andym148

Fully agree with this 100%! You want to impress your instructor? Stay humble, ask questions and most of all, be safe. Remember THEIR names are in YOUR log book, and what ever YOU DO. Reflects on them.

Hey Vitek, There is a difference between wind tunnel arches for first time fliers, and for those looking to progress through to AFF. Also bear in mind the level/knowledge of the instructor at the tunnel, some have no skydiving experience, while some will have considerable experience. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that some instructors wont teach wind tunnel students how to do AFF arches and skills that will benefit you in the air (such as repetition/muscle memory of looking at your left wrist where your alti sits etc) unless you say you are doing AFF. I'm not sure which tunnel you go to in the UK, but next time ask them/tell them you are an AFF student. And see if they modify how you are flying. What ever you do, good luck!

Im with the majority, and Baz Leherman and it shouldn't have been wear sunscreen. It should have been wear ear plugs! The problem with sound is its not what you can hear, its the high frequency sounds you cant hear thats the problem. Wearing ear plugs on the way up is to be recommended, for obvious reasons. Anyone who's says other wise hasn't had hearing problems (tinnitus, noise induced/age related hearing loss), i was 33 when i was recommend hearing aids. And i used to have what the military term H1 (excellent) hearing, now my hearings shot and i've got excruciating ringing in my ears. That ringing in your ears you get from being in a night club listening to loud music, thats tinnitus. Theres NO CURE, its like genital herpes...its a friend for life! I wear those little yellow ones you get in the tunnels, all the time when jumping, i sometimes take out the right one (audible side), and sometimes i leave it in. When i do i'm hyper vigilant of people under canopy. Also have you heard how loud your audible is on the ground, thats going off right to your ear as well. It's going to do damage over many years, and 1000's of jumps. Look after your hearing, you'll miss it when its gone! At long last the light at the end of the tunell isnt an on coming train!!!

Think of it this way... go for a run on a really windy day. Run with the wind behind you (DOWN WIND), you'll find it easy and cover a load of ground (if you look between your feet 'quickly' under canopy you'll see the ground going under you faster). Hence why the holding area is always up wind. Now run with the wind in your face (IN TO WIND), you'll find it harder and won't you won't cover as much ground (again look down at the ground below, it should be moving slower). Disclaimer.... Don't spend too much time looking down and forget about clearing your airspace. At long last the light at the end of the tunell isnt an on coming train!!!

Hey Ninja, Don't sweat the little things. That was not bad at all...trust me i've had worse students! (And i failed level 4 twice and lets not get started on lvl 5!) Apart from your crazy arms... try and look in the direction you want to go in. Unless your a barn owl the body has to stop or else your head will unscrew (hence pick your heading). You look like your looking under your (left?) arm try looking over it and keeping your head up will help your arch as well. Have fun in the frosty UK. Andy At long last the light at the end of the tunell isnt an on coming train!!!

The bloke is a tool of the highest order and should have been swallowed instead..... How ever, he's a tool worth upwards of $30million so he's doing something right? Prior to watching the video i was expecting the same as the last idiot who flew in to the power lines, but he looked stable on pull. I thought he chopped due to low twists and unable to get his head back, he pulled, he counted, he chopped, FairPlay to him, most students don't count. And he did the right thing. Now the instructor... I'm not very knowledgable on Perris but unless he was deep and low there is no excuse for pulling under the student for this very reason. He got lucky, now he gets screwed. As dip shit's post goes viral, and everyone see's it. At long last the light at the end of the tunell isnt an on coming train!!!

Hey Skyfox, Don't worry too much about it. Things take time, so do friendships. Keep turning up at the DZ, and show willing and everything will click into place. Believe me when i say this, YOU DO NOT EVER....EVER WANT TO BECOME 'Y'! I've seen it so many times, she is a walking notch on someones bed post. I'm willing to guess that she never packs for herself? In the UK we call it a tit pack job, get the boys on show and any man will pack for you. Like someone said above she'll most likely date a 'sky god', get free coaching in return for ..... well what ever. Be yourself. Not sure where your DZ is, but when you say you were left off the organized stuff. How big was it, and at what skill level were the other jumpers? Don't take this the wrong way, but if the dive was to be quite complex or hard? Then maybe it was for your own good? Its dangerous to put someone on a dive that is above there skill level, yes it just might be an FS dive. Whats your tracking like at break off? If its not up to much, then that might be the reason? When i got into jumping in a big way, i got a few friends who were at the same level, and started to jump and progress together. We then become the people having fun, and then people wanted to start jumping with us. One thing lead to another and before we knew it we were doing ok for ourselves Just to make you feel better, when i moved to a new DZ where nobody knew me i had to start over again. I went from being a big fish in a little pond, to being a little fish in a big pond and I had to sit on the side lines for weeks before i was asked to go on organized FF jumps. I feel your pain...it sucked ass. But with perseverance it all worked out in the end, and yes i messed up on my first jump. I made a joke out of it and apologized and it broke the ice at the de brief (as well as turning up with a load of cookies as well...that never hurts). Good luck and have fun. Andy At long last the light at the end of the tunell isnt an on coming train!!!

Is this really so outlandish? If the reserve is needed on around one in 700 jumps, and if a reserve malfunction occurred at the same rate per use, a reserve malfunction would occur on one in 700 x 700 = 490,000 jumps. Technical reasons (e.g. system design, reserves packed more carefully) should mean the chances of a reserve malfunction are considerably lower than a main malfunction. If half as likely, a reserve malfunction can be expected on one in 700 x 1400 = 980,000 jumps and that looks like a reasonable (albeit very much over-simplified) basis for the one-in-a-million claim. I realise that raw incident statistics won’t come out like this because a reserve malfunction is (often? nearly always?) a consequence of the main malfunction. So a lot on the precise definition of “reserve malfunction”. But if thinking about situations where the main malfunction does not contribute to the reserve malfunction (e.g. bad maintenance/rigging of the reserve, sabotage of the reserve), the one-in-a-million claim does seem reasonable to me. BTW, I agree with you completely that the expert opinions should steer well clear of anything sensational, misleading, or plain wrong. I’m just not sure this one-in-a-million thing is a particularly good example. Very happy to learn if I’m grabbing the wrong end of the stick here. I'm not sure about your maths, but I've seen a few reserve malfunctions, and I certainly haven't seen a million reserve deployments. I suspect what she really meant, was malfunctions caused by slinks breaking/incorrectly assembled, i.e. specifically in her case. That would be more believable, but even then, one in a million strikes me as being too high. The media have prolly jumped on part of her statement. A malfunction can occur to any parachute, perfectly packed or not. Reserve or not. Bad body position can cause a malfunction. I had a reserve malfunction on my 6th jump (a round reserve), which inverted completely and burnt about a hundred small holes in it. I landed safely, but the reserve was destroyed. Square reserves are more reliable than roundies however. So for me personally, its 1 out of 2. But, a jury is liable to interpret her statement literally...as in: out of a million reserve deployments, you'll only get one malfunction. They will most likely take her statement at face value, more so because she was the injured party. That puts the defendant in a very deep hole. IMO the reserve malfunction rate would not be far from the main malfunction rate, probably a bit more....its just that reserve deployments are comparatively rare anyway. I just want to address your point on the one in a million statement, I'm pretty sure the actual statement the victim made was that to have BOTH the main and reserve fail was a 'one in a million' chance. Now that is a generic saying meaning its very rare indeed, not impossible but rare. So when it happens something catastrophic has happened, and it raises peoples suspicions. The CI in question, is more than capable. In fact he is very knowledgeable, and has the same kind of history and ratings as you Tim. My thought on his statements is he's breaking it down to try to explain it to people who have no idea about skydiving, think KISS. Maybe the defense lawyer has asked him to do it this way, or MAYBE the reporter has no idea what he said and is paraphrasing? I happy to say the BPA has changed, it has new blood in the driving seat. Im happy with the person at the top, and the council underneath. So it's time to let bygones be bygones and maybe re look at how you perceive everyone at the BPA and instructors as we are by your account totally unprofessional because of one bad apple. I did a tandem in 2001 in Australia, totally ripped off. Bad instruction and service, by your logic all APF instructors and DZ's are just the same. But no, Ive gotten over it. Maybe you should too? At long last the light at the end of the tunell isnt an on coming train!!!

Hey Young and legless, If your a below the knee amputee then you'll find it not too hard to learn how to skydive. I've been lucky to be involved with the UK charity BLESMA (www.blesma.org), and have taught over 20 of there members to jump. As you can move your lower limb, you have more control of your flying surface as opposed to some one with an ATK amputation. What we found was that the prosthetic being somewhat lighter and more aerodynamic had less of an affect on the airflow. Not sure what your prosthetic looks like, but we put pipe insulation around the prosthetic to increase its surface area making it look like the good leg. We also on occasions had to weight the leg down if the owner was not able to force it down in the airflow. Have a look on youtube for BLESMA Trans4mers video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOrMXiUaCvA it'll show whats possible. Feel free to PM if you have any questions. Good luck Andy At long last the light at the end of the tunell isnt an on coming train!!!

Dude, your canopy came out at freely speeds. No magnets on earth bar something that powers the Haleron Collider would keep that deployment normal. If you want to point a finger first... look at yourself for kit maintenance. At long last the light at the end of the tunell isnt an on coming train!!!

Hey Annette, nice article. Lets not take all the 'glory' away from the pilots. Without them all the above listed accidents would have ended up as smoking holes, and no amount of seat belts will save you from pounding into the earth at 120mph. Sorry for detracting away from your article.

+1 Good advice. Just because you might be good at 4 way jumper does not necessarily make you a good AFF-I. I have found that my freefly back ground is of more use than my 4 way/FS skills, just try to be as rounded in your flying skills as you possibly can. As some one said, the tunnel is an excellent place to learn the basics of stopping spins and roll overs. Also be nice and relaxed on the course. Smile, put your student at ease. And remember dress for success, you can looks as cool as you want in your matching kit, but if your not there for your student.... Have fun and good luck! At long last the light at the end of the tunell isnt an on coming train!!!

Hi Guy, First of all stop worrying, secondly, relax. I've had the pleasure of teaching quite a few people missing limbs and with severely limited movement. https://www.facebook.com/BLESMATrans4mers/ What I've found is that you have to throw away the coaching rule book and start from scratch. Do you have any footage that I could look at? That would give me a good insight to what your problem is. Blue skies, Andy At long last the light at the end of the tunell isnt an on coming train!!!

Hey, Great article! I can speak on authority on this. My hearing has been wavering/going over the past couple of years (I'm 36 years young), admittedly jumping wasn't the biggest cause. My hearing really took a kick in the nuts during my time in the military, ever since then its been gradually getting worse. It's now got to the point were i have to wear hearing aids, i no longer hear birds singing. My phone can ring in my pocket and i only know due to the vibration, i have 24/7 tinnitus to really give me an added kick in the nuts. If you remember partying when you were younger and your ears would ring on your way home, but by morning it would be gone again? Well tinnitus is like that, always there. I haven't experienced 100% quietness in 12years, i know longer remember what it's like. Psychologically, it's horrendous. You miss conversations, my wife is amazing and has learned to cope with my often random answers. She might ask what do i want for dinner? I'll think she's asked me the time, 'yes, is 1pm', and she knows I've guessed what she's asked. You can be part of a group conversation, all of a sudden people will start laughing. You've missed the punch line, but because your not laughing people look at you. You then think you're the butt of the joke, and cue an uncalled for response or a feeling of expulsion as you missed the punchline and no longer feel part of the joke. Trust me, you don't want to end up loosing your hearing. Wear ear plugs, even you don't think it's loud, it is. I would give my left leg to have my once perfect hearing back, and i know in a few years my hearing will degrade to such an extent that it's possible i won't hear anything at all.

Yes... Doh! Ok no more gin for me...