FlyingRhenquest

Same here. I got laid off at the beginning of the month, just in time for the really nice spring weather to start kicking in. My new philosophy is that I need to find a way to make a decent enough living that I can skydive more and work for douchebags less. So far the winds have been cooperative enough that I can get some jumps in on the days that Mile Hi flies. It's shaping up to be a pretty good year, even if I do have to whore myself out to every woman in Longmont to keep the house. Or maybe, especially if that happens. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Yeah, though the ol' Raider 2 WAS kinda fun for 20 or so jumps. I never actually DID stand that damned thing up. I keep trying to convince the DZ to get together with the guy I borrowed it from to build a "Mile Hi Challenge Rig" with it. Jumping with it certainly did give me a new appreciation for my Safire 2. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

The new ZP canopies fly better than the one's he was used to. I jumped one of those old F111 canopies for a while. Thing flared like a cow. He might find a new ZP 240 or 260 much more to his liking. I'd suggest he hit a tunnel for about 10 minutes if there's one conveniently nearby, then do the AFF training because really a lot has changed in the last couple decades. Maybe find a DZ that has a decent selection of rental gear and try a few canopies. He might actually find a Safire 2 or a Sabre 2 to his liking, even if he's never going to get really aggressive with it. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

The guy 4 hangars down from Mile Hi has a biplane. He had it out last year, so I ambled on down and talked to him. He says it was built in 1929. http://ethyltheaardvark.deviantart.com/art/Biplane-Cockpit-461164573?q=gallery%3AEthylTheAardvark%2F30773488&qo=32 http://ethyltheaardvark.deviantart.com/art/Biplane-Front-461164134?q=gallery%3AEthylTheAardvark%2F30773488&qo=34 http://ethyltheaardvark.deviantart.com/art/Biplane-Other-Front-461164437?q=gallery%3AEthylTheAardvark%2F30773488&qo=33 I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Another Airbus. I'm starting to feel like there's a trend going on here. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Ooh! Dude! I am totally going to suggest this to a couple of people I know who are having a hard time relaxing! Thanks for the tip! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Take a deep breath, hold it for a moment and then let it out. Your body will automatically relax as you exhale. Or try getting behind the wheel of a car and without turning it on, try tensing up as much as you can. Make your arms all stiff like you might have been when you were learning how to drive. Not going to have very good control over the car like that, are you? It'll be all jerky. Now relax to your normal posture and feel the difference. Much the same things are going on, too. Your eyes are learning where to look and how to deal with the information they're being presented, and you're learning a whole new set of skills. All right look... first tunnel session. Sorry for the cheesy music, that was before I started clipping the audio out. It's handy to have video evidence. So there I'm all tense and stiff. Like a bread stick, trying to fly. One from this year. I'm totally relaxed and I'm not having to really think about what I'm doing. I'm not particularly interested in freeflying, I just have a tunnel rat friend and can't resist going down there if she wants to. I'm still very much learning in there, by the way, even though I've mostly just been on my belly. You might be able to tell from the second video that I really just want to go tracking off, though. I need a football-stadium-sized wind tunnel I can go swooping around! (Or, you know, just the sky...) I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Ahh well... I had several people suggest that I get to the tunnel during AFF and my instructors did see a noticeable improvement in my flying thereafter. I did six minutes in the tunnel between AFF 3 and 4 and another 6 minutes before moving on to coaching. I had an exact timeline at one point. The one thing that will make the biggest difference in your flying is relaxing, and I did not put enough tunnel time in to get to that point during AFF. In fact, it was a bit over a year later that I went to the tunnel and really relaxed for the first time. I just told my instructor I was there to have fun today and had no objectives. The second I hit the air I felt all the tension go out of my body and flew like I'd never flown before. And I thought to myself "Oh! This is what they meant!" Do you remember learning to drive? I do, even though it was three decades ago. I was all stiff, afraid to make the smallest move because I didn't know how the car would respond. Now, I get behind the wheel and I can carry on a conversation while driving because I can just relax and let my body do most of the work. You'll get to that point with your flying, where you don't have to think about how to do something, you just think about what you want to do and your body can make it happen. Anywhoo, I'd say yeah, do your tunnel time. Tell your instructor you're working toward your skydiving license. The important skills are being stable, holding a heading and being able to pull. You can't actually pull in a tunnel, of course, but you CAN do practice pulls where you make the motion. If you're a bit bored with all that, you can always put one or both hands on your helmet or behind your back and try flying and steering like that. They usually push you very quickly into freeflying in the wind tunnel, and I'm not sure I approve of that. In fact, I disapprove! Here is my disapproving face! Heh heh. Stay on your belly for an hour or two! There's a lot more to learn there than you think! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Awesome! I think doing it that way is much better than trying to space your jumps out over time. I found that if I did more than one jump a day during AFF and coaching, I'd be much less nervous on the later jumps than the first one of the day. That would allow me to focus more on the jump objectives. Even now, if I take some time off, I'm a bit more nervous on the first jump when I get back. We had a month of bad weather that ended a couple of weeks ago and it took me a few jumps to get back in the groove. That's never as bad as it was in AFF, though. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Yeah. Mile Hi never flies Tuesday or Wednesday, if week long jumping is a consideration. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

My javascript blocker and stealth browser plugins block all NBC pages, completely. Funnily enough, I don't seem to mind this. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Yeah, leg position takes a while to get used to. It's a very common problem I see with new flyers in the tunnel and AFF jumps on youtube. I had that problem as well, and just got used to doing toe-taps until my body position improved. All my AFF instructors gave me a lot of hand signals. I don't think you'll have the problem you had with that one instructor with a USPA AFF instructor. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Definitely discuss your experience so far with the instructor you've found, and make sure you understand your dive flow and objectives before each jump. The spin you mention is fairly common for people when they reach the point where their coach lets go of them for the first time. Normally at this point someone will jump in and suggest doing a few minutes in an indoor skydiving facility. If you have one near you, it's worth taking advantage of. Lots of skydivers make it past this point without one, though. Also usually people tell you to relax, which is rather difficult to understand in this context. I liken it to learning to drive. When you start out, you're all freaked out and stiff and jerky at the controls. As your body learns how to control the vehicle, you relax and all your movements become smoother. It's very similar to skydiving; you're in a new environment and you don't really know how to keep your balance or how large of a movement to make to accomplish a maneuver. As you learn how to deal with that, you relax and your movements become smoother. So right now, try taking a deep breath, hold it for a second and then let it out. Do you feel your body relax as you do? If so, that's kind of the feeling you're looking for. Before you start your count, do the same thing, and smile. Beyond that, listen to your instructor. There are a lot of common problems in AFF, and the instructors know how to help you deal with them. Maybe at 100 skydives you'll look back at this and be like, "Heh." I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

It's a progressive place! Kind of sucks not being able to pump your own gas, though. I always fill up just before I hit the border. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

It doesn't seem like a suit that would be particularly comfortable for skydiving. Especially if you land out! I'm pretty sure in the USA that would get you on several lists that are VERY difficult to get off of again! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Buddy of mine made, I want to say $400 last year coaching. That's apparently too little to declare on your taxes (Came out to about $2 an hour.) After writing down costs, he's probably at a negative number. You can probably do a bit better packing, but I don't know how difficult it is to get in on a packing job. About the only thing that's certain about working at a dropzone is that you're not going to get rich doing it. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Speaking of which, does today's Google Doodle remind anyone else of the little guys in Rejected (at about the 5 minute mark)? I can't look at it without thinking "For the love of God and all that is holy, my anus is bleeding!" I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

That's actually kind of cool. Too bad you can't assert ownership of that propery now heh heh heh I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

I'm not sure, but that's definitely something I'd follow up on. Maybe see if you can find a buyer/seller history for the house and touch base with the IRS to see if there's reported income for you that's not on the forms you filed with them. I'd be inclined to suspect that either someone with a close SSN to yours made a typo filling out some forms somewhere, or possibly someone's using your social security number. I've heard tell illegal aliens will use random ones. If it's the latter, you could get boned by the IRS later, so best to clear it up sooner. Also since your information was compromised, it's entirely possible someone's taken (or is trying to take) out a loan in your name, which would also suck. I don't recall the details, but you can lock your records with the credit agencies so that people can't obtain credit in your name without an extra PIN code that you'd provide to the agencies. You might want to look into that. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Huh. Well the other thing you can do with android phones is get a larger battery and a case mod so it'll fit. Makes the phone a bit fatter, but that might be worth double the battery life in some cases! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Does anyone actually do that? I know several people who cite that as the reason they got an android phone, but none of them actually carry a spare battery around and I've never seen them swap one. I suppose it doesn't hurt that I can forget to plug my phone in at night and it'll still be at a 75% charge the next morning. I've gone a couple days without plugging it in and still had over 25% charge when I finally did. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

Don't make lemonade. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

I'm getting a lot of mileage out of the Google+ Crockpot Obsessed forum lately. Here's the latest thing: http://www.morethanamomofthree.com/2014/01/06/brown-sugar-and-balsamic-glazed-crock-pot-chicken/ If you're a fan of Good Eats, you'll know that breasts don't have a lot of fat or connective tissue and will dry out too much in a crock pot. So I used thighs instead. And I also reduced the cooking juices down a bit before adding them back to the chicken. https://plus.google.com/photos/115052911915665400296/albums/6126265226386369009 You can make this dish for under $20 depending on the basalmic vinegar you use and it's pretty tasty. It's definitely going into my usual rotation. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

That's a rather odd question, I think. Do you find yours particularly uncomfortable? I just get the cheap wal-mart jumpsuit off the rack at the DZ and it's reasonably comfortable. I don't think it's particularly durable -- neighborhood of 100 or so jumps and a couple hours in the tunnel and it's starting to fall apart, but it is comfortable. I'm still kicking around the idea of having the leather lady downtown make me a leather one. Like I need to fall faster. The idea of spending the about $1000 it'd probably cost in materials and labor to add 20 miles an hour to my fall rate is unappealing enough to keep me from doing it. I imagine if I ever actually did that, it'd also be pretty uncomfortable. Also probably wouldn't smell so great in about 10 jumps or so... I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

I'm not a lawyer, but I'd drop a heabeas corpus writ on them, quickly followed by a federal civil rights lawsuit. Sounds like the guy's also currently incompetent to provide testimony, if he ever was. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?