JohnMitchell

Please don't be Texas. I used to be one of those Texans taking ski trips to Colorado. I know we have a bad enough reputation already.

I love it when you give us good lawyer news! BTW, fines schmimes! It's the raised insurance rates that'll get you.

Made 4 jumps today sharing the DZ with this big boy. Last jump I landed over where they were moored for the rest of the day and chatted a bit. Beautiful machine.

I've talked my way out of maybe 50% of my tickets or more, including "reckless driving" (I think he was stretching that one a bit). Polite, sober, and good paperwork go a long way.

Even if he gets off that easily, it's still a pain in the @$$ to have to do all that. Well worth it, our tax dollars at work, if it makes him think twice about pulling that kind of crap in the future.

Wow, heck of a gal. Sounds like she lived her life on her terms. And nice curves, too.

Sinus trouble with a head cold from the week before. Only made one jump Saturday, then helped with the FJC and ground controlling. Sorry we missed you, Mark.

Ahhh, I can't help but smile about that. He's gonna get a good lesson he's been needing for a long time. Great work, Robert.

I still wonder how this happened.

A wise man once said "You become expert at finding what you're always searching for." Man, that's hard to believe someone would actually call for the removal of that picture due to their dirty mind.

There isn't anything much more fun than being at the beach with your little kids. I sure miss those days.

You ain't kiddin' there. How'd you meet her?

I've been using that method for a while too, and like it. My first piggyback rig was a Wonderhog with belly band. Because the curved pin hadn't been invented yet, we closed the main container by pushing the bridle itself thru the elastic bungee closing loop. The packing manual showed to run the bridle up from the bottom and back down again, same as the new alternate method. What's old becomes new again.

Cool pic of the flag jump. I've never done one of those. The rainbow canopy reminded me of an old Unit main canopy we had in the rainbow color pattern. And you've been jumping long enough to remember when rainbow was one of the most popular color schemes in the sport. One of my kids was looking at an old jump picture of me under my rainbow colored canopy and said "Hey Dad, what's with the rainbow? Something you're not telling us?" I guess the rainbow means something different to the younger generation.

Those are very good instructors.

Only 3? Heck, I have them fly the canopy from 4000' down to 1000' on the first tandem. I also teach them how to check canopy, check the windsock, and how to navigate. If someone wants to learn to skydive, 7 tandems is too many. Right now there are a lot of things you don't know that are worrying you. Take the AFF class and it will all be taught to you.

You could say that to me. . . I wouldn't mind. That's usually the best. Sometimes with students I'll say "Don't forget to pull your thing!"

What a F&^%ing jackass! I really hope you turn that in. I'm really considering using a dashboard camera myself, the way idiots do stupid stuff all day long. Not too long ago, one of my daughters had her car totaled and minor injuries when a teenage driver turned left in front of her. My daughter, of course, had a green light to go straight ahead and the teenage girl had a flashing yellow arrow. But the girl's mom showed up and coached her to lie and say she had a green arrow. To the cop that came, there was enough doubt he didn't issue a ticket. Our daughter's insurance paid what the car was "worth", not what was owed, and didn't compensate our daughter for injuries, medical bills and time lost from work. Dash cam = the one eye that don't lie.

Happy SBD to ya. Mine's this September, but I honestly don't remember the exact date.

The whole thing, with the "sexy" strip tease at the beginning and the screaming like a little girl at the end. . . Yeah, what did he think was going to happen? Moron. . .

Please double check this with YOUR instructors, but when you exit a Cessna step, you want to step to the right, using your left leg to push yourself sideways, and then arch. It sounds more like you pushed off the step backwards, using your arms. Feel free to tell them some stranger on the internet told you this, and maybe get some more exit training. Good luck.

I think that's a pretty good syllabus you made there. S-turns should never be used in traffic. But if you're landing out and it's the only way to make it to a safe landing area, sure. So it's a survival skill that should be taught. Deep brakes to shorten your flight path don't work on today's wonderful, flat flying ZP canopies the way they did on the old F-111 7-cells. Since our canopies glide so well, it's even more important to fly a decent pattern that enables us to land where we want, safely. I see people coming back from long spots, straight in, that use S-turns to lose altitude. Why not fly upwind until you can join the pattern, at some point, at the proper altitude? Much safer. When making my turn to base and final, I vary between using toggles and using front risers to turn, the latter using more altitude, of course. That's one way I think is safe to use up extra altitude. It also allows me to do my "old man" swoop on my Stiletto 150. It's not that impressive, but I'm able to walk in every time.

Yep, I couldn't agree more. And that video showcases the very reason I don't take my GoPro on AFF jumps. But a small, SNAGPROOF camera. Game on. Inside video isn't perfect, but it's still nice to have and a good instructional tool. I wouldn't mind that at all. BTW, small thing, someone mentioned the main side AFF I not watching their altimeter. Depending on the student's body position and how well they are flying, I often can read theirs very easily. I'm sure mos

I like Monkey's "sofa" suggestion. It reinforces position and also the necessity to keep "legs out" pressure against the upward flow of air. Is "the hill" you're talking about the relative wind? That's the result of the ballistic trajectory we all follow when we jump from a moving plane. "Straight down" is actually somewhere out in front, towards the forward horizon, for the first few seconds. There's no speeding up the process. Issac Newton is in charge. It's very common for new jumpers to get happy feet, kick, drop knees, etc. when they exit. It's our ground bound minds looking for footing as we leave the plane. Practice, concentrate, concentrate, practice. You'll get it.

Hey, Jwest! I liked your post.