ChangoLanzao

It's the pink Pro Tech helmets that make the students really sexy. Hey! Watch it!! I resemble that remark!!!

That's an awesome trip ... CLICKY!

Dayum! That sounds like a party ... when will we know the exact dates??

I also like SCUBA; it's a different world down there, 3-dimensional and a lot like flying in slow motion My last trip was to Florida in January where I spent a week skydiving at Lake Wales and went to Key Largo to SCUBA for a week and got Rescue Diver cert.

This year could turn out differently. In the past, the WFFC was scheduled exactly during the time that almost 15,000 University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign - 20 mi. from Rantoul) students, faculty, and staff are away on vacation, between semesters. This year, the WFFC will take place just before finals prior to the end of the summer session, so it will be entirely possible, given the right advertizing, to attract many more spectators. It will be interesting to see what happens ...

I had a D70. I sold the D70 body on eBay and bought the D70s body last year as soon as it became available. I LOVE IT. It took a few weeks for me to get the wire remote though because nobody had them for several months after the D70s body came out. It was worth the wait. I was able to easily covert it to a tongue switch. The continous shooting works well.

That's exactly right. CLICKY I think you're getting excessively annoyed ... considering that you let your membership expire. It seems very reasonable for the USPA office to tell you that "processing" will take a couple of weeks. They would have to deal with many more easily annoyed people if they raised expectations. As far as I'm concerned, it would make the process more inneficient if they placed a high priority on late renewals. I've been a member for eighteen years and have never gotten annoyed at USPA.

Everyone's OK Lost power at 500 ft on takeoff with four jumpers on board. Landed "safely" next to a construction site. Nose down. The news choppers just starting swarming in The plane is sitting nose-down in some sand, engine's busted off. Whew! Other than that ... things are going great down here...the weather is beautiful...

Just got here ... last night. There are quite a few of us Pathetic Losers from East central Illinois down here for the week (including a French guy and at least a couple of French Canadians too). WooHoo! Look us up -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HISPA#D44, PL#-43 My Home DZ

Pretty much the same as you, Cocheese...except it happened to me during a poker game. My tobacco-chewing buddy was sitting ext to me. I grabbed the wrong Coke can

Fun to watch. Nicely edited. Love the music. Now I'm psyched I'm ready to hit the road on Friday and go South, to Lake Wales and SKYDIVE!

QuoteSee, charts like this raise questions for my own downsizing. If I were following it, I'd still be under a 230, the same size canopy I used on my first jump. And yet with direct recommendation and permission of my instructors, I'm just getting under a Pilot 188... about 100 jumps ahead of myself per the chart. The low-timer jumper who's under a canopy that might be too small! ...... But the point of this post is that things like this can be confusing, particularly to low-timers who don't know their own abilities... or lack thereof. People can debate the appropriate size of canopies until the cows come home, but until something like this becomes a BSR, instructors and mentors will just keep on doing what they do. And we'll probably keep having the occasional student dig a hole. Quote The more I read this and other threads on this subject the more convinced I'm becoming that charts and graphs should be left to the manufactures. There are far too many variables involved to make the chart approach useful as a BSR or license requirement. Graphs can be more confusing; they make it too easy for people to interpolate their way into a very precise result that has no basis in reality for their particular situation. I'm really starting to think that the most fruitful approach is going to be one that is based on determining, as accurately as possible, whether a given individual can demonstrate that they have the experience and the skills to safely pilot a particular canopy.

I was thinking exactly what SkyBytch said! I put 600 jumps on my Sabre 135 before I got my Crossfire 2 119. I still mostly jump the Sabre and have a lot to learn about it. The Crossfire is a blast to fly though, but requires respect. The kid you're referring to is in dire need of good advice. Does he read? I would hand him some reading material and encourage him to read and think about it. I would take every opportunity I could to talk him out of the path he seems to be on. I even have videos I've taken/collected of what might happen to him ;-) Ultimately it's his choice though. So, yes ... I'd go grab my video camera ... he might help me add to my collection and perhaps he'll help me convince the next kid to be more careful.

I'm thinking the same thing. It seems to me that at some point, there should be some kind of proficiency requirement so that past a certain point pilots have actually demonstrated certain skills in addition to number of jumps.

Exactly! I think we're better off putting our efforts into minimizing the opportunities for bad publicity by helping each other through better safety awareness than to waste time trying to educate the media.

Here's my face

I love my Harleys, but the Norton is beautiful. Those are really awesome. A friend of mine had a Norton Commando 750 ... he lent it to me for a day and I had a blast. But that was a long time ago. I'd love to check out one of the current models.

DITTO. "Even if my life had no other significance, I am satisfied with having discovered the absolutely demoralizing existence of the daily press." -- Soren Kierkegaard

Yes ... one of my co-workers just sent me THIS.

Wow! Congrats!!! My last day with the U of IL is Dec 30th!! I'm retiring after 27 yrs. WooooHoooo!!

Thanks, Beth, for including me, but I'm not a teacher; just happen to work for the University of Illinois as a computer geek. I do system administration stuff and also advanced training of other computer geeks. Anyway, Lianne is a school teacher ... she's even done a couple of skydives with Flat Stanley!! French Patreek made the vidies.

How 'bout this one (taken by "Old Ugly" Andy Anderson).

Wasn't me. That picture was taken Tuesday evening. I know, 'cause I can see all the freakin tape I put on the door from the loads before that. Well, that and Tuesday was the night I performed the Wayne and Lisa Blackwelder wedding in the hot air balloon, or that would have been me sitting there! Hey Rev ... Of course I know that wasn't you ... the picture shows what you were alluding to in your post though ... the great view you had and all that duct tape. I wish I could have snapped one of you in that seat too, but ... Anyway ... thanks for pointing out that the shot of you and Hap was no longer there. I just discovered that I never finished working my convention pics and uploading the fixed up versions . Yeah ... you mean This One. Damn! It's getting to be a lot of work keeping track of all these images Too bad Fat Annie's not coming back though. She was too cool. But she took too long to get to altitude and, just like the C-130, it can turn into a half-day ordeal to do a jump. I did one jump from Fat Annie last summer; only because it was a hop'n'pop. Even then, it was at least an hour from the time I got geared up 'till I was packing again. I imagine that jumping a blimp could also turn out to be a logistics challenge, but I think almost everyone would want to do it, so it would be a great draw. I just hope that there's a DC3 at the convention every year. It's also slow, but I love doing hop'n'pops from the 3 also.

Yup ... the new dates are gonna work out much better for me now because I'll be able to ride my hawg to Sturgis after The Convention this year [;-)]. The new dates also mean that - for the first time - The Convention will be in Rantoul while ten thousand University of Illinois students and staff are still in town before the end of the Summer Session. The first week of August around here is usually the deadest time - when everyone leaves town. Anyway, I think a blimp would be such a blast; it would be really fun for the jumpers as well as the extra spectators.

Quote Man I would love to see Fat Annie come back this year, but i just don't see it happening. Sitting in that door from 1200 feet to altitude completing "in flight repairs" was pretty damn cold, but I tell ya, it was the best seat in the house. (Not to mention the satisfaction I felt, keeping her from trying to tear herself apart from the inside out...) We need to remember more duct tape next time though... If she comes back, I look forward to jumpmastering more loads. All my directed loads landed on the airport. HERE ya go Rev!