bob.dino

Congrats Shlomo on your achievement. According to Don Kellner's page http://www.dkellner.info/DonKellner.html, he has "well over" 10,000 tandems. I'd be surprised if Phil Onis in Sydney doesn't have more than 10000 tandems. He's got somewhere over 26,000 jumps, runs a DZ, and does tandems every day.

Great video. Looked like a really fun event.

Tough. If you've got a good arch and a well-fitting suit, then you're simply too light for the amount of surface area you have. Wearing weights is not a sign of failure. Weights exist so that when you're in the middle of your fall-rate range, you're falling at the same speed as everyone else. Being in the middle of your range means that you have the most ability to speed up or slow down to deal with your team-mates fuckups. So, either: a) eat more burgers, or b) wear weights, and enjoy a new ability to kick arse in your skydives :-)

Bushmills Black Bush is a wonderful Irish Whiskey. Not peaty or harsh like a lot of whisky, but super-smooth and only needs a single ice cube if it's hot outside.

Text from the website below. Short version "a crossbrace for those that couldn't be arsed with crossbrace openings."

Andy's gonna fly jump planes.

Ditto, though it looks a lot like a turbine Beaver I know. You could have a tea-party on a step that large, and the rail is huge. That's what I'd go with. A lot easier than the Porter exit. Using standard Otter exit terminology: Put the inside rear outside, and move the rear-rear further back on the step. This gives you, inside: inside front and inside center. Outside: Front-front (maybe on strut?), front, outside center, inside rear, outside rear, rear-rear. Camera person is going to have to be right at the back of the step. Should come off nicely if the stackup is practiced a few times on the ground first.

There's a thread on skysurfer.com.au: http://skysurfer.com.au/forums/index.php?showtopic=5491&pid=60990&st=0&#entry60990

Sorry; I wasn't clear above. I was referring to the Formation Skydiving World Meet, a discipline which Larry is rather fond of. Was using the lack of US interest in hosting that to show that folks should make sure they understand the situation before complaining about the DZ a particular event is at - it's quite possible no-or-few others submitted bids. Apologies for the lack of clarity.

I can't speak for the WPC events, but I know that the last FS & Artistics WM in 2008 received one bid - from Maubeuge. No US DZ submitted a bid, and Larry Hill (of SDAZ) was emphatic in his lack of interest in submitting one.

Of course there's a bidding system. It's called "fill out the forms that say what you're going to do and how you're going to do it." There's plenty of information on how the process works at the FAI website, though you may have to root around a bit; it's not the world's best organised. Have a look at the list of advisors to the IPC Canopy Piloting Committee. Jay Moledzki, Henny Wiggers, and Ian Bobo all help that committee with its decisions. Oh, and I wouldn't throw around words like "bribery" unless you can back it up.

For me, it's exactly the opposite.

I grew up in Ireland. Spent a few months in NY, four years in London, and six years in Australia. Neither NY or London felt like home, but neither did Ireland. I was rootless for a long time. That's not necessarily a bad thing. In the last year or so Australia has started to feel like home. That said, I don't have a strong sense of attachment to place. I could be just as happy in France/Spain. Bet that doesn't answer your question .

Belated, but happy birthday nonetheless. Hope life continues to rock.

As this is one of my personal pet peeves, some facts of note: 1- Yes, it sucks that TZ info is hardcoded in most OSes 2- There is no single authoritative source of TZ info 3- Stupid fucking governments change the dates around every other year. Sometimes with only 3 weeks notice. 4- When Win2K was released, you could not assume that most machines had internet connectivity, so they don't auto-sync TZ info 5- Win2K was designed for business, not workstation 6- If your 2K machine is connected to a domain, the time will update correctly This set of circumstances explains why the time was off.

Read http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/tv--radio/tv-reviews/man-vs-wild/2009/10/26/1256405336019.html. Scroll past the Jamie Oliver review. When the TV critic takes the piss out of your survival skills, you know you've got problems. Sample quotes:

Player-Coach is the best way to get better, fast. I think it's an excellent thing to have.

Mate, that's absolutely great news. So glad to hear. Enjoy

Continuing a tangent that's pretty much beside this thread: You sure of that? I seem to remember a conversation with Solly Williams a couple of years ago where he was talking about teams like Deland Majick and Airspeed slowing down to ~115mph. Back onto the original topic: Fall at the speed required by your fallest faller to be in the middle of their range. Otherwise you're handicapping the whole team. Make sure everyone is in a sensible jumpsuit, has a sane bodyposition, and lead-up as necessary.

You're about the same height as Craig Girard and Shannon Pilcher, though probably 10lb lighter than both. They're both kinda good at this skydiving business (look them up), so you're going to be just fine. I'm also 6'3", and when I started was maybe 5lb lighter than you. I've put on a few lb of muscle and a few lb of belly since then. If you have a stiff back (many men do; particularly those who start when over ~40), you might find arching difficult. That, combined with your large-and-a-little-light frame, might leave you on the 'floaty' (ie, slower falling) side. A decent-fitting jumpsuit though, and you'll be right.

Very very cool.

Dating and sex are very different things. For men, anyway. Life's far too short to spend real time with someone that isn't interesting.

Nice photos. Am I the only one that looked at 145 and went "well, he's not getting out..."

There are no good photos of you. Hope Spaceland is treating you well - either you've got a body double or you're getting pretty decent.

Think of it as punishment for drinking shit beer. The Belgians are just trying to help.