anewempire

i didn't realize we were going to get as far away as we did. 2 people made it back but me and other guy just barely didn't. we thought we would be fine so thats why we stuck with him. plan the jump; jump the plan

the other day we did a tracking dive and got pretty far away from the airport. we got dumped about 1/2 mile passed our spot so we could work our way back but the guy leading it accidently went the opposite way and we ended up probably 3 miles away before we pulled. i think all of us but the leader knew we were going the wrong way. only 3 of us stuck with him. it was a sick track though. the leader was completely flat on his back and has around 1000 jumps and i was sure doing my work to keep up. fun times. some people barely made it back and others, including me, didn't. i ended up landing in a cow field where i just barely missed a wire which is really scary to think about. i land in the middle of this huge field and when the parachute falls over my head it never hits the ground and i realize its because its on some random wire in the middle of the field. that could have been real bad. plus right when i finally got my parachute off of it a bull led a pack of other cows after me and that was seriously extremely scary. i was running as fast as i could and thankfully they never picked up more speed than i was running. so lesson of the day... if you're going to track too far from the airport know a safe animal friendly field to land in that doesn't have random wires in it

i was in tampa over christmas and i brought all my skydiving gear to jump at z-hills accept the one thing i couldn't rent in order for me to jump... my logbook

it freaked my mom out at first. i rode dirt bikes for a couple years and broke quite a few bones so my mom knows how i am. when i started skydiving i took her out to watch me jump and ever since then she's been fine. i'm sure she doesn't like it but she knows that these type of things give me goals and make me happy. i think since i've been doing this for over a year and haven't gotten hurt yet she's been happy. i've had up to 3 broken bones riding all in one year at different times

i had 40+ jumps or so and i was at a dz and when the door opened i went to check the spot with one of the employees at the dz and when i looked out he pushed me back and kept checking the spot himself. there's a lot of airplane activity at this airport and i was just checking for aircraft. i don't understand what was so wrong about me wanting to spot for myself. this was one of the guys who taught me to skydive and he always made it clear that in skydiving we're responsible for saving our own lives in this sport. his actions are a little contradictory to his words. it pissed me off when he pushed me away from the door (and it was a caravan, it was an effing huge door so its not like i was in his way). when he was done spotting he proceeded to rush me out the door. it was a plane with just me, him, and 2 tandems... there was no reason to rush me and not let me even look

hahaha, this is hilarious. how old are you guys? are people honestly getting worked up over what someone is saying to them over the internet? even better is that everyone is correcting each other's grammar. i have a paper that i have to do in spanish due on monday for my class. anyone want to proof read it for me while you guys are in the "correcting grammar" mood? you must know spanish though.

my home dz someone is always spotting along with having the greenlight. i've been up there where the green light comes on and one of the more experience guys will be be looking out and still telling everyone to wait... which has always been a good thing. i was at a dropzone (not going to say names) earlier in the summer and i had learned to spot and plus i just want to clear airspace. i trust myself you know? the door opens and one of the staff jumpers looks out and i get next to him and i'm looking out too and he just pushes me back and i'm like "wtf?" and then he just tells me to go and i'm thinking "where did that 'save yourself' element that i was taught in iaf go?" (this is not my home dz but was the one i learned to jump at). honestly i didn't want to jump until i had had a look for myself but he just kept yelling and rushing. i know that he knew what he was doing but there's no reason for a jumper to not let another jumper have a look.

i've never heard this. why? and how do you pop your ears when going to altitude if not "valsalva"?

i went through a thick cloud only one time that i could think of. it moved right under me and it was right at my pull altitude. i was scared to track away from it in fear that i would track under someone (i've yet to not see someone who drifted under me so i wasn't worried about that). so i did all i could and pulled in the cloud and ended up going the wrong way for a while until i came out of the cloud. i made it back easily but it was kind of scary. i like going through the really thin clouds though that probably aren't even called clouds cause they give you such a sense of how fast you're falling. the one thing i love the most about skydive miami (whenever i'm down there) is their huge clouds. i've done quite a few jumps where the visuals were incredible because i was surrounded by huge clouds (i was not in them)

pull stable. pulling stable at 4k i think is more important than pulling unstable by 5k just so they tell you you pass. the instructors at my dz always over emphasize the importance of pulling stable. but talk to you instructors. it's more important to pull at 10 seconds and be stable than it is to pull within 5 all on your back and crap and heighten the risk of potential problems. it's all good. just another skydive. remember what they teach you about stability. ARCH

when i started skydiving this guy i worked with told me that his dad used to be a pilot at a dropzone and the first time his dad took him out to the dz he saw a guy go in. no chute was deployed but he never found out why. he's 24 now and i think he was like 10 at the time or something. but sure enough he told me one of the things he really wants to get into was skydiving. thats coming from the mouth of a guy who had never jumped and saw a guy go in at the age of like 10. thats how much our sport rocks

how about having a rigger actually look the new equipment before it gets jumped? apparently whoever jumped that canopy wasn't qualified for that job

i have 55 jumps and amazingly i've never had a landing that i haven't stood up (although i'm getting ot the point where instead of running off one every now and then i might just start falling down since it's easier ha). i have no clue about how high i am but i can judge it fine. whenever that time comes i always go straight to half flare and that will start levelling me out and then right as my feet are about to hit the ground i go straight to full flare and it just glides out usually so i just slide my feet and try not to stand until i'm basically stopped. so yeah, the half flare before full flare has worked great for me. it's safe too cause if i'm too high then i can just hold it but if i'm too low then i can easily just pull the flare down even farther to brake faster.

it's ridiculous. prices are going up but we're still getting payed the same. businesses need to start compensating and minimum wage definitely needs to rise. i can't wait till we can run cars on water

does anyone else have "that guy" at their dz where you are pretty sure he's going to end up killing himself or getting seriously hurt because he thinks of himself way above his skill level? it doesn't seem to matter what other people tell him about his over confident flying and canopy skills. i'm just waiting for the day i hear the news. maybe he'll learn before something bad happens

has anyone ever tried skydiving into the cave of the swallows in mexico? not neccessarily a full altitude skydive but maybe even like 1000ft or something. just curious

whenever i my ears start to get really pressurized in freefall i just simple grab my nose and pop my ears as i would any other way. it takes all of like 1 second. i'm not sure what i do with my other arm cause i've never thought about it but i never turn or anything so i must compensate some how. but yeah, just pop your ears as you would on your way to altitude. i found, atleast for me, that as i kept jumping i had less and less of an issue with ear pressure problems and now i don't have any most of the time. just keep jumping

there's the thomaston (sp) dz that i would probably guess is your closest but not sure. i actually go to school at auburn and i jump over in pell city, al which is about 1:30 from auburn. there's also one in cedartown but i think that might be like 2:30-3hrs from ft. benning but i'm not positive. oh yeah, there's one in monroe, ga as well. it's just a little passed atlanta if i remember correctly. i jumped there once but forget how long it took to get there

this is ridiculous. he didn't even push the guy. he gave him a little nudge and the guy went. if the guy he nudged didn't want to leave the airplane he wouldn't have. it was just a "what are you guys waiting for" nudge. people need to chill out. if he actually pushed him it may be a different story but he DIDN'T

yeah, it's definitely been weird. we got like 1-2 weeks of really cold weather and then it's just been lingering in the 40s and 50s and then it started getting really warm... like 80s warm. now it's back in the lower 50s. still we haven't really had a winter. i remember last year was ridiculously freezing for a long time

i hit jump number 40 this weekend and some people were doing a 5 way and i asked if i could get in on it so i could get some experience and they said i needed more jumps. i'm just wondering but how many jumps do i necessarily need to do bigger ways? after i got my A my first jump was a 3-way

ha yeah, i remember jumping my first pack job a couple months ago. when it came to pull time i remember throwing the pilot chute and thinking to myself "well, this is it. i hope something comes out" and it did but i definitely had some lines twists. i haven't packed my own parachute that much but this past weekend i packed it and for the first time i didn't have line twists from my pack job. woooo!!! nice clean opening

ha, and i thought yesterday was cold. it was in the 30s in the morning and low 40s or so the rest of the day. i had on a long-sleeve shirt, t-shirt over it, 2 jackets, and a jump suit. it definitely kept me warm and from feeling any wind except for my hands and face. my hands were numb even with my nice leather gloves on and my face felt like it was getting burned off by the wind (i definitely need to get some sort of face protection. i almost didn't do my last jump of the day cause i was so cold. i don't see how you guys do it

somebody has sand in his vagina

this is blurry but its the only one that was small enough to work. 1997 cr250. going up for sale tomorrow to support my new skydiving habits (plus i don't have time to ride anymore so it just sits around)