Jumpah

SNE's got a great vibe, a private airport, super otter, on site restaurant, bath and shower facilities, camping, live music sometimes (call or check their site). Make a weekend of it, or at least a Sat night --> Sun. If the weather is good there will be plenty of folks around the bonfire at night.

Give them away free and everyone will want one. Charge $1,000 for it, and nobody will want one. The market depends upon the price, and you didn't name the price. Or give them away for free, pay for the "find". However that could be made to work... Perhaps a DZ with the funds could invest in a finder and enough transmitters that allow people to rent them. I might be willing to pay $1 more/jump if I were just visiting an unknown DZ for a weekend, especially if there was some sort of replacement insurance associated with that fee if they can't find it.

Well, if I were representing the TI, I would explain that the question as asked, referred to the specific harness being used for that jump. Priceless!!

Thanks for the reply...good job(s)

This is a pretty high average for 77 jumps. What were the causes for your other cutaways? Good job saving yer butt!!

From the start. These guys gotta trust you, and giving them bs will hinder that.

Glad you are having a good time with it! Go to SNE for tiki bar weekend in September (dates on their website). Its a good time and you'll get to watch a good old fashioned tiki bar burn on the last night. They will have a casa and a helicopter as well as the super otter.

Its not dead yet, but it'll wain in popularity over decades and be replaced by newer versions of the sport. Its an evolution. Why do we have "Classic Accuracy" now? Why are there updated versions of the board game Monopoly (with credit cards...)? New jumpers generally want to do what the other regulars and their friends are doing. Swooping, belly, ground launch, BASE, whatever. The gear allows for the boundaries to be pushed a bit more. This isn't like soccer (or football for those outside the US) where there isn't room for technology to make the game more challenging and interesting. Also...there are asshats in all disciplines, no exceptions.

Glad you got it worked out. I finished my A out at Z-hills and it worked well for me. Sit in on TK's accuracy seminar if he holds it again, and when you start getting more jump numbers, get a copy of his presentation on why pulling at 2,000 feet is a (statistically) poor idea. And ask him how he got the name "TK"

It sounds like they do the tandem progression out there for their AFF. It'll be mostly like your previous tandem, but you will be given a bit more responsibility with the instructor backing you up. Don't focus on cutaways...I know someone with 75 cutaways. He's got 13,000 jumps, too. Its an emergency procedure. I haven't had any, yet, and I'm a sloppy packer by some standards. Very few first time jumpers aren't scared. You aren't alone...this ain't natural. Visualize how cool it'll be to make your 100th jump some time from now. Maybe it'll be a four way with your wife and a couple of new friends you've made. Its sunset load, and while under canopy you watch the sun set again. When you get to the ground, someone grabs you, your rig gets pulled off, you are pied and tossed in the pond while everyone shouts "HIM, HIM, F*** HIM!" in your honor as you and everyone around celebrates the milestone, complete with the case of beer you just bought.

In the interest of playing devil's advocate: Instructors are mostly sub-contractors of the DZ, so they get paid only when the client is paying. Maybe it seems like its rude that they are chasing the money, but they got bills too...and its not always sunny out. I work on computers for a living...it wouldn't work to do the repairs for free all the time. In some DZs the DZs instructors will follow an AFF student right through to getting their A...free advice, etc...its part of the AFF "package". If you are meeting all new instructors and coaches (not sure if you are), then I can see why they aren't spending much time with you. If these are the same ones who walked you through AFF, well, I'm not sure what to think about that. Anyway, when I had 12 jumps I went to a big FL DZ far away from my home DZ. I told manifest I wanted to hire a coach for a few jumps over a few days. They got me in touch with an instructor who is still there today. I showed him my card, told him what I wanted to do, and we mapped out a plan. I did the first jump with him and on the ground he gave me the next few things I was to do on my subsequent jumps. I went and solo'd and did them, then we did another jump and worked on the next batch, and so on....right to my hop and pop when he went out with me. I tipped him like $60 for the three jumps on top of paying the coach jump prices. Good luck!

Hot damn...thanks for all the hard work!

The pertinent word here is "known". Non-local transient pilots are unlikely to know there's a DZ there, and these days most pilots are using GPS navigation and none of the GPS databases show drop zones. I'm not sure how the GPS companies get their data...but has there been any attempt to work with them to identify known dropzones and include it in map updates? I imagine there is a process for submitting updates, much like how a new development might be included.

Your post is unclear if you were alone in the plane with no supervision from an appropriate rating holder. At my DZ I'm often asked to "keep an eye" on soloists working for their A (I have a coach rating). This means gear checks, spotting, etc. It also means that if we were in a situation where the plane is going to land with any one of them still on board I'd ride it down with them, even if I could turn the jump into a hop and pop. One exception to this would be if there was an AFF instructor on board riding down with their student who agrees to watch my students as well; then I'll do the hop and pop. Maybe I'm too careful, but you should have been told to stay put. Don't be afraid to ask a qualified person. If you made the decision to get on the plane don't expect a refund. If an instructor made the decision of load you are going on I think it should be reimbursed.

One gal at my DZ can stand upright in the Otter...with a helmet!

You've got a lot of fun ahead of you, congrats!

I'm curious...has the more frequent availability of paying by check card made situations like this easier?

When in doubt, bring some beer, even if you don't "owe" any. Beer outside the hanger when the day is done is rarely a bad thing. At the good DZs its how we all celebrate your success and get to know you. IMHO, buy a case after your first student jump and after you are cleared for solos (usually around jump 7 or 8), then the "beer rules" apply. It'll go a long way towards helping you meet new people, and after some time in the sport you'll have less cases to buy and you'll be able to drink off other people's success.

Go with Selwyn...that man loves to teach and he's an excellent flier

Sounds like there is at least one decent employee there

Now thats interesting...the largest reserve I can fit into my container is a 193...it seems like it would be great to be able to have a 210+ reserve in there. Can anyone think of scenarios where a larger reserve would be more detrimental than a smaller one? I can think of windy day + poor spot.

"Skygods" don't pack...they complain about the canopy being in the way until it packs itself.

Perfectly normal. You are doing something that most adults would never do. Don't beat yourself up about nerves when jumping a new aircraft

The Aussies have it good...a number of DZs allow cloud penetration.

Of course, most people have fun jumping with a 50 jump wonder. That is not the same as "coaching", which (in theory!) is quality professional instruction. My gf's kid takes gymnastics and ballet. She pays for the coach to teach her kid something. I took fencing a few years ago...paid for the coach. I work out at my gym and pay a trainer $40 a session every other week to help me keep the workout from getting stale. In all of these, the coach has expenses...gym membership, fencing gear, studio lease. Skydiving isn't free...someone is paying that $23 a jump, and over time that adds up. I wouldn't think of giving someone grief if they don't have a wallet big enough for free coach jumps and the time spent briefing, debriefing, and packing...not to mention gear wear, tear, and even replacement. For a fun jump with a 50 jump wonder, yah, pay your own slot or, in many cases, the DZ will have a load organizer slot you can get on. Where I jump does.