FlyingRhenquest

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Everything posted by FlyingRhenquest

  1. Oh, no! Before my first jump I was quite aware of what the risks were. You're kind of forced to. I still feel safer falling out of a plane than driving, though, and there are things that I find "too risky," like driving a motorcycle, despite the fact that I jump out of a plane for fun. I don't want to lose track of what the risks are either. If I ever start feeling completely safe doing this, I'll become complacent. If I become complacent, I'll be more likely to be in an accident. You know your odds of dying in a car accident during the course of your life are 1 in 80, or so? But no one ever freaks out getting in a car (At least not that I've met...) I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  2. Me? No. I just see how sad some other people are, in what is a joyful sport. We all know the risks and we all know the rewards and we all think they're worth it. It's hard for western cultures to not be sad at someone's funeral, but whenever mine rolls around I'd rather it be a celebration of my life than a mourning of my death. That's all, really. We do all have a strange sense of humor. I was on the plane with my sister and her daughter and her daughter says "Well my emergency contact is my mother!" and my sister says "Well my emergency contact is my brother!" and I'm like "Well I'd rather die in the same plane crash than have to explain to Mom how I lost you two!" Everyone on the plane seemed to agree with that sentiment! And nothing bad at all happened on that jump I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  3. Yeah they knew they were my family. The one who talked to my sister got me in the plane. It would have been neat if they'd got my exit, or me yelling "Und now... ve jump!" just before opening the door, but I forgot to ask. It probably just didn't occur to anyone to disrupt the standard flow of filming. I'm quite happy with the video as it was done. I'll ask my tandem guys to keep it calm for other family members in the future. I'm not sure if there's anyone else who would go at this point, though. If Lisa and Austin are interested in delving deeper into the sport, I might see them in AFF at some point. I'm not sure they would be, but they got a look into my world and I think they like what they saw, even if living it it doesn't prove to be for them. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  4. Here, sounds like you need these Prozac sprinkles for your Haagen Daas! I think you'd be better served voting for a third party. If enough people are angry about the situation and don't give up, change is still possible. I'm endlessly optimistic too. I see the pain in the world. There are many things I can't do anything about, and I find it troubling. I often wake up to the news on NPR thinking that what the world really needs is some sort of... BATMAN! I'm no eccentric billionaire, though. The world is a chaotic system, and one actor in it can not effect a huge amount of change on his own. But if we all tried to make it a little better for everyone else in whatever little ways we can. Even if it's just noticing that someone needs some words of encouragement and providing them, we CAN improve the world. Alone, one small thing will not make a difference. Together, they can be a wave of irresistible change. We each have to decide what we want the world we live in to be like, and we each have to work toward that goal. No one's going to drop it in our lap. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  5. My sister's birthday was last week and I asked her a while back if she wanted to bring her daughter and come visit for the week. She said yes. So then I ask her if they wanted to do the wind tunnel while they were here. They both said yes, so... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlqLLxQV-tc&feature=plcp I also asked them if they wanted to do a tandem while they were here. They both said yes. Funny thing is, neither of them even really paused to think about it. I guess crazy runs in the family... So we wander down to the dropzone today around 9 AM. They do all the paperwork and get manifested on load 1. I manifested on load 1 as well, and got to keep them company on their ride up, open the door, and lead the way as the first one off the plane. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2N_OWancyg&feature=plcp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTewCnZePOc&feature=plcp It couldn't have gone much better! I think they both did really well on their jumps. Maybe we'll be seeing them in AFF training in the next few months... I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  6. I just did jump 46 today and I guess I should probably start considering myself to be a skydiver, even if I am a newbie one. I've noticed on the forums here and a the dropzone that everyone seems to know someone who died in this sport. I guess eventually I probably will, too. Not really looking forward to that. Mortality sucks, no two ways about it. But I really don't want anyone to be sad for me, no matter how I end up going. I've experienced more in my life than most people ever do, and more than I'd have any right to expect. Everyone dies sooner or later, but not everyone really lives. The joy of skydiving and the people you meet along the way are beyond the comprehension of mere earthbound mortals! I'd want my newfound friends to celebrate being able to fly with me, as I did with them, for as long as we were able! I suppose I should plan ahead, and arrange for beer at my funeral. It would be the last first thing I'd get to do in my life, and I'd feel bad not paying that beer debt. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  7. Not cool, bro! Not cool! Your logbook is too important a tool and record to be so easily dismissed! This is your only record of your jumps. If you decided to go elsewhere, do you think the dropzone you go to will take your word about what AFF level you were on? To not even know you should have one... is mindboggling. Of course, there's no way for you to know how important it is, if they don't tell you. I'm going to assume that it's (really) bad business process and not malicious intent that causes them to do that. But at the very least you should take it upon yourself to maintain your record of your jumps, and ask your instructors to sign off in YOUR logbook. If they complain because they have to write some shit twice, well that's really their problem and not yours. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  8. Mortality in general kind of sucks. I like this guy's perspective on it, even though I'm not a Buddhist. http://www.buddhanet.net/mp3/whatislove.mp3 Takes him a while to get around to it, though, so you have to be patient. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  9. What are you afraid of, that must be dealt with in such urgency? Heights and falling? Those fears are there for a reason. They're not unreasonable fears. Death? You should be afraid of death. You have responsibilities beyond yourself now. Should you die before discharging them, your family will have much harder lives than they would if you were around. Before every jump I tell myself, "This could be my last jump. I could die on this jump." And I'm OK with that. If I'm ever not OK with it, I won't make the jump. Even with all my training, with all the safety gear and the ever growing body of experience, sometimes shit just happens and you die. If you try to deny that, I think that you will become a complacent skydiver and the likelihood will just increase. At this point in your life, there should be no way you could look out the door of that plane, tell yourself "This could be my last jump. I could die on this jump," and be OK with it. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  10. Try posting on the bulletin board where they advertise the packing class. I'd like to help, but I live on the other side of Longmont, so I'd have to drive back to Boulder and then back to the dropzone. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  11. That's what the "rental fee" should be for. By my calculations, I've spent $1125 in rental fees since I started skydiving in July. I haven't had to cut away so far, and I hope to make many more jumps before I do. Now you watch, on my next jump my canopy will explode or something and I'll need one... Most of the time when they do have cutaways they recover the canopy. But you know, sometimes shit happens and they cant find it. If they're getting bent out of shape due to a lost canopy, they're probably not charging enough in rental fees. They're running a business, they should be charging enough to cover expenses and grow their business. Having people get injured or killed because they were afraid to chop when they should have is not good for business. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  12. The solution to this problem is for skydivers to buy every property in the area! Ok, everyone in the USPA, move to Longmont! I've noticed a few of the big ones around the airport are for sale. If I had a couple million dollars sitting around, I might even be able to afford one of them... Hmm. I say that as a joke, but I wonder what effect a couple hundred thousand skydivers all moving to the same place would have on the local... well everything really. I have to feel like it'd be beneficial. It'd definitely be more traffic than the dropzone could currently handle. I wonder if you'd have to build more airports or if you could just have more landing areas and a non-stop stream of planes taking off and rotating to different landing areas around town? Whatever happened, I think it'd be kind of crazy, but in a good way! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  13. Crap! I missed it! I'd have wanted to get the Nismo in on that. It won't do 200, and I hear there's a limiter at 150 although the speedo goes to 180. Would have been fun nonetheless. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  14. Well either way you end up with useful skills that you could probably apply to other disciplines. So whatever you do would probably be cool, fun, and at least somewhat useful if you decide to try something else later! Maybe go through AFF training and see if you like it. If you don't, you can drop it before you put a wad of cash on your own gear. If you do, you'll be going in the right direction! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  15. Woot! You're down to about what I was on my first AFF jump! Since july 7th, I've lost about 20 pounds. Not so much because Skydiving is a workout, but I finally have some motivation to get in shape! Just from eating a bit less and doing some pushups and situps in the morning, it's just been coming off! I read your other thread that you resurrected. That was kinda weird, getting 6 years of updates when I was expecting the timeline to be less. I had to go back and look at the dates while scratching my head. I imagine a lot HAS happened in 6 years, but I'm glad to see you're back in the sport. I don't see many people who seem to have the enthusiasm that you do. You were excited to have surgery! Hopefully this time around, it'll be the right time for you! Do keep us posted on your progress! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  16. Shit. Now I'm going to have to have someone chuck me out of the Otter three days after I'm dead! Thanks. I'm sure that will end well... But yeah, if you aten't dead (Or maybe just recently dead) you aten't too old. Weak arch, bah! No one went into AFF with a good arch! You'll learn, and you'll get more stable! Couple minutes in the wind tunnel helped with my stability, too. They "highly suggested" it after I failed my AFF 2 jump. And then admitted later that they pretty much set me up for failure with that one, trying to get 3 guys out the door of a king air like that. Hah! We all learned a lot during MY AFF training! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  17. Well I went through some hang gliding training back in the 90's. At the time I thought I wouldn't like skydiving because liked the idea of cross country soaring and long glide times. I never got off a student tandem glider either. Moved before I finished training. Between flying a student parachute and a student tandem hang glider, the parachute is MUCH easier to steer and land. They pretty much just slap a radio on you and you're good to go in AFF class. It may depend on where you are in the country, but I went looking for hang gliding training in Colorado after I moved out here, and mostly just found paragliding training. You can search around, but I think you'll find it to be a lot easier to find skydiving or paragliding training than hang gliding. The hang gliders can fly a good bit faster than the paragliders, from what I understand. I think the paragliders have slightly better soaring characteristics (But don't quote me on that.) If you want to go up and stay up, it'd be between hang gliding and paragliding. Skydiving came as a bit of a surprise to me. I was hooked from the first jump. You can really do a lot in freefall, and under canopy is a decent amount of time. You can do high pulls and spend more time in the air flying your parachute, too -- my high pull was fully deployed at 10600 feet and took 11 minutes to get down. You can also do indoor skydiving if there's an indoor skydiving place close to you. It's not really the same, but it's still a blast to learn how to fly in one of those. I just put some more time in one today. I'm going to feel it tomorrow, too. I was experimenting with side slides and my instructor and I were rotating around the air column at one point. That was really a lot of fun! Hope all this helps you decide! No matter what you decide to do, I'm sure it will be awesome! And no matter what you decide, gear will always cost more than you have or want to pay for it! Heh heh heh. You can probably get solid basic used second hand stuff for all the sports for neighborhood of $2000 give or take. It'll always end up costing more than you expect too, though. Training will, too. That's just how it goes, if you want to fly. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  18. Some of didn't. Sparky Jim beat me to it. Sparky Oooh OK. Usually if you did something like that and stopped, there was usually a good reason for it. Kind of like how he's suggesting we change the bridle routing now for a good reason. Looking at the technique, it DOES seem sensible, and it doesn't look like it'll change the opening. I'll talk to the riggers at my dropzone and see if there's any reason I shouldn't be doing that. If not, once I have my own gear, I think I'll probably pack it like that. I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  19. So why did you stop? I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  20. Internet forums always ruin everything. You could be completely happy playing a game, then you go on a forum and everyone tells you you're doing it wrong, the way they think you should be doing it isn't fun, and there are always hundreds of people posting about annoying little problems that you never would have noticed (And they wouldn't have bothered you if you had) until they brought them up. So this is thing #412; Internet Forums Suck I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  21. I haven't had much occasion to fly commercially recently. I like cross country drives when I can get 'em, and haven't gone anywhere for the company in over a decade. Now that I'm skydiving, I'm plotting all sorts of trips around the country and internationally, to all the cool dropzones I can find. How do you guys handle your gear on commercial air liners? I'd be a bit hesitant to check a rig. Can you just treat it like a regular carry-on item, or does security cause a fuss about that? I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  22. It's actually a little disturbing just how many people around the world have not only had this idea, but implemented it! Well, not so much disturbing as... awesome! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  23. Hah! I weighed in at 245 on my AFF 1 back in July. My instructors were a little freaked out at the speeds I was hitting on my belly. Fortunately I've always been adept at pulling for myself, and the canopies I'm using don't seem to mind an extra few... dozen... extra mph over "normal" terminal velocity. The whole concept kind of annoys me though. I'd thought Galileo put this thing to bed centuries ago! I've lost 20 pounds since I started skydiving. Not because it's a workout, I just finally have some motivation to be in shape. Even so, I still fall faster than everyone I've jumped with so far. I think maybe I should just go jump with the freeflyers, who fall about that fast anyway. I do plan to get into a wingsuit ASAP, and I'm curious if a Phoenix-Fly tracking suit would slow me down until I get to that point. I like tracking anyway, so I might just give that a try! I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  24. Whoops! My bad! That story's ancient! That's the down side of connecting the dots on the Internet, you really need to keep a close eye on the dates of news. Stuff just never goes away... I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?
  25. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbp4FT5rSok Camper Van Beethoven imagines what it would be like if ZZ Top went to Egypt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PigBf73jbQ I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?