humanflite

Classic

Disclaimer - Right here Provided you dont have an old injury that is causing the stifness... for me at least I found that I learnt to pull out a strong arch after a few weeks practising at home prior to my AFF course. I found a piano stool was a good practice table and once I had got a good arch on there and could hold it a while it was waaay easier doing it in the air. If your struggling you could start out just doing your front half of the arch at home if you do use a stool and then do your legs seperate. Do them half and half for a week or so and then try putting them together and you will have a marked improvement Im sure. All the best

RESULT

I wouldnt have been limping for the past 2 weeks But seriously. Even as a newb to this sport, it has given my life a new purpose... a direction I am going to follow. Wherever it takes me

That is a hard one to call...I used to ride motorcross at a national level and the vast majority of injuries were collarbones, dislocations etc Although I did know one poor dude who was left quadraplegic after a crash in practice. Only 16 YO as well :( Road racing on the other hand can have some nasty injuries but yes, they are falling on to tarmac witha lot of protection, but also at higher horizontal speed...but often from not as high up as a bad crosser crash due to the large jumps. The Dunlops were indeed legends. There is nothing as dangerous in motorsport as the Isle of Man TT races and other Real Road races IMHO though. These guys knew the risks, and died doing what they loved.

Thats a classic

Pictures needed for verification please

I had no choice. Started thinning out a little on top and went for it. Had a Shaved head for 5 years and loving it I wasnt bad enough by a long way for a hair piece but if I ever went that way I would never have one. But Im gonna be skinned till I die so i dont care

If its a Tandem with a good instructor then you have you have a very good chance of making the holiday! If you are doing an AFF level (which I doubt from your post) then you have more chances of things going wrong. I did only my 8th jump the other day and screwed my ankle up with a cr*p landing (all my own fault)..as a result Im gonna be out of action for another 4-6 weeks ..and I no way could have gone on holiday the day after it Its annoying But im gonna use the time to get as fit and knowledable as possible. plus lots of tunnel time,.

On reflection I see what some of the AFF Is were referring to when they said, this was not a 'terrible AFF' This one on the other hand....has to come close to a 'showcase bad aff....surely' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC-CTwe-7dI

Ive seen the Scott Lutz jump It is quite something But I could at least understand what he did wrong!! Now the mistakes of this AFF jump have been discussed and explained I feel much more confident about the level 5

Again. thanks for this golden reply NicDG I will remember this info and hopefully will fly through my level 5 on the weekend

lol Good one. cheers Thanks for the advice guys. NickDG, some fantastic info there. Cheers Not worried about this scenario at all now. Thanks again

k guys, well I was just looking on you tube for some AFF videos as 5 is my next jump and I came across this horror show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exmZkwSAJxc The main trauma starts after about 1 minute and continues to the end!!! wtf? What is this dude doing wrong apart from non existant arch? Can someone please explain how this dude has got himself into this position and how to avoid the same thing!! I was totally calm about 5 until I saw this as 4 went great. I've so far had no stability issues in the air,controlled and stable exits, have a decent arch, and apart from the AFF instructors telling me to straighten out my legs into the airflow and point my toes more in levels 1 and 2 its been going superb... But like I say, reassurance needed please This has got me panicked about 'what ifs' that I never considered during my jump planning. Im gonna ask my instructor what the recovery method is but your thoughts would be great. Im thinking he's gonna say, 'a hard arch'...but still. Im worried!

Wow

Thanks for the input guys... Billvon Thanks very much for this useful info...theres some real food for thought there and you have helped me understand a few things that were bugging me and even though I asked my instructor he didnt answer my fall rate question as eloquently as you did

Thanks Billvon 1/ will do but any quality extra info I can get is always a bonus in my book! 2/ Thanks. I went straight for the PLF position but then remembered that my leg straps prevent me from doing a proper PLF as I can no way get my thighs together and will end up doing a bow legged effect so that I can get feet together!! Is this common with all rigs or just AFF ones? Im mobile and decent physique and its several other students Ive spoken to have said the same thing?! 3 and 4/ thanks, great info 5/ Thanks a lot. It was a lot faster than I was used to and I definately panicked a little as the ground was coming up much quicker than normal. I think that was partly to blame (combined with being on brakes and then off - and surging) with my bad flare for my scud landing Im curious about the different speeds involved. How is rate of fall factored in to groundspeed? Surely a 15 stone guy under a 280 will come in harder than an 11 stone guy under the same canopy same conditions? SO even if they both have a 20mph groundspeed surely the bigger guy is going to land harder? or am I talking rubbish?

ok folks So Im mid way through my AFF here in the Uk and loving every minute of it except the landings... The instructors are great and as drill us heavily on the freefall side of things, but I feel the landings dont get as much focus...except 'flare at 10-15ft' and face into wind I took a no wind landing yesterday and even tho I was jumping an AFF canopy (Im 15 stone) I messed it up, had half brakes on till maybe 70ft and the instructor radioed me to 'toggles up' (I was resting on the toggles which is a mistake I will never make again!) and then I letem go and surged into the dirt as I flared with arms out forward in a panic instead of between the groin. I also stepped out of the flare so I got told which turned out to be a big mistake as I twisted my ankle. fairly badly So can any of you experienced jumpers tell an AFFer how to land as light and safe as possible? I didnt have any issues really till this no wind landing which threw my 'head into wind' landing plan out of the door. Tips like - How to judge my distance when sub 50ft (eg/ when to flare) Is it always best to have toggles fully UP right until the flare? WHat other info would help me not to injure myself again thanks

I agree. This thread should not be about bragging. Different DZs have different levels of strictness for passing AFF Different instructors are the same (where one will let something questionable slide, but another will fail you.) Therefore there is no bragging rights in passing AFF fast IMHO. Because the playing field is not level. Apart from the fact that 'its NOT a race' And as some posters have said. A guy or girl could take a while to pick freefall, exits and drills up, but turn out to be a far more talented or even a world class skydiver a few years down the line.

It will probably extract the canopy more quickly. What would lead you to believe (and I say this not to question your intelligence, but to suggest a way of thinking about these things) that extracting the canopy as quickly as possible is always a good thing? And that it comes at no cost? Large pilot chutes don't necessarily provide more immediate drag -- they take a moment longer to unfold. Even if they did, or when they ultimately kick in, extracting the canopy too quickly leads to all sorts of ugliness, much of which can be traced back to distortion in the packjob as it's extracted. It's called a deployment sequence for a reason -- doing it all at once does real damage to performance. Nice info...Thanks. Your right...I had not really thought about the negative factors involved in making the deploymennt sequence too fast..Im starting to see the light on this now

ok guys, just to clarify I dont have a base number yet (or a Base jump to my name yet) but am working towards this aim. I was unsure whether to post this in the rigging section but it is more appropriate in the Base specific forum I think.. My question is something that I am slightly confused and very curious about and I'm hoping some experienced folks can answer it for me :) How do you make the best PC selection for an object? and also, why is is not safer/better to jump with a big PC all the time?? say 46inch (or larger if they were made?!) Surely this can only help in extracting the canopy from the container? and give less chance of a PC hesitation? Or is there extra turbulence or other problems associated with jumping a large PC? To emphasise!!! this is a question!! and not a statement as Im sure the base community knows a lot better about this than I do. Im just very curious really. cheers