FunBobby

Thanks for the pics - great shots! Looks like you did get a few fun jumps in. From one among the masses of fun jumpers, it was great having you guys around for the weekend. Lots of jumpers, RW and freefliers alike, expressed amazement just watching your video debriefs. Glad you had a good time, and good luck training and at Nationals. Cheers - FunBobby

Thank you. FunBobby

Aubrey - Glad you had a good time. Good seeing you again; sorry I didn't get to jump with you, but I was hurting slightly on Sunday. 100th jump recognitions are neat, aren't they? Clicky FunBobby Edited for typo

Guy, Here's a pic for you... - Guy and Katie, get a room! Oh, you're in a room. What? You want us to leave? - Big smiles from me, Katie, and Megan. Hmmm, I think this was after 7 jello shots, 3 of jager, a green martini or 2, and some beer. Some of the rest of you need to learn to hold your liquor better, by the way. - Air_time - I really don't know what this one is about. Did you take this, Gia? It looks like I'm doing head down and sit fly transitions or something, but there's no rig on my back and it looks like it's at night. Is this trick photography or something? FunBobby

Mark - Thanks, and roger that. (Chaff, flares . . . continue) Pinoy jumpers? Hah!!! You know, if you and I made a skydive together, you know what we'd have? (Say with your best native accent) A pair o' pliers. More pictures..... - Gia and me .... me after about half a dozen jello shots - Getting jiggy with the Icarus flygirls - One of our lovely servers offers to fetch a cold one - Nice shirt, chappie. It matches the Hooters girls' outfits. What a coincidence! I really don't know if they were impressed, so stop asking. FunBobby

Rosa, Mark, Gia, et al, thanks for the good wishes. This bday was memorable to say the least. Man, my legs hurt. Yeah, SSD is really awesome. Great scenery, great climate, awesome DZ, better people, and for those with any sort of ankle ailments, past or present, nota bene: steady, predictable winds and no turbulence - great flying and smooth landing conditions. Hmmmmm. For Gia, pics. Thanks for taking them, I think. Pics: - Gia and Alex help Dave pick out a good flavor or 5, whilst Wyatt hoists Diana in behind the scenes. - Tim and others get jiggy with it - 2 lovely servers (Is one of them Nick's sister? Is that why he was acting so funny?) wishing me a Happy Birthday - Well, as much as I tried, I couldn't get the jello shot to go using only my tongue. There has to be a way. I've done it, I think - Our DZO, always ready to offer sage advice and mentorship, deomnstrates proper jello shot technique with some help FunBobby

33:7:0 Turned 33 this weekend. Celebrated at Skydive San Diego's awesome boogie... read and see pics here: clicky Only 7 jumps - was hurting a little after Saturday night. FunBobby

Huh? I have no recollection whatsoever of that. Thank you. I'm still wolfing down Motrin, too. Good meeting you guys. Sure you haven't seen my cell phone? You know, the battery was fully charged that night; it was, in fact, on at some point, and now I immediately get my voice mail when I try to call it. Methinks that sometime in the evening, my trusty cellphone met its demise. Oh well. Thanks, though, for not killing me with the shooters. And oh by the way, thank you for playing Florence Nightengale during the evening, tending to the sick and injured Cheers FunBobby

More pictures - By the way, I have reduced these in size and resolution significantly to attach them. If anyone wants any of these at full size and quality, email me. Pictures: - Brett Willard from Team Evolution swoops the landing area - Amy and Dave buckle into the helo before takeoff - Matt, Taz, and Leon suit up before a freefly jump - Jessica and Adria from Team Perigee take a break from training to enjoy some fun freeflying - A member of Team Guano carves near the blads FunBobby

What a weekend!!!! Skydive San Diego held a weekend boogie, an awesome blowout to celebrate the completion of the new facilities and new look of the dropzone. Folks jumping at SSD have always been able to enjoy spectacular scenery, cool temperatures, and steady breezes in the landing area, and the DZ’s facelift has tremendously added to its appearance. DZO Andy Witcomb, who acquired the DZ in January of this year, has been continually upgrading and improving the amenities and offerings on the DZ. Since his taking the helm, the DZ has seen the addition of a bunkhouse, team rooms, full bathrooms and showers, a new humongous covered and carpeted packing and creeping area, and new landscaping. It all looked great for the boogie. The atmosphere was just brimming with good vibes, energy, and excitement. Or was that the free Red Bull? David and Gia helped out the Icarus folks with demo canopies and Gatorz sunglasses at one end of the packing area. The PA system cranked out tunes as Alex, Eneri, Logan, Kim, and Maisha kept all the planes turning - Mike and Jeremy flew the Super Otter and the Caravan, and for the weekend, Andy hired a helicopter that continually took jumpers up for those very unique jumps. There was great skydiving all the way around - Gregg Fahrenbruch and Lou Lastra did some really good LO’ing with the RW players, while freefliers enjoyed jumps organized by Team Evolution’s Wyatt Drewes and Brett Willard; Matt Lewis led a tracking dive here and there, and Dusty from Icarus got some hybrids together. A 4way team showed up to enjoy the climate and great jumps; team Guano spent the weekend “training.” Okay, they did train, but to us, it was just amazing to watch their video debriefs jump after jump. Yeah, someday, I’d like to be able to freefly like that. You know what? Normal ops continued, too. Jen Brennan taught a first jump course, and all AFF students jumped in the afternoon; Andre, Nick, JJ, Greg, and Johnny kept the tandems going; Dave, JJ, Nick, and Patrick shot video. Minea kept the packers moving. The end of the day found skydivers on some very cool sunset loads. Lou got the RW folks together on a 15 way, which Alex said looked really cool from her vantage point on the deck. The freefliers, too, got a big way jump in, and the smiles and cheers when they landed let everyone know that their jump and gone well. The party continued well into the night. Dinner was served after everyone had packed up after the last load and wet their throats a little; Mark made some great chili, and we had catered food and beer from some local watering hole with good chicken wings and some sort of owl as their mascot. A couple of gals from that establishment came out to help serve. Eric from Pacific Beach’s Tavern at the Beach had long ago set up a team room - uhhh, I think of it more as a “Tavern at the DZ” room - and he, Doug, and Nancy were offering a few beverages from their huge stash. Gia and Dave had brought jello shots - evil!!!!!! I seem to remember someone making flavored martinis, too; they turned out to be very popular. In the packing area, Dave cranked out the tunes and everyone cut some rug. There were reports of some wacky dude in a blue shirt bouncing around the floor and the whole DZ like a bottle rocket without a stick. Anyone know who that was? At some point, I think I remember a whole bunch of people calling my name - and then the music on the stereo stopped and everyone started singing!!!?!?!?! Happy Birthday or something. And then things got weird. The whole world was whirling and tumbling around wildly, and my feet weren’t touching the ground. 7, 14, 21, 28…… The revelry kept going well into the wee hours of the morning; folks finally found respite in the bunkhouse or the camping areas out back. Sunday found us waking up to much of the same as before as far as jumping goes; some very wisely took it easy, nursing wounds and hangovers sustained from the previous night’s celebration. Still, good jumping continued until sunset again, at which time the staffs of the DZ and the Tavern took a photo and mobbed Chappie to help him celebrate his 100th jump, which he did that day. Pieing? We’re not talking cheap whipped cream on paper plate “pies” - there were cheesecake, chocolate mouse, chocolate cake, and all other sorts of real pies that got smashed into his face before he was doused with beer and an icewater bath befitting Bill Parcels. Said Aubrey, "Sh*t, there's no way I'm doing my 100th jump here." Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! What a great weekend - energetic, fun, and safe to boot. What an awesome dropzone. Thanks Andy, and too many others who made this boogie such a huge success and made this DZ the class operation it is now. Any jumpers in the Southern California ought to have a look at this terrific DZ!! FunBobby

Yep, that's a pretty good idea to get yourself a nice canopy. You might want to take note of this little tale, though. A good friend of mine, Art, an awesome skydiver with well over 7000 jumps, heads a team that regularly does skydives into Alltel Stadium for Jacksonville Jaguar games. Last year, Wachovia bought him a canopy to jump into one of the Jaguars' night games; Wachovia wanted their logo on it and they said he could keep the canopy once the demo was done. Here's the thread about that event: Clicky I've also attached a picture of the canopy flying above the stadium. He did keep the canopy for a while, until one of Wachovia's lawyers asked "What happens if someone gets hurt skydiving while jumping that canopy with our name on it? What if someone is flying that canopy and hits someone on the ground?" Unfortunately, those questions and the discussion they generated regarding liabilities spooked Wachovia enough for them to go back on their offer and demand that Art send them the canopy. Art says it's sitting on a shelf in some office somewhere in North Carolina. I'm not necessarily suggesting that you bring those legal issues into your presentation; I do think, however, it would be wise to have educated, well prepared and well researched answers to questions like those from Wachovia's lawyers - if they come up. You had said al your friends who would jump the canopy during "events" are all experienced - pro rated, if need be? So will the company pick up the cost of insurance? And will they provide you with insurance just for jumping the canopy, especially since it's going to have their name and logo on it? Food for thought. Good luck. FunBobby Edited for a typo

3 degrees. 1. I have 2 very good friends, Brent and Eileen, who got me started skydiving; Art, you might remember them from AFF. 2. From what I read in some of her old yearbooks, Eileen was pretty good friends with Denise Richards growing up; they went to high school together, palled around and even worked with each other during the summers. 3. Denise Richards and Kevin Bacon were in Wild Things together. FunBobby

Yeah, all you San Diego and Southern Calfornia freaks..... It's going to be a rockin' time. I was at the DZ on Monday - Andy (DZO) confirmed the helo and Eric had the Tavern "team" room open. Whatduzthatmean? Lotsa cool jumps and cooler beverages when the jumping is done. Plus, my B I R T H D A Y is that weekend... And Uncle Sam finally shelled out all those Ben Franklins (and by my count hundreds of 'em, so far, with more and more on the way) he's owed me. Hmmmm. Lotsa moolah. More beer for all my friends. And everyone else on the dropzone, too. You know who you chuckleheads are Really, it's going to be a great time. Don't miss out!!!!!! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnn Bobby

On a passenger flight, the pilot comes over the public address system as usual and to greet the passengers. He tells them at what altitude they’ll be flying, the expected arrival time, and a bit about the weather, and advises them to relax and have a good flight.. Then, forgetting to turn off the microphone, he says to his co-pilot, "What would relax me right now is a cup of coffee and a blowjob." All the passengers hear it. As a stewardess immediately begins to run toward the cockpit to tell the pilot of his slip-up, one of the passengers stops her and says "Don’t forget the coffee!" FunBobby

Ummm, there's a great dropzone about 5 minutes up Otay Lakes Rd... Skydive San Diego. Jen Brennan, one of their AFF instructors, owns a nice ceramics shop in a shopping center near there... that's probably the neatest thing to do in Chula Vista. Hint hint Mmmmm, Chula Vista is as suburbian as San Diego can get, but it is closer to the border. The closer to the border you are, the rougher it can get, though the newer parts of the neighborhood seem nice enough. Might I suggest you venture north towards downtown, at least. Or come to PB - the Tavern at the Beach (Garnet Ave) loves skydivers. Eric, the owner, and several of his staff jump at SSD. Of course, La Jolla is cool, and there's plenty to do there. Cheers - FunBobby

Hmmmm. I don't know anything about wing cracks in the F-16N's. If there were any cracks, I doubt that they came from maneuvering flight; I think the flight control computers would limit available g's appropriately to different regimes of flight. If anything, maybe the navy jockeys forgot they were flying an Air Farce (sic) jet and landed them carrier style…. Hah! Seriously, thanks for your words. And back to the original intent of the thread… Within the thread, in emails, and PM's, I've gotten a number of requests for more pictures. So here you are…. From the flight, more pictures of the viper: Viper 02 Viper close up A few of my airwing bubbas: Kestrel hornet - from when the Kestrels were still flying Hornet C's. Now they fly E's. Snakes - Hornets from the "Death Rattlers" of VMFA-323 Hornet stack - All the Hornet C squadrons sent a jet or 2 into the stack for this cool photo. And one for Kris - Dog103 since she likes the Tomcat so much, and rightfully so... it's the war chariot of her honey. Cheers - FunBobby

Ahem, sir, a good gin martini is my drink of choice. I simply enjoy making and handing out the aforementioned apple martinis since they seem to be so favored by fun loving members of the fairer sex. FunBobby

Yep . . . Here on the top floor of our hangar at NAS North Island on Coronado, the walls were rocking and shaking. I was already walking out the door and was passed by some very hurried looking folks. My buddy's wife was in the commissary, and she said food was falling off of the shelves. I hope there weren't too many jars of spaghetti sauce that fell and broke. Wierd. FunBobby

So if Courtney's daughter married a guy named (last name) Puff, would he be cuckoo for his Coco Puff? FunBobby

That's not close... this is close. I actually know a couple of pilots on the team; they flew in hornet squadrons in the same airwings as me, past and present. As far as flying tight form goes, these guys are tops. And since you asked... OK, I'm curious. Do tell?????? Okay, a little disclaimer here... this is all secondhand information, and I have no way of verifying it. Art (Crutch) tells the story that the night before John's (WrightSkyGuy) wedding, I had lit my hair on fire in a bar somewhere in Jax Beach. I apparently wanted to continue the revelry at some other establishment after we were invited to leave that bar, but none of the wussies with us wanted to go. I guess it was pretty late. Art started driving us back from the beach, but apparently, I continued to berate him and Michael (MDWhalen) on the way home. Michael says that he told me that the only way we were going to another bar is if I could count to 100 by sevens... and I proceeded to do just that in less than 10 seconds like I was reciting the alphabet or something. He and Art were astounded. Michael also says that I then told them I heard a funny noise in the wheelwell and asked Art to pull over so I could check it out. I seem to remember getting out of the car near the top of an overpass and then somehow ending up asleep in a ditch somewhere. I think Michael had hit me over the head or something; maybe he and Art were just trying to off me quietly, but I think someone saw them so they carried my a** back to the car and carted me home. Once again, I have almost no recollection of these events - the entire account could very well have been fabricated by Art and Michael's overly creative minds. FunBobby

Okay, but I'll save some lines.... 1. Whats your name? Bobby 2. How old are you? 32 3. Why did you decide to start jumping out of airplanes? Went with a friend who wanted to do it after beating cancer 4. Are you single or taken? Married? Single, but my heart is taken 5. Do you have kids? No 6. What do you drive? 1995 BMW 530i 7. Have you ever done a kisspass? Yep 8. Where do you live? Southern California 9. Do you have any pets? No 10. How many jumps do you have? 659 11. What color eyes do you have? Brown 12. What is your nationality? Flip 13. Have you ever dated someone you met off the internet? No 14. Favorite Movie? Gladiator 15. What do you do when you arent skydiving? Fly fast...Clicky! Clicky! 16. Have you ever BASE jumped? No 17. If not... do you want to? Doubtful 18. Do you have siblings? 2 brothers 19. Where do you want to travel to the most? Can't say... 20. What's your favorite color? Green 21. Where was the last place you flew to ( not skydiving )? Fallon, NV (see 15) FunBobby

Hey Mark, Feeling a little nostalgic, maybe? Here are a few for you.... The pics of the division were taken high over Mississippi; the last pic was taken low over the mountains in SoCal. I'm flying side# 726 in the division; that's also me in 710 over the mountains, joining up after bombing and strafing targets in the Chocolate mountains. Quality isn't quite as good 'cause they're scans; didn't have a digital camera then. FunBobby

Hey Mark. Scooters - copy that. You know it. Those were amazing airplanes in their own right. The F-16N's actually went away for several years, but have reappeared in the last year or so. Good thing. Six is clear, back at ya'. FunBobby

1.1, 6.5 / 7 / 1 Thought I'd revive the thread with some interesting numbers. 1.1 - (Mach), Max airspeed attained 6.5 - Max G load sustained 7 - jumps 1 - First supersonic flight Read here if curious. FunBobby

Sometimes, it’s fun to play the bad guy. I spent last week with my air wing squadrons in the desert at NAS Fallon, NV, the home of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC), and the Navy Fighter Weapons School (better known as TopGun). There were no S-3 Vikings there, so flying opportunities for me were minimal, but I did get a hop in a squadron F/A-18F Super Hornet at week’s end. The jet belonged to the Bounty Hunters of Strike Fighter Squadron 2; last deployment, they flew the F-14D Super Tomcat, and over the past year, they have transitioned to the F/A-18F Super Hornet, or Rhino. Here is a picture of their 2 CAG birds, Tomcat and Hornet, flying in formation to mark the transition. (Another pic here.) I rode shotgun for a TopGun adversary pilot, and we were in only one of many aircraft in the bandit group for our event. Another rhino squadron was doing some intense air-to-air training, working in conjunction with our E-2 Hawkeyes. I was flying in a jet that was part of a rather large group of “bad guy” airplanes sent to challenge a division of jets from that squadron - the VFA-137 Kestrels. The bandits were a mix of jets - there was a rhino, a hornet, a viper, and F-5 tigers. The F/A-18F is one of the Navy’s newest aircraft, and its capabilities are mind-boggling and its handling qualities are amazing. What a superb aircraft! We took off in full afterburner, but there was zero airframe vibration. Our wing aircraft, an F-16, joined with us less than a minute later. As we got clearance into our working area and altitude, the throttles came up, as did the noses, and we were at 30,000+ feet in less time than it takes to get overhead the field for a hop and pop! With fighters and bandits set, we commenced our “runs,” a series of different engagements, actually. Fighters would evaluate the bandits on radar and employ tactics based on the stance that the bandits took at the onset of the fighting. All of the bandit aircraft were flown by TopGun adversary pilots, and you know, these guys really are the very best of the best. At the start of each engagement, in the space of mere seconds, each pilot, fighter or bandit, had to turn in, paint the area in front of him, locate, designate, and track targets on radar, communicate with his wingmen, cue his weapons up, and start shooting as appropriate; and these guys were doing it at near mach speeds and sometimes under very high g loads - we were constantly pulling 4 or more g’s as we maneuvered. I struggled just to keep up with “Shaka,” who was driving whilst I manipulated my tactical displays - radar, HUD, and HSI overlaid on a high res computer moving map. At one point, as we came out of a turn, I started craning my neck around to visually acquire the fighters that were screaming at us on our radar displays; Shaka very coolly announced “…and now we are supersonic…” Shit!!! Things happen fast up there!!! Of course, the whole time, our aircraft’s computers were feeding us all sorts of other information - how the engines were doing, our fuel state: "Fuel . . . fuel . . . fuel" came the soft, feminine voice at designated fuel checkpoints. Of course, our jet sent us other warnings, too - scary sounding ones that told us were were being targeted by our opponents. It’s bewildering what our jets are really capable of doing - can’t tell more (), but these truly are incredible machines. “Bitchin’ Betty” is what many have affectionately called that computerized soft woman’s voice that cues pilots about the state of their aircraft and how it’s flying. I find it ironic that such a calm, almost sweet sounding voice can sound out cues like “Warning…” and “Altitude…” and “Pull up…”; such a serene timbre to clue you in that you may crash in very spectacular fireball if you don’t heed the warning. Whew - well, after many engagements, it was time to head home. The F-16 Viper joined up on our wing for the transit home, and we went diving through some clouds and then flew a little lower to the ground on the road in. That’s a really neat paint job on that F-16 - Flanker-esque, don’t you think? Of course, we came zorching into the overhead at homefield, and wouldn’t you know it, after a high G break turn, found ourselves in the groove flying the ball to land. Could a true navy pilot land any other way? Well, I fly the venerable S-3B Viking off the carrier, a twinjet that’s a throwback to the days of the torpedo bomber. It’s a neat jet, and we’ve used it for adversaries and have even made attack runs using our latest missiles (mostly simulated, mind you). And though I’ve been in this business for years, my hat’s still off to my strike fighter driving brethren. They really are the very best of the best. I’m glad they’re in my corner. And who knows? I may yet fly with them, as one of them… I’d be honored with that challenge. Pictures: Manup - a quick photo before climbing aboard. Taxiing - bringing the jet out of the line, you can see more Bounty Hunter Rhinos. Tigers - A section of F-5’s with us at the holdshort; these guys were also bandits for the event. Takeoff - The view out of the cockpit is amazing. Cheese!! - Of course, I had to take a picture like this. As you can see, the view only got better the higher we climbed. The Rhino - Well, no one took a picture of us, but this is what we looked like Wingman - “Hagis” flies an F-16 “Viper” off our wing Wingman and missile - “Hagis” and WSO close aboard our AIM-9 (CATM-9, actually) sidewinder. FunBobby