gmcenroe

I agree with RL and walt as well. Once you go down this road, you've opened the pandoras box. There's no turning back. In general when this suggestion comes up it could mean one partner wants out, this is putting the foot in the door.

Weather sucks lately, went to Hollister on Friday, waited for clouds to clear, no luck, it just got worse, but at least I got to share my Breakaway video with some friends.

Yeah I have played it. I got all the way to where the nasty large robot walking things were and I could not get past that level. But it is a great game. Since then I reloaded my computer from scratch so I have to play it from the beginning. I agree counter strike is more fun, its team play. I like Day of Defeat the most. Lots of maps and you play world war II scenarios, great maps online play against other on line players.

I did my AFF 1 about 6 weeks ago. My friend who did his AFF a few weeks earlier kept telling me. Oh your heart is going to be pounding out of your chest. I was a little nervous before the jump, but I kept going over the jump sequence in my head, over and over. I also trusted my jumpmasters to do the right thing, and had confidence with the training and practice on the ground. When I was up in the air at 15,000 feet holding on to the King Air door, I just went through the jump sequence. I did everything too fast though because I thought I might run out of time to do the sequence but all went well. I don't think I saw much past 20 inches beyond my face because of the sensory overload though. My second jump went much smoother. I now knew what to expect and was much more relaxed. On my third AFF jump they let go of me and I flew very well on heading. A little tilt of my head to look at the altimeter and I started a slight turn to the left but was able to stop the rotation. This Friday I will do my AFF 4 and I am looking forward to it. Also on my thrid AFF I jumped out of the Cessna. I was a little nervous about that exit from my AFF 1 training mostly because I would be looking down as I moved onto that LITTLE step while holding on to the strut. But on my jump I realized the airspeed is lower than on the King Air so it is actually an easier exit. Best thing to do is try to really relax into your arch and remember your legs as well On my AFF 1 my legs were as stiff as a board. I forgot all about them. Things just get better and better with each jump. Good luck to you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Glenn

Way to go Jason, nice pictures of you. Are you ready for AFF classes? I just started a month ago and am having a blast (literally). Can't wait to get my license. Going for my AFF 4 jump on Friday.

Bill, I have you beat, I started a month ago at age 48, just finished my AFF 3 in Hollister. I hope I will make it beyond student someday. :-)

Congratulations! I just finished my AFF3. I relived each of my jumps over and over in my mind for days after I completed them. This is an awesome sport, I wish I had started when I was younger but I am doing well so far so I will keep doing it and see if I can get my A license. Fortunately I live in mild winter climate of California so I will try to keep it going over the winter. Best wishes to you on your A license dives. Be safe and enjoy them. Glenn

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I did my AFF C , my thrid jump today, what a blast. The dropzone was my usual, Hollister Adventure Skydive. Last 2 jumps were from the King Air which I liked, nice a roomy cabin. I am 6'2" at 220 so I am right near the weight limit. I am trying to get my weight down to 210 or so, but all my weight is muscle and bone so its tough to trim down. This dive only had 2 customers, myself, and two jumpmasters, Raff and Adam, so we crammed into the Cessna 207. Everything went well, exited well, did my COA, practice pulls where I was a little high on 2 of them, then hit the target, did my toe taps and flew on my own. I was real stable and kept my heading, did my wave off, pull and landed on my own. I did a bit of a braked flare which I was not supposed to do but made a good landing with a bit of an early flare, but no problem. Now I am psyched to do my next jump and keep up my progress. Glenn

Today was a great day of flying and skydiving. My friend Gary is a pilot so we decided to rent one of the Cessna's out of Palo Alto Airport and fly down to Hollister for some more skydiving. Gary was planning on his level D and I was set to do the level B jump. We flew out of Palo Alto around 10:00 after futzing around with the GPS and all the preflight checks. The sky was very clear with winds around 5 knots. We had a real nice flight, most of the work being radio handoffs through a couple of the flight corridors of the bay area air traffic and arrived in Hollister at 11:00. Raff and Adam again were my jump instructors. Raff taught me all about foward flight and left and right turns on the dollies, then I waited for my load. Gary got his training and jumped on the first load. He had a good dive but made us a bit nervous with some late canopy turns to try to head upwind on his landing. Fortunately he made a good landing. My jump started with the usual plane exit and count. I was so much more relaxed this jump I could actually see so much more. After getting stable arch after a real nice exit, I did my COAs, 3 practice touches, then did some forward flight. I was flighing forward but without a reference in the air it was hard to tell that I was really going forward, but I was. Then I did a left turn about 180, followed by a right turn 180 degrees. All went real well. As I completed my right turn, I was at about 5500, did my wave off and pulled. The canopy seemed to take longer to deploy and I looked back just as the canopy inflated. I had a small bit of twist that I got out of and all looked good on the canopy. Did some practice flares, and turns getting set for the landing pattern. Raff prompted me on the landing, but I felt like I knew just what to do on my own. I made another real nice soft landing and was back in the van for debriefing and ride back to Adventure Skydive. Frankly, in my mind I was thinking that depending on how well this dive went I would decide whether I would continue on training. It was so much more relaxing and comfortable that I really enjoyed it. Now I am committed to completing the training and look forward to my next jump. Thanks go out again to my jumpmasters Raff and Adam for another great skydive. Glenn

My pilot friend who got me down to Hollister for my first jump and I are flying back down there on Friday from Palo Alto for another skydive. I'm going for my B jump, my friend for his D jump. Last Friday I took a nice glider lesson there as well. That was a lot of fun, just like the simulator. The instructor asked me if I wanted to land the glider while he controlled the airbrake. It was my first flight there so I just flew the pattern and let him do the landing. I am looking forward to my B jump, hopefully I will be a bit more relaxed this time so I can get my legs right this time. Maybe I may even get a vidoe this time. I can tell my friends at work are tired of hearing about my first skydive. They just think I'm a crazy fool. They don't know what they are missing! I'll post a followup message after my dive. Till then, take care, Glenn

I thought about skydiving 6 months ago and bought the Skydivers Handbook read some of it and put it aside until a few weeks ago when a friend said he and his son were taking the AFF class and did I want to join them. I was busy and wanted to hear how there class went until I committed to taking it. I also want to learn to fly fixed wing gliders so skydiving was kind of a secondary goal. Well they survived and had fun so I signed up for the AFF at Adventure Skydive in Hollister and showed up at 9AM. Aviva was my ground school instructor. She is a redhead and during a lot of the class I kept thinking back to my first love who was also a redhead, but anyway I better pay attention this is important. In addition to being very friendly and patient she was a great instructor. Later Adam gave me instruction in exit procedures from Air King and Cessna. We went throught lots of practice scenarios and emergency procedures, jump flow and canopy control. I had lunch while my friend took his B jump, all the while thinking a bit nervously about my first jump, more nervous about whether I would remember it all rather than being nervous about the jump itself. I ran through the procedure over and over until I had it down in my head before the jump. I suited up and met Raff who would join Adam as my jumpmasters. Raff was a real confidence builder and I felt really safe jumping with both of them at my side. The jump went real well from 15000 out of the Air King. I had some problems with my legs being way to straight but I made it through all the COAs and practice pulls, locked on at 7000 and pulled right on 6000. The canopy opened beautifully and I tested thr controls and sailed into the drop zone landing pattern with Raff's radio prompts for a real soft landing. My first jump has been running through my mind all weekend and I look forward to my next jump. I guess I am going to have to add skydiving to glider piloting to my air adventures. I hope all future skydivers have a safe and fun jump as my first one went. Glenn