tonka

Mine is a piece-o-junk too. My finish is coming off every day, trim came off right away, padding is thin, audibles poke me in the head and dont even fit in the audible pockets, and the padding fell apart quickly. I have gaffers taped everything togather so it doesn't fall apart further but I plan on getting a new Bonehead or Cookie composites helmet. Basically its not the best but it works. Go buy a Cookie Helmet

Good advice. Thats pretty much what ive been doing-challenging myslef and trying all aspects of skydiving. I dont want to be the guy who can only freefly and swoop but cant do RW or CRW or fly a wingsuit. I also grew up on DZ's so I had a little head start on someone completly new to the sport. I have always and watched, listened, and learned before I could jump and now apply that to my skydiving and continue to watch, listen, and learn. Anyways skydiving kicks ass and I cant wait to get some ratings after I get my coach rating and get the required jump numbers. (Confident in my ability to get a coach rating but just havent applied myself on gettting the sheet filled out yet.) Ill save that for a weekend I dont have to shoot video on every load.

Hey, It all depends on the situation. A severely injured hook turn victim or someone who hits extremely hard would be very difficult to deal with. Many people think that they would be bleeding in obvious spots and all you need to do is go over and help stop the bleeding. The problem is these people have many internal injuries and should not be moved or touched. If responsive they should be calmed down and not allowed to move until professional medical personel arrive. Clearing their airway if someone has a plastic airway is nice but anything else is too risky to the individual unless you are medically trained to help. Applying pressure to external injuries may stop someone from bleeding to death but most of the time injuries are internal. I have been a first responder for a situation like that and there is not much to do. Another jumper and I landed nearby to help the badly injured jumper and hold him in place.(He was sliding down the side of a large ditch) Many onlookers arrived and just wanted to watch which pisses me off so bad. Some of them jumped down and started trying to cut gear off the jumper and yank him up the hill which we immediatly told them to fuck off. The DZO arrived shortly and cut the gear off in places where it could still be inspected. (Onlookers were trying to cut lines making it unable to see how the main/reserve was entangled for the inspection and investigation) Help arrived shortly and we were instructed to help the EMT's pull him up the hill. From there the medical professionals took over. We did the right thing by not moving or trying to help the individual because the EMT's took the same approach. They planted an airway and kept the person very still. I never saw any of them attempt to physiclly push or prod on the jumper because they knew that internal injuries could become worse if they did that. The jumper who was a good friend of mine died several hours later. I wish I could have done more to help but did all I knew was right. He suffered severe internal bleeding in his chest probably due to a severed aorta on his heart. Im sure his lungs were punctured and he had broken ribs also. All those severe injuries and there was no easily visible external damage making it hard for any first responder to do anything. When someone gets hurt but is conscoius and responsive. (Broken legs/back/pelvis/ribs) They should be kept still, camled down, and pressure applied to any severe bleeding. (Compound fractures) I have been around for other incidents but never went over to see my friends busted up. My outlook is if you are able to be their first then get your ass over there and keep things in control. If you can not be there first and there is already a large crowd at the scene dont go over and make things worse by crowding the scene unless you are professionaly trained to help. No matter if you are there first or a ways away keep calm, call 911, and act professional. (Does a student really want to come back and continue juming after seeing a bunch of rambling angry screaming crying individuals?) Let incidents be a lesson to the students by explaining what happened and why, what not to do, and that they should expect to see it happen again if they continue skydiving. I have grown up on DZ's and have seen many incidents over the years. I just dont want people thinking that with only one year of jumping I have been around for several fatalities. About 18 years watching the sport from the ground and only a year actually jumping is why I have seen so many incidents.

I have only jumped at one DZ. I agree that jumping at different locations helps you be prepared for more situations and able to handle them better. Thats why I am planning to actually have my gear and logbook next time I am near anotherer dz.

Hello all, I have heard this argument many times and want to see what the dropzone.com community has to say. Does staying current or having more years in the sport make someone a better flyer and more aware skydiver? (More jumps in a shorter time period or having more time to think about and analyze ones jumps?) Example- One Year in sport with 200 jumps vs. five years in sport with 300 jumps. I personally think staying current is the way to become a better flyer but many people have told me that more time in the sport helps you skydive better. Since I only have a year in the sport it would be nice to hear what people with many years of jumping have to say about this. Don't overthink this concept and come up with a million what is scenarios. (Unless you just cant help not coming up with your own crazy twist on the question) Anyways thats the poll and im gonna go pack some rigs because im poor. Thanks!

14 Jumps! Our otter was pretty busy on Saturday with 12 fairly full or full loads going up. Sunday we only sent 6 but it was still fun. Most were tandem videos, 2 tracks, and a 14 way attempt.

I can hit 75mph and under on a track with a FF suit. 5ft 9in and 135 pounds makes me very floaty. I can go about 100mph or less in just shorts and a tee shirt on a regular belly dive. My problem is speeding up. Gotta wear some damned weights while filming some tandems and most AFF jumps. I love tracking dives and wingsuit flying. Got a Tony Suit wingsuit down to 30mph. Cant seem to get my Bird Man Sky Flyer2 under 50mph. Im sure with more jumps on it ill find that sweet spot. Ill try and see how slow i can go on the next tracking dive. Maybe it will be in the 60's hahaha. Ya right...i doubt i could go that slow.

You could always come to Skydive Taft. We are smaller but real friendly. (hang out and BBQ or go out to dinner on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday after jumping) Much of our jumping is fun jumpers. (Not a tandem factory) There are always people willing to jump with new skydivers and help them get their stuff signed off. Our prices were also just lowered. We also have a kick ass Super Otter. Got satellite radio and gets 22 jumpers to 14,000 in 15 minutes. Well have fun jumping man. If I had to recommend Elsinore or Perris id say Perris because they got da tunnel, square1, and the Bomb Shelter. Peace and Blue Skies

Hey, I think a Sabre2 is a good canopy for you. Its a great canopy for beginners no matter what people may say. I started jumping a Sabre2 120 loaded 1.3 at about 65 jumps and it treated me great. If your canopy control and landing is good for your jump #'s there is nothing wrong with a Sabre2 120. If you are still sketchy with landing then stick with what you have for a while. Since your instructors are recommending something elliptical I would guess you are the kind of person who has no problem flaring a canopy and landing softly. In that case find a Sabre2 120 to jump for a while and then get a Sabre2 107. Im not sure you want an elliptical as of yet. I jump a Cobalt with a 1.7 WL now and think it is a great canopy but unless you are wanting to learn to swoop there is no point in getting something made for that. The Sabre2 has plenty of performance, speed, and is a good canopy to learn to swoop on. I noticed that once my WL got above 1.2 I had much more fun under canopy. Turbulence pretty much went away and landings were much easier. (Wind didnt try and drag me around while and after landing) I have never had problems coming in and landing softly so I progressed a lil quickly by most peoples standards. My instructors watch me land every week and have never had any issues with my landings and quick canopy progression. You seem to be in the same category as me so I see no problem in you getting into something smaller. Just remember I have not seen you land and I could be completly wrong so dont just listen to me but also dont just listen to all the people saying you are going to get hurt. Eeryone hears that stuff when on the forums here. Just don't do anything stupid, listen to your instructors, and learn from experienced jumpers you can trust. (People your instructors would approve of you learning from.) Be safe and blue skies

I am not an experienced canopy pilot but may be able to provide some helpful advice. Although it is very possible to swoop a non elliptical canopy, I would recommend something with a longer recovery arc so you don't have to turn so close to the ground. A Pilot can be swooped but having to turn low just doesn't seem like the right way to learn in my eyes. As you jump more HP canopies they will need more and more altitude to recover so why make that a habit when you will need to break that habit anyway. Having to turn low is also dangerous for the exact reasons the last poster pointed out. A Sabre2 is a good canopy because they are fast and glide out well when flared making for a nice canopy to learn on. I really enjoyed figuring a lil bit about swooping on one of them. I fly a Cobalt now and would recommend one for learning to swoop. It compares to a Sabre2 on steroids. The Cobalt is advertised as flying as fast as a canopy size smaller but having the flare of a size bigger. I agree with this and think it is a great canopy to learn because less of a turn is required than on a Pilot or Sabre2 to get that speed and you don't have to turn it so low. Its recovery arc is longer which is good because you will actually learn how the canopy recovers in relation to the ground and not have to turn and flare right away or double front riser into a flare as you said. A Cobalt is also very docile when not pushed so don't worry about it being too aggressive. I would recommend a Cobalt one size smaller that what you jump because of how they fly. (Flies faster like a smaller canopy but flares like a bigger one) My Cobalt has real light front riser pressure so diving and holding the fronts to stay in a dive like you are experimenting with is not such a chore. My favorite part about the Cobalt is how it glides out so well when flared so you don't have to put your feet down until you are stopped. I have seen great swoops on non elliptical canopies by very experienced pilots but the turns they do are ridiculous. Learning to swoop should not include having to do huge turns or low turns. Thats just my look on things. As I said before, I am not an experienced canopy pilot but have shown good progress and listen to experienced canopy pilots. Ask your canopy coach what you should do. I am sure they will have the correct answer. We have about the same jump #'s and time in the sport so I thought my insight might help. Have fun learning to swoop because I sure am.

Tandem at 16. AFF at 18. A lil under a year in the sport and have 300 jumps. Hoping to pick it up a lil next year.

Just purchased a Cobalt 95. I load it at 1.7:1. This canopy is very fast and responsive on toggles and risers. The openings are awesome if packed correctly. The best part of the canopy is the very light front riser pressure and massive amounts of flare. It can be made to stay in a dive longer than you would think using double fronts. Canopy builds up tons of speed using front or rear risers making for a nice fast landing. Canopy flies solid at slow speeds so you get a good surf and don't have to put your feet down till you are almost stopped. :) I can even fly it straight in from 1000ft and land it nice and soft. Canopy is very stable in flight and extremely hard to stall. It flies very solid and smooth...not bumpy, jerky, or drifting around. At lighter wing loadings this is a great beginner canopy and at higher loadings I have seen some awesome swoops. Canopy is very forgiving for an elliptical with its powerful flare. It flies and lands much like a Saber2 on steroids. Only other HP canopies I have flown include a Flight Concepts Rage 107 and a PD Vengeance 97. The cobalt out performs them both especially with the light front riser pressure and flare. I am a Cobalt fan for life now. Buy a Cobalt you will love it. Now I just cant wait to put several hundred jumps on it and then try my Competition Cobalt 85. Have put several hundred jumps on my Competition Cobalt 85. Awesome canopy. Dives more than a cobalt but not as much as expected. Almost a 2.0wl Planes out great using rears and glides so smooth. No running out landings. Can fly very flat in brakes and is soooo hard to stall. Doesnt dive quite like a Katana but it compares. No spot is too long. Always make it back to the landing area. Opens sweet. Almost always soft on heading openings. Great canopy.

Well I was a DZ kid and my dad is a DZO so I was born into it. If that wasnt the case I would have probably never even though of skydiving. Paintballing and collecting/shooting guns was what I was into before this. Now thats on the back burner while I jump as much as I can.

You are right. A malfunction would be easier to deal with if you have a lighter passenger any impact would be less because of the lighter loading. Sorry.

That is a perfect definition.

Wing loading was about the same as yours. Taking a lighter passenger like a child usually means taking a smaller canopy so a child may not be any better off. I think they would be worse off because children are on average more fragile than adults. If the instructor takes the impact on himself with a child passenger then the child would probably be better off than an adult passenger but under any other circumstances I think the child would be worse off.

I have to agree that skydiving is a high risk activity for adults. I was DZ kid all my life and never did a tandem until I was 16 and it was all legal. A child being hurt/killed in most high risk sports does not make the sport look bad but if this happened skydiving in the United States it would really look bad for the sport. Anyone who has been around skydiving for a while knows that friends can and will die skydiving or be seroiusly injured. How would you feel if this happened to a child on a busy Saturday? Just might make you think that children should watch skydiving from the ground like I did when I was a little kid. I even watched ash dives from the ground as a child-What if one of them was for a child? Just last Sunday I witnessed a tandem double malfunction. Both jumpers will recover but were injured pretty good. I know a child would have been injured worse with such a hard landing and thats something im not ready for this sport to accept. As a packer I do not want the responsibility of a small child going on a tandem. Even if it is not my fault I would not want a child getting hurt on my pack job. I packed the main on the double malfunction and I feel bad enough. I don't know what I would do if it was a child tandem passenger. Over one year of packing and over 1000 tandem pack jobs and my first malfunction ends in a double mal. It was a broken line on opening and not my fault at all but I still feel bad. A good friend of mine and a tandem passenger are in the hospital. I couldn't handle the passenger being a child, especially since I was one of the first on scene where thay came down. Thats just my point of view. Even if the child is the son/daughter of a tandem instructor are you ready to see such a tragedy, because I am not.

Theres no reason to think being scared is out of the ordinary and you should not jump because of it. If you stick with it your fear will turn into something else and thinking of jumping will give you butterflies and make you smile! What strikes me as odd is that you say the harness did not fit you correctly. I work at a DZ and we dont send a student or a person with one of our rigs unless it fits correctly. Have you been trained to see if a rig fits you properly? This is a very important factor because I have seen several occasions where people with new or borrowed eqiupment dont check to see if it fits properly and had to go to their reserve or had a hard time finding the handle. Other problems may also occur under canopy from a rig that does not fit properly or is not adjusted properly so dont jump unless you are sure that the harness fits! Talk to your JM(s) before the dive about the gear and see what they have to say after they check out how it fits you. If the rig fits properly you may have dropped a shoulder causing an unstable body position. Not only should you do practice touches on the ground, you should do them in a fully arched position with a JM watching you to make sure you are doing it correctly. Sounds to me like you may have dropped a shoulder by the way you say you had to use your left leg to regain stability and to reach the handle. Remember that your arms are what moves when you pull and not your body. Basically you may have turned your whole upper body to the right as you reached to pull and not just your arms. Talk to your JM about what happened because im sure he/she saw exacly what happened and should be able to help you. If the JM didnt see what happened then where the hell were they at pull time? Dont let this incident bother you. Remember that the most important part of the dive is to pull and that is what you did. Good job and keep jumping!

As many here have said going directly to you belly at break off from a freefly dive is dangerous. If you are in the stage of corking out while freeflying tuck into a ball to keep that fall rate up. From there try to go back into your sit. Do not spread out and let yourself go to your belly. Also if you are learning to freefly and are corking out you should only be jumping with one other person so you can work on you freeflying without worrying about where everyone is and not be dangerous to other jumpers. Also, doing 2-ways while learning is great because you can focus on that one person which helps you learn to keep a heading and helps you figure out where exactly you are going in the sky. (backsliding) I don't fly on my head unless it is a 2-way or linked exit because of the risk involved in corking out or just being plain out of control and crashing into someone while I am learning to fly on my head. I go onto my back almost tucked into a ball at break off while sit flying because I am so floaty that doing anything else could be disasterous. From there I slow down while tracking away on my back. I make sure no one is above me, flip to my belly while continuing to track and finish the track away on my belly. I am not an experienced jumper but I have spent much of my life around DZ's and learned as much as I could. Now that I am old enough to jump I use all these things I have learned to be a safe skydiver. Everyone makes mistakes but dont let your mistake be something so easily prevented.

I did a 2,100ft jump once. Clouds were low so we sent a Cessna load to see just how low they were. Either get out or ride the plane down. It was a lil freaky since I only had like 50 jumps but it all ended up good. I have no problem doin em that low as long as I am able to repack my main to open a lil faster.

Skydive Taft is a top notch facility with a professional staff, awesome jump plane, and great people to jump with. I recommend it to anyone whether they are a first time jumper, learning to skydive, or an experienced jumper. People are always willing to help you get liscensed, learn to pack, and become a better and safer skydiver. To top it all off you can hang out after the day is done and keep having fun.