Frodo

It really is a great book. If you've been to a Barnes&Noble bookstore, you know how hard it is to find anything on skydiving. But I was lucky - somewhere between the hundreds of books on football, golf (phew...) and bodybuilding there was the only skydiving book - the Handbook. I read it after reading the SIM, but before I started jumping. When you're totally new to all the stuff, the language of the Handbook is a good change from the super-dry language of the SIM. But once you get the feeling of the material, do a few jumps, you pretty much won't need more words than there are in the SIM, so you'll stick to it for a while. At least it seems to be the case with me.

iThink the airplane pilot was far from pushing it to the limit, so it wasn't actually a race... just something to show the mostly-whuffo public. They shoulda shown that recent canopy-wingsuit docking, that was way cool.

A new rig? Justin I'm with ya on that one.

By the way - who needs to turn off their CYPRESses if riding a plane down? Those with STUDENT CYPRES? or everybody? My first (uninformed) answer would be YES, everyone should turn off, because nobody wants the reserve PC out of the container in the plane... But I believe the answer might change if we take into account a possible airplane emergency. What are Airtec/s recommendations on this issue?

Nice How bout this kind of site? Effects & coolness is what the whole project is about! (might take some time to load if you're on a slow connection)

Someone plz explain what's so exciting about that first picture

That's fine, since nobody's willing to answer the question itself, anyway

Cool tee My favorite (apart from the "120mph" one) reads: "You laugh because I'm different, I laugh because you're all the same". Of course it's not addressed to everyone, but rather to some of the whuffos that I know - the hopeless ones, or "the golf players". And as far as I know this quote is kinda cliche now, besides, it starts some angry arguments (at least on the web). I'm not really sure if there's any point in wearing it... Here's a funny one (attached), wish I had it.

Don't you by chance happen to live in Austin? Our friends had that problem several times... someone TP'd their trees & car, graffitoed (sp???) walls etc. No shit. Guess I'll just refer this thread to the cops j/k

Andy's thread about the in-flight student behavior and actions of instructors made me think of this hypothetical situation: Imagine that you're a student on one of your very first jumps. You're hanging outside of an airplane and give a ready-set-go count... but get freaked out and somehow stay on the plane, while the JM or JMs somehow lose hold of you and separate from the airplane. (Please leave aside the fact that it's very improbable.) So there you are, hanging outside, alone, maybe terrified and maybe just thrilled, because in addition to the rush of the skydive itself, you're facing a choice: > jump and pull immediately, or try to stabilize and deploy in 5-10 seconds > jump and (try to) go through your first solo dive as if everything was normal > try to climb back into the airplane > land with the airplane, still hanging outside (yikes!!) > any other choices? One more variable to throw into the whole thing, is that if the pilot doesn't notice you're still there, he might start doing his usual crazy stuff with the airplane and you'll probably be forced off the wing into the air, possibly hitting the tail if you're really unlucky. Again, forget the fact that JM(s) will do everything to avoid losing contact with the student during the exit - just imagine it happened. What would you do?

A general question: is anything other than national flags is flown? What's the range/variety of flags & banners used for shows? You can't have american flags EVERYWHERE, right?...

My first 2 jumps were out of a 207 and the next two - 182, which of course is considerably smaller. I liked the 207 exits much more b/c of the feeling - there's nothing above&under you, while in 182 you're standing on the step, under the wing, and it's just less excitement... well, with door exits it doesn't make that much difference I guess.

Cool, I wish my list was that long

These may be russian pilots too, then.

Now I feel kinda uncomfortable talking about martial arts and here's why: at the age of ~12 (???) I started studying karate... but quit after lesson 2. It seemed too damn hard to me, though it really wasn't. I'm very ashamed of the fact that I'd quit then. After coming to America, which was last July, I found out that several martial arts schools are very close to home. I read several sources and decided that taekwondo is what I need. Karate seemed very old and, what, full of traditions? yeah, something like that. Taekwondo is a relatively new martial art, and as far as I understand it's like condensed karate, with not much left except for the effective, "performance" part. I may be wrong but this seemed the case. Well, I was really-really enjoying it, I felt that this amount of movement, effort and sweat a couple of times a week is exactly what I need. I reached the yellow belt, which wasn't a long way to go. It took like 7-8 weeks... But then I quit again! This time, though, I had a better cause. First, they wanted a shitload of money for the protective equipment ($190 for that stuff seems far from reasonable). But most importantly, I wanted to start skydiving. This was just one of those points in life when you have to clearly define priorities. To me, skydiving was more important. So I started spending all my money in that direction. Side effects: I had to quit TKD, I can't fix my bike, can't go on a lond trip anywhere, can't buy pretty much anything... But I'm ready to pay this price, for that woderful 20-minute ride in the airplane and a minute of freedom.

Some bad luck Chris

Sad news... I'd never met Roger but read about him quite often. You always have that feeling, that great people, like Roger was, cannot and should not pass away, because they are symbols, idols, sources of inspiration... and when they do pass away, it's a shock to everyone. To all people Roger had been an insiration to - please listen to Inspiration by Gipsy Kings, it's a really inspiring guitar play and I think it will be appropriate here. (can't find a link, but you can use Kazaa) Blue skies. Just blue skies.

The ultimate place is Venezuela - Angel Falls. What could possibly be more beautiful than this? (© duffyfainer.com)

And I was thinking, who's gonna be $#%@ enough to start a discussion about this contest... Not the smartest thing to do, I must tell ya

Where/when was it on? (or is it on the web?)

I've also been to only one dz, but even if I'd been to others, I don't think my vote would be different. Cindy at ASC gets my vote! She's always so friendly, welcoming, and involved in what's going on... and she gives me a ride after my landings far away from the windsock

Yep, I use letssingit.com most of the time. Crappy part is, a lot of ads pop up when you go there, they're really annoying but if you use Opera you might go around that. You can also use lyricsxp.com or azlyrics.com, but most importantly - use Google: enter the name of the song in quotes (may add artist name too, after the quotation marks) and then the word lyrics, for example "dream on" aerosmith lyrics. Usually what you want will be within the first 3-5 search results.

I'm also one of the youngsters, I'm turning 18 in just a couple o'days - will celebrate it with my 4th jump I don't like beer though. (I like wine though )

I've crazy, "magnetic" love for that minute when you climb out into the wind and then separate from the airplane Da, vozmojno... no poka proverat ne prixodilos

Just a silly kid... Strange how some people grow up so slowly I guarantee you she's never gonna skydive (yeah maybe a tandem), she's more likely to make a report on skydiving, asking all those same whuffo questions. Anyone contacted her about this thread?