GrumpySmurf

"And what were you doing reading messages on the Canadian Department of National Defence website" One word: Newfie. Actually cuz a family friend, who was recruiter for the CAF, came knocking just after I finished the Univ. Degree (about 3 years ago) and mentioned looking at them for possible employment if my chosen career path was proving not up to what I expected ( current money is nice, but being stuck behind a desk all day is getting old, fast). So I give the site a gander now and then out of curiosity. *shrug* One of those great debates - do I sign away 5 years of my life on a whim, sleep in the freezing, wet cold, get paid crap and eat food even starving Africans would reject - or sit behind the desk wondering if I am actually doing anything meaningful with my life. That's why :)

Or how come if you light up a joint in a downtown Vancouver bar, no one complains, yet the moment you light a cigarette, you are carted off to jail... I guess they are simply more of lifes great mysteries ;)

http://www.dnd.ca/menu/Feature_Story/2001/dec01/14dec01_f_e.htm " AWCETT, Alta. - Students and teachers at W.R. Frose School watched as Santa jumped from a Griffon helicopter and into their schoolyard December 12. Santa dropped by to thank them for sending more than 100 Christmas cards to the Third Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (3 PPCLI) after learning that the unit is preparing for potential deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation APOLLO. Warrant Officer Bill Bolen, a former SkyHawk and veteran Santa jumper, distributed candy canes and presented a gift to the student who thought of sending the cards. 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron of Edmonton provided the helicopter. 3 PPCLI forms the infantry base for the Immediate Reaction Force (Land), a standing NATO task for Canada's Army to provide a high-readiness, combat-capable land force designed to respond quickly to overseas missions on order. The Reaction Force for Operation Apollo is supported by all units within 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group and includes significant contributions from 3 PPCLI, 2 PPCLI, 1 Service Battalion, 1 General Support Battalion and 1 Combat Engineer Regiment. The soldiers of the Immediate Reaction Force thank Canadians for the support and encouragement they have given to their units and their families as exemplified by W.R. Frose School. "

But my understanding was this on gift taxes: Annual exclusion. A separate $10,000 annual exclusion applies to each person to whom you make a gift. Therefore, you generally can give up to $10,000 each to any number of people each year and none of the gifts will be taxable. If you are married, both you and your spouse can separately give up to $10,000 to the same person each year without making a taxable gift. If one of you gives more than $10,000 to a person during a year, see Gift Splitting, later. ... Gift Splitting If you or your spouse make a gift to a third party, the gift can be considered as made one-half by you and one-half by your spouse. This is known as gift splitting. Both of you must consent (agree) to split the gift. If you do, you each can take the $10,000 annual exclusion for your part of the gift. Gift splitting allows married couples to give up to $20,000 to a person annually without making a taxable gift. If you split a gift you made, you must file a gift tax return to show that you both agree to use gift splitting. You must file a return even if half of the split gift is less than $10,000. If the only reason you must file a gift tax return is because you and your spouse are splitting a gift, you may use Form 709-A. See the form instructions for who can use that form. This form is shorter and simpler than Form 709. So in effect, my understanding is, your folks can give you $20K a year without any tax being owed. But note, I am no tax lawyer, so consult one or the IRS before making a decisions that might affect your taxable status.

*shudder* that's just scary.

That's cuz of those crazy drivers from 'Da Hull' zipping all around - dated this girl from Cantley, PQ once that was a complete nutcase on the road ;) Though they don't come close to the folk on the Illinois freeway system..scar-ee, I be tellin' ya!

I guess reading through the posts, a better question be to ask yourself, "How level headed is my kid?". Our sport is not a forgiving one for those who don't understand the risk involved and go to great care to minimize said risk - if your son thinks 'looking cool in front of the guys' is more important than his own neck - he might want to consider another hobby till he matures up a bit (of course I don't know how old your son is, I am going to assume late teens/early twenties?) - then again, we boys never mature, our toys simply get more expensive. ;) Statisticaly, we're one of the safest sports on the planet, but when those statistics (seemingly always due to human error/negligance) catch up with you, the consequences are potentialy much more grave. If you have any doubts, take some time to talk with the instructors at the DZ you son is looking to try out - especially if you are sitting on the fence about this - another thing might be to try a tandem jump along with him for his first jump, that way you can get a glimpse into this wonderful thing we call human flight :) (and it's a good parent-son bonding thing too).

I thought about this last night - so *MIGHT* have an RSL. *shrug*

You mean there are people who can afford a CYPRES and not buy one??? *blink blink* I guess I always saw an AAD like ABS on a car - you should never need it, but when you do need it, you'll be glad you had it. *shrug* Was jumping with a friend of mine last weekend and got her to do a pin check, she was still using the student Javelin rentals and used to the student config for the CYPRES (under the reserve flap) - so didn't see mine and flipped, "You don't have a CYPRES?!?!". Oh well, not meaning to start a Holy War with the CYPRES comment earlier, sorry.

Blue hood - I remember seeing someone with a hood wrapped around thier head and thought - "Yep, it's a bit chilly up here" :) I be the one running amok with the Royal Blue (Diamondback) and Silver (Condura) Jav Odyessy. Gotta love it, eh - $10 for 17K - "We gonna get high, high!"

I can relate exactly :) Went through an IAD program with the FJC being taught by a former sergeant from the now-defunct Canadian Airborne Regiment. He had us in the harness, yelling at us, having us yell and go 'Look Reach Pull, Look Reach Pull'. You should have heard the clanging of Reserve rings on the pavement that day. *heh*

Call me stupid, but why does the word CYPRES come to mind in this situation?

I guess those of us who want to help out know just enough to be dangerous, but not enough to be of any use ;)

Highest: 17,100 - just this last weekend. Lowest - 3,500 for the AFP 15. Most memorable - #53 - a Bell-222 eggbeater at 4,900 (the ride was way more fun than the jump), #78 - actually managed to hold a headdown (yes, yes, I know I am not supposed to try headdown till I master my sit - but I was just itching to give it a shot *heh*) and #92 - just after I exited, I got to watch the Twin Otter, a few hundred feet away, go into a dive..way too cool. Got 'A' and 'B'. Next year: Get a huge number of jumps in, learn this 'belly flying' thing, after figuring out this 'belly flying' thing - look at getting a 'C' and USPA coach rating

I'll take credit for it - since I wrote it. It was only the second time I have popped the RSL (the first being in winds high enough that I swear I was flying backwards at 3K faster than the cars below me were going forwards ;) - it was one of those "Not gonna jump in those winds again" experiences). I'll be the first to recommend to anyone to get an RSL with a new rig (I made it a point to make sure it came with mine), especially after stories of entanglements at 1K followed by a cutaway - but the situation I was in when I popped it, I felt warranted for it to go bye bye (at 3K with the start of what was looking to be a spinning mal and near guarenteed reserve ride). The question might be: did I make the right decision. I think the better question might be: am I still alive and well. The answer to the first, I think so. The answer to the second, definitely. I feel if students are taking the advice of wanna-be skygods without consulting thier current/former instructor(s), that needs to be addressed vigorously by the instructors during training. As well, the wanna-be skygods need to realize they do set an example for students and need to be careful of thier words. *AND* the students need to learn to take any advice with a grain of salt, and when in doubt about the info or the source, consult the instructor. Caveat: I am not an instructor, nor play one on TV. Take everything I say with a grain ..scratch that, a shaker, of salt :)

Alan, Mucho thanx on the advice..I tried it out on Sunday and all I can say is WOW! Totally different behavior, especially from the quick toggle down action to the sweet spot - for my canopy it seemed to be around the shoulders or so...then it took a slower/finer movement through position 2 to get it to stay planed out (it actually covered some ground, I normally, with a straight 1-2-3, put down right next to the peas on a no wind day, this time I overshot them by about 30 feet!) then a smooth push to a deep 3 and set the canopy down. Two strides to run off the remaining speed and I was one happy camper with 4 consistent stand up landings Sunday - all on a no wind day too. I even got to start steering the canopy with shifting my weight, this is way too cool. Thank you very much again.

That's best piece of advice I've heard all day! Of course there seems to be wisdom in: 1) Don't date at the DZ. 2) Don't bring your S.O. to the DZ. I go to the DZ to get away from my problems, not to have them either follow me there or reside there :)

Speaking of Pro-Tracks - SDC has there on sale at Active Wear for like $259, I think it was. There's a link on the skydivechicago.com webpage for Active Wear, so you might want to contact them to confirm (I could be off by +- $10). Just a thought - if you are looking for a early Christmas gift for yourself...figured I'd mention it since I don't think I have ever seen them on sale below the industry norm $289. (And nope, I don't work for SDC or Active Wear, nor get kickbacks from them)

Small ellipticals aren't the only ones. I somehow managed to my 1.3 loaded Safire to line twist and throw me for a few spins yesterday - looked up, saw twists, looked further - to the left side of the canopy was blue, to the right was green/brown, and I was going for a wild ride. Popped the RSL, leaned as far out of the turn as possible, grabbed the risers to pull apart and cursed and swore at the thing like a sailor, it then planed out (I guess it gave up on it's vision of one day being recycled into a PD Stilletto). That little event was preceeded by a d-bag hesitation on a previous jump (I guess the canopy was a bit shy and didn't want to come out of the bag so quickly), and followed by a hard pull on a subsequent jump - quite the entertaining weekend. How about you folk?

I've seen a few people use a way of packing the pilot chute so only a relatively (felt like 2 or 3 pounds) small amount of force is required to pull the entire bridle (followed by the PC) clear of the pouch (yet the PC was in the pouch quite snug - don't ask me how that is possible - it just was *heh* - it took the typical force on the handle to extract the chute, but if you started pulling bridle, the whole thing would start coming out followed at the end by the PC). If you have a zero bridle exposure rig, there might be a packer who might be able to demostrate a method to pack the pilot chute to help in this situation - it might not prevent a horseshoe - but every little bit helps? Thanks for bringing up horseshoes, reminded me to ask how they did pack the PC :) Just a thought.

Good advice indeed - actually pretty much required advice. Though what I am trying to get across with the statement was for those of us who have not experienced one - it's dread of the 'unknown' - much like a first jump, but in a slightly different sense. Most first time jumpers are afraid because they don't know what to expect, don't know how they will react, and most important don't know if they will in fact, be ok when they leave the plane. I assume most low time jumpers think similarly of the first serious mal, I mean we are trained for it, review mentally and physically for it, but all the preparation in the world is no substitute for the experience of reality. Thus what I meant by 'getting it out of the way' - a few jumpers I have known seemed to feel more comfortable with the first mal happening earlier in thier career than those who had it happen later (later vs earlier borderline being, let's say, 500 jumps) - they know early on what to expect and know they can deal with it (else they wouldn't be alive).

Not anxious in a good way - more of a 9th grade booster shot kind of thing - it's gonna happen eventually - so lets get it out of the way and move on. Like I said, the anxiety of awaiting the inevitable is often times worse than the actual situation that you are worried about.

Well considering it was a student with a really lightly loaded canopy, I doubt it was anything near a 'on your back, swinging like a yoyo over someones head' kind of thing - but from a first jumper point of view, I sure as scary as hell nonetheless. Considering it was her first jump - many of us agreed she did the right thing - she had a canopy she felt she couldn't land - she just happened to forget the part of the FJC about popped toggles causing spirals *shrug*. I'm starting to think the USPA should come up with a booklet for the generic portion of the FJC that can be handed out to first jumpers before they do the course, so that the generic portion of the course is more of a re-inforcement of the book, rather than whole tonne of information being drilled into people (who are often times scared to death) in a 4 to 6 hour period. Just a passing thought. We still gave her crap about it, even after she got her 'A' ;) Then again, she does have her documented cutaway for the tandem cert. I don't.

Seriously? Maybe they have some irrational fear of sliders - some kids I guess had monsters in the closet, I guess this individual had a slider hiding in the closet? ;) That must have sucked to chop away from a loud slider, only to open under a reserve with another loud slider - I guess they must have thought they had a dbl mal;)

Hmm, I knew one girl that had a brake line unstow on her first jump - went into a spiral, chopped it (we *ALL* gave her the lecture about popping the toggles first if you look up and see an ok canopy but are 'spinning'). Me, closing in on jump 100 - numerous line twists - the BOC Pouch on my rig is super tight so the pull is a hard one, 1 instance of double riser bitch slap, 1 instance of pilot chute bridle wrapped around leg at 3K (2nd freefall off of IAD - was told to serious consider taking up fishing, I *HATE* fishing ;) ). No cutaways, no reserve rides - am actually anxious to have the first mal - just to get the bloody thing out of the way (as they say, the anxiety is worse than the occurance).