npgraphicdesign

1. Whats your name? Nikita (I am a guy.) 2. How old are you? Biologically or attitude-wise? 3. Why did you decide to start jumping out of airplanes? My first 2 tandems: to prove to prove to myself I am not afraid of something I've put off for almost two years for various 'excuses' My first AFF: to prove to myself that I'm not afraid of doing what I wrote above on my own Since my first AFF: I'm addicted. Give me money and time and I'll jump every day. 4. Are you single or taken? Married? To quote Mitch Hedberg "..I don't have a girlfriend but I do know a girl who would get very mad if she heard me say that." Kidding...single. 5. Do you have kids? I don't....think so... 6. What do you drive? Other people. Crazy. ***Hey LadiDadi, you stole my answer!! I drive a TC btw... 7. Have you ever done a kisspass? No...what's that? 8. Where do you live? CT. And don't judge a book by its cover... 9. Do you have any pets? No. 10. How many jumps do you have? 10 so far..hoping for my A license before mid-December 11. What color eyes do you have? Hazel 12. What is your nationality? Russian. 13. Have you ever dated someone you met off the internet? Yes 14. Favorite Movie? Too many to list...depends on my mood as well. 15. What do you do when you arent skydiving? Working, designing, reading, listening to music, etc... 16. Have you ever BASE jumped? No... 17. If not... do you want to? ...yes! 18. Do you have siblings? Stepbrother. 19. Where do you want to travel to the most? Give me 1 month in each country and let me travel/live in some of the major cities in that country within that timeframe.. Would do that until I've been to almost every country in the world...dream vacation. 20. What's your favorite color? CMYK 21. Where was the last place you flew to ( not skydiving )? London, United Kingdom/Jena, Germany

Amen. Single as well with a similar mindset. There are a lot of cuuuute women at my DZ. Too bad most of them have a few hundred jumps more than I do...so someone who skydives doesn't impress them as much...

I don't have a problem with that. Where do you jump?

Hey, Where do you jump out of? I jump out of CPI...well, I jump whenever I can make it out. I'm sure that Pilotdave will chime in and make some joke about me and my excuses of why i CAN'T make it out every weekend... What level of AFF are you on?

Big Bill Morganfield - Sloppy Drunk Absolute Blues Hits 1.FM station on iTunes

I received some great advice from one of my instructors about relaxing. He simply said "Relax and don't worry. There's nothing that can hurt you for 13000 feet, and you have plenty of time to do everything you need to."

I guess I'm a skydiver then, because I did pretty damn good on my D2 jump: first good solo exit, solid 180/360 turns, good pull, and decent landing. Of course, spinning like a frickin' dreidel and not getting stable on my E1 a few hours later didn't look too good...

...maybe someday....

If you're going to do that, I would choose your lodging location based on where you're flying into. If you're flying into RDU (Raleigh), then I recommend you stay in Southern Pines or Aberdeen (30 minutes from the DZ in Raeford and about 1:10 from RDU airport). If you're flying into Fayetteville then staying on the southwest side of Fayetteville is your best bet. Don't forget the ParacleteXP wind tunnel which is only a few miles from the DZ in Raeford. You may want to book a little time there as well. Why not bring your friend down from Raleigh for a day to make a tandem? Those are great suggestions, thank you. I'll probably be flying into Raleigh seeing as my friend lives about 15 min from airport. Any specific relatively cheap places (that you know of) to stay in the towns mentioned? If I spend 5 or 6 consecutive days at the DZ, all I'll need is just a place to sleep for the night. I won't need a penthouse suite for 5 days. Don't know if I'll have the money for the tunnel time, but we'll see when I get closer to the date when I plan to visit. I think my friend would love to make a tandem. We'll just have to wait and see come decision time how she feels...

Um cause it is very early in the morning and most people havent read this yet Fucking hilarious though!!!! Early my Russian a$$! It's 7:48am....I was in the gym by 615.

[tumbleweeds]I hear no laughter.[/tumbleweeds]

Hmm...is that normal driving speed? I might just find a place to stay around Raeford, do some jumping, and then go visit my friend for one or two days afterwards.

How to wait in line by Bas Rutten. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNXRInrSSVU Check 0:50

Thanks Diesel! I'm looking to visit a friend in NC in either January or late March for about a week. Would love to get some jumping in, or, if I don't have my license by then, finish out my AFF. Living in NE stinks sometimes! Doesn't Ft. Bragg have a DZ?

My question wasn't in reference to specific instructor, but more a general question. That being said, I've felt 100% with any instructor I've had so far. So no, I didn't mean 'safe' but 'at ease.' Thanks for the clarification. My English 'ain't' so good in the morning.

I have this strange curiousity to hear this story...

I teach full time, and as a professor, I know that some students aren't comfortable with my teaching style. I was the same way in graduate school, and while I learned something from each professor and respected them, I didn't necessarily feel at ease w/ their teaching approach. Is skydiving the same way? Being just a noob to the sport, this might be a stupid question. But do some of you feel more or less comfortable with some instructors, for whatever reason?

Looking to take a week or so in January to visit a friend in Raleigh and would like to keep up with my skydiving. Any places within an hour driving or less? I know that one DZ just ceased operations in the area... Are there any others?

Oh I didn't interpret it as wiseass, rude or mean. I want it bad. I want my license, which for me personally is a huge first step, and I want to continue with this sport and become proficient in it.

My barrel roll jump ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McmATzuT71A Not perfect, but I passed. Nice..i actually saw that when I was browsing some skydiving videos on youtube. Why'd you get the pull signal? Were you past your deployment altitude and didn't know it, or because you were going through clouds, or....??

Oh i'm not giving up...not until my instructors tell me to. How'd you do on your barrel rolls? Everyone said they are easy, yet I couldn't do one...curious if anyone else had the same issues...

Good point.

Well, it started off on a good note...but didn't end on a great note. D2 - first solo exit no JM grips, did well on the exit (out of a 206, 2nd exit overall out of that plane) good 180 and 360 turns, rock-solid pull, good dive overall. E1 - same exit out of the 206, a bit rocky and took me about 10 seconds to get stable. Then...the excrement hit the fan..or rather, the wind. Did barrel roll #1, ended up flailing & on my back. Never really recovered completely, and then went into lightning fast spin. Did everything I could to stop it. Or so I thought...until my instructor told me (on the ground) that it didn't even look like I was trying. Turns out my hands and feet were dragged by the wind and I thought i was arching, but i was arching sideways. The spin was so bad that I lost sight of her almost completely. She came in to try to stop me, but backed off when she saw me reaching for the pull handle. Pulled at 4500 on the nose (when I was suppose to) but i was still in the spin...and had some really high-quality line twists. I mean these fuckers were NICE! Took me about 8-10 seconds of bicycle kicking to untwist them. Then to add insult to injury, I was still thinking about my crappy spin and got caught in some wind. Confused the hell out of my instructor on the radio, who thought I was going one way, then another. I ended up never turning into my base, and just did a weak 180 and landed a bit diagonally and not as was planned. But he decided to let me do my thing and land on my own. So...I landed in a corn field right next to the DZ, with thankfully no corn. Almost stood the landing up but lost traction in the dirt. Strike 3. See these kind of days make me really discouraged about continuing. I still got an awesome rush from the jumps today, and even though I was scared as hell during my spin and deployment, I still enjoyed it. I am just really bummed about having to repeat a jump. I was hoping to get to barrel rolls today and possibly a hop n' pop. Instead have to repeat my E1 next weekend. So how do you guys get over the disappointment of failing a jump? thought I was over that hump...but not after today...

What's in it for me? Typical man! Well, I would let you look at a Flickr account with the pics.

What's in it for me?