FunBobby

A little while ago, I decided to get a new canopy for my second / backup rig. My primary rig, a Vector 3, has a PD Stiletto 135 for the main. My backup rig is a Javelin, and that had previously held a Triathlon 160. For a number of good reasons, I still wanted a 7-cell canopy as my 2nd main, and I wanted something moderately larger (than my Stiletto). I ordered a Spectre 150 in custom colors, and it arrived 8 weeks later as promised. Now I know that it can take some time to “break in” a new canopy, but as I put some jumps on my new Spectre, I noted some flying characteristics that seemed very strange even for a new canopy. I discussed those with a number of very knowledgeable folks, and on their advice, put in a call to PD. I spoke to Donna in maintenance and discussed my canopy’s quirks with her; she was very pleasant and advised me to ship the canopy to PD (on their FedEx account) for inspection and testing. She promised they would make things right one way or another. They got the canopy 2 days later; every other day after that, I got either a phone call or email from someone at PD letting me know how things were going. After some adjustments and a few test jumps (by none other that Graham Harding, I’m told), PD pronounced the canopy fit and within all specs. I just got the canopy back and put a few jumps on it this weekend, and PD certainly cured anything that was ailing that Spectre. It opens softly and on heading, flies solidly (even in a front riser carving turn), flares and lands very nicely… and damn, it looks really good too: Clicky. PD has been great throughout this whole process. Original delivery was as promised, and service was courteous, fast, and very smooth - in a word, outstanding. Thanks, PD! FunBobby

Thanks for reminding me, Art. Actually, his exact words were "Well, you are not a good looking individual to begin with anyway, so it just doesn't matter..." FunBobby

Barb - Maybe you should wear an eye patch . . . like a pirate. They you could join Jerry Seinfeld on The Today Show with his puffy shirt. Really, I'm glad it doesn't hurt that badly and I hope it heals well, and heals quickly. FunBobby Edited - damn typo.

Oh, Barb, would you and Guy cut it out? About the eye thing... I have friends who have had blood vessels burst in their eyes while scuba diving, their eyes much looked the same as yours. And come to think of it, I've injured blood vessels in my eye while jumping out of an airplane, though the circumstances were a little different. The attached picture is cropped to show my eye, and it looked just like yours for a long time. That's not the scary part of the picture, tho.... Cheers- FunBobby

Somehow, I doubt you read a lot of FHM, so here you are... Two flies set down on a big turd. A minute later, one fly leans over, lifts up one of his legs and farts. The other says "Dude, do you mind? I'm eating here." FunBobby

Darn. Got beaten to it.... But here's a pic from that website. FunBobby Edited - whoops, attachment did not work. Trying again.

You're kidding, right? Super Mario Brothers. The first one. edit: The first Super Mario Brothers, not the original Mario brothers game which predated it and was after Donkey Kong. Ahhhhh. Never had a nintendo game set. I seem to remember a high school girlfriend whose (much) younger sister was fond of playing that, and I would occasionally humor her by being player #2 and getting soundly. Not that I was trying to do badly, mind you. FunBobby

*** 5. Don't sleep with us on the first date. We won't respect you in the morning. Okay ladies, fine... but if you don't want the genie to come out, then don't rub the lamp! FunBobby

Dangit, this is going to drive me crazy. What game was that music from? FunBobby

Seems I've seen this before Blues - FunBobby

I hear Monica Lewinsky is fond of Fuente's Presidential.... FunBobby

Seriously, though, things look really great. I look forward to spending more time down there and seeing more folks doing the same. FunBobby

Speak for yourself. FunBobby

Holy grammatical trainwreck!!!! I can handle it, though. I is college edjumicated, ya' know? From the "Grammar Slammer" website (referenced above by bvsdjumper): If the singular noun ends with an s, add apostrophe s if the extra syllable is pronounced. If the extra syllable is not pronounced (or if it otherwise looks confusing to add apostrophe s), simply add an apostrophe. Examples: the dress's hem (Added syllable is pronounced.) Lloyd Bridges' son (Added syllable is not pronounced.) Some authorities always add an apostrophe only to any word ending with s, regardless of its pronunciation. This is acceptable. Whichever standard you follow, be consistent. Example: the dress' hem (Word ends in s, pronunciation does not matter.) Also: To make a plural noun possessive, simply add an apostrophe to the word. If the plural does not end in an s, then add an apostrophe plus s. Examples: The girls' dresses (The dresses belonging to the girls.) The Wilsons' house (The Wilsons live in the house.) The men's room (Plural does not end in s.) Joneses' is correct there, because the dog belongs to Tom and Harry Jones - 2 Joneses. FunBobby

Yep. Apostrophes are used meant to pluralize numerals, letters, and abbreviations, but not complete words or names The Joneses, twin brothers, were given two radios by their JM's. FunBobby

Lots of useful(?!!!???) info in this thread. I'll give you my experience with a Rossi product. Yep, I'd heard that they were cost effective and a good bargain, and years ago, I purchased a stainless Rossi 971 in .357 magnum. It has a 3" barrel with a compensator, btw. After I had put 100 rounds of .357 mag and .38 spl through it, it started to jam, And I mean jam badly. I would fire one shot through it and the entire mechanism would completely lock up. Nothing - hammer, trigger, or cylinder would move. I had to wiggle each very gingerly for about 10 minutes to free everything up. Was it out of timing? I dunno. I tried .38's, .357's, shooting double and single action, and the darn thing would jam every single time, and I would spend the same 10 or 15 minutes trying to free up the lockwork. Frustrated, I finally took it in to a dealer and had him look at it. He seemed very surprised and told me that Rossi revolvers are usually very good and very tough. He said he'd take care of it: Rossi would fix it free of charge. They did, and good on 'em. The revolver came back in a few weeks in a working condition, and I didn't have to pay a cent. I've since put probably another 100 rounds through it, and while it has functioned properly, I am still wary of its history. I have a Beretta 92FS and a S&W 686 .357 that serve as my primary defensive handguns now. The Rossi's trigger was heavy and seems a little clunky when compared to the Smith. I think you can do better with your money. Cheers- FunBobby

Roger that. So let's reverse the situation a little. Let's say you know or meet someone who does something that many people think is also very cool - like flying high performance military jets off of carriers or competing as a pro driver on the NASCAR circuit. And let's say the pilot talks a lot about his flying or his missions and the driver goes on and on about his nail-biting performances on the track. Intriguing...perhaps even riveting accounts from both the pilot and the driver, who are enthusiastic, and perhaps even passionate about what they do. But what would you think of that jet pilot and/or that race car driver if they talked about little else? Skydiving is awesome, and I love what we do as much as anyone else. Enthusiasm and exuberance are great; enthusiasm tempered with genuine modesty is very cool. FunBobby

I always thought Sedona is beautiful. It's in Arizona, not far from the Grand Canyon - actually, there are biplane and helicopter tours that fly out of there into the Canyon. The airport lies atop a plateau that overlooks the town. Mountain winds can make that approach kind of tricky. The scenery is absolutely incredible, and I'm not sure any picture could ever capture the area's majesty and beauty, which take visitors' breath away time and again. The surrounding rocks, hills, and valleys look like they're right out of the Grand Canyon. In my last job, our organization had a couple of T-34's (see attached photos), and I logged a lot of time in those aircraft. I flew into Sedona several times on my way across the country on different assigments. I still love that place. You folks who jump at Skydive Sedona sure have a nice view. FunBobby Edited for a typo

I've had an FT-50 for 600 jumps and almost 5 years. I have dropped it on concrete (accidentally) a couple of times and have banged it up pretty good; it's still as solid as ever. I just recently got a new lens from square one in Perris to replace the badly cracked one. I've taken it up to 23,000' on Mike Mullins' King air; on the climb, it stopped reading at 16,000 but started working again in freefall as I passed that altitude on the way down. That was 3 1/2 years ago, and it's been fine ever since. 50 bucks is probably a good deal. FunBobby

HH, How about making this thread a sticky? It's a good thing to keep around. FunBobby

Thank you. That's also the motto of the great class of 1993 from USNA; those words are inscribed on our rings as part of our class's crest. Beat Army! FunBobby

What an idiot. I feel for you... I had something very similar happen in my line of work. When I’m not at the DZ, I fly S-3 Vikings (see attached pics) in the Navy. A couple of years ago at a base in Florida, our squadron had one of our aircraft on display at a large airshow that featured some very impressive flight demonstrations by many tactical military aircraft, including the Blue Angels. I had been tasked with “manning” the display aircraft – that is, standing beside it in my flight suit to smile, answer any onlookers’ questions, and make nice with the public. So this lady walked up to me and started asking several questions about the airshow, specifically, how it was arranged and who was in charge of it. She seemed pleasant enough, but all of the sudden, she hotly fired off “I’d just like to know who this Captain or Admiral is, and how all you guys can waste all this money, burning up gas with your loud jets and put on such a big show when there are children in the streets who don’t have a decent shirt to wear and who go to bed hungry every night!” She proceeded to berate me and the other squadron aviator manning the display for several minutes, citing all sorts of ills and wrongs of the world and how we were personally responsible for all of them. She was creating something of a stir and had attracted the attention of several bystanders, who, more than anything, seemed curious about how my comrade and I were going to respond. I let her go off for a little while, and asked her calmly if I could speak with her away from everyone else. She and I walked to the other side of the display, where I related to her several stories from the Good Book and explained how those lessons applied to our discussion. She was dumbfounded, and seemed to be at a loss for words. She left quietly but did return about an hour later on her way out to apologize. You just never know what kinds of people you’ll run into… Cheers- FunBobby

Bill - awesome point. Last year, I was looking at the possibility of facing some serious orthopedic surgery, part of which involved using a bone graft; for that, the surgeons stated that they would obtain some allograft (tissue) from an outside source, and the chances of my body successfully accepting that tissue were better than 95%. They also said that in smokers, many of the capillaries in bones get destroyed, making the bones more difficult to heal and reducing the chances of them successfully accepting grafts, especially from outside sources. The ortho surgeon told me that had I smoked, he would not perform the surgery on me without obtaining a graft from a bone somewhere else in my body - in this case, my hip. He said that in that case, I might be trading neck and back pain for the hip pain for the rest of my life. Ugh. But thankfully, all is well with me now. It's good to have that information, though. Cheers - FunBobby

You wait until you can resolve the issue with your neck. I know this well; I have almost an identical condition, but thankfully, am blessed with very good health care. If you don't reach your milestone for a few more months or even a year while you wait for good health care, what's the worst about that? So the 1000 jump milestone doesn't come as soon as you want it to. But you've been patient and have pursued that milestone for some time... it has waited this long. It can wait a little longer. If, however, while jumping to reach that milestone with your neck in its current condition, you injure your neck further and sustain irreversible damage to it, well, you can see where I'm going with that. Is chasing that milestone worth the risk to your neck and long term health? I would say absolutely not. Take care of your health first. The milestone will still be there for you to reach, and you will get there, but don't risk too much on your way. Cheers - FunBobby

Hmm. I seem to remember reading something about this in another thread.... From ChasingBlueSky: Two of the best freeflyers that I know - Rook and Missy Nelson - both preach this. Here is that thread, by the way. Well, I don't know them personally, but if its true that Rook and Missy Nelson, 2 of the very best freefliers in the world advocate having a good foundation in RW before starting freeflying . . . hmmm. That's a pretty strong statement. Care to comment, Bo? FunBobby