brokenwing

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Everything posted by brokenwing

  1. listen to the smart woman's advice Jump -- it's supposed to be fun
  2. 1500? 1000 i am a bit confused -- how is this a problem?
  3. unlike many other endeavors; you will never lose your girlfriend in skydiving only your turn
  4. i got down there in 1980 and heard the same story -- never saw the front page article though Mr. Douglas was a great airplane!!!!! Kevin: are you at KSC??? i'm up at HQ
  5. first jump 1970 last jump 1984 reasons -- multiple ranging from time available, distance to a dropzone (i had been spoiled for years when one was within 20 minutes) and other expenses. thought about getting back when i discovered -- the hard way -- that i was privileged to be born with a brain aneurysm anyone know of someone that started back following a rupture??? its been about 8 years and no apparent effects but every doctor i mention it to gets this glazed freaky look in their face but then it may just be their nature.
  6. I was 16 at the time i wanted to start and it required their signature on a waiver. They declined and during the course of the following year i became overwhelming polite -- they signed and i made my first jump in April 1970. Found out later that they both thought i would make 1 jump; get scared and quit. Subsequently, they simply considered me crazy and left me alone -- worked out well for both parties.
  7. mine is hanging up as a display -- stratoflyer still inside might even have the original manual for it dont have any of those memory pills but i believe they were R-3 (Rodriguez sp???) they did work the 1 time i used em
  8. but who has stories/memories of "The Circle of Fear"
  9. skyjumps????????????? with a parachute????? for real????? guess i have been away too long
  10. on a side note/question anyone ever hear about someone jumping following a ruptured brain aneurysm (coiling procedure performed)?
  11. i got one back in late 70s (main not the reserve -- yea was one of those that paid to do test jumping prior to snyder coming out with it as a reserve -- even got one of those fancy belts he sent along with each purchase). loved every jump on it back then -- but i was like 145lb back then first few jumps didnt have the side winglets/stabilizers on -- handled better after worst thing was those huge knots used on the cascade for the steering lines still have both at home -- belt & canopy
  12. I still have 2 of em packed away in like new condition
  13. 17 didnt beg rents but was ever so extremely polite they signed 1970 was still senior in hs
  14. was 17 still in high school little place outside of palmyra/hershey (sp??) PA May 1970 was almost a night jump as it was a bit past official sunset
  15. unless that life jacket had some unique qualities by which it could dissapate the energy i believe that one would experience first hand some degree of a comprehensive anatomy lesson -- depending on the life jacket design some may be contained and hidden from immediate view.
  16. On one of my jumps i reached 67mph vertical in a flat track without wingsuit or anything like that (I'm 115 lbs Angelic). Have a look at the freefall graph that I've got off my Altitrack. I'm guessing that I can do a lot better, if I held it longer reaching the new terminal. Also, it was one of my early tracking attemps (jump #39 starting with S/L), and I was in a nylon rw suit. I think that you are compressing a two dimensional environment into a one dimensional solution. recall that at your altitude you have acquired potential energy approximating PE = mgh. For simplicity just keep it at a height above the ground. Also lets ignore the parabolic path on exit and just assume you went straight into your track -- the potential energy is converted into kinetic energy -- in order to achieve your forward speed of the track but you STILL have the (essentially leaving out drag losses...) TOTAL energy -- it is just now comprised of two vectors now -- one horizontal and one vertical. When you intersect that horizontal plane it will be at an angle off orthoganal but total vector (rectangle rule) will still have the energy which needs dissapated. btw: when i first started i was 6' and 145lb and with the wings around during the 70s i could haul butt across the sky -- admittedly not always in the best of control -- but hey i had fun!!!
  17. my humble take: cessna focus -- well mostly made first jump in May 1970 and dont think the cessnas used had doors until around 1972 -- TSO and stuff. my guess on reasons -- first the climb performance -- ours was a small non-commercial club and jumps were cheap so anything that helped keep costs down and besides the a/c owner was one hell of a guy -- he bought beer ALOT!!!!!! second -- any of you ever jump during the winter in those less fortunate northern states might appreciate what 3 degrees per thousand feet means especially when it is below freezing on the ground. jumped in deland while at school and Mr. Douglas never had a door neither did a twin otter. anyone know if Mr. Douglas is still flying>????
  18. DeWolf's helmet leaves strands of gray hair fanned out in different directions on his head. A few cracked veins rest on his nose and his back hunches slightly when he noodles his thin frame out of the parachute suit. damn!!!!! Dave hasnt changed at all -- he looked like that when i first met him somewhere around 36 years ago.
  19. admitting that i have rather limited experience -- those souls that i have seen attempting to intersect with the earth without the benefit of an open parachute have made a rather sizable dent and finished their excursion a few feet away. as for landing in water -- anything over say about 30 mph and water becomes VERY incompressible -- i wasnt there but back around 1981 at a lake in central florida a person demonstrated this -- rumor had it that disassembly resulted. question that statement about a flat track slowing down rate of descent -- anyone got the math model on that?
  20. forget now what jump # it was but on my first 20 sec delay (way back around 1970) i saw this thing coming straight for me in freefall. was the darndest thing teeth bared, wings out, diving right at me -- an uglier meaner creature one could never expect to see was Bo Alexander who followed me out the door
  21. hey wartload you started jumping same time as i did -- my sr year of hs you up in northern virginia? i am out west end of alexandria
  22. Frank: you got a Flying Dutchman patch????? i started back there in May 1970 -- well actually over in Palmyra as 222D was grounded at the time. i do have one of the club jackets packed away somewhere
  23. I had always thought it was Hugh Bergeron that first done the short line mod. He also removed the data panel and enlarged some of the steering slots. Hugh was a NASA employee down at Langley. Think he had jumped at the local DZ West Point.
  24. would really like to find a neurosurgeon that can give me some accurate medical advise concerning returning to jumping following a ruptured brain aneurysm -- something other than a baseless i wouldnt recommend it
  25. long time ago -- might have been the second summer after starting to jump -- i wandered into a hanger of a small dropzone in PA and there was this short round bearded lil guy -- working diligently with a hammer and chisel -- removing a cast from his leg -- seems a bit of pea gravel got inside and was irrating as all hell -- twas none other than joe smith and yes as a matter of fact -- i bought most of my gear from him -- in fact my lil sister went to work for him (early 80s) -- but then she was a Navy rigger. hello dave -- long time no see