flyinchic

Here's an idea for the tent village/Memorial Day weekend. This is my first ever camping experience, and I need it to be a memorable one. I'll be serving Margaritas from my tent bar. (While supplies last). Anyone else want to sponsor a specialty drink from their tent bar? I'll probably also have some of my good friend Sam Adams. I'm looking forward to a fun Saturday night.

This tent rookie may need some assistance with set up Saturday morning as well. I don't want the thing falling in on my head in the middle of the night!

Can't wait to see everyone!
~Christie Hatch~

Hey Chris:
I am new at skydiving as well (37 jumps), and at around 14-17 jumps, I had a terrible spinning problem. I would exit and be stable, but after my PHT, began spinning quite a bit. I would try to counter the spin with my upper body or legs, but could never really understand what was causing it. After speaking w/my coaches, I learned that arching (like someone else said earlier) is not going to stop a spin. Arching will only keep you stable on a vertical axis (not horizontally). I decided to get a video on my 18th jump and saw that I was keeping one leg lower than the other and the bad body form was causing the spin. I did have to deploy once while in a spin (priority is: pull, pull @ correct altitude, pull when stable)....and just had maybe one line twist. If it happens to you again, I would suggest a video. Otherwise, the advice given to me was to track out of the spin...and that does work! Good luck & blue skies!

I just wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who has helped me to this point in my skydiving career. Saturday was the first day I jumped since I got my "A", and it was a great day. That whole minute of freefall seems so much longer now! And the hop & pop was cool to try too! Sounds like everyone had a blast Saturday night. Maybe I can joing you all in the festivities sometime soon.

Just FYI...I'm making additions/changes to the CSS website and have added a Kudos section (under the Experienced Skydivers tab). If you have something you'd like me to put in there, please let me know. It doesn't have to be skydiving related (ie: graduation, award/achievements at work, etc.). You can message me via the CSS MySpace page or email me at [email protected].

By the way, can anybody give me some advice on how to get the stupid picture/icon on here to work?

Thanks!
Christie

The annual Cabin Fever Boogie & Chili Cookoff is this weekend (2/17 & 2/18) at Carolina Sky Sports. It will also mark the grand re-opening of the newly remodeled bunkhouse.

Are you going to be there? (Sat, Sun, both)

If CSS is not your home DZ, where are you coming from?

Are you bringing some of your famous chili or just drinks for everyone?

Are you specifically looking to jump on the weekend? The dates you gave were mid-week dates. If you're looking to jump President's Day Weekend, Carolina Sky Sports has a Cabin Fever Boogie & Chili Cookoff on Saturday and Sunday, February 17th & 18th. Our January weather has been very mild (with many 70+ degree days). I doubt February will be that nice to us, but jumping is still good!!

Carolina Sky Sports, located in Louisburg NC (30 miles NE of Raleigh), is on a private airfield with over 150 acres of open land, offers indoor packing, and has free camping available (with a bath house) with RV hookups. The fleet of aircraft is great too!

Check it out at Carolina Sky Sports

So, after 7 tandems, I finally had my first IAFyesterday. I wasn't as nervous as I thought i would be. I was, however, anxious about the landing and flared a little too soon - resulting in a butt slide...the butt hit the ground a little harder than I would have liked and now I'm feeling it. I was wondering if I should be this sore all over. I guess all of my muscles tensed up just prior to landing because of my nerves...maybe that is why I am sore? I wore a hard helmet this time (as opposed to the frap hat) and the back of my head is sore. Not sure what that is about (b/c I thought the helmet fit fine). Just wanting to make sure that this soreness is normal and I couldn't have done something or injured myself and not really known it. Even with the soreness, I'm ready to go again & can't wait to do my next jump. I don't think I"ll be so anxious about the landing next time!

N/A

Hey guys! I just started about a week ago working with Nancy to help with some promotional/marketing things at CSS. If any of you have a MySpace account, be sure to add Carolina Sky Sports http://www.myspace.com/carolinaskysports as one of your friends to help promote good 'ole CSS! I'd also love to get any great photos & videos that you might have to add to the page. If you have any suggestions, I'm open to that too.

I don't get out to the DZ too often, but I'd love to meet more of you soon. I'll be there Sun, Nov 19th to do my Ground School & 6...hope to see some of you then!

Christie Hatch

I am also new to the sport...just completed my tandem level 4 jump and am on the way to a slow (but sure) progression to obtain my "A" license. I have 2 boys under the age of 3, and didn't start jumping until a year ago (when the boys were 5 months old and a 2 years old). My first jump was supposed to be my only one, just for fun, went with a group, etc. But, I loved it so much that I can't stop. My husband actually bought my first jump as a birthday present for me, and then he bought me 3 more jumps at Christmas. He didn't think I would use them all in a matter of 3 months. I'm trying to stay current - within 30 days of each jump - so I can progress to get my license. My husband did not know this was my plan. Since then, we have gone through the various discussions, I mean, arguments...about him telling me that I could not go past the tandem level 5 (because jump 6 would be my first AFF). Being the stubborn person that I am, I did not give in, because skydiving is important for me. I am a stay at home mom, who relishes the Saturdays that I can go jump and release some of my stress and not have a care in the world (except my parachute)! This past Saturday, I had a little bit of an emergency with my main chute (keep in mind this is still a tandem jump for me). We ended up riding our reserve down, with no other complications. The whole way down, I was thinking (instead of "thank God I'm alive") "oh my goodness, what am I going to tell my husband?" I decided to be honest and tell him what happened - he was OK with it, and it ends up that after a discussion (rather than an argument this time) he is going to be supportive of me getting my "A" license.

I know there are risks, I am not going to put myself in a situation where I multiply the risk of skydiving by performing maneuvers that I shouldn't. I am a Christian, and feel that God has put me here and He knows my plan. If it is my time to go, then so be it. I might as well enjoy my God-given life while I am on this Earth. I love my kids, and they mean the world to me. If I have something happen in the future during my jumps that makes me feel that it is just too risky, I will give it up. But, for now, this is my only release, and I love it. I truly believe that we are all our own person, and that nobody can tell you what to do. But, because of the nature of the sport, it does take support from your spouse/family. I can see how skydiving can break up marriages. If you have 2 stubborn people, it can happen that easily. I think it takes a lot of education on the part of the spouse that is not into skydiving, for them to understand the safety aspects of the sport, rather than looking only at the danger side of it. Good luck, and blue skies!

I am very new to this sport, but have fallen in love with it. I did my 4th tandem jump yesterday, and we had a little more to deal with than I was used to. Since I'm so new to this, some of the terminology and the parts of the chute/pack, etc. are confusing to me. I don't have ground school until after my next jump, so I'm guessing I'll learn all about the terminology/packing, etc. then. Anyways, We jumped at 14,000 ft, great exit, no problems. I was doing what I was supposed to do. I had checked heading, altitude, and began the delta-dive-delta maneuvers with no problems. It was all going great. I checked altitude between each maneuver and again after the last delta. I began to do my first practice ripcord pull at around 9,000 ft. It was at that moment, while still reaching out, that I felt the chute open. I knew it was early, but I just figured maybe I had accidentally pulled the cord instead of just doing a practice pull. It wasn't until I heard some choice words from my instructor that I realized that something was terribly wrong. He hands me the the cord and tells me to hold that while he is working on getting something fixed with the chute. Meanwhile, I'm clueless, but praying hard. Not really scared (surprisingly)...but I guess that is where my faith came in! Thank you, Jesus! So, it took us a long time to get down....but once our reserve got straightened out everything was OK. In talking w/my instructor, I tried to find out what exactly happened, so I could learn from this. (I'm actually OK with it, it was a good learning experience...rather my first reserve ride be with someone who has done this before than by myself). He said something about the container came off...it was the pack that the main chute was in...I guess it just left us?? That is possible? I couldn't figure out if he deployed the reserve, or if it just opened. Not sure if "cut away" means you actually cut the main chute off, or if it means you deploy the reserve. At any rate, the drogue (not sure if that is spelled right) evidently never came out on exit....and it seems that maybe that had something to do with the fact that the entire main chute came off...or whatever happened. I'm still very confused, just because I don't understand how it all works yet. Any advice, has this happened to anyone else, or any help on understanding what could have happened would be nice.

I'm still ready to go back up and jump again. We ended up actually making it back and landing right on target....with a stand-up landing (my first non-butt slide)!

Hi all! I just joined the Dropzone. I did my first tandem in Sept 05, have done my other 2 tandems this month. I am hooked on skydiving. Problem is, my husband doesn't want me to progress past the tandem jumps and do the training to get my license to jump solo. Not sure what to do after I get tandem 5 out of the way (since the next thing would be ground school and then my first solo flight-with instructor flying by my side). Any help out there on how I can convince him that it is really not that dangerous? His argument is that we have 2 small boys and he thinks I am taking too much of a risk. I love my boys, don't get me wrong...but, I love skydiving, and feel that you must live life to the fullest. I could get in my car today to go shopping and this could be "my time." I figure I might as well have fun while I'm here. I am supposed to do my tandem level 4 in about a month, and I can't wait! I'm so glad I had the nerve to give this a try!!

Thanks,
Christie