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Dz here is getting $24 to 13 ish. 5K cost me $19 last week.

Quoteust imagin if nothing went wrong on that jump, maybe we would still be jumping tandems with big rounds facing each other Since most of my passengers seem to be female, facing each other might be acceptable.

Look at the SIM for requirements. 3 years in sport, 500 jumps, at least one cutaway. You have to have at least a coach's rating to take the course. Find a course or contact one of the people that offer them one on one. PM me if you want a review of the one I prefer. Looking at your profile it seems that you need to make some jumps. If you havn't had a cutaway most course directors can get you set up for an intentional. Then you have to figure out which manufacturer makes the most sense for you. Do you have a dropzone in mind that would give you work? If you do then you take the course that applies. Beware. Tandems can be fun but they are also some of the hairiest student training jumps that you can make. Students are always finding new ways to kill you. With proper training and the right attitude you can learn to be safe and a good instructor. Some people love to do tandems and others (like me), don't mind them. I enjoy working with students, but I am an old crusty type guy and like a slower paced dz. Tandems sometimes get very hectic. Watch how a dz operates its tandem program for a while so you know what you are in for. Good luck.

Was chicken recovered or did it go in?

Do you track your tandem retention rate? How many come back for at least one more training jump? I am curious to find out that if the DZ spends more time with the student the first time, will it pay dividends in the form of students coming back and maybe staying in the sport. If your DZ has a higher average return rate it would be a strong argument against the assembly line tandem factory operations at some DZs.

I have seen several 40-60 year old people go through the course. Good physical and mental health are the basic requirements to start on your way.

I am an idiot. Thought the poll meant: Do you have your own "tandem rig". Sorry for skewing the results. I have only made about ten fun jumps this year at my home dz. Not sure if owning my own sport rig is even worth it. If I want to sport jump, I must go somewhere else. I alway seem to end up working somehow if I show up.

Not so as to be misunderstood. I am not fearless. I am afraid of commitment, and asking for directions as is any self respecting man. There is a difference (in my mind at least) of being scared and fear. We all feel fear at time, but we are not all scared. When I hear "scared" I start thinking that the scared individual is starting to approach panic. When I hear "fear" it makes me think that the individual knows that what they are about to do requires careful thought and consideration because there are risks involved. Maybe it is just semantics. I started this sport like everyone else. I had "door fear" that bordered on "shit scared". I got through it. If I couldn't progress past this stage, then I don't think it would've been healthy to continue in the sport. Knowlege and training will help you be unafraid,. The key is not to become complacent and lose all your fear. This probably won't clear up my position on this subject, and for that I apolagize. I am not known to be an articulate orator.

Probably more than a dozen quit. The guy that got me into it doesn't jump anymore. I have seen more women give it up after meeting some whuffo guy than I can count. They weren't all close friends but you don't see them for a while and start asking around. Sure enough they got a man and just stopped jumping. Sad. Who would want a women that doesn't jump? Or at least pack.

Just a little joke. You do seem to be up on your Toyotas though. I have actually looked at smaller more efficient vehicles, but have come to the sad conclusion that I don't have the money in my savings account yet and that even at the prces gas is I could only save about $200 a month. With the added insurance and excise tax that is still a loss overall.

Now if only I could afford a car. You're not working on commision are you?

I am unsurprised about people looking at tunnel time and equating it with freefall time. I, however, don't think of it as the same. Tunnels help you learn how to fly. Skydiving is more than flying. Ever hear of someone having a mal in a tunnel?. Hooking in? Canopy collision? They are invaluable for working out flying problems and these statements aren't meant to bash them. It just amazes me sometimes that people are mesmerized by high jump numbers. They have never really mattered to me. I will have to say that the only jumps I really worry about logging are the ones on the invoice I send the DZ. I am current, both fun and workwise. Even jump in the winter (it gets cold up here). Last year I got paid for twice as many jumps as I logged. Our DZO doesn't usually like to give away money, so I probably made them. What prompted this question was a bunch of relatively newer (time wise) jumpers sitting around and talking about jump totals. My immediate thought was "there is so much more to this sport". 750/19=39.473684 Yeah, I would wonder about that too. Didn't jump much when I was flying the jump plane (gets expensive). Didn't write down the ones I made. Lost at least one log book. Hell, the only pilot logbook I can find is from my student days. I am such a bad boy about writing this crap down that I think I should be spanked. My opinion because of my lack of writing skills is definitely biased.

I agree with all except: Stay scared Don't stay scared. Stay current, trained and focused. Fear will never be your friend. It is something that must be overcome, tucked away in the back and managed. Fear tries to rob you of your other senses. Don't let it win. Use good sense to determine your limits. If we based our decisions on fear, we would never jump for the first time. .02$

You, son are jumping at the very DZ where I earned my Jumpmaster rating. These are the finest people on the planet IMO. No BS, shoot from the hip. The DZO is one of the best people in the sport. He didn't like the container my SO was jumping so he sent her one. Asked if he could get me water gear at a reasonable price and he shipped some the next day. Wouldn't take a dime from us for either piece of equipment. While I was there I was treated like family and given every encouragement to further my training and jumping activities. You will definitely be learning in an "old school" atmosphere. Listen to what the good 'ol boys say and you too will have a long skydiving career.

Yeah. Kinda cheated and looked at your profile first. I actually flew down on a Saturday morning to take the course. Left at 8pm Sunday evening with my rating. No one was offering it up north any longer. I wanted to be a jumpmaster like the crusty old bastards that taught me were. If anyone can turn you into a crusty old bastard, Buddy can.

I keep seeing posts in various forums that relate jump numbers to experience. While they are a good indicator of experience they are not the end all determining factor. When I started in the sport a S/L Jumpmaster usually only got in one (maybe two) jump(s) on a day that he taught first jump course. If you had three students or less you did them in one load and got your "free" jump from 2800 feet or so. If you had more than a plane load and were pressed for daylight you rode the plan down. Not very many people had multiple rigs then so you didn't want to take time to pack before taking up the rest of the students. The guys that did this were very knowlegeable about the sport and most were very good instructors. Everyone had to do practice PLF's until the whole class had them down. Safety and quality of instruction were as high as could be made at the time. Some of these guys had a little over a hundred jumps, but when you're making one to four a weekend it takes a while to add up. Everyone ( and I mean this literally) stayed for after dark cocktails and Hangar Flying sessions. It took near a family emergency for people to leave. You spent the entire weekend at the DZ and sort of soaked up information from the old-timers. After you figured out who to believe and who was full of shit you could learn a lot just by sitting there. In front of the fire there were no egos just a bunch of jumpers. Jumpers, not skydivers. The reason I write about this little history lesson is thus: We seem to have a great big hard-on for jump numbers. What about time in grade. While the new technology is great and people can make ten or more jumps a day, what are they really learning. As with anything else there are people that are exceptions, but I don't think you learn as much making 1000 jumps in a year as you do making 1000 in four years. I see people that come to the DZ as if it was a doctors office. "I have to get five jumps in before two." They schedule and plan like it was an appointment. This is supposed to be fun. These people that you are flying with are your family. We enjoy your company (except maybe for that guy sitting over in the corner). Maybe I am a little biased in my feelings. I have never been really good with a logbook of any kind. I just sort of log what I remember. Sometimes a few months after it happened. Pro-tracks only work if you remeber to carry them. Sorry for the rant. As you can tell I think we need more jumpers and less skydivers. A jumper is passionate. A skydiver just happens to jump out of airplanes.

Sell the car. Take the proceeds from the sale and pay off the cards. Live like a monk, work your tail off and drive a piece of crap. If you want to jump on limited funds you have to prioitize and sacrifice. It isn't smart to use credit to satisfy your wants. Credit is for your needs. Think about packing, especially tandems or for a team. The work is steady and in the case of most teams they are willing to pay cash. (They expect you to report it as income to government) I am middle aged now and still struggle to pay for my jumps. I got a couple of ratings to take the sting out. In the future you can do that too. I know several people who only afford to jump because they are tandem mules, Just a few random thoughts on the subject.

I usually like to point out to some people, (the ones that say they need to pick up speed to land), that since they are flying a wing that their argument doesn't hold up. Its the whole laws of physics thing. If they needed to pick up speed to land, then when I am flying a fixed wing aircraft, I would need to pick up some speed to land. I can just imagine if I sprung this argument on a fixed wing aircraft pilot. I didn't come in fast, I need that speed to flare. Biggest line I have seen. Now that this is posted you will likely see someone rebut this. If your canopy needs to be flown very fast in order to avoid a high sink rate then either the canopy is poorly designed or you are loading it past what it can handle. When a wing stalls it won't fly so technically I could go for this argument on some of the extreme canopies out there. These guys don't usually cause any problems though. If they are skilled enough to jump them they are skilled enough to not be dangerous to others. If they are not skilled enough they soon become a statistic. The wannaba swoopers are the ones you will here this argument coming from.

I am proud to say that I got my S/L Jumpmaster rating at Skydive Opelika (spelling?). Buddy runs a tight ship that is safe, friendly and fun.

Nope. Can't bring myself to squeeze me and all my stuff into something that size. Don't think it could tow very much weight either. From my understanding of hybrids most of the fuel savings come from non-highway type driving. Is this now an incorrect belief?

Caspar, While I have to admit that a bunch of folks here drive cars that are oversized for their needs, some of us need a larger vehicle because of the qork we do. I am an electrician and need to haul around some tools and such. The vehicle I drive gets 20-22 mile per gallon on a good day. 15 in the winter. I spend about $800 a month in gas right now and thats after cutting back to two days a month at the DZ. I work there but I can't count on that income due to weather so I just don't go. Its about 250 mile round trip for me so its at the point where its not worth it to go. The biggest problem with the transportation system in this country is that we no longer have mass transit except in the bigger cities. Fifty to sixty years ago we had more commuter trains and buses running in from the suburbs than we do now. In my area we are down to zero. And due to the distances involved with most peoples commutes and the type of driving, a hybrid turns into just an underpowered gasoline fueled auto. You could get the same mileage without the extra weight or expense out of an economy car.

I learned from a bunch of oltimers like this. Going to the dropzone for the weekend was what they did and so did I. Two or three jumps was a good day. Drinking and telling the same old stories around the fire was a good night. Everybody got along. Even when you had a beef with someone it would last a couple weeks tops. Now its all about jump numbers and who can swoop the furthest, fastest or with the most style. My spousal unit jumps also. One day when I was on a working jump, one of the nebies walked up to her and told her about how proud the were of my progress. I was jumping when he was still shitting green. Every now and then I get the same thoughts about stopping. I don't know what I would do with all the free time. I still drive (2 hours each way) to the DZ every day that I have off. Jumpable or not. Sometimes we just sit there if the winds are too hig for common sense and watch the organ donors jump. I enjoy some of the new technology and not against progress, but I never would've thought that all of the work that the old timers did and all the kinks they helped work out of the sport would amount to so little respect with the new kids. Still a newbie after 19 years.

The weather forecast for this boogie is excellent. High 70's low 80's and dry air. Come out and enjoy late summer in New England.

At least this dz was using squares.

Never tried it with toilet paper. We used to use tennis balls soaked in gas, diesel, or kerosine. Bas burns brighter. The other two last longer as I remember.