tbrown

They were a Perris team. I had one of those T-shirts, bought it from Don Hore. There was a ritual about deeply inhaling the smell and saying "aaahhhh" when you bought one. It was a cartoon of the Grim Reaper studying a diagram of some kind of an 8 Way donut flake through a magnifying glass. I was wearing mine the day I met my wife. she was smitten with me at once and we're still together after 27 years. I might still have mine buried deep in a box somewhere, but damn if I can find it. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

This NOT to bring up the RSL debate again. Rather, I'd like to ask if a high spped, highly loaded canopy in a violent spin would affect a RSL reserve deployment any differently than a more lightly loaded "average" 7 cell or 9 cell canopy ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Absolutely. However, if you're lined up on final and still overshooting, using your fronts can fix things without enraging any traffic behind you. F'rinstance, my Pilot has an almost eternal glide path in no winds. At Perris I can overshoot and end up on the tarmac where lots of airplanes are parked, something I don't want to do. So pulling down on my fronts changes the picture dramatically, the landing zone that had been passing beneath me is now rising up in front of me. And anyone behind me is just seeing me drop down and picking up speed, I'm not backing up or rising up, or zigzagging in their way, sparing their vocal chords much use of the "f" word. You do have to be careful though, as your speed and descent rates are much higher, so only use the fronts sparingly until you're much more familiar with your canopy's recovery arc. A final hint on going to fronts is that if you momentarily go to half brakes with your toggles, you will find it WAY easier to pull down your fronts. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Sittin' On a Dock of the Bay My Girl Under the Boardwalk Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It is if you're the one doing the drinking. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

A stick puts the driver in control of the vehicle, while automatic does the opposite. I hate waiting for my car to take some kind of a committee vote on what to do next when I could have already done it myself. Sorry to hear you're under pressure to learn the stick so quickly. I've taught my wife, kids, and several of the kids' friends to drive a stick andthey've all done just fine. You were doing what I call the "rodeo lesson". First thing I tell anyone is that the "f word" and "s word" are allowed, that I don't expect them to do well the first lesson, and thhat they'll have something to laugh about the rest of their lives. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Rather then just letting someone in great pain and suffering pass on.. the doctors and medical community..fight it tooth and nail... why.. FOLLOW the MONEY... they make money.. the drug companies make even more money on t he stuff that purports to deaden the excruciating pain. Then all you have to do is see WHICH politicians support the drug lobby.. GEE its SHRUB and his right wing NEO-CONS.. heavily invested in pharmacuticals.. gee go figure. I support the Oregon law, though I've never lived there. I've also dealt with the issue twice, especially with a brother of mine who died of cancer 15 years ago at age 35. With this issue and all of the others, I'm trying to present some reasonable misgivings over the issues as stated (f'rinstance, thoug prostitution is legal in Holland, it's also abused in the form of women being shipped there by the Russian mob, which threatens to kill these women's children back in Russia for failing to cooperate. And so forth...). My bottom line about personal liberties are that they don't always represent the best choices, but even the mistaken choices we often make are our own, and usually better than having the choices imposed on us. And Jeanne, I am NOT a Bushy, you should know that by now - only 579 days to go ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I set my toggles in the stows when I land, but don't stow the brakes until I'm back in the packing area. the green landing zone at Perris is so busy that they have a new rule about clearing out quickly after landing. Also, the landing zone has too many distractions for a packing task that requires just a little time and concentration. I do my own packing, so I stow my own brakes and stow away the excess in the keepers sewn into my risers. Geez Louise people, we ARE talking about packin' a foogin' parachute here. It's not rocket science, but have you considered lately that the thing saves your LIFE every single time you use it ??? Also at the end of the day I take the time to straighten out my brake lines. I only make 4 or 5 jumps in a day (sigh) and since I stow the toggles right away I get very little line twist. At the end of the day I take the time for a really nice pack job that I'll feel good about on that first load in another week or two and I've never had a problem with tension knots. People who won't take the time to stow their brake lines, re-open their sliders, and re-set their kill lines before handing their rigs over to the packers are asking for a malfunction and/or a brutal opening. And sooner or later, they'll get their wish. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'm not so sure about the "it's her body" argument for abortion, but as a matter of law and public policy I believe women must have access to safe & legal abortions because I refuse to see the back alley coat hanger days return. Making a clone ? Hmmm, I don't really like the idea of anyone doing that and so far the poor little sheep didn't live very long due to lots of problems. But if that stuff gets worked out, I suppose women (men too) should have a right to clone themselves. Selling one's organs is the opposite side of the coin from cloning oneself. People who can afford cloning would never sell their organs and people who would sell their organs could never afford cloning. I'm opposed to the sale of organs because of the economic inequality. We are all able to DONATE our organs, some while living. I'm an organ donor myself, when I die they can take whatever they can use and are welcome to it. For my wife or one of the kids, I'd probably give a kidney. Prostitution ? Already legal in many Nevada counties, as long as it's not a coercive situation I see no need to make a criminal out of the woman. She (and there are some he types) is doing all the work. It may not be "okay", but with everyone else getting laid and/or making big bucks off it, why does she get to go to jail ? Recreational drugs are maybe not the best choice either, but we'd be a lot better off treating people with drug problems for their HEALTH problem. Euthenasia ? That, along with doctor assisted suicide, are a toughie. Oregon and The Netherlands allow it. Oregon took years to debate it, their law even required that it pass TWO referenda in a row, which it did. Also survived a court challenge from Attny Genl Assholecroft. I'm just suspicious of insurance companies encouraging people to take the "dignity procedure" rather than an expensive therapy that might work. Hell, they'd probably offer to pay for your cremation and throw in a pair of tasteful pastel colored paper pajamas for you to die in..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

As much as I hate Bush, I haven't gone anywhere. Let's not forget that Hillary will have to get elected first, and if she does, then a lot of people (not necessarily most of them, as we have seen) musta voted for her. and she'll still have to sell her ideas to the Congress. For all the fellow Bush haters I know, I only know one couple who actually did leave and move to Canada and they only finally just left last month. I'll wait for the next election. I think we've got a pretty good crop of candidates coming up and I know that even the ones I don't like will do a better job than the fucking chimpanzee we've got now. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Are you asking about creation vs. evolution, or where did God come from ? I believe that evolution is the factual scientific explanation of how life came about and changed. If you believe in God, then you can believe in creation AND accept evolution as our blueprint of how He did it. Sort of like accepting a composer's score for a beautiful work of music. If you don't believe in God, then you believe what happened is what happened all by itself. It simply depends on what you do or don't believe. As to where God came from, it again comes down to what you do or don't believe yourself. If you believe, then God is unknowable and has always been there. He didn't "come from" anywhere. If you don't believe, then you probaly think that God is an invention of the human psyche to help us try and understand the unknowable. There, that was easy.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'm going to say bad on general principle. For years people have accused the Kennedys of trying to launch a Presidential dynasty, forst with Jack, then Bobby, then Teddy. The Bushes have already done more, as the Walker and Bush families are already powerful political dynasties in themselves. And I shudder to think that Jeb is still waiting in the wings and that there are people out there who would undoubtably vote for him. I'm a Democrat, but not at all impressed with Hillary Clinton. She doesn't have the human charm of her husband and I don't trust her. I will only vote for her in the general election if I have to and then I will hold my nose as I do so. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Good Lord Bill (no pun intended, you and shotgun both, where's your sense of humor ? Do I even LOOK like I care about the Paris Hilton Crisis ?? I'm sorry, I thought I was being funny. what is it about religion that makes seemingly normal people such a bunch of touch holes ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

But Paris Hilton is a sinner, isn't she ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I wouldn't want to be around earlier than modern medicine, certainly not before antibiotics. When I was a kid back in the sixties I always desperately wanted to be a few years older. I was thirteen when Woodstock happened. I knew it was going on, but wasn't able to go (we lived only 300 miles away and lots of my older friends hitchiked there). I just barely touched on the edge of all that great stuff. I'd have loved to have seen Hendrix, Cream, or The Doors (I did see Janis, just once). Seeing The Grateful Dead in the days before acid was even illegal. And of course all that free love - who wouldn't want that ? And if I still wanted to skydive, at least the Paracommander was around, though I'd probably avoid those squirrely radical square things, at least 'til the Strato Star comes along. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

There was some serious talk about sterilizing all German adults, male and female. I'm glad that never happened though, as they say, two wrongs don't make a right. It would've been a thoroughly Nazi solution and we'd just fought (and came a lot closer to losing than most historians are willing to admit) to save the world from those kind of solutions. Maybe it's even a good thing that the Russians gobbled up the eastern part of Germany and gave us something new to worry about. Because then we decided to reshape Germany into a real democracy with a prosperous economy - a strategy that's worked really well. What happened to Germany with the nazis can happen anywhere with any people. It could happen here too. All you need is a run of national bad luck, smoldering resentment, and some idiot with a lot of charisma. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Ain't either, you can break your neck in a wind tunnel and be a quad for the rest of your life. Can't think of his name, but Olav Zipser, one of the world's best freeflyers, broke both his wrists in a tunnel last year. I feel more comfortable after leaving the plane than I did on the ride up. The things that get us are not the kind of things the public imagines, at least very rarely anyway. It's amazing what kind of things do get us though. It's usually something that happens very suddenly and takes us by surprise, maybe because we became complacent and let our guard down. Or maybe because sometimes "shit just happens". But I think Skydiving, like sex, can be "safer", if not actually "safe". If it were THAT dangerous I wouldn't do it. Which is why personally, I choose not to BASE jump. Or swoop. What I will do, which is RW and flying a pattern to a straight in approach, might get me someday just the same, but I work very hard at keeping the odds in my favor. The alternative is to not jump, or fuck, or drive a car, or go to work every day, or ever get out of bed. Life is a series of choices over what constitutes an acceptable risk, and in the end we all die anyway. Might as well have some big fun before that happens, ya' think ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

That open door with all the wind blowing by takes some getting used to. It's a sight most people will never see all their lives. And it brings forward all of our most basic fears. Psychologists say a newborn baby is only afraid of two things - falling and loud noises - and there they both are, telling your every natural instinct that you're in extreme danger. See, your instincts don't know what a parachute is and it will take a while for you to start believing that and gaining self confidence. I've had the interesting experience of getting used to it twice, because I left the sport for 22 years and then returned. Both times I went through a phase of being dry mouth with fear, no matter that I wanted to be there and wanted to jump. And it doesn't go away all at once and truth is it never completely goes away. A lot of us will admit to feeling a few nerves on the first Saturday morning load, especially if it's been a few weeks. But if you will just stick with it, you will gain more and more confidence and pretty soon the door won't be so scary anymore. As you say you're small, you'll probably find yourself climbing outside as a floater fairly often - and liking it. Hanging off the side of a twin turbine like some kind of trolley car passenger is a blast ! You've already figured out that you feel fine as soon you've left the plane behind. Please now just understand that you are not the only person who's ever felt the way you do, because to some degree or other we all have. So hang in there and good luck ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

That might be an early Captain Hook and the Sky Pirates team in the last photo. That's definitely Al Kreuger with his big walrus moustache and the altimeter on his helmet. The first guy in the lineup looks like Hank Asciutto, and the last guy might be Mitch Poteet. Also, Al's definitely in your first bunch of pics back at the beginning of the thread, you can see his prosthetic arm and hook clearly in that one. Nowadays he's got a really slick black graphite arm - very Borg looking... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

If that is the case then most people are idiots!!! They're not idiots, just complacent, which is a really dangerous attitude. At Perris we had a serious accident when a soft link snapped in the middle of a swoop dive and left a staff Instructor paralyzed. He's no idiot by a long shot, but a little peek under the risers now & then would've prevented a really sad accident and the changes it's brought to his life. I blame the "packer/gadget" mentality. Too many people with too much money to throw around are leaving everything to their packers and counting on their AAD's to bail them out if they get into trouble. Let's not ever forget we're falling out of the sky and are basically dead on arrival until we complete a safe landing. This is a hardball sport that demands hardball awareness and gear maintenance. Just to clarify, I've rec'd a PM about this post pointing out that Koji's accident was due to a Slink failure, and not a 3 Ring loop, which is correct. My point however is that loops can wear and ultimately fail, but that a worn loop should be detectable long before it fails - if we'll just take the trouble to look. Personally, I like to take all the time in the world with my final packjob of the day, when I know I'm done. It's a good time to untwist anything in the brakelines, check the soft links, take a closer look at the pilot chute, look at the 3 rings, the whole 9 yards. Then the next day, or the next week or whenever, you ride up in the plane knowing your main's in good shape for the day ahead. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Considering how many people die in jail every year of everything from AIDS, TB, cancer, hepatitis, heart attacks, diabetes, you name it, this is a really bad joke. None of them get out, not even to go home to die after they're beyond being a threat to anyone. Guess the poor bitch just wasn't feeling well.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

So my question to the forum would be: is there anyone else, active or retired, who started for the same reasons and can put my mind at ease, either by confirming or denying my worries, thereby helping me in my decision of whether or not to continue with skydiving? If you think skydiving's too much fun, sex is just gonna kill you. That's all I've got say. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I was in the 6th grade and thinking The Beatles had gone to hell on LSD and looked like a bunch of hippie wierdos. Besides, there were The Monkees. But by Xmastime I had got it all sorted out when we got Magical Mystery Tour under the tree. Still not sure how much I like Sgt Pepper's, as important an album as it was, it was by no means their best. The "white album" was better, Abbey Road even better, and "Revolver" is, was, and always will be their very best ('cuz they're really gone totally to hell on LSD making that one). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

No shit ! I'm slightly over 50 and not deaf by a long shot, but have some hearing loss at the high end. If people are giving you shit, just get in their faces about it, when they get a little bit older it will happen to them too. In the meantime they can learn a little fuckin' respect. And in the meantime, wear earplugs when you skydive. The constant engine noise and the noise of freefall WILL degrade your hearing if you won't protect yourself. And audible altimeters aren't much help either, that's a piercing shriek right next to your ear, even if it doesn't sound like one. Just wear some nice comfy foam earplugs, you'll hear your audible just fine AND protect whatever's left of your hearing. And for you younger punks, well, just rock on, we didn't believe a word of it either.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The reason for the distinction is to preserve his tax-free status. That seems to be the only thing he's apologizing for. If the IRS can go after an Episcopalian church in Pasadena for anti-Bush statements in 2004, then they should go after this joker now. Unless God only disapproves of certain points of view from left of cneter ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !