UDSkyJunkie

Yep... that'd even be an appropriate "C" requirement, really. A Ten-meter circle is pretty small. If you can hit 10 meters every time, it means you can put your canopy down in a space smaller than most people's front yard every time. Let's face it... if you are in a situation where you need to land in a space smaller than someone's front yard, you did something REALLY stupid, and your mad accuracy skills will only help you if you have a solid dose of luck to go with them. Anyone who's actually been in this situation *raises hand and points to self* will agree. Accuracy is a necessary, and I agree often overlooked, survival skill. Accuracy within 2 meters is irrelevant outside the context of accuracy or canopy piloting competition. "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

NO! I've been where you are. 1st jump 1 month into freshman year of college. First few years were slow jumping-wise and paid for by packing... it's harder to do that at Eloy vs. the smaller DZ where I was, but it can be done. Or, you can go to a smaller place for awhile where I guarantee you'll be able to supplement some income there if you have good work ethic. Once I graduated, I hit it balls-to-the-wall. Definately the better way to go. If you delay the career, you will delay the jumping further later, when you're broke, rather than now. I know it sucks, but nursing school will be over before you know it. I promise... I can relate more than you think, as I am in school again, for nursing (old career of engineering had good pay but horrible environment). I've had to put off jumping almost entirely for a year already and have a year to go yet, and it sucks a whole lot. but it'll end and I can go balls-to-the-wall again in 2011. I know how much it sucks to not do everything you want right now, because in '05-'07 I was doing 200-300 jumps a year, on a good 4-way team, lots of tunnel camps, travel to boogies, nationals, upgraded gear, got coach and AFF ratings, and LOVED it... and now I'm stuck hardly jumping for 2 years and working/in school 7 days a week. but that will pass for me and it will pass for you. Get through school. When you're done hopefully I'll see you at Eloy... I live in Tucson. Blue Skies. "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

I just don't see a problem with the current system. although it has some potential for abuse, that is true of any system. I believe real cases of abuse within 4-way are rare. first off, adding a "sponsored" class makes no sense. say, by some amazing combination of skill, money, and dedication, 4 "weekend" jumpers train their asses off with their own money and become competitive with the big guns. but they have no sponsors, so they can't compete against airspeed and since they're in another class they can't go to the world meet. absurd. the open class is for the best. if you're not up to it, don't enter in open! although they have occured true cases of sandbagging are rare. it's pretty rare that the top 3-5 standings in advanced and intermediate are separated by more than a couple points in their average. certainly that was the case this year. the only time it's a problem is if you've got 1st place with a 16 average and 2nd is say a 12 average... I can only think of two times that really big point difference has existed between 1st and 2nd, and in one of those cases (divewerkz) it was totally legit... they took 3rd in intermediate in '05 and came back to crush the advanced class by like 20 points... I have no problem with that. it was done without a lineup change and with fairly minimal outside support. in the end, we can't all be winners. somebody has to come in 1st, and it's usually gonna be the guy with more resources. believe me, I know... I took 6th in intermediate in '06. above me were 2 us air force teams, 2 teams from skydive chicago, and one from the ranch. my team was from a mid-size DZ in Ohio that didn't get an otter until july. It was pretty obvious that they all had more resources. but you know what? they were better teams, and they beat us in fair competition. and you know what else? we beat out a few air force teams and other big-DZ teams that had more resources than we did, too. that's life! "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

1) pay off all of me and my wife's debt, including our student loans. 2) allocate most of the money into fairly conservative savings and investment accounts. 1/2 of the income each year would be "salary" and the other 1/2 would be re-invested. 3) a smaller, but substantial, portion of the winnings would be used to create a separate investment account, with which I would use the income to sponsor (either partially or fully) a 4-way team. While the short-term goal is obvious and somewhat selfish, the long-term plan would be to provide a stable source of income to the top 1 or 2 4-way teams in the country so they can afford to focus more on training and competition. 4) Get my coach and AFF ratings back. I'd also finish nursing school, since I'll be done in 16 months anyway. 5) I'd jump and work at the DZ as a organizer/AFF instructor/coach without having to worry about having enough money to buy ramen noodles at the end of the weekend or having to give up training days to earn enough to live. 6) I would have a very, very strict policy of telling noone where my money came from, and absolutely NOT giving money to those who would inevitably find out. The only gift I feel I would give is paying off my parents house. "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

Lowest I would initiate a main (intentionally)? 2200 ft. This is the altitude where I won't take it any lower due to traffic, ect. My preferred altitude is about 2800. Decision altitude (chop if I haven't fixed a mal yet)? 1500 ft. Hard-deck (if still in freefall, go strait to silver)? Also 1500. Too much risk of a 2-out situation below that with a Cypress and Sabre2 that typically takes ~800 feet from initiation to being in the saddle. "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

nope. metal detectors usually work via magnetism. titanium (in fact, most metals that don't contain iron) is only very, very weakly magnetic. therefore, no beeping. "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

I was 125 lbs when off student status and wore 8 lbs of weight from the first solo, though not during student jumps. It quickly jumped to 12 lbs, and these days I usually wear 14-18. Personally, I have never felt like wearing weight caused a landing to feel harder, hurt more, whatever. Then again, I'm a guy in my 20's in pretty good shape who's taken a lot of spills over the years, and I know how to PLF. Replace me with a 100-lb flyweight girl who's never been much for physical activity... maybe you're looking at a totally different story. In the end though, I think your control over the canopy (accuracy, flaring techique, control in winds, and your ability to keep your head and PLF when shit inevitably goes down) is going to have more effect on wether a newbie gets hurt on landing than any rational amount of weight will. On AFF students... definately only as a last resort when even the smallest/slowest/best jumpmaster can't stay up with them. "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

I've only had one jump that I truly thought I might not make it... very stupid self-induced super-tight landing area (think 50 x 50 feet) surrounded on all sides by large obstacles. Very high winds, misjudged it badly, and somehow toggle-whipped myself to saftey. anyway, my thought process was something like this: "oh shit, I'm gonna die. so this is what it's like to die in a hook turn." and then a loud "NO! never give up, there's always a chance, just keep at it, keep at it, keep at it..." Everything focused down to a razor point and I made it happen... I still don't know how. But all of that happened in like 2 seconds. With a full minute, and truly no way out, who knows. "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

Agreed. Some canopies don't respond well when you try to fly them during deployment, and others do. The Sabre2 (or at least mine!) is definately the latter. Early on the openings would get pretty wild and sometimes scary, but once I learned to anticipate and react to the opening I found I've been able not only to accept a wilder opening, but also to prevent it from getting worse. Personally, I've found it best to let it do it's thing during the snivel, which is usually on-heading, and then lean heavily to the opposite side the instant that it dives (mine usually dives right) during final inflation. I love absolutely everything else about the Sabre2, so I'm cool with the kinda weird openings. Opinions vary. "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

More often than anything, I have learned that I'm not as good as I think I am. Over and over again. "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

Stiletto (if you want a shorter recovery arc) or Sabre2 (if you want a similar recovery arc). Similar canopies like crossfire2 or pilot would be equally valid... really any mid-to-high performance 9-cell today is going to have characteristics similar to a vengeance. I loved the way the vengeance flew, but it's the worst-opening canopy I've ever jumped. Sabre2 is a little rough on opening (though much better than vengeance), but flies similarly and has more float when you need it. "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

I can relate, for different reasons... I've always felt that the dial of an analog is more intuitive... it's a quick visual reference that doesn't require mental arithmetic to translate. It seems (disclaimer: I've not actually used a digital) that the digital would require more thought in an emergency situation. It's an individual preference thing too; I prefer analog watches, speedometers, tachometers, fuel gages... in those cases I have used digital and find it does feel like it takes longer to translate. Numbers are more abstract, less intuitive, to me. Others may diagree completely, hence neither has come to dominate the sport! "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

yes, but... 61 fatalities worldwide in 2007. 58 in 2008. '07 wasn't even a "good year for skydiving", just a good year for skydiving in the US. "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

Assuming your profile's accurate, at 11 jumps (or 20 or 30 anyway), it's probably still a mix of both, but probably mostly nerves. nerves can hit the experienced too. I remember spending about 10 minutes on the ramp of a casa due to traffic and multiple go-arounds... after awhile, standing 2 feet from the door at 13k started to get to me. At 700+ jumps I did a balloon jump, and for no good reason, my heart was pumping like crazy... almost as much as at exit time at round 1 of my first nationals... by that time I was at 900+. Also during some of my AFF instructor eval dives... nerves were going full-force! though that was quickly out-stripped by the first few actual AFF's I had to do! I remember my first malfuction too... I reacted fairly calmly and did exactly what my training told me to do, but afterwards my heart was pounding and I fogged up my helmet, which never happens. was still shaking when I landed, even though everything went perfect. To conquer it, you just have to keep at it. your mind and body will adjust. I will say that some slow, deep breathing shortly before walking to the door has and still does help me calm my mind a bit in the short term. Once you're out the door, it all goes away! "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

I have played numbers games with this occasionally. Here's what I came up with: Took the same average of 1 fatality per 100,000 jumps, and assumed that an "average" active jumper is going to do 100 jumps per year. I then picked a long time period... 100 jumps a year for 30 years. Over that person's career, they are looking at a roughly 1 in 1000 chance of being killed in any give year (actually not far off since USPA has roughly 30,000 members and roughly 30 of them are killed every year). Over a 30 year career, the odds of being killed are rather staggering. about 3%, or 1 in 33. sounds kind of high, doesn't it? although when i think about it i can name probably a dozen dead jumpers I knew personally, and would be hard pressed to name 33 times that number (396!)... not a happy thought. so anecdotally, I think my numbers are realistic. That said, we all have to realize that the odds are NOT static... this is skydiving, not roulette. We have substantial control over the odds by the disciplines we choose, the equipment we fly, our landing patterns, our attention to safety. Anyone who has been in the sport long enough knows at least one person whom they predicted would die and were sadly proven right (I can name 2). And while the opposite (people who are conservative and smart and make few mistakes but end up killed anyway) does happen, it is quite a bit less common (I know of a few incidents, but haven't known any of them personally). "Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."