JohnMitchell

There's big money being made with tandem jumping. We shouldn't have to be jumping worn out gear. DZOs should do better than that.

I made most of my first 1000 jumps there back in the 70s and 80s. Who's running a DZ there now?

"Perfect speed is being there." Love that line from JLS.

Very true. I'm happy to teach noobs all kinds of stuff when it's slow. . Best Advice Ever.. .

Definitely agree with and practice this myself. 12+ cutaways, some with RSLs, some without, I still think the odds favor those who jump RSLs. Catching the lines on the container? Wow, I can't imagine that happening to me . . . (knocking on wood)

A few years ago we were doing fairly low hop and pops below a low cloud layer. One jumper did a long delay and his AAD fired as his main deployed. I watched between my toes as he piled into the ground in a down plane, receiving serious injuries ( he's since made a good recovery

Except when you have a downplane. Then you immediately cut it the f*ck away... You have no time to mess around disconnecting stuff Agreed. Most downplanes result from an AAD fire below 1000'. Things happen very fast and often the harness is twisting around you as the 2 canopies play tug-of-war with you in the middle. Not a time for fine motor control.

Although I've owned a couple of Racers, it was before RSLs. Is that really the SOP, disconnect after canopy check? Darn, then you have a canopy collision, a low cutaway, and no RSL to back you up when you made need it the most. Please correct me if I misunderstood the recommended procedure.

I like your advice on this one. Disconnecting the RSL in high wind conditions used to be in the tandem manual. Disconnecting the RSL in a 2 out situation is recommended by the SIM, correct? But I would argue that's only necessary if you're jumping a Racer with the dual RSL.

As long as we continue to have corporation after corporation trying to amass huge profits in our health care system, we'll continue to spend more money than any other civilized country for our health care. The profit motive is driving our costs to ridiculous levels. There are much better systems, but our legislative branch is already in the pocket of Big Medicine.

It helps in that you are already comfortable with teaching, training, doing gear checks, working with the particular psychology of students. Only part of AFF is freefall. Talking students down under canopy, working in the classroom, reviewing EPs, all are things familiar to SL instructors. Plus we did a lot of sequential RW. That helped.

Post away!

There was little access to tunnels in '83 when I got the rating, but almost all of us were gold wingers with SL ratings when we took the course. Much easier with that kind of head start.

Good job surviving the off field landing. Some day, when you're an AFF instructor, you'll have a great cautionary tale for your FJ class. Next time concentrate on the hold out area and landing pattern and MAKE that parachute go where you WANT it to go. No more scaring your poor instructors. . .

Living the dream . . .

For the first time in about 15 years. . . The September issue had the story on the Alaska Solstice Boogie, and Tom Sanders took some great pics there. Vskydiver and Denise standing in front of the helo on the glacier, and the cool 6 way round. Vskydiver is in the red jumpsuit on the right, I'm in red on the left. Yesterday's trip to the mail box had the October issue, and there I am again, in the LP 18 way.

Vskydiver says I can charge my batteries anywhere I want to, but I can only discharge them at home. She swears no guy has ever looked at her. I think she's a little oblivious.

All of my monthly bills, even my property taxes and insurance premiums, are paid automatically each month. This required only visiting their webpages and giving them banking or credit card information. I've had my bills set up this way for years. I think US banks have been up-to-date enough (if not well regulated) for quite a while. I use credit cards for all the bills I can, collecting airline miles and points as I go. Then all of my cards are paid in full the next month, automatically. My pension and investment withdrawals are deposited into my bank each month too, automatically. I track it all in a register, but it's nice to sit back, go on vacation, skydive a bunch, and never write a check, mail a payment, or even set foot in a bank.

I look too. Sorry, ladies, if you're offended, but it's pretty much hardwired into us. But I try really hard not to gawk. Ran into an old friend at LP this year, not wearing her top. As we chatted for a bit I think I did a really good job of looking her in the eye almost the whole time.

As opposed to, "I opened low because Bob bet me a case that he could open lower." People will always find ways of being stupid. Yeah, I've opened low maybe a few times. . . But, like you said, it was on purpose. It's a sketchy thing to do, but maybe a little less sketchy if you at least KNOW you're low, and won't have much time to screw around if there's a problem. Either way, not a bright idea.

No considering required. I've read the 'scary stories from the old days' thread. You guys were batshit crazy. Like I said, it made you pay attention . . .

Aww, man, that's all the stuff of life, the mundane things that make you laugh. I love to hear all this stuff, just like around the real bonfire. Go grab a beer and pull up the seat and I'll tell you all about my stooped, funny day.

Too true.

Interesting stuff. I understand (from construction loans) about liens and signed "release of lien" papers. What's a UCC? I know what you mean about Home Depot. They and Lowe's Home Improvement make getting new appliances almost painless. We got a smokin' deal from Lowes on our last kitchen remodel. Sears? Didn't even look there.