TriGirl

Behold, our new cat!! Weird...but Wow! See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I just got the medium-sized Sky Systems bag. I haven't carried my rig on with it yet, but it does fit nicely into the overhead compartment when full of stuff. I live in Turkey, and have flown back and forth to the U.S. several times with my rig in checked baggage. Funny, TSA in the U.S. always seems to open my personal suitcase, but has never left me a note in my gear bag. The one I use for checking my rig is the older versioin of this: Eddie Bauer bag. The lower compartment is hard-side, and is used only for the rig. Once I zip that closed, the helmet, jumpsuits, shoes, and loose-ends box (small box with log book, gloves, alti, jump tickets, spare stows, etc), gets fit around the shape made by the rig, in the upper compartment. (I hope that description made sense). I also usually put the AAD instruction sheet right on top of the rig in the lower compartment, with my flight information (seat numbers, etc) so they can call me if anyone on any stage of my trip has any questions. However, I never once had an issue with checking my rig through like that. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Got boobies, too! See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Or a tranny. He also said, "dude," though he did start out saying that zone was trannies. I have been described more than once as a dude in a chick's body (all chick where it matters, but think like a dude). Yes, we do exist. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I thought that was Nascar. I thought it was skydiving. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Sounds awesome!!

Dude, still sorry we couldn't make a meet up work while I was in the area. My travel buddy was a wuffo, but we linked up with two other skydivers in Slovenia (my rigger's first trip back in about 15 years!). They went jumping that weekend (DZ is closed during the week), but we all had a great time and drank a lot of beer anyway. You two would have been a great addition to the party! Anyway, enjoy your trip. I just wish my trip hadn't been so damn SHORT! You're both very lucky. Oh, and congratulations! See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

And I LOVE a scrambles. Maybe next year. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I'd rather a wuffo read this than the majority of the incident reports that get printed. If you're going to talk about the dangerous side of our sport, in Sports Illustrated no less, this is a well-balanced way to do it. The background/human interest stuff pulls the wuffo right in, and really lets the average person put him/herself in the place of the student. Now, let's see if we can get SI to cover Nationals!

Woo hoo! My check will get mailed off tomorrow. Wish I could be there, but I'm still in Turkey until September. Good luck with the fundraising! Tanya See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I don't know, mate. Might want to leave that catheter in for a while. I can't imagine what taking a leak on your own will be like in the next week! Glad you're still alive and in one piece! However, in reply to the opiates, I strongly recommend starting to work some icing into your recovery therapy. That's how I've kept my narcotics use to a minimum after surgeries. Then again, I didn't like that spaced out, floaty feeling anyway. It was good to give up the drugs! Get well soon! T See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Let this be a lesson: ALWAYS listen when Chuck tells you NO!! He may have "ruint" a few lives, but definitely NOT through skydiving. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I'd also add that this (albeit rather graphic) depiction of a wuffo's interpretation of BASE and wingsuiting just might keep those run-of-the-mill knuckleheads from getting a hold of a BASE rig and trying it themselves. How many of us have heard wuffos ask of our skydiving accomplishments: "you're just falling. How hard can that be?" Take it up a notch to the AFF student who says (s)he wants to start skydiving because the next step is wingsuit BASE because they saw it on YouTube and thought it looked cool. Bottom line: if nothing else, it's a reality check for those who see Jeb's (and others') videos and think it looks easy.

Damn. That was really good, except for the one mistake at the end. Otherwise, he hit on most of my peeves. Thanks, Al! (and monkycndo, of course). See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Not to mention, how many people have we all heard saying they would "take a year off" after HS? See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

[facepalm] See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

I disagree. After my first 3 semesters, I took 2.5 yrs off to do my military training and some follow-on service. Went right back to my Medical Physics program just fine (got through multivariable calc before my hiatus, picked up with Diff Eq, organic chem and E&M once I came back). The only problem I had was with statistics, though that had nothing to do with the time off! See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

That's awesome!

This hasn't been moved to SC why? See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Ummm... because it IS. As is the remainder of the apartment! Congrats on the new addition! Just talk to him as if you don't care whether he comes to you or not. Once he feels like the pressure is off, he'll start coming to you and checking you out, too. And Capt. Jack Sparrow sends a message for Leo also. "Get over it, and let the humans do their jobs!" See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Not even close. Tandems are generally limited to 235lb passengers, but there is some leeway depending on the TM's weight and the total suspended weight the gear is rated for. However, since you're going for the AFF program, pfft... You're well under what might be construed as too fat. There was a jumper at my home DZ who was too large for a tandem. He really wanted to jump, so he signed up for AFF instead.

Umm.... yeah. After we FIFY! (I will admit that the concept was brilliant -- we just got it over the finish line at the end there). FWIW, we're losing ours eventually, too. Second most beautiful aircraft we (Marines) have ever flown. 1st better be the SR-71 second is the F-18. Uh, no. Marines don't fly the SR-71. And F-18? You've GOT to be kidding me. Ding ding ding! We have a winner. Especially if you've ever seen one fly. Damn! See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Umm.... yeah. After we FIFY! (I will admit that the concept was brilliant -- we just got it over the finish line at the end there). FWIW, we're losing ours eventually, too. Second most beautiful aircraft we (Marines) have ever flown. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!

Give me the details -- which event, date, location. I'll ask my friends. Do you happen to remember which squadron? (did you see a logo?) That would narrow down the search a bit. See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus Shut Up & Jump!