Zennie

Well, since I proved to Mikey & Paula that I can still (sort of) fly on my belly, I think we need to up the ante. Hey Paula, think you and/or Mike might be able to help organize some record attempts next weekend? I think we should get at least 10. This single-digit stuff is for the birds. And FYI, I've got something in the works for a freefly big-way attempt out at S-land as well. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

I'd throw the Samurai and Vengeance in there as well. In fact, Brian Germain, to his credit, will not send out Samurai demos to just anyone who asks for one. He generally requires about 300 jumps before you're even allowed to demo one. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Funny you mention this. A couple of my belly flying friends asked me yesterday if I wanted to do some RW. I said sure, what the heck it's all flying. We wound up pounding out about 15-20 points in a fairly complex drill dive that included block moves. I was as shocked as they were at how well I was able to keep up. No matter what you do, you're learning skills that will serve you well in any other discipline. And really whether you freefly or do RW, the main skill you are learning is how to fly your body relative to one or more other people. The even funnier part is that that was my best jump of the day. I wasn't too happy with my performance in my "regular" freefly jumps. Don't limit yourself by arbitrary "disipline" boundaries. Go out & have fun with your friends and you'll be amazed at the things you learn. Oh, and if you watch the Nationals tape, every one of the top teams incorporated belly flying into their routines at one point or another. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

The only thing I would add is that many freefliers set their ProTrack/Dytters for about 500 feet above breakoff altitude. This gives you time to do a quick 360 and make sure no one is right behind you at breakoff. The 1/2 cartwheel is good if you're in a sit/stand at breakoff. If you're head down you just want to gradually track out of it. If I'm in a sit, I normally drop into a fast backfly and then back track away. That way I can check to see what's above me. Once I clear my air above me, I flip over to a standard track and make sure no one is under me. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Our pilot did this once during a particularly hair-raising landing at Las Vegas once. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

nacmac & I are pretty easy to spot. He's the only guy with a Scottish accent and I walk around in a YinYang suit. Flag us down & say "Hi". We'll introduce you to some of the other dz.commers here.

Nah, just tattoo the top of your head. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Totally killer.

Not sure what an Oppenheimer is, but a flower is connected, so sure. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

As one of the Dark Lords of the Sith I kinda have to agree with Bossman. In order to be a legit record, it should conform to freefly record standards, which like RW, involves holding a linked formation. Only difference is we can link 'em up in 3 dimensions. I've pulled off a 4-way train before but I can't remember if all 4 were dz.commers so I can't count that. Biggest I can confirm is a 3-way train with AggieDave & FlyingFerrett. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

OK I'm a bit late but I've been jumping the Jedei for about 3 weeks now and can weigh in intelligently. The oversteer in brakes is pretty serious. First few times I thought I had lineovers or something cuz I'd hit a rear riser to sort of guide the opening and the thing spun like mad on me. When it did that on every opening I figured out that it was just overreacting to my inputs. Now I just do a little tap-tap on the risers and that seems to work well. What's weird is that even though it's hyper-sensitive to riser inputs in brakes, it tends to open up pretty much on heading if you let it. Haven't really had any bad spin-ups. As far as dialing in the flare... this has taken some getting used to. Like ramon said, it's way down in the stroke and very very different from the Sabre's (and the Vengeance's). I can land it without biffing, but getting a nice surf out of it is very difficult. A little too much input and it pretty much shuts down. I can tell this is going to take a lot of jumps to dial in because it's very much a touch thing. Love the airlocks though. Its always felt rock solid, even on gusty wind days (biatch to collapse on said days though ). "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Uh huh. In fact those shots are from a coach jump. He's helped me a lot. Just give 'em a call and talk to Eric. Tell them I sent ya. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Eric Boyd took those. Great pics. There would be more but I have my tongue out in all of 'em. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Sorry to hear that. Get well soon dove! "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

I think this is what help me as a beginner. I really had to learn to fly my body to stay in the column. Well, if you're going to be in Vegas that's the only tunnel right now. Any tunnel time is helpful to a beginner IMHO. But yeah, I've heard the air is better in the SkyVenture tunnel. It's kind of a moot point for me. Until they can crank up a tunnel to about 160 MPH I'm not going to be able to work on freefly. Of course it would be a good opportunity to brush up on thise RW skills I've lost. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

I went out to Vegas right in the middle of my student progression (I was out there for other reasons). Had a bad chipping problem when I went there. A few coach sessions at Flyaway and I went home & sailed through the rest of my student progression. I highly recommend wind tunnel training as a student if you get the opportunity. Any Vegas people know if Ray is still out there? Is he jumping at the Gravity Zone? Tell him I said "Hi... we need to freefly together". He may remember me (especially if you refer to me as Zennie). "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Boobies? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

This is exactly the reason why I put one hand on each handle. If my main is going bye-bye I'm sure as heck making sure I pull the silver (I don't jump an RSL, but that dead horse has been beaten enough). If I have a hard cutaway for whatever reason, I'll let go of the silver handle, but only in that situation. Otherwise, one on each. Can't lose it if it's in your hand. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Eh, while I'm in an "It's All About Me" mood , here's another shot a little further out. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Heh. We'll work on the vertical proximity. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Sorry for the shamless self-promotion, but I finally have a halfway decent picture of me in head down and wanted to share it. It's off my skydiving page. Don't like the way the GIMP handles the blue, I'll need to fix that. But I like the photo and it's in my new (still white) jumpsuit.

There's a hilarious Saturday Night Live sketch that covers this almost to a "T". I forget the guy's name, but it's basically "Joe Stoner... High Times Investigative Reporter". He'd be following a lead, forget what he was doing, go back to HQ to plot a course of action & 5 hours later they'd still be sitting there with empty Doritos bags all over the place. I just about wet myself laughing. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

I think before anyone will be willing to bet on Enron again they are pretty much going to have to do a complete housecleaning as far as management goes. It's the only way faith can be restored in the company. Of course that begs the question, what will be left to resurrect? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Yeah they pushed the stock. You could either purchase stock or participate in one of several mutual funds as part of your 401K.. I rolled my existing 401K from previous employment into Enron stock & then made my contribution go to mutual funds. Now Enron would *only* match in Enron stock. There was no chouce in the matter. That's where I think things are going to change. A company should match whatever you're contrinuting into. Right now Enron isn't trading (NYSE blackballed 'em). So those shares I hold are effectively worthless. Thus my inclination to participate in the suit. Now if for whatever reason this guy manages to turn things around enough to get the stock trading again, I'll opt out of the suit because if that happens, the shares aren't irrevocably lost and it becomes a legit gamble again. I'm willing to take those odds if they get to the point of trading again. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Just came up with an analogy that might clarify where I'm coming from. Say you're a sailor on a ship that's taken some damage. You know there's a leak. The captain comes on the intercom and says "Don't worry, everything's under control. You don't need to leave your stations. We'll have this fixed in no time." Meanwhile, the captain and his staff, knowing the true severity of the damage, prepare their own personal lifeboat. Right before the ship goes down, they bail, while the poor slobs who listened to and trusted their captain, go down with the ship. Who's fault was it that the sailors drowned? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."