cruzit

I usually completely ignore the ardent student's advances. Not play dumb, just look at them as if they are another species, and not a bright one at that. As another poster brought up, it's hard to feel romantic with a stern math teacher. Believe it or not, that approach will work on about 90%. Of course, there are always the ones that take that as a challenge. But since I work in a male prison, I'm not afraid to look a guy in the eye and tell him I'm not interested. If either of those things fails to do the trick, then it is time to pass the student off, because they definitely are not concentrating on the skydive and they are a menace to themselves, you, and any other skydiver. (edited to correct spelling)

We are obligated to have insurance if we finance a home, but the first time you have a legitimate claim, the insurance company penalizes you by jacking up your rates, or canceling your insurance, regardless of how long you have been paying premiums without a claim. Can you say shill game, boys and girls.

I would say it is relavent. It tells me you are still disassociating on exit. Or in other words, you exit and your brain doesn't follow immediately. This is extremely common and nothing to beat yourself up over. As I have said many times, 4 or 5 minutes of actual air time is a very short time to become proficient at a skill. Tunnel time is a great way to learn your basic skills, but there's nothing for training your brain about how to overcome that initial fear response (in your case kicking) like doing. Here is a link to a book I recommend for training the brain (it's written by Arno Ilgner for climbers, but the techniques translate very well for skydivers) Good luck, keep us posted.

Here fishy, fishy..... You make two posts, both about a dropzone "near" you. If you really suspect there is a substance abuse problem at your DZ, why in the world would you discuss it on a message board. You enter a state with your profile, which limits the DZs it could be. Do you have it in for the DZO???? Sounds like a serious trolling attempt....back to our regularly scheduled thread.

Yep, they're awesome. It's all that dead air. I've missed a couple of balloon opportunities. The last time, I blew a sinus the day before, so my husband made a balloon jump with John Hoover instead of me. They landed in a field with a mad cow and mad farmer. Both of them ended up running away from the deranged duo. Hysterical story.

It is not an AFF jump. You are a licensed jumper who needs a currency jump. Yes, that means you'll have to take an a jumpmaster with you. Its been awhile since I read the SIM, you may be able to take a coach...but I won't swear to it. They'll no doubt ask you to pay for the JMs time (for the pre- and post-jump briefings) and the JMs slot but I sincerely doubt that it will cost you the same as an AFF jump. If it does, you need to find another dropzone. Have your JM really go over the landing (my experience is this is where most students have the most apprehension) Take some deep breaths. Laying off did not turn your brains to mush and make you incapable of skydiving. You'll have a blast and wonder why you got yourself so worked up over it. Skydiving is very similar to riding a bike. When you haven't been in the air for a while, you may feel a little loose and shakey, but you recover quickly. When I run a student for a recurrency jump, I have them do a couple of practice touches and maybe a 90 degree turn or two. I don't ask my recurrency students to do much of anything else (except pull) unless they really want to work on something. That way, there is no pressure. You can always go back up with a coach or buddy to work on stuff after you have your head back in it. PM me if you have any questions. J

Brad and Terri moved to Jackson, Ms several years ago. I think Brad's son Jason has his ticket, but I have no idea how to get ahold of him. Best bet is to call someone at Oklahoma Skydiving Center in Cushing and see if they can recomend anyone. Hubby has his ticket but only packs reserves under duress, and he's climbing in Colorado this weekend. Good luck. J

Exactly.

I've done 4 night jumps. Did my first night jump somewhere between 200 and 300 jumps. Two of the four jumps were some of the most memorable jumps I've ever made. I jumped out at Skydive Dallas in December. The entire Dallas Metroplex was lit. Absolutely stunning. Another night jump was a completed 20 way. Really cool seeing all those glow sticks headed in. I was as ready as I ever was going to be when I made my jump. I have depth perception problems normally, so I borrowed a larger rig (just in case I misjudged my flare). I didn't, but I wanted that extra security blanket. My husband almost landed in a pond on the 20 way....yipes! J

The x-ray my ortho did 3 weeks ago clearly showed my torn tendons/ligaments. Not only was he able to show me where the majority of the damage to my ankle was this time, he was able to point out where I had previously damaged tendons/ligaments on the opposite side of the ankle.

Well not that I am experienced at the level of an Everest climber...but I'll add my two cents anyway. When you are climbing at the altitude of Everest, it takes everything you have to get from point a to b. It is not possible to rescue someone who is incapable of walking out him/herself. All of the people, Hillary included, who say...I wouldn't walk by...are not on the mountain. We can speculate all day as to what actually happened. But as in a skydiving incident, if you don't personally see what happened, you are left to figuring out cause. It is impossible in either circumstances to analyze motivation. If the climbers are on the way down when they saw the downed climber, it is likely they were running short on oxygen. I've no doubt they rendered the aid they could given the circumstances. Who knows, the downed climber may have told them to move on. Everest climbers accept a higher level of risk than average mountaineers, because they cannot be rescued under normal circumstances. There is a reason that there have been some 190 climbers die since the initial summit by Hillary. I don't fault the climbers on the mountain, they have an obligation to survive themselves.

Damn...now I really feel old Of course, nobody's as old as Shermier! Hopefully, I'll get some more air time between now and then as well. Just getting in the air was great. As I said...if we had fun, it was a great skydive. And as Spanky rolled in late Sat. afternoon, that would explain why I didn't see him. Alan and I left for the house at 5:00 pm. Sucks to have to work on Sunday.

I did not see him. But I could have missed him as I didn't have much down time.

Unfortunately, it was not successful. We planned a 12-way which built to 9. There was a great disparity in the experience level on the load, several of the jumpers had never been on anything bigger than an 8-way and most all of us were rusty. All said and done, we still had a good time and enjoyed the jump. I hope the younger jumpers look at it as a learning experience and that we have better luck next time. J

5 to 6 miles, and I usually can finish under an hour. But then, I'm getting old. I run with my 1-year old lab, who spends the entire run looking at me with this..."is this the best you can do?" look.