Caelum

congrats!

Thanks everyone for the great advice!

My family thinks I skydive just because I am a thrill seekers. True, I like adrenaline, but I think it is more than just that. I tell them I have a wonderful group of friends there and it's a way for me to appreciate life and the sky. And that I love learning about the gear and how it works. I wonder what else I can tell them so they think I am more than just a thrill seeker. All the other things I do outside of skydiving, school , work, are really overshadowed by the fact I spend my weekends skydiving.

I can't jump for three months due to a back injury (nonskydiving related). I have 50 jumps and am wondering what others have done to (1) keep themselves from going crazy and becoming frustrated when they can't jump, especially when their friends and significant others jump every weekend and (2) how they (especially a novice like me) stayed mentally in the game so they could return at the level they left off. Thanks--

I am stuck on AFF VI. My instructors tell me I have a great exit, I 'm stable when I don't try to turn, I always pull on time, I have great canopy control, and my landings are excellent. But for some reason, I always spin to the left when I try to turn 90 degrees. I try to stop my spin by turning to the right so I look over my right shoulder, but I still ALWAYS slowly spin left. I am getting a little discouraged! I've failed this level twice. My ego hurts as well as my pocket book! The nearest wind tunnel is about a 6 hour drive away, or I would go there. I did a search on this question and the common themes seem to be "listen to your instructor" and "relax." I've had two different instructors. One told me it was because my arms weren't 90 degrees, the other said it was my legs were too far apart and I'm a little stiff. Maybe both are right? I've had a bunch of advice from lots of different people, but I still failed! I'm a little confused and I wonder if this is a sign I can only be a mediocre skydiver. . . . And why is it always a left spin?

I'm 5'7 and weigh about 120lbs, so I don't think I'm really a very small girl. I had a slight problem with the harness my first jump--it gave me a long bruise on my inner thigh, but I didn't think anything of it. This time, I almost blacked out (maybe I even did), which kind of makes me nervous. After we landed, I told my instructor the strap was tight on my neck, but I didn't tell him I was on the verge of blacking out completely because I don't want him to think I'm a wimp! I'm hoping I'll learn in my AFF class what to do if this happens again. I'm wondering if I did something wrong, but my instructor told me I had very good exits and very good body position on both jumps--nothing negative.

Thanks! I did my second tandem today. We had to use the reserve because there was a big knot in the main parachute--so I got two freefalls for the price of one! I know using a reserve is not the optimal way to do a skydive, but I'm kind of glad we did because I got to feel what it's like. My TI let me help steer and land with it, so I think it was a good learning experience. My main concern was that a strap on my chest moved up to my neck after the parachute openend--it was tight. I don't think I passed out, but I was in lala land for a bit. I'm doing my AFF next weekend, and I sure hope it doesn't happen again! I wonder why the strap was so tight on my neck. I don't know much about skydiving, but I don't think straps are supposed to do that. I don't think I did anything wrong. . . .

I'm scheduled to do my second tandem tomorrow and I'm just thinking back to my first tandem a few days ago, especially the landing. When we landed, two people on the ground needed to kind of catch us. My friend landed next to us, but she and her tandem instructor didn' t have anyone assist their landing. Later, my TI said I did a perfect skydive, but I'm wondering if it really was perfect if we needed to be "caught" on the landing. I'm wondering if I did something wrong so that we had to be assisted on the landing. We did a sit landing, and it seemed very soft to me, but why the "catch"? Is this a normal tandem landing? I know this is general and several things can result in different kinds of landings, but any insights would be welcome. . .