tfelber

I have 100% faith in my gear!!! But that is because I take care of it. However, I was looking at buying a guys rig and he said he would let me jump it. It had just come back from the rigger and the reserve and main were IR'd. I asked the DZO if he knew the rigger and whther or not he thought I should repack the main or jump it. He told me to jump it. About halfway up I started thinking...This guy could have just handed me a rig packed with his dirty laundry. I didn't even check to see if there was a canopy in the thing. Well everything worked out fine but I was quite concerned for the rest of the trip up and during freefall. Since, the Stephen Hilder incident though, I don't jump my own equipment without verifying the reserve risers and bridle in addition to the routine checks of the webbing, three rings, and such...

BOY, that's for sure

Red needle nose???

That's for sure!!! A friend of mine got pick-pocketed in spain and when they called AmEx they wer told there were six people working stolen cards just for Spain

DITTO!!!

Trying AFF is probably a good idea. A friend of mine was having the same issue. His was due to just being overwhelmed with everything happening in such a short amount of time. He transitioned to AFF level 3 or 4 and did great. I think he only repeated one more jump prior to getting his A license. He told me with the extra altitude he felt like he could just relax and the stability issue disappeared. If it's the cost you're worried about, how much is it costing to repeat all those dives? You can always transition back to static-line progression if you wanted... That's one of the cool things about the Integrated Student Program.

Silly resident. He should have used ViceGrips...

She did a great job with mine. I gave it to her on Saturday of the JOTP boogie and she said I could get it the following week but actually brought it out to me the next day.

I wouldn't get all worked up over it. Go out, pay attention, have fun, and don't get frustrated. You will know if skydiving works for you. If it doesn't you probably won't enjoy it anyway.

I'll be there, I'll be there, I'll be there...

With or without clothes.

You're going to have to be more specific. Is it a stupid trick or a stunt? Because stunts might look like stupid trick to the untrained eye.

My buddy and I took our wives to Rantoul in 2002. Rented a big ass motor home and thought everything would be nice, but it didn't work out that way. We both got yelled at for staying out late partying EVERY night ( imagine that ). My wife's OK with going to the DZ for an afternoon, but 10 days, forget it. 2003 I went alone with a tent, woke up drunk one morning in someone elses car, slept in Mullins' tent so I wouldn't miss my HALO jump, and pretty much did whatever, whenever I wanted. WHAT A DIFFERENCE. But if your going to bring them be sure you get them there own golf cart! BTW, this year I'm going alone with my tent again.

Did he buy beer? Because technically that was his first 10,000th jump.

When I got to Perris on June 6th, someone told me Chuck Norris had just left. I just assumed he was an experienced jumper. Was he practicing for his Tandem ride or what? His face in the photo has the expression of someone not quite sure why they got out of the plane

One of my coworkers, who had been transferred from Mexico to the US, asked if I wanted to try skydiving. Hell YES!!! (I'd been wanting to for some time.) Let's go Saturday. Partied late Friday thinking about it, but arrived at the DZ early Saturday morning ready to go. Had a bit of a hangover. Kept hoping the headache would go away before I had to jump, but I was ready to jump. My friend, Victor, and I finished the training and got geared up. Loaded up in the 182 and still had no apprehension about jumping. Started thinking about people in my life and wondering if there was anything I wanted to communicate but hadn't...decided my life was pretty complete. AND THEN the door opened! I now had reason for concern and I was the first out. I set there for a second and made my move. Carefully out the door, let my feet slip off the step, and there I was, hanging off the strut of a 182, at 3500ft in the air. I struggled with a smile and looked over at my JM. Robin smiles and yells "GO!!!" I hang there, looking at her, and think "Yeah Right..." She gets a more stern look on her face and yells "GO!!!". I think "Well this is what you came here for..." so I look up at the X on the wing and let go. The very next instant I think "Oh my god, you just let go of the plane!!!" About three seconds later (not that I was counting), I feel a tug and my feet swing up in front of me. I look up to see a fully inflated canopy. Release the breaks, turn left, turn right, flair...yeah baby - I'm smiling now. Radio comes on "Gimme a right turn...have some fun..." I look around for Victor and see him off in the distance under his canopy so I decide to try some turns. Turn left, turn right, whoa not so much! Get near the ground radio says "Flair, Flair, Flair". My feet touch down, I stumble to my knees, the smile never leaves my face. The chase truck picks us up and I ask Victor "What'd you think?" "Wow!" he responds. "Want to go again?" I ask. "Let's go" During debriefing th JM asks me "Did you see the plane?" I said "No." She says with a smile "You were looking straight at it the whole time." I did 13 jumps over the next couple of weeks and met several really good people. It's great thinking back about how it all started. I sure miss that DZ and the times I had there...

City of Angels Braveheart - when they killed Mel's wife. Platoon - when they're flying in the helicopter and Dafoe is running from the VC Shrek2 - when they tell Pinoccio to tell an outragous lie about wearing women's underwear

It's a TurboZX165, ZP, about 300 jumps on it, Mfg in 1999. I'm looking into a 150 but haven't found what I want yet. I don't have any issues with it now that I got about 150 jumps on it, but at first it was a little scary. One of the riggers has a 165 and a 185 and told me everything looks fine. Another told me to get rid of it... Like I said previously, Nice, soft, on heading openings, NEVER had line twists with it, it's easy to fly and land -- why get rid of it until I make up my mind what I want to switch to?

It's bad enough that I have gotten to the ground and had people tell me they were watching, waiting for me to cutaway. But, I've gotten pretty used to it (not comfortable with it). It opens on heading, flies fine, and if I need it to open faster I just tug the rear risers. Mostly though I throw out a little higher and watch my altitude. I have talked to several riggers about the issue, I have had other people pack it to see if there is any difference. One of the riggers told me to try pulling on the rear risers and that seems to get it open faster. After that we tried putting on an extra brake line to pull the tail down more. That was right before Rantoul last year. Three smacks in a row and I was looking for a knife. My only cutaway was a sniveler on a Sabre 170 when I had about 60 jumps and I think if I knew then what I know now I would have stayed with it a little longer... I'm not trying to make any suggestions for anyone else, but I've realized there alternatives to cutting away when things don't go as expected. Altitude permitting of course!

I had a similar incident using borrowed gear. I was doing a HALO jump and had a knot in one toggle. I really didn't want to cutaway either! I felt I had plenty of altitude since I opened at 6K btu with wrestling with my gloves and the oxygen mask and all it took me 3k-4k to work out the situation. I tested rear riser flairs and every other option I could think of but finally the knot popped and I landed without further incident. As for the excess brake line issue, my risers don't have anything to stowe the extra so I create a single loop that I put around the end of the toggle prior to placing it in the keeper. Encolsed is a drawing to help you see what I mean. I've analyzed it for possible problems and jumped it for 140 jumps without incident. I feel more confident then having all the excess flopping around.

The odds are based on each attempt as rehmwa and ianmdrennan have previously mentioned. AND just because you've experienced an abnormality like getting struck by lightening, or winning the lottery, or a malfunction doesn't mean you don't have to worry about it anymore!

You'll have no problem fitting in! Bring beer, since it will be your FIRST time at Taft. BTW, is it your FIRST time in Mullins KingAir, FIRST time jumping in CA, FIRST time in an oilfield...

Scott, was that you that got to stay in that fancy county owned hotel with the chambermaids that carry guns? Dave and Mike have put together a great place to jump! When I got off I-5 and headed west, I was wondering where Mike had lead us, but Taft now tops my list of favorite DZ's. Dave, Mike, and Corky fill all the skydiver's needs except beer and food which can be found within walking distance, if one were inclined to walk. There were jumpers from all over and no attitudes. Everyone jumped together and partied together. Dave is making further improvements to an already great DZ. Good luck Mike and Dave, I'll be back!!!

I have to say if Skydive Tallahassee aka The School of Human Flight, aka [Purple]The Other Quincy is half as friendly and a fraction of the party animals they were at WFFC they've got to rank way up there on my favorites list AND I've never even been there, but that week at Rantoul!!! Looking at their website it looks like they're the same at home. http://www.skydivetallahassee.com

Doesn't sound like a very "jumper friendly" DZ to me. We were doing night jumps at the DZ I started jumping at and when we got down one person was missing. And, it was his first time there. The DZO stopped all jumping and EVERYONE started looking for this guy. We thought he might have landed out and twisted his ankle or something. After about an hour or two we started getting pretty worried, but we kept looking... Turns out he didn't know what the DZ looked like at night so he headed for the best lighted area he could see, a indian casino. One of the search teams found him walking down the highway. Needless to say he was pretty embarassed. The bad part of this is I almost pointed out the DZ to him on the way up. Would of saved us all alot of time and worry. Not to mention we didn't do anymore jumps that night!