Namowal

Glad to hear this. :) My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

Good idea. :) By the time I'm cleared to jump I won't be 'current' any more so I'll probably have to repeat an AFF style jump to demonstrate that I still know what I'm doing. The fact that I'll loose my currency (and probably have to relearn a lot of stuff I've learned) bugs me more than the hassle of breaking bones. It's times like this I remind myself to be glad I will have a chance to jump again- as not everyone gets that chance. My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

Wow. What a jerk! I still can't get over how unprofessional that guy was. Geez! What an incompetent blowhard! I have a hunch he's botched a bunch of medical procedures in his career and has gotten defensive by default. I'm glad you later found a doctor who knew what he was doing. That's good. One doesn't have to be a skydiver to be cool about it. :) My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

I thought she still had a good leg, too, I think on opposite sides. No Twister games for a while. Glad to hear you're healing well, Jennifer. Looking forward to the cartoon version of this. Hopefully you'll be up and around at least a bit by Chicks Rock so some of your out-of-town fans (like me) can at least say hi (even though we might have to wait a bit to jump with you). Yep, one good leg and one good arm (better check my incident report comment to make sure I was clear about what did and didn't break.) I'm hoping to attend Chicks Rock, even if I'm grounded. It's annoying to put everything on hold in the meantime but then again things could have turned out way worse, so there's no use complaining.

Thanks, Lisa. :) My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

Thanks for the kind thoughts and words. :) I'm still at a hospital for physical therapy but I finally have a computer (and good internet access) so I can swing by and thank everyone. And if you all think I'll make a cartoon about all this... ...you're right.

Thanks for the kind thoughts and words. :) I'm still at a hospital for physical therapy but I finally have a computer (and good internet access) so I can swing by and thank everyone. And if you all think I'll make a cartoon about all this... ...you're right.

I can't argue with you there. The video would have gone viral, but not for flattering reasons... My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

Am I the only one who read the headline this far: "Maryland Student Hovers 8 Feet High in Human-Powered Helicopter, Smashing-" -and instantly thought "Oh no, what did he smash?" My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

I was wondering about that... My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

Not long ago I won a 25% discount on a new container (base price, of course, not including extras.) It's good until sometime in November. I'm a noob (70 or so jumps) who still rents. I always figured I'd start out buying used gear... ...but now there's this temptation. If I take the bait and get a something new, I'll have, well, something new and something that fits me well. On the other hand, it will still cost more (I'm pretty sure) and I'll eventually outgrow it. (I jump a 190 now, and a container that holds that size could also hold a 170 but not much smaller). So what would you do, if you were in this situation. (Throwing in the disclaimer that yes, I recognize that advice from "the internet" isn't always reliable, so I may not follow the consensus if instructors and/or coaches suggest I do otherwise. ) My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

Thanks and you're welcome. :) I agree. My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

Actually I've heard three variations of that at the DZ: 1. "I want to see a cartoon with me in it" 2. "Don't you dare put me in the cartoon..." 3. "That was me? You draw that? I didn't know that was you..."

One of the greats. My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

This was me too. I'd been under the impression that skydivers were the "watch me ride this bicycle off roof and into the pool" types. And one of my officemates is still convinced we have some kind of brain defect where we don't understand (or fear) risk... My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

Interesting. I wonder if there's other people out there with similar experiences? My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

I'm no expert at this, but I'm guessing my weight counteracts some of the forward speed when the canopy is "planing out" after half brakes. The smaller canopy can't fly me forward as fast. That being said, it won't surprise me if more experienced people have other opinions... My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

Re: "Half brakes, tug, tug tug... full breaks. The breaks were sloppy, yet, the landings were gentle.""BRAKES", not "breaks". You got it right once out of three. D'oh! I know better than that. Geez. My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

Yes. Lucky for me it was the other way around- I thought I was 44 for most of this year, until I did the math and learned I was "only" 43. My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

Here's the latest installment.

That's more or less what it looked like when I was looking up at it. My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

Yesterday I downsized from a 210 to a 190 (rental) and noticed something I've never noticed before. Whenever I tried to flare (or more specifically, do the "half" flare followed by the full one,) I could only go about half way when the lines seemed to get caught or hung up somehow. It took a crude brute-force tug to yank them beyond that point and finish the flare. I looked up to see if I could figure out what was going on*. It seemed the hang-up part happened when a slightly thicker part of the steering line crossed the slider grommets, but I wasn't sure. I always practice flaring quite high and had plenty of time to experiment with it, but the end result was it wasn't possible to time the full flare for a pretty landing. I asked around, but nobody was sure what was going on. The rental shop person speculated that maybe the lines were a bit two long for me. Has this happened to anyone else? Any ideas as to what was going on? (I'm aware this is the internet and I can't really follow any advice and suggestions, but I'd still like to know if this has happened to anyone else...) *when I was up high, not as I was coming in for a landing. My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

Even I do this. My motive was to keep the tasks fresh in my head, but it does seem to fall into the visualization category. My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

For as long as I can remember, visualization (that is, imagining yourself achieving goal X) had been trotted out as a valuable tool. To what extent do you think this is, in fact, the case? One on hand, it's well known that humans can trick themselves (for good or bad) with self fulfilling prophecies (and while we're at it, placebos.) On the other hand, there has to be limits. For example, even if I took singing lessons 7 days a week and visualized myself as a talented, top billed opera singer... ...I'd be very surprised if I ended up performing at the MET. Or perhaps it's a matter of what you visualize? In the opera singer example, perhaps it would be more helpful visualizing yourself doing the more mundane stuff- skills, auditions etc.. to prep your mind for the practice and work required- instead of, say, picturing yourself performing to a packed audience? What do you think? edited to fix formatting My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

Same here. My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.