tbrown

Metro - what - the - fuck is this ? I thought you wuz talkin' about doin' it on the bus or somethin', not some sissified excuse for the rest of us to all go limp wristed at once... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

No big juicy Worshington sluggie slugs ??? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The old saying that "Cleanliness is next to godliness" was never truer than when you're a brewer (or a poet and you know it). I always found that ordinary bleach works just fine, but in TINY amounts. Like an overnight soak in a solution of about 1 tsp bleach in 5 gal. of water will do you just fine, and is easy to rinse away with hot water. You need a good book. The best I ever found was Charlie Papazian's "Complete Joy of Home Brewing". It starts you off at square one, assuming you don't know anything. And it will take you through beginner's, intermediate, and up to advance levels without intimidating you. Charlie's motto, and he says it a lot, is "Relax - have another home brew !". It was Charlie's book tha persuaded me to try stepping up to all grain brewing, making my own mashes from the crushed grains. You'll want to wait a while before trying that, and some people are perfectly happy sticking with the kits and syrups. But relax, keep your rig clean, and enjoy. You'll wonder why you didn't do this years ago. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Bump this thread back where it should be. So who wants on the ash dive ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Sorry Dave, my mistake...I thought you meant something truly WIERD, I mean like wierdo daddy-o, like mutant or something. I like stuff like that... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Back in my college daze I used to work summers at a sewage treatment plant. And there were days I would literally have to put on waders and hop in right up to my hips in shit. Know what ? It's all a matter of attitude, just depends how you think about it. Oh and we also laid down a good cover of powdered chlorine before hoppin' in. Paid for two summers' worth of jumping, as well as a pile of college expenses (but after two years I did switch to the Highway Dept, shoveling tar, gravel and concrete is still easier than shovelling shit). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

And bring the troupe along to Perris for JFTC! Seriously... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Yeah Bill, I do remember Jerry Bingston, he used to jump at Otay a lot. Joe Crotwell too. You jogged my memory there and I do recall hearing the story that Jerry had won a prize and passed on it because of his religious beliefs. I was more surprised that Jerry would even be there at all, but to each his own I guess... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Life insurance policies are contestable for about two years. I say "about" because the period can vary according to the laws of your state. It's intended to prevent fraud and the insurance company can deny a claim or revoke your policy if they find out you lied about anything (activities, medical history, criminal record, etc). Try the big names in the business too (NY Life, Prudential, etc). Most of them realize that death by skydiving can be predicted by an actuary just as accurately as death in a car crash, by cancer, or suicide for that matter. The company I once worked for covered skydiving IF the insured was a USPA member "in good standing". Apparently they were impressed with USPA's safety & training standards. They still rate you though, it costs more than a policy for a smoker (so quit smoking or it will cost even more). If you've owned your policy from a time when you weren't jumping, HOLD ONTO IT. I bought mine about ten years ago when I wasn't jumping and didn't think I ever would be again. It's incontestable now, they can't do diddley about my jumping and I'm paying a very affordable premium. Do the homework and get the insurance. You may not think you need it, but your family sure as hell will if bite the big one. It's just another part of your overhead, just like 3 re-packs a year. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I was against it, still am. We have friends whose kids are serving there, we send them packages. One of them lost his best friend a month ago when a crate full of rockets somehow armed itself and went off, blowing him clean in two. Before the invasion Colin Powell warned President Bush, "If you break it, you own it". And that's exactly what's happened. Eventually the cost in American lives and dollars will be so great that we'll just pull out and leave the Iraqis to kill each other. Hate to say it, but that is what will happen, whether it's next year or in ten years. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

What she said....use the money for tunnel time, more jumps, new clothes, or save it up for WFFC (not just the money, but the days off as well). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Fun pics of the plane. The women look kinda scary, but I guess that's part of the fun ? (I would hope so...) Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Why would ANYONE want to do such an awful thing ? Do you have the slightest idea just how CRANKY the world would get ? Besides, what if you DIED before the forty days was up. Maybe not died of no sex or killing kittens, but your last thought in this life would be, "How could I have been so stupid ?" Your tombstone would read something like, "Dumbass here, six feet under, was going forty days without, never guessing his/her time was up". People would read that and not know whether to laugh, cry, or come back after dark and do it on your grave. Not for me, thank you very much ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Uh....no. But it's better than a doggie love doll I suppose... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Oh yeah. Back in college I once had a Hungarian girlfriend. Between her accent and the fact that she was a total nympho she made life very exciting for about two months. Then she got fed up with me jumping and dumped me....but oooh, that accent of hers... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Guys, this is too funny, I know all of you ! Don't think I know you Frank, but I do know Norm. I was still back east in '77, so I'm still thinking the one I read about was '79, which would've been in my time frame. And it was on the very weekend that you couldn't get a drop of gasoline for ANYTHING in San Diego, the damn gas stations weren't even open and people were saving their gas so they could get to work on Monday (what a drag that was....). So I couldn't even get to where there was a plane, because somebody had a plane and was going, I can't remember who anymore. Mike, I DID hear the story about the chick who won. Heard all the guys tried to sweet talk her out of it too, and she told 'em to what they could do about it - and walked off with a tall redhead ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It was a rough weekend for cut aways at the boogie, I know for a fact, there were at least 7 in two days including one tandem. So who WAS packing, Gomez, Lurch, or Uncle Fester ?!? Seven cutaways, ai carumba ! Hey, good job ! One less thing for you to have wonder about, Mark Twain once said, "Anyone who's ever grabbed a tiger by the tail knows six or seven things more than someone who hasn't". Good job, ya done real good. Ain't it great to be alive ?! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The classic story from the way old days is the guy who figured out that he could see the oranges on the trees at pull time. Worked just great until one week they came along and piked all the oranges ! I've known people who made low pulls back in the seventies when their Altimaster needle got stuck They were waiting for a stupid needle to give them permission to pull, all the while never noticing that things on the ground were getting really HUGE. I wouldn't call myself dependent, but I'd rather not jump without an altimeter. I've got a pretty good sense of time and usually I shoot my first glance at my wrist mount somewhere between 6 and 7 grand. After breakoff I don't look at my alti again 'til I'm open. Once again, I know I've just broken off at 4 to 5 grand, there are so many people in the air with me and I'm keeping an eye on them as I track to beat hell out of there. I know that somewhere below 3 grand things start getting a lot bigger. And usually I beat the traffic, take a good look around, give a good wave and when I check my alti again under canopy I'm consistently at 2200-2300 ft. But I wouldn't want to be jumping with people and have to judge the breakoff without an alti, for safety in groups they really are necessary. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

'Cuz the Hot Dog pilot chute came out and made life easier ? I used to use 2 MA-1's with my PC in a 4 pin container (the canopy was packed in a POD, which was sort of a wrap around version of a bag). I always thought it was because MA-1's didn't seem to have that much "spring" in them. But anyway, I swiched over to one Hot Dog and that's all it took. Eventually when I ditched the whole setup and got my Hanbury rig, I kept the Hot Dog and put it on the reserve. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I have no idea. It's another very real aspect of the problem. Just like the "pro-lifers" who want to stop abortions but won't help single moms raise or feed their babies. Or fund birth control. Or support or even tolerate sex ed in schools. I'm not identifying with those people or their agendas and they leave plenty of questions unanswered. But at the end of the day, does the ruinous cost of somebody's medical bills allow any of us to call an end to their lives ? I'm not so much stating a position as posing some questions that won't leave me alone about this. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Anybody recall the meet hosted in 1979 at the Chicken Ranch brothel in Nevada ? They are of course one of the licensed establishments that flourish in Nevada and many of these places have their own air strips for clients to fly in and out of. The way I remember it, the Chicken Ranch advertised a meet in '79 with events in Style, Accuracy, 4 Way and 8 Way RW events. They claimed to have a Twin Beech to support the meet and qualified judges. The events would be run according to the established rules. The prizes for winning competitors and teams included "freebies" with the ladies employed at the ranch. Never got there myself, as this just happened to be the weekend that the Iranian Revolution shut down all the gas stations in California. Then about a month later I met my wife anyway, but it was an adventure I wouldn't have minded making in my crazy single days, when "sex was safe and skydiving was dangerous". Anybody here able or willing to admit they might have actually been there ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

You will always get the nerves now and then, no matter how long or how many times you jump. It just happens. I was stuck in a horrible shitty job a few months back and I got so stressed I couldn't even get out to the dropzone, period. When I finally did, I realized that the life/death drama of jumping out of an airplane wasn't anywhere near as stressful as the fucking job I was stuck in, so about two weeks later I bailed on the job and got a much better one. But there's always some part of you that's trying to say, "Are you nuts ? This could kill you!" It's hard to rationalize with that kind of a feeling, since it's not really arational feeling and can't be reasoned with. The thing you just gotta do is to accept that it happens to ALL of us now and then. Anyone who says it doesn't happen to them is either lying or needs their head examined. Once you get onto jump run, just concentrate on the job at hand, your final equipment check, check a buddy's gear, check the spot, look for any stray aircraft below, and go. Once you're out there the fear has usually dissolved and you're diggin' it and dealing with whatever it is you need to be doing. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

At 145 lbs, you should most definitely get a surprisingly soft landing out of a PC. I weighed about 155-160 when I owned one and it was so soft that I made the transition from paraboots to Nikes. The deal is you're not flaring a wing here, you're just hauling down the rear risers on a big sack of air, albeit a somewhat more aerodynamic sack. And don't worry too much about the age of the fabric either. I used to fix tears on mine with fucking duct tape and it worked just great. If it holds up through the opening you're set. It's friggin 2.2 oz. taffeta, nothin's going to happen to it. Have yourself a ball, but be sure you have a good spot. On your way down, check out the way all the squares go whippin' by. Used to make me wish I owned a Strato Star so bad... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Aren't there any chix out there who would rather do Eowyn or the Tyler chic ? Just curious... (threesomes allowed). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

That would explain the empties that fall out of your reserve - another good reason to wear a hard hat... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !