grimmie

The most heartwarming Christmas tale ever! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-qM78XinyE

Cheney liked to go smell all of that black gold in the sand! He heard there was good lawyer hunt'n in them thar parts too!

The weather is crap this weekend. I'm heading out to warm the bench manana.

Can you hook and swoop your 175? 180/270/360/540? Do you plan on hooking the smaller chute? Katana, Velocity? What are you thinking about getting? OK, I'll stop now. Do yourself, your body and the rest of us a huge favor. Drive up to Eden North and spend a few days jumping under the eye of the "Plaid Jackets" CRW guys. Take one of the Doug Forth canopy control camps they have there each summer. Listen and learn. It will be time and effort well spent. You just missed the "Canadian Invasion" they host in Eloy each winter. A very good way to stay current and attend canopy, rw and freeflying camps in winter. Stop trying to learn how to skydive here at DZ.com. Just my 2 cents (US!) worth.

C,mon Andrew, we don't push Canada around. We protect you guys. That Canadian Navy at the West Ed mall isn't going to do it...

I had the pleasure of jumping on an 8 way team with Mike and Sue at the Nationals held at the Ranch about 12 or 13 years ago. I have never laughed so hard and jumped so well. We named ourselves the "French National Team", just so all the Frenchies would be scratching their heads in Paris as to why Airspeed and the GK's kicked their butts so hard! I have spoken with Mike about many, many issues over the years, not always in agreement, and have enjoyed his and Sue's friendship. They even took a chance and came to my first boogie! They deserve a nice retirement! Thanks for the support Mike!

Damn! I just sent them $500 for my last 2 ads!!!!!

Ghandi, Out of Africa, Howard the Duck, Legends of the Fall, Killer Flick (made by a guy I work with), Caddyshack 2, Under the Tuscan Sun (wife made me go!), at least "Cutaway" had a few good skydiving scenes.

I have had a last minute room cancellation. Call for the details if you are interested.

I'm not arguing with you! You own the entire government!!!!!!!!

No hate, just asking a question. And I answered you upthread.

Actually accept responsiblity for their actions, like that fuckwit GWB is doing now?????

hahahahahaha! Obama isn't in office until next week and it's already his fault; Gaza is in turmoil, again. We went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, again. Social Security isn't properly managed. Health care is a mess. Nature is running it's course. Oil is rising. If Amazon owns the House, the Senate, the President and the Cabinet...what the hell do the rest of us get??? Sit back and relax. It's going to take more than a few weeks to scrape all of the GWB dog poo off of the national shoe...

America is so glad to be rid of the buffoon that there won't be much hate spewed by "Americans". Obama won't make all of the right moves. But at least he won't make all of the wrong moves. I'm anti abortion, not fond of the Clintons and voted for Ronny Raygun once. I fully support kicking the shit out of anyone screwing with America like Bin Laden and I think Rush Blowhard is just a comedian. There is WAY too much gun violence in America, but I support the right to bare arms. I have owned 5 guns, but I have also had two relatives murdered by handguns. I would have voted 1,000 times for Obama, but I don't live in Chicago and couldn't pull it off here in SoCal. George Bush and his cronies are criminals. I guess I'm a liberal, not a clear thinking American. And by the way, GWB has screwed up this great nation so bad that a lot of discontent will linger for years about his eight long, torturous years. Just sit back and wait for the next great Republican, Sarah Palin, to save you.

Some cops get in a bar fight, a transit cop screws up and a bunch of rummies start a fire to get paid. Who had power???? A cop in my city accidently shot a bad guy in the back while handcuffing him. A former fire chief around these parts started lots of fires and I know lots of cops that have been in barfights. Out of thousands of cops and firefighters in the nation, I will go out on a limb and say no to your poll if that is who you refer to in the poll.

I should have gone in on my 285th jump. I was feeling really cool about my maddskillz. I was jumping at Perris with all of the hotshot LO's in '91. I just downsized to a Sabre 190 and had a Raven2 reserve. We did an 8 way out of the King Air. It was my 4th jump of the day. On track off I thought I would be cool and scoot on breakoff and do some barrel rolls. What an incredible dumb ass thing to do. But I had maddskillz remember! I lost altitude awareness and was quickly spinning myself into a dirt nap with a big smile on my face. I noticed the runway looked really, really freaking huge and threw out my pilot chute, quickly and let it go. It got trapped under my rig and next to my body as I arched hard waiting for deployment. The video guy caught just enough of the toss and you could see it stuck to my back, as I was sideways and bent at the waist when I deployed. On my right side of course. I grabbed my reserve handle and pulled silver after about 4 or 5 seconds more of freefall. Poof, this nice big yellow reserve opened so nicely, at about 700ft. The poo wasn't all the way into my BVD's and I breathed a huge sigh of relief, wondering what the hell I was going to tell Jim Wallace what I did. Just then a big blue Sabre opened up, right under my reserve. Oh, Fuck me, you dumb shit, was my exact thoughts. The reaper was sleeping that afternoon. I managed to get the main behind my reserve and they were flying Ok together. I worked them side by side, grabbed my main risers in my left hand, chopped with my right, tossed the pillow and did a front riser turn to the right with the reserve. I let the main go(it was really easy holding them after cutting away), off it flew behind me. After another 4-5 second canopy ride I piled into the dirt with a PLF, as it was my first reserve ride. I received a stand O by the railbirds in the packing area. I felt like the biggest jackass in the world, but knew I was damn lucky to live. I had a long conversation with Jim Wallace after at the bar, since I had to buy drinks for sure. I asked him if i did the right thing after I was a dumb ass pulling so low. We went over some EP's and some "never do that stuff again" small talk. He said I lived and that sometimes it works out in spite of our actions and sometimes everything is done right and it doesn't go so well. It scared the hell outta me, slowed me down a lot, and made me a much safer and better prepared jumper. I learned as much as I could about my gear, reviewed my EP's and thought through all of my actions clearly on future jumps. That was about 3800+ jumps ago and I have had two uneventful chops since, both "Spinnetto's!". I made 5 jumps the next day. You had your scary mal, finished the comp and now have a great "No Shit. there I was" story. It's that old thing that if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger. You're strong now. Go jump with your friends and enjoy the view. Don't get Wii-Itis!

A friend of mine got a tye dye purple Base rig once. I told him it looked pretty gay. We both laughed. It's actually a cool rig... Hell, maybe I'll end up sleeping with old goalies or something...

Got me on a technicality there!

If you can't fit in at a DZ then you need to examine yourself a little closer. Skydivers come in all shapes, sizes and colors. There are some serious goofballs in this sport. There are a lot of jumpers that don't fit in anywhere in society except a DZ. I have been to boogies where everyone, 500+ folks, are drunk or high out of their minds(can you imagine?). Think about that. If it was a bunch of firemen or cops there would be fistfights galore. Not jumpers, it's a big lovefest. That's the cool thing about jumping. No one gives a rat's ass if you are gay, a martian, a billionaire or a DZ bum when we are all in the plane on jump run. The after hours fireside bullshit is just that, bullshit. I have heard the biggest lies, the biggest bullshit and some pathetic crap come out of pie holes at the fire. Most jumpers are drunk, trying to impress the chics and full of themselves. Sometimes it's so stupid it's hilarious. And we have ALL been thrown under the bus. When skydiving goes PC and I can't call my friends dickheads, it's time to sell the gear. I get your point. But it's time to grow some thicker skin. Skydiving is the least discriminate sport I have ever been involved in. And Andrew, don't tell me there aren't any gay skydivers in Alberta.

The trailers look like it's "Dirty Harry Retires", but still like to shoot bad guys.

Not a shake in San Diego.

Bob Steenbock has a cargo company at the county airport. He flies jumpers when he is in town and can put a load together. Give him a call. His info is attached upthread.

I made a nice 4 way afternoon leap today. All of the jumpers had their helmets belted in to their chest straps. I suggested they don their buckets in case the spinny things stopped at a critical time. They looked at me like I was crazy. I don't think they care, nor ever think about MX.

Good joke! An oldie but goodie! Ok SoCal jumpers. See you there! Here's your reminder Shermanator.

I'm not upset at all, just not sure what you are looking for. And jumpers DO give a shit, no one wants to crash. It's just that many don't know or have a clue what is involved in aircraft maintenance. And you expressed your concern over the otter flying a ton of time without a 125 hr check. That's debating MX schedules. I aksed what DZ it was so I don't have to bail at 500ft someday there. The problem with debating MX schedules or the such is that a lot of hearsay, not known facts get drug into the conversation. As for diverdriver, he usually gives facts, reports, opinions on specific items. You are asking for jumpers thoughts here on jump aircraft maintenance. That's a shotgun approach. I'm just not sure what you want thoughts on? Here's my take. I jump at Perris and do business with them. I spend a lot of time with Pat in the hangar asking stupid questions. 99% of the other jumpers have never even been by the hangar unless they have a bad spot. That's good too. Otherwise no work would get done in there. Whenever I see Shaun Hill I ask him a lot of dumb airplane questions. I asked his dad a lot of dumb questions over the years too. That's just me, I like things that fly. A dumb mistake by a good pilot can kill a well maintaned plane load of friends. A good pilot may just save a piece of junk plane from killing me and my friends. Hopefully a well maintained plane with a well trained pilot leads to a happy plane load of friends. Most jumpers are more worried about their parachute opening than take off. That's my thoughts on jump aircraft. What the hell do I know? I'm a helicopter pilot. Now we need Zing and Diverdriver to give their thoughts...