tdog

I had my first wingsuit flight at the MOAB boggie... I am now feeling the same I did the first week of skydiving where I am counting the minutes till I can do it again. I went head low at first on my first flight but quickly fixed it, so the guy I was jumping with stayed higher than me and commented my flight path was very straight and fast... (down and forward) despite the fact I was a little potato chippy... My second flight was smooth. Can't wait until I can tune it in even better and get another 20 MPH off my fall rate... I think a few more jumps and I will have the issues fixed since I know what I need to work on. I spent a lot of time on practice touches instead of tuning my flight...

Same with me on the wingsuit book... But, it really is, "what files are on your laptop hard drive which is on your nightstand..." And, I think I have the skydivingmovies.com website mirrored, in addition to a lot of skydiving reference materials.

So, I am a big "pet lover"... The soft and furry kinds are the ones I like... The ones, like dogs, that get a large vocabulary and can communicate with ya. Sell me on the concept of a snake... Do they ever show signs of affection and respect? Do they bond with their keepers?

God, my experience was totally opposite. 100% positive! Not only did I get on 7 organized RW jumps with a world champion, do my first 10 way, my first wing suit, but, I also had great fun with people around the bonfire on Friday night, and Saturday night was fun too even though I did not go off site... Showers would have been nice, and they needed more restrooms as the line to the restroom in the hangar was three deep at times... Perhaps portapotties outside. I am sure getting all the planes and logistics to a small airport DZ for a one time a year event is costly... Not like a DZO who can just say, "I got a few planes, lets call this weekend a boogie and give away beer." But other than that - no complaints. The turnout was bigger than they expected, so I am sure next year the planes will come. The go fast wind blades and windsock near the hangar were perfect to see from above, and when they blew away on Sunday we knew the winds were HOT!

By my username, I am a self proclaimed dog expert... My parents Springer Spaniel wags his tail on command... My Springer, who shows more signs of problem solving and intelligence, I have not been able to train to wag... The thing is, I trained my parents springer to wag by saying "wag your tail"... But, what he hears is "good boy" - as I used them often in the same sentence... So, he is not wagging his tail, but happy to receive praise and the tail therefore wags... But to all those who don't know how I trained him, the tail wags on command. I think dog's tail wagging is very controlled and voluntary - like a human smile... We smile when we are happy or hear something funny without thinking about it.... But if we want to be a sorry puss, we can keep a straight face if we try... Why do I think that??? Well, my dog, again who is a little smarter than my parents, got sick of his stubby cropped tail getting hit by the car door as he jumps in the car... So, he puts his "garage door down" and tucks his stub close to his butt the second his feet get in the car because he knows the door might beat his ass in... Even if his tail is wagging, he stops it and puts it down... Other times in the park, his body language is in his tail... When the stub is straight up he is at full attention, but as he approaches another dog he will wag it a bit to show the dog he is friendly, but it is a slow and controlled wag that I believe he is very careful to use... When that other dog comes back to sniff his ass like dogs do, he again puts the garage door down... That is my theory, and as a self proclaimed expert, me thinks I am right. he he he...

I am leaving tomorrow for MOAB.... YIPPIE... YIPPIE... Like a kid at the store the week before Christmas... Screw that... It is like the night before Christmas... 'Twas the night before MOAB, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The rigs were sitting by the door with care, In hopes that morning soon would be there.

Dude, pictures???

That is too bad, because I like rappelling off of things... Ok, so here is a funny rappel story... My knowledge of climbing gear is all about rappelling as I use it for work to get off high places after rigging lights or speakers in stadiums and the like... I don't think I have ever climbed rock, but I have used a crap load of climbing gear.... Anyway, a somewhat less than normal IQ rigger (not parachute rigger) friend of mine thought he would show off... He decided to slide down the chain for a chain motor, head first, to the ground... Neat trick, it worked... The next guy tried it feet first on a different motor... Only difference, that motor chain just had been oiled... I think he was in controlled freefall as he rode the chain down... Lived without an injury, except to his pride... So, my advice to all those RC.com folks... Don't oil your rope.

I heard one of those giant worms, like in the movie "Tremors", popped up out of the desert earth and swallowed the plane whole! I was wondering what farted metal parts into my back yard...

Regardless of if you "can" make the numbers work, I don't know if I would do it... My friends who do it seem to always be on back to back loads and I never hear them talking about having fun or see them doing fun jumps... Maybe it would be something you could do for a few months to take a vacation from reality.... But I would find another job that you enjoy so skydiving does not become a job you "hate"... The person you should talk to is Quade on these forums, or goto his website www.futurecam.com. He videoed a 4way camp I was in, and I talked to him, and he seemed to strike the balance between fun and work.

And, where are the awesome pics????

I think that is my first choice right now... I have an e-mail into them, lets see how long it takes for them to reply... Edit to add: Ouragan Suits just e-mailed me back a very detailed e-mail within 12 hours... Something that the "others" did not do when I was shopping for my RW suit. Now that is customer service.!

Yes, I searched. A lot of the threads are 1-3 years old on this subject - and I know a lot of the manufactures change in this sport... Both manufacturing quality, owenrship and turnaround time... Heck, just the trend for jumpsuits to lose the bagginess is somewhat new of a trend. Who has that dialed in? So, anyone have good or bad experiences in the last few months with jumpsuit ordering? Quality, customer service, turn around time, good modern fit, etc???

Congrats... My favorite exit is... Stand in the doorway and grab your ankles. Throw yourself out in a front-flip spin... If you hold it long enough you will see the plane many times as you keep flipping... Oh, but you probably should not do that on your hop-n-pop that you still have to do. Anyway, congrats on doing your 18th...

I am only one year and 230 jumps into my skydiving career, and I can say that I have a "to do list" that is still many, many pages long... I jump from a few disciplines, (Tracking, RW, and just learning freefly) so yes, people jump around... But, I spent the first 210 jumps getting "good" at RW, even though I am still not "good" in terms of what the "pros" do. When you know you are hooked and you have settled into something that might last you a few hundred jumps. I ordered mine at jump 30, but it did not come in until I had 60 jumps... Thank god the gear shop I purchased from had free loaners for customers...

I have never done a Heli (yet) - but I love balloons... The silence, followed by hearing your friends whistle thru the air...

Oh no, I got that figured out too. Here is some text about the clapper that can be used to adjust the sensitivity: anyway, here is my product lit sheet released this week. The Clapper Corp just reworked a previous document for me to incorporate it into skydiving.

This is the billbooth post you are talking about right? http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1818609;#1818609 cut and paste: I like that. I had been calling it a MARDe System...Main Assisted Reserve Deployment. So the semantics of it all, would the RDD or MARDe be a supplement or replacement of the RSL term... In other words, is it a MARDe RSL or just a MARDe? Hijack over. Nate, you will love your new vector, even if it is shit green, mustard orange and pineapple brown... But, be prepared for two things: 1) Many coaches on the DZ learning you have a skyhook and, therefore, many students seeing the skyhook for the first time on your rig - so know the parts, why they are there, and you might actually earn Mr. Booth so much business he should send you a commission check. 2) People with 100 less jumps than you coming up to you and saying, "Ha Ha, you still use a RSL, look at me, I don't." Smile back and say, "it is a skyhook". Most of the time these jumpers will say a "sky what?" Conversation over.

I was actually thinking of recommending an automated system for jumpers like your customer. It is based upon the clapper. http://wonderfulbuys.com/clap.asp "Clap on, clap off, the clapper." The jumper would just clap twice and the main would go bye bye. The next sequence of events would be determined if the jumper had an RSL or not, but of course we would recommend they clap twice again just in case the RSL does not work.

And us mile-highers had a great time hosting this event. You-all come back ya-hear.

If I had it, I would have given it away freely... Between work and my desire to actually jump myself, I petty much only made it to every-other-day to video... So I missed most of everything the "ams" were doing. Travis

Good idea... They might have a reason you have no clue about that actually makes sense.... I have no clue what your job is... If you are doing manual labor of some sort, they really are just using you as a resource. If you are in management or have access to proprietary info, they have the right to know what you do in your life, to protect their intellectual assets... For an example, another company I worked for, required us to document every other "side job" we had to make sure the company policy of "no working for our competitors or any other company in the industry" policy was followed. Made sense since I had the administrator password to the server and had access to every employee's salary AND every customer's buying habits.... And they were paying me for my services and wanted exclusivity as customers could have hired me direct and they would have lost the money they invested in marketing my services as part of their company. So, I guess what I am saying is, it sounds like you don't trust your employer, so that is the root of this problem... As you said, you are looking for a new job, which is a good idea if you are in so much distrust with your current employer you don't even feel comfortable sharing your class schedule with them.

Ok, give me some dirt on Chuck (perhaps in a PM). He is a good friend, and when I had 30 jumps he jumped many times in one day with me flying video, the first video I ever had of myself flying... I owe him a lot of gratitude, and the only way I can pay it back is having some dirt on him that I can use to poke fun of him every once in a while.

Colorado Jumpers... Travis here needs a ride (as my SUV seems to be a waste of gas for me alone.) Let me know if anyone has room or needs a ride and I can drive a group.

I have been both the employee and the employer... I know it is a privilege to work for a company, they don't have to employ ya... If you want to work, it seems a fair question of them to ask, "what is your class schedule?" I would give them a detailed breakdown of the "class hours" and "study time hours" so they can accommodate your needs. If they can't accommodate your needs, time to find another job... You need not justify which classes you are in, or why you need those study time hours... Just that you have them. Perhaps a plan A and alternate for the study time??? It is not like they are asking who you are going to dinner with or something personal... They are trying to book your time. In the world of people calling in sick when they are not, employers are put in a hard spot these days. Just my point of view. (Oh, by the way, our employees are encouraged not to lie and call in sick - we grant lots of "just because" time off... Last Friday a top manager took some time off because a department store had a sale... No dock to her salary, she will make up the time when she needs to... Culture is important. Employers who do not realize people have lives and sometimes need time off with short notice are just setting themselves up for a shitty culture.)