GLIDEANGLE

From the 2008 USPA Instructional Rating Manual: Candidates may earn the USPA IAD or Static-Line Instructor rating who have met all the following requirements: a. reached the age of 18 years b. holds or has held any USPA instructional rating c. earned a USPA C license or the FAI equivalent and made at least 200 jumps d. completed the USPA IAD and Static-Line Instructor Proficiency Card (applicable portions) e. satisfactorily completed a USPA IAD or Static-Line Instructor Certification Course registered with USPA headquarters The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Regarding: "As an instructor, I'd be very upset if a newbie like you was giving instruction, never mind the bowling speech to one of my students. " Reviewing the OP's profile, it appears that he may have been the instructor, speaking to HIS student. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I thought that the facial peircings were ballast to keep you head down! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

RSL -- main pulls reserve pin. Skyhook -- -main acts as large pilot chute to help deploy reserve very quickly. Why not Skyhook on all rigs? As I understand it UPT is licensing the technology ---$$$$$. Also, as I understand it implementing Skyhook is such a big modification that there is TSO type testing involved (both $$$ and TIME). The Mirage Main Assisted Reserve Deployment product is a competing product to the Skyhook. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I haven't heard of this problem before, but is makes good sense that any of the following might aggravate pre-existing edema: --Leg straps that impede venous blood flow. --Lots of spiraling under canopy. --Just high altitude alone might aggravate some people's edema. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Hmmmm... As you evaluate the various advice you get, be sure to assess if the person giving you the advice has a conflict of interest. Does the rigger have money tied up in the Nitron that he or she is eager to get back out? Could that bias his/her advice? I can't see how USPA or Brian Germain would have a conflict of interest in this matter... so why not check out what they have to say about wing loading: USPA: http://www.uspa.org/SIM/Read/Section5/tabid/168/Default.aspx#53b AND http://www.uspa.org/SIM/Read/Section6/tabid/169/Default.aspx#610d Brian Germain http://www.bigairsportz.com/pdf/bas-sizingchart.pdf (Note: All 22 pages of this publication are worth reading... not just the table on page 1.) Regarding...."I get a lot of weary reactions from people at DZs I visit"... Why do you think that is? Loading ambulances gets "weary" in a hurry. Be sure to read up on how wingloading does NOT scale in a linear manner. Specificly, how canopies smaller than 150 sq ft are a different than those larger (regardless of wingloading). The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Thank You! This is the most helpful info on this topic that I have seen posted in DX.com on this topic in three years! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I did my first AFF jump exactly two years ago (yes, I checked my log book). [URL http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3464203#3464203] With the recent forum discussion about “no one wants to jump with a newbie”, [/URL] I thought that publishing my story might show that there are PLENTY of folks who will jump with newbies here in North Texas @ Skydive Dallas. Warning… I am certain that I will fail to mention some jumpers who helped me a lot… Please forgive me! Unlike the “nobody wants to jump” poster… I am not young, I am not female, and I am ABSOLUTELY not attractive (especially with my special “birth control glasses” I wear when jumping). This is only relevant because I got lots of jumps despite being a middle aged, balding, overweight guy. In the beginning, it was the instructors and coaches who provided my guidance. Yes, they were paid for their effort. However, the quantity of time and effort they spent was far more than what I paid for. In particular, one coach (Jennie) saw me through a rough period in my jumping skills. She never gave up, worked long and hard… and got me beyond my scary skill trouble. I was at about 30 jumps and still really struggling to get the accuracy I needed to earn my A-license. Rob Laidlaw was visiting our DZ. When he learned of my situation… he spent lots of time that day briefing and debriefing each jump to help be get the accuracy I needed. Rob never asked me for a dime. I don’t know the details of his economic relationship with the DZ, but it would have been very easy for him to say… “Just keep working on it, you will get it with time.” But he didn’t. I did my A-license check dive on jump #40 on a Saturday at the end of the jumping day. I distributed my case of beer that evening. The very next day I had no opportunity to be a “solitary-low-time-jumper”. I got pulled into FIVE jumps that day… a 7 way, a 5 way, a 4 way, an 8 way (SCR!), and a 6 way. None of these folks hesitated to risk a jump on the new guy… I had a great time and every time I apologized for my errors I was gently told to “stuff a sock in it” (in not so many words). It was clear that my fellow jumpers knew damned well that I needed to be taken care of… I got all the easy slots and PLENTY of slack for my errors. Next the big figures in my growth as a new jumper were the load organizers. While there are many, Brett and Dennis played key roles for me. Yes, I figure that the load organizers have some sort of compensation for their work, but once again, the volume of time and the sincere caring attention they gave me and my low-time peers was remarkable. When four of us low timers had the temerity to assemble a novice 4-way RW team, the amount of support and coaching we got for the price of beer was astonishing. Unfortunately that team fell apart. However, I remember one jump very clearly. There were only three of us at the DZ on this day. A very experienced 4-way competitor offered to join us to make our group 4 for the next jump. He led a very detailed dirt dive for us, but we soon discovered that there were not enough jumpers to make the load go. The experienced jumper wandered off for a few minutes and suddenly the load was back on the clock. When we boarded the plane the rest of the story became clear… he had gone to manifest and paid for the empty slot to make the load go. Yes, he paid nearly $50 (two slots) to jump with three novices. It was a great jump. As that team fell apart, another formed and I joined two other low-time jumpers and the previously mentioned 4-way competitor along with an experienced camera jumper to form a 4 way RW team. Three of us had only about 100 jumps each, the others had thousands. The sacrifices that the two experienced jumpers made for this team were numerous. They stayed on the ground when the wind was too much for us novices. They put up with our astonishingly bad jumping for the first few months. They did their best to bring us along. Of course, we novices suffered too. Why did no one warn us that our team captain / coach LOVES the creepers? My god… we spent what seemed like WEEKS on the damned creepers... and it paid off! We never got great… but in one season we got a WHOLE lot better. Thank you Roland and Sean!!! Last spring I wanted to try CReW so I drove to Salado TX and got free coaching jumps from both Walt Appel and Wendy Faulkner. To get free coaching from a jumper of Wendy’s experience was amazing. Can you say “DOWNPLANE”? Once again… note that experienced jumpers were willing to jump with me, a novice. Remember the story of the recent death of a novice wingsuit jumper who didn’t have his leg straps on? About a month ago I made my third wingsuit jump. I had done two jumps at another DZ, but this jump was my first at my home DZ. I swear that at least three folks asked me about my leg straps before I even left the hanger. Between the boarding area and the plane another couple of people asked me too. My point is that these folks had NO obligation to be nosy…but they cared enough to ask a simple but very important question of a novice wingsuit jumper. (This jump was BEFORE the fatal jump mentioned above.) Thanks to all. There were LOT and LOTS of other folks who helped along the way… and I apologize for omitting them. Not all the help came from jumping. The amount of help and guidance that I have gotten from folks on the ground has been immense. For example, Laura (my packer) has been invaluable in so many ways. Jeff, Lee, and Mark introduced me to rigging. Ron helped me understand some of the politics both inside the DZ, and within this sport. I have one last story. About halfway through our 4 way team’s season, there was a non-team weekend when we three novices were at the DZ, but our experienced teammates were not. We wanted to jump together, but needed a fourth jumper. There was a novice jumper visiting our DZ that day. We invited him to jump with us. As we dirt dived the jump I noticed something… the three of us knew one or two things about RW and were able to plan this jump and brief this newer guy without difficulty. The jump went well (not SUPER, just well). Nobody got too low or too far out. We turned about 7 points (in 60 sec). After landing I walked over to our guest and asked “Did you have fun?” His reply was an excited exclamation “I have never turned so many points!” He was grinning from ear to ear. This story is important to me because it is the beginning of the circle starting again. Others gave to us….we had a chance to give to someone a few jumps behind us. If my long narrative describes a skydiving culture that you don’t recognize… [BLUE]If you are a novice, jump someplace else.[/BLUE] [RED]If you are experienced, change the culture.[/RED] Again, thanks to all (named and un-named) who helped me in the last two years. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Here is link to video and a long discussion of this topic. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2921879#2921879 The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

There is a video on the WWW of a student who loses both instructors and finally gets belly down and deploys... all alone. I will hunt for it and post a link to it if I can find it. If I remember the video correctly... the student tumbles so wildly and for so long that he/sh throws both instructors off. By the time both are off, he/she is falling really fast and descends below them. Should it happen... nope. Has it ever happened? Yes. That is precisely why AFF students are taught that if they lose one instructor to simply continue the dive flow, but if they lose BOTH to DEPLOY IMMEDIATELY. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Twenty-nine tandems in one day! DAMN! Were you a bit wrung-out by the end of that day? I would imagine that 29/day is an unsustainable pace (safely) over many days even if you had the opportunity. On the other hand, maybe I am just getting old. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Interesting question! I cannot speak about what other sports do or do not do, but I do have some new-guy observations about skydiving. 1. There is no ambiguity about risk in skydiving. In other sports the risks may be more readily denied. Our non-jumping frineds and family remind us of the risk frequently. 2. Our fates are linked to each other's performance in many ways: -- The risk of one jumper's error resulting in a collison which kills or injures another jumper. -- Any jumper's death alter's the public's perception of the sport. Often we need positive (or at least neutral) public opinion to get access to airports. 3. In many (perhaps most) sports, the key to survival is to NOT do something. In skydiving... we are all dead unless we DO something (yes, I know that AAD's reduce this effect). I think this has a great impact on skydiver attitudes and behavior. 4. It is precisely the risk that attracts some to our sport. All that said, there is tremendous disparity in how governments, DZ's, and individual skydivers approach safety. On one end you have behavior like was recently described in these forums, where there is a mandatory gear check before boarding with the inspector required to sign that the check was done before take-off. At the other end you have no mandatory gear checks and nobody looking out for the other folks on the flight to perform an informal (eyeball only) gear check before exit. It seeems that the recent "no leg straps" wingsuit incident may be an example of this. Of course ther are all sorts of varaitions inbetween. The great variation regarding AAD requirments and use around the world are another obvious example of this variance. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Who cares about a damned label? Just keep jumping and before you know it you will be getting to do cool stuff. Take it one jump at a time and learn as much as you can from each jump. Before you know it, you will be doing stuff that you thought was beyond you! I know this because my AFF1 was almost exactly two years ago, and I have gotten to do a lot of fun stuff.

You mention that you "fall like a rock". Be sure to discuss this with the suit manufacturer. Jump suits can be designed to adjust your fall rate. For example you mentioned Tony brand suits. While they market thier "pit special" as being a suit worn by RW champions... if you read carefully, it is intended for smaller jumpers. The "Tony" MODEL from Tony Suits (brand) is designed for large fast fallers. Other manufacturers can build you a suit to meet your fall rate needs too. Be DAMNED sure to get measured by someone who kows what they are doing. My wife and I read the measurement instructions three times and measured me several times... and I now have a suit torso that is too short. (Yes I know the vendor can fix that... but I don't have 8-13 weeks to wait for a fix... so I just struggle.) The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Caveat.... I am a blessed to live in warm Texas. However, I have found that even when the air temp at ground level is freezing (~30 degrees F), I am comfortable at altitude. I dress in layers and wear vinyl or nitrile gloves inside my usual golves to block the wind. I wear a neck gaiter. I wear a full face helmet. I find that the key is to keep the wind off my skin. As long as I do that I am fine. I am sure that someone from a place with REAL cold will provide you with more authoritative opinion. The only moment that I find uncomfortable when jumping in these circumstances is being the front float "Would you PLEASE hurry up and get ready!!!" Try searching the fourm for this topic. (Vinyl or nitrile gloves can be found at most hardware or paint stores.) The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I sent a link to this thread to the "contact us" address at Argus. Here is the reply email that I got today: Thank you for this info. We're not using the black 'Argus' batteries any more. We're using Panasonics now and those work out great. Kind regards, Karel The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

And this changes the risk how????? I do have a grip.... a very firm grip which is the product of having spent the majority of my adult life caring for trauma victims, many of them victims of violent crime. Unfortunately, some of my memories of these patients are permenantly burned into my consciousness. Life and skydiving are about risk management. It is my opinion that the OP has made a poor assessment of the risk/benefit for this particular plan. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I think you are taking FAR more risk with your request than you do jumping from planes. I truly and sincerely hope we don't read about a "A female British skydiver who went missing a year ago was found in a shallow grave in the Mojave desert. Good luck, be safe (both on the ground and in the air). The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

That is a great excuse to come jump in the US... No Dr. exam required. We can get away with a personal statement (unless a tandem instuructor). C. Medical requirements [NW] 1. All persons engaging in skydiving must: a. Carry a valid Class 1, 2, or 3 Federal Aviation Administration Medical Certificate; or b. Carry a certificate of physical fitness for skydiving from a registered physician; or c. Have completed the USPA recommended medical statement. 2. Any skydiver acting as parachutist in command ona tandem jump must possess an FAA Class 3 medical certificate or the equivalent. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Are you implying that rigging will drive one to drinking? I would certianly think so. Today it is WINDY here, so I have spent several hours trying to get a Singer 241-12 to behave... Where is my ? The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I think you underestimate how many rigs a good packer can pack in an hour. It may take you or me 20 minutes per rig.... but it sure doesn't take my packer that long. Which is why I have never missed a load when she packs for me, no matter how "buried in nylon" she is. (Thank you Laura ) Don't forget than the best ones often get a tip too. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I suspect that a good packer at a busy DZ probably makes more than the majority of riggers. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

If your helmet can't withstand being in your luggage... what protection is is giving to your head? The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Thanks for the warning... I can start drinking now so that I won't care by the time the system goes down. Aside: Why do we say that it is bad for your computer to "go down on you" and good if your lover does? No wonder this English is such a hard language to learn!!!!!! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Both wing loading and canopy design are important in your decision. Here is the USPA SIM section which addresses this topic (6-10: Canopy Flight Fundamentals) http://www.uspa.org/SIM/Read/Section6/tabid/169/Default.aspx#1072 Also relevant is the "Downsizing Checklist" here: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page.cgi?ID=47 The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!