winsor

Belief has no impact on Physics. "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. That is, however, the way to bet." If you go against the odds, you are counting a little too much on luck for my liking. Arranging exit order so as to increase the likelihood of a collision is a very bad plan indeed. Blue skies, Winsor

What hijack? In both cases you have the same reaction. "Sir, there is a disease afoot which is killing in droves!" "Okay, so what's the down side?" For any other disease with the transmissability/fatality characteristics of AIDS, quarantine would be a matter of course. For quite a number of reasons, the freedom to spread the disease is a legally protected right. You can't have it both ways. Blue skies, Winsor

You're mixing apples and oranges. (V^2)/r can greatly exceed g. Blue skies, Winsor

Read Bamford's "Body of Secrets."

Pour a mixture of bleach and ammonia down their holes. It won't kill them if they see fit to run like hell. It will, however, kill you if you breathe the vapors. Use of a surplus gas mask in good condition is advised. How to stay nonlethal? They use rubber bullets for crowd control, but I'm not sure if you can find any for a .220 Swift. Blue skies, Winsor

You can expect to die on: January 13, 2030 at the age of 76 years old. On that date you will most likely die from: Horrible Accident (22%) Cancer (19%) Alien Abduction (12%) Heart Attack (8%) Homicide (6%) Drowning (6%) Auto-Erotic Asphyxiation (5%)

I have an almost-new NOVA you're free to use.

The disadvantage of quoting scripture to support your position (as John R. did) is that someone like me will ALWAYS find a verse or ten that directly contradicts that position. That's why religion is so wonderful. It sanctions just about anything if you know the Bible well enough. Not only that, it's all THE TRUTH (tm).

I have mixed feelings about the film. Though I thought some of the film was very well done, I was left asking "what was the point to all that?" To my way of thinking it conveyed the spontaneous and capricious quality of the violence of combat, and some of the goriest footage was entirely consitent with survivors' accounts of the morning on Omaha. Nobody contests the idea that it was a total clusterfuck. My father, who crewed a couple of LCIs in the Pacific during a string of amphibious assaults termed it "a sensationalistic piece of shit." One of his contentions is that all the camera angles had nothing to do with the viewpoint of anyone that was actually there, and were for shock/entertainment value only. I suppose if it gets across the idea the warfare is absolutely ghastly in any form, and should be considered only as a last resort, its approach can be defended. Spielburg is given to rather shallow, one-sided presentations of very complex subjects - which may account for his success. Blue skies, Winsor

"Sniper" included a scenes based on a number of Gunny Hathcock's exploits, but was an embarrassment in general. Hollywood could fuck up a wet dream. Blue skies, Winsor

The screenplay was written by Michael Herr, who was a journalist in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. His book "Dispatches" gives some insight as to his perspective on the conflict. The Door Gunner scene was right out of one of his running interviews: "If they run, they're VC - if they stand still, they're well-disciplined VC." "You ever shoot women and children?" "Sure." "How could you do that?" "Easy, you just don't lead them as much." The setting in Hue during the Tet offensive makes the story one greatly at variance with most soldiers' and Marines' experience in Vietnam. Most of the guys I know said they spent 12 or 13 months - or however long it was before they got medevaced out - without ever seeing someone (alive) to whom they could point and say "that guy is the enemy." During Tet, however, General Giap decided to bet the ranch on one big attack over the length of South Vietnam. In doing so he suffered a military defeat, but made the outcome of a victory for the North a foregone conclusion. The movie captures the duality of the 19 year old American kids tasked to effect our foreign policy, an unlikely combination of professionalism and adolescence. The troops singing the Mickey Mouse song were mostly a flashback to a Marine named Mayhew, who was given to singing jingles (I wish I was an Oscar Mayer wiener...) while under attack at Khe Sanh, and later was killed by a sniper after extending in country. The Matthew Modine character gave an accurate account of the role of the PIO, in which I did a stint with the Airborne (mostly I was a grunt). I don't think it's accounting of the "Vietnam Experience" was either universal or meant to be so. I do think that it was an accurate representation of what Michael Herr and I saw of the military and Vietnam. Blue skies, Winsor

The only good thing I can say about Bush is that at least he isn't a Democrat. Unfortunately, to vote against him I'm stuck with someone who can't even make that modest claim. Since I rate voting for a Democrat up there with intentionally watching a football game (I will die of old age before doing either), I'll probably throw my vote away on whoever is the Libertarian candidate. Blue skies, Winsor

Some kind of Serbian sugar-free cola ("Romana" brand). Booze really didn't agree with me, and the sugar played hell on my fall rate. I don't miss either for a second. Blue skies, Winsor

Well, I'm overseas, and I am my closest family member.

I had to get rid of my last rice rocket. It was too hard to keep it down to reasonable Mach numbers, and it was not so much a question of if as when and how bad. I've had two fully-tricked Grand Prix RZ Yamahas; my 350 got 18 miles per gallon and the 500 was downright evil. It was fun blowing the doors off literbikes on something so much smaller. Of course, there IS a law against such machines. These days I blast around on an outlaw shovelhead. It's still amusing, and people are afraid to cut me off (particularly when I'm in full Darth Vader apparel). Blue skies, Winsor

It's hard to beat Harry Nilsson at his bitter/witty best. I get the distinct impression that he had just gone through a gut-wrenching breakup when he put out "Son of Schmilsson" back in, oh, 1975 or so. Part of "Take 54" goes: "I sang my balls off for you baby, I wrote my fingers to the bone, I closed my eyes to hit the high notes, but when I woke up I was alone..." His "You're Breaking My Heart" is classic Nilsson as well: "You're breaking my heart, you're tearing it apart, so fuck you..." Of course you have Roy Orbision's "Thank God and Greyhound She's Gone." From a less humorous standpoint you have Buddy Holly's opus, best known for its cover by Linda Ronstadt, "It Doesn't Matter Anymore." The Police did a tune that was the outgrowth of Sting's very ugly divorce, which was anything but the love song many assumed it to be - "I'll Be Watching You." Jackson Browne's "Fountain of Sorrows" probably qualifies as a good breakup song, depending on the tone of the split. There are so many odes to failed love out there that it's hard to pick the best. I'd say it's situational. Blue skies, Winsor

Booze and tobacco make smack look like a gift from God. Legalize it all and be done with it.

Ask your instructor, and follow their advice. I've had a handful of lineovers over the years, and they are not all the same. Releasing the brakes turned out to be a really bad idea, since the canopy went from flying poorly with a built-in turn to spinning wildly upside down. I chopped. I had an identical lineover with an equivalent canopy. Instead of releasing the brakes, I pulled down vigorously and deeply on the risers on the side of the lineover, then released them. That cleared the lineover. I later had a lineover on a crossbraced canopy, where one line went straight across, almost in the center, making it look like a bow-tie. Considering that it's a ground-hungry little bastard at the best of times, that the line-over wasn't near the edge and that I wasn't curious as to how violent would be its behavior if it didn't clear properly, I went to reserve. More experienced skydivers than I have died while clearing malfunctions instead of going to emergency procedures. I MAY make one FAST attempt if I know I have the altitude and it seems like it might work. Even while trying to clear it, I'm planning my emergency procedures. For the time being, I would stick with the tried and true means of coming out of it in one piece. Making it up as you go along requires a lot of luck - and luck comes in two flavors. Blue skies, Winsor

Which is what I see as the flaw in the idea. I think keeping people off canopies they shouldn't be on until they are ready for them and education/training is the fix. Agreed. What I'm trying to put together is: A) A means of developing the requisite skills in the normal DZ environment, and B) A means of evaluating whether sufficient skills have been developed. If an S&TA has a ready means of evaluating the skills of someone seeking to downsize when he says "show me what you got," it puts a handle on it. My suggestion is to make it fun, challenging, only as competitive as you wish to make it, and something you can do without a lot of planning. If only two people show up at the DZ, they can follow their drill dive by opening high, bumping end cells to their hard deck and fly the standard pattern to a sport accuracy landing. Or something like that. If you focus on the fun aspect of it, you are more likely to get people to voluntarily participate. Developing canopy skills is fun, and it can also save your life. If you get people interested in using various combinations of front risers, rear risers and brakes and flying in close proximity (without necessarily docking), they are less likely to be spiraling down into other canopies at any time in their careers. If you have people adapted to flying a proper pattern, set up for a safe landing by 1,000 feet, the mindset carries over to the usual fun jump. If Coaches and Load Organizers have a post-deployment programme with which to work, they can suggest to the non-competitive jumpers on the load "what do you say we open by 3,000 ft, do canopy routine B, and then set up for a staged landing?" In medicine you rarely have a single treatment that's 100% effective, but if something seems to offer a net benefit, you tend to go with it. You thereafter work toward increasing efficacy and reducing cost. That's the approach I suggest taking here - make changes where they seem needed, and improve upon that where the opportunity presents itself. I appreciate suggestions, as well as observation of factors that I've so far overlooked. Blue skies, Winsor

Wanna bet?

Uh, if you're doing Vicodin or ethanol, you are in no position to criticize anyone's consumption of a mind-altering substance. Throw in tobacco, and you've pinned the meter, my friend. Denial ain't a river in Egypt. Blue skies, Winsor

That's "speedball." 10 mg diamorphine (heroin), 100 mg cocaine HCl. For a "Frisco speedball" throw in 500 mikes of LSD.

This reminds of a study of automobile drivers that included asking the drivers to rate themselves. As I recall, about 80% rated themselves "above average". I recommend giving these talented people an opportunity to prove it. Have a series of jumps where they are expected to do various canopy maneuvers, with their choice of canopies. If they bitch that it's unfair for them to be expected to do it with their Stiletto 120, I could easily have video available of people doing the same thing with a Xaos 69 or a ParaCommander. There's more to canopy control than the brinksmanship of swoop competition. You think you're ready for a 120 meter turf surf? I challenge you to demonstrate mastery of canopy control in a few other events first. I flat guarantee that Rickster Powell or Charlie Mullins could ace any test I could throw at them (and both of them have biffed in their careers, as well). Blue skies, Winsor

The altitude at which I don't focus immediately on silver and go to the main depends on where I am and what I'm jumping. The decision altitude is a little higher when I'm jumping an EXTreme 99 FX than a Raven IV. Also, if I'm at Lebanon, ME I have a much higher likelihood of a tree landing if the spot is bad than at Eloy, and I want a big main overhead if I have to go through lumber. Most of my reserves are sized so I can survive a surprise landing in suburbia. This is not true of all of my mains. Blue skies, Winsor

I think it should be made a challenge and a certificate of demonstrated achievement - sort of like an SCR/SCS used to be (I just got my SCR & SCS, btw). Like the Plains Indians would count coup to show off their bravery and skill, being able to bump end cells could be a demonstration of canopy skill. To do a right bump and a left bump (above the hard deck) could be a pretty solid demonstration that you know pretty much what you're doing. Similarly, an accuracy competition with no turns allowed below 200 feet could really separate the experts from the tyros, and humble some of the wannabe skygods. If you can establish some kind of scoring system where cocky types get frustrated and say "fuck, this is harder than it looks!," you may challenge them enough to focus on developing skills. I shoot accuracy under my EXTreme 99 FX canopies, and do so straight-in. That allows me to keep an eye out for people who might try to occupy my airspace, and lets me skate through the peas. I also go for the peas with a straight-in approach when I'm jumping my Blue Tracks, CruiseLites, and Raven IVs. If it is seen as a challenge, and a serious merit badge to boot, you are likely to have more people trying to figure out how to do these things. The nice side effect is that in order to do these things, people must master lifesaving skills. If you want to improve safety, appeal to people's egos. Consider your audience. A kind of Darwinian suggestion is to incorporate some form of BASE into the mix (you SURE aren't going to get USPA to buy off on that...). I don't know of much of any BASE jumpers that can't shoehorn a parachute into a really tight spot. BASE and CRW jumpers may have Class 5 canopies, but the skills they must have in order to pursue the other disciplines carry over to the Xbrace units. If the point is made that you have to have the skills BEFORE you screw with the postage-stamp parachutes, and provide the means to develop these skills, I think the rate of maiming and dying can be reduced significantly. Any suggestions that will help make a "Canopy Skills Challenge" a reality are greatly appreciated. Blue skies, Winsor