GrumpySmurf

He was licensed, jumping solo, using rented student gear. I was talking to him beforehand in ActiveWear - discussing carpooling from Madison. It his, mine, and anyone elses decision to go up on those loads. Got back into the hanger and one of the guys mentioned, "Yeah someone had a bad landing, got the wind knocked out of him.". By the time I got my stuff off and went looking for him, he was already gone (I guess to the hospital). If that was the reaction from manifest staff to an injury, that is really quite odd - everytime I've seen someone crash and not get up right away, the were several people running over to check on them, find someone with FA or IFA training, call an ambulance, etc. The winds were really weird yesterday - the Otter bounced a few times on the climb up, like the wind couldn't make up it's mind which way it wanted to come from - it was S on the ground, SE just before landing, S again at like 1000, then SW above that. As to he 'long haired guy' - sadly there are a few (a very small minority) who work there who don't have the greatest people skills - why they are working in one of the customer service aspects - be it manifest, tandem instructor, etc - I guess should be taken up with mngt? At the very least - it should be regular DZ policy to put the staff through First Aid training - the dividends in preventing bad-PR such as this, would cover the cost easily (not to mention save lives and prevent further injury). I now make it policy to bring my cell phone with me on every load and have SDC manifest on speed dial in case I land in the next county and no one notices I'm gone (been there, did that). Also, the suggestion to buddy up with some one if you solo jumping to check on one another after landing in a very good one indeed, at the least - you will make a new freind, and the solo jump might even turn into a 2-way.

Shhhsssh!

Yep! That would be it. Pretty much adlib'd on the way up. Ok, now I remember you guys, I was the one in the royal blue/ash silver flyfly outfit and rig, who was trying to work out who would go where and in what order. Nah, no need to appologize. It's an open forum, and it's kewl to see folk from SDC who 'live' here.

So you guys did that today? I remember one 2-way belly fly on one of the loads - Load 2 I think, around 1330 hrs. Falls like a safe, eh? - As we discovered today, that even though I'm 210 out the door, I float! Guess I better start chowin' down on my Wheaties to gain weight, to keep up?

Knocked off Jumps 99, 100, and 101 today at SDC in squirrely winds. For #100, took part in a 4-way freefly jump involding 1 and 2 kneelocked (I was '2'), 3 trained onto 2 and 4 was a dive out - we had a mix of sit, stand, and headdowns (depending on skill level). 101 was a simple 2 way belly fly through a few thousand feet of ice cystals (ouch, ouch, ouch...) followed by the wind shifting from the S, to the E, back to S all within 30 feet of the ground - I got to plow 15 feet of farmers field/mud with the right side of my body from that one. Then got to pop my reserve for the first time to have it repacked - almost took the monitor off the desk at ActiveWear with the reserve pilot chute. Opps. Since I had to come back home tonight - the beer shall be bought next weekend at the SDC Winter Expo - recommendations?

I said it! *raises hand* Found it rather odd, not odd in a British Comedy way though (which in fact is quite good) - just really odd - was killing time to see what kind of anime flick might be on afterwards - sadly, it wasn't the Ninja Scrolls (or anything else that involved serious amounts of boobs and blood - the mark of a good anime), so I just went to sleep thinking, "That's an hour I'll never get back."

I actually liked the live version - pretty gutsy on Fox's part to take a Dark Horse creation and toss it on prime time tv. After they axed Space: Above and Beyond - it was appearant Fox didn't have a clue what good programming was (yet they elected to run X-Files into the ground, long after they should have let it die).

Don't sweat it. Maybe someone mis-interrpted what the instructor said or fabricated what the instructor said. If the instructor is talking to anyone other than another instructor or the student about the students performance, especially in less than positive terms, they are being rather un-professional - is it possible to request a different instructor (not so much to not be put with the instructor in question, but request a specific instructor because you "really enjoy jumping with them".). As one proverb went, "There is no such thing as a poor student, only a poor teacher." - my experience outside skydiving is that anyone can be taught anything, given the teacher can communicate, the student is willing to learn - and both have patience to see the learning experience through. (Psst, at least you weren't told, "Maybe you should consider taking up finshing instead?" - I was once, 3 years ago )

Stop, you're scaring me I dunno, after watching them somehow plop in snippets of Biork interviews, and Space Ghost was somehow married to her, and...and...*shudder* All I know is a few hits of 'cid and maybe, just MAYBE, it would make sense

Is it Kung Fu Jack or Samurai Jack? Or are there two of them?

Yeah it's kind of blah - though nothing close to this thing called, "SpaceGhost from Coast to Coast" - where the f*ck they came up with this idea!? It must have involved a serious amount of crack cut with bleach to dream it up - cuz it sucked so bad, it imploded. Now Family Guy, that show just cracked me up, especially Baby Stewey. And then there's the Power Puff girls - best seen absolutely plastered out of your mind.

With some of those planes in the Latin American airlines, like Lacsa and Iberia, or AeroFlop in Russia, it wouldn't suprise me at all if it said Fisher Price on the controls And this was post September??? I figured after that, you had to know the secret knock, upon doing which, a panel on the door would open with 2 eyes peering out and a voice would saying, "Password please.". I feel safer everyday *hrm*

"as rolling around on your back out of control taking" Maybe it should be called the 'Maytag School of Freefly' As in lay back and go into the spin cycle? Hey maybe we have a taker for a medal in Men's Solo FreeStyle next year - just flail around and call it a routine?

I thought it was the norm for jump pilots (especially for the single engine aircraft) to wear a bail out rig, just in case a main pops prematurely while a jumper is on the step and takes the tail off?

Dude, I gotta ask... where did you find this fine example of the human species?

Haven't tried it, but would a 3 second delay be about the best time to deploy, due to the initial slow down to 60mph 'tangential' (I think that's the term) velocity on the arc from forward throw? Not suggesting, just wondering?

Well, in Vancouver - you get a choice of smoking, non-smoking and pot sections. *heh*

"got to push some buttons in the cock pit!!!" Was that while the aircraft was in the air?? "Attn ladies and gentleman, plaase join me in welcoming our newest pilot to the cockpit, she comes to us with 20 hours of Fisher Price simulator experience spcializing in pushing squeezy things that squeek, throwing the yoke from left to right randomly, and burping up all over the controls. So please sit back and enjoy the ride. By the way, a motion sickness bag can be found in the pocket of the seatback in front of you."

Maybe the best way to conquer the fear is to keep doing it until you are comfortable with it. Eventually you will become increasingly comfortable with the increased sensitivity of the smaller aircraft to air disturbances. My first jump out of a C-172 with no door 3 years ago had me scared sick the whole ride up. Got to ride up in another C-172 this past weekend, again with no door, once in the J/M position, back to the panel - Bumpy? Yup, everytime we turned we were jostled around like mables in a jar. But fun as hell - ya hold on tight for the first part of the ascent (since you don't want to get tossed out the door at 100 feet), after that - hang a leg out, stick your head out the door and pant like a dog with it's head out a car window, have fun - no matter the plane, as long as the plane is above 1K feet, who cares if it bumps around - it's still in the air and will still fly, and if it decides to stop flying, you do have a parachute..... I always get a kick out of people on commericial airliners grabbing the armrests white knuckled when hitting turbulance at FL350 - I mean, the pilot is highly trained and as long as a wing or tail doesn't fall off - he/she got 35K to deal with it.

" (new BMWs, read: one even got a Z3...)" Oh if there ever was a fallic symbol on wheels, the Z3 would be it.

Gaffer's tape, where's the gaffer's tape? It ain't vintage if there's no tape holding part of it together...

And please, PLEASE - sedate them - benadryl, a bit of vodka in the O.J., heroin, whatever it takes. The best child seat in the world ain't gonna save 'em if an angry mob decides that stuffing the kid down the toilet in the back is the best way to stop the screaming. Then again, fighting with the seat would wear 'em out faster... but when in doubt - cough medicine with alchohol.

Cats are ok, ferrets are better - especially after a bath *heh* They go apa-freakin-pletic! My last one was an albino female I named, "No-No-Bad-Ferret' - since that is all she heard - she looked like a rat with fangs and a fuzzy tail. She had issues with socks, towels, phone chords, g/f's, vacumn cleaners, remote controls - you name it, she had issues with it, and it *HAD* to be subdued and then drug under the couch - she once tried to drag the vacumn cleaner by the power cord under the couch - then got supremely ticked off when it wouldn't fit.

here ya go: http://www.continental.com/dash/build_dash.asp?service_02_11 " Parachutes/Parasails Continental accepts sport parachutes and parasails in lieu of one piece of free baggage. A parachute or parasail taken onboard the aircraft must meet carry-on size restrictions for placement underneath an aircraft seat. When checked as baggage, all excess, oversize and overweight charges will apply. " I had to use GrabIt to get a screen dump since Netscape under Win NT came up as blank for printing. The Customer Rep on the phone was really helpful too, she walked me through the links to where I would need to go to get the info - though I think alot of it was because the computer kept losing my billing info as she booked the ticket, and she had to keep asking me to repeat it - I think she knows my address, ph# and credit card info better than I do.

The Feds need to work out an agreement with forgien goverments to allow armed Air Marshals onto forgien turf for escourt duty on any inbound or outbound US flight (hopefully they would be well trained in both non-lethal and lethal use of force). Pilots shouldn't have to worry about anything other than flying the plane, while arming them with a zapper, pepper spray, axe handle, lessons on how to drop an atomic elbow from the 3rd rope are great as last resort means of self defense, they are just that - last resort - that guy shouldn't have made it past the first kick to the door. The idea once proposed of a 2 drink maximum also sounds like a (modestly) good idea, or voluntary dropping of alchohol service by the airlines - dunno about anyone else, I'm on the plane to travel, not drink - especially since they serve crap beer (hell, I'd wonder to see the effect if just one airline did it and sent out the sales pitch, 'we do it for your safety' and pointed out all the yahoos who ticked off other passengers cause they were drunk on competing airlines). Greyhound doesn't serve alchohol on thier buses, why should United/American/etc serve it on a plane? - just give me more leg room, stop editing the movies for 'content', bring back the thin, cute, young flight attendants (and one burly mean looking s.o.b in front of the cockpit door), and I'm a happy camper :) Off to Costa Rica tommorow, Continental said I could bring my rig on board - even pointed out where to find the section on thier website that said so, to print out. Wasn't expecting that. Now lets see how the team of high school drop out and G.I. Joe react at security here in backwater MSN, I imagine the question(s) will start with, "Whuffo...."