massis

featherweight :P 1.13 on a Pilot 210 currently. Hoping to move to a 190 early next year, which will put me around 1.25

not the vegan brigade or the animal rights brigade, but the vegan rights brigade. You know: save the plants, eat a vegan?

this one: https://youtu.be/O7FqjNiooKc?t=11m36s

Yikes, Am I reading that right? 5h15 (nighttime) for €1350, including transfer & motel stay? Might have to look into that soon! That would only get me 2 hours in my local tunnel How much extra is coaching?

Yes you will... Bounce.

They might have to let go in some cases, but in 99% of flights they'll fly right back up to you, take grips and keep you stable. Without them you'd probably fumble and tumble or go into a spin until deployment. It isn't.

Depends on the tunnel ;-) At my local 17ft tunnel I fly around 123 mph which is 60% At another 12ft tunnel they noted my speed at 132mph in the same week with the same gear...

Preface: I'm a 36-jump noob, still learning this myself. But I'll have a go to see if the more experienced jumpers here feel the same. Theory says this order, bigger groups always first: FS > FF > AFF > Tandem > wingsuit So in this case I'd say: 4-way belly exits first, then solo WL 0.9, solo 0.7, sitfly, vertical, tracking

We've got a few. Our first and oldest is a bearded dragon, who's now well over 9 years old, although he's running on empty :( Won't be long before he's gone unfortunately, I'll miss the big guy! (he used to be well over a pound and is over 22" length) Then we have 2 leopard gecko's, 2 stinkpot turtles, some fishies and lastly our British shorthair cat. In stark contrast to TriGirls cat, I think ours is a bit of an idiot. you can literally do ANYTHING with him without him caring, I even locked him in the shower with me once when he had fleas, so I could wash out the ultrasticky flea spray I'd soaked him in 5 minutes earlier. Came out without a scratch. Then again he does play fetch, but like an actual cat: he'll run for his toy, grab it, bring it back towards me but then he'll stop about 3ft away, drop it on the floor with a "now you come fetch" look on his face...

Well, we HAVE been talking about a return visit to Belgium.... We cross the pond a couple times a year and the idea of jumping over there has been considered. However, my patient bride has a bad shoulder which sadly eliminates her participation. I’ll keep travel and skydiving separate, at least for now. Locally the Tandems are $179-199 (with ‘specials’ @$149). AFF1 are $329-349. Photos/videos are additional. photos €60, video €80 additional iirc. Also: I would advise everyone to do a tandem first, because you can enjoy the view and the experience and have lots of time under canopy and not a single worry in the world. Compared to a tandem, your AFF lvl 1 is hard work, you're focussing on tasks at hand, doing your drills, and will be down on the ground before you fully realise you jumped out of an airplane. My AFF lvl 1 was awesome, and I really enjoyed it and all jumps since, but none of them had that same wow factor as my tandem...

sounds like a REALLY expensive AFF? Tandem is €220 here, and AFF-1 is €230...

Started AFF in April. Bought my audible at 27 jumps in june upon advice of my FS instructor. Went in for surgery, bought my fullface (G3) at 28 jumps but end of July. Had a guy at our DZ who started a group order of suits, so ordered my first suit (Intrudair RW) in June, received it 2 weeks ago, now at 34 jumps. Don't have my own alti yet, but they're included at our DZ's when you rent a rig anyways, so a clean suit, a fullface helmet and an audible were much more important to me.

IIRC over here in Belgium the maximum allowed age is 50 to get your rating.

Must be why fuel is so ridiculously cheap in the US. Because it IS the way I explained it over here in Belgium. It's called the "cliquet-system" and actually entails that when prices drop, taxes rise to catch that pricedrop and keep the price equal. But when prices rise, taxes stay the same. They specifically started using this system for Diesel to raise the price to gasoline levels a few years back. Used to be ~€1/L for diesel and €1.5/L for gasoline, now both are around €1.45/L

But we spend it on stuff like healthcare and get the upside of not having file to for bankruptcy over a simple hospital stay. True ish. Had my gallbladder removed in June. Total cost of surgery including aftercare etc was around €2500 Around €1100 was covered by my basic healthcare. The rest was paid by my healthcare insurance which I get from my employer, which has nothing to do with taxes paid. The main issue with fuel taxes is that when fuel prices rise, taxes also rise. But when fuel prices drop, taxes are kept at the exact same level. So every time fuel prices drop, tax becomes a larger component of the price...

No actually it wasn't. Waiting 5 back in a row with an 85 year old trying to pack her stuff is why I don't go grocery shopping on saturday afternoon anymore. Especially since once she's packed it all in, she'll go counting out her pennies one by one, asking the cashier what value each one is untill she has way too much and then the clerk just takes what was actually needed. A pretty common sight to be honest. And I've never seen the cashier get up from behind the counter, walk around and help them pack. I do my groceries saturday morning or friday throughout the day if at all possible. If not I'll order collect & go.

current prices in Belgium: 95 unleaded: €1.53 Diesel: €1.55 95 unleaded is €1.79 in the Netherlands currently. Thats $2.01, per Liter, not gallon. So you can do that times 3.8 roughly. 20 gal would roughly be $152 in the Netherlands, $134 in Belgium. So yeah, 40 bucks is cheap. dirt cheap.

Oh no, the horror! Wait... What?! Over here in Europe we NEVER have anyone for "bagging", which honestly sounds like a pretty sexual act (dirty mind?). You roll your cart up to the conveyer, unload all of it yourself onto the conveyer, the cashier grabs each item and swipes it across the scanner, and you pick it up at the other end and put it in a bag/box/your cart. Years ago there would be plastic bags provided you could grab and stuff everything in, but since ~2010 you're expected to bring your own bags (environmentally friendly), and 99% of the customers just toss everything back into the cart and put it in bags when you load it into the car. Most stores gave up on the 10 items rule a long time ago, the larger ones now have self scanning available, although if the self checkout line (which is still manned by at least one cashier per 2-3 stations, who handles payment and performs random cart checks as instructed by the automatic cash register) is too busy, you can just take your scanner and give it to a cashier in a normal checkout and have them handle payment. Thank god for collect&go options. Order groceries online, drive up to the store, park in predesignated spots right next to the exit, pick up the prepared boxes with all your groceries and be in and out in under 10 minutes. Added bonus: you didn't buy 15 things you don't need but are going to eat anyway because it looked yummy.

Lol I'll tell him he funneled the record next time I see him

They did a 9-way from a supervan last week at the Flanders Boogie. See here at 5min10: https://vimeo.com/281710755

Home DZ is 15mins. Seconds DZ (same club) is 40 mins. There's 20+DZ's within a 100 mile radius from my place, spread over 4 countries (the Benelux & Germany)

So because you don't know how to connect it, it's junk? Have you even tried contacting them for support? Bought mine 2 weeks ago. Connected to my PC (Win 10, 64bits) without a problem, setup was a breeze, love the configuration options. Both a $4 OTG USB connector and plugged it into my phone yesterday, popped up immediately as "AON2", accepted the access and was able to configure it from my phone without a hitch, obviously it read the settings from the device instantly. Am yet to jump it due to an injury, but first impressions on this little gem are really good.

They told me (many times) the most important skill an AFF-student should have is reading books. Because you'll have TONS of time to do so. I was really quick to complete my AFF according to what fellow jumpers tell me, I did it in a month (DZ only open on weekends). Ground work was on a day with -2°C and snow on the ground, so no jumping. AFF1 was after 2hours of waiting, went back up 1h later and didn't get to do my LVL2 because of incoming clouds. AFF2 was a jump at 6.30PM after waiting at the DZ since 9AM. I got to do AFF3 as first load of the day, but waited until 7pm afterwards with no more jumping (winds) Then I got lucky and did AFF 4, 5 and 6 in one day, and got to go back at 5pm the day after and did AFF 7 and my first solo. From then on it gets only better. Many times I've arrived at the DZ and been in the plane less than 15 minutes later, including manifesting, getting rental gear and gearing up! In short: stick with it, after your AFF it all mellows out and only becomes easier!

can't imagine spamming 2 year old posts with your link creates a lot of goodwill among possible customers on the forum... Let alone the other posts of which some were 8 years old!

I guess like said it really depends on the jumper. I've got a mild fear of heights, was terrified when the door opened on my tandem but felt fine jumping out. Then on my AFF lvl 1 my stomach dropped again when the door opened, and I didn't jump out as much as just pulled in my legs when the instructors basicly tossed me out. Felt fine the second my feet left the plane. But ever since that jump I haven't had a problem. Jump AFF lvl 2 felt perfectly fine, didn't have any nerves until my first solo, which I solved by doing a cannonball out the door (squat, grab your knees, roll forward). Any first gives me some nerves (first floating exit from outside the plane, first hop'n pop, ...) but nothing really uncomfortable, more excitement :)