bjelder

reminds me of mitch hedberg The next time I move I hope I get a real easy phone number, something like 2222222. People will ask, "Mitch, how do I get a hold of you?" I'll say, "Just press two for a while, when I answer, you'll know that you've pressed two enough."

This is just my 2 cents, so take it as that lol But.. if you look at the vid at around 1:02 you get a nice view of the ground. No real square fields there at all. At 1:05 theres a little "glitch" if you will where the video sorta freezes up for a second. Now look at the ground.. square farm fields and pastures. My guess is that its real skydiving footage, but once he does his little reserve pull and you get that glitch at 1:05, it switches to the CGI effects and stuff as the "ground" completely changes! Again, just a thought.

I think that as long as its not a "resume filler", you'll be good to go. If its just something you slap on paper to make yourself look good, might not be the best for ya. But if its in an interview where you can relate it to your work, it'd work out better for ya IMO

Haha, very true. However, I'm not really wanting perfection out of my jumps, thats clearly unrealistic. I guess I was just surprised that I was flat-out failing level 1! Thanks for all the generous and kind replies in this thread, it has definitely kept my chin up. Thanks a bunch!

Haha! I certainly feel you there!! Its been so long since I've been a student at something aviation related! Thanks for all the quick replies- I'll be sure to practice the jump flows on the floor. Just watching some AFF videos on youtube of unstable exits and stuff just blow my mind, when they start spinning uncontrollably. Almost seems impossible to make a stable dive! Argh! I definitely want to keep at it.. although my tandem jump was a lot more fun. Ah well, I'm sure it'll pay off in the long run. Thanks again!

Hey all- I'm 3 jumps into my AFF and still haven't completed stg 2. It took 2 jumps to pass stage 1 (fucked up royally the 1st time- couldn't get stable at all, they had to pull the pilot chute and everything). The 2nd stage 1 jump was AWESOME, I nailed everything and it was a lot of fun. I just did my first attempt at stage 2 today- went fairly well.. took a few seconds to get stable and I still can't get the exit right. I jump out and arch as hard as I can but still end up facing down and it takes a few seconds to get the arch down, which then throws off the jump cause I barely have time to do what I need to do. So the future is looking sorta grim for me, and I don't know if this is for me! I really want to persue this, but so far its just been a shot to the ego. As for my instructors Nikki and Steen, if your'e out there, I absolutely love y'all. Its nice to have somebody who expects a lot and won't let me just slide through. I wouldn't trade you two for anything :-) So basically I have great instructors but I'm not really 'getting' it yet. Any ideas on what to do? Is there anything I can practice to make the jumps easier? It seems like its going to take forever before I can comfortably do anything without a lot of help! I fly 6 days a week as a flight instructor and am a full time student so Sundays are my only free day, so the jumps have sadly been few and far between. Any words of inspiration for a struggling student? Thanks!! :-)

Hey everybody- First just wanted to say what a great site this is! Really cool community. Just finished my 2nd AFF jump and can't wait to continue. Anyway, I was wondering if anybody out there is a pilot for a DZ. Seems like a pretty neat job to me (might do a number on the old sinuses though! up down up down up down). I have my flight instructor rating and commercial pilot license (single and multi-engine) with about 800 hours. I'd imagine it gets pretty complicated flying jumpers as with the center of gravity shifts when jumpers drop, getting the right pitch attitude so nobody gets their heads bashed in, etc. Anybody out there care to share what its like to fly jumpers? Any good stories? I'm going airlines in about 2 years when I graduate college, but its something I've always wanted to do later on down the road. FWIW, my DZ flies a twin otter and skyvan. Thanks all!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to introduce myself. My name is bart, just started my AFF course, my next jump will be stage 2. Can't wait to keep on jumpin! Take it easy! :-)