President

Skydiving isn't for everyone I guess. In my opinion, it's mostly teasing you with that "touch the skies" feeling but never allows you to truely have it. Everyone likes to use words "fly", "wings" etc but in reality it is only several minutes of airtime, period. My suggestion for you - try paragliding. It is basically the same canopy, only bigger and with way better aerodynamics. And you don't need an airplane, you don't need to pay anyone for lift, you don't even need to drive to any airport - your county park will do. And you can launch off of a cliff or a hillside and soar for hours in thermic lift. That's a real FLIGHT. And each time you launch, the airtime you get out of every flight only depends on how good you are at finding and using lift. I think skydiving is fun, but only for one reason - step out the door. This feelng is priceless. Everything else is a bore and too expensive if you count per minute of airtime. Please don't kick me in the butt - these are only my 2 cents after all.

My $0.02: To answer that question it helps to answer these first: which race has expanded so enormously over the face of the planet ? Which race established colonies accross the world ? Which race is driving the modern civilization ? Which race practically owns the world today ? This is what we've got in our genes - this stuff drives us across the oceans and makes us do both good and evil on a much broader scale than all other races combined. We white people are willing to take the risks and we do take them. Extreme sports is a manifestation of the same genetic features that drove our nations in the past. Today we don't have a crusade to wage (or w/e - you get the idea) but our gene's still want what they need - great excitement that only comes with great risk. For those of you non-whites who feel bad about this post, some consoling info: our demographics looks really really bad. We don't make babies as much as other races do. So, just hang on for another couple hundred years and there will be very few of us.

got it, thanks

Whoa, JP, glad to hear you ! OK, now I know your dz.com name. I'm the pilot guy, you took me and my friend Maya on our first ground lesson, and then I jumped couple of times with you. greetings !

Huh ? Since when is it legal to jump before 18 ? Or is it a "bandit" DZ ? My 13 y.o. niece wants to make at least a tandem but they don't even take ppl on tandems before 18 y.o. So, is it possible ?

Hey, Flyangel, isn't pic2 the one of John's "JP" ? ..he's my AFF instructor at Byron DZ.

My primary point was that sticker on somebody's car does not necessarily mean it was put by that person. This was just a little story to illustrate this. The last sentence about "what if he drove it" should be read as "yeah and now imagine ppl approach the guy based on this sticker". The reason we didn't buy it was because we couldn't scratch it off - and another thing - dealership is supposed to run pre-sales checks etc. Not removed sticker means those guys are slackers - what else they haven't checked ? ..oh, it is not the first time a sticker can't be removed. My ex-wifes student parking permit just didn't let go, at all, had to cover it with "proud to be an american one" to sell - for some reason a buyer had a problem with that thing on the rear glass.

Yeah just remember there's a huge after market for used cars in this country. Recently I was assisting my buddy in buying a used SUV. All went great, we found one we really liked and he was ready to say I take it when we noticed a small 7-color rainbow sticker on the rear window. Needless to say the deal was cancelled, we exchanged angry lines with the dealership guy and left. Think about that some people might not recognize/notice/care about leftovers from previous owner. ...and what would happen if we got that one and he drove it for a while

Weather in Bay Area kinda sucky for the last couple of months, so I'm effectively grounded. But the urge to get airborne was rather strong so I came up trying paragliding. It's actually lots of fun too ! Check this out: www.ushga.org - these guys are to paragliders what USPA is to skydivers. Just curious - how many of the skydivers out there also paraglide ?

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Actually this appears to be the only sport where extra wait helps - heavy pouch will make you more stable in freefall

Ah, so this is the right name for the shit I do 4 times a week :)

Dave, what's a PT ?

DOCOMO in Japan is already working on cell-phone based matching service. I myself was involved in a drafting for a never-born dot.com a while ago :)

Sounds like dot.com project to me

Dude, you really ARE very very slow OK, re-read the post, assuming that the Passenger Cutaway Handle mentioned is the one that *cuts away the passenger* from the tandem rig. Another one for you to think about: if you really think that I'm a 14.y.o. kid, then arguing with me is triple stupid on your part (HINT: ever tried to piss facing strong wind ?) Ever heard of this one: "Never argue on the internet, even if you win, it's still retarded" ?

If you were a bit brighter than you are, you would: a) recognize that it was a joke (HINT: why do you think the thread was moved?) b) know that 14 y.o. legally CANNOT be AFF student relax and have a beer man ! I'm posting from a bar in downtown San Francisco

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Sorry, just curious: on tandem rigs, where is the Passenger Cutaway Handle located ? Does USPA or FAA define any special procedures/rules for its activation ? Like, for instance only in case a malfunction reduces effective canopy size thus only allowing the Tandem Master to be landed etc. Does USPA or FAA require passenger's verbal consent for its activation or the TM pretty much acts like PIC in this regard ? Also, any regulations regarding such consent itself? For instance: passenger must articulate legally proper statement within maximum of X feet of altitude loss, and statements like "..what are you f%^&ing nuts !!!???" can be disregarded etc etc. Thank you. --Aspiring Tandem Master.

Hm.... my DZ gave me one for free along with bumper stickers etc right after AFF 1.

It's not the wind, it's the rapid altitude change that deafens you. Swallow once under the canopy - it will clear your ears. Works for me.

I hope to see you too, cause I need a good suit. I'm really fed up wearing that county jail outfit every jump

No, I'm not from Byron, I live in Sunnyvale, but it's the closest dropzone to my place. And, even if tomorrow there's a dropzone right next to my door, I will still drive to Byron every weekend - because it is my *home* dropzone now. Keyword is HOME

No, no, I mean that theoretical limit is 9 miles. Of course in reality there will be many winds in different directions. But I can't even think of utilizing them for my purposes - I guess it will take more than a hundred jumps to figure out the thermals, currents and all that stuff and learn to use those. Actually at Paragliding classes they teach all that stuff - might make sense to check those out at some point.

I'm not really qualified to give any advices but I think I can share my experience - it is quite fresh as you can see from my jumps. I think the most important you didn't wet your pants at the door and got out. Second, also important - even tho things got "terribly wrong" as you say, you still don't wet your pants and gonna go do it again. As to having fun, I for one was so busy with those TLOs that didn't have any fun at all - felt like one of those drills in the Army. You know we got to do some pretty exciting stuff - like driving APCs (armored personnel carriers) and tanks. And what ? Sergeants took all that fun away by turning it into a sweatshop drill. Only on my 5th jump I was finally HAVING FUN !!! Oh, and I screwed up my L4 and L6, both of which I had to redo. Doesn't matter - each jump is fun anyway, fuck the TLOs.