Military?
Parachute jumping and hot air baloon are things I have no desire to try 
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No, totally civilian. My older sister got me a tandem jump and got me hooked. I realized quickly that I wanted to fly the jumpship more than I wanted to jump… 
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I can tell you that doing backflips out of a hot air balloon basket is a lot of fun, if you can go early in the morning when the air is cool and convince the balloon pilot to get extra altitude. An old crusty Phantom pilot driving the pick up (getaway) vehicle is a plus.
My brother getting ready to launch 
Looking for more photos.
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Sis got to jump out of one and she said it was the only jump where she felt she was actually jumping off something. From a plane it’s more like being tossed.
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I always wanted to have just one go at parachuting but I wasn’t allowed in the army due to a skull fracture and the doc wouldn’t risk it and otherwise haven’t had the opportunity.
Closest I’ve come I guess, is abseiling, which I absolutely loved doing - down cliffs or from autobahn bridges. Oh - and the odd ski jump when a little intoxicated - that really is an experience!
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I have only been up in a ballon once, but always wanted to do that.
90% of my jumps were 'Stand up. ‘Hook up’ and out the side door. It really sucked to be a big guy with the T-10 though.
One of the guys I knew. 190cm and 120kg of muscle (plus all your kit) - Always the last to exit in his stick but the first to hit the ground… and I do mean ‘hit’.
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That’s how we were taught, and were pretty much drownproof by the time we were were 8 or 9 (and probably why all four of us were lifeguards at various points).
I’ve been teaching the 6 year old about the tides and currents, and explaining how the waves work (as best as one can) to the 3 year old. We’re still a ways away from fully grasping the true power of the ocean, especially the 3 year old with her complete and utter lack of fear of anything that could/ would kill her (maybe a result of having already been dead once for a little while). Either way, it means watching them both like a hawk; I’m much, much more comfortable in the surf than their mom is anyway, so having to alternate who I’m going out with has been a challenge. Also it’s pretty obvious I need to get them to the beaches much more frequently- but that’s a whole other challenge.
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I did five descents out of a tethered gas balloon. Dubious that there was time to deploy the reserve if the main failed.
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One of my uncles served as an airborne ranger. He was migthily impressed when I told him I jumped from at least 1000m.
”Oh! I’ve never jumped from more than 100 meters!” 
He was a badass! Smallest and the youngest of his brothers, but the others never dared him in a fight, or anything else for that matter!
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Nice!
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That sounds sporty I would agree that the riggers time was probably wasted packing the reserves 
I’m assuming static line main deployment?
Hence my preface about asking the balloon pilot for an early morning ride to altitude. In our case we were out in the desert near Parris, California and luckily got to 6000 ft, which I’m told is rare in a balloon jump. We may have had to bribe him. My girlfriend and I did back flips from each side of the basket, flew together for a freefall kiss, then turned, tracked away, and deployed our mains. I was over a typical suburban subdivision and she a little luckier over an adjacent field. I landed in a large backyard and let myself out a side gate before the homeowner was aware. My dad (retired Phantom pilot) was driving our rental car and I was worried that he would lose track of us, since the balloon basically goes where the wind blows.
But the old dude met me at the end of the driveway with a big SE grin on his face. I jumped in the backseat with my canopy and then we drove only about 100 yds to pick up my girlfriend. Why did I land it the backyard? Because my goggles were slightly askew and my contacts blew out during freefall. The sun was not completely up and I was having a hard time making out the landing area. Only time that it happened on roughly 450 jumps.
@Troll’s sis is correct about the falling sensation of balloon jumps. In a normal aircraft exit, you present yourself to the relative wind, which is almost always at over 100 mph. From memory, average terminal velocity is between 110-120 mph, or 1000 ft every 6 seconds. So, you exit the aircraft and put your body on the relative wind at around terminal velocity, there isn’t much sensation of falling. It feels more like you are lying on a cushion of air. You are more vertical than horizontal and can start flying as soon as you leave the aircraft. If you exit with a few of your best friends doing relative work (RW) or formation skydiving, you are holding on to each other and break grips to change the formation. One big chunk. Good 4-way or even 8-way teams can turn 3 or 4 points before there bellies are facing the ground.
Balloon jumps are unique in that unless the burner is lit, they are usually very quiet. No turboprop engine or wind noise. You hear the basket creaking, but that’s about it. Then you really feel your body accelerate up to terminal velocity.
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A work colleague of mine did that when he was in the TA Paras, he said that where he did his first jump there was a full jar of pound coins in the balloon…
The challenge was for the recruit to be… ahem, upstanding shall we say, before the jump. This was in the days before pfizer blue pills.
Suffice to say, nobody won it.
My better half did a tandem jump from 19.5k when we were in NZ, I bottled it. She found it so terrifying she slept for 3 hours whilst I drove up the coast.
Jumping out of a plane more than once, that is not on fire…. You lot must be hardcore/nuts/both. 
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The second is the worst. You have nothing to prove.
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A good few more than my 175, most of which were paid for by the Queen. I have needed oxygen for a few of them as we did a course in the south of France.
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Only 34 for me but funny enough, it was technically Her Majesty that ‘paid’ for all my parachute training as well…
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Trying out the new (2nd hand) camera around the property… I will have a fiddle with the RAW files, but for now these are .jpg’s straight off the camera:
It has been a very dry Winter but this is the view from one of our paddocks:
and one of the locals:
Our Rooster. They say that Chickens are the closest living relatives to dinosaurs. And with this creature I would believe it.
More velociraptor than bird and don’t be fooled by the sheen, his feathers are as black as his soul!
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Stunning…. Looks like you could do with some of our rain and us some of your sun.
The hay is still uncut and touch and go for a long enough window to dry it.
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Fantastic!!!
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Okay, so after a whole lot of this kinda thing-
I ended up with couple I’m kinda happy with (mainly happy that the birds are clear, and not the power lines).
Still having trouble with the autofocus, wondering if anyone has familarity with canons and might be able to offer a beginner some tips.
When I first read about ‘focus points’, I assumed the problem was that for whatever reason, the camera was picking the wrong point to focus on. I figured I’d found the problem, and that once I set the camera to just have one ‘dot’ I wanted to be the focus point things would get better.
Feel like it’s not really helping; wondering what else I could be doing wrong. At maximum zoom (in this case 300), is it possible I’m moving the camera more than I realize? Maybe I should try and rest it on something? I could swear I’ve got what I want on the dot, but it still feels like half the time everything except what I want to be in focus is in focus.
For example with this one, seems like the feeder ledge the little guy is on is in focus but not him.
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Could you use autofocus, then manually correct? You are tantalisingly close to some really great shots there.
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