SGT-Frontline

Glad you hear you all are okay man! I was trying to get ahold of you all week! I live a few miles away and I was worried the the DZ and my house might go up. Good to hear things worked out for the better. blue skies!

Hey everyone, first time posting. I am a new jumper and I have a few questions. I have 30 jumps so far and I just passed my A lic. check dive last week. I will take the test next week. I recently bought a rig and I am wondering on how long i should wait to jump it. It is a Javelin with a 170 saber. Fits like a glove. I am currently jumping the rental, which is a 259 EQ. I have been practicing my canopy skill and I have gotten decent with my landings. So far my landings have all been standing and within 75m when I first started , to within 10-15m pretty consistently. My current body weight is 179lbs and my exit weight with the 259 is right around 215 (a WL of 0.8 right?), and my exit weight with my new rig will be 205. (a WL of 1.2) I have read in the SIM that 1.2 is the maximum wing load exit weight for A-B lic. this is right where I will be if I start with this new rig. I don't want to jump right into the new rig. I was thinking that I would take a month or so to get there. (I usually jump 2-3 times a week) I plan on down sizing slowly and I dont really want to do anything crazy under canopy. In fact I am pretty happy with nothing extreme under 2000 and basic landing pattern. What would be a safe margin of time to get down to a 170? Thanks for the help y'all And by the way the Cypress needs its four year and it also needs a reserve repack. So no rush on my part!

Skydive San Diego is a great place. I started learning here last week and I am really impressed. I have done tandems at Lodi, Sky dance, and Skydive Atlanta and I have to say that Skydive San Diego is the best. The Pros of this DZ are many. The facilities are all clean and pretty new. They have a nice BBQ pit going every day that has decent food at a good price, $2 burgers and more as well as lots of cold drinks. The packing areas (there are 2) are covered and have new padding and plenty of room to spread out. The Gear store has a good selection of basic gear and if they don’t have what you need Bonnie or Justice will make sure you get it. Bonnie is a very cool person to talk to. She is happy to make recommendations and answer any questions that you have. The ladies at manifest are friendly and a get you where you need to be. This is a great place to start learning. The winds are easy, almost constantly out of the west and light. The weather is usually beautiful, sunny and cool. This area is so nice for jumping that the U.S. Navy, Marines and Air force send guys here to learn how to skydive! It’s not uncommon to see S.E.A.L.s training during the week most of the year. The instructors are all very knowledgeable and professional. They really go out of the way to make you feel safe and ready for your jumps. Jen is the coolest, but all of the AFF instructors have good attitudes and make it pretty fun. Ground school was a good 6 hours of instruction that strongly enforced the basics and gave the knowledge to be safe on your first Jump. The Aircraft is a brand new Twin Otter! No ratty, old, striped, aircraft here. You get up to altitude quickly and it holds close to 22 jumpers a load. The door has a slider to keep the wind out on the way out and good hand and foot holds on the outside of the fuselage. On the weekend they usually get well over 20 loads in the air! The view! It is amazing! The DZ is about a mile from Otay Lake and in the foot hills near the border with Mexico. On good days you can even get a good view of the ocean. Of course the weather, again, is always great. The Cons…. The only real con I have is not that big of a deal. The vibe is kind of busy sometimes. Since this DZ is so close to San Diego it gets a ton of jumpers and spectators on the weekend. Yet most of the fun jumpers are easy to talk to and fun to hang out with. All in all it’s a great place. I am happy to call it my home DZ.