Zennie

A company called Air Liquide. They sell industrial gas (oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, etc). I had interviewed way back in December and then out of the blue they call with an offer. Yeah it's still IT, but sort of general purpose.... coding, troubleshooting, configuration management. Plus I can run Linux as my OS, so that's a bonus. Good salary, sucky commute, but hey ya can't have it all. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

I know I'm not too fond of my former CEO. I got Lay'ed. FYI. For those of you that are wondering, I have a job again, starting Monday. So I can once again jump with reckless abandon!

Actually it's sometimes active during work hours. Seems that some people (*cough* *cough*) either have no job and/or too much time on their hands. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

My condolences Viking. Not much I can say other than to remember that we are all here for you. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Heh, tell me about it. It's been a very interesting couple of months, to say the least. I lost a pretty fair chunk out of my 401K (not to mention my job), but not all of it. But that's all water under the bridge, as they say. I'm not particularly angry. That doesn't really solve anything (thought it won't break my heart to see some folks spending some time contemplating life at the Federal Pen). For me it's kind of become a game of seeing how deep the rabbit hole goes (to paraphrase The Matrix). The sick thing is it seems to go ever deeper & deeper... On the upside, some things are starting to happen on the job front so I'm fairly optimistic to have something in the next couple of weeks. Thanks again all for your kind words and support. It really means a lot to me. It's great to know I have so many good friends who are willing to offer their support when things go bad. Maybe someday I can pay it back somehow. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Don't get me started.... "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Tell me about it. I told Liz it's like going from a Ford Taurus to a Mustang. Needless to say I won't be doing any 180 snap hooks for a while. I'm pretty much starting from scratch again (and doing lot of hop-n-pops). Not yet but some leads are starting to trickle in. Hopefully it won't be too much longer. How's UAE? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Fortunately I have a line set only about 100 jumps old on the canopy. But this sort of begs the question... how would I get good information regarding line trim and other maintenence issues? Does Brian have good records such that I could send him a serial number & he could send me (and/or my rigger) the proper specs? I'd kind of be interested to find out where my canopy sits in the evolution of the design... partly for academic reasons and partly for gaining a better understanding of my canopy's flight characteristics. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

You may or may not have seen my post in the Talkback section, but I just purchased a used Jedei 136 (loaded right around 1.4). I'd like to hear what y'all thought (think) about the canopy and get a few flying tips based on your experiences with it. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

That was a lot of fun! Lead would prolly help, but I obviously need work on closing distances in a backfly. That was an interesting day. I went from trying to keep up with AggieDave "the human brick" to trying to keep up with Kelli "floaty-girl". Those kinds of jumps are good for me and I actually did better than I expected. Ya we need to do more jumps though. And I'm always up for pulling high and playing under canopy. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

... pilot. With all my going on about getting a Cobalt, I wound up buying a used Jedei 136. Has a lot of jumps on it, prolly around 850, but only 100 on the new line set. Got it for a pretty good price and with the job situation I figured that would be a better move right now financially. Even though it's older it's a really fun canopy. Wicked, wicked dive! Front riser pressure seems a little heavy, but my guess is that's a brake line length issue. Flare is much deeper in the stroke than I'm used to on the Sabre. Jumped it on a fairly windy day this weekend and it got me back with altitude to spare on some long spots. Also handled turbulence quite well. I'm gonna have to figure out how to deflate the thing on windy days after landing. I kept fumbling with the thing as I gathered up my lines because of the airlocks. Overall a very fun canopy, but I'm back on a learning curve again so I'll be easing into the high performance landings again. Kinda like starting over, but I like getting familiar with a canopy. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Just got a new canopy and over the next year or so I'd like to learn to do some basic maintenece on my rig. Change out brake lines, swap out a main, attach new risers, finger trap a closing loop. Simple things like that (which IMHO every skydiver should know how to do anyway). So my question is, do any of you have a "field rigging kit" of items to allow you to do basic maintenence on the spot? What would you consider essential items to have in the kit? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Ya yesterday was lots of fun! Thanks for the fun freefly jumps! Hope you both can make it back down again soon!

I dunno. Sprains can be worse than breaks. My left ankle is *still* stiff from the post-beer-light bonfire hopping injury I had back at Halloween. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Heh, if this is the canopy I think it is, she can talk to the person who flew that very canopy (i.e. Mike).

I probably should have qualified that with "in my (limited) experience". "Steering the opening" seemed to be a mantra of sorts from people I talked to and it held true on the Cobalt & Vengeance. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Pretty much what they said. Just to elaborate from my experience doing demos... * Ellipticals will take on a life of their own on opening. You'll learn to "steer" the opening as the cells inflate. In only two weeks with the Cobalt I was so habituated to immediately reaching back to grab the rear risers and steer the opening that it took a couple of jumps back on the Sabre before I realized I didn't have to do that anymore. * Weight shifts in the harness will now be a big deal. I would go all over the place when I reached up to collapse my slider. So you need to sort of pay attention when doing things like that. * You will get lots more... um... penetration. This is good on windy days and getting back from a long spot. It also means you need to be a little more heads-up because people will come up on you *much* faster. Remember my little near-miss with Conway? * I've never flown a Stiletto but I understand the toggle inputs are twitchy. This means you need to be much more careful avoiding traffic close to the ground. You definitely can't just do a toggle turn to avoid people like you might be able to with a square. Even braked turns are dicey. It will require much more finesse. Do a few jumps and deploy high and explore the control range. Get a feel for how "divey" the canopy is when you do toggle turns. Get a feel for the flare. Do some braked turns and see how it reacts. Does it dive or sink gradually? Play with the front & rear risers and see how the canopy behaves. What kind of recovery arc do you have on toggle turns & front riser turns? Things like that. Other might have some additional tips. These are just some things I noticed when I began working with ellipticals. Good luck & play safe!

Hey dove, I did that as a joke. You had just said "Kick me! Kick me!" so as a joke I kicked you from the channel. Kicks aren't permanent. You can hop right back onto the channel. And in the IRC world ops will do it as a joke from time to time in the rowdier channels. Sort of like a Three Stooges finger poke. So like I said I was just kidding around and was sort of expecting you to come back. When you didn't I sent you a PM apologizing and explaining what I did. Maybe it didn't go through (I know Bossman has been having problems with the private messaging). In any event it wasn't anything personal, but I'm sorry if I offended you. Please come back and play! "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

That sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Looks like they're going for around $280 with the online vendors. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

ramon, if you can't get hold of him I can come get them if you need me to. Drop me an email and I'll give you my cell number. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

DOH! Busted! "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Is John Stewart gonna be coming? How 'bout Brandon & Laura? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

Sorry you're going through rough times. Seems to be a lot of that going around. I'm gonna be out at Waller for $12 jumps this weekend (assuming the plane is fixed). Maybe see you and cyber out there? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

I take it you were able to find the place even with my sucky directions? "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."

I think she's referring back to my question of where in Texas are the Aerodrome people going. We'd kind of like to be nice hosts if they'd let us. "Zero Tolerance: the politically correct term for zero thought, zero common sense."