JohnMitchell

One of the things we do to raise money for medical research into lupus is have people to collect donations to send them on a tandem skydive, similar to a walk-a-thon, etc. One woman who suffers from lupus has now jumped with me 3 years in a row, helping us raise many thousands of dollars. This had been a particularly rough year for her, in and out of the hospital, enduring repeated rounds of drug infusions to keep her lupus under control. Last year she was feeling poor but still made the jump. This year, even with all she'd been thru, she felt pretty darn good and enjoyed her jump more than ever. I'm already looking forward to taking her again next year. Please wish her good luck in her long battle against lupus.

Hi Folks, Thanks for waiting patiently. We had a great event, lots of fun, enough sun and good times had by all. Sorry if you didn't win this year, but thank you for helping out with a great cause. John and Valinda Mitchell Velocity Sports Equipment – 50% off Infinity container Chalene Plante, FL Sunrise Manufacturing – 50% off Wings Container, 2 chances to win Debbie Beckhorn and Markus Mueller Aerodyne - $1500 off complete Aerodyne rig Dave Kaiser United Parachute Technology – 30% off Vector 3 Container, 15% off options Andy and Jill Mead Mirage – 30% off Mirage Container Ben McClendon Parachute Labs Inc. – 30% off Racer Container, 2K3 or Classic Scott “Lucky” Owens Parachute Labs Inc. – 20% off Firebolt Canopy, Custom or Stock Lynne Beckhorn Parachute Labs Inc. – 20% off AngelFire Reserve, any size Edirae Thatcher Vigil - 30% off Vigil AAD Brittany Crowley Larsen & Brusgaard – Optima Advanced Audible Altimeter Kathleen Smallwood Larsen & Brusgaard – Solo II Advanced Audible Altimeter Luc Robechaud Bonehead Composites - Coupon for a Pimp Daddy Open Face Helmet Sanet “Sonic” DeLucia Cookie Composites – 50% off Fuel Helmet and camera mounts W. McClure, Hawaii Body Sport U.S.A. – 50% off Freefly pants Jeff Smith Body Sport U.S.A. – 50% off Competition Suit Jenny Clayton iFlySeattle – 15 minutes of Tunnel Time x 3 Dave Crews, David P. of Spokane, Anna Kruse Flite Suit –20% off Flite Suit x 4 Greg Powell, John Kimmel, David Crews, Shirley Bowman Tony Suit - 15% a Custom Tony Suit Todd Faulkinberry Sunpath – Custom Mini-rig Back Pack x 2 Tan Chi Hao, D’Arcy Kaaua iFlySFBAy – 5 Minutes Tunnel Time Gus Donc Skyventure Colorado – First Time Flyer Coupon Markus Mueller Blue Skies Magazine – One year subscription Mickey Thomas Tsunami Skydiving, San Diego – 4 chances to win Jump Tickets Monika B., Gus Donc, “Doc” Stroup, David P. of Spokane Aerosports USA – Custom NoStoBag John Olsen Chuting Star – Helmet Bag and Logbook Charles Wesley Benchmade compliments of John Olsen, Model 5 Metal Hookknife x 2 John Richards, Sheleigh Harding

Sounds like Seattle. We had some clouds this weekend, but enough blue sky for a great Leap for Lupus Boogie. Thanks for taking the rain off our hands.

Nope, I'm watching ya.

We had a great day at the DZ, setting up for the boogie and making 4 jumps. Kelly Farrington, with his wife Genivieve and son Kyle flew in from Oregon with the 50% off an Infinity rig coupon. Les Stachyra of Aerodyne was there with a great selection of demo gear. I jumped the Pilot 150, enjoyed it very much.

Gotta love a sunset load. I had one a lot like that when I had about 15 jumps. I still think of it as the one where I finally really felt at home in the air.

***Hi Everyone, Just in from Betty Bowne at Parachute Labs Inc., 3 Coupons! 30% off a custom Racer Container, 2K3 or Classic, 20% off a Firebolt 9 cell elliptical Canopy, custom or stock and 20% off an AngelFire Reserve, any one of the 13 sizes made.

More wind usually means easier landings, unless you drift off the wind line. Did you end up going somewhat sideways when you landed? If or when you flare too early, as soon as you realize it, STOP your flare, and wait until you get a little lower to resume the flare. Remember, the 2 stage flare is a learning tool or crutch to help you learn to do a proper, gauged, controlled flare. Think of a captain landing an airliner. He doesn't just yank back on the yoke. He flares just enough to hold the plane ju-u-u-st off the runway until it runs out of airspeed to fly.

Yep, his videoed test jumps showed it unlikely to work.

I've seen your videos of that. Nice work.

Any practice is good, but it's the visuals of the ground coming up that are important in learning good landings. It's like doing RW with the Earth. If you do a lot of practice flaring up high, make sure you're flaring evenly and not turning. And maybe try visualizing the ground approaching, then leveling off at various points in your flare. See my previous post for what sight picture I mean. Maybe try varying the rates of flare, etc. I'm kind of making this part up as I go along, though. Any canopy coaches have any input?

This exactly.

Yep, I think you're on to something there. Gotta be a bigger disaster than the last disaster.

Nice interview with the man. In my opinion he's been the biggest innovator in our sport the last 40 years, with others following in his wake. Two things I remember . . . Having someone try to explain the 3 ring release when it was brand new. No one at our DZ had seen one. And all the other ideas tried for canopy releases, such as the chrysalis (which Vskydiver had on one of her rigs), the teflon coated "frap wrap" (can't remember the real name, but it wasn't as good as the 3 rings) and some system with rectangular "rings". My first Booth rig was a Wonderhog with the R-2 "tapewells", capewells with velcro tabs instead of hard metal covers. Worked great one day when I had a streamer, but I'm much happier with the gear I have today. For all the old timers who survived the gear changes of the late 70's and early 80's . . . Hey, we sure weeded out a lot of bad designs, didn't we?

They might NOT want to be associated with a old B727 being parted out on the ramp. About as attractive as a Trans Am up on cinder blocks in the front yard. Funny, but as last Christmas approached and the package deliveries reached a feverish peak, I saw at least one old FedEx B727 flying thru my radar sector. That time of year they'll roll out just about anything that will fly and carry a bunch of packages.

You sure can. Each tandem even counts towards your A license. Tell your TM you're planning to learn to skydive. I show my passengers how to check canopy, how to fly the canopy and the basics of canopy control on their tandems.

I don't mind CGI when it supports a good story. I'm just tired of the world ending in the CGI collapse of New York, with cliff hanger escapes for the main characters. In much the way post-war Tokyo was ravaged again and again by various cheesy movie monsters in a catharsis of the WWII destruction of their cities, I feel American movie makers insist on recreating the destruction of Sept. 11th. I am just tired of all the falling skyscrapers. . . .

Beer concentrate? That's called whiskey.

You should be here for the event. We have tons of local prizes, like gas grills, lounge chairs, massages, restaurant gift cards. Larsen & Brusgaard donated an Optima Advanced Audible Altimeter and a Solo II Advanced Audible Altimeter, beautiful little units, still fresh in the packages. I'll ship those anywhere someone wins it. Got a cool helmet bag/log book combo from Chuting Star, another prize that I'd love to have.

Yep, Lupus patients are 90% female, with the disease usually starting in their teens or twenties. I'm pretty sure it starts in the teens, but it is usually a slow onset with vague symptoms and often takes YEARS (and a good doctor) to diagnose. I hope your friends are doing okay.

It's "HAVE any of you heard". Sorry, just had to grammar nazi a moment.

You should stay off those forums and get yourself up in the air.

Couldn't be there in person so I had a cold IPA on the couch with Vskydiver. Congratulations, Mark, you have the centerfold AND Andrea. Life's pretty damn good right now, eh?

My wife and youngest daughter are familiar with the book(s) and look forward to the movie. I, for one, am CGI'ed to death, and would just like a plain old movie about people and funny stuff. BTW, watched "42" tonight. Great movie, nicely done period piece. It didn't spend long in the theaters, which I think was a shame. Nice dramatization of an important piece of American history.