ZigZagMarquis

I must, I must, I must increase my bust! By the way, it's a sham! Ah yes, the good ol' days when if you saw a big pair of boobs you knew they were real.

Congrats to you!

Confused... how was it looking at your altimeter told you that you were headed toward town and not towards the DZ? Wasn't it the "looking at town" that told you that??

I used to camp and hike a lot more "back in the day" and never botherd much with coolers and ice for that reason (too much of a pain to keep perisable stuff cold) and too much of a pain hiking with a cooler full of ice... Anyway... what's the matter with MREs? I wish when I was back in the Boy Scouts MREs were more readily available. K-Rats, C-Rats and those freeze dried food-stuffs available to hikers back then left a lot to be desired. I suppose with all of today's technology being able to plan, pack and prepare good & palitable food while in the wilderness is becoming a lost art... just open a bag & pass the Tabasco.

And good, bad, right, wrong, agree or disagree the reality is no one is ever going to pay you for video (or not for long) if what they get is... "Exit, Altimeter, Formation, Altimeter, Formation, Formation, Altimeter, Formation, Formation, Formation, Altimeter, Altimeter... etc."

I've known more than one "old time jumper" that didn't wear a visual altimeter. Good, bad, right or wrong, agree or disagree, remember when they learned, many places didn't even give students altimeters until they got up to like 20 or 30 second delays. Look at many of the professional 4-Way teams. Some wear their visual altimeters on their hip. Do you think they're looking at their own altimeter? I doubt it. If anything, their looking at the altimeter one of their teammates is wearing. The ol' advise of not becoming "Dytter Dependant" is, in some ways, a theory vs. reality thing in the sport. In theory, folks preach not to become Dytter Dependant, but in reality, many folks quicking do. I'll admit, I look at my wrist mount a whole lot more on the ride up than I do in freefall. In freefall, I'm concentrating on the skydive and will look at others altimeters and/or react to the 1st and 2nd warnings set on my Dytter (5500' and 4500'). Things going particularly badly or whatever, yeah, I'll check my own wristmount, but I'd have to admit this is infrequent. Sometimes too, its just a glance at the ground, but that's usually more of a "hows the spot going thing" if I'm thinking we're hosed. After breakoff, I'm strictly on visual cues, tracking like my life depends on it (because it does), evaluating separation, time and neither Dytter nor wrist mount dependant. Pack opening by 2K... that's my story and I'm sticking to it. After getting open, dealing with the slider, unstowing the breaks, dealing with traffic, turning towards the DZ, etc. etc., somewhere in there I'll glance at my wrist mount to keep myself honest on where I got saddled. I've also got the oh-shit I'm going to die warning on my Dytter set at 2K to keep me further honest.

So, do you punnish the boy, the parents, both? ------------------- Story Highlights: - "He admitted playing with matches and starting the fire," says police report - The Boy, whose name and age were not given, is home with his parents - Buckweed Fire burned 38,000 acres, destroyed 63 structures, 21 of them homes LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A boy playing with matches started a Southern California wildfire that scorched more than 38,000 acres, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday. The Buckweed Fire, which destroyed 21 homes on its rampage, began October 21 in the Agua Dulce community. "Our arson explosive detectives, in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Fire Department investigators, immediately began their investigation, and during the course of the investigation, it led to a juvenile suspect," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Tony Moore told CNN's "American Morning" Wednesday. "After talking with that juvenile, he admitted to playing with matches, and accidentally starting the fire in that area," he said. Watch what's next for young suspect » The boy, whose name and age were not given, is home with his parents, police said. The case will be presented to the Los Angeles County district attorney for possible charges. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Buckweed Fire burned 38,526 acres. Sixty-three structures, 21 of them homes, were destroyed, and three civilians and two firefighters were injured. The sheriff's department said the fire forced the evacuation of about 15,000 people. As of Tuesday, 18 of 23 wildfires in Southern California were completely under control, and the remainder were at least 70 percent contained, according to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The fires are blamed for 14 deaths and charred more than 508,000 acres, destroying about 1,600 homes. Five people were arrested in arson probes last week, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Saturday vowed to "hunt down" people responsible for setting wildfires. Authorities said Saturday they were following 1,700 tips about a white Ford F-150 pickup seen near the origin of the sprawling Santiago Fire in Orange County. Witnesses reported seeing the 1998-2004 model truck with chrome tubular running boards on Santiago Canyon Road on October 21 at about the time the Santiago Fire started. Authorities said last week they had found evidence at the scene, although they declined to describe it. "If I were one of the people who started the fires, I would not sleep soundly right now, because we're right behind you," Schwarzenegger said, urging the culprits to turn themselves in.

Yeah, which reminds me, remember when you used to be able to try to explain to a whuffo what skydiving was like by saying, "Its an E-ticket ride!" Try that with the youngin's these days and they give you the "I don't know what you're talkin' about there gramps (or mama)" look.

How would one dress up as "Skyride" for Halloween...

... I noted at least one Blast Handle on the rig in the orig pic too...

I do mean this, but I don't mean it to be a slam... has Dan since gotten better at the "Writting a good index" aspect of Publishing (a document)? I mean, the 2 Poynter's manuals are great. Lots and lots of good information in both... but its &&^%#%ing impossible sometimes to find things YOU KNOW are in there... I'VE SEEN IT HERE BEFORE... WHERE THE &^%# WAS IT!!??

Oh, that picture just looks like its about to hurt! I'm glad those days were "before my time" and I've only had the pleasure of listening to the stories of jumping stuff like that from a bunch of ol' grey hairs around here... To steal a phrase, seems like after an opening like that you'd have to check to see if you were safely under your reserve or if you had just hit the ground... probably would feel about the same... Anyway... I wonder if they got that picture on the first take? Can you imagine the camera man trying to get that jumper to go do it again after finding out the first try didn't come out?

I believe they'll keep these ships white. Especially the SkyVan and Gypsey Rose. They need that for Hollywood. ltdiver Ah! Latex Paint and viola! You can have an Otter... or Skyvan... or DC9... or Porter is painted any color you want in no time! When you're done with the movie shoot... a power washer is all you need and your aircraft is back to its original colors.

The rumor mill had it... that Perris is still waiting for the Porter (or Porters... 1 for flyin'... 1 for parts) to be shipped into the country. Somehow I was imagining a big "model kit" looking box from Monogram with a picture of a Porter on the side... Scale 1:1... other rumors placed it as having already arrived and was in the hangar "in work"... Anyway, it will be cool when ever it gets there and they get it up and flying. Also, seeing as how Perris has this whole "fish" thing going (sort of) with their aircraft... Shark Air... Super Blue (the other Otter with a shark painted on it, that's blue, and not Shark Air)... wonder what they could paint on the SkyVan, Gypsy Rose, the Porter AND the DC9 to continue the theme?

True... but around the big DZs, the paker maffia is pretty strong... try to horn in on their action, and ya wake up sleepin' with the fishes...

6) Move to Perris, live in the Ghetto, sweep up around the place, scrub toilets, drive the bad-spot truck, polish the fan blades at the tunnel, beg for spare change outside the Bombshelter, etc., 5 days a week, jump the other 2.

Hmmmm... probably not much help here, but a few things that came to my mind when reading your post... 1) If you're of retirement age, then starting out then as a Tandem Master isn't what I'd advise... increased potential for injury. 2) Being a vidiot may be a better choice, but as you say, the downside there is learning the in's and out's and buying the stuff you'll need. 3) Buying your own health insurance post retirement... best not put down that you're a jumper on the stacks of application forms I'm sure you'll be filling out. 4) I see you're got your rigger's ticket, but just for chest mounts? Why don't you add-on a Back and Seat ratting and think about rigging as a supplement to your retirement income to feed your skydiving habbit? 5) There aren't any single female DZO's up your way you could woo?

Well... it didn't seem like the smoke effected Perris or the local hotels this past weekend; other than the strong smell & taste of smoke while in freefall... although it was a bit "slow" for a weekend at Perris... maybe because folks or their families were evacuated was what folks were guessing... the overcast and rain sprinkles that rolled in Saturday afternoon was great for the fire fighters I'm sure, but hurt like hell to freefall through... pointy end of the rain-drop and all... Sunday was perfect.

Ya know... you may be onto somthing... but not axel grease... but all the oil coming off those big radials!!??!

Re "Bird 5" pic... ... I thought Al was missing his left arm, is the picture printed backwards or am I having troubles remembering my left from right, again...

Do a search on "Al Kreuger"... "Captain Hook"... and/or "Sky Pirates"...

Isn't the world record for a 10-way speed star like 6 seconds AND was done out of a small door Beech? Most of folk who have been jumping for 20 years or less have NO CLUE how to get a bunch of people out of a small door on a Beech or DC-3 quickly.

This is an age-old... pun intended... discussion around DZ.com, that can get pretty heated at times. Things can differ mfgr to mfgr, country to country and "opinion" to "opinion" regarding this topic... one example, I've heard it said here, "I'd refuse to pack anthing over 10 years old if its been jumped in the desert those past 10 years"... as you can imagine, things like that can spark some "energenic" discussions... I'd suggest you do some searches on "old gear" and things like "air worthy" or "life limits"... I'm sure there are many other catch phrases one could search on too. After finding some other, related, threads, I'm sure you'll get the picture. I'm sure others will come along with lots of gems of wisdom and information. Enjoy!

Yeah. I didn't mean to push them. At best, I've heard they're "so-so"... no pun intended... I've never seen one of the Harbor Freight / Chicago Tool ones in person (would want to before buying), but I figured they were a knock-off of a Singer 2491D-300A, or something about like that. If you go to eBay, these guys... http://sewinggold.com/Index.html ... almost always have several on auction at any given time.

One thing I keep meaning to do is go around my home town and make note of all the "seamstress", "tayloring" and "embrodery" shops around town. Seems to me from time to time someone gets the great idea to start up a hobby business along these lines, only to go out of business after a brief period... might be a good place to pick-up some "gotta sell em now to pay the back rent" sewing machines.