winsor

QuoteWhat level should someone be before they jump with a camera?Quote The critical level isn't numbers of jumps, it's skill. There's a big difference between a thousand jumps and a hundred jumps ten times. If your flying skills aren't entirely automatic, you would be advised to focus on them before putting a camera on your head. The people who can't get anyone to jump with them because they aren't very good, and figure that jumping camera will at least get them on the load, are inviting disaster. It is useful to have extensive camera skills as well before you jump camera. If you don't know the difference between a snapshot and a photograph, you would be advised to leave camera to someone who does. If you are aware of lighting and framing and composition without giving it conscious thought AND can maintain your relative position and heading reflexively AND have your deployment and canopy procedures WIRED, you may be ready to jump camera. Be advised that on a camera jump your likelihood of injury or death is an order of magnitude greater than on a fun jump. It is not just another skydive. Blue skies, Winsor

Maybe. Then again, my father is Dick Naugler; I'm named after his brother & uncle, from whence comes the Winsor Naugler III. In any event, when someone is doing something that has cost me a friend or two, I try to point out to them what was the mode of demise of the jumpers in question. If I see someone doing something dangerous, I have no qualms about telling them - particularly if it threatens someone else who is not part of their game plan. I don't care if they are world champions, since I can list many world champions who were maimed or killed by similar actions; NONE of us are immune. I have been to too many funerals, and would prefer that they put off their ash dive until much later. Regarding camera, my first camera jump was in 1972 with a Instamatic Super-8 movie camera duct-taped to my helmet and a Konica 35mm stowed up my sleeve. I'm not the most experienced camera flier out there, but I pretty much know the people who are, and can pass on the recommendations they gave me. In this case I don't think it's the camera in particular that is the problem. It sounds like the kind of attitude problem that can be tough to survive in this sport - the wake-up call is often fatal. When someone responds to advice with thanks for looking out for their well-being, I think there is hope. If they try to explain that they had everything under control, I am concerned for their continued well-being. I have had people who took offense initially, but thanked me years later for taking the time to warn them. Sometimes it works, and that makes it worthwhile. Blue skies, Winsor

Not a lot. It's about 12 kilometers from here, but what I've seen from bicycling across the border to try to find coffee is not likely representative of the country. There doesn't seem to be a lot of aeronautical activity in Romania near the border with Serbia, so I don't expect to find much in the way of DZs nearby. I'm also dependent upon Serbian transportation for anything beyond bicycling, so I haven't explored the possibility extensively. As far as females go, that's mostly academic. I'm stuck with English, German and a little French, which rules out much socializing. In addition, most of my contemporaries of the opposite sex (I'm 50) are either married or uninteresting. If you know of a DZ somewhere near the Serbian border, let me know. I'm going to be here for a while. Blue skies, Winsor

The rate at which I look at the ground and my altimeter increases as I approach breakoff altitude. I am usually paying more attention to altitude than the skydive at that point. If my indicators show me at the agreed breakoff altitude, I'm gone. If people want to make one more point, it's going to be a missing-man formation, since I'm history. If someone leaves early, I may take the last grip before going. If it works out to be just a little high, may just leave then myself. Avoiding the temptation to suck it down has saved my ass on more than one occasion, and I know (knew) people who pitched just a little too low. It is my policy to stay the hell out of the basement, and it has served me well. Blue skies, Winsor

If it's who I think it is, that would be "Buzz." Blue skies, Winsor

I couldn't care less about looking cool, and am amazed that anyone would give it all that much thought - not to mention time, effort and money. I have one rig that's pink, but it fits fine, works great, and nobody is going to walk off with it by mistake. It does make it hard to argue that it was someone else in the wrong slot on the video if you brainlock, though. I'll take mismatched colors and airworthy to chic and mechanically iffy any day of the week. Blue skies, Winsor

A set of David Clarks is a good start.

I don't use packers, and pack my own reserves. I pack pretty much anything in around 6 minutes or less, and would rather take part in getting my rig ready for the next jump. Blue skies, Winsor

If you're gone over this issue, there will be others for sure. Don't let the door hit you in the ass.

Holy Moly........15 rigs? You must be RICH! I probably would be if I didn't have an airplane. As far as rigs go, I'm not talking brand new CYPRES-equipped Voodoos with Xaos mains and 21st century technology reserves. I said "airworthy." As a rigger, I wind up collecting and maintaining orphan gear. Mostly I have Racers of various vintages, from SST to Elite. I also have a Vector, a Javelin, a Mirage and a Corsair. My smallest reserve is a Swift 177 and I have a lot of Raven IIs (they open and fly GREAT!). My largest reserve is a G3R (figure Wizard) Golden Knights cast-off. Mains include a couple of EXTreme FX 99s, two Blue Track BT-50s, a BT-60, a Cruis Air, a Bogy 9, a Pursuit 215, a couple of Cruis Lites, a Laser, a couple of Raven IVs and a Laser 9. For serious fun I have a couple of Mini Systems with ParaCommander MK-1s, a couple of WonderHogs with one each Lightweight RW ParaCommander and Sierra mains. The Wonderhogs have 26' LoPo type reserves. It's all fun, and the ParaCommanders are every bit as much fun as the FX99s. The EXTremes are, however, a lot easier to pack. Some people are too cool to jump a 282 square foot F-111 7-cell, but I find that it is anything but boring. I don't jump them all regularly, but I do jump all of it. Blue skies, Winsor

You didn't have enough options. How about: "Grab one of 15 other airworthy rigs I have hanging in my rig room and go to the DZ." Blue skies, Winsor

Bogus drinks: "Shit or go Blind" = prune juice and wood alcohol "Bloody Awful" = vodka and ketchup A real suggestion: "Rocket Fuel" = 1 can Hawaiian Punch 1 can apricot nectar 1 bottle Welch's Grape Juice 1 litre sparkling water 1 litre Graves/Everclear grain alcohol 1 kg. crushed dry ice Serve in 500 ml beakers with some dry ice in them, best consumed wearing lab coats. The dry ice results makes for a nice, smoking beverage, and the ethanol kind of sneaks up on you. Blue skies, Winsor

Keeping suicide illegal makes sense. People will think twice about killing themselves if they know they will get in trouble if they do. Blue skies, Winsor

My objection to nakedness relates primarily to temperature and UV. If I'm likely to get hypothermia/frostbite, I want duds. I'm also not wild about sunburn, and wish to have some kind of shade if it's an issue. Otherwise I couldn't care less. If I ever look better with clothes on than I do naked, I had best do something about my condition. Americans are total weenies when it comes to their bodies. Blue skies, Winsor

1. Whats your name? Winsor Naugler III P.E.. 2. How old are you? 50. 3. Why did you decide to start jumping out of airplanes? Watching "Ripcords" in 1963 or so. 4. Single or married? Single. 5. Do you have kids? No. 6. What do you drive? Shovelhead Hardtail WideGlide Harley Davidson, Mercedes Benz 300TD, Honda Accord, Piper Cherokee 140. 7. Have you ever done a kisspass? Yes. 8. Where do you live? Permanent resident of Doylestown, PA. 9. Do you have any pets? 3 ferrets. 10. How many jumps do you have? 2,300 some-odd. 11. What color eyes do you have? Blue. 12. What is your nationality? USA. 13. Have you ever dated someone you met off the internet? Yes. 14. Favorite Movie? Hard to say. 15. What do you do when you arent skydiving? Skeet, Trap, rifle & pistol shooting. 16. Have you ever BASE jumped? Yes. 17. If not... do you want to? Yes. 18. Do you have siblings? Older sister, younger brother, younger sister. 19. Where do you want to travel to the most? It's a big planet - somewhere I haven't yet been. 20. What's your favorite color? Blue. 21. Where was the last place you flew to ( not skydiving )? Fort Worth Texas and back last week.

Last weekend I used a Brunswick Black Beauty bowling ball as a target for my .460 Weatherby. I would post a picture of it, but there was nothing but little pieces left (after one shot). Blue skies, Winsor

My main reason for wearing Tevas is that I don't like stepping in dogshit when I land. They are also useful for walking across gravel or hot tarmac. I would just as soon jump barefoot, but my feet are not tough enough at the moment to prevail against sharp stuff (tent stakes, glass, rocks, etc.) hidden by grass on landing. I have worn sandals or boots as preferred footgear for some 40 years; normally I wear Tevas, but if I'm jumping anything where I expect to pound in I wear Frenchies. Blue skies, Winsor

Mullins' and Nelson's kids both started that early IIRC. Nope, they were extensively trained, went through a rigorous progression - and could fly circles around most of their adult counterparts before they hit puberty. Blue skies, Winsor

I missed the joke, my bad. I suppose I should have picked up on the threat of pretend violence, as well as the bluster of the initial post. I hope you have a great time at the DZ. I may go tomorrow, but the weather in Philadelphia sucks out loud right now. Blue skies, Winsor

In general, lurking without prior permission is both bad manners and potentially dangerous as hell. Some years back, before the Earth was cool, I was jumping at a Cessna DZ in Wisconsin. We had a four way going in one of the 182s, and on the way to altitude I noticed the other 182 climbing out as well. The pilot assured me that it was no problem, since he was in contact with the other pilot, so we focused on the spot and the dive. We put together a chunk exit - ready, set, go - it settled out nicely and Holy shit! There's someone hanging on my leg! We had turned from a four-way into an eight-way - a four-way with flakers. We broke into a round, tracked off at a proper altitude and landed uneventfully. At a small, throwback DZ where everyone knew each other this was okay. Everybody had done formation load RW, and knew the drill for the formation that resulted. However, it is always safer to plan the dive and dive the plan. Blue skies, Winsor

If you're not having fun, you might as well do something else with your time. This is not generally a sport for the thin-skinned. Threatening people is a real bad sign. The therapy thing concerns me, as well. I don't know the specifics beyond what you claim, but it doesn't sound too good. BTW, do you think you're going to get much more slack among hard-core Harley riders? If you show up in your basic biker bar with that kind of attitude, you're in for a rude awakening. You may be better off with the plane. FWIW, I have a bunch of rigs, a Harley and an airplane. Blue skies, Winsor

You are wrong (as usual) about my being different in person than on line. What you see is what you get. I do not suffer fools gladly, and generally seek to use a killfile to filter out posts from spurious sources, but DZ.com does not appear to have that facility. Pity. Even when I dislike someone, if what they say has merit it has merit. Just because I like someone doesn't mean that I agree with their logic. You needn't worry about having dealings with me IRL. I try to spend my time with people I like and respect. I neither like nor respect you on the basis of what has been posted on these forums, and I suspect the feeling is mutual. If you choose to post something that is opinion stated as fact, don't bitch if you're called on it. Blue skies, Winsor

Your thesis presupposes 100% digestive efficiency. This is by no means the case, as can be easily demonstrated. What you may not understand about the effect of hormones on weight retention is that someone may be in starvation mode and the fat cells are still busily snagging every glucose molecule that comes their way. To say that carbs alone are the key is oversimplifying things, but breaking it down to a simple material and energy balance is equally oversimplified. Recommending that someone with a broken thyroid go on a starvation diet to address the symptom of weight gain is a bad idea. I'm familiar with a bit of physics - as well as chemistry, biology, physiology, etc.. This, of course, does not make me right, but does leave me skeptical of simplistic "solutions." Blue skies, Winsor

I think Kerry's service record is a lot more credible that Lyndon Johnson's. On the basis of the recommendation that you should not share a foxhole or cockpit with anyone braver than you, I don't think I would have wanted to be in his unit. God save us from junior officers with something to prove. Blue skies, Winsor

I think it is that simple. Whether you take the English in 1315, the Irish in the 1840's, Ukranians in the 1930's, Jews in concentration camps in early 1940's or people in Biafra in the 70's or Ethiopia in the 80's or rural citizens of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe today, when you feed people less - they get real thin. So thin in fact, that bodies literally eat themselves alive, and die. If you think it's a human thing, it's not. Dogs, cattle, horses etc also get thin when they don't eat. People and animals get fat when they eat. Animals use that fat when times are hard. We go to the mall every single day, and we eat. We are literally eating (and smoking) ourselves to death. The only way to get fat is to eat. The only way to lose fat, is to burn more kilojoules than you're feeding yourself. You can make that as complicated as you like, and prey on people's insecurities, and make money from diet books, or home gym equipment, but it's real simple. t In Russia the two biggest problems have been cited as getting enough to eat and losing weight. Certainly a starvation diet of any composition will result in weight loss. However, the fat storage mechanism is by no means a strict function of excess caloric intake. One key to fat storage is insulin. By eating foods that do not trigger insulin production, one can eat a hell of a lot (in terms of amount and calories) and still lose weight. When eating foods that trigger insulin surges, one can eat less, feel hungry all the time and still put on weight. Exercising when in the throes of reactive hypoglycemia is really unpleasant, and doesn't do much to get rid of the lard. Exercise in conjuncion with a balanced diet of low glycemic index foods works just fine. Blue skies, Winsor