Zennie

My sis-in-law's parents live in Temple. Small world.

LOL. Funny but true! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

That's quite a cocktail you have going there! Heh. As long as you stay on your meds. I have a couple of friends who have major depression and every now & then they try to go off their meds. Couple days later I'm like "Um, dude, you may want to try taking your meds again." ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

If he does use an "odd" number, I hope it's 1024. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

My worst openings have been on student canopies. We have Javelins with Sabres (Cypres & PD Reserve) and I learned all about the "Sabre Slammer" during my student progression. A rite of passage I suppose. Still, pretty nice rigs for student gear. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I bought a used container (Vector III for $650) and used main (Sabre 150 for $700) and a new reserve and Cypres. All told about $3300. I couldn't find a reserve in the size I needed and almost all used Cypreses you see are about due for a battery change or 4 year service. It was just easier (and more comforting) to go with those things new. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

OK, he's been quiet way too long. My guess is that he's sitting on that 999 and masquerading as someone else in the meantime. Mark my words. I'll get to like #995 and he'll hit 1K. C'mon skreamer, spare us the wait! Just post! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Oh, and when his digital pants failed, the sound was the player dying sound from Pac Man (am I dating myself or what?). ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Could get the "Every OS Sucks" but the "Behind The Scenes" was a hoot! Notice that the M$ dude has "All YOur Base Are Belong To Us" on his T-Shirt? Also looks like Tux on his undies! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

The show was "Risk Takers & Thrill Seekers". I think it aired on TLC. Great shot of Jan Davis (RIP) doing a BASE jump off Angel Falls. Good show. Fair-minded coverage of us, IMHO. Have it on tape. Anyhoo, why did I start skydiving? Wish I had some dramatic reason, but I really don't. I always wanted to do it. Started getting more interested when I'd go by this guy's cubicle at work who had a bunch of skydiving stuff tacked everywhere (turns out that guy was Dead Mike). Went to Vegas for Super Bowl and did the bungy jump out in front of Circus Circus. To this day that's still the most terrifying thing I've ever done. That sort of primed me to really want to do a skydive. So last Christmas my parents came down to visit, as the usually do, and I decided to get my Dad (and me) a special gift... two tandem jumps. Well my Dad chickened out for insurance reasons (finally got him to do one later on -- that's another story). So I took both. The minute I did it, I knew what I had always suspected... skydiving was "it" for me. I'll agree with the higher intelligence bit, not everyone has a higher education, but most of the folks I've met are very intelligent people. As far as the ADD thing goes, I kinda of diagree. I have *incredible* focus. Ask anyone who has coded with me. I go into this coding trance that takes about three "Ted"'s to snap me out of. To be even halfway decent at RW or freefly you have to have incredible concentration. So I'm not sure I buy the ADD thing. But then again, everything seems to get labeled "ADD" these days. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Slappie's got one set up off his home page. Look up his nick & I think it's in his profile. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Oh, I forgot to add our own website... dropzone.com for a great listing of dropzones. You can also buy used gear at great prices in the Classified section of this site (I go tmy container there). You can view gear ratings as well. Lotsa good stuff right here!

I'd recommend Google (www.google.com) as a search engine. And, yeah, spell it as "skydiving" without the 'e' and you'll have better luck. As far as gear goes, our own skybytch is at Square One (www.square1.com). For DZs go to the USPA's website at www.uspa.org ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Well, he's not Johnny Knoxville. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Two observations: 1. Just because you have a para-thingy doesn't make you a skydiver. 2. If you're gonna do something that'll get you arrested, at least BASE jump the dang thing! Wimp. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I was kind of wondering this on the way to work this morning: "Why do we mess with the first timers?" I concluded it's because we're bored on the flight up so we need something to do to pass the time. I particularly like the Altoids in the prescription drug bottle bit. Open it up, pop one (or two) and then hold it up and say "Tranquilizers anyone?". Course the more that accept, the funnier it would be. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

How wonderfully Zen. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Of course the most fundamental requirement being that she know how to pack. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Yeah I was right near the hangar, but the hangar was to my west and the winds were coming from the south/SE although they occasionally shifted to the SW. Wouldn't think that would cause a problem given my location but maybe there was some swirling. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Time out!. They don't have DSL or cable in the Galleria area? That's amazing. Anyhoo, you might want to look into the Sprint Wireless satellite service. It's supposed to be very good. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I've seen this discussed in other threads, and spectre brought it up again in the Cobalt thread. It makes a lot of sense to know how to deal with all sorts of conditions, and the only way to know is to practice. Which brings me to my question. Just how do you safely practice cross/downwinders? Crosswind isn't too bad, but I'm sure there are some considerations I'm not aware of. But downwinders I have absolutely no idea. How do you practice these? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Only problem I've had with my Z1 freeflying is that the visor flipped up on me in a sit once. Kinda hard to put it back when your arms are already preoccupied. But I've also had the same problem on RW jumps. You really need to make sure it's clicked in properly before you jump. Just pushing it down may not get it properly secured. So I usually push up on it right as I head to the door just to make sure. Musta forgot on that sit. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Now in my flying dreams I keep having hard pulls on my reserve handle. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

That's one of 'em... ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Heh. Is the Pope Catholic? Don't get me wrong, I'm happily married, but the hottie ratio at S-land is pretty darn high and from the look of the new students getting higher every day. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie