Divalent

In your case, both. You are a bullshitter pretenting to be an expert. You lie, and you do so deliberately with the intent to deceive people. And most of the crap you spew is just that: crap. And you are not anonymous: you have posted your real name here and your profile has a real email. What license do you have and what is the number on your license?

As wolfriverjoe mentioned, the 299 is probably just FJC and first jump. Other packages will consist of the FJC and all 7 AFF jumps (and other places may also include a tandem). Further, you may also see packages for the full A-license, which would include FJC, 7 AFF jumps, and then an additional 18 jumps (with a variable number including a coach) to get your A license; those packages would be in the $2-3k range. (And some will include additional things such as a bound copy of the SIM, a Log book, USPA membership, and/or possibily even some accessories like goggles, etc). In general, the full license packages will save you a lot, but the downside is you'd have to front all the moeny at the start. Before you are licensed, gear rental would be included in the price, but after that, you will need your own (unless you want to jump rental gear all the time). To get to 200 jumps, you will need an A license, your own gear (rig, altimeter, helmet, goggles, suit, etc), so you'd be wise to cost it out on that basis.

You're so wrong. the source is exceptionally important. Hang around a bonfire or in a bar after hours and you'll hear some fucking TERRIBLE advice being given - particularly to low time jumpers who don't know any better by other low time jumpers who think they know everything. What you learn could very well be bullshit if you don't know any better... This Dude,...I'm trying to raise the bar to support what you just said! That being "If you don't know any better!" I have lived thru the day when the most fucking knowledgeable people on the DZ were getting into fistfights about three rings killing people. (As just one example.) Once you leave the door your on your own, the most and greatest source isn't worth shit at that point! C We have all seen terrible advice, we all have a desire to protect and to do the best we can. Your passion to do this is very apparent and most welcome. But many need to learn what is effective, what works and what doesn't. Generally if your perceiving something, then ask, attacking doesn't work it only causes people to react. If you have that burning feeling that you want to strangle someone perhaps rephrasing your comments, or try expressing your self in terms of: "this makes me feel this way" or "I have a concern that this could happen," or "could you expand on what your meaning is," Or "you sound a little like your lecturing again and can you rephrase what you have said for this or that reason." It may sound like I'm speaking to you and lecturing yoink, but mostly I am lecturing to the masses and or being perceived differently because we all come from different backgrounds. Ask, before jumping to conclusions. Of course the source is important. But how do you know the message has been received? How can you tell what some one else takes away from any source? You can have the best source in the world, giving the best advice anyone could hope to receive. And ya know what? It don't matter a shit if the person didn't get the message! And how do ya know that they got the message, this is what is missing,.... Give it up, man. You've been outted as a phony. You're not a licensed skydiver, never were a licensed skydiver. You're just a wannabe troll. The mods should restrict you to the bonfire.

Which reminds me of the George Carlin quip: "Flammable, inflammable, and nonflammable. Why are there three?"

Concrete Rebound Hammer can easily bust clouds.

Concrete Rebound Hammer

If you are still planning to jump in SanDiego over Xmas, I like the suggestion someone made in your other recent thread, which was to make your first jump there a hop-n-pop. You get that checked off, but more importantly you'll have traffic-free airspace at a different DZ to let you get familiar with how things look in the landing pattern. Your first landing won't be complicated by worrying about other traffic and you can do things to make corrections that you ordinarily shouldn't do if there are others landing at the same time. Perhaps they can give you a radio and assign an instructor to assist your first landing there. The only downside to this is that the jump will be adding two things new to you: hop-n-pop and new landing area. (Or maybe 3, if you've only jumped small Cessna's before.)

Well air mass-density will probably be a factor you will have to contend with (seach for "density altitude" here for lots of discussions on that topic). For example, Florida DZs are pretty much at sea level (+/- 20 meters), so more dense due to altitude compared to, say, most inland DZs. But Fla is generally warmer and more humid than most other US locations, and those factors lower air density. But you probably don't want to model all the possible variations. Maybe define one "standard" ground level set of conditions (say: 100 meters ASL, 25 degrees C, 50% humidity) and then go from there. Deployment altitude above that ground level at 900 meters (~3,000 ft) where you expect it will be about 6 degree C cooler (2 degrees per 300 meters). (Relative humidity will be higher due to the temp change, but actual water content will be the same.)

Your reserve closing loop looks a little loose, and kinda "snaggy". Maybe shorten it a bit? (Or at least put a double knot in it, although that might make it a tad more difficult to untie if you want to deploy it.)

No, they are the best ones to prank! Experienced skydivers know what to look out for. On the topic of fruitlooping, IMO I think if a licensed jumper can't easily recover from one, they probably should take up bowling. Funneled formations, hot docks, and blown exits are all ways that can unexpectedly throw you in a similar way, and if you don't have the skill to promptly regain your stability, you probably should let whoever signed off on your A license know so that they can revoke it. This is a basic, AFF-level skill and I would expect any licensed jumper to have it.

Concrete Rebound Hammer only Buys Quality Real And Fake Passports,Driver's License,ID

Concrete Rebound Hammer doesn't need to be faster than a speeding bullet.

Try this one: http://www.pcprg.com/cgi-bin/metars.cgi That's an excellent front end, particularly if you are poking around (and while on actual computer as opposed to working on a small tablet or smartphone), as you don't have to first find the ICAO codes. But any chance you can have it display both METAR and TAF data as the default? (If the airport doesn't have TAFs, then no harm no foul).

Concrete Rebound Hammer needs no reserve.

I've done a bit of exploring and found there are a number of METAR/TAF applications for android tablets and smartphones (and so I assume also for Apple and Windows devices) that will translate the METAR/TAF codes to a form more understandable than the raw form of the report. (I installed one called "Aviation Weather", but there are many others at the Google play store.) For those that might be uncertain of the jargon used here, a METAR is a report of the current conditions at an airport. It includes (among other things) the temp, surface wind speed and direction, and (AFAICT) up to 3 reports of cloud levels. Cloud information is given as the altitude of the base of the layer and a rough estimate of the coverage. (They use the words Clear, FEW (up to 25% coverage), Scattered (up to 50% coverage), Broken (up to ~85% coverage), and Overcast (100% coverage) to describe the cloud layers. A TAF is a forecast of what the conditions will be in the future: same format as a METAR, but as others have noted here, it's only an estimate, not to bet your life on. Many airports have METAR (all but the tiny ones?), but it seems like only the larger ones produce TAFs. For example, the airport the Farm uses has neither, but there is another airport about 10 miles away that has METAR but they don't produce TAFs. But within about 50 miles in several directions there are airports that have both, so if I was concerned about what may happen later in the day, I think I'd check the TAF for a couple of nearby ones (particularly upwind). So an app for getting this information is a good addition to the two others I already have for assessing jumpability at the DZ (which is ~90 mins away). Those others are with a good radar app (to see whether crap is moving in) and one for getting winds aloft data.

I think the Farm brings down their rental gear (as they were training some students last year). Maybe give Hans a call (or post a message at the "Farm Fun Jumpers" facebook page, or a message in the Fitz booggie thread in the "Places to Jump" forum here). IIRC, Monroe's king air was down there as one of the jump ships, so maybe they also had some things going. Maybe ask them? If you plan to jump a lot, maybe Monroe would be willing to rent you a rig for the weekend.

Another option is to fly to Florida during your break and train there. Several big dropzones that are busy all the time there. Zhills is close to tampa. Deland is reasonably close to Orlando. (These are not necessarily your only options, just ones off the top of my head). If you get a full 14 days off, then with 2 days devoted to travel, you'd have 12 on the ground. Although it would be fast paced (and, IMO, probably not the optimum way to learn), certainly doable, even allowing for a few days of getting weathered out.

So I just noticed pchapman used the term TAF in his post above, and recognized that as an option that I never explored at the Metar link I provided above, so I explored a bit ... And low and behold, you can get cloud ceiling forecasts! It's in the format of the METAR data (but make sure you select "translated"!!!) but will project out for intervals into the next day. So: 1. go to the link (http://aviationweather.gov/adds/metars/) 2. enter the ICAO code of the airport 3. select "translated" 4. Check both the METARs and the TAFs checkboxes You'll get current conditions (METAR) and forecasted conditions (TAFs). Quite cool! BTW, regarding the issue of whether the answer to the question "Is there a place to find information that predicts cloud cover?" is or is not "Forget about it! Even if the weather is bad, just go to the drop zone!", I'll assume you are an adult and can manage your obligations and responsibilities yourself. I agree there is a lot of value to hanging out at the DZ as much as you can when you are new to the sport, but that many people cannot do so all the time.

To get the latest information (so good for that "go/no go" decision) here's a site that lets you get METAR data reported for any Airport that has it: http://aviationweather.gov/adds/metars/ Note 1: chose the "translated" rather than "raw" option Note 2: to get data from an airport, you need to know its 4-letter ICAO designation. US airports generally begin with 'K' and then usually followed by the 3-letter code you often see associated with it (i.e, for Atlanta's airport, the normal 3 letter code is ATL, it's ICAO designation is KATL). But here's a wikipedia web page that list the ICAO codes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_by_ICAO_code:_K If the place you jump at doesn't have METAR data, find ones close to them, and best to rely on the ones upwind of the generally prevailing direction weather is moving that day (usually from the west). I don't know of any good sites for forecast data. Perhaps someone else can provide a link to something that has that.

This is the right answer... ... to a different question than the OP asked.

Thats WHY you have drift in freefall. Well, I think you can have a formation sliding directionally in their column of air (for example, if the formation is tilted because all the heavies are on one side of a ring and all the floaters opposite). That is sometimes refered to as "drift", and potentially can be cause for two consecutively exiting groups to get closer to each other, but it's not relevant to the question posed by the OP. That sort of movement would all end when they break off and track for separation.

Clairification please: Parachute Recovery Systems Design Guide by Theo Kanacke is not numbered by page number just chapter number and chapter page. There is no page 340-341. I assume I have the wrong book. What is the title of the one to which you refer. He was quite obviously trolling (as are a few others). For all practical purposes, if you are stable belly flying, there will be no relative wind other than the vertical one hitting you in the belly from below. You can create a significant horizontal relative wind by going into a tracking position, but that's about it. I doubt anyone could delibarately create a horizontal relative wind of any significance by side sliding or back sliding in an otherwise controlled manner. So pretty much the relative wind at deployment in free fall from an otherwise stable position will be mostly from the direction of the ground, plus any "in-your-face" horizontal component that the jumper might have created by tracking prior to pulling. The only possible exception I can think of is if there is a zone where the winds aloft change significantly in their direction near where the jumper is deploying.

Well right now temps in the 6-9k ft altitude range are ~12 degress F in your area. So you might want to prepare for it being a bit nippy. (You think it might be colder in 3 weeks?) Of course, did anyone mention the wind? Let me consult a wind chill chart ... Opps, charts don't go up to 120 mph, so will have to use the formula ... So 120 mph in 12 degree F air gives a wind chill of negative 23 degrees F. Of course, that is only for the free fall portion, and you will slow down once the canopy opens (*if* the canopy opens ). At that point you be moving at about 20 mph, so the calculation shows the wind chill to be a very toasty negative 6 degrees F. Heck, your freezer at home is nearly that warm. So if you want to see if what you plan on using will be okay, put it all on and go sit in your freezer for about 10 min. Oh, one more thing: the ride up to altitude will probably take about 30 min, and if the plane you are riding is like the ones most of us jump out of, it will be a heated cabin with a tightly sealed door and plenty of room to stand up and roam around to get the circulation flowing. (And a little known fact about jump planes is the high level of beverage service we all get: odds are that at that time of the year, they will be serving piping hot chocholate or other toasty warm beverage. Indeed, some think the ride up is the best part of the experience that time of year!)

IMO, a good choice. You likely will buy a more trendy one in the future if you stick with the sport, but it's good to have a back up in case something like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1YXV0Ve9Nc) happens to you. (Same thing about buying a basic analog Galaxy Alti II altimeter now: you may later get a digital, but good to have a spare/backup in your gear bag.)

Okay, so then given that there is at least a bit of latitude in what you do, can you think of things you riggers might be able to do to improve extraction times/forces? Even if seemingly minor, and that, at best, you'd think will only have a small effect. Less canopy material at the top? Less in the top corners? Narrower distribution in the bag so it's more streamlined? Anything? Again, I'm not expecting the packing technique to resolve the problem, just wondering if there is anything you guys can think might help.