tbrown

fatty fatty two by fourrrrrrrrrrrr uh wait a minute look whos talking :o) bozo Thanks man, I like your creative solution. But gaining 65 lbs over the last 26 years hasn't helped either. P.S. Bozo and I are pals and he knows I luv him, so don't censor my above missive or ban my ass from this forum...... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

----------------------------------------------------------- fatty fatty two by fourrrrrrrrrrrr uh wait a minute look whos talking :o) bozo Fuck you Bozo - and Merry Xmas !! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Of course, you can turn that around. A lot of people do not trifle with things that don't impact them. It's particularly evident to me when people propose greasing this one through by grandfathering people under their current licenses or canopies, and screwing up only those people who aren't around to express their displeasure--and who may not stay around long enough to reverse it. Several people have independently told me this is a problem that plagues SCUBA divers in the US. Oh there would be a lot of pressure for exceptions & grandfathering, until you could drive a truck through the thing. But even if it only applied to the newest newbies in FJC it would eventually have a growing and positive effect. I'm borderline myself really. Although I have over 700 jumps, the first 566 were under rounds and early generation squares (Viking Superlite, Crusair, etc.) that don't compare with anything nowadays. I'm a big heavy guy too and my 210 Pilot is as big as they make that canopy - and no thank you, I'm not interested in a 230 ft Spectre or Sabre2. Besides, on my budget I'm lucky to jump at all and selling one "large" canopy to afford a larger one doesn't interest me in the least. I'm doing quite well with the 210 really and with a little real coaching I should be able to contemplate a 190 before much longer. So I'd probably take the legalistic way out and stick to my lifetime 700+ jumps and say "leave me alone, this doesn't apply to me". Not that I don't take the issue seriously and not that I'm not already marginally okay, even under this chart. But I would hate to have somebody enforce this on me and not let me pursue some coaching instead. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'm not going to bash it, this is an area where a lot of people are in general agreement unless it applies specifically to them. But I would like to point out that this proposal would not have prevented a fatality last year at Perris, where a lady with about 1100 jumps died after attempting to swoop with a toggle turn at a 1420 ft field elevation. Coaching could have prevented her death, but her jump numbers would have left her untouched by any of this proposal. This is not to discourage you, something's got to be done and I'm happy to see YOU Brian, putting something real out there for debate. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I've still got my Silly Suit and it's in almost perfect condition ! It's a Size Large, with a "Medium" wing, which is still huge by any standard. But since I was 6'3" and only 165 lbs in those days, I decided a medium wing would be sufficient. Unlike a lot of Silly Suits, mine is a single piece. It's made of cotton duck and is quite a bit heavier than the Tony Suit I'm wearing these days. I tried to put it on lately, but ah, I couldn't seem to get the, uh, zipper past my, uh.....waistline (so now you know). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Just read a news report that the Iraqi cops have 'fessed up to having arrested - and released - al Zarqawi last year. Yeah and the Tooth Fairy gives good head..... What a fine bunch of allies we're training and arming. Our friends' son, who's serving his second tour in that garbage dump of a country, says they no sooner arm the Iraqi police than they use the weapons to shoot at American soldiers. They've shot at him and he hates them - all. Actually though, they're behaving just like our other fine allies in the war on terror, the Pakistanis. They've been taking our money and moving bin Laden from one safe house to another for over 4 years now. We will never get anywhere trying to "get along" with any of these people, they wouldn't know how to tell the truth if a camel kicked their brains out. My respect for the way Israel deals with these vermin grows by the day. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I don't believe that Israel ever had to bomb the Iranian reactor, or that tens of thousands died when the enriched plutonium was released into the atmosphere, making the entire province permanently uninhabitable. Another myth cooked up by those whacky Iranians. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I can explain everything - I'm from out of town ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Our sport is completely dependent on our equipment. We can't jump without it, not more than once anyway. We have to learn to trust it. It's not an entirely rational process either. You can tell yourself over and over all the facts and statistics in the world, never even have a mal with your main (knock wood), and have the world's best rigger looking after your gear and your reserve. But none of that can stop your stomach from getting that little tug when you roll the door up and see the ground 2 1/2 miles below. You just never know. A lot of people can't face up to that, it's why most people don't jump. We make the choice put that doubt behind us. If we can't get past it, then maybe it's time to move on (which happens to some people too). As long as it doesn't bug you, keep on jumping. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The Conatser family and Dan BC ? Awesome doesn't begin to cover it.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

There was a fatality last month involving a novice jumper (approx 146 jumps) who had a 188 Pilot canopy with one of the brakes not released. According to witnesses, everything looked just fine until the last 200 ft. Nobody even had any idea he was in trouble until he suddenly spun out of control and crashed. He died an hour or so later. Controllability chacks aren't just a good idea, they're essential. Slow moving "minor" malfunctions are especially dangerous because they give you time to think too much and get scared of cutting away (unlike a spinning mess, where you're grabbing handles as fast as you can find them). Ultimately we have to trust our EPs and our reserve - our equipment is the only thing that allows to jump at all, so if we can't trust it to work, then we're in the wrong sport. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I started jumping when all helmets were open faced, so I got a Bonehead Mindwarp. Haven't been persuaded that I need to drop $300+ on a full face helmet yet, but that might happen if/when I catch a foot or two in my face. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Everybody at work today, and I mean EVERYBODY is asking me about the poor preganant lady who broke her face skydiving and "how come her reserve didn't open". I'm getting to the point that I'm telling them it would take us a good 20 minutes to sit down and have me explain the laundry list of things they did wrong. Then I tell them that the TV newshounds don't know what the hell they're talking about, they just got some juicy film of a nasty accident and they're squeezing it for the last dollar. But I'm seeing what a negative impact this is having on ordinary people around me who don't understand what's involved in our sport. And I'll tell you something else, the lies don't stop with skydiving, they're aimed at everything these people want you to think on every subject, from race to crime to the war in Iraq. As they say up in Oregon, "Kill your TV". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It is a lot easier. It's still a pain, but not hopeless like the slippery stuff PD or Icarus use. Another nice thing about Psycho packing is that you can pick up your rolled canopy in one hand, like a football and just stuff it into the bag. You'll notice your pack volume is smaller, so you should adjust tension on your closing loop. If you want to stick with Psycho packing longterm you should get the extension made for just a few bucks. But to try it out, all you need to do is turn twist the top of the canopy at the attachment point over 90 degrees, so that the attachment ring sticks out of the side of the roll. You should have enough material pulled out of the center to be able to bring the ring around theside of the roll when you're done (so you can see where the extension strap would help you do that). Openings are no different - nice, soft & on heading. Nathan, this is the method that Precision preaches, not Icarus. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

You need to go back to that whorehouse for the B&D party after a day like that. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Visions was a world champion team from Perris in the eighties, so that's sort of taken. Ecstacy will get you in trouble with the DEA. Team names are a little too serious these days. In the old days they were mostly obscene. How about something that's fun and original. Like Moxy. Best of luck too ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

We have a star. Also some angels and a Yosemite Sam with candy canes. He likes being up thar with all them purty angels. Last year he married one named Belle. She calls him Samuel and tells him to mind his manners, but she loves him very much. Hey, I'm not makin' this up ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I watched my altimeter and counted from 3500-2500 ft. It was only 4 seconds faster than the 2 times I had done that earlier in the day. Basically I thought the canopy was acceptable to land. I do not have much experience (65 jumps total) but i didnt seem to be decending faster than what a PLF wouldnt fix. If this happened again I would chop it. Wasting a thousand feet of precious altitude to run a math problem in your head is a real waste of time, and the aforementioned altitude. A friend of mine had a compression fracture of his lower vertebrae because he thought he could land a hung up slider. You probably would've too, if God hadn't pushed the slider down for you with his little finger just 15 ft off the deck. You've about used up your luck for one year. Slow moving malfunctions are the most insidious because they can lull you into a false sense of security. A jumper was killed at Perris just a month ago with nothing more "serious" than a hung up toggle on an otherwise open canopy. If it's not there, square, slider down within 2-3 ft of the risers, and you can't perform a good controllability check, then lose it. That's what those handles are for. And lose it by your decision altitude. And please forget the math puzzles. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Alright, now this is all some good stuff you're all putting out. The other reason I posted this thread is because I'm very concerned about how dormant this Safety & Training Forum has been lately. I don't think we're that safe yet are we ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I think by now everyone pretty well agrees that taking a canopy control course is pretty essential to our basic safety as skydivers, that and learning how to get more enjoyment out of our canopies, but mostly the safety aspect. I'd like to take a course myself, especially since I injured myself last year from improperly handling a fast landing in no wind conditions. But the cost of taking a course presents a real obstacle. Most of the quotes I've been given are up around or over $300 for a daylong course with 5 jumps. I'm not complaining either, there's a lot that needs to be paid for; the instructor's time, the video, debriefings, class time and materials and so forth. Plus the people who give these courses are entitled to make a living at it, or at least I hope they can. But there are a lot of jumpers out there who struggle to scrape together enough to just go and jump once or twice a month. Usually the married ones with families and other obligations in life. Some jumpers can't even afford the luxury of playing in the wind tunnel at all, not if they want to skydive. But canopy control really is so important. As Kaz Sheeky says, landing is the one thing we have to do every time, no matter what else we do on the jump. And that it shouldn't be the "frightening" part of the jump when we can learn to actually enjoy doing it safely. So we really do need this training, all of us. I personally need it because I learned on an early generation of canopies that would put the average jumper today to sleep with boredom. Even student canopies like the Navigator blow the doors off anything we had 25 years ago. But as I also said, I personally got hurt from mishandling one landing where things got going a little too fast under a "mellow" Spectre canopy. Skydiving ain't cheap, I know that, we all know it. AFF, buying gear, even regular "gotta do" stuff like getting your reserve repacked ain't cheap. Some of have more money, some don't. There's always whipping out the palstic, but that has its limits too. So I'd just like to open a forum to people's thoughts on how to reach some kind of balance on affordability for this essential kind of training. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

No it isn't. Murder is defined as unlawful killing, you know that. Executions, cops shooting criminals, soldiers killing their enemies may be murder in the heart and soul ( a lot of veterans say that war is nothing but cold blooded murder and I believe them). But it's not unlawful, so it ain't murder. Period. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

A lot of people who haven't been to law school are against the death penalty as well. Mostly because everyone knows by now that there are so many people under death sentences who never committed the crimes they were convicted of. I'm against the death penalty in general and would like to see it eliminated across the board. But I'm not morally opposed to the concept of a death penalty, only to the fact that it's impossible to have a death penalty without it's being abused in the real world. I don't feel sorry for Tookie Williams or anyone else on death row - only the ones who don't belong there at all because they didn't commit the crime. I think life without parole is a more frightening penalty, if it were me I'd rather be put to death than grow old and frail in a cage. One of the women from the Manson family said it was easier living with the death sentence she'd received (before it was reversed in 1972) than it has been ever since to live with the guilt of what she's done. She'd looked forward to dying so she wouldn't have to deal with her guilt, now she has to deal with it every day all her life. I'd like to see the death penalty go away because it doesn't work, because innocent people are executed, because it doesn't give the families of victims any peace (in their own words). There may be some real issues of cruel and unusual punishment involved with living under a death sentence for a quarter century, I don't think I could take that kind of stress without losing my mind. I don't feel sorry for Tookie Williams though. If he were commuted to life, the next step would be a star studded campaign to "free Tookie". Bullshit. The governor's just doing his job, the nastiest part of his job. I don't care if Tookie dies, but I'd like to see the death penalty done away with once & for all, if that's contradictory it makes sense to me. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Haven't seen the Johnny Cash film yet, but it's on my list. Did go out on opening night to see the Narnia film though and it's excellent. Tilda Swinton is absolutely fantastic, she brings the evil Snow Witch to bloodchilling life. She should get an Oscar nomination for this (I've always liked her anyway). The production values are right up there with Lord of the Rings. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Welcome to the flock, you've always meant to be here with us. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I've got a little one somewhere near my navel. Don't really know just where, but my doctor sez I've got one. Okay, well he's a doctor. I'm in no pain or discomfort and still can't find the damned thing, so I'll just go on jumping. Maybe jumping will help me find it one of these years ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !