Phil3D

Most definitely. Freefall is the easy part. It's getting that pattern right from 1K down that's still a little hard. Wind speed increases, direction shifts, landing pattern adjustments. Weird stuff from my noobish perspective. All comes with practice I suppose. That wasn't flying. That was falling with style.

Not sure I get what your saying. Feet and knees were together. I made my mind up already to roll right before I hit the ground. Knees were slightly bent before landing. Now, on impact I do allow my knees to bend a little more. Then I roll right. There is that split second transition between "bend knees" and "side roll" where I put more weight on my right foot but I figured that was how it was supposed to be done. That wasn't flying. That was falling with style.

I had a bit of a rough AFF landing yesterday and I'm starting to really feel it now. Slight limp yesterday. Ouch today. Long and the short of it was I was radioed towards a sand area for my final approach. Flared right when they told me to and saw how fast I was coming in. I wasn't going to be standing up this one. I hit the sand and slid as I bent my knees and angled to the right for an off-to-the-right PLF roll. The instructors who saw me land said I made the right call and executed it well. Just the same, my right ankle hurts like the dickens from it. Lesson learned. PLFs are good are lessening the damage from a rough landing. But that doesn't mean it'll prevent you from being roughed up entirely. That wasn't flying. That was falling with style.

I'm not sure if it matters where the camera is worn. I think the 200 jump guideline is more an issue of distraction. My own (ignorant) opinion is that it's still a bad idea. That wasn't flying. That was falling with style.

Congratulations and welcome to the forums. Money issues can slow you down but doesn't necessarily have to stop you. One thing I learned at my first jump course is that you can stretch out your AFF training as much as one jump every 30 days to spread out the financial pain. I don't know if this varies by drop zone or if it's a USPA thing. However, it money is an issue, it's probably something you can ask your DZ about. That wasn't flying. That was falling with style.

A tandem last month. I messed up my right ankle a little on landing. Ended up jumping again anyways. Now an AFF student. That wasn't flying. That was falling with style.

Okay, I just got done going up for second.

Yeah, agreed. I figure any roughing up I got here would be NOTHING compared to what the ground could dish out. I'd rather the former thank you very much. No sugarcoating for me, please. And yes, I know better than to go into class and say "But at dropzone.com, they said X". Beyond that, I don't know much but I do know that two straight evenings of ground school and then a jump is going to likely to be like sipping from a firehose. Hopefully, pouring over "The Skydivers Handbook" and googling around will help prep me. But it's best to still walk in assuming I know nothing. That wasn't flying. That was falling with style.

I have no intention to buy right now. I'm just doing as much research as I can. Yes, I am pre AFF. I figure it doesn't hurt to collect as much information as I can, practice arching, ect prior to even signing up for AFF. Hope that's not a bad approach. Oh, and Dave, the brutal honesty is appreciated. Compare me to a homeless person all you'd like. I've been compared to far worse. That wasn't flying. That was falling with style.

I've been doing some research on main canopies and I've come across a couple things I couldn't quite figure out. First, "loading" boils down to the weight of the jumper with respect to the size of the canopy, right? What would be the best size for a newb weighing in at close to 200? Second, does the cell count matter? Would a 9 cell be too much for a newb to handle? Do I have a real choice here? When I go to places like skydivestore.com, it doesn't seem to mention whether or not a canopy is 7 or 9 cell. That wasn't flying. That was falling with style.

Just got the video today. The word my wife used to express the look on my face in the plane was "shell shocked". We both got a few laughs out of it. The free fall went pretty well save perhaps a moment or two when Larry ( my TM ) had to tap my legs when they went a bit low. So yeah, I'm all signed up for tandem number 2 on sunday. Maybe I'll see you there, Dave. That wasn't flying. That was falling with style.

N/A

Breathing exercises might be a helpful thing. So yeah, i will do one more tandem. As for the scattered shower thing and outdoor packing, I'm supposing that a dz that's been decades in the game know plenty about packing in less than perfect weather and so forth. So yeah, one more jump. And, by the way, it was a landing thing. I put my right foot down a little too much at a bad time. That wasn't flying. That was falling with style.

I had my first tandem jump about 2 weeks ago and look forward to doing another. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun. Now for the questions. I am a little nervous about a few things. First, I screwed up a little and got a light ankle sprain. In light of that, should I do one more tandem jump and make sure I get it right this time or just go ahead into AFF traininig? Second question is weather. The New England weather looks to be a little wet and the DZ only has outdoor packing. Is packing on wet days present any potential dangers to the jumper using said gear? Could you help me with the relaxation part? My TM mentioned to me a time or two that I was stiff as a board. I don't loosen up very easily even in the non scariest of circumstances. From the homework I've done, relaxation is key to pulling off successful aff jumps. I'm okay with the arch thing but I'm afraid that if I'm too tight and stiff, I could still tumble out of control in free fall. That wasn't flying. That was falling with style.