bluetwo

Amen to that!! At some point letting go of, falling off of or diving off of the aircraft will get progressively more natural and FUN. _______________________________________

Yep, the tunnel rocks. You have more jumps than I do so you're probably better at flying anyway but I know I definitely took a LOT away with me after only getting 20 minutes of tunnel time. Assuming you haven't had any tunnel time?.... anyway... in a wind tunnel you can arch, get stable, then see how de-arching slowly lets you climb up whereas in free fall (I would imagine anyway) that you can't tell the difference in your fall rate as well. Maybe you can relative to other jumpers. I'm hoping more experienced people will ellaborate on some of what I've touched on, for my own education as well as anybody elses that reads. _______________________________________

I wish someone had told me to post a photo!! ....maybe I'll just see if there's a Facebook thread in here somewhere. Here's some good stuff for you Ryan, and yeah, I'm sure your previous experience is a great heads up on a lot of stuff. There's a boatload of info in the Learn To Skydive section here: http://www.dropzone.com/safety/Learn_to_Skydive/ ...and it'll only help. You'll probably find that there's plenty of time for reading new stuff along the way. Join the USPA if you already know you wanna get licensed and that'll be a nice head start. _______________________________________

Hi, and welcome! There's a boatload of info here so just read or browse the stuff in the Learn To Skydive section here: http://www.dropzone.com/safety/Learn_to_Skydive/index.shtml ...and it'll only help. You'll probably find that there's plenty of time for reading new stuff along the way, since you're waiting til March and because you can't jump sometimes because of weather and junk. Join the USPA if you already know you wanna get licensed and that'll be a nice head start. Socialize, talk to people, there's a lot to learn that way too. I'm brand new to skydiving too so I only have so much experience, but so far the craziest thing I've done is to do as many back flips as I could from 11,000 feet, which admittedly isn't all that crazy at all compared to what a lot of people have done. It was just something new I wanted to try as my first licensed jump. Lots of people will probably answer better than I have, it's the nature of the game. Advice? In a word, filter. Take what makes sense to you and dump anything that just seems stupid. Including my idea to dump things that seem stupid if that seems stupid. _______________________________________

They probably don't expect many of those signal geeks down at Ft Gordon to keep coming back. WoW is cheaper than skydiving. Probably not! They knew I was an MP and former combat arms going into it though. I try not to stereotype too much though cuz there's a couple of Air Force guys who are pretty hard core jumpers too. And I knew you weren't being harsh either. They knew you were an MP and they continued to let you jump there? Sketchy... Ha ha!! Luckily there's Marines, AF and two other Soldiers who all get along great with each other and the civilians and free spirits if you will. You know? We all speak skydiver _______________________________________

They probably don't expect many of those signal geeks down at Ft Gordon to keep coming back. WoW is cheaper than skydiving. Probably not! They knew I was an MP and former combat arms going into it though. I try not to stereotype too much though cuz there's a couple of Air Force guys who are pretty hard core jumpers too. And I knew you weren't being harsh either. _______________________________________

Right, and I totally should have put that there is a 2 page card and a 4 pager. My understanding is that one card is for DZ's that have a student training program in place but I don't know the exact details of which is which and whatnot. Thanks for being cool and not just accusing me of knowingly putting bad info out. I really just wanted to put a link to USPA for the original poster to check out and browse around on. And yeah, I had probably done 5 or 6 jumps before I started taking more interest and found the A card. One guy just came off student status with around 22 jumps and has yet to check anything off... It's a static line progression too so fairly different in some ways. _______________________________________

Coaches can only sign a few places on the 4 page card... that is all. An instructor should definitely be consulted throughout the progression and sign off most things. I just wanted to give a bit of a guideline, a starting point if you will. Some students, myself included, didn't start on the A card immediately and I WISH I had read about it or someone had told me about it sooner. I used the 4 page card and gave thought to the possibility that the OP could end up using it too. _______________________________________

Wow, thanks!! That is helpful. _______________________________________

Get an A Card here: http://www.uspa.org/Portals/0/Downloads/Form_ALicenseProfandApp_2009_04.pdf and start checking stuff off!! Actually, get a coach to start signing stuff off... you're done when the last thing is signed off on and a qualified instructor stamps it. You should get an official number in a few weeks... least that's what I'm told. Edited to add: there's also some jumping and stuff in there somewhere too. _______________________________________

Pretty much what a couple of other people said. I just tried to stay on heading, observed how my view of the ground changed as I went and did a lot of altimeter checks. It was awesome and even though it definitely didn't feel pointless there was still that slight nagging that I could've accomplished more. Probably because of how the other jumps were more task oriented. _______________________________________

I recommend back flips off the plane too!! Granted I did it off a Cessna step but it was still off the chain fun. _______________________________________

Hmmm..... not sure how I feel about that. _______________________________________

HI!! ...welcome to the forums and congrats on taking the plunge. There certainly is a brain overload and 6 hours is way too short!! But that's why there's a SIM and Skydivers Handbook and a pretty decent list of other books to read not to mention LOTS of threads. And in my opinion one of the best things is the fact that things repeat themselves because a person simply isn't going to remember everything after having seen or read it once. _______________________________________

I don't think it's all that bad. Compared to the Army's Technical Manuals and Field Manuals it's a breeze to read through. _______________________________________

HI! Welcome to the forums and congrats on starting the training. Advice? ...some people here would say I'm still too new to be giving advice but I can recommend you jump with and without a jump suit so you can see what a difference it makes. And have fun doing something that seems completely insane to some people! _______________________________________

Welcome to the forums. Congrats on getting your license on, like, a while back! Can't wait to get an official number myself. Enjoy! _______________________________________

Cool, awesome, sweet and right on!! Ha ha... I was right there with ya this time last week. Can't wait to get my official license number. _______________________________________

Whatever you can do? ...I mean whatever weather will permit, whatever you can afford or whatever your instructors advise as well. Welcome to the forums and enjoy!! _______________________________________

I think I get what you're saying. If its: you actually build up more skill than you realize even while keeping it safe and simple. Then one day you face a serious challenge and come right through it with flying colors and afterwards you realize you could've been pushing your own personal limits a lot farther some time ago. But how do you do this safely? How do you really know your limits? My take on it is it's summed in a saying that goes something like this: on bad weather days the experienced skydiver sit around in lawn chairs and watch the young skydivers get experience. People, we, all of us have to experience things for ourselves, and we learn by doing. _______________________________________

Welcome, let the games begin, and blue skies!! _______________________________________

My jumpsuit made a world of difference for me. It's a Michigan RW. I could fly stable and do slow turns before I got it but didn't have nearly as much control as I do now. I swear I can track faster and straighter, turn more precisely and doing these things better just gives me more confidence. _______________________________________

+1 for a kick ass explanation, jdathome. All I can add to that is a jumpsuit is an awesome tool to help learn in freefall. Your AFF instructors might provide you with a student jumpsuit but if not I would highly recommend you find one. Yes, I'm still very new, but I know for a fact that a jumpsuit is a lot of help. If really experienced guys tell you a jumpsuit isn't necessary it's probably because they forgot how much help it is and well... they're experienced so they don't need one to fly well. It IS possible to learn without one too (disclaimer). _______________________________________

Welcome to the forums and congrats on the jump that got you hooked! This is definitely a good place to read up and learn. Good luck in AFF and enjoy!! _______________________________________

Big welcomes!! Enjoy... _______________________________________