flyingferret

Hey everybody, I am staring out the window on the 15th floor, and it is snowing monster flakes in downtown Dallas. I mean these are like mini-snowcones. I just keep thinking about getting and jumping in with them on the way down. Of course the are blowing with at least a 30 degree angle, I bet the wind would suck for BASE. Oh well, kinda mesmerizing to watch. Malachi

http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonNews/es.es-02-05-0010.html

http://www0.mercurycenter.com/front/docs1/010624.htm

Damn, Clay you have to be the horniest organism I have ever seen post. Anything can have sexual overtones and leave it to you to discover them. Yes we are still talking about skydiving, but are you ever talking about skydiving?

Oh, I know, I was not attacking yours either. I just get fumed sometimes about all the jumper vs. whuffo banter.

Like I said,

For some reason I am laughing my ass off right now at this. And it is not even the fart noise thing, but the phone booth comment. For some reason, maybe cause it is friday, that is hilarious!

Warning: the following post is not trying to start a flame war, but this just got me thinking and I am at work on a Friday, so I thought I would share my thoughts. This whole whuffo line gets blown way the hell out of proportion. I love skydiving. And I will admit that dating the wrong person can make that hard. But the key is the worng person!!!! If you look for the right person, whether they jump YET does not amount to shit. If they have all the right qualities for you, then they will probably jump soon enough, and even if they do and dont like it, if they are your soul mate, who cares? I am so tired of hearing, EWWWW, whuffo! We were all whuffos once, and someone gave us more info to jump instead of saying "Oh, yeah everyone always tells me they wanted." So far 5 or 6 of my friends have tandemed, and I also organized our first static line class of 6 people, 3 of who kept jumping. I am proud I have helped bring it to that many people. After dating for almost a year, my gf made her first tandem last fall...and she fell in love with it. The rest of the boogie she kept saying that it was not fair that I was going up and she was not. So as soon as she gets some money, she will be in. But that is my point, limiting yourself to skydivers is kinda silly. I can't wait to jump with Jenny, because I love doing everything with her. Not I cannot wait to date her, because she jumps. Plus, percentagewise I get along with a lot more whuffos than jumpers. Fellow jumpers you either really like or you don't want to jump with. Whuffo can be just average friends. And plenty of just like us, jumpers in waiting. SO give them a break. For the original post......like someone already said, try getting her into it. Remember, while we could stare at canopies landing all day, it is much more exciting to do than watch. And if not, maybe she is not the one for you. But NOT because she does not jump. Rather because she will not communicate and compromise with you on your dreams. Malachi

DTA? Dont Trust Anyone? Well that kinda flies in the face of an elected republic.

So, this guy is fighting for us? I mean that is what it sounds like, although I have never met him, what phreezone says, seems to agree with what i have heard. So if he is totally against "the Man" isn't he probably the least likely to have a hidden agenda? And he supports the proxy. That might say something. Malachi

I have a few thoughts on this. A) I agree with the whole suspicion thing. When I was at Waller a few weeks ago, Marilyn Murdock was campaigning really hard for this proxy. I mean to the point where you just wanted to say, you have have asked me five times, leave me alone so I can pack. The general concensus was that we did not feel comfortable signing the form without knowing exactly what the issues were. And of course we heard how really need this proxy or the USPA will be inefficiently using our money. So a lot of us just took the form or said we already had and kept packing. B) I don't have a real good understanding of how the heck this affects me. I have never personally talked with the USPA staff, although I know my DZO has a very good relationship with some of the higher-ups. As a matter of fact, right now I am still waiting on a response for an address change request. I cannot ever remember my USPA number while I am at work, so I called and gave them all the other particulars, since they are not open when I am at home. I never heard anything back, and it has been at least 2 weeks. So, after not really hearing anything from anyone in the couple years I have jumped, they are running around like crazy trying to solicit my vote for something undescribed? C)On the other hand, I wrote a personal email to Phil Boyer the President of AOPA during the whole GA grounding. And you know what? During the freaking busiest time he has probably ever dealt with, he sent me a personal response. I was not expecting one, I just wanted to thank him for his efforts that were indirectly helping skydivers. And he replied personally. I have to say, as soon as I get some spare change I am joining AOPA, if for no other reason than that. And as for the USPA, well, hell they could not even keep their page updated during the grounding fiasco. D) I might be expressing my ignorance here. But if the quote comes from the Mike Mullins, of king air fame, I thought he was kind of on the USPA's bad list, not a national director. I had always heard that he and the USPA disagreed on some things, and so his DZ and his plane were governed by his rules not theirs. Am I the only one that has heard this? Did something change? Malachi

I am laughing with you malachi

Nice Pics, zennie. Plus from the delay...I think your server is getting a workout

He said GIMP, that is a pretty sure bet he did not edit it. And if you don't know what GIMP is, then that is further prove

Yes, my personal opinion is that full-face helmets suck....or well..prevent sucking

I emailed that link to my desktop support group (yes we hold up the desktop :) One coworker says, "Malachi, where do you find this shit?" I got a real kick out of it. For on the play on words is great. And it is also awesome to find stuff surprising even in an IT office

Checking Drudge before me today, I see

SHHSHSHS.....I dont want to hear those. I am not listening, I am not listening.......

I jump mainly at a Cessna 182 dropzone, so a lot of people on here might not have any experience to answer this question. But here goes: I have been jumping at this DZ for almost 2 years, flown with probably 6 pilots. I know you can cut in a Cessna, becuase a huge majority of my jumps in a Cessna have had a cut on jumprun. Well on Saturday, we were attempting to launch a sitfly train out of the cessna. This is pretty squeezed and you need footroom, plus you are facing the wingtip, not the prop, which makes it a little difficult to keep your feet, since you cannot angle on the step edge. Anyway, the winds were 30knots at 10,000 and we were flying straight into the wind on jumprun, plus the Cessna at cruise speed, so I am estimating that we had a good 120knots + on jumprun. Keeping footing was a bitch. Anyway, the next jump, I asked the pilot on the taxiway, if he could cut a little bit? He says, "well, it all depends on how much altitude you want to lose." with a little cocky bit thrown in. Now I don't really like this jump pilot anyway, as he is always showing up late and leaving early, and you get the impression he flies jumpers just to get the money. So, I felt like saying, "Hey I pay the lift tickets that pay your salary, so if I request a cut that costs me a couple hundred feet tops, well just fly the plane." But all I said was, "Well maybe just a little bit of cut would really help." So this load, he cuts a bit, but I dont think he was happy, cause he initiated jump run at 10K, low for even a Cessna DZ. So, later when one of the students says something to him about cutting, just kinda joking around, he says, "Man, I don't do that for hardly anyone." So here is my question, "Is it that big a deal to cut?" I know the stall speed on a Cessna is pretty damn low, and with experienced jumpers climbing out in 5-10 seconds max, I would not think it was a big thing. My personal guess is, since this guy is pretty young, he might not feel very comfortable flying jumpers yet, and he is not confident in cutting and holding the plane. Which is fine, he should not do things that are unsafe, but then he should tell us that, and maybe not fly jumpers. I know the cut can be done, because I have flown with many many pilots who pull it off fine, some to the point you almost feel the plane float. So what does everyone else think? Am I spoiled? or is the pilot just cocky? Malachi

Yeah, fine, but nothin like climbing out the step ona Cessna, fighting for footspace in 120knots of wind. I will take this to talkback.

I could not do this! Com trails coming off the rig on the high speed pass. Ask AggieDave -- I would vaporize the hoop. LOL Malachi

I pulled it off!!! We did it just like you guys said and it worked perfect. We tried to get three on the step and rapidly decided on the ground there was no way to do this. So one guy hung from the strut and then two of us launched a train from the step. The camera guy followed us out. I am really amazed we pulled it off. There is no way our pilot would lower flaps; he did not even cut on this jumprun ( I think I will write a thread bitching about this in talkback). When we got on the step, especially since we were facing sideways and not forward, footing was a bitch, I was kinda hunkering behind Trevor, the lead of the train. So, there was no way I could wrap my leg around him, and I could not see his count either. I just paid close attention to his risercover that I was holding and when I felt him move, I followed. Amazingly, we nailed it!! The other sitflier was orbiting us. Trevor and I are not that good at sitflying, so we kinda wobbled forward and backward a bit, and had a slow revolution too. Toward the end of the dive my legs were a little too far out due to the revolution. but we held the train until breakoff. I would show video, but the videoguy, just a fun jumper, realized when we got to the ground that he was zoomed in, so you dont see much. Anyway, thanks for the help, we are still scheming on launching a 3-way sitfly train; there has to be a way. Malachi

ROFLMAO

I have been thinking about how to launch a 2-way sitfly train off a Cessna 182. Anyone have any ideas? And I am not that good at sitflying either :) Malachi

And here I was thinking....hmmm, I wonder if I could do this on a sabre. I guess not, plus mine is a tuna boat and I would not do that shit below 5K either. Pretty neat to see though. Malachi