billo

ok that should work, just testing... i'm not feeling "smarter than the average bear" right about now! (didn't know what blockquotes & hr's were) thanks for your help!

lol i didn't even check the profile! something sounds veeeery familiar...

yeah, age *is* just a number...my two thoughts on that... 1. of my ff team, i'm 24, girl up from me is 32, guy up from her is 40. they date, but him and i have as much fun at the dz or bars as me and any of my school friends, and i get along with her great too. 2. a guy from work told me "a woman's romantic interests mature as she does. for a guy, his romantic interests are the same for the rest of his life as the day as he turns 18." so does that mean i'll be a naughty ol 40 year old someday hitting on cute 19 year old girls? youch! hope not. in the meantime, i'm an equal opportunity lover. (as long as they are not old enough to be my mom, that might weird me out) lol!!

how come "more than 10.0" isn't an option on the poll? lol, if you want to no longer be a "newbie," just throw out a bunch of one sentence posts to get your status upgraded! blues, b

josh, i agree with shark...based on your profile it should be an easy transition, but i will throw in my 2 cents specifically based on the question asked regarding "skills one should demonstrate" for yourself or anyone else interested. first and foremost, realize what is in the BSR's. have 20 jumps on a square, thorough knowledge of flight characteristics, and demonstrate accuracy on the ground. this is great advice and all, but i didn't start doing crew until after 100 jumps. go figure. anyhow... imo, you should be comfortable and FAMILIAR with the canopy you will be using to start out. don't demo the new hot rod the day you want to try out crew. anyhow, you should know the responseivness of the canopy - in front risers, back risers, toggles, and combinations of any of those 3. when starting to do 2 stacks (you gotta start somewhere) if you know someone experienced that you can trust, jump with them. he can compensate for your mistakes. if not, be sure that you and your other crew inexperienced friend take precautions and have a jump plan ahead of time. for 2 crew beginners wanting to try stuff out, i would propose the following: have one of you practice being the "pin", "target", "punching bag", whatever. the pin will maintain a constant heading and sit in half brakes. the other guy should then *** try to demonstrate the following skills *** 1. be comfortable being in close flight with the pin. go above, side to side, below, behind (never in front) of the pin. use gentle inputs to see how your canopy behaves next to someone else. under normal jumping circumstances, the only time you get to feel your relative motion/speed with respect to another object is when landing. and the ground don't move! so landing is pretty easy. when approaching another moving canopy you should demonstate excellent awareness of your airspace, heading, and altitude. you wonder why crew loads don't make it back? one of a few reasons - loss of altitude awareness, stubborness to build the planned formation or not come home, or a shitty pilot/pin:) anyhow, practice getting close to the pin. decide if you want to rotate who is the pin, or if you want to, go every other load being the target. when you are ready to dock on the pin, for beginners, approach from low and behind. maintain decent airspeed while using your rear risers or toggles to float up. if you lose sight of the pin's feet, GET OUT OF THERE! you don't want the pin's feet coming down through the top of your canopy. if you lose site of your target, do a hard front riser to get down and away. turn back, recover, and try again. just concentrate on hitting their container or butt with your center cell, and the pin's feet will fall right back into your lines. but you didn't ask how to make a stack so i'll back up...in regards to "flight characteristics" of a canopy, you need to think of two terms in crew - "heavy" and "light". you have 3 basic inputs on a sport canopy: 1. front riser = you become "heavy" (go down in relation to others) and you speed up. 2. rear riser = you become "light" (float up in relation to others) without much loss in speed (to the point you stall) 3. toggles = you become "light" and also slow down. realize that when near the pin, you want to become "heavy" if getting too high, and "light" if dropping too low. your speed also comes into play. intermediate/advanced techniques allow you to exhibit the 4th characteristic, "heavy" and maintaining speed and/or slowing down. well now i'm rambling. so, for a recap, you want to know how your canopy behaves in regards to others (proximity drills, realizing the difference between "light" and "heavy" control inputs) and you want to be comfortable with the canopy behavior. having someone experienced helps, but is not necessary. as for your second question, "doing down planes up high v. doing them down low." this is one you can only answer for yourself. when doing crew, always remember the following - don't attempt any manuver at an altitude you would not be comfortable with in freefall. learn downplanes up high, know the grips, and understand how the canopies will behave at 5000 feet before you try one at 1500. OH and last but not least, if you are going to do crew, don't forget our prayer: "please god don't let me fuck this up!" billoooooooo

...rest my beer on... you forgot "and lips like a carp!" (that's the way i always heard that saying)

i loooove vodka! i had a polish roommate in college, so he got me drinking the polish way - drink till the bottle is gone then go get another one! fav polish vodkas are the following: 1. zubrowka (bison brand, has the grass blade in it) 2. krolewska 3. belvedere the only reason we even ever drank #2 or #3 was because we could only get #1 or other stuff when visiting chicago. only 2 & 3 were available in crappy iowa. efs, billo

nah, it didn't really work as he planned. i think he lived, but got messed up a bit. good thing he was drinking his body was relaxed when he hit. but who knows, it could all be a boogie myth.

now if it can open the beer AND bring it to me while sitting in my chair, i will buy one to keep at the dz! mmm...beer... billo

hit a tree or "anything"? yeah i'll take option 2. it was a plowed empty field. but it wasn't nearly soft enough. oh my buddy told me his thought was: "dammit we're both gonna break our legs. oh well guess i won't have to work tomorrow" go figure. i remember once thinking that i was glad that our cessna didn't have machine guns. cause we have one crazy pilot who would probably try to shoot us down when we are doing crew. DIE TRYING.

i'm kinda torn on the whole tube stow issue. first off, i do love packing with them...when i pack for other people. it makes that $5 all the easier, and if that is what they want, cool. i just heard so many negative things about tube stoes at the place that i was trained. if you hear it enough and your ears are open, the info will eventually soak in. that is why even though i love their durability and how easy they are to pack with, i will probably never use them myself. it's just kinda like how your mom always told you never to do drugs when you were younger and so since you heard bad things about drugs so often that you never did...kinda like tube stoes...ok no wait that's a bad example. holy shit! ka-chink!

ok so i thought i would be able to figure it out, but i can't, and everyone else is doing it, so i want to too!!! :) anyhow, you know how in some posts it looks like: in reply to: ----------------------------------------- stuff here stuff here stuff here that doesn't appear to be retyped ---------------------------------------- and then more of my stuff down here? how do you do that? thank you! billo

oh funny! i saw the osbournes the first time the other night...ozzy was going on about jack's "dope problem", saying to him "you've been hitting the evil bong! don't lie to me i know you have" or "when i first smoked dope i wasn't addicted yet either, YET" you can't beat that show. just goes to show you what 30 years of sex drugs and rock n' roll will do to you! weed? oh yeah can't beat it. we had a GREAT 4:20 party last weekend! wasn't really anything else to do since the weather sucked! "tracking is for pussies - open close, take grips"

i think some guy tried this years back at couch freaks off the water tower. maybe if he would have had a few more beers prior to the event it would have worked better, or maybe he would have fallen off the ladder just a few steps up. those bridge pics rock. woof woof, billo

start a pool for the first guy that actually makes it, or a pool for the first guy that bites it after those all too famous last words..."hey guys, watch this!" grab it or wear it!

boy, that ground is coming up pretty fast - hope i don't get paralyzed! (moments before crashing our wrap) or or or dammit, lost my gum on exit. is that it in her hair? billoooooooo

damn i love this country! only in america can you get catalogs of women wearing only underwear on a bi-monthly basis. for free! god bless america...and victoria's secret models! :)

what's the big deal about getting the whole canopy in the bag? just use a longer closing loop and cram the left overs into the tray! see attached, yes i jumped it... 2 more days, pending weather.... b

lol you gotta post it when there is some crew going on in texas, i will come down from kc to get some fun in the sun and some stacks in! hell before you go to the downplane, start rocking out some diamonds, the bigger the better! grab it or wear it, b

i gotta admit paula your water training sounds like a LOT more fun than mine was! although i'm not complaining, my buddy (instructor) brought over an old rig to my apartment complex. so, it's middle of the summer and damn kids are everywhere, i hop into the deep end with a canopy. he tells me to get under it and as soon as i do so he does jumps in on my head thru the canopy. no shit, there i was, thought i was going to drown...well hell i guess a real water landing won't ever be that bad! puzzled the hell out of the neighbor kids, don't know why anybody doesn't talk to me anymore, oh well silly wuffos! glug glug b

damn gina! you think these things can swim? guess i'd better go buy some of those black flag ant motels!

oh and oh and oh... yeah so in 5 more days i get to ride up again for the first time in 6 months! and i have a great dz tour planned for the next few weekends, if you are going to be there beware there will be alot of beer present and general unruleiness. even more so than usual... 4:20 party - couch freaks USA 4/27 - sd chicago (if my ride comes through of course, if he doesn't i'll kill him) 5/4 - chicagoland skydiving more dates and locations to be announced soon, get your tickets fast! b

damn i read that whole thread and didn't get to see a single boobie? talk about killing your buzz...oh well at least i can say i'm multilingual now. b is for boobies b is for billo b + b = :)

oh my god that is some nasty stuff! i really don't know what smells worse than cat piss... i don't know what would be worse - getting it on your main or container. i have a friend who had a cat that pissed on his BRAND SPANKIN NEW (ok so 1 weekend of jumps on it) vengenence. jesus h almost one year later the thing still reeks and he has tried alot of the stuff i've seen mentioned in this thread. cat piss just ain't natural! think about how you lay down on your main when you are packing, your nose right in it...my buddy offers 10 for packing his main and NO ONE will do it. i started once but then hung it on a hook and then dry heaved for awhile. sick sick sick... makes me start to rethink of moving in with my new roommate next month who has a cat. good luck man, just keep an eye on the "infected" area and make sure it doesn't cause any long term damage to the rig... woof

sneak away from the doctor? were you grounded for awhile? if so i totally know what you've gone through and good to know you're getting back up! i've been grounded for the past 6 MONTHS dammit! i get to start jumping on april 20th...so we're having a big 4/20 coming out of retirement party! the withdrawl from not jumping has been harder to bear than anything imaginable! best of luck to you this weekend...