McDuck

Back to the original topic, here's a pic of when I last saw Clay, when we awarded him a ring-sight as a consolation gift at the film festival. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

I take it GW isn't having one of his local games tonight? Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

There's always something going on at the dz, even if it's just hanging out at Aviators grill & pub. What time on Friday are you arriving? I'm headed out that way from Bragg after work and can lead the way if you are interested in following. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

My aunt teaches at Baptist college in Riverside. I can put you in touch with her if you like. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

He was at our Military Appreciation Day boogie at Raeford. Heck, we even awarded him a ring-sight as a consolation gift for the film he entered in our film festival. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Kick ASS! You never cease to amaze me, Kel.

Could you darken that pic a little and re-post it? I'm getting a lot of glare down towards the bottom right-hand corner. I use Crest Skullstrips to whiten my scalp. You'll PAY Andy, just you wait and see. When I make it out to the Farm one day, I'll ride the plane up with you and put you in a patented McDuck stink coma. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

I understand your point. You don't want to drive all of the experienced and competent jumpers away for failing to comply with one (important) step in their jumps. Now, when does 'not pissing someone off' cross the line into enabling them to take "one aspect of their jumping" and put themselves and others at risk? If you provide the education and make available all of the tools and knowledge to fly safe and predictable patterns that still allow for high performance landings, how many times are you willing to let someone continue to do as they please so as not to piss them off? Can you think of no instances where grounding an arrogant jumper and spreading the word might have prevented an injury/fatality? You are exactly right, education IS the key. Getting everyone to turn it in the lock and open the door is not nearly as easy. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

I can see the trucks and the launchers set up for all of the pyrotechnics on the polo field. It's quite impressive. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

We're working on it. We'll have them ready shortly, I promise.

Not only is Ian an excellent teacher, he also knows about the psychology that leads us to be reluctant to relinquish bad habits, and knows how to reinforce the positive aspects of the learning process for each individual so that they see the reason to continue on and improve the skills he shows you that you already have. His workshop will stick with me as long as I continue to skydive, but I'll gladly take his course again. While in the process of taking his workshop, all of us were able to observe those people who simply don't think they are doing anything wrong when they don't set a safe, predictable pattern. Teaching those people, with their minds firmly set in the stone of "I haven't had any problems in x amount of years in the sport and x amount of jumps", is an uphill battle that can only be accomplished with a concerted effort of all concerned canopy pilots. Frankly, if grounding people who won't follow a safe pattern drives them from the sport, then perhaps it's best for the sport at large. I'm telling you, Ian's workshop really helped open my eyes. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Is there a DZ in Myrtle Beach? They were making a demonstration jump in Myrtle Beach. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Crap! I had no idea, Darin! Hopefully Cora and I will be able to make it up there to say hello and goodbye. I can't promise anything, though, as Cora had to make an emergency trip back home (overseas) and she may need to recuperate from the long-distance, short-visit trip. I'll see what I can do. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

I've been passing the word along, but I've yet to hear back from anyone as to whether or not they plan on going. I'll see if I can start a fire in their minds to get them motivated. Edited to add: Why, are you in need of a ride? Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

I thought we agreed he sounds NOTHING like Leonardo DiCaprio. And Ian will be pleased to hear that not only are we going to continue our current progression, we are taking at least one weekend a month to do exactly what we did this weekend: brief an exercise and pattern, fly it to the best of our ability, have someone film our landings and debrief them all together. We now have the mental tools to do that for ourselves, thanks to Ian's workshop. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

I believe it's about two hours or so. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

I'll check and let you know. My guess is yes, since the military folks will be off. However, CSS is having a big shindig up at their dropzone, and they never fail to put on a good boogie. There might be a group from Raeford that is heading to CSS for their 4th boogie. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Don't make me tell Cora you've been misbehaving That kind of prevarication is just wrong...unless you WANT to visit me in the hospital. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Hope you had an AWESOME birthday, my friend! Here's to another kick-ass year! Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Thank you very much, Ian, for coming to spend time with us and helping us to safely advance our canopy piloting skills. I posted at length about it HERE. We greatly appreciate your time and knowledge, and the fact that you balance all aspects of a workshop like this out so that no one aspect weighed more heavily than any other on us. It was great having you here, my friend. I'd make sure you get some of that blue sterilizing fluid for when I ship your Soniccare back to you. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Angry at myself, that is. I had the distinct privilege of attending Ian's canopy control workshop this past weekend, and in so doing found that I am part of the problem. Not because he said so, but because I said so. When the first question of a workshop of this nature is one you should have a definitive and positive answer to, and you find yourself muttering your answer under your breath so the instructor can't hear your answer over the more positive responses, you know you've got some extensive work to do. "How many of you have a plan for landing that you stick to for every landing? One where you know the altitudes of each point in your pattern?" If most of the run-of-the-mill jumpers who haven't taken a canopy control course or workshop of any kind would be honest with themselves, as I forced myself to be, the answer to that question would probably be, "I have a plan to land somewhere on the dropzone as safely as possible." Beyond that, it seems to be more about getting there than how to get there the same way each time and know where you started and ended each point along the way. Ian's course forced me to re-evaluate my landing pattern, not only as it pertains to "high performance" landings, but also properly stacking the pattern and ensuring I fly as predictably as possible for my own benefit and the benefit of other pilots in the pattern. Sure, I had to go back to basics and change the way I approached the landing area and landed, but better to drop those bad habits now and do things right than to keep building on the skills that WILL cause a problem at some point in the future. Going back to straight-in, double-fronts landings was, initially, very frustrating and seemingly unrewarding. However, as Ian debriefed each jump and showed me how I was finally building a consistent pattern that I could then work to perfect, my angst slipped away and I understood that I was on the right track. I won't lie, it was easy to start thinking that I would be better off going back to my formerly slipshod and unpredictable "pattern" where I was having more fun, but I won't do that now. Having seen that I CAN do things the right way, picking a pattern, knowing what altitudes I need to be at along each point in the pattern and making slight adjustments as necessary, is one of the most important things I learned from Ian's workshop. If you read this, or any other post or article similar to this, and think you don't need to take a canopy control course or workshop, ask someone at your DZ to start filming your pattern and landings for the next three weekends or so and just fly the way you always do. Don't change anything for the purposes of having someone evaluate you the way you think an experienced and safe canopy pilot would want to see you fly. Fly the way you usually do. Then take the footage to someone like Ian at your dropzone and have them evaluate your pattern and landings. One of the saddest things I heard all weekend at the dz was when an old-time jumper asked what the group of us was doing with Ian. When he was informed that we were in a canopy control course, he promptly scoffed at our efforts and stated that "I don't need anything like that." Believe me, nothing could be farther from the truth...for ANY of us. If you think you don't have an ego about your landings, ask yourself if you could go back to the basics, land outside of the areas where people can gawk at you and you have to make long walks back to the loading/packing areas. Then immediately start doing just that. Ask yourself if you can set a good example for other, newer canopy pilots by setting a predictable and safe landing pattern that anyone can mimic without worrying about hurting themselves or others. If accolades for high-speed landings in front of the crowds at your dz (outside of professional swoop competitions) is why you do what you do on approaches and landings, ask yourself how proud everyone would be if you pounded in, if you collided with another jumper in the air or if someone with less skill and experience pounded in from not having a safe, predictable plan just like you don't have. Finding out I had an ego about something like landing my parachute was a huge shock. I never would have guessed I had one until I worked with Ian to alter my bad habits under canopy and come up with a safe, reliable and predictable plan for my pattern and landings. It's a paradigm shift that opens your eyes to all of the pattern activity at your dz and points out the frightening fact that many people "just wing it" to get to the landing areas. I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to Ian for taking the time to visit us and work with our group, myself in particular, to develop a core skill set that is going to be safer, more reliable and readily adaptable to any landing area, but also for opening our minds and eyes to the not-so-subtle ego and mindset problems that have to be identified and overcome before we can safely progress in our canopy piloting progression. We truly appreciate your time and efforts, my friend. Thank you very much for breaking down those old ego-based barriers to make us more effective canopy pilots. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

so the ring site for his helmet....is that what he won or what he needed?? A little from column A, a little from column B. Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Okay, here's a few from Keka's collection. 1 - Mirage's tent 2 - multi-aircraft bigway dirt-dive 3 - bigway dirt-dive 2 4 - Aerodyne Urban Assault Vehicle 5 - swoop-n-chug 3-stack 6 - 3-stack part 2 More? (Thanks Keka!) Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

Oh, absolutely! I'll PM you an address to send them to. Thank you SO MUCH! I need pics to send to the vendors as thanks, so this will help us both.

acutually I liked the DZ so much that I will be back next weekend Cool! You mean we'll actually get to meet when I'm not running around like a crazy bastard? Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28 "I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.