Zennie

I jumped twice on Saturday, but naturally the nice day was Sunday when I had to do stuff around the house. Put fire ant stuff down on the yard, cleaned the fish pond, washed the car. 'Course I would have preferred to be at the DZ, but hey, it's all good! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

If it's any consolation, I've had a fear of flying for quite a while. I'd get seriously sweaty palms during takeoff and landing. I totally hated it. Skydiving, among other things, has helped me deal with it. I'd be lying if I said I'm totally comfortable taking off. I'm usually a little ancy until after the pilot throttles back. But it's *much* more manageable. Two weekends ago, my friends & I were going up on a Caravan that our DZ had borrowed. The think was loud, rattly and just not like the Otter. All of us were going "Get us out of this thing now!". Kind of weird huh? We skydivers are more comfortable when we jump out than when we take the ride. Try to explain that to a whuffo. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

That's the other Jan Davis. The Jan we're talking about was Jan the camera flier AKA Jan Devil. BTW. I was talking to Scotty Carbone about this and he mentioned yet another Jan Davis (i.e. not Jan the BASE jumper or Jan Devil, but another one) that went in. Three Jan Davises? Could that be right? If so, and you're a jumping Jan Davis, I'd change my name pronto! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Well lesseee.... I don't drink all that much (though I do have a weakness for margaritas). And I'm married so I don't get much sex. That leaves skydiving and rock & roll. Seems to me they kind of go hand-in-hand. Bottom line is "I can't choose!" ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Congrats man! That's a really romantic proposal. Best wishes! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hehehehe.... Sad but true. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I've got a friend of mine who's into miliary aviation, so we naturally talk about airplanes and skydiving a lot. And, naturally, the subject or Normandy came up. A lot of jumpers burned in because the pilots would panic and try to get under the heavy AA fire. Troops would jump (probably because they didn't know any better) but they were too low to even get their parachute open. There is some pretty gruesome (for me as a skydiver) footage of these guys going out, chute still opening and ... thud. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

There are standards? Holy smackerel, am I hosed! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

This is such a good list I think I'll print it out & keep it in my gear bag!

Well, I'm no expert on this, but not all military jumps are created equal. Aren't most Ranger jumps strictly static line from a fairly low altitude? Get 'em out and down with equipment fast? Now HALO jumps... that would be badass. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I probably would have said something along the lines of "Well maybe they just require you to take a bunch of baby-step jumps in the Army because they assume you're a moron." This would have immediately been followed by me hitting the floor unconscious as one of them punched me in the face. Gotta watch the sarcasm. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

You do zazen don't you?

That be me! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Major bummage. Hope you have a speedy recovery. At least now you can tell all the whuffos "See? This is what I'm talking about when I say driving is more dangerous than skydiving!" And there's nothing they can say about it. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Yep. Still there. Unfortunately, they no longer would be if the wife-o ever caught me doing a naked skydive. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Grogs: Yeah I read that when I went through the incident reports. That's about the ultimate in suckage. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Weird as this sounds, I'm not sure I'd want my wife taking it up full time (tandem's OK). Not because I wouldn't like jumping with her... I would immensely. I just know she can be kind of the panicky type at times and I'd really worry about how she'd deal with a mal situation. I don't think I could bear the idea of seeing my wife go in because she panicked dealing with a mal. Of course, she's surprised me before, but still... ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Anyone know if any of the jumpsuit manufacturers have denim as a fabric option? I think it'd be cool to have a white denim jumpsuit (prolly needs to be lightweight for the summer ), especially one with RW grippers. Otherwise, I'll need to make my own. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

My guess is that it depends on how many jumps you have and how familiar/comfortable the TI and camera person would be with you there. I would love to do this when my bro/dad/wife do their first tandems. But I certainly want to hone my swooping/RW skills before I do that. As fun as it may be, I don't want to be a danger to them. Otherwise I'd do what unclbennie did and go out right before them, watch them in freefall and hurry down (or maybe pull high with them & see if I can't fly over to where they can see me -- with permission of course). ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Just like everything else, it all depends on the circumstances. I'd feel perfectly fine jumping my DZ's present gear because I've jumped and packed it a lot. Now, I'm going to have a Cypres that won't need the check for another 4 years. How familiar will I be with the equipment around then? I dunno. Depends on what I'm jumping and what the DZ is renting out. Of course, four years down the road I may change my view of never jumping without a Cypres. I doubt it, but you never know. What it really boils down to is jumping with what you're comfortable and familiar with. If you're busy worrying about how different your equipment is, that's probably not the best frame of mind to be doing "normal" jumping. There are people who don't like wearing a Cypres. Those people I would think are more dangerous with one than without one. If you are jumping unfamiliar gear, whether because your gear is out for maintenence, because you're demoing new stuff or because you just bought new equipment, I think a couple of very conservative "familiarization" jumps would be wise. I know I'll be pulling high the first few times I jump my new rig. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Awww, man! You lucky SOB! A B-17 or a B-52 would be amazing! I've only jumped a twin otter (soon to be super-twin) and a caravan. Of those two I prefer the otter. The Otter's ride is nice & smooth, the door is bigger and you don't have to fight getting blown off the plane by the prop blast like with a caravan. Color me spoiled. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Great news! Now where did I put that time-warp machine? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

As you can tell I tend toward verbosity so here goes... In re-reading your post I get the sense that you were driving at sizing differences rather than the containers themselves. Fair enough. But, in talking with some friends who've had some scary cutaways, the one thing they noticed was that the handles weren't where they were expecting them. And this was on their own gear. The harness shifted on them after opening, so the handles were way higher than when they practiced the sequence on the ground. This kind of gets at my point. The important thing is to look before reaching. I'm going to do that on my own gear as well as rental gear. Why do I continue to let myself get dragged into these Cypres debates? Oh, BTW, I detach the RSL before I jump... ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Well, under that logic a person should never change from the setup that they've jumped with from Day 1. I'm going from my rental Javelin to a Vector III. Are you saying I should forever stay with Javelins because I know where the handles are? I think we both know the answer to that. An example of where your argument is legit is in the other Jan Davis' case. She decided to do a BASE jump on borrowed gear. Problem is, her gear used a BOC whereas the borrowed gear used an ROL. Bet we both know where her hand went at pull time. That's a little different from a Javelin vs Vector which both use BOC and both have dual handle cutaway (right-red pillow)/reserve (left-silver) systems. The difference is *much* more subtle, if recognizable at all. Besides, if I go back to rental gear... again like I said previously, I'll pull high to get used to it again and deal with any emergencies that might arise. I don't think the handle configurations are all that different between a Javelin and a Vector, and besides, that's why you're taught to look and reach, not just reach. So, I guess I'll have to respecfully agree to disagree with you on this. I'll feel much safer on a Javelin with a Cypres than a Vector without a Cypres. But if I felt that the handles were so differently placed that I might get confused in an emergency, I guess I'd just take a 4-6 week hiatus from skydiving. Is that a dead horse I smell? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Reading Bill's story & reflecting on Jan's passing, I actually had a thought go through my mind that I didn't think I'd have: "Why do I do this?" Fears of our own well-being aside, why do we do this even though death seems to be a constant companion? Why do we do this even though we know there's a fair possibility that if we stay in the sport long enough that we'll see a dear friend lose their life? As much joy as it brings us, tradgedy also seems to cast it's shadow upon us. I wish I could provide an answer even to myself. Maybe it's these very things which attracts us to it? Not in the morbid sense, but in the sense that this sport teaches us how precious and wonderful life is. That it teaches us to treasure our friends and family, because our time here is short -- even if we don't jump from airplanes. Most people just kind of amble through life, not really appreciating these things. Maybe that's what skydiving gives us. By seeing the fragility of life first hand, we appreciate it more. I dunno. Maybe I'm just rambling... ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie