tbrown

A pilot chute in tow is such an ugly situation because you can't really say for sure that going either way - red or silver - will save you or kill you. It's a fact that in a lot of these situations the reserve opening will decrease pack tension enough to let the main go as well. It's true that a cutaway main can entangle with a deploying reserve, it's happened and has sometimes killed people. Then the Czech woman who died in Tunisia this winter puller her reserve without a cutaway and went in when both canopies deployed and entangled. It's a bad bad situation and when it happens it's too late for prevention or a thoughtful debate over what to do next. Whether you cutaway or not, have your plan set in your head and just do it, since going either is a gamble, but you "can't win if you don't play", so just do it. The best answer is still PREVENTION. Checking for an ink stain on your kill line isn't enough, the ink stain on mine is all faded anyway. LOOK inside your pilot when you pack and make sure the kill line's extended inside your P/C. Even if you use a packer, USPA recommends you do three things before dropping off your rig in the packers' area: 1.) cock your kill line on your p/c, 2.) set your brakes yourself, and 3.) re-open your slider. None of these have to take more than a minute or two and you've no one to blame but yourself if you can't be bothered. It's YOUR ass... Besides, you need to pay attention to the condition of your p/c and kill line, even if you always use a packer. If there's anything weird about the kill line, it's too short or won't cock right, or it seems like it's taking too long for your canopy to come out of the bag, DON'T JUMP AGAIN until you've showed your p/c to a rigger. My rigger tells me a p/c will act kinda loopy just a few times before it fails altogether, so you don't get much warning. Don't put it off, have that mother checked out. And finally, don't let yourself get sloppy with your throw. It's easy to get lazy about it, I've done it myself. Treat the thing like it was a live hand grenade and throw it clear into the next county. A good throw with well maintained equipment should virtually eliminate a p/c in tow from happening. Of course you can always switch to a pullout system, but they're not foolproof either and can have their own set of problems. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It's time we dropped a few on their precious fucking mosques. I suggest waiting 'til a Friday, so as many of the faithful as possible will be there, then use napalm. Or better yet, Willie Pete. It would be a suckful thing to do, but nothing seems to impress these people. The ace up the sleeve would be to nuke fucking Mecca. And I'm serious about that. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Once had a Hungarian girlfriend who would s[ell her name on my, oh never mind... While we're on the subject, the skychicas seem to love that Skyvan. A few weeks back I found myself seated on the deck of the Perris Skyvan and there definitely is some kind of a buzz going on. Didn't get me off, not with my male equipment, but got me to thinking what those kind of vibrations mught do for the ladies. So like a gentleman, I offered to switch with a lady seated on a bench seat. She accepted - with a huge grin ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Actually guys, Leave Your Hat On (also MY choice, by the way), is a Randy Newman song. But Joe Cocker does it the best. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Dock of the Bay is certainly one of 'em. Others would be My Girl and Under the Boardwalk. Oh yeah, and Time Has Come Today, by the Chambers Brothers ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Probably pulled the red handle. Had a malfunction maybe ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

High - The most perfect jumping weather imaginable. Low - Just got buggered on my taxes & have no money. (Jumps are free, but the airplane ride isn't...) Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

NEVER HEARD OF THEM? That's the catalog that mothers let their husbands have when they couldn't have Playboy. All Catholic families had a Fredricks catalog around Mr. Frederick has done more to help make generations of young Catholics than any Pope. He should be sainted for it too (he died about ten years ago). Besides, who cares if they're cheap (i.e. affordable) - they're only worn for a few minutes anyway, then they come off ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I cried all through "Silence of the Lambs", especially when Clarice tells Hannibal about her nightmares from all those little lamby-pies being slaughtered and how she tried to save one. Gets me every (sob!) time... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

You done alright, congratulations. You're alive, you're not seriously hurt, and you learned from your mistakes. You HAD an out and you used it. You stuck with an intelligent sized canopy for your size and experience level. And you've been using some experienced coaching. If any one of those positives were missing, you just might have died. You're a living testament to learning how to do this sort of thing the intelligent way. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Still the best song The Andrews Sisters ever did ("it's a fact mon, it's a fact...") Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I wear a Mindwarp with large sized goggles to fit over my glasses, which are small. Works just fine. But I have been clopped in the face once or twice on exit, bit my tongue nicely once when I got somebody's knee in my chin. I think if I got into serious 4 way, I'd have to get a full face or I could wind up spitting out my teeth. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Yeah, all that is true, BUT ther's historic documentation for all of that as well. There is no such historic support for Jesus having been gay, none. Whatsover. Before I'm denounced for being a homophobe (aw hell, "some of my best friends are gay"), I'm not so much "afraid" of the possibility as just plain pissed off about any group of people trying to hijack someone's name and image to their cause without a shred of evidence. Historically, the Jews were a very anti-gay culture, I mean stoning to death is not exactly tolerant behavior. I find it extremely difficult to believe that any religious prophet would've been so popular, let alone tolerated if he were thought to have been gay at that time and place and in that ancient culture. On the other hand, it was also common for religious communities of men to ravel around together. The New Testament does mention a number of women travelling with and/or hosting Jesus and the apostles. In fact, given his age of thirty before even hitting the road, I find it quite believable that Jesus married and raised a family of children to adulthood (there being no "teenage" years in those days, when you hit puberty you were an adult, there was no kiddin' around about it either). So just to say "Jesus was gay" because somebody wishes he might've been to suit their own agenda just pisses me off. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

People can say what they want about Christianity, and some of it is true, some of the time. It has it's dangerous tendencies that need to be kept on a leash. But who's religion has jihad, or "holy war" enshrined as an article of faith ? Whose religion punishes their women if they've been raped ? And who's been flying airplanes full of people into buildings full of people, or parking car bombs all over the landscape. I'll give you a clue, it ain't the Christians, or Jews, or Buddhists, or Hindus, or Zoroastrians, Pagans, Unitarians, Sufis, Jains, or even the fuckin' Satanists. I'll let the discerning reader figure it out for him/herself, but these people have been at war with us ever since their founding in the 6th Century AD. And now they want Spain back - and I'm not making that up either. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

C is for cognac, that's good enough for me ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

In particular, isn't it equally important to keep the "eye" clear of the grommet ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Glad to hear that. Following somebody's cutaway down and retrieving it really IS a gallant and considerate thing to do! Followed your later posts about the time and altitude, if you tossed your pilot chute around 3 grand, went through this whole drama and were sitting under an open reserve at or above 1900 ft, I'd say you did an outstanding job! You have every right to feel you can hhandle the situation with confidence, should it ever happen again. Well done! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

As an ex-Catholic (but still a Protestant), I was very deeply moved watching the news from Rome all week. We have a decent cafeteria at work and there are two TV's tuned into CNN all day, so I got to see quite a bit at lunch & on breaks. I've seen some grand funerals where people were grieved by loss and where whole nations made a show of deeply felt respect. But I've never seen anything like this. Something like 3 MILLION people coming from around the world ? Living together in sports stadiums and ancient Roman ruins ? Waiting in endless lines for 16 hours at a time, through the day and night to see the man one last time ? I've never seen such an outpouring of love for anyone. Never. I don't think anyone was too grieved at losing the Pope. He was old, he was ill and was failing in front of the whole world. I think we were all relieved to see him set free by death, so there wasn't any shock or trauma over that. It was time to let him go, but to so many people it was time to say goodbye one last time. There are a few people of very great souls who do change the course of history, people like Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, and this Pope John Paul. A lot of people, myself included, had some very deep disagreements over issues like birth control, married vs celibate clergy, women as priests, and so on. But he was a great spiritual force in the 20th century who helped bring about the collapse of one of the century's great evils, the Soviet empire. And the outpouring of love that millions of people have shown at his passing is beyond anything I can remember, ever. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Oh and thank you Gary for landing with my gear! Lodi, CA jumpers ROCK! Glad to hear you had a good cutaway and reserve ride. It's always great to be alive. Also glad that Gary's alive after catching your gear and landing with it. I know the Lodi DZ is right next to the freeway, but catching a cutaway canopy is what killed Nate Gilbert last year. Maybe I just read your post wrong & I'm even hoping I did. Catching cutaways KILLS people, PLEASE don't do it ! It's all nice and gallant, but that's what Nate probably thought too. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

My decision to jump with an AAD is not a reliance on it. Jumping without an AAD is betting against the house with your life when you don't need to. I like that. I remember in "the old days" we all used to say AAD's were a good enough idea, but we didn't use them because they weren't reliable (they weren't either, not back then). But now, if you understand how to use them, and their limits, they are plenty reliable. As a married guy with two teenage kids, I'll tell you it makes my wife and kids feel a lot less worried about me jumping. I know it isn't magic, but they think it is. "Dad's got a magic charm that will save his ass if he spaces out." I turn it on and understnad very well how it works and how it doesn't work too. And then I jump like it's not there, because I am NEVER going that low without pulling every handle I've got. And to tell you the truth, I'm not sure I'd jump without one. I'm older than I used to be and have obligations, as well as a more mature (hopefully) view of "the big picture". And I don't see the point in taking an unecessary risk on my life. If Tom Piras could bounce after more than 10,000 jumps, so can ANY of us. You only have to do it once & he did it the one time he forgot to turn the thing on. Was he dependent ? Nope, but he sure is dead. Nobody has ever gone out the door thinking, "THIS is the jump I'm going to need my Cypres, sure am glad I bought that thing". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I don't generally deal with change very well. Don't like it. You've changed too, where did your picture go ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

People shouldn't forget that a Cypres will not arm itself until 1500 ft of climbout from takeoff. So if you have to bail from less than 1500 ft, the Cypres isn't going to do ANYTHING at all. Because that's the way they're programmed. Once again, you'll have to pull silver yourself. In the olde days of the seventies, 500 ft used to be considered the minimum acceptable altitude for bailing out, below 500 you kissed your ass goodbye and trusted the pilot. Nowadays it seems more like 1000 ft is the bail or kiss altitude. Personally, if the plane's on fire, falling apart, or in a steep dive, I'll be clawing at the door to get it open and I'll bail at 50 ft because I'd rather bounce than burn. But if the pilot's got the plane in a glide, I'll stay buckled and kiss my ass goodbye, and maybe the ass next to me if she's pretty... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

One day at the swimming pool in a mental hospital, Edna sees James lying at the bottom of the deep end. Edna gets off the bench, dives in, swims down to James and pulls him to the surface. She then pulls him out of the pool and off to the men's locker room, then disappears. Some time later her doctor finds Edna sitting in her room. "Edna, what you did today was not only heroic, but it's convinced us that you reacted to a real life situation. That's the definition of sanity Edna, and we've decided that you should be released." But the doctor also added, "Unfortunately, James seems to have been determined to take his own life, because after you saved him from the pool he hung himself in the locker room anyway. I'm sorry to tell you this Edna, but after all you did for him, James is dead." Edna looked up at her doctor and said "He didn't hang himself, I put him there to dry. So what time am I leaving ?". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I must 'fess up to being a serious Deadhead collector. I've got probably somewhere around 800+ hours by now of live Grateful Dead music, all the way from 1964 jugband music in clubs to the last show they ever played in 1995. Then there's the post-Garcia era Dead band and all the other side bands that Jerry and Bobby and others have had over the years and still have nowadays. I continue to get packages of discs of this stuff maybe twice a month from other serious collectors, whether I ask for them or not. Just this week I got a package with a 1972 Winterland show in San Francisco, three more shows from 1977, a 1988 show with David Hidalgo of Los Lobos playing guest lead guitar on a couple numbers, and a 1972 Jerry Garcia Band with Paul Butterfield sitting in on harmonica. I met Garcia once, when I was only 15 years old and I loved the shit out of the Grateful Dead. They're like skydiving inside your head. I'm very willing to burn copies of the tons of Dead shit I've got with anyone who wants something, but I prefer to deal with serious inquiries only. So if anyone out there has a serious Jones for Jerry, send me a PM and I'll see what we can do. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

This is a Pope who grew up and came of age under the Nazi occupation of Poland and the almost total anihilation of Poland's Jews. Then after that, Stalin and the Commies took over for another 44 years. It shaped his best attributes about the worth of the human soul and human dignity. When the Soviets and the eastern bloc collapsed in 1989 - 91, John Paul issued a challenge to the west that has largeley been overlooked. His warning was that the west not repeat the basic mistake of Marxism, which was to value human life only for its economic contributions. He was very clear that the west was in such an overconfident mood at the collapse of Communism that it was in imminent danger of repeating Communism's worst mistake. The evidence so far doesn't suggest that anyone was listening too closely. As an ex-Catholic (still a nominally practicing Protestant) I disagreed with this Pope ona lot of issues, especially celibate clergy, women priests, and birth control, as well as Papal authority itself. But for all that, the man was a monumental moral force in both the 20th and early 21st centuries. He didn't shy away from telling anyone off, whether it was going home to then-Communist Poland and confronting General Jaruzelski, or telling President Bush why he believed the invasion of Iraq was wrong. The guy was still a real saint in a world where the concept is mostly laughed at. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !