gimpboogie

get in the air assholes, or get out the potato guns To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

Got Muffed in the winter sun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GBbLYWmKz0 To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

Meeting team dumb ass, also means meeting some legendary folks, folks who sit around talking about what was, what is, can be, and will be.... folks who gather around their trailer, and chat it up, and party like its supposed to be done. Down the road I come, upon a friendly wave inviting me, as Jerry Bird is shooting with his potato gun at me, I KNEW this had to be a good thing! 'he's not dead! Jerry Bird is alive and shooting potatoes, & I'm in the middle of this.... having wine with these fellows, and eventually getting towed by an ATV (or I suppose I just decided to hang on, even when we ended up in rough terrain for a 360-where I realized my lil wheelchair cant quite keep up the performance scale to this ATV... back to the trailer to see if there was anything falling from the sky- other then potatoes... meeting people who I've realized have more to teach me then I have lifetimes to learn- and they've been there, done this, and that..... onward we go, back up the road after the visiting and drinking wine with Jerry, Pookie and I decide to grab a hold of another of his team members trucks to get a tow back to the Bar..... a bar open 24 hr/day.... internet cafe, city hall, riggers loft, manifest, packing tents, lead organizer, all sorts of people to meet,and greet with Pookie as a guide, to do some introductions... I think this is going to be a great place to park my butt for a while.... now that I've recognized the big black spiders coming in are not black widows, the red ants are staying outside, team dumb ass members have begun to materialize before me and this DZ is starting to feel like a home slowly. glad Jerry Bird had bad aim today, but there's always the next time -minna To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

What a whirl wind tour, Pooke shows up to share pookieland and show me his team, his main coaches, mentors, and just plain *ssholes he knows- who seem to be totally the best kind of *ssholes I've ever met yet. So the day started with a surprise knock on the door, with Pookie driven around in his pimpin golf cart, and beautiful lady driver, (not to mention the butler who come a knocking on the door I'm choosing my words carefully here- butler will do for what pookie calls some of his buddies ) the drinks were flowing, all good spirits were, and the world was rocking, for a while, to have 2 crips crashing in my crib here at zhills was an adventure in juggling wheelchairs, and parts there of, into a trailer meant for the walkers, while the scene evolved into a puzzle of bodies on the floor, a mids wheelchair parts and I slept barricaded by all that... but a great night it was.... Patron flowing and laughter abounding. there were adventures the next day... which I suppose I'll write a 2nd post about. there worth their own separate post for sure. To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

Fun indeed... and learning, 1) if you exit with out your helmet buckled up, it flies away (imagine that!)-hah, who needs a helmet anyways.... 2) if your helmet flies off, you have to learn to fly mantis so your sunglasses dont fly off (now those I DO need)... this place is the perfect drug. 3 ways, 5 ways, building an 8 way... night jump coming up and if all goes well a heli hump jump to go with it on new yrs day.... tonight its either a night jump for me or else it will be some other interesting night activities, what ever comes along, its all good for me. as for the Raven with the HMA lines tripped for a steep glide angle- heck i think I will kite it for a while first.... i did get a pocket put on my slider, but the help put it on backwards-regardless it still gave me sniveling long opening, just makes me wana cry, all that sniveling, look at this opening compared to that previous video (yes its the one I lost the helmet- 20 secs into the FF you can see only my elbow now-- no more flying with hands, hands are holding sunglasses-. necessity taught me to fly mantis! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtRnjzfA59Q I wonder what I shall learn tonight in the night jumps... if there is room, i am now on a stand by- seems like an airport and not a DZ... oohh well, the helicopter is here tomorrow. that may be ok. I have done several heli jumps before I ever did move to my home DZ so they are sort of nostalgic for me... if I do get to go. To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

As mentioned above, often it is difficult for a non-skydiver to realize what types of 'extra' effort goes on behind the scenes that our new tandem jumpers don't see. I must add that after 3 yrs of skydiving as a paralyzed woman, I have encountered hundreds of hours of waiting over these 3 yrs to get things worked out. Sure on my 1st tandem the 'extra effort' put forth, I didn't know all that was involved-and I also thought as you, what was all this waiting for? Now having gone through a progression of becoming a solo skydiver, I have not only experienced and become knowledgeable about the amount of consideration, safety issues to be worked out, appropriate tandem master to determined, and other considerations, that goes into ANY 'non-typical' tandem dive.... then thinking back to the days of working towards my license, it was more and more waiting, (sometimes a few months to get gear worked out, built etc.). So having said that, I'm glad you enjoyed your skydive, and hope your shark dive adventures work out. Be well and remain strong, -minna To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

so I suppose I should toss that smaller Raven3 with the HMA lines, & modified for a steeper glide angle and faster descent in my container.... after kiting it for a while? To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

Thought to post a little update. Snow back home doesn't just seem at all as interesting this year as it was last- I decided to trade it for red ants and black widow spiders -and to date have had much better luck with my choices. Arrived with all intentions of living in my "Bedouin palace"-a 4 room tent (arriving in a couple of days) and roughing it out in an old abandoned tent by the dried up crock swamp, but this greatest adventure has become a grand one, and now I'm living 'in style' in a 25 foot trailer, and maybe I just wont leave until the snows melt (if ever !). Took Brian Germain's course, (learned a lot, and haven't been able to really put it into practice- trying for sure!). He was explaining about harness turns, leaning into the turn, and using my risers mostly so I'm trying to unlearn this old habit of being a "toggle monkey" (his term- but hey, he didn't patent it yet ). Here is a link to my first attempt (really not able to see any harness input at all, and the toggles keep coming into use while I was crabbing back home after a decent head down exit and some fun proximity flying with a new friend. I did find myself being much more aware of watching how the pilot chute is reacting to my input, and how co-ordinated (and not) my turn's were. It was a fairly windy day (I wont bother getting into the details but soon after my jump seems no one was jumping any more due to the winds), so clearly not the best day to start working on new things, but every day is a great day to jump here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4Drm5uys_I enjoy the holiday season, around the world and play safe, and have fun! To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

Pookie, where you hiding? been here a week and no sign of yah.... come out, come out, where ever you are!! To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

ok great, lets start dirt diving it in a couple of weeks then (oohh heck who needs dirt diving -lets just plan it on the way to alt ) To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

i see you doing it. watching the back flying video, i feel like i have suggestions and ideas to try, its easiest for me to show you, and i would need to try to do that somehow. because your stability on the back, and then turning over to deploy i think is possible, i may be totally wrong, but i hope not. because you have the determination to go there, and the 'teamdumbass' to help you get there, maybe directly out the door its not the best to go linked with many= but out the door your great with RK and that jump you did in the beginning, after the instructor departed for a while- then came back later, it was on your belly, your more stable on your back. im going on freeflow thought here, but it is possible that you are going to be able to have folks you want, and TK wants, 'experienced' guys- to come around on starting from TK's side, building the speed star until the last one who is on your right side (when i saw you on your back I think TK was on your left- and if that last person- on your right is so gentle in their grip, maube worth the jump as that person can let go immediately and then its just a long chain aroud yah- hey make the closing pin sigh from a high altitude jump- with you on the pointy end of it- and the rest of them going from there to build their circle after they finish the pin off from the other side of TK that would be an awesome photo and an amazingly fun time im sure To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

AWESOME ideas!!! very well thought out. I'd love to hear more details of your experimentation with the angles. as I've done that with the old metal braces that I have (which by luck have the ability change angles by 10 degrees from `20 degrees down to 0) but having them on top like you do are not an option for my type- as they need to be set into their angle and then I still worry about the fact that i have two metal bars 2" wide and 1/4" thick on both sides of my thigh- so I worry that it will take just one 'bad' landing for those metal rods to dig into my leg-and worse yet get shoved upwards the 4" they need in order to find my artery or vein down my leg. I've only been fortunate that in a few hundred dives this has not happened-yet. The porosity of the mesh is also something that I've started to work with, and am in the process of reconfigure a tracking suit to fit the para leg needs, which is now forcing me to abandon those old braces and go forward into the realm of completely changing them to become an 'on to' feature.... which was where my interest in seeing you leg braces on the outside spurred from. You definitely have lots of long term plans that are well thought out. If I recall it being August 07 that you emailed me asking for basic info on your quest to start flying again after your injury, and when I think of the progress you have made in the realm of skydiving for para's I find your dedication to be beyond motivating! As you said, it only takes on fubared landing by one of us in this sport to seriously slow down the progression and possibly halt it totally- for other paras to start this journey. And remember telling you that although initially my dream was to jump into the 2012 Paralympic opening ceremonies, but your personality serves that purpose much better... and I think i see it somewhere that it is now one of your goals. that I am glad you have taken on this journey not just for your self but for the greater good of all paras wanting to dive Dale I'm glad you have joined us all in the skies, for your dedication to documenting, researching and continuing to further your outlook is not merely inspiring but needed from someone on the 'inside' of this world- someone who can speak from experience... my 'kudos' to you for taking on the journey i had hoped someone with intelligence and determination would tackle and i trust will develop something very uniwue and useful. My journey has me flying other canopies, and skydiving, although i seem to do quite a bit of it (how can I not with the skyvan parked in my front yard), has become the testing grounds for my plans and thoughts. But my journey is not terribly useful for the majority of para's who want to fly canopies (seeing that skydiving is the main interest there-rightfully so-it's the safest option) so lately I've tossed up some videos of plain old '1st attempt at..' (like the RW tunnel camp and the backflying -when I saw the broken knee brace that sent my leg flying in all directions unwanted)-with the hopes that if not informative in 'how did i do this' way, then in the 'don't try this' manner. (perhaps that is a part of my journey to show the 'don't try this- because this wil happen' videos- as there certainly have been enough emails coming my way asking if this or that is possible and i go out and give it a try-to show more often then not- that it isnt possible- at least not for me- but then showing why it didnt work for me- hoping that if the person really wants to try it- perhaps wseeing why it did not work for me will help them eliminate that option and move directl onto something more do-able). While I watch your progression with great interest as you take on the very oppostie approach.. which is a good thing, not all of us need to be out there showing what not to do at the end of the day,I'm impressed, and very intrigued because I do believe that your wing suit dreams will be reality sooner then you even may realize. Keep at it Dale this was a nice surprise to see the video of all the work you have done To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

Thanks for sharing I see the mods. would you explain some of them for us- so we can understand a) what are all the mods you did? b) why?(what made you decided to change something) and what differences do you find now with your new mods in comparison to before. As there was this guy who sent me a PM =telling he is an engineering student designing something so that paralyzed people can skydive solo. He had never known it was done, after spending TONS of time gathering up ALL the links here from yu, from poolieland, packerJarrett, and Tonto's explenation of what he did with Peter, trying to encourage him to contact the various folks on his own, i havent heard back from him. So now you have new mods! that I'd like to learn about. I see you liked the skyvan, is that going to be your DZ's plane for a while now? We leased one for this season and I love the back flip exits (or have folks toss you out of the plane on your belly- just grab you by the legs, and arms and out you go with a loud exclemation of being TIRED OF THESE GIMPS ON THE PLANE!) certainly has the tandems looking a little 'puzzled' and distracts them from their own fears of exiting the plane :) To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

absolutely the best for us paralyzed ones for exits. I must have done at leat 70+ back flip exits from our this season. do a back flip exit (similar to Dales version of a gainer-except I just sit directly facing the back ad flip over). For exists the skyvan was awesome but still I liked the Grand Caravan with the 900hp engine upgrade from the regular 595 hp. To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

thanks for the time you tossed into giving me some ideas. I'm not sure I'd try it, as I saw how it went for James (pookie here) and i agree that the top would be excellent, but i cant see how the rest of it would work with my knee braces. and i have learned to fly now a few hundred jumps with my braces and the tracking suit idea for my pant -although i really like the idea of actually perhaps modifying the tracking suit that I have here, to fit my leg attachments into it. so that may be an answer to my 'problems'. ALL feed back is excellent because it at least sends me thinking in various different ways. you have all been real helpful to tr to help e along the way and i been copying some of these information, suggestions etc. so i can try to read up on them more and then figure out ways to try the same thing on my own. Thanks much EVERYONE. -minna To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

QuoteI did it :-D putting the images up on photobucket as we speak http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v510/Leahcaprice/Skydive%20for%20Charity/[/reply VERY NICELY DONE! GREAT JOB! and an excellent fundraising project, you put tons of time effort etc into this, so this really helped i hope to bring some cash for your cause. you certainly look like you were having fun. would you mind stopping by and letting us know how it felt for you, if you'd ever do it again, (for fun) and if you'd ever want to try to learn to dive on your own (because if you do, your coaches you'd chose would get so much valuable info from a fellow here Angus and TK and zhills. anyways, regardless of whether you will ever jump again, im real happy to see your pics. they truly are awesome to see you enjoy this fundraiser. take care be well and remain strong, minna To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

AAAHH! lots of nice info coming my way here. that chin thing, as soon as you said it. it reminds me of the tunnel. i did levels merely with my chin and head. looking down, chin to the chest and arms slight curved (cupping the air) in front of my head brought me up. then ofcourse the opposite i went back down. i understand much better about the chin-head thing. i was doing the exact opposite, i was trying to lift my head as if to look between my legs. well that only sends me to fall faster. THANKS SO MUCH, these comments are all stating to form a picture in my head.

Hey James, Yes when the time comes, I just got back from Bridge Day so need to stick around home for a bit- but I will end up there Yes I saw the sit suite experimentations and that sure didn't look like it was going very well for you (unless you would have been happy to be pushed through the skies by TK eternally

thank you! I will defiitely try this. it makes somuch sense as you say it i feel like 'hey why did inot think of that'.. i did ask one of our best free flyers but he quickly avoided my question and said i have no idea=which sort of made no sense to me-since he competes in artistic expresion, free flying is his specialty and he's been in the Canadian head down record. youve given me very valuable information to write down and keep. thanks, -thegimp To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDrjOqhu3nc There it is. no music etc. but I did toss in a few section's slowed down, to ask for advice on two things 1) how can i get up into SIT from that position (once I can safely go back to free fall when i get my knee braces fixed) 2) I am 'assuming' a lot of my orbiting was due to that right leg practically going sideways (as if a hip dislocated-which may explain the sore hip for the last month, and the bursities I developed on left shoulder-trying to compensate for the orbiting i started to do while on belly in the last month=when i never had that preblem for over a year or more). but if it is NOT from the broken knee brace, and i will end up orbiting next time i try-what suggestions do you have. I think i tried to compesate enough for it towards the end, when the orbiting certainly slowed down a lot-but I cant assume at this point it is purely the knee brace. it is clear in this video that my leg with the camera on it stays totally in a certain angle and not flopping around like the other one does. all comments welcome. thanks, the gimp To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

Here is they 2nd jump I did with Chris S. a small (110-120 LBS AT MOST) guy who merely did a dozen jumps this summer, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewo7Qgt_15E BEAT ME (if he wanted to but was gracious and allowed us to finish together,) I have Nope- but until I fix my knee braces im goundind myself. My right leg is totally useles hazard in the air a terminal, the back fly jump i havent even up lodaded yet (and its a 3 min section, without the music etc. just the real thing, only a bit of slow motion added to show what is happening to my leg. it is stretched at the hip joint outwards, while flopping up and down as well- there is barely any hold on that knee at all- isome places it looks to me as if it was broken-but showing it to others they say some flyers already their legs that way-i have i idea how as my hip flexors are so tight that even the physio cant make it stretch that far out to the side. ive had more important conversation going on, and trying to rest, as my sleep pattersn sort of went out of what in last week trying to cramp in a bunch of stuff i needed done- now the knee brace will wait-until i get help somehow to make a cast and then the fibre glass thing. anyways, this is a nice video (to me) because Chris is a very young man with his head on his shoulders, as if he was 3x his age in wisdom and I rarely see him -ben almost 2 yrs now. a real treat-and to have him follow me like there was no effort to it, Like Amazon said, if i just get the correct body position i i will certain learn this. maybe it can happen, and maybe i can forget about the 2 way endorsement, if it still wont work once i get the knee braces. i dont know, but for now. this is CATCH THAT GIMP AND I LOST YAH!!!! to the guy who falls lke a feather, from the woman who falls like a house- true display of some FF skills in action from Chris To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

less then 10 times this summer-due to his other commitments, (and toys he bought- a glider etc.) My friend Chris (this guy can fit through the holes in a screen door surely! if i guess- he's 10-120lbs! WE jumped first with me on belly- just playing, did some RW (no contact -just proximity), while he did have to delta down to me-even though he exited first, and often had to go into stand for a few seconds and delta towards me to start again, but he was so fast at it that we if we had done this with contact we'd have gotten several points,. then we played 'catch the gimp' i went into delta after finding him while on my belly, and this lil guy followed me right to the bottom! YAH! so im a PLEASE TO ANNOUNCE the 1ST ROUND OF CATCH THE GIMP with CHRIS , I LOST! (maybe some of our video flyers just arent as fast as they could be if lil Chris= who some had teased 'hey Chris do you still remember HOW to skydive' as he had done only about 10 (or less) jumps this summer. I'm so happy, to have been right there watching him, tossing him a thumbs up and sticking my tongue out at him on deployment. He did video tape it all-but on landing told me his camera fell off-the mount, was still hanging on by the wire (wow!) so he thinks it probably happened during deployment then i did a back fly which i will toss up on youtube and my leg brace is so torn up, that one leg is literally bouncing around 30-40 degrees up and down- i only notice it while i flew on my back-because of the foot mount camera i was able to see myself totally and both legs. now i know that i am in serious need of making those leg braces i really need. out of fiber glass. as that floppy leg, is certainly not helping the stability situation. and once i show the video i will have another question, why i could not get up to sit from back. yah ok, i never tried to do it that way, but regardless- the video will show what i am trying to do to get up to sit,and it just isn't working-so i just flipped back on belly to slow down as i was screaming through the skies-i didn't count the seconds -yet- but 9,000f went by VERY fast. The fellow who jumped with me- we were both on our backs-he said yah you do fall fast, he needed to occasionally go delta, curl up in a ball to catch up again and then we flew together again-im just impressed that he could do all that with me that jump. To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

thanks

hey, not to revel anyones privacy a fellow PM me with some good questions, and offers to think of what may help. but to answer those questions, i tried to PM back and it says this person has chosen not to accept PM's if you would want me to reply to those questions here, without revealing ofcourse your identity, PM me back. i will reply them here. or PM me with a new gmail addy or something that you created just to give me a chance to reply, so i can communicate back and at the same time keep our privacy. i like your questions, want to answer them all. and hope to hear back from you. QUICK REPLY RE THE VIDEO AND WHICH I LIKED THE BEST AT around seconds 37-44 guy with red helmet and black top=something i think i can do. and at 1:42/43 the guy in all black, i think that may work with the way my legs are locked in. but to answer your other questions, id like to hear from you in a way that i can reply that your find ok for me to reply with, let me know thanks, -minna To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

Amazon, so happy to know someone will say yes they can catch me see that last video cliff was in sit you see his knees and im so far away. did i not go horixontal distnce last the place you see forest started and turned around to go back to jump run at least cliff caught that all if so far away i respect him for trying so hard flying with his knees tucked up to his chest to try. at least to watch me. and your ideas i like. just not toally understand what it woud all look like. i dont care if it look like a clown if it makes me fly slower so i can fly with others. to do my 2 way endorsement jumps i tried 7 coach jumps and ony guys to keep up with me on belly wre ether super good eperienced flyers who are not coaches but i was able t get one of those two dives signed off by a coach. or gareth, the TM/AFF guy who is a big 6 foot tall strong muscled man muscle weight more then fat so he may weight lots more then me i weigh 170 thats more then enough as it is. add that junk i got to weat it puts me up to 190 plus geat up to 205. thats 35 lbs extra more then me alone. but still i fall faster then the 205+ lb guys so even gareth wore weights 16 lbs. and the skinny Randy, who was the jump i got signed off may weight 150-160 at most with all gear on be tossed the 16 lbs on and i saw how he was always moving his arms and legs and folded up like a gumby doll to fly that 2 way, we got 9 points and he never left my level exceot intentionally to do levels. but those guyw are rare here. now if i could have a drawing of what those ideas for the pants look like. i will find a way to make it. i still have canvas from when i was artist and painted lots and made my own frames to stretch canvas on. that canvas should be heavy ehough. money is always issue when you live on disability pension, as its well below poverty level and only way i can even jump is because my DZO never charged me more then my slot and always allowed me to pick up garbage, keep the grounds clean and other things to put money in account for credit to even pay for that slot. so in a sense, all these few hundred jumps DZO subsized to let me almost as if to jump for free. as he paid the credits into my account that allowd me to just pay for that slot in the firs place. Angus who i never will sop respecting, he gave all his TM work of my tandem progression for free and all AFF jumps for free tunnel donated time in NH. i never tlell tese because i dont want peole thinking 'why not me? why do the gimps get these gifts?" and its true valid questions, so i dont share them but today i do so peole actually know how much everyone gives to me. even to sew my pants a rigger did the work for free. to fix my broken zipper, a lady who used to work in a wing suit factory but moved to canada and does not have same kind of job bere but is so good she sew up the whole accuracy team for canada to go to workds their suits. shes that good and she helped fix the pants again for free. Nina Topic is the lady and she gives deeply from her heart while she can charge as its all the money she can get is the work she does for skydivers being new to the country until her career life returns and she will be doing ok again. so these gifts are all that keeps me flying as it is. please can you draw what that looks like? so i can try to get it swwn. yes best idea ever to have these things sewn on to pants, because legs dont do anything but weigh me down most due to these metal braces. i want to turn them into fibre glass braces like i had slo long ago showed Dale about in email and tell him where to go-to get original info-peter hewiitt who first had those fibre glas braces. DALE quickly made them, and they working for him, gypsum to make the casts costs $7/roll here and it took me 6 months to save enough to to get what i thought was enough to make one leg cast. again no help to make it, Dale's mom patiently helped him make the first set the ones made out of cast to give a mold arond which to put the fibre glass. so now, i need to save another 6 months to get more gypsum so i can make the next leg bace and hopw what i did for left leg wwas enough to try to use it as mold for that let. the fibreglass-most expensiv part of this all costs even more!! Thats why i still fly with these metal bars inside, wrapped up by tons of tensor bandages, those elastic 'nads' peole use to stretch so they excercise musces tied around that all. to help keeo it together. so a drawing will help me much i can sow it to Nina and maybe she can swe it up and not ask for much money or i find something to give toher in return. your words give me hope. as i want to so much to get my A before i am too sick to get it at all. only those coached jumps are in the way. need 5, but have 4 that i passed, the other 2 i failed. as i missed that one last point the coach asked,. i coulld make excuses and say we only got from 11,000 to 6,000 f working time while all others who jumped with me got 13,500f down to 4,500f yes lots of diffence in working time but no ecuses i must do it regazrdless if they give me 4,000f total to work in, like those last two dives ihad 5,000f to work in. the last one i failed. was so hard for me to accept. as i had about 20f to close in to make that last dock. while the break of he wanted was at 6,000f i dont know why, but thats what i had towork with, and the alti said we were below 6,500f but now quite at 6,00f that wave off and turn to track aay was so hard to accept i so badly wanted to close that last 20 f and just get it -pas it. because its not my hard deck. anywhere close to it. almost 1/2 the distance yet to go for my hard deck, which is 3,500f for me. but i had to follow coaches rule he said break off no later then 5,000f so i just feel devestated. and feel like this is not the sport for me and that i did enpugh dives to just stick with BASE from now on. my BASE gear only have 22 jumps by me on it and its all brand new. so i feel like giving up on trying to get the A and stick only to BASE. but the risk there is, without the constant skydiving experience i wont be any good at BASE and will kill myself sooner then i may otherwise, ofcourse i hope i wont, but accept that possibllity. so your pant idea only gives me hope. that maybe i dont need to give up on skydiving. and maybe i can find a way to get thiis last coach dive done. damn 20F@!! but THANKS AMAZON! YOUR THE one here now that whisper words of hope my way. tonight i go chuck #23, 1st stowed terminal. cant wait! To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works