fred

I think a shirt or a bra might've helped this particular jumper. ... But if I ever decide to scare the other jumpers and do a nude jump, you *know* that my PA is coming out.

Just a quick point, but to become a US citizen, you do have to pass an English literacy and speaking test. Maybe they do know how to speak english, but just don't want to talk to the likes of you.

Gosh. So many reasons. First, I'll openly admit it. I think it's cool, and I think that others (should) think it's cool as well. So part of why I skydive is just to impress people. I also think that any skydiver who doesn't think that plays at least a small part is lying, but that's not an argument worth having. The main reason I made my first jump was that I didn't think I could. I'm shy, self-conscious, and afraid of heights, so how could I possibly get out of that plane? The reason I made my second jump was because my first jump was the most incredible fun I'd ever experienced. After that, it started to become challenging. I found myself a discipline that didn't seem difficult, that I knew I could master (well, I still expect to become good someday), and yet I couldn't seem to do the basics. The thing is, here I was, doing absolutely terrible on most of my jumps and not showing any progress, but still, I'd land with this giant smile on my face. When even my most poorly executed skydives result in me being thrilled by the experience, and the ones that go well result in a completely ineffable feeling, I found the discipline for me. "Because I love to fly"? Hellz yeah.

Just a minor bug. If you click on "view full profile" under a poster's name, and click the link at the bottom that says "View xxxx's Forum Posts", you get the "The forums are temporarily closed as I am migrating the data to a new database." message. It works fine if you click on their name rather than "view full".

I would really like to go to the WFFC, but I am a pretty new jumper. (30 jumps so far, if July goes as planned, I'll have more than 50, but not by much). The web page states that you need to have 50 jumps as a minimum (or else you can register as a student jumper, it seems). I've heard horror stories, and it would be pretty overwhelming to be in the air with that many canopies, seeing as I'm used to my Cessna dz. So a couple questions: (1) Will there be any jumps that will be "safe" for a lowtimer like myself? Or should I pretty much plan on staying on the ground? Well, I guess that's it. I'll definately try harder to go if I'll be able to jump some, but I'll probably try and go anyway just for the wind tunnel and the parties. All depends on how finances work out (a place to stay wouldn't hurt, either.).

Not sure if you were referring to me or the other poster as the troll. I assure you, I'm not trying to troll, and I do like hearing your thoughts. First, when I was picturing a pin check, I was picturing turning around and having somebody open my closing flap and visually inspecting everything before exit. I feel like this would be a difficult task for somebody my size in the fourth jumper position. I find my most comfortable position when I crawl in, and I can't do much "moving around" once everybody's boarded. Second, it seems dangerous. Even if I could manage to rotate 90-180° and have jumper #3 open and inspect my closing pin, there's not much room for them to maneuvre, either. It seems that having them open my flap in such a confined space has a greater likelihood of loosening the pin than my fidgeting during the climb. There's also a better chance that the flap won't be as securely closed as it was. That said, I am constantly checking my handles, hackey, and anything else I can feel during the ride to altitude, and I do a final check before I exit the plane, thus I don't think Skyrose's situation actually applies. Further, I have yet to be on a load where everybody wasn't doing visual checks on everybody else during the climb. You've got 25-35 minutes, you might as well inspect everybody's rig to make sure they didn't do any thing dumb. Standard disclaimer: I'm still a lowbie. I don't have my A, and don't exit with others all that often. So nobody should take my advice. I welcome and encourage contrary opinions, and would not be embarassed to ask for a check if anything seemed unusual, or if you could convince me that it's (a) possible, and (b) safer.

Clearly.

This was an honest question, I'm sad that it's been ignored. Maybe I sounded like a gung-ho lowbie who's not going to take your advice anyhow (and, this is probably partially true), but doesn't absolute size of the canopy play a role as well, apart from wingloading? That is, a 135 sq ft canopy loaded at 1.1:1 is more aggressive/dangerous than a 220 sq ft canopy at the same loading? As I stated previously, the 220 sq ft canopy loaded around 1.1:1 for me didn't feel like it was over my head. Yes, 90° turns low to the ground would hurt me more under this canopy, as I swing out from under it quicker and it turns faster, but in my Cessna DZ, I'm not concerned about being cut off, and even if I were, I think I have the presence of mind not to turn myself into the ground. It's awful easy to keep track of where 3 other parachutes are in the sky, and with my canopy size, I'm usually way above them. The DZO even said that once I can consistently land this one standing up, they want me on the Triathalon 210, which will be loaded somewhere between 1.1 and 1.14, depending on what I had for dinner. Is this crazy? Yell at me if this is out of control, and tell me why. I feel like under the 220 I flew in no-wind, that I could've been unconscious and I simply would have had some grassburn.

Does total size play a role as well? I'm 210-215 without gear, so you'd suggest around 240 sq ft? My home dz put me on a Triathalon 220, for a wing loading of nearly 1.1:1. This is at less than 30 jumps total on 280 sq ft Mantas. I was pretty nervous about it, but that canopy still felt pretty docile, and not at all beyond my skill level. Obviously, I'm still new, and am probably not the best judge. So, in your opinion, is my dz out of line letting me load a canopy like this?

I'm curious. Does anybody who jumps a 182 get a pin check in the plane? While this is a pretty easy thing to do in an otter, if you're last out on a cessna and you want to get that check before you leave, it seems like you need to be pretty flexible. I check my gear before I manifest. I check it again right before I put it on. And I have somebody else check everything before I board the plane. And I visually check everybody I jump with for anything major on the ride to altitude (misrouted chest-strap maybe?), and notice them doing the same (or maybe they're checking out my figure, but I doubt it). There's just not room to move around in a plane that small. If I was to have somebody check my pins while the plane was full, I think odds are they'd make it worse. Maybe I'll get flamed here. But I feel comfortable with my 3 checks on the ground, when 1 would probably suffice. If my gear is in bad enough shape that a little jostling around is going to make a difference, my mistake has already been made.

My display settings are similar to ernokaikkonen's. Turns out dz.com is blocked from my work, so my ability to help is minimal. At home (where I had the problem), I'm running Windows XP with the most up-to-date version of IE (6.5?), all patches, etc. Running at 1152x768 with the browser maximized, in case that's relevant. (sidenote: wow this code should add a few more linebreaks to the generated html. Line 44 of this thread's source is almost 3400 characters long!)

Yep! I hope Sangiro reads this. Probably 90% of the time that I click on a thread, I get that. I click back and click the thread again and it renders fine. I'm betting there's a missing end table/row/cell marker somewhere. I'll look into it tomorrow, when I'm at work and getting paid for it.

If I (as a newbie who's not even close to thinking about doing this) can add a question: How do you transition from rear risers to toggles?

I did AFF over the winter in Arizona, and I came back to my home DZ and faced severe jitters. I went the first day, thinking, "Eh, once you get there you'll be ready to jump", and made up excuses the entire day (Well, I was very hung over when I got there, but felt better in the late afternoon when I still could have manifested). I sat there and watched people jump, and I was very jealous, but petrified of getting on that plane. I went home without having jumped. I went back the next day and started to do the same thing. I pulled out my chair and sat in the sun watching the jumpers come down. I walked by manifest on my way to talk to the really hot packer chick, and Mary, the manifest lady, said, "Fred, you want to jump today?" And I hesitantly said, "Yes". And I was on the very next load. I was scared out of my mind, and it was a fscking static line jump. I must've gone to the bathroom 3 times in the 10 minutes I was waiting for the plane to let off it's current load before I was to suit up. I thought about just saying, "Nah, this ain't for me." But I did it. I put that parachute on, talked to the JM and confessed how much of a wimp I was, and then climbed onto that Cessna. And I realized something on that climb to altitude: I wasn't nervous. I knew how to fall out of airplanes. Sure, it's not as easy as whuffo's might think, but it ain't that hard. First and second jumper left, and I climbed into the jumper position, and when the door opened, I leaned way out and spotted. I gave the JM a thumbs up, and out I climbed, hung onto that strut, looked over and smiled, and let go. I even turned down guidance from the radio (and had a nice little hike back to the dz after I landed a couple football fields from the peas). The hardest part is getting on that plane. Just do it. It get's even better after you graduate.

It took me awhile to get past having sensory overload at some point during the dive. I don't think I saw the plane after falling away until about my 5th jump, even though I know my eyes were open. I remember during my first two jumps in AFF (my jumps #15 and #16), I wasn't really able to stop and think about what my JM was telling me to do. It felt like I was just going through the motions while all this stuff was happening around me. I'm still a newbie... about 8 jumps past AFF. On my last dive, a coached jump, I realized I was kind of doing the same thing. We left our little cessna, matched fall rates and he docked on me, and then he backslid. Once he backslid I fell away from him and worked to match fall rates again, while at the same time, trying to get some forward motion. I think my trying to "get big" pretty much cancelled out most of the forward motion I was generating, and I wasn't doing such a good job at either. So I was doing a pisspoor job of slowing down and moving forward for about 3,ooo ft. What I should have done: Kept dearching and tried to match fall rate again, forgetting about the dock until I had my fall rate figured out. But I was in "sensory overload", and what I actually did was got back into my regular arch, at which point I dropped like a rock away from him, and the skydive was over. So, in my low-jump wonder, I still get sensory overload occasionally. I'm in control of my jumps, but sometimes I'm not thinking quite straight, and make "wrong" decisions. This is what I have to overcome. I'm really curious, though, why do you ask?

Here's snopes' version of the debunking.

I think of a personal attack as being more along the lines of, "CobaltDan is fat" not "CobaltDan is biased." The first is addressing the person, and the second addresses the message. (And, for the record, I have no idea how much CobaltDan weighs, the 'fat' thing was just an example.) As far as the original question, I think it's a personal

You may need the divx codecs to get video. Just download the free one. You probably don't need to install their player if you like windows media player. I had lots of problems with potato chipping when I was a student (and I'm not much past it now). It seems like it was just a matter of getting a better body position and relaxing instead of constantly trying to fix it. Relax, get into the body position you know is right, and give it some time. If you need to make corrections, do them slowly. If you watch that video, it looks like the jumper is putting his arms out when he's head low, then bring them back in when he's head high, and making the situation worse. Of course, I'm a newbie, and know nothing...

I did my student stuff at a twin-turbine dropzone, and I'm just starting back on my home dz's little bitty cessna's. On my first solo here, I went out and hung on the strut. On my last two, I've done bomb-outs (feet on the step, push off the strut and tumble backward). I'm going to dive out next, but it makes me nervous. All I'm saying is that it's natural to be a little apprehensive about new exits (especially, in my mind, out of a Cessna with that intimidating looking step so close to the door). Have fun with it. Congrats on your 10-second delays. It gets even better. Did my first barrel rolls and frontflips today (along with my first bomb-out). I just love tumbling through the air and then reaching my arms out to stop myself. The euphoria can't be beat. I was even still smiling while I got my speeding ticket on the way home from the dz.

I've been told (and verified with my DZO) that a Manta will in fact have a better landing with a 2-stage flare. I have yet to actually prove the concept, but my attempts have definately yielding different landing performance. With a single "yank the shit out of those toggles" 1-stage flare, I've had many landings where I could run it out. Now that I'm following their advice, I've been going a little low, but clearly leveling out. (I've been skidding across the ground on my knees and then stopping as I complete the flair). Based on this experience, it seems to me that a 2-stage flare is going to work very well for me on the student manta, as soon as I can start flaring just a couple feet higher. Is this all in my head? That is, is there any point in attempting a 2-stage flare on a giant manta canopy?

If you want to download them, there are a bunch of good selections on ftp.skydivingmovies.com, if you know how to use ftp. Check the /public/cutaways, /public/students/, and /public/from tv directories for some interesting ones.

Since nobody's said it, invest in a lawyer. Only somebody familiar with the system is going to be able to help you evaluate the merits. You can't make these kind of evaluations yourself, and you need the help of somebody who knows the system. It seems like you've already made this decision, but definately fight for your kid. It's your child, and it's worth every penny you have. Cash in your 401K if you have to. Even though you might be able to nickle & dime for him over the next decade, you really only get one chance at a custody hearing. Do everything you can to guarantee that he gets the best childhood he can have.

It's available from headdown.net under the BASE category. It's one of my favorites. Unfortunately, I don't know the song. If people are still having problems, pm me and I'll put it up on my server temporarily.

I say fire him and hire somebody competent. BTW, have I mentioned that I'm looking for a full time computer job? Got a bachelor's degree and great references... :)

I'd suggest that a good first step is to start packing your own main. I'm not a rigger, but I expect that good main packing skills are pretty much a prerequisite for reserve packing.