Albatross

Everyone has the basic answer already but I am going to get all scientific and dorky on you and give you a bit more detail. Your body has two ways that it detects motion: 1. by visual cues, seeing things move by. 2. by feeling acceleration. the visual thing is obveous. If something is moving at a different speed than you it LOOKS like it is moving, if it is going the same speed (other jumpers) it LOOKS like it is not moving unless you have another frame of reference. Now for the dorky explanation. In you ear you have three structures called semi- circular canals in you inner ear. They look like half circles set at right angles to each other. In side they have microscopic hairs and little stones. When you accelerate the fluid and stones stay due to inertia and move against the hairs which you sense as motion (even with your eyes closed). They only sense large accelerations like falling or stepping on the breaks in a car. You don't feel the slow acceleration in a car because it is too gradual. This is what is happening in freefall. Your forward speed (due to the plane) gradually becomes downward as you fall in an arc and slowly increases over 5-12 seconds. Last thought! When the two senses of motion don't agree you brain freaks out and you get motion sickness. Hope that helps. Chris God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

Great Boggie!!! From both a guys and a skydivers prespective a great time. The LOs were great everyone was well taken care of and had plenty of people to jump with. The planes ran non-stop all day. The weather was perfect for jumping and just lying around. The party Sat night just rocked: the food was great, the music kicked and the women were looking good. I have to say it was great weekend. Buth the event highlight had to be the night swoops. The guys were just awsome. Seeing a canopy come swooping out of the night and skim all the way across the pond was one of the most impressive things I have seen. Can't wait for next year!! God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

Great Boggie!!! From both a guys and a skydivers prespective a great time. The LOs were great everyone was well taken care of and had plenty of people to jump with. The planes ran non-stop all day. The weather was perfect for jumping and just lying around. The party Sat night just rocked: the food was great, the music kicked and the women were looking good. I have to say it was great weekend. Can't wait for next year! God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

I'm there tonight. I love my tent. Got two Swedish exchanges students coming down to do their fisrt tandems and drink. God Bless America. So what is the status on the Chicks naked 23 way? God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

Jello Shots!!!!!!!! And Body Shooter! God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

O.K. I work with alot of cops and think that you all need to cut them a little slack. Sure it sucks when you get a ticket for stupid shit but they can't just inforce the law when they feel like it. They have a no win job these days. Especially in a town like LA. They have like 20 sq miles to cover. They never get to have relationships with the people they protect and they get shit for every thing that people second guess and say that they SHOULD have done. I am sorry! They have bad days and may give you a lame ticket but they most often keep you safe, suck up the shit you give them and do a great job. If we gave them the respect and admiration they deserve they would feel better and be nicer to you when you get pulled over. God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

You taking Voluteers????? I'll be at the Boogie. God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

Damn how the hell do you get that kind of picture. He must have had his head right in the cooch. God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

Forget the toys from home. I'm sure that the boys at the DZ will help you out. IF not they're gay! God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

O.K. My friend. Don't complicate things. 1. Start talking to her SOON the opportunity is like a plane it is there for a little while but it will leave with out you. This results in you having a bunch of female friends and no dates. 2. Talk about what you know that you have in common: Photography.Show her your recent work. Ask a question about the composition. ASK HER OPINION. If she wants to make something of it she will feed the conversation. Show her a bunch of things over a few classes(1 or 2) and see what she reacts to and then take the information and act on it. Failure is only the first step to success. God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

Just ask her out! what is the worse she can say... NO and you are in the same place God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

Wouldn't they Knockets!!!! Just kidding God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

Now guys the women are sporting the hardware for us lets make sure we return the favor. From what I' veheard a cold tongue stud is the bomb. Ladies? God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

Glad to hear that you got back up in the air. Know how hard that first jump after can be. You are lucky that you got up with out a lot of time to think that over analysis can paralize you. I am glad to hear that your friend will be OK I hate to hear of fellows getting hurt. God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

Mike I was in the camp that Michelle was describing and I was the EMT responding to the injury. I also had a "near" miss (I hit the breaks and pulled up with no surf and stopped 15' short and let the Wrong way flier go). The problem was initiated by exactly the situation that you described. Light wind and variable, the camp organizer gets down first by 2 seconds and sets the standard South to north pattern. NExt a out of town jumper from our camp comes in and does a 260 hook and lands north to south. That started the caos. Out of the next 10 jumpers landing there were at least 3 crosses. Fortunately the only injury was a dislocated toe on the one colision but it could have been worse. At Perris the pattern is set by the first person down, PERIOD. IF you don't like the pattern you land off the grass any way you like. I think that most DZ have a rule like this. However, we still need to take resonsibility for our own pattern. First, try to land in the standard pattern. If you can't try to land off the main area so you don't criss cross. Second, if you are flying a basic pattern (down wind, base, final) make the big corrections in the down wind and base and only little corrections on final. Flying a calm and predictable pattern allows others to fit in and compensate for different rates of the canopies. People who are hooking should set up out of the pattern adn be very aware of the people, in the patttern. Finally, if there is any doubt land long or short or off the main area. A dirty canopy or a few stickers is a small thing but a broken leg will keep you out of the air for a long time. REMEBER: the universal sign for I see you under canopy is kicking legs and if there is a canopy coming at you both turn RIGHT. God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

I already posed this in the Talk back because i wanted Maximum exposure: Some of you might remember about 2 months agao my friend Nick had a cypress misfire at 4000' while doing a messed up 4 way with Carl (DZBone), Mark (Shark) and I. Well we finally got a response from them with some information. They found a defective component that SHOULD have cause the unit to deactivate and stay off but for some reason it did not shut off before the malfunction caused the unit to fire. They have succeeded in reproducing that malfunction in their labs but never with any other unit. They are going to replace the unit with another of the same year (a bit lame). They say that the unit pased QC even with the reproducable malfunction so i hope that they are able to isolate exactly what cause d the problem so no one else has this problem. I will keep you all up to date God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

Some of you might remember about 2 months agao my friend Nick had a cypress misfire at 4000' while doing a messed up 4 way with Carl (DZBone), Mark (Shark) and I. Well we finally got a response from them with some information. They found a defective component that SHOULD have cause the unit to deactivate and stay off but for some reason it did not shut off before the malfunction caused the unit to fire. They have succeeded in reproducing that malfunction in their labs but never with any other unit. They are going to replace the unit with another of the same year (a bit lame). They say that the unit pased QC even with the reproducable malfunction so i hope that they are able to isolate exactly what cause d the problem so no one else has this problem. I will keep you all up to date God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

O.K. dude (yes I am a California boy)! I am going to give you the shock of your life. I'll bet that if you do the research and calmly and rationally present it to your parents and show them that you have done all the work to save the money to make it through the AFF progression they will not like but will respect you enough to help you a bit and sign the papers. The most important thing is to get all the safty information lined up so that they are not convinced that you have a 1 in 2 chance of not coming home. Maybe suggest that they come in here and talk to us. If you need some support PM me and I will help if I can. God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

OK here is the best but silliest advice that I can give you. Smile and laugh at the person that you are jumping with. Like someone else said chipping is all about tension. Realize that fighting the earth and the air is futile and that the air will hold you and shape you if you just let it. Seriously try making faces and smile. Chipping is falling like a flat piece of paper forward and then back and so on. God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

See you there cuttie!!! I am going to be one of the bad people inthe 60 way camp. If you have no packer maybe Lisa will help. God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

I got the information from www.aopa.org. They kept we up to date all the way. God bless us and God Bless America Albatross

These two idiots are allowing the build up of hate in religion which is just what is at the base of this whole tragidy. If you use your religion to justify your hate and justify the killing of inocent people I feel that places you about on the level of child molesters. I hope that this event allows the American people to realize that we need to pull closer and not divide by faith. Go Big Or Go Home!!!!! Albatross

I think I'm in LOVE Lisa Go Big Or Go Home!!!!! Albatross

Carl, First of all it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. That you landed OK not the reserve ride. As for the stigma of a round WHO CARES as long as you land the damn thing. I am glad to hear that it all came out OK and that JAck found the main fast (Isn't he a great guy despite what some people say). As for the sizing AND I QUOTE "Up to 149 - 24 foot; 150-199 26 foot and 200+ - 28 foot" that is suspended weight for high porosity flat circular. So I think that the 26 foot was the right one. Now my stupid question what is a flat circular? Are their non-flat rounds? Go Big Or Go Home!!!!! Albatross

I going to run with the crowd and say that like most other places I have taught the rule is and should be wait until they are not your responsability then have fun. I have actually seen instuctors at my DZ shun women who were throwing themselves at the Instructors while they were students. If it is really that hot it will last a few more weeks. Go Big Or Go Home!!!!! Albatross