angrypeppers

1999 F350 Crew Cab, 7.3L turbodiesel, highly modified 1964 Toyota Land Cruiser, also modified 1979 Suzuki GS1000E, lightly modified Pics attached.. Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

If I stay in the US, then it would be Portsmouth, NH or farther up the seacoast for the summer and fall, and somewhere in S. Florida for the rest of the year. I haven't travelled extensively outside the US, but I would gladly move to Switzerland or Italy...especially Italy. Chris Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Finally got a jump in after six straight weekends of snow. Firsts: 1. First jump in 2007. 2. First recurrency jump. 3. First snow landing. There's probably more too...but that list is expensive enough! Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Congratulations! Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

1512 miles: Millersville, Pennsylvania to Denver via New Hampshire and Virginia. I loved living in NH; Virginia not so much. Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

It's a nice course too. I wish I could afford the membership fees! Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

I saw one yesterday from my office window! Very cool. He was just hanging out on the golf course till he got spooked by someone walking by. Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Thanks, Lou...PM sent. Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Looks like work is sending me to South America in a couple of weeks! I should be in Santiago, Chile the week of 29 Jan and Bogota, Colombia the following week. I've never been to either city, so is there anything special I should see/do while I'm there? I should have a day or two to myself in each city. Thx! Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

I had to repeat Level 2...had a mental block in freefall. I was about half way through the dive, and instead of continuing, I went back to the beginning and started doing practice touches. By the time I caught myself, I was nearly out of altitude. It's fru$trating, but also a learning experience. After that, I was fine, and didn't have to repeat any other levels. Learn from every jump, and don't stress too much if you have to repeat other levels. I had some tunnel time which helped a lot, though I still have problems with extending my legs. It's easy to forget them, since you can't see them in freefall! Listen to your instructors, and practice at home. Lay on the floor, put your legs up on a chair, and practice the dive flow while pressing down a bit with your legs. I even went so far as to use a timer so I would know how much time it took. But don't rush the dive flow just to beat the clock! Listen to your instructors, and practice, practice, practice! Skydiving *is* fun, but there's a lot (mentally) going on, especially being newbies. You'll get there! Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Congrats! Sounds like you done good...it only gets better and more fun! Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Welcome to the forums, Cat! I just finished AFF a few weeks ago, so it's still fresh in my brain. Pay attention to everything! Make an effort to learn not just what to do, but why. Listen closely to your instructors. Talk to them, ask questions. You'll see that advice a lot here. Hang around the DZ after the jumps are done. You'll make some new friends, and learn a lot there too. Don't worry about being obsessive...it's part of the fun! And it's impossible to stop... Chris Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Thanks for the info! Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Hey Calvin...what problems did the 06 have? I kinda like that the Baja looks different than the elevetybillion Outbacks out there, but I agree about the resale value. I'm heading to the dealer tomorrow to check out the Baja. I thought about the WRX / STI, but I kind of like having cheap insurance and no points on my licence. Thx! Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Any real world experiences with either of these cars? I was all set to buy an Outback wagon, but there's a dealer here with a bunch of Baja's sitting around gathering snow. I think I can make a better deal on the Baja. The Baja isn't being built anymore, so I am a *little* concerned about that. I'm thinking about either the 2006 Baja Turbo, or the 2007 Outback 2.5i wagon (non-turbo). I like the turbo engine in the Baja, but am not sure I want to spend a bunch of money on something being phased out. And I just now found an '05 Passat wagon with the V6, AWD, and 10k miles for about the same price as the scoobies. I hate car shopping... Thx! Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Congratulations, Sean! Good to see another new Colorado jumper on the forums! Chris Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

The Right Honourable kallend is spot on...that's about the only time I watch C-Span. I found this site http://english2american.com/ on one of my trips to the UK. Cracks me up reading some of the entries. I may have to buy that guy a pint... Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Congratulations! Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Sent! Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Either Molly Hatchet or Todd Rundgren & Utopia in 1979. I can't remember which concert was first, but I think it was Todd Rundgren. I was 15 years old. My first arena show was Tom Petty in 1981 at the Spectrum in Philly; Split Enz opened up for them. And favorite concert yet was Pink Floyd at RFK Stadium in either '94 or '95. I still have the ticket stub somewhere. Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Yeah, I suppose I go overboard sometimes, but I honestly don't care to change. During my AFF, I would search out others stories just to see what they had to do, how they felt before/during/after, etc. so I could compare their jump with mine. There's so much good info here, I found that it helped me a lot. Hopefully my "epic stories" might help out someone else. I hope I never forget the fear, nervousness, excitement, and fun I had on this jump! Now the real fun begins... Thanks all! Chris Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

One jump. Beer for: 1. First solo jump after AFF 2. First jump with my Galaxy alti (is that really beerable?) Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Ever since I finished AFF two Sunday's ago, I've been excited about, and kinda terrified by, the thought of my first solo jump. It's a scary thought for a newb with all of nine jumps. No instructor to give tips and advice about the jump; to make you relaxed by telling jokes. Of course, there would be no radio either. At the same time, I couldn't wait to go by myself. Test out what I learned over the last two months. See if I really did have the cojones to leave the airplane on my own. I arrived at the DZ a little before noon...later than I wanted, as usual. I took a quick look around, and aside from the instructors, I saw only a few people I know from up there. Chris and Josh were there; they were both on the same load from when I did my Level 7. But that was about it. My jump buddy couldn't go on Saturday, so she wasn't there either. I decided to hang out a little, calm my nerves, and watch a load or two before I signed up for my jump. Two hours later, it was now or never time for me. I was added to the manifest for Otter 8, first name on the list. I grabbed a rig I've used before, a 260, and started to get ready. We were on about a 40 minute call, so there was no real rush, but my stomach was starting to get to me. I gathered up my gear, and tried to calm my nerves. I checked the rig, all looked good. Before long, it was time to suit up. It was strange not seeing a radio on the chest strap! At the ten minute call, I headed over to the trailer. There were already a couple of guys there, so I just sat down and chatted a bit. Then the call came that our load would be on a 30 minute hold. Crap! Eventually, our load was called, and we headed out to the airplane. At the loading area, I asked for a gear check, got it, then we sorted out the load. When asked, I replied "Solo, belly", then the nerves hit hard! Solo! Holy shit, this is cool! And scary! And to think that I did my tandem just about three months ago, and now I'm going to jump on my own! We boarded the plane, and were soon airborne. There was one H&P on this load. Soon enough, the H&P was out the door, and we headed up. I found myself checking my alti about every seven seconds, and my chest/leg straps about once a minute. I put on my helmet, took it off, put on my googles too early, took them off...guess I was a little nervous still. Finally, the light came on, the door opened, and it was time to go! When it was my turn, I did my spot, it looked good, and dove out. My exit was OK except I got on my back. Flipping over was easy, and I got stable. Cool, still above 10k. Freefall was odd since I didn't have anything I *had* to do on this jump. My plan was to exit, fall straight down, wave off at 6000 and pull at 5500, just like in AFF. I did fall straight down for a while, at least I thought it was a while, checked my heading and altitude, damn, I was at 9000'! One of my friends told me that freefall would seem like it lasted forever, and he was right! Since I had plenty of altitude, I spun around to look at Longs Peak. Beautiful! I checked my altitude, and was still way above 7000, so I did a 360, using Longs Peak as a reference. Cool! Wave off time was coming up, so I just held my position from there. When it was almost pull time, I noticed I was in a slight turn. I stopped the turn, then waved and pulled at 6000. Actually, I just pulled...forgot to wave off. Stupid! The chute opened up just fine, though it seemed to take a little longer than normal. That was probably just my brain playing with me. I popped the brakes, did my controllability check, and headed back to the landing area. This was my fourth jump on the 260, so I just played around a bit: turns, 360's, practice flares. That was fun, but soon it was time to start setting up for the pattern. The pattern was fine, though I did get a little farther away at one point than I wanted to be, so I tightened it up. My target was a spot about 25 meters southwest of the peas, and damn if I didn't land right about there. Of course, I stumbled on landing as is normal for me, but I was down, unhurt, and the canopy was undamaged. I did it! With shaking hands, I gathered up the canopy and headed over to the trailer. We arrived back to the hangar, and I dropped off the rig. I put my gear away, and called my wife to let her know I was down and safe. Then sat down in a chair to decompress a bit. At that point, I felt like I could conquer anything, if I could just calm down for a few minutes first. I couldn't hang around after the jump, since I waited so long to get on a load. So I packed up and headed out to the truck for the drive home. I wasn't really paying attention to too much on the drive home. For some reason, I kept looking back towards Longs Peak. I'm so glad that I didn't psych myself out. It was close, but I finally realized that I would be supremely pissed at myself if I drove off and didn't jump. This jump was the reward for all the work I put in during AFF. So, now I happily owe yet another case of beer! No problem, and I'll plan on sticking around longer next weekend. Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Congrats, Tito! Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

Nothing wrong with updating, so go ahead and spend away! But your bike is hardly dated...take a look at mine. It's the granddaddy of the GSX-R's: a 1979 Suzuki GS1000E w/13k miles. I could buy about eight of my bikes for the price of the Yamaha. I lust just the same though... Chris Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.