tbrown

The autopsy happens today. The latest I've heard is that she's still dead. Film at eleven. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Maybe the Senator should eat more watermelon in front of the cameras ? Or start saying "sho' nuff" ? Or smoking Kools ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It's great. I'll help anyone who asks. Now all we need is one like it for guys to check out their balls & I'm not kidding either. It's pretty much the same routine, in a hot shower and it can save your life (it killed one of my brothers). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

You're describing a really nasty situation that coulda/shoulda been avoided in the first place. But if things are that bad, go ahead and pull your reserve. When things get that grim the important thing is that you get creative and keep fighting "until the blood fills your goggles". No guarantees that it will work, but it might and you have to try. Because the meek shall inherit the earth. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Talk to somebody at USPA, try getting hold of your Regional Conference Director for starters and the DZO of the place you intend your club to jump at. I founded a college club back in the seventies, in those days the college administration was very supportive. Of course they also allowed the Rugby Club to keep a keg on the their bench during games (hence a Rugby CLUB, teams weren't allowed to drink during sports events). This whole safety nazification issue is pretty nauseating. You might want to ask them when they're going to drain the campus swimming pool - oh wait, don't tell me they've already done that .... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Ooh, no slider either, that must be fun, hope the WL is appropriate for Joe's experience.... Back in ye olde daze, the original 12" GI Joe had a pretty nifty round canopy. Not that I ever played with DOLLS mind you, but there were some children on my street who did (I think they grew up to be fairly normal dull whuffo types). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Still my favorite after all these years, something like my 10th jump back in 1974. This was a hop & pop from 3200 ft, my JM wrote "Stable by coincidence only". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

All good train wrecks must come to an end. I will miss her eternal lawsuit with the family of rich stiffs, it restored my faith in humanity. I feel real sorry for her baby. We will not see the likes of her pass our away again in our lifetime (oh well...). It was always all about her anyway, wasn't it ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I was checking out some of the videos of her interviews last summer, just before her Shuttle flight. Pictures of her as a midshipman at Annapolis too, in her full dress uniform. The woman's had an outstanding career with the Navy and NASA up 'til now. Masters degree in aerospace engineering too. And three kids. I think it's just a fucking shame. Obviously something snapped inside her head. Something with her brain chemistry has got to be seriously out of whack. Her career's in ruins, she may go to the joint, the Navy will crucify her, and she may not get to see her kids either. And her only possible defense is that she flipped her lid. I'm not excusing her, she may have to be punished. But I hope some serious consideration might be given to the possibility that she's mentally ill and needs a lot of help. It's just a shame. Probably be a skit about it on Saturday Night Live too... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

April 27, 1974. I was 18. T-10 static line from a C-182 at Seneca Falls, NY. Our JM, a guy named Dave Staub, gave us a peptalk and asked for a volunteer he could rely on to go first. Told him I'd do it. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Never heard of anyone being attacked before, but we do have red tail falcons flying around some days at Perris. Mostly they're just checking out the posers, "You've got to be kidding, these creatures are trying to FLY ?". There is a video at skydivingmovies.com of a falcon latching onto Norman Kent's pilot chute over the San Juan Islands in washington state. I suppose factors like a nest full of eggs or young hatchlings could make a big bird dangerously testy and protective. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

About five years ago I went to an exhibit of rock memorabilia at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, right at the foot of the Space Needle. Lots of cool stuff like Nancy Sinatra's boots, Ringo Starr's gray collarless jacket, Madonna's pointy bra, etc, etc. Not a permanent exhibit either, I doubt it would still be there. The exhibit also had Buddy Holly's glasses. They were broken. He'd been wearing them when he went in. They had only recently been rediscovered in an evidence locker at the Madison County Sheriffs' Office, where they'd been sitting for over forty years. As the realization sunk in of what I was looking at, it just got really creepy. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Now he should strangle the owners, since the cops aren't going to do shit about them. In EVERY case of a bad dog, you need look no further than the owner to find the reason why. People should be allowed to shoot unleashed dogs - and their owners. And yes, I fuckin' HATE dogs. they're cowardly pack animals who are just waiting for their next opportunity. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Damn ! She's definitely a keeper ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I disagree. What Hillary Clinton said is that Bush is walking out on his responsibility for an exit plan. Bush has never had an exit plan, he has always believed the Iraqis would just love us to death and probably invite us to stay. Now that things have gone tits up, all he can do is escalate the war, and as for EVER getting out, well that's something the next President will have to figutre out because he is going to wash his hands of the mess and go back to the ranch in Texas. He's like the yahoo who rides a horse through a china shop and can't understand why he should pay the bill for smashing the place up. Iraq's a real mess and I'll be damned if I know what the answer is either. We've brought down a regime that kept Al Qaeda OUT. We should consider there were once reasons why Reagan, Bush Sr., Rumsfeld, et all were once buddy-buddy with Saddam. By turning him out we've created a shit storm and it's as dangerous to leave as it is to stay. But occupations don't work and the longer we stay the worse it gets, as we forestall the inevitable with blood and more blood. It's why we never should've gone in the first place, it's why Bush Sr. didn't do it. But now that Boy George has gone and stirred up the hornet's nest, he's only too happy to dump it in somebody else's lap, as he wanders off into his "place in history". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

And he's just one, which is less than twelve. so what's your point, if one is less than twelve, could he not be one OF twelve ? Or perhaps he just identifies with them, but is smart enough not to be on their books as a member. Anyway, I don't think it's a parody, I think the guy's dead serious. Which is too bad. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Oh yeah, definitely cover those Capewells with your left arm. The old one and a half shot Capewells in standard use by the seventies left a lot of nasty snaggy garbage hanging out in front of you. The day I made my first freefall (7/13/74) my JM and I had no sooner landed than one of my JM's pals approached him and told him that a friend had just gone in on a demo jump at some County Fair. I'd never met the guy, but his name was Paul Pogorzelski, or "Pogo" and he'd cutaway from a malfunctioned ParaPlane Cloud and snagged some part of his reserve on his open Capewell hardware. It streamered his reserve and he'd gone in. He's part of the group picture in front of the Twin Beech at Akron in the "Beaver" thread (scr72.jpg, my old friend Jimmy Tavino identifies names a couple posts down from the pic, Paul was the kid third from left in the back row). I knew another guy who was friends with Pogo and went to his wake. So when R2's and R3's came out, they were considered a HUGE advance because they replaced all that gnarly metal with soft fabric. As for the Sentinels, I remember those too. Andy9o8 and I both got started at the same place and we've PM'ed a lot about it. There was a Sentinel that prematurely fired at 3 grand, killing a freefaller above the deploying reserve (the guy had calibrated it in the plane, after takeoff, a really dumb thing to do that cost someone else his life). But I also knew a chick from my school who never pulled on her first freefall and the sentinel saved her. she never jumped again, but had the spent squib made into a piece of jewelry that she always wore afterwards. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

"Sonofabitch, you just farted !" Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I jump a 210 Pilot, loaded at about 1.2. The bigger canopies are hard to pull the fronts down because you're fighting the force of the lift on the underside of a larger wing. But try pulling your toggles down to about half brakes first. This cuts your forward speed and reduces the volume of air passing under the canopy. You only need to hold half brakes for a second or two, then go for your dive loops and pull 'em down. You'll be amazed how easily they come down. And by the way, DO NOT take your hands out of the toggles, it's not safe. It takes way too long to get a hold of them again if you need to act quickly. Your steering lines might be too short, look up at them when you're flying wide open. They should have enough slack to make a visible graceful arc to the tail of your canopy. If they don't arc, they're too short and would definitely cause buffetting when you use the fronts. Of course as soon as you pull down your fronts you'll start going even faster, so the pressure will return quickly. The trick here is that mentally you don't so much pull your fronts down, as pull YOURSELF UP, like on a chinning bar. Once you get yourself up there, with a little bend in your elbows, the next step is simply making up your mind not to let go until you're good and ready to. Letting up on the opposite riser to make a turn sounds good to me. Actually you can easily make small turns with your fronts, by which I mean just a few degrees left or right. And while you should start off up high, you'll need to start bringing it down closer as you get more comfy and experienced with it. Because the Pilot has such a long flat glide that your fronts are the only way to keep from overshooting the landing zone on some lazy no wind days. You may need to honk on those fronts to keep your approach on the beam. Fortunately the Pilot has a quick recovery arc, so you can take it down pretty close if you have to - but only after gradually working your way down and with plenty of input from your instructors. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Not if he's one of the followers of that nut fringe group that goes around thanking God for IEDs that kill American soldiers as a punishment for America tolerating gays. Those people have been picketing funerals and harassing wounded GIs when they show up at hospitals for therapy. I could easily see them making a video like this, "God hates fags" is one of their mottos. Makes you proud of the First Amendment, don't it ? This is the kind of sewage we have to put up with so the rest of us can be free. God will deal with him sooner or later, One on one. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I switched from a Spectre to a Pilot, but my reserve is still a PD. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

"C", at least then you know what you're getting, no matter how shitfaced you are. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Don'cha just wish ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

What is the actual incident report ? What were the nature of the malfunctions ? This was in Europe, but we haven't heard of anything like cut risers since the Hilder case. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

(although I think you were refering to the other Dave in your post.) Nope, I meant you Dave. Thanks very much for your detailed answer. I know a few years back it was pretty much gospel that performance was affected at some point, but it hadn't been discussed in a while and much has happened to change the thinking on the subject. Appreciate your input. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !