Little Ancona

Well, Little Ancona surprised her Pop by going sky diving today. My friend Kevin turned fifty today and wanted to celebrate by jumping out of an airplane and my kid decided to join him, since she is now in fact, 18.:flail:

They strapped in and flew to 15,000 feet above Titusville Municipal Airport and jumped. She was pretty stoked when she hit the ground and wants to go back and do it again. i thought it was all pretty cool.

I'll have to try and figure out how to link to or upload the video.

That's awesome Ancona ! I am amazed that a " youngster " would be interested in skydiving; but I'm glad it worked out well. Looks like she has definitely discovered a new fun thing to do

wait till the trial by fire :rotflmbo:

Congrats. I've only jumped static line in the military, but always wanted to jump a ram air chute from up high. My wife and kids never understood how I could be afraid of heights and jump from an airplane. I always tell them jumping from a perfectly good airplane isn't natural whether you're afraid of heights or not, so either way you have to overcome some fear. Whether it ends up being a one time deal or not, it's something she'll never forget. Just remind her though she's still a dirty nasty leg, till a black hat pins on those wings! :grin:

Next comes base jumping. The advantage is you don't have to have to wait so long "to hit the ground".

I have spoiled my kid rotten her whole life, and from an early age, she loved to fly. Her first flight was from Florida to Albuquerque NM, and she loved it. Then came trips on a bi-plane, a sea plane from Key West to the Dry Tortugas, Jets to NYC, Washington DC, Holland, Barbados, and last summer she flew to Europe and traveled the summer throughout the continent. We took a submarine ride in the Caribbean and we've taken helicopter rides in NYC and here in Florida. The kid has done an extreme amount of travel in her life and has burned through two passports. I think it was the best thing I could have ever done for her, since she's now a very outgoing, well spoken and well traveled person. Most people never travel more than 250 miles from their place of birth, and I think that is a tragedy. Most cultural intolerance in the world is borne out of ignorance. She's seen more countries and cultures than 99% of the world gets to experience in their entire lifetime.

Skydiving was just a natural extension of her desire to experience new things.

ancona said:

I have spoiled my kid rotten her whole life, and from an early age, she loved to fly. Her first flight was from Florida to Albuquerque NM, and she loved it. Then came trips on a bi-plane, a sea plane from Key West to the Dry Tortugas, Jets to NYC, Washington DC, Holland, Barbados, and last summer she flew to Europe and traveled the summer throughout the continent. We took a submarine ride in the Caribbean and we've taken helicopter rides in NYC and here in Florida. The kid has done an extreme amount of travel in her life and has burned through two passports. I think it was the best thing I could have ever done for her, since she's now a very outgoing, well spoken and well traveled person. Most people never travel more than 250 miles from their place of birth, and I think that is a tragedy. Most cultural intolerance in the world is borne out of ignorance. She's seen more countries and cultures than 99% of the world gets to experience in their entire lifetime.

Skydiving was just a natural extension of her desire to experience new things.

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that is awesome. My kids have shuffled back and forth between Texas and the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Taipai (one has literally been "around" the world seven times by the time he was ten) And they have a clear understanding of how most of the world lives (hint not the way we live here in the US). My snarky remark above was more reflective of watching the sometimes life-threatening stuff that I see my kids do from time to time, for example running up a vertical wall and doing a backflip.

And kids have a pretty good way of looking at things. I rode for twenty years. About half of my group lost limbs during that time (usually a BTK left leg amputation, thats where the car hits you when it runs the stop-sign). When I told my now 18 year old, no a motorcycle is really too dangerous, he said "but you didn't get hurt".

definition of a true adventure:
something often life threatening but always worth talking about if you survive it.

Risk is an interesting thing. Everyday I get into a car made out of very thin steel and lots of glass and travel around 70 mph while passing tens of thousands of people going in the opposite direction (so our combined closing speeds are 140 mph) hoping that one of us doesn't drift over a yellow line while texting. Sometimes I think sky diving would be safer.

Ancona, your daughter is very lucky to have you raise her the way you did. I've never traveled abroad, and now with the TSA in place I haven't left the state in over 3 years. She must know more about the world than 99%, as you have said. And skydiving it is safer that what most 18 girls are doing...

I wished my parents had done something like that for me before becomming resident of the blue-gloved archipelago.


Maybe we can take up sailing?

Aubuy said:

Risk is an interesting thing. Everyday I get into a car made out of very thin steel and lots of glass and travel around 70 mph while passing tens of thousands of people going in the opposite direction (so our combined closing speeds are 140 mph) hoping that one of us doesn't drift over a yellow line while texting. Sometimes I think sky diving would be safer.

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Aubuy, not being a smart ass. I looked it up out of curiosity:

What are the odds of being in a car accident?:
Answer:
one out of every four people will be in a car accident in their lifetime. Your chances of dying in a car accident are 1 out of every 140 people.

What are odds of being killed skydiving?
Answer:
Student odds run about 2%.

I used to work with an air show. One of their side businesses was teaching skydiving. They quit doing it. Most of the "accidents" turned out not to be truly accidental. Many people who are suicidal figure this is the best tall building they can find to do the deed with, and get a rush on the way down.

They went to altimiter-triggered reserve chutes. On impact, the person had either jiggered that to force it to fail, or simply unharnessed. This was a big enough fraction of the issues they just had to stop doing it. Just FYI. Don't know how it is now.

And yes, there were also some "pure" accidents. If things don't deploy right, you don't have a lot of time to get things untangled, and at first, no experience.

I didn't jump, but not because I am afraid of heights (and it gets worse the older I get). I did other stuff, but I did notice that the further from the ground I was, the less fear I had - it seems sooo far away, you'll learn to fly before getting there.

My son makes a good living out of freestyle moto cross.
I have learned to remain calm and trust in his ability

I have also taken him to hospital a few times and had to take the call from a Spanish Hospital -

hey im ok
whats up ? ( he NEVER phones to tell me he's ok )
Ive broken my back ...........
I can move and feel my toes though. ( he couldnt )

Was back on his bike in 12 weeks and won a national comp 2 weeks later.

He deals with risk differently to most but as a Parent it can be difficult to back off and let em follow their destiny.

rblong2us said:

My son makes a good living out of freestyle moto cross.
I have learned to remain calm and trust in his ability

I have also taken him to hospital a few times and had to take the call from a Spanish Hospital -

hey im ok
whats up ? ( he NEVER phones to tell me he's ok )
Ive broken my back ...........
I can move and feel my toes though. ( he couldnt )

Was back on his bike in 12 weeks and won a national comp 2 weeks later.

He deals with risk differently to most but as a Parent it can be difficult to back off and let em follow their destiny.

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yep, RapRap had his leg broken in nine places and turned around backwards at the high school basketball game. Each of my kids has had some "terrible" injury so far... I just tell them you better NEVER let me see you do that....

My kid has been incredibly lucky in her life so far. The worst injury to date was a bad sprain while jumping a horse. she used to show horses, but turned to barrel racing because she said "It's a lot safer". The first competition I went to I had to leave the arena several times because I was certain someone was going to be killed. Now, she rides horses, but doesn't jump or race. When she's on the back of a 1,000 pound animal that can and will decide to do something you have not asked it to do, you have to be ready to deal with it instantaneously. I've watched her on Sergeant, a 12 year old gelding, when he decided he was simply too hot and was going swimming. It was hilarious. I swear that horse was half Labrador retriever. He could, and frequently did, go off in to the lake and swim to the other side. I've never seen another horse like him. He could also manipulate the drop latch on the gate to his stall, get out and walk over to another horses stall while they were in the paddock to steal their oats.

She still rides occasionally, but after ten years we opted not to renew our membership at the stable she belonged to because she wasn't riding enough to justify the expense. Now, she rides her girlfriends horses or does without.

I just realized that these posts make me look like a fucking elitist douche-bag, so I would like to clarify how we have been able to travel the world, afford horses and stables, etc.

While I am in an executive position, I most assuredly do not make a shitload of money. I am comfortable, but that's it. I can travel freely because I purchase nearly everything for my firm using my credit card, which gives me miles for all the money I spend. Last year for instance, we charged over 90,000 dollars just in various types of fuel and oil. I purchased 422,00 [plus] in materials and rented over 200,000 worth of equipment over the entire year. That's why I can fly around the world and stay in nice hotels, because it is all comped. In addition to that, as chief estimator and corporate manager, I have very good negotiating skills as well. Having a federal government ID gets me room rates at hotels that no one else could ever negotiate. Most chains have agreements with the government that wrap their .gov rates around whatever the GSA schedule allows on per-diem. This means I can stay in a four star hotel for as little as $119 a night. When we went to Amsterdam, I not only got a suite for the price of a regular room, I only paid 132 Euro per night and the flight was at a 35% discount.

ancona said:

I just realized that these posts make me look like a fucking elitist douche-bag, so I would like to clarify how we have been able to travel the world, afford horses and stables, etc.

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I never thought that. I take you to be extremely intelligent. I have NEVER made over 15.50 an hour in my life (I'm 54) and have been ALL over the world and done many, many exciting things. You just have to be an opportunist. But I've only ridden a horse a couple of times.