Avion

How about a pic of one of my video chat friends...

I love Sade. I think her later music has lost the originality of her earlier stuff. Her voice is just phenominal. I wish she and her band could come up with some more songs that equal the quality of her singing. Sniff...

Bye bye boredom, hello fustration I'm at a loss for a sexy pic of myself, unless you include that act I performed in front of my camcorder once

Of course run anything you want to attempt or use by your instructors before hand. I do, and have recieved such good and such surprising responses that I was glad I did. Alrighty then, moving on... My replies in these forums are mostly an excersize in both learning the facts of skydiving and and learning how to express them in a clear and consise manner. All this is for my hopefully up and coming book on skydiving. And hey, if I can prevent some one from doing something stupid, that would make me feel good too I have been chastized several times, sometimes by people with only slightly more experience than I, for having the impetus to say anything at all, in view of my current experience. The interesting thing is that they usually ignore the content and validity of what I said, which often is a quote or paraphrase from one of their own posts or books, and criticize me simply for replying at all. Apparently, speaking right's are only recognized after a person has both at least several years of involvement and at least 600 to 1000 jumps. Only after I defended my posts, by identifing the references I was using, Brian Germain's canopy book, the Skydivers Handbook, PD educational articals etc, did my critisizers quell themselves. Maybe, they just ignore me now. In any case, to directly address your point: I consider myself a student of skydiving, and consider the last step of learning to be teaching. Accordingly, I relpy to posts fully insead replying with just a curt "Ask your instructors" a few reasons: 1) The answer to the question is probable archived here, and instead of searching for a previous thread again, I have dug into the archives for a number of topics, and posting a link to it, or telling someone how to search for it themselves, if I already know the answer, it gives me the opportunity to explain it in my own words, hopefully even better than before, and if I lack an understanding of the question, it gives me the additional opportunity to research and learn more myself, although in that case, I omit a reply just to see what the "Skygods" have to say first. 2) Because I did my homework well before I went to AFF, I noticed that my instructors, resist providing in depth explainations as to why to do the the things they tell you to do. There is a couple of reasons for this: One, they want to avoid having the student thinking about anything else in the air other than the dive flow, and two 'training' is less comprehensive than 'research.' The student is paying to be trained how to be a skydiver rather than paying to be educated in how to be an authority on skydiving. So, such detailed explainations are simply beyond the explicit scope of AFF. To their credit, I have noticed that my instructors are now much more willing to talk about the reasons and opinions behind things since I have graduated, especially if I buy them a beer , and comprehend their tenacity to stick strictly to the written structure of AFF without elaboration, for it is their livelyhood that is on the line with each and every student. 3) Also because I did my homework well before going to AFF, I noticed my instructors told me to do things or allowed me to do things that varied from the recomended pratices that I had read, which were writted by some of the most respected authorities of skydiving. These things, rather than being outright safety violations, were within the scope of ST&A judgment calls and were "the way we do things here" type of stuff. However, I felt myself the better for knowing there were other respected views, and thereby for having a broader perspective in spite of the fact that my instuctors attempted to make it appear that their way was the only respected way. Ultimately, I did things the way my instructors wanted. As it was, I was paying them to teach me their way, and had taken quite some time in deciding where I would recieve the best instuction. Although, I did realized I had the choise of continuing somewhere else, where they did things according to the authorities that I had read, I choose to trust the training of the instructors where I had started. After all, they were reported to be the best in the world. So, where was I to go, but downhill from there. AFF actually went more smoothly, than I ever could have imagined. Evidently, I choose well. All of this I do, because this is the land of freedom and I value a person's option to make an informed decision. Thus, I do my homework well, because it is my own life, and others too, for that I take ultimate responsibility, whenever I jump out of a plane. Cheers PS If you want to talk about fear. Durning the course of my studies before ever jumping, I dug deep into the fatality database reading 4-5 years worth of incident reports, both here and at the USPA. It practially froze me with fear, and I thought myself insane, for wanting to be part of this sport. With continued reading, I began to see patterns of avoidable mistakes leading to incidents. Once I began to recogize those patterns, my fear began to diminish, because I realized that a large portion of all incidents was voluntary, meaning that they could have been completely avoided by employing both proper attention and good judgement. The remaining incidents, horrifying as they are, comprise a very small number jumps in view of all the jumps made. My point is: The sport is much more safe, than it first appears, for those who do their due diligence. Therefore, I continue to read the incidents forums, in order to constantly refesh both my concern and motivation to do my part.

Books by my bed: Holy Bible, if you can believe it RCA Recieving Tube Manual RC-30 Radiotron Designer's Handbook Radio Shack's Building Power Supplies Greg Short Hand Principles of Electric Circuits Calculus and Analytic Geometry And, my copy of the Skydiver's Handbook was last seen somewhere in that general vicinity ---------------- Oh yea, I also have a two volume dictionary that I had for over ten years now, by my bed at the moment. It's my usual companion to the Handbook for Writer's which I have also had for ages. I usually keep those two by my computer. It's amazing how much I have learned from just those two books. Cheers

Prehaps, I should have said that would be considered acceptable by Brian Germain's jump number and wingloading guideline reccomendations. Brian Added: I'm suprised abput how many people I've already met with less than 100 jumps flying canopies loaded at 1.3 and above. Do your homework brother, I did, cause it's my life I taking in my hands. I love this post: I print it out and give it to people.

Gmail's got two gigs

That practice bothers me too.

Cute, but does little for me sexy wise.

Happy Birthday Michele!!!

I gave a shit yesterday. It's too early to tell wheter I give a shit today

Since, I already have Super Intelligence, Wha ha ha ha... and a limited power of telepathy, Whe he he he... I would find the addition teleportation useful, so I could go and visit my friends on Saturn

Excellent!

Ass definately makes my world go round. Boobs are just a bonus

Woops, excuse me. I've over stimulated myself

By the generally accepted rules about jump numbers and wingloading: 0-100 jumps < 1.0:1 So, 0.9:1 for you is OK. I'm got 35 jumps and load my Spectre at about 0.9 to 1. It lands just as fast as I want to go at the moment. The vertical decent rate really wakes me up everytime. Any faster and it would be scary. By the way, I plan on putting at least 200 jumps on my canopy before getting another. In any case after shelling out for AFF and a rig, I'm a little short on funds just for a smaller canopy

Don't go where he went! Not unheard of for AFF. I know I did mine for just a tad under $1200 (not AFF, static line for me)! That includes AFF and everything else needed to get an A licence. With five and a half hours tunnel time, about $3,800, I did AFF in four jumps, about $800. Although, I got 35 jumps now, about $570 at $19/jump, and have my own rig, $3,300 used, I'm still a student. I'm taking my time getting the licience. Really, all I have left to do is the paper work. So, in order to get an A licence, basically about $1,200-$1,400 for AFF, $1,000 for jumps, gear rental, and coaching... And, another $100-$200 for BEER! Cheers

The only things I can think of are: --------------------- 1) The container mod, you already know about this. 2) The PC kill line is too short, already been mentioned. 3) The PC is too small, also been mentioned. --------------------- The packing volume of the main is probably OK. containers usually have a little tolerance for a slightly larger size. Main pin pull tension should be around 6-12lbs(~3-6kg). Cheers

I managed to do a stable sit after about 4 attempts in the air. That comes after about 20 minutes or so training in the tunnel. I found that trying to sit in a booty suit with a rig on my back was working out poorly. So, I got a suit without booties and grippers. The first sitfly jump in that suit was stable. I'll still roll on to my back, if I try to turn, but I can keep it going if I just stay still. Cheers

During AFF they instructed me to start flaring at 10-12 feet. The first time I waited for their signal to start flaring, and did a perfect stand up landing. The second time, I flared on my own, was looking down at the ground, and started flaring at what I thought was 10-12 feet. Then, I saw I was still too high. So, I let up a little, waited little, then finished the flare. They said I started flaring at like 30 feet. This is where the looking way forward helps. Looking down or even 45 degrees down gives you a false sense of acceleration as you get close to the ground. By looking way forward your mind can figure out when your approaching ground level better. Now, I've been flaring a little late and sinking down almost to my butt with my feet sliding across the grass then pull it back up to standing just at the finish. It's fun getting in that little turf surf Tandem landings are usually much more dramatic than your typical student landing. Cheers BTW I just looked at you website and noticed you have some hearing ability. Maybe you can get them to hook up a radio with some kind of speaker in the helmet so you could make use of a verbal flare signal.

Interesting, and congradulations for attempting this. O.65lbs/sqft is at the light end of normal student wingloading. It should be fine, if the winds are light

Having so much time between training and jumping or between you first few jumps lets your apprehensions build up. In Tom Buchanan's book "JUMP!" he describes a fear management model that divides things into four catagories: 1) Yourself 2) Other People 3) Your Equipment 4) The Enviroment You can use these four catagories to isolate and reduce the causes of your anxiety. Yourself, do you know what you have to do on the next jump well enough that you feel comfortable attempting it. Other people, have you asked them enough questions and recieved satisfactory answers to feel confident in their abilities. If you feel nervous with them, express your concern. They are there to help you with the mental side of things too, but you have to let them know what's going on in your mind. Your equipment, are you familar with all the aspects of your equipment? Do you know what everything does and have confidence about how to use it? Have you checked over each piece in detail, and feel confident that it will funcion as expected? The Enviroment, a clear day with light steady winds are best for students. Do you feel good about the weather? Is it too cloudy, too windy, or too gusty for your comfort? I delayed a day of AFF jumping once, where the DZ would have let me jump, but I felt the wind were too strong for my comfort. Also, I almost delayed a jump once, because I felt the instuctor was rushing me. I told them, I'd jump with some one else later on if need be. They ended up delaying the plane a few minutes for me. There's always another day, if you keep yourself well... I got though AFF without mishap. I decided a while back, considering I'm older now and have pushed my luck hard when younger, that if I'm going to err now, I'd rather err on the side of safety than danger, if that could even be called an err. Once you have done all you can do to reduce your anxiety and increase your confidence in these four catagories, then comes the time for courage. Hope this helps, cheers. And yes, those first ten jumps or so were soul searching ordeals for me too. It's better now, much better

I packed my rig at least 4-5 before I felt confident about jumping my own pack job. When I finally got around to it, I thought the same thing, "Uh... I hope this works." It did Now, I prefer to always pack for myself, and am starting to learn how to pack my reserve. Cheers

I've got a Spectre 210 that I load about 0.9 to 1. Its just as fast as I like it to be with my experience. It could turn faster, but the landings are right on the mark. I demoed a 230 first, and that one was definitely a little slow for me. The interesting thing was that I noticed a significant, but less large, difference in performance between the 230 and the 210. Toggle tension and glide speed were both noticably greater. I've also demoed a Silhouette. Suprisingly, the Silhouette has much less flare power than the Spectre. Although it flies much flater. Cheers

Exits I done from the Skyvan are: 1) Hop out backwards, looking toward front of plane, and try to maintain stable head up on the hill, looking at plane. 2) Dive out head first, looking down and try to maintain stable head down on the hill, good for preparing to dive down and dock with someone that exited before you. 3) Hop out in a sit position looking toward the tail of the plane and try to hold stable sit. I'll have to try this facing toward the front of the plane next time Remember, anybody can just hop out and roll around for a while until they can get stable. However, it's an acquired skill to exit stable and maintain that stability until you reach terminal. Cheers