bluetwo

Another civilian learner here. I love that skydiving has been fun and not stressful or heavy laden with gear, plus I kind of feel like I can do without round canopies (and PLF's though of course I keep it in the back of my mind that I might have to do it should I misjudge the conditions or something). I hope I didn't convert this into a landing thread... if so my bad. _______________________________________

Welcome! ...your experience sounds a little like mine. I didn't expect to get hooked but one jump was all it took! Enjoy, read up in the meantime is my suggestion and have fun. _______________________________________

Big congrats Melissa! That's awesome and good for you, ...still, it's so weird to me how the AFF progression is different from SL. I mean I've been doing solo skydives all along, been landing by myself with no radio help, packing the chute I'm jumping and learning how to spot, and none of the free fall jumps I've done involved an instructor in the close proximity BUT you are way ahead of me in getting the A license (or at least it seems like you are). I'm just making conversation to illustrate the differences in our progressions and I'm definitely not hating by any means. I might kind of wish I had gone with AFF sometimes but life goes on of course. _______________________________________

Welcome back! It IS a good thing you got that DVD. I did one tandem myself, because I thought it was a requirement, which it turns out it was a good experience for me and considered good in my instructors eyes too, so I'm glad I did it and glad I went right into a static line progression after that. I didn't have the AFF option without driving 4 plus hours every time... Best to ya whatever you decide to do.

That's awesome in my opinion! What a great way to start... There are a few videos on YouTube that show different ways to pack and from what I've seen at the DZ I go to everybody has a little different way to do it. That kind of messed me up in beginning because I was like - I just want to establish A way to do it, but it helped out too I think. I'm basically as new as you are so I can't really give any advise other than watch videos, ask people to give you tips and learn whatever you can. That's so cool that you got a job as a packer.... _______________________________________

I feel like the zip lock bag could work as long as the phone stayed inside and didn't come out until it reached ambient temperatures again. I could be wrong though. It seems like the moisture on the inside happened as a result of cold surface condensation and the warm moist environment that exists in a persons clothing when worn. I actually like the pre-paid phone idea the best though. I'm reasonably sure you can make any old used phone into a pre-paid just by replacing the SIM card (with a prepaid SIM). _______________________________________

That is a VERY nice situation! I guess I assumed I'd have to do all the work and handle everything. Thinking I should look into something like that if/when it comes time to buy. I am still curious about the number of jumps. I mean is there a set number that someone should avoid? It seems like most of the inexpensive used canopies have 500 or more jumps and that doesn't seem bad. But what about a canopy with say, 1,000 jumps on it? _______________________________________

That's exactly how I felt like a few weeks ago. Welcome! _______________________________________

Is everything just a business when you get down to it? I knew going into my first (tandem) jump that it was, and that at least in that case, I had to schedule the jump two weeks out. I didn't plan on getting HOOKED right away either... I don't have to schedule jumps anymore but I almost always get told that I might or might not have to wait all day to get one in. Fortunately I have enough patience and generally plan to stay at the DZ for a few hours to most of the day anyway. The days when I get there at or before openings are always the best though. I drive 2 hours to Skydive Walterboro, and they are good people for sure, but I'd hate it if I started getting the BS treatment because the next closest DZ is 4 hours away. Not sure whether I would put them on blast about it or not though. _______________________________________

Awesome thread man, good question and I hope you get more answers. Watching this thread. _______________________________________

I'm curious about that but I'm fairly sure reserve free bags are very specific. I was told to contact Raven (since I need a Raven 2 free bag) with the serial number in order to get the right one sent to me. _______________________________________

All I can say is someone told me I should go for AFF when I first posted here and I'm REALLY GLAD they did because it prompted me to go for it. I probably would've waited longer or wasted more money on tandems and for that, I thank them. It should go without saying that anything you read on a message board, by anybody, should be adhered to with caution. In the end you make your own decisions; take what makes sense and filter out the rest. Best of luck whatever you decide. _______________________________________

Yeah........ I actually laughed out loud on those! _______________________________________

Thanks for the info guys... and for the comments. Always entertaining. _______________________________________

Welcome, and don't worry about it even for a minute. There's a hell of a lot going on in a skydive and the first few are probably going to be a bit of a blur. Your eyes will open as you go and you'll notice more and more each time, at least that's what I was told and it turned out to be true. Have fun with it and see ya around. _______________________________________

Assuming there's no static line progression, because you haven't mentioned it, just do it already. I went the static line route so I was 5 jumps in before I did any free falls. It's not that much different. You just jump with training wheels a little first before you venture further. _______________________________________

Go right on into it next, there's no need to do any more tandems. Maybe see if the DZ can work with you on payments? Either way welcome to the forums and the wild world of falling out of the sky. It's awesome here! _______________________________________

Hey! Welcome, and yes, I guess one jump is about all it takes to get addicted. That was all it took for me too! I'm not sure about going goggle-less because I've never done it but I have heard of someone who just said screw it one time and never wore goggles since. I feel like about all you have to worry about besides the air pounding your eyes is some stray particle hitting your eyeball. Then again, I'm now too! So I'll let someone else cover that part. _______________________________________

I'm dieing here. I've done a LOT of internet searching (including the forum) and I can not find any indication of where the closest wind tunnel to me is. I've been meaning to go for weeks now but it's like there isn't any place to go in the south east. Does anybody have some kind of insight on how to find a wind tunnel in Georgia? Actually South Carolina would be great too since that's where I'm doing skydiving. For instance, Skydive the Farm is twice as far from me as Skydive Walterboro. Feel free to flame away if I'm being a total dingbat here. I don't give a shit as long as someone helps me get past this stupid obstacle. _______________________________________

I think you always come back to the people. If the coaches or people in the know are genuine with the students and newbies those new people will keep coming back to enjoy themselves. People are transparent in most ways and it's easy to see the good and bad in people. _______________________________________

Welcome! Glad you found us _______________________________________

I hadn't thought about it being Gmail's fault... I usually just hit delete when I get a PM email message but here's one from a few days ago that I kept. You can see that uses the entire URL, or at least it appears that it does to me. _______________________________________

Oh so it was me and my email all along? I'm totally kidding and I don't think its that serious. I see what you're saying though. I have been just following the links and that really isn't a problem. Thanks for looking into it. _______________________________________

Ok, here we go: The message you attempted to access does not exist You can see it has that error message and yet it ALSO says I have "1 New Message" so clearly I'm logged in. As soon as I click on the "1 New Message" button it takes me to all my messages at which point I can click on the newest one. Which I get it, that's not hard, but according to you guys it's supposed to take me right to it. That's how every other forum I've visited works so I wanted to report this problem. _______________________________________

Can I get a PM? I'll take a screen shot and attach it.... _______________________________________