MikeJD
-
Content
2,741 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Feedback
0%
Everything posted by MikeJD
-
Well, I doubt you'll ever win over your detractors. But for what it's worth, I think "He's a poet, but he doesn't show it." I think your stuff here, and the very funny "Dr. Shah" threads from a while back, have done a lot to round out your online persona. Definitely a good thing.
-
Sounds like you have good awareness, so that's a good thing.
-
Cessna 206 Jump Pilot positions in the UK?
MikeJD replied to 738_driver's topic in General Skydiving Discussions
Here's a map of BPA dropzones. Suggest the best thing you could do is to phone or email around, and ask the question directly. There won't be too many places to contact, especially if you're planning to limit yourself to the Greater London area. I don't think there are a lot of 206s flying jumpers, but there are plenty of Caravans. Good luck! -
As others have said, there's a seasonal pattern - and if nothing else, if it's the 'on season' in parts of the world where most jumping is done, more people will be getting hurt during that period. Also, I'm no statistician but it seems to me that when we're talking about relatively small numbers of incidents (which, thankfully, we are) it only takes a small number of additional incidents to generate a large percentage increase.
-
I've been jumping long enough to remember how 'cool' frap hats once were. And yet they're the one item of skydiving gear that always get a laugh from friends and family of tandem students.
-
Presumably he wasn't both a pilot and a TI on the same load.
-
And you have the advantage that if you have landed a long way out, you won't starve while you wait for the recovery vehicle!
-
Fixed it for her.
-
Pah, he must have had something out. Maybe his shirt was untucked.
-
I ran out of toilet paper on a Somalian beach holiday. That was a Mogadishu tissue issue.
-
This isn't really the advice you're looking for, but I'd say don't get hung up about doing your '100th jump' on your 100th jump. It can be frustrating trying to time it right, get the perfect people together etc. It's always an option to treat your actual centenary dive like any other, and then organise another, celebratory one when the conditions are best suited to make it a success. Also, if it is a group dive then don't feel pressurised to let all your friends on it regardless of experience. If it ends up a zoo then you won't be doing anyone any favours! Make sure you get some very experienced involved to organise it for you. Oh, and have fun!
-
The worst thing is, it obviously worked which means there must be a God. Hard to believe if those guys hadn't got back safely there'd have been no Forrest Gump. Also hard to believe that Tom Hanks is 82 years old.
-
I was pretty young in '69, but I seem to recall being allowed to watch the landing live on TV. This would have been in the early hours of the morning in the UK, I think. That footage has been shown so often that it's hard to remember whether I really saw it live, or at some later time. However I do vividly remember saying a prayer during school assembly for the safe return of the Apollo 13 astronauts the following year.
-
You mean excluded? ;) No, I mean excepted. Damned foreigners, trying to correct us in the use of our own language. Oh, and by 'MIL' I thought at first you meant one of your big helicopters. That would have to be some parasail.
-
Yep. Putin 2 and 2 together and making 5.
-
Ahem... She's only saying that Russians are no less idiotic than anyone else. Anyway, so long as you have not personally tied a donkey to a parasail, then clearly present company is excepted!
-
Well, that's pretty cruel and stupid. I do like the synchronicity between that story and your sig line though. You could have added, '...or attaching it to a canopy in a dumb marketing stunt.'
-
Agreed. Some of those 'debt recovery' firms are borderline criminal themselves. It's a good reason to nip any problems like this in the bud, because even though you might win out in the end there can be a lot of pain and anxiety along the way. To the OP: as well as contacting the firm directly, I'd make a point of returning to sender any future mail with this guy's name on it - clearly marked 'not known at this address.' I do shred anything that shows both my name and address, or at least separate the two - although this kind of information is freely available from sites such as 192.com, so I also try to be ex-directory as far as possible. I just don't believe in making life easy for these scumbags, and anyone I want to hear from has my contact details already.
-
It's fun watching those old 3D movies in 2D. Lots of stuff poking or flying towards the camera for no apparent reason.
-
I find that picture strangely disturbing - I think it's the people-proportioned pussycats. That's just wrong.
-
Me.
-
I haven't seen it yet, but definitely plan to. DiCaprio generally gives good value for money, and I wouldn't bet against anything director Christopher Nolan does. Memento is still my absolute favourite film.
-
Since the thread has already been exhumed... I used to love The X Files. It was a bit patchy, and like most shows of its kind they dragged out the underlying 'mystery' for too long and it got tedious (see also Twin Peaks, Lost et al). It was also highly derivative (plots were lifted wholesale from movies like The Thing) - but at its best, it was great. I don't think people realise how groundbreaking it was in terms of production values. Around that time most TV shows looked cheap, but with The X Files they made an effort to film every episode as though it were a mini movie. Oh, and the title sequence and music were a bit cheesy, but that was part of the appeal.
-
Are you actually visting for the airshow on 17 & 18 July? If so then I've nothing to add, I'm afraid - that's all I know that Fairford is famous for.
-
Haven't seen it yet, but I will based on the reviews and people's recommendations. I did start to read the book, but as with The Da Vinci Code, I couldn't see what all the fuss was about. I don't share the knee jerk reaction of a lot of critics when it comes to Hollywood remakes. Sure, many of them have been bad - but the makers are always going to be up against it, especially if the original is well known and liked. Sometimes a film just works better for you if it's within your cultural frame of reference. Take 'The Ring' - I thought the original was ok, but probably didn't affect me in the way it did Japanese audiences. I actually found the Gore Verbinski version a lot scarier and more enjoyable (I know, sacrilege!)