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.

I'm deliberately not at this point :D What I'm trying to gauge right now is how many countries require further certifications than their A license and what those requirements are. As I said, I don't wish to get into the merits of the FS1 itself right now, but more the overall progression system and how we bring people into skydiving.

Background Just thought I'd give some background to my question. In the UK, you are required to get an FS1 qualification before you can jump with other people. This is required no matter what license you have, so you can have a B license with 199 jumps and still not be qualified to jump with others. Our operations manual states N.B.(1) No more than one Category 8 jumper per group, all other jumpers in any group must be FS1 parachutists. This has (at every DZ I've jumped at) been interpreted to mean that if you don't have your FS1 sticker, you can still jump with other people, but there can only be 1 non-FS1 jumper in any group. For many people, this is how they got their FS1 stickers - learning with their mates, gaining the skills, then finally doing just one or two check-out dives (including the 4-point 4-way required to qualify) with an instructor. This is a lot cheaper than paying for instruction all the way through. For those of us who can afford it, we have the option of just flying to Spain and spending two intense days work then getting signed off as the world's worst FS flyer - but I'm still legal, and that's all that seems to matter. A clarification was issued 2.5 weeks ago that has made it clear that this was never the BPAs intention though. The clarification now requires that non-FS1 people only jump with other people if they are coaches - in other words, no fun jumps in a group until you have your FS1. Until you have your FS1, find a coach and work towards it. I'm not trying to debate the merits of the FS1 cert here, and I don't want to get into whether or not you really need to be able to turn 4 points on a 4-day before you are safely able to jump with 1 or 2 friends. My concern is primarily about retention of new jumpers in the UK (something the BPA seems to acknowledge is a problem) and understand how other countries manage this risk and get people up to this skill level - so thanks in advance :)

Hi all, As a result of a recent clarification to UK rules that changes what has been accepted practice on most DZs I've been at, I have a question about requirements for jumping with other people. I'd really appreciate it if people could let me know the following: 1. Your country 2. Whether or not you can jump with other people once you have your A license 3. How many jumps are required on average for the A license 4. If no to question 2, what requirements do you have to meet before you can jump with other people.

Weather is always variable, so I can live with that I guess - thanks for the headsups :D

Hi all, I'm planning a jump trip to the US in the next few weeks, and wondered what Zephyrhills is normally like at this time of year? I'm just looking to get a load of jumps in over a 1 or 2 week period. Would I be better off going to the west coast / arizona from a weather perspective? TIA,

Thanks - I'm reading the sticky now :)

Hi all, I plan to spend the next 55 jumps preparing to jump with a camera. For the first 50-100 camera jumps, I'll just be jumping with a Sony DCR-HC20 video camera and later I may add a still camera to the setup. I will obviously be approaching my rigger and some instructors, but I wanted to make a start on gathering information here. Firstly, I currently jump a Pilot 188 main. Is the standard opening shock of this canopy a problem for camera work with the extra weight on your head? If this is a suitable canopy, what if any mods should I consider to make it more so ? I'm thinking about things like different lines, changes to slider and pilot chute. If not suitable, how far do I have to downsize before I can safely fly with a camera? Secondly, I plan to get a camera suit. Is it permissible to use this in the UK under the BPA before I have my C licence? I was hoping to make the last 10 - 15 jumps before my C licence with this suit for practice. Finally, what should I be working on with regards to technique from now? I'm specifically interested in changes that I will need to make to my deployment process / position. Thanks in advance

I'm not sure what things are like in the US, but one of the reasons I'm currently on a hiatus from skydiving is related to this. I've found things like speaking up to try and organise an exit order, just so I know roughly what I'm going to be looking at in the sky to be more effort than it's worth. Asking about landing patterns has got me equally depressing responses on many occasions. It seems to me that in this sport, if you're the 'new guy' you need to just show up, spend money and shut up. Challenging anything about the way things are done isn't valid at 100 jumps. This sport needs to grow up and move past the point where ideas, questions and advice are only considered from people if their jump numbers are high enough. You need to start evaluating the message on the strength of the message, not how long the messenger has been participating in your sport. Rejecting things out of hand just because the messenger hasn't been around long enough is stupid. Reject ideas, questions and challenges on their merits, sure, but not the way it is done around here.

I think you'd find it really IS that bad. I pay a higher % of my take home pay per litre of petrol than I would if I worked most places in the US, so the amount of fuel I can buy per paycheck is much lower. the extra potential benefits like health care do not count for much as I have to spend a significant portion of my salary each month on extra healthcare for my family. That's unless you want to wait 6-8 weeks for operations that doctors in civilised countries would insist that you have within a week for health reasons. That further decreases my buying power and disposable income. The cost of jump tickets here is currently between GBP20 and GBP24 depending on where you jump, so around $40 per lift. That's after the $70 fuel for the round trip to the DZ.

For me, it's a 4 hour round trip and costs me about $70 in fuel. At the same time, tickets have gone up by about $2 per jump. Of course, I live in the UK, so that fuel only equates to a few gallons and I have a fairly efficient car. Fuel here has gone up about 18% over the past few months, and jumping has taken a big back seat for me as a result.