Luna

Oh, Michele, I'm so sorry for you. Just treasure the time that you've had with her and know that you are doing the right thing for her. Let me know if I can do anything for you. I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

One other pointer: make sure that your head is up, i.e. you are not looking at the ground. When I first started out, this was a problem for me. Not only does it make breathing difficult, it also contributes to instability. I've been able to feel the difference in my stability when I remember to lift my head up. Good luck! I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

http://www.democraticdialogue.org/report8/report8h.htm Specifically, "The underlying thrust of the numerous interpretations of the Constitutional implications of local laws, state laws and police decisions is that the Constitution demands that freedom of assembly should be protected and facilitated by the authorities if it is held in a peaceful manner and in a traditional public forum. A public forum is defined as property that is owned by the government and open to the public, in practice this normally means most streets, sidewalks and parks. However, even this is never such an unconstrained right as might be suggested. The privilege of a citizen of the United States to use the streets and parks for communication of views on national questions may be regulated in the interest of all; it is not absolute, but relative, and must be exercised in subordination to the general order (Hague v CIO, 307 US 496, 515-16, 1939). Exercising the right to demonstrate therefore has to be balanced with the rights of other sections of the community, and public assemblies can be limited in some ways providing that the restrictions are content neutral’, that is they are not imposed to censor the expression of ideas. As one member of the New York Police Department told us ‘there is a Constitutional right to demonstrate and to protest, but there are still questions to be decided where this right ends and where the wider public rights begin’. The Supreme Court has formulated a doctrine to guide such decision-making processes known as the ‘time, place and manner doctrine’. This stipulates that while people have a right to demonstrate, the authorities have to be aware of the broader picture. They therefore do have the right to impose ‘reasonable’ restrictions on the ‘time, place and manner’ of such public events in order to prevent them from unreasonably interfering with nearby activities and individuals’ (Gora et al 1991:165-6). Having the right to demonstrate does not mean that one has the right to demonstrate where one will, when one will or how one will without due regard for one’s fellow citizens." Despite lots of looking, this is the closest I can come to an explanation of what the "time, place and manner doctrine" really means. So basically, the Supreme Court has said that there MUST BE restrictions on public demonstrations. It's already been tried, and while some anti-demonstration laws that do not meet the requirements of this doctrine can be found un-constitutional, they would clearly uphold a law that simply prohibited demonstrating in a certain place, at a certain time, or in a certain manner, without getting prior approval. I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

I totally agree with Jim here. People need to get into their heads that there is a difference between freedom of speech and the disruption of business and daily life. Yes, we are free to speak our minds from any public place, and we are free to assemble peacefully in any public place. However, that does not mean that we have the right to block access to businesses, roads, schools, etc. Once you do that, you are impinging on my rights to move freely about my city, to get to my place of employment, or to conduct any other business that I have in the area. People always seem very concerned about their own rights, but not very concerned about whether they are infringing the rights of others. Additionally, Jim is right in that this is already being addressed. The Supreme Court has ruled on the doctrine of "time, place and manner" when it comes to demonstrations. Basically, yes, you have the right to protest, but not whenever, wherever, or however you want to. You should be seeking approval, and most likely a permit, from local authorities in order to conduct your demonstration within the law. Lying in the streets and blocking public access would be considered a protest outside of the law. In other words, that is outside your constitutional rights. So, seems to me that this Supreme Court doctrine should be governing this, and Oregon should not be having to pass any further laws. Mandatory 25 years does sound extreme. Oh, and I'm not even going to get into the protestors who are trespassing, committing vandalism, or perpetrating assault. Those are obviously outside the realm of permissible. I did not participate in the poll because, as usual in polls, the choices were totally skewed. I do not think that we should hang the protestors, and I'll be damned if I know what the hell this has to do with Bush not winning the popular vote (I'm going to not get into that one). I also won't choose the third option either. My position is as stated above. I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

Thats what I have in mind, but 5500 is a little high isnt it? Dont forget, youre supposed to be having fun so you want enough freefall time. They tell us its going to be at 4000. At the amaller DZ, they were dropping us at 3000 for static lines. I think some people get more into parachuting than diving, that would be fine for that. To me its just there to break the fall and get you on the ground in one piece, not real interested in that part of it as far as doing 360s or whatever. I already made the decision to get an audible altimeter and use it with a wrist altimeter, but Id still want to be pretty conservative about opening high enough because of what you just said. Sorry, I've tried really hard to stay out of all of this mess. However, I have to jump in here as nobody else has addressed this yet. If you are doing AFF, you will be pulling at 5500 to start with. Too high? Tough shit! It's not about what you would rather be doing, and as a student, it is most CERTAINLY not about enjoying the freefall for as long as you can!!!!! As you have hopefully figured out by now, people new to the sport need more time to figure out what is going on and properly handle the situation. Case in point: my husband did his first 3500 pull at around 25 jumps. He had severe line twist problems that had not been resolved by hard deck. Result: cutaway. Had he pulled at 4000 even, he probably would have been out of the twists by hard deck. Anyway, getting back to my point, as you progress, you gradually lower your opening altitude. Students and A-license holders have a maximum opening of 3000. But during your progression, you work down to that. Static line is a whole other story, but you said you are going AFF. Also have to quickly address the part about not wanting to do 360's, etc. You will HAVE to! Learning to fly your canopy is the most important part of a skydive! And as such, you will have to learn to do certain maneuvers while a student, whether you want to or not. Oh yeah, most DZ's won't let a student wear an audible either. You have to develop your own altitude awareness, not start out relying on an audible. Now, to my real point here: After my first jump, once I knew I was going to be getting into the sport, I also came here to get more infomation. I, however, did follow the guidelines and lurked for several months before making a post. Searches are great to find information that you are looking for that has most likely already been addressed. I also did as you have apparently done and found videos to watch. However, most importantly, and what I have not seen you mention, I bought myself a copy of the SIM and started reading it (if you were doing this, you would not be questioning the 5500 deployment altitude). (One of my pet peeves is people going through the progression without bothering to ever pick up a SIM to see what they are supposed to be learning! You are paying enough for it, be proactive in your training for God's sake!) I also bought a copy of Understanding the Skydive as well as Parachuting: The Skydiver's Handbook. I immersed myself in these resources and gleaned every bit of information that I could. I then relied on the instruction that I was getting during my progression, and when I had my cutaway on my 3rd AFF jump, I had no trouble distinguishing what I needed to do, even though I had never had to ask detailed questions of the dz.commers about cutaways, because of the reading that I had done (and specifically Michele's account). So I guess my real bottom line point is, we have 2 ears and one mouth for a reason...to talk less, listen more, and learn and absorb! I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

Man, you make me homesick! Good thing I'm visiting next weekend.

Man, thanks for the invite! Sounds like a cool band...I listened to some of their music. The name must be familiar to me because I lived in MD for a few years. Anyway, I would love to go, BUT, we are meeting my in-laws there, and that night is the only night we can have dinner and stuff with them while we are there (we are seeing Dennis Miller Friday night and Mystere Saturday night). So, this time the in-laws win out. We'll catch up with you guys at the DZ on Saturday for sure, and maybe I'll see you at the craps tables. I LOVE that game! Man, I get more of a rush playing craps than I do skydiving Strange, but true. I know, I'm weird. See ya there! I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

Speak for yourself. Maybe it's just because we are a very small DZ, but Carol Clay, the woman with the most freefall time of any woman, jumps at my DZ. She will not hesitate to pull in someone with a barely just signed-off A license to get in on her six or eight way formations. And while she designs the jump around them so that they are mostly being held and don't have to do much, she also designs the jump so that they are being challenged and learning. I mean, if we only jump with other newbies, we'll never get good enough for you to want to jump with us. Mentoring and coaching are an integral part of this sport! There is not one "old guy" at my DZ who would refuse to jump with someone just beause they are a low-timer. I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

You make such a good point! My instructor going into my first jump of the weekend told me that I shouldn't have a problem with turning because I was going to be heading toward him. And I really think that is what did it. Both jumps I had something to keep my focus and to head toward (my instructor), and I think somehow that really helps...whether it's taking your focus away from being afraid that you are going to turn, or if it's just having a point toward which you want to go, so that you keep yourself from turning away from it. Something about that really seems to help. I guess I wish I had started on the coach jumps sooner now that I know that. I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

Nah...we'll just see what they have when we get there. No big deal. I'm sure it'll work out great. Thanks, though. It'll be great to meet both you AND Wingnut. I get a bonus! I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

Yep, that's it exactly. I've struggled through a lot of emotional problems over the last few years and made huge improvements in my life, improvements that actually allowed me to even consider jumping from a plane. And since I tried it, I have discovered that there is SO much I can learn from this sport, especially from the student/learning part of it, that will have direct impact on the rest of my life and help me continue my progress in those areas. Tons of lessons here. I was amazed at that. Bonus - it's fun, especially when you start to get it! Thanks again to everyone for the hugely supportive words. I thought I was making a post to encourage others, and here I get all this encouragement heaped on me. How cool! You guys are great! I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

Hey!!

Hey JT! I'll be there the 24th - 27th of April. Jumping will depend on whether the weather cooperates with me here so I can finish up my A. I only have a couple of weekends that I'm even going to be in town between now and then, so if the weather is crap I won't be able to finish. But, we can always get together for a meal or something. I'll drop you a PM before I leave to let you know what the plan is. I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

Well, several people have already had a bit to say. What I want to say is, I don't intend to sound mean, but you haven't jumped with me. Consistently, I always got stable when I went to pull. And on my last "AFF" level for you old school people, my very experienced instructor and former school owner who jumped with me did say that he should not be having to come and stop me from spinning at the level I was at, but that he did not feel that I was a danger to myself or anyone else in the air, and so he did clear me to solo. He advised me to do several solo jumps where I could learn to relax, which is my main problem (you should ask Michele what a cutaway on your third jump does to your ability to relax during a jump). Yes, it's legs not symmetrical and arms probably not either, but if I weren't so stiff it wouldn't be as big a problem. Anyway, I took his advice, and I refused to move on to the rest of my training (with the new ISP, you don't just run off jumping with anyone on the DZ until you have completed coaching jumps where you learn the basics of formation skydiving) until I felt that I had fixed my problems. As Robert so wonderfully put it (thanks for the very nice words!

Awww...thanks! I'll tell Jim, but I gotta say, he has been so great through all of my troubles. And I still feel indebted to him for the lost freebag. He is actually the one who I did my first dock on this weekend on my second jump. Thanks for the nice words. I just know how it feels, and want everyone to know that it does get better! And as someone said, the feeling you get when you finally get it is just incredible.

Thanks...I didn't know if I should drag his name into it or not, but yeah, that is another reason why I totally trust his judgement. He can't control everything that happens at the DZ (he does his best, believe me!), but he can control which planes we use, so I trust those planes. I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

I've had a pretty discouraging student progression so far, from losing altitude awareness on my first AFF jump and barely passing, to a cutaway on my 3rd. My freefall was deceptively great all the way until the 180's & 360's jump, where my spin problem surfaced. After 3 attempts at that level, I moved on, barely passing the instability levels because of my continuing spin problem. I did several solo jumps after I was cleared to try to work on the spin problem. Finally did a coached jump where we worked on countering the spin. Well, that worked, but I was still spending most of the dive countering. Still, did my tracking jumps, which didn't go well at all, but I got tired of not progressing, so I decided to move on to my real coach jumps, finally (jump 16). So, I can tell all of you students who struggle, and have to repeat dives, and get all discouraged that I totally sympathize! Every time I went up I would think to myself that maybe I'm just never going to get it, and maybe I should just quit. I've been there, as I know a lot of you have, too. What I want to tell all of you who are going through this is, DON'T GIVE UP! I did 2 jumps this weekend, and they were 2 of the best jumps I've done! All of a sudden, it's clicking. I'm staying stable, I'm not tending to spin or turn. My tracking is on heading now. My deliberate turns are easier. I was supposed to be doing forward motion to docking from ten feet, which I successfully did three times on my second jump, but on my first jump it turned more into a swoop & dock (without docking) where I had to cover something like 75 feet to get to my instructor. And I did!! On heading, with no problems. It just took me until breakoff to get there (I need booties!). I never would have believed that it would have all just fallen into place like it did on these jumps, but it did, and I cannot tell you how exhilarating it was, and how ecstatic I am. It totally erased all of the discouragement I have been feeling. Getting through these levels is the hardest thing, but hang in there, because you will get it, and it will feel SO good!

Okay, I'm interested in this because we use Fayard's planes at my DZ. They were actually talking about it this weekend, and the belief seems to be that it is a temporary thing that will be worked out in a couple of months, and that he mainly has been hit very hard by one of the worst winters the east coast has seen in a long time. Does anyone have another view on this? Frankly, I'm not very concerned about the safety and maintenance of his planes. I jump at Skydive The Point in West Point, VA, which you probably know had a Queen Air crash several years ago that killed everyone on board. Our current school owner was there when it happened and has said that since that happened, he is hyper-vigilant about the aircraft. I'm very confident that if there were any chance that one of our Fayard planes was getting poor maintenance, because of the bankruptcy or for any other reason, that he would not be letting it fly at our DZ. I don't know Paul or much of anything about him, but I do know this man, and I have a lot of trust in his judgement, especially in this area, knowing his feelings about the Queen Air crash (which, just for the record, did not come from Fayard). So, if anyone has any concrete reasons to dispute what I've said, please let me know.

I have to add one more that drives me absolutely crazy, and I have seen it being used more and more lately. The proper usage is "would've," "could've," and "should've." These are used to denote "would have," "could have," or "should have." The use of "would of," "could of," or "should of" make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Has "Hooked on Phonics" ruined our written language? I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

I have problems with motion sickness when trying to read while riding in a car. I finally bought some of those wrist bands to give them a try. I have had good results with them. I have also heard several other people who had similar results. Give them a try and see how they do for you! I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

It's not fun, but it's not always disasterous, either. They screwed up the flap on my husband's left eye, made it too small to do the laser procedure through. Short term sucked immensely. For the first 3 days after he could see 20/15 out of one eye, and 20/200 or whatever out of the other. Causes some unusual problems. Monday he got a contact for the left eye that solved that problem. Still had to go through all the drops in that eye because the flap was cut. Then after about 3 months, once the flap had healed, he spent another week not being able to see out of one eye because you can't wear contacts for a week before the surgery. Then he got it re-done, with no more problems. Just had to go through the whole healing crap over again. The flaps do heal, and once they do they can be re-cut. Not the end of the world. There are much worse things that can go wrong with LASIK. I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

Michele, try using a pull-up cord to tie the leg-straps together. I've seen freefliers who do have their own gear doing this. It should help to keep them in place. Congrats on getting in a sit, but more especially, on having so much fun!

Yes, but I think most people on our DZ want to cancel it from now on. After some very nice presentations from our staff and the local rescue squad, they put up the first load of the day. It was a pretty bad spot and only the 2 tandems and one fun jumper made it back to the DZ. I left right behind the 2 paramedics who had been presenting to go round people up. I ended up driving one of the paramedics to the site where someone hooked in trying to avoid some obstacles. Double femured. Damn it, we just went over this stuff! Braked turns to avoid obstacles! People said something bad always happens on safety day. But it wasn't over! We had another guy on a later load who opened into line twists, which is normal for him. These were bad, though, but he kept trying to get out of them. Finally, around 600 feet he couldn't find his cutaway and pulled his reserve instead, which sniveled badly because of his low speed, but slowed him down just enough to save him. It downplaned right before he went in. Amazingly, he walked away with a sprained ankle. After that, the DZO made an announcement that safety day was cancelled and everyone should go back to being reckless and unsafe. We have a physician's assistant who jumps with us and was there. She brought out her bag and went to both incidents. After that, she kept the bag out for the rest of the day. How many of you can say that you had live demonstrations for safety day? What NOT to do! I'm walking a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click Here for more information!

Man, it's not just you! I have been noticing the same thing. I travel a lot on AirTran because the airport they fly out of locally is small and convenient, and they are dirt cheap. But I was pricing flights to Orlando, and I started thinking that even as cheap as the fares are, you end up paying a ton in extra taxes and fees! As an example, a round trip fare from here to Orlando that goes through Atlanta (some of these fees are per segment, so a direct flight comes out cheaper) is appx. $109. Add in the taxes and fees and it's now $152! That is 38% over the cost of the ticket in taxes and fees. You thought your 28% was bad! It's really starting to irritate me since I really started looking at it. I get all excited because I can fly to New York for $54 each way, but WAIT! Not quite. If anyone has any answers to this, I'd love to hear them. I think many passengers are being fooled by the low advertised prices only to be nailed in the end. But then again, the alternatives aren't very attractive either.

Currently running United Devices, searching for a cure for cancer. Used to do the distributed.net ones that were trying to crack encryption, then found the cancer one. We run it on 2 home computers and one at work.