Heatmiser 0 #101 November 10, 2009 Will that be cash or charge?Will you get off of me?Will you stop licking that window?! What you say is reflective of your knowledge...HOW ya say it is reflective of your experience. Airtwardo Someone's going to be spanked! Hopefully, it will be me. Skymama Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CobraRover 0 #102 November 11, 2009 Had the sucked back up question a few times. Also got asked today "Whats the chances of hitting the planes propeller when you jump out? Can it not suck you towards it?" lol. Love the comment someone made about drowning when falling through clouds! Everyone gets asked a lot of stupid questions, but I bet the majority of us turn those questions into conversations - at the end of the day, what we do is our passion, and we all love speaking about it. Im going for a weeks jumping break next month, and purely because of making conversations out of peoples stupid questions im taking 3 tandems with me and 1 AFF. +1 for skydiving. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnDeere 0 #103 November 11, 2009 Quote Will you get off of me? Your wife says that to?Nothing opens like a Deere! You ignorant fool! Checks are for workers! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KermieCorleone 0 #104 November 11, 2009 I hate it when they ask/state "how hard can it be? arent you just falling?" - Neil Never make assumptions! That harmless rectangle could be two triangles having sex ... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nicsoew 0 #105 May 19, 2015 KermieCorleone I hate it when they ask/state "how hard can it be? arent you just falling?" I am also into caving and one of the best caver I know asked me that . I told him its harder than caving and explained to him why. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skybill 22 #106 May 19, 2015 What whuffo questions annoy me the most???......None of them...really. Like, they're Whuffs', Whiskey Tango Foxtrot did you expect from them?? Remember, before "WE" took the "Leap of Faith" we too were whuffs' once!!SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tonyhays 86 #107 May 19, 2015 Two of the funniest questions ever asked to me... 1) Why is it sunny above the clouds & 2) As we were flying up the coast with land on one side and the Pacific on the other the guy pointed out the window towards the ocean and asked "Is that water?"“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skybill 22 #108 May 19, 2015 Hi Tony, WOW!! That was quick!! 'Reminds me one time of a Whuff watching a "Demo" with "Smoke" and he commented,"That's how they fly so Fast like that, It's those little "Jets on their feet!!!"SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PixieUK 0 #109 May 19, 2015 The questions listed don't really bother me, I think they're natural curiosity. Why else would they be the same questions that people ask over and over again? Though to be fair, most people just say "I could never do that" and we change the subject. If it does get as far as a decent conversation, I do get the "but you've got x jumps, don't you know all there is to know by now?" question quite a lot, lol. Yeah, I wish And many of my conversations end up going down the route of explaining that I skydive, I don't actually do proximity BASE and wingsuiting . Though it does occasionally get amusing when people are horrified I want to jump from higher up, like 15000' is scarier than 10000' We frequently end up at the 'acceptable risk' discussion (of dying, they rarely consider severe injury or disability) and those people always want to know if any of my friends have died skydiving, to which I usually ask if they've had any friends die in car accidents and it's rare that people say no. For me, if people are interested enough to ask questions, it's a chance to engage them, not so much about skydiving, but about different perspectives and how getting more information can change a viewpoint. A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Boomerdog 0 #110 May 19, 2015 Is it scary? They can answer that one themselves as it is obvious they refuse to "go up" for that very reason. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pchapman 279 #111 May 19, 2015 People ask about "doing the thing with the squirrel suit" or BASE. At least I can answer yes to doing those (but not together!). For me that's better than in the '90s, when one got asked about "doing the thing standing on the board", because of skyboarding getting so much exposure in the X-Games. What does annoy me is the occasional person who has no concept of vertical distance, not understanding even roughly the height of a tall building vs. a skydive vs. Everest vs. a commercial airliner. I'm so used to aviation and physics that it floors me when people have no concept of the third dimension. It's as if someone wasn't sure if it was further from New York to London than from London to Paris. I'm OK with people not having an understanding of how breathable the air is at different altitudes though, because that's a sort of hidden dimension that people rarely have to deal with. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lyosha 50 #112 May 19, 2015 "What's the highest you've jumped?" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Suslique 0 #113 May 19, 2015 Tuna-SaladI gave up trying to answer these questions... and the ever present.. "I wouldn't do that unless the plane was crashing" The perfectly good airplanes has to be my pet peeve.. i'm forever thankful to spanish, russian and dutch skydivers whose super friendly attitude and answers to my annoying stupid questions contributed to my skydiving obsession. everything would've been different if they were rude and arrogant to me. 'Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?' 'That is the only time a man can be brave.' George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mcordell 2 #114 May 19, 2015 I don't mind the questions as long as they are willing to listen to the answer. Not too long ago there were a bunch of family members standing out shielding their eyes and looking up for their loved one on a tandem. The load was a tandem and two fun jumpers. I could hear them talking back and forth about which one was their loved one. One of them asked me which one it was so I pointed to the canopy and said it's the blue one right there. The other two are solo jumpers. Then they proceeded to debate back and forth with me about which one was the tandem. I repeatedly (and politely) told them it was the blue one but they insisted they only saw one set of legs. I finally gave up and as I was walking back into the hangar one of them said "oh I see! It's the blue one!" I guess it's not so much a whuffo question as they were being askholes by asking me a question and then completely ignoring my answer.www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andy9o8 2 #115 May 19, 2015 I've reviewed the answers I gave in 2009. They haven't really changed, but maybe I've mellowed just a tad more. Anyhow, I'm not rude (moi?) to people when they ask the questions, although I try to steer the conversation to "pass the potatoes" as soon as I can. But I'm naturally an impatient person, so I just don't have patience with the same questions & comments over and over the way some others in this thread seem to.. For this reason, I never disclose I'm a skydiver to those who don't already know it, and ask my family to do likewise. Sometimes my wife amuses herself by throwing me under the bus to see me squirm when she's had a few martinis, but hey - that's my gal, and she thinks it's a hoot. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FlyingRhenquest 1 #116 May 19, 2015 They pretty predictably seem to think one can land a wingsuit without the assistance of a parachute. I don't get bent out of shape at setting 'em right though -- unless you're actually doing this, you don't think much on the equipment or physics involved.I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ryoder 1,590 #117 May 19, 2015 FlyingRhenquest They pretty predictably seem to think one can land a wingsuit without the assistance of a parachute. I blame Gary Connery for that."There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GoHuskers 0 #118 May 20, 2015 I'm considering buying a "why jump from a perfectly good airplane" tshirt and keeping it in my gear bag. That way if I don't feel like being social, I can wear it in the packing room and hope it cliche enough that people steer clear of me. A not very subtle way of saying, you don't want to talk to me anyways. Hopefully it also has a speed limit 120mph sign too. ETA: Tandems never bother me, they make the plane fly. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tisket 0 #119 May 20, 2015 Even with my tiny bit of experience, I've found the best response to "why jump out of a perfectly good airplane" The door was open If you can't convince them, keep them confused. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theplummeter 15 #120 May 20, 2015 I fly airplanes for a living and have a few coworkers who know I jump that constantly ask me the perfect airplane question. I just tell them it's because a broken one won't get you to altitude and add that if they lack the intelligence to figure that out then maybe they're in the wrong field. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FlyingRhenquest 1 #121 May 20, 2015 Tisket Even with my tiny bit of experience, I've found the best response to "why jump out of a perfectly good airplane" The door was open I like "Oh... well you haven't seen our planes..."I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lurch 0 #122 May 20, 2015 The only thing that still gets on my nerves is when there is an incident that ends up in the news. Time after time after time, ignorant or insensitive people I try not to write up as complete assholes ask me, with an odd enthusiasm to their manner, almost an avidity or excitement as if they enjoy prodding me with it or gain some joy from the question like they think it's awesome that they actually know a guy who might have known the dead guy in the news... "Hey, did you hear about those guys that just died..." as if he thinks maybe I might be totally out of touch and he gets to be the one to tell me about it, with evident enjoyment. I want to, but don't, blow my stack and blast their heads off "YES, THEY WERE MY FRIENDS, I'VE LOST SIX IN THE LAST YEAR ALONE, NOW, -FUCK OFF-!!!!" I'm a little raw about that right now actually because I have a guy at work who asks this every single time a fatality in either skydiving or BASE makes the news, to the point where I KNOW he's going to ask it again today, and he did, about the Yosemite incident. I almost detonated. I don't blow my stack easily, but for guys like him I'm sometimes sorely tempted to make an exception. -B Live and learn... or die, and teach by example. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jumpdude 0 #123 May 20, 2015 "What does it feel like when it pulls you back up when you open the parachute?" I try to explain that it doesn't pull you back up, it's an illusion that's created on video when the camera guy doesn't pull at the same time as the tandem/target jumpers and goes lower to video their openings, they almost never believe me! I used to try to argue the point, now days, I just tell them once how it is, if they don't believe me, I just shut up and let them believe what they want, They are going to anyway! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IJskonijn 45 #124 May 20, 2015 I saw a t-shirt (I think at Skydive Sebastian) that said it made no sense to jump into a perfectly good airplane. Makes sense. The only other questions I find annoying are the too-many-times repeated ones. Even my own dad can't seem to figure out you can breathe perfectly fine in freefall. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
piisfish 140 #125 May 20, 2015 it does actually pull you back up. And the feeling is great, like a bungee jump after a minute of freefall Major canopy manufacturers worked together with A.J.Hackett to develop lines with more recoil scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
