JohnMitchell

I just finally noticed the leg straps aren't done up. Talk about a distracted jumpmaster.

And did you do just fine and everyone lived? Are you Ozzies restrictive on canopy progression? Seriously, that's the real killer, IMO.

Wow, what's the plan for them now? Quitting jumping or is Jim going to work at someone else's school?

Unfortunately many police do feel it's their job to punish. Be wary of people in whom the urge to punish is strong. (Esp. Banesaura ) Funny thing, but I was talking the other day at work about an air traffic control situation in which pilots can innocently violate fed. regs by accident. I said we should bring it to their attention and offer alternative courses of action. I was surprised at the number of coworkers who said "Our job isn't to be skycops!" They didn't understand that I had no intent to violate and punish any pilot, but to merely keep them out of unsafe situations. Our job IS to "serve and protect." Sheesh, typical government workers.

Well sir, you may pick the low hanging fruit of our country's much easier award.

Holy tolerance, Batman. That would be fatal for most people.

Is Jim closing his school?

Who ya chasin`? Or who's chasing you?

Fall is nice but I prefer spring. Fall is my nostalgic time. When I was young it was back to school, new adventures, new challenges, catching up with old friends. Even now it's a time to reflect on Summer's fun and anticipate the holidays that approach. But it's hard to compete with Spring's riot of color, light and warmth after a long, cold winter. In our neck of the woods several daffodil farms put on a hell of a display each spring. And a short drive North of Seattle will take you to field after field of tulip farms.

Thai beaches are hard to beat.

I made 4 wing suit jumps today, the last one from 15K with Andy Farrington flying video with me. Not too bad for Seattle in late November. So, how did your day go today?

Yes, very itty bitty . . .

In the early 80's the boss's desk always had a couple of copies of Penthouse and Playboy for reading on the graveyard shifts. As we got more PC, those went away but I'd keep a couple of copies of Playboy in my locker for the mid shift guys. Even that got to be sketchy, worried about someone complaining so now it's just People magazine.

Ah, I bet you're right. Storage wars, right?

Father Time. . .

Nice, uh, rig.

Bizarre thing to put on Ebay. The strobe light thing might be cool, but someone else's logbook? I guess I could buy it just to get the Falcon award finally.

Tango Uniform is phonetic alphabet for T.U., which is the acronym for "tits up", which is how dead goldfish float in a bowl. When a machine, a person or an animal dies, some use the phrase "went tits up" to describe the status. Pretty round about, eh?

Well I'll be darned. He made it to 81, so that's not too bad.

We had a beautiful but cloudy Thanksgiving. I got in a nice hike along the river while the turkey was cooking, great views of Mt. Rainier with new snow. Today is low fog here and the DZ with a promise to burn off and let me jump later. Pretty happy about that.

I say not only is it okay, but I teach people to do just that. If you want to get a bullseye on the dart board, it's a lot easier if you stand much closer. If you want to land in the middle of the pea gravel, it's a lot easier if you turn on final lower and closer. With that said, remember that all turns down low are done gently and smoothly. I see so many novices that land off to the side of the target when a 10 degree adjustment to their final approach path would have put them right on the target. But when asked, they told me they were afraid to "make a low turn." We need to teach them that BIG turns are dangerous down low, but not smooth course corrections. There are also methods of adjusting the timing and shape of your turn from base to final. This is one of the best places to fine tune your pattern to land on target. Finally, the sight picture of the correct angle to the target on final (which, of course, varies with wind speed) needs to be visualized and learned. Being able to recognize when it's time to turn final is about half the game, IMO. Edited to add: The "time to recover" question needs to be addressed. The closer you get to the ground, the gentler the turns you make. You can safely be making a gentle turn (toggle not past your ear) and flare from that point, As long as your canopy is above your head and your toggles come down together for the flare, you should have a good landing. When jumping in windy, gusty conditions, you'll be steering your canopy left and right all the way down, then just flaring whenever the time is right. You certainly wouldn't want to say "Well, it's 100 feet, I'll quit steering now."

Yeah, you and I have spent a lot of time riding around between a hot set of jugs, haven't we? I'm not real sure you caught that, John. Shirley, you don't think I choose my words precisely? I meant every word of it.

Nice work.

Yeah, you and I have spent a lot of time riding around between a hot set of jugs, haven't we? I love the smell and the rumble, but I'd rather get to 13K in 13 minutes.

Yeah, my reply was a little unclear. I meant to say that "Yes, for 3 times the cost the DC-3 carries only almost twice the twin otter load. Over 50% higher cost per jumper. I didn't even consider that aspect of it, the increased flexibility of basing. BTW, those smoke jumpers have my utmost respect and admiration. Those guys are tougher and in better shape than I've ever been on the best day of my life.