Canopy Course?

[Zarkon 0]

I'm looking for a good 'beginners' canopy course in the Northeast/East coast area. Any suggestions?

[jheadley 0]

Skydive the Point in West Point, Virginia is doing a basic canopy course on March 1st, and an advanced course on March 2nd.

www.skydivewestpoint.com

[blackout 0]

I would be pretty sure that cross keys in williamstown NJ offers canopy courses. They offered me a few despite asking for the course

[Zarkon 0]

Do you have any information on the DZ & course? I checked the site, but all it has is AFF & tandem info.

[Para5-0 0]

It sounds like you are way up north. The Ranch is way closer then Cross Keys. In fact even Skys the Limit in PA would be closer to you. I would be happy to help although I am at Skydive Long Island Calverton. If we schedule one I will let you know. If you have any questions PM me.
Dicky

[Zarkon 0]

I am just outside Buffalo. March in VA sounds decent though it's a drive because it'd be warmer and give me a chance to get this training before the beginning of our season.

[idrankwhat 0]

Quote

Do you have any information on the DZ & course? I checked the site, but all it has is AFF & tandem info.

DZ
Club

The course is being given by Jim Crouch, the USPA Director of Safety and Training. I took his course about a year ago and it was time and money well spent. After completing the requirements for the A license many people's canopy work consists of simply the toggle turns necessary to get back to DZ and land under normal conditions. Little consideration is given to experimenting and practicing maneuvers within the full range of control of your canopy. That can lead to problems such as reacting poorly to someone cutting you off in the pattern by whipping a toggle instead of initiating a flat turn.
It's a great course from someone who knows what he's talking about. Here's the notice that he put up in the STP newsgroup.

Just a reminder that I am teaching a canopy course March 1 and 2 for
anyone interested in learning more about canopy control and landings
and have a good time working on some drills that are not ordinarily
done by the average jumper. The essential course is Saturday and
includes 5 jumps from 6000 feet. The advanced class is Sunday with
another 5 jumps for anyone interested in learning more about high-
performance landings. The cost is $100 for each day plus the cost of
the slots. Those who are interested in the advanced class need to
plan for both days to go through the essential course.

Jumpers with many years of experience and thousands of jumps have
found these courses helpful, so chances are you would enjoy the
course as well. Send me an email to hold your slot for the course,
because if you tell me at the DZ you are coming that won't work, I
will forget, and the course may fill up without you. So tell me in an
email you are doing the course please.

Canopy related fatalities are more than 50% of the annual total each
year. We can all stand to improve what we do under canopy. One look
at an Otter load of jumpers landing will tell you that!

See ya,
Jim Crouch



Hope to see you there.

Matt

[Sletzer 3]

I'd love to find one in the Southeast. Anywhere in Georgia, Alabama, or possibly northern Florida. PM me or post with any info- thanks!

I will be kissing hands and shaking babies all afternoon. Thanks for all your support! *bows*

SCS #8251

[Bmore_chrissy 0]

I looked around on STP's website and couldn't find this. Do you have a link? Or know how to register or get more info? If not, I'll contact the dz, just thought I'd check.

[Sletzer 3]

nevermind, besides the one in West Virginia referred to Deland has one by Scott Miller. Two good options, guess that answers my question

I will be kissing hands and shaking babies all afternoon. Thanks for all your support! *bows*

SCS #8251

[idrankwhat 0]

Try giving Jim an email at skydivewpsa@yahoo.com. I don't know how many slots are still available but I'm sure that he'll schedule another session in the future if there's enough interest.
Hope to see you there!

Quote

I looked around on STP's website and couldn't find this. Do you have a link? Or know how to register or get more info? If not, I'll contact the dz, just thought I'd check.

[Zarkon 0]

Jim's class looks like exactly what I'm looking for, unfortunately I can't find anyone in my area that is able to travel on 3/1 to go with me and it'd be a waste to drive all the way there by myself. I'm still looking but he only had two slots available so chances are they will fill up before I find someone to car pool with. Thanks for all the replies I'll keep looking, worse case I'll just have to wait a couple months and take one at my home DZ this season.

[idrankwhat 0]

Best of luck in whichever course you find. In the meantime, it certainly doesn't hurt to dedicate a few jumps solely to canopy work. Most accidents in the sport nowadays are from people hurting/killing themselves (and others) under perfectly good canopies. It's best to get as much practice as you can, plus it's damn good fun!
Also, check out this link. You'll probably see this again at safety day.
http://www.uspa.org/safety/safetyday/RiskQuotient.pdf

Blue skies (or at least a good GPS spot)

Quote

Jim's class looks like exactly what I'm looking for, unfortunately I can't find anyone in my area that is able to travel on 3/1 to go with me and it'd be a waste to drive all the way there by myself. I'm still looking but he only had two slots available so chances are they will fill up before I find someone to car pool with. Thanks for all the replies I'll keep looking, worse case I'll just have to wait a couple months and take one at my home DZ this season.

[Zarkon 0]

Thanks for the link, I'll definitely check it out. One of the main reasons I wanted to take the course is because I'm uncomfortable with traffic. Right now I'm jumping at a Cessna DZ and I get nervous with even 3 other canopies in the air. Which contributed to me landing off down-wind this past weekend. Hopefully a course will help with my confidence/comfort level as well as skill set.

[Skydivesg 7]

Be proactive. Instead of looking for a canopy course, set one up on your own. As you can see there are a lot of young jumpers looking for the same thing as you.

Talk to your dz management and tell them what you want to do. Ask them to help you recruit the attendees. Then get in touch with Scot Miller in Deland, FL. He travels to put on his course and he is an amazing canopy coach.

If you get a total of 8 people to enroll in your local course it will cost less than if you travel to some other DZ.

Bring the course to your home DZ and it will be appreciated by others.

Be the canopy pilot you want that other guy to be.

[Hayfield 0]

Scott Miller comes to the Ranch every year. I took his course right after my A license and it has been one of the better decisions I've made. Unfortunately he usually comes in June/July. I think Brian Germain does traveling canopy courses too, but I don't know if he's coming to the ranch this season. One advantage is that there is free camping on the DZ at the ranch so you'd save some $ on lodging.

"Remember the First Commandment: Don't Fuck Up!"
-Crusty Old Pete

[Zarkon 0]

I'm doing both :o) I spoke with our head instructor and he's going to see if we have enough interested parties at our Safety Day to have a coach come to our DZ this year. Our season doesn't start until April/May so I was looking to travel for a course before then and just take both classes.

If all else fails I could travel to the Ranch and take the course this summer, it's only a couple hours away.

[idrankwhat 0]

Don't forget that you probably already have a lot of good information in your reference library. I'm willing to bet that not many people read their SIM much past section 5.
Section 6.10-6.11 has some good advanced canopy related info, especially 6.11-3
Have fun!