winsor

First grab at silver was from a pilot chute in the burble. I got a handful of boogie tags, which impeded my pull. When I looked to deliberately pull with nothing in the way, I dipped a shoulder and the main opened at just under 2,000'. IIRC, I said "wow!" and went up for another jump. I keep my handles completely in the clear these days. First reserve ride was when I couldn't find a deployment handle. Tried twice and went straight for silver. 26' conical at like 1,900 feet. I was too busy using my rusty round accuracy skills to put it into a big, open area to dwell on it much. I think my reaction was pretty much "cool!" I dropped the rig off for a repack, grabbed my other rig manifested for another load. First malfunction with a cutaway was a tension knot on dacron lines. I took a look at whatever was causing my turn, decided to go to Plan B, grabbed one handle per hand and fired the reserve when the main cleared. Under a square this time at well over 2,500 feet (I was jumping camera), and I used a spare rig for the rest of the day. All in all, the only reserve ride that was at all dramatic was one where I had a steering line hung up on my altimeter/left hand. I had a nasty landing, hurt my right foot, and jumped my spare rig for the rest of the weekend. Freaked out? Not really. There have been a couple of times that I was VERY UNHAPPY, but in general it was pretty straightforward. Blue skies, Winsor

Every couple of years there is a big to-do about some new and more sinister drug that is unlike anything that came before. Crack, basically a trademarked process to produce good old freebase cocaine, is no different. I am not saying that any of it is good for you. I am saying that, regardless of it's perceived badness, it is not WORSE in the long run than booze and tobacco. As with alcohol, the cure (prohibition/stupid drug laws) is worse than the disease, dreadful though that may be. Regardless of the relative legality, I don't touch any of it. I am officially on the sidelines. Blue skies, Winsor

A) If it isn't worse than tobacco or alcohol, legalize it. B) NOTHING is worse than tobacco or alcohol. Could you explain how Nothing is worse then tobacco and alcohol. I don't quite understand how that is true. As far as addictions go, there is little to hold a candle to either of our socially acceptable recreational drugs. As far as the modes by which the two kill, they have to be among the nastiest ways to die I have witnessed. Destroying the brain, liver and sundry other systems in the case of alcohol, and destroying the lungs and other organs to which cancer has metasticized in the case of tobacco is about as bad as it gets. Alcohol gets high marks for its capacity to ruin one's life - marriages, families in general, jobs, freedom, etc. - and results in a phenomenal rate of crippling injury and death from incidents as the result of diminished capacity. Compared to alcohol, heroin is like a gift from God (though it sucks out loud in its own right). Blue skies, Winsor

A) If it isn't worse than tobacco or alcohol, legalize it. B) NOTHING is worse than tobacco or alcohol.

LSD is active in minute quantities, so it is a bitch to dose accurately, and a variety of approaches have been taken over the years. A "standard dose" in the bad old days was 250 mikes, so a "four way" hit was 1 milligram. Put another way, a small matchhead of pute LSD 25 is sufficient to put a platoon out of commission for 12 hours. One of the first approaches was to prepare a standard solution (with dye, so it was identifiable) and apply a drop containing 250 mikes or thereabouts to a sugar cube, thus making it manageable. Later on, a standard solution was applied to absorbent paper, making "blotter" acid. An approach that became common by the '70s was to prepare LSD with gelatine, which then could be dried into a thin sheet of uniform thickness and cut into small pieces. A gram of LSD 25 could then be split up into 4,000 (more or less, depending upon the whim of the manufacturer) thin, translucent rectangular pieces of gelatine with a standardized potency. This was, of course, what is known as "windowpane" acid. As I understand, it it still around, but blotter is more common and tablets are relatively rare. Blue skies, Winsor

I used to jump with Hells Angels from the Trois Rivieres Chapter at Farnham, PQ. One guy had his colors on the bottom of his canopy - VERY professionally done. I have known Angels (and a variety of other outlaw bikers) over the years, but have had no urge to wear colors (though the offer has been made). For one thing, I'll be damned if I'll be anybody's prospect. For another, the pack mentality is a little too similar to the herd mentality for my taste. I have had a Hog for decades; my Hardtail Wide-Glide Shovelhead cannot be confused with a yuppie bike. If I'm in Darth Vader leathers or wearing denim and sneakers is my choice - I really couldn't care less what wannabes think. None of my biker trash pals have ever given me shit for my choice of riding apparel; if anything they have found it amusing. Just because you don't like outlaw bikers, you shouldn't underestimate them. There are a few ringers amongst them. Blue skies, Winsor

I had to dodge some kind of hawk/eagle after opening under my FX99. I just missed nailing it with my canopy, and it did some very startled-looking aerobatics as I whooshed past. I'm not sure how my canopy would have flown with a big, weirded-out bird being part of its planform, and I'm glad I didn't have to find out. Blue skies, Winsor

Just for fun, this is my take on the subject from about 8 years ago on wreckdot ---------------------------------------------------- How to deal with the butterflies when jumping? If you're a real American, the answer should be glaringly obvious. Drugs. "Compoz - that little gentle blue pill," as I recall, is good for situations ranging from asking for a raise to facing a firing squad. Quaaludes would be good if they didn't lower your odds of finding a given handle to roughly 50%. Avoid the goofballs in general. Acid can either have you freaked out by the garish jumpsuit colors, or too into groundrush to pull ("the people look like ants - no, those are ants - far out!"). Bad choice. Marijuana is too disorienting for novice users, but should be good for dyed in the wool (baa) stoners. Do a few bongs before the jump, and you'll be too busy wolfing down SuzyQ's and Twinkies on the ride to altitude to worry about the jump. Short term memory loss makes getting off Level 1 tough, though: "You want to post dive that last jump while it's still fresh?" "Jump? What jump?" Narcotics do a good job at changing the relative meaning of dying, but nodding off at pull time is a problem. Demerol seems like a good choice for skygods who just might not pull off that next hook turn. If you're likely to break every bone in your body, being chock full of painkillers to begin with seems like a wise prophylactic measure. Opiates don't impair the coordination of experienced users, but they appear damned near as addictive as tobacco, so watch it! Cocaine seems to be popular with some of the more flamboyant members of the community, but I'm not sure it's the way to go. Stuff's nearly as expensive as skydiving, according to what I hear. The traditional approach is, of course, liquid courage. You'll hear people singing out the quantity of barley pop necessary to perform a given feat for the first time - typically "case of beer!" You wonder how folks summon the nerve to do most of the careening around the sky you see at any boogie? Easy! They're shitfac*d! With the level of alcoholism in the sport, there are a few people one should not jump with if they don't have booze on their breath, since they have Gold Wings but less than enough for an A-License sober, and DT's interfere with their performance. If you're into natural mind-bending chemicals, testosterone has kept the Airborne in business for 60 some-odd years (hey, it worked for me). For those in the audience who want to do it the hard way (after all, reality IS nothing but a crutch for people who can't handle drugs), the way to deal with anxiety is intense drill. Becoming one with the kinesthetics of the experience makes the mechanics comfortable and obvious. Like a kata prepares the student to instantly react to the demands of sparring, intensive practice and preparation make each step of the jump familiar and deliberate. The way to get to the door with confidence is the same as the directions to Carnagie Hall: practice! Going through every step in the jump until there is no doubt at any time what proper procedure is will ensure success, and confidence will follow. Be assured that if you KNOW and FOLLOW procedures, your safety is as close to guaranteed as anything in this life.

I hate to break it to you, but the hardest drug out there is alcohol. Ask a coroner how they can tell if someone was addicted to alcohol or narcotics. They have to do a tox screen on the narcotic addict (assuming they weren't punching holes in themselves, and a lot of addicts avoid needles), but the drunk will show effects on the organs that are visible across the room. Have you ever heard of "wet-brain?" There is no narcotic equivalent, but with good old alcohol it is a reality. Removing the intoxicant from the scene in the case of substances you appear to consider "hard drugs" can result in full recovery if someone lives an otherwise healthy lifestyle. With alcohol the damage is very often permanent and debilitating. Nicotine is a nastier addiction to break than narcotics. A narcotic jones makes one feel lousy, but a nicotine jones makes one feel truly evil. People who have been addicted to both report more trouble giving up Marlboros than Heroin (for real). I don't recommend (or take) any of it, but for someone who drinks to criticize ANY drug is a truly uninformed standpoint. If you think drugs are bad (you may well be right), you would do well to avoid alcohol and tobacco like the plague. They are without a doubt the worst of the lot. Blue skies, Winsor

E) None of the above.

I don't mean to be a spoilsport, but do you drink? Of all the drugs you could do, booze pins the "bad" meter. It has a lethal dose, is physically addictive (and can result in fatal convulsions during withdrawal), results in chronic physical damage if used in excess (much beyond the prophylactic glass of wine a day), throws a wrench in the works where coordination and judgment are concerned, and generally leaves a lot to be desired. People who smoke cigarettes have been more of a threat to me historically than people who snort cocaine, so far as I can tell. Having a heavy smoker on a big way getting hypoxic and taking out the base constitutes a near-death experience. Don't get me wrong, I'm not recommending one take much of anything psychoactive when skydiving or doing much else. I stick with OTC pain killers and eschew such things as antihistamines that interfere with operating machinery, etc., as a matter of course. However, as far as illegal drugs go my major concern is that if someone does something stupid and requires the services of a coroner, it is best that they show up clean of anything that could be construed as contributing to their demise. People have been known to do enough dumb things without benefit of intoxicants that hoping that they will somehow behave themselves better when they couldn't pass a drug screen is an exercise in futility. I have known enough World Champion class skydivers who were reputed to indulge in Illegal Substance A, B and/or C, but that they had the good taste to keep it out of my face. Booze and dope are bad for you - that's a given. About the only drugs worse than ethanol from a skydiving perspective are depressants and tranquilizers, such as barbiturates, methylqualone, the cyclidines, any of the Thorazine, Librium, Valium family, and maybe Xanax. If a high dose of something is likely to leave you in a drooling stupor, you should likely avoid doing any of it before jumping. Should DZs crack down on drug use (and I include alcohol)? Being a narc is a full-time job, and very few DZOs of my acquaintance have enough resources to spare to take on that task. A public and enforced policy whereby jumpers and staff are grounded for reported consumption substances that affect coordination - to include Rumple Minz and Benadryl - would be as much as I would expect from any DZ. I wish the pivotal concept was that of responsibility, but it's more about exposure to liability these days. Blue skies, Winsor

If you want to stay clear of cigarettes, go light on the beer. Alcohol triggers the craving for nicotine and lowers your inhibitions. You may be weeks past the last urge and think you're in the clear, but after a few beers a cigarette seems to grow out of your hand. Marlboros are a nastier jones than narcotics, so don't get complacent. Good luck. Blue skies, Winsor

What about them? They're dead. People die in this world. Iraqi's were dying by Saddam's hand, by the Iranians, and because of internal ethinic conflict and anti Saddam resistance. Some Marines, soldiers, sailors, coasties, merchant marines, and airmen would have died during traning accidents, in accidents on leave, and due to foul play. What if they had found WMD? What about the dead ones then? If you want to find WMD, I suggest you look at North Dakota, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas and New Mexico for starts. If possessing WMD is a legitimate basis for a preemptive strike, we're in deep kimchee. Blue skies, Winsor

Howabout we say that the Iraqi's have a better chance of being free. The intellegence was wrong, and because of that we were wrong to go to war and we should admit that. I supported the war, and without the hindsight, I still do. Now we have to ensure that the Iraqi's get the best chance possible at a happy, healthy and stable existance. Something they've never had. We should ensure that Iraq has the opportunity to have a stable, democratically elected government like the other Middle Eastern countries such as, uh, Paki... no, that was a coup, Saud... no, that's a kingdom, Iran... no, I'm not sure quite what the hell that is, uh, Bah... nope, Yem... nope, uh, damn. I'm sure there has to be one. Wait a minute, Iraq can be the paradigm of Truth, Justice and the American Way in the Middle East! All they have to do is stop blowing up everything in sight, hacking people's heads off and they can live in the suburbs and drive SUVs! It's all pretty obvious, I mean, who wouldn't want that? We must be right about this, since I think we have used up our allotment of being wrong for quite a while. Blue skies, Winsor

At the ceremony, combat operations were promoted from Major to Lieutenant Colonel.

At the time I kept thinking of the scene at the beginning of "RoboCop," where the fully robotic cop was being demonstrated in its beta form. The robot tells the executive, who has picked up a pistol, to drop his weapon. After the executive drops the weapon, he is repeatedly instructed to drop the weapon or face the consequences. The unarmed executive is thereafter blown to smithereens. The Onion had a poignant bit where the US warned the Iraqi government that they weren't fooled by their compliance, and further adherence by the Iraqis to UN mandates would be interpreted as an act of war. I wish it had all been a joke. Blue skies, Winsor

Negative, he's still a war criminal who invaded another sovereign state (Iran) that presented no threat. Even though their leaders were nasty buggers who had no respect for human rights, he shouldn't have invaded. Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that heads of state that invade other sovereign states without a justifiable casus belli are war criminals? I'm pretty sure that Saddam Hussein was convinced that Iran was at least thinking real hard about possessing Weapons of Mass Destruction, and that they probably had some terrorists around somewhere at some time or another. Gee, you make an unprovoked attack sound like a bad thing. I think that Saddam Hussein is simply misunderstood, and agree that he should be set free if he promises to behave himself. Blue skies, Winsor

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I could never figure out the fixation with big knockers in the US of A. My concept of perfection != huge. A long time ago I concluded that two groups of females were off limits for dating - models and actresses. Since looks are pivotal to a model's livelihood, it is an obsession necessary to the profession. An actress' living is dependent upon playing a role convincingly at the drop of a hat, so you never know quite who the hell you're with really. Both groups tend to be crazy, and a real pain to be around for any length of time. I must admit that getting stuck on an elevator with a group of Ford models was pretty intense. My father worked one floor below their agency, so going to visit him was often like being in a Robert Palmer video, and these women were cheerful, friendly, stomp-down gorgeous, and REALLY smelled delicious. As far as looks go, there is a threshold of attractiveness that must be met, beyond which attitude rules. There are some perfectly nice women that I simply can't imagine even kissing (or would rather not think about it). There are others that look good in photographs, but whose personalities are so repellent that they are entirely uninteresting. I have met many women that were the embodiment of perfection, each in her own way, and no two alike. I wouldn't worry about comparing against some kind of commercial standard. It doesn't mean much of anything, and just leads to unhappiness. Blue skies, Winsor

I had the perfect opportunity to do so and blew it - under a 7-TU (round). I was landing right next to Mullins' tent, and saw Anne at manifest. I considered yelling "hey, y'all, watch this!" so she'd expect to see someone swooping something loaded 3.5:1 or whatever, but thought the better of it. I then got creative with my landing, burying the toggles instead of pulling down or risers. This, of course, put me into a sink instead of a flare. I don't regret the broken foot. I do regret that I didn't say "watch this!" before I broke it. Maybe next time. Blue skies, Winsor

I don't know specifically what is the mechanism, but it seems to be a combination of things. I have videoed a few tandems, and noted that having them eat something right before jumping reduced the rate of barfing to zero. Many had not slept well or had a good breakfast, and the rush of adrenaline on top of nothing but coffee did not seem to do good things. I imagine hypoglycemia played a part. A couple of oatmeal cookies or a banana about a half an hour before boarding the plane appeared to be sufficient to ward off the ill effects of the jump. Be advised that this is ancedotal, and I haven't seen fit to perform a rigorous analysis of quite what gives. In addition, if someone is seriously hung over from the party celebrating the same event as the tandem jump, all bets are off. Thus, some of the comments about not eating seem about right. Throw in a mess of adrenaline and pound down a few glasses of wine (some glasses are bigger than others, and some wine seems to have emetic qualities all its own) and the old inner ear may well rebel. Blue skies, Winsor

you must mean 335HP? Likely not. The idea behind turbocharging aircraft engines is usually to avoid power dropoff with altitude, rather than to increase power overall. Higher power settings generally entail higher heat generation and dissipation requirements. Since most air-cooled aircraft engines have a tough time staying in the green zone on the oil temp as it is, upping the temperature is likely to require an overhaul just that much sooner. As far as heat generation goes, I would be leery of any turbocharger installation without an intercooler. IIRC, adiabatic compression of air at altitude can result in temperatures much higher than at sea level, to the detriment of performance and engine life. Having been impressed with just how much it costs to keep aloft a normally-aspirated aircraft with fixed landing gear and a fixed-pitch prop, I am not easily assured that an added bit of complexity won't result in crippling costs. I consider shaft-powered superchargers to be a bad idea in general (e.g. those on the GSIO engines, found on Twin Bonanzas and Queen Airs, that have failed catastrophically all too often). I agree that turbochargers are the way to go for altitude flight with recips, and that a pilot that knows what he/she is doing is critical if the engine is going to survive. A panacea it is not - there is no free lunch (if God had meant man to fly, He would have given him more money). Blue skies, Winsor

psi Looms? That's likely "Cyalume." My guess is it comes from "cyano," as in cyanide, but I haven't investigated quite what chemical reaction results in light emission. I would, however, advise against eating the stuff. Blue skies, Winsor

Anyone that believes Mrs. Kerry has any involvement with the management of Heinz is seriously misinformed. Anyone trying to make political points from it is . Ah, for the good old days where political jokes didn't even have to stand for election. My favorite bit of brand-name recognition associated with the White House was a former president, who said "I'm a Ford, not a Lincoln." IIRC, I blew soda out my nose when he said that. Blue skies, Winsor

Wingsuits. t Excuse the stupid less than one year in this sport newbie question. But do you think someone will land a wingsuit in the near future? If so then is that the way this sport is heading, i.e., landing w/o a canopy. I'm sure someone will land a wingsuit in the very near future. Landing a wingsuit is no big deal. The trick is surviving it. Blue skies, Winsor