FlyingRhenquest

I usually wear ninja shoes everywhere. I don't do martial arts or anything, I just find them to be comfortable. The ones I have hook up the side with metal hooks. I've been curious to jump on them for a while, but wanted to be reasonably reliable with my landings before that. So I gave it a shot today and it was pretty awesome! I wore them under my jumpsuit so the velcro would keep the hooks in place -- no worries about them blowing open with the velcro there. They breathe better than sneakers, are stickier on dry surfaces, and you can move much more quietly in them (I always feel like a herd of buffalo when I'm wearing sneakers.) I can also feel surfaces better with them on. So yeah, ninja shoes, thumbs up! I'll stick with the sneakers in the winter though, because my ninja shoes are mostly not water resistant and let the cold in better. I wonder if I could get away with them in the tunnel. I think they'd typically be more secure than sneakers... I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeJ1Sauv2gc I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Kittens. Kittens are super soft and fluffy. They don't compress very well, though... I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

So for skydiving to be a sport you'd have to throw two guys and one parachute out the door? Gotta admit, it'd probably be a pretty interesting sport... I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

It's not the destination, it's the journey. You're looking way up there and missing all this cool stuff right here. You've already committed to jumping out of airplanes for fun. You now and forever more will have more takeoffs in a plane than landings in one. You have already done more than most humans can even imagine. The sky is your playground. So get there when you get there and enjoy the ride in the mean time. A few years from now you'll look back on your current videos and be, like, "Heh." I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Invite them to a 20 minute session in the wind tunnel, then. A day later, ask them if they still think skdiving's not a sport. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Door fear. We all had it. The person who's defeating you is you, and you know that guy better than anyone. Examine what's actually making you nervous there and take steps to address those fears to your satisfaction. Once you get over that hump, each jump gets easier. I still get a bit antsy if I'm the first one out the door and we open it on the way to altitude, but I actually get more jittery when they lock us in the wind tunnel before they turn the fan on (After it's on, I'm fine, which I find somewhat weird.) A lot of students are unable to go from time to time. I never stopped at the door, but I had to fight with myself to go to the DZ several times while I was on student status. Now I have to fight with myself to NOT go to the DZ. I had to make myself go to a low-buy-in poker tournament the other day, just to remind my self that there are other entertainment options available. Unfortunately I'd forgotten that I'm really bad at poker heh heh. Good thing I'm a better skydiver than a poker player. Not that that's saying much... I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

I'm told landing's faster here in Colorado than elsewhere. Having never jumped elsewhere I can't say. I'm guessing if I can manage a visit to Deland this winter, it'll screw up my flare for the first jump or two. I was pondering what it'd take to do a demo jump from the King Air to the visitor's center on top of Trail Ridge Road at 12,090 feet MSL. I guess that's not such a good idea, even though it'd still be a 5K hop and pop at the altitudes we fly to (Bwahaha :-) Much more interesting would be to jump a picnic to the mountain across the valley, which has no discernible means of human access, have lunch, pack your parachutes and jump to the valley. That sounds like a fun day out! Less so if you break your leg trying to land at 12000 feet... I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Cotton candy wouldn't work -- at freefall speeds it'd be like hitting cement. Same thing goes for water. Aerogel might work if you had enough of it and could figure out how to not suffocate in aerogel after you hit it. It'd be hard to find a material in-between that would stay fluffy enough when compressed. I wonder if bubble wrap or a pit full of balloons would work. That's a much more interesting question! Hmm... I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Cool, that's quite a lot of progress over the course of a year! Congratulations! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Yeah... you might want to watch out for that hostess. I think you'll find she has a twinkie... I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

You can't get a Nismo 370Z with anything other than a six speed manual transmission. There isn't an option for automatic. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

I've personally brought three tandems so far to the DZ, and as many people to the vertical wind tunnel. People who wouldn't have considered it, and certainly not here, if I didn't like this DZ. I've also spent well over $15,000 in the last year at their place between gear, training and jumps. Even if the margins are thinner on that, I'm basically a marketing staff member who is paying THEM. That's a pretty good setup. Having an extra 15-20 grand come through your business is nothing to sneeze at either. If you don't have fun jumpers promoting your business, what are you going to do? Set up a web page and get drowned out by all the Skyride pages out there? Accept Skyride students and let them take a fat cut off the top of your profits? Advertise on radio or television? I've never seen a dropzone take out an ad in radio, tv or print. Those cost money too. And if we think you're a tandem factory, we're not going to bring our friends and family to you. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Sweet! That's just awesome! About how many hours of flying is that? I'm still uncomfortable on my back in the tunnel but kind of enjoy it in the sky where I can slide a ways without whanging my head into a wall! My original goal with the tunnel was to learn to fly better for my skydiving, but right now I have more tunnel time than freefall time. It's fun to just go down there and put in 10 minutes on something a couple times a month. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

I don't know exactly what that stuff is. I think it's space aged polymers. The local Sprouts has pasteurized eggs, so I can go back to making my own mayonnaise from scratch again. Two egg yolks, squeeze of lemon or lime juice, a quarter cup of vegetable oil and a good strong whisking arm (Or the food processor, but that's cheating.) If you want to bam it up a notch, add a teaspoon of powered wasabe. Bam. I know we're way off topic here, I just find it amusing that I'm dropping my recipe for homemade wasabe mayo into a discussion about transmission preference I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Huh. Guess I'll go back to not eating Twinkies. I don't even remember the last time I had one. I had them occasionally when I was a child. When I visited Boulder in the mid 90's, I had some hot tea at a Chinese restaurant. The tea had a orange flavor to it that seemed oddly familiar, even though I'd never had an orange flavored tea before. I kept sipping it it all through dinner, trying to place the flavor, which was hiding in the back of my mind like an itch I couldn't scratch. Then it dawned on me; it tasted exactly like an orange otter pop. This got me thinking that you never really experience something thinking it's the last time. I never had an orange otter pop thinking this was the last orange otter pop I'd ever have. And yet for probably at least 15 years, I had never tasted that flavor until that night. Life is funny that way I guess. So I never ate a Twinkie, thinking "This will be the last Twinkie I will ever eat." My last Twinkie was not a memorable one. Perhaps that's why I'll never eat another. I guess this is some heavy food philosophy to lay on this thread. Sorry about that. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

We're all in a pretty risky sport here. I respect their decision to keep doing what they loved despite the risks. Most of the experienced skydivers I've talked to at the DZ know someone who died. Some of them know several people who died. They're practically on a first-name basis with Death. You can cower from him for your entire life, go out daring him to take you or laugh in his face when he comes, but in the end he'll still get you. There's nothing you can do about it when your time comes. These were amazing people, and they did amazing things during their lives. I'd much rather focus on that, than how they died. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

One of the tunnel instructors I talked to told me this happens all the time with experienced skydivers who have never been in the tunnel before. It's a completely different set of visual clues in there, and takes some getting used to. I actually have more tunnel time than freefall time at the moment, which I think might qualify me for "tunnel rat" status. Funnily enough I actually get more jittery before going in the tunnel than I do riding to altitude! Soon as they turn the big fan on, I'm fine. Dunno what's up with that. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Well I'm 43 now and still going strong on stick. I've gotten pretty good at inching along in first or second in stop and go traffic and use engine compression at least as much as brakes for slowing down and stopping. Nothing quite like riding in 3rd down the switchbacks while the flatlander in the mini-van in front of you burns his brakes up... I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

There's no difference in the license in the USA -- if you can work it you can drive it. You do need a motorcycle endorsement in the license in all the states I've checked in order to legally drive a motorcycle, though. There's also a commercial license for 18 wheelers. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

I prefer it over an automatic. I hate driving cars with automatic transmissions. The Nismo I'm driving now has this "S-Rev" feature that bumps the throttle when you shift to make your shifting smoother. I drive with it disabled and can't tell a difference from when I'm driving with it on. Except that when I pop it into neutral without using the clutch, I'm usually getting ready to coast to a stop but it thinks I'm going to shift into a gear and bumps the throttle then too. Plus, you can't bump start an automatic. Something's draining the beater Honda's battery when it's off and I'm trying to isolate the cause. I think the alternator might be on the way out, but it ought not to be a problem when the vehicle's been sitting. If I come back and it doesn't want to start, I just recruit a couple of passers-by to give it a push and bump start it. A while back I drove my room mate to a movie and left my lights on (It had been raining.) When we came out, the battery was dead. I asked her if she'd ever bump started a car before. She didn't know what I was talking about so I gave her a quick run down and had her pop the clutch while I was pushing. She didn't even know you could do that. Kids these days (Except she's older than I am...) I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Apparently my sister and her kids can't, which is odd because I thought she drove the stick-shift Camry I learned on for years. Both my main and beater snow car are stick shift, so I'll either have to teach them or drive them around everywhere if they come out to visit again. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

They're an important staple of the college student's diet! Specifically you eat them to supplement your vitamin C intake, because Ramen has none. So if you don't eat pop tarts, you'll get scurvy*. * Statement not evaluated by the FDA. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Heh, my early AFF jumps were a litany of failures. I didn't do any tandems beforehand, though. I don't think anyone makes it through without failing one or two (Well, maybe THIS guy, but he's a tunnel instructor.) Your AFF performance is not a good predictor of the rest of your skydiving career so don't get too freaked out with it. Try to relax and have fun with it. And get some video! Then you can look back at it in a year and be like, "heh." I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Really? I like being able to see the progress I've made. Then Now I can do that with my skydiving videos too... Then Now Obviously I have a long way to go and I'm sure in a year the "now" videos will look as awkward to me as the "then" videos, but at least I can show progress. I think it's good to remember where you came from. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?