HotLoad

Thought everyone might find my last jump interesting. Four of us were planning a fun jump out of a Cessna. Well, it just so happened to be around 105 degrees on the ground (it felt even hotter in the plane.) A couple of us decided to jump sans shirts or jumpsuits. After an uneventful horny gorilla, we broke, tracked and dumped. Here's the interesting part. I've jumped several times without a shirt and not had a problem, so I didn't think twice about it. Well, as my canopy started to inflate, I felt a tug on my pierced left nipple. I immediately reached up and grabbed my risers and began to lift myself up. Too late. The vertical descent had slowed considerably, enough so that the wind wasn't rushing past. I heard this God-awful sucking/ripping sound and looked down to see my ring falling away from me. Looked back a my now mangled nipple and watch the blood begin to flow. OMFG, MY NIP! The blood was rinning down my chest and the wind started blowing it back toward my rig. OMFG, MY RIG! I slapped the right toggle up on the velcro and wiped as much of it off as possible which was more of a smear than anything else, and slung the blood off my hand. Back to flying the canopy, then back to smearing the blood, then back to flying the canopy. Wiped one last time, hooked it and landed fine. I don't have a great deal of jumps, so as a few people start to bitch about my hook, I showed them the damage. They propmtly shut up. Before I went to the hospital, I cleaned it up, bandaged it and drank a few beers while mentally preparing myself for stitches in the nip. Got to the hospital, waited forever and then the doctor didn't even stitch it. He did the same thing I had already done, only jamming it with a q-tip instead of a finger. So now I have to pay a hospital bill for nothing and try to have someone fix this damn thing. And yes, I did get blood on my toggle......any reccommendations? Botttom line, if you have a nipple(s) pierced, don't jump topless, or you might just get the dumbass-of-the-day award, or worse earn the nickname "triple nipple" Blue ones Heath

Look on the ground in front of you, find the spot that is not moving. this is where you're going to land. I had some difficulty in getting my flare right while using the horizon as a reference. what I do is set up for landing, and as the ground really starts to come up at me, I glance over to my side and take note of how high I am in relation to known objects/ ground. You do not have the same sensation of the groung coming up at you that you get when spotting from the horizon in front of you. Only use it as a reference, DO NOT keep lookingover your shoulder as you land. It has really helped me to make soft landings. The main thing is experience, and the only way to get that is by making jumps.......heehee.

Pull high, pull low, just pull dammit! You should try it sometime, things look pretty big when you dump. Also, if you want to get technical, our definitions of low might be completely different. Some drop zones will chew you out for going below 2500, others will chew you out if you dump above 2500-3000.

I agree 100%. I did notice the DZO having a long "chat" with him the evening of the reserve ride. There is already a plan to phase him out of doing tandems as soon as one of our guys gets his tandem rating; we'll have two tandem flyers. As for the airplane......Just kidding, high timed, but well taken care of.

Happy longest day of the year to you all. I hope some of you get a couple of extra jumps in today. If you do, pull low for me once, I'll be stuck at work ALL day. Wouldn't matter anyway, dz's closed till Sat. Blue Ones

I did static line; liked it, loved it, not doing it again any time soon. So as not to buy too much beer, I did my first pack job on my first freefall. I have no problem dying while skydiving, what I would have a problem w/ is getting hurt or worse because of someone else's negligence. I can understand the safety AFF/AFP programs, but what about price? There was no way I could shell out that kind of money when I first started. When it comes to tandem though, I'm more than a little sketchy. There is a guy at the local dz who flys tandems and he is just dangerous. He had a cypres fire last weekend under a sniveling canopy. The weekend before, he took a friend of mine for her first jump, did backloops on exit, started belly flying and never got stable, started spinning violently, and dumped......really high. Rumor has it that he does some pretty shitty rigging also(he does have his license). My point is that, as a tandem "student", you have no idea who the person you're jumping with is, or what their credentials are. And I don't mean just having a tandem rating, but what kind of jumper the person is. Silly me, I started a sentence with the word. Ooohhh, the defiance.....whatever.

Out of curiosity, what are you training for at Simuflite? I'm working on my inst. now. It seems like things are taking way too long to get this aviation career off the ground. Any useful tips/info would be appreciated. Wish I was going to be in Dallas this weekend, but I'm stuck in West Tx w/ the horsepower bomb also known as a 182. At least I'm jumping. Blue Skies

I personally enjoy any and all derivatives of jazz, as well as the blues and rock from the old to the new. I will add that most of the music played on the airwaves these days makes me nauseous. And what the f@#$k is up with this raver techno rap? Look at me, I chowed seven different kinds of pills, and am so wrecked that I keep a pacifier in my mouth. And the glow sticks, those annoying as all hell glow sticks. Stevie Ray, John Lee Hooker, Allman Brothers, Ben Harper, oh yeah, and Tool seem to get my motor running. Anyone in here who likes funk needs to check out Galactic.

OOPS forgot to login for those of you who want to blast me for the last post

I don't know how to quantify what happened at Skydive San Marcos, I haven't even made sense of what happened yesterday morning. I was there, however, I was not on the load on which Michelle lost her life. The only reason I am even writing is so that you all, being members of the skydiving community, deserve to know the truth about the accident and not a bunch heresy and speculation. I would first like to extend my condolences to all of Michelle's friends and family. The accident happened as a result of an attempted 30-way, using King Air and a Twin Otter. The King Air was above the Otter, I'm told the King Air was to be 100ft above, 100ft behind, and 50ft horizontal from the Otter. As jumpers were exiting the King Air, it gained airspeed as the pilot maintained his altitude. At some point, the King Air overtook the Otter. My guess is that neither pilot saw what was going on until it was too late. Michelle exited with the others in the King Air and tracked down, striking the right side windshield and on through the prop and the main landing gear strut. The man flying camera then tracked down to her and pulled her reserve. It never fully inflated due to gashes it received from the prop. He followed her down, the pilot feathered the right engine and brought the Otter in. The dropzone was immediately shut down, and Phil, the DZO, called for all experienced jumpers to meet in the packing room. He notified everyone, and asked that it not leave the room. He did not want it to get out to whuffos and students what had happened, and certainly wanted to keep the media out. I feel that everyone involved acted very bravely and appropriately, given the circumstances. A fellow jumper from the local dz was two slots in front of Michelle said that he never saw, or felt anything from the Otter. The accident is truly a tragedy, and I send out my best wishes to everyone involved.

Monkey claw is definitely one bad ass freefly team. Never been within 200 miles of them though. Sounds like one awesome party, but I'm w/ Speedracer on the whole techno freak rave music bullshit. I would listen to rap before that irritating excuse for music. Why don't we see how many different kinds of drugs we can ingest then gyrate around around the room, pupils dilated, slinging glow sticks around to some computer-generated noise? Why is it that every "raver" I've run across is a fucking idiot? Not that I'm close minded or anything.

This post is for divadiver's motorcycle forum inquistion. I'll have to check w/ some of my biker cronies about any forums (we're a bunch of racers, not harley type bikers). Anyway, you should check out Bike Week in Daytona Beach during the spring. The town is invaded by over 600,000 bikers on everything imaginable for over seven days. Oh yeah, and Daytona is only twenty minutes from Deland, home of PD and Relative Workshop as well as an amazing dz. Nothing better than riding to the dz and then jumping out from the gate of a skyvan! If you're thinking of spelunking, you should check out Carlsbad Caverns in SW New Mexico. They have everything from beginner stuff to unexplored sections, truly something to be experienced. The main cavern is unbelievable, although it's not exactly spelunking. It has paved walkways, and is so enormous, it even has a cafeteria down inside the cave. In my opinion, these are two things that one should not die without having experienced them. But then again, just my two cents.

thanks for the tips. Found a guy at the local dz that had a sabre. He said you gotta roll it bigger than a soup can. I hear there's no middle ground.....it's either silky smooth or a slammer. You are most definitely right about the no more manta/skymaster thing. No more bruises in the crotch all week just to go do it again the next weekend. Was your first pack job your own canopy, or did you pack student gear before. At any rate, it sure adds to the rush. Blue Skies

Just got my first rig in. WHOOO HOOO!!!! It's a beautiful javelin w/sabre 170 and pd160 Reserve and cypres. A group of us are heading down to Skydive San Marcos this weekend. I'll be making my first jumps from an Otter as well as a King Air.....guess I'll be in debt a bunch o' beer. Hope everyone's in the mood for some Schlitz or Pabst Blue Ribbon. By the way if there are any Sabre owners out there with helpful hints please don't hesitate to reply. I think there might be an old post about that. Blue skies

Ahhh, the good old sit up trick. We did that at a party to a girl no one knew. We made her close her eyes and rubbed her temples for 1 minute, and bet her she couldn't do a situp w/ her eyes still closed. Not only did she fall for it, she had no idea what she ran into and did two situps before opening her eyes! Guess she had the last laugh. Ha Ha

Been following the forums for a while now and finally decided to post (I'm sure you're all sooo excited). I've seen a few funny links and stories, but dammit we need some joke telling (dirty or otherwise) in here! I guess I'll throw out the first one. What's more profitable, a 1-story or 2-story whorehouse? A 2-story, because there's no fucking overhead.