Zennie

This is really good, because I do a fair number of two-ways. These are good drills for improving my RW skills. Keep 'em coming! Actually, just this weekend I did a combination of wingi's & skybytch's drills. We started undocked & I swooped down to dock up. Then we did star, 90 side dock, star, alternating turns. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Ah, skydiving claims yet another addict. Congrats dude! Welcome to the skies! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Spaceland has a nice shop. Tell Levin Ted sent ya if you go there. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Is Deep Ellum still cool or has it gone trendy? My friend & I used to hang at Club Clearview back in the early 90s and people watch. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

What's a poetry discussion without a little haiku? And who better to do some haiku than the Zen-meister? here's a couple for ya (wrote 'em off the cuff, so sorry of they suck). I exit the door. Falling. Floating. Smiling. Glee! Freefall is too short. Under canopy. Nice smooth pull on my toggle. Round & round I spin! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

As far as wingloading goes, if we assume 25 lbs for gear weight, you'd need a 140 square foot canopy to put you at 1.0. So you could easily do a 135 without getting into trouble (or a 150 if you wanted to load below 1.0). Sabres are good 9 cells, but they don't have the best reputation for opening soft. Triathalons and Spectres handle well, open really soft, and are good for beginners, but they are 7 cell canopies. I don't know how big a deal that is for you. As far as containers go, that's almost like a religion to some folks. I have a Vector III which has the closing loop just as you want (my guess is others such as the Mirage & Voodoo will as well). I'm am tickled with my Vector. It's very comfortable and has outstanding pin, bridle and riser protection. Good luck! And don't forget to look in the classifieds! There are killer deals on good equipment to be had! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Speaking of which, does anyone know where I can get my hands on newer stats which compare the risk exposure in skydiving to other activities? There's one on a lot of web pages but that list is from 1988-1989. Skydiving has come a long way since then and I haven't seen anything more recent. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Ted's Soapbox #53.... You see this happening a lot because people are never satisfied with what they have. That, and because we live in a disposable society, if something's inconvenient, we don't work through it, we just ditch it. I'm not particularly religious, but I do honor my promises. I made a solemn vow with Liz. I promised that I'd stick by her no matter what. I promised that I'd always be faithful to her. Sure living up to those promises is hard sometimes, sure there have been time where I've questioned whether it was worth it. But we worked through the problems, compromised, heard each other out and our relatinship got even stronger. Most worthwhile commitments are like that. Relationships are work, but most people are too damn lazy and selfish to work at it. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's the woman's fault. If the husband is totally unwilling to be faithful to her or provide any sort of emotional support, there's not a whole lot you can do but end it -- there's no relationship anymore (if there ever was one). It's the guy's fault in that case for not honoring his commitments. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

This from MSNBC... "...FLYING INTO the pitch black of the polar winter, the eight-seat Twin Otter successfully completed a 10-hour flight to the pole from Britain’s Rothera Base on Antarctica’s Adelaide Island...." The full story is here. How 'bout them Otters? They can haul skydivers and rescue sick doctors from the South Pole. Wonder how many jumpers went along to do an Antarctic jump! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Better than the alternative. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Skeet ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Funny. I forgot that we Yanks have a rep for being shower freaks. No Tinky Ted! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hey, all I gotta do is run faster than one of y'all. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

LOL! What's really scary is that I find myself reading that kind of writing with no effort at all anymore. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I think the shape would make a BASE from the top difficult, if notimpossible. Maybe in a wingsuit you could clear the curvature. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

My bro just did his first tandem two weeks ago. Said he wants to do it again. Methinks he'll find a way to go through AFF before long. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Congrats! I just recently got mine as well. Great feeling signing someone else's logbook with your own number!

dope-on-a-rope = static line ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I dunno. I've gotten myself into some nasty spins practicing hard center turns but I've always been able to re-stabilize (knock, knock). I just arched like mad & dropped my shoulder in the direction opposite the spin. Now maybe there are some real bad ones that are unrecoverable, but it seems like if you just work a turn in the opposite direction you'll come out of it. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

LOL Yes it's legit. I've got the video. Mine too. He's one of the most unforgettable (if not the most) people I've ever met (in a good way). And he makes a darned good brisket! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Yesterday was one of those skydiving days that's going to be hard to beat! I jumped my own rig for the first time. I got my SCR (with Scotty Carbone organizing & presiding over the ceremonies) and my Eagle award. The SCR was a 9-way that alomost became an Eagle dive, but we missed the second point. The next jump we went for the Eagle and got a 2-point 10-way. This was also my first foray into big-ways (i.e. something bigger than a 4-way ). Yes, know that's a ton of beer for one day, but I brought out a keg that morning, so I'm good for a while. Hope everyone else had a great weekend! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Zennie owes lots of beer. That's why I'm rolling out a keg tomorrow. But ya gotta be at Skydive Spaceland to take advantage of it! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Ya. My plan was to pull around 6-7K and just play around under canopy for a while. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

...to do a hop-n-pop for your first jump on a new rig? All the people doing hop-n-pops at the DZ either are trying a new rig out or taking their new rig out on teh first jump. I'll be doing my beer jump on my first rig tomorrow and just wondered before I jumped it. Don't want bad mojo on my new rig. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Color me clueless, but what is the significance of 4/20 (other than it being my wedding anniversary)? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie