tdog

I like my RWS Vector... My only complaint is it took FOREVER to be delivered, but once it was, it was worth the wait... Now, RWS has half the delivery time, so I say, that is no longer an issue...

Well, I have demo Lotus 170 (I am 210 in street clothes so, the WL will be 1.35 -> 1.4 ish) in my container right now just asking to be jumped.... My normal canopy is crying in the corner looking sad without a home... T Minus 3 days until FRIDAY!!! I will let you know how it goes. I plan on doing a full altitude hop-n-pop and pulling everything I can pull to see how it does... Winter time does not yield the summer thermals as much, so I don't know if I will get to try out the airlocks in the bumps...

From someone who has done a lot of 4ways and some 6, 8 and 10 ways.... More than once I have tracked away from the formation and found myself with a freeflyer whizzing by from the group after me... (Note, the freefly group did not leave the proper separation and/or back slid, but still...) When I track away from a small group (4way), I spend a chunk of time looking for my teammates and making sure I am in a safe spot, not necessarily the absolute farthest spot, especially if I am "pushed" directly up or down the flight line. I compromise some body position as I look around and count my teammates (or at least identify that I am indeed on a trajectory different than the others) I know I could track better and am working on it... In fact, I have asked our video guys to video my breakoff so I can debrief that too. But, I still will argue awareness is much better than speed... Better to go where you need to, than to go where you shouldn't fast...

Based upon the tandem that fell out of the harness, this morning I tried my rig on (custom made for me) and put my arms to my side and tried getting the shoulder straps to slide down my torso - as if I was in a head down or full on track premature deployment... I found at my normal snug setting, no way to fall out that way... I found with surprisingly little "slack" in the chest strap that I could slide out of it if I pushed both shoulder straps off my shoulders and let them slide down my arms. Convinced me that keeping the chest strap with no slack but not overly tight is the right thing to do, especially since on my rig it does not hinder any movement...

If she does not understand what happened and the amount of training she needs she should be grounded. If she shows up and says, "ok, now that I have seen death in my face" and becomes a good student, then she should be rewarded with many wonderful skydives to come... Wakeup call???

The other one I have heard "plane jane t".... But it looks like you got all the browny points...

Don't you think the feds approved and cleaned these photos??? The companies who provide all the photos to these services, while private enterprises, have the government as their largest customer, and that contract requires national security to not be compromised... Further, the resolution of their satellites is much better than what they release publicly, but they sell LOTS of high res stuff to the government... So I don't think any dz.commer is going to get the men in black for looking at pre-approved photos on a freely available website... Not just civilian... Well, for 5 brownie points, what is the name of the airline they fly from Vegas. For another 5 points, what do the planes look like (paint job). And for the 10 point bonus round, what are the few theories on what the name means??? (I was bored one week and watched "alien invasion week" on the learning channel and learned a lot about this stuff... But for the name of the airline, just last week I heard them on air traffic control on final into Vegas.)

Mostly_harmless, Have you taken a canopy control class??? You will find your instructor will video your landings and will notice all sorts of things... I took the class when I had about as many jumps as you, and I learned a LOT!!! What you learn will give you a bunch of things to practice that will keep you from getting bored. Also, your instructor will watch/video your skill dives and notice trim issues if you have any with your current canopy... T.

Interesting story about the screwdriver, but I am most worried about: You never told us where the duct tape came from. Please tell me there were no riggers on this load....

If nothing else, it sounds like the place you rented it from does not understand customer service. I am sure these places deal with tons of stupid skydivers and get tired of getting burned.... The few times I have rented gear from places I have done my first gear check before I have even signed the paperwork or taken it from the shop... Did you check the pin before you left??? If not, perhaps this is a good idea for us all, so we can show the guy behind the desk and let it go "pop" in his face.... I will remember your story for the "next time" I have to borrow gear. NOTE: If they make you pay for the repack, ask them when the last pack date was... You should only have to pay for the amount of time left before the next due packjob... If they got 2 months of use before "pop" - you should only pay half, for the time that was not used... If they have a problem with this, explain to them, you think it is fair because they were going to have to repack it anyway in a few months and they already earned profit for the time in which it was packed and used by other customers... If they made you pay full price, you would actually be paying for half of the routine planned packjobs that they should be paying for.

Well, I am most afraid of next time when I see Dan in person... His ego wingloading is going to be so high that PD would not even make a reserve big enough to catch it...... Well, I don't even know what else to say...

My self-employed friend who installs networks and server farms for large medical practices has a Kaiser Plan designed for catastrophic needs... We were mountain biking at Aspen Mountain. We were doing very technical stuff we should NOT have been doing. Think a student flying a Velocity. Well, we lived, and lived well... But, on the easy stuff we stopped to read a map. He lost his balance while stashing gear from the standing position and tipped over on a rock. The rock was like a razor blade and opened his kneecap... He lost 1/3 of his blood on the way to the hospital, and we had Aspen Mountain summer Ski Patrol helping (there happened to be a race one trail over, so we only had to go 100 yards for a medic.) Well, the knee required a scope and cleaning... $45,000 in medical bills AFTER Kaiser applied their scheduled fees. He had a 20% co-pay with a $10,000 limit... Well, do the math. 20% of $45,000 = $9,000... He STILL is trying to pay that off... Lesson learned... If someone does not have health insurance, they are risking a lot of $$$ by walking across the street, not including things like snowboarding, mountain biking, or skydiving... I am not very political, but I am in for health care reform big-time. This is a great reason to get a "real" job and skydive as a hobby... You are right Phree!

Doctor Darkwing PhD., I call bullcrappy too.. Kimblair13 should NOT quit school, but find a school she WANTS to go to... And, most of us did not "enjoy" the classroom part of our school experience (I had a lot of fun at school, just not in school), but students need to learn to make sacrifices for the better good... I don't like waking up early to go to work either, but sometimes I have a customer that expects that, and I am able to put food on the table for myself and my employees... Kim, if you HATE school, then you are at the wrong place. Kim, if you are BORED at school, you likely have one of the 90% of the professors who suck (I am sure Darkwing is in the 10%, and no matter how good the bad professors are, the top 10%, will always make the other 90% suck because you will see there is a better way.) Do you have the right degree? Do you have the right school? Do you have the right professors? Do you have the right goals? B.T.W. While Darkwing was able to go back to school, I planned on going back to Yale for graduate work and life got in my way... I have no regrets, I am living a happy life, with a great business and a awesome hobby, but not the one I planned (which may have been more enjoyable at work with much less pay and much more education).

It sounds like some relief team needs to go in and "fix" all the stray dogs it can find... I actually hated Puerto Rico because the quantity of abused and homeless dogs on the street with carcases on the sides of the road of the stray dogs that were run over, and the stray dogs limping on two or three legs after some trauma... Puerto Rico needs help ASAP to protect the animals... If they could just "fix" all the females or something and release them back on the streets to finish the life they were given... I am right now saving a lot of money for my retirement and long term goals, but when it is time to give money from my estate/investments, I am going to give it to programs that promote the well being of animals.

Hmm.. Eating trash or being shot... I will eat trash any day.. I am not dissing you, I know the military can suck at times... Especially when it sounds like your leaders did not understand the power of animals to make bad days better...

Stay in school... Study something you will love to do when you graduate. Get a good and fun job. Skydiving will always be there, having a good fun job will just make it more enjoyable when you have the money to spend on going to boogies all over the country and etc...

That is a sad story... I think I would have stood in the way of the bullet and stolen a humvee and taken the animal to some place where it might get to try to live and then faced the consequences...

Funny... Dillon, the big dog, would not hurt a fly... When the little pup started to cry, Dillon looked up to us and had this worried look on his face like, "come on, do something."

It is my office manager's dog. He is named, "Chico"... Dillon is the full grown springer who is mine.

A dog.... http://www.everwonder.com/david/tacobelldog.html

So my dog comes to work with me every day. Today he welcomed a new hire with open arms. See Picture. Travis

Well... I found this on the Sabre-Holdings site: "Sabre Holdings is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TSG" American may own a lot of shares, but it is a publically traded company.

Travelocity is a part of Sabre-Holdings. Sabre Holdings Corporation 3150 Sabre Drive Southlake, TX 76092 USA Tel: 682 605 1000 Travelocity 3150 Sabre Dr. Southlake, TX 76092 Fax: (817) 785-8004 M. Sam Gilliland President and Chief Executive Officer Michael E. Haefner Senior Vice President, Human Resources Jeffery M. Jackson Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Carol A. Kelly Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Thomas Klein Senior Vice President and Group President, Sabre Airline Solutions Joan C. Kuehl Senior Vice President, Product Development R. Craig Murphy Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Michelle A. Peluso Senior Vice President, and President and Chief Executive Officer, Travelocity Leslie A. Price Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications David A. Schwarte Executive Vice President and General Counsel Eric J. Speck Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer John S. Stow Senior Vice President and President, Sabre Travel Network

edit: it appears this e-mail does not work bizdev-inquiry@travelocity.com But if you guys send something, remember professional non-threatening e-mails will work better than threats and insults.

Dan, it is a cheap trick to throw in a picture of a puppy dog to make you look cute... Heck, anyone looks cute with a dog in their photo, just look at my avatar... Wait, I am not even in it. I will talk all the shit I want to about you... That is because I like ya!