privera71

Congrats on your first jump, and best of luck on tomorrow's. I'm also a noobie, planning to jump my D1 next week. My first landing was also a little rough, I flared too early; and like you, I flew the whole canopy ride at 1/4 brake. Welcome to the flock.

Ok, I'm risking being called "mental", but I have to ask; I've only done 4 jumps so far, but since my very first jump, it seems my perspective on reality has become slightly warped. I'm curious to know if these "feelings" happen to others!?!? When walking through long narrow corridors, and there are plenty of them where I work, I get the "urge" to just "jump" off of the floor and fly (drop) HORIZONTALLY, almost as though the floor is the edge of the plane and all I have to do is make a slight hop and I'll "fall" going forward, thats one "feeling". But that's not the one that scares the heck out of me. Just the other day, while visiting a friend at a hotel, I took the elevator to the 7th floor; coming off of the elevator I walked out to an open area with just a fenced edge, I could look downward and see everything on the ground, the parking lot, the pool, trees, etc. As I looked down, I kept thinking, "I could jump this". It was actually quite tempting, almost as a child looking at a roller coaster and saying, "Oh I HAVE TO RIDE THAT ONE!". Or like when you're dieting and a friend offers you some cheesecake. The idea that I could die just did not set in, as if the filter for preserving my life had been removed from my brain. I had to walk away from the ledge frightened that if I didn't, I might actually jump! Is this in any way normal at the beginning of a skydiver's journey ? ? ?

Ok, I'm a newbie, only 3 jumps and a half hour in the wind-tunnel; have never owned a helmet before this one, but I love this helmet, there isn't any point in even trying a different one.

Thanks all. Went out, practice the turn with the instructor (exactly as mentioned above), but it was too windy to jump. Try again next week, but again, thanks all for your responses.

Am about to do my cat B jump tomorrow; I haven't found anything on the internet that explains what must be done physically to turn. Seen videos, but I can't tell from the video whath they are doing that causes the team to turn.

Sorry if this is a dumb question; I haven't jumped yet. I took the AFF course last Saturday at Skydive City in FL, didn't jump cause of windy conditions, but I'm going back on Sunday. All week I've had only one thing in my mind, will I make it to the landing zone? So, am I making this more difficult than it really is? Is it relatively easy flying the pattern? And what if the winds change direction? How do I adjust? (I realize I'm a newbie and maybe should have posted on the greeting thread, but my question is about canopy flight so I figured this thread was more approriate) Thanks