Michele

Spectre, I suspect there is a lot I am missing....... M

Hey, Diva, yeah, I was worried about the manicure, as well. lol!!! After several years in martial arts, I know the feeling of a broken toe (and ribs, and ankles...). And my big toe on my right foot is definitely broken again. No big deal, as long as I don't stub it. I am not sure about the other one, but it hurts. Oh well. My chin has both scrapes and bruises, which cause some interesting looks at the office, but no-one dares to ask! And I am not wearing long sleeves and long pants at the office either, so I am sure they know something happened, but just what they do not dare to find out. They just shake their heads and murmur.... About those exits: If I could ever figure out how I flip both back and forth on exit, perhaps it would become a skill. As it is, I just kinda - well - laugh, think, there I go again. I somehow always end up standing up droppng like a lead weight when I do floating exits. Hopnpops are likely scheduled for Friday. But at Perris, most people don't do them, unless the clouds are low. So I kinda have to wait until either we get cloud cover (not likely this time of year) or until there's a group of people who want a hnp. Also not terribly likely. But like Frank said, I have all my teeth! And Spectre? You'd even kiss my toes? Hummmm. I don't think I have had that happen before. Kissing my bottom, well, men do that all the time! hahahahaha I wish....no, really....just kidding (god I'm confused...). Michele

Sorry about your leg. And sorry about all that pain. Hope you heal well and quickly! ciel bleu- Michele

Hehehehe yourself. No, it's not something a gentleman asks a lady. Suffice it to say that I am not tall, and I am not slender. Curvey, yes. Voluptuous, yes. Rubenesque, yes. Twiggy? No. The perfect american model? Not hardly. Not even when I was a kid. I figure if I cut my hair, I could lose an easy 2 lbs. The rest I am working on. I am really rather flexible, as well. On one of my jumps, I just wanted to see if I could reach back and grab my ankles without bending my legs to my bottom. Yup, no problem (now, isn't that an interesting mental picture this early in the morning??). lol at RemiandKaren... ciel bleu- Michele

You know what? I am really mad at myself. I know better than to follow someone down. I know better. But I did it anyway. I did something really stupid. Aaarghhhhhhhh! Clay, you're right. Having a plan is vital. However, having one which works will actually help better than even that. I didn't get the situation really clear until it was almost too late. My problem, and this one I fixed in time. But I put myself there. I didn't have a canopy malfunction, I had a brain malfunction. Skybytch, vicadin makes me hallucinate. Really big, bad spiders coming through the drains, and creeps me out (I am such a girl!). But some Jack Daniels and a few Aleve works o.k. And I made a trip to the store for neosporin....and some more Jack. And a big bottle of Aleve.... Mouth, yes, I pulled another one out of my hat. But hell, I don't want to run out of hats, you know? Oh, and Spectre? I have bruises everywhere. They start with my toes and go all the way up to my chin. There are some really big ones, and some little ones as well. They are tucked into some interesting places....and they all need kissing......oh wait, you're in Phoenix. Sigh. Got my hopes up for nothing. ciel bleu- Michele

Hey, Thumper. Being your first time, it's really not an easy thing to remain stable. But you have to pull. Pull. Pull. Skybytch said it: you must get a good canopy over your head when you need it there. Ask your jm's what you need to do to get more stable, and then do it. But always pull at altitude. I was demoing gear this last weekend, and was in a Spectre for the first time. I kid you not, it took eons for it to open. The Protack said that I was under canopy at 3600, even though I pulled at 4500, when I was supposed to. That was a long time. What if I was pulling at 3k instead? That would mean that I was under canopy at 2100, which is below my decision altitude. When I had my mal, it took about 1200 feet for me to identify the problem, and take the correct action. If I had the same problem, I would be under reserve at 900 feet. And that is a bit scary for me. You're given an altitude to pull at for a reason. It takes our newbie brains longer to handle a situation, and we are given a safety margin. Until we are really capable of handling ourselves, then we need to follow the instructors' teaching. They are there to keep you safe, and if you ever find yourself in a contradictory position, the air is not the place to figure it out. One of my favorite captions in the "Skydiver's Handbook" (p.127): "Passing through 2 grand at terminal with nothing out is not the time or place to be paging through this book. Do it now". Curt Curtis. To me, that means find it out on the ground, not in the air. Talk to your jm's, find out exactly what they want, and then give it to them. And give yourself some fun while you're at it. ciel bleu- Michele

But did you do that? And they are in order of importance. Well, it sounds like you pulled while unstable, but started and stopped. It would seem you did not complete it in the time your jm's wanted you to...how many feet did you lose while trying to become stable? If you started to pull at 4K, took a second to realize you were not stable, then two more seconds to try to get stable (a total of 3 seconds), you really weren't pulling until about 3600. Thank god you were in a canopy which opens quickly, and doesn't take a while. I suppose my point is simply those 400 feet don't matter during the jump. But they'd count a lot if they were at the end of the jump. I can hear/read you getting a bit defensive. I understand, you had a different thought process and you thought you were doing the right thing. And you may have, and far be it from me to say you didn't. But - your jm's thought differently. And they're the ones with a gazillion jumps; they get to make the call. They see things that we new jumpers have no way of seeing, let alone understanding. Don't worry about it anymore. Let it go, learn what you should from it, and go have fun. ciel bleu- Michele

So I go jump, and I have a personal goal of three jumps. I get gear from Square1, a Javelin Oddesy and a Spectre 230. These feel good on my back, but odd, because they are so much smaller than student gear. No matter, I practice finding the handles, and only manifest when I can get my hands on them the first time I try to. I have little fear, but a good dose of apprehension, because I am in new gear and it feels really different. I go up, and I have a mixed load. Some students, some rw, some freefliers, so I am stuck in the middle of the plane. I decide today I will work on diving exts, and get stable as fast as possible, and then work on the rw stuff I have to complete for my license. The first freefall of the day, and all goes really smoothly, if you call the flips on exit smooth. I am mastering the trick of a front flip layout immeidately followed by a back flip layout, into my arch. Pull time, and I pull. They have warned me that the spectre opens slowly, so I know I will have a wait. Except this slow? It's there, it's just not opening. O.K., there it is. Now let's see what this will do. Damn this is different. Out of a flare there's a huge recovery arc, drops really fast, o.k., if I flare early I will just have to ride it out. Easy canopy ride, here I am, I haven't judged the winds right, so I am going to overshoot, down, flare, early, hold, there, now take two steps and turn. Yank the canopy out of the sky, and bring it to the packer. I am dripping sweat, so I make a mental note to pack a towel for myself next time, and perhaps a change of clothes, too. Second jump. This time I ride next to the door. We are on a load of students, with only one 2-way and another solo who is pulling higher than me. I check with Dennis as to the exit order, and wait. I test myself: look out the door, guess the altitude, and then check my altimeter. I got the 2500 right, but the rest were off. I guess this is something I should practice. I really don't like looking out the door, it's not fun, I keep thinking I am going to fall out. So, at 12,600, I do fall out. Well, I try to dive out, but it is more like a flopping addlepated pidgeon than anything controlled. But all is good, I am here, this is glorious, and I am flying. Ed always says "you have 7,500 feet to recover", and I remember this as I am trying to arch into stable. I pull, this time feeling more confident that it will open, and sure enough, it does. Collapse the slider, and fly around, really testing myself and the canopy. I get a 720 done, the first time ever I do this on purpose, and it feels good and exciting, but it also scares me. So I get a little more conservative, and just cruise it in, dancing, playing, and I set up nicely. I flare a little early, but turn it into a two stage flare, and I see how that actually works. It's fun, but damn I am cruising over the ground pretty fast. I stop watching the ground under my feet, and focus on the flag I had chosen at about 1500. I know there will be steps on this one, so I am prepared, and finish up on my feet all of 10 yards away from the flag I was aiming for. Yippeee, that was really fun. I like this container and this canopy. I feel confident and comfortable, so I decide to jump one last time. I want the sunset load, so I manifest for the latest load there is. After some juggling, manifest actually gets me on the load I really want, but Dennis wants me to pull about 6, not at like 8 like I want to. I ask why, and he comments that it will be dark when I get down, and that I should have a few more minutes' light left to plan my descent. Which is sound advice, but goes in one ear and out the other. I go up, and I am having a blast in the plane. I am so relaxed and feeling great, everything is wonderful. We end up with extra altitidue, and Mark and Anthony go out. Mark blows kisses at me as he's leaving, which makes me laugh, and then I am in the door. I dive into the melting sun. It sits on the horizon, rays of gold rimming the mountain the sun is disappearing behind. I say farewell to the day. I am in all those intense and glorious pictures I have seen - I am here, in the gloaming, flying through the twilight. The shadows stretch long on the ground, creeping out, marking the skirmish line between night and day. I slow turn, taking in this unbelieveable sight. The clouds are tinged gold melting into pink, drawing down into grey. This is everything I thought and hoped it would be, and more. It is really cold! I open, and everything is perfect. The canopy is flying great, I spot the dz and cruise over to it. I think I am flying downwind, because I am making great progress over the dz, great time, the ground is moving. There is some turbulence at 2k, and I spiral down through it, till it evens out. I look for the windsocks, and now understand what Dennis means. I can't see them. They are masked in the dusk, the orange blends into the desert ground, and I can't see white or red. I am still really high, so I do another 360. I still can't see them. I do see two canopies, though, so I watch. But they are going in different directions. I pick one out, and set up to follow it in. Of course, I choose wrong, but that doesn't occur to me yet. I am cruising really fast, and I try to sashay to drop some altitude. But I can't help think I need to get down faster, because here comes the circle, and I am nowhere near it. But damn, I can't turn low, I am now about 200 feet, I am not supposed to turn under this, and I am really moving. Now my brain is speeding along, much faster than my body over the ground. O.K., there's the hangar, shit, it's pretty big and getting bigger: left or right? But right doesn't seem good, there is something behind the hangar, I have no idea what and I can't see behind it and I don't want to find out at 30 feet, and I know I need to choose now, so a little left toggle, and now there's the silver DC-3, big and shiny and right in front of me, and now it occurs to me that I am probably downwind, the winds were about 8 when I took off, O.K., this will hurt, where should I tank? I think I will clear the DC-3, I hope I will clear the damn thing, so I get a little more left, and angle behind an just over it. Thank God for small favors, and I decide to head out to the west of the little airplanes. Except there's Gypsy Air, coming in from jump run, cruising along the runway, oh fuck me which way is it going to turn? I wrack my brain - do they park outside at night or go to the hangar? I can't remember. I am between it and the hangar, please turn left, left, left, you have fucking propellers, I am now pacing the plane on its' right, parallelling it, catching up to it, I can feel it's air, and it turns left. Thank God for big favors. So I toggle a little bit right. And line up onto a clear area, nothing between me and the ground except my legs, and I know this is going to hurt, I can already feel the pain, damnit, this was such a great day, I remind myself that in black belt training I have taken hard hits, I have fallen from higher than this, I can handle this, and now it's time to flare, and I get my legs and feet together, knowing it will help and knowing it will not help much but a little is better than nothing, so now I flare, smooth, slow. I scream relax! and my feet hit, then hips, then shoulder, I skid for a while and then I am rolling rolling rolling wham! goes the chin, bang! goes the head crack! go the goggles, ouch fuck rolling keeping legs together and arms tucked to my sides, tasting dirt and whacking rocks and this shit is hard and my bottom hurts and so does my toe and I finally stop rolling. I know people are watching, so I jump up immediately so they know I am all right. I am surprised. I really am all right - there's no piercing pain, and while I do have a little blood on my right knuckles, and my chin burns and I know I will be sore as all hell tomorrow, I am fundamentally fine. But now I am so tangled up in the lines that when I stand up, the canopy comes with me. And begins to fill with air. So I grab it before it can do much more than threaten me, and try to untangle myself. The truck pulls up, and the driver gets out. I ask him to radio back and let them know I am o.k., and I start apologizing. He says they all saw you stand up, they know you're o.k., and reminds me that I did fine, and asks me "so how did you like your first downwind landing?" I am shaking so badly that I can't untangle myself, I am just making it worse, so I stand there while this guy unwraps me from my risers, lines and toggles, and he starts laughing. I am one gigantic dust ball, you can't see the blue of my suit, the red of the grips, the black of my helmet and goggles. I am tan from head to toe. Climb into the back of the truck, and slowly drive past my skidmarks. They must be at least 20 yards long, all on hard pan. I expect hell from Jack, but he just teases me a little. "If you're going to be stupid, be smart about it", he says, and then congratulates me for great damage control. Another jumper comes over and says "that's the way to go big, girlie", and still another decides to hollar out "hey Dusty" and everyone cracks up. I see Dennis walking over, and I just know I am gonna catch it from him. I cringe in expectation, but he just gives me that look, and says nothing. And that said everything I needed to hear. Yeah, a down wind landing, race the plane and then walk away from it all. I am a lucky girl, and damn have I learned. And I am not as sore as I expected to be. But my bottom still hurts, my chin is skinned, and I think I broke two toes. But - I didn't break a nail. Ciel bleu- Michele

What's in my wallet? Nothing. It's monday morning and I jumped this weekend. How could there be anything left?

Hey, Arthur. I believe it. I demo'd a Protract yesterday, and in a very baggy jumpsuit and with lighter gear (Jav. Odessy and Spectre 230 - both are sweet!), and actively de-arching and getting ready for the rw work I have to do, (keeping my hands in front, "under my pillow"), and even with leveling out my legs, lowering my head slightly and flattening my spine, I still averaged 133 on #1, 136 on #2, and 131 on #3. The absolute lowest speed I could get was 119. I knew I fell fast, but this is faster than even my (admittedly poor) math skills brought out. I wonder what I could do if I tried. And thanks for the reminder, Cloud9, about slowing down. But how the hell do I get slower??????? ciel bleu- Michele

You are spending far too much time on-line. Go jump, already. Btw, Perris is having night jumps soon. You chould check with them, I think they might be when you're here. Just don't land in the lit part of Edwards AFB. I hear they get mighty picky. got air? Michele

Hi, Anne In your menu bar up top, the third choice should be "Control Panel". Click on that, and scroll down. You should have a private message box thingy on the bottom left which will allow you to go into your pm's, both sent and received. You should be able to get a clear screen for sending one, as well. Hope that helps - Ciel bleu- Michele

Hey, Omrimon You should see a little letter on the left hand side of the menu bar, to the left of "Main Index". It will be flashing. Click on that, and you should be taken into your pm box. Look now - I just sent you one. If it's not there, click refresh or reload. It should appear.

Yay for you, fred.....keep it up, and have a ball. There's nothing like jumping, is there? And Julie, I am so glad to hear you're back in the air. I've been waiting for you to post! ciel bleu- Michele

Congratulations Zennie.......well done, even if you took it out yourself. What's that song? "It's my party And I'll crash if I want to...." (wait, something's not quite right with that....) ciel bleu- Michele

What was so bad? (Wait, I'm explaining...) You got out into the air, you, in fact were able to handle the anxiety and the total unexpectedness of the jump, dealt with a new airplane, and you landed impeccably....in a brand new dz, where you didn't have a good sight picture and, as I gather, only a little briefing. Hmmmm. O.k.... You did good, imho. In a phrase of a friend, you took all the curves, and still hit them out of the park. Good for you. The next jump will be better. Ciel bleu- Michele

Let's see. Longing in my blood And sky dreams dance in my head Where's my parachute? I'm not sober either, and I don't know the rules to haiku except 5/7/5. Isn't there something else to do, too? ciels- me

Hi, Carl and Fred I didn't know about the rsl until after my mal. Vinnie was teasing me about getting the red pillow wrapped back on my rig and not knowing it, and wanted to know where the silver was. I recall looking at him incredulously, thinking you put me through the harness room, make me throw it far, and you wonder where it went? Somewhere in the stupid field, and no, I am not going to go look for it. Three days later, when I went back and after I landed, I asked Ed what Vinnie meant. And it was then that I understood rsl's and their function. I, being inquisitive myself, asked why I hadn't been told about it (inquisitive yes, observant, it seems not). Ed explained that the instructors really want to instill the correct emergency procedures in us, that they have us drill as if there were no backup. Because backups fail, and if we wait for them, and they do not occur, then we die. I have no recollection of the reserve popping prior to my pulling the silver, but I was not in a state to notice everything. I was surprised to find out about it - I thought I had pulled silver all by myself. And I will tell you that while we have cypres, it never occurred to me to wait for that, either. Just my newbie .02, though. ciels and great jumping to you- Michele

I am waiting, plodding through my week like an automaton. I am not alive yet. I feel little of the joy I know to be there, I realize little of the accomplishments I know will be. I hope, knowing that soon, I will reach the heights my mind soars to, each time I close my eyes. But it won't be soon enough. I could be jumping right now, and it wouldn't be soon enough. And every second is an hour, every hour a century, every day an eternity. But in the sky - oh, in the sky! To go from the noise to the silence, that abrupt passage, that contrast. From one extreme to the other, from safety to freedom. For those few seconds, I am free. I am free of the critics, the judgments, the pressure of my daily life. For those few heartbeats, there in the sky, I am engulfed in the immediacy of now. I can go nowhere but where I am at that moment. I can see nothing but the sky, the beauty, the immensity of the world. For that brief moment, I am who I long to be. I am free, I am flying, I am in my dreams. And then to float. To float over the ground, to fly free and to dance in the sky, these are the images imprinted in my memory. And I want new memories, more memories, to sustain me when I cannot be there. To be nearer the sun, the moon, the clouds. To hover over the earth, seeing things so differently, the same things I see everyday but now are new, to know things so intimately. To float. Directing myself in the summer day, touching the sky, in the sky, playing in the sky, knowing what birds know, drifting on the breeze. Finding my space, my spot; finding myself. For those few minutes in the sky, I am not the daily me. I am more than I had been before, and not nearly as much as I will become. I sense my potential, my capability, my future self. I can see me like I have never before. In the sky, I believe in myself, in my fellow man, in my world. I believe like I can't believe on the ground, earthbound, in my home, safe. I have been safe before. I have never been this free before. Here's hoping that your weekend is filled with jumps and friendship. Ciel bleu- Michele

Yes, it does. Each time I make it out the door, it surprises me. This thing we do, flying through the air (you only go 120? lol), flying like we did in our childhood dreams, you bet it blows my mind. And I love it. ciel bleu- Michele

Hey, Brandon If you go to the homepage of this site, there is a menu bar on the left. Scroll down to "the Pub", and click it. Once on the new page, there should be a box in the upper half of the right side (I have to move the page over to see it). There is an icon with a keyhole, and that is where you click. Except I can't get it to open today, either. But that's how you'd do it, I think, unless someone knows a different way? ciels- Michele

Yeah, well, what can I do? He has this affinity for them for some odd reason. He is an "actor", after all.....lol

Hi, Holger Well, I know I have seen several people with artificial limbs in Perris, jumping. But as I am so new to the sport, that's about all I can tell you. And since Perris is far from Germany, I have no idea if that'll even help. Perhaps if you contacted them via their website, they might be able to get you some information (""skydiveperris.com"). Maybe contacting other dz's would help, as well. Hope that helps. Ciel bleu Michele

Congratulations, Chris!!!!!!!!!!!!! Enjoy yourself. ciel bleu- M

Let the fun begin!!!!! And we missed you! (o.k., I should speak for myself: I missed you!) ciles-