Sky15

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  • Main Canopy Size
    135
  • AAD
    Cypres

Jump Profile

  • Home DZ
    Skydive Dallas
  • License
    D
  • License Number
    14847
  • Licensing Organization
    USPA
  • Number of Jumps
    1650
  • Years in Sport
    16
  • First Choice Discipline
    Formation Skydiving

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  • AFF
    Instructor

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  1. Landed a smaller HP canopy with broken steering line. Not much upper body strength and none left for riser flare on landing. Plus it started sorta buckling funny at about 1000 feet when I used the risers. Had no wind, hit hard enough (feet, lower back, bounced off so hard and filpped shocked I was not paralyzed or worse off than I was) I still have back pain 10 years later. Really wish I had chopped it, will be paying for it forever I guess. Although many are fine to land on risers only, obviously wasn't a good decision for me that day.
  2. Started in Cessnas, and ended up at 40 jumps at another Cessna dz that had a lot of Cessnas and flew 5 and even 6 in formation regularly. It was great. Then we had a Queen Air, sometimes a C-47 (DC 3 with big cargo door, fun!) and eventually a King Air. We did 40 ways from the King Air and C-47, and also flew the Cessnas and Queen Air or King Air in formation, very interesting. Cessnas would start out lead and King Air would fly up the middle of them timing it so it ended up lead right at time to jump, it was really neat to watch. We had some great pilots. Jumped mostly Cessnas for years, love jumping an turbines now most of the time, but the good old fun days of Cessnas and the C-47 were still the best to me. I do laugh a little at turbine babies that never really got experience spotting, all the above mentioned planes we spotted the old fashioned way. I actually feel some pity for anyone that hasn't had the pleasure of jumping a Cessna and also enjoying a small dz atmosphere.
  3. Got out at about 1900ish with an F111 chute many years back, and from 2K or so plenty of times back then as well. Trying to think since my ZP days I'm betting not lower than 2500 ft., and that hasn't been recently, the rare "hop and pop" isn't really exactly that since they pass at 4.5-5.5K, I have done several 2 ways from that altitude. I'd prefer at least 3K these days minimum for a hop and pop since I like to open 2.5 or so now, I like to make my Spectre open a little slow and comfy. Edited to add: The almost 1900ish exit was on a demo when we were next to a huge major airport and for some reason could not get clearance to go any higher.
  4. I jumped my old Raven I reserve as a main for a few years, I weighed 130-135ish without gear. Worked fine..then the zp canopies came out and I made the switch. Nothing wrong IMO with jumping one but I do think they are best lightly loaded. I remember thinking I would not have wanted a smaller one back then for landings. It's been over 12 years so I really don't remember any other details, though.
  5. If I jump and conditions get even fairly "bumpy" I end up sitting out some normally until it smooths out, as it takes out the fun and I dread the canopy ride. I would guess I would not jump if I saw a 13ish mph difference in winds/gusts for sure, possibly less than that, again watching other canopies for any bad gusts. If winds are just squirrely I might also sit out. I remember one day the tandems sat down all day and it was not even over their limit of 25/26, but it was just really squirrely winds. I personally felt that if they would not jump in that situation, why would I want to push it? I have ridden a plane down with only tandems riding down as well when it hit over my limit at the 2 min. call (hit 28). Than again, I'm a mom (makes me probably more conservative) and been in the sport a little while (16 years) so I'd like to think I learned something along the way about being safe. Plus the AFF I in me really hates to tell my students one thing and then blatantly ignore possibly unsafe conditions, I've always felt as an instructor I should set a good example, so that may also play a part. Good on you for having your limits and sticking to them, by the way.
  6. Please take to heart the advice you have received about not downsizing too fast. I have 1600 jumps, I have jumped as small as a 116 Batwing years ago (had about 1000 jumps then), upsized when I had babies and gained a little weight. I weighed about 160 then like you when I jumped the Batwing again before I upsized (and with 1100-1200 jumps) that thing was scary on a no wind landing. Jumped a 150 Spectre just fine at a weight of 135ish without gear. And I only went down to a 135 when I started jumping at a dz that tends to have 20ish winds often. I still don't jump over 25 mph, but with the 135 I come straight down at that limit. The 135 is plenty fast on no wind days even at my weight! I will get a 120 eventually when I replace it since my 135 has a lot of jumps and a newer 120 will not be much difference and of course I have the experience to manage it fine. Seriously, I am almost shocked you are already on a 170 right now, and you should not even think about downsizing to a 150 for some time IMO, and not even be thinking of the possibilty of anything smaller. Since possibly you see others always downsizing or jumping small canopies, just thought you should know there are some of us out there that don't push that aspect, and still have plenty of fun and speed on landings. I hope your reserve is plenty big.
  7. I was stationed in the Air Force in San Antonio and looked in the yellow pages and found the only dz in San Antonio and went there. As an added bonus, the did give military discounts. After my tandem (discounted to $80 from $100), my AFF program was only $600 (in 1991). But basically I went there b/c they were the only game in town, didn't even know about he discounts beforehand.
  8. Not sure of exact date without going through old log books, but it was over 10 years ago, about 11 or 12 years ago I think. It was a demo jump in the Cayman islands, and I ended up taking a bit of a delay getting stable before pulling my reserve then had a hard pull on it and needed two hands. So I got open a bit low. That was ride #4 and all with no RSL, so now that I have an RSL, it would be interesting to see the difference in the next one someday.
  9. Like you I absolutely would give it to cure my autistic daughter. And for either of my girls. I would not trade my life for anything else since I need to be here for them as long as they need me.
  10. Good job! Oh, and I did land a Batwing years ago with a broken steering line. I'm a small female and just didn't have much strength to flare with risers, and with no wind, ended up with a seemingly permanent back injury that still hurts me 10+ years later. I sure wish I had decided to make that jump cutaway #5. For different people, flaring with risers might not be the best option, it wasn't for me with not having practiced that in the air enough with that canopy and didn't know it would be that difficult for me.
  11. I lost the link and tried doing a search here for the old post with no luck. Anyone know the link to the website where you can see that 4 way where they did like 51 points?
  12. My husband. Although he's also a jumper, it's extemely rare that we are at the dz together (it's sad, but that's life with small kids) and even more rare that we are on the same load/jump. They may have my mom's # as well, if it asked for someone not living with you like some forms do, I can't remember.
  13. When did the pie at 100 jumps start? Guess I'm an old dog..but we also only did pie for 1,000 jumps (and I do remember us doing 6 pies for my husband's 6,000 jump).
  14. I will share my personal experience: After battling infertility for over a year, found out I was pregnant and stopped jumping due to general paranoia likely brought on from the infertility. And basically if I did have a m/c I didn't want to even think of the possibility that jumping might have caused it. I had made a jump while only 3 days pregnant without knowing I was pregnant obviously. On my third pregnancy (second one was an early m/c just one month before and I hadn't jumped during that short pregnancy so it did not cause the m/c) I jumped the first three months and then stopped. I knew the long layoff I had ahead of me since I had just had it not long before, and was working on keeping my AFF rating current. I was selective about who I jumped with, didn't take any big students, and only jumped in perfect wind conditions. It's hard for me to imagine jumping much longer than 3 months pregnant since I got big pretty quickly.
  15. Funny thing I just remembered when I had only 50ish jumps she surprised me and was standing by the peas when I landed, this was hours from where she lived. I remember her actually being excited about me jumping. But the only other time she has seen me jump in person was when I got married. She has watched some videos of big ways, students, etc. and at times seemed interested, asking questions and all, which is probably why I held out hope and continued to try to educate her about the sport. She must have been paying attention b/c years ago she saw a video of some very bottom end CRW I did (under 1000 foot dock and biplane) and said "isn't that a little low for doing that?" For a brief time she was even considering making a jump. So she hasn't consistently been negative to me about it, although she did always worry. I remember her calling the dz to check on me in the early days. We had a short discussion last night where I did explain her attitude of impending doom was annoying and confusing. Of course she just brought up the fact that I have kids now and also said "I love you both and just don't want something to happen to either of you..." Oh well, she's never going to change. Thanks again for all the replies. A few of you are very lucky to have such great support from your parents.