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I however think the teacher needs to remove the stick I think that's exactly what your return note to the teacher should say. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Sure it's "fair", but don't expect an honest answer. Life ain't fair. Just make sure he's wearing his "galoshes", because safety will be a real issue, nomatter what anyone tells you. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It's really important to keep your balance. I can't afford to go jump every weekend, so I end up having to spend a lot of weekends in the real world. There's a lot of life to be lived off the dropzone too. You could probably do to take a few more weekends off during the season as well and go to parks and beaches, or anything else. It can also help you not burn out on jumping as well and might even save you a few bucks. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

When I was 8 years old, my parents gave my brothers & me The Beatles "She Loves You" 45, and it was da bom. Some years later we got the "Magical Mystery Tour" LP for Xmas. With my own money, I bought "Cheap Thrills" by Janis Joplin when I was 12 years old. Saw her live about 8 months later, just that one time. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Grateful Dead, Hot Tuna, Janis Joplin. All of 'em live and in extra special living colors. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'm genuinely puzzled at so few freefly teams. After all, freefly is so popular that it's hard to get an RW load together at some dropzones,or sometimes even at perris ona weekday. With so many 4 Way teams competing at all three division levels, why aren't there more freeflyers getting out and competing at any sort of level ? I can't really believe that freeflyers aren't competitive. Anyway, they could get some "critical mass" and make the "Artistic" week a lot more happenin' for them, and a lot less jealous of the relative workers. If RW is such a big week, it's because releative workers make it happen and freeflyers could do that too. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I learned that I should NEVER jump a rig with messy risers, because that means the bad guys cut my main ripcord with bolt cutters and it will make my reserve streamer on me. Scary stuff.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Dr. Jack is America's first clebrity serial killer. He paints too ? That's nice - so did Hitler. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Lots of things. A p/c bridle wrapped around a belly band (this was a common problem in the old days on early hand deploy rigs). Once we thought a guy's reserve container looker really odd and a rigger friend went digging - and found a BIC pen through both the closing loops (shudder...). Oh yeah, one time we did a gear check on a cameraman and discovered he'd forgottenhis rig and left it on the ground ! And I'm not making this up... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I've heard a lot of great things about the Safire2, though I've never jumped one. I have jumped a Sabre2 and was not impressed. As I own a Pilot, I think you ought to give one of them a try, they're in the same class as the Sabres & Safires. Spectres are really great too, but they're a 7 cell with a steeper glide. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Aye matey, though I have sailed the seven seas, many's the time I've been blown ashore... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Zero. Onsite rigger and several other sets of eyes inspected the canopy immediately after the landing and found no burns or other obvious damage to the canopy. The jumper, after several debriefs, then packed (albeit more carefully this time) and got on the next load. Well I'm happy to hear that and happier still to have seen the guy roll and get up on his feet in the video. But I'm still going to sing along with the rest of the choir that he should've cutaway. He's really REALLY lucky to have got off so easily this time. And on the downside, he may now have a heightened degree of false confidence that he can "tough it out" in a marginal situation. Reluctance to cutaway a marginal canopy is a very real feeling. I've had it myself and once dicked around with a flakey canopy all the way down to 1200 ft before I finally gave up and went to my handles (many years ago, with a round reserve, which opened just fine and quickly, by the way...). The comparatively slower falling malfunction is a real deciever, it can lull you into thinking you're okay when you aren't and it plays absolute hell with your sense of time passing and how close the ground is getting. As I mentioned earlier, my friend had a slider hung up near the line cascades on an otherwise open canopy. He told us later he thought he was alright and had no idea how fast he was coming down 'til the last couple hundred feet. That's what a hard deck is for, if your canopy don't look like the one in the pretty brochures by your hardeck, LOSE it and give the other one a chance. It will not only save you a lot of pain & sorrow, but having a cutaway under your belt will help you feel a lot better about trusting your EPs in the future. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Teach the people in your group to check your pin before you put your rig on and then we can do it on the plane. I've noticed that very few people do pinchecks in the plane anymore. In the old days (the magical mythical seventies) everyone used to do them before jump run. I'm not so sure why they don't nowadays, except I am wary myself about letting just anyone poke around with my gear just before exit. My rig's a Javelin and I'm touchy about the closing flap being closed back up so it won't come loose in freefall (which is something of an issue with Javelins, but that's another story). The solution is that I have a best friend who I jump with a lot and we give each other pin checks. He also jumps a Javelin. But he wouldn't really have to be jumping the same kind of rig either. As long as he understands my rig and I understand his rig, he could be jumping a Vector, Talon, Racer, Infinity, you name it, so long as we've gone over how it closes on the ground. If you're like most jumpers, you're probably settling into a few steady friends who you jump with a lot. If you all just take a few minutes to get familiar with each other's closing procedures, you can give each other pin checks at altitude and go sailing out the door with an extra degree of confidence and safety. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Didn't have confidence in his EP's, and the incorrect theory yhat something over his/her head is better than nothing. Like what if he they cutaway and the reserve wasn't there. Yeah, the original post says he had under 100 jumps, so I'm guessing this was his first mal (I was going to say first cutaway, except he didn't...). Lack of confidence in EPs, with a false sense of security underneath something that appears to be mostly open are really dangerous. It's that old feeling of "sure feels safer here onboard the Titanic than in that dinky little lifeboat". Plus it's not an obvious baglock/streamer/or violent spinner. Many years ago a friend of mine compressed 3 vertabrae at the same dropzone because he thought he was basically okay with a hung up slider under an old 5 cell canopy. He didn't realize how fast he was falling until he was too low and it was too late. On the whole, he got off easy, it could've been much worse. Cutting away is something we have to be prepared to do every time. This malfunction turned out to be landable, but it could've gone to hell at any moment. And I'd be interested to know what kind of damage there was to the canopy from riding it in like that. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Time and patience. My wife slipped and fell on her bum on the stairs almost a year ago and had a very peinful tailbone injury. She went to the doctor and he said there wasn't much to be done for it. Almost a year later things are very much better, but it's not over yet. It's been a hard year as she works long hours sitting at a desk. She did find an inflatable donut helpful. But it seems the older you are and/or the harder you strike it, tailbones will go on hurting a long time. Best of luck to you. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

A very promising jumper with over 1100 jumps was killed last year at Perris when she made a self taught move that she'd been getting away with at a sea level dropzone. At Perris' 1420 ft elevation it put her into the ground and she died 3-4 days later. Learn how to do it from those who already know. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

This weekend I'm home, After three jumping weekends, You can't win 'em all "Have you seen my wife ?" "Listen Bud, I AM your wife !" "Well I've missed you" We have things to do She's got a brand new glass kiln We need to start up It should be nice though, More to life than skydiving, Other things like love. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'm just over 700 jumps, which used to be considered a good number years ago, but not anymore. I jump a 210 Pilot canopy. But with an exit weight of 250 lbs., I'm loading at about 1.2. My reserve is a PDR193, which I'm loading at about 1.25. For now, I feel just fine with the 210. When I can do all the cool stuff Bill Von suggests in his "10 Things You Need to Do Before Downsizing" article, I might go to a 190, but that will probably be about it. Or not, because on my budget I'm about as geared up as I'm gonna be for years to come. I find it interesting that most women jumpers, with the exception of the women who are seriously devoted to swooping, seem to be loading their canopies in the 1.0 to 1.2 range. It's the guys who can't seem to get by with anything less than a 1.5 loading. I think if somebody built a canopy with a "suicide clutch", the guys would all want to run out and buy one.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Of course he should resign - but he won't. By now he's been removed, called back to Washington, where he can be more completely useless. But Bush will never sack him because Bush and his buds can do no wrong. He'll probably even get a fucking raise. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

My old friend Jimmy Tavino is still jumping steady after more than thirty years in this sport. He posts regularly in these forums. Aside from Jimmy, I have several friends at Perris and Elsinore who jumped back in the seventies and never quite had the sense to quit, we still all get out on Air Trash Days (last Saturday of every month, usuallyat Perris). And I had a rather refreshing break of 22 years, but have been back for 2 1/2 years now myself and enjoying it more than ever. Nobody ever really quits until they're dead & buried - and some of them even make one last ash dive with their friends. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

That'd be a neat new category of Nationals! Even more impressive was the experimental VRW event held during the "artistic" events. Think of vertical 4 Way and you've basically got it. The teams were launching out of the Skyvan. They were showing some of the team vids out by the pool Sunday night and it was sooooo cool I think I might just have to learn how to freefly after all ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Take a good dose of all the above advice and give it a shot. If it doesn't work out you can always get work at the local funeral parlor... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Freefall's not really much good for your ears either. Never thought much about it when I was younger, but now that I'm just old enough to have a slight hearing loss, I'm doing all I can to preserve what I've got. Even turning the music down a bit.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Silver only. What I don't like about cutting away is that it disconnects one of your final options. I have seen an incident (long ago) where a jumper couldn't get her main out, went to her reserve and the reserve exploded on opening. She got her main open at about 100 ft. If she cutaway she'd have died. A pilot in tow is a nasty situation and the best solution is to proactively AVOID them. But if you have one anyway, cutting away is no better guarantee of saving yourself, so you might as well keep one of your options connected to your harness. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Rodeo style is always a challenge. It's just like doggie style, until you tell her how good her sister is. Then you try and see how long you can hang on. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !