tombuch

If you are qualified (either with the Coach rating, or an S&TA approval), feel free to provide the service at no charge. If you are not qualified under either criteria, or the DZ won't let you provide coaching services, then give your business to one that will. If you are a student and object to hiring a well trained, tested, or approved coach, then go to another school that will allow you to jump with "just any yahoo." Be a good consumer. Make a decision that balances your cost with safety. It's your time, money, and life. Tom Buchanan Instructor (AFF, SL, IAD, Tandem) S&TA Coach Course Director Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

I'm sorry you had a bad experience with the original BIC, and I hope you find something more in the Coach course. I also teach snowboarding (AASI certified), and at this point in the year I'm reviewing my outlines and preparing for the season. The first weekend on snow will be spent in instructor clinics, learning new material and reviewing older material. Through the season I'll be required to take at least one clinic every week. Much of the material is redundant, but there is always something new. Heck, even if the material doesn't change, I do, so I find something worth learning. The same is true of the USPA Coach Course. Every time I teach the program I find something new in the material that makes the whole weekend worthwhile, and I've been teaching skydiving for 20 years! My suggestion is to get the ISP (it should be a free download, but isn't) and review the course material in advance. Talk with the Course Director about your experience and perhaps share some of your teaching thoughts in the class. There will no doubt be candidates with no teaching background, so offer some help, become a mentor for a couple of days. I disagree. Some of the material is unique to the Coach Course, and much of it has been updated. Likewise, there is some in-air work that a teacher of another sport needs to demonstrate. If I had my way every USPA instructor would need to take a formal teaching course or review program of some kind every year. There is a requirement for an annual "instructor seminar" to validate the the rating, but few instructors bother. Most quality teachers understand that their skills need updating, and their technique needs review. Most good teachers seek out courses and try to stay current. I've lost track of how many courses I have taken, but honestly, each one has offered a benefit. Don't look at the Coach Course requirement as a burden, but rather as an opportunity to review your past experiences and knowledge, and add something new to your instructional "bag of tricks." Many don't, and you don't need to either. Likewise, you don't need to be a certified Coach to do those jumps...your local S&TA can review your background and approve you to handle students in the Coach phase of the USPA program. One of the key reasons the Coach rating was established was to provide experienced skydivers with a stepping stone to the AFF and Tandem ratings. We found that jumpers with just a few hundred skydives were itching to work with students, and in the "old days" they could get a static line rating with just 100 jumps. Now, with tandem and AFF programs dominating the industry, a jumper needs 500-600 jumps to earn an instructor rating. The Coach rating was added as a formal training program to help bridge instructors into the higher level programs, while at the same time improving the training offered to our students. Think of the Coach rating as part of a professional teaching progression I'm sure you will get something out of the course. And of course once certified you don't ever need to charge for your services. Tom Buchanan Instructor (AFF, SL, IAD, Tandem) Coach Course Director Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

The course will teach you about teaching, and that should make you a better teacher. I am a Coach Course Director and do one or two Coach courses per year. Every time I teach one I review the material and always learn something new. Take the course and get the rating because you will learn something that will make you a better teacher. Tom Buchanan Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

don't you think that those few peoples are enough experienced to look after their rig and have it inspected before if needed ? I tend to hold with the concerns expressed by RiggerRob, especially with regard to student gear. I can understand that experienced jumpers should be able to evaluate and maintain their own gear for six months (of course some experienced jumpers don't even know how to pack, another issue), but our students deserve more regular repacks. And, like the hard core jumpers, student gear is heavily used and abused, and at least a few DZO's place maintenance at the bottom of their priority list. So, I'd be delighted to have a longer repack, but I want the 120 day to remain for student equipment and rental gear. Tom Buchanan Instructor (AFF, SL, IAD, Tandem) Senior Parachute Rigger Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

I'll offer some quick numbers from my book, JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy, published by McGraw-Hill in February 2003: "Skydiving is a quickly evolving sport that is enjoyed by more than 300,000 American's each year. Of those, about 275,000 are students and will make only one jump." -Page 3 82% of active skydivers are men, 14.7% are women, and 3.3 percent are not listed by gender, according to USPA -Graphic, page 4. Age breakdown reported by USPA for active jumpers is as follows: 0-29 year =21%, 30-39=34.4%, 40-49=25.7%, 50-59=11.2%, 60+ years= 3.3%, Unknown =4.4 percent. -Graphic, page 6 "According to records maintained by the United States Parachute Association (USPA), between 1991 and 2000 there were an average of 33 skydiving fatalities in the United States each year." -Page 120 "USPA data for 2000 show that there were 32 fatalities, and there were 34,217 members of the organization that year. Using these figures yields a fatality rate of 1 per 1,069 members. The fatality numbers vary significantly from year to year, but a 10 year average of data collected between 1991 and 2000 shows one skydiving death recorded for every 903 USPA members. (See figures 7.2 and 7.3) USPA single year data also shows that members made an estimated 2,244,165 jumps in the year 2000, presenting a fatality rate of just one death for each 70,000 skydives." -Page 121 "The USPA data from 2001 show there were 35 actual fatalities involving skydivers that year, but only 5, or 14 percent, of those who died were classified as students." -Page 122 There are of course many other statistics in JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy, and in another book called Parachuting: The Skydivers Handbook by Poynter and Turoff. Both books are available at many local bookstores, and on line at places like Amazon.com. If you have other specific questions, please feel free to drop me a line. Blue Skies, Tom Buchanan Instructor (AFF, SL, Iad, Tandem) Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

That's the spirit! Most of the folks here have been addressing the need to have a log book for licenses and awards, but I gotta tell you I really value my first books for the stories and names. It's so cool to look back through thousands of jumps and see what I was doing "back in the day," and with how much enthusiasm I was doing it. Keep writing, and one day you will get a chuckle for your efforts. Tom Buchanan Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

Obviously the two main problems are an inability of the jumper to spot or recognize that the airplane had already started a descent, and a landing problem. Both issues have already been addressed on this forum. Unfortunately, many people don't spot very well, and often jumpers getting ready to exit are focused on things other than the green light. It's easy to miss the change in light status either because you are spotting, or just focused on your exit. Some drop zones have solved this problem by sounding a bell or horn when the pilot turns the light off, and thus getting the attention of the jumpers about to exit. Some larger airplanes have an alarm horn/bell already installed, and others can be easily outfitted with an airhorn like those used by 'dickwads' at football games. ...just a thought. Tom Buchanan Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

Talk with the S&TA. Let him know you are scared by the other jumpers flight behavior and ask the S&TA to speak with him. I doubt he is cutting people off intentionally, but rather I think he just doesn't have solid navigation skills. Ideally, he will be willing to listen to training suggestions from the S&TA or drop zone owner. If that doesn't work he needs to be "banished" to a private landing area for a while, or perhaps briefly grounded to get his attention and motivate him to improve his flight performance skills. In any event, the rest of the skydiving community shouldn't be threatened by a weak canopy flyer, and your DZO should understand this. Good Luck, Tom Buchanan S&TA Author JUMP! Skydiving made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

Each program has benefits. Why not combine them? Make a bunch of static line jumps, and then do a few freefalls with an AFF instructor. Add to your experience by visiting a wind tunnel (there are three of them in the USA right now, with a fourth expected to open soon in Perris Valley, California). If you have a chance, try visiting a drop zone with a computer based canopy control simulator called Sport ParaSim and spend some time working through malfunction and navigation issues (there are only two on civilian drop zones in the USA). I don’t want to get too commercial here, but it sounds like you have a bunch of questions beyond just “what program is best,” and there are a few outstanding books on the market to help you out. Perhaps the most comprehensive book is called Parachuting: The Skydivers Handbook by Turoff and Poynter. It’s a solid “bible” of skydiving, now in the 9th edition. This book covers everything you might want to know from having never jumped to being fully licensed and beyond. Another solid book is The Skydivers Survival Guide by Emerson and Antebi. This book is targeted at folks just finishing a student training program and helps with the transition to independent skydiving. I wrote a book called JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy that is targeted at people who have never made a jump, and those with just a couple of skydives. It even has a chapter that describes the benefits of each training method (your original question). You will probably also enjoy reading the chapters on Risk and Psychology. JUMP! was just published this spring. All three books are current, and they are each available from your local skydiving equipment store, local bookstores, and web dealers like Amazon.com. Amazon often packages several of these books with value pricing and offers free shipping of orders over USD 25.00. There is another outstanding resource called the Skydivers Information Manual published by USPA. This 200 plus page spiral bound book is also called the SIM, and it is available from skydiving equipment vendors or directly from USPA. It is even available on the USPA web site as a FREE viewable and printable volume. The SIM includes all the rules that govern skydiving and tons of suggestions about safety and progression. There is even an outline of an Integrated Student Program (ISP) that helps instructors and students figure out how to combine parts of static line, AFF, and tandem programs to make an ideal hybrid program. In addition to books, you will get tons of great information from old copies of Parachutist Magazine published by USPA, and from Skydiving, a monthly newspaper published independently. Your instructors probably have back copies of these publications and will be happy to share them with you. Ask around. If you are going to be sticking with the sport you will probably be joining USPA (if you live in the USA) so you will be receiving a subscription to Parachutist as part of that membership. Skydiving is also well worth a subscription. Blue Skies, Tom Buchanan Instructor (AFF, SL, IAD, Tandem) Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

That is true of ALL rigs in the United States. To the original poster: Talk with your instructor and ask who is a rigger, and who is providing supervision. As long as there is supervision on the field you should be able to trust anybody that has been approved to pack the student gear. You should learn to pack as soon as possible. It will probably scare you at first, but once you have jumped a few of your own pack jobs you will be saving money and will have greater confidence in the equipment. Rainy or windy days are great times to learn packing, and there is no need to have a specific number of jumps first. Tom Buchanan Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

Some interesting replys, with most suggesting your motorcycle helmet might not be such a good idea because: * It may be too heavy and that weight is multiplied by the g-force at opening making a neck injury more likely. *It may restrict your vision making it difficult to see your handles. *It may not protect you as well from side impacts like being kicked in the head on exit. *It may snag a riser on opening. On the other hand...Skydiving helmets do NOT meet any federal, state, or industry standard. They may provide adequate protection, but there is no testing to verify that. The only exception that I know of is the Protec, and that helmet is actually made in two versions, one selling in California and the other selling around the rest of the country. The California version meets a higher state standard than the national product. We should also be aware that motorcycle helmets are pretty common and emergency crews know how to remove them without causing further neck injury. Skydiving helmets are a bit different, and while WE know how to take them off, that process doesn't always work as well when a patient is unable to help and the rescue crew is struggling with an unknown. If you want to use your motorcycle helmet on a skydive, please try it on the ground with all your gear. Make sure you can see your handles and that it won't interfere with risers or deployment. It sounds like you have limited skydiving experience and may even be a student. In that case please check with your instructor and S&TA for their views of your specific helmet. Keep in mind a few people may give you a knee-jerk-no, while others may really consider the question. Listen to their answers and evaluate them based on the skydiving experience of the people involved. Obviously, if you are a student then your instructor rules. I know a few jumpers who have used motorcycle helmets with success, but they usually don't stick with them for very long. Tom Buchanan Instructor (AFF, SL, IAD, Tandem) S&TA Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

Terry: It sounds like you are working on a proposal to change the FAR. there is another issue along the same lines that needs addressing. Right now visitors to the USA are required to follow FAR's or their home country repack regulations. Dropzones here do not know what the various rules are (cycles, who can pack a reserve) in the home countries, so enforcing the reg is a challenge. If you could get your notes compiled and made available to drop zones that would be helpful. Perhaps when you have the basic "who can pack and on what cycle" in each country you could write a feature for the home page of DZ.com. It would be a great help to drop zones and visiting jumpers. Tom Buchanan Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

The specific requirements to jump at a DZ are set by the specific DZ. You won't find an answer to that question here. Go to the DZ web page and get their email address. Send the question to directly to the drop zone along with an outline of the license requirements in Australia. It shouldn't be a huge problem, but you should get that answer directly from management at the drop zone you will be visiting. As for converting to the USPA license, it shouldn't be hard. Check out the SIM at uspa.org for the domestic license requirements. Make sure you document each of the requirements in your log book and get the jumps signed off by another jumper...an instructor would be better, but a regular jumper sig should do. When you get to this country a local S&TA or USPA instructor will correlate your actual jumps to the requirements. There is also an oral test that the may be required, but that is generally just a discussion of material in the SIM. My hunch is that for you the oral part will focus mostly on USPA regs and FAR's. The process of converting your "A" license is simple but it will vary from one drop zone to another. Don't sweat it. Tom Buchanan Instructor (AFF, SL, IAD, Tandem) S&TA, The Ranch Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

For a Cessna 180/182: I like to put the first student against the instrument panel facing the tail of the airplane, then I use the position right in front of him (next to the pilot). The additional students (2 in a 182) are behind me in the back of the airplane. This set-up gives me direct control of the first student to exit, and blocks access to the door for the next two. It allows me to deal with one student at a time. After dispatching the first student I can stow the SL then turn to the next student and move him into position. Do I like having the second two students out of my direct sight while I'm working with the first? No, but that position gives me greater control of all three, especially as the later students are moved forward. I am also always in a position where with a tiny bit of effort I can look directly at any one of the students, and I can reach them all easily. Tom Buchanan Instructor (AFF, SL, IAD, Tandem) Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

My suggestion is to (sort of) start over in an AFF program. Sit through the ground course, do the harness training, then based on how you and your instructors feel, either a one or two JM "return" dive with a simple dive flow. Eight years is a long time for somebody with a "B" license. Heck, it's a long time for anybody. You will have butterflys (I hope), so spend some time getting current on the ground and go easy. Each DZ will have their own requirements so call around and don't necessarily choose the easiest or cheapest. As for gear, Vectors are still in style, but they have been upgraded. Canopies are mostly made of ZP with very few F-111 parachutes in use these days. AAD's are very common on even the most experienced jumpers backs. Parachutes have become very elliptical, and some DZ's are even using ellipticals for first jump students. More DZ's have big airplanes and turbines. Once you are in the air it will all feel normal again, and the changes will fade. Have fun. Tom Buchanan Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

Thanks for posting the link to another great feature by Scratch. I especially liked the first part: I also teach snowboarding in the winter and we use a three point teaching plan to keep focused on what is important. The plan is simple and only three words deep: SAFETY, FUN, LEARNING. That's it. Be safe, target fun, then add learning. If the students are having fun, learning becomes a breeze. And, one of the easiest ways for the student to have fun is for the instructor/coach to look like he is have fun. So, I'll add to the Scratch coach piece a suggestion for coaches to relax and have fun. Smile, and share the good times with your student. All that technical stuff is really, really, really important, but we should strive to make it transparent. Let them see the fun, and then slip the technical in almost unnoticed. Tom Buchanan Instructor (AFF, IAD, SL, Tandem) Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

I doubt it is vertigo. Vertigo is a loss of orientation due to confusion of signals to the brain. It usually manifests as a feeling of turning, rolling, or spinning when no turn is happening, or a feeling of turning in a different direction or rate than is actually happening. There are some elements of vertigo that may feel like pitch changes, and I suppose inappropriate sensations of acceleration/deceleration could occur, but that would be unusual. Vertigo happens when the brain receives odd signals from the balance portion of the ear, or conflicting signals from the ears and eyes. It is mostly a pilot issue that causes loss of aircraft control, generally in instrument conditions. The key pilot response should be to use the instruments and disregard the feelings of movement presented by the body. Vertigo can happen to skydivers, and in fact I sometimes enjoy doing a series of flips out of the airplane with my eyes closed, then getting flat and trying to control direction without opening my eyes. The directional confusion and feeling of vertigo is unmistakable, and it always brings a smile to my face. I experienced a seriously threatening vertigo under canopy once when I was jumping with a deep head cold. I made a steep front riser turn from downwind to final, let up on the riser which should have presented a straight-in approach, and it did, but my brain was sure I was still in a steep turn. I desperately wanted to yank down on the opposite toggle to stop the turn, but the visuals and toggle positions made it clear I was flying straight. Of course it all happened unexpectedly and at high speed close to the ground…very confusing. Fortunately I had been through vertigo training as a pilot and recognized the problem, so I simply flew toggle positions, disregarded the feeling of a turn, prepared to PLF or slide the landing, and hoped I was right. It wasn’t a pretty landing, but within seconds of landing the vertigo disappeared, and I walked away with a new appreciation of the dangers of flying with a head cold. With all that said, I think you are probably feeling the acceleration through the changes in air pressing against your body as the freefall speed increases, and the wind moves from horizontal to vertical. Feeling the wind is important for orientation and helps us figure out where we are in relation to the relative wind, which in turn helps us control our bodies. As long as you are feeling acceleration when you are accelerating, it isn’t a problem and isn’t vertigo. It’s interesting that you are aware enough to feel this sensation, and that should help you as you grow in the sport. My hunch is that the feelings of wind speed and exit acceleration will decrease as they are internalized and used more directly by your brain for orientation control. So, enjoy the feelings of acceleration and know that your awareness level is unusual at this point in your training. Tom Buchanan Instructor (AFF, SL, IAD, Tandem) Commercial Pilot (IAMSEL,G) Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

There is a financial concern about the future of the coverage, but USPA is working on that issue. It may require eliminating coverage for demo jumps, adding a deductible, increasing dues, or something else not yet suggested. Chris Needels wrote an interesting commentary in Parachutist recently laying the crisis out for the membership to understand, and asking for our thoughts. Please check out http://uspa.org/news/current_news/cap_ins.crisis.htm and add your own comments. Third party liability insurance IS important to us and I think the membership has made that clear. What remains unclear is what avenue USPA will take to resolve the issue. Tom Buchanan Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

Well, sort of true, but sort of not. The coverage does not cover member to member damage in the air, but it does cover ground damage. For example, if I slam into your parachute at 500 feet and rip it apart, the damage to the parachute and your body is NOT covered. If I slam into your car in the parking lot, it is covered. In fact, last summer we had a low time jumper at my DZ cause 20,000 dollars of damage to another jumpers parked airplane, and insurance picked up the tab, a real benefit for the USPA group member dropzone and the out of control jumper. Likewise, having the coverage allows the other owners of airplanes parked at our dropzone (both USPA members and non-members) to relax a bit regarding damage to their property. There was a period years ago when USPA had no member to member coverage at all, but that was brief and fortunately has been corrected. Until the above mentioned incident I thought member to member coverage was nonexistent, but I learned otherwise, and greatly appreciated the help of USPA in arranging for that insurance. The other reasons you mentioned for joining USPA are right on the money. -tom b. Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

...And you won't have third party liability insurance. Likewise, you will not be helping the rest of us to pay for the oversight needed to retain our access to the airspace, and keep government off our backs. USPA membership is a good thing, and you should join. However, it's not "really bad" that you haven't. In skydiving, I like to think there are only a couple of things that are "really bad," everything else is just life. So, please join USPA. Tom Buchanan S&TA Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

Get a handle on visually identifying altitude before you rely on an electronic device. Fee free to put it in your pocket or strap it to your leg for technical detail and log book records, but don't use it for altitude awareness yet. That's my opinion. Tom Buchanan Instructor (AFF, SL, IAD, Tandem) S&TA Author, JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

It depends on the specific airport and how high you want to jump from. Check with a pilot who can locate the airport on a sectional map and show you the area that is controlled. Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

Wrong. You need to comply with the FAR's. USPA requirements have nothing to do with legal requirements. Most of the advice given so far has been pretty much correct, but the statement above is totally wrong. I strongly suggest you speak with your local S&TA and your jump pilot. They can review the location and your qualifications, and will offer a more specific assessment than you will find here. If the intended landing area is outside controlled airspace and not a congested area, and you have solid canopy control skills, it should be easy to arrange, but you will need help from a pilot to file the paperwork. Tom Buchanan S&TA USPA Pro Rated Commercial Pilot Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

The best way to learn to skydive is to actually do it, as others have suggested. When I'm teaching students with excess anxiety I like to break the fear into components and then isolate each. I use a model I developed while BASE jumping in the early 80's that defines the variables as self, others, equipment, and environment. Once I have the variables defined I try to understand issues related to each one, then come to grips with the specific cause of fear. Once the specific cause has been identified it's pretty easy to deal with, or in some cases, the fear may be justified and a jump should be avoided. Flying small airplanes before trying skydiving does help because it gives you deal with the stress, and helps you evaluate specific risks. You mentioned you are in Long Island and can jump at either SD Long island, or Long island Skydiving. Call them both, ask detailed questions, then visit them before you decide to jump. Your questions are pretty common, and I actually wrote a book that provides more complete answers than I can fit on this screen. The book is called JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy and was published by McGraw-Hill early this year. It is 228 pages with 86 illustrations and includes a chapter about Psychology and another chapter about selecting a dropzone. It also has a series of questions you can ask when calling dropzones. Likewise, it includes a comprehensive FAQ and a glossary of common terms. Check it out. JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy lists for 14.95 and is available from many local booksellers, and also on the web from places like Amazon.com. The last time I checked, Amazon had JUMP! for 30 percent off, and the entire first chapter was available as a free on-line preview. If you are thinking about my book, also check into another book called Parachuting, The Skydivers Handbook. It is a great book that offers tons of information for beginners, and also for experienced skydivers. The Skydivers Handbook was just updated in a 9th edition and is also available on Amazon. So, do your research, then make a skydive! Blue Skies, Tom Buchanan Author JUMP! Skydiving made Fun and Easy Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

What hardware/software is required, and at what cost? Tom Buchanan Instructor Emeritus Comm Pilot MSEL,G Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy