ltdiver

Bingo. ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

...that way if the airlines try and count it as one of your carry-on bags, you can just smile and point to their paperwork which says that you are allowed to have one carry-on, one personal item, -and- a hat! Seriously! :^) ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Yup...that's all I saw as well. I've no doubt it's better media. I was just wondering what the manufacturing differences were.

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

I know someone who loved Chicago pizza so much that when she was driving through there, going back home to Minnesota, she bought one, tied it to the front grill of her truck, and drove all the way home with it still frozen there. Oh, and yes, it -was- in the middle of winter.... ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Interesting post. Can you provide the answer to this added info as well.... We know that the Sony Premium and Sony Excellence vary in quality from each other. Most buy the cheaper Premium tape, while the Excellence is of better quality. In manufacture, what medium exactly does Sony (add or take away) to the Excellence tapes to make them better? ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Some more reading for ya.

Not sure where you are located, but here in Southern Calfornia Jim Wallace has taken several paraplegics and quadraplegic men and women for tandems. Here is his web page: http://www.jimwallaceskydiving.com/ Welcome and come enjoy a jump! ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

For those of you who know him, John is a remarkable man. Here is an LA Times Article about him that just was released a few minutes ago. edit to add: John does -not- use 2-way radios for communication during his skydives. He uses two 1-way radios....just in case one ceases to work. And these are just for guiding in for and during landing. ltdiver http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-skydive2may02,1,3929934.story?coll=la-util-news-local&ctrack=2&cset=true For This Irrepressible Skydiver, It's Always Night By Susannah Rosenblatt, Times Staff Writer With just a sliver of sight in his left eye and even less in his right, John Fleming loves hurling himself out of, as he calls them, perfectly good airplanes. On a recent Sunday morning, he and seven comrades clustered at the back of a DeHavilland Twin Otter slicing through the clouds above Perris at 14,000 feet. In a jumble of red, black and yellow flight suits, they tumbled out and disappeared. Cold air whipped Fleming's face, still grinning, as he plummeted, eyes closed, belly down, arms and legs spread, lounging and gliding on a cushion of air in the horizonless sky. "When you're skydiving, all your other worries, anything that's going on in your life, it just all goes away," Fleming, 62, yelled from the front of the plane moments before he jumped. Fleming, one of what are believed to be two active blind skydivers in the U.S., has loved aviation since his days in the U.S. Air Force, back when he could see. Hooked from his first jump made on a dare in 1963, Fleming kept skydiving right through the retinitis pigmentosa that gradually claimed his vision over the last four decades. Now, 1,937 jumps later, former Air Force supply clerk and his guide dog, Tia, are fixtures at the drop zone of the busy Perris Valley Skydiving center. His eyesight began deteriorating dramatically in his mid-20s from the degenerative disease of the retina that also afflicted his grandfather and brother. Once a fledgling pilot, Fleming had to quit flying in 1969 when he came within 40 feet of a midair collision over Chino with a plane he almost didn't see. "I realized this wasn't gonna work. I landed the plane and handed them the keys and said, 'This has been fun,' " said Fleming, who lives in Colton. Instead, he turned to skydiving as a way to stay airborne. Fleming, a free-fall junkie, was drawn to the sport's uniqueness, adrenaline rush and constant danger. "It's just something that not everybody does," Fleming said. By 1985, Fleming was beyond legally blind, forced to incorporate a battery of safety precautions into his dives. Like all skydivers, he wears an automatic backup parachute. Two altimeters beep at certain altitudes to remind Fleming when to yank his ripcord. But most important, Fleming leaps with earphones and a pair of two-way radios strapped to his chest. As he plunges to Earth, a helper on the ground talks him through his landing, guiding him where to turn and what obstacles lie in his path. "The amazing part is that trust that goes on between him and the person on the ground," said friend and fellow jumper Marie Winther of San Diego. Fleming said he relishes the risk and precision of a skydive. "From the time you leave the airplane until your feet are back on the ground, you have to take care of your own business," Fleming said. "If you don't do things right, ultimately you can get killed." And he's come close. Once, his two-way radio didn't work. As he drifted under his parachute, Fleming focused intently on the silence around him, desperate for any clues of his distance from terra firma. He guided himself into a gentle, 360-degree turn to soften his imminent landing, and frantically tried to compute his altitude by gauging how long he'd been in the air. Then he smacked into a tree. The force of the crash, at a drop zone near Medford, Ore., a decade ago, broke four of his ribs and left him rattled and bruised. At Crazy Creek outside Santa Rosa in 1997, he strayed five miles from his landing area, nearly grazing power lines and ending up lost in the dark. His friends finally discovered him after two hours of honking their horn into the night. Black eyes and broken bones aside, skydiving is "still just too much fun for me to stop," Fleming said. Dan Rossi of Pittsburgh can relate. The other active blind skydiver, Rossi, 38, stumbled across Fleming on the Internet. They corresponded for years and jumped together in 2003. "I was just screaming my head off," said Rossi, who was born with retinoblastoma cancer and lost both his eyes by age 7. His friend Fleming, Rossi says, "is tough as nails." "He's just one of those people that everybody likes." So it was easy for Fleming to round up friends to help with the fundraising jump he organized in January to benefit the American Council of the Blind, an advocacy organization of which he's an active member. Fleming and 20 skydiving volunteers jumped in an eye-shaped formation in the sky above Perris and raised more than $9,000 for the 25,000-member group. "To jump out of an airplane when you're blind is just an incredibly amazing thing to be doing," said Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld, general manager of Perris Valley Skydiving, who helped organize the charity jump. Fleming's own friends and family have tried to keep him grounded. Instead, he's cajoled two brothers and his father — 75 at the time — to try skydiving. For them, once was enough. He hasn't persuaded his girlfriend, Darian Hartman — yet. Fleming, who in recent years has also developed macular degeneration — a deterioration of the retina common among older adults — laughs often and easily at himself. He's heard the one about the blind skydiver: Q: Why don't blind people skydive? A: Because it scares the dog. His drop zone friends affectionately call him "Blind John," or "BJ" for short. He cares for his 87-year-old father full time, shopping, cooking and cleaning for him. He uses a talking computer for the Internet and e-mail and a bar-code scanner to pick out groceries. But often he will pick out his clothes at random. "I've worn some pretty wild outfits, I've been told," he said, cracking up. While Fleming is flattered and grateful for opportunities to jump with skydiving greats because of his disability, he'd rather be just one of the guys at the drop zone. Ralph Sanders, public relations chairman for the American Council of the Blind, calls him a "folk hero" of the visually impaired, but Fleming shrugs off such labels. As his body grows more vulnerable to crash landings, fear begins to factor in his jumps. He makes about 30 a year, compared with 100 in the past. But Fleming's not finished yet. Flying is just too much fun. "It takes 15 to 20 minutes after the jump for my heart to slow down. It's like one of the best drugs you can do," Fleming said. "It's all about just — yahoo!" Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Isn't it just grand that this site has grown so huge that it can be a source unto itself? ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Don't you know that's what our wings are for? ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Oh, COOL! Finally horizontal wind tunnel we can all practice our tracking in!! ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Nice response, quade. Zoter...add to this excellent information the idea that you should take copious notes on what works for you on each and every exit. You'll create a journal of exits and techniques that will help you grow in ability very well. However, be aware that every team can be different in their exit and flying technique. Your 'exit rules' can vary, but the pattern will maintain relatively the same. Have fun. Stay safe. And don't beat yourself up if you hit the team a few times during your learning. :^) ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

If you like the one of Dom in Parachutist, wait for the one in Skydiving. ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

IMO, the book is even better than the movie. Bring along tissues for your plane ride, Val. Amazingly, it was a guy who introduced me to this book a few years ago. He had read it more than once. Remind me to introduce you to him while you're at Perris. I also have 'The Wedding' sitting right here beside me. A patient loaned it to me, so I better get busy and read it before she thinks I'm never giving it back. ;^) Good movie. Better book. ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Yes. Perhaps. Yet, who among us completely believe what the news reports? I'd like to see the FAA prelimary report, first. ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

I'm Cherokee Indian.. No one knows my language? After all.. It was my peoples country first How do you know I don't know Cherokee? ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Thought I was the only one who'd done that. ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

First of all, to Gus's friends and family. A huge hug and condolences for such a great loss. I don't know Gus, but in reading the post above I felt the need to get to know who this man was. I wasn't able to find his profile on dz.com, so I went to rec.skydiving to ferret out a little about him. Here is what the search netted me. Particularly poignant was a rant by Martin Evans back in the year 2000. " Gus Wing gives daily lectures at Deland on landing technique (or lack there of). it's the same attitude that I was brought up`in the sport with! I would hazard a guess that Gus is as sick, if not more so, as I am of seeing friends and fellow jumpers die needlessly!" BSBD, Gus. I wish I could have met you. ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Living in So.Cal., working in the medical field, we encounter those who refuse to learn even a little English. Some of them have lived here for several decades and continue to refuse. On a couple of occasions it pushed my buttons when a patient has demanded that I speak their language and asked why I didn't I know it. I've countered back with, "This is the United States. We speak English here". I felt bad on those two occasions. Not that I have this opinion, but that they had pushed my buttons far enough for me to respond this way to them. Not very professional (and we do provide interpreters). Yet, it is my belief that if you choose to -live- in a country, you learn their language. Period. ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Really? I've had some patients of mine who have to take vision tests every year to be allowed to drive. Even with this, is scares the hell out of me to think they get behind the wheel anyway. ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Thanks. Fixed it. Yeah, the pilot sure showed some skill brining the plane in. That's for sure. Yet, to quote a CFI I know....the majority of plane crashes amongst private pilots happen because they simply ran out of fuel. ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

Oh, -that- hurt! Great article on Tagle, though! Thanks for the alert!

But ya gotta make enough for EVERYONE!! Come on over! The weather's great today!! ltdiver TEASE!! lol....how've you been? Taking lead off my weight belt, as you can see by my appetite. Keeping busy (to keep mwha out of trouble). You? ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

But ya gotta make enough for EVERYONE!! Come on over! The weather's great today!! ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon