cruzit

Couple of years ago I was flying mainside on a level 1. He was flakey out the door and bucked and rocked through the practice pulls, so much so that I never let go of his high shoulder for fear he would flip. He settled down after the practice pulls and I thought "cool, he's going to do alright." Big mistake! I went ahead and let his shoulder go and reached for his wrist to help guide his hand for his pull. He looked down, bent almost double and threw me neatly over his and the reserve jumpmaster's backs...oh about 20 or 30 feet away. By the time I flipped back over and turned around, reserve and student had folded up and funneled dropping altitude like you wouldn't believe. I went head down but realized shortly I would never be able to catch them. I had no desire to eat the student's main, and we were well below his assigned hard deck, so even though it was a hard decision, I broke and let the reserve side have him. (the video is narly by the way). Fortunately, my reserve side pulled him out well above 2,000. Yes, I made a mistake by letting his shoulder go, but who knew... Did it deserve grounding, I don't think so. I erred on the side of giving the student his opportunity to learn. Now, if it happened every time I jumped with a student that would be different. J

Strongly recommend you have an orthopedic surgeon look at it and consider having it fixed. As an instructor, I have had three students dislocate. The last time it was a 6'3" 220 IAD student's right arm as he was hanging from a Cessna 182. Between the two of us, I got him back in the plane...but it wasn't pretty and scared the crap out of both of us. My concern is how are you going to pull you reserve in an emergency?...let alone land your canopy Please, as a favor to your instructors, DZ, and friends...fix it first. J

What you're feeling is not that unusual. I remember going through something similar. If you don't feel like skydiving on a weekend, don't. Getting away from it for weekend or two will help you regain some perspective. I spent 10 years skydiving every single weekend...and yes...I burned out. Personally, I have a number of hobbies, skydiving is one of them. Since I don't skydive every single weekend...when I do skydive, it's a treat. I get to see all my friends and do something I really love. The next weekend may see me climbing in the Rockies...where I also have lots of friends and am doing something I love. There is nothing wrong with having more than one passion...it makes you more interesting.

Personally, I think it's a bad idea. Anytime you are in a relationship with someone, it can cloud your judgement. My husband, then boyfriend, attempted to JM me after I decided to start jumping (we met elsewhere). He expected way more from me than most JMs would. After several stressful jumps with him as my JM, I switched to JMs who had no personal stake. Worked out much better all around...and we're still married If you are truly interested in your student, there is plenty of time for that a. After she/he is off student status or b. After he/she quits the sport.

Jackson Hole can be quite cold and windy. I concur...layer, layer, layer. You will work up a sweat. It is not unusual for me to ski in just a t-shirt and outer waterproof shell by the time the end of the day rolls around. However, riding up on the lifts can be absolutely brutal, so keep everything handy to put back on.

Most examiners won't deliberately screw you. But I strongly advise going to a pre-cert course just to get a feel for what it's like. For every horrible cert course skydive I had, I have a dozen more real AFF jumps which were much worse in the 10 years since I earned my rating. It took a while, but I eventually figured out the cert course really was a good thing. At the time I went through the course I had just enough FF time to get my rating...I wish I had had some tunnel time to supplement.

I've worked in corrections for 15 years. On the whole, I agree that killing even one innocent is wrong. And yet....I have no problem with inmate Williams receiving the death penalty. This isn't a case where there is even a shadow of a doubt. His supposed good deeds look to me to be a calculated manipulative tactic to gain the sympathy of some individuals who are more...shall we say naive about how the average thug thinks. So in 1993 after 20 years of poor institutional adjustment...Williams figures out he may be getting close to the end of his appeals and starts to manipulate the public by stating he is now "against violence." Bullshit...same thing happens every day at my facility. Inmates getting close to the end of their sentence decide to clean up their act the last year or so in order to look better to staff when consideration for half-way house placement happens. I've no doubt he was still had mucho stroke with the Crips. Assuredly he was running the the Crips inside the joint. Williams and his ilk have caused, and continue to cause, more harm than most of you can ever fathom. William's legacy is one of murder and terror. For every child who stepped away from violence because of some book he wrote, 1,000 have died or will die as a result of the gang he started. So....while I don't ever want to think an innocent may die....I am comforted to know at least in this case, justice....yes, I said Justice...was served.

Gary England in OKC is saying 6 inches of snow in central Oklahoma by Wed afternoon. Good thing I'm recovering from surgery and can stay inside and veg all day.

Couple of weeks ago I was using one of those mandoline (sp?) slicers. My uncle says to me...."better be careful, you'll cut your finger off." Jinxed me he did, 3 minutes later I sliced the tip of my thumb almost all the way off. Still wearing a bandaid.

SDD is approximately 35-40 miles from the Oklahoma border and roughly an hour from downtown Dallas. However, having said that, SDD is 3 hours and 15 minutes from Oklahoma City (drove it every weekend for 3 years) and almost 3 hours to Tulsa. Definately closer to Dallas than the big cities in Oklahoma (which is where the majority of Oklahoma jumpers live). SDD has a wonderful student operation. Its the more bang for your buck theory. Certainly you can pay less for a tandem, but you will certainly get less. You can't go wrong at SDD.

Some years ago when I was the regular FJC and AFF instructor at a small DZ I got pressured by the DZO to come out and teach and JM when I had a nasty cold. I ended up rupturing my sinus in freefall (hurt like a mofo). Fortunately, my stupidity didn't have serious physical repurcussions. Of course, several weekends later on a ride up to altitude, I ended up blowing out huge clots of blood (seriously grossed out all the people on the plane). Anyhow, jumping with a cold just is not a good idea.

Yes, sadly when we got the champagne at the end of tour it tasted like those apple bitters you spray to keep dogs from eating stuff. I think your right about four being enough in one day...but what the heck, I won't get back for a while. J

I got a chance to visit last February. We spent two day in Napa...one touring the local wineries. Did one of those van tours. That's really the way to go. I mean...who wants to spit out all that lovely wine. Alan and I both ended up pretty much snookered. Of course, it was probably the entire bottle of wine we had at the deli that got us that way. I thought Coppalo's place was great and certainly beautiful. J

Stonehedge Cabernet 2002 $9.99 Francis Coppala's Claret 2002 $19.00 Babor (used to be Rojo) $8.99 Liberty School (any)

I'm in 4 pictures in the Texas Star article.

Robin was friend for about 10 years. Pud adopted him a couple of years before he died. That dog loved to jump. I can remember a couple of weather days when Pud would try to hop into the Caravan at Skydive Dallas looking for a jump. It's really odd this thread turned up...I was thinking about Robin just the other day. I think I remember them saying at Robin's funeral that Pud was going to live with Robin's brother's family. I still miss them...Blue skies Robin.

Hubby and I have a rule...If you can run on it, you can jump on it. Of course we have MDs who know what kind of punishment we put on our bones and are okay with that philosphy. J

Lived across the street from the drummer for Cross Canadian Ragweed.

When I was a student, I was so nervous I couldn't eat anything all day long. I agree with some of the others, repetition, confidence in your skills. and currency are the keys. Usually now, I don't get nervous so much as I have performance anxiety. But that's a whole nother story entirely.

Contrary to what most people appear to believe, many non-violent federal offenders never see the inside of a prison. Many are sentenced to probation, home confinement, or placement in a community corrections center. From experience, I can tell you most of the individuals incarcerated behind walls in the federal system have earned their way there. I see rap sheets every day that would make your night sleepless. Most inmates have extensive history's of violence. They carry the violence from the outside, inside the walls. Every day, correctional staff, who are vastly outnumbered, put their lives in harms way in order to carry out the sentences demanded by our federal courts. Consider, a U.S. Attorney once told me that their office won't even consider taking a case to grand jury unless they were 99% sure they could win. So in other words, if indicted by the feds...plead out.. You want to ease the prison burden, educate the young and the poor. Volunteer in an inner-city YMCA. Do your part to discourage recidivism by hiring an ex-felon. Okay...rant over. J

Age: 43 Sex: F Avg: .1906

Nope...there aren't that many "illegals" on death row. The prison systems in Mexico...I know this will come a shock to most of you...tend to be run a little differently than those in the states. Most illegals hope by getting transferred back to Mexico they can get all or part of their sentences commuted.

It makes you feel any better, I have seen a total of one illegal transferred via treaty transfer in my 15+ years with the federal prison system. It just doesn't happen. Most don't even want to go to Mexico because all their family live in the states. Go figure.

Keep in mind you are asking advice over a public forum and take it all with a grain of salt. You should really have a long talk with your instructor concerning your feelings. However, having said that....You've already mastered one of the hardest things in skydiving...getting out of the plane. You really shouldn't have that much problem if you are already accomplishing successful PRCPs. You will more than likely have your parachute pulled long before you experience any increased sensation of falling as it takes about 10 seconds or so to transition to terminal velocity. I wouldn't worry myself unduly about that. As far as preparing yourself for the jump...concentrate on the task. You know exactly how you need to perform to complete your skydive successfully, that is what you need to be worrying about. Concentrate on having a good arch on exit, not bending at the waist to look at your ripcord. Most of all, have a good time. After all, didn't you start skydiving to have fun?? You'll do great. Let us know how you do.

The standard for civil liability is much less than for a criminal conviction. It looks to me as if the lawyers in this case sued where they knew they could get the most money. Obviously a guy on welfare would not be able to pay up in a settlement. So instead, they go for the guy who owns a profitable business and who most likely has insurance. Oh wow!!! I just made my first foray into the Speaker's Corner.