karenmeal

I hope it goes great for you all tommorow!!! "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Baggy suits are still good when appropriate (freeflying with tandems) but frap hats never made sense. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

I definitely agree with your sentiment. Packing is not that hard.. but teaching someone else you definitely have to have a good handle on the entire process and be able to answer all of the "why's". But on a side-note...the USPA coach rating is a lot of bullshit. I had to throw that in there. You can't be taught how to teach someone in just a few practice jumps and a 2-3 day course. Carry on. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

"You're on my shit-list." I usually earned it when he said that. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

"Patience is a virtue. Possess it if you can." That one always pissed me off. But I use it sometimes when I'm teaching someone to pack and I can tell that they just want to strangle me. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

What? If your neighbors are trying to shoot each other.. it is time to leave. Actually, it is well past time to leave. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

How sweet. The boy will be home in half an hour. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Nope. Washington. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Move. Far away. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Dude, Hybrids are soooo 2003. -Karen "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

I'm a red girl myself. I like full-bodied reds like Petite Syrah. (Or Petit Sirah, whatever.) Also, I like whatever wine my boy is brewing. My favorite that he has made so far was the Italian plum wine... sooo good!! -Karen (I'm enjoying some cab-sav tonight.)

I'm bored and drinking wine. Where is my DZ.com chat?? "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Good luck with the shots. I'm seriously considering another trial of them. The first time around I saw a 70% reduction in my allergies. -Karen "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Claritin: I use this in the off-season and it helps keep things under control. I've never noticed any side effects with this. But when my allergies are bad, this is pretty much useless. If you try this, get generic. It is the same, but much cheaper. Allegra: I take allegra now.. it is alright. They have a generic version which costs less. Zyrtec: They don't have a generic form of this out on the market yet, otherwise I would totally be on this. This stuff worked the best for me. But I have to pay like $35 a month for it. That is just too much considering all the allergy and asthma drugs that I take. Rhinocort Aqua: This is the nasal spray. I think this stuff is key. Once I get my allergies under control if I take this once every day or every other day it really helps. Benadryl: I only take this when my prescriptions run out and I'm desperate. It makes me feel drunk and stoned. I guess that is good sometimes though.. but not good for skydiving. Allergy Shots: I did a series of them for 4 years and saw a reduction in my allergies.. but then they came back, and I moved to another coast and developed all new allergies. Hope this helps. If you want a rating of the current asthma medications I can do that too. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

He has a bottle of lotion at his desk. That just strikes me as funny. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Or how about a cake with bunnies freeflying? "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

OK. Fine. You want to be technical about it... my ass is still here. But I rolled around damnit. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

I did the other day. Some stoner posted to the atmonauti-is-bullshit thread and it cracked me up. But considering that I sit Indian-style on the floor when I'm on the computer, laying down on the floor isn't such a stretech. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

I don't know. Probably because there are plenty of people out there that will only skydive if they have an AAD. It is actually pretty common to get people on the DZ who will refuse to jump without one. So here is some of the opinion/information that you wanted. My thoughts on AADs. There are times when I jump that I choose to not turn on my AAD. If I am getting out low (less than 3,000) I will usually leave it turned off. I'm pretty confident about my ability to exit a plane without getting myself knocked unconscious, so I don't really worry about that. But if you are exiting a plane at 1,800 feet you definitely increase your chances of having an AAD fire when you don't want it to. Not a misfire, it would be doing what it is designed to do. If you get out that low, wait a few seconds to deploy, and get a slow opening parachute, you could still be falling fast enough and low enough (with a parachute that is starting to open) that you would trigger your AAD to fire. This would give you a 2-out scenario. But if they aren't tangled, then that is not so bad, worse things could happen. On jumps from altitude, I prefer to have a AAD. But I will definitely jump without one on those too. As far as being concerned about having an AAD fire when I don't want it to, I figure that if I get that low unintentionally, shit is probably going wrong and my cypress may as well help me out. My main protection from having an AAD (and personal stupidity) induced two-out scenario is to always remain aware of my altitude and to pull at an appropriate altitude. But I do that regardless of what is in my rig, so I don't ever need to adjust my behavior according to whether I jump an AAD or not. In your case being a student, I would definitely reccomend having an AAD and feeling very confident about jumping with one. I was shocked with my first jump that I more or less blacked out for the first 10 seconds of the jump. It was just total overload. I have heard multiple static line students commenting after their jumps that they were so overloaded that they don't know if they would have thought to initiate emergency procedures if they had found themselves under a malfunctioning main. Those people that made those comments aren't all twits, they may have seemed very level-headed and intelligent on the ground, but couldn't handle skydiving too well. You really don't know how you will respond. Maybe you've particpated in a lot of intense sports or something and are good about that sort of thing, but I dunno, maybe you could still panic. So even on a static line jump you could still have some sort of crazy shit go wrong that could lead to you being unconscious, or perhaps reacting poorly to a malfunctioning parachute. It would be good to have an AAD just in case things go very very wrong. Anyways.. I think that I have typed enough now. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Is the pub working for others? It's not working for me. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

1:2:0 Had a good weekend. Some crappy weather one day, but I still got 2 full altitude jumps in!!! Woohoo! Finally!!!!!!!!! Had an awesome Easter Egg Hunt at the dropzone. In addition to all the real prizes there were some joke prizes. The funniest joke prizes were the free hugs. I was the only one who was in on the joke. It was hilarious watching someone walk up to another unsuspecting jumper and try to redeem their hug.

Hooray! I got a 10/10! Since I'll be taking the GRE's pretty soon, I guess that is a good thing. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

To start answering some of your questions: http://www.uspa.org/publications/SIM/2006SIM/SIM.htm And go to the link that says you can download a PDF version. Start reading that. It should start to answer a lot of your questions and give you some back ground information. Once you finish reading that, then you can start reading the owner's manuals for the gear that you will be jumping. The first jump course is meant to teach you how to save your life. If you teach people much beyond that, they'll have trouble retaining information. So don't expect that every single question you can dream up will be answered. The goal of the class is not to trick the teacher with hard questions, but to let them teach you how to do things safely. -Karen "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Easter Egg Hunt at the DZ, teach a packing class, come home cook dinner, and study for a test! Long day tommorow. -Karen Here is a picture of the cake that I made today.

Just bumping up.. I know I got some Seattle people on here all stoked about easter eggs. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham