beezyshaw

What caption best suits this photo?

Just thought I'd bring this back to the top with another reminder that Saturday, Sept. 24, and Sunday, Sept. 25 we'll have Mike Mullins' Super KingAir at Tennessee Skydiving Center in Tullahoma. If anyone wants directions, they can be found at http://www.tennskydive.com/contact.htm We'll have several tandem instructors available, so tandem students are invited to come have fun, too.

Either way, get the hurricane victims out of New Orleans

Here's one way to deal with the rising prices at the pumps... http://www.hiperusa.com/Gas.wmv

Sometimes people should've just "stood in bed" that day...

Manley Butler, Butler Parachute Systems would probably know as much or more about rounds as anyone in our business, and he certainly studies and applies new technology concerning the use of rounds. www.butlerparachutes.com

Bill, as I recall, your Nitro has the black Technora lines, is that right? If so, then your original factory lower control lines (or what many refer to as brake lines) were made of Dacron, and I can assure you that Dacron lowers do not shorten; if anything they elongate slightly with use. It's really not surprising that lowering the brake settings (moving the cat's eye closer to the toggle) made the openings feel a little smoother; that is the case with many canopy designs. But what you need to remember is now your canopy will be flying faster after deployment, so that is a consideration for things like doing big-ways, etc. If I understand your question, you're saying you used a straight stitch to make a new set of lower control lines. Here is the issue to consider; if you use a fiber for lines that has a good bit of elasticity, such as Dacron has, then a straight stitch is not a good idea, as the line itself will stretch more during opening than the straight stictch will. This will eventually lead to broken stitches. If, however, you use a line with little or no elasticity, then the nylon thread in the stitching will give more than the line itself and present no problem. So, long story short, with Dacron control lines you should use a zig zag or bartack to allow the stitch to "give" with the line during opening forces.

Drop zone not "officially" re-opened, under the still sort-of yet-to-be-determined new management, but we WILL be jumping Saturday, Sept. 24. Mike Mullins is bringing the Super KingAir over for the day, we have a bunch of tandems lined up from a group in Nashville, and lots of fun jumping all day. "Stay tuned, details at 11:00" Oh, and any tandem instructors who want to make some jumps that day please PM or email me; we have a bunch of passengers on the books.

This is generally only an issue with BRASS slider grommets. If your slider has STAINLESS grommets, it is very unlikely that the grommets will sustain any damage from metal connector links, with or without any bumpers installed. I have put many hundreds of jumps on canopies with stainless links and grommets without bumpers and with no dings in the grommets.

"Real" Nitro canopies don't do that. Seriously, you can probably eliminate this by not rolling the tail much when packing.

Here's part of the original post... "The middle ring shows distinct indentations where it was 'hammered' by the large and small rings during opening. The indentations are much deeper and sharper edged than the minor flat spots that occur on the middle ring over the course of many jumps. I think the middle ring is slightly distorted (bent, not ovalled), but it's hard to tell by eye. The cutaway cable is nicked and kinked slightly." So yes, the risers should be replaced, as well as the cutaway cable.

A guy gets home, screeches his car into the driveway, runs into the house, slams the door and shouts at the top of his lungs, "Honey, pack your bags. I won the lottery!" The wife says, 'Oh my God! What should I pack, beach stuff or mountain stuff?" "Doesn't matter," he says. "Just get the hell out." p.s. I did take a girl on a tandem jump a couple of weeks ago who (a couple of days before) had a ticket that paid $145,000.00... Damn was she beautiful

That is so common with tandem rigs, I have a hard time believing that this comes as a surprise to someone in 2005! I mean, it is the reason for many many broken tandem risers and reserve rides; for everyone I know that makes tandem jumps it is a mandatory pre-jump check by the instructor before putting the rig on. And it CERTAINLY should be checked by anyone packing tandems. It is so common that many tandem rigs have the tendency to do this after every jump and must be straightened out before packing. Oh, and like has been said earlier, that pair of tandem risers is trash and MUST be replaced with new main risers.

Hey y'all better listen to this, a call from the principal is serious bidness.

Oh lawdy, one o' my chilrens' a heterosexual! http://www.hiperusa.com/heterosexual.mp3

Cinderella is now 95 years old. After a fulfilling life with the now dead prince, she happily sits upon her rocking chair, watching the world go by from her front porch, with a cat named Bob for companionship. One sunny afternoon out of nowhere, appeared the fairy godmother. Cinderella said, "Fairy Godmother, what are you doing here after all these years"? The fairy godmother replied, "Cinderella, you have lived an exemplary life since I last saw you. Is there anything for which your heart still yearns?" Cinderella was taken aback, overjoyed, and after some thoughtful consideration, she uttered her first wish: "The prince was wonderful, but not much of an investor. I'm living hand to mouth on my disability checks, and I wish I were wealthy beyond comprehension. Instantly her rocking chair turned into solid gold. Cinderella said, "Ooh, thank you, Fairy Godmother". The fairy godmother replied "it is the least that I can do. What do you want for your second wish?" Cinderella looked down at her frail body, and said, "I wish I were young and full of the beauty and youth I once had." At once, her wish became reality, and her beautiful young visage returned. Cinderella felt stirrings inside of her that had been dormant for years. And then the fairy godmother spoke once more: "You have one more wish; what shall it be?" Cinderella looks over to the frightened cat in the corner and says, "I wish for you to transform Bob, my old cat, into a kind and handsome young man." Magically, Bob suddenly underwent so fundamental a change in his biological make-up that, when he stood before her, he was a man so beautiful the likes of him neither she nor the world had ever seen. The fairy godmother said, "Congratulations, Cinderella, enjoy your new life. With a blazing shock of bright blue electricity, the fairy godmother was gone as suddenly as she appeared. For a few eerie moments, Bob and Cinderella looked into each other's eyes. Cinderella sat, breathless, gazing at the most beautiful, stunningly perfect man she had ever seen. Then Bob walked over to Cinderella, who sat transfixed in her rocking chair, & held her close in his young muscular arms. He leaned in close, blowing her golden hair with his warm breath as he whispered.......... "Bet you're sorry you neutered me."

Wait a minute, Kolla, the Farm is Nitro country!

Mike, I am extremely happy to hear this news! I know many others are, too. You have my full support and that of lots of folks that have been hoping and waiting for something like this to happen.

You mean it SHOULD take 30 seconds. Hey c'mon Mark, it makes for a good story!

And one of Eric's quotes of the weekend... We're getting ready to board the airplane, with Shimmel quizzing everyone about who's belly flying, who's freeflying, blah, blah so he can spend an extra five minutes loading the airplane ( ) Meanwhile, Eric trying to wait patiently, finally just jumps in the left seat to start the Caravan and says "Let's go, I'm sit flying"!

As for my "great time" this weekend, at least the guy gave me an expensive bottle of whiskey and Hans has to let me take all the cute chicks on tandems "until further notice" And with the TM's face covered up throughout the entire video, there's really no telling who was wearing that black and red jumpsuit And thank God peanut never even got close to the tandem in freefall, I'm guessing that 1/2 inch rudder of his was slowing him down a lot

I checked into a hotel on a business trip and was a bit lonely so I thought I'd get me one of those girls you see advertised in phone booths when you're calling for a cab. I grabbed a card on my way in. It was an ad for a girl calling herself Erogonique, a lovely girl, bending over in the photo. She had all the right curves in all the right places, beautiful long wavy hair, long graceful legs all the way up to her bottom. You know the kind. So I'm in my room and figure, what the hell, I'll give her a call. "Hello?" the woman says. God, she sounded sexy. "Hi, I hear you give a great massage and I'd like you to come to my room and give me one. No, wait, I should be straight with you. I'm in town all alone and what I really want is sex. I want it hard, I want it hot, and I want it now. I'm talking kinky the whole night long. You name it, we'll do it. Bring implements, toys, everything you've got in your bag of tricks. We'll go hot and heavy all night; Tie me up, wear a strap on, cover me in chocolate syrup and whipped cream, anything you want baby. Now, how does that sound?" She says, "That sounds fantastic, but for an outside line you need to press 9."

Charlie Mullins did 80 tandems with his dad, Mike, before he turned 11 when he was allowed to skydive by himself.

Wow man, when you told me yesterday it wasn't looking too good, I had no idea (as I'm sure you didn't) he would be gone in the next few minutes. I'm here if I can do anything, as all your friends are. Like I told you yesterday, I've been so lucky to have not yet lost an immediate family member I don't even know how you feel. Know that I'm truly sorry and I know you're going to be the one that will help your family get through this.

Yes, demo everything you can, and you'll be assured of making the best choice for YOU. It's a very important decision that you need to take your time in making.