christoofar

Woops...sorry. It's hard to RE-LEARN all the rules again. That's pretty crazy but probably a good thing. Of course....after last weekend it seems it's the the 100-300 jump wonder crowd are the ones that keep trying to hurt me..... I'll jump with newbies any day. At least I KNOW not to take my eyes off them. Bitch. I resemble that remark.! Hahahahaha ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

One thought Lisa.... Force your son into being a pack bitch to make up for it. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

Lisa: You are a very cool mom. I had a very hot temper when I was growing up and gave my folks lots of grief and anguish. I moved out early before I graduated HS and had to start work very early in life. Luckily, I'm a programmer geek so I managed to earn enough to stay afloat. After several years, _I_ was giving my parents loans (last one was for $5,000 to drill a water well on their property) and I wasn't even at drinking age yet! I'm 25 now and still haven't asked them for a single dime. So far I'm surviving the tech bust and I'm paying my own way, albeit very slow way, through college. They are very proud of me for having working brain cells. Don't discount your son just yet, someday they'll he'll be there to save your ass when you need it. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

Bitch. All meant with due respect to my suthern' hospitality, 'course. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

Bitch. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

Hmm... check the latest report... they're saying it won't make landfall until TOMORROW afternoon? It already looks like Houston and Galveston are getting pounded ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

:( ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

G-dammit. Bad weather is gonna swallow most of Texas this weekend from Houston to San Antonio to Dallas. I think I hear the WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMULANCE!!!! ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

I think Southwest Airlines *REALLY* wanted to do this... but at the last minute backed down and put seats in the plane. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

Hmm I'll doublecheck my reserve when I get home, but I am almost 100% positive it's a Tempo.

Tempo 150 here. It's a nice bright neon international orange so you can see it for miles away. 0 jumps. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

Thanks kallend, maybe that will stop people from saying that a simple visual would have picked this up. Or implying that such an inspection did not take place...... We're not here to play the Blame Game. The consequence of the failure not being noticed -- could have been fatal. Luckily it wasn't! Perhaps these inspections, if they are occuring regularly, should be modified? Would hate to see wing seperation on a jump plane and have folks alive and well on the ground dismiss it as "well, it passed inspection... what more can we do?" We can always do better. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

This is kind of morbid... but on my first tandem jump I was seated in the Otter next to the door. My brother was behind me getting his skyboard on, and my tandem master turned to my brother and asked: "Do you remember that time when we almost died?" My brother replied, "Which one?" They then both looked at me and then when silent. Then, the plane took off. I hate it when people freak me out like that. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

Are you split-rolling the nose? If you are, stop doing that. Closures, plus a 180 degree spin on canopy inflation used to happen every-time when I was packing a Sabre2 like you would normally pack a Sabre. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

The media will always portray skydiving as a "renegade" sport that only freaks and junkies engage in. The folks producing the clips are whuffos themselves. Let whuffos talk to other whuffos, they're not going to influence USPA or the FFA. At least for the skydiving community, a big bonus gained from the local media was in Rantoul, where it counts. They were very good during WFFC and gave an accurate depiction of skydiving's good and bad sides. The good reporting in Rantoul also turned the locals there to our side and got a positive reaction, despite the fact that we were contantly running planes over their houses and causing noise pollution. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

I saw this on the back of someone's helmet in Rantoul... it made me crack up: MY MOM THINKS I'M AT THE MOVIES ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

Right....it's all because of a big curse. Has nothing to do with inspections. Right. [safety bitch hairs on back of kneck now standing straight up] Chris Chris is correct. The metal skin and welded steel on any airplane will expand and contract to a degree as an airplane ascends and descends. Weld points and attachment points are where most failures will occur, because that is were fatigue from stresses will push the metal to seperate. An inspection should have caught this. It's not "random" circumstance. Speaking of fatigue... I wonder if the C-130 crash a couple months ago when the wings folded up could have been prevented beforehand by an inspection. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

I absolutely refuse to jump in thick clouds anymore. I've looked down and seen people track off into them and dump. Twice I have flown my canopy around clouds and have seen students and others disappear into them. That might not sound bad here when you talk about it; but it is a VERY uncomfortable feeling when you are closeby and you lose sight of them. Most of the time you won't see someone turning into you until it's too late. I know most jumpmasters train students "if you are _falling_ through clouds, stay put and watch your altitude; resume the skydive when you are clear of them". However, not very many people are reminded to do the same thing under canopy and will still continue to make turns because they are so focused on making it to the DZ. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

And that's a smart thing to do. The advice I give here (and over the phone at work) is necessarily conservative, since in the majority of cases I'm working with limited information (i.e. # jumps, body weight and where they jump) and I've never seen the person fly and land a canopy. I like to sleep at night; hearing about someone getting hurt when I either recommended or sold them the canopy they biffed under makes sleeping rather difficult. Don't worry. I'll make sure you sleep very well. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

I knew you were going to get "lillith" on me, Lisa. I have not biffed a landing (read: PLF, tumble on the ground) since AFF. I have no problems landing this canopy that I am on, and have landed it in a 10mph downwind and jogged out the landing after the flare gave out (not sprint... jog). I land crosswind a lot @ home because of the tight landing pattern. What I was asking before was if my habit of "toe-breaking" is bad and should be unlearned. When I remember to not do it I pick up my feet and plane out at the right altitude (couple feet off the ground)... then let the toggles down to stall. One person recommended that I stop doing it because I'll get in the habit of relying on my feet to contact the ground to make up for not "popping" the toggles at the right altitude to flare properly. My S&TA has watched my landings, and he's really the only person I listen to when it comes down to the wire to make a decision of this sort. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

I was joking with a sage AFF student who recently graduated and the topic of wheelchairs came up. I was trying to get her to think about going to Rantoul next year and... as a joke, we'll get one of those walkers you see in nursing homes and have her exit the back of a Skyvan in a walker. If we can't do it at Rantoul, it's always another idea for junk day. It would make for an awesome kick ass video clip. ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

Since some of our resident canopy nazis are watching this thread rather closely... I'll pose a question for feedback... I love jumping my 1.2 loaded Sabre2. Got 130-ish on me. No wind days are okay, I've noticed my accuracy improved greatly, and I nailed it at Rantoul. Practiced coming out of very sharp S-turns right onto dead center for the past month. This past weekend I also got some very good accuracy in on my ZP. But... sometimes my mojo just isn't there and I "punch" my feet on the ground, toes sticking down to "brake." Would this be considered bad form? Sometimes I do it out of boredom (land surfing looks cool... until you hit a rock or stub your toes in a crack), other times I kick myself for realizing that I just didn't finish the flare and I just "held it" and walked off the landing without reallly landing, if you catch my drift. I've front risered into final for the past 1/2 dozen jumps or so as well. No rear-risered landings, though (I'd like to watch my S&TA do one on my canopy first before I try). There are no slopes in the landing area at my DZ, except for one that is past the beer line and is off limits to land in because it's in the landing path of our plane. (Never jumped where it's hilly... probably need to get a PD260 if I decide to do that). I feel confident that I could transition to something smaller this winter... and I need to since I am overstuffing my container and I would really like to get the pack volume down, yet stay semi-elliptical or switch to a fully elliptical canopy. Do I sound like a n00b heading for instant death or a skydiver making calculated and rational decisions? Ideas? ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

I use Linux. Outlook virus? What's that? I only touch VBScript and JScript with rubber gloves and through vi and pico. :) ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

Noticing more and more and more Cobalts at my DZ (SDSM). ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.

Ok Lisa... Can you walk straight? (if you know what I mean) ____________________________________________________________ I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.