IJskonijn

It's also why I route my bridle below the right flap, up to the loop, and back down again to the BOC. Less chance of accidentally packing myself such a mal in this way.

That's why we wear a helmet, duh!

Playing devil's advocate: There's something to say for not putting a student radio on the chest strap, but rather on the helmet (either top or sidemounted). It makes it easier for the student to find their handles and only their handles in case of a cutaway (rather than giving a great big whack at the radio when in fact you desperately want that main gone)...

Not cutting away when you need to, is undoubtedly less fun ^_^

If you put in meters instead of ft, I might agree... Those sound perfectly reasonable for canopy alarms. I have mine set to 900ft, 600ft and 300ft, so I'll cover exactly the same distance in a no-wind situation on each leg. For freefall, it really depends on the type of jump and my mood. Sometimes I feel like pitching at 6000ft, just to play around with my canopy. Third alarm is always at 2000ft, and lowest setting for second alarm is 3500ft (which is lowest altitude I want to pull my pilot at)

I've got an FT50 analog altimeter (cheapest one I could get fresh out of AFF), and the entire inner housing simply rotates to zero it. As far as I know, it doesn't even have any o-rings that require maintenance. That said, preventive maintenance is indeed much better than post-break replacing.

Proper treatment is indeed very important. I see my altimeters (both analog and digital audio) as sensitive and fragile high-precision instruments, and treat them as such (put them away properly, have a box with foam to store them in, don't throw them or even drop them a short bit). In four years of jumping, they still work perfectly.

I didn't have much problems finding second-hand gear at a very reasonable price here, so I don't think it's generally harder. Just know where to look. The Netherlands also has a mandatory maximum wingload, which is actually quite a hefty table (e.g. only at 1000+ jumps, with 100+ last 12 months, are you allowed to jump whatever you want, at whatever wingload you want)

In that case, I'd get together as many CReW-dogs as possible, to build as big a formation as possible. End on a high note, and make the biggest formation I've ever flown in. It actually won't be that difficult, since my current biggest is a 4-way (yeah, I'm still one of those adorable little CReW-puppies)

One thing you should be aware of, is that many full-face helmets can decrease your visibility of your handles. That may be an issue, and I advise you to chat with your AFF instructor about that. That said, the only way to figure out what helmet is best for you, is to try them. I personally love my FreeZR, but there are many other helmets available. Try them, and see which one you like most.

This alone already helps immensely. I find that spending 10 minutes planning your pattern, looking at the forecasted winds and at the windsock, and looking at where you would put the different points of the pattern, are 10 minutes very well spent. If you think you're not good at making such a plan, then make it and ask an instructor for feedback after you've made it. You learn a lot faster by doing the thinking yourself, rather than mindlessly following whatever pattern an instructor feeds you. Also, take time after the jump to evaluate it. Did you turn at the right positions and altitudes. If not, why and how can it be improved? If yes, was it easy, or did you have to make a lot of adjustments along the way to hit those points? And yes, it takes time and jumps to get consistently good at it. I've got nearly 200 jumps, and I am only now starting to gain some decent skill with this, to the point where I can consistently land inside a ~25m circle. Also, spending a weekend doing clear & pulls is great for learning this, since your entire focus will (hopefully) be on flying your pattern, rather than having that tag along with whatever freefall work you're doing.

I've got a simple R and L written on the inside of my brake handles, because I switch canopies all the time (most often between a CRW canopy and my freefall canopy). That said, those canopies are usually not a big messy ball, which makes it a lot easier. My way is to simply hook up both risers (make sure left and right are correct, and front is facing front), then walk out the canopy. You get to see where the problems are, and can fix them one at a time. I don't think there is a real trick to it, just take your time and be precise. Also, when you think you've got it hooked on correctly, walk it out again. And again. And again. It's better to be right four times, than to be wrong once.

We don't have a specific beer-light or a specific time to start the beers. One of the DZ's I frequent has lots of tandems in addition to lots of sports jumpers, and those passengers (and friends/family of said passengers) regularly enjoy beers after their jumps when the day is still in full swing. We simply assume everyone is mature enough to not start drinking until they've finished jumping. Seems to work here.

Fair enough. I'm not a concert-goer, and only use my earplugs during jumping, so I'm more concerned with the potential to lose expensive custom-made ones compared to a non-linear filtering in the frequency range.

ALWAYS a good idea. I personally try to spend at least 5 minutes before each jump to figure out how the winds are, and what that means for my flight plan. If I don't know the points for my downwind, base and final leg, and don't know my playing area before I get on the plane, it makes it much more difficult in the air. For you, my advice would be to try and figure those things out before asking an instructor to give feedback on your plan. By going through the thinking yourself, rather than mindlessly remembering what someone else told you, you'll learn much faster how to set up such a flight plan.

I don't think it's even necessary to get customized earplugs. I've got a box of 200 pairs of molex foam earplugs. They provide roughly -35dB attenuation, and at a cost of €0.15/pair, I won't cry if I lose one. Although I've never jumped custom-made earplugs, I see they could provide just that extra bit of comfort.

Wearing a helmet is irrelevant to wearing earplugs. Both are used for completely different reasons. And yes, I recommend both. Helmets are pretty obvious, and I love my earplugs for the distraction they take away. The sound (freefall wind, canopy lines singing, audible going off) is still there, it's just not so loud it hurts. For me, it made a world of difference for my mental calm (and directly related, my ability to focus) when I started jumping with earplugs.

too loud; didn't read

No. Even without a profit motive, without the income generated by tandems you can't keep your head above water. Even a small club DZ, with the building and plane owned free and clear, had incredible amounts of overhead. Property taxes (and the ground lease to the airport), fuel, maintenance, utilities, and on and on. If you want to keep even a 182 flying, you'd have to charge around $30 per slot, and fly every load full to break even. Been there. You're wrong. PCMN in the Netherlands is doing just that. They can't do tandems because of altitude restrictions, and they've been keeping afloat for ~5 years now doing static-lines, demos etc. out of a 182. Granted, there's a lot of volunteer-work going around, but jump prices for members are €15 for 3.5kft and €18 for 6kft, comparable to other dutch DZ's.

Here in the Netherlands, there is a difference between a normal license (i.e. you learned to drive a manual transmission) and an automatic transmission license. With the latter, you are only allowed to drive automatic. It's the exception rather than the norm though, and I've only seen it with people who had a good reason not to be able to use their left leg (or legs, in that case both throttle and brake are hand-controlled). The only time I've ever driven an automatic are a few short parts during my drivers education (my instructor wanted me to experience it), and when I rented a car in Canada.

Indeed, I carry a separate phone (with the telephone numbers of the DZ in it) for just that case. I also give the DZ's that telephone number, so they know what to call if I'm missing some how. As far as off landings go, I agree they should be avoided if at all possible. But you should also be prepared for them, since they cannot always be avoided. Rather than just focus on making the right decisions all the time, I think we should also focus on knowing how to fix the wrong decisions, since they inevitably get made (I know, I've made quite a few of them myself. I've learned quite a few lessons that way as well) And yes, knowing (and practicing) you can land within a 15m circle helps a lot for that, as does having a good decision altitude. Ideally, I want to know at 1500ft or higher where exactly I'm gonna land.

The caravan at my home DZ has a sign "Lavatory out of order". I see other stickers (of boogies etc) actually much more often on doors and windows of the hangar and/or bar, rather than on the airplane.

It's not the blue skies/low wind days that you need the METARs. There's a massive difference between OVC150 and OVC005. One is (given good winds) perfect jumping weather, the other is utterly crap. And it's a difference that's difficult (if not impossible) to see by just looking up. For those interested, this page gives a nice overview of different groups in a METAR message.

Better yet, explicitly ask manifest before you even pay for the jump. That way, you have the choice to walk out if they don't want it, and instead treat you like any other bucket-list-completer. Also, some tandem masters may not want it. By asking manifest ahead of time, they can assign you to a tandem master that IS enthousiastic in making it more of a training jump.

As for how crowded the plane is, best is to call your DZ and ask them. They should even be able to plan your tandem on a moment where it's not very busy, so the plane won't be completely full. The best month is up to personal interpretation. I personally LOVE to jump in the winter, the world is fantastic in grayscale when there's snow on the ground. It's a bit chilly, but nothing you can't handle with multiple layers of clothing (two pair of socks, jeans and thermal leggings under your jumpsuit, six t-shirts and two sweaters, silk undergloves under your normal gloves and you're good to go until -20 Celsius). In general though, the most relaxing in terms of temperature is something like +20 Celsius. Easy on the ground, and not too cold on jump altitude (not that you'd notice it, but still)