Donna

Hey Zelda - I recently started jumping again after being out 8 and a half months. I was really nervous, too. It did all come back pretty quick. You'll do fine. Have fun and let us know how you made out!! Skies, D

Well I landed in a pine tree last fall. You can read about it here or for somethings to make more sense you can start with my first jump that day here. Skies, D

Congratulations!!! How come the UK has bigger numbers than the US? Skies, D

Congratulations, Arthur!!! Sounds like you kicked ass! Freefall seems to last longer when you are all alone, huh?

I had also heard about someone being paralyzed from a butt landing, too. After my knee injury I have gotten into the bad habit of sliding in my landings. After this weekend I don't plan on doing that any more. I'm even more sore today. On my second tandem jump (almost exactly 2 years ago today!) I broke my tailbone. You would have thought I'd already learned my lesson but at this dz we have a thick, soft, sandy landing area so I wasn't that worried. I don't even want to think about what this last landing would have been like on grass. Anyway, I'm definitely going back to landing on my feet even if I have to PLF. This week I'm planning on going out to this lake near me and practicing jumping off the picnic benches and doing PLFs and also landing on my right leg (it's my left knee that's bad) and then running it out. Also planning on practice flaring with my hands out where I can see them while I do this. Hopefully that will help. Here's to good landings for everyone next weekend!! Skies, D

Next time it's his turn to take them home. If not, dump him.

I can attest to that! I'm nursing a very sore tailbone today after biffing it in yesterday. Luckily an instructor saw my landing and said I had never finished my flare either. I had been paying more attention to making s turns so I could try an land near the X. Hopefully I won't make that mistake again. Ouch!! Congrats on your good landing, Pammi!

Good luck, Arthur!! I know you'll do great!! I'm very excited for you! Have fun! Glad my stories helped. Let us know all about it when you get home. Skies, D

Hey Michelle, I know you posted this story a while ago but I haven't been online much lately and had a lot of catching up to do. I just wanted to thank you for writing your stories. I'm still having some fear factors at 27 jumps... though I did have an 8 month break between 20 and 21. I also read your next jump story where you weren't scared so you give me hope. Please keep letting us know how your jumps go. I love reading about them. http://www.geocities.com/tysca66 Skies, D

I am the chest strap paranoid woman. I read about a young girl falling out of her harness because of a misrouted chest strap before starting AFF last year. I drove my instructors crazy checking and rechecking my chest strap every time. Then it happened again to Nicole last summer and her death haunted me. I didn't think it would be possible to be more obsessed about chest straps than I was. I couldn't possibly see how someone could not put it under the metal fastener but just put it through the elastic keeper. Who could be that stupid??? Well... guess what I did last weekend! YUP! I misrouted my chest strap! I just put it through the first metal piece and then through the elastic keeper. Luckily someone pointed it out to me 2 minutes later as I was walking out to manifest. Now I'm pretty sure I would have caught it since I do check metal, metal, metal as part of my own gear check and I would have gotten a gear check from someone else before boarding but it still scared the shit out of me. I could not believe I had actually screwed up like this. Be careful out there people! Skies, D

I like the blue, black and grey one but it seems like you seem to like the red one. My husband's container is black with red and grey stripes and it looks cool. How I figure out what I really want is to ask someone and then see what response I'm actually hoping for right before they answer. For some strange reason, it seems to work, but then again, I'm strange!

I'm finally jumping my "new" gear (which I've had since last December!). It's an Infinity rig with a Triathlon190 and a PDR193. I love it! Skies, D

Great pictures, Arthur!! Glad you are having so much fun! Is everyone there always that color coordinated??

Most of the containers at my DZ are Racers, just check out the bottom picture here taken during Nancy LaRiviere's visit last week. http://www.jumpshack.com/default.asp?CategoryID=GALLERY] Javelin is probably the next popular. My husband and I both bought Infinities and one oldtimer made a comment about sticking with east coast rigs.

My husband has gotten slammed on opening twice lately with his new Triathlon. We are trying to figure out why. On the last one he was pretty sore with bruises on both thighs and along his right side near his chest and broke his finger. Most other times he has nice openings and he can't figure out anything he is doing different. He is pro-packing it according to the Triathlon video. We are using the small rubber bands like Aerodyne suggests but some people have said it might be line dump because of the small bands and say we should switch to the larger ones and double them. He is careful about making sure his slider is way up and he thinks his body position at deploy time has been nice and stable. Since I just started jumping my new Triathlon I'd like to try to avoid it happening to me, too. We would appreciate any advice or suggestions. Thanks! Skies, D

What about the people who work at the pubs?? Skies, D

I wouldn't recommend psycho packing it. My husband got talked into trying it with his Triathlon and he got slammed on opening and had line twists so bad he almost cutaway. It may have just been a one time freak thing but it was done by a guy who psycho packs all the time with his Silhouette and Sabre with good results so I'm inclined to think maybe it was the Triathlon. Skies, D

Same here! I've been trying to catch up after not being online last week and it's taking forever for the pages to load. I only have a 56k modem with slow phone lines so I thought maybe it was my computer but other pages were loading normally. Hope it gets better as I still have 500+ posts to catch up on! You guys talk a lot!

Nice pictures! Thanks for sharing! Skies, D

Well I think you can all figure out my name! I recently quit my job as a vet tech at an animal hospital. Loved the pets, hated my boss. I'll be looking for a new one in the same field at the end of the summer. I'm a mom of 3 now and since my husband and I abandon the kids every weekend to go skydiving I've decided to spend the rest of the summer weekdays with them so they remember who I am! I'm also an EMT for my local fire dept. Skies, D

I would be fucking pissed! I would go to the rigger though and ask him to explain. If he couldn't come up with a decent explanation and FIX the problem promptly.... well then look out! Good luck getting it straightened out. Skies, D

Carl - You should have come out to Jumptown. We had a really fun weekend with Jerry Bird, Boxman, Goran and the Germaines. Bernie made a bunch of jumps with Jerry Bird doing 8 and 9 ways (before that his biggest was a 4). I kept telling him, "BEER!" He learned a ton and had a blast. I got a couple more jumps in and learned a bunch just by listening in. Don was there and I told him you might be coming by. I was without a computer most of last week. It's going to take me all this week to get caught up on all the posts!

Zennie - I thought it was pretty obvious that you were being sarcastic and understood your frustration at seeing yet again, "parachute failed to open". We all want to know what happen when there is a tragedy so we can try to make ourselves and others safer. My heart goes out to Allison and her friends and family. Even those of us who didn't know her will miss our sister. Blues skies forever. Skies, D

Nice post, Michele.

Congratulations, Arthur!!! Glad you had fun! Sounds like you are doing really well. Haven't gotten much chance to be online lately so I missed hearing about your granddad. Hope he is doing better! Skies, D