pinkfairy

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Lol! Um, I think it was an subtle warning about getting pied, not the naked jump...

No one gets pied on their 100th! That's for 1000th!

My first jump was a tandem, and not a typical instructional tandem, I only got to steer the canopy for a bit, but was instantly hooked. I knew I wanted to do this, and I was wondering why everyone didn't do it all the time.

"Ride"-tandems also sells skydiving, but I'd really have liked to pull the handle that first time. And I think many people who only want to jump once would like to do just that, I think it would make a better jump.

Buying me food is good even if coupons are involved.

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Hint: Take a towel and a spare change of clothes...

That's for pussies!



Really, in the plane you're with people you know anyway, and once you land, you'll have a big sheet of nylon to cover yourself with anyway.

Bringing extra clothes only complicates things, and don't even think about bringing it in freefall: safety risk with stuff flapping all over the place. And where are you gonna put it anyway? in the BOC?

You: NAKED, the rest of the load are wearing jumpsuits and fly around you and pick up grips on you. Get video with a GOOD videographer, good luck!

If you're gonna have the whole load naked, I recommend launching a small base, maybe of 3 or 4 with you in it, then build a star from that. The people on that need to be fairly experienced, I flew like crap without my jumpsuit in the beginning. Don't even try to turn a second point unless the people are VERY experienced and fairly similar in body weight and type. Be sure to get video.

Seriously, all of my "milestone jumps" have been training jumps of some sort:

100: RW drill jump with video
200:Freefly drill jump with video
300: Bigway drill jump with video
400: Bigway drill jump with video.

Does that make me a geek?

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it does make your butt look pretty small..

That's only because my bootie covers it.

For some reason I ended up with a lovely, extremely costumized (costum colors and embroidery, there is nothing like it in the world) Aerodyne Icon. 8 weeks delivery time, but the stock rigs are said to be ready in two weeks!

It works and is comfortable. And they come with the skyhook now.
That's me wearing it in front of the picture. It's the red one with the flame embroidery in the sides.

But I'm sure the Odyssey and Micron are good too, I don't know much about the Infinity, so I can't say anything about it.

Good to hear!
I'm partial to my Pilots and Smart myself, but PD makes nice canopies too.

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CA. NORCAL OR SOCAL doesn't matter

Uh, I was referring to EFS. Never mind; it was before your time.

I tried getting that engraved on a new iPod as a treat for myself, since I joined the 100-way club, but the Apple Store just crashed. Maybe it will accept just the acronym.

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umm if I counted to 6000 even if I started counting from exit I would have much bigger problems then not having a working Altimeter....

You know what I mean:

One thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand, five thousand, six thousand.

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Deploying high without letting folks know is a bit naughty.

Yeah, but you're not supposed to die either!

Collision between jumper under canopy and jumper in freefall can be as serious as collision between jumper in freefall and the planet. It would be great if you tried to not take anyone with you.

The poll that starts this thread leaves out many options that more experienced jumpers would have chosen. On group jumps, you'd know the altitude at breakoff in any case, because the brakoff is usually keyed, and even when it's not, seeing that everyone else is leaving means that you should be leaving too.

Knowing the breakoff altitude before going up is part of having a planned skydive, and is basic safety.

Then you can count to 6000 for every 1000 feet you track if you track like an average person, and to 7000 if you're good, you should know this already, I thought counting seconds in the track was tought to AFF students.

Open and fly the canopy like normal.

And stop doing solos and get into RW. For safety!

But being able to jump without them isn't the same as having jumped without them. Knowing the breakoff altitude and counting seconds in the track means that the jumper will be able to jump with a malfunctioning altimeter. I hadn't practiced jumping a 50-way with no full face or audible, but I had no problem doing it.

It's about knowing how to do it, not deliberately leaving behind important tools, IMHO.

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that's because you are tight

Good to know!



Still, naked skydiving makes hardly anyone look good. A good arch and the rig makes even a thin butt look fat, flapping genitalia are not pretty, and the air makes especially the front of the thighs look odd. And all the flailing because it feels slippery and inputs doesn't work so well.

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Jumped with just a rig a few times. (No AAD even.) I think it's important to be able to skydive without gadgets.

I think the gadgets, like the altimeter and goggles are there for a reason and are good to have. I don't think it's important to have jumped without them. Even if you THINK you can eyeball the altitude, the altimeter is better at it, and goggles really makes you see better in freefall.

I have a couple of naked jumps, though, but being the sissy that I am, I wore shoes. And I forgot my helmet on a big jump once, I was preoccupied with how to get my O2 hose where I wanted it, and they wouldn't stop the 3 planes taxing out just because one jumper forgot her helmet.

Naked skydives are fun: you'll be surprised at how slippery it feels, you have nothing to fly on, but the old techniques still work. Dives work, stops work, and soft docking work. You KNOW that you're a true RW geek when you laugh more at the extreme body positions than at all the stuff flapping about. I had my feet up at my BOC, of course weightbelts count as clothes.

I think that the Mr. Bill in the video went rather well: he got the canopy off his foot and everything.

I know people who have done them, and the description I get is usually "scary!". The internet is full of videos of them going wrong, and this forum is full of horror stories about them. They can go wrong in so many ways.

Probably a good idea to avoid them if you'd rather not have line burns around your feet, bones broken or equipment ruined.

You are a bad woman for posting this. I get all these mental pictures of naked skydivers in the shower all covered in soap/body wash. WAY too graphical descriptions here, and of course I had to read it!

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Guess all I'm saying is Ive been jumping audibles nearly my entire skydiving life (however short that is) and have never gone low while using an audible.

I have!

Intentionally and unintentionally.

I've gone low at a few break offs in order to clean the air around me (think pilot chute just below me, people who are so far down that I can't know if I'm clear of them or not).

And at one point when my L&B Solo malfunctioned and I didn't notice. I just kept tracking and went "I should be hearing some beeping soon, wow, I'm covering ground when I track, I'm good! OK, maybe stop and deploy, I can see the power line attachments here, this is probably not a good sign".

That was pretty dumb, in retrospect. Don't rely too much on the audible, and don't waste time looking at your wrist mount once you realize that you're low ( didn't, I just flattened out and dumped). The good thing about going low with a malfunctioning audible is that you don't get that high pitched siren in your ear. I'm sure it's harmful to the ear, and it's really annoying too, especially when you've already dumped and have an almost open canopy above your head.

OK, I'm sure this fits right into the spirit of this thread. I don't think the getting clear airspace was dumb, though.

Aerodyne makes the Triathlon in ZPX, if you're having trouble packing a 7-cell the size you want into your main container, you might have room for a bigger ZPX Triathlon. I have a ZPX 111 Pilot in a I1 Icon, that's a container that's really for a 99 main.

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of course I'm afraid of falling out of a plane...who isn't...

Raises hand: ME!

I'm wearing a parachute

We should made a poll about this: are you afraid of falling out of an airplane: Yes or No. I think we'd get an overwhelming majority of no in this forum.

Hi!

The Pilot is a very nice canopy, it's really flatly rigged and doesn't dive as much in a turn as a Sabre2, it also glides really far and has great openings, but the point where the flare starts working is a little lower than what you're used to with the Sabre2. The steering lines might also not be the correct lengt for you, people have different sized arms, so perfect for one person might be not so good for you. Bear that in mind while flying it the first time and do some test flares while up high.

I'm on my third Pilot, and I love them, but I did beat myself up (literally) when learning to fly my first one, that was both smaller than my previous canopy, and a different model.

Take care, and tell us how it goes!

And congratulations with the size reduction. That was quite substantial, now you'll have to wear all that weight in a weightbelt instead.

Yes, I've seen someone grounded temporarily for a botched swoop that he was lucky to walk away from, and I know about a couple of students who were grounded permanently, for pretty serious incidents that could have killed them (one landed a malfunction, one landed a downplane). And it wasn't just the incidents, it's their attitudes, they didn't understand how serious it was, or how they could have handled the situation differently. One of them had a lot of repeat jumps during AFF and just didn't seem to want to actually pull any handles.

Over here, all the DZs are operated by the parachute clubs, and we use the same rules, and can get someone grounded for the entire country, because all the clubs are in the same parachute association.

Are you saying that us bigway skydivers are dirty low pullers?

[/shocked]

He doesn't need to "max" his canopies floating capabilities in order to land last if he pulls high and has a wingload suitable for beginners.

But I see your point.

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Two comments...

Half breaks? You might even try rear risers. It tends to be more efficient, but, a bit harder on the arms.

He's a beginner. Grabbing toggles and fly at the sweet spot is easier than grabbing toggles and then rear risers, which is going to be both heavy physically and more complicated. Using only toggles will achieve what he needs: keep the vertical separation to the people with smaller canopies who pulled lower than him. I can land last using only toggles with my 1.3:1 wingloaded canopy, if he's got an appropriately sized canopy for his experienve level, so should he.

Good stuff, it'll work as long as the other guy can keep up speed. Oh, the dishonor of going low in this 17 year old little floaty guy. There should be an 18 years age limit for that reason only!

wmw999: Aaaah, No key exits, fun, fun fun!

Looks like I have some plans, then