miss3sixty

Tonto, I know you are a moderator on here, and have tons and tons of knowledge etc, but to be honest, I found your post quite surprising and rather negative for a direct reply. Yes, you are right, skdiving is addictive, it often gets you in debt and alienates your friends and yes, it can kill you, just like drugs. It seems that you think that Mike is living in cuckoo land and needs a wake up call. However, I dont think that Mike is totally oblivious to this. he is simply expressing the positive things he has taken from skydiving. You have put me on a bit of a downer to be honest Miss3sixty Skydiving- it has its ups and downs

Thats it!! I am going to write to Larsen & Brusgaard and insist that they incorporate heart rate monitors into all their gear! It would be great to look back on! Sweeeeet Miss3sixty Skydiving- it has its ups and downs

Its funny how you felt you had to explain your first post in a later post! "did you fall?" Its a f**king classic. Its not even that funny, but so simple its almost poetic! It put a smile on my face when I started work at 6.30 this morning I got asked THIS the other day when chatting to a tandem passenger "Oh, so you can jump out on your own- do you have to keep your eyes open all through the freefall? err..it does help one get ones moneys worth! Miss3sixty Skydiving- it has its ups and downs

Hi Ms.A, Im in a very similar position to you. I cannot afford gear hire any more!!! I origionally did AFF on a 260, then our DZ got a 210 which I enjoyed for a while. My sister has just bought a spectre 150 and has given me her spinnaker 175. At about 45 jumps, I went from the 210 to the DZ's 170, which was a sabre 1. I got approval from the folks at the DZ because my landings had been sensible and consistent. They trained me on the two-handle system, and made me wait for suitable weather conditions. They advised me to pull high and get to know the canopy, and set myself up with a nice long landing area and warned me about low turns etc. I found it absoloutley fine. The quicker rate of descent actually made it easier to judge the altitude and time the turns etc BUT BE WARNED-- The buggar does spank!! However, careful packing, a good deployment bodyposition etc can all help It would probably be ideal to do 210-190-170-150 But whats in important is that you do jump SOMETHING inbetween the 210 and the 150 for a while Hope this helps x PS, since downsizing, I have made my first unintentional down-wind landing, have landed in sheep shit and I owe the DZ beer from doing my first fence landing! (none of which anythig to do with the canopy!) HA HA Miss3sixty Skydiving- it has its ups and downs

Hey danger!! I agree, the XLRB programme worked for me!! It was great to get that intro into free-flying and RW that nomal AFF courses dont usually offer. I will be at the DZ tomorrow so hopefully see you and meet your son before you go. Ive not jumped for a month but now have full thermal underwear and a balaclava so no excuses! bet you cannot wait for the gig one!! Rach x x Miss3sixty Skydiving- it has its ups and downs

N/A

Way to go Steve!! You made the right decision! Im also relieved you didnt go for my idea of the blindfolded /radio landing jump! x x Miss3sixty Skydiving- it has its ups and downs

We are obviously not alone! YOURS 'I used to tie my Dad's big hankies to my Sindies and throw them out of the upstairs window...! " MINE "Most little girls had barbie dolls, I had an action man and I made him a parachute out of a napkin and threw him out my bedroom window" He he Miss3sixty Skydiving- it has its ups and downs

Thanks for doing that, I know for a fact there will be a few confused people thinking ' he sounds like he knows what hes doing, I'll stick with his advice' Phew! Miss3sixty Skydiving- it has its ups and downs

When me and my sister were kids, we used to tie umbrellas, buckets and empty cartons to our belts thinking it would help us fly. Most little girls had barbie dolls, I had an action man and I made him a parachute out of a napkin and threw him out my bedroom window. When I eventually did get a barbie doll, she was made to bungy jump (before I even knew what it was)using belts from mums dressing gowns. I used to jump off our garden wall holding four corners of a blanket as a canopy above my head but never knew why. I decided I wanted to skydive when I was about 11. I must have seen something on TV but cannot remember I booked a tandem for my 18th birthday, but cancelled when someone died there the week before I was due to go I then did a tandem for my 21st birthday. Amazing experience in freefall but canopy hell. Chest strap was so tight i could not breathe Iinstuctor resused to loosen it I started seeing stars and felt dizzy I landed with no vision and no hearing sight and hearing came back after a minute hmmmm It was still the best day of my life Asked about AFF, and knew I could no way afford it! played the tandem video to death for years decided to fly a plane for my 22nd birthday. totally loved it, but knew something was missing My sister went to live in NZ last year. She took up skydiving and a year later, I joined her. we now both jump in one of the most scenic places in the world. I have always been scared of heights. If I stand on a chair my ankles go funny, and I could never ever do a bungy, weird eh! xxxx Miss3sixty Skydiving- it has its ups and downs

This is Richard's qote, bless him "About 15 or 20 years ago I pulled the wrong string when I went skydiving for the first time. I got rid of the parachute rather than opening it. It was not very clever, and I was declared "wally of the decade" by the skydiving federation." I love the word 'string' !!!!! If you go on www.skydivingmovies.com, you can see his AFF, priceless! ANYWAY.. Keep me up to date with your fun and games bananagirl. (yesterday, I went to pull and found my pilot chute had come right out, so I just grabbed the bag and threw it as far out to the side as I could. the opening was fine but my chest strap was accross my neck and there was a massive gap above each shoulder (must have had the leg straps too loose) I have downsized to a 210 and hope to jump the 170 soon x Miss3sixty Skydiving- it has its ups and downs

i would be very interested to know if anyone else has weird reoccuring skydive dreams or at least hear about other people's. About 3 times now I have dreamt I am sat in the aircraft door, I check the spot, all ok to go, reach down for that last minute gear check, realise something is wrong, only to find I am wearing My rucksack OR even worse, the 'ghostbuster pack' backpack vacuum cleaner thingy I use at work! By which time I figure its too late to worry about it and go anyway! (I never remember dreaming about the freefall or the landing-thank God) PS, has anyone died in a dream?, apparently you die in real life you know!!!! Miss3sixty Skydiving- it has its ups and downs

Err... Jump naked with a blow-up doll hanging off your chest stap? tandem a dog? jump blindfolded with radio assisted landing? (God, I love that one, might do it myself one day) Enjoy x Miss3sixty Skydiving- it has its ups and downs

Banana girl, I have not forgot you!! You relplied to my ' oh my god, Im addicted to skydiving' post a few weeks back !!! Congrats on your A license, Ive got mine too!! All that waiting around seems so worth it now. I am not sorry to hear about your chop, like you say, you now have even more respect for skydiving and you know that the reserve canopy actually does work !! I too have done amazing ' i rock the sky' jumps and plenty of 'muppet' jumps!, I have done some free flying and some 2- ways and the fun justs gets better!! Keep in touch, it will be nice to compare notes, Lots of love Miss3sixty Skydiving- it has its ups and downs

God, I know what you mean! Im under canopy, thinking 'fat end, thin end?' to myself over and over, and sometimes just have this big fat mental block! The 'eat the carrot' thing is fantastic ! To make it worse we have two windsocks (one at each side of the landing field) and they ALWAYS contradict each other. We also have wind blades near to one of the windsocks, which must have fell out with the windsock because they never agree either! To make things worse, I cannot see the bloody socks till I am at about 500 ft (think I need my eyes testing!) and the wind blades can be very deceiving (a bit like looking at art work by M C Escher, they look like they could go two differnet ways!) My drop zone is next to a lake surrounded by mountains and it has a 'thang', especially in summer, with turbulance and changing wind directions Its no good planning a landing pattern and expecting the wind to be doing the same thing when I land, it often changes by 90 degrees in this time and has turned 180 a fair few times too. Its also no good following other pilots, a lot of them land downwind anyway, I used to follow the tandems but I land before them these days. Plus, the wind direction at 2000ft is often different to on the ground. AND its no good hanging above the landing area till I can see because Ill get in the way! We get told off for making low turns too, so i always begin my landing sqaure till I can work it out, and make last minute adjustments whilst looking out for carrots and thinking about thin and fat ends!! ha ha Miss3sixty Skydiving- it has its ups and downs