elfanie

You have a scary skydive..maybe a high speed malfunction, or a landing that went wrong but didn't break you... do you tell people? do you tell them, "hey..I just had a reserve ride?" or "I had a hard landing and flipped head over butt across the landscape...thank God I wasn't killed.." ? Or do you not tell people? why do you tell people..or why not? -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

However...it also depends on what canopy you're flying and your wingloading, does it not? I tried the front risers on the Nav220 and they moved fine...but the canopy was still flying straight. Tried to pull the front risers on the Sil 210 (edited: it was a 210, not a 190)...and I could do a chin-up, and those things aren't budging. Finally could do front riser turns on a Sil190 that had front riser handles...but barely. (pulled the riser fine...but the canopy barely moved at all with it) I actually had someone at the DZ call the BS card on me. "you pulled the front riser handle? And you moved the riser?" Me: "Yeah..moved the it from here (above my head) to about here (near my ear or thereabouts)." him: "And you're saying the canopy didn't turn?" Me: "A tiny little bit..but hardly anything at all.." Him: "Nope...can't be right...you're changing the entire dynamics of the canopy, it can't NOT turn...you either didn't pull the riser down or something..." I did pull the riser...could even hear the wind on the canopy different (heard the rustling of the canopy change), and yet it didn't turn (but maybe 3-5*). I can't explain it, and haven't jumped that canopy again to re-try it again..I just know what happened. -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Yes...we both have our A licenses now. He said EVENTUALLY his last move will be to a Silhouette 230...but that's not for a while yet. Me? My exit weight is somewhere around 165 or so...and I just jumped a PD 190 and a Sabre 190 on Sunday that I thought felt 'sporty' enough for me. I've been jumping a Sil 210, and felt a world of difference between that and the two 190's (mostly from the different material/style..because I jumped a Sil190 and didn't notice that much difference.) I'm so lightly loaded still that many have commented that they think I'd be fine on the Sil 170...but I'm so twitchy about downsizing... -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

My husband is about 265 pounds (6'2")..slightly overweight but mostly just "a big guy". He did AFF on a Nav 260....no problem. he's now jumping a Nav 240...again, no problem. Never has had to pay for two slots..and he might be at a higher risk of injury just because...well, having that much weight coming down isn't as forgiving. (me being 135, I can tumble and bounce and walk away with little more than a bruised ego....he doesn't 'tumble' as well.) But are you saying that you don't think that a Nav260 (or a Nav240) are safe for him? -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

The difference between the Darwin awards and normal accidents... Something that qualifies for the Darwin awards is something that makes 99% us shake our heads and and think, "WHAT was he thinking? WAS he thinking ANYTHING??" Normal accidents, like the bonfire, make most of us shake our heads and think, "But for the grace of God go I.....that could have been me.." big big difference. The bonfire may have been poor engineering, it may have had any number of factors involved...but it wasn't a "duh" moment, many people were involved, and many more would have been except we don't live there. But maybe Kallend is so smart that he would have been the sole voice of reason and would have stayed back while picketting with signs that read, "Dumb idea!! It is going to collapse and kill you...dumb idea! Stop the madness!!" but that begs the question...why did you not take any measures to stop it from being built? And are you going around the country stopping people from doing all of the things we do every day that cause accidents? If not...why not? Just so you can sit back after the fact and point fingers?? (my sympathies go to AggieDave) -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Agree ... Heh...doubly agreed. Yes...that site was good about competition formations... but what about basic 2-way positions? Does anyone have anything THAT basic that I could see? -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

No, that's not it. Less. And the answer has no luck involved. You will know! samhussey got the shirt thing right. marbles needed to be pulled: one I won't say why, though, because I don't want to ruin it. =) -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Does anyone have any lists (or know where I could find some) of RW terms and positions and formations..? Like star (and what it is), accordian (what it is), etc etc..? What the different positions are called...what different slots are called, etc? -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Has anyone ever made basically checklist of progressions of skills that one should aquire when doing something in skydiving? (sheesh...that is as clear as mud. let me give some examples and it will make waht I'm asking MUCH MUCH clearer..) Lets say I want to get into RW work... does anyone know of any list that shows the order of what you should learn/work on? For example... 1. flying stable - box 2. controlled 360* turns (shoulders) 3. rate of decent control 4. basic docking 5. flying stable - mantis 6. side sliding 7. leg turns ....etc etc etc... (oops.,...tracking should be up there probably around #4 or so) And if you're freeflying...what you usually learn first...second..third...working your way up to advanced maneuvers... are there any of these lists around? -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

YOU KNOW YOU'RE A SKYDIVER WHEN... * BOC goes from meaning "Blue Oyster Cult" to meaning "Bottom of Container". * You're making love to your partner and they whisper "I've never done this before" and you yell out "THAT'S a case of beer!". * On cloudy/windy days you go to the drop zone anyway and bitch about the weather. * On cloudy/windy days you pull out your parachute and pack it just to say that you've done something skydiving-related. * You "dirt-dive", "post-dive" and critique your love-making sessions. * The smell of bug spray makes you think of skydiving. * Whenever a passenger in a fast-moving car, you stick your head out the window and yell "FIVE LEFT" to the driver. * Whenever leaving an establishment you yell "DOOR" to all the patrons before opening the door. * You don't own any clothing that you didn't get at a boogie. * Every single one of your whuffo friends is to the point of wanting to kill you every time you mention skydiving. * You think of Jack Jeffries, Tamara Koyn and Norm Kent as "famous". * You analyze every flag you see in terms of it's too windy/not too windy to jump. * You analyze every flag you see in terms of which direction you'd face to land. * It's a dark sky with low clouds and you're thinking "Hop -n- Pops!". * It's so windy that trees are bending over and you're thinking "Cross country!". * You allow a maximum 55 seconds of "working time" when making love. * You can't think of a good reason to pick up your mail for three weeks after your issues of "Skydiving" and "Parachutist" arrive. * You feel naked without at least one jump ticket in your wallet. * You sign your checks with your name and USPA number. * You know to the tenth of a mile how far it is from your driveway to the drop zone's driveway. * Every time someone's beeper goes off you look at your watch to see if it's break-off altitude. * You don't remember your anniversary or your mother's birthday, but you know down to the second how much accumulated freefall time you have. * You analyze sessions of love-making in terms of "points turned". * You refer to your recent break-up as an "intentional cut-away". * You can't remember the true meanings of the words "Stilletto" "Javelin" "Talon" "Racer" ..... * You walk everywhere watching the sky. * You show up at the dz even on the worst-weather days because at least you can sit around drinking beer. * You can't mention the word "first" in casual conversation, at work, or ever in reference to yourself. * You have your paycheck direct-deposited into the dz account. * You plan your vacations around skydiving boogies. On a full moon night, you look up and think "Night jumps!" * You know the dz phone number while you don't even know your own. * Anytime you have sex with someone for the first time you think "Beer!" * You've kissed more people in freefall than you have on the ground. * Your whuffo friends just don't understand why you would want to "do" a horny gorilla. * You drive a beaten-up car because you really need that new canopy more. * You have no idea what is happening on the weekends in your town. * You have more pairs of Tevas than you do sneakers. * You catch yourself flaking the bed instead of making it * The term "PC" makes you think of pilot chutes, not personal computers * You name your dog "Toggles" * You wonder what whuffos _DO_ with themselves on gorgeous summer weekends * You look at your VCR and think, "Hmm, that's gotta be worth a few jumps." * You forget to lower your voice when talking to your jumper friends in a restaurant about the weekend's lost dildos, loose legstraps and lack of penetration * You refer to Weddings, Funerals, Birthdays, etc. as 'Relative Work' * You wish for wind, rain, snow, earthquakes, locusts, tornados, etc. on days you have to work or have other 'Relative Work' to do. * You can't imagine how anyone can go on vacation without a parachute. * Your rig costs more than your trailer. * You love the smell of 'Jet A' in the morning! * Losing your job is a reason for celebration! * Your 'work' clothes have grippers. * You wear a Skydiving T-shirt and bring a six pack to a job interview. * You try to convince the State Trooper that your "D" license allows you to do ANYTHING! * Your log book is thicker than any book you've ever read. * You stop by the New River Bridge and take a look. All the others are saying 'damn, look how high it is' and you're saying 'damn, look how low it is'. * When you buy anything you calculate how many skydives it will cost. * When you wear your rig on commercial passenger flights, just in case. * When seeing seats in a twin otter gives you the willies. * When you go to divorce court and give your ex everything as long as you can keep all your skydiving gear. * When buying a house seems like a terrible waste of jump money. * When you own three rigs, three altimeters, three dytters.... * When you log a jump on December 25 and the fact it is Christmas doesn't enter your mind. * Your six year old son can teach the first jump course. * You put your arms down and back in a full track when running down stairs. * You estimate your chances of pulling off a hard front riser turn when looking out any window above four stories. * When you wake up with a mean hangover in a tent, the first thing you check is your rig. Then the person sleeping next to you. * You find yourself mentally telling the pilot when to flare while landing on a commercial flight. * Your christmas tree has more skydivers on it that an Otter can carry. * Your thinking about taking all the but the driver's seats out of your car. * Everytime you get pulled over for speeding you tell the cop you just made your first skydive in the hopes that he will let you go. * Your favorite movie in the world is just over sixty seconds long. * Your whuffo friends only call if the weather man says the weekend will be shitty. * Your friends look at the sky and say, "look at all those clouds", and you say, "look at all those holes!". * You wake up in the morning feeling like death warmed over, after having a few too many beers the night before, and your solution to this consists of riding in an extremely loud vehicle for about twenty minutes, throwing yourself out the door and NOT! killing yourself. * You can't think of a better way to relax other than falling 10,000 feet. * You fill out your packing data card in braille and try to convince the drop zone owner it's legal. * You consider sleeping in a slanted plane as comfortable. * You see an incredibly beautiful woman and you think, "hmm, I wonder if I can talk her into......skydiving!". * Your girlfriend holds out her left hand and says the word diamond. You picture a fourway formation, look at your girlfriends hand realize the diamond she's talking about is going to cost over 200 jumps, and then, with a smile, picture your girlfriends suitcases on the porch. * Your friend says "let's go to the beach", and you grab your rig. * You try to convince the flight attendant on a commercial flight that you really! would be much more comfortable sitting on the floor. * Your friends think it's funny to, when you are sleeping, blow a fan in your face and set a beeper off near your ear. * When someone asks you where you're from, you reply with the name of your dz, not your hometown. YOU KNOW YOU'RE AN OLD-TIME SKYDIVER WHEN: * You think PC stands for ParaCommander. * You still call them AOD's * You know the rules for SCS and SCR. * You HAVE and SCS AND and SCR #. * You call it "Freak Flying" instead of "Sit Fly" and can do it without a special jump suit.' * You still call it the "Freak Brothers" convention. * You remember when safety meetings weren't. * You can't tell the difference between BOC and a "pull out" except you don't get to pull your own pin. * You remember when turf surfing was something students did, not hot dogs. * You think Pink is a stupid gear color for guys. * You KNOW what else to do on a weekend. * You think they are ALL "fun" jumps. * You think a collapsable pilot chute is something bad. * You think diapers go on mains. * You don't call a jump from 9,500 a "cloud base" jump. * When "pro" packing is something your rigger does. * When paying someone to pack your main is a waste of perfectly good jumping money * When you lament the loss of the need to "stand tension" cause it gave your girl friend something to do. * You know who Lew Sanborn is and can spell his first name. * You still call them ASOs. * You know what a "jesus string" is. * You remember when you actually wanted to buy a Paraflite main. * You catch yourself using the term "snoot" every once in a while. * Camera suits were used for RW. * Waivers were on a 3"x5" index card...along with the rest of your info. * Competition judges actually had to stand outside. * You remember when a 5-cell canopy was the cat's meow. * You can remember when $7.00 to 12,000 ft was highway robbery. * You remember deliberately doing hook turns downwind into the ground to stomp a disk. * You remember why the pea gravel pit was invented. * You remember swearing never to remove *any* padding off of a harness. -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

what do you call a skydiver without a girlfriend? Homeless -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Mahatma Gandhi, as everyone knows, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail. And with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him ... (Oh, man, this is so bad, it's good!) ... A super-calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis. -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

String goes into a bar and asks for a beer. Bartender says, "We don't serve strings in this bar...get out of here." String goes out to the street and finds a passerby and asks the passerby, "would you please tie a knot me in right about my middle so I can tease up the top of me and make it fluffy?" The passer does it, and the string back-brushes and fluffs up his top. He then returns to the bar and asks for a beer. Bartender says, "Heeeyyy....aren't you that string that was just in here?" String replies, "Nope...I'm afraid not." (say it out loud) -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Three bulls heard via the grapevine that the rancher was going to bring yet another bull onto the ranch, and the prospect raised a discussion among them. First Bull: "Boys, we all know I've been here 5 years. Once we settled our differences, we agreed on which 100 of the cows would be mine. Now, I don't know where this newcomer is going to get HIS cows, but I ain't givin' him any of mine." Second Bull: "That pretty much says it for me, too. I've been here 3 years and have earned my right to the 50 cows we've agreed are mine. I'll fight 'im till I run him off or kill 'im, but I'M KEEPIN' ALL MY COWS." Third Bull: "I've only been here a year, and so far you guys have only let me have 10 cows to "take care of". I may not be as big as you fellows (yet) but I am young and virile, so I simply MUST keep all MY cows." They had just finished their big talk when an eighteen-wheeler pulls up in the middle of the pasture with only ONE ANIMAL IN IT: the biggest Son-of-Another-Bull these guys had ever seen! At 4700 pounds, each step he took toward the ground strained the steel ramp to the breaking point. First Bull: "Ahem...You know, it's actually been some time since I really felt I was doing all my cows justice, anyway. I think I can spare a few for our new friend." Second Bull: "I'll have plenty of cows to take care of if I just stay on the opposite end of the pasture from HIM. I'm certainly not looking for an argument." They look over at their young friend, the 3rd bull, and find him pawing the dirt, shaking his horns, and snorting. First Bull: "Son, let me give you some advice real quick. Let him have some of your cows and live to tell about it." Third Bull: "Heck, he can have ALL my cows. I'm just making sure he knows I'm a bull!" -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

There have been a couple of times that we've taken our babysitter to the DZ with us so that my husband and I can jump on the same load at the same time and there's someone watching out kids for us. She expressed an interest in jumping "some day". so while she was out there, I bought her a tandem without her knowing and just said to her, "Go get geared up...you're on the next load." She looked like she was going to mess her pants....but she went and got excited (a very nervous excited). This was a couple of months away from her 50th birthday. So she gets geared up...and I get on the load with them (husband stayed with the kids). She has the wide-eyed "what am I doing?" look on her face that I've seen tandems have before...I smiled at her on the plane and gave her a thumbs up. She cracked a terrified half-smile and nodded...like, "uh huh..sure..heh.." Jump time..I get in the door...wave bye..and out I go. I see her face as they are scooting towards the door (Twin Otter) and I can't help but laugh as I'm in freefall. She later tells me that as she got in the door...she yelled, "NOOO..." as they left the plane. TM said, "You did a great arch..." she said, "Umm, no, I was trying to get back into the plane but you were behind me.." hee hee. She tells me, "Stephanie...I about pee'd my pants!" I laugh and say, "you're funny"...she says, "No! I mean I felt 'spurt spurt' and I thought OH NO! " I just cracked up laughing and offered her a pad. Yet despite this..the first thing she said on the ground was how great it was and that she wanted to do it again someday. I'm glad all she did was "spurt spurt" and she didn't actually drain her bladder all over herself and her TM. -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

*monotone* yeeees, I am very sleepy....if I hear a bell I will cluck like a chicken.... -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

I just did my first kiss pass this weekend (sunday). Although really cold, it was nice. What's stopped me so far? The fact that I'm married and haven't been able to jump with my husband because we both wanted to get good enough to jump with each other relatively safely..(I float like a leaf, he drops like a rock. As it was, we had to do a linked exit, closed, kissed, then I watched as we almost became a hybrid of me falling belly-down hard arch, and him slowly dropping below me until he was almost standing up before we let go and got some distance between us) -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Yup, thats happened to me too. It sounds like it, then when we got down she had the correct flushing around her face and chest (lower cut top) that I'm about 90% sure as well. Dang... sounds like I jumped with the wrong TM's!! -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

but wouldn't the likely result of cutting away, then having the PC deploy the main after the reserve blows out....be that the main, still in the bag (or coming out of the bag) would drop below you and if the main came out of the bag it would do so well clear of you? How likely is the already-cut-free main, being pushed out by the release of the reserve, to go UP so it can entangle with the reserve? And how likely is it to "dump"...to just drop out and sink to earth below you? -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

This was one of the specific examples of when my trainer told me to chop anyways. There was a jumper that was just lost in November who had a PC in tow and didn't chop before pulling his reserve and many are blaming that decision on his death (saying that if he'd chopped then pulled his reserve then the main bag with canopy still in it would have just fallen to the earth rather than what ended up happening, which was not good.) I've seen both responses to a PC in tow....you should chop it, and you shouldn't chop it. Bill? Others who have a ton of experience but I can't remember your names right now? What are your opinions about a PC in tow... cut away? or no? -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

Of course Definately Ok...first off...EEWWWWWW But now...story? -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

With the stupid student thread (which cracked me up more than once! ) it got me to thinking... To all of you Tandem Master....what are your stupid tandem stories? Ever had someone throw up on you? Pass out? Freak out and grab handles nobody should be grabbing? What are some of your stupid tandem stories? My only tandem claim to fame is that I had a reserve ride as a tandem. It was my third tandem, done for fun as I was going through ASP...I pulled, we got vertical, and my TM said, "SHIT! First position!" I yelled behind me, "HuH??" He said, "look at the canopy.." I looked up and saw a nice line over (or was it a tension knot? we're not really sure, and me not even having had any training didnt' know the difference...just knew the canopy was half collapsed). He said again, "PROBLEM..FIRST POSITION!" I had not a clue what "first position" meant, but the only thing I'd been taught thus far as to arch, so I arched like you've never seen before! Floomp...we were back in freefall, and I watched the reserve chute come off his back and inflate. I got a lot of "good job"s once on the ground...so at least I wasn't a "stupid tandem trick". So what are some funny/scary/duh things that you've had happen as a TM? -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

No one has the right to brag. Everyone has a right to brag. It's just whether you're bragging beyond your experience. I brag about the fact that I jump...I'm proud of it. I don't brag that I'm the best jumper out there..I'm brand new to the sport and I know I suck. but I think everyone has a right to brag.

Doesn't this complaint (and your whole message) go pretty much across the board, though? Having a slew of jumps in any one area isn't going to qualify you as an expert in any other area. 5000 freefly jumps isn't going to mean squat when it comes to BASE jumping, or RW... there are many different aspects of skydiving...'perfecting' one area doesn't mean anything in other areas... (or are you just noticing that more tandem masters tend to do this than other people?) btw...nice to meet you in Eloy. (for any of you ladies out there that haven't met Wrong Way, LOOK OUT!! those eyes...holy cow, what sky blue gorgeous eyes!! But..I'm a married woman.. ) -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings

My main stayed in the bag and on my back all the way to the ground.... if it had come out, it would have fallen below me. either way was fine with me. what I didn't want, NO MATTER WHAT, was a reserve entanglement! -------------------------------------------- Elfanie My Skydiving Page Fly Safe - Soft Landings