pinkfairy

Ditto! Thanks for posting, maybe we learned something.

No not really...if ya were to have any problems, ya got the rest of your life to fix it! When Airwarto started, they didn't have those fancy square parachutes, only the rounds, and rounds open fast. They generally put out SL students a little higher these days. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Very, very easy to pack even when brand new, and flew and landed like normal. I like it!

Hi! It sounds like you are a quite "standard" size and will easily find used gear that will fit you. If you do that, you'll save a lot of money that you can use on more jumps. I'm a really odd size, (small, small girl), and ordered new only because I wasn't comfortable with the 126 reserve that sat in the few rigs that fit me when I was a beginner. But that's me and my priorities. No point in carrying around a reserve that you're afraid to use. I did use that big reserve this year, it was bigger than my main, and it is a good feeling sitting under a reserve that feels like you'd be able to land it asleep. Why only looking at Vector? Javelin, Mirage, Aerodyne, Wings, and many others make great gear. Have a look at the Aerodyne Smart reserve too, great flare and lands well.

The hard deck is not only about how long it takes to get rid of the main and inflate the reserve, it's also about how long it takes to find and pull the handles, and then find a suitable landing area if you can't make the main landing area. Mine is at 1500'. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Sweet! I'll show this to my gay skydiving friends, I'm sure you'll make an even bigger formation next year! Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Sure, it looks all innocent in the midnight sun with blue skies and leafy, green trees and big, big wild flowers. But just give it a couple of months and it will soak your Gore Tex jacket all through. Main reason I'm not moving is work, though. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Northern or western Norway. Away from people. There, I said it. No plan, though. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/ This is great, cutting edge science presented in a way that normal people like me can understand, plus I love their brit accents. And it makes me laugh.

Scar tissue in my bones? Yes, Metal, no. Thankfully.

The solution is of course getting into belly flying big time. Get a FS suit with booties and go flying! Hurting balls is probably a hint that freeflying is not for you! Seriously, I really think a jumpsuit would help. The ones that aren't custom sewn for you are often really cheap too, and they remove any risk of your t-shirt flapping up and covering your handles. Freeflying at 30 jumps? Make sure your rig is suitable for freefly, then. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Fast as the wind or like a rock above me orange canopy bloom like a mushroom cloud Shhh. It's poetry! I will write all my logbook entries like this from now on. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

I did. I read both the original post and the linked article, but I still believe that what kills most skydivers is old age. I also think that the winner effect goes a long way to explain risky behavior in skydiving, and why women tend to be more conservative than men. Study on how the winner effect affects stock traders: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080414174855.htm Rising levels of testosterone following a victory causes the winner to take increased risks, both in humans and in animals, which increases the chances of another victory and of negative effects, such as predation, loss on the stock market, and hooking in.

I thought most of them died of age and lifestyle related illnesses, like the rest of the population. They have kids, stop jumping, get fat and stop excercicing. And then they grow old. I don't have the statistics, but the number of skydiving deaths every year compared to the total number of skydivers don't add up to "hitting something hard" as the main cause of death for parachutists. I'm not saying that skydiving is safe, but it's not what kills most skydivers. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

28. Had just started in a new job and thrown out my lazy, good for nothing BF. Really wanted to start jumping, but didn't think I'd dare to go out of the plane. I did a tandem first, and then I really didn't have a problem getting out. Signed up for AFF the following week. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Unpack it, put it on your floor, roll around naked in it, NICE! Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Ditto about the Pilot: Swooping doesn't interest me, and the short recovery arc suits me fine when building speed with both frint risers. My experience is with lightly wingloaded Pilot 132 and 124. Fun canopy to fly, easy on toggles and harness input. First class openings, really nice, I do like Scectre openings better, but that's a seven cell and not really comparable. Just fewer things happening above my head at opening time because there are fewer cells. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Looks like I'm stuck with a wingload of 1.1:1 for a long time still. I'm a featherweight of 116 punds without gear and a Pilot 124 that I land easily with or without my 8 pounds weightbelt. I don't really like to go up in more than 18 knts of wind, but it depends if it's very gusty or not, and if the middle winds have a lot of speed or not. My canopy rides are pretty much the same all the time: I fly a lot in half brakes to allow all the stressed out people to land before me, sometimes I do some spiralling, either on toggles or front risers to get down into the pattern if there's room for me, but mostly I wait out on brakes, I fly a conservative pattern, if I need to shorten my finale, I use double front risers, I also use them to build a little speed for my landing. Is there anything useful or fun I can do with this canopy if I'm pulling high and have time and space to play with it? Maybe I should start pulling down the slider? Any other suggestions? I just want to avoid the temptation to buy a 110-ish canopy. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

If you don't take an active part in getting contraception, we just have to assume that you want babies. Is there really etiquette connected with this? Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Landing at a higher altitude or landing with weights is not like flying a smaller canopy. When you get a smaller canopy, you get more speed, but you also get some other characteristics, a smaller canopy will give you more of a pendulum effect while turning sharply, and might also be more sensitive to harness input. You also get an increase in the power of the flare that corresponds to the increase in speed. When you put on weights, you get the increase in speed and flare, but not the other characteristics, and at a higher landing altitude, you just get the increase in speed. I've seen many people been done bad landings at a DZ with an unfamiliar altitude MSL, but most do fine. I think you shouldn't think too much about it, and flare out your canopy like normal, the navigator 260 and 240 is big and forgiving, and it has a really good flare. It's not a bad idea in any case to know how to do a PLF in any case. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

I think you'll have just as much fun with an Aerodyne Pilot or even a PD 7 cell such as the Spectre. Wouldn't it be great to NOT have to worry about openings all the time? If you don't know how to fly an opening, maybe you shouldn't have a canopy that is known to require extra attention in the openings? Take care! Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

Yes, but I've gotten some surprises when I finally met them IRL. They weren't quite what they had made me believe they were, but maybe that's just me, maybe I have a too vivid imagination. Oh, the joys of online dating... Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

+1 And my friend has an old altimeter from Alti-2 that is 20 years old and he's worn it for 1000 skydives, and it still works great. Nice to not have to worry about batteries.

They can't be opposed to you learning to pack, can they? packing is safe! And profitable. I think you should wait with the skydiving plans till you're done with college, then you can earn your own money and decide for yourself. Tandems aren't safe either, that's not an argument to allow solos, but they aren't safe. I think you should do a tandem if you want to, tandems are fun, I even liked it when I rode the passenger harness for another skydiver who was getting his tandem licence. It's nothing like flying in the tunnel, though, the drogue makes you fall like a brick, and you really have no controll, your instructor and the drogue outflies you. But you get to fall out of a plane and fly an incredibly big parachute. Or spend your money on more tunnel time. If I'm restless because I don't get to skydive, I find that packing, or just some plain ol' physical excercise helps Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

First 2000': Cloudy, seems like it's gonna snow day in winter, few hour of daylight up here north, just before christmas, accuracy target set up for a very informal accuracy competition, chief instructor goes "Please, pretty please don't hook low to get to the target, look, the prize is this neckhat, it's not worth it!" First load gets up and they get 2000 before they hit the cloud cover. Some of the jumpers ride the plane down because they're not comfortable with the exit altitude. OK, so 2000 is what I get: Damn it's low, I can see all the houses in details, snowy roads and people out doing their shopping, then we climb the last couple of hundred feet to 2000 and the ground is blocked by clouds. I'm at 2000 and see only white. I go out under the wing of the C-182, hang like a static line student and let go, pull immediately, have a PC hesitation, but I'm out of the cloud by the time it cleared, PD Silhouette 150 is open at 1500. Good spot but missed the target. The competition got cancelled after a while, as the cloud cover got lower and lower, and it wasn't really a good idea to fly the plane in clouds at those temperatures. Good times! I'll do it again, and I'll go from 1500' once I've stopped having those anoying PC hesitations on hop n' pops. I'm a typical turbine baby. Oh, and all of the above was according to the rules here in Norway. Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet. I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?