FreeFlyFreaky

Yesterday, a crew of us from Skydive America took the Otter, Yankee Doodle, to the keys for a Red Bull demo jump in Islamorada, for the annual Bartenders Bash. Later we flew to Key West for dinner and libation. After dinner I'm walking down the street wearing one of the original Dropzone.com t-shirts and I'm accosted on the street by a total stranger. My brother said this guy had been eyeballing me strangely until he approached (ahem...this is Key West). This guy asks, "What's your name on Dropzone.com?" And you know the rest.... Nice to meet you Chuck. Glad you flagged me down. But be careful approaching guys down there though....LOL Btw, Omrimon was with us. On the midnight plane rider back to Pahokee and I mentioned I met you and he was very disappointed not to have met you too. He wishes you a hearty hello. He can be reached at SDA. Blue ones, Whit

PU55Y

Tami, It's so great to have you guys around. Your food is awesome. I vote for breakfast burritos Sat. oh and uh, just an observation---->Both master chefs and your dog has three legs??? hmmm..... Cya this weekend....Whit

People need to read their history - a) Palestinians are NOT and never have been "a people" - they have until last 35 years or so considered themselves Palestinian Arabs, b) 4/5 of 'Palestine' is in Jordan ( and Jordan hates there guts), and c) they have been offered 'land for peace' and have refused at least seven, count 'em 7 times since 1947. They don't want peace. They will only stop at the destruction of Israel. And, the Jews have lived uninterrupted - sometimes in great and sometimes in small numbers - in Eretz Israel (which includes most of present day Jordan) for over 3,000 years. (Of course they started out some 5,000 years ago, but spent a brief 1,500 or so years as slaves in Egypt). Arabs basically had it from the Crusades 1096 or so, maybe 1200, until end of Ottoman Empire (I think around late 1890's - 1900's). While some Jews lived there the whole time (a few thousand at the end) the Arabs made a fucking desert of the 'Land of Milk and Honey'. It wasn't until the late 1800 with the beginning of the Zionist movement that Jews began to return in great numbers (precisely because it was a) their biblical ancestral home and b) such an uninhabited desert surrounded by swamp, mosquito-filled, disease festered place. They are the ones who again, against incredibly difficult odds, turned it back into an incredible land of milk and honey. It is truly an AMAZING place. SO much history - all lovingly restored by the Jews. Under the Jews the Arabs are free to go to Al Aqsa (a place NOT even mentioned in the Koran) and ranking fairly low in the Muslim Top 10 list. The Christians can go to Holy Sepulcher Church where Christ was buried, walk the Via Dolorosa where Christ carried the cross, etc. And of course, Jews could go the Western Wall, the single most HOLY PLACE for Jews around the world and the only remaining part of the Second temple which was built around 100 BCE and destroyed by the Romans in 73 CE (AD). Of course this is some 650 years before Mohammed was even a gleam in his Daddy's eye and 1,000 years after the First Temple was built, before being destroyed by the Assyrians around 600 BCE. When the Arabs controlled Jerusalem, prior to the British Mandate after WWI, no Jews were allowed to visit the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, David's Tomb - nothing, NADA. If Arabs get a hold of Israel again - it will GO TO SHIT!!! All you have to do is walk from the Jewish, Christian or Armenian quarters of the Old City (of Jerusalem) into the Arab quarter and you will immediately understand what I'm talking about! As Richard Pryor would say, The FUNK rush out and knock ya to yo' knees! OR if you prefer, cross the border at Sinai into Egypt and step back 1000 years (except for the resorts, infrastructure etc the Jews built after they defeated the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Palestinian terrorist and Lebanese Arabs in 1973 and controlled Sinai until giving it back fully to Egypt (94% of the so-called "occupied territories" by the way) in 1990s.

http://www.iran-e-azad.org/stoning/stoning-t1.rm 23MB download and requires Real Player. ___________________________________________________ The stoning of women in Iran. This video was shot in 1991. It is the most horrific thing I have ever seen. The brutality is beyond comprehension. I warn you it is disturbing. While you view it think about this - This is Arafat’s clan folks. They come in many names across many countries - Fatah, Tanzim, Islamic Jihad, Hezbolla, Hamas, Al-Queda, Taliban, Abu-Sayeff, whatever.....they’re all cousins, brothers in arms in a common cause. Their goal is simple. They want to destroy Israel, America and the western and eastern empires. Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, all races and religions....everyone but themselves. They now send in children strapped with explosives to kill as many as possible. The regimes of Iraq and Saudi Arabia are paying the families $25,000 per suicide bomber. Of course, when the Israelis smash a rat infested compound and kill some of the civilians they were hiding behind – then Israel is somehow considered to be brutal racist exterminators. Kofi Annan and all of Europe (Briton at least possesses sense) evidently believe it to be so. According to A&E’s special last night on Arafat we need to consider him a great leader and Freedom Fighter. The Palestinian problem is really just a civil war - a war of proximity. Worldwide Islamic militancy is the bigger problem. The Palestinians war with all their neighbors not just Israel. The Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese - everyone hates the Palestinians. Gee, I can’t imagine why. But the Islamic world will support them in a war against Israel like a Gator pulls for FSU over Miami. The Islamic world knows that if the U.S. actually makes war then things will get much worse for them. They also know that where Israelis send ground troops with rifles and grenades we don’t fight that way. We send B-52s and have bombs with onomatopoetic names like Daisy Cutter. We’ll level your entire fucking burg if we think you’re in there. Then we send in troops. Israel could rocket these bastards into another universe. I think they are showing amazing restraint. Nobody bitched at us when we flattened the Taliban and Lord knows killed hundreds of innocents in the process. Why the apoplexy when Jews do the wet work? Sharon is a pig but Arafat was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? Oh yeah, I get it. This is really open unfettered racism against Jews yet again. But now it’s the allowable type of racism - much like the American version of acceptable racism – blacks’ racist antics against whites. Self proclaim yourself a victim and the PC crowd will grant you all sorts of atrocities. The PC solution in dealing with these people is to negotiate once again. And Colin Powell trots off like a dutiful little Neville Chamberlain ever wary of that super threat “The Islamic Uprising” - as if current events haven’t made it painfully clear it has already begun. We need to face the reality that now that it has begun it has to be finished. There will be a winner and a loser. Which will we be? The Nazis lost. If the Islamics had the technology and discipline that the Nazis possessed in 1944 we’d already be dead. The only solution is to destroy the leaders of these brutal regimes so that negotiation with reasonable people can begin. Hopefully this kowtowing with the ‘little’ terrorist is all just a deflection for the real war with Saddam. Eliminating Saddam is first big step. The Ayatollah is next. If this isn’t the plan of the current White House then we’re doomed. Whit Baker April 11, 2002

Nanodrive Uses Insect Parts By John C. Dvorak If you thought that the Microdrive from IBM was cool, you'll be more impressed if IBM can get its new Nanodrive out of the lab. Developed at IBM's Almaden Research facility, and announced today, the new drive relies on what is termed a natural bio-actuator—in this case, an insect antenna—to actually control the head position of a nanoscale hard drive. The concept was developed by visiting IBM fellow, Latot Esnesnon, known by his colleagues as the Einstein of Lithuania. He was trained at Manchester and holds a professorship at Berkeley, although he spends most of his time at IBM's TJ Watson Research center working with insects, trying to find one that could be used for simple logic and genetically bred to make a biological computer. In the course of his investigations, he stumbled on what IBM calls the Esnesnon Effect—the movement by a precise distance of a specific insect antenna when a square wave impulse is sent into the insect's body. IBM has since developed a prototype nanoGMR head using ruthenium that is literally glued to the end of the antenna. The data itself will transmit across the outer layer of the antenna which is coated with gold plate approximately one atom thick. The pulse-code-modulated square wave that makes the antenna move is fed into a leg to deliver the data to the GMR head. The small hard disk itself can hold only 1KB of data, but IBM expects that eventually to evolve to 100 megabytes, then a gigabyte. IBM has been trying to develop organic technologies for the past 20 years. Commercializing the insect actuator would save millions of dollars according to the company, given that the parts could be bred and would mass produce themselves. In fact, do a quick Web search for "insect actuator" and you'll discover that Fujitsu actually developed a similar technology years before IBM. The Japanese abandoned the idea, however, apparently because of insect--desiccation issues that caused alignment problems. Fujitsu believes the problem cannot be fixed. But the Esnesnon effect itself seems to be maintained even when the bug is completely dried up. See Attachment IBM says it can beat the alignment problem by using just the insect head instead of the whole body. Drying of the insect body seems to cause the alignment shift. The head is harder, and the desiccating effect is negligible. Unfortunately, the current IBM design (see picture) requires that the square wave be sent into the body of the insect by way of a leg that is soldered onto the chip substrate. Right now, there is no other way of getting the square wave into the insect head. And according to one skeptic at Seagate, there's the problem of oozing, especially when the head is cut from the insect body, which causes bug juice to flow over the silicon and short it out. Then we have the government. Apparently the FDA will have something to say about all this, and this seems to be the problem that Fujitsu ran into and may be why Fujitsu really stopped this research. Although incredible, the way the food and drug laws are written, there is a limit on the amount of insect parts that can be found in processed food. Apparently the FDA definition of "process" can be loosely interpreted to mean the process technology to make chips. Based on this loophole, the Ninth Circuit Court in San Francisco—laughable as this may sound—allowed an odd lawsuit against Intel to be heard. The action was brought by a group of disgruntled developers who used the loophole to sue over "bugs" in Intel firmware. The suit was eventually thrown out when no real insect parts could be cited. But since the case was heard in the first place, it opened the door for potential action against IBM. IBM thinks it can get the law modified while the product is in development, and the company says it will just pay the fines in the meantime. But according to one industry rumor, the government is going to ask for an injunction against any further testing because, as one source put it, "until this gets straightened out...the law is the law." I'm sure we'll see how this turns out by next April 1.

I'm April 2 - Slappie we have a winner!

Quade, I think I know what you're implying as far as the strap kind of following the clip and staying clamped but it really doesn't behave that way for me. I've one handed dirt-pulled this thing dozens of times and it comes off cleanly with a good snatch. A slow steady pull does not release it well and I actually like that fact. Basically I want the sucker to stay on...except when I want it off. This really works. One handed too. Voodoo, can you post the Euro pic somehow? Reduce size? I'm very curious. Whit

Pic 2

I thought I would share photos of my chin cup cutaway. None of us want to see 2 Grovers come flying off our heads in a mishap but I don’t want the helmet so secure that I lose my life because the equipment won’t let go of my head. My reasons for a cutaway? I know how hard the pressure on the clips is when it is just strapped to my head. Sometimes it is difficult to pop off on the ground. I have to squeeze the clip with my thumb to get it off normally. Under a spinning mal I just don’t know if I would have the dexterity to get if off cleanly or at all for that matter. This works beautifully (this assumes the centrifugal force allows my hands to reach my head) and if the web strap flies loose in freefall (never has) it in no way compromises the present security. I saw a similar system developed by someone else who posted here about a year ago and blatantly copied the concept though our materials are somewhat different. I have only seen two other jumpers with chin cup cutaway systems. To me it’s surprising. Your thoughts? My helmet is the Hawkeye by Arrow Dynamics. I reversed the ratchet straps and connectors. On this model straps are normally on the chin cup. I drilled two tiny holes on the lifting surface of the connectors and threaded 80 lbs test monofilament thru the web strap as pictured. What you can’t see is the knot tied to the 7/8” webbing; this is covered by the stick-on Velcro that completes the deal. Out of pocket expenses $0.00, for me anyway. Safe ones.... Whit

Bummer...it got me good though....

See if you can figure out what's wrong with this picture. I stared at it for almost 2 minutes before it finally dawned on me. You have to turn your sound up and study the picture very closely. It shocked me when I did finally see it. http://home.attbi.com/~n9ivo/whatswrong.swf

If you want to do any serious editing then its either the PC110 or now the PC120. I've fire-wired clips from 9's and 5's the quailty of the 110 and 120 are far superior. The difference is not just in the stats, it's visibly different. I edit with Adobe Premiere 6.0. The numbers ------ The PC110 has 1.07 megapixels with 520 lines of res and the PC120 has 1.5 megapixels with 530 lines. vs. 680K pixels and 500 lines for the PC9. From a purely quality perspective it's a no brainer. The PC120 is da bomb. Opening snags? I have a PC110 mounted on a Arrow Dymanics Hawkeye helmet with a D-box. Personally I've never had a problem. But I never look up at my canopy during deployment. I look straight down and actually keep my head tilted down until fully deployed. My method, My $.02, Whit

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28372-2002Feb5.html I say the IOC can shove it! If our athletes are not allowed to carry this flag into the ceremony then they should tell the IOC that America will not attend. Screw the IOC and their petty PC bullshit! Of course, if our athletes aren't willing to stand up for this then they're a bunch of gutless pussies too. my $.02 Whit

OK I had to pipe up on this. I've been on about 10 loads with this guy and I can tell you the little dog DOES NOT seem to be enjoying himself. The little critter shakes and shivers from the time he starts suiting up 'til he's back on the ground. When the jump run starts and the door opens the little dog has a look of fright that is readily recognized. Most folks at our DZ frown on this practice (he's still allowed to jump) and have kinda black balled the guy socially (one chick has made a crusade of this and has contacted PETA and SPCA? and several Florida DZ's trying to get him ousted). btw, the dog is in the 2002 Guiness Book - pg 103. My $.02 Whit

Girlfriend: Do you know anyone who has been seriously injured or killed? Me: Yeah, one day about six months ago I was here when a guy broke both his legs. Girlfriend: On the same skydive? Whit btw, yes, she's blond....

Hey - I had to pipe in even though I haven't read the entire thread. It seems to me that you've completely jumped the gun. I.E. Darlin', you can't expect to learn transitions until you have a stable headdown. If you don't know what a headdown feels like it's going to be very tuff to flip into one and hold it. Unless you're doing solos trying transitions to headdown can be outright dangerous. If you can only maintain headdown while someone is holding you and you cork as soon as they let go then you need to work on body position. In all likelyhood you're probably arching and are tense as all get out. I would really suggest you jump with someone who will take you head down for the next 10-20 jumps until you can freefly the exit and do it yourself. Next jump, find the horizon (mentioned above), relax and ride it. QUIT ARCHING! ---BREATH BREATH BREATH - LEGS LEGS LEGS - Think BIG LEGS! When you extend your arms do it with your palms down. (toward your feet) . Do it right now and then flip your palms up. Notice how you tend to arch this way? Notice how much more relaxing the palm down position is? Extend your arms with your palms down and your arms somewhat to the front and not the sides. BREATH BREATH BREATH - Relax - BIG LEGS! Do it Again! Do this for as many times as you need until you can ride it the whole way by yourself. Hopefully less than 20. After you know what a headdown is supposed to feel like then I would work on transitions. For the first 100 or so you will still be learning how to simply go straight down without sliding (nearly all of us backslide starting out). At your DZ (Deland, isn't it?) I know Alejandro and Cisco and just met Jimmy on Thanksgiving day. These guys are great freefly coaches. Spend the bucks if you can on some coaching. Just my $.02, Good luck and don't give up....you can do it. It's frustrating as hell starting out but it is sooooo worth it... WHIT Skydive America Palm Beach - FREEFLY DZ

Busting into Prison Pahokee, Florida - Saturday, October 27, 2001 was a particularly windy day. Reports on the weather band called for small craft advisories on the coast with winds from 20 to 25 knots. I was heading to the DZ anyway hoping that the inland location would be calmer. Well, it was. But not by much. A wind meter at the landing area showed a steady 18 mph. The only people here today were the core regulars, these guys will come on rainy days and wait for dry holes in the sky. Students and tandems would not have been allowed to jump but there were none today even hanging out. A full load today was only going to be 12 freeflyers. We had done a few flock dives that day and then a very fast track dive. The winds, though strong were not that difficult to land. Forward motion was scant so gauging your landings presented some challenges. The spots were about a mile north of the dropzone and opening up so far away from the landing area felt strange. You angled your canopy a little into the wind and crabbed it back to the landing area. Normally from this distance I would be facing the dropzone, now it remained behind me or to my side. Most of the time I steered by looking over my shoulder. It was similar to tacking in a fast sailboat. Turns down wind were furiously fast and fun. One of the nice things about Skydive America Palm Beach is that there is so little development around the airport. There are endless miles of sugar cane fields to the north, east and south or to the west is the expanse of Lake Okeechobee. There are a few small neighborhoods to the north and some power lines near the main road but basically the off DZ landing areas are everywhere. Our typical climb path takes us over Belleglade to the south. Belleglade is a poor farming community surrounded by hundreds of green square miles. On the ride up the cane is everywhere but curiously the most prevalent industry seen from the air are not cane refineries but all the prisons in surrounding area. I forget how many there are but I recall at least five. Sitting at the door on the rides up I would think of the poor bastards behind those walls looking up to see the Red White and Blue flag painted Otter flying by hour after hour. What an exquisite agony if one of those guys was a skydiver and knew who we were and what we were doing. I’ve also sat there and thought “hmm, it wouldn’t be that hard to jump into one.” Fleeting mind ramblings of a skydiver going to altitude. Then came load five. Tired of big ways Chad and I decide to do a two-way and work on transitions. As with each takeoff I did the routine of buckling the seat belt, securing my helmet, making sure all the straps were snug. Funny thing was earlier that day I was taking notice that to the last man everyone of us had their helmets on during takeoff. I was feeling good that this was the group of guys I was jumping with. Each one observing the most basic of safety requirements. It actually passed through my mind that if this plane was going to have problems during takeoff that this group could handle it. I, of course, didn’t think it would be today. We were a few minutes into the climb when the engine sputtered. We each intimately know every nuisance of every sound this plane makes. All heads perked up and everyone scanned the eyes of the others looking for queues. This was not a sound we were used to. Sputter number two came 10 agonizing seconds later. That did it. The clicks of helmets being simultaneously shut filled the cabin. Chest and leg straps were being tightened and stowed. Both engines were still running. In less than five seconds everyone was on their knees and ready. Shouts of “Hop’n’pop guys we're at three grand.” To the pilot, “So, what it is Peter, are we baling?” The pilot queues the intercom, “Any jumper that wants to jump can jump!” Huh? What kind of answer is that, I’m wondering. Do you want us out now or what? A mild confusion sets in. The engine sputters again. There is no panic. We all know we’ve got plenty of altitude. We are prepared and ready but the pilot hasn’t given us that “get the @#$% out” command yet. I had enough time to take off my helmet and put on my goggles. Nathan walks up to ask the pilot for an answer. Just as he’s walking back the starboard engine coughs and dies. That does it, exit, exit, exit. I dive out a little at angle. I haven’t done a belly floater exit since I don’t know when so I ride it down to stabilize before deploying. My Pro Track has me exiting and 3400’ and in the saddle by 2600’. Now, where to land? I see Steve M., Luigi and Steve-O all nearby. The choices were few. Certainly eight foot tall cane is to be avoided. I won’t make it to the road. So the best choice appeared to be a plowed field next to the prison. As I watch Steve-O below me I realize that if I land with him in the plowed field, the ditch and the fence were going to make for a long walk out of there, plus I didn’t want to give my canopy a dirt bath if I could avoid it. What about the prison? It’s amazing how much information your brain can process in such a short period. Ok, if I land in the prison what will really happen? Well, I’m thinking that every shiny badge in Belleglade is going to be in on this one. After all, since the terrorists were thwarted from renting crop dusters right here in Belleglade, they’ve got to be on high alert for other lightweight airborne intruders. What’s to stop suicide jumpers (with parachutes?) from putting on multi-colored tie-dyed jumps suits and using stealthy American flag patterned parachutes to disguise their special evil. The media will be on the spot covering the latest lead on America’s fight against terrorism. Surely, we’ll be sniffed for Anthrax and be found positively negative by every cable news show. I’ll get my fifteen minutes and when its all over maybe, just maybe I’ll be invited on the next "Survivor"...nah, nah. The scenario that actually ran through my mind was fusing when I saw the sheriff’s cars was not far from where I was about to land. Now I figure it’s probably going to be a legal hassle for breaking into the prison, trespassing on federal property or whatever. Or maybe not. It sure was the nicest place to land. I gave up speculating and looked for the safest spot. Whatever was about to happen would happen. At least Luigi and Steve M. will be there with me. I find out later that the scenario running through Luigi’s head was a van ride to do some explaining at INS. Luigi is Italian and waiting for citizenship documents to be processed. He was truly freaking. The three of us gathered up our chutes and begin walking towards the buildings. I keep waiting for the guards to finally show up but there doesn’t seem to be any. Odd. Then three young boys come running out. These were the most excited little guys. Turns out we had landed in the vocational-technical school near one of the prisons. The local sheriffs department gets their cars serviced here. From above we all thought it was a prison. Steve-O chose the plowed field thinking we were idiots. My doomsday scenarios subsided. The boy’s dads were nearby and let us use a mobile phone. Manifest said the vans were on the way. The kids walked us to the front gates pelting us with excited questions. How do you pull the chutes? Do you really have two parachutes? Were you scared? Is it fun? Can you imagine how cool it’s going to be for them at school on Monday. Yeah, it’s fun! Everyone including the pilot (and one very spooked skydiver without a rig in the co-pilot’s seat) had landed safely. It was text book emergency protocols and everyone participated flawlessly. Ironically, the plane was to be fitted with new (-34) engines the following Monday. In a couple of weeks we will have the fastest Twin Otter on the planet. Lady Luck graciously provided a cool pilot, experienced jumpers, decent altitude and open flat ground. To us, this was more a procedure than an emergency, thankfully. This would be one for the grandkids. I do, however, believe that a plane at 1000 feet, losing altitude, fire, students, tandems, jumpers popping reserves; all pose an entirely different situation. Yes, without a doubt, new engines! Whit Baker Hollywood, Florida

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001352016,00.html

Hey Ben, A note on the weather here in Fla. You're coming at the perfect time. It's warm during the day and cool (sometimes damn cold) at night. None of the summer storms to worry about. About the only thing you may encounter would be strong winds, the coastal areas are obviously more prone to shutdowns. Look us up at Skydive America Palm Beach if you have the time. We're about a two hour drive from Sebastian. We're also inland away from the coastal winds and are probably open more days than any dropzone in USA. (OK, it's a shameless plug, but hey, it's my dropzone) btw, you do realize that Cape Coral is on the complete other side of the state from Sebastian?? No way to get your rig delivered? it would save you a whole day of driving---just a thought. Be safe! Whit

A 7-way RW jump that trashes into freeflying with one jumper that has 27 jumps under her belt? Great plan! This is the recipe for a disaster! Whit

ROTFLMAOPIMP Aviatrr, Do you have a URL for that vid?? Too funny! Whit

Dude! You alright?

Mirage G3 M2 - Pull Out Pud Cypres No RSL Safire 169 (Flag colors B,B,R,W,R,W,R,W,R) Raven Dash-M 150 (Purple, I just discovered the hard way - my cherry popping cutaway was this past Sunday)

Hey -- reread the post and saw it was two not four but either way it looked like you were biting off more than you should be chewing and I was actually more upset that other divers would invite you into such a situation and I fired off the post a little fast... btw...when it comes to freeflying the hardest thing to master at first is control of your drift. Most of us tend to slide either forward or backward when learning...therefore your heading becomes vitally important so that you dont drift into other's air space....keep your headings perpendiclular to the jump run and give at least 8-10 seconds separation...just another tip for ya... Welcome to freeflying...be safe amigo, Whit