shall555

You mean besides picking up skydiving again ? That was *it* ! shall

Hmmm... Lawrence of Arabia The Battle of Britain My Favorite Year The Year of Living Dangerously Cyrano de Bergerac (with Gerard Depardieu ) 2001: A Space Odyssey The Longest Day The Apartment Bonjour Tristesse Claire's Knee Manhattan and of course, Amazon Women on the Moon Shall

I was just doing a bit of "window-shopping" and checking out canopies. On the Big Air Sportz canopy order forms, there's an odd limitation: I didn't see a restriction like that on any other manufacturer's order form. Do these colors make the fabric weaker ? Or is it simply more difficult to construct with darker colors in those spots ? ( A query to Big Air Sportz has, so far, not been answered. ) shall

Ouch. You have my sympathy. I'm guessing you'll have a week off, tops, before someone drags you back to the grind. 'Course you could take this opportunity to write a novel or discover the cure for "Excessive Cowbell References" or something... Luck ! shall

That's probably cause she went out with the pilot!!! Yeah *he* landed uneventfully !

Okay. I'll bite. First, the moral of the story: Never try to show off for the young sweetie that caught your eye. Soon after I started jumping and was off student-status, I was particularly enamored of one cute townie and invited her out to take an observer ride. I, the hero with 42 jumps, would make a perilous exit from a perfectly good plane and certainly win her affections. Ahem. So, we get her into an observer rig and take the 182 up to 3500 or thereabouts. I confidently stepped out and pulled after 3 or four seconds. After an exceedingly gentle snatch to upright, I see my Paracommander's stabilizers hanging out of the deployment sleeve.. and little else. I shook the risers, swore at it, then reached for my ultra-modern R3 releases ( a cloth-tab sort of hack on shot-and-a-half Capewells ), yanked and as I let go of the R3s, the Stevens Lanyard yanked the reserve handle past my nose. That 24' flat twill canopy really looked good. On the ground, the pilot, my pal Gary, was wide-eyed. He had expected to see my RWB PC, but looked back and saw the reserve. The girl never went out with me, either. I tell myself that the hero must walk the earth alone. shall

I really miss Sonny's BBQ in the Southeast. It's about the only thing I miss about the Southeast, though ! shall

Apartment, Left Bank, Paris, one month.

0:1:0 Sky was nice...

No kiddin' ! Glad to hear it shall

That is just terrific ! Congratulations, you two ! shall

I bet he had, say, 11 jumps ?

All I can say is: custom rigs are pure joy ! Gear that doesn't fit you can be painful, awkward and dangerous. 's worth the bux to have one made for you. shall

When I used to fly aerobatic airplanes, I just had dry toast and tea for breakfast. It seemed to be about the right thing, as I never got nauseous, even while practicing some of the more disorienting maneuvers. I'd suggest a very light breakfast, nothing greasy or fatty. But I wouldn't recommend going with an empty stomach. That can be unpleasant, too (low blood sugar, etc.) My $ .02 worth shall P.S. oh, and, have fun !

:3:1 3 nice jumps. Nothing special except that my jump Sunday was number 300. So, I bought a case for the DZ to celebrate. shall

Back when I was a jumpmaster, I got elected by the other JMs at the dz to "have the talk" with a girl who was doing badly and was, we all felt, skydiving for the wrong reasons. The consensus was that she was an accident waiting to happen. She teared up a bit, but I got the sense that she was relieved, in a way. It was a very tough conversation to have, but it was the right thing to do. shall

I'd start a multi-level marketing company that sold squeezed aardvarks or something. shall

My first skydiving instructor told me a great way to look at this: "Being nervous is your body's way of telling your mind to pay attention." So, use that shall

What that guys needs is a good 10-watt amplifier.

:2:0 Heh. One *great* RW jump with a new acquaintance. First RW in a loooong time. Just a simple 2-way, but lots of fun. I made the crap spot of the decade as I overestimated the time for us to climb out and exit. But, a good time was had by all, despite the tour of the sagebrush and gopher holes on the west side of the airport ! shall

Get a whole bunch of those pickled eggs that float in those jars in the 7-11. Drink a lot of beer. Eat lots of Slim Jim sausages. Then just wait

Congratulations ! Now you have your license to learn shall

I understand the frustration. But, I'd ask you to remember that we humans are wired to operate in 2 dimensions: left and right. The idea of operating in the up-down dimension is completely foreign. We simply don't have any reflexes that help us out in the down direction except "Oh sh**". So, we have to learn how to deal with it. It's like learning a foreign language. If you really love it in the sky, you'll get the landings soon enough. If you'd like an interesting insight into how lift and flare work, try taking a flying lesson ( as in "airplane" ). You'll be able to see and feel the transition from glide to flare to touchdown. Might be worth a shot. Best, shall

Welcome back to the states! (and thank you ! ) shall

Yes, the underground pack mat association is a clandestine organization. However, you now have a temporary, junior super-secret code-word membership. Here ya go: http://www.paragear.com/searchresult.asp?searchstring=packing+mat&submit1=Go%21 shall