JohnMitchell

It doesn't get much better than that.

Back at Cedar Valley, UT, it was so dusty you were surprised when there wasn't a cloud of dust on opening. Going to boogies you see us, first jump, leaving nice little dust clouds over the new DZ.

At our DZ we teach "grab both handles" to our students. Seems to work well. Most hard pulls are caused by poor technique, IMO.

You actually did all you could do. When you have line twists, those steering lines are locked in the twists like they are set in concrete. There's nothing you can do with the toggles. Once I had to chop because of spinning while in line twists. I released the brakes and pulled but got nowhere. Total waste of time. Your rigger said "toggle fire", right? I've never had that happen on any rig I've jumped. Maybe double check your packing or your brake set up. There might be room for improvement. Small tip: every time I set my brakes I yank up sharply on the steering line above the keeper ring, just to make sure everything is well seated and stays in place. If you made a mistake setting them, it should show up when you do that. Nice job on your cutaway, esp. watching your altitude.

No kidding? More and more I'm seeing jump planes with "time interval" charts by the back door, including tables for various winds aloft. Oh well, 26% of Americans think the Sun circles the Earth.

Bookmarked. Thanks.

Damn, I thought that was just in the U.S. that you had to watch every legal utterance you made. It's spread to Canada, eh?

I like that. Thanks.

My DZ too. It was non-USPA and didn't require any license. They never even mentioned getting the A or B. I got my C to start jump mastering all the time and doing demos.

OMG, wouldn't that be hilarious? But our family has this rule: Never argue with stupid people. They will just drag you down to their level and beat you with experience every time.

Super sweet. Although I'd hate to be in the open door with no rig and no belt. One or the other, please. Lucky pilot.

That's the way it ought to be in a truly free society. You're free to be an absolute A$$hat, as long as you don't steal. Freedom of speech requires that you sometimes endure what you find truly offensive. That's one of the prices we pay.

Yeah, that's pretty funny. Thanks.

You are a truly compassionate person.

That's a damn cool friend . . . and birthday.

Holy $hit!

That doesn't sound safe either. . . Is there a lock-out or something. It sounds like crawling under a car held up only by a jack. I'm similar with really tight crawl spaces under houses. When I work in really tight ones I try to stay chill.

I would like to 2nd the idea of your gear manuals. Really become a student of how you gear works. You're pretty much hanging your life on it every jump.

I remember doing CRW at 15 degrees, too frozen to open my hands after landing, and loving it. Now I stay home on frosty days.

Few people can at first, and many never learn to track very well. In fact, I know a few that have more that 1000 jumps and are abysmal at tracking. It's a huge survival skill. Keep practicing. Find some jumpers that track well and get some coaching from them.

The truth is always funny.

Crap N@, I'm sorry. You deserve much better. If I can put a spin on it, I'm thankful to every woman that dumped me, 'cause I'd never be with Vskydiver if they hadn't. I hope your life turns out the same.

Thanks for the laughs. One of mine: A local airport in Oregon, Hillsboro (HIO) has a flight school that takes in many Japanese student pilots training ab abnitio, from first flight to commercial license. Needless to say, there are many communication problems. One day, I had a call from a Japanese student pilot requesting VFR (visual flight rules, or "nice weather flying") flight following on a cross country trip. BTW, the weather SUCKED. N18125 "Seattle Center, Cessna 18125, off ONP (Newport, Oregon, a coastal airport), request flight following to Corvallis." Corvallis is an inland airport, about 40 NM East. Me "Cessna 18125, Seattle Center, squawk 1-5-3-5, say altitude." N18125 "Cessna 18125, 1535, and altitude 1700." Alarm bells in my head. This is low and he's heading towards Mary's Peak, a 4100' mountain. The weather has been low clouds and bad visibility all morning. Me "Cessna 18125, radar contact 6 miles East Newport. Do you have the ground in sight?" N18125 "Cessna 18125, Negative." Me "Cessna 18125, high terrain, Mary's Peak, 12 o'clock, 15 miles, 4,100'. Do you have it in sight?" N18125 "Looking for traffic." Most calls of "12 o'clock", distance, alt, etc. are dealing with traffic calls about other aircraft. With this student's limited English understanding, he thinks I'm talking about an airplane, not a freaking mountain in his way. Me "Cessna 125, negative traffic, a mountain, Mary's Peak, extending up to 4,100"." N18125 "Looking for TRAFFIC!" he said back, with emphasis that he understood exactly to look for another airplane. As I searched my addled brain for what to do next, I remembered an elementary school lesson where the teacher said the "Mt. Fujiyama" was redundant, because "yama" was Japanese for mountain. Hmmmm. Me "N18125, negative traffic, YAMA, 12 o'clock, 15 miles." N18125 "Yama?!" Me, with deep voice emphasis "Yama!" Long pause. . . . N18125 "Cessna 18125, uh, returning to Newport!" With that, he did a 180 and landing back at the coast. Just another day at the office.

That's right. The cut stump seals itself if allowed to dry out. The fresh cut gets rid of the sealed part, allowing the tree to take in water again.