SPAWNmaster

I am also a college student and just got into the sport a few months ago. Did a tandem and felt gipped...didn't actually enjoy the experience too much it was too short! So I sold all my DJ gear (I was spinning some pretty sick clubs but that's all in the past!) went down to florida, went through AFF and fell in love with the sport. My sold dj gear paid for AFF through a-license but I had to take a loan out to pay for my skydiving gear...and now im broke

me too!!!!!! i put my order in feb 20th and it should be here any day now :) :).

for what it's worth i share your pain. my custom wings is still being manufacturered so ive been renting gear from the proshops at the various DZs i jump at. the gear i jump i usually a step up from the student rigs i used to use but i have a feeling the pain won't really every completely go away until i get my custom rig. can't wait for that 3d spacer foam :) a tip that works for me is to cross your legs while in the saddle. like just cross them at the feet and for some reason it relaxes your upper leg and takes some of the strain off it

when i was still a student I had problems with a persistent left turn. it took me a lot of ground practice and visualization (and the wise words of an instructor) before it finally clicked. right now im hung up on accuracy...i seem to always overshoot my target but im workin on that!

im no expert so this is only my thoughts. i can't see how a brake fire could contribute to a bag lock seeing as how brake lines are also stowed with suspension lines when closing the d-bag. even if there wasn't tension on the bottom end of the brake lines (as in a brake fire) to pull out of the stows, the other lines would most likely come out pulling all the other lines with it. or even if not, the elastic wouldn't be tight enough to contain just a few break lines if the other lines have released from the stow. does this make sense? curious what more experienced jumpers think...

like it's been mentioned, most people start with a tandem to decide whether it is something they are interested in doing or not. your attitude sounds like you've already made the decision to be more involved. personally, i know that even before i made my tandem i already knew i wanted to be a skydiver and probably should have started with AFF anyways. the advantage of a tandem though is to just "enjoy the ride". it tends to be more sensory overload your first time.

can't answer your second question but for your first one: i do solo "tracking" all the time and usually they have me out either first or last. the issue is to make sure you are tracking perpendicular to jump run in either direction. personally i'd take going out first because its such a pain in the ass to barely make it back to the DZ goin out last. i find myself flying 45deg from jump run towards the dz on most cases, that way i can make up for some of the distance while still making sure to not be directly over anyones air space. id like to hear some more experienced jumpers opinion on this as Ive had people at the dz debate it in front of my face as far as whether trackers first or trackers last and can never get a clear answer as to what's better/safer.

is this a fact? not questioning you just curious about this sort of data. anyone know what the average ammount of force it requires for a main pin to pull? sorry its off topic!

ive been consistenly clocking 90-101 average...but then again im 160 out the door and do mostly atmo lately. my min is usually around 81-85. i dont know about the protrack as i use an optima but on my altitrack you can switch between the algorithms that detect air speed (TAS vs SAS i think?). anyway, one of them is usually less accurate (shows you faster than you are) so experiment a little bit!

Do you actually believe you are being realistic by believing that the outcome of every jump is based on luck? Nope. It is my understanding that common to both the BASE and Skydiving environments is risk mitigation. That said, you can do everything right and still end up going in. If anyone would like to further debate any of my previous comments feel free to PM me as I don't want to hijack this thread.

ROFL!

im just being realistic. it could happen to anyone of any skill level in either sport. edit: and no I don't post this about every jump...i was merely commenting on how it was both lucky and unlucky addressing the op

for airtwardo and any others who didn't see the other thread. here's the link: http://www.dropzone.com/videos/Detailed/57.html blues

unlucky timing...but lucky they didn't burn in. at least they knew the risks of what they were doing and accepted it before the jump.

i love my deepseed. pure quality from these dudes. i got the suit custom made in a 3 week period. design is dope and the quality of the materials and build is awesome. would highly recommend a deepseed ff suit. also like the other guy mentioned their prices are in NZ so dont get put off. their base price is 180 US dollars.

interesting because dead air is pretty much the last thing i would describe from all of my porter jumps. in fact i have trouble hanging on so maybe i should ask the pilot to slow down a bit on jump run?

thanks for the input guys. and yes actually I was talking about the porter at The Ranch where I've been jumping lately. my normal exit is hand on the inside bar, facing the tail, get out on the step and just launch a delta(im big on atmo so I usually launch into delta). i have tried other exits when doing group belly flying and its the same result so i dunno...maybe try presenting myself to the front of the plane since I havent tired this with the porter. anyways, thanks for your input...and I'll be sure to try launching a headdown when I have some more freefly jumps

Hey guys...recently I've started jumping at a DZ that usually runs a porter while im there and I find it to be hard to exit stable every time. I've probably jumped it around 10 times or so but get waxed by prop blast every time...takes me a few hundred feet to flip onto my belly or do whatever to get stable. anyways, since I'm tired of wasting good altitude trying to get stable out the door does anyone have any porter specific exit tips? I never have problems in 182s or otters or caravans (the only other AC I've jumped) so I'm assuming its the prop blast from this plane specifically. does anyone else have similar findings about the porter or is it just me?

http://djandrewgarcia.com/personal/my%20beautiful%20rig.png that's my container http://djandrewgarcia.com/personal/myffsuit.jpg and that's my suit. can i get in on your hybrid?

ask your instructors...most DZ's have their own rules about what just-off-aff students can do. some will only let you jump with coaches and such for proficiency card reqs while others tell you to go for it "cleared for solos". and like it's been mentioned, after AFF now that you have the basis to be a skydiver your going to learn so much on every jump. enjoy and be safe. blues

the telescope game is bomb!

some DZ's offer their own interpretation of the ISP including 25-jump one payment packages that include AFF through A-license.

Deepseed manufacturer isn't listed.

How safe is keeping possessions in tents at boogies? This will be my first and I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to keep my camera and cell phone and pdas and all that good stuff in my car rather then leaving it in my tent the whole time. Any input? Thanks!

Cool stuff! Thanks for that link. Mike and Dan's book are the reason I started skydiving, so it's pretty cool to find more helpful info from Dan out there.