Deuce

Flaring? That's when you crash into the ground with the toggles in your hands, and the G-forces that you pull yank the brake lines down and you pop way the hell back up into the air before crashing again, right?

Sounds like you're drunk on Whinekin. Whuss. I'll see your stupid and raise you, uh, more stupider.....

Succinct and accurate as hell. I think the only difference between IVF and cloning is that the IVF babies go to parents who want them desperately. I think the coldly scientific thing to do with clones is produce them without more than a brain stem to use them for research. Everyone will scream about that until they cure cancer, like you said. Then they will be destroyed and everyone will try to forget the price paid for a cancer free world.

It has to be a cool country when they elect Porn stars to congress. Good knowledge, Clayster!

The Italian Catholic populace? They have a saying there that they love their priests, but hate their Church. Divorce and abortion are both legal in Italy, as, apparently is cloning. They have a democracy, sort of, so they must approve of such things.

There's no beer visible in the picture, so I suspect fraud

You don't count. Clay is supposedly "employed". You are a college student with a goatee. You are very, very diligently researching network communications enterprise solutions or something

Quade's thread about dreams of cratering spooked me. I had a dream last weekend of a tib-fib crash and the sound was very eerie. I was talking to another camera flyer and "vroom crack-crack!" The crashed flyer wasn't anybody I knew (in the dream).

Cool. I can use all the people who post more than me as examples to my boss as to how responsible I am. "I'm no postwhore! Those people on page 1 are postwhores!"

As opposed to the annoying sound of a baseball home run hit. That's what my, uh, impact was described as sounding like.

100. Two point 8 way with some of the big dogs. While we were drinking my case, one of the skygods saunters over and tells me "You're in". One of the best days of my life.

I'm not familiar with your camera, but can you change the focus target size? I'm using the wrong terminology, but my Nikon's let me choose the point the camera focuses on. It has settings from pinpoint to about the middle third of the image. Try using a larger focus target. Since your subject is hauling ass, your camera might be focus hunting from the swooper to the background to the foreground.

You know, I worked in a garage when I was a teenager, and it was the coldest freakin job I ever had. You gotta have the doors open all the time when your running engines. I can only imagine how cold it must be doing that kind of work in New York! My suggestion? If you are a baker, bring them some freshly baked warm cookies. If not, buy them some freshly baked warm cookies. That is absolutely great karma. I'm happy for you and it makes me happy that nice people do nice things.

Good luck Bill!

Thanks HH

Fermentation is rot. Rot is good

Seb, where do you find that shit? Google search for "non-sequitor"? Have you run out of Cogentin again?

Over the weekend I heard it was for 100, 200 and then the 500's. Basically I think it's determined by the Local Board of SkyGods.

I got off easy. That said, I think it's because at this stage, 300-500 jumps, I haven't had any even minor injury incidents in over 200 jumps. I've developed some muscle-memory responses that are totally inappropriate for the new canopy. It's one thing to "know" what I'm supposed to be doing, and another one altogether when it "feels" right to do something else. The danger comes from feeling that you can do something, and failing to think about what you are doing. With airplanes they call this "flying behind the plane". Yep. I pride myself in being a good listener, and I listened to downsizing advice and really thought I had took it to heart. My enthusiasm disconnected my intellect. Getting hurt a little is a good way to get that enthusiasm in check, and get my intellect back in the driver's seat. Like I said, I got off easy all things considered. Some folks here know me, and know I'm a pretty methodical skydiver, so maybe they'll be safer for a couple of jumps.

6' 190. Most of that is my solid bone head. With JumpNFly posting all that nutrition and fitness stuff I feel compelled to add that my bodyfat is about 7.5% My wingloading is about 1.43. Thanks, Q. Yes I am my most fierce critic, yes I've learned my lesson. "Testifying" is a good way to stay straight. All my friends will be watching me, and that will reinforce my need to be more methodical in relearning how to be a safe pilot. No, no doctor visit. This is the second day, and I'm making good progress. I've been banged up much, much worse. I'm sure I'll be skydiving by Friday.

LOL! Cops are in their cars watching the game on their mini-tv's. Dispatch broadcasts that they need an available unit. Nothing. Crickets chirping. "Any unit?" Nothing. "Any unit for a report of a nude female at Juki's Laundromat, described as a white female in her 20's, short brown hair, peirced navel, gothic tattoo on the small of her back, naked, sitting on the dryer smiling and humming to herself?" Nothing but squelch as every squad in town starts up and rolls to Juki's

Nobody, Q. It was just a "Here, hold my beer and watch this" stupid moment. I love everything about skydiving. Flying that new canopy was on par with great sex. I have front-risered the finals on the last 200 landings I've made, I did the uphill, downhill, crosswind downwind thing. My major malfunction was in forgetting that I did not have that experience in the new canopy, and that downsizing isn't a progression it is STARTING OVER. I know how to uphill, downhill, crosswind, downwind a Spectre 170. I am a good Spectre 170 pilot. I know what to grab and how to steer the 150, but I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FLY IT. The 300 jumps on the big brother don't count for much. So when I did what I did over 100 times on the 170 out of habit, I crashed. I wanted to share the story cause I think it might get a fellow downsizer to understand viscerally, rather than just intellectually, that EVERYTHING changes when you downsize. I've got a bunch of body memory from flying the 170 that does not apply to my 150. A bunch of good habits on the 170 are now life threatening on the 150. I knew that in my brain, but hangin in the harness at 500 feet my "little brain" took over in a Yee-haw moment. I think I'm probably fortunate that I downsized on the same canopy type. If I had pulled the same stunt on a Stiletto 150, I may very well have injured myself much more seriously. Thanks for the nice words, folks.

OK, 12 ounces of espresso coffee, 4 equals, 8 oz of 2% milk, two protein bars(62gram protein, 16 gr fat, 18gr carb), 20 ounces of diet coke, 1 package cheese crackers (4 gr pro, 23 gr carb, 10 gr fat), later it's a can of chicken soup for lunch, a cliff bar for a snack, and then a couple of chicken breasts for dinner with some incidental carbs and vegetables. Once you pass the gallstones, it's not a bad diet to live with!

When do you get there? I'll fly cameras if you want.

Well, if you're gonna be stupid, you gotta be tough. I've got about 350 jumps, about 300 on my Spectre 170. I am videoing tandems as of recently, so getting a second rig means having the opportunity to do more tandem video work. My first rig has a 176 reserve and the 170 main. New rig: 143 reserve, 150 main. I get the new rig last week, and it is BEAUTIFUL. I zip out to the DZ Saturday, there's a tandem video waiting and I jump the first rig, cause I don't want to be distracted by the new gear when somebody is paying me to make them a star. (That was about the smartest thing I did all day). First jump on the new rig I video a fun 4 way in my camera suit. Look, the smaller rig is just so much lighter and more comfortable, I'm already figuring out what rifles I'm selling to finance another one. We break off in beautiful puffy industrial haze that I will refer to as "clouds" just for the sake of discussion, I pull and have a very nice Spectre opening. Under canopy a little high, as planned about 5500'. The 4 way is open, no reserve rides for them or me. Coolio. Oh! I got a black center stripe and a black slider, that's right! They've changed the way the brakes stow, and I've got the thin risers. Pop the brakes, vroom! Hey, snappy! Left toggle turn, whoa! Right toggle turn, Whee! Rear risers to stall, yowsa! Oh look! A cloud canyon! Dive with the front risers, good golly I've got me an F-16 on afterburner! I can hold a riser dive indefinitely! Burn right through the canyon, release the risers and pull brakes to skim right under the deck. I'm actually leaving a little wake on the underside of the cloud! What the hell must it be like to fly a Velocity?! Nah, I'm too old for that, and this is huge fun! Who woulda thought that 20 less feet of ZP would make such a difference? Set up on final, little bit of front riser to get some more speed, release, flare, flare, flare, vroom! Wow, I got more flare now than on my 170! I'm giggling as I pick this little thing up and walk back to the hangar. I lay the chute out and pack it myself, everything on the first try. Not too bad! The bag sure looks puny, but since since the canopy's smaller it's actually easier to control and get into the bag. Who's up for a hoop jump? ME! We get the whole plane, 14 of us. The hoop and the holders go, and I'm third out the door. Harlan gets through, Jim gets through, I get cut off my Alan, but heck he's Alan, I get through and then video the others. About 10 of us get through the hoop before break off. Pull, I really like this new 150! I don't know about the black slider, but I'll get used to it. Wow this thing turns. A little teeny bit of wind, toward the hangars, so I set up over the hangar, pull down on the left riser to set up my final, pull down the right riser and WOW! this thing can DIVE! Landing area is clear, release the risers and prepare to flare TOO LATE! OH SHIT THIS IS GONNA HURT! MAYBE I CAN PULL MY FEET WAY UP AND WHAM! CRACK! WHAT AM I DOING WAY THE HELL BACK UP IN THE AIR? OH MY FREAKING KNEES! OH CRAP DID I BREAK MY BACK? OH CRAP IT'S GOING TO HURT AGAIN....WHUMP. Well, I'm not dead, again. Fingers and toes wiggle so I haven't severed the spinal cord, I can move my legs, so even though it really, really hurts I probably haven't broken the kneecaps. I can't stand up, but I signal I'm OK. Vic undoes my leg straps, takes off my video helmet and I catch my breath. Oh, that's right, I'm not supposed to do stupid shit like that when I'm on the second jump of a brand new small canopy. I start laughing. Hey, I didn't break my video camera, and I didn't scrub my new rig, either. I did manage to tear straight through the double layer of cordura over the knees of my Tonysuit, though. Joel helps me stand up, and surprisingly my knees don't instantly bend the wrong way, like an ostrich's. I walk off the DZ with my arm on Vic's shoulder. My friends in the hangar cheer, and don't even give me a "Fuck Him". I get ice out of my cooler (I brought beer, the new rig) and start freezing both my knees. I proceed to find out who my friends are as they come over to talk to me about how I'm stupid. Vic takes my video camera and brings me back a video of the divots I left in the ground when I hit. I take a couple of giant ibuprofens and ice my knees and talk to my friends for a couple of hours. I talk to Shannon for quite a while, and I like her even more. No thanks I don't need a ride home, no thanks, please don't call my wife. Oh yeah, I've been hurt much worse before, yes I've been stupid my whole life. The last load is up? Joel gives me a hand up and lo and behold I can walk. I walk out to the landing area with Connie and she tells me how I'm stupid. Loveable, but really, really stupid sometimes.