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)