tbrown

There's already a video at skydivingmovies.com by Tom Sanders of himself kicking out of a badly spinning crossbrace. I never liked it much and after the two fatalities at WFFC I really don't like it. I mean it's his decision and his life, but it's sending the wrong message about messing with spinners. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Well, if your friend still wants to be friends, they shuld pay. You have to work it out with them. Sorry for what sounds like a real bummer... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

"your feelings change when you're in a closed-door meeting with lawyers" "First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." --Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part II, IV, ii. Let's hang a few of them from the swingsets, before they're torn down. It would make a dandy Halloween decoration theme as well. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

ZZ Topp's "Pearl Neclace" ! "Jewelry's not what she's talkin' about". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

1- Launch a really f-ed up 4-way exit. Try to hang on while it twists all over the place. I know a few people who hurt themselves this way. We had somebody do exactly that last weekend. He was launching holding onto chest straps to hang below on a small hybrid. Had to pull his reserve, as he couldn't reach back with his right arm to pull his hackey. Didn't flare too great either on the landing, but got up and walked away. Another friend bashed his shoulder exiting on a camera jump this summer and had to do the same thing - his first reserve in 25 years ! Watch it up there, you can really get hurt. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I binge on Smarties every Halloween. The honey Candy Corns are good too (so are the regular ones). But the candy bothers my teeth a lot more than my dashing figure, so I'm having to cut way back. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Hangers/Stingers drop off and track like hell at 5K, deploy no higher than 3K. Base stays together till 4K, short track (there are only 4 of them) and deploy by 2.5 or 3 wherever they are comfortable. Camera (if present) takes the center no matter what. This sounds sensible. I'm asking after having jumped in the base on a rather large hybrid at a boogie. Most of the time anything larger than a 6 way hybrid is unusual, but this one had 14 people, with only 4 in the base. But like I said, it was a boogie and capable people should be able to push it a bit, intelligently of course. Our stingers left at 6 grand, hangers at 5500 ft, and the 4 way base held together to 4500, then split. My whole track was spent looking down at trackers all over the place, including one joker who was lying on his back with a big shit eating grin. I spent a long track staying off a lot of backs that I think coulda shoulda had a better head start over me on tracking out of the area. In the end, I maxed out on my D license privileges and took it to 2 grand before dumping, which with a modern canopy meant I wasn't fully open until below 1500 ft. Legal, but not acceptable, especially not to me. As I was also a mile out from the dropzone, I lucked out finding a beautiful big flat field to put myself down in. There was no discussion of different opening altitudes. I like that idea and if somebody said the base should pull above 3 grand after a short track, with the freeflyers not to dump until they'd gone through 3 grand (or something like that), I'd have gone for that. I didn't really think about it either. It was still a fun jump, I just didn't like the opening pattern and wouldn't care to go through it again. And I like hybrids & just want to do them safer. So thanks for the ideas. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Anyone with a lot of hybrid experience have some advice on tracking after breakoff ? I've been on a few hybrids and know that the stingers & hangars leave first, with the base usually hanging in there a bit before they breakoff and track. But I as I'm in the base I usually find it rather unnerving to see so many freeflyers tracking so far below me. The problem is they haven't really made much progress leaving the area and since they're low, they have right of way. It's an uneasy feeling because it's like trying to track through a minefield with so many people so far below. Whereas on belly loads the altitude separation, while it exists, is not so extreme. Should the base breakoff, track 5 seconds and dump high, or what ? I've done some searching in the forums but can't seem to find anything specific on this issue. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Sigourney Weaver. Hey, I even have PERMISSION from my wife to run off with her, should I ever be so lucky. In turn, she has my permission to run off with Patrick Stewart. But Sigourney is tough, independent, whip smart, and bee-yootiful !! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Congrats on your 100th ! At least you got a lot of tasty pies and some great pics. You're a brave girl to sit in that door at sunset in just a bikini. You will always remember every little bit of this and that's the best of all. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

That would be Perris then. the best of everything, the most beautiful women too. Would probably follow that we have the best looking guys, but aside from myself I really wouldn't know about that.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

No barfing drunks or junkies to share the ride ? You were shortchanged my friend... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Maybe we should hate the French for helping to bail out our American Revolution. Without French arms, French gunpowder, some French troops, and a pile of French francs, the Founding Fathers would have ended their lives on the end of a British rope. Maybe they were being cynical to use us against the Brits, and maybe we would've freed the slaves in 1828 along with the rest of the British empire, but there would be no America as we know it without the help France gave us. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Da Bom Shelter at Perris has come a long long way. I remember when they served rotgut chili and some kind of neckbones with pancakes from a trailer (and I'm NOT making this up either). Nowadays they've got a real chef there and I've had some delightful dinners, like mahi-mahi fajitas with wild rice and a really imaginative salad for six bucks & change. Damn good food ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

A'right, a'right. You guys keep jumping your purple and puce canopies ! Sheesh.. what is is with the stock (vomit) colors on those canopies ? No shit. Rainbow spectrums, double spectrums. black spectrums like yours, and (my favorite) white spectrums were all the rage on squares of the seventies. I used to jump a royal blue Silly Suit with huge rainbow stripe patterns on the arms and a double spectrum Viking Superlite. I miss seeing rainbow colors at the dropzone, though personally I've gone for the black/orange/yellow look myself. You rock on & if anybody flips you any shit about it we'll just have to get Jesse Jackson out to shake things up about rainbow jump gear..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I found out that I'm on the "no fly" list last December, when trying to fly to Boston with my wife and two daughters for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. They won't give you a reason for why you're on the list, but I think it's because Thomas Brown is such a common name - Brown being the 4th or 5th most common family name in America. There was a lot of publicity last year about David Nelsons being denied boarding on planes because the asshole Fed'l govt had put their names on the list. So I don't know what conclusion to draw - other than that I won't even try to take my rig on a flight, unless some Fed'l PIG starts tearing my reserve container apart. I'm not a Muslim, I was born in fucking NYC for Chrissake, I was even working for Boeing on the morning of 9/11. So do you feel any safer if they let me fly with my family or not ? These Feds couldn't fuck their way out of a paper bag in whorehouse. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

...and take it like a MAN! linz BOHICA: Bend Over, Here It Comes Again Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Sounds a little bit like the one we've got now.....but I don't think you'd invade some sandpile halfway around the world just to settle a grudge with your dad either. Besides, have you considered the retirement benefits (medical, Secret Service detail, your own Presidential Library, etc.) ???? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I hate to break it to you, but Foriegner, Hall & Oates, Boston, and Don Henley are all from the seventies. And Chicago is all the way from the sixties (yeah baby !). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I don't try to prove to people that the sport is safe any more, because it isn't, and I have no interest in seeing lots more people join the sport. But we need lots more people to join the sport. Because like most things, the sport has to grow or else it will wither and die and one need look no farther than the trials and tribulations of any number of attempted soccer leagues in the U.S. for an example. This is a very serious philosophical question about our sport and where it's headed. USPA is concerned about declining membership and apparently declining participation in skydiving. We should all be concerned about it. Are people just staying away because it's so expensive (it's NEVER been cheap), or are people getting the idea that jumping is just too dangerous ? Back in the seventies we actually believed that jumping was safer than driving, at least that's the way we talked among ourselves, let alone to the public. I think it's good that we've faced up to the reality that this is an inherently dangerous sport and that even a simple solo hop & pop from 3 or 4 grand can kill you. But there's a real difference between "dangerous" and "not safe". Yes, skydiving is dangerous. But I cannot believe that our sport is "not safe". It's "not safe" if you're the sort of person who wants to stay home in a padded room wearing shoulder pads in case you fall out of the sofa watching TV. You can make it not safe by doing uncool stuff like pulling low, not clearing your airspace before pulling, making radical turns close to the ground, or insisting you can teach yourself swooping after just fifty jumps because you've been watching these guys do it and "it can't be THAT hard". But if you do things like that, you'll also find that people won't jump with you anymore, because they want to be safe. They want to promote an ATMOSPHERE of safety. And sometimes they manage to create that atmsophere and sometimes they don't, because some people listen and some won't and because humans are odd irrational creatures. I recognize the danger, but I have to believe that this sport CAN be "safe, mostly". Because if I really can't believe it's mostly safe, then I can't justify doing it anymore. Not to my family and not to myself. It's true that today's jumpers have "discovered new ways to kill themselves", but there's been a lot of progress too. It will never be a completely safe sport and I think a lot of us would quit if it were. But it discourages and disappoints me to hear people who have personally enjoyed thousands of jumps to say things like "this sport isn't safe", or they don't care if there's any further growth in the sport. So what, the party can end now that they've had their fun ? Hell, with my obligations and commitments, I'm just hoping to get in my thousandth jump in the next few years and then see where it goes from there. I want to see the sport stick around AND grow, because if it doesn't grow it will die. It will be outlawed, "for our own good", because "it's not safe". Safety isn't given to us on a platter, it takes effort. It has to be created every new day or it's not there. It's not like we can't do it - we just have to . Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I would disagree depending on the scenario. The primary criterion is - can you safely land it? If you can turn it and flare it, odds are you can land it. And if you are pretty sure you can land it, then it may well make sense to keep it rather than cut away a good canopy and get a potentially malfunctioning one. But that's the devil whispering in your left ear saying things like that. Does somebody with less than 100 jumps really have the experience and judgement to make that call ? I'll admit this guy landed okay - and I'm HAPPY for that ! But the bottom line, especially for his experience level, is that he GOT AWAY with it. When I was a hundred jump wonder I got my ass chewed out for considerably less and I took it to heart because I knew the people chewing me out had my best interests (and theirs) at heart. This wasn't like a pilot chute in tow, or a streamer or violent spinner. You get one of those and it's all business, "Oh I'm in trouble now, grab those handles and help me Jesus!". But the slower ones that give you too much time to think can kill you just as dead. Or cripple you. You're in a bad frame of mind because you want to hold onto that main and since you're already having trouble you don't feel especially good about trusting the other one either. I know that's true, because I've been there and done that. Reserves aren't perfect and they're not magical. They can malfunction. But we HAVE TO trust them, or else maybe think again about whether or not we REALLY enjoy falling out of the sky for amusement. That's a tough call to make. But this guy was just plain lucky, end of story. In the old days he'd have been grounded. It's NOT a good example for others and he now has a false sense of confidence in his "ability" to beat the odds. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Wasn't Michael Bolton the poor guy with the glasses in "Office Space" who wrote the money skimming program ? Glad everything's working out now, Spectres are a lot of fun. And you're closing right in on # 100. Any flavor preferences for your pie ? Banana, marangue, key lime ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I have a problem with saying skydiving isn't safe. It IS inherently dangerous, but quite honestly if it were THAT dangerous I wouldn't do it. because I'm not stupid or crazy. And while it's true that you can do everything right and still die, that's extremely rare. It's usually somebody making some kind of human error, bad judgement, sloppy maintenance of their gear, overconfidence, not paying attention, etc. It's NOT as safe as we used to tell people in days gone by, but it sure is a lot safer in many ways (and more dangerous in others). I generally tell people it's "safe enough" and that they shouldn't have to worry about giving it a try. But I also tell them that if they take up the sport, they will soon lose a friend, will eventually see it happen, and that one day it could just happen to them. But that a single tandem and a life in the sport are two different things. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

There are several layers to this issue. For one thing, Josef Ratzinger, aka "the Rat", aka Pope Benedict, might have a personal anti-gay bias himself. I don't know for sure, but it's a definite possibility, the guy's a total hard liner. and I'm NOT defending him either, after all I'm an EX-Catholic. There are some serious questions raised now about whether the Catholic Church is revising its teaching that homosexual orientation is not a sin in and of itself. But outside of the gay issue, American seminaries and the American priesthood have a serious problem with a predatory sexual subculture. NPR ran a story last week about a man who entered a seminary near the Bay Area back in 1989 and he was so bombarded with propositions, porn, and invitations from priests to go out to gay clubs with them that he quit the seminary and sued the Jesuits for sexual harrassment. And this guy was gay himself ! The point being that he didn't enter the seminary to meet guys, he could've done that anywhere. He wanted to be a priest. The Vatican realizes that there is a serious problem with predatory practices, combined with a system that excels in stonewalling, moving people around, and fighting tooth & nail to protect their own. It just so happens that this subculture in the priesthood & seminaries is also a male gay culture, due mostly to the supposed celibacy of Catholic priests. Celibacy has never worked, it didn't work in the Middle Ages, when the churches ran their own brothels in the basements of local churches. But agin, in these modern times, the church now has a really serious problem that's been festering for too long. For better or worse, this Pope is too traditional a hardliner to ever admit that celibacy may be a root cause of the problem. But something has to be done. Whether this alienates gays from the Catholic church is another real problem, both for the church and for its faithful gays. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

There have always been, and will always be gay priests. Ultimately the Church will not be able to keep every gay out or the seminary and they're NOT going to start defrocking priests who are already ordained. The Church has got a real problem, especially in the US, where the priesthood and the seminaries have become a ready made institution for sexual predators. And the record so far is that most of the priest predators are going after a lot more boys than girls. A genuine discussion about sexual orientation is one thing, but the Church is under no obligation to become a Club Med for predators. Plus, whether or not we agree - and I'm personally speaking as an ex-Catholic because I have so many disagreements - the Catholic Church, or any church for that matter is free to teach and ENFORCE its own dogma within the confines of the church and its institutions. Fact is, the Catholic priesthood has been rumored to be a huge "gay club" for time out of memory. Recent events are sadly proving that much of the rumor is true. So the Church is supposed to just let the situation go on like this ?? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !