NSEMN8R

Hi Tom, Would you consider allowing someone who has taken your regular course to hang out and listen in on some of the parts of the spring deathcamp that weren't covered the first time? Thanks, Tony

People actually "try" to have kids?

Holy Shit! $1525.00 ? Nevermind....

What's the Tx's? I don't SL it. It's all pointless, isn't it. I just like it. And I wouldn't climb 600 meters even it was there.

There's a sign on the fence at my new A that says "Personal RF Monitor must be worn while working at this site". It's one of those red & white AT&T freestanders about 300 ft. tall with the big horns on it. Anybody else use a personal RF monitor? Is it worth having and if it is where would I get one? I googled it, but the only thing that comes up is some security and counter surveillance stuff.

I was there with my Z-wing, but I got stuck hauling meat for the entire boogie.

I think you just need to smoke more often. I used to get spun out like that, but now I can pretty much smoke as much as I want and still function fine. Of course I've been burning pretty much daily for the last couple years and occasionally for 10 years before that. I quit smoking all together on New Years this year (no cigarettes, no weed, nothing) so it will be interesting to see how it affects me when I get back at it in '08.

How about some boobs? Seroiusly, I had a great time with you guys at Skyfest 06, but it was the only boogie I've ever been to where I didn't see any boobs.

I'm going to be flying commercial. I'd like to bring a case of local microbrew. Can't bring liquids past security anymore. Can I put it in my checked bags? I'm just worried that if they don't pressurize the baggage compartment it will explode all over my stuff. Anybody tried it before?

That doesn't sound like that bad a deal. I don't do static line, but I think I heard they get $10 a head for teaching and $5 for the jump around here. Same as you pretty much. If you want more money you could get a digital camera and a printer. If I was doing sl, I'd take pictures of every single one of them. I'll bet when they see it on the computer almost all of them would buy a print for $10 or $15. Look how many people buy pics of themselves on rollercoasters. Who wouldn't want a picture of themself hanging off the side of a plane? You could probably double your income.

We don't get much chance for daytime jumps around here, but because of a few trips to TF I'm about even right now. Just wondered what most people do.

Just curious how everyone else learned..

Please don't take this the wrong way. I've read a lot of your posts on here and I have a lot of respect for you, but... Dude, that's not fair. That's how I learned. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I know it's not easy to fly them really well, but with a little research and common sense it's just not that hard to do it safely. I don't think I'd have been any safer when I started if I had taken a FFC. I've listened in on a couple since I started flying wingsuits. They didn't go over any information that I wasn't able to find. I don't want to say that FFC's are a scam, but I sure as hell don't think they should be mandatory. I'm all for people trying to make money doing what they love, but let's be realistic. Most people don't need a class from a "certified" wingsuit instructor to learn to fly safely. I think most people's money would be better spent on a "coach" learning to fly better. What is a guy like me supposed to do when someone wants to try out one of my suits? Send them to Florida to see a real BMI? Or just say no and keep doing solos all the time? That's bullshit. I give them a cd with all the stuff I downloaded when I was researching it and I let them borrow the book I bought off Scott Campos. Everything they need to know to fly safely is there. I sincerely hope you people aren't successful in getting the USPA involved in this or making FFCs mandatory. The last thing in the world that this sport needs is more rules and ratings and another reason for USPA to get into our pockets. But what do I know, I'm just some "Joe on the DZ who bought a suit in the classifieds and taught himself how to fly without dieing".

Is it really? We have an 1100 footer by my house. It has catwalks at 350 and 700 and another little platform at about 550. I've never climbed higher than 350. I've thought about going higher, but it just never seems worth it. Maybe if I was doing gainers and flips and all that, but I'm not. 350 takes me about 25 minutes. I can't see where it's worth it to climb another hour for an extra couple seconds of freefall when I'm just going to go off flat and stable anyways. I might be more likely to climb all the way up if it was daytime and nice weather with some friends, but I'm by myself a lot lately and it's always at night and it's cold here. Guess I'm just a big fat pussy.

Where can I find your rigging page? Thanks.

I thought all this low pull shit went out of fashion in the 90's. Nowadays, if you want to be dangerous and cool, you're supposed to hook it in.

You don't need the computer. It's a stand alone thing. You just put in your cf card and a cd and hit the button. http://cgi.ebay.com/MicroSolution-RoadStor-CD-Burner-Card-Reader-DVD-Player_W0QQitemZ220060916639QQihZ012QQcategoryZ116239QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

You don't need a laptop. You can get a Roadstor CD Burner off ebay for under $50. If you spend $150 you can get one that burns DVD so you can fill up the big cards and dump them all on dvd. I've had one for 3 seasons and I love it.

What's a Raptor? I don't see it on their website. Where does it fit in among their other suits? Between the Eagle and the Nebula? Or between the Nebula and Mach1?

Poynter's Parachute Manual volume 1 talks a little about this. Here is a graph from 9.3.1.3 My scanner sucks so it's hard to read. The x-axis shows age in days from 0 to 600. The y-axis shows opening time in seconds from 0-7. The 3 graphs are high, mean & low. Their conclusion was that after 30 days, packed time has little effect on opening speed. This was about rounds though. Is there any reason to think packed time would have more effect on squares?

My wife feels that way about mine

Even if we give them a handle and an altimeter and some training, I think it's still a carnival ride for them. Even if it's an AFP jump and we teach them turns and forward movement and canopy control, as long as we're there it's still just a ride. When people ask me what kind of jump they should do I tell them if they want to go for a fun ride come with me, if they want to learn to skydive take the SL class. Some people think we're somehow cheapening what being a tandem master means by just giving thrill rides. I don't mind feeling more like an entertainer than an instructor. I just like hearing them say "OH MY GOD!!!" when the canopy opens. If I found teaching people more gratifying than entertaining them I'd get an AFF or SL rating.

Our dzo is a rigger. He lives about half an hour from Muskegon. You can get his email address or phone number off his website http://www.premier-skydiving.com.

That's how it always starts out. Next thing you know you wake up in a bath tub full of ice and your kidney is missing.

Is anyone here participating in this? Anything good or bad to say about it? It says here http://www.flyaerodyne.com/sport/flash/ASIProgram.pdf that the sponsored instructor "will receive a full compliment of Aerodyne equipment at 35% of the manufacturer's suggested retail price." Is that right or did they mean off the retail price? I was just going to buy a new container & reserve this year, but if this is true and I can get in on that deal, it would make sense to buy a new main too.