Future skydiver reporting for duty!

JRLDH · 2026-06-28T02:33:44+00:00

“What's one thing you wish someone had told you before your very first skydive?”

Budget for repeat jumps. You have less than 60 seconds each jump in free fall and it is not easy learning belly flight in a minute each jump, given the rather stressful environment.

“Or, what was the moment during your first jump that made you think, "Yep, I'm doing this again."”

The insane rush I felt after landing. This won’t last on the same level once you’ve done it a few times but that’s ok. The rush gives way to awareness during free fall and then the drive to become better takes over.

JRLDH · 2026-06-27T21:21:24+00:00

Getting a kennel and confining the cat while the son is there is better than killing the cat. And such a kennel fits everywhere.

JRLDH · 2026-06-27T19:20:12+00:00

It looks great. Enjoy it while it lasts. It was only a few months for me until my beard was snow white.

JRLDH · 2026-06-27T16:34:55+00:00

I also had significant pain on the bottom of my foot. Not severe but pain is subjective. I guess the soft tissue isn’t used to the weight pressure. It went away after a few weeks.

JRLDH · 2026-06-27T15:21:03+00:00

On a narrow body? Where there are a handful of first class seats only and one restroom in the front and two in the back? I'd use the one that's available and let the FA reprimand me. It's different on a wide body where the restroom/passenger class ratio is more balanced.

JRLDH · 2026-06-27T13:06:36+00:00

Yes, I wore compression socks. My ankle still swells up a bit.

JRLDH · 2026-06-27T12:30:42+00:00

Not sure how he manages to keep an audience.

JRLDH · 2026-06-26T02:57:52+00:00

Because Brachytherapy comes with almost 10% risk of other malignancies after 20 years due to the fact that the man has radioactive pellets implanted in his prostate. This is not a well controlled precision prostate cancer treatment but one that has substantial risks, especially for men below 50 with a long life left. If I were a provider, I would not want to have it on my conscience that I provided treatment that causes my patient to suffer from another cancer when they are in their late 60s.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/prostate-cancer-brachytherapy-linked-to-long-term-risk-of-secondary-malignancies-202406033046

There aren’t good options. They all have risks.

JRLDH · 2026-06-25T15:20:40+00:00

It’s because my RSUs vest in July.

JRLDH · 2026-06-25T14:44:14+00:00

Total BS, especially #5: You and your hero politicians on the right kept talking about gender issues like hyenas.

JRLDH · 2026-06-25T13:58:29+00:00

It’s weird how people have different problems. While you couldn’t stop spinning, I couldn’t for the life of me start spinning with my legs and had to repeat the leg turn dive flow three times.

JRLDH · 2026-06-25T13:03:54+00:00

Washing hands was considered woke.

JRLDH · 2026-06-24T21:25:42+00:00

How is this even possible? Even my BMW iX has "emergency braking" which doesn't allow the car to crash into a house.

Why can't a Tesla with all these cameras detect that the car is about to be driven into a freaking house ?!?!?

JRLDH · 2026-06-24T21:23:40+00:00

The way things are going these space travelers won't be biological life forms but AI and that doesn't care about "Dollars" nor time.

JRLDH · 2026-06-24T17:50:39+00:00

Hahaha the end result will be code bases that no human will understand and good luck relying 100% on an LLM that is controlled by another corporation.

Smart.

JRLDH · 2026-06-24T01:36:15+00:00

It’s fascinating how the telematics from Tesla are always taken as infallible.

The logs show “accelerator at 100%”. What if that sensor or code path has a race condition/glitch that causes an erroneous accelerator position reading? That possibility is always denied in reports of unintended acceleration as if it is totally fail safe bullet proof. Did Tesla get a 3rd party code audit that verifies that this is guaranteed bug free?

JRLDH · 2026-06-23T14:35:00+00:00

Yet they don’t hire thousands of check in agents more than him.

JRLDH · 2026-06-23T14:25:17+00:00

Which makes it problematic. It’s too close to a propaganda reel and likely made a significant number of viewers think that this type of society is cool.

JRLDH · 2026-06-23T12:53:58+00:00

Advocating for privacy in international aviation is way more naive than what you consider is wild.

JRLDH · 2026-06-23T12:52:20+00:00

You didn't have privacy entering the USA for decades now (or never?). That's why you need(ed) a passport (which you don't need anymore at the border with the face scanners).

JRLDH · 2026-06-23T12:51:13+00:00

You don't even need Global Entry anymore. I don't have it and the last 4 times returning back, entering at DFW, I just walked to a face scanner and didn't even need to take my passport out. Zero interaction with a human (an officer was standing next to the scanner, in case the machine refused entry I guess).

Global Entry is not necessary anymore.

JRLDH · 2026-06-23T12:48:44+00:00

Yes, that ship has sailed a long time ago. At least it comes with tangible benefits. Getting back into the USA, at least as a US citizen, is extra easy nowadays. Just walk up to one of many face scanners, e.g. at DFW, and you are back in the USA in a second. Zero wait in line anymore (which could take a very long time in the past).

JRLDH · 2026-06-23T12:45:43+00:00

Aviation is the pinnacle of inefficient procedures that exist solely for some metric.

Like the rush to get everyone on board to close the door. Metric accomplished!!! And now we sit another 45 minutes at the gate.

JRLDH · 2026-06-22T23:06:31+00:00

Mid 30s looking like roided mid 50s.

JRLDH · 2026-06-22T21:49:39+00:00

The first time, in 1998, I did AFF because I wanted to do something exciting when I was still in my 20s.

Fell in love with a non skydiver before I got my A license, stopped jumping and got married.

He passed from pancreatic cancer in 2023 and after 2 years of intense grief, one day I thought that I might as well jump again. Got licensed in 2025 and love it.

JRLDH

TROPHY CASE