tbrown

They might as well just come out and say "kauf nicht bei Juden", but I think SOMEBODY ELSE already said that. It sucks. I'll have to call around and see if I can buy some Israeli fruit in So. Cal. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Some of the goggle makers have oversize goggles that are designed to accomodate eyeglasses. Today's styles in eyeglasses tend to be pretty small anyway. My glasses are small, so I use a $3 retainer band to hold them snug, with a $14 oversize plastic goggle. Works great. Also, I don't know how old or blind you are, but a friend of mine who used to wear prescrip goggles 10 or so years ago gave up on them because he couldn't read his altimeter without bifocals. So if you're old or blind enough to need bi's or tri's, you're getting into some tricky/expensive prescriptions. $30 max for goggles and a retainer band will set you right. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

But wouldn't a downwind jump run be moving over the spot too fast. I mean if there's any appreciable wind, the plane's going to have a faster ground speed and people are going to have to really hustle. Isn't it just safer to fly the plane into the wind, slowing the ground speed down and allowing more time for climbouts, etc. ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Me too. Stepping into and out of the step in rigs is a real pain. I like knowing that I can unsnap the rig and get OUT of it really fast if I need to. I haven't done a water jump since the seventies, so I don't even know what the safe way is to get out of a step in if you land in the water, but it seems a snorkel might be needed. As long as you keep your B12's nice & springy so they don't get stuck, they're perfectly safe and with decent padding they're not at all uncomfortable. I'm going to have them put on the rig I order. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Ow, there goes my back....thanks man... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting, today's turbo jump planes like to roll over and dive once they're empty. Wow, that would be messy. In general I think it's really cool that people are pulling higher than they used to. Whether it's snivel soft openings, the higher speeds of freeflying, or the widely accepted use now of AAD's, people are definitely pulling higher than in the old days. Twenty years ago 2 grand to 2500 was considered normal. I've always been happy to let it go around 2800'ish. The one time I had to chop a streamer, I was under my reserve around 1800, which was fine with me. But I'm still wondering about people who say they're nervous about pulling below 3500 ft. Something inside is saying, "c'mon people, it's about freefall, isn't it ?". Please don't get me wrong, I think 3 grand is wonderful. But somebody else in these Forums made a remark about AFF graduates "being afraid of jumping below 6 grand". I mean the ground is coming up whether you're at 3 grand or 6. People getting too nervous about 3 grand make me nervous, because I wonder what they're going to do. If you're OPEN above 2 grand, you're in great shape! I'm talking about your average freefall dive here, not a planned high opening to go on a date with your canopy. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Uma Thurman's overdose and recovery in "Pulp Fiction", especially when she wakes up. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I get vivid mental pictures of drifting skydivers in the next group smacking into my canopy while they are still in freefall, due to not enough separation time. Does that count? Oh fer sure, they count. Watch somebody on your load go plummeting by sometime in their snivel phase, they're not drifting anymore (crazy bastards are falling !). Airplanes and freefallers are not expecting canopy traffic above 3 grand, so you really need to file a flight plan with the LO or manifest or somebody. Being open above 3 grand is high, because you're a body suspended under a canopy above 3 grand. All kinds of good reasons to do it & enjoy it, but let people know. Low, for me anyway, is sitting in under canopy below 2 grand. Pulling at or just below 3 grand is nice & comfy. If you're going to have trouble, it's a good thing to know about it by 2 grand. And if I ever screwed up enough to be down to 1500 in freefall, between snivel openings and the Cypres, I'll go for the reserve, since it's gonna probably open anyway. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Well is anybody gonna fix it ??? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

You never heard of blue balls ? Ask any guy about it, it's really most alarming... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I like the opener from Moonraker, guess it's actually the third scene, when Jaws pushes Roger Moore out the door without a rig. So James/Roger goes into a cool dive, catches up with B.J. Worth, beats Worth up and steals his rig. What a fabulous scene ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Aw heck, that's not a bad picture at all. Beats your new "Opie" pic by a mile ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

By the way, what's PD got to say about your Spectre ? Please keep us posted on that. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Was Scott Meek on Mirror Image, or on an earlier team? I know he was from around them sometime. Scott Meek used to jump on Visions, which later became the Coors team when they got a sponsorship. About 10 years ago I saw him on some cable channel story where he was coaching the British National Champion team for the world meet. That was an awesome show too, the 8 way footage was breathtaking. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

What impresses me is how many jumpers with thousands of jumps are using Spectres. Some, like Eric Fradet and Tanya Garcia-O'Brian, are world champions. These are people who could easily handle a micro pocket rocket canopy if they wanted to. But they love their Spectres. I've only got a few jumps on a 230 Spectre, but really love them. I will have to demo some Sabre2's and Safires before I go and buy something, but the Spectre's going to be in the running for my money all the way to the final decision. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Start looking everywhere and when you find something, pull the plug on the bastards. They've had you for a year, they should pay you what you're worth. But they won't, because they're bottom feeders. Don't tell anyone what you're doing, move silently and be merciless. You'll enjoy it. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

This spring I was able to come back after a 22 yr layoff because I was able to find two of my four old logbooks. All I needed was about an hour of refresher training, with lots of emergency drills and I jumped with one instructor hanging onto me out the door. Once he saw I was mentally there, he dropped grips and we faced off in freefall. If I hadn't found any logs, I'd have had to take the entire AFF program at full price. Because they can't afford to just take you at your word. Without a logbook, you could just be some nutjob trying to b.s. your way into serious trouble. Your logbook is your passport. No ticky, no jumpy. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

You're lucky to be getting out of there before the place goes under. I've been laid off from Boeing (Everett plant) for more than a year, second layoff in 10 years. The bastards won't ewven give me a job reference - it's a termination offense to give references at Boeing, you'll find out about that. Life outside of the Lazy B is beautiful. You'll like it. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

try replacing it with a new habit! everytime you want to smoke... go running. or biking.. It's more like you're trying to start a new habit of living healthy. I never smoked for more than a few years before I quit, but have a good friend who's finally quit after more than 30 years - on Camels, no less. The physical cravings will go away soon enough, it's all the emotional cues that can get you back. Physical excercise is really good because it places a demand on your lungs for oxygen and you can appreciate the ability to start breathing again. Tasting your food again for the first time in years will also be nice, but there's that weight gain thing to watch out for. Go and do some volunteer work in the cancer ward. We nursed my mother in law through her death from a smoking induced oral cancer. That can all be summed up in one word: horrifying. When you finally must have that one cigarette, try to tell yourself "not today". Do like the folks at AA and stay clean one day at a time. (Oh and stay out of bars, alcohol and easy access to cigs will beat you every time.) Good luck ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

In the late seventies, there were a few jumpers who actually did that. Nick Lucas from the Exitus team was one. You could spot them because there was no pilot chute anywhere and a pud handle dangling down from the center cell on the leading edge. I think a couple people got cocooned in their canopies and the fad died out pretty quick. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Sounds like the next big thing. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Well first of all the little ant only fell about 10 ft and not 2000. Nat'l Geographic had something about this several years back. It has to do with the weight and size of the animal. The article claimed that a mouse could walk away from a 1000 ft fall. We're bigger and heavier, our luck doesn't stretch as far. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

700 hours of live bootleg Grateful Dead concerts. Watching "Blind Date". Ginger ale. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

If it ain't nasty, you're not doing it right. Or enjoying it half as much as you could be. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

First, your altimeter is an AID. In freefall anyway, you should be learning something of an eyeball appraisal of your altitude, i.e. if the ground is looking too damn big, it probably is. I know some people who pulled down close to a grand because their altis hung up around 3 grand. They were waiting for their alti to tell them its OK to pull (WRONG !!!). The kind of alti you're describing sounds like an airplane's alti. They have a "minute" hand for hundreds and an "hour" hand for thousands of ft. A skydiver's alti, at least the traditional analog dial type, is really geared for keeping you safe in freefall. I mean look, if you're burning up a thousand ft every 6 seconds, how many hands do you really need ? The whole idea is one hand only, for simplicity of reading. You don't have to do a bunch of mental interpreting, the thing is showing you within 200 or so ft how far from the ground (end of life as we know it) you are. To make it even easier, the last 2500 ft are wedged in red, with different makes & models using orange and yellow from 2500 up to as high as 4 grand. It's a REFERENCE dude, and it can get stuck or just plain break ! I haven't used the digitals yet, so won't criticize them. But I'mleery of anything where I have to read and interpret digital numbers. I'd rather just see where the needle is pointing. And if the landscape is getting too deataile, I don't give a rat's behind what my alti says, I'm gonna pull. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !