AllisonH

You said you're not wearing a jumpsuit -- are you still jumping borrowed/rental/student gear, or do you have a rig that fits you well? The more outside the "average" you are size wise the more important it is you have a jumpsuit and rig that fit well. It will make a huge difference for you. A tight fitting RW suit with nylon front, spandex back, and booties will serve you well for many years to come. Invest in one that fits well as soon as you can. Used is ok IF it fits you well. The suggestions above about fall rate drills were also good, but you need a good fitting jumpsuit to both help your fall rate and give you consistency from jump to jump. If you wear jeans some jumps, sorts others, tight t-shirts sometimes, looser ones other times then you are constantly changing your flying surface and it will take much longer to develop good fall rate skills.

If you are so miserable here, go back to Iran.

I also recommend actually weighing yourself with skydiving shoes/helmet/altimeter/jumpsuit/rig the size you're thinking about. I suspect you'll find it adds up to 5-10 pounds more than you're allowing.

The book was definitely better, but I still enjoyed the movie.

I'm in the middle of the ocean southwest of Australia.

I do, but audibles books are expensive...I'm not paying $15 for what I can get for $7 in paperback. But, if you or anybody else know of any cheaper places for downloadable books, I'm all ears.

I owned 2 Hornets and both of them opened and flared quite nicely. I was very happy with them. Toggle turns were a little less snappy than the Pilot, but I never had any complaints about either of my Hornets. **Disclaimer: they were a 170 and a 150, both loaded at less than 1:1, and both were late model Hornets. I can't speak for ones that were made earlier or loaded more heavily.

So I ignored this article the first few times I saw the link, but finally clicked on it. Turns out this guy used to be one of my professors!!

CV (or Curriculum vitae) is a latin expression which can be loosely translated as [the] course of [my] life. In the UK, it's called a CV; in the States and Canada, I believe the Anglos call it a resume. ie: what you use to apply for a job. In the US we have both CV's and resumes. Similar in purpose, but quite different in appearance. CV's are much longer and more detailed, and tend to be used for certain kinds of jobs - like those in academia. Resumes I believe are much more common (although I haven't had one since I was 20 and needed it to show the insurance company for a job I already had... I'm in a CV field).

I've gotten 2 groups, but neither of them actually knocked or rang the doorbell. They just kind of stood there looking at my door until I heard them and went out.

Mine are too!!

I have it (the Bev Suit version in one jumpsuit and the Tony Suit version in another) and would definitely get it again. But the fronts of both of my jumpsuits are Nylon and would not be comfortable without some sort of lining. I don't know if I'd be so willing to pay extra for it if I had a suit with a cotton front.

I'm guessing I'd get in trouble if I told my students this?

Off topic, but you might want to weight yourself with all your gear on - you may be surprised. I'd guess that if you're 135 without gear you're closer to 160 with. My rig alone (with Pilot 117 and Optimum 126 in it) weighs 20 pounds and the rest of my gear adds another 5.

Hello Kenny! Welcome to DZ.com. As an AFF student you'll find it very useful for entertainment, wasting large amounts of time, and possibly looking through the classifieds (while consulting with those at Tecumseh who are advising you on gear). Please don't listen to/take/try any advice/suggestions given here until you have learned how to filter through it and throw out all the trash. There is a lot. Some advice here is very good, some is very bad, and some is good for more experienced people but not appropriate for you. In time you'll learn the difference, but that will take a while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-xJGFdmApw It's SDC Rhythm

Thanks for the clarification. I should have noted that I sent mine back for a comletely unrelated reason - was just pointing out that many manufacturers have quite good customer service and the OP shouldn't make a decision like this based on saving the cost of a repack. I have indeed had other more minor alterations done to my rig by a local rigger without unpacking the reserve.

When I sent my rig back to the factory after having it packed and jumping it a few times they did the modifications free - including reserve repack and shipping both directions.

When I had questions/issues with my new rig last fall I emailed Wings and they responded very quickly and fixed the problem right away. Didn't try calling them so I don't know if it's more difficult to get in touch with them that way.

I was fortunate enough to be in school for 10 years with no student loans. I worked part time the whole time, but I owe a BIG thank you to my parents for paying for 1 1/2 years of it and to the schools I went to for paying for the other 8 1/2 years!! Yay for scholarships, fellowships, and graduate assistantships

Cocky is just as big a turn off as disrespectful to many people. However, some people like it - so it's probably best to be yourself because you want your attraction to be based on who you really are and how you typically act if you want things to last. Allison, I have to agree, cocky can be just as bad but let's be honest for a second. You girls are really no different than us guys. You don't want the pushover and enjoy the chase as much as we do. So a guy who is overly "easy" is just not much fun. Case in point, instead of saying yes to date #2 I've always had greater success by simply saying "Maybe" or "Let's play it by ear" regardless of how sure I was in wanting the second date. As for getting things to last, let's get to date 5 before I even think about that and she has proven she can at least make a half decent sandwich.....in case I'm hurt and can't make my own. It's it beautifully complicated how we humans are? I won't dispute that's probably true for many people. I just think you're generalizing a little too much. If someone said "maybe" or "let's play it by ear" to me I'd assume it meant "no". I may have a different perspective on this though because I absolutely hate "dates" with people I don't know well, and prefer for things to just evolve over time with people I'm already friends with.

Cocky is just as big a turn off as disrespectful to many people. However, some people like it - so it's probably best to be yourself because you want your attraction to be based on who you really are and how you typically act if you want things to last.

I cannot speak for others, but I do fall into the age range you're speaking of. I've had several very happy relationships with men I met at (DZ or other place we went to participate in hobby of mutual interest), most of which started out as being "friends" first. I would have responded exactly the way the women you described do. Why? NOT because I don't like men who are caring. In fact, being "an ass" would guarantee you would never get to the first date, let alone the third. But because when I don't feel well I just want everyone - of every age/gender/relationship with me - to leave me alone! And at the third date phase they may not know that about me yet, and when I don't feel well I'm probably not going to explain it nicely.

I'm guessing this may depend a lot on rig size? Or yoke size? Because on my Wings there is only about an inch of riser exposed - basically just the part that has the binding tape wrapped around it horizontally at the very bottom of the riser.

Maybe they afford the course by doing 50-100 jumps that year instead of 150-200? Or maybe they are lucky to have a kind DZO like I did who will allow them to "charge" the course and associated jumps on their DZ account and work it off once they get the rating? (I did actually do 150-200 jumps/year plus some tunnel time the 2 years before getting my rating, but as a student it wasn't easy. It helped that I worked manifest and was able to do some coach jumps. But I was getting paid to go to school. I'd imagine it would be much more difficult for someone who wasn't.)