SniperCJ

310 Shootin for 500 by next summer. Its gonna be a busy winter!

Errrrrr, uuuuuuu, sorry Merrick,,coulda SWORE you had a Mirage too.... You can come too. You can be the black sheep in the group,,or sumthin.... :-) Blues! CJ

Weid---got stainless hardware, hip rings, some tie dye, soft reserve handle,,all the good goodies! Pammi--it BETTER be for all this money! Got a pretty good deal tho. Bring Merrick to Dallas and we'll do an all-Mirage-way! Whooo Hoooo CJ

Whooo hooooo! Im (and my girlfriend) are new gear bound! I know theres been some posts about Mirage lately. Ill let ya'll know how it goes, but Im totally stoked about getting it! Took me a while to make up my mind and I almost bought a used Mirage this weekend. (GREAT deal, if youre in the market for a complete rig!) but it wasnt just what I wanted so I placed my order today. Its gonna be KICKIN! Blues! CJ

I have my PC9 top mounted to my ProTek. I designed the mount which has both right side and back protection for the camera. I use a football chin cup with dual straps and left the ProTek strap on too as a safety strap. (yes, I dirt dive exiting from both straps in an emergency) I have only just begun (sounds like a song ...) to fly the camera and do not have a sight yet. I wanted to get used to the camera on my head before I complicated things by actually trying to concentrate on capturing something on video. Why are you looking for a memory stick? You cant take stills (with the PC9) while skydiving anyway (that I know of anyway...). I'd say the only thing I dont like about the ProTek mount is the helmet seems 'flimsy' sometimes, but its working fine so far. I plan to add padding to the helmet to make it fit more secure. I do not have a lens on the camera. I just use what it came with. Seems to work ok. We have a video guy here that does mostly tandem work that also just uses the lens that comes with the camera and he does great with it. I built the whole thing for about $100 bucks including the price of the ProTek (not including the camera of course). Good Luck JC

This should be an interesting thread: 1) What is the lowest you have intentionally exited an aircraft (i.e. no emergency, fallout etc)? 2900ft 2) What is the lowest you have gone WayLow intentionally (i.e. no loss of altitude awareness) ? Never have gone way low. ive pulled at 2500 which isnt low at all. 3) What is the most stupid/dangerous thing you have done in freefall? Hmmm, im still pretty boring. Ive never really done anything THAT dangerous... 4) What is the closest you have come to killing yourself? A 4 way tube launched from a CASA. At about 10 grand the woman in front of me had a premature deployment and was sucked out of the tube at about mach 1. Fortunately for the other tubers, she was on top of the tube at the time and the tube simply broke apart. Had she been on the bottom and come thru the other members, someone woulda got seriously killed. She ended up breaking several suspension lines and ended up cutting away at about 4K. 5) What gives you the biggest kick? 8 - 10 ways with people who dont take things too seriously. Otherwise hop and pops leaving the plane doing somersaults. 6) How many times have you been grounded? Zero 7) How long is the longest grounding N/A 8) What do you get grounded for? N/A 9) Any other comments………………….. I did my 300th jump the other day riding the back of an inflatable shark with 8 other people docking on me / sharkie...whata hoot! Blues CJ

Rhat falling feeling is a product of acceleration. When youre at the top of the roller coaster youre accelerating from zero to 70 mph (or whatever). When youre in the plane youre going as fast as the plane (90 - 100mph) and youre only accelerating from there to terminal (120 or so if youre belly flying)

Well Algboy, by all means, come on out. Do a better job. Why is it that everybody out there sees fit to tell us how to do our job better or usually just how much we suck at doing the job, but not a ONE of you trash talking A-holes would dare to come out and actually DO the job yourselves. You wouldnt tell the dentist how to fill your tooth or the plumber how to fix the toilet. Dont tell ME how to do my job either. Most of you base your cop-hating opinions on that police encounter where you were in the wrong anyway (ie. but i was only going 80 in a school zone. I dont know WHY that asshole had to give me a ticket). Or you base it on 'seeing' a police encounter where you really dont have the foggiest idea what was REALLY going on (ie. ya, I was driving by and those cops were harassing those poor teenagers for NO reason). Or that "it happened to my friend" story you were told once (ie. ya, dude, they just stopped him for NO reason and searched his car). To paraphrase Jack (Nickelson that is): I'd prefer you just said thank you and be on your way. CJ

Josh,,No, I didnt think your question was negative. Ive been in the game for 13 years. Think long and hard about the career, its like skydiving, it isnt for everyone. The pay isnt that bad depending on where you go but youre not gonna get rich. The action is good, but the politics suck. And most of all, like we're discussing here, youre in a high profile position. Also, youre gonna get exposed to stuff you might rather have not been exposed to. Those 3 examples I used in the first post were things that happened to me somewhere along the way. "...but they're just people doing a job that sometimes blows." Man, that hit the nail on the head! "So, my question is, in this instance, why does he ask me if I'm in a hurry?" Its kinda a conversation starting sorts thing. Lets see if we get something we HAVNT heard before. When I worked patrol, Ive actually let people go if they gave me something original or made me laugh. I never wrote that many tickets anyway. I GOT too many as a kid to wanna GIVE too many. I really like the fact that, for the most part, my skydiving family treats me like a skydiver first and a cop second. They bust my balls every once in a while but its in a joking sense which is cool. Blues CJ

As a cop I'm never very optimistic about treads like this. And I'm really trying to resist the impulse to jump right on in here. I will say that everyone is shaped by their life experiences. I dont think the majority of non-cops would want or could handle my job on a daily basis. How about: - seeing some guy's brains laying on the sidewalk because he decided to flee from me rather than stop. - those ever popular SIDS deaths with both parents hysterical. - Standing not more than 3 feet from a guy while he pulls out a 357 and sticks it in his mouth. And then 10 minutes after I leave one of these calls, I encounter YOU running the stop sign, speeding, whatever and you decide to give me attitude rather than just admit you did something wrong and take the ticket. So how about just cutting us some slack and realizing you dont know where we just might have been and there might be a good reason we're a little edgy. We're not all power mongers. If you want to understand better, strap it on and come play in MY world for a while. While I'm at it, I'm not a cop 24/7, so its ok to invite me on your skydives, bring me a beer at the end of the day, and treat me like a human bring and friend... Blues! CJ D-24468

I had a redtail hawk flying alongside me under canopy once (I was under the canopy, not the redtail...). He was about 50 yards away. Quite a sight! I just thought, wow, only a select few people get to see the hawk from ABOVE instead of from below. I felt quite honored that he would fly with me for a moment, earthbound slug that I normally am. JC

I dont have any skydiving related tats. Ive only seen one that was really any good. They never seem to get the canopy right. Otherwise I have 4 tats and no curent piercings. I have: a black tribal in my left calf - I got it the night before I tested for my 1st degree black belt a Native American war feather on my right calf - cuz I'm part (a very small part) NA a colorful tribal on my inside left calf - ok, this one was for fun crosshairs with 'Sniper" and the Chinese symbol for 'strength' on my left shoulder - got that cuz, well, thats what I do Its all good. Blues! JC

"This brings up an interesting question... Can a rigger modify a container to accept a smaller main?" Zennie, Yes, my Dolphin fits a 190 and I currently have a Diablo 150 in it. To accomodate this my rigger put a 1/2" foam pad covered in cordura sewn into the bottom of the pack tray as "filler". It is sewn in such a way that no lines can possibly snag under it. The 150 fits great and ive been jumping it like this for probably a year with no problems. I dont think I would try to get it to work for another size smaller, but it works great as is. Blues JC

As a packer Ive watched some of the videos and other instructional things out there. None can really give you the information that a good hands-on session with your local packer can. Ive got a few good tricks to handle slippery canopies but I would be hard pressed to put them into words so you could understand them, but I can certainly show them to you one on one. Get with your packer there and get some tricks or come on out to Skydive Dallas and see me!. Good luck JC

I cant say it enough - used used used! I didnt listen and bought new gear. Dont get me wrong, I got a good deal and am happy with it, but I came very close to downsizing myself right out of my container within 100 jumps. I think you can find some great deals on used gear and by the time you get ready to downsize youll have a MUCH better idea of what you want to buy new. And your second set of gear should last you many many jumps before wanting to downsize again. Blues JC

While I certainly dont make a living skydiving, I also havnt 'paid' for a jump in about a year. I started packing part time at my DZ over a year ago and I put all my packing money either on my jump account or in a separate envelope to pay for skydiving related incidentals. I buy lunch, stows for packing, or my new jumpsuit out of my envelope. Granted a long day of packing whips your a$$, but not paying for the following day's jumping somehow makes it worthwhile. The grand scheme is to get into camera flying and tandem jumping rather than packing, but for now I'll pack. Blues JC

I think its a pretty common way to deal with uncomfortable, scary or 'dark' subjects. Im a cop and seems we ALL deal with those type things with humor. Humor that most 'normal' people would find disturbing. Go in on some call where some dude killed himself or something and trust me, we'll find SOMETHING humorous about the situation. Occasionally bothers me that we can be so callous, but you realize its a coping mechanism. Cant bring all that shit home. Blues! CJ

Good job keeping your head and doing the right thing. That probably wont be the LAST time you get something 'kinda scary"!! Blues! JC

Dolphin 2000 D-3, Diablo 150, Tempo 170, no cypres Hopefully by the end of the summer it'll be a Mirage with the Diablo 150... Hey Vlad, your Diablo ever open kinda 'weird', like it sorta shakes just before its fully open??

Im John and Im a police officer for a suburb of Dallas for 13 years. I currently work narcotics investigations. I also work part time packing YOUR parachutes at the DZ, so you can make that one more load! Ive got 260 jumps, mostly RW but learning to freefly. Hope to fly some camera soon Blues! JC PS - Best thing about skydivers is they dont seem to have those anti-cop bias's like the rest of the world. When Im there,Im just another jumper/part of the family

I have jumped with both a cloth and a rigid sign. The cloth sign was about 16" X 16 ". The biggest problem with the cloth sign was reading it in freefall due to the flapping of the fabric. If you choose this method, I would make the sign larger than normal and keep the "message" in the middle of the sign toward the bottom where it will not be as effected by the flapping. The rigid sign was an 8 1/2" X 11" sign. I bought a cheap 3 ring binder with the clear snap-lock pocket on the front. I cut the front cover off the 3 ring binder and printed out my message on the computer in bold, large font and slipped it into the pocket. I put some rope handles on the back of the sign so I could hold on to it. If you do this only put your fingers into the loops. Never put your whole hand in. Freefall with the cloth sign was easy. It didnt effect my fall. Freefall with the rigid sign was different since it was rigid and will catch air. I just dove out of the plane with the rigid sign and tilted the sign so it least effected my position. Deployment was easy with the cloth sign. Ball it up in your left hand and deploy away. If you need to drop it, it wont hurt anybody. When I deployed with the rigid sign I clasp it to my chest with my left hand and pulled. I could have tossed it away had there been a problem, but I didnt want to drop a rigid sign and have it stuck in some farmer's forehead. Have fun, be safe. JC

I cant advise as to the validity of this since I wasnt there, but.... Down at Skydive Houston, they have a running feud with the guy across the street who has land and exotic animals etc. The guy calls the FAA everytime someone busts a cloud or any other damn thing happens. Its rumored that he once shot at a skydiver who was about to land off the DZ and onto his land. On a related note, I found a good way to strike back. Im a cop and SWAT guy so on my 200th jump I dressed out on my SWAT gear (camos, assault vest, gun, kevlar helmet) and made my jump like that holding a sign "Go SWAT! Hoo Yaaa. #200" I dare em to shoot at me! CJ

Dude, the moral of THAT story was the title of your post: Damn... This was really stupid I wont post a long drawn out account of ALL the various reasons for it being stupid, cuz we all, and you too I suspect, already know. Glad youre still here, cuz it could have worked out any number of bad different ways. CJ

OK, I have to admit, I had training wheels (a sit-fly suit). But I also did a fairly stable one with shorts and a sweat shirt. For me the big thing was keeping my knees and feet together, back straight, and arms out. Once I was stable with by knees pulled up, I could push my feet down some and remain stable. I was told to front flip into the position but I havnt been able to do that yet. I ended up easing into it from a belly down position (arms out, knees together and up). Its like learing to fly all over again! Thats what keeps this sport fun and exciting,,,always something new to play with! JC

Whoo Hoooo, I got my FIRST (BEER!) really stable (and good form too!) Sit-fly this weekend. Look out dark side, here I come! JC PS - Didnt hurt that I was jumping with a REALLY pretty chick for a witness / coach!