Yoshi

Some asshole stole a kite (kite surfing trainer kite) and a book from my car! (ok so here goes my vent) Whoever this asshole was took those 2 items out of my jeep the other night. the book was a little blank book that I write in from time to time. its full of memories and ideas from skydiving to a begining of a book that I was writing abou looking at life from a different perspective. they left the cds, money, registration, insurance info..everything accept a kite and that book! I am so pissed right now.. I cant believe the tenacity of some people who take things that arent thiers. I jsut dont get it... why take the book? it has nothing to do with them..no monetary value... nothing.. it may seem trivial, but it really meant alot to me. I spent about 2.5 years writting in it to arive with my first 4 chapters somehwat complete and now it is all gone for shit.. my own dumbass didnt type any of it out, or save it anywhere else...just in that book. I am a very reserved person (for the most part) I hardly ever get angry or upset at things, but this is really pissing me off.. I jsut dont get people and why someone would take that stuff.. I dont even care about the kite..I just wish I had my writtings back.. sorry to vent, especially when people post on here for vibes abuot much more serious issues, but this really sucks. _________________________________________ this space for rent.

agreed... _________________________________________ this space for rent.

I cant explain this one... but it seemed as if I had to use a little more input on the bottom end of the flare. I may have been imagining things (or it could have been other conditions..wind...speed...etc that led me to beleive this) as far as landing without the toggles in hand.. while I dont suggest it to anyone, I dont think it is an extreemly high risk thing to do. I understand the possibilities of a stall...and while I agree it is not something to be done on every jump (especially with emergency situations as you explained) it is something I have only attempted on hop and pops, when I am the only canopy in the air, and not doing any radical turns on approach (so no need to dig out), or with sketchy wind conditions. I do think it is something that can be done very safely if you know what to expect. as I said before I am not an extremely experienced swooper... fairly low experience compared to alot of people in fact, but it is something that I feel is a good tool to have, and I aspire to learn more while landing with only rears. I usually only use rears for the initlal plane out and about 50+ or so feet of my swoop since staying in rears the entire swoop compromises my distance... _________________________________________ this space for rent.

I also appreciate the reply. it makes sense now (after hearing it) to not advise on rears with a double front approach. btw: I was not in any way implying anyone should attempt rear riser only landings without the toggles in hand. that is just something I did after about 15 rear riser landings with the toggles in hand so I could see if there was a difference (and there was a little bit of difference) I think mainly due to the faxt even if you are using rears, when your toggles are in your hands and you pull on a riser it still pulls the tail a little bit. It wasnt a huge difference, but it did seem like I had to pull a little further on the rears (without the toggles in hand) to get that last bit of "stop"... _________________________________________ this space for rent.

please only take my input with a grain of salt as there are many more experienced "swoopers" here... I say no matter what kind of canopy you fly it is a good thing to learn to land in rears only. if you have a broken steering line it will come in handy to know that you dont need to chop it...this is more pertinent to higher wing loads, but always applies with your control checks..etc..( I have actually had that happen on a crew jump with a star tack 220 which I landed in only rears). I have also spent about 20 jumps or so landing my crossfire in only rear risers. I found that even on light wind days I can let go of my toggles completely and land only in rears with little nto no run out at the end of my swoop...as for swooping... you may want to hold off a little before adding another step to your swoop until you have a few more jumps under your belt. while many swoopers (including myself) use rears to pane out, this is to keep the speed up, and get a little more distance without distorting the shape of the canopy as much for the initial part of the swoop. with 100 jumps you have plenty of time to get the technique more dialed in. I would stick with double fronts and work your progression until you get to more angles approaches. once those are at a nice level and working well for you then you may want to digress a bit back to double fronts or a slow 90 carver while using the rear risers to plane out (always practice up high with your technique before applying it to you landing practices close to the ground-of course). you could even start now (practicing up high) and then moving towards a normal streight in approach using a little rear riser to plane out. definately be aware of your stall point and get the feel for it before getting close to the ground as (depending on what canopy) it can vary drasticly from your toggles to your risers. the stalls on risers tend to be a little faster and at at shorter "toggle stroke" than with your toggles.. hope that helps.. be safe _________________________________________ this space for rent.

after talking quite a bit with icrus they say the optimum wingload on a crossfire 2 is right at 1.85. that is why I have a 111 with a wingload right at that. I do have to say I am not yet hitting the very top end of performance on it (in fact I have a handfull of work to do before I am reaching it) but I do think it is close to the peak. I have jumped a little bit larger and smaller crossfire 2s, and the performance peak seams to be right about there... _________________________________________ this space for rent.

***It felt like it flew slower because of the increased stability and the fact that is less twitchy. It is not slower ar the same wing loading, only perception. 1.9 is not to low to get good performance out of a cross-braced. Use this example. If you take a coener in a nice sports car at 50 miles an hour it may seem very easy and you don't think you went around the corner that fast. Take the same corner at 50 mph in a metro and the sensation is that you are going much faster because the car is sliding around and is less stable. The same perception happens under canopy. Don't be sucked in the the thought that you need to go to a highter wing loading to get the wing to perform.*** I know I could get more performance out of it..and I am not saying that the wing loading is really too light.. I am just saying at that wingload I prefer to have my crossfire.. I like the way it flies better. what I was saying is that for me to want to move to a crossed braced canopy it would be on a smaller wing and higher wingload... _________________________________________ this space for rent.

had a crossfire 149 (1) to crossfire 111 (2) and have now put a couple jumps on an fx 109. personally, I dont think I was loading th fx enough (roughly at about 1.9) because it didnt seem any better than my crossfire. it was more solid and felt more rigid, but it seemed like it flew slower. plus the fromt riser pressure was WAY WAY WAY higher on the fx and the toggle pressure was higher also. the rear risers were about the same as my crossfire. I decided jsut to stick with my crossfire for a while anyways. I have plenty to learn on it and if I were to go crossbraced I would want like an 89 or 90 something and I dont want to jump that small just yet. _________________________________________ this space for rent.

it scares me when you say this... stay away from your "dog" eirin! I think Ill be out there in May for the "Yoshi's back from Texas boogie" you should get your dad ready so I can see him hookin it then! _________________________________________ this space for rent.

is this scotty??? man whats up?? yeah definately get it on video and le me know... that is something I would pay to see.. _________________________________________ this space for rent.

That would definately be cool.... I cant see your dad whipping out a fatty 90-270, but I can see him swooping side by side with you... make sure you get pix/video...I would love to see it _________________________________________ this space for rent.

must have been one juicy fart _________________________________________ this space for rent.

it would be very interesting to do zome experiments (of course not very PC) about nature vs nurture. take a couple clones in different environments and finally put that to rest.. _________________________________________ this space for rent.

thats some pretty cool stuff... when I grow up I am going to be an astronautHA! _________________________________________ this space for rent.

Amen siter _________________________________________ this space for rent.

I do agree with part of that. My job isnt very challenging or rewarding in a manner. I am an artist by trade (BFA in photography, painting, furnature design) but I somehow landed myself in a mortgage career, well more of a job than a career. There have been quite a few helpful ideas and tips and comments made...I appreciate the help. For now I plan to stay where I am until I have a really firm grasp of what will happen to my lifestyle and financial well being when I choose to venture outside of what I do currently. thanks again _________________________________________ this space for rent.

yeah thats true.. but my wife being a pharmacist has a pretty odd schedule and works every other weekend, so it wont be all that bad considering the alternative: working in this cage of a job...damn cubicles...i feel like I am a character in "office space" the movie _________________________________________ this space for rent.

Well, I jsut moved here about 5 months ago...I like it.. houston that is.. Spaceland is a pretty cool place (disclaimer: It doesnt have the night life I was used to at Skydive Wayne County in richmond, IN...but its a nice place) people here definately have that "southern hospitality" that I am not quite used to... just walking down the street and strangers saying hi and stuff is wierd to me.. I love the weather thus far..although when its 450 degrees and a thousand percent humidity I might change my views... seems like any other state, accept it takes 20 hours to cross this one in a car... _________________________________________ this space for rent.

good point about making a little extra for bigger passengers.. I want to wait until I have some experience before tking some heffers though... but after I have a handfull of tandems under my belt I will welcome any student. yes..even the old fat smelly ones:) _________________________________________ this space for rent.

if I were to get hurt I can always fall back on the mortgage side of things, and I do have insurance...Bad weather is something that I am taking into consideration as well, that is why I am wondering an average of jump numbers for tandem I's in any given period of time as well as what type of DZ, experience levels, etc... as far as the hotties...yeah Ill take them ALL, j/k it doesnt really matter to me...I am not doing this to meet girls...I am married... dont get me wrong it beats having some fat sweaty old guy, but its not a really "smell good" sport anyways... _________________________________________ this space for rent.

that is something I am definately willing to deal with. I dont mind annoying people (hell many consider me annoying so we should get along!:)) as far as overweight, though, I am not sure about that yet. of course once I have a few hundred tandems under my belt I will be more apt to taking the physically impaired along. as for now I am sticking with what I am supposed to do..with my exit weight my max is roughly a 220 lbs passenger (I think it is supposed to be somewhere aroung 450lbs total exit weight) As far as people getting snippy for the amount of work...well at this point I will be on an "on call" basis...so I wont be taking away from anyone really... but I can see how that will be an issue. I guess Ill deal with it when the time comes.. _________________________________________ this space for rent.

Thanks for all of the replies. Lew: havent really talked to jason much about it yet... I definately am going to take it slow...who knows I might not even like doing the tandems enough to do it full time. I do pack (occasionally) and video (but I need to get my still set back up and prove myself to the spaceland crew before I can be on the vid staff). Most likely I will be at least working part time somewhere other than the DZ to have some type of "steady" income. At this point I dont even have my rating in hand...6 more jumps:)... so I dont plan to quit this week or anything. The money isnt a huge deal (luckily I have my wife that helps me out on that side), but I dont want to be in the negative of course... I figure if there is a way I can make somehwere in the range of what I make now, love my job, and help out by being able to write off a few extras, then why the hell not. I have enough mortgage experience I could easily get a far better position that what I am in now, and it is always something to fall back on. (that and my wonderful bachelor of fine arts degree HA!) thanks again _________________________________________ this space for rent.

yeah thats about what I am thinking too, but I want to really look into it seriously to see what I can actually make of it. when you comin to visit? -yoshi _________________________________________ this space for rent.

ok, here is the deal. I am currently working on getting my tandem rating (6 more jumps to go before I have the rating). I, like many others, am on the eturnal quest to cut away from my "normal" job. I am currently in a banking position where I make a modest $30k annually and I have to get some tytpe of "proposal" together for my wife to show her how this could be beneficial for us. yeah yeah yeah I know the money isnt always there, more likely it is almost never there, but my question is, for all of you full time instructors, what kind of money do you actually make? As most places I will be considered self employed (1099'd) so this, to me, opens several possibilities. The write offs are what jsut may make this beneficial. My wife is a pharmacist, and makes a very decent living. We are married, no kids, no house, and virtually no writeoff on our taxes at this point. I would like to get some type of "proposal" together so I have some ammunition when going into this discussion with her to show her it may not be a totla loss. I don't expect to make a hell of alot of money, but, like I said, the tax write offs may make it worth it. If you could, I would appreciate some sort of average of income on an annual basis, how you do your taxes (write offs, filing jointly or single, etc...)..how much do you get paid per jump? how many jumps do you do in an average week, month, year? This is not something I plan to jump right into (although I am occasionally spontanious I want to get a good idea of how this will change my life as well as my wife's. Any tips, ideas, comments, and or criticism is greatly appreciated. Thanks yoshi _________________________________________ this space for rent.

I absolutely love my cf2. i would elaborate on everything, but if you simply do a search you will find about all the input that can be said about it...good and bad.. although as anythign said on here, i would take posts with a grain of salt and use your own input. go demo one, get advise from people who know you and how you jump/fly... that being said, if you go from a non crossbraced canopy to the cf2 and you are looking for awesome performance with nice light inputs you wont be dissapointed -i fly a 111 at 1.85 _________________________________________ this space for rent.