ramon

I'm sorry Honey During the silly Zennie fear of flying Flame War I said someone was patronizing me. Ann is so nice and has nothing but nice things to say about people. I get embarrased and feel silly and I guess I can't handle compliments and called it patronizing. Ann speaks from her heart out of love and it is not patronizing whether she is talking about me or any of her other friends. luv ya SCRamon

I was joking too. I like Waller, I go there about every two months..Sean, Thomas, Kyle, Chris, Pablo, Freefly Derrick, I haven't seen them in a while. Please ignore comments from anyone who likes to sling my name around. I am on someones shit list. And I am continually either slammed or patronized. Come jump with me and Zennie for fun. I hate to think Spaceland is gettin clique-ish. It wasn't like that when I moved to Houston, must be a recent thing with 2nd and 3rd generation students sort of doing that. All the other DZs I have been to were atleast that bad including waller, but after Waller changed hands it seems like some of the cliques broke up and new people started jumping there. ramon

you could bake a Stars and stripes cake... BWAHAHAHAHA Sorry, there was an Onion article about a woman doing that, just seemed funny. "I believe there is life beyond death - and that does help to reassure me." Kinda funny, but Regardless of what either of us beleives in after death, life after death is the Christian reward for being apathetic and turning the other cheek.... and it is the Islamic reward for martyring yourself fighting the infidel (us non-islamic). The minimal thing any of us can do is to stay informed, be tolerant and socially responsible citizens, teach your children to be that way.

Yes they are pathetic, but just remember. Religion in general is often used as a tool by political and government leaders to unite people to a cause. You can see the use of Islam in the East and the use of Christianity in the West and Judaism world wide. So called Balck Muslims are an even more pathetic attempt on political and social unity of a downtrodden race. Their leaders political agendas overshadow any actual religous belief in Islam (which is pushed on the followers to oppress them, keep them in check and focus their aggression to the US Govt and 'the man').[angry] No body takes Black muslims seriously except poor ghetto inhabitants with no where else to go , and people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson (political agendas). Malcom X leaving the Nation of Islam (racist organization NOI) to follow true Islam, was an example of his religious objectives overcoming the political ones set by Farakhan and the Ilijah Mohamad dude. X who bought into the religion relized that the NOI was political and he thought he could better himself by going to the 'true' religion of Islam. Black Muslims are trying to more integrate themselves with Actual Islamic communities , but they set themselves apart with their get 'whitey rallies' which usually don't involve 'Ethnic' muslims. Currently they are jumping on the US foreign policy bandwagon. We all know that the US has been supporting Israel... blah blah... and all the Arabs dislike us (except the royal families who love Oil money). But the poor Arabs who are typically oppressed by richer castes have only Islam, and their leaders blame US foreign policy. The Black Panthers want a piece of the action. They also have their first ammendment rights. So what if the're stupid. I know way too many disgruntled African Americans that beleive the Nation of Islam is ignorant. The KKK is stupid too (and they claim Christian authority)they belong together. Religion is always used as a tool to motivate large sections of a population to a common cause (Serbs kill Croats and Bosnians) over and over again in history. (hindis vs Islam in Kashmir...yawn..) The only literate people in 900 AD Europe were the catholic priests that convinced all the troglodyte inbred Kings to invade the literate cultured Islamic areas (Jerusalem etc). What comes around goes around. Now those 'yammering' 'woman stoning' idiots are doing back to us. You didn't get political you got mad . Rush Limbaugh style. ramon

Read the post Newbie!

I recognize the voice of experience. Maybe you could start a support group for Men who have been taken advantage of. ramon

Beats me. The sport has been changing a lot in the past few years. All I know is that people have been loading up stilletos to 1.6-1.8 to get the best swoop performance for years before PD raised the max loading to 1.8. The idea of what "high performance" actually is seems to have changed even since I have been jumping which is just 2.5 years. Jim Slaton put it best when he says every canopy or airfoil has an optimum or 'most efficient' wingloading. The optimum wing loading on an F111 dragonfly 220 and a VX68 will be very different.. and I'm willing to bet that the Max weight listed for each canopy might be close to the same number. One thing for sure if a canopy is labeled as high performance and it comes from Icarus, Atair, or PD, you can probably be sure it was tested at wingloadings above the maximum posted. I really don't want to load my reserve more than placarded though and I am sacrificing by having a bigger container to do so. bloo skies ramon

I think you will statistically be allright. It is my beleif that any intelligent terrorists (that may be giving them too much credit) will no longer be targeting the airlines and will be doing other things like large gatherings (football games) or possibly strategic targets like refineries and chemical plants. If they are smart which we know they aren't, but their leader might be they will be targeting areas where they perceive the security has not been beefed up and the airlines industry in general is extremely cautious right now. I would get on with your plans. Your worst problem will probably be false alarms or baggage trouble. See the following thingy. Failure of Terror By now everyone has been hearing the death toll rise and reports of the destruction from the terrorist attacks on the US. These were deplorable acts that we will never forget. But now is a time to look at the other side of the numbers coming out of New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. The sad but somewhat uplifting side that the mainstream media has not reported yet - the SURVIVAL rates and some positive news about the attacks. THE BUILDINGS The World Trade Center: The twin towers of the World Trade Center were places of employment for some 50,000 people. With the missing list of over 5,000 people, that means 90% of the people targeted survived the attack. A 90% on a test is an "A." The Pentagon: Some 23,000 people were the target of a third plane aimed at the Pentagon. The latest count shows that 123 lost their lives. That is an amazing 99.5% survival rate. In addition, the plane seems to have come in too low, too early to affect a large portion of the building. On top of that, the section that was hit was the first of five sections to undergo renovations that would help protect the Pentagon from terrorist attacks. It had recently completed straightening and blast proofing, saving untold lives. This attack was sad, but a statistical failure. THE PLANES American Airlines Flight 77 This Boeing 757 that was flown into the outside of the Pentagon could have carried up to 289 people, yet only 64 were aboard. Luckily 78% of the seats were empty. American Airlines Flight 11 This Boeing 767 could have had up to 351 people aboard, but only carried 92. Thankfully 74% of the seats were unfilled. United Airlines Flight 175 Another Boeing 767 that could have sat 351 people only had 65 people on board. Fortunately it was 81% empty. United Airlines Flight 93 This Boeing 757 was one of the most uplifting stories yet. The smallest flight to be hijacked with only 45 people aboard out of a possible 289 had 84% of its capacity unused. Yet these people stood up to the attackers and thwarted a fourth attempted destruction of a national landmark, saving untold numbers of lives in the process. IN SUMMARY Out of potentially 74,280 + Americans directly targeted by these inept cowards, 93% survived or avoided the attacks. That's a higher survival rate than heart attacks, breast cancer, kidney transplants and liver transplants - all common, survivable illnesses. Pass this information on... Don't fear these terrorists. The odds are against them. Author Unknown.

Yeah, stilleto's used to have a 1.3 max loading. that's me under a 170. yuk yuk yuk jump high pull low surf long ramon

Uhh probably not. I already have one person running around the internet dogging me out. Why, you want to start a scandal with me ? ramon

Thanks. I was sort of afraid to not flake the line groups, but I am getting more input that it is better. I did jump a couple of psycho packs and it seemed a little better. I appreciate the advice. ramon

I'm mostly wrong-brained myself

You could start a little 'unofficial' Spaceland tabloid. Loaded with gossip and 'proof' of embarrassing activities. stay tuned for another episode of "As the Prop Turns" ramon

iRC won't work because our MIS is Uber Nazi. The jave should work however I'm on NT and my version of IE might not handle it the error I get is. 'class:conference room not found' which to me means my java sucks. oh well. I'll try at home form Linux ramon

Hey honey, Eric Boyd (Spaceland) along with two fellows from San Marcos are in 2nd place in Intermediate Freeflying. Maybe they will pass up the 1st place team which has the famed Emanuelle Celicout and Missy Nelson on it. C-ya ramon

Wonder boy? LOL. Hi Kelli. ramon

Wane doesn't care about chest strap or slider, he knows I bug him about it all the time. He is still learning and doing better than me with his carves I must say. More importantly is that his brakes are trimmed so tight on the 1995 Extreme that the tail is deflected by barely moving the toggles.

Sour Grapes.

very good points. I'm on the third floor, but if I were in a very tall building I would consider a base rig and a sledge hammer and an escape/jump plan for fire as a last resort. Just because I am an experienced skydiver I would feel confident I could track away from a tall enough building. I am very aware that the typical wuffo executive might not be able to safely do the same thing, especially under the stress of an evacuation type situation. Oh well ramon

Thanks, Duh....I know. My experience has it that two s-folds or rolling it up make little difference. The point of psycho packing is to make it easy to get in the bag and control your line groups. I need some wise advice form an FX jumper that has a slammer. ramon

I have ~15 jumps on my FX109. All decent to very soft openeings except one Slamma Jamma. Incidentally that one happened on a very careful precise packjob. I have been doing the following. 1. Stuffing nose, but pulling center cell out a teeny bit. 2. Quartering slider and pulling out more to the front. 3. 3-4 inch line bites w/ small rubber bands (single stow) 4. ~18 left over after last stow. 5. And also flaking the line sets very carefully. 6. Two S folds into container. I have heard that some of them slam you alot and the rest are soft with an occasional slammer. Some people swear by popping the nose clearing the brake lines and stuffing it in the bag. Anybody have any packing advice? thanks all ramon

That is one bad little camera. The quality is very good. Wane never could get the photo os his swoop, so I took it and will send it too him. bloo skies ramon

That is a tough question because of your previously mentioned variables. The slider rebound article I read makes good mechanical sense. I am impressed by dav's knowledge of the subject of openings. My friend Derrick (he is in some sort of macho race to have the smallest, rig, reserve, main etc...but he is infact a good canopy pilot) trimmed his pilot chute to 19". He jumps a VX 60 and he has no problems. He is a rigger and is probably able to make decisions like that about his gear. good luck ramon

My first priority will be to try a Velocity if they have a 111, this will be to compare openings with my FX. My second priority would be to jump a Sabre2 (150ish). Everyone loves them. BSBD ramon

and of course there is the John Matthews incident (knock on wood). Any canopy that folds during a low or high performance turn is probably unrecoverable at that vertical speed and altitude though. BSBD ramon