GLIDEANGLE

Let's assume you pack your reserve only every 120 days: If you use the liberal counting method initially proposed by tdog you would not have done any rigging in the previous 90 days. (This method is NOT consistent with the regulations) If you use the conservative counting method (consistent with the regulation) you would have three days of rigging in the previous 12 months. So as I read it: If your rigging was limited to your own rig every 120 days, by neither method of counting would you be current as defined by the reg above. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Y’all: How I got into this …. Last weekend I was enjoying the social atmosphere at the DZ after a pretty sunset jump. I saw three riggers gathered around a rig. One rigger was head down in this rig with needle, thread, and a sailmaker’s palm. I made the mistake of approaching this group of friends and acquaintances to find out what fun thing was being done to the rig. Before I knew it, the three of them were trying to convince me to learn to rig and to pursue the rating. One rigger commented: “You have the right personality for it!” (I don’t know if I should consider that as a compliment or not!) Heck, one of the riggers had previously said that I had “the right personality for CReW”. (I think that may even be more worrisome than the rigging comment).

Thanks, I had forgotten "bail". What was I thinking? The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I have searched for this to no avail. When planning to participate in a boogie, how do you budget? What costs do you consider? How do you control costs? While I know that replies like "Budget? What is a budget?" or "Just sell everything in one room of your house." are inevitable... I am seeking concrete feedback on how to anticipate costs and plan accordingly. Thanks in advance. Blue skies. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

As a new guy myself, I can remember vividly my experiences regarding going "solo". As you can see from the other postings, "solo" is an ambiguous term for AFF. My AFF 1 jump was definitely NOT solo for the first 60 seconds. My instructors had me firmly in their grips. HOWEVER... once my canopy was deployed... I was alone. Yes, I had a radio... but I still had to execute my landing all by myself. So one can say that AFF 1 is part solo and part not solo. Personally, I considered my first "solo jump" to be my first jump without an instructor or coach. Actually my nerves were OK for the first jump. Jump #13 was the most emotionally difficult for me, after I had had a frightening time with instability and a low opening on jump #12 . ("Low" in this case only means lower than my dive plan....it was well above "Cypres Territory".) Blue Skies The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

OK. I'll bite... what did I leave out? The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I am learning that you are quite right. Nonetheless, the H&P was great fun. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I have noticed that it it VERY easy for me to turn the sport of skydiving into something that pretty much resembles work. It is very easy to get sucked into a busy and potentially stressful flow at the dropzone. Unfortunately, that insanity does not give me the rest and recreation that I desire on my weekends. Yesterday I had a busy morning of 6 & 7 way belly RW jumps. (The first jump was described by the organizer as “a simple little three way” which grew to a seven way by the time we boarded the aircraft.) Being a new guy, these jumps feel complex and there are many opportunities for me to screw up other people’s jump. Everyone I jumped with was very nice and very tolerant… but I still was feeling pressure to perform. After a two-way to help me work on some freefall skills (Thank you Anton!), I was looking for a FUN jump. I decided to do a simple Hop & Pop. What a delightful jump!

While I scratched my head at the intro to the article, I found the article very helpful. The reason that I found the article helpful was that this summer I have struggled with many of my landings (and slid many, many in on by arse). While there are many reasons for this, perhaps the many windless days in the dog days of summer played a part! Yes, the hints in this article are helpful. But the MOST helpful was that extreme opening statement... for it tells me that when I am struggling in no/low wind circumstances that I am not alone! Heck, I am now a bit proud that I kept jumping when landing smoothly was difficult! Yes, I have gotten some canopy coaching. Yes, I will get more canopy coaching. Blue Skies The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I finally earned my “Learners Permit”... my A License!

I try to prevent a similar problem by making copies of my logbook pages after every weekend of jumping. I drop them into a file folder and stop worrying. Of course, some will say that this is overkill... but for right now it removes one more worry from my OCD head. Works for me, may not work for other folks. Blue Skies The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

The prohibition against the US flag touching the ground IS LAW: The Flag Code Title 4, United States Code, Chapter 1 § 8. Respect for flag No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor. (a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property. (b) The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise. The entire US Flag Code can be found here: http://www.legion.org/documents/pdf/flagcode.pdf The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I am a STUDENT who is currently in the midst of SDU coaching. I can tell you that I am getting every penny's worth I am paying for my coach. 1. My coach spends a SIGNIFICANT amount of time with me in ground preps and post-jump debriefs. She deserves payment for that time. 2. My coach has excellent TEACHING skills and techniques.... I am a professional educator and I know good teaching when I see it. 3. My coach uses the SDU program as written, which means that my coaching is structured to develop skills sequentially... from simple to more complex. The muscle memory techniques make my brief and expensive air time much more efficient. 4. I don't really know how well my coach flies. I just know that she is effortlessly able to be where she needs to be with me. What her flying skills are beyond that is irrelevant to me. I need a good teacher... not a damned Eagle who might not be able to convey to me what she does. 5. My coach is VERY concerned that I learn to jump safely. She is quite willing to tell me that I am not doing things right. Doing so is not always easy or fun for her.... she earns her pay every day. 6. Lastly, my coach is patient. I would NEVER expect a poorly or unpaid coach to invest as much time in me as she has. I have been a slow learner at times and needed her patience. I chose this DZ BECAUSE they had SDU. I had read about too many students getting off of AFF and then struggling to learn. SDU is working for me. Yes, it is expensive... but problably less expensive than struggling to learn to fly in an less structured environment with less effective coaching. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I am a student jumper (lousy weather has kept me a student since January). My experience has been: Most jumpers just benignly ignored me. Of course, I got my fair share of good luck "handshakes" during our climb to altitude. The packers were the first to be nice without being paid (instructors were nice... but they are paid to be). Their kindness really helped me feel comfortable in the first few days at the DZ. This was really helpful as I was on almost eternal wind holds. Some of the instructors and coaches have been nicer than I have a right to expect. One instructor who is a rigger has spent lots of time SHOWING me cool stuff about rigs and is always available for questions. My coach is way more patient than I deserve. Only one jumper was nasty... It is really sad when a person with enough experience to be a World Team 2006 member feels the need to verbally abuse a nervous student who is desperately trying to stay out of the jumpers' way while getting his nerves under control. Heck I was lurking out in the parking lot to stay out of the way when he strafed me! All of us at the DZ would be smart to remember that newbies (tandems and other students) are often very nervous. Students have lots of reasons to be nervous: fear of... death, injury, the economic cost of blowing an AFF jump, etc. With time at the DZ, a few jumpers have warmed to me. My coach has facilitated a couple of connections when trying to connect me with folks who had gear for sale. I found these folks very warm and helpful once the intro was made. Buying beer when I completed AFF made for a chatty evening with the regulars. The more I jump, the easier things get... 'cuz we have something in common to talk about. My conclusions: Skydiving is no different than the rest of life: -- Most folks are nice if you are nice to them. -- Most folks hesitate to make first contact with strangers (this applied bilaterally). -- There are always a few toxic misfits in any crowd. -- Skydiving is essentially narcissistic. Therefore, it is no surprise that unbridled egos can be found at a DZ. Let's be honest... it ain't church camp. This isn't an issue that we can cure by policy or program. This is a matter that we can only address by chosing to fix it one newbie at a time: -- A kind word while waiting to board the aircraft (but not too much... our brains are very full) -- A sincere question about how the jump went when the newbie gets on the ground (not a long discussion that interferes with debriefing, but an experession of your interest). -- Inviting the idle student on wind hold to watch you pack. (heck, just pointing out the parts of your rig that are different from the student's rig can be helpful). Please think "good jump weather" thoughts for me in the next couple of weekends...maybe I can finish my student jumps! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

See the linked thread for a similar experience I had and the discussion. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2740816#2740816 Blue skies The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I am a student too and had a similar experience on jump 12. I didn't get as low as you did, but low enough to scare me. It wasn't the absolute altitude that scared me as much as the loss of control. I got unstable while tracking and fell a couple of sphincter tightening thousand feet before I got canopy overhead. To make matters worse, I got a nice bridle slap bruise on my forearm on that jump. The thought that I could have induced a horseshoe malfunction that would probably have immobilized my right arm was sobering. Of course, my next jump was #13..... At my coach's suggestion, I did a couple of solo jumps WITH VIDEO working on tracking. The video combined with good debriefing from my coach (who watched the video but who was not on the jump) helped me improve my tracking enough that I could move on to other skills. Of course, the video flyer laughing wildly at my poor performance was a great motivator! In his defense, when I did get it right, he was equally animated and happy for me. At this time, my tracking has lots of room for improvement, but it isn't so bad that it is a problem at this stage in my training. Good Luck! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

OK... I'll bite... What is a "DGIT"? Dead Guy In Training? The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Searches on this topic have been fruitless. I have read from time to time about shedding gear such as a camera or a camera helmet to clear an entanglement during freefall or canopy flight. It seems to me that these shed articles pose a life threatening risk to folks on the ground. Of course, these items are most often shed to save the life of the jumper. So I imagine that there is a balancing of the risk of near certian death of the jumper vs a remote risk of injury or death of someone on the ground. I would be appreciative to see comments, stories, opinions, or scary photos related to the risk that jettisoned articles pose to individuals on the ground. Thanks! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I am a student and I have found this discussion VERY helpful. The take-home message for me is that the "reserve repack" services offered vary significantly from rigger to rigger. I have learned that I need to be specific about what work I want done, and what the price is for each element. Caveat Emptor Thank you!!! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Congratulations!!! Enjoy the moment!

In the hope that someone can avoid duplicating my stupid moment (one of several stupid moments yesterday): After a frustrating freefall I was happily under canopy. When I deployed my brakes I promptly found that I had failed to keep my thumb clear of the stored brake lines and had my thumb very nicely tangled in the line. I had a single half hitch around my thumb below the guide ring. The tension on the line was keeping the loop tight on my thumb. It took only a few seconds to clear.... but I can imagine several scenarios where this would not be a happy event. Lessons learned: 1. Don't let a poor stage of a jump pollute my emotions for the next stage... don't let a poor exit distract me from my freefall work, don't let poor freefall work distract me from canopy work, don't let poor canopy navigation distract me from a safe landing, don't let a poor landing distract me from keeping my head on a swivel while on the ground in the landing area. 2. Keep my damn thumbs clear when deploying my brakes. I figure that the easiest way to do that is to grasp the brakes with all four fingers and my thumb, rather than just hooking the brakes with my fingers. All in all, I didn't hurt anyone else, I didn't hurt my self. Tangental comment: My coach is very patient! May you be so lucky.

Funny... I was struggling with that very same paragraph a few hours ago.... it is still greek to me! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

A "blown sinus" can be called "Barosinusitis", "Sinus barotrauma" or "aerosinusitis". A medical source which describes the condition, it's consequences, and management is: http://www.emedicine.com/ent/topic595.htm My favorite quote from this source is “In severe cases, especially with rapid onset, the sinus mucosa is stripped from the subjacent bone, resulting in severe pain and hematoma formation.” Given that the bony walls of some of the sinuses are very thin, I would not be surprised to hear of a fracture due to barotrauma, but I cannot provide a link to this now. Jumps with unusually large altitude changes (exit to ground level) such as high altitude jumps would make the pressure differentials between the sinus and the ambient air greater and thus increase the distress and risk of tissue damage. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

"a crash rated helmet will protect your head, but what about the rest of your body?" Protecting our brain is hugely important because: -Our brain is who we are (unlike our tibias) -Our brain tolerates injury quite poorly (unlike our muscle and skin) -Surgeons can do little to repair our brains (unlike our femurs) I spent a big hunk of my adult life caring for trauma patients. Generally, if the brain and spinal cord are intact... we can fix the rest. If the brain and or spinal cord are damaged, our ability to fix the damage is FAR more limited. Protecting our brain makes really good sense even if we cannot afford similar protection to the rest of our body. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

A reasonable precaution for skydiving when taking Plavix would be to WEAR/CARRY identification that indicates that you are on this medication. That way if you are injured and unable to tell this to your caregivers, they can act accordingly. One option for this is http://www.medicalert.org . The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!