winsor

QuoteYeah, first women to admit to clam licking gets a free t-shirt!!!!!Quote I used to have a t-shirt that said "nobody knows I'm a lesbian." It was scarfed by a female who said she just had to have it. Who am I to argue? Blue skies, Winsor

Press charges immediately.

I was invited to dinner with some parachuting pals in Serbia last month, and the wife of one of them was feeling the effects of the firewater they were imbibing. She gave a kiss to the young woman next to her, turned to me and said "I'm a lesbian." I said " great, so am I!" At that point she decided she should fix me up with someone sufficiently nubile and oversexed. What a wonderful attitude. Blue skies, Winsor

In 1971 the second battalion of the 509th jumped into Italy near Aviano to take part in some war game type activity with our Italian counterparts. Good clean fun. After we had gone through our tactical activities, we staged for transport back to the Italian base, on top of flatlands adjacent to a wide river valley. The Americans and Italians were in groups, maybe 100 meters apart and 100 meters from the abrupt edge of the dropoff to the valley below. As we hung out waiting for our rides, we watched some Italian F-100s working out on a nearby range, performing textbook strafing runs. Very impressive. After a while the Super Sabres left. Both the Americans and Italians were then stunned by the appearance of a USAF F-4 Phantom II at deck height. He had snuck up on us by flying along the river bed somehow, and didn't give a lot of room as he split the difference between the American and Italian formations, going to afterburner close enough to the ground to leave foliage smoking. He hung around for about 20 minutes, performing acts of aerial skill that left us jaw-agape. He would rocket into clouds and then reappear from the riverbed again (I thought it was the same plane, but it could have been a few of them screwing with us, now that I think of it) sometimes coming over at speed and others times with everything out at what seemed the brink of a stall. I really can't do justice to just how awesome was that impromptu airshow, but there was no doubt that the goal was a margin of error of zero. Before leaving Italy we watched the Phantoms doing a standard departure from Aviano, where they would take off in full afterburner and immediately crank a 90 degree turn into a knife-edge entry to a narrow valley. Two weeks later, Stars and Stripes reported the loss of an F-4 at Aviano in the mountains immediately after takeoff, and there was no doubt in any of our minds that one of them had been doing what we watched and had an engine hiccup, since that was all that it would have taken. Those were some interesting times. Blue skies, Winsor

After a "mile high" flight on the couple's wedding night, the pilot made a pass in front of the DZ. A bunch of the guys had gone out to moon the plane when it made the low pass. They didn't know that the pilot intended to make a bounce-and-go on the taxiway before coming around to land. The 182's landing light did not illuminate the unfortunate pranksters until it was too late to avoid them. One of the people on the ground saw the plane coming, realized what was happening, and flattened. He wound up with a broken humerus from the main gear running over his arm. Another of the people on the ground was not as fortunate, and was hit by the propeller. The pilot, in shock, took the plane around and managed to land it safely. The prop was damaged, and the plane was shaking badly. IIRC, it was in 1991. It still hurts. Blue skies, Winsor

I'd rate the Constellation's as better. When the old geezers flying the Connie were leaving, a bunch of people lined up between Manifest and the loading tents to moon the pilots as they flew over. A bunch of people, seeing the Connie from between their legs - coming at them at deck level - hit the deck. If anyone has video of it, it was absolutely awesome. The tents were in danger of being sliced by props, and if the gear had been extended I'm convinced they would have hit the ground and various combinations of people, tents and vehicles. It's easy to forget that the old codgers flying that plane had cut their teeth on B-24s and the like, flying missions through clouds of flak and Messerschmits. When they were youngsters, every flight was a near-death experience. The next year the FAA was on hand, and the low pass was pretty tame. Those guys are crazy, but not stupid. Blue skies, Winsor

My contribution to the issue was listed on The Ranch web site late last season and can be found at: http://ranchskydive.com/safety/tb_article15.htm. It's designed as a general discussion with a specific set of numbers to define time between groups under limited conditions. Tom Buchanan S&TA Instructor, AFF, SL, IAD, Tandem Author JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy With all due respect, I don't believe you have the temerity to post an article that makes serious reference to the 45 degree myth. The 45 degree approach is worse than useless. Anyone paying attention can demonstrate its invalidity as a trivial exercise. Anyone who thinks it has merit is surviving on luck alone. Regardless of all the ratings you put forth, you just flunked Freshman Physics. Do your homework, and fix your website. You have dangerous misinformation posted therein. Blue skies, Winsor

If you murder someone, you are violating their rights. If you rape someone, you are violating their rights. If I listen to the radio, whose rights am I violating? And drugs should be legal. If it is not worse than liquor or tobacco, legalize it. Nothing is worse than liquor or tobacco.

This is one of the things I find kind of embarrassing about being an American. The fact that anyone could get so worked up about someone whose shtick is eighth-grade smut is nothing short of amazing. Censorship is Un-American, but we seem to love it so. I don't listen to Howard Stern because I don't enjoy his show. It offends me that some morons should make it anything but my option to listen to his dreck if I should seek to do so. Intelligence is overrated - stupidity is a force which is so vast as to seem limitless. Anyone who can harness it can change history, a fact that has been demonstrated on numerous occasions. Blue skies, Winsor

you've got to be kidding me . . . oh that's right straight sex prevents AIDS and syphilis, look at al the people in Africa so because gay sex leads to STD's we should discriminate. Oh, I’ve got an idea we should start colonies to put these people in . . . Too late. Fire Island, Provincetown, Key West, San Francisco, New Hope...

Bear in mind that I'm an Orthodox Infidel, and consider the concept of "sin" to be little more than fuel for humor. As Elvis Costello said, "there's no such thing as an original sin...." Anyhow, the whole idea behind sin is guilt. This country is neurotic as hell when it comes to sex, and I think it contributes to the general impression that Americans are pitiful lovers. To limit sex to the missionary position for purposes of procreation is simply laughable. I have read many religious texts, and a lot of what hangs people up is what they read into what is there. I seem to recall Lot getting his daughters knocked up in the OT, and it was reported as a good thing there, so the "sin" aspect of things seems situational at best. Lying is despicable. I couldn't care less about it's legal status or place in the Commandments; I find liars loathsome, and seek to avoid them. Sex is good clean fun, and anyone who thinks it's icky is doing it wrong. Far from feeling guilty about it, the more I get the happier I am. Liars are the lowest form of life. I detest having anything to do with people given to prevarication. I'm not sure how the concept of sin relates to much of anything beyond crowd control. Blue skies, Winsor

Orwell was an optimist.

I jump with neophytes for free. I'll be damned if I will have anything to do with this particularly bogus bit of rulemaking. This is a case in point where change is not improvement, and you do not necessarily get what you pay for. Blue skies, Winsor

If you want to jump with an undersized reserve, pack REALLY carefully and try not to get blindsided before pull time. I jump main loaded at over 2:1 with a reserve at about 0.85:1. When I'm down to my last handle, I want to get as much nylon overhead as I can. Blue skies, Winsor

Anyone who would be swayed by your results would likely have picked up on some of the existing footage that clearly demonstrates the invalidity of the 45 degree concept, but having a source of information devoted to debunking the misconception could be useful. Bad science has a life of its own. I just verified your results, once I figured out which two numbers you were adding. For clarification, you add *Groundspeed* to *Headwinds at Opening Altitude* to get your effective speed for separation at opening altitude. Making preliminary calculations part of your preflight procedure isn't a bad idea. You can get winds at opening altitude from Flight Service or a heads-up pilot, and groundspeed can be had from a GPS if one is installed in the jump aircraft. As an aside, to get fps from kts you multiply by 5/3 => 60 kts is 100 fps and 90 knots is 150 fps (assuming I correctly recall that a nautical mile is around 6,000 feet - I'm too lazy to look it up). Thanks Bill, Winsor

His old man was big on a Constitutional Amendment having something or another to do with the flag. I thought that was stupid then, and I think this is stupid now. I can't bring myself to believe that anyone is dumb enough to care all that much one way or another. As long as everything is voluntary and above the age of consent, what difference does it make? Why does it seem that anyone running for office in this country is a national embarrassment? Is it that nobody with the tiniest bit of integrity would be caught dead with their name listed amongst the others on the ballot? I keep wishing I could say "it's only a movie...." Blue skies, Winsor

Chris Rock is the Stepin Fetchit of today. Above and beyond whatever talent he has, his career has been that of playing a negro stereotype. I find racism as repellent when embodied by David Duke as Al Sharpton - and don't see much difference between the two modes. If someone wishes to play the race card, you can deal me out. Blue skies, Winsor

There are physiological specifics that you can't fake. They are hardly universal, but if a woman displays them she wasn't faking. I really don't understand why anyone would bother to fake it. I never do. Blue skies, Winsor

QuoteSteve, you've obviously done or been involved in far too many scary things.... But this is pretty scary: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=271512#271512 ------------------------------------------------------------ Also: While I missed it, the pilot at Turners Falls SPC in the late 1970's flew the Beech under one of the bridges, legend had it. He was definitely crazy enough and physically skilled enough to have done it, too...reply] Three of the people on the plane said "go for it!" The fourth was not amused, and turned him in to the authorities. In the hearing he was asked if he would do it again, and he responded "yeah." Wrong answer - they pulled his ticket for life. Blue skies, Winsor

Really? I guess I'm naive, but I just can't imagine anyone caring that much one way or another. I know rather a few gay skydivers, and was under the impression that they were treated about the same as breeders. I could be wrong. HIV is bad news, and it is unfortunate that it is viewed as a treatable chronic condition by many in the gay community - an impression fostered by pharmaceutical ads in gay publications (if CNN is to be believed). Giving up tandems is probably a good idea, judging by how many TMs I've seen get nailed by students jumping up and down before the harness was unbuckled. As far as being rejected is concerned, I'll jump with you (if you don't mind flat-flying). Blue skies, Winsor

Yeah, and if you polled one population or another you could support any number of demonstrably incorrect conclusions. This is a definitive case of the classical fallacy of relevance "Argumentum ad Populum ." Physics is not amenable to solution by quorum. Blue skies, Winsor

I have four liters of booze for the guys at the DZ, since I can get it for cheap overseas and figure I may as well bring in my allotment. Nevertheless, I am impressed with just what evil shit ethanol can be. The last time I touched the stuff personally was the day before my niece was born, and she's now applying to colleges. I intend to die at a ripe old age without ever touching it again. I feel badly to hear of your brother, and hope his life has otherwise been a full one. He certainly has a caring family, which is more than some people will ever have. Blue skies, Winsor

I stay in 5-star hotels only under protest. It drives my crazy having all these goddamned syncophants fawning over me, and I tend to snap at them. They don't like it, I don't like it, and we all breathe a sigh of relief when I leave. My only fixed requirement is being able to shower daily. As long as I can stay clean, I'll put up with a lot. Blue skies, Winsor

Fully a third of the graves I visited in France last week (out of over a quarter of a million) said words to the effect of "A Soldier of the Great War Known but to God." Medals do not a hero make. Lyndon Johnson cadged a Silver Star for catching a ride ONCE on a bomber that turned back halfway to the the target, and traded on it for the whole of his political career. George McGovern piloted a B-24 in combat, but NEVER mentioned it when campaigning. To say that everyone who saw combat demonstrated the same level of valor is to dishonor those who did, indeed, display conspicuous gallantry above and beyond the call of duty - though the call of duty may have, in itself, demanded an unbelievable level of courage in the first place. Blue skies, Winsor

Two jumpers - identical twins with matching equipment. One has a normally opened parachute, and the other has a baglock. Do you think they will have the same terminal velocity upon landing/arrival? Why or why not?