JohnMitchell

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content

    19,322

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

Everything posted by JohnMitchell

  1. JohnMitchell
    Very true. NPR recently had a long program on the money behind the scenes of our all-volunteer blood. But labs and techs and transport cost money, so what can be done short of legislative intervention, right? I'm a regular blood donor. I did the platelets a couple of times. Had a bit of nausea one time. I think it was a reaction to that orange crap they pump into you. Last time I volunteered to do platelets they told me "no".
  2. JohnMitchell
    Skydiving trip? Don't check your rig. Carry it on but have a rig sleeve or inconspicuous gear bag. Be chill. Regular trip. Pack light and don't check luggage. We can do a couple of weeks with just carry on and it makes it super easy to travel.
  3. JohnMitchell
    We've had a mixup where the restaurant charged us twice for one meal. This was after a big dispute over the bill after a long evening with friends. Confusion or revenge? Dunno, but the charge was refunded, believe me. Most gas stations in WA state are self serve, swiping the card at the pump, so it's not out of your hands. Wasn't there, though, a case of malicious readers being installed on pumps that hijacked card numbers? It's getting to be very creative, isn't it?
  4. JohnMitchell
    A few years back, doing the Black Friday shopping at Best Buy at 6 am, I whipped out my SWA card to buy almost $2000 of electronic Christmas goodies. It got rejected. What! I had the sales woman call the 800 number on the back. Busy signal. . .. Gotta remember this is the #1 shopping day of the year. So I pulled out a debit card and bought it all with cash in the bank. Embarrassed at having a card rejected, I even noted to the clerk that I obviously had the $$, since the debit was approved. Later that day I got thru to the 800 number. They said "Well, it seemed unusual for your patterns to be spending that much money that early in the morning." Hello, Black Friday??? I bugged them for months and actually got paid the frequent flyer miles I would have gotten. It was a matter of principal at that point. Don't piss off a middle-aged guy with too much spare time. Next year I called them on Thanksgiving and told 'em I was going shopping in the morning and to have their act together.
  5. JohnMitchell
    Thanks for the input. When you turn, you're using energy to make yourself move. Use energy, it costs lift, right? Smaller, slower turns cost less energy, you stay off the net. Maybe that was the situation. One thing I've found in the tunnel is that they keep the airspeeds low at first, actually making it harder to fly and maneuver, but less likely to cause injury if you mess up. As you get more control, they can up the airspeed and then you can really crank turns, maneuver, move up and down, wear a tight suit. When I fly with my wife, she's small so they dial it way down and I'm on the net. So she arches, joins me on the net while we signal "faster" and then we can have some fun. Yep, I sure know Willo. He's a great guy. Sorry if I don't remember you. When I visit a DZ, I kind of make a point to not engage their students much.
  6. JohnMitchell
    "Funny that they call the quick releases 'safety locks'"
  7. JohnMitchell
    I totally understand your philosophy. I don't do that as much since I'm at a fairly large DZ where students get passed from instructor to instructor and uniformity in training is desired. Like you, though, I monitor the student's performance during practice and modify my training approach until they learn the task correctly. It's interesting that the "shoulder tilt" seems to be the preferred skydiver method while the "hand tilt" seems to be the preferred tunnel method. I was hoping to find common ground between the two schools to maximize transference of skills for our students that get tunnel training. Thanks for the responses.
  8. JohnMitchell
    I had dinner with a tunnel instructor tonight and the talk turned to our AFF students visiting the tunnel to work on their belly flying skills. He said our teaching of tipping the shoulders in the direction you want to turn is too much for the tunnel. They teach using the hands alone a turning vanes. I wish we taught dropping an elbow the direction you want to go. How does your DZ teach turns? And do you work in conjunction with a local tunnel? How's that working for you?
  9. JohnMitchell
    Our son was a tunnel instructor. They called those little arched girls "loaded" because they could flatten out and shoot up like a bullet from a gun. I had a little girl on a Level 4 the other day arch and fall like a brick. I'm glad I kept up with her because she forgot to pull and I had to redock and whip it out.
  10. JohnMitchell
    This, or Billy's idea.
  11. JohnMitchell
    Got no pictures but imagine me cleaning pine needles out of the rain gutters.
  12. JohnMitchell
    You know, all joking aside, the trauma of watching someone go in is really bad. Inflated reserve is much easier on your friends. I did lose one friend whose AAD fired but received fatal injuries from the uncontrolled reserve landing into obstacles. Bad, bad thing.
  13. JohnMitchell
    "Did you wake up grumpy that morning?" "No, I let her sleep in."
  14. JohnMitchell
    At my old job you could actually take a 20 minute nap on your breaks. . . Hope you make it thru the day.
  15. JohnMitchell
    How was he with the phrase "Don't touch me there."? Glad you had a great one. Been loving your pics.
  16. JohnMitchell
    Vskydiver has had some kind of head cold the past month. But her mom is doing a tandem this weekend so she's going to jump with us regardless. Hope you feel better soon. Here's the Seahawks preshow pic I forgot to attach.
  17. JohnMitchell
    Hey, just keep an eye on me when we jump together, okay?
  18. JohnMitchell
    I made 4 fun jumps and 7 AFF jumps. Today a friend taught the FJC and then we took one of those guys thru the first 4 AFF levels in one afternoon. Super sharp guy in his twenties, just about perfect each jump. I think we have a new skydiver. Oh yeah, mowed the lawn too. And Thursday we watched Soundgarden and Pharrell Williams open for the Seahawks. Here we are covered in green and blue streamers at the close of the show.
  19. JohnMitchell
    ***Another good reason to pull for you friends if you find them unconscious in freefall.
  20. JohnMitchell

    OH NOOOO!

    JohnMitchell replied to hcsvader's topic in The Bonfire

    That's so gay.
  21. JohnMitchell
    But you still flared. What would you be comfortable with if you were unconscious and couldn't flare at all? I personally don't have an answer for that. Maybe .4 or .3. My current reserve I load about 1 to 1.
  22. JohnMitchell
    Damn, that's a bummer. He'll get it next time, though.
  23. JohnMitchell
    Thanks, Kelly.
  24. JohnMitchell
    Plus the rig moves your CG upwards and sometimes catches air on its own. I don't know if it makes a huge difference with belly flying, but I hear it's a big difference for back and sit flying.
  25. JohnMitchell
    The tunnel I go to attempts to fly you, off the net, first minute in. The results vary from student to student. Starting out on the net can be easier to control for the instructor. Only my opinion. I'm not a tunnel instructor.