BikerBabe

Sheesh, I must not be in the same Air Force... LOL, maybe we CGO's look at colonels (and generals) the same way E-5's look at CGO's? **BikerBabe wanders away muttering, "all those senior officers are out of touch, dammit..."** Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

HEY! I resemble...uh...resent that remark!! So if I'm an officer, do I get a special dispensation because I'm a skydiver? Or does that make it worse? Believe me, not all of them are like that... Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

I'm already planning to go, at least for a few days of it. Hey Gordo...nice Evolution website! Andi Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Looks like Airspeed up by 1 after six rounds... And I'm thinking I cannot WAIT to see nationals this year! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Did 12 training/coaching dives with 3/4 of my new team (yay!). It was our first time jumping together, and I was quite pleasantly surprised...our random work is pretty decent. Plus Staphan Lipp coached/jumped with us, and he rocks! Go to that skills camp if you're anywhere near Orange this weekend! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

1. Win Nationals (whatever class) in 4-way 2. Take my all-girl team to the world meet and win the women's 4-way 3. Get my Coach ad AFF ratings 4. Get my PRO rating last but definitely not least: Have fun doing all of it! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

It's quite simple, actually. If you must fall in love with and marry a whuffo, make sure that he/she has his/her own expensive, adrenaline-filled hobby to take up their time. That's what I did. I skydive. He races motorcycles. Neither of us tells the other that they can't do their hobby anymore. I'm of the belief that the one you're meant to be with would NEVER tell you to give up something else that you love for their sake. My husband knows that I wouldn't be the same fun-loving gal he married if I couldn't skydive...so why would he make me give it up? Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Holy Randoms, Batman! Talk about smokin' 4-way. The world meet this year is going to be a nail-biter, too. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Not going because I can only afford one trip to Illinois/Chicago this year, and it's gonna be Nationals...I can't WAIT to see the 4-way Open! Plus, I'd like to give it a year to settle into it's new location. Maybe next year! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Well, only got 4 this weekend, two of which were (gasp!) freefly solos. I'm having a hell of a time with that head down stuff! The other 2 were with a girl trying to get her A-license, working on docking and re-docking. One of those was her first 4-way, and I haven't had that much fun spending a whole jump building a 4-way star in a long time. She was soooooo excited. I really enjoy coaching! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

LOL...that's just another day at the office for James Traficant. He's the congressman for north central area, and if you know anything about Ohio or the Mafia, Ohio actually is a hotbed for the Mafia, organized crime, whatever you want to call it. forget chicago and new york. If you want mob drama, Youngstown, Ohio is where it's at....don't believe me? Ask anyone from around there. Traficant's been in their pocket for years. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Just saw the movie too. David Wenham.. Yummy! I cannot believe that Steve Irwin isn't dead yet from a horrible snake or spider bite or something...I may jump out of planes, but that guy is crazy! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

LOL, I hadn't seen it in a while, but I was thinking, for those of you who know Craig Girard... You know what I'm talking about. Sorry Craig, you know I love ya, but you must admit, the similarities in personality are quite striking. Crikey! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Well, Christy, you know I would, but I can't afford a trip to the UK AND a trip to Chicago this year! Good luck...even if you don't find one, I'd say go anyway, and grab someone who's hanging around there. Funny username, by the way. See you in Chicago! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Well...not only is Nationals going to be a great show, it looks like the World meet will also be great fun to watch! This fall is going to rock in 4-way! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

LOL...not to sound like a geek or anything, but you mean Survivor 4, right? Because the ones for Survivor 5 are still in Thailand... Yes, I'm a Survivor fangirl. Sue me. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Awesome awesome awesome! LOL...and Emma and I spent one night together, too! LOL my little icon is a pic of me in the tunnel, doing a kick-ass vertical transition (only after practicing bad ones where I fell to the grate about a thousand times). The guys and gal are not only shit-hot skydivers, they are some of the nicest people in skydiving. No skygoddishness there at all. They have a really good curriculum, and it's set up really well. Plus, you'll end up buying extra time (you MUST buy extra time), which gives you more freedom to practice things you learned or just have fun, whatever. One suggestion, you may want to start stretching NOW, just to minimize the pain as much as you can! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

There's a DZ just outside of El Paso, actually, just over the New Mexico border. When you get there, I'd suggest calling information or looking in the yellow pages, as they don't have a website. It's called Skydive El Paso. It's a smaller DZ with 2 or 3 182's, but they're modified to get to altitude in about 15 minutes. A lot of New Mexicans went there a lot this winter when we didn't have a plane. I've heard nothing but good things about the DZ, so you might give it a shot! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

OK, you all are going to think I'm crazy, but you might actually consider getting a chow chow. Just like Pit Bulls, if they are trained correctly from the time they are puppies, they are wonderful, one-family dogs. They are incredibly intelligent and independent, and many people call them the "cat of the dog world". They aren't the type of dog to run around all day barking, either. Also, one of the built-in perks of the breed is that they are super-fastidious, so if you are little late coming home from work, you can almost bet there will NOT be an accident, because they hate going to the bathroom anywhere near where they sleep or eat. But even then...I got my chow when he was 2 from the pound. He'd had no training, and had been a stray. Yes, he has some psychological problems (afraid of his own shadow...), but he is a GREAT dog. I lived in a condo when I got him, and he was fine...no barking, and a medium-to-low energy level. Of course, he's reverted some to his wild ways now that we own an acre of land, but he still comes when called and is very affectionate. Yes, he has tons of hair, but he sheds it in easy to grab clumps rather than one hair at a time. I attached a picture of Leo...what a cutie! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Dale, you wouldn't happen to be jumping with Christy, AKA "Killer", would you? Just wondering, because I know she took her 3-person 4-way team to France this weekend... Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Um, it wasn't that far away, but it may as well have been miles. It was my first jump at Skydive Suffolk in VA, under my old blue and pink Sabre (that's important, just wait). Well, we had a bad spot, and being new, I was a little shaky on the outs around the DZ. I headed for what looked like a field, but what turned out to be a full-on swamp with 6-ft high "underbrush". There I was, slogging through the muck in my Tevas (I'll never wear tevas while jumping again), and the undergrowth got so thick that I could no longer move. I wasn't about to take off my jumpsuit and get literally eaten alive by mosquitoes. It was about 90 degrees and about 100% humidity, and I seriously thought I was going to be left out there to die. I was looking down at the inch-deep "water" thinking I'm going to have to drink it if I get thirsty enough... ...then I hear a plane! Larry Pennington, God bless him, had brought the Cessna out looking for me! With my survival training recently completed, I was looking for anything on me to reflect light at the plane, but all the metal on my rig was dull. So I spread my canopy with it's neon pink cells out on top of the underbrush, and they found me! Of course, I was only like 100yds from some old guy's house with its nice manicured lawn... LOL...this happened almost 6 years ago, but I bet if you go there and ask the old timers at that DZ about the swamp girl, they would still know the story... Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Here's mine (gee, skydivers seem to have similar tastes...) Lord of The Rings Hitchhiker's Guide... A Tale of Two Cities and anything else by Dickens Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (great book...if you haven't read it, go get it now!) all of Tom Clancy's books Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

hmmm...the past two weekends we've had this problem, except it isn't clouds, it's smoke from the fires in AZ and CO. Albuquerque is in a nice valley that catches all the smoke and holds it there...we had a couple of days with less than a mile visibility. We jumped anyway, though. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Hi. I used to have the same problem (no matter who I jumped with). The best solution is rather than thinking so much about turning, think about really keeping eye contact with your opposite. I would do some 180/outfacing drills to work on this, or even just start with 90's. When you're outfacing, you should still be able to see your opposite. Practice turning 180 and stopping, switching your head, then turning the rest of the way. If you can maintain that eye contact, you're better able to anticipate fall rate changes. If you still have problems, anticipate the fall rate change before you even break grips. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

OK, I have to post because I had such a great time this weekend and I need to tell people! I had a meeting in Phoenix last Friday, so of course I had to stay the weekend and jump. I knew that Saturday was the SSL meet at Eloy, so when I knew I'd be there, I started looking for a pick up team. To make a long story short, I couldn't find one. I show up at Eloy bright and early Saturday morning, feeling slightly (only slightly, mind you) sorry for myself, and I start pulling out my freefly pants, long-sleeved t-shirt, etc, since I really need to practice that and I didn't realy feel like jumping on the flail dives that day. The team vibe in the hangar was thick enough to cut, and the thought of not being in on it pushed me to the dark side. So there I am, looking around the hangar, when Ken and Stacie from Marana walk in. Now, they seem very familiar to me, so me being the outgoing person that I am, asked them if we'd met before. Turns out we had, and then I asked them if they were here for the meet. When they said they couldn't find 2 others to come with them, I pounced! So now we had 3, and only needed a 4th and a videographer. Time to make an announcement over manifest! As soon as the announcement was made, Ash very kindly offered to video, and Dusty from AZ Flight Force said he would be our fourth. Yay! I put together a team! Since I was the only one with any competition 4-way experience, we decided the A class was the way to go. So we registered as "Last Minute", grabbed the draw, and started planning! OK, so we were no Airspeed, and there was some definite flailing going on, but I'll tell you, a 17 raw score for a 6-round meet is not bad for 4 people who have never jumped together before, 1 who had 200 jumps, and one who is a freeflyer (albeit a damned good one). But the score didn't matter. The best thing was sitting in the plane on round six and hearing a freeflyer scream "4-way ROCKS!" and hearing the other two tell me that this was the most fun they'd had skydiving in a long time. Watching Dusty's reaction as Ted scored our 5-point round 3 (19-6). He brought the hangar to a standstill with his enthusiasm. What a blast! As for me, I got to fly point, which I rarely do, and it was good experience. Also, seeing my "teammate" with just over 200 jumps fly into the base (rather quickly) of a 31-way formaton load was pretty cool. And the 8-ways I did the next day with some of the other competitors were a blast, as well. I love this sport! Thanks for indulging me...how was everyone else's weekend? Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!