PabloCruz2

Thank You. I appreciate it!

It has never been fully explained to me about the traditions of owing beer in skydiving. When do you "owe" beer? A stickier question (that could go over like a lead parachute) is although I don't have a problem with drinking (I personally do not drink), as a Christian I do have a problem with drunkenness and would prefer not to contribute to it. What would an alternative be? Once, instead of beer I treated all the staff of the DZ to a meal of pizza and soda. It seemed well received and the DZO commended me for it. What are your thoughts?

Hopefully this will encourage you to stick with it. It could be worse. I have been in the sport 4 years and only have 36 jumps. My last jumps (4 of them) was the first week of June in 2003. I share many of the same feelings you have, but I dream and pray for the day to come that all this changes. I would love to have your average number of jumps. Sometimes life doesn't allow all our wishes to come true immediately. Hang in there! Your day will come!!

Hey Kris, That is a great pic. Dave might well have been my instructor. I can't remember. I'm loooking forward to getting back over to Cushing some day to jump again.

If any of you wrote about your first jump like I did, I thought it might be fun to read about it. If you kept a copy of it, please post it. The following was my journal entry. My home DZ was OSC in Cushing, OK. Unfortuneately I'm not currently very active in the sport, but hope to return to it in the not too distant future! Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 23:03:21 -0500 Subject: I Fell! I Flew!! I Walked Away!!! Hey everybody, After a day like today I really have drop you a note ( no pun intended) =:-) After a few more hours of training this morning, I climbed into a Cessna 182 and took off with three of my friends, our jump master, (and of course our pilot)! It was about a 10-15 minute flight to an altitude of 3500 feet at which point our jumpmaster opened the door ( it is just plain wrong to open the door of an airplane flying about 90 mph at 3500 feet). The heart really starts pumping at that moment! Bryson and Keith jumped ahead of me. Then it was my turn. After each jumper left the door was closed and we circled the airfield for another pass. I was sitting with my knees to my chest and back to the control panel (the pilot on my right ) with the jumpmaster on his knees straddling my feet. He opens the door (let me again emphasize that this is just plain wrong)! He has me swing my legs out the door and place them on a small platform right above the main landing gear with my right hand on the door frame and my left hand on the wing strut. He turned my radio on (My instructor on the ground was on the ground watching me and radioing instructions to me as needed. Showed me my pilot chute ( a two foot diameter parachute which pulls your main chute out of your backpack ) and instructed me to step out and stand up the platform and hold on to the wing strut with both hands as far out as I can reach. I am now standing OUTSIDE an airplane flying 90 MPH at 3500 feet (this is really, REALLY wrong!!). The jumpmaster then instructs me to hang from the wing strut. I step off the platform. Now I am hanging from the wing strut of the airplane flying at 90 MPH with nothing but 3500 feet of air beneath my feet (Have I mentioned how REALLY, REALLY wrong this is?)!! I look at him (I'm supposed to smile at him as an indicator that I am ready.................I didn't). He says, "Ready"? (Stupid question!). Then he says, "Go". At this point I let go of the aircraft ( I have only been hanging for a few seconds ). Now at this point words can't describe how so VERY, VERY wrong this is!!! Words also can not describe the next 4-5 seconds. If their was ever a time in my life that I experienced what faith and trust (Both in God and man) are. This was that time. 4-5 seconds after letting go my chute opened. I have very few conscious memories of those seconds. The feeling of relief and joy that I experienced upon looking up and seeing a fully open and functioning parachute was amazing!! Once I had determined that I had a good chute and had reassured myself that I was safely secured to it ( I had already figured that out before I ever got into the airplane, but it was a good time to reconfirm it. Considering that there was still 3000 feet of air beneath my feet!). I really enjoyed the flight down. It was the single most amazing experience of my life. I am really looking forward to doing it again!! =:-) There was one guy there today that jumped twice. He now has 5,690 jumps under his belt spanning 29 years!! He had 1500 jumps under his belt utilizing the old round parachutes before they designed the square airfoil parachutes. Out of all those jumps, he has only had to cut away his main chute (due to some form of malfunction) 15 times. Statistically it is very safe! Many times safer than driving to the airport this morning. Time will tell but I doubt this was my last time. If you are adventurous, I would highly recommend it. Do your research and find a Skydiving center that has a really good safety record and all the latest technological safety equipment and take a major step into faith and trust. It is mind boggling!! One of our guys had a digital camera so I might have some pictures to share later. I did have my jump videotaped. Due to the altitude the cameraman didn't jump with me. The tape was made from the moment of opening the door. To the letting go of the aircraft and opening of my chute as the plane flew off without me. The look on my face is hilarious!! I better get to bed. I'm feeling a little tired. Talk to you later. In HIS grip, Paul Fockler / [email protected]

People like this may call themselves Christians but they act totally un-Christlike and are totally unbiblical. Not everyone who calls themself a christian IS a christian. The bad thing is people like this reflect badly on Christianity as a whole. This man obviously does not understand the grace and love of God. One day he will learn the error of his ways! Just my thoughts and opinion.