tdog

I had a terrible day today. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Shit at work just fell apart... For an example, an employee announced that she was stopping her chemotherapy for her cancer and canceling surgery, because the chemotherapy was getting in the way of her work, and she was going to turn down my offer of a month off with pay to recover. So, while I am honored to have an employee that would commit suicide for me, I now know she needs more help than I can offer. That is the type of day I am having. Granted, I don't have cancer, so it could be worse, but that was just one example of all the shit that went down.... Anyway, I got in the car, and turned on the radio, and this news story made me laugh... I googled it, so it is not just a UK or USA thing...

To be VERY sore I wasn't sore after an hour. You should expect to learn so much that you will be happy if you remember 1/2 of what you learn... Then, about a month later, you will remember some of the stuff your brain hid away!!!

A HALO jumper told me yesterday at the DZ that he has seen an alti that had 30K on the face, however the needle did not move linearly, it actually moved slow between 30K and 6K, then went back to the "normal" scale/speed between 6K and the ground... If it was not Sunday morning, I would try to look it up on the web, but I am not in the mood now... Someone else can.

Who says the hand can't go around twice.... Requires a little math.....

I remember leaving the Vatican, and hearing this big huge bang, as if 100,000 pounds of marble sculpture fell from the ceiling. 50,000 people outside turned around and looked... I yelled, see God is even late for his cue, I know I have been a bad boy recently, but come-on, try to squish me in his own home, then be late??? Some people's religions... I did not win the support of the roman catholics then (or ever)... BTW I am agnostic and respect every religion, I just had to have a little fun with the moment....

Dude, you gave away the ending!

I can't believe you were so honest... All I can say is, when you walk into the hospital, you probably will chicken out in the door like you did on your 1st AFF... The surgeons will take you around for a go around, you will be ready, and you will survive... Of all the people I have known with spinal cord related issues, the good guys always win... Please have someone in your family log in on your account and post your status, so we can send vibes... Travis

This video clip, I found so funny, I had to dub it from my TIVO all the way to my web server to share with you all.... www.indigox.com/oh.wmv T.

You are right... See wmw999's post above... Are you 100% confident that you, when you suddenly realize you are low, are going to bypass your habits and muscle memory and go for something completely different, that you may or may not have pulled at terminal, before??? Obviously people have not... So you are 100% right... But... There is still a lesson to be learned for after you screwed up, because let's face it, if humans never screwed up we would not need airbags in cars, AADs in skydiving, and hard hats on construction sites. T.

This was my first complete calendar year in the sport... I have read incident reports going back for years, hoping to learn, so history would not repeat itself... What I learned in 2005 first hand, that I did not "learn" or "learn to appreciate" from the forums and/or my mentors... AADS add risk... But I still jump with one, and plan on doing so forever (based upon current schools of thought)... I was on jump #24... I believe this incident would have been a "gee wiz that was low" instead of a fatality if the jumper did NOT have an AAD. (Note, I am not advocating getting rid of your AAD... This reminds me of a friend who was "pronounced dead" when his truck rolled on the highway and he was thrown 250' because he was not wearing a seatbelt. But after 6 months in a coma and 25 surgeries, he was saved, the doctors call it a miracle... The photos show that if he WAS wearing a seatbelt he would have been killed and he lived because he went thru the windshield before the cab was crushed, but now he goes around preaching the use of seatbelts because he knows they save more than they kill.) Many people have asked me about my first hand experiences with the skydiving incident above. The most common question is, "why did he not cut away the main when it downplaned" or, "If it was me, I would have initiated a downplane so I could have chopped it before it was too late." This normally goes into a conversation that goes like this... "ME: At what altitude does the cypres fire??? Yep, somewhere between 750 and 1000 feet... Lets say it takes a few hundred feet for it to inflate... Where are you... Somewhere at 500 feet... Lets say a downplane takes you back to freefall speeds, or near those speeds.... How much time do you have from 500 feet??? Do you think 500 feet is the time to start a downplane? Do you think you could identify the problem and chop the main in time?" That is where it sets in and people start to understand how it could happen to them... That to survive a cypres fire downplane, you have to be on the top of your game, you have to overcome the huge stress of knowing you just pulled low, identify that you have a downplane, get over the urge to "make sure it is save to cut away" and just get rid of it in a second or two... Other AAD related incidents this year... The Perris incident where the AAD was set for the wrong ground elevation. That opened a lot of people's eyes. Adrian Nicolas' two out on a swoop, clearly was another "aad caused" death. (Don't flame me, yes I know the high speed swoop/human error was what really initiated the chain of events, but without the AAD would Adrian be around today?) These incidents in 2005 have educated me that the AADS will likely work exactly as designed - however the AAD can be a blessing in disguise when it does what it is supposed to. In conversation with friends, I have asked. "How many two out scenarios did not start with an AAD fire?" Anyway, this is my "take home knowledge" from 2005... Know thy AAD, set it correctly. And... Visualize your two out procedures where the second becomes inflated at 500'. Thanks for letting me ramble. What did *you* learn in 2005? Please share. T.

Dude... I am seriously worried about your math skills... 3 * 4,000 = 12,000... I am NOT GOING TO GO IN over a roll of TP!

Not that I care... But, you wear clothes in the shower??? At home???

I think you will be fine... I am not a great athlete, and I have done 3.5 hours and 24 jumps in 4 days twice now. Granted, it was 4way and not FF, but still flying... My trick... Eat well. Stay hydrated. Stretch and warm up. Go to bed early. Real early. Don't party/drink at night. Sleep well. And hire a packer.

Yep!

This is a real and complete reply to an e-mail that I sent, that is 100% business related, and makes perfect sense in context, that will go down as the most absurd out of context e-mail ever to hit my inbox:

Just like skydiving, it can be done within appropriate risks... However, some people push it farther and add risks that are excessive... For me, that is when I rollerblade, I go with my dog. 99.9% of the time he understands "Go, Stop, Heal, and Watchout"... 0.1% of the time he doesn't. Last time that happened we both flew across the park and when we landed he blamed ME!

You put a drogue on a plane and make it fall an even 110MPH and I will fly relative with it too... Just kidding, he made it look so easy that it must have been hard... I was upset that he did not do it the first time when he was in the sit. Sit flying into the plane would have been real impressive...

I had jury duty the day before an out of town trip... I called the jury duty office and said, "I have had this customer booked for 9 months, here is a copy of my airline ticket with a purchase date before the notice. I would like to reschedule." They told me: "Just show up. Under the rare chance you are picked, tell the judge what you just told me, and you will be excused..." How screwed up is that? Waste my time when I offer to do it right... Anyway, what does your jury notice say? I think the rules are different for every county/state/federal court... Our county court has a 24 hour voicemail box and e-mail...

But, I even found that we have 4000 foot rolls in our warehouse... See attached photo... You would have to open real high for that! (Just kidding guys, I have much better things to do with TP than actually jump with it.)

But part of the fun would be to see 1000' of TP come off the roll at, say, 90 MPH... Turbo charged... It would take about 10-15 seconds to unload the whole roll... Super rolls... Well, I know our DZ uses them, so in the supply closet, dummy... Does your DZ not use them? If I remember correctly even Eloy uses them, right under the "please don't use too much TP" signs... But, if you want to buy one, find a local paper distributor... One that sells to janitorial companies and office buildings...

So, I have a sample case of 1000 foot rolls of "jumbo micro twin" toilet tissue... One of those large rolls used in commercial buildings... Not knowing what to do with it... I discovered it does not have perforations, and is kind of strong all things considered. My skydiving brain came up with the perfect plan... Get a pilot chute, probably about 10 inches or so, and attach it to the end... Thread a dowel thru the roll so one can hold the dowel on each side of the roll... And jump. Could you imagine that... It would be like when you walk out of the bathroom at the gas station trailing some paper on your shoe... But much longer... I guess it would be bad when the 1000' of paper landed, because if there was any wind, that would be hard to clean up... But I guess there are some DZs that are in the middle of nowhere, and the paper is biodegradable, in a few weeks, with some rain, it would be gone.... Hmmm..... Even better... 4 people trailing the paper... You could tie knots (or at least braid it) in the sky as the dive continues...

You know "laundering" money is illegal...

For $10 I will tell you where it is... For $50 I will give it back to you... Dan, you just have to learn to keep your clothes on more often, and this would not be a problem...

With the spirit of "always being a student" - the following story applies even though it happened well past "student status". A few weeks ago I was doing some 4way blocks drills in the tunnel... I saw all hell about ready to come my way in the form of two tumbling bodies, caused by a collision in a vertical... I closed my eyes and put my hands over my neck and flew to the bottom corner of the tunnel, hoping for the best... Nope... The video clearly shows me at the bottom of a pile of human bodys... I think the tunnel rat even walked on me on the way to catch a rouge skydiver. Realizing this technique did not work well, next time faced with the same chaos coming my way, I got real big and shot up 15' and kept my eyes open for a great show.... -------------- I failed AFF level 4... I got out and could not find the instructor after a tumbling exit... The video shows me doing a 360 left, a 360 right (looking for the instructor), looking up, looking down... Then doing what I was told to do in level 1... "If you lose a jumpmaster, continue the dive. If you have no jump master - pull." He was there the entire time in my blind spot... I don't know what was worse, pulling at 10 grand - or seeing the video of my AFF instructor freeflying on my dime with his tongue out... I guess they forgot to tell me that I did not have to pull if I could not find the instructor...