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Tis funny - look at picture snow8 above - my father emailed me back asking me: Look at the car picture -are you sure that it isn't a Japanese knockoff of a VW? Looking at it again - hmmm!!!!

Latest pics! This is insane - a solid inch easy so far and its sposed to go all night.

As opposed to sleet/ice, I've only seen snow one other time since I moved to Texas - and that was at like 3 AM! Seen lots of sleet and such but never snow like this! Its insane! And its April!!!! I think it took a while to cool down the ground enough for it to stick (I mean good grief - I was in shorts and a t-shirt yesterday!!!!!!!!) Its been snowing steadily since around 2 or so...

Look at the webcam! Its been snowing here practically all afternoon and looking at the radar, is likely to continue well into the night..

I can't believe it - I'm living in Central Texas and it has been snowing like a blizzard all afternoon here! Its insane! The poor dz dog doesn't know what to think, and we have fields of bluebonnets getting covered in snow.. What the &&(@(*?

I LOVE that movie! I've been compared to the hyperactive girl in there more times than I care to count :-) W

Tell me about it! Its lonely hear in Texas!

Course you have to wonder if its changed - because I think most pullout jumpers are hyper-vigilent about the lost pud thing, if only because throwout jumpers seem to feel the need to point it out on a daily basis. Throw-out jumpers, the try twice thing is rarely discussed after the FJC. I suspect they are much less aware of the issue than pullout jumpers... (I gotta admit, I have both pullout and throwout rigs, and I definitely think pullouts are the better system.)

Horizontal drift is a huge issue. But at my dz, most of the freeflyers are the lower experienced jumpers jumping bigger canopies, while the RW people are more experienced and much more likely to jump smaller/faster stuff. It really depends on the dropzone. And the canopy ride doesn't matter as much if you have collisions on opening.

What's your wing-loading? My Triathalons surf really nice.. (Obviously not a Velocity but definitely surfing)

For tonight, we're still in a tornado watch. Weather.com says: Tonight Variable clouds with strong thunderstorms. Storms may produce large hail and strong winds. Low 57F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch. Tomorrow: Widely scattered showers or a thunderstorm early. Then partly cloudy. A few storms may be severe. High 73F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%. I think we're going to be swamped out for tomorrow but hopefully Sunday will be good.

Wet yes - but at least the tornado went by to the north of us!

Dave will surely be missed here at Salado, but I'll at least have an ever-present reminder of him. His cat Mouse, quite the character, is reclining on the back of my couch right now. She's quite the sweetheart. She'll be living on the dropzone so we'll always have a part of Dave here. Just talked to Mike as well, and he says Pumpkin is adjusting wonderfully with him, as long as he gets his wet food :-) Hopefully the 2 dogs will find good homes as well soon - I've got all of the animals' info (shots, etc) from the vet if you need any of it. Wendy

There are things though that you can do to reduce the risk of people running into you (at least if you're at a 1-plane dropzone like most of us.) Open up and get in brakes. Even though I don't particularly, even on my Triathalon 99, I'm normally one of the last 1 or 2 to land before the tandems. I have a PD 150 I jump when I feel like really going slow.. But just having a canopy that you can hang out in deep brakes in up high and let all the yahoos land first - goes a long way to ensuring your safety. W

Just the Pac 750 to 14,500...

Don't forget - Mark Mark and Penny's 50th birthday bash is next weekend - March 17-18.. We'll have beer, band, margaritas and fajitas catored by La Mansion. I've got Smart Reserve demos coming as well for anyone who wants to try one out.. You can listen to the band by the fire pit, and try out the newly completed bathrooms. The big screen tv is up and ready as well! Its gonna be another spectacular party at Skydive Temple...

I don't know for sure about CRW versions at high-wing loadings, but I've got ~1000 jumps on RW Triathalon 99's - wingloading generally between 1.5-1.6. It lands me beautifully. The only jumps I ever did on the CRW version were years ago and I couldn't get that thing to flare much at all.. I suspect with a kill-cone over the pc it would flare better but back then I didn't know about those... W

The US CRW team jumps Javelins too. Wonder how they're going to feel when they find out they have to have their RSL's connected?

That reminds me of the story I was once told about the AR-7. A friend supposedly was about to go up and jump the AR-7 for the first time and he asked advice from others about how to land it. He was told to take a rock with him and at 100 feet above the ground to drop the rock, and that would tell him where he would land. He took the rock up and dropped it but it disappeared. He pounded in and just after picking up his head after the landing, the rock hit him square in the head!!!

CRWdogs do know how to fly canopies for sure. But the wisest decision is often spent staying on the ground. I was at a CRW camp in Lake Wales last weekend - most of us had traveled from all over the country/world to be there. Friday the winds were honking. At one point on Friday the winds are blowing, but we were on a call. There were a bunch of us standing around, but no one wanted to be the first to say no. That's why I went to the organizer and told him that the majority of our load wanted to stand down and they were good with that. It was the smart move. Same thing on Saturday - we have people from all over the world here to jump - and Friday was a loss - and we're on the 4th load of the day. The clouds fill in low and the winds are weird, and our load stood down despite desperately wanting to jump. We got 4 jumps in over the long weekend, and we could have gotten more, but I think we made the smart call and kept anyone from getting hurt by just saying no. Sometimes the best canopy control comes by never leaving the ground.

A 23 foot belly-mount round reserve. The landing was brutal but the opening was worse.. Ripped part of the center apex out on opening. Found out later that reserve had a reputation for blowing up!

Upside down? Normally the flat part of the triangle faces up towards your face where the altimeter is. Can't quite picture the upside down thing... I do find that if I wear it over the buckle of the chest strap it stays visible better...

[reply> ADD people will have terrible difficulty starting, focusing on and (especially!) completing tasks that are less interesting to them, but can spend hours on end focusing on a single activity that does interest them. I actually do believe in ADD but the above definition applies to 99% of the planet. Who want to do stuff they hate? I can't think of anyone I've ever met who doesn't have great difficulty starting tasks that are boring to them and isn't addicted to stuff that they love. That's the human existence!

On a CRW jump - your hands need to be on the risers the INSTANT the risers are off the container. Forget the hook knife - having control of your risers will save you hundreds of times over rather than a hook knife. And steer with your body as well - I got used to doing that jumping tiny ellipticals. Harness input can keep my Lightning on heading 99/100 times. It works well....

[reply} Everyone thinks their "side" is the best, coolest, funnest etc part of the sport, from CRW people to RW types. Of course that's true! But spoken by someone who is an AFF jumpmaster, big into RW, does some freefly, and a lot of CRW in warm weather - CRW is lightyears more fun than the rest ;-) Freefall is better in the winter. CRW rocks in the summer...