earth2eric

Todays FJCS might have great m subject matter. But it doesn’t mean they are taught well. And the standard “show up, get blasted with a bunch of info over 4-5 hours and jump method” isn’t the best way. And then the “rush you onto a jump because I have a video or tandem to do and I don’t get paid enough for this” attitude means the students aren’t receiving the info over a period of time either. I’ve seen so many A license check dives get posted where the student is flying like crap or backsliding all over the sky and the instructor goes “my student did so good!” Shoot, one of my students didn’t finish in time for the season end and went to another well established dropzone. They flew from upwind to downwind, cut people off in the pattern and landed downwind on their check dive and was passed. I’m sorry but if you were training to be a pilot and flew the wrong pattern do you think they examiner would give you a pilots license? Not a chance!

YouTube, Instagram, and GoPro has changed the sport. Now everyone and their mother wants to sign up for AFF. It’s way to easy to become an instructor and the standards are very low. Time and time again I see people who can barely belly fly getting signed off for their AFF rating. The word “experienced” is thrown around far too easy. The drive to become cool, popular, and “experienced” is blinding the community from who is actually talented. Dropzones are growing, which means they need instructors. Unfortunately money is now more important than training and safety. Can’t exit stable on your belly? Here’s your rating! Can’t land your sport canopy for shit? Here’s a passenger! Can’t fly on your belly? Here’s a student! Don’t understand the basics of canopy flight and emergency procedures? You’d be a great AFFI! The skydiving training sector is thrown together and sloppy, rushed and incomplete. Kids are getting their license, traveling to other dropzone and smashing into the ground. Elliptical and crossbrace canopies are being put into containers of skydivers who hook it low and have zero accuracy. STA program needs a revamp, Examiners need to be more strict, and incident reporting needs to become mandatory to identify trends of instructors who shouldn’t be rated either due to lack of skill or have the 5 hazardous attitudes when taking customers. I love skydiving, but the safety culture in skydiving is going downhill and fast.

I am an Introductory Coach, right now focusing on AFF prep and Level 1 and 2 flying (including carving). Because I do not focus on Levels 3 and 4, VFS, or Dynamic, I charge a cheaper price. This is meant to help First time flyers get started in the tunnel world, and explore it from there. I also serve as a liason for other Instructors, and AFF Instructors. I get contacted a lot asking for help reaching someone. I also offer assisting flyers with specific needs a chance to fly in the wind tunnel, for which I do not charge a fee. The website I created is a work in progress to advertise beyond the First Time Flyer world for non-skydivers, and to give my classes an opportunity to try out their first One on One session in the tunnel.

Hi Muna, I am a Coach at iFly Seattle. If you would like to schedule some lessons, or have a tour of the facility feel free to contact me. My 10 minute block is $160 My 15 minute block is $240 I also have options for bulk purchases for a discount. How much tunnel experience do you have? What are you some goals you have in mind? Eric Willett pnwbodyflight.com ericwbodyflight@gmail.com

Tracking is more like freeflying. It's dynamic. Most people don't dedicate a lot of time to it either, so even though they have 500 skydives, or even 1000, matching a particular fall rate/forward drive can be a little wonky. Definitely keep it small to work on your skills. If you don't know your brakes, and you have trouble going exactly where you want to go, there's no reason to make bigger jumps, you'll end up adding risk and decreasing your learning experience. I have a good amount of track dives and my most favorite and memorable ones have been two and three ways with good friends. You might see organizing for big track dives, and you'll want to join because you'll look at it and say "all these people are experienced, all these people are my friends, I trust these people." But it's not about that. In order for track dives to go smoothly it takes a lot of good flying and teamwork, but what ends up happening is a rabbit who can't fly straight, people with tunnel vision who want the dock or the closest slot, and people who can't keep up. They can get scary real quick. Nothing worse then breaking off from a skydive wondering where all your friends are :D Treat tracking dives with a huge amount of respect. Have fun and be safe, and good job for seeking out information!

And don't listen to people on here trying to blame you for being a bad student. Every student and every instructor has their flaws. If you have ever taken a leadership course, or studied anything about instruction/leadership, one thing that you will learn about it is the differences of learning styles for different types of people. No student is the same, and just because one person thinks they were a great student because their learning experience was good doesn't mean they couldn't go to an otherwise perfectly good instructor and not do well with them. The point I'm trying to make is, a good instructor can teach all types of students, without letting his/her bad side through because he/she is having diffuclty with your learning style. Which is why I posted the "Attitude" section from the IRM (Instructional Rating Manual provided by USPA when you become a Coach/Instructor). A good instructor knows how to assess your learning style and adapt to that all the while keeping a good attitude and making the experience good for their student! And one more thing, if you are experiencing some type of resistance or negativity, don't be shy! Just straight up ask "what can I do to be a better student?" If a student asked me that I would say "Be humble, and respect that there is a lot in skydiving you won't know for a long time. Listen to what I say and understand that comes from experience. Listen to my instructions, and later if there is something you want to talk about we can do that! Now let's go fucking skydive!"

"Attitude Your attitude must display the highest degree of professionalism and dedication. You must be prepared to put all of your effort into getting the job done properly. This often means setting your personal feelings and desires aside. A good attitude means dealing with adversity in a positive and cheerful manner. It also means maintaining high standards of personal appearance and hygiene." I had the same experience as you when starting. I pushed past it only because I didn't know better and thought that maybe I was a bad student. Although it was highly discouraging, here I am now with my own Coach rating. I promised myself that I would never treat a student like I was treated, and do my best to make sure they to get to experience the fun and excitement of skydiving, just like the rest of us, without having to deal with a shitty negative attitude that has no place in professional instruction. Good luck, I hope that you can do the same, Blue Skies!

http://www.uspa.org/SIM/Read/Section6/tabid/169/Default.aspx#979

I'm just wondering, A: When will they actually be available? Everyone seems to be out of stock, and they are saying that they don't know when they are getting any, but when they do, it will be the new Vigil2 +. and B: If that's true, then won't those people kinda be like guinea pigs for this new design? It doesn't seem like the upgrade is a huge change but with changes always comes the possibility of errors, right? I'd really like to buy a Vigil, but I don't want to be the guy who gets the new design that pops the reserve while leading a track dive! Then again, the MARS did just become approved for the Curv......

I also recommend Skydance, not only because it's my home dropzone and I love it, but these reasons also: -We are all awesome and friendly. You'll have no trouble finding people to jump with when you have your A. Before you get your A you have so many coaches here who would love to jump with you. -As with most of the dropzones in California, we have extremely talented skydivers from all disciplines that will give you tons of advice and help. -The planes are all very nice and fast. We typically have one Grand Caravan running, sometimes a Pac, that are well kept and safe. Not to mention amazing pilots! -We have a pro shop where you can buy gear and order gear. The rigging loft is located in the back. This means goggles, altimeters, audibles, etc all just 50 feet from the hangar. Comes in handy. -Plenty of space to camp, with warm showers on site. Davis is a short drive away which is a really nice college town. Plenty of bars restaurants and fun things to do. -Huge landing area close to the hangar. Our pattern is very easy to understand and follow. People here are friendly, safe, and experienced. We have a DZO who takes care of his facilities and aircraft. Your experience will always be top notch, guaranteed. Getting your A shouldn't be about how fast or cheap you can do it! We hope to see you out here! Blue skies.

My brand new Micron Vector and Safire 2 aren't here yet, but maybe Santa is just lost? right? PLEASE SAY HE'S JUST LOST!!!!

Before I started skydiving (had done a few tandems and watched and read every thing I could get my hands on) I was asking some friends about wanting to do AFF. One kid in the group started talking about how he already skydives and has "30 hours". I asked him about his AFF and where he started and he told me "his dad is a Pararescue Jumper in the Air Force and him and his buddies did 10 tandems with him and then let him jump by himself." He also didn't have any gear and stopped jumping because he just didnt like it anymore. I also had someone at work who convinced their office they were an AFF instructor up in Canada. When I started asking about when they last jumped or if they had jumped out here they got real nervous and didn't want to finish the conversation. Apparently they had about 250 skydives......

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with these mounts and how they fit to other helmets? http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/evo-carbon-top-mount-gopro-attachments or this one http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/evo-tilting-top-mount I'd like to use it on my Bonehead Pimp Daddy.

On the Wings website, under the "rigging" section, I see the options listed as: Service - 3225 Add Cut in lateral $200.00 Service - 3290 Harness adjustment $150.00 The rig I have is used, but fits me pretty well. Although, there is still movement, especially when freeflying. Can they actually add cut in laterals and adjust the harness to fit me better for those prices? Is it recommended to do that kind of structural modification to a rig? Thanks!

Ok as much as people from Lodi will hate me for this (nothing against them) I am going to post my story about Lodi. "AFF" was with only one instructor. I weigh 135lbs and I started on a 210, 3rd jump on Spectre? (I think, i'll check my log book) 190, and then from 4 to 7 on a Sabre 170. At 15 jumps I was given the ok the jump a Sabre 150 and land in the main area. I was never told about jump run, I never even saw the SIM, and my A license proficiency card never even came into play. I was jumping with other people with less then 25 jumps immedietaly after AFF. I did all of these things with complete confidence this was ok. I didn't know to track away from people, (figured that one out quick a 5 way at about 20 jumps) I did AFF there with an australian guy "Keith". He was extremely unfriendly, never smiled, never laughed. I kept feeling like I was doing something wrong, or I was annoying him. After AFF I would ask him questions because I was unsure of things. His attitude was that he was too busy or acted like my questions were stupid. A month later he dissapeared and I never saw him. After that I learned by random jumpers yelling at me. I would always try to find someone to jump with, or answer questions so I could find out what I was doing wrong. I felt like an outcast there when trying to be friendly. It made me feel like new skydivers weren't welcome, or I was doing everything wrong. Luckily I found Ed, and he was extremely helpful with getting my A license things done. He taught me the stuff on my proficiency card. The rigger (forgot his name) was really helpful with the gear aspects on the A license card. He also signed stuff off for me. Do I think everyone will have this experience? Definitely not. I've now come to understand this was a rare and unfortunate experience. There are tons of great instructors there. But it happened to me. And sometimes friends I would bring would have great Tandem experiences, other times their instructor would cuss at them or other people in front of them, be extremely rude or pushy, and ruin the whole experience. So this is why I think Lodi, although can be cheap and fun if you have experience and friends to bring with, is not good for tandems or AFF. It's a hit and miss with that. Again I mean no harm to most of the Lodi regulars. I'm not dissing anyone or anything in general, just posting my experience there. Tons of you guys come to my dz and jump and we are cool. I didn't know how much I loved skydiving until I left and found jumpers who were excited to teach me and watch me learn, and treat me like family. I finally found myself a skyfamily to jump with, and now at 230 jumps, it feels good to show up at the dropzone with smiles and high fives, not frowns and insults I wish I could of had that from jump 1 man, I really do.

pretty freaking sweet!

WOW. What's the catch?

Whats the tracking camp going to be like?

This is literally why I started skydiving. I saw this as a kid, and ever since then I had dreams and thoughts about it. Kind of silly, but hey, here I am!

dashware.net

Could you explain burble hopping more? And what do you mean by open and closed accordion? The hog flops I get and that sound awesome! Tracking the car? Whip the tail? WHOOOOOOOOO

I just recently did a jump where another skydiver and I docked, and each "fruitlooped" each other. Basically after you grab hands and dock, one of you goes into a sit or stand and flings the other person over top of you. It went great, was a lot of fun, and we did it fast enough to get two docks, two fruitfloops, and some back flying before 5 grand. It was one of the best dives I've done, and I'm wondering if there any other really cool things two or three skydivers can try on their belly for some fun!

Wow, thats way more affordable. I was searching for a main canopy, and if I saw something outside of the US, my first thoughts were "not worth the shipping" but that's really not bad. Opens up some opportunity for the classifieds.

yes yes, these are the answers I was looking for! Dropzone always delivers. I tried doing the calculator on usps, and I got $280 from here in California to Bergen for a 5 lbs package with an 8 day delivery..I'm like "I think I may have done something wrong..."