malarame

When I bought my rig, one of the questions I asked the guy I bought it from was if the canopy had a name. He looked at me like I was crazy and asked why he would name a canopy. Since then, I've asked a handful of other jumpers if they named their canopies, and I've gotten the same reaction every time (well almost every time. One woman laughed and said her canopy was named "Sabre2"). The way I see it, something as important as a canopy ought to be named. You don't want to show disrespect to something that regularly saves your life, since you never know when it might get angry and turn on you. It's sort of like naming a boat, or even naming a house (which I've seen people do). So how many of you out there have a name for your canopy? Am I completely crazy for even thinking about it? And in case you were wondering, mine is named Mary. She's named after the city my dz is located in, Saint Mary's.

It's never a good idea to wear a ring when you're working around machinery. I work at a shipyard, and a lot of the guys at work never wear their ring, even though they're almost always wearing gloves. Same was true when I worked out at sea. A First Engineer I once worked with had actually gotten a tattoo around his ring finger, right where his ring would be, so that he could leave his ring at home but still be "wearing" a ring. I always thought that was pretty cool, and it showed quite a bit of commitment to the marriage.

I know exactly what you mean -- the first time someone asked me to sign their logbook (we'd just done a two-way) I felt so excited. I had just earned my A license the week before and I didn't even have a license number yet. The next time I saw him I had to ask for his log book so I could fill that in

I've pulled too early on one jump a few weeks ago, the cause being a combination of a few things. I was still a student but had been cleared for self-supervision and I was doing a coaching jump with a very experienced skydiver. We had agreed to break at 5000, I would turn and track away, and pull by 4000. I was practicing two things on the jump: falling in a slot and controlling fall rate. I was using one of the student altimeters and had been glancing at it every few seconds for the whole jump. It always took me more time than I felt it should to register the altitude with the analog altimeter, and a couple times on earlier jumps I almost pulled too early by misreading it. Since then I bought a digital altimeter, which I find much easier to read. Anyway, at 5000 feet my coach made a quick chopping motion with his hands. After we got on the ground, he told me that he was telling me that the fun was over and it was time to break. I should have understood it, and another coach had done the same thing before, but for some reason on that jump something went wrong. The thought flashed through my mind that he was waving off, which meant that he was about to pull, which meant that something was wrong with my altimeter and we were much lower than I thought. I can't remember exactly what happened next, but I think I glanced quickly at my altimeter and misread it as being on 4 (at the time it still would have been on the 5). I immediately pulled without tracking, and once under canopy I saw I was still at about 4500 feet, and I realized that my altimeter must have been working since I watched my coach continue to fall for another 5 or 10 seconds before his canopy came out. Luckily, he had been flying about 20 feet away from me, so my pulling didn't put him in any danger. I had plenty of time in the air to think about what happened, and the coach spent some time with me going over what went wrong. He assured me that having something like that happen when I only had maybe 18 or so jumps wasn't bad or very unusual, and that I just need to try to stay calmer in the air.

At my DZ, the area near the packing tent is actually restricted to jumpers with at least a B, mostly because it's a smaller area with buildings around it causing a lot of turbulence. I've landed there a couple times on accident (mostly by misjudging how much penetration I'd get on my final approach), and every time I got clobbered by turbulence and ended up being blown onto the runway. With my skill level, I don't feel comfortable making any sort of turn below ~100 feet, so there's a point at which I just raise my toggles and go wherever my canopy takes me. I'm working on flat turns and slowly lowering the altitude at which I'll do them, but ~100 feet is still my limit. After landing on the runway in the advanced landing area twice in one day, I got grounded and a couple more experienced jumpers talked to me and reviewed approach procedures in detail with me. I don't plan on landing in that area any time soon, and not until I feel very comfortable with accuracy. I'd much rather walk back from the student landing area than deal with that turbulence at my level. Plus, someone usually comes out on a golf cart and picks us up

Awesome video! I was wondering, though, how much did the chair weigh, and how was it attached to his foot? It looked like it came right off as soon as it hit the ground. And since I'm very attached to my beard, I'm never letting any of you near me in freefall!

This is my favorite answer so far Seriously, though, thanks for the answers everyone. I guess it was a bit more obvious than I thought.

And a picture of a Looney Tunes bomb on the cutaway. That would be perfect... or maybe a picture of Bowser on the cutaway and the Princess on the reserve.

(Note: I've only ever jumped out of a C-182, so that's what I'm basing this question on.) I was wondering, when you're doing the count for a four-way jump, how do you typically know when everyone is ready to go? Do you just look to see if the guy in the door is in position and assume he's ready? For the few times that I've done a four-way and been the one to count, I've always asked the guy in the door to nod at me when he was ready, since I figure he's going to be ready last. Even on a two-way, if I'm doing the count I've always asked the other person to nod when they were ready. Is there some standard way of knowing, and am I just being difficult by adding something else that can go wrong?

I'm not sure what I would get on my cutaway handle, but I think I would want a picture of the Mario 1up mushroom on my reserve handle.

I was very nervous for my first hop-and-pop. I was a static-line student and I was worried about having to deploy myself. I had been doing good practice pulls, but it wasn't quite the same. I got out at 5000 feet and for some reason pushed myself off the step so that I ended up falling onto my back. I was concentrating so much on making sure I deployed that I wasn't paying attention to my body position. I deployed on my back and apparently the pilot chute started to wrap itself around me, but my instructor said I arched well and flipped over and the rest of the deployment went well. The landing was uneventful and I felt great after it was done. My instructor did have me hang off the strut for my next few exits, though.

I've heard the debate about digital vs. analog for new jumpers, and I figured I'd throw my opinion out there. After quite a bit of thought, I ended up buying a Neptune last weekend. I jumped with it a few times and I love it. I find that I'm able to read the digital display much faster than I was able to read the analog, mostly because I don't need to search for the dial. One quick glance and I know exactly where I am. Plus, I find that I can judge fall rate much better with numbers ticking by than by watching the dial move. I also love that it tracks statistics like speed, jump altitude, etc. After jumping with both, I'd much rather have a digital altimeter. I'm not too worried about the battery dying on a jump since I figure it's much more likely to happen on the ground or on the plane ride. The idea to get an altimeter as a gift is a great one, though. It was the first piece of gear I bought, not counting gloves, and I'm very happy with my purchase.

Ask a lot of questions. I've become known at my dz as "that guy who asks questions about everything", but I've learned so much. Any time I see someone do something new or interesting, I ask them about it. Any time I see something go wrong, I talk to the person and find out exactly what happened, why, what the best response would be, what they did, etc. Remember, people tend to love to talk about themselves, so if you frame the question in a way that they get to talk about what they think and what they do, they're almost always happy to answer any questions you have.

I'd probably still be sitting at home on weekends wondering what to do, as opposed to spending all my free time at the drop zone. I also wouldn't have met all the cool people I'm now friends with. One guy in particular, another student, I've only known for a month or so and already he and I are really good friends. Of course, since I only started about a month ago, my life wouldn't be that different

I'm not very experienced, but it looks to me like there were two problems: one, he wasn't arching enough, and two, he wasn't able to stop himself from turning. He probably froze up due to panic (and maybe sensory overload) and couldn't remember what to do. At least he remembered to pull, even with the spin. I wonder how many line twists he had, though. Anyway, I wouldn't get too hung up on all the "what-ifs". Just practice a whole bunch on the ground and visualize everything on the ground and on the plane. If all else fails, just arch and tap your toes together, and remember to keep looking at your altimeter. Remember also that your state of mind is going to affect (effect? I can never remember which to use) your jump. If you're worried about everything that could go wrong, you'll be tense and scared and the jump will go poorly. After my first jump from full altitude a couple weeks ago (I was a static-line student), I was talking to my instructor and getting really down on myself for everything that I perceived I had done wrong. The gist of what he told me was that any jump where I landed safely was a good jump, and that if I get down on myself I'm just going to continue doing poorly and I won't enjoy it as much.

Definitely the door... for my first 5 or 6 jumps, I got really nervous when the door was open. I'd always lean away from it and try not to look at it, as if that would help somehow. Now it doesn't bother me, I have no problem leaning out to watch someone exit or to spot.

Hello everyone! So I've wanted to skydive since I was 10 years old, and I'm finally doing it 13 years later. I did a tandem jump for my 18th birthday but didn't have the money to continue on, but now that I have a job and disposable income I can afford it. I have 15 jumps so far, and every one has been better than the last. I go to The Jumping Place in Georgia, that place is amazing and everyone is really friendly. Anyway, I'll see you all around!