KathleenL

Hannah did you get you fourth yet?

OK I will play. I know you, Spence, and Bolas. And a bunch of people here.

The Stones will be there that's Anthony, Kathleen and Ken. Save us an RV slot for our travel trailer. :)

Thanks for the update Ian. Keep us posted as to Shannons condition. We will be sending all our prayers, love and healing vibes his way.

Dale that is awesome! When are you coming to the US to jump with us?

Fixed this. Anthony would be sad if Ken got the kudos for his organizing. ;) AWESOME BOOGIE and thanks to all you 35 jump wonders that jumped with me and took on a ride. LOL

Wow! I was stationed there for 3 years. It is such a beautiful island. I learned to scuba dive there. An earthquake of that magnitude probably caused alot of damage. There are several USMC and AF bases on Okinawa and a Naval Hospital. I have friends stationed there still. I am going to facebook them and see if I can get any info.

did you get any takers yet? I bet you know who would coach ya'll. I guess I can be in charge of feeding you guys since my rotator cuff is torn and Anthony has grounded me till the doctors says its ok. :( I can still make a sandwich and manifest people though. See ya at Fitz.

Blue Skies Jill, we will all miss you so much.

Mid 20's and snowing here in Knoxville. Burrrrrr.....

Thanks, I thought so too. I love 4way and coaching. I think it would really show who has teaching skills and who doesn't.

I think you hit the nail on the head DSE. Coaching is all about teaching. You have to be very aware in the air with a student. You will not be able to debrief them if you are not. And of course you have to be able to translate what you know to the student so that they understand. I also think that this applies to AFFI. I taught adult skills based educational programs for years both civilian and military and that experience directly relates to coaching skydiving. I just felt that it took me more than 100 jumps to be aware enough in the air to actually be useful debriefing students. As for flying skills, your right we as coaches are not required to stop them spinning, roll them over or pull for them. But we do have to be in the same air space with a student to see them and give signals. So some flying skills are necessary. Hey I get enough flipping, rolling and fruitlooping doing combat RW with my mates. Sounds like it might be good practice if I ever wanted to go for AFFI. To bad there is not some positive reinforcement in place to recognize the teaching skills of coaches and AFFI. Some one should organize a coaches and insturctors challenge to train students. AFFI's and coaches could team up and take a student from jump number one to the A license then take their students and have a mini competition. Just a thought, it sounds like fun to me. Plus, I think students would have a blast too.

Yes see the AFF is too easy thread. But to answer your question about the rating. I am in favor of a C license and 200 jump minimum. It just makes sense.

Just my 2cents as a relatively new coach. I agree with the C license and 200 jump minimum to take the coach course. Actually, I had just gotten my C when I took the coach course because that is when I felt comfortable doing so. Also, just a suggestion make the progression from coach a combo of time in rate and documented student jumps. I agree with most here that getting a coach rating one week and the AFFI or Tandem rating the next weekend is not good. I don't know how anyone can really believe that they would be a good AFFI who has not done any jumps with students. However, with the current system if you don't have a time in rate requirement for coach it is possible to obtain the AFFI rating without actual student jumps.

Awesome, let me know if you all are going to be there on Saturday Jan 2.

I agree with Dave. Bring back JM it seems like a good progression of training.

I will be there but only for one day. I am sneaking away from work flying down to jump on the 2nd and flying back that night. At least I get one day in the sun. Lets get some RW jumps in if you are coming down.

I don't think fencebuster is saying that his DZ allows coaches to jump reserve side. I think he is saying that he feels that experienced coaches could do it with additional training and evaluation. I agree with fencebuster about the progression thing you know walk before you run. I think AFFI's should have to be monitored closely after they get their rating and start on reserve side only. Fencebusters idea is pretty good. It is very similar to how I trained EMT's and Paramedics. Just because you passed the National exam doesn't mean we put you as on an ambulance with another newbie. You really need to ride on a lot of calls before you get over your nerves that "hey I could make someone worse or kill them if I don't do my job correctly."

Wow, did not mean to get you all spun up. You must remember that I speak from my own experience. As for the definition of "crappy student" I think that AFF graduates should at least be able to fall stable. That is really all I mean. You said in your post that the big difference between AFFI and coach is responsiblity. You are right about that technically. But do you really believe that if I had a student on a coach jump and they "blow it" and I watched them go in that I would not be held responsible? I am pretty sure that I would be nailed to a wall. Not to mention the overwhelming guilt and mental torture that would go along with it. I know what you mean about lazy coaches. And I assure you that I am not one of them. I actually spend an hour or more on ground prep prior to any coach dive. I do this because I love skydiving and I want to give back to the sport. I was fortunate enough to have two world class skydivers mentor me who have every rating there is and multiple national and one world gold medal in 4way. They are my very good friends, I did not pay them for coaching and they paid their own slot. They are a huge reason that I got my coach rating. I just said all that to say this, I know several coaches and I don't know a single one that gets paid to coach. But every AFFI that I know gets paid. The coaches at my DZ do it for the love of the sport and almost always we pay our own slot. So you might ask the "lazy" coaches you have seen if they are even getting their jump covered because mostl likely they are not. And sadly that makes a big difference. I am not saying it is right or wrong just saying that is what I observe. I think USPA should make all the ratings progressive.

OK so I have been reading this thread and just had to insert my 2 cents. I believe that the path to AFFI should have a mandatory time in rate as a coach and a mandatory minimum requirement of coach jumps. If you think about it teaching skydiving is adult skills based education. You should be addressing all the modalities of learning when you are teaching students. If you fail to teach the students correctly they will end up hurting themselves, hurting someone else, or worse. And doing coach jumps helps prepare you for AFFI. There can be no arguement to that. I also think that the coach rating should be a stringent course with multiple check dives. I was lucky and got an awesome course director who took time to teach how to teach and cared about the outcome. Think about this, the difference between an AFFI and me a coach is ONE JUMP. Yep one jump. Once that student is signed off of AFF they should be going to a coach. If they had crappy AFFI's (no offense to any poster here) then when I get them they are crappy students to deal with in the air. Some one posted earlier that the coach course should be harder as coaches are teaching more skills than AFFI or something to that effect. There should be more oversite all around but being able to figure out how to do it is going to be a hard job.

Oh yeah forgot about the court case. I am going to keep an eye on the news for that too.

Channel 8 news here in Knoxville just ran a story about the "skydiving scam" online. They said that there was a comany out there making up websites for fake places that don't exist in TN and that you get a non refundable gift certificate from them and then find out you have to drive to Cedartown GA to use it. They also commented on the fact that it is illegal for websites to post that they are a business in TN if the business in really not located in TN. The story should be on www.volunteertv.com. I will post a link directly to the story when I find it. The news also mentioned that there are two real DZ's in TN and to contact them directly if you want to buy a gift certificate or go skydiving. Way to go channel 8 news.

Add the Stones to the list too. Anthony, Kathleen and Ken

I think the big reason I asked about the Nitron was that I was messing up my landing pattern and overshooting my target. But I have it figured out now. There is sooooo much forward glide on the Nitron. It is great for getting back from a long spot too. LOVE IT!

My zp.exe never really opened hard but it did open off heading sometimes. Compared to my Nitron the zp.exe was very ground hungry.