shall555

He's going to the men's room. I expect he'll be back in 2, 3 hours. shall

Vegetables ? That's crazy talk! What you don't know is that you should eat several servings of *processed* foods every day. You can get severely out of alignment with contemporary society without regular consumption of Tang, sausage dogs, Cheez Whiz and almost anything with sodium gluconate. Man, get with the program. This is your health we're talkin' about, here ! shall

There's one about 30 miles south of Albuquerque -- the one linked in the previous reply. It's the closest. Skydive New Mexico is a club, with great folks. We've currently got a couple of 182s, an indoor packing area and wide open vistas! People there do some RW, some free-flying and there are some swoopers of various experience levels, as well. C'mon down ! shall P.S. I believe there's another DZ down near the Texas border, but haven't jumped there. It'd be a heck of a drive, anyway.

I understand. I'm paying $ 23 at my home DZ. However, at the Eloy boogie, you could jump for $ 16/16.50 from Skyvans and Otters all day long. But that's not exactly the point I was making. The point is, some day it will be $100/jump and affordable by a very few. We live in a unique time when these amazing aircraft are available not as a novelty, once a year at some big meet, but at regular dropzones all across the country. Skydiving is accessible to folks of modest means. Gear is well-engineered and constructed. It may not always be this way. I'm just saying: Have fun now. Build up a great store of memories of grins and time with your buddies in the sky. Try a wingsuit jump. Do some free-flying. Learn to jump with smoke and jump into an airshow with thousands of adoring fans. shall

Heck yeah. I get it. It wouldn't be the same without watching folks practice their grips, closed-eyed in the plane and sharing that arcane, sliding-grip handshake just before exit. I'm with ya. I'm just thinking that someday, Jet-A fuel will be $ 145.00/gallon. That's when they'll invent the levitator beams. Then we can chat and talk trash all the way to altitude, surrounded by only air and clouds. shall

I would love to see one of these great skydiving video editors/artists use Phil Seymour's "Let Her Dance" in a great freefly video. Ok, ok, so it's very 80s, but it's got the perfect beat. If no one else does it before I learn to fly a camera, I'll do it myself -- I'm warning ya! shall

Man, I know what you mean. I once bought a house in a market where folks were cancelling offers *accepted* a week before because they got a better offer. Take a deep breath, put these wankers on your *ignore* list and push through this. It'll all work out. shall

Girl ? Woman ? It's all good. shall

[reply ... I talk about being able to be apart of the beginnings of the sport with FFing and Swooping being in their infancy and getting to be apart of them, but I hadn't looked at it in the same light you do. After reading that I would tend to agree with you. It would have been inconceivable to think of jumping *regularly* out of million-dollar + airplanes when I started. Check out Trade-A-Plane for the prices on Twin Otters, Skyvans and King Airs. Heck, it was a big deal to jump out of a clapped-out DC-3 or Lodestar in 1979. I'm tellin' ya, today, 2006, is *it*. Cheers, shall

Me too. But not for the skydiving. Watch it cuz I have a speaking part. Yeah, but you're a girl. Everybody watches the girls in those videos. Sheesh. shall

I've just been thinking about the sport a lot, lately and have come to the conclusion that we're living in the "Golden Age" of skydiving. Think of it: the gear's fantastic, airplane rides are dirt cheap, knowledge is being shared like never before, boogies happen *somewhere* every other weekend. There are AFF, free-flying, incredible canopy-piloting, CRW, freestyle, BASE and multi-point RW disciplines to choose from. Look, short of some future invention of levitator beams to climb to altitude and magic shields to protect us from ill-timed swoops, we have nearly-perfect gear -- folks just don't frap because gear unravels at opening time. Ok, so I'm watching the Rantoul '02 video tonight and marvelling at the incredible skills demonstrated by the *typical jumper* today. The folks in that video aren't necessarily the Jerry Birds / B.J. Worths of their day. They're typical of the contemporary skydiver. If you haven't seen that video, I'd recommend that you watch it. You'll see remarkable control of fall-rate and position relative to the cameraman and formation that simply could not have been achieved when I started jumping. In that video, folks jump from Twin Otters, Pitts Specials, a B-17 bomber, a C-130, Skyvans (amazing) and King Airs. So, I guess my point is: jump. Enjoy this wonderful time. The sky may not always be so accessible to us. For some reason we are blessed with the ability to jump from 13,500 feet for a mere, oh, $ 16.00 US or so. It will not always be so. Jump. Smile. Geek the camera. Push yourself to the limit of your skills. Savor every moment in freefall, every sunset dive, every grin from a pal just before break-off. We live in the Golden Age. Yer pal, shall

Hiya, I haven't jumped a Navigator, but on the first jump of my recent re-introduction to the sport I jumped a PD 260. I'm guessing they're similar ( at least, at my exit weight of about 175 ). The PD 260 was slow and docile and barely changed at flare time -- it just slowed down. I wasn't descending very fast, anyway. I progressed to a PD 210, which was much faster and had a decent glide. I finally bought a Sabre 2 190 and jumped that for about 18 jumps before having to have it repaired after a couple of cells were damaged (in the hangar). The reason I mention all this is to provide a bit of background about the canopies I've jumped just in the past 6 months. Recently, I've been jumping a borrowed Spectre 190. I like it *very* much. It glides very nicely, even making it back from looong spots at the Eloy boogie -- nearly the last out == long spot. I stood up every landing I made, except my first test jump on the canopy, when I didn't expect the flare to be so powerful -- I popped up about 3 feet. I found that it really sinks well in deep brakes. I used the sink capability a few times recently when I wound up fairly close to the landing area and still a couple-hundred feet up. It's very stable in that mode and when I let it fly again at 50 feet, was able to flare nicely to a gentle landing. One of these wouldn't make a bad accuracy canopy, I'm guessing ( though I'm no accuracy hound ). In general, at my wing-loading and with this canopy, I found that as I reached about 8-10 feet above ground, in full-flight, smoothly and firmly ( not jerkily ) bringing the toggles down to about shoulder level tended to arrest the descent. Then, I would just continue the flare as the speed bled off. It's not a mechanical thing -- you just apply pressure to the brakes as the situation warrants, second-by-second, to keep your feet just above the ground. Good luck with that Spectre. I've enjoyed the heck out of jumping this borrowed one. shall

I remember: Falling asleep at the beach at the modest little beach cottage my parents would rent for one week out of the year each summer... hot, exhausted on a chenille bedspread with the sound of the ocean just outside the window. My dad taking me on an airplane ride when I was about 5 or so. His company was taking aerial photos of a building site and he had arranged for us to go along for the ride. Later, he said I almost climbed out of the plane I was so excited. I guess he's responsible for my never-ending love of the sky. I remember a fight with the neighborhood bully. He had terrorized me for months. For some reason, I got a lucky shot in, and knocked him down the hill with a single punch. My dad pulled me off of him with what I now recognize as a mixture of pride and the need to instill some kind of restraint. I guess that's what dads are for.... I remember my first "slow dance" with a girl at age 10 -- at summer camp. My parents kept the letter I sent home after that for years: "Did you know that girls are warm ?" Heh. shall

Seconded ! It was terrific to meet AggieDave, Grue and Evelyn (sigh). The weather was incredible, the folks were friendly and the sky was clear and blue. There definitely was a great vibe there. Cheers, shall P.S. Got to meet Greg Gasson (wow). The first thing he said was "Let's make some jumps". Incredible.

Why, I psycho-pack those, of course ! shall

... I find myself pro-packing my sheets. What's up with that ? shall

An operator ? There's a whole balloon club that's apparently working with the DZ to do the balloon jump day in January! From what I hear, they're as jazzed about having jumpers aboard as the jumpers are to go. And yes, New Mexico is a hotbed of balloon activity. Every fall, the Albuquerque Balloon Festival is a big deal. They have hot dogs and everything. shall

Hiya, Skydive New Mexico is normally pretty active, but I believe they're closed this weekend ( the 24th and 25th ). They're planning balloon jumps ( as well as the regular C-182 jumping ) January 7th. You may want to PM skysprite on this site for info. BTW, Skydive NM has rental gear available. Fun bunch of people, too. shall

Pumpkin grading. Yes, someone has to do it. I sort them by weight, oblateness, and attitude. True, I'm only busy between approximately October 28 and November 1, but it's very satisfying work. And I get to keep all the seeds ! shall

G-g-grass landing areas ? You mean, no sagebrush ? No cow pies ? No outcroppings of volcanic tuff ? Are you just bragging, or what ? Cheers, shall

Does that preamp do RIAA equalization ? LPs have goofy EQ due to the nature of the vinyl medium. If you just have a generic preamp there with line-in jacks you may be listening to some really screechy stuff. Look around on the web for preamps with RIAA turntable equalization if you don't already have it. Cheers, shall

Ok. I'm on it. How do I get my name officially on that list ? I'll be jumping the 27th and 28th. You'll all recognize me: I'm the short, funny-looking guy with few skills. shall

I would get an *enormous* kick out of jumping with Greg Gasson -- it's just that it's so early on the learning curve for me with FF that it'd be a waste of his expertise, I'm afraid. ( I'm still just trying to learn to sit without looking like a marble in a blender. ) I'm completely in awe of that guy... shall

retired, apparently:2:0 Test-jumped a Spectre loaned to me by local good-guy Matthew while my canopy's back in Florida for repairs. One coach jump with up-and-coming skydiver R., who has more fun than any three people I know every time he jumps. The Spectre was great fun -- except that it's so new, it has that 'inflatable pool' aspect when packing. But, I'm not complaining! shall

Hah! Try it! It's perfect with strong coffee! Dare ya... shall