apb

thanks Dan. Will have a look at the website and give the dz a ring nearer the time. maybe see you there! adrian

Hi I'm coming over from the UK for a wedding in Charlottesville, Virginia and was thinking about maybe bringing my rig to get a day's jumping in on friday the 2nd of November. Couple of questions for the locals.... Any good dropzones around there? what's the weather normally like at this time of year? jumpable??? thanks, adrian

thanks guys. have been to sebastian before and views are spectacular. am in the States in November already so might struggle to get the wife to go again but we'll see. if i do make it will look you both up. take care, adrian

Hi Can anyone help. Have searched a bit but getting nowhere. Are there any boogies on or events by the beach somewhere hot in Jan 08 or Feb if nothing in Jan. Looking to go away with the wife (a non-jumper). Thanks in advance,

i would tend to agree with Squeak. Look outside the window at what the weather has been like in this country......In Empuria if the weather is good and you are competent you can do your AFF in 3 days easy and get all your consols done in another 2-3 days too. That's where i did mine and couldn't have had a better time. As far as meeting people is concerned, you will always make friends at dz's wherever you go and meet people of a similar standard etc. I'm not just advocating Empuria in particular (although i am ) so have a look around at others but a lot of english people go out to do theirs. You could still be doing your AFF in this country 4 weeks later......

I'm at work right now... day dreaming about skydiving and posting instead of actually doing anything productive for the boss. Quote sounds like a normal day in the office to me! not a day goes by at work when i'm not checking the 10 day forecast, looking at the webcam at the dz i go to, looking on dz.com or skydivingmovies.com. A lot of people would call it sad!

I would be interested to hear from someone who is in the same situation as Peanut and I and NOT divorced! What's the secret? It sounds like you have a dropzone nearby if you're there all the time? My wife hates skydiving and resents me doing it especially as the nearest decent dz is 3 hours away. money to do it is also an issue with her! Because of this i go maybe 4-5 times a year in trips of between 2-5 days and try to get as many jumps as i can in in that period. it's not a lot but if you can get >25 jumps in per trip it satisfies the craving for a little while at least. if you say you're going every weekend then maybe that's the problem. you might want to spend one or two weekends with your other half. i'm not saying my way is right as i don't go often enough and would like to go more but i take what i get!!!

To pull the pin on a grenade... I'm not so sure I'd be in a big hurry to rent a rig w/ canopy to someone with only 200 jumps that put them at a wing-loading of 1.4:1. A question back to you, "Will this motivate you to keep better track of when your reserve needs an I&R and make double sure its in date before you go someplace new?" Zigzagmarquis, in answer to your questions, the wing loading issue wasn't an issue. what was an issue was waiting for a yes or no for over an hour whilst they calculated it. My friend was willing to jump the 150 and I would borrow her 170 which is what i usually jump as her wingloading is a lot less than mine and her experience is greater. i arrived there at 9.30 in the morning and did my only jump about 12.30pm. the rest happened after this. as for motivating me to keep better track of my reserve then it's getting done at the moment. And Stratostar no i'm not doing it myself! Looks like the No tracking part was BS according to consensus then!

Sure. And you seem like a bitchy customer.... Really? why is that? because i would like to go to a dropzone and jump? how long does it take someone to work out a wingloading? over an hour? Anyway this is digressing from the main question: With the gear mentioned is it normal not to be able to track with club gear or is this a one off experience?

The equipment was a Xerox container (BOC) and Silhouette 190 main. I was also waiting over an hour while they worked out the wingloading on whether i could jump a 150 (I have 130 jumps on a 170 and about 5 on a 150). It didn't matter whether it was a yes or no as my friend jumps a 170 and said i could jump hers and she would borrow the 150 as her WL was a lot lower than mine (mine was 1.39). By the time they worked all this out and gave me a slot it was 3 hours later! I thought this is supposed to be a service industry!!! Needless to say by this time I decided to call it a day!

Maybe they just said: no tracking jumps or backtracking? Nope. in general you could go tracking if you wanted to. I just wasn't allowed at all, not even on my front...

I went to a UK dropzone on the weekend and on arrival was told my reserve repack was a day out of date (my own fault). Having been told i could jump the club gear i was told no freeflying in club kit and NO TRACKING? how do they work that one out? Surely if you have to track for separation whatever skydiving discipline you are doing then this should be ok. what are other people's views??? it seemed to be that the club couldn't have been more anal about everything but if someone can explain it to me then i might change my mind..... Maybe i just had a bad experience at this particular dz but the owners seemed to go out of their way to make life as impossible for me to jump as they could. If they don't want to encourage new jumpers to the dz then they went the right way about it! For the record i have 200 jumps with about 130 of those freefly and about 60 since Jan this year.....

Hi mate. Haven't got any experience of their suits but have just bought a Fuego Pro helmet off them and am more than happy. If it helps, customer service is outstanding.....

will look out for you then Scoop. i'm sure there'll be a beer or 2 drunk! will look into headcorn. apart from that looks like the best thing to do is travel north or get a few people together and phone one of the dz's in advance to check.....

N/A