FlyingRhenquest

Well the altitude is more math than anything else. At 2000 feet even if I dump right out the door, my canopy tends to be so snively that I'm not certain I won't end up with two canopies out. I don't want to end up with two canopies out. Though they covered THAT pretty thoroughly in the AFF ground school and subsequent AFF written tests, so I know what to do in the various circumstances that can arise if that happens as well. It's interesting how the hang gliding experience affects my skydiving experience. I didn't get very far in my training -- just a few student tandems before I moved out of state, but I read the hang gliding book pretty thoroughly and remember a good bit of it. Since you're more likely to end up soaring in that sport, they drill it into you to always be on the lookout for your next landing area. It's a game I play on the plane. There are a couple of spots on the jump run where your choices are woods or road. I did spot a turnout on the road that looks like it's a couple hundred feet long. There's also one spot where there's what looks like a nice wide field... on top of a rather large-looking mountain. Hopefully we never have engine trouble there! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Heh heh, I was sitting at work getting increasingly sore as the day went on. I feel like someone punched me in the ribs, back and arms. But it's a good pain! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Heh well the video does redouble my resolve to continue to watch out for myself and those around me, so if no other good comes of it at least there's that. I hope this guy learns from his mistakes. I'd think long and hard about continuing in the sport after a series of errors of that magnitude. If he decides to stick with it, he damn well better turn off that camera and resolve to become a better skydiver or next time he might not be so lucky. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

I think that also goes away somewhat as time goes on. One of my instructors told me even he still gets jittery and has spikes of adrenaline at some points during the flight, but he settles down very quickly. Everyone's a bit different and we all have somewhat different things we worry about, but as you gain confidence it won't be anywhere near as bad and it won't slow you down in the slightest (Sounds like it's already not slowing you down, so you're halfway there already!) Like I told another student, if something REALLY feels wrong about the jump, don't do it. When you're starting out, every instinct you have is screaming at you not to do what you're about to do. But as you gain experience in the sport, your instincts play an important role in keeping you safe. Right now if I'm standing at the door and something feels wrong about the jump I'm about to do, I wouldn't feel any shame in riding the plane back down. Once I'm down, I can go over everything again and try to isolate what was bothering me. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

And boy are my arms tired! First 10 was with a friend of mine from Mile Hi, Livvy. He's starting to learn mantis and I was basically just screwing around. I wanted a chance to just have some fun and relax without objectives or someone telling me what to do. Livvy was OK with me keeping his parts in, so I did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fsf_pD4YjI Second half was with strangers and I always feel a bit weird about posting random strangers from the wind tunnel. So I'm going to edit on that one a bit and post it tomorrow (Since I'm coming up on 1:30 AM here and my arms are tired.) I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Watching experienced jumpers who have never jumped a balloon before, can be very entertaining during the initial ten seconds. I shot video of a guy doing a furious dog-paddle on one of my balloon jumps. Heh yeah. No relative wind, right? Now that I'm used to it, I'll probably do the same thing on my first balloon jump! I'm not at all upset at the idea.

Ugh, sounds like a tooth extraction I had from an Air Force dentist when I was about 12. I had a crotch-abscess a few years ago (2006 IIRC) and had to get a local right in my daddy bag. Thanks to the work of the dentist, it was only the second worst pain I'd ever experienced. I have a very firm idea of what a "10" on the pain scale is. That injection was about a "6". Anything else is about a "3". The doctor apologized during the procedure that it must have been very uncomfortable, and I told him truthfully that I'd had worse. I'd post a "Jumping after crotch abscess" thread, but NO ONE wants to read THAT story! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Yes! That is exactly my experience! I just came to a realization that nothing bad would happen if I fell from the plane! Under 2000 feet, I'd dump the reserve. Over that, I'd dump the main. And land you know, wherever. With prior hang gliding experience I'm always on the lookout for my next landing area. Once I realized that, I realized that climbing out and climbing around on the outside of the plane was no different than doing it on the ground. Maybe even easier, with the extra adrenaline. Oddly, some time thereafter I had a dream where for some reason I needed to jump from a platform to the rigging of a hot air balloon about 6 feet away. In my dream I was not wearing a parachute, but I made the jump confidently. I knew I could have made the jump on the ground and that the only difference the altitude made was in my head, and I had already defeated that fear. I don't think any other fear that would have paralyzed me before can stop me, anymore. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Kinda like this exit? Look at that silly monkey, kicking his legs like it's going to help somehow. Oh yeah, that's ME. That goes away, sooner or later. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Or you know, the FOUR guys looking at him! I check my shit repeatedly. Almost obsessively, really. Kinda like, I dunno, my life depends on it! I also look at chest straps, shoe laces and altimeters (in particular) on nearby skydivers. And for signs that anything else is out of place. At the very, very least, that guy across the plane going splat will ruin your day's fun . I assume if you're jumping with them, you're kind of friends. So FFS take some responsibility for their well being! We're all in this together! Can you imagine what would have happened if that guy hadn't activated his AAD? He'd have died is what! Slammed into the ground on his back panicking over his chest strap! At least someone had the presence of mind to turn that thing on! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

No but I had lasik a while back. They just scanned my eyeball with a couple of... scanners (NOT an eyedoctor!) and built a map of where it needed shaving using software. Mapping things with software I understand. They're probably not more prevalent due to patents. IP is expensive. Non-wavefront lasik there was $500. Wavefront custom laisk there was $2000. The difference was probably mostly software licensing for the software to map my eyeball. Presbyopia is a different beast and it sucks. Despite better than perfect vision in one eye and perfect vision in the other, I'm going to need reading glasses pretty soon now. I was hoping they'd be able to fix that by now *frowns at the optometrist profession as a whole*. Soon as I can get a HD glowing terminator eyeball, I am SO THERE. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Hmm. My father and both grandfathers were in the military. I probably would have gone into something myself, had I been a bit more physically fit in my youth (Ironically at 43 I'm in better shape than I was at 17.) My father's father never talked about his military service with any of us. My mother's father didn't really either, but I got more exposure to him. I saw what it did to him. After he died (Drinking, smoking and several pots of coffee a day did him in, I think,) I found out a bit more about it. One day he'd apparently wanted to go fishing, so his best friend flew in a plane on his behalf. The plane subsequently crashed and all aboard killed. He was also on a ship at Perl Harbor and had a shrapnel wound to attest to the fact. I'm sure he witnessed many horrors in his service. I'm honestly surprised he was able to function at all after that. For him to do what he did, he had to unleash a demon within himself, something he didn't want to gaze upon. He probably didn't want to be someone who killed people, and reconciling that with the loving, caring father of six children and a bunch of grandchildren may not have been something he could have done. I think what he was most afraid of was that the demon he'd been required to unleash might one day slip from his control and force him to harm someone he loved. Also ironically his drinking made that more likely to happen. You could see that rage start to slip out the more he drank. When I was younger, I also felt that rage, though I was never trained to kill. It manifested in unpredictable ways when I was younger. I felt a black demon in my heart, ready to rise up. I don't know if it was because of my exposure to the military and so many of their children who had become broken by the lifestyle, or if all men (or all people) feel it to some extent. Certainly every time I see someone speed down the road angrily, I can see an echo of it. And military training just fans those flames. You don't just put them out when you come back. You're not the same person after that. I wish I could show you a path after that, to find peace and keep yourself from turning that rage against yourself or others. I suspect it's different for each person, though. I can tell you with absolute certainty that drugs and alcohol are not the way, though. You must face that which you fear, not run from it. For all that I enjoy it, skydiving was as much about facing my fears as it was anything else. In the course of a year I've grown more as a human being than in the previous 42 combined. I've become stronger, more confident, less afraid -- of everything, more at peace and less irrationally angry. Whether you find solace in a physical sport, gardening, meditation or religion, I think you can find something that brings you to a place where that demon you were forced to unleash can no longer harm you, where you can master it. That quiet place beyond anger and hatred, I think that's what they failed to teach the grandfather I knew. Maybe they don't even know it's there. Don't think I think I'm a saint either. I'm far from perfect. I think genetically we're all similar and we all have far more in common than we think. Most of the time, I think I'm just a bit of a jackass who enjoys jumping out of airplanes for fun. I don't really think I stand out in a crowd of seven billion. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Heh heh, cool, whatever keeps you going I guess. I have a lead time of 5-7 weeks on my canopy and it's getting harder and harder to jump rental gear in the mean time. Even though the home DZ has some pretty nice rental gear, I'm just ready to be on my own. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Fooled me with that poker face, mr. stick your arm out the door as though you're driving down the highway... Yeah, probably not a good idea to play poker with me either, heh heh heh I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

My door fear largely vanished pretty early on. I think my subconscious realized that the gear would, in fact, save my life. My question to myself was "why am I so nervous here? What's the worst possible thing that could happen?" I realized that the worst possible thing I could imagine was falling out of the plane early somehow. That led directly to the realization that I was going to do that a few seconds later ANYWAY, and that I had a parachute on. That being said, they opened the door on the otter while I was sitting on the floor in front of it and I distinctly felt my knees creeping into the side of the guy sitting next to me. So something's still there. I can sit in the door now and (think I) have a pretty good poker face, but there's still a wee bit of discomfort still nagging at me there. Now I think it's "If I have to land from here, it's going to have to be in that field over there and that's 5 miles from the nearest road!" I definitely relax more as we get higher and better options open up. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Yeah, I always take notes, otherwise I might not remember something important! Ground school started at 7:30 AM, if I'd done any drinking the night before, I'd probably still have been drunk. Heh heh heh. I think I bumped into one other guy who was in my AFF class a few months later, and he seemed astounded at the number of jumps I'd done by then. So I might be "that guy." I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

I was digging through my notebook the other day and found my notes from AFF ground school, dated July 7, 2012. Funny, it feels like a lot longer. I kind of dragged my feet, but I have my rig waiting, reserve canopy should arrive next week and my main should arrive in a few more weeks. Although I seem to be doing a lot of jumps, I don't foresee wanting to downsize within the next couple years. I'm pretty comfortable with a 1.1:1 wing loading and have other objectives in mind other than swooping. I met a new-to-the-area skydiver at the home DZ the other day who was actually able to sink under me. I actually had to arch a bit more. That makes three or four guys I know there who can fall in the 140s. We should look into setting up a 4 way belly-base with sit fliers. I've already done a jump with a sit flier and we were able to match fall speeds perfectly. Just talking about that, it boggles my mind once again that it's been less than a year since I started. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Yeah, the sport does kind of force you to let go of all the irrelevant stuff and focus in on right here, right now. Don't be discouraged by setbacks -- you may have to repeat a level or two, but you learn something from every single jump. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Hmm. I had to surf a bit to find an ad. Once I did, they were for furry porn sites, ninja gear and industrial-sized barrels of lube. So I guess that would be a "yes". *edit* I'm a hard demographic to nail down. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

We fly a simple east-west jump run, so it's fairly simple. Usually they have trackers get out first (And about 80% of my jumps are tracking jumps, so...) although occasionally one of the big-way leaders banishes us to the back because he's had problems with trackers not tracking. It's no hair off my ass -- I hold a heading perpendicular to the jump run and open a couple thousand feet away from everyone else. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Awesome! I've always been surprised at how quickly the wind tunnel whips you into shape. I kind of wish I'd spent about 20 minutes in the one near here before starting out on AFF. It was kind of short notice, though, so I didn't have a lot of time to plan it out. I've taken several family members to the wind tunnel and they always end up flying reasonably well on their own by the end of 5 or 6 minutes. I still go down there pretty regularly and am just about due for another trip. It sounds like you're well on your way! Good luck! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Ya'all have permission to wear a jumpsuit to mine. If I ever actually get around to arranging it, I'll arrange for beer. If anyone complains, just tell them that even after he got me, I'm still laughing at Death. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Nah, I don't think any of those guys' houses are in a direct line on either side of the runway. I don't think it'd disrupt air traffic at all! SVCO looks to only be about three stories high, and the planes are well past that by the time they cross the street! SVCO's always booked solid for at least a week and sometimes two whenever I try to book some time down there, I don't think two in the area would even seriously impact each other's business! Totally wishful thinking on my part, but would still be pretty nice to have both right here (Sorry, all you guys who have a several hour journey to the nearest one.) I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Yah I hear it's like that scene from "Total Recall." I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

I was just telling the ladies up front the other day Frank should buy out one of the neighbors who's always complaining about us and set up a vertical wind tunnel there. If someone put a wind tunnel in Longmont, I'd never have to leave the city. If they managed to eliminate a landing hazard in the process, that'd be a heaping helping of awesome sauce. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?