PeregrineFalcon

1. California rules when it comes to weather. 2. San Diego rules above all else (wish I was there). 3. I'm guessing, but wouldn't it be rather windy most of the time for newbies to jump in Hawaii? (I'm just speculating here; don't get offended if I'm wrong.) 4. No one here believes the nipples/glass remark. We want proof. 5. If moving is a problem, there's always vacationing. I'm betting there are lots of ways someone can be a skydiving bum and hang out with people with a spare room or whatever. The dz in Hollister said I could sleep on the couch one night when I was too drunk to drive home. I already got a hotel knowing how drunk I would be.

Dude...first of all congrats on the 14 pounds. Second of all, you can lose the rest. I was 310 pounds!!! I'm your height, 5'11". I'm now 207. The WHOLE time I was losing weight, I kept saying to myself, "I want to skydive. I want to skydive." It was my motivation to lose weight and it was my treat when I did. I know a few other people on this site who have lost weight to jump. Bruce (posted above) was one of the first to welcome me to this site. He lost 60. Another person I know lost well over 100. All of us did (and are keeping it off) because of the reward of jumping out of a plane. I saw your picture. You're not that far off and you're still young. If a lard-ass 41-year-old like me can do it, you can. http://members.aol.com/pjcarini/proudpapa.jpg Take a look at that fat, lazy piece of shit!! No surgeries, no fad diets. Just looking at the mirror and saying, "this shit ain't right." Working out and eating properly. It takes time, but think of the goal. Blue Skies and lay off the pies!

That's perfect middle-aged-crisis age and perfect cure-for-middle-aged-crisis age.

Vote "no" on Proposition 8!

From what you're saying about the Otter, I may have been in one before. 14 years ago, I did 4 jumps in Perris. Three of them were in a huge plane. The seats were lined up on the sides and we sat with our backs to the windows. The door was bigger than the Pac. I can't remember how long it took to get to altitude because I was too new to think about anything other than the skydive. Is there an old-timer from Perris who knows for sure what type of craft it was? I have an old VHS of it somewhere, and it wouldn't do me any good if I found it.

You've GOT to be leaving a lot of shit out. You're saying that 6 years ago or more, you got busted one time for excessive speed and you're about to go to jail? No, you're not telling us everything. Either way, listen to Skymama.

So, tell me why. Tell me the difference. That's what the thread is for.

Holy shit, we got to altitude fast!! The door was so wide! I wasn't sure exactly how to exit! I inched up to it and looked for a strut and wheel to climb onto! Man, I got to go back to that DZ! Byron's great when the winds are right for us Pre-A noobs. I've been mostly going up in a Cessna 206. One flight in a 182 which took forever (no door either so it was cold as hell). I was in a King Air for level 1 AFF but that ride up was a blur since I was concentrating on the flow and not peeing my pants. There was also a big plane in Perris 14 years ago when I did 4 jumps, but that was 14 years ago. I'm interested in hearing your takes on the different planes (or other air crafts) and the pros and cons of each. It's going to be quite some time before I experience other planes and no, I don't feel like doing a search and reading a bunch of posts that don't apply before finally finding what I want.

What's your money situation like? Do you have enough to do a tandem before continuing? May sound like a "taking a step backward" kind of idea, but it could work. That's only if by the time you get back to the dz you're still feeling this way. Something tells me, however, that you're going to be ok.

Dune I kept hearing good things about it and on 5 occassions I tried to watch it. I couldn't get past the first 10 minutes. Tron Even as a kid, I knew that movie blew. Nick Fury: Agent of Shield Starring David Hasselhoff. I don't know if it really was a Sci-fi flick because I turned it off after 5 minutes, but Shield is supposed to be a lot of science fiction. Flash Gordon "We better get out of this space craft before she blows!" Then they casually step out and calmly stroll around looking for stuff. WTF?

I gave $5 to a guy that didn't do that much to coach, just a couple of pointers. I gave $20 to a guy that spent some extra time with me and really showed me some stuff. Wait...the above paragraph refers to wind tunnel time. No other "stuff" was shown.

Yeah, screw you Grim Reaper.

Debbie Gannon. There's no emoticon listed here that would work. I was 12. My mom didn't want me hanging around the house during the summer, so she signed me up to be in a play. I was a catepillar in Allison Wonderland (Not Alice In Wonderland) it was a spoof on the original. When I turned into the butterfly, Debbie played the butterfly. We were backstage and were about to kiss. I remember once watching an episode of Happy Days where Ritchie Cunningham opened his mouth before kissing a girl. So, I opened my mouth for my first kiss. HELLO!! TONGUE?? I didn't know! I honestly didn't know. Great memory.

I didn't watch. My wife is an Obama supporter and she said she thought McCain won this one. She'd never vote for him so it really doesn't matter. But there's one Democrat who is admitting the other side won this particular debate. To compare, she said that Obama easily trounced him the first debate and barely won the second.

"Talk to Senator Obama about what you're going to do about the economic crisis. Talks to him. TALK TO HIM GOD DAMN IT!!!" They just ignored the moderator. LOL. They had very little new information in the second debate. I doubt there will be anything new for the third. Ayers brought up in the third debate? It would really show desperation. I remember the Bush 1/ Clinton debates. Bush 1 kept bringing up "character" implying that Bill Clinton was devoid of it. I was thinking,"In what way is he devoid of character?" One fat intern and a fatter perjury later...

Quote I am married to the most amazing and thoughful women on the planet. reply] You're married to more than one woman? What religion are you?

The first thing you do is stop feeling like crap. There was NO shame in what you did and if anyone on that load felt there was, he's a douche bag. It actually took a lot of courage to abort in front of the other skydivers. You did the right thing. Airtwardo said to go to the DZ without the intention of jumping. I like that idea. Go there with the intention of learning how to pack. Go early, relax. Talk to people. If your AFFI isn't too busy, talk to him. I bet at some point on another day or maybe even later that day, this will go away.

When I was 12 years old, I was on a flight next to a guy that bought a Playboy. He read it cover-to-cover like he was studying for an exam or something. He actually read the articles. It was a good thing he studied the pictures too. I kept thinking, "Why would he waste this on an airplane where it does no good?" Then I thought, "Doesn't this guy realize I'm 12 years old?"

LMAO!!! Dude, you totally fooled me. Of course, I'm drunk at the moment, but I read you had two perfect back loops on AFF 6 and I was like WTF!!!! Then, I kept reading...lol I couldn't even do a full back loop until well after graduation...AND NO ONE WAS THERE TO SEE IT!!!

Wrong emoticon. It should be: I owe three cases of beer! I go to my dz and make up excuses to buy beer. "Today is my first time I've made jump number 17." BEER!!!

Shit, he was Carol Brady compared to that blonde hick on the show now. WTF is up with him?

My middle name is Richard, therefore, I'm a dick.

Hehehe. Good job. The first stand up feels good. Don't go thinking you'll stand up every one after this, though. LOL. I went through a weird series of high flares between jumps 7 and 10.

I had a built in turn 3 weeks ago. The AFF training says to chop if it takes a toggle more than half way down to fly her straight. I completely forgot that training while under canopy. Something else went through my mind instead. I thought, "If I cut away, what're the odds of it getting tangled with the reserve?" I felt at that moment that it would have to be a MAJOR malfunction before I chopped. I felt I could land it with at worse a scrape if I performed a good PLF. I didn't have the confidence to adjust my leg straps while under canopy. I still don't. A friend of mine recently did that and loosened them to the point of his chest strap coming up under his chin. It didn't sound fun. Nothing bad happened, I kept it as straight as I could until the flare and I went to the left a bit, did a PLF (didn't even try to stand it up) and got a tiny boo boo on my hand. No big whoop (though I might have gotten a little blood on the canopy because I didn't notice it until someone pointed it out to me later on). On the ground, a veteran there pointed out the >50% rule. I felt dumb, of course. One other thing. Some STUPID thought in my head said, "This is only your 12th jump, it's not statistically time to chop yet." I know. Dumb. But I learned from it. 1st jump had a line twist. No big deal, but when that happens on your FIRST jump it tends to pucker you up. 10th jump had a broken steering line. It may be time to buy my own rig.