RandomLemming

Thanks - I do love Lodi, but I'm looking for somewhere that's busy all week as I'll only have 1 weekend day.

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KSFB/2009/6/30/MonthlyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA says quote frequent chances of rain. Is that just showers, or can I expect to be rained out for days ?

Hi all, I finally have a week off between jobs from 19/06 to 26/06 and I'd like to travel to a DZ where I can get loads of jumps in during this time. At the moment, my choices look to be: Zephyrhills Perris Elsinore Lodi The Ranch The main things I'm looking for is - somewhere that has consistent good weather around this time of year (from both cloud / rain and wind perspective) - easy and relatively well priced to get to from the UK - and somewhere that I can get loads of jumps in over a 5 week-day period. Ideally I'd like to get 30 - 40 jumps in during this time - somewhere with packers would be a big plus too! I'm trying to avoid anywhere that's more than a 4 hour drive from the nearest international hub, and anywhere that I would need to take connecting flights to get to. I know this seems fussy, but on a short holiday, I want as few chances as possible for international air carriers to lose my luggage or otherwise ruin my vacation :D East coast is preferred due to the shorter flight times and fewer hours for jet-lag issues, so any other good places on the east coast would also be gratefully received! Thanks in advance,

All, This is just a quick warning to try and spare someone the very expensive lesson I have just learned. There have been a number of break-ins to cars at Empuriabrava over the past couple of weeks. Yesterday it happened to me and one other group there. We both lost everything we had with us. Most hotels and especially the apartments do not allow you to check in before quite late in the day, so we had all of our stuff including my camera gear and laptop in the boot of our rental car. Just the excess on the car was E600 for the damage caused while breaking in, and lord only knows at this point what the total loss will be. The police were completely uninterested in helping and were quite abusive towards me over my lack of Spanish. If you're going to Empuriabrava and cannot check into your hotel, please try and make other arrangements for your stuff. Park it in the hanger or try and get the office to hold it for you, but don't leave it in your car!

I asked this when you mentioned that you psycho pack in another thread, but I'm curious as to what you mean by this. As far as I understand it, there are no s-folds in a psycho pack - it's rolled into the bag. Am I misunderstanding something ?

I definitely agree. In part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqNsFPbKIw8&feature=related) at around 3:18, he has the canopy hung on his shoulder and he's pushing the air out of it. What's the equivalent step to that on something like my 188? Short of getting an orangutan in to do it for me?

I was kidding, honest. It's just frustrating as it is easier for me to pack a smaller canopy - there is less fabric to control, and i don't have to reach across such large areas. But I have no intention of downsizing at all, not even to a 170, and my container would fit one of those - I like my 188, especially when flying at higher altitude DZs !

Not sure I understand - the psycho pack I have seen on Youtube doesn't use s-folds, it rolls the canopy. Regardless, psycho pack is not an option for me. I contacted Aerodyne about it when I first got my canopy a few years back, and they advised that they do not support or recommend the psycho pack, so I've never learned / practiced how to do it.

Yeesh - those lines look like mine ! That's one of the main things I'm trying to clean up is getting the lines consistent and with no uneven bits when the canopy goes in the bag :) EDIT - 05:50 is the example of one of the things I'm trying to fix :)

Thanks - I'll go to the field and give that a try tonight :) I realised that it's time to put some proper effort into fixing this problem this weekend, when I was standing reaching all the way down into my canopy to dress it and thinking about downsizing from a 188 to a 90-something ;)

Hi all, I'm hoping someone on here can give me some tips to help fix a problem I'm (still) having with my packing. I use what I believe is called the reverse bagging method, where I fold the far end of the canopy into the S first, put that into the bag, then fold the end closest to the lines into the bag. I was taught this way as my canopy was very slippery when I first got it - it's still pretty feisty really :) The problem I have is that during this process, the section of tail that is wrapped around the lines often unwraps, leaving a mess. It often takes 3 or 4 goes of "get the big end into the bag, move back, see that the tail has unwrapped, start again." I've tried watching other people and I can't see what I'm doing wrong. I'm starting the wrap about 3cm above the slider, wrapping it tight, holding the wrapped part with the fingers of my left hand and moving down the tail wrapping more. I put about 4 wraps in total. I then lie the canopy down, and everything looks tight and clean. Next, I put one knee firmly on that wrap at the lines and start working the air out of the canopy, and folding it under to fit the d-bag. At some point between kneeling on it and sitting up to start bagging it is coming loose and unwrapping. I'm going to go on another packing course in Spain next week in the hopes that they can fix me, but I was just wondering if anyone here had any pointers. Thanks in advance, EDIT Here's an example of what I'm seeing: http://sidsrigging.com/articles/tips_images/gr_4wb.jpg (from http://sidsrigging.com/articles/greed.htm)

I know that in SA you can as an A license holder jump with others (at least, at JSC, 2-ways are legit on A) - I'm just still trying to find out if that's straight after A, or if there is some skills progression required to get to 2-way legal. That was my point to posting here, to get a feel for these things and learn how it is done elsewhere. So far, the main difference seems to be that most places incorporate some form of FS training into the early licenses instead of having it separate, and no-one has quite such strict requirements as the BPA (4 point 4-way being the example). That's stricter requirement is not necessarily a bad thing though, as I learned a heck of a lot more in the 3-way and 4-way work. The 4-way was different in almost every conceivable way than the 2-way and only the most basic of skills gained in the 2-way work was useful. Everything else was tougher for me and I learned more. Fascinating indeed. From what I can see so far, the main thing is to either incorporate some form of FS training (e.g. FS1) into the A / B license progression or to provide clearer definitions of who can jump with non-FS1 licence holders as with the USPA (e.g. the rules listed in popsjumper's comment)

In most cases, you'll be paying your slot plus your coach's slot plus a coaching fee for most of the training jumps. For the 3-way and the 4-way(s) you will normally have to pay for all slots plus a coaching fee.

There's no requirement to jump with other people, just a requirement to have this qualification before you are allowed to.

The main issues for achieving FS1 are cost and size of dropzone. Many people do not achieve the 4 point 4-way on their first try, and this means that they are looking at between 8 and 12 tickets plus coaching fees to complete this requirement. That's over and above any other FS coaching costs they've had up until this point. At some dropzones, it can also be hard to find coaches on the weekend, and smaller dropzones make it hard to get a 4-way on the manifest, what with tandems, etc. Trying to get that 4-way on the board twice in one day if you blow the first try can also be difficult.