spectrefish

yeesh, that's about 40K more than I'm dealing with. Working full time while in school did help a bit. And I have a plan to get it paid off in about 6 1/2 years, but to do so I am sacrificing a lot of jumping. Perhaps I'll cut back on extra loan payments once in a while and splurge on jumping for a weekend. But that still means I can't jump every day dammit! sigh... anyone got the winning lottery numbers? that would make things a bit easier. umop ap!sdn w,I

not bitchin. in fact I've already paid almost 75% of the loan with the most interest and I've saved 4K in interest by doing so. Just frustrated over not being able to jump as soon as I was hoping and wondering if anyone else was in the same situation. umop ap!sdn w,I

So I graduated from college with a bachelors in VFX. My loans are quite unbearable and where I'm stuck living for the moment does not provide an easy entry level VFX gig. Certain parts of my life must suffer because I need to pay back these hideous loans. Full repayment starts in less than two months. How many skydivers out there have an unbearable amount of debt now that they are done with school? Did it affect your jumping? I actually had to give up jumping for a few years because of the demands of my degree and I was looking forward to starting back up again this summer. Now it looks as if that may not happen for a long time. umop ap!sdn w,I

Kelter, I agree. But there is another thing all jumpers need to consider. This sport attracts all kinds of wonderful people. Even people who have chemical dependency issues. I've seen people stay up late into the night drinking, smoking various substances, taking a multitude of mind-altering substances. The next morning they are manifesting on the same loads as someone who could have epilepsy and they aren't informing anyone of what they did the night before. I would rather jump with an epileptic who has his/her condition under control through medication. They need to be seizure free under the medication for at least a year in my opinion, but I'm no doctor. At least then I'm aware that a potential problem is under a level of control. I've been in the sport for about 10 years, and I've read incident reports where chemical abuse was a factor in the incident. Not once have I read that epilepsy was. I've also personally been witness to an incident where illegal substances were a factor. The person got off lucky. So what can you do? The BSR's state: 1. All persons engaging in skydiving must: a. Carry a valid Class 1, 2, or 3 Federal Aviation Administration Medical Certificate; OR b. Carry a certificate of physical fitness for skydiving from a registered physician; OR c. Have completed the USPA recommended medical statement. The answer is this: 1. The FAA considers epilepsy a factor to refuse medical certification. BUT they allow exceptions if a condition is adequately controlled. http://www.faa.gov/licenses_certificates/medical_certification/faq/response6/ Get the FAA to approve you for a medical certificate. 2. Get a doctor to sign you off as being able to skydive. Give this document to your local DZ S&TA. If you do not feel comfortable with that and fear reprisal from biased fellow skydivers, give this document to your emergency contact listed with the DZ. That way, should anything horrible happen, you have your bases covered and liability should not be an issue. Long story short: If you have a controlled disability, and you can legally prove it, you are legally safe to skydive. Someone under the influence of illegal substances is NEVER safe to skydive. Just be smart about the whole issue. If you have regular seizures even while on medication, perhaps it's time to give up what you love so much and search for another hobby that makes you feel just as good. And be glad that you had a chance to at least make 1 skydive in your life! umop ap!sdn w,I

Question answered! Thanks Matthew. The sun path site told me exactly what I could fit in there. I looked on their site before coming here but never thought to look in the "buy a javelin" spot. Thanks again. I was in fact actually thinking of switching to a spectre. I jumped one about 5 or 6 years ago and loved it. Liked it better than my sabre2 even. Thanks for the info. blue skies. umop ap!sdn w,I

I've been out of skydiving for over 4 years, and now that school is finished I'm looking to get back into it. I busted out the gear: A javelin odyssey with a 150 sabre2 inside. Looks as beautiful as the day I bought it. Ahhhh. I'm thinking of getting rid of the sabre2 and getting a larger canopy that is a little more docile. I don't need or really want to be a "hot dog" swooper (pretty impossible with a 150 anyway), I just want to enjoy the view and the ride, and above all be safe. I don't know the largest size canopy my container will take. I don't believe it will take any more than the newer 150 that's in it already but how can I tell what it will take? I haven't been in touch with many jumpers in a while because I was too busy. Perhaps I should just take this question up with a rigger, but I do like to be self-informed too. Can anyone help me learn how to tell? You might be able to save me the drive to my rigger's house. Thanks everyone. I'll be in the air again soon! umop ap!sdn w,I

Thank you Lynn, you helped bring up some happy memories of Todd with your very personal stories and feelings. Thank you Eric for sharing his accomplishments with us and you were lucky to be a part of some of them. Some of my favorite memories of Todd are having him show up at the DZ with his special contacts that whitened out the iris in his eyes. There always seemed to be a little glow of happy mischief around him the entire day when he knew that strangers were looking at him funny. Other things that Todd did that really made me smile were just the little things: He would look at the pack job he did on my reserve and just gloat. "Look at that pack job" he would say, then he would come up and massage my rig like it was a living thing, and the very act of massaging my rig would seem to give him some strange orgasmic pleasure. I would always be on the verge of a gut busting laughter in those moments. Watching him pack so carefully and take such simple pleasure in how good of a job he did was always fun. He would look over at my pack jobs and just shake his head. Then he'd get up and instruct me "again" with a sigh. Todd was one of the few people I could trust coming within inches of me in the landing area and know that he was truly in control of his canopy. His piloting skills were very strong and it was fun to watch him. The last time I saw Todd was at the Pumpkin Toss last year. I was busy that weekend getting some shots for class and needed some skydiving footage. He took me back to the hangar and handed me some tapes. "keep them for as long as you need them" he told me. I never got a chance to tell him how much they helped, and I don't know if he ever got a chance to see how I used all his footage. And I never got a chance to personally thank him. I did get one thing that weekend that I will treasure, footage of him receiving his award for jump numbers; I don't remember specifically how many jumps the award was for at the moment. I will try to find some time this week to put together all that footage and hopefully share it at Baldwin on Thursday if I can cut away from my busy life for a moment. I did not find out the news until this morning when I checked my email, and I'm now sitting in class unable to pay attention and thinking of a good friend that will be sorely missed. Blue Skies Todd. See you around the campfire. To all that were touched by Todd's life, my heart truly goes out to all of you. umop ap!sdn w,I

I've been attending college for about 2 1/2 years now and school is in session year-round. Since my degree requires such an enormous amount of personal time and dedication I find I can't make it out to the DZ like I used to. I think I've made 10 jumps in the last year. maybe 30 in the last 2 1/2!!! I really miss the wind in my hair and that surge of anticipation when the door opens. When I finally get a chance to join everyone in the sky I hope I get greeted with smiles and beer. See you all as soon as I can possibly cut away. Don't hate me cuz I'm not current, love me and retrain me.

I wish to publicly thank Iceburner and Jont for sharing their work with me! Thanks for helping make my project a success. I will be putting it together and it should be done in a couple of weeks. Thanks again! umop ap!sdn w,I

Hey all, I need some good hi-res footage of a balloon jump exit looking up at balloon, someone else in the shot would be sweet but it isn't necessary. I specifically want captured footage without compression file size doesn't make any difference. It shouldn't be too much more that about 500 megs anyway. ideally a quick time movie file. I'm working on a documentary project for school and have plenty of ground footage the day we made our balloon jumps but noone captured any great footage of an exit. Can anyone help me out? Please contact me ASAP with anything you might have. Posting it on rapidshare and sending me a link works best. I appreciate all your help. umop ap!sdn w,I

Hey girl, glad you got it in time for the weekend! Now get out there and start jumpin your ass off!! Shouldn't have given it away, we coulda had everyone going for a while....Hmmmm....I wonder what it is.....damn....I dunno...do you?....no....damn....etc. etc. sweet this is my 42nd post....Douglas Adams fan anyone? umop ap!sdn w,I

Holy shit I should sell my body on E-bay!! I could get free gear! umop ap!sdn w,I

'Chelle....we're going to have to get you one of those "word-a-day" calendars or something, 'cause this mix & match shit ain't working. Are we the only two who recognize where the whole FUCK.....ASS comment came from? FUCK YOU. I'm not the rope totin charlie bronson wanna be who's gettin us fuckin lost. umop ap!sdn w,I

If you have the latest quick time media player you should have no trouble. As for dz.com I was having trouble with it last night too. I lost access to the site too. Try it again today. I posted two different animations to watch. They are both very, very cool. umop ap!sdn w,I

I use 3ds max 7. I have maya 4.5 but rarely use it. umop ap!sdn w,I