livendive

I guess I might have misunderstood you. There's no way that two people will agree on EVERYTHING, and a healthy debate about some social, political, or home decor issue is great. If that's what your referring to, I agree. I've known plenty of women who liked to bicker (as opposed to disagree), about all kinds of silly nonsense. They aren't very fun to be around (even as friends, much less lovers). I'm pretty sure I'm no doormat. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

What he said. To me, that kind of behavior screams "drama queen." If I can't get along with a woman the vast majority of the time without bickering, I conclude that I simply can't get along with her and then I move on. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

***Like a line I heard once on a movie: "He doesn't care enough to argue with you." If I back down from you, it either means a) you're right (not likely ) or b) you don't mean enough to me for me to argue with.

Probably not real soon...if the pilot decides its something he's willing to offer to more people, I imagine the other regulars here will want first dibs. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

What's in it for me? That reminds me...I need to thank Keith. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

So this weekend I got to make my beerth glider jump. Beer jumps are less and less frequent for me lately, and this one was a rush. Even though it looked pretty straight-forward, there were enough new things between the me and the pilot to get the butterflies going in my stomach. We sat down for a quick safety meeting, agreed on abort criteria and hand signals, and off we went. This was one of those gliders with its own engine, so no tow-plane necessary. We took the rear canopy completely off because we weren't sure it wouldn't break due to wind or that I'd be able to reclose it before exiting. We used the engine/prop till 3,000 feet then shut it off and stowed it away in the fuselage. We circled, climbing slowly, to 4,000 feet, then ran through some sink to get under a cell about 7 miles out. I was wishing I'd worn the sweatshirt that the glider pilot and our jump pilot had talked me out of cuz the windchill was getting getting me colder than mere discomfort. We got under the clouds at 3000 agl and suddenly found ourselves climbing at 600-800 fpm with no noise but the wind (30 knots or so)...a bizarre but very exhilarating feeling for someone who's never been in a glider. By 6,000 I was getting really cold, and at 7,600 I asked if we could head towards the intended landing area. Given how cold I was, I wasn't sure I could trust my arms to perform as expected. Additionally, I wasn't sure just how slick the surface of the wing was going to be or whether the airspeed would be enough to push me off it with nothing to hang on to. For these reasons, I didn't start climbing out till kind of late because I didn't really want to fall off too far downwind of my landing area. I shouldn't have worried about it. The climbout was a breeze, the leading edge of the wing was enough grip to walk/crawl several feet out on the wing, and my Teva's provided plenty of grip for me to stand upright leaning forward into the wind...a very, very cool feeling. The pilot noticed a bit of buffeting with me out there but had no problems with stability. After a few seconds of that I leaned forward beyond the balance point and front-looped over the front of the wing and fell away on my back watching the glider fly away. All in all, it was a sweet jump. It's been awhile since I've had a jump that caused that post-jump buzz, and this one had me buzzing for hours. If I get the chance to jump this thing again, I'll wear a sweatshirt and climb out earlier so I have more time to goof off on the wing. Also, since the pilot didn't have any trouble controlling the aircraft, next time I'll give him a camera to snap a picture or two of me out there flying the wind from a standing position with no grips.

Amazon benforde ChaosKitty (maybe) 22369 Frenchy (maybe) Gia Girlfalldown (maybe) IanHarrop JasonRose jdobleman Karenmeal (w/ Jeff) Livendive Mcneill79 (maybe) NWFlyer SeaKev Shell TallGuy vdschoor Pacncathy Pacncathyjr Figured it was about time to add madjohn to the list, since he didn't do so himself. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

:8:1 6 tandems 1 AFF 1 fun jump...the case of beer was for my first glider jump. Climbing at 800 fpm with no engine...very cool. Standing out on the wing of said glider at 5200 right over the top...even better.

WooHoo! What do I win MadJohn? We gotta make more jumps together this year than just the one we made last year. I ran into John Campbell a few weeks ago and had a few glasses. Any idea whether there'll be demo(s) this year? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

We are a subset of regular people. That doesn't mean we might not tend to share traits other than a desire to jump out of airplanes. I think there are some generalizations that can probably me made about skydivers other than "more likely to enjoy freefall". I'm not sure what they are though. It seemd for awhile at least that suicides among skydivers were outpacing the general population. I'd guess that skydivers on average watch a little less broadcast TV than the average population, and I'd imagine we probably have a little more expendable income than average. I don't know if any or all of these are accurate, but I'm sure some exist. Scuba divers and mountain climbers probably share some (or all) of them with us. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

If gun control is hitting your target, how the hell do we fix these guys? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they didn't kill an unarmed man, but 120 shots and they only hit him 4 times??! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Bring it! You ain't that tough! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Taking my daughter on a tandem...hands down. I didn't stop grinning for many hours.

Most excellent! Thanks! OK, I'm outta here. See y'all in a few hours. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

That's pretty freakin' funny! You really DO need someone to point it out and say slowly "Loo..oook", huh? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Congrats! I went through the course with Jay myself. Like you, I'm REALLY glad I didn't have to do it twice. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I don't know. I think those who know me ought to answer this question. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Only once. We have lots of goat heads around, and landing or walking across them on the way back to the jump shack would suck. The only time I jumped barefoot, we ended up with a bad spot and I had to choose between a road and sand/sagebrush/weeds on the shoulder. I picked asphalt & had no problems. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I lied. I'm starting to fade here and I've still got another whole day to go. My brain is spinning from reading/writing about too many analytes and analytical results. Someone entertain me! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Guy: 15 Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Thank you. Posts like that are what this forum needs. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

What? Did you say something? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

It wouldn't have anything to do with those four beers, would it? Nope, absolutely not. I was having to pull an all-nighter before those. Did you know the Starbucks here closes at 9 PM? I found that out at 9:28 PM. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

ummm...you're one of "them". Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Quit being so goddamned entertaining. I've been screwing off on here too much and now I'm stuck pulling an all-nighter at work trying to finish up a paper I'm writing that I have to have completed by the end of the day tomorrow. So knock it off. Become one with your boring selves so I'm not tempted to listen in. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)