VivaHeadDown

Good movie. Very happy with it. Liked the added scenes, gave it a little different direction rather than just deleting scenes and asking you to follow along anyway. Looking forward to the rest.

Yup, that's the number.

Hey, I went to school with that guy! Can someone scan that since I probably will not get the mag anytime soon?

throw, the word is throw Be afraid when an engineer corrects your english

An old RSL I took out of a rig in '98. You know, in case I ever need to bail out while driving down the freeway. It'll deploy my reserve ride before I hit the pavement.

HIM, HIM, $#&! HIM!

You know, it wasn't too long ago that I was a college student in a college club trying my best to get as much for everyone and the club as possible. There's a reality that many of you are missing, and a great deal of hope/complaining that is unfounded. Skydiving will never be a sport. Imagine yourselves as being equals with the Dungeons & Dragons club, not the football team. Never believe that because the military schools get it, you should. They have the resources of the United States, and may have to give their lives if asked to. It's a package deal. It's one you can choose if you so please. And if you want anything to get accomplished, it'll take twice as much work as you can possibly imagine. Once you wrap your mind around that, there are a great many things that college skydivers can achieve. Our club had a great relationship with Skydive Deland, thanks to the owner, that we both benefitted from (one of the many examples was we brought as much tandem business and AFF as possible, and they cut prices to achievable levels). We had some of the best Boogies each semester there that I'll never forget. We stuck to the priorities of making skydiving as accessible as possible to the campus population by finding the best deals, cheap gear rental, and a network of people so that feeling of family prevails even when we don't get our way. We had parties, trips to the Tunnel, and designated jump weekends all the time. College is a busy demanding time, it's incredible just how much we did. Anything above and beyond, like the fringe that compete in collegiates, is gonna be a hard earned bonus, not given. Now stop complaining and just jump. Or do something constructive, and most likely involving a lot of thankless work, to make your needs happen. Hell, I put three years into a small club and with the cooperation of a few others, turned it into one of the strongest clubs on campus. I have yet to develop as strong of a group as we had, and I lived at a DZ for 9 months some time after that. The point I want to make is that few of the current members know who I am, or that the benefits they have are because of a small group of people who really wanted to create this. And I've got no problem with that. The time I spent was it's own reward, as cliche as that sounds. I love skydiving because it wasn't about the work, or the perks, or anything else that can cloud the one important thing: going out to the DZ to jump with friends. I realize this is a forum, so people can share their opinions no matter what they are. But what good are they if you don't see them through to them becoming reality? I am not a writer, so if this jumps around too much for you, it really does follow one thought. To sum it up: Get over it, or see it through to its completion. In the mean time, never let it stop you from jumping, and keep politics out of the decision making process as much as possible.

That's got to be the most insensitive reply I've heard all day...ok, and the funniest thing I've heard all week!

This brings up an interesting topic. What kinds of things have people gotten from their whuffo friends and family that is skydiving related, but not exactly the kind of thing a skydiver would ever be caught buying. I got an old PS1 game from my dad that is supposed to be about skydiving. It was $10. It's actually a timed button mashing game, where you don't really control anything, but when you mash the right buttons in time the people "fly" into impossible formations. Very lame. I'm so embarassed. Next.

It shouldn't bee hard to calibrate the height/time thing. Decide on the desired drop altitude. Set up a couple practice jumps before hand and have a guy on the ground time the bag's fall. Get an average time and use it to verify the height. It's all approximate, but it's about fun so only use the time rule as proof when someone challenges a bust for being too low.

Came in for a spock once and it was such a smooth approach we ended up doing a kiss pass in that position. Got a big kick out of it, but it's not like a real kiss. Having to focus on body position, and the wind deadening the feeling of touch on the lips, and making sure it's a clean separation without tumbling (because it only works if it's done with style and purpose). All these things make it completely different than a real kiss. But just because it's different doesn't make it any less fun!

I haven't seen the movie yet, but the shots from the website and the shot from the trailer blip look like the same design. Maybe there's another shot from the movie that I have yet to see that resembles more of a Tomahawk shape. Either way, very cool. Makes me wish I had a few years of Aerospace Design under my belt so I could really jump into this kind of project.

I've got an engineering degree, and went through those years of really tough courses. Tell you what, I'll change my name to Designer and you change yours to Drafter. No real malice intended, just bitter that I still don't have an engineering related job yet to go along with that degree...and loan payment. Just goes to show life doesn't go by the book.

Haven't seen that one, but I just saw Solaris in the theater and I give it a /5. Don't watch don't watch! For the love of God, please, think of the children!!! Don't Confuse Me With My Own Words

I know a bird named swooper and a kid named sky (kids are just difficult pets).

This email you received was bad beacause: 1. Emotion based even if it claims otherwise. He didn't use facts nearly as much as opinion. He based most of his opinion on some problem involving his boogie, but claimed he didn't know all the details and didn't want to know them. How can you come up with a sound reason for an opinion if you only have half the information? 2. It was very short sighted. Since his feelings were hurt, everyone should quit the USPA. And instead of replacing it, he claims nobody realy cares anyway as long as we get to jump. Just how long does anybody expect to jump without some organization protecting us from the FAA, from whuffo lawsuits, and even each other? The rules we follow are there for a reason. They are not all perfect, but that should be no surprise to anybody. Nothing's perfect, or ever will be. If we all quit USPA, that would be the end of skydiving legally. Anarchy does not work. 3. It was unsolicited. We receive an opinion based email from some guy, aimed at Chris Needles, about political issues and how his feelings are hurt because of them. And he doesn't even explain it all. Hmmm, sounds more like a virus email than a responsible one. The only thing he acomplished with this email was to discredit the names he suggested for an organization he claims is worthless. Way to go, you schmuck. Don't let the USPA door hit you on the @$$ on your way out.

I'm also more along the lines of Dave when it comes to learning. I think about it to death on the ground, but once I'm in the air I just reach. What I find gets the job done is by allowing things to sink in, and changing the way you think about flying your body. It may be more time consuming than people who can work on the technical motions in the air, but it becomes permanent because it's based on a way of thought, rather than a calculated movement. If this means anything to anyone, right on.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not shocked or offended by your "radical" and "rebellous" ways. Just worried. Skydivers are the only people I've really felt akin to, so anytime someone gets hurt or dies because of something as unpredictable as when and how their canopy will open, it is hard to take. It's good that you were honest, I guess, but it doesn't make your choice any better. And I want to restate, no one was being singled out. Anyone who does this is no longer taking a calculated risk, it becomes russian roulette.

Was ground launching off a steep hill a couple hundred feet high. I'm a novice swooper, but had been practicing ground launching my 135 so was ready to go on this new hill. Didn't help that there was a camera, and a couple pro swoopers who we were introducing to ground launching. I was loving it! They were, generally, getting all cut up, landing on rocks, having to run down the hill because they'd never get off the ground, and the hill was not a pretty slope. By about my 4th time down, I decided to show off, stall the canopy over a road that was half way down, and 90* to the line of flight. Learned two great things that day: 1. Where the exact stall point of my canopy is. 2. Finding it on a downhill slope with jagged rocks and trying to turn was a bad idea, but thank God for PLF! And I hit the road so it was technically a success. My hands got pretty chewed up, but when I got back up to the top, a nice breaze was coming in, and the sun was just setting, so I had to make one more before the pain set it. Parachutes are a beautiful thing! Don't Confuse Me With My Own Words

By reading this I figure: 1. Some of us are lucky to be here. 2. Some of us aren't going to be around much longer. 3. Too many people think they're Keanue in Point Break. Nock it off! I hope this is mostly a lot of bull$h!tting and not how you realy jump. Good God, taking "advantage of an empty DZ and smoked it down to 1300"??? Not to single just one post out, but give me a friekin break!

I didn't know the FAA licensed gophers to fly now, or are you trying to teach a small pig to fly?

Holy Crap, they've got a plane that hovers over there! Man, I need to visit Eloy soon. :)

NOOO Suds...not the other side! Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I'm sorry, I missed that, could you tell me which way he went again? HAHAHA! No, wait, I missed it again, which way did he go? HAHAHA! OKOK, try one more time, I wasn't looking, which way did he go? HAHAHAHA!

Saturday and Sunday! Jump, Jump, Jump!