Abedy

Nice to hear both of you got away more or less unscathed

Huhu... reminds me of the joke about a Soviet seaman with "RUMBALOTTE" tattooed on his dick. Tell about a nice game, huhu... I wonder if anyone around here knows this joke If not, ask for it (translated, I promise) The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Ah heck, never provide someone knows what you assume they should know... A Mr Bill - at least here in Germany - is referred to one experienced TI with a tandem rig and another experienced skydiver with his sport rig, attached to the TI who opens at proper altitude (usually 10000 ft) and then you got to get these hooks unhooked and fall from the TI and open your sport chute at proper altitude. J ust to make clear what I wrote about The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Unless it's a Mr Bill it ain't possible. Very experienced folks around here tried it for a TV feature about skydiving myths and didn't succeed on that one. If ya intend to do a Mr Bill, ask instructors, have 200+ jumps etc pp - it's not an easy thing to do if it shall be safe. The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Made it clicky for you: www.basik.fr The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Never got one, and never will get one. But I also noticed most of young folks are tattooed over and over. Boys mainly that "tribal" stuff and girls often have them bum antlers, also called slut stamp. Look here Looks nice... so far, but might one day put you in danger or even grave danger and most definitely won't look nice in 30 years or so... Nuff bitched The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

A Trabant 600 Kombi (station wagon) - nothing to compare with the impressively male cars most folks here had for their first one but at least it was way more expensive compared to your salary... The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Pretty good you live in 'Straya. If you had showed up with a Pajero car somewhere down in the South of the US, you would have got a lot of laughs from the Hispanics The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Those guys seem to be afraid of flavor ... There seems to be a general rule: Brands that are heavily advertised - quite often "national" beers - ought to cater for all kinds of taste and thus, end up as a characterless mishmash. Czech beers seem to be an exception, the original Pilsner (Pilzenski Prazdroj) for example or the original Budweiser (Budejovicky Budvar) are well-known but have a unique, sort of "strong", characteristic taste. And same applies to beers from Belgium - there are so many kinds each of them is quite nice. You can taste 5 of them a day (best place to do is Bruxelles) and if you stay a week, you are faaaaar from being done. If you want to taste nice German beer, stay away from "Krombacher" or any other stuff available without effort in the US. Charlie Harper once drank "Radeberger", brewed in Radeberg near Dresden. That's a nice beer, Pilsner style. If ya wanna get a really strong one with a heavy flavour, ask for a Bockbier (strong lager) But again: Who would vote beer over boobies? (Except from gay men and straight women?) The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Someone from the States asks a question about "real beer". Huhu. As if "real beer" was made there You wanna "real beer" go to: - Germany - Czech Republic - Belgium - England (OK, the temperature and some of what they call beer..., but...) So I voted BOOBIES! The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

I never saw it as it was a West German thingy but I think you refer to the Kabinenroller (cabin scooter) I only saw it on West German TV and never really understood how anyone could like these ugly vehicles. There was an even uglier vehicle of this kind in the GDR, the infamous Krause Duo. It was a vehicle for disabled people, mainly those who worked and needed a ride. It was more or less built from two "Schwalbe" (swallow) scooters. The engine was only 50 cc two-stroke so the Krause Duo was a real nuisance even if the road wasn't going up. There was also a Trabant that could be fitted for some disabled people, the so-called "Hycomat" but they needed to have one functional leg for the brake IIRC. BTW: All GDR mopeds were built in Suhl and given bird names. I had a "Star" (starling), another nice one was the "Habicht" (goshawk) - both with 50 cc two-stroke - and if you had a motorbike license you could ride the 80 cc "Sperber" (sparrow-hawk) All of those mopeds were quite easy to maintain, very robust and pretty fast: A good Star or Habicht made 70 km/h with only 50 cc! Nuff mused... The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

The Trabant was usually referred to as "Rennpappe" (racing cardboard). The Polski Fiat 500 was a "real" car in respect to its boywork being made of metal Look here The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

I bet they also worship the infamous Steve Urkel Look: http://onscreencars.com/tv/family-matters/steve-urkels-bmw-isetta/ The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Wings on the rear were sort of popular in the old GDR times. Most of them were hand-made (epoxy raisin and stuff) Sort of "Pimp my Ride" and also helped when reversing (car ends where there's the wing) But right, rather optimistic. However, you should see the pimped Trabis at any of the Trabi Fan Gatherings, woohoo. The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

The Trabant, especially the Trabant Kombi (sort of station wagon) was definitely more spacious than a mini. Some years later I had a Trabant 601 and filled its boot (trunk in AmE) with book. WOW, I had to unload a lot as I noticed how heavy the car was loaded. You could fit a standard family and some luggage in it. Not comfortable, but it worked, somehow... The smallest car sold in the East Bloc was the Polski Fiat 500 which was more or less a Fiat 500, but built in Poland. We called them matchbox cars but were quite impressed how much luggage the Polish were able to transport in them. The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

The problem is, a CYPRES in 2012 is more advanced than a CYPRES of 1994. And if you send in your CYPRES it will get the latest firmware, a new battery if needed and any part that shows any sign of wear replaced free of charge. That bullshit? The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Well, then the term was only known in its old meaning to me But in the good ol' days of free love (until the early 70s) it included several members of both sexes. Among youngsters here, it now refers to a female being do in a rape-style by several males. What's most disgusting to me is the fact that there are obviously females who enjoy this. (Students at college sometimes want to explain new "developments" to old farts and before you can stop it you are told things in a single sentence (hence not stoppable) you don't wanna hear or even know. And if you tell them they usually reply how prude you are...) OK let's stop talking about this. You are an old fart when you - had to check the petrol with a measuring stick, - only got fresh air into your car as long as the car was moving - had to bend down and reach for the petrol cock (located in the leg room of the co-driver) to turn it into "reserve" while driving (coz the engine started sputtering and you knew "Heck, running out of petrol!") - when you had to hand-pump the water for the wipers - you had to constantly but slightly touch the brake pedal to get some light when reversing at night - you had a pair of pantihose in your glove compartment in case the FEAD belt tore - you actually could (and had to be able) change spark plugs You wanna learn more about this funny car: It#s the infamous Trabant (called Trabi). My first one (in 1984) was a 20-year old Trabant 600 (600 cc two-stroke engine with 23 horsepower, most of the body work made of plastic, but the metal parts (frame etc) would rust as hell) that cost about 4000 GDR Marks (and I got about 700 GDR marks by this time) Strange enough, once you learned how to repair the bloody engine and to prevent the metal parts from rusting etc you had a fair chance to travel around the GDR and it was even quite spacious for its size. No wonder there are still Trabant Fan Clubs... Look here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Trabant_600_Kombi_l.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Trabant_600_Kombi_hr.jpg The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Got me caught: Do you refer to sort of meaning in "1968" - free love and stuff? Google etc didn't help much to find its old-fart meaning. The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

It's about 29-30 EUR for ~14,000 ft here which is about 38-40 US$. A pretty good pay-per-hour here (after taxes and social security etc) here is about 12-15 EUR, so we got to work about 2 hours for one ride. No wonder the number of fun jumps is declining. The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Today, young folks want to have their cars "pimped" and you may even spot guys wearing sweatshirt labelled "Sky Pimp" at your DZ. OK, around here, a number of younger folks don't speak English well enough so they don't know what "pimp" means. But some do and think it's funny. To me, a pimp is a pimp. Not a decent job, to put it politely. But back to old-fart terms. We used to call them really biiiig wristwatches with bling and glitz "pimp watches" (Zuhälter-Uhren) One of my students had one of those watches on and I approached him "Wow, where did ya get that pimp watch?" - And he just gave me a blank stare. Go figure. Weren't popular here, the Party leaders considered them "American Un-Culture" (that was really the term: Amerikanische Unkultur) Reminds me of things at school like: - "You are wearing rivet trousers?! Home you go!" Yes, jeans were called "rivet(ed) trousers". Youth fought back and called all other trousers "fabric trousers" - "Your hair is too long!? Home you go and don't you come with if it isn't cut!" - "Everybody open up their schoolbag, stand next to your chair, stop rummaging!" - Was called "search for pulp and grime items" which was just a search for comics or sex mags from the Evil West. I turned up at school and wore jeans (no longer banned by this time) and suspenders that had loads of Union Jacks on them. Holy Crap! "You either get rid of them suspenders NOW or we get rid of you!" 1978 that was. Get the sack and leave school without A-levels? Well, I wasn't that brave and gave in. Oh yeah, my first dentist. An old lady with bottle bottoms for glasses, she looked like a witch to me being just 7 years. No injection, just "Doncha whine, be brave!" Ah and well, we also did exercises "in case of a nuclear strike" at school: In a subject called "pre-military education" that was mandatory from grade 8 on. (Folks just one year older got spared most of it, grmbl) The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

If it were that easy someone would have already done, huh? Whatcha think how come that competitors ended up in almost the same price range? Only due to them being greedy? Building a reliable AAD isn't easy, there are many facts to consider. If you want something cheap, look for a KAP3. The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

I got a funny e-mail some years ago. It was with illustrating pictures, so I suspect some folks will have to look up a few of the wurdz ;-) I'll attach some of the car-related ones. Here we go: This was sent to me by the wife of our Willapa Valley “Class of ’45” class president so I can’t even expect my own children to understand all of them. 'FENDER SKIRTS.' A term I haven't heard in a long time, and thinking about 'fender skirts' started me thinking about other words that quietly disappear from our language with hardly a notice like 'curb feelers.' And 'steering knobs.' (AKA) 'suicide knob,' 'neckers knobs.' Since I'd been thinking of cars, my mind naturally went that direction first. Any kids will probably have to find some older person over 50 to explain some of these terms to you. Remember 'Continental kits?' They were rear bumper extenders and spare tire covers that were supposed to make any car as cool as a Lincoln Continental. When did we quit calling them 'emergency brakes?' At some point 'parking brake' became the proper term. But I miss the hint of drama that went with 'emergency brake.' I'm sad, too, that almost all the old folks are gone who would call the accelerator the 'foot feed.' Many today do not even know what a clutch is or that the dimmer switch used to be on the floor. Didn't you ever wait at the street for your daddy to come home, so you could ride the 'running board' up to the house? Here's a phrase I heard all the time in my youth but never anymore -'store-bought.' Of course, just about everything is store-bought these days. But once it was bragging material to have a store-bought dress or a store-bought bag of candy. 'Coast to coast' is a phrase that once held all sorts of excitement and now means almost nothing. Now we take the term 'world wide' for granted. This floors me. On a smaller scale, 'wall-to-wall' was once a magical term in our homes. In the '50s, everyone covered his or her hardwood floors with, wow, wall-to-wall carpeting! Today, everyone replaces their wall-to-wall carpeting with hardwood floors. Go figure When was the last time you heard the quaint phrase 'in a family way?' It's hard to imagine that the word 'pregnant' was once considered a little too graphic, a little too clinical for use in polite company, so we had all that talk about stork visits and 'being in a family way' or simply 'expecting.' Apparently 'brassiere' is a word no longer in usage. I said it the other day and my daughter cracked up. I guess it's just 'bra' now. 'Unmentionables' probably wouldn't be understood at all. I always loved going to the 'picture show,' but I considered 'movie' an affectation. Most of these words go back to the '50s, but here's a pure '60s word I came across the other day 'rat fink.' Ooh, what a nasty put-down! Here's a word I miss - 'percolator.' That was just a fun word to say. And what was it replaced with 'Coffee maker.' How dull... Mr. Coffee, I blame you for this. I miss those made-up marketing words that were meant to sound so modern and now sound so retro. Words like 'DynaFlow' and 'Electrolux.' Introducing the 1963 Admiral TV, now with 'SpectraVision!' Food for thought. Was there a telethon that wiped out lumbago? Nobody complains of that anymore. Maybe that's what castor oil cured, because I never hear mothers threatening kids with castor oil anymore. Some words aren't gone, but are definitely on the endangered list. The one that grieves me most is 'supper.' Now everybody says 'dinner.' Save a great word. Invite someone to supper. Discuss fender skirts. Someone forwarded this to me. I thought some of us of a 'certain age' would remember most of these. Just for fun, pass it along to others of 'a certain age.' IF YOU AREN'T OF A CERTAIN AGE, YOU MUST KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS. The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Hilarious! I created my own "Plane Horror Ordeal" story, almost made it into the papers! Anyone around who can build a "Lazy Journalists Parachute Story Generator"? The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

I picked just this one, because it shows that it's not only "a bit of rubber". If you want to make the unit waterproof you could seal it with rubber/silicone or something but then it wouldn't work any more: It would be airtight, too. So they looked for material that allows for airflow but prevents water from getting in. After very thorough research they finally found a supplier but it turned out even their material had to be individually, manually checked with about 50% of the parts not meeting the high standards. Airtec is a manufacture, every employee checks the unit he gets thoroughly and completely, then adds his part(s) and so on - followed by several final checks. If you every have the opportunity to be near them ask for tour. Should be possible if you are with some fellow skydivers. You'll be impressed! The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

...and after dropping a whole foot you will limp!!! SCNR The right attitude, but I'm pretty sure you'll do it next time. Finger crossed.