MikeJD

Gary, If you're getting a 4-track next week, tell your friends and family to make the most of the next few days. They probably won't see you for a while after that - home recording's a seriously addictive way to eat up the hours! And don't worry about the lyrics - some of the cheesy stuff I've heard on skydiving soundtracks over the years makes a great case for instrumental music!

The recent 'Skydiving Painters' thread made me wonder how many dz.commers are musicians, and more specifically how many of you are creating skydiving-inspired tracks. We all like music soundtracks on our jump videos but they're usually lifted from people's CD collections. Lots of times this works great - but some of it's become a bit over-familiar (Tom Petty / Van Halen, anyone?) So is anybody else out there recording and / or using their own stuff?

Alana, will you do us a favour and bring some nice weather with you? It's not looking too clever right now...

Hey, not to diss you Georgia jumpers - i'm sure it was a little chilly - but you really want to experience the hardships of a British winter. Last year before the first load we spent half an hour melting the ice in the runner for the hangar door just so we could get the Beaver out. Then we spent another few minutes thawing out the wheels on the plane so we could push it out of the hangar. Then we went skydiving...

What about Blue? Oblique skydiving reference but also a perfectly good name for a dog.

Uh-oh. Vicki, what are we going to do, draw straws? Or will you just turn on the charm? Most of our group are girls - how much can we weigh between us? I bet we can all get off together and he won't even FEEL it Burner does indeed rock, and I have every faith in him...

I'm one of Vicki's birthday eight. Anybody know whether Burner will let us all get off at once?

That's so humbling. I love you guys too (sniff!) Anyway, what am I complaining about? I just remembered I'm going to be in Eloy in 9 days' time! If anybody from Tecumseh is planning to be in AZ over Christmas, maybe I'll see you there. Anyway, as there's no way I can be in SoBe this weekend, I'm going to stop hijacking this thread now. Sorry, Chrissy.

Hi Liz! Yep, you got me - sorry about that. But it WAS only one weekend, after all. I loved your dz and I hope to make it back some day. Maybe I'll be head down by then and you'll have no reason to complain about me Chrissy - maybe I met you AT Bridge Day. If not, then maybe next time I'm in Michigan!

Fudd, Bit of a different angle, but I recently got a Bodyclock from Lumie (www.lumie.com). It has a lamp that gradually brightens, reaching full luminescence at the time you're due to wake up. It also has a backup beeper just in case you don't. I was sceptical at first, but it really works! After a few days I didn't need the beeper any more, and it's a much nicer way of being woken than having a shrill alarm going off in the pitch dark. Might be just the thing if your brain is protesting about the dark winter mornings. And if you don't mind your bed-sharer thinking you've gone all new age...

Hi Andrea! My Brit friends finally took pity on me - actually they have an unexpected space in their car - so please remove me from the 'In need' list. Thanks, Mike.

Hi Chrissy! I wish I COULD jump at SoBe this weekend. As it is I'm stuck back in the UK and it's not getting any warmer! We met at Tecumseh in October, I think, the weekend before Bridge Day. Will you say hello to Stacey B and Dave (Junior) for me if you see them at the weekend? Mike.

I was on that big zoo too. I have it down as a 62-way - maybe those extra two were the final straw! It's a real shame about Phillip - a good fun guy and a real up-for-it organiser, and someone you could stick with all day. Let's hope one of the other organisers will be putting formation loads together.

I did my AFF in the UK more years ago than I care to admit. At the time it didn't occur to me that it'd be possible to do it abroad. I wouldn't recommend anyone to do AFF over here now - the cost of skydiving in this country means that for the same price as a UK course you should be able to pay for your flight, accommodation and training in sunnier climes where you have a much better chance of qualifying quickly. Bit of a no-brainer, I think. The other thing I would say is that if you're going to travel, think about going somewhere that the weather is virtually guaranteed - even if that increases your costs and flight time. There are great dropzones in Europe but at this time of year there's always that element of uncertainty. My dz of choice is Eloy in Arizona, where they fly in excess of 340 days a year. The DOWNside of learning abroad is that you get spoiled. Coming back all licensed up to a UK winter... ugh.

Then grab someone who isn't and ask them to teach you something! They will be flattered! Win/win!

Hi all. I'm due into PHX from the UK at 17:05 on Dec 25 - so unlike some of you lucky people, I won't get to jump on Christmas Day. Instead I'll be making my weary way straight to the Super 8. Anybody else arriving courtesy of BA (or at a similar time) and want to share a shuttle?