Zennie

Heh. When I was in England for a summer I was hanging out at this pub and this guy goes "Man, am I pissed!" I go "Why?" He gives me this funny look and goes "Because I've been drinking!" I go "Drinking makes you pissed?" And he goes "Of course. Don't you get pissed when you drink too much?" I said "No". I think he figured out that I was a clueless Yank and filled me in on the other meaning of pissed. We got a good laugh out of it. It was like a rendition of "Who's On First" ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I've been to the Flyaway in Vegas. Yes we had to wear the baggy suits, but all the instructors just wore sweats without problems. I never got the sense that the fan wasn't powerful enough to support someone. There was a pretty big guy bouncing off the top and bottom mesh with no problems at all. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Heh. My wife & I scuba, but she still thinks skydiving is more dangerous. I show her the numbers and she says I'm rationalizing. Call it what you want, but the numbers speak for themselves. I think she refuses to believe that scuba is statistically more dangerous because it slower moving. I tell you what, though, she wasn't moving very slow when she got narcosis and panicked once. Same dive I had trouble surfacing because I got congested and the pressure started pushing on my eye sockets. Nothing like a limited air supply and feeling like your eyeball is literally going to pop out of your skull (I just eased my way up and it finally cleared). So scuba can kill you, especially if you go deep (as you often do in Cayman & Coz) and don't keep your head. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Dude, Vlad's right. I only have 25 jumps myself and there's no way I'm jumping a Stiletto at my experience level. Sabre or Spectre, sure, but a Stilletto is highly elliptical and I'm not ready for that yet. Especially at a higher wingloading. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I'm not a low-pull artist, but if I were I probably wouldn't want a Cypres either. Not because I don't want it to save me but because I don't want to kill me. If you pull your main near a Cypres' firing range, you risk having two out. This isn't the Cypres' fault, it's the puller's fault for being so low, but that's another argument.... I'm not annoyed by it, but I find it kind of ironic. Here we have people who aren't afraid to jump out of airplanes, yet for some reason they're afraid to openly express their opinions. I'm who I am, I believe what I believe, like it or not. Give me a good reason and I'm perfectly willing to change my opinion on something, but I'm not afraid to express it. After all, dicussion of ideas is how we learn. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

As far as weather goes, I'd think Skydive Arizona would be a good bet. Don't know where it is relative to any major airports though. I'd offer some of the California & Florida DZs, but I don't know if their weather is as consistently nice as Arizona's. Whatever you do, don't come to Houston. The weather here has been psychotic lately. :P ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Don't worry. You're with experienced people who are comfortable in the environment and, like others have said, whose job is to make sure you're safe. I think skyhawk's comment is most appropriate... learn to look around while in freefall. I've talked to people who didn't start seeing other fallers until they were around 50 jumps. I'm comfortable in freefall, so I've started looking for, and seeing, them earler. The most important will obviously be those immediately below and above you (if there are any). Just be heads-up. An ounce of prevention... It starts getting fun when you catch someone going head-down. I've been belly flying and looking around and caught head-downers off to the side. *Man* they fall fast! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

True. Pardon my cluelessness here, but is there any reason why you couldn't go to something like Bridge day with your regular skydiving rig and just pull your reserve instead of your main? Obviously you'll have to spring for a reserve repack, but I would think a reserve would open plenty fast. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Since canopy flying is prolly my weak point, I'd do the canopy control school. But that's just me. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Oh, man I am so sorry for you and the families and friends of those who died. Don't be embarrassed at all. I have absolutely no idea how I'd deal with seeing something like that. About the best advice I can offer you is to see if maybe you can talk to some of the Skydive Salt Lake folks. They've had to deal with something very similar, only on a much bigger scale. I met a few of them in Vegas at Flyaway right after their loss. A lot of the Flyaway folks knew them as well. Everyone was trying to deal with it in their own ways, but you could tell it really shook everyone up. I mean, what do you say when someone says "I just lost my dropzone." I said "I'm sorry. I'm sure they were like family to you." The person responded "No. They were family." Maybe not literally, but that's the strength of the bond we feel for each other. I always wondered what exactly about war made military folks feel so close -- beyond friendship -- to each other. After skydiving, I understand. I even have a hard time watching clips of bad accidents now, because I feel a connection with those folks I never felt before. Even those in other dangerous sports. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

rof = Rolling On (the) Floor lmfao = Laughing My F#$%ing A$$ Off ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Looked it up on Merriam-Webster online and they didn't have it, so I did a Deja search and came across this... Depends on how you say it..... examples...... "you talk an incredble amount of bollocks don't you" - meaning you talk an incredible amount of shite "That's bollocks!" - meaning that is shite or, more politely, rubbish. "That's really the dog's bollocks!" - meaning that's really great! "oh bollocks" - meaning a more polite way of saying "oh fuck", yet not managing to lose your street credibility... At the end of the day it's all a load of bollocks anyway....... Someone said it's origin is a reference to the...um... container of certain parts of the male anatomy. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

In talking to people and reading the "average" seems to be about 1 cutaway for every 500 jumps. 'Course I've heard of cutawys by AFF students and no cutaways for people with thousands, so it varies. I've got 25 and I recently had a nasty line twist that made me at least think "Get ready to chop" before I started kicking. I managed to kick it out though. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I'll throw out late October/early November? That would give the Northerners a nice weather break. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Did either of those guys say whether or not they wanted to do the entire AFF progression? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I like the little cartoon sequence where the guy BASE jumps. When he's under canopy, he's got this twisted grin and if you listen really closely you can hear him going "hehehehehehe".

I think you qualify as "current". ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Funny you should mention this. Since I'm a beginner, I like to solo jump a lot, just to try stuff. One of the habits I've gotten myself into is to look around for other fliers. Both in freefall and right as I'm about to pull (and under canopy - duh). This habit came in handy last jump. A 5-way went out right before me. I gave them a good 5-6 second count and made sure they were on a 45 from me before I left. As I got situated I lost sight of them, busted out some moves and then looked around again and found them about 1000' below me without a lot of horizontal separation. Hard to tell if they drifted my way or vice-versa. Needless to say I looked to make sure no freeflyers were above me and then the rest of my skydive consisted of me tracking like hell away from them. I probably could have stayed where I was without problems, but why take any chances? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Welcome back! Be grateful for having a family that's supportive, they are so few. My wife fortunately has been great. In fact, she said this past weekend was the first weekend where I headed out to the DZ and she didn't worry. 'Course then I had a downwind landing and scuffed up my hand pretty good. DOH! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Looks like it re-aired last night at 1:00 am EST. So if ya missed it and didn't tape it, well, sorry. When I showed up atthe DZ yesterday they were playing it on the TV, so you may want to ask around. I have it on tape and we might be able to pass the thing around if enough people don't have a way to see it. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I kind of got the impression that they brought it up to dispell it, but I'll have to watch it again. In any event, they seemed to focus on dopamine as the main "stimulant" chemical. Makes sense to me. Hek, I got jacked up just watching the stuff. Thanks Pavlov! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Did I just see positive press for us and our sport? Did I actually see a sincere (and remarkably accurate) portrayal of who we are, why we do this and how safe our sport is? Somebody pinch me. Seriously though, kudos to TLC for putting together a well-researched, objective and entertaining documentary.

One last BUMP! before showtime! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Ya know. 13 seems to be a lucky number for me. I can't tell you how many good things have happened with respect to a 13. My first big job offer was on a Fri. 13th. It's weird. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Close. In between a bunch of scrub bushes two fields over from the DZ. I also came in crosswind and was hauling ass when I flared. I literally thought "This is gonna hurt." right before I set down. Another guy from the same load landed one field over from me. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie