fred

I got a leatherman for christmas. It was my one gift, but something that I actually wanted, so all's good. I asked Santa for a job, but that didn't happen. I'm still hoping that I'll get that call tomorrow for an interview for the job I covet, but chances are slim. But I will be jumping next summer. And with all the arrangements I've made to save money while I'm unemployed, saving up for my own EQ should be no problem. Santa sometimes works in strange ways, folks.

Actually, this is the same terminology that they use at my dz. A "partial" malfunction is one that you will, given altitude, recover from. On a student canopy, the only one they taught us was a line twist. And, as far as those go, I've had a few. I'm a prime example of a student who's upping the statistics on his own. I've probably had 5 line twists on my 15 jumps (slight spinning problem during freefall). The one I hate more, however, would be a riser slap. While probably not a partial, still an uncomfortable opening. I actually broke the strap off a helmet with one of those.

See, I think it fell apart right here. Now, to wake up to the 6:15 blowjob, well, that would be a different story.

Sorry... found it... the site is here. The glasses I want are here... So, ugly? I covet them...

A few months ago I was browsing the 'gear' section of DZ.com and found an on-line store from the netherlands that had a wide variety of goggles for sale. iirc, they turned out to be about $20 with shipping to the US, and had just about any style one could want... Now, I can't seem to find it. Anybody know what site I'm talking about?

Nice to hear that somebody else isn't just cruising through the SL program. While I haven't had any step-throughs or problems like you're describing, I have had all sorts of stability issues. I nailed my PRCP's and my first 5 second freefall. But sometime between 5-seconds and 10, I start going unstable and rock and spin and hurt myself on opening. It's been a mess. I think this is what I failed to realize. I thought that I had to learn how to arch perfectly, and that my problems were caused by little mistakes. Now that I've drown myself in videos and advice, I'm convinced that my problems were because I was afraid of screwing up; that it was mental. I haven't been able to get back up in the air, but I'm pretty sure that if I go, relax, and try to get 'arch like', I'm going to do just fine. The air seems to be very forgiving, and just knowing that is going to make me a lot more comfortable and *relaxed*. I just wish I could get up there to test out this new belief. ;) Good luck with the static line. Realize that even jumps where you have problems are a lot more fun than sitting in the dorms. I'd rather have a spinning opening than stay at home.

During one of my PRCP's, when I was scooting up to the 'next jumper' position, I realized that my handle was lying in the back corner of the plane. Ever since then, I check my handles at least 100 times before jumping. I wouldn't call it superstitious, but 'paranoid' might fit. I do try and grab the same helmet each time, but thats just because it's the most comfortable. Hmm... spring can't come soon enough for me.

This amused me. First, because 'Troll' is obviously a noun, not a pronoun. Also, because the verb form means doing things like this intentionally. That is, if I post a message that is 'trolling', it usually means that I've got a well thought out post and I stick in a piece of obvious misinformation (or a gross misspelling) in order to solicit response from trolls. This is common practice in alt.folklore.urban, where they consider trolling to be an artform.

Do experienced jumpers use RSL's? It just seems to me like a bad idea... I like it for a first jump, when a student has no idea what he or she is doing, but eventually, isn't it safer to space out the cutaway and reserve deployment?

This is one of my favorite urban legends, because there actually was a kid dying of cancer, and he asked for greeting cards to be sent. Unfortunately, this was in 1989, and in 1991 the boy's tumor was successfully removed. According to Guinness, by 1991 the "boy" had received over 33 million greeting cards. From the snopes article, this is my favorite part:

I'm actually quite pleased with how well the cafepress.com shirts came out. For something with no up-front costs, it's quite impressive, and has stood up better than a lot of cheap screen printed shirts I've used. And even if you don't like the shirts, the cafepress.com coffee mugs come out beautifully. That said, assuming I find a job soon, I'll be interested. And I really like the quote from above: "If god had wanted me to stay on the ground, he would have given me roots."

I was just going to secure a 2-by-4 to the roof of my friend's pickup and practice the "get out and hang" maneuvre along the expressway... maybe climb out and get in the back of the truck. Problem is, when I look down, it's way past pull-time.

Some of it is this Nimba virus. It's been hitting my connection pretty hard. (over 6000 hits on my web server from it). But I'm sure the bulk of the problem on dz.com is all the bored skydivers, each hoping to see the post "Yay! We can jump again!" (Not yet, unfortunately)

Wow... a post like this is likely to stir up panic. It won't happen. They'd stop private pilots before they'd stop skydiving, and that would stir up a bigger uproar. The FAA is just trying to be safe. They want to make sure that for the short term, that they can track every plane in the sky. The skies aren't safe. And terrorists have demonstrated just how destructive a passenger plane can be. Many have pointed out that a C182 loaded with explosives could do just as much, and (in my not-an-explosives-expert opinion) probably more. But somebody could also do more damage with a 9-passenger van loaded up, or a suitcase filled with a chemical/biological/nuclear weapon of some sort. The government knows this. What they're trying to do is ramp up their intelligence forces, and investigate any claims. They can't clear the skies for us until the FBI has investigated any claims of threat. The government receives threats every day. And every one is investigated. Now that one was actually true, they've got to dig deeper into every one to see if it was related. And, although I'd like to be jumping, that might mean keeping my DZ's tiny little cessna's out of the air so that they can better keep tabs on things. I wish it weren't necessary; hell, I don't think it is. But I'm willing to let them take their time returning GA to the air. I don't think that they'd ban private flight. There's too many sport fliers to risk reelection.

Looks like I'm done for the season, too. The financial situation at my work has broken the barrier between 'scary' and 'probably won't pay me anymore'. I wish I was doing it by choice, but as it looks, I probably won't be able to get that A before winter hits. Give me hugs, folks.

I need to install a breathalyzer on my PC so that if I'm over the limit, I won't be able to post or e-mail. I can't count the number of times I've done stupid things under the influence of alcohol. I don't know what particular post you're referring to, but you're giving good advice. Friends don't let friends drink and post.

It was a radio broadcast on June 5, 1973 by Gordon Sinclair, a radio journalist, on CFRB in Toronto.

I'll go ahead and repimp my first jump story. click here

Do you also surf the web by telnetting to port 80? But you're right. Telnet has its uses when it comes to troubleshooting.

To have something a bit more unique or individualized that simply picking my own colors. Just thinking about options here. I'd love to have my website logo overhead. It's definately a personal thing. Thanks for the info folks. Guess I'll wait till I win the lotto, though.

Oops.. Sorry about that. I edited my post to fix faux pas. Ignoring for now the resale value, could I get an all white canopy and have it screen printed with a logo on the bottom? It seems so easy, but its not widely done. Why not?

I'm a ways off from buying my own equipment, but while reading about canopy colors and what else, I realized that I would rather have something unique printed on my canopy. For future reference, do any of the manufacturers do this? I've seen photos of canopies with artwork on them. What I want is a pretty simple design (a circle with some text in it), but nobody advertises this option, and I haven't seen custom printed canopies at my DZ. Is it difficult to screenprint on nylon? Who is allowed to do it? Are there other ways to get a personal design printed? Why isn't this more prevalent? Why aren't there more canopies out there with more than just the simple cell coloring?

Okay... newbie question. There's a part of the design I don't recognize. What are the two diamonds on the bottom skin? What are they called and what do they do? And, as far as canopy suggestions go, there's one guy at my DZ who flies a stilleto 135 that's all white with blue ribs. It looks amazing. I plan on plagiarizing it when I eventually buy my own eq. (though probably a different rib color)

Telnet is bad. If I run a sniffer on your network, or any pc/router between you and your destination, I can read everything you type in telnet, including passwords. ssh is encrypted, so a sniffer does me no good. It's tough to break, and even has some little precautions to stop "man in the middle" attacks. Telnet has no support for transferring files. You need ftp for that. ftp is not secure, either. scp on the other hand, uses an encrypted channel, so you can securely copy files across the net. I believe that ssh has some additional features not available in telnet, not the other way around.

Am I the only one that's heard of this? I thought it was common knowledge.