tbrown

The biggest problem I have with people who insist on not wearing suits is that they're usually 50 jump wonders who already know everything. They "don't need" suits because they want to "fly with their bodies". They haven't got a clue about the suit helping everyone else on the load fly so much better. You can't tell 'em a fuckin' thing either, because they aleady know it all. Then they flail around, go hundreds of feet low, ruin the dive for everyone else, and go totally missing at breakoff time, when everyone else is wondering where the hell they are and when they'll dump. I won't jump with people who pull that shit anymore. If you want to belly dive, get with the program and wear a fucking jump suit. That or go fear flying..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I can't really say that I remember Soupy. I know I heard his name a lot and a bit of a song called "Poff - a - loff-a-ka", or something like that. But that's about it. The thing is, with each passing of a star of the 20th century, I'm starting to get what it feels like to see a whole era slipping away, one that the younger generation has no clue about at all. It's spooky. Must be how OUR parents stated to feel 20-30 years ago.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Lou Dobbs is a lying cocksucker. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Though lately, Air Trash has been jumping 'til NOON before going off to drink their lunch ! This was a fun, even silly dive. It came from the old baton passes that were the earliest beginning of RW. Air Trash actually did a 4 Way baton pass dive earlier this year. But a rubber chicken is less likely to knock someone's teeth out than a silly aluminum baton. Funnier too. So I'm the guy who ended up with the chicken at breakoff. They're not hard to track with at all. You just have to remember that you owe beer if you drop the "effing" thing. That chicken was built with a perfect form for tracking ! Tom CC #6 Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

So what the fuck did he say ? Do I really HAVE TO go to the link, or is somebody here literate enough to paraphrase.....Jesus Christ already..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Oh good - I've got a pile of junk mail from the Republican Party. I guess the deadbeats who defaulted on the house and trashed it before we bought it from the bank musta been Repubs.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

That being said there's footage somewhere (skydivingmovies.com?) of I think a russian jumper with a pilot chute in tow. He goes onto his back, reels it in then back on to belly and deploys his reserve. Probably not recommended, I think he was an experienced jumper with a fair bit of altitude. That's how Tom DeMotts was killed at Perris back in 1980. He was trying to reel in a PCIT before pulling his reserve. By the time you realize something's gone wrong, you're lucky if you have ten seconds left. There is NO time to improvise. I think cutting away is a waste of time and altitude, but if it's part of your plan then DO IT - and quickly !! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

On a serious note though Jessica Lynch is no hero, she is a failure. The fame she received was pathetic. She was rewarded for failing to do her job. Far greater soldiers have accomplished much more and received much less gratitude than she received. Jessica Lynch was first of all captured when her vehicle went astray in a "bad part of town". No, she was not a trained infantry GI. She was injured, captured, and then RAPED by the fucking ragheads. Next, she was transformed into a hero by the Pentagon propoganda machine. After all, why wouldn't the average white Republican's heart just bleed over a little blonde white girl held in captivity by Arab Muslim scum ? Remember, these were the earliest days of the Iraqi invasion. So why not pin a medal on her. She's been victimized twice now, once by the ragheads and again by all the Americans who have so easily vilified her ever since. I hope she's well and has been able to put all of it behind her. Though she never will if the gung-ho red blooded know-it-alls keep dragging her name through the shit. This was the same Pentagon that cooked up a medal and a story about Pat Tilman, after he was accidently killed by his own unit. By the way, "Zen Warrior" Stanley McCrystal was the very general who signed off on the LIES told to the press and to Tilman's family about his death. This is the guy who now wants another 40,000 troops in Afghanistan. Maybe we need another 40,000 troops, but I'm not going to take the word of a proven LIAR for it. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I don't know about you, but I'd say that anyone even approaching 254 is a 'big guy'. Either way, I would imagine that in a high speed mal such as a hard pull, there's a fair chance the guy was 'less than' stable, and possibly head low on deployment. Pulling a left side chest-mounted ripcord handle at terminal is not something many jumpers have trained for. Most jumpers today have never pulled any sort of chest moutned ripcord period. As such, instability and going head low are common occurences when pulling chest mounted ripcords, and both of those lead to 'firmer' openings. On the plus side, it typically breaks the burble, and helps the spring loaded PC get a clean launch. It is a VERY good idea for all jumper to do some practice reserve ripcord touches in freefall. You should be able to place a hand over your reserve ripcord handle, and remian in a stable, level position. You raise a number of excellent points here. Numero Uno, is the fact that a lot of us older guys aren't the trim young studs we once were back in the day. Weight gain with age is a "growing issue" in our sector of the sport. We need to take it seriously and get some excercise. I've started running again for the first time in about 20 years, as I'm a little too close to the TSO limits myself. I'd also fly a lot better if I were 20 or so pounds lighter. Just remember, every 16 pounds equals one bowling ball... Position on opening. Well, yeah..... It's always better to pull stable, probably best to pull a reserve in a kneeling up posture, so that the p/c will eject horizontally off your back and into a clean windstream. That's what the Racer owner's manual recommends. Flat & stable can produce a hesitation. But of course any kind of a pull is more important when you're headed for the basement at terminal. A practice touch of the handle/handles in freefall is an excellent idea. It's such a good idea that I keep forgetting to try it myself. I need to write it on the inside of my goggles sometime (I'm not being sarcastic, just trying to inject a little humor). Personally, I don't include a cutaway in my total mal or p/c in tow plan, so I only need to concentrate on the one silver handle. It might be a fun idea to include a drill like this with a small 4 Way group and just make it one of the points - everybody fall neutral and touch their reserve handle. And finally, ripcord deployment is a skill in itself. It's a lost skill too, since hand deploy came on the scene. Hand deploy is GREAT and I would never advocate a return to the ripcord - or having to close a container over a spring loaded p/c every damn pack job. But nowadays, nobody ever pulls a ripcord - until they're already in trouble and under a lot of stress. And that doesn't even begin to cover all the little tricks we learned back in the day for clearing p/c hesitations. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

On my third jump this afternoon, I was flying underneath my main canopy when I looked down and saw an all white canopy with no pilot chute flying below. As my 4 Way group was only the second group to leave the plane, I quickly started wondering who could have had a malfunction. As I got a little closer, I noticed the reserve canopy had an irregular "lumpy" look on the top surface, one of the cells near the center was "fatter" looking, you could almost imagine something like a futuristic "afterburner" sort of look to the canopy. I decided that this just couldn't be right, so as I had a cell phone in my pocket, I decided to break out of the pattern and follow this guy down. Happily as things turned out, he made a comfortable looking stand up landing into a fairly brisk 10+ mph ground wind. The man had exited before our group, to do RW in T shirts and shorts rather than any kind of jumpsuit. He was a bit of a big guy, but not what I'd consider to be too big. He told me he'd had trouble getting his pilot chute out. I'm not sure if he had trouble reaching it, or it just wouldn't come out of the pouch, but he'd done the right thing and gone to pulling the silver handle. Not surprisingly for a rather big guy in a T shirt and shorts, he got a rather hard opening from his reserve. He was not aware of the damage, as it had occurred above the bottom skin of the canopy and he apparently didn't see anything wrong - as if he'd had much choice if he had noticed. I'm very happy - and relieved - that he landed alright. Back on the ground, the load bearing ribs of the center cell were visibly blown all to hell. It really could have been a lot worse. The reserve was a PD160, a brand most of us consider to be a "gold standard" reserve - I jump a PD193 myself. I am in no way criticizing PD reserves, but want to point out that things like this can happen to ANY reserve, especially in a terminal speed deployment. The max TSO'd weight limit for most PD reserves (not the newer Optimum reserves) is still 254 lbs. It's quite possible this guy may have been over that limit. There are, quite frankly, some guys who are simply too big for the reserves they're jumping - not just in terms of wing loading, but in bottom line terms of TSO limits. The choice to wear just a T shirt and shorts instead of a jumpsuit was his choice, and I won't criticize that, but it obviously added to his freefall velocity. I'm just throwing this incident with a happy ending open to discussion because it could have been so much worse. If anything, I'd like to point out that the reserve managed to hold itself together after the damage sustained on opening, so that the guy not only landed safely, but was unaware of the damage until it was pointed out to him on the ground. We've got some really great reserves on the market these days. But they're not magic - they have their limits and we MUST respect those limits. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Tomorrow's the day, it will have been one year. We miss you Harry. Keep an eye on Eli, he's new up there. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The Repulikanz can't stand anything that isn't theirs. They were openly trying to bring about a single party state just a few years ago (I have a cousin-in-law who's a big Republikan high roller and personal pal of GW Bush, and he openly talks about the joys of a single partei state, so don't tell me it isn't so). Now that the Republikans have been voted back into minority status, they are more than willing to bring the roof down on all our heads if it can return them to POWER - which is all they give a shit about. Health care, the Chicago Olympics, the Nobel Prize are just chicken feed issues. I'm concerned that the Republikanz would stoop to fomenting a civil war, with all the horrors of "ethnic cleansing", ala Bosnia. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I made a ten second delay with a Starlite just once, with the "X" slider. Thought the opening was hard enough that I didn't try it again, PCs were much softer. Diapered reserves were nice, had a couple openings with them that were just fine. But the Pioneer LPD pin hung up and killed a friend of ours at Orange in 1977 after cutting away from his Strato Star. He'd just put out a plane full of happy S/L kids too, so they all got to watch their friendly Jumpmaster go in. I think Pioneer lost their TSO for the pin system after that one. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It's understandable to have some second thoughts after getting hurt. But you already know what it was you did wrong that got you hurt. So the rest of it is dealing with fears and uncertainty. I broke my fib and had a pin through my ankle about five years ago. Mercifully the pin was removed after four months. It was just about six months before I was ready to take to the air again. I don't recall any particular fear or uncertainty about it though. I found putting on my rig and climbing on board for the ride up was comfortably familiar and that the open door was there to jump out of. Plus, a young kid onboard with about forty jumps asked me if I'd jump with him and I said of course I would, so it wasn't just about me anymore. Have you been out to the dropzone much since you got hurt ? Or taken an observer ride, just to watch your friends go out the door ? I made a couple visits to the DZ and took one observer ride while I was mending. It really kept my spirits and interest up. Skydiving won't be any more dangerous than it ever was before and you're just "that much" wiser. If you decide to leave, it will be your choice. But you will be unhappy with yourself for having quit for the rest of your life. You should at least make a few more jumps before deciding. You're not gonna quit.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I think the earth is only 52 years old. That may sound a little odd, as I'll be 54 next month. But I have no recollection, consciousness, or memory of the earth before I was around two years old. I think my little brother was created before the earth, because I remember him and even named my pet stuffed elephant after him. My Mom and Dad were created some time after I was born. This also means I was a virgin birth, because they couldn't have possibly had sex to conceive me if they didn't even exist. My brother by the way was decidedly NOT a virgin birth.... So what about the dinosaurs you ask ? They were created when I was four or five years old, I had a bunch of them and loved them very much. They were made of plastic. Then pirates like Blackbeard were created, which made life on earth really cool. I never actually saw them because they lived on boats out in the ocean, while I was stuck in upstate New York. But I knew pirates existed because I'd seen them on television. Cowboys too.... You people are really very lucky I was born, or there would be no earth for any of us. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

How about an undecided option ? On the one hand, we've made a commitment and Afghanistan has been regarded as the "good war" by even the anti-Iraq war crowd. The main reason I can see us being in Afghanistan at all is to keep the Taliban from destabilizing Pakistan and getting hold of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Seems like a good enough reason to me..... On the other hand, the history of foreign military involvement in Afghanistan is one of miserable failure by any country that's ever tried it. As the Russians can tell you, and as the English have learned two or three times in a row. Afghanis hate foreigners and make a national sport out of hunting them down and killing them. Always have & always will. So we'd better have a very clear idea of what we want, it has to be something we can actually achieve, and we have to have an exit strategy planned. and in the meantime we'll need to accept ongoing and heavy losses of young American lives. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

And some peacenik is gonna come out and burn a flag in front of guys that have been saying for decades, "somebody give me a reason..." Oh god, is somebody burning a flag AGAIN ?? I'm sorry, I haven't heard a word about this anywhere. Is this just another case of the lying media, or perhaps another urban myth in the making ? I won't even debate what happened, as I'm not sure it ever did in the first place. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Now that Congress has just voted to flush several more billion bucks down the shitter to our "allies" in Pakistan, comes news that of the $6.6 billion we've already sent them since 9/11, only about $500 million ever reached the army. the rest was diverted into propping up the civilian economy by our "ally", then President "Pervs" Mushariff. This is NOT a Bush bashing. But there is the serious question to be raised about why we're flushing good money after bad on these assholes. I know we're fighting a war in Afghanistan and need to have Pakistan on our side. But the truth is that Pakistan has ALWAYS secretly - or not so secretly - backed the Taliban. The ONLY valid reason I can see for us being in Afghanistan is to keep Pakistan's nuclear arsenal out of the hands of the Taliban and al Qaeda. We are NOT there so little girls can go to school, or so women can take off their burkhas or dip their fingers in blue ink on election day. Meanwhile, pakistan has been sheltering bin Laden and spending our money like there's no tomorrow. Other than thinking that Pakistan is an utterly useless ally, I'd like to just throw the Forum open for debate. Thank you. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I heard on the radio (NPR) that Brazil was making the case that it was high time an Olympics was hosted in South America. So now it looks like they've got their chance. Why not just congratulate them ? I'd just be concerned about Rio's notorious crime rate. IIRC, several members of the US Parachute Team were relieved of their wallets at the beach back in the day when a World Championship was hosted in Rio. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

This just in - Chicago and Tokyo have been voted OUT in the first two rounds of voting by the IOC. It's now down to either Rio or Madrid. Makes me wonder if the USOC recruited Obama to try and save them, they might have known the IOC planned to ice them. The Euros are still unhappy about the bribery scandals in Salt Lake City and the bombing in Atlanta. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I remember ordering a copy when I bought my PC. That was 33 years ago, so it's long gone. Nice little book though. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

So was there a problem with one of the planes, or what ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I also think the perception of risk is very important here as well. Just reading enough of these comments, which are truthful, is enough to make me think, "sheeesh.....". The perception of little risk, combined with the rewards of the excitement, great beauty, a better sex life, whatever else it does, or you believe it does for you increases our comfort zones. As long as nobody's doing anything obviously stupid, things will usually turn out alright and we feel great about it. While it's true that somebody quits every time somebody else goes in, it's also true that the rest of us who decide to stick around feel a lot better about it after as little as one jump. We hit the air, it feels familiar, we don't do anything too stupid, the dive turns out okay, and we feel good about it again. I think that perception of feeling safe is the only thing that makes it possible for us to do it at all, let alone hundreds or thousands of times. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I feel very safe and comfortable the moment I leave the plane. with time and experience you do build up confidence, which is good. But it can also breed complacency. When things go wrong, they go wrong really FAST. You can go from "yahoo" to "oh my god" in fractions of a second. There will be jumps that will scare the holy living crap out of you and make you wonder why you ever got into this sport. I'm guessing you just haven't had one of those yet. But don't worry - you will. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Dear God in heaven ! The President expressed a private opinion ! And a common sense one at that ! Surely the Republic is ruined !! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !