Andy9o8

I'm eating lunch at my desk & just read this. Thanks so much for the image.

I've been thinking exactly the same thing these past few days reading these threads. Remember the military surplus rigs we jumped as students in the 70's - all rigged up that way. Then sport rigs started using "split saddles", which were all the fashion rage back then, and are now the universal standard. Maybe the next generation of harnesses needs to look a bit more like the previous one... Clearly, these "holes" need to be designed out. Maybe..(and I'm no rigger..) full saddles...belly bands and rear horizontals...maybe a vertical running from the middle of the full saddle up to the rear horizontal....something like that...just some off-the-top ideas...... ...Riggers please chime in.... Edit: BTW, while I’m on a roll here, I’ve never much liked the design of the current generation of chest straps, either. Used to be, you’d snap the two links closed, and it was done. You could still loosen it if you wanted, but you didn't have to undo it to come out of it. Now, the links are gone, and there’s this omnipresent “misrouted chest strap” issue. I wish that could be designed-out into something more user-friendly, too. ...OK, rant over.

>Have you ever eaten anything in freefall? ============================= I've eaten a few sneakers doing RW. Actually, one was a foot in a sandal. Ew. I ate my old chest-mounted altimeter a few times on deployment. Chipped a tooth once doing that. Eaten dirt on more landings than I can count. Oh, and I've funneled and eaten shit.

I also started 30 years ago (just had my 30th first-jump birthday). Reading your story about being a newbie in the late 70's, I swear you must have downloaded my memories while I slept and posted them on here. I mean, practically word for word...wow. (Except different state & DZ) Maybe I should stop wearing my tin foil helmet to bed....

It certainly is, if that's the DZ that trained you... ...and if it's not the DZ where you did your FJC, it's still their fault for not making sure a student (you) knows how to do a PLF.

Absolutely. It makes me cringe that this guy wasn't trained in PLF's. Since gear made the switch over to square-on-square, there seems to be a cultural imperative, which too many novices fall for, that says one "must" stand-up a landing or else it's something less than a perfect landing. That's BS, of course. Landing isn't a fashion statement; and "Feet and knees together!" is not an obsolete concept. A "failed" landing is one you don't walk away from.

I respectfully disagree with 50% of that. The sky will always be there. With a mountain-ful of responsibilities that come with being a bit older, the opportunity to get that degree may not always be.

That's great! Just remember, as you go thru your student progression, the key word for any student is PATIENCE as you learn to freefall with stability. You'll have some jumps where you're very stable, and others where you'll have trouble staying stable. DON'T GET FRUSTRATED with unstable jumps and start saying to yourself "I just can't ever learn to stay stable". Yes you can, just be patient & take the time to let it all sink in. There's no magic number to how many jumps it takes you to get off student status - what's right is what's right for YOU. Edit: P.S., I agree that watching the plane as you fall away is a good way for a new freefall student to learn to stay stable. It imparts a natural arch to your spine that counteracts the tendencey to de-arch, or drop a knee, etc. Talk to your instructor about this.

Sorry, Darkwing, but I call bullshit on this. You & I are both men, and let's face it, if you have babies at home (not unusual for one's mid-to-late 20's) it's a hell of a lot easier to not have to spend 100% of your time with your young children if you're the dad than if you're the mom. Kimblair, if you quit school now, and wait until your late 20's to go back, by the time you're ready to go back you might just have a ton of responsibilities that will make it FAR tougher to go to school than now. Or, maybe you'll get a job that starts sucking up 60+ hours a week of your time. It can be incredibly hard to finish your degree once you have children and/or a full-time career. You're young, single, and responsible for nobody other than yourself NOW - but that won't last forever. Education is the magic bullet, dear. More Education = more options Less education = well, you get the picture

Yes. You just developed a nifty idea for a marketable invention, and published it in the public domain before applying for a patent. Doh!!!

Once I did, due to low clouds, and once I probably should have, for the same reason, but most of us got out at 1,700. Two novices on the plane, each with about 15 jumps, chose to ride it down. Afterwards, the butthole DZO basically mocked them for "just going on plane rides".

"Do you pull your own string?"

I like the later dusks; but this time of year, I hate it that the kids have to stand at the school bus stops in the dark. And...does it really conserve that much energy? It's not like most buildings have huge windows & skylights. Seems to me, if you're indoors during the day, especially at work, your light will be on anyway. Darkness at 7AM sucks.

First off, pardner, learn ta tawk American. If ya try sayin "Cheers, lads and lasses!" to the U.S. military, the best they'll do fer ya is give ya the pamphlet on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

The fact that you express this concern so strongly tells me that they're not going to understand. Why is the understanding of family (other than spouse; that's an exception) a prerequisite to an adult skydiving? By being codependent upon your family's approval of your choice, you are simply setting yourself up to allow them to control you. That's no way for an adult to live - your family should not have a veto on your life's choices, whether by guilt, tantrum, financial blackmail or anything else. Do not consult with them, either before or after AFF. Go out and do it. Then, if you must, present them with an accomplished fact. Make it clear you are not seeking their approval or even opinion, you are merely informing them. If they start being negative, tell them - as the 27 year old adult you are - that the conversation is over - and stick to your guns on this. It may be difficult at first, but the rewards of cutting the apron strings will last a lifetime.

Is it your middle finger? If so, you might have difficulty flipping off the vidiot. Maybe you should wait.

I agree jumpers shouldn't ever be dependent on an AAD. But I see too many long-time jumpers lump everyone who uses an AAD into the category "dependent", and that's just not accurate. Just because I wear a seatbelt in my car doesn't mean I'm dependent on it. The first fatality I ever knew personally was a jumper back in the 70's who collided with a canopy while in freefall and then was a no-pull. Chances are, an AAD probably would have saved her (assuming she wasn't already killed in the collision). Fatalities due to no-pulls have reduced greatly over the past 20 years. There's a good reason for that, and it's spelled A-A-D.

Been there, done that. Don't want to repeat the experience. However, I'd love to jump a ParaCommander again -- but definitely in a modern BOC/EP's setup. Took me long enough as it was to un-learn the old muscle memory so that I didn't pull the cutaway cable when my old memory made me want to pull the main ripcord handle.

Troll!

These are excellent posts. I got started in a college skydiving club back in the 70s, so this brings back warm memories. Just one cautionary note, if your club is in any way a school-sponsored club, or if you use any school or campus facilities: I'm pretty sure the drinking age in every state now is 21 (it was 18 in NY back in my day, suckers ), so most undergrads are too young to drink. So if you meet at a public place like a bar, make sure it's a restaurant type in which people of all ages are allowed to enter. There's always some dickhead in the college's administration or Board of Directors ready to make trouble for you if you're not careful (in public).

You were born in So. Cal., you grew up in Oz, but now you willingly live in Iowa. How can we possibly trust your judgment?

Why? Because a square is more dependent on positive input control by the jumper than a round is to acheive a safe landing. Squares also are often more sensitive to turbulence than rounds. And if you're unconscious or have injured arms under a square, and one of the brakes has fired on opening, and your physical condition prevents you from unstowing the other brake, you could wind up landing under a spinning canopy, possibly without the capability to even do a PLF. That could be bad news. A round doesn't require a flare or have brakes that need to be unstowed. Edited to add: I also agree with Jarett that a downwind landing while unconscious or disabled could be worse under a square than under a round. I prefer a square reserve's superior performance, which is why I jump one now, but round reserves gave me 2 perfectly decent landings, and I'd confidently jump one now (especially at a DZ with plenty of outs ) I'd welcome opinions from senior/master riggers with 20+ years in the sport on which reserve has more reliable openings in very unstable body positions, square or round?

And that's pretty much it right there. If I was conscious, uninjured and had just one out, I'd rather have a square reserve, for the superior accuracy and softer landing. If I had an injured leg, which would only be made worse with a harder landing, better with the square for the softer landing. If I was unconscious/dazed, or had injured arms that couldn't work the brakes, or had 2 out, I think a round reserve might be better. I think it's time for Bill Booth to design a reserve canopy that will use biometric sensors and automatically adjust its shape (square or round) to your physical condition. That would be a great patent to have.

Yes -- that putting an 11 year old child out on his first-ever skydive with no static line or IAD, no instructor exiting with him, and no AAD, amounts to negligent homicide, no matter where it happens. Might as well have dropped him off a bridge in front of a moving truck for all the g**d*** difference it makes. IMHO Every single person directly involved in that completely avoidable tragedy should have gone to jail.

Funny how having to eat & pay rent will do that to you You bet it will (probably). (By the way, congrats on your first kid. It's the best time of your life. Oh, and then you have to teach him/her how to drive.) Keep it. Unless you're replacing it with a new one, selling your rig is like shooting your dog. It will drive you more nuts if 6 months after Kiddo is born, after weeks on end of being sleep-deprived from 1am then 3am then 4am then 5am feedings, and being up to your elbows in shit (yeah, I mean that literally) you have a chance to get a couple jumps in, but you've sold Ole Betsy down the river to the orphanage. That's a nice sentiment, but there are other rigs out there for jumpers to buy; it's not like you're hoarding food instead of donating it to starving children in Canada. Quite true. Lots of new parents take time off. I did. Nothing dishonorable in that. Um, it's an inanimate object. It doesn't suffer. In my case I took so long off that my old rig had been donated to the Smithsonian. But if your rig's only about 10 years old, it will probably still be jumpable. It's a great thing to have jumpable gear at the ready when you're ready to return. I agreee with those who say keep the rig, sell the Cypres.