Swoopers & Hookers, were you AFF OR S/L

[StevieBoy 0]

After 2 years of hearings are AFF or S/L students better canopy piolts it would be nice to know which progression you took.

Cheers

it deosn't mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.

[skygod7777 0]

i was a stactic line student, but i think it really doesn't matter which method u trained. one student should know as much canopy/flying skills when they come out of any corse (aff, s/l, iad, tandem progression) with a A licience.

later

[StevieBoy 0]

Agreed Kelly

But I was refering to the, my progression was better than your progression thing.

Hell, when I flew to the US for my AFF, it was to skydive, FREEFALL.

Every time you leave a plane you will rely on your canopy skills to land you safley, whether AFF OR S/L, I just wanted some info on which progressed further.

BTW, I prefere the Skydive, I treat my canopy as a means to get up high again.

it deosn't mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.

[aufreefly 0]

I think that neither method would be better for canopy control. However, most static line DZ's are quite a bit smaller than the DZ's that use AFF. When I started at a S/L DZ (walterboro) there were always plenty of people waiting around the picknic benches to get onto a load. Some of the expierienced jumpers that sat there would give you little tips when you walked in that went a long way...so the question really is...how much time do the experienced jumpers spend looking at others land and giving them helpful suggestions?

[SPY 0]

Hummm..... As time goes, the difference of skills between jumpers who have been trained with these two methods tend to disapears.

Those 2 methods put very much emphasis on freefall skills and neglect a bit the canopy part of the jump. In both cases, the student has to ask questions to instructors, take a lot of time to watch others landing and try (high up there...) to develop canopy skills.

To answer your question, maybe for some jumps after getting out of student status the S/L ones would be a bit better as they would have made a bit more jumps, but after 20-30 more jumps (maybe less) for sure there is no difference anymore. So for the swoop, as it's an "advanced" skill which develops more around some hundreds of jumps, it doesn't matter if you have been a S/L student or AFF.

Hope it answer your question

S-P
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[StevieBoy 0]

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so the question really is...how much time do the experienced jumpers spend looking at others land and giving them helpful suggestions?

NO IT'S NOT

It's what progression did YOU take, It's very simple

it deosn't mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.

[listo 0]

Uh oh, another one of us walterboro guys chiming in here. I have to say that it really doesn't matter which method of training a person goes through. Canopy skills are something that people differ in ability of as much as the difference of a lot of people out there with 500 jumps will differ from each other in ability.

I am not sure that made sense....but I think I get my point across.

Walterboro is truly a wonderful place to learn canopy skills. It is hugely wide open. That wide open place offers tons of outs for those of us who wanted to expand our skill level for HP flight. There aren't many DZ's out there on the East Coast that are that open. I consider myself fortunate to have lived only 45 min from there when I started skydiving.

The experienced people that I learned from were always friendly and willing to offer advice or a critique. I really haven't been to many other places that work together like that, instead of "I am a bad ass and wanna stay that way, so I ain't gonna teach ya sheeeeeet". People with that attitude make me laugh. Insecurity is hillarious to me.

Good advice is always a good thing for everyone.

Live today as tomorrow may not come

[Pablito 0]

AFP, Tandem progression, you have the teacher in the air with you

"If you don't overcome your fears they will overcome you first"
Shady Monkey/6Segundos Rodriguez/AKA Pablito

[Professor 0]

Quote

Quote

so the question really is...how much time do the experienced jumpers spend looking at others land and giving them helpful suggestions?

NO IT'S NOT

It's what progression did YOU take, It's very simple

Whoa, relax, I think he has a good point. You yourself agreed that training method doesn't matter, so what's the point of the question? To answer it, though, I was trained at a small S/L DZ, and now jump at a small AFF DZ.

To Michael: All the experienced jumpers at both DZ's are very good about helping out low timers. Both DZ's had their share of good pilots, but neither really had any "competition" class swoopers. This might have an effect on the quality of the swoopers coming out of small DZ's, since that level of knowledge is unavailable. Another thing, since most of the really great swoopers have been in the sport for quite a while, and would have been trained a long time ago, a disporportionant amount were probably trained on S/L.

Blues

Ted
Like a giddy school girl.

[listo 0]

You bring up a very valid point. The best swoopers have indeed been in the sport for a while, which not only means a lot of practice, but also being around a very wide assortment of experience.

For someone to try to classify a student training progression as a good means for canopy skills is a fallacy. Different instructors with different abilities can teach different things at different places.

I would suggest to anyone that is even possibly thinking about HP flight to get to a skills camp and go to as many DZs with reputable HP canopy pilots as possible.

More often than not, if a person restricts their skills to only one DZ, then they are not going to be nearly as good as they could be by going elsewhere and observing the truly wide range of methods and techniques.

Just my .02

Listo

Live today as tomorrow may not come

[flyboyshell 0]

I started of with S/L. What I was taught then was the same as what I did in my AFF except for the whole transition into freefall.

Blue Skies!!!

FlyBoyShell
EarthBound FreeFly Suits