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I'm in bbmbshleter now. Yeah, and you spell like it too. See you tomorrow ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I remember throwing a few streamers out on morning loads back in the seventies. It's kind of fun and a real feeling of accomplishment to watch the thing all the way to touchdown and then interpret its location into an exit point - AND have everyone on the load land on the DZ using your spot. But I always wondered if we weren't littering up the landscape with the things, I mean even one a day adds up pretty quick. I don't think the neighbors could be too happy, especially with the steel rods that weigh them down. But I never heard of the rod hurting any machinery (lawnmower, farm equipment, etc). Since I've been back in the sport I haven't seen a single wind streamer, everything's gone to global positioning and green lights in the door. But I still spot to make sure I can see the DZ and to watch for aircraft below. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Lyle passed away some years ago, but his son Lyle Jr still jumps out at Perris, usually on Air Trash Days (last Saturday of the month). He's got the entire Ripcord collection at home. He also remembers going out on location with his dad for many of the Ripcord shoots and has some fun stories about that from a kid's point of view. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Go for it dude, I'll be watching for you in the Incidents. Live fast die young, leave a good looking corpse. What, did you think I'd get upset or something ??? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Remember how incredibly QUIET it was the first time in your life you were under a canopy? The silence of that first canopy ride was the most magical sound I had ever heard, and it would remain so until years later when I heard my oldest child’s heartbeat in utero for the very first time. And that’s quite a comparison. Andy, I don't think the kids today can relate to that. They've only known squares and the windy sounds of flying a canopy. Even under a round, it was never as quiet again as it was that first time, a quiet so complete and golden it was a special once in a lifetime gift from God. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

a build up of working in the sport for over a year in combination with never being able to spend time with my wife Whether or not you quit jumping, or do anything else, you need to find more time - a LOT more time - for your wife. One of the reasons so many marriages get in trouble is that people forget its their primary relationship in life. Everything else should come after that. Take more time with your wife and the two of you will be amazed at all the things you can do and the ways you can change and grow. But give her your time and best of luck with whatever else you decide. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Missed the third WFFC in a row I might have gone to, always for the same reason. Can't afford it or get the time off. I just WISH I could get to the convention and jump my ass off, just once in my life. Sounds like WFFC has taken a real beating this year. All the "really hip" people seem to be badmouthing it, then the two fatalities couldn't have helped. Hey, a boogie's a boogie. They come and go. Maybe WFFC has had its day, but I hope not. I just feel sad to see so many people trashing it when so many other people (like me) would give their left 'nad to go just once.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Plenty of good advice here, including spending some time and your kids' college tuition in a wind tunnel (it will help a lot). But get used to the idea of being frustrated on jumps too, because the feeling will never leave you. Compared to the old days (oh God, here I go again....) when it used to take 20+ jumps to get off student status, you're moving along with blinding speed, and I'm happy to say that. It's a big improvement. But this is not the world's easiest sport to learn and if it were we'd all be bored to shit and quit. You're learning how to go against all your natural instincts and not only jump, but to make fun and games of it while apparently falling to your death from a great height (or so your body is thinking). You'll get past this and from the sound of things should be graduating from AFF and moving towards your A license very soon. But you're always going to face frustrations. Last weekend some friends and I did a 3 way skills dive all the way to breakoff. Then we did a 12 point 5 way. But on the third jump, with the same 5 people, we funneled the exit and took way to long to regroup for the first point. Only completed 3 formations on that dive. Frustrated ? Sure we were. Hey, I'm sure even Airspeed has plenty of frustrating, even pissed off training jumps. But it's all part of thhe game. If you never have a bad jump, you can't enjoy the good ones. In the end, any jump that gives you an open canopy and a landing you can walk away from is a REALLY GOOD jump. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Hey, if you've done 4 AFF dives, you're a skydiver. One tandem doesn't do it, unless you're handicapped, but the fact that you've come back, faced whatever door fear you have and stuck with it means you're IN. Plus you've shelled out a small fortune by now that you could've spent on sex, drugs, or rock "n roll, so you're gettting the idea that expense is no object, regardless of your visible means of support. Welcome aboard and keep on truckin' ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Like a lot of people, I equate skydiving with sex and my withdrawals are similar. I get irritable and argumentive. Start nosing around porn sites or watching an X-rated DVD or two. Kill evey kitten within miles. And I drink more. Sex helps with no jumping, just like jumping can help with no sex, though with a loving wife no sex isn't a problem. Eventually my wife will almost shove me out the door and say something like "for God's sake will you just go to Perris and jump already !". I sure do love that woman.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Don't know if I hold the record, but a 22 year break has got to be damn close. If you have ANY logbooks at all, bring 'em ! I couldn't find all my logbooks and still haven't found the most recent one from the "old days", but was able to find two of my four logs. It makes all the difference. You DO have the experience and it WILL come back quick enough (though not all at once, so don't get frustrated). What you want to ask for is a "Recurrency" jump. Most DZ's have a fixed price for that, but once you're over it you're good and any license you may have held is reinstated, so long as you rejoin USPA. My D license was reinstated with a single jump, after some training in emergency procedures and BOP pilot deployment (we had hand deploy mounted on belly bands in the old days and there are some differences). If one jump's not enough, by all means request a 2nd jump with an instructor - I did. Then take a good ten or dozen jumps to work on your basic skills, just solo or 2 way stuff. It will come back like riding a bike if you just don't rush it. And before you know it, you'll be making real "skydives" again, like 6 point 8 ways, or 12 point 4 ways, or this crazy hip-hop shit the kids are doing on their butts or head down. And you'll be back in the game and it will feel better than ever. All you gotta do is show up and do it ! But bring ANY logbook you can find, otherwise they MUST assume you're a newbie..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I was 18. I had decided I would jump someday back when I was 6 or 7 years old and was a religious "Ripcord" watcher every Friday night on the TV. I had hoped to jump earlier, but my parents refused to sign off their permission and told me I'd just have to wait 'til I was old enough. So when I was 18 I sold my stereo to my brother for the price of my FJC. That didn't matter either, as I hadn't taken the stereo to college with me, my roomate's was better. And the stereo was still in my old room when I came home for the summer, so it was more like screwing my brother out of free money (hee-hee). Jumped for another 6 1/2 years, then hung it up just after my 25th birthday. Got back in at age 47 and I'll be 50 in November. Now you know the ugly truth.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Two words: GRATEFUL DEAD Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I had just over 100 jumps when I was invited to come along to the Easter Boogie at Z-Hills back in 1977. Oh the memories that come flooding back from that week. Driving a van with So. Carolina plates through the south past all the New York plates the cops were pulling over, the same endless half dozen 8 track tapes, the unforgettable anics of The Herd, seeing the really HOT teams of the day like Exitus (who invented the chunk exit for speed stars). And our first really high loads from big aircraft. We got to Z-Hills after dark and walked around 40 Tango before turning in and I couldn't believe I'd be jumping from this monster all week. The first load in the morning was a "relaxed" 14 way round star. I "relaxed" about as much as somebody who'd never been on anythhing larger than a 6 way could, especially since I was asked to climb out as a floater, something else I'd never done. It worked out just fine though, even if I didn't get in to the star. Boogies are an awful lot of fun, but I completely understand if you feel just a bit scared or intimidated by it. If you can, try to go with a group of friends, so you can start off easy with your own small group of people you already know. Or else ask for a LO and be up front about your experience level. Then, after you've got a few dives under your belt, don't be afraid to stretch yourself a bit. Boogies are about meeting new people, making new friends, trying things you haven't done before - and getting a little crazy, even in the air. Just so long as you do it sensibly. You'll have a blast that will last long after it's over and you're back home. Enjoy. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Congratulations on a job well done, especially as you encountered some unforseen problems with your cutaway. I had to back up and reassure myself that you'd jumped from some altitude though, as you described your cutaway sequence. I could almost hear a clock ticking as you went through describing 8-10 spins, finding that your T-shirt obstructed your handles, and then falling away to regain stability. Obviously the fact that you hopped and popped from 13 grand puts a very different complexion on the situation, i.e a lot more time to deal with your problem. And I want to congratulate you for doing your EPs. It's great to be alive, especially with the newfound experience of knowing that cutaways and reserves actually work. So I'm not criticizing you, but want to point out a few things that might have contributed to a horrific ending (like maybe even your "death") if this had occurred at a more usual opening altitude. As high as you were, taking the 8-10 spins is no biggy, as long as you don't feel yourself getting disoriented, dizzy, or like you're going to black out. But a spinning canopy can black you out. The centrifugal force of a spin will drain the blood right out of your brain, so that needs immediate attention. And by the way, I'm REALLY sorry you lost your canopy, that's a real drag about high altitude cutaways. Your t-shirt would be the next item on the agenda. Lots of people jump in t-shirts, sweatpants, and all kinds of casual clothes. But you've had a direct experience now where your t-shirt interfered with your ability to reach your handles. At 8500+ ft that's not such a problem, below 3 grand it's a BIG one. And then you chose to get stable again before pulling your reserve. Again, at 8500+ ft that's not a biggie, "but down in the valley" you could easily spend the rest of your life trying to get stable. It goes without saying that you're not using a RSL, otherwise you'd have been open almost instantly after your cutaway. I'm a believer in RSLs and use one myself. I don't believe in telling people what to do, but in your place with under 100 jumps, do you really think it's wise to be jumping without one ? Please give that some serious thought. You didn't mention whether you use an AAD or not, but don't forget that cutting away from a spinner can fool an AAD - because you must reaccelerate to a fast enough speed to "scare" your AAD into firing. And if you're AAD doesn't get scared 'til below 200 ft it's not going to be much help. The reason I'm so concerned is that your incident, with its happy ending sounds eerily close to the two fatal incident reports out Rantoul in the last two weeks - as well as the only fatality at the 2003 WFFC. All three were cutaways from spinners, no RSL, victim tried to regain stability before pulling their reserve, and in at least two of the cases the Cypres fired too low to do any good. You had a lot of extra grace on this one because you opened so high and I'm not so sure we wouldn't be reading something about "witnesses said he appeared to be trying to get stable before impact" if you'd been on a normal freefall load. So again, this is not to rant at you. I'm glad you kept your head and did your EPs. You're landing alive and well is THE happy ending, though I'm so sorry about you losing your canopy. But please start thinking about what you can do differetly next time; everything from how long you take to r4each a decision, to the clothes you're wearing, to maybe hooking up a RSL to your rig. Because we ALL want you to live a long time and to enjoy this sport as an old man. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

You know what ? You're whining. That's something else we learned in the old days - don't whine. If I said I'm an asshole, it's because a.) I have a warped sense of humor, or b.) maybe sometimes I am. Anyway, if I admit to "making a face", I'm just being honest on a fucking forum, so pardon me all to hell. So to all the brain police out there, I don't think anybody out there under normal circumstances needs to pull below 3 grand. And if f you want to whine, go play in a whine cellar ! And don't forget your cheese & crackers... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Hey everybody, I'm the asshole who made the original post in the Incidents column. The main reason I made the comment was in response to another post suggesting that the victim of the fatality in question was somehow "doomed" before he ever even got out the door. I took that remark as a case of extreme altitude paranoia and responded accordingly. Personally, even in the old days I usually pulled somewhere between 2500 - 3000 ft and was usually under an open canopy by 2500 ft. In those days I once chopped a streamer malfunction and was still under my reserve just above 1500 ft, so I figured I was leaving myself enough room (no RSL's or AADs back then either). Nowadays I usually pull at about 3 grand and I'm open down around 2300 most every time. I'm all in favor of breaking off at 4500 ft, or even 5 grand on something bigger. But seriously, I DO think that newer jumpers need to gradually work their way down and get comfortable with pulling below 4 grand. For one thing, if you're open above 3 grand you're a hazard to freefalling bodies and if one of them hits you, you'll be just as dead as them. And that's one UGLY fatality, especially since it's often a double fatality. I don't see any reason why a safe novice jumper can't learn to acclimate themselves to breaking off at 4500 ft or gradually working their pull altitude down to 3500 and eventually 3 grand. And those are the altitudes we need to feel comfy with. THEN theres's the sometimes necessary pull below 3 grand. I don't like having to go below 2500 and 2 grand frankly scares me, but I know I can do it if I have to. It's not a matter of feeling comfy, it's having the confidence to do it when you have to. Because sometimes we have to do things we don't like. So when I said "go play in the wind tunnel", I was being dismissive of someone saying a jumper was "doomed" by a very reasonable safety rule at a high volume event. And by the way, I love jumping with newbies, even when they want to breakoff high. I usually make a face and will sometimes ask "not comfy with 4500 ?" and then agree to their asking for 5000. Because in real life I'm not such an asshole, only when I go online..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

We didn't find any sub-hundred jumpers today at Perris, but did find two with between 100 and 150 jumps and it was most gratifying. Did a 12 point 5 way from the Skyvan, then a more problematic 5 way that started with a bad funnel and took some time geting combed out. That dive rebuilt to a 3 pointer that included a double donut formation. Jumping with newbies is wonderful ! I came up in a time when experineced jumpers wouldn't touch newbies with a 10 ft pole, and that was on the ground. I know what it's like to fight tooth & nail to get on a decent load to learn something. In general things have got WAAAY better and I love to include newbies on our loads. But I do try to make the mix about 60/40 in favor of experience, so that something good is likelier to come of it. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I would if I could get a PDR193 to demo. The local gear shop offers PD reserve demos up through 176 ft, which is really too small for me. I suppose I could send away to PD for a demo model, but it seems like a hassle. Besides, from what I've seen of PD reserve landings, they're just GREAT. And the 193 is supposedly actually 200 sq ft, which is only 10 sq ft smaller than my Pilot main. So I'm not worrying about it either. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

_________________________________________________ A complete bunch of crap (pun intended) ! I'm sooooo tired of people like Arlo Tolesco trying to tell me I'm inadequate if I don't have sex HIS way (or more likely, WITH him...). Phooey I say. If you like anal, by all means go for it and enjoy this month of August. Maybe that's why so many people have been walking funny lately.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The one thing that's always bugged me about going to church is that everybody is always expecting something of you, you "have to" go, you "have to" cough up when the collection plate goes by, you "have to" stick around afterwards, then you "have to" sign up for some kind of study group. They really want to get their talons into you. The last time I really enjoyed church was when I was so little I didn't even think about it, I was 3 or 4 years old and of course I went with my parents and I thought te whole deal was kind of fun. But as soon as I started school (Catholic school) it turned into such a drag. If you believe, and you WANT to go to church, you should go whenever you want to, or feel you need to. You can always jump on Saturdays, church it up Sunday morning, and then jump some more or do something else. I can only afford to jump about every other Saturday anyway. I sometimes go to church with my wife, but not very often. Then other times, like my parents' golden wedding anniversary last winter, I wouldn't dream of not going. But whatever your motivation for going, don't let your parents make you. You're an adult now. Go with them if you want to, not because you have to. Because you don't have to. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I started on static line. In the ancient days in distant galaxies it was the only way to go. Never been on a tandem, but will probably give it a try when I'm too old to do it on my own anymore. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Hey congratulations, you're doing just fine. Don't worry about it, they won't let you pass until you get it right. Besides, you might as well get used to feeling disappointed. Even those of us with hundreds, or thousands of jumps come down feeling that way more often than we'd care to admit. If you're opened by a safe altitude, executed any necessary EP's, made the dropzone or a safe out, and walked away from your landing on your own two feet, you did JUST GREAT. Shrug it off and start planning ahead for the next one, whether it's on a 20 min. call or a couple more weekends out. What counts is you're in the game. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I started jumping in the days when motorcycle helmets were the norm. By the end of the seventies we'd gone through hockey helmets and then most people were wearing either Protecs or those stupid French leather hats that contain the brain spillage when you hit your head and die. (I also knew a woman who went in after whacking her head on the door wearing one of those stylin' pieces of shit). I'm really pleased to see the return of the hardhat to the sport. I myself do fun RW with a Mindwarp open faced helmet because open faced is what I'm used to. Still, I got a split lip and bit my tongue on one frisky exit, so I can appreciate the value of a full face. If I got serious and jumped on a 4 way team, I'd probably take a serious look at a full face. As a novice you should take your time. As long as you've got something hard on you're noggin you should be just fine. Don't feel like you "need" to go full face, because you don't. Besides, the fuckers cost $300+ and I'm sure you could use the $$ for any number of more pressing things (jump tix, tunnel time, an audible, or ANY altimeter for that matter, a good jumpsuit, or putting the $$ towards your first rig.....). All good things in all good time. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Some of these troubled children create incidents by freaking inexperienced jumpers out. When such groups are present on a DZ the incident rate often goes into overdrive. Reminds me of Terry what's-his-name from Perris back in 1980. That little guy pissed off almost everybody. When he finally got busted for a bandit jump off El Capitan and they confiscated his rig, they found out it was a stolen rig too.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !