jumpdoc

I agree, you must love the nurses...most of them tend to know more than the average intern or second year resident anyway...speaking from experience (I'm the Ob/Gyn chief resident), when the nurses love you, life's a breeze...more sleep on call equals more skydives postcall.

Remember, the airport is called TRENT LOTT International Airport...I'm sure Senator Lott (former speaker of the house) is well aware of what's happening out there...from what I can tell, its pretty much his private airport...built on what is rumored to have formerly been protected wetlands...word has it that the airport board isn't playing fair, but that's hearsay. Mike has fought and won before and I hope he can do it again!

I started jumping my third year...and jumped pretty much every weekend. Also racked up about 300 jumps during my internship working over a hundred hours a week and jumping every weekend. Since then I've slacked off, but that's because I had a baby...I say go for it! You may not be able to jump as much as you would like, but it is the BEST stress relief ever. Then again, I got paid to go to medical school so it wasn't such a financial stress. Good luck! (and I am completing a 4 year residency this year)

I was (am) 28 and my son is 6 months old...I STILL feel too young (and don't jump much these days), but know all about fertility after the age of 30, and didn't want to wait until I was "ready". Glad I did it, too...nothing beats this parenting stuff.

San Antonio, TX to Henderson, NY...almost 2000 miles, 30 hours straight through and all alone. A few stints from Washington, DC to San Antonio (1500 miles) straight through and all alone.

Trying to figure out if you're serious about your car. You've replaced the brakes three times ? That car is only 4 years old! Before I got my Accord, I had a civic...made MANY,MANY trips from NY to Texas in that thing...had it for 7 years, replaced the brake pads ONCE, bought a new battery when the first one wore out at 100,000 miles, and still got $4,800 on trade in...after hitting one or two things. The beautiful thing about that car was if the dealer wasn't willing to deal, I could have driven it off the lot and put another couple of hundred thousand miles on it...still looked good, too! I'm sure Honda's are more expensive than Kia's, but even if you can't afford a new one, look into used!

Clayton, are you sure Mel is on here more than you are? Hmm...toss-up. Miami...does that mean you are staying with us...maybe you can babysit while I jump, no?

That's not fair...you already have the FRO!!! (probably the other stuff, too.)

I agree with the Mr Dress-up thing...you forgot Strange Brew

Sammy...You Work??? I thought you spent all day surfing the net and AVOIDING work :)

We are switching to Verizon when our Cingular contract runs out in April...I've ben through most cell phone carriers in the past few years...there was a civil suit brought against Sprint in the DC area about five years ago and I was promised a new phone...which didn't work and I had to pay to replace. Now we are with Cingular and they just sold my husband a $200 phone with a promise of cash back rebate (we sent in the rebate form and they sent us a nice letter telling us we didn't qualify), and then told us that his phone...hell, neither of our phones will work with the NEW system they are implementing next year and that we will have to BUY new phones for full price...Did I mention that my husband has had his new phone for 2 1/2 months? I AM SO SICK OF cell phone companies and their contracts and lack of customer service that I just want to throw my cell phone out the window. Of course, my husband travels 8 months a year and uses his phone all the time...just seems that if I am paying $200/month for service, I should get some service...hey, this venting stuff is GOOD!

Not too many people ask, but I always think its funny when 15 or 20 skydivers are out together and ALL wearing a necklace...(people stare). It IS a cult symbol!

Five Tandems??? WOW! Learning to jump by yourself can be intimidating since you are 100% responsible for whatever happens in the air, it costs some money, and you get addicted. Tandems are fun, someone else does the work and you enjoy the view and ride. If you decide to learn, once you are an "up jumper," you will have NO DESIRE TO EVER DO A TANDEM AGAIN...at least I don't. Good luck in whatever you decide, but don't force yourself if you're not ready.

You need to contact Gold Coast Skydivers in Moss Point, Mississippi. They have an AFF rig for "Big Boys." I don't know what the weight limit is, but I know that people have come from VERY far away to learn to jump at Gold Coast because they have the equipment. The staff there could give you an idea, and there are a lot of jumpers from the Baton Rouge area who are regular fun jumpers.

Different places do things differently. After my level 7, I did a lot of solos...no JM's involved. Other places require some jumps with JM's or coaches before releasing you to jump alone. Regardless of what your DZ does, you are in for a great time! The first few dozen jumps off student status are amazing! There's still some healthy fear, and the learning curve is amazing...you'll learn something new every jump! If you want to practice tracking...practice! See if you can get a coach or another jumper to go up with you...you'll know when you've got it. As for the gear and stuff, that will come with time. Ask around about what people have/like. Lots of DZ's have used gear for sale, or you can see if you can get a demo canopy or use rental gear. You'll know what you want as far as gear goes soon enough. If you want to get in the air badly enough, people will help you get there. Why stress??? Just get out there and enjoy yourself.

From what I know about vertigo (and all I know is what I learned in medical school) is that it is not a viral infection, but...well, to put it mildly, you have rocks in your head that help your sense of balance. When one of these rocks gets dislodged, it can get stuck in one of your semi-circular canals (the balance mechanism), and causes your sense of balance to be off (ie: the room spins). Sometimes we treat this with a drug called meclizine which helps a lot of people, other times we treat it by rotating the head in a specific series of motions (that doesn't work so well). More specificially, some doctors treat it that way (I don't treat it, I'm a gynecologist). Regardless, I would assume that if you have been symptom free for a number of weeks, it should be relatively safe to get back into a plane as altitude shouldn't affect your symptoms. Meniere's disease can also cause vertigo, but the way that works is different and I am not familiar enough with that entity to even begin to discuss it. I am not an expert, so you should probably find a flight doc who can give you sound advice, but as a physician and skydiver, I would be comfortable getting in the plane a few weeks after the symptoms resolved (my opinion, not medical advice)

Hey...head out to Salado...Skydive Temple and Rich Worall...it is one big, dysfunctional Army family...the people there are great! If you get involved with jumping, you'll wonder what you ever did before skydiving was a part of your life (there are also a number of large DZ's within a few hours of Killeen. Blue Skies

Definitely a super otter...man, I love those things!! But, there is something to be said for the good old C-182

As a matter of fact, one of our jumpers owns a number of HALO rigs and did a 32000 foot (I believe) HALO jump at Mike Mullins place this past summer. I believe there were 7 POPS on that jump...they were all civilian.

For the time being, Gold Coast is my home DZ, and I am always trying to get friends from far away to come and check it out. On most weekends, those of us who do RW can fit in a number of quality 8-12 ways...the funny thing is that you can look around the otter and expect to find that about half of the jumpers are females. I have never been to a DZ where this is the case. Of course, we have an excellent gear dealer on thee premises as well...