PalmettoTiger

Dirty dishwater... it still works from here (LAN inside a proxy) and there (AOL dial-up). Dunno what's wrong. But at least you can still understand the joke! Blues, squares, PTiger

Great picture... I thought of another caption though. Look at it here. Blues, squares, PTiger

OK, the story. Like I mentioned in another post, I was "born" at Cross Keys on May 6th last year. I tried to make lotsa jumps, but not having a car and NJ being windier than it deserves to be, I didn't get a second until almost a month later when I had moved to SC for the summer. Then I switched health insurance, and since I had to wait for it to take full effect I didn't get a third jump (T-II refresher) until the end of September back at Cross Keys. Another month passes, another tandem jump. Then I didn't get to jump until March 10 this year; I was delayed because of winds when I could get to the DZ and lack of transportation when the weather was decent. So at any rate, I finally find myself with reliable insurance, reliable transportation, and reliable weather. I think to myself, "finally I'll be able to finish the student progression without any more refreshers." Not. It's March 18th, a gorgeous day. I've come early to the DZ for the FJC (second of my career), brought donuts in case I ended up a little late (I wasn't, but I shared the dozen anyway), and been going over emergency procedures in my head for the entire drive down. Rob-O and I go over all of the gritty details, I hang in the harness and do all of that fun stuff, practice PLFing, dirt dive, dirt dive, practice emergency procedures, dirt dive, and then wait on the winds to calm down. The pilot and DZO take off for a helicopter ride... I think the DZO is learning to fly a whirlybird. But as Finagle's Law would have it, as soon as they get over the treeline the winds die. We're all abusing the manifest staff (only verbally, getcher mind outta the gutter!!), manifest is promising to abuse and then fire the pilot, and when they eventually return the winds miraculously stay calm. Gear up, gear check, board, take off, relax, think about the dive (AFF IV), relax, realize the video guy is not on the load, bitch, gear check, think about the dive, relax, relax, bitch, relax. DOOR!! S#it. So much for the relaxing. 5 freeflyers get out. A 2-way RW leaves. And now it's just me and Rob-O. Relax...? Nah. Get in the door. Hands on either side of the frame, left foot back, right foot in the corner, knees outside, duck, put the head out muthaf@cka! that is a blast of breeze to wake you up! I'm so shocked by the full 110 kts of wind in my face (all my tandems had been from inside the plane, not outside, if that makes any sense) that I basically tunnel down to a point. Swivel my head, there's Rob-O, he looks happy, give him the ol' Ready-Set-GOOOOOOoooooo.... We're tumbling... tumbling... uh, arch harder idiot! Ahh, that worked. Now where's Rob-O? I can't feel his grip on me any more. At this point I still have total tunnel vision. No sense of what's going on, I think because I'm concentrating so much on flying my body and learning what different movements do to my position that I'm actually "navigating" by inner-ear position sense than by visual cues. I check alti, 11k. Wasn't I supposed to do something like PRCPs? I still feel like I'm tumbling, tho! Where's Rob-O, he'll know what to do. I see something moving up and to the left out of the corner of my eye. S#it! I've tumbled so much that he's lost me. Is he back? Is he back? No. S#it. "If you lose your instructor in freefall, pull immediately." I dumped at 8,500 with Rob-O about 1 foot off my right side. I'm so compact - arms and legs in - and, ahem... "denser" that Rob-O that he's had to go head-down to keep up with me. I'm really only expecting him to be holding on to me or immediately in front of me, so not knowing where he was I bailed and he didn't stop me in time because what's the first part of this jump? PRCP. Duh. Well, I don't need no steeenking practice pull! Get it right the first time. On the ground (after this oh-so-graceful landing) they asked me why I bailed so high. Working up my best Austin Powers imitation, I said "Caution's my middle name, baby! Yeah!" and it kinda worked because my middle name does start with a C. So there's the partial nickname. Not quite as sexy as "skybytch" or catchy as "skyslut" and in general not a name that attracts babes, but there's still hope that I'll land something racier than "Caution" because no one at the DZ uses it all the time. Here's hoping, at least. Blues, squares, PTiger

I'm a network administrator; I can watch people's screens from across the building, kick them off (sooooo satisfying!), revoke e-mail privileges, the works... does that count? Actually I got in the habit because I wanted to try and curry favor with my instructors. I brought a dozen donuts each time I thought I was going to be late. I think I'll make it a tradition (to bring donuts, not to be late), because a) it's cheaper than beer, b) can be enjoyed after the sunrise load, and c) helps to develop a "natural arch." Blues, squares, PTiger EDIT: The server has been disciplined and will now behave for the rest of the day... or else. (pause) back to surfing!! Edited by PalmettoTiger on 4/19/01 01:24 PM.

Well, I was "born" at Cross Keys, which is an hour from school. It's near Williamstown, NJ, which is SE of Philly. It's a beeeg DZ - year-round jumping, two Twin Otters and a biplane at last count, large heated hangar, great gear store, great snack shack, and a few tiki bars now and then. The landing area is hyooooge, but surrounded by trees. Of course, on the other side of the tress is a golf course, so if you don't mind landing out you could even take your clubs with you.

Greg, that was the funniest thing I've read in about a week!! As for my current nickname, I'm from South Carolina so that's the "Palmetto" part. The palmetto is our state tree and it's on the state flag, which happens to be the coolest state flag in the country. (Nothing against any of the other 49 states, I'm sure you've got us beat in every other category.) In the past few years with the whole Confederate rag, er, flag controversy, people showed their support for taking the "symbol of heritage" down by wearing state flag hats and shirts, etc. I've even seen koozies w/ the crescent and palmetto emblem, which makes me think it lost its political symbolism and became a merchandising thing. But anyway.... the cool lookin-flag is one of the few things we have to be proud of here in SC (aside from being the home of the Rodriguez Brothers, of course), and that's why it's the first half of my nick. The "Tiger" part of the nickname was easy. My school's mascot is the tiger, and I love my school, so adopting as part of my online persona was a natural step. As for the embarrassing training story, you'll have to wait until I get home and get the exact details from my logbook. But I'll share, because y'all have. Blues, squares, PTiger

My beerst post here and I figured I'd get everyone else to open up about themselves while keeping my own secrets secret. Thus I'll maintain my stealthy lurker existence here. How do I tell them that as a result of the unfreezing process I have no inner monologue? Here's my question. How did you get your nickname? Naming stories are the best ones - usually the really good nicknames come not from doing something cool, but from doing something dumb or embarassing and living to tell the story! (Or living to try and quash the story, depending on your personality.) I don't have a nickname yet (I don't even have a rig or an A-license yet!), but I do have a kind of embarassing story about training. I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours... Blues, squares, PTiger