dex

Some info: http://www.exn.ca/FlightDeck/Aircraft/Milestones/dhtwinotter.cfm

Could be the whole damsel in distress and knight effect kicking in... Or it could be that the tandem masters are doing a good job making the students feel safe... if you're trusting these strangers with your life I guess it's not a giant leap at all to trust them with your "tail" Perhaps it's the rock star effect that some girls are after... Perhaps it's the awesome rippling biceps of the TM that has jumped one to many beefy whuffos... Could be a way to return the favor of a "one in a lifetime" adrenaline shot.. Might be all the beer hanging around.... Most likely it's some strange fascination with harnesses that most people are too nervous to explore outside of skydiving...

> It might be a good idea to actually make a jump, before attempting to plan the rest of your life around an unknown. Good CALL! making a jump is a great way to start skydiving for fun or profit... heheh Further more I would add to avoid thinking of skydiving as a career in the beginning... You have plenty of time to figure out how to spend the rest of your life... for now worry about how you will get the cash to pay for your first jump course and to jump as much as possible... You don't need any jumps to pack parachutes but to do any of the other things like teaching aff you need experience and some serious jump numbers.. I think most of the instructional ratings will require at least 500 jumps or so by sept of next year... Anyways I'd recommend finding as high paying of a civilian job you can and living cheaply (stay with parents or live at a dz etc.. eat ramen...) and jumping your ass off... if you jump and decide it's not for you the cash you have saved up won't hurt ya.... of course if you joined the army to just to jump and decided ya didn't like it ya could of made at least a 3 year mistake...

> My personal peeve is instructors who try to fuck students (in a sexual manner) before they have graduated. > What do other people think about having sex with students It should be like having sex with a "sister"... it's all good as long as it isn't YOUR sister... When ya head to a DZ and you are getting the whuffo dust blown off you during your student progression generally you are in a VERY different environment then you are use too. Even though the instructor may be able to handle chasing a little tail during training the student is prolly overwhelmed and I think it's best to avoid any prop spinning drama while they are on student status. I'd be *SO* pissed if I saw a sport fucking drama case turn someone off skydiving! Now hopefully noone notices a new trend of skychicks being rushed through groundschool and such so they are in the "available pool" heheh

Also remember to miss the ground... ""The Guide says there is an art to flying," said Ford, "or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." He smiled weakly. He pointed at the knees of his trousers and held his arms up to show the elbows. They were all torn and worn through." -- Douglas Adams Life, the Universe, and Everything For more info on how to fly check: http://www.extremelysmart.com/humor/howtofly.php

Lottery, A tax on people who can't do math....

Most students are able to tell who is who and what people to stay away from. It's always more fun to learn from someone who loves what they are teaching. The crappy instructors are really doing more to hurt themselves then the overall sport, most people who want to skydive will find a way to get away from the people who are burned out (on skydiving, heh) I'm lucky not having had to see this happen too much so far :)

heh quote in parachutist I read once went somthing like "Hook your hopes and dreams to the tail end of a jump aircraft before some (wo)man hook's their hopes and dreams on yours..."

You might aswell.. do it now before you are trapped with mortgage payments or little kids to deal with!

plastic bags. lots and lots of plastic bags.

wingman windboy altitud skyhigh sailsky

First time I took that test I got that "you're a skydiver" was about a week before my FJC... surprized the hell out of me.. took it again after I had a bunch of jumps under my belt and it gave me a different reading... don't recall it... took at again today and it gave me the skydiver reading... guess it means I have to jump more....

nope not too many.. I wonder why.. it's not like they are jumping... wonder what all the other new englanders are doing with their weekends now.... not all of us can escape to fl

is that an offer or a question?

Skydive New England or bust. As long as you aren't trapped around here during the winter months....... bah who says it's too cold too skydive.... wimps.... we really do make up for it during the summer ;)

When you see them approaching get your biggest holy roller voice and yell out "Did you come with JE-SUS?" Wait for the inevitable, proud "why yes sir we did...." reply back.. "well PACK him up and get him the &%!$ out of here..." works every time...

I'm in about the same boat as you I weigh 130 lbs and I'm about 5'7. Eating more just makes me have to visit the dz toliet more.... in most dz's that's not the friendliest place.. I wear at least 6 lbs of weight and add more if I'm going to do anything faster. Try to keep the weight you are jumping with constant as much as possible.. don't remove the weights for a 2 way keep the speed up so you don't confuse your self. Trying too hard to ditch weights when you should be wearing em will just teach you bad habbits, even the lightest guy can keep up with a 130+ mph dive by pulling their legs and arms out of the windstream and arching but generally docking is an issue in this position. Remember that the lead you throw on will count towards your exit weight throwing on 10-20lbs is pretty much the same as downsizing esp on the already smaller canopies that most of us lighter jumpers jump. The other thing I noticed when I started to wear the right amount of weight was that I had to be carefull to not over amp when trying to sink into my slot... it can be hard to give up the idea that you have to arch with all you have to sink a few feet ;)

Quadrangle

I wear one because if some freeflyer comes out of nowhere and knocks me out when I am funneling a RW dive I want to be able to either give him a piece of my mind or extract my beer reward from him, depending on how bad my canopy gets trashed for being autopiloted into the new england forest...