing 15 things that could've gone better on that skydive. That won't help. It's too much too fast, and it increases frustration. You've got all season to figure that crap out. Allow the team to have fun and make their mistakes. Remember, every jump yall are pooling about 100.00-135.00 of your money together to experience a moment together in the sky. For god sakes, allow that moment to be a good one, especially when things don't go as planned. In almost every dive, amidst the miriad of mistakes, there are a few Moments of Glory. Look for 'em. They're there. The silver bullet: To reiterate what others have said, it is unkind to ask someone to fly effectively outside his/ her range. Wanna screw someone's body position for life? Ask 'em to constantly fly outside their effective range. (The light folk'll often develop a "chicken wing" and the heavy folk'll develop knees down). Don't do that to them. They deserve better. Each member should be somewhere near the middle of their range together during the dive. You must get the fallrate thing figured out. Figure it out with jumpsuits and weights. Until you got that, you'll get nothing. Good luck with it. and remember: a little laughter can be far more effective than advice after a wonderfully messed up dive!

Roger that. Will comply. Should be a few WS folk attending. Divinia, And Chef Mike are both WS. Matteo as well. John Storrie. Good luck on your bribe. It'd be pretty cool to jump in, leisurely drop your gear, grab a cup of coffee and then register.

Yes and no, I guess.

I like that. Robin, you'll be informing the others about the beer and the Rules at our next training camp, right? Of course, if I can't find some way to start consistently being part of the dive I won't have to worry about getting hurt. Aaron... I don't think you have to worry about getting hurt just yet. if our rookie OC snaps a CP turn... and you stayed in such close prox as to be able to catch his knee on your noggin'... I'll proudly buy you BOTH a beer! Also... I don't know that brains per se are as useful with the IC slot as much as good old fashioned Freefall Awareness. Setting a cool, clean, confident tone for the skydive. Feeding that confidence to the OC from the "eyes" at exit set-up on. Setting the tempo. Helping OC set angles. Actively noticing what's goin' on with the build. Intuiting when to quick-key and when to hold a key. etc. To my thinking, all that stuff takes awareness, confidence and a cool head more than "brains". That's down the road a bit. Lets get yall zipper to the wind on exit, flying quiet and neutral in the air, and executing a purposeful, sequenced breakoff and tracking first.

95%. When I don't, it's just outa laziness. I'll use any packer nearby.

I learned how to shoot tandems off a 182, how to use a WDI, and the basics of static line instruction. All in all, a pretty good weekend.

Hey, thanks everyone for all the replies! If I were to ask my rooks to land together, they'd try really hard to do it. Nawp. Not gonna ask for that yet. Maybe later in the season I can add that one in. For now all I ask is a consevative AFF textbook landing pattern. Spiraling down is verboten. Land where you want. Land safe. Head on a swivel. Try not to piss anyone off under canopy. (If ya do, and someone decisdes to chew on ya, just be humble, take it on the chin, let me know I'll take care of it). Other things I've asked for: • I asked that they all get decent at packing. They don't have to do it, but they have to learn it. (Not only does it teach you about your gear, but it makes ya feel like a "real skydiver" and that's important). We've spent a few hours on a weather days just practicing our packing. About 15 jumpers and riggers got involved last time... it was great! We learned 5 different ways to get a canopy in a bag, lol) • I have asked that they memorize the names, shapes and letters of all the randoms by heart. Know their slots. And they have. Our video debriefs are quick and to the point. I do most the talking for now. I dwell on the good stuff, and touch on a couple challenges. • Basically, I'm looking for five things on our current skydives. (Non-docked star exit): 1. Timing. 2. Presentation. 3. Angle and Prox. 4. On-level Docks 5. A sequenced* break-off and track. (All the other things commonly asked for: Cross ref, grip plans, angles, pictures, etc will be addressed as the season progresses). My goal for the next couple training days is to have them non-dock exit in the right place at the right time, with the right presentation and get together in 10 seconds or less. They don't actually dock with grips, but simply fly to the right spot, get still, and when the time comes, simply lay their hands palm up over the grip. Tricky. *(On break-off I ask for a de-arch, turn, stop, legs-out, then transition to a flat-track. The delta thing's for traking dives... and we're not doin' any of those). It's a lot to ask for. (Too much?). It'll be frustrating for a while, (we're all hungry to start launching exits and turn points) but my gut tells me the slow-go thing will pay off later. ~I'm not particularly experienced in coaching. Nor am I an accomplished 4-way tech. Many of yall are. As such I welcome any thoughts or help yall can provide. I just want to do right by the team. That said... Frozen margaritas? Tequilla maybe. Beer certainly, but margaritas? Frozen margaritas? Come on man. I'm trying to make 'em skydivers not schoolteachers...

Hey there! For the second season, I've assumed the role of "Video/Coach" for a rookie 4-way team at my DZ. This years team members range from 75 to 175 jumps. We're planning for about 100 training jumps plus TSL competition. As a team we've adopted some basic agreements on how we handle various situations. Here's a few examples: • If any single team member is uncomfortable jumping in uncertain weather conditions (i.e. winds etc) then we don't jump and we don't complain. Ever. • If there's a cuttaway, the team lands on the airport and I'm the only one that has the option of following equipment down. If nothing else, I'll shoot video of where it went. (I don't want my rooks zipping around a cuttaway main or freebag). There's more. Team day is team day. Socializing is kept at a minimum. We train rain or shine. Don't be late. etc. Anyway, I'm sure there are things I haven't considered. What are some other Team Agreements, safety based or otherwise, that have worked well for your teams?