bluetwo

I just wanna say that when I said error message I meant I see something to the effect of The message you requested no longer exists and yet there is a 1 New next to the Private Messages link. I'm not looking at it now as I'm on my phone and have not received a PM. I'm not trying to misrepresent the site but I've been having that problem. _______________________________________

Ok, I see. I definitely have to relax and arch more too. I wish I could fast forward and get to the part where I can turn, track and fly however I want but it's a learning process I guess. I stretched out my back a little today too and I'm a little sore but I had a really sweet tip-toe landing today too and it was my second unassisted jump, flight and landing so I'm totally stoked about that. Good luck advancing further and figuring out what you're doing wrong etc. I know I'm gonna need it too. _______________________________________

You gotta experience it to learn it right. I'm really glad you're keeping a positive attitude about it and having a great time! That's the way to be in my opinion. I think skydiving is the one time we guys can get away with asking a girl her weight.... or in a round about way her wing loading! I'm really just curious about how the slightly smaller canopy worked for you. I got to go down from my usual 260 to a 230 today and that thing flew like WAY better. I had a blast too since it was a longer canopy ride than I'm used to. Did your instructor say you should've arched harder? That would be my first thought on your spins but I'm not going to be guessing arbitrarily. _______________________________________

I don't know if it's been covered but I didn't find anything in a quick search. Any time I get a PM I also get an email saying I got one but when I click on the link it gives me an error message and I would rather just be able to read what it says without having to use the link. Anybody else feel the same way? _______________________________________

Yeah, skype or yahoo are the way to go. My last time in Iraq I did a lot of texting from my pre-paid phone but it did cost about 10¢ each. Yes, I know my post is basically pointless but who cares? I felt like sharing. _______________________________________

A friend of a friend says it's one hell of a crazy trip. Unlike anything this person was expecting. I have no idea why our fellow service members would take such a risk for a high. I don't even want to think about the punishments the military could impose on me for pissing hot on this crap. _______________________________________

I said not at all but come to think of it I have yet to discover if they post here or what their username is. It might actually have some affect on me. _______________________________________

It happened to me too. I missed my first PRCP because I was too focused on getting it in exactly 3 steps without having to find or feel for the ripcord. After that I just learned to keep going for it until I had it, afterall that's what you're gonna do when the training wheels come off. On my first free fall I de-arched and ended up on my back. I remember watching the plane fly away and asking myself "what the hell am I doing" as I put my arms down and in the time it took me to react and go through arch, reach, pull my body righted itself into the arch position and my canopy came out; I accidently did a perfect back flip! On the ground my coach laughed and said hey you survived! I so wish I was ready to free fly already. _______________________________________

Nice to see you joining up! Welcome to the forums and hopefully you will be an active part here. I definitely agree with all that you said too. There's no place that I'd rather be, than at the DZ! _______________________________________

Sounds cool man, way to have some fun in life. I figured out you just gotta go do shit too, sometimes by yourself, but it's better than not doing it. So far skydivers seem like good people and that's a nice change for sure. Every bunch has a few bad apples but hopefully we'll see less of it here than in some arenas. _______________________________________

Welcome to the sport and to the forums! Hopefully you can get right back up there _______________________________________

That looks like a problem! _______________________________________

Sorry to hear about your loss. Welcome to the forums and to the skies. I went and did my first jump because my girlfriend insisted that we needed to go now I have more jumps than she does! Skydiving certainly is one great way to enjoy life and I agree about the freedom part. Mother nature never intended for us to do it but yet it feels so natural and right. Best to you and I hope you keep with it. _______________________________________

Welcome to the forum! It's great to see another Georgia jumper here... though actually I jump in South Carolina because the farm is farther than Walterboro from where I'm at in Augusta. Hope I can get myself out that way sometime too and maybe I'll see ya. _______________________________________

Funny thing was the only thing I didn't know was what a Mr. Bill is and I wasn't specific enough when I asked for an interpretation. Everything else (except the velocity) was obvious. That said I know there are plenty of other junior jumpers and I agree that sarcasm can be bad. I hope we all know that a few jumps and an A license doesn't mean it's time to do whatever you want. _______________________________________

What's up, nice to see you on here. Here's the wing loading calculator: http://www.dropzone.com/safety/tools/calculator_wing_load.shtml The advice I got was to avoid an elliptical canopy and go with a square or semi-elliptical instead. Of course I'm a newbie too. I just bought a rig from a guy on here and contacting him via email worked. We got phone numbers and texted mostly after a few phone calls and that worked fine. _______________________________________

Thanks Andy. Nice explanation.... Now to get my license! _______________________________________

All right could somebody (or Heatmiser) translate that last post for me? I really don't feel too bad for not understanding it since I'm new. Yes, I got that he was being sarcastic. _______________________________________

I'm a little surprised I had never heard the term moobs before. A little but not a lot. _______________________________________

That's awesome to hear you're so into it. Skydiving is definitely one of the coolest things you can do. I'm a static line progression student too so it'll be cool to hear about how it goes. Its cool to have another static lin learner too. Obviously I'm only a couple of steps ahead of you with only 9 jumps so you could easily pass me if you go jump more than I do. The biggest thing I can tell you is don't sweat it if you miss something and have to repeat a step because its totally not the end of the world. Student skydives cost a lot more initially but I've always figured its important to get it right. I'm sure we all can't wait to get a license. _______________________________________

It is a great community, aside from spats and posts with like 75 quotes in them. But anyway! A warm welcome and I hope you'll keep updating and stuff. _______________________________________

My attitude is: I'm new so check me all you want. If you talk me through it every time I am only going to get more out of it, more of it committed to memory - faster. It seems like the goal should be a balance of fun and precautions. _______________________________________

I don't mind the radio at all. The student parachute I usually jump with has such a crisp slider and no way to stow it that I can barely hear the radio sometimes though. I can feel that I'm starting to get a really good feeling for when it's ok to fly around and when I need to stay over the landing area and I'm getting a good idea of when to flare on landings and that's totally due to repitition. When I got my ground instruction the landing section was so inclusive that I was expecting very little help from the radio man but I didn't mind getting a good bit of it all. _______________________________________

I think if I had boobies I could show for money I would be ABLE to do a lot more skydiving. _______________________________________

Put that word out of your head. An AFF jump is training to do something you've never done before; it's not an exam. Read my comments in post #4 of this thread: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3902505;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread And yes, everything you've described is quite normal for an AFF-1. VERY well said. And yes, student jumps are extremely expensive in comparrison but it's worth it, it's worth my life to get good training on how to skydive properly. I've messed up on 2 student jumps so far but it's not the end of the world. _______________________________________