davedlg

I'd been wondering what happened to you... Good to hear you're getting back in it!

Congrats! How was it?

I like thunderstorms....Big ones. There's something really cool about looking up at a blackish-green sky, seeing lightning everywhere, as the rain and hail start falling with tornado sirens wailing in the background. It really makes you respect the power of nature. Mammutus Clouds are pretty cool looking too.

Gauley Guide?? Good to see another one of us raft guide types on here. Oh and I have to answer the same question to my GF all the time. I haven't found a good answer yet. You might refer to Walt's The Ultimate Accusation thread for a good answer though....

Get a lawyer and sue them for malpractice for giving you all those drugs in a 6-hour period. That'll wake 'em up!

Happiness is... The view from the summit of a mountain. The exhiliration of landing at sunset after an awesome jump. The end of a long workday. Toasting at the bar with good friends...even if no one else knows what we are saying. Drinking a beer while sitting at the oars of a raft 100 miles from civilization on a beautiful desert river most people have never heard of. Waking up at 3am and finding out I still get to sleep for 4 more hours.

Oh yeah, I forgot Moab, Utah! Amazing desert scenery. The ride to altitude is beautiful, and the view is distracting in freefall.

Sebastian, FL for the Ocean Views Boulder / Longmont, Colorado for the Mountain Views...It's cool seeing mountains at eye level in freefall

Looks good to me. As a side note, whatever you do, don't name it "banner.jpg", anything with the word "banner" in it, or in a directory that contains the word "banner". Computers with Norton Ad Blocker will block the image!

I disagree. The plane would take off and the car would get pulled off the dynamometer. The speed of the conveyer and the speed of the wheels are irrelevant to the airspeed of the plane. Ignoring the physical limitations of the plane ( max speed of the wheel bearings and such), the conveyor and wheels of the plane are essentially a frictionless surface. They do not provide any force to counter the force of the jet engine. The forces would have to be balanced in order to keep the plane from moving. Where does that force come from? Without friction, the conveyor and wheels could be going 1000 mph but the jet would can only be acted on by an outside force (the jet engines). It's sort of the same situation as pulling a tablecloth out from under dishes.

A bad spot. A really bad spot. I was last out for a 9-way and didn't have time to look down before diving out after the formation. Sometime while in the formation, I glanced down and really didn't like what I saw....we were over the city. All I could see was trees, powerlines, streets and houses. When I pulled, the only reasonable out I could see was a field a few miles away. I started flying toward the field hoping to make it. Then we hit the turbulance. This was by far the worst turbulance I have ever felt under canopy. I was getting thrown all over the place. I watched as it spun my friend into linetwists and partially collapsed his canopy. As I got closer to the field it became clear that it was going to be very close. To make it more difficult, there were powerlines I had to cross over to get to the field. I was on my front risers trying to get as much penetration into the wind as possible...I cleared the powerlines by about 5 feet while still on my front risers. Oh shit! Flare! I landed hard, but okay. I glanced behind me to watch my friend who was trying to make the same field I was disappear behind a row of trees and houses with a last minute low turn. It didn't look good at all. I gathered up my stuff and ran over to the neighborhood, but I had no idea where she actually landed. I spent the next 20 minutes or so wandering around suburbia in my jumpsuit and carrying my canopy asking people washing their cars, kids on bikes, mothers with strollers, etc. if they had seen a skydiver land anywere around there. You should have seen some of the looks I got! Finally I gave up and found my way back to the dropzone. My friend had already made it back to the dropzone and she was fine...but she had made the most precise landing I have ever heard of in a backyard surrounded by trees, fences, and wooden stakes...and she had about 40 jumps at the time!

I think I'd add cock the pilot chute (if nessecary) to all those lists. Seems like a "must do" to me!

#37 due to improperly stowing the brakes on an unfamiliar rig. I wouldn't really call it complacency though. Story here

It's definatly not a good idea, but if you got nothing to lose.... oh yeah, and I definatly dont reccomend soaking the HD, monitor, or anything else that wasn't spilled on for that matter. The best would be to take out the motherboard and soak it by itself. Low probability of success though.

Soaking in distilled water worked on my cell phone when I dropped it in beer, and I have secondhand knowledge of this working on a laptop.

I suck at bowling. I could never roll more then a 70. I still remember that fateful day when my bowling instructor took me aside. I think he was trying to put it as lightly as possible. He said that bowling isn't for everyone, and that he didnt think I was cut out for it. I still remember his words "Maybe you should take up skydiving..."

Yup. I had one some years back. I made what I would have considered to be the wrong decision in the short term. In the long term, it was almost definatly a good decision, but there is still the 'what if?' factor to this day.

Here's one equally as scary from a slurry bomber near miss in Longmont, CO. http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=241

Do something you have never done before that you have always wanted to do. That's how I got into skydiving...I was feeling a bit "off", so I went out and signed up for AFF...

Skydive Houston has a jumper with a white canopy and a black skull and crossbones. Rumor has it that he paid as much for the custom graphics, as he did for the canopy. So it can be done, if you've got the cash. I've seen him up at Dallas with that Sabre2 during a few of the TSL meets if I remember correctly. He was just up here in Colorado doing a tunnel camp. His name is Johnny. I believe his team name is "Team America" or something like that. He said he was considering a white on black design on a new canopy, but the graphics alone would cost around $1800.

Holy crap, he did it....2+ million hits in a single day.

Actually, it looks like it is all happening today...check out the page now...

He has gotten 100,000 hits since I first checked an hour ago...

Well, then Make it clicky for him...http://www.helpwinmybet.com

Here's the thread about it on the BASE forum.