FunBobby

You know, you could have done a stint with Paris and Nicole on their reality TV show..... FunBobby

At Elsinore, the land of high hop & pops. More altitude = good. On 3 hop and pops yesterday, I got out at 6K - plenty of time to really wring the canopy out up high. B

In early Feb, I ordered a Spectre with custom colors; I wanted to upgrade the main in my backup rig, and I wanted a 7 cell canopy to use on more casual demo work... I was told the delivery time would be about eight weeks . . . And viola, eight weeks later, I got a notice saying the canopy was on its way. It arrived Monday - arrrrgghhh! But I got to jump it this weekend and wring it out. My hat's off once again to PD. FunBobby

Chris - Congrats, and God Bless you both. Cheers - FunBobby

Yah.... They have that one and a much larger version in the print version of Approach. Nice pic nonetheless. FunBobby

Hmmmm..... Might I suggest finding a safe haven? If you don't have one, the camo cough works well. (See attached) Edit - Whoops. For those of you who don't have or use MS word, here's a clicky. FunBobby Edited to add clicky

Adam & Eve Seems God was just about done creating the universe, had a couple of left-over things left in his bag of creations, so he stopped by to visit Adam and Eve in the Garden. He told the couple that one of the things he had to give away was the ability to stand up and pee. "It's a very handy thing," God told the couple who he found hanging around under an apple tree. "I was wondering if either one of you wanted that ability." Adam popped a cork. Jumped up and begged, "Oh, give that to me! I'd love to be able to do that! It seems the sort of thing a Man should do. Oh please, oh please, oh please, let me have that ability. It'd be so great! When I'm working in the garden or naming the animals, I could just let it rip, I'd be so cool. Oh please God let it be me who you give that gift to, let me stand and pee, oh please........." On and on he went like an excited little boy (who had to pee). Eve just smiled and shook her head at the display. She told God that if Adam really wanted it so badly, and it sure seemed to be the sort of thing that would make him happy, she really wouldn't mind if Adam were the one given the ability to stand up and pee. And so it was. And it was...well, good. "Fine," God said, looking back into his bag of left-over gifts. "What's left here? Oh yes, multiple orgasms..." FunBobby

Very sad. I 'd been part of several Joe Morgan larger RW jumps in Deland. What a nice guy and a helluva skydiver. God Bless. FunBobby

Roger that one. When I was in Pensacola in 1994, Captain Haynes (Captain of UAL 232) came and spoke to an assembly of all the squadrons in Training Air Wing 5 . . . hundreds and hundreds of Navy, Marine, and Air Force students and instructors alike. He took us through the entire incident, and his presentation included many, many photos. Everyone in the assembly hall was awed and moved all at the same time. I feel incredibly priveleged to have heard him speak. Amazing. Simply amazing. FunBobby

So the month of March saw some significant milestones for several DZ.commers in the SoCal area. First of all, several of them had birthdays: Keith, MollyO, SabreGrl, and GeeeeeeFly. I don't know how well they’re known on this website, but I think they’re all generally well known and very well liked (and rightfully so) here in the SoCal area. Last weekend, the four of them threw a combined birthday celebration here at Gordon Biersch here in San Diego. Skydivers, friends, and family alike stormed that place, and we all had a great time. Here are a few photos: Barb (SabreGrl) and friends. Hey Barb - were your friends just too cool to smile? Guy (Geeeeefly) and his girlfriend, Katie, and, um, Chuck, who’s wishing Guy a happy birthday. Keith taking a cue from Chuck and doing the same for Barb Birthday folks- dangit, no flash and the wrong exposure settings. Molly hit another milestone this weekend: her 500th jump. Congratulations, Molly! Earlier in the day in the experienced packing area, Molly wondered aloud "So what should I do for my 500th jump?" Of course, the peanut gallery responded with several jokes about different variations on naked skydiving, which she laughed off. I thought perhaps we might organize a big way RW jump that event, but having never seen Molly do anything but freeflying, I wasn’t sure how amenable she’d be to that idea. I cautiously asked her, "How good are you on your belly?" Somewhat surprised, half jokingly and half sarcastically, she replied, "Well, Bobby, I dunno. I did pretty well at Jump for the Cause when we set that world record for the largest all women formation.” Molly’s response drew some very hearty laughter from Barb and Amy V., and if I wasn't embarrassed enough, I had to hear about my silly little question several times during the course of the day. Doh. Okay, Molly, I forgot about that, and yeah, she's a great RW jumper. So BillVon put together a cool 10 way RW jump for Molly’s 500th. Lots o’ dot commers - BillVon, Amy (his wife) Me, SabreGrl, MollyO, & SkyMiles - were there. Thanks, Bill. And it was actually Molly's birthday, too, so double congrats to her. Here’s a picture of the gang after we landed. And then we hit another restaurant to celebrate her jump, and Molly’s, Keith’s, and Barb’s birthday - again! Well, it was Keith and Molly's real birthday, so we were happy to venture out in town together again. Barb with Phil (SkyMiles) and Dave S. Molly gets chummy with BillVon Molly gets waaaaayyy chummy with Barb Happy Birthday again to Molly, Barb, Guy, and Keith, and congrats on your 500th, Molly. If you know any of the aforementioned folks, perhaps you might call 'em and wish them well. Blue Skies, and God Bless. FunBobby

Actually, think of this.... Wilma Deering wanting to bite me..... FunBobby

Well, with incidents like this I can see why folks think swords shouldn't be in untrained hands. FunBobby

Colonel Wilma Deering and Katie King FunBobby

That statement worries me a little. I certainly wouldn't want to work for a commander like that, much less grow up to be one myself. I have discussed skydiving with all of my CO's, and all of them made educated, informed, weighted decisions based on facts, standing policies, the risks of my jumping and the potential impact of losing me to injury or worse. They asked questions about training, proficiency, etc, and the information they garnered from our discussions and the written instructions, documents, etc. that I provided was sufficient to put them at ease enough about my skydiving. Had I gotten hurt and had someone had to explain that, I am reasonably certain that they would have supported me, explaining to their superiors their rationale for letting me jump. I would have done the same for any of my troops when I had a division of sailors in my charge. I know that every person who assumes command of any unit is different. I suppose I have been fortunate to have worked for good CO's. It sounds as if you are less than confident than your leadership. Maybe that's just an Air Farce [sic] thing. FunBobby

Adam - First of all, congrats on getting aviation orders. It's a great time of year to be having weekend API class parties on the Key. I started jumping in 99 during my first fleet tour as an pilot in VS-30. Before going to the DZ, I voiced my interest in starting skydiving to my boss, the squadron Ops O; he told me I had to talk to my CO, who had the Safety O do some research on rules about skydiving. At that time, none of those officers could find any definitive written policy prohibiting me from skydiving. So the decision was left up to the CO; he reluctantly agreed to let me skydive. Since then, I have cycled through tours serving as an instructor at the Viking Weapons School (O-5 CO), the Viking Wing (O-6 Commodore), a student at Naval Postgraduate School (O-6 CO), the S-3B FRS (O-5/6 CO), and my current billet as a staff member of (and pilot in) Carrier Air Wing 2 (O-6 CAG). During each tour, up front, I told my CO about my skydiving. None of them were particularly thrilled with my hobby, but none of them expressly forbade me from jumping. A few did occassionally make some interested inqiries about how my skydiving was going, especially when I'd point out the DZ as we flew close by (Skydive Palatka, where I learned to jump, lies 35nm south of NAS Jacksonville, and the VFR return route from the bombing ranges takes aircraft within 2 miles of the DZ). One CO even asked about the possibility of jumping with me on a weekend. I have jumped accumulated over 600 jumps during all those tours. Last year, I brought my rig on deployment with CVW-2 and CV-64, and on the way home after flying in OIF, I got to do some jumps in Australia and Hawaii. I’ve had a great time…I’ve also been very fortunate not to get hurt. Fleet aviators are valuable assets and they’re not easy to replace. If an aviator gets hurt and is unable to fly for a lengthy period of time, the loss of his/her skills and services as an aviator can have a pretty considerable impact on the squadron and air wing. You’ll understand that more when you get to the fleet and see how things work here. As for me, I knew this, and I understand and pay due respect to the risks involved with my jumping. Truth be told, I get more and more nervous as we near a major deployment and even quit jumping altogether sometime before the last one. As a student in the TRACOM, you fall under the same rules but a far more stringent mindset. The TRACOM is driven by PTR, and they need to keep turning out winged aviators as efficiently as possible according to the needs of the Navy – which, by the way, is a phrase you will hear more often than you’d like to in your career. The TRACOM environment, too, is far more, ahh, anal, for a lack of a better word, so their official policy on skydiving does not surprise me. However, I have jumped several times in Elberta, and have made several skydives with folks who were students in API and in primary. Something else: have a look at 4 way team Chikara. Chikara competed in the open class at Nationals last year – gutsy! I knew Kelly (inside center) at USNA; she is Tomcat RIO (with combat experience, I believe) and is a very active skydiver who began her skydiving career in Elberta. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. What should you take away from this? I don’t know of any upper echelon Navy policy (SECNAV, OPNAV, etc) that specifically prohibits skydiving, so in most cases, whether or not you can skydive will be left to the discretion of your CO. Additionally, you must understand the risks involved with jumping and how getting hurt would impact your unit and your career – and none of that should be taken lightly. Good Luck. Bobby R. LCDR, USN P.S. Email me or send me a PM if you have more thoughts / comments / questions. Be glad to talk to you and pass on any gouge. Edited - Damn typo.

ROFLMAO. . .god that is sooooo true. . .lol That is, of course you're jumping in FL (or MS, AL, TX, etc) during those very very hot and humid summer days. Something else - I, like many others I believe, are not apt to be prancing around the DZ - or any other location, for that matter. FunBobby

Hear, hear. Awesome music in that soundtrack. Others movie soundtracks and themes I really like that have been mentioned: Forrest Gump Gladiator And one that hasn't .... Apollo 13 FunBobby

Hmmm. I took some pretty cool pictures yesterday, but when I reduced them to a "postable" size, they didn't look nearly as good. So I posted them on a photo website instead and put links to them below. City by the Sea - A neat daytime view of a great SoCal city. Downtown - A picture with a little closer view of the city, taken from a neat vantage point - down the wingline. Night skyline - A view of the city at night. Nice, eh? Enjoy. FunBobby Edited to fix troublesome link

I believe that blood is thicker than water, but I also believe that it is love (and not always blood) that makes a family. God Bless Bobby

Um I hope I just read this wrong...there was nothing funny about the fire in 'snore. Of course not. No one thinks anything like that is funny. As for me, I attended the burnout benefit and was even planning on bringing my spare rig and lending it to any staff members or instructors who might have needed it - and then I was told that wasn't necessary. [From Nightingale:] ***I think he was laughing at the irony of the team moving article and the fire article being back to back, not at the fire itself Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding. Right on. Thanks for the benefit of the doubt. Yep. Thanks.

Well, I don't have the magazine in front of me, so I can't point out page numbers, but did anyone else notice the following? In the news section near the front, there's a quick article about Team Evolution from Icarus moving their operation from Skydive Elsinore to Skydive San Diego. On the next page, there's another article about the fire at Elsinore that destroyed all the instructors' and student gear. Ironic? Coincidence? Hmmmmmmmmmmm. FunBobby P.S. Of course, Brett W. from Team Evolution was the one who laughingly pointed that out to us.

Michael - I did say it was one for the l a d i e s. FunBobby

I second that. There were 3 scenes in "Saving Private Ryan" when Barry Pepper recited prayers while sniping, and he doesn't utter those words in any of them. FunBobby

Allright. I once thought it was kind of silly to see all the drunk posts on DZ.com, but now, after many scotches and martinis here in the midst of hanging with some of the gang here at Melrose Place in Pacific Beach, I'm getting the urge to make a post in honor of the very, very fine Miss Jennifer Aniston, who's on the TV in the corner hosting SNL. Hmmmm. Nice top, there Jennifer. Wow. Is it really that cold in the studio or is she just excited and/or nervous in front of millions of viewers who are part of a live audience? Any thoughts? FunBobby

Haha. Had heard that one. I thought this one was really good, too. Some guy told a radio station about a, um, device that his girlfriend had recently acquired, and they called her about it. It just gets better and better... FunBobby