sdgregory

No never. Sorry if you find that hard to believe but I have never had that problem. Do they disobey? yes. Are they perfect? no Tantrums? No. Never, not even once has it been an issue. And it could very well be that it is just not in any of their personalities. I don't know, but tantrums have NEVER been an issue.

I guess we have found my senior project topic. Now how can I tie this into mechanical engineering?

Somehow this does not equate. Did Spain set s date for withdrawal? Not that I heard. And you can't that they were going to withdrawal anyway, because that's a no brainer. The war will end sometime which will require troop wothdrawal. Your post here does nothing to change the fact that Spain looks like it is giving in to terror.

I disagree here. Granted kids get into trouble but they are trainable. My children do not behave the way I see many kids behave. Mine have NEVER thrown a tantrum. If I say no they know better than to question me. Every action has consequences and they know this, have been taught this from day one. I am not lenient by any means. You can let your children be children and still instill discipline in them. Very few times have my children done something, been told not to do it, and done it again. Never have I had to repeat it three times. The second time the punishment was enough to make a third time not worth it. My wife and I are constantly complimented on the behvior of our children when we go out in public. And at the drop zone, they stay out of the hanger, out of the rigger's loft, away from the landing area and away from the plane. They do not touch others gear (NOT EVEN MINE). They stick to the picnic tables and the play area. Not all kids need constant direct supervision, even at a drop zone. I think it depends on the child, the parent, the attitude of the jumpers, and the dropzone. Of course of all the DZ's (been to 4) that my family as been to only the jumpers at SGC actually made them feel welcome. That is why I pretty much go without them now. Sad that I cannot include my family in something that brings me great joy.

Sorry I do not like any of them

Well it does to me...You don't have to agree. Yep, your right, we don't. Actually, as this was a non-controversial topic, I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, but I had thoughts that it was just someone having fun. Choose to ingore those thoughts though.

Does anyone else find this disturbing? Dishonesty is dishonesty, there isn't a grade of it, two words---Don't lie--- Period!!! Hope I didn't read into that too much. Sorry if I have offended anyone. Wait, I'm not supposed to lie, hell no, I'm not sorry, if that offended you, you are a freakin' liar!!! Yes I find it disturbing. Even so called white lies are lies. Besides if you too afraid to be truthfull over the little things, how can you be honest at crunch time?

Amen. I think an interesting poll would be to break it down into 'years in sport' vs 'selling out' I'm pretty sure people with over 4 years in the sport are more likely to 'sell out' and people with less than 4 years just don't understand that concept Read my post above and check out my time in sport

same here . . .

Scubadiving, I think the fact that many jumpers have responded to your post, and that this thread is not locked speaks volumes. I for one welcomed your original post as well as the thoughtful and constructive responses. No apologies necessary. Chuck I'm glad I am not the only one who thought this was out of line. Where is this hostility coming from?

Though I think you make some good points, I think that there would be an increase in demand by the skydiving community. There are too many of us who do not go to a tunnel because the cost is significant with travel being part of the price. I would do much more tunnel time if I had one within 4 hours drive. I could drive out early. Spend an hour in the tunnel, drive home. all in one day. To go to Orlando, I have to drive for 16 hours, get a hotel, spend and hour in the tunnel the next day. Goto a hotel, then drive home the next day for 16 hours. If every state had a tunnel that would be market saturation and the tunnel would need tourists to keep it afloat. But to have enough in the market that you could go there, fly, and go home within a day? I think that then they could survive without tourists. Of course that assumes that people would be willing to drive hat far for 15 minutes of tunnel time or could afford to go for an hour at a time. and of course I am not an economics or business major, so this is truly just an opinion, therefore the ole saying "opinions are like a . . ." applies.

Chad, Skydiving has been my dream since I was five and saw my first demo jump. It took me until I was 32 to do it. Now that I am doing it I will definitely say that to me it is worth it. Risk vs Reward is something that each person has to evaluate for themselves. Even if I say it is worth it, does not mean you will. But, if the fire burns in you to do it, you will never quench it until you try it. If you don't like it, it will be quenched. If you don't do it you will always wonder. That was unacceptable to me and finally I sucked up the cost and did it. BUT, be warned, if you love it, you will never quench the fire. From the first second in the air I knew it was worth it. So now my fire burns hotter. Each day I am not in the air I feel out of place. I agree with what Bytch said. Save up as much as you can, be prepared to spend quite a bit on getting your license and gear. You have time to get jobs and save up for it. I also think you should inform your parents slowly, so that when you do do it they are not shocked and freaked. Give them time to get used to it. Share with them the things you learn about the sport. Learn how canopies and rigs work, the licensing requirements, the things that those who participate are doing to improve safety. Then get videos and show them how much fun it is. (I would avoid anything with any negative stuff for now.) Good luck, blue skies.

That seems to be the general story. When I first started I wanted to do four way badly. I did an 8 point 4 way for my 25th jump and it was so much fun. Unfortunately, trying to find people to do four way with is not easy at 71 jumps. Because of the whole fall rate thing you may spend a day just trying to hook up. And that's if you can get the more experienced jumpers to jump with you after the first time. Face it, many of you guys with experience don't find jumping a four way that doesn't hook up until the fourth jump very exciting. I have tried to RW with people several times. Never more than a 5-way and then only three consecutive jumps where we tried to do a rotating spider. None of the jumps turned a point except for the one mentioned above (my 25th). That jump the people I jumped with all had over 1000 jumps and so they did the work. No matter how hard I try to get some people together to do four way noone wants to spend the time jumping with you in four way if they can't get a point turned all day. This leaves you to coached jumps or solos. Solos aren't too much fun on your belly. So what does that leave you? Freefly. A lot of experienced people say, get proficient on your belly before you go freefly. But how can you get proficient at belly without someone to jump with? Since I have started trying to freefly I have had no problem getting someone to jump with. THAT is what really makes Freefly so attrctive to me. The fact that I can do it solo and have fun, and I can find people to do it with fairly easily. And that it can be put together fairly quickly. "Hey what are you doing?" "Solo sit fly." "Me too, wanna jump?" "Yeah sure." "What kind of exit?" "Train." "Great. I suck though" "So? Just don't cork and keep your eyes on me." "Sweet!" "What's your audible set at?" "5000, 4000, and 2500." "So break at 5, pull by 4?" "Works for me." And if the train funnels, who cares because it's freeflying and we can stay relative easily and you can do stupid funny moves and laugh and basically just PLAY in the air. Docking, burble hopping, flipping, spinning, the whole jump completely improvised on the spot. I wanted to get a four way team organized for my skydiving club but it is nearly impossible to get four people plus a coach/video together on any sort of schedule with the limited free time/fundage of a college student. Setting up a two way freefly team however was not so hard. So for now Collegiate Nationals looks like I will be doing two way freefly with a friend. Getting a coach/camera man was easy too. Now we only need to coordinate three shedules rather than 5 or 6 and we can work with the coach individually till we get our sit together and use the times when we can all get together to learn how to fly as a team.

I don;t know, ten million? I could always pick up golf or something. That is just as exciting. Actually, I might look at where I am and look at what that could provide for my wife and kids. And I might ask them their opinion. As much as I love this sport. I love my family more. What would be best for them? I would let them decide. I hope they choose skydiving though.

works for me. . . thanks. Like I said, I only knew of Tom doing it in Deland. Maybe there is some truth to him doing it to join her.

Okay, been watching this thread, now I guess I will put my list. 1.) Warm (as in temperature) 2.) Heartbeat (as in warm but must be alive.) 3.) Human (as in non-farm animal. In otherwords no 7 nippled pigs with curly tails.) 4.) Can't have leprosy, Gonorreah (spell it yourself I am too lazy), Hepatitis, or any other disease that can be transmitted via air or contact. 5.) No cats. 6.) Loves Dogs without Loooooooviiing them. Yep, that sums it up.

At Deland there is an autographed photo from Tom Cruise with him and his AFFIs. Just him, no nicole kidman. Apparently he learned while filming Days of thunder which is the film he and Nicole met on so I seriously doubt that he did it with her. Betcha someone from Deland would have the info. Oh Skymama .................?

Oh yeah jump numbers Nunyah:3:1 3 jumps 1 skydiving reated injury (Do I owe beer for that since it was my first?)

Hey dude, when were you at SGC? I was there Saturday but did not jump.

Yeah, my money was on Bill Cole for longest in sport.

I don't know, I think cats serve less use than pigeons. Until now that is. They got a huge boost in entertainment value

What he said. That was very well done. Oh my ribs hurt! I absolutely love that commercial! And the one with the pigeon too! I was laughing so hard I almost passed ut! Damn funny stuff!

How would Iknow if this originally had a leg pouch? It is BOC and was when I bought it. One thing I did notice early on was there was velcro on the bridal but non under the right flap for securing the bridal. Always wondered why but never asked.

Great Article. There was a six way RW group that went out on Friday and they were turning points as a Cessna flew under them. Said it was well below them but still. No way the pilot could have seen them.