skrovi

excellent advice, thank you

I'm neither an AFFI or a TI, just a coach. However, I figured this is a good forum to post. there are several posts on how you handle overweight tandem passengers or big AFF students. My question is how much of a risk is an overweight and out of shape AFFI/ TI Instructors are. The reason I'm bringing this is because I attended coach course several months ago and was absolutely appalled at some of the students who were taking AFFI and TI rating course, they could barely arch because they had a natural arch going on with their beer belly and they are expected to chase students (well in all honesty they should be flyinig close to their students), match the student's fall rate etc. Besides what kind of an image the new instructors are projecting to the non skydiving community. Am I wrong in assuming that skydiving Instructor ratings is not for everyone, there needs to be committment, discipline and high standards that needs to be maintained and projected. Particularly I was surprised with the following: a) Physical standards b) Most of the new Instructors have less belly flying jumps since most of the jumpers are freeflyers now a days. c) how little theoritical knowledge the course students had on FJC. They could not recite the cloud clearence jump conditions however, they "claimed" to all about swooping a pocket rocket canopy with barely 800 -900 jumps. Mind you every one else was there for their AFF/ TI rating and I was there only for my coach rating and was the only low time juper able to recite the cloud clearance information. d) at the 100% pass rate for that course, Any comments or thoughts. I just want to make sure I'm not being unreasonable in my assumptions. PS: edited to make spelling corrections.

I don't even know you Max but best wishes and my hats off to you pal. You are a true inspiration.......its people like you who inspire me.....

I was curious what other RW jumpers think on this subject. I always find it preferable when I can establish eye contact with someone that I'm doing RW with. Again no biggie but if they have sun glasses on but sure would be nice to establish eye contact. What do you think? Is there a norm and or best practices?

thank you for clarifying slotperfect!!

I was curious, spotting from 25K in Military Freefall, do you always have a clear visible ground to spot? If not then isn't electronic instrumentation used to determine where you want to drop people factoring in wind speeds etc.,? that's not spotting is it? what about night?

if that's his gear, he better track to close in because, it already looks like it quite a ways away from him

This is pic I found somewhere on the web. Just figured I'll share it with other skydiving enthusiasts. For the record: This is not my pic., I don;t know anyone in that pic. either, neither do I have any more information about it. Just think its a great shot of this Spec. Ops guy jumping out on the water with Scuba gear on. Can anyone shed more light on this pic., would appreciate any info. Its possible that some folks in this forum have done this kind of jump. like the gear, what do they carry., what is he trying to do there, etc. I also see a dual parachute deployed there.......

I'm planning on going there as well. This is my first trip, can someone pl. list any must bring for camping there for 2- 3 days. I'm off to the camping store to get me a tent. Also any RW organizing for my skill set 130 jumps and meet B- license requirements. is wireless internet available at teh campsite or anywhere at teh DZ?

I'm consistantly able to land within 10-15 m (on few occassions 20 m) from the target, good stand up landings into the wind. I want to improve on my accuracy. What other factors do I need to consider besides a) Wind speeds (conditions) b) your canopy flight characteristics. c) approach on the final leg. Can experienced jumpers suggest any drills to improve?

I was wondering how serious other people are about USPA election. I would like to excercise my vote but I was wondering what other people do when they vote. Do you know the candidates? or have you jumped with them? or you just know that they are good big way organizers so they are good in office. I would like to vote for someone who is going to represent the jumper, safety, help in progressing the sport and who is a good role model for skydivers. ANyone can think anything more important while casting your vote. I would want to keep this a neutral thread so no names please.

well, my understanding is it is mailed per your license number order, the more recent your membership the longer it would take, remember there are 33,000 skydivers in front of you!!!

no soup for you

good job johnnyboy, could someone explain why you would have such a severe line twist when you are stable at pull time. or what other factors lead to line twists, packing may be, or higher free fall speeds at deploy time,

yes, I did a tandem from 18K a year or so ago, no O2, quick climb to altitude and exit, though I noticed that we fell through the clouds. Any reason why we would have done that, now that I look back, we shouldn't have done that (punch through the clouds)

I happen to read that the number of sport skydiver membership has dropped to 31,500 currently from 33,500 last year. Not sure how accurate this statistics is but clearly it does indicate that the number of skydivers has either remained the same or not increased despite the tremendous imporvements in this sport to make it more safe. I was just wondering, what are the reasons for this drop. On the contrary, you would think it should start to become more popular since the instruction is getting better, better equipment, standard/structured process for students, low accident statistics, more marketing to reach out to people, more DZ's, etc. I was wondering what each one of you would attribute to "the drop in the the number of skydivers"

I'm not sure if I understand the mechanics of tracking with a jumpsuit(with booties). Can someone pl. explain??.

I was wondering if folks can help me understand what are the benefits of jumping with an RW jumpsuit Vs no jump suit. I'm investing on a used RW jump suit. Besides the reasons I can think of a) it is safe, no fabric is flying around, b) better control of fall rate c) it shows I'm serious about the sport d) helps in RW jumps where people can latch onto you. I'm sure there are a whole bunch of technical reasons such as the booties, grippers, fabric etc. I'm sure all those aid in flying better in RW jumps, anything people can add. thanks,

just curious, do AFF I wear different jumpsuite to match each student or they match their fall rate to that of the student. At our DZ AFFI all I see is the instructors wear the same no matter what the student is built like.

I was wondering if the experienced jumpers can comment a thing or two or provide pointers on how to improve on precise turns. I want to work on some drills, obviously I'll talk and seek Instructors to comment, coach and jump with me, but I always like when I see a skydiver so precisely make turns with no effort. Any drills or pointers you guys can provide is highly appreciated? Me: I'm an jumper with A- license and about 50 jumps.

sorry, I probably didn't state it right, I didn't mean intentional pulling, what I meant was hanging on in freefall using chest strap. I'm sure you have seen some pics. where a jumper is "hanging" on to other using the chest strap. Now I do realize that both the bodies are in free fall in the same direction so on hanging as it may seem, the chest strap is not being loaded, maybe?

I just have a hard time looking at jumpers pulling on chest straps while doing freefly or in formation or jumpers hanging on to other jumper's chest straps. I'm just curious being a newbie, won't it come undone? or if you have routed the chest strap correctly, merely pulling on it to stay with other jumpers will not undo it? I'm ok with pulling or tagging on to my leg straps, you can pull as hard as you want on the leg straps, it probably won't come undone. (PS: sorry about this silly post, but figured, I'll ask anyways)

figured I'll share this videos url links of HALO, HAHO HALO footage: http://www.secretarmies.com/halo.html HAHO footage: http://www.secretarmies.com/haho.html Edited by slotperfect to make the links clicky

"entire stick" - I figure its you jump team/unit right?. any reason why its called a stick

I guess I've been thinkin too much lately but still I'll ask away. I know there are quite a few accomplished/experienced civilian and ex- military jumpers here, so they may shed some light on this. On one of the episodes on Discovery channel on HALO -free fall warriers, (which BTW, I really enjoyed watching) they said military jumpers jump from 25K -30K feet or higher altitudes at night in foreign territories. Question is we civilian/sport skydivers need so many factors to be condusive (at least at my level of experience) to be able to skydive like spoting, cloud cover, weather, wind speeds, LZ conditions, lighting conditions and so on and on. How do they (Spec. Ops) pull off their jump at night from those altitudes in a landing area which no one has been before (assuming Sepc. Ops are covert and they are the first ones on ground). My question is from a skydiving perspective. If some of above mentioned conditions do not favour do they still jump? or no matter what green light and your a#s is out of the door type of deal. I do realize that they are aided with far superior technology in terms of precision GPS coordinates or satellite terrain maps etc. What got me thinking is, HALO is just their mode to infiltrate so what goes on during their skydiving part of their operation?. I did some searching on the web did not find the info. I was looking for so figured I'll post here. I've a friend who is ex- 82 airborne and he said he has absolutely no idea how they do it. thanks,