tbrown

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

IMHO, religion is for people who can't think for themselves and need to be told what to do and how to do it. Mindless cattle basically. I have to disagree with you there. I hold religious beliefs, which are mine and which I don't even have to defend, as they're my own business. That said, I am neither mindless, nor especially interested in forcing my beliefs on you. As long as you're a reasonably law abiding person, I don't really care what you do with your life. But the extremely zealous types piss me off too. Especially at work. I will not debate them about it either, I raise my voice and cut them straight off. Most people are surprised when they see me get angry, as I do it so seldom. That's usually all it takes to shut them up and that's all I really want. Once THEY settle back down, I'm perfectly happy to talk to them about the weather or last night's ball game. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

First, you're thinking and asking good questions, so that's a good thing. As a student, and going on as a newbie, you've pretty much been told to cutaway anything that's not there, square, or responding to a controllability check. A lot of newbies do cutaway from situations that a more experienced jumper MIGHT be able to land safely. And unless you have an obvious, horrifying high spped malfunction, there's always some asshole on the dropzone who will give you a load of crap about not having to cutaway from it (fuck them, it's YOUR life). Rear riser flares are something to practice up high. Most canopy courses will teach you a few things about rear riser flaring and even intentionally stalling and recovering with your risers (up high of course). But you can waste a lot of time and wreak a lot of havoc with hooknife and then you have a main canopy you can't jump again until it's been repaired in a rigger's loft. You've got handles and a reserve for a reason. Use 'em and cutaway. Land under a good controllable reserve. Don't get scared into sticking with a bad canopy and don't try to earn your rigger's ticket under a canopy you can't control. Experience is no guarantee either. We just lost an experienced swooper this summer who had over 2000 jumps. His problem wasn't with steering lines, but he knew things were wrong above 2 grand. He decided he could land it and his mistake cost him his life. Cutting away might have embarrassed him and might have eliminated him from the meet he was jumping in, but stacked up against losing his life, it would've been nothing. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I look for a rigger who has a good reputation. then I establish a realationship with my rigger. It's like shopping for a doctor, dentist, or pediatrician. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I disagree. It's only terrible for the GOP if they choose to make a stink about it themselves, and I don't think they will. Pregnant teenage daughters happen to parents all across the political spectrum. I see no reason why this would be a problem, it only humanizes the ticket. Lord knows, we've had enough President's kids smoking pot, boozing it up with fake ID's and heaven only knows what else. Reagan's daughter was a complete hellion, fucking every rock star she could wrap her legs around and it never really damaged him. The mother covering for the daughter should be easy enough to disprove. I think it's a disgusting rumor to start, regardless of politics. The only part I have any problem with is the decision to marry. I do know a couple or two who married that young and are still together after thirty years, but they're the rare exception. But I suppose that's their business. Anyway, I'm voting for Obama just the same. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It's been over twenty years and i can't be sure anymore because I have nothing in print in front of me. But the article I remember reading in Skydiving Magazine was about the new TSO testing to the new Rev C of TSO-C23. As I recall, the article said that all the existing round reserves, as well as some existing square reserves, the Swift included, If I had more to back this up, I'd say so. But all I have is a long, if imperfect memoery. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

If you go to the Home page here, click on the link to Skydive Radio, then click on their link for Links. Scroll down and near the bottom of the page (where smut belongs ?), you'll find links to Nicole Sheridan (NSFW). One of those links will take you right to the film, which WAS filmed at the Taft DZ. Nicole and her husband/co-star Voodoo both jump regularly at Taft and they're pretty darn good skydivers. She also had an interview on Skydiving Radio.com maybe two years ago, which is worth a listen. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Mike, I'm so sorry from the bottom of my heart. I've got two daughters of my own, the younger is just a year older than Shannon. I just thank God I haven't had to deal with losing either of them and pray I won't ever have to. I'm praying for God to give you and your wife the peace that only He can give in times like this.. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

As well as close EVERY candidate's speech with, "God bless America" ? I don't want to discourage anyone who really means it frojm saying it, but not saying it doesn't make you a disciple of bin Laden either.... Time to watch Leni Reifenstahl's "Triumph of the Will" again.....if you don't know what that was, look it up. Isn't that semantic? Enter a war on false premise, 10T in debt, Americans w/o healthcare and we must chant to some silly song. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Fuck yeah ! I get bashed with "liberal" al the time for being somewhere to the left of Dick Cheney. It's bullshit, but usually I respond with "liberal, shmiberal" and present my case. In a lot of ways I surprise myself with how practical and even conservative I've become. But that's CONSERVATIVE, not single party partei, goose stepping authoritarian. And in other ways I'm still liberal. Because the state needs to do more than JUST provide for the common security. There are some functions (education and health f'rinstance) that need to be provided for at the public expense, because they may not be profitable for the private sector, but are nonetheless necessary. Unless you want an ever growing population of ignorant savages with HIV because they still think it's just a gay disease, to cite one concrete example. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Fuck no, I'm a Democrat. Actually, my Swiss Army knife is so old and worn out that it isn't much good - no matter what the manufacturer sez.... And Al Gore be damned, when he was Vice Pres and came to Boeing, I tried to get in to see him, but the Secret Service told me I had to part with my Swiss Army knife. I told them to get fucked and turned around and left. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

What do you women think about having sex when it's HOT!!!!! The first vote I got (which leaves me singing a Pink song... "...It's you & your HAND tonight...."), was HELL no... too hot & sticky When summertime is hot and sticky, 'Tis no time for dunkin' dicky, But when the frost is on the pumpkin, THEN'S the time for dicky dunkin' ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Chrystal meth. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I would think McCain could get a lot of mileage out of Democrat turncoat Joe Lieberman. After all, a Dem who addresses the Republican convention really belongs in THEIR party, except the Dems don't have the 'nads to give Joe the boot like they ought to. On the other hand, the Reps are SO CONCERNED about Hillary Clinton, that maybe they should run with her..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Yeah well, now that Disney has turned Christopher Robin into a girl, there's no limit to what else can be ruined. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

But what IS an American car anymore ? Is it a Honda built in the US by Americans, who may even be UAW members ? Or is it a Ford, built with parts from Mexico, by workers who are making something like $5 a day ? Our own family's experience has been mostly in favor of Japanese built cars. As long as we bought 'em new, they've been great. One Nissan Sentra lasted for 24 years before it finally up & died. Right now we have a 2004 Honda Civic and a 2007 Nissan Versa. We did buy a Saturn in 1997, which has been pretty decent. It belongs to our daughter now, and is only doing sorta okay, but then it is eleven years old, which says something in itself. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I like the way you phrased your poll choices so much, I simply couldn't resist checking the "Oh no" option. Thanks for making people with an honest opinion look like sissies. I have no doubt in my mind that this guy DESERVES death for what he's done. And in this case I have no doubt that there is ample convincing evidence. Emotionally, I'd like to see a medieval penalty like breaking on the wheel or drawing & quartering used, as a simple needle, rope, or electric shock would be too kind. But I'm still completely opposed to the death penalty, across the board, for anyone. So there's no point in making exceptions for anyone. I'm currently embroiled in a dispute with the Kalifornia DMV over trying to retire the registration of an ancient car of mine that I finally sold to a junkyard when it died. The State LOST my title to this car over twenty years ago. They lost it. But they continued to register it. Now they want to jack me up for cancelling the insurance on this junked non-existent car. They're telling me I can't sell it without the title, which THEY lost (I bought the car new in 1984 and paid it off by 1989). I can't even get somebody who speaks ENGLISH to talk to on the phone. I suppose eventually I'll have to ask for help from my State Assemblyman's office. But my point is that if I can't trust the state to let me junk a dead car, if I can't even find a state official who speaks English, WHY would I ever want to empower that same state to take anyone's life, for any reason ? I think locking this pile of rat shit up for the rest of his life would be a miserable punishment. Why let him off easily with a quick death ? (The Manson girls, "Charlie's Angels", have said they wish they WERE executed, they can't bear spending their entire lives in captivity.) He would have to be kept under max isolation lockup to the end of his days, because he'd be killed the minute he's ever let out in the yard with anyone else. Lock him up, thow away the key, and let the suffering begin. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I suppose if we were still jumping rounds we might even call it an Anna Nicole Smith these days. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Thanks for sharing. It's great to know that somebody out there has ALL the answers. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Only when they're in management. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The simplest thing you can do is to just look UP at the plane as you leave. Looking up pulls your head back and your spine will follow in a natural arch. That was how I learned to get my poised exits under control in my studcent days. Once I tried it, my exits went from awful to wonderful and started moving up quickly in my student progression. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The only instructors signature I could make out was "Larry F." Larry Fatino maybe ? I think he managed the dropzone sometime in the eighties. And of course he died in the Perris Otter crash. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I used to hit the ground at terminal velocity a lot, but now have an Automatic Activation Device to open my reserve parachute. Sometimes, I would cut away too low for the reserve to open, but I now have a SkyHook system. My biggest problem lately seems to be hook-turning into the ground at high speed, causing multiple traumatic injuries and death. However, once in a while, I get hit by a swooper. That's usually fatal to both of us. I think a good security device would be a Laser Cannon, that can track an incoming swooper behind me and vaporize him before he can hit me. Roseanne Rosannadanna said it best, "You know, it's always something." Someone is developing a sensing device that knows when a swooper is too deep, and so auto-stabs the toggles or better still, deploys a drogue on the tail of the canopy, thus putting the pilot back directly beneath the main. Upon resetting body position, the drogue cuts itself away and reloads for the next potential save. Personally, I favor an inflatable jumpsuit that blows up like a giant beachball. In order for the suit not to burst, it has a valve the lets the air out, causing the jumper to fly all over the place in spirals, making a loud whoopie cushion noise. Sort of like in the old Tom & Jerry cartoons.... I call it the Whoopie Suit. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I sure am. The guy doesn't even skydive. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It's true that a brake misfire can be quickly and easily cured by pulling both toggles down evenly to about shoulder high. Most of the time that simple move will chill everything out nicely. BUT you're also saying you had line twists. Things may well have gone beyond the point of fixing. If you were spinning around that hard with line twists, you were going down FAST. You don't want to use up the rest of your life trying to fix something like that. I think you did the right thing by chopping. And next time, you'll learn to be more careful stowing your brakes when you pack. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !