JohnMitchell

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Everything posted by JohnMitchell

  1. JohnMitchell
    Interesting. Of course, you and I had thousands of jumps before we ever got a suit with booties. First jump in them? A few seconds out the door I thought "Well these are nice" and that was my adjustment period. I especially love them for tracking. Our son was a tunnel rat so he had no booties up til now, but he's now doing a lot of FS at his new DZ, so Mom's making a custom bootie suit for him.
  2. JohnMitchell
    That's a great policy. I know the management at our local wind tunnel is hoping to work closer with the local DZs in the future.
  3. JohnMitchell
    Ahhh, you'll be glad you did. Nothing like having your own gear.
  4. JohnMitchell
    I agree with you that the wind tunnel is the best training tool our sport has ever seen, but until my DZ requires tunnel time prior to AFF, I'll be taken plenty of "never flown their bodies before" folks out the door on their Level I. Does your DZ now require it?
  5. JohnMitchell
    Nice trip, beautiful country, but those temps are hell on the ski resorts. Was Vail open for skiing yet?
  6. JohnMitchell
    Super cool. I was just back in Boston. Went by Paul Revere's house, visited Samuel Adam's brewery . . . again. So much great history in that town. I never get tired of the Freedom Trail and it's amazing place in our history. I'm so glad some of our founding fathers thought to put that there.
  7. JohnMitchell
    You guys back home is Spokane now or back home in Florida now?
  8. JohnMitchell
    I remember gear being stolen all the way back into the late 70's. Of course, it may be more prevalent now. Most gear I've known of stolen, though, was from cars parked in city and suburban driveways overnight. We never leave gear in the car overnight.
  9. JohnMitchell
    Yeah, but who'd want that old crap? Seriously, there's always been a little bit of gear theft over the years. I don't feel it's gotten better or worse, but I can't really support that with facts. How do you feel?
  10. JohnMitchell
    No kidding. We're pretty damn lucky.
  11. JohnMitchell
  12. JohnMitchell
    As many of you know, my wife, Vskydiver, and I run a non-profit organization, Leap for Lupus. Lupus, an autoimmune disease that strikes mostly women in their teens and twenties, can be severely debilitating and too often fatal. Valinda (Vskydiver) almost lost her life to it a few years ago. Today we did our annual presentation to the University of Washington Medical Research Center, $25,000 this year, to help them in their research towards treatments for this disease. Today they briefed us on a promising new drug they are developing, RSLV132, now entering 2nd phase human trials. We wish them continued success. So many of you here ( and gear manufacturers and many others in our sport) have been a huge support for many years in our fund raising efforts. A huge "Thanks" again to all of them and all of you. We literally couldn't do it with out you. John Mitchell In the picture are, from L to R, me, Valinda, Dr. Keith Elkon, and John Kowalewski, a long time jumper and tireless supporter.
  13. JohnMitchell
    Damn. You know, I've been around enough spinning propellers to have a lot of respect for them. I like to keep my distance from those drones too.
  14. JohnMitchell
    Of course you remember TV and antennas and great shows with real stars in them. Now it's all infomercials and reality TV.
  15. JohnMitchell
  16. JohnMitchell
    One of our streamers went tango-uniform. No problem, the DVD player works as a streamer. Now some televisions have those same capabilities. Just like you, I'm seeing a lot of overlap in technology. Meanwhile, DirectTV offers me 900 channels, of which 890 are all crap.
  17. JohnMitchell
    Right on, Andre!
  18. JohnMitchell
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsBB4i4k2PM&t=1m47s Yeah, maybe.
  19. JohnMitchell
    Chimin' in here. The fly is useless. Plenty of elastic in the ole waistband for whippin' it out. And much faster too.
  20. JohnMitchell
    That would be fun, kinda like bowling, only with recoil.
  21. JohnMitchell
    Nice indoor range you got there. Nice Ruger pistol too. How'd you do shooting it?
  22. JohnMitchell
    Ours went from $23 to $25 about a year and a half ago. Don't think they'll ever come back down, but $25 for a Super Otter that sits up here in the PNW rain, just waiting for a sunny day? That's not too bad.
  23. JohnMitchell
    Thanks for expressing my plan, too, so eloquently.
  24. JohnMitchell
    1. Last 4 days have been cold and clear. Did some light hiking, etc. But when it rains it does tend to be the gray, light drizzle that can last for days. 2. Housing is a little pricey, from what I've seen and heard. Gas is a touch high, and there are no self-serve stations in OR. Smart shopping can help with food. No sales tax on anything but there is state income tax. 3. Portland has a great light rail and downtown trolley system that I envy for Seattle. We sometimes visit by catching Amtrak down and going carless the whole visit. 4.Quite a few colleges, many brewpubs, soon to have a wind tunnel. It's a very livable town, depending on how you like hipsters.
  25. JohnMitchell
    Yep, we love having Jay up and the Canadians come down. Fun bunch, all of 'em.