rgoper

Phil, Deb, SDSM: as always, you are taking care of your own. you guys have always been fun to be around, and very caring people. count me in on the project, and i urge other's to get on board as well. this is of course, a tradegy, not only for chris, but his family, and friends as well. let's all show our support, and help this "brother" out. thanks SDSM for your efforts, and to Nolan Ryan and crew for helping out as well. best wishes to chris, and his family, and friends, here's for a speedy recovery! Richard

Hook: could you elaborate further, and tell us how the rest of the dive went? I'm curious which canopy you deployed after un-jing the stiletto. Do you have this one on video, i'd be keenly interested in looking at it. Richard "The Real Fun Begins At Deployment Time"

kinda funny this insurance thing is brought up, but since it was, i've got insurance out the wazoo, and none of it will cover me in a sky diving related incident. so, i looked around to see if i could purchase some that would, not to be found, my life insurance policy won't even pay if i get killed in a sky diving related accident/incident. (some insurance carriers consider it suicide) check your policies people! it's best to call and ask your agent/broker what is, and or/is not covered. i hate it, it's not right, but i think, they think we're ignorant for jumping out of "perfectly good airplanes" (i'll hurl if i hear that one more time from a whuffo) and if we get hurt, well it's kinda like collecter car insurance, ya know, keep it in a temprature controlled invironment, and don't drive it over 2K miles a year. they just don't want to pay. my rant is over! Richard Confucious Say "It Is Better To Be Pissed Off, Than Pissed On"

and you? a stand up comedian? brush up on your skills! J/K Richard

Terri: My besty wishes as well, you've been an inspiration, and a great mentor/help to me at my tenure at SDH. Heal well my brother! Take Care. Regards: Richard

i don't believe i have ever met this sky diver, but my heart goes out to his family, and his friends. this kind of tradegy always brings a mixture of emotions from all of us, it truly is a sad day when one of the "family" has been hurt, or injured. we just lost another sky diver not too long ago on this same DZ. (not to imply fault) hopefully we can start having more "traing & safety" days at the DZ's all over texas, and try to eliminate this type of incident all together. again, my bests wishes to chris. Richard "Gravity Is My Friend"

.....really only one way i know of, and them not thinking "somthings up" say "i love you" with diamonds! Richard P.S. I once gave my wife a winchester pump shotgun for christmas, too bad she never took interests in it!

hey all, come out to SDH this weekend, lets keep the "airbus" hot, no shutdowns. we have some rw teams building, crw, (catfish and the dogz, wanna see a downplane that'll curl your hair?) vrw, hop-n-pos, whatever you like, kewel facilities, and a fast otter, and an asphalt runway! we got hooh-n-swoop organizing an 8 way team, we got coaching classes coming up, come and check it out! Blue Skies: Richard

Hook: i'm glad you posted this, it's exactly what i was trying to say today. i remember when i was going through the AFP program at SDSL you guys wouldn't even let experienced sky divers give advice to your students. I knew there was a strategy for it. even when i got off of student status, i'd have a TL-1 student come up to me and ask questions, i believe i responded one time, after a well deserved ass eating, i referred all further questions to the man in charge of the dive, so that's kinda where i picked that up. and i think your theory holds water, i know i'd be hotter than a $2.00 pistol on a saturday night if somebody was interfearing with my student. and the coaching etiqutte was eloquently put. Richard

i guess i'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer 12/16 for me. damn, i'm glad i'm married! Richard

**Up high try different kinds of flares, ask rgoper, just the other weekend I was teasing him that he has a beautiful triathalon flare, only problem is, he was jumping a hornet ** i'll see you tomorrow! i will get you! J/K take care... Richard

Phree: what a schmuck! hell, i guess somebody's gotta do it! i bet you got the "low down on the get down" don't ya? Richard

i'll wait here, i've got more time than money! J/K great looking suit! Richard P.S. hey, ya can't blame a man for trying? huh?

Zennie: yeah, that's ugly. the insurance network business office my wife works at has what i call an "internet nazi" up there, no personal e-mails, no surfing, no nothing, they even made her sign a pre-employment form stating that she agreed to all of that H.S. yep, only in the U.S. Of A. land of the free home of the "monitored" Richard

now you know with that "teaser" jpeg, it just wont do. we gotta do our research here, so we must see what you look like with it unzipped! c'mon, what do ya say? :) Richard

i'm sure that while we all agree that newbies asking questions is good, especially from the experienced group we have here on dz.com right now, if the diver has an aff-1 level class/jump scheduled, the only one he/she should be listening to is there jumpmaster. sometimes too much information too soon can be confusing, especially in freefall, when everything is happening at 120 mph+. i remember how protective the divemasters were of there students when i was going through afp progression myself, the last thing you wanted to do, was give the prospective jumper any advice other than what had already been given by the jumpmaster. i've seen a few come unhinged. i know if i were an aff jumpmaster, i would want the student to focus on what i was telling him/her and no one else. the person that is asking these questions are asking intelligent questions, and there good questions, but no body's teaching/coaching teqniques are the same. just some thoughts, nothing "carved in stone here" Richard

see craig poxons post on this very subject Richard my bad, in skydive talkback, it's the speed mini challenge thread by ramon, craig has some good info, and links in there!

Craig: good posts, good information. thanks... Richard

Rhino: i could be wrong, and i apologize in advance to mr/mrs/ms "newbie" if i am, but i believe we're dealing with a "whuffo" here. check profile, itz a bit sketchy! Richard

my personal "hard deck" is 1800' my usaual procedure is 3K wave off and deploy, make sure i'm square, steerable and stable, if by 1800', all of this has not happned, ka chink! always remember try once, try twice, initiate survival procedures, cut away main, deploy reserve (if you have an RSL, make like it's NOT there!) rehearse these procedures in you mind every jump. again 1800 is MY hard deck, yours may be higher, but it doesn't need to be lower. Richard

clay: we already know you have a sense of humor, what about your safety concious level. it'd be a shame to have a good thread highjacked with low level humor. i originally posted this, so everyone including myself, could take a step back, and say, well, am i safe? do i care about safety? do i watch out for others? is my gear suited to my abilities, and/or style? this has nothing to do with locker room humor. Richard

you will get mixed ideas on this one, my procedure for a pcit is very different than a lot of others, but if my first little trick dont work, i will cutaway from a pcit before deploying reserve for the very reason you described. i had a pcit in tow once, there not to be taken lightly, get different procedures from different divers, then decide for yourself. Richard "Don't Forget To Leave The "Fart Gap" In The Jump Door Guys!"

emmie: i know what ya mean about the glide! i went from the 7 cell triathlon to the 9 cell hornet. triathlons have a tendency to "sink" in, thus making it easier to do a stand up landing, by getting in the brakes. the first 3 flights with my hornet, i'm gliding in, and i'm using the same landing pattern i was using for the triathlon, i wound up landing wayyyyyyy away from my target, so i had to shorten my final into the wind. when i started doing this, i started landing where i want to, and getting max glide out of the hornet. once you play with your landing pattern a little, and "find the brakes" on your hornet, i believe you'll have it fixed. next time your flying your canopy, just playing around, look to see how much slack you have on your 4 steering lines in full glide, then do some caution stalls to see where your canopy will stall at, this will also give you a good indication of where you shoud be at the bottom of your flare on landing. when i first got mine i did a hop-n-pop from altitude and just played with it all the way down, figuring if i have problems, i'd have plenty of time to clear it. eventually, you'll love the extra glide the hornet provides, and the crisper turns it has! Richard "I'll Give You 13 Guesses What I'll Be Doing Today, The First 12 Don't Count!"

.......how safe are you? this is a self examanation of yourself. on a scale of 1-10 how safe are you? this consists of your opinion of gear selection, utilization, and gear checks, wing loading, gear checks, rig maintanance to the boarding of the aircraft, to exit order, altitude awareness, having a back-up plan for off dz landings, to deployment altitude, to emergency procedures, and "russian radar" to your landing pattern when you set up for final, also would you yield to the low man, in freefall, or under canopy? i'm curious just to get a general consensus here. i'll start it of ny rating myself a 6 1/2. this is a safety question, but is up for general disscussion. Regards: Richard "Running Wild In The Streets!"

i have two of them. love his designs, and quality is definitely there. getting them is another story. contrary to popular belief, there not as expensive as everybody thinks, i've got a tony rw suit $325.00 and a fire flight freefly suit $325.00 and my freefly DaKine costs $400.00 because i got the one with the "drag ports" built in the legs, and i just took delivery of my other DaKine freefly suit the other day $290.00 + S&H. one thing's for sure, they seem to be in "vogue" but that's not why i bought mine. chuck has an online catalogue you can look at, go to his site and check it out. Richard "Once Ya Get Past The Smell, Ya Got It Licked" Garfield The Cat