skybytch

Wow, that name takes me back! Never met him, but several jumpers at my first dz had gear that had been used by his demo team.

Oh no. I missed this completely. She was so much fun, both here and live and in person. Fly free Lisa. Tell us, are there flying cows in heaven? You should ride one.

I'll have to look in the outbuilding we have yet to explore. Who knows what the idiot we bought the place from has hidden away in there. If I find some, does anyone know of a good market in which to sell it? I'm such a loser, I don't know how to access the dark web to find one myself. But I was talking about the bad ass Halloween costume Joe posted. That is so totally something that I would wear if there were still such a thing as WFFC.

Damn it. Sold out.

You expected a responsible suggestion from me? A Mountie invasion would be awesome. Those uniforms are sexy as hell, and they're Canadian so they are nice, friendly people (minus Remi) and they like hockey. I see nothing wrong with this.

You dated skydiver chicks. Reputation well deserved.

Add men who like "crazy chicks" and I'll agree with you.

He shouldn't get the nomination period. imho he's a blue Trump. Lesser of two evils... again...

Exactly! I guess the general public wouldn't get the reference, but the rest of us just might die laughing.

Truth. But it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was happening at a large dz.

Wouldn't it be fun to see "essential" (ie expendable) workers all wearing red shirts to work? "We are here to die so you can have a pizza delivered and get that Amazon order tomorrow and fight over toilet paper."

How could any instructor/DZO sleep at night knowing they just raped a fellow jumper? $120 for a D license holder to get current after 7 months is insane.

Anybody have Zoom? We should do a Pub night.

A positive from my world. Hubby took the past four days and today off from his "essential" job. So far we have installed irrigation for the garden and greenhouse, built a gate for the garden, tilled about 1/3 of the garden area, chopped down and processed a tree and some holly bushes, done a dump run, fixed a couple electrical issues, fixed the front gate and organized the garage pantry. Today we are doing as little as possible. As soon as I can talk him into taking a month or two off work so he doesn't bring anything home once this virus truly spikes next month as predicted... I can't even imagine all the stuff we can get done! Good luck with the hives!

I'd suggest having a master parachute rigger put something together for you from new materials. Contact one of the larger lofts (usually located on large dz's) or a harness/container manufacturer; they can probably point you in the right direction if they can't help you out themselves.

Thank you everyone. The phone call came. It wasn't the news I had feared. He made it through the night. Insisted on being released so he should be home today. Not what I want him to do, I think he's too fragile to go home to no medical assistance, but I'm not the one living it and he will be with his wife and daughter. Hoping to talk/text with him later today. I'm probably too happy that we are a bit overstocked with booze at the moment.

My brother was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery to break up blood clots in his lungs. That was Thursday. Today is Monday. His wife, daughter and our parents have not been allowed into the hospital to see him. I'm 400 miles away and not supposed to travel so I can't be down there to support and grieve with my family, much less see my brother before he dies. He's getting progressively worse. I'm expecting a call from my parents today telling me I no longer have a brother. I am so fucking angry. I have accepted that he will die in the next few years; his health has declined to the point that we all expected something like this was going to happen in the near future. None of us expected to not be able to be with him when it does. There are ZERO cases of the virus in that hospital. They could very easily triage visitors the same way they are employees. But they won't. Because they are fucking heartless. My brother is going to die alone in a fucking hospital because they won't let his family in to be by his side. But I can stop by Starbucks and get my fucking latte and then hit Mickey D's for a fucking value meal and then have a fucking pizza delivered. This close to saying fuck everyone, I'm driving my ass down there and you WILL be letting my brothers wife and daughter in to see him or I WILL go completely ape shit right there in the parking lot. Yeah, I'll end up in jail but the whole fucking world will know about it, cuz YouTube. (note-I won't be doing it, but damn it feels good to type it). Thanks for reading this. I hope your day is going much better than mine.

Madera Parachute Center. They do some tandems - I don't think there is a dz anywhere that doesn't have at least one tandem rig - and of course they do AFF (dz family won't grow without people learning to skydive), but their focus is on the family of local jumpers that they have built and continue to build and not on how many dollars they can make off tandems. I'd guess that most all Cessna DZ's (at least the ones not in tourist locations) are the same.

Sorry, I should have been specific. What I was told applies to AFF, not tandem.

You can renew your membership, show that you've met all of the renewal requirements (other than currency) and pay the money.. Once you are current jumping again, your instructional ratings will be current as well. At least, this is how I interpreted what was told to me by a current AFF I/E. Don't take this as 100% correct information.

I grew up at a dz just like that. Takes a dzo that is truly a skydiver to build that sort of dz - someone more into fun skydives with great people and building a community than making big money. The sport needs more of them.

That's likely to come to an end soon. I would imagine the tandem ride market has mostly dried up at the moment. Same with AFF. Even if the dz is still operating, the likelihood of getting enough work to survive right now could be pretty slim. I'm just saying please take care of each other. If we're gonna call skydivers family, we need to treat them that way when SHTF.

Nobody's jumping right now, right? A suggestion. While stuck on the ground, don't forget about your brothers and sisters who have no work at the moment, and little hope of getting any work in the next few months at least. Might be a great time to send that AAD off for service, have that little cosmetic repair done on your rig/jumpsuit/canopy, go ahead and get that repack done since it's only a month or so out. Your rigger will appreciate the work. Bring a bag of groceries to an instructor or three. Check in on them. Lots of them won't ask for shit - offer it. We are family.

Hubby went to Costco last week, Sacramento metro area. No TP, no water, freezers damn near empty. Every cashier line open and carts ten deep at each one at 4 pm on a Friday. Hit our local grocery store on Saturday. No TP and a limit on bottled water purchases but everything else looked normal, even the alcohol selection. Wasn't even any busier than it was two weeks ago. I guess it helps that it is a good sized supermarket in a city of 1000 people though. We keep 20 gallons of bottled water on hand pretty much all the time, enough to cover two of us and the dog for about two weeks. Being on a well that we have yet to upgrade to a solar pump, there is always the chance that we won't have running water regardless of what is going on out there in the real world. Those who get city water shouldn't count on it running in a lockdown situation either. We learned that up here during the public safety power shutoffs last summer when several localities were telling residents to be ready as they were not sure they could keep enough generator power going to keep the pumps running. No guarantees that the grid will remain stable through this (farfetched, I know, but better ready than thirsty). Hubby works for the state in a complex with over 6000 people, mostly cube farmers. Expecting him to get an unplanned vacation starting sometime this week. Him bringing it home from work is about the only way I could be exposed to it (I rarely leave the property any more), and epilepsy is now on the list of conditions that can cause complications, so I'm really hoping the governor shuts state offices down, like, today. Already planning the projects we can get done if hubby doesn't have to go to work; the garden is going to be amazing this year ;-)

<waves from the cheap seats>