GraficO

Krishan, I'll be at the DZ Saturday... lets look at it and see what's going on. Mine doesn't move a bit... GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

It's been a little while but I did get my bootie pant when she said they'd be here.... just haven't had the time to post a photo... so..... Here it is. Yes the chromy flags on the legs and arms match my rig main flap... Purty eh? ALSO... talked to Ms. Firefly today again... she's almost caught up... maybe 3-4 days behind schedule. Good news for all of you with suits pending! She says she apologizes for the delays but she has been sewing her brain out to get caught up! Have no fear you will get your suits and you will love them as much as I love mine! GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

if you think that's flashy.... Prepare for BLIND! LOL GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

er...uh... what do you mean by opposing risers and leg straps? GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

The Guner is SO QUIET in freefall that you would be better to put either a Pro-Track OR Pro-Dytter in there with the volume level on low... or it will be very loud! I have a Guner and a Pro-Track... never had a single problem with either of them. Do yourself a favor... spend the extra $$$ on the Pro-Track and you can't go wrong. You'll have an audible computer that will last you for years to come... And yes the service of L&B is impeccable... GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

the list missed me too... 02 Black Avalanche Z71. Or do I fit in the F-250 crowd? GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Now THAT's the kind of attitude we like! My friend had one of the Flexon's and he had absolutely no trouble with it. Good rigs come out of Rigging Innovations. My first was a Talon! Now go jump dammit! GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

THE FAKAWEE TRIBE Thursday… The Arrival Excitement was building as jumpers from around the state of New Mexico and West Texas began to trickle in one by one to a small windblown metal building just a stone’s throw from the Texas border. With each arrival, the excitement and anticipation grew like a wildfire. The diversity within this rag-tag group is what made the weekend’s events memorable yet at the same time, we had no idea of all the fun that was about to befall us. Friday… Getting It Together Not everyone could come down to the little rinky-dink burg known as Clovis, New Mexico as early as some of the others. The 5 idiots who were to comprise the base or center of the formation record were however, able to break away from the 9-to-5 and start early. Without a good base, this New Mexico State record formation attempt would fail and everybody knew it. The 5 base “idiots” were: Steve Astuto, a lumbering 6 foot plus man and a dentist from Amarillo; Steve “Cookie” Kokura, a foul mouthed, cocky F-111 Air Force jet jockey; Gary Gross, an Air Force Captain that the women absolutely drooled over; Dale “Sledge” Hanner, Cannon AFB’s Colonel in charge of safety and a decorated F-111 pilot in the Gulf War; and Adam Buckner, a lobbying assistant from Santa Fe with goofy knack of making people laugh for no apparent reason, set out early Friday morning to build the base that was to be the new state record. Imagine 5 large men, stuffed into a little Cessna airplane, much better entertainment than watching circus clowns pack into a VW! Feeling the pressure to make a good base, the “idiots”, determined to make a suitable target for the other 8 divers, gathered their gear and headed for the airport with a quiet tension in the air that you could cut with a knife. Armed with nothing but our skills, our experience and a rainbow of different colored jumpsuits with patches covering holes from sketchy landing attempts, the “idiots” boarded the Cessna 210 in a blur of scalding jokes and cracks about each other’s mothers. We were attempting to mask the anxiety we all felt but were too macho to show. The 35-minute ride to altitude on the first base practice jump was almost like any other load of jumpers. Gary decided that a song was in order to relax the group. “Friends In Low Places” by Garth Brooks and “Time For Me to Fly” by REO Speedwagon was belted out with nervous zest followed by the theme from Gilligan’s Island and the Brady Bunch Theme. These masterpieces of song were completely butchered, yet sung with the drone of the airplane engine, we might as well have been at Rockefeller Center as the opening act… in our own minds. Nearly to jump altitude at 10,500 feet above the ground, and the “idiots” voices raspy from the singing, it was time to get serious about what we were up there to do. Truly, we did not know how everything was going to go until we actually exited the plane but now was the time to “Shut Up and Jump.” Gary directed us over the airport and then motioned to the pilot that it was time to cut the engine speed back a little and open the door. When the door actually opened it was like putting lotion on a rash. All the tension seemed to be soothed away with the rush of the cold air now spilling into the cabin. Focused and ready we all began the climb out onto the wheel of the airplane. To the untrained or inexperienced eye, it looks like a herd of baboons hanging from the wing strut of an airplane in some high-flying circus but we knew what we were doing… or so we thought. Everybody was in place and the count to jump was given… Ready! Set! Go! What happened next wasn’t a huge surprise, we may as well have been 5 frogs in a blender, all mixed up and falling all over each other, this exit was blown and we all knew it. Scrambling to make this thing work the way it was intended, we all decided that it was best to zero in on the lowest man and try to rebuild the formation on him. In theory, this is a good thing but the drawback is those 4 people deciding to zoom in on the low man and the low man thinking he needed to slow his fall rate down isn’t a good combination. Steve Astuto, Cookie, Gary and myself simultaneously zoomed toward Sledge who was furiously trying to slow his fall rate down to float back up to us. Needless to say, we went too fast and he went too slow, so we passed each other with stupid looks on all of our faces. Getting close to 3000 feet and our deployment altitude, 4 of us got together linking our hands in a circle and Sledge never got into the formation to complete it. We all sped or tracked away from each other and deployed safely. Landing in the same general area, we all debriefed what had happened and decided that we needed to try it again, and again, and again, until we got it right. We made 4 jumps that day, and each one was better than the next. As the morning turned into afternoon, clouds, winds and bad weather slowly started creeping our direction. In desperation, we decided to make one more jump to “get it right” and that jump should have never been made as it almost doused our chances of having 13 viable skydivers to complete the record. It was almost sunset and dark thunderstorms were being pushed in by high winds. Flickers of lightning were shooting across the horizon in the distance and as we climbed to altitude singing the Gilligan’s Island theme again… and our little ship was being tossed. On the ground most of the other jumpers had already arrived and were watching the base idiots climb to altitude in the storm. The winds on the ground were now running about 20-30 mph and gusting. Drops of rain began to pock the dry dirt and the smell of lightning was in the air. Worried that the conditions in the air and on the ground were not acceptable, the ground crew radioed up to the jump plane to tell us that we shouldn’t jump. Just as the crackle of the message was received, we were already out the door. Despite the bad weather, the formation went completely as planned and was rock solid. The only obstacle now would be landing in the now full-on storm and not getting hurt. Most of the jumpers had fairly high performance canopies that would slice through the bad weather, save one. I was not that lucky. Even though the canopy I was using was “blessed” by none other that Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves because it was used in the movie Point Break, it was huge, docile didn’t want to cut through the full on rain and wind. The other jumpers made it down wet and frazzled but safe. I, on the other hand, was doing everything I could to bring this canopy down to the ground and it wasn’t cooperating with me. Steadily, I was being blown backwards toward the hard asphalt taxi way and runway desperately trying to get this canopy down in what had now turned into a full force gale. As the runway got closer and closer I knew that I was going to get hurt. How bad I did not know, at the same time I HAD to get this damned thing on the ground. As bad luck would have it, I slammed down hard on the tarmac with a gaggle of people running towards me attempting to grab my parachute and keep it from dragging me across the field. The impact force crumpled my body like an accordion and I felt the pain shoot through my right leg. “Oh boy,” I said to myself in the split second after impact, sure that I had broken something. As luck would have it, the now drenched landing committee helped me to my feet where I discovered that due to the force of the landing, I had only slammed my elbow into the top of my right thigh severely bruising it. The impact was not enough to break it, but hard enough that movement and walking was next to impossible. This motley crew hauled me into the hangar and the question whether or not I would be able to continue with the actual record attempt the following day was shooting through everyone’s minds. The standing record was 12 and we had 13 people for the jump. Losing one to injury meant that the whole event was for not. We all went to bed that night wondering if I was going to make it including myself. None of us would know until the next morning. Saturday… How the Fakawee Tribe Got Its Name Getting up early on Saturday, I knew my leg was going to hurt like hell but I wasn’t going to be the cause of our record attempt not happening. Limping out to the car and driving out to the dropzone, I felt a sense of relief from the other skydivers that we were going to make the record happen. Everyone was primed and ready to go, the airplanes were prepped, and the sky was showing signs of clearing enough to make the dives without a repeat of the evening before. We all debriefed how the dive was supposed to go and the jobs of each individual including the pilots. What a group we had. Here are the players: Jane Ann Bode and her husband Mike from Albuquerque both worked for Sandia National Laboratories; Marcus Thornton, a construction worker from Amarillo; Jeff “Deuce” Gearhart a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines; Holt Durham, who at the time was a cashier at an Indian Gaming palace in Albuquerque; Pierce Smith, a industrial Tech from Levelland, Texas; Jaret Eccleston, a flamboyant and promiscuous private in the Air Force; Jarred Little who was a student at Texas Tech and an aspiring pilot; and flying a camera on his head to capture the dive on video was Bill Pearson, a major circuit tech for the phone company. Flying the 3 aircraft we would be using were: John Carlson, a retired Air Force Colonel who had test flew nearly every jet aircraft in the American Armed Forces; Tony Castinelli, another F-111 jet jock in the Air Force; and Mike “Vinny” Eovine, a Boston Italian right seater in F-111s in the Air Force. Our entourage was also joined by various girlfriends, wives and other friends who wanted to see us make the record and support out efforts. The 3 aircraft we would be flying for the record attempts were a Cessna 210 that would hold 5 jumpers, a Cessna 206 that would hold 5 jumpers and a twin Piper Bonanza that would hold the remaining 3 and the video guy. The Bonanza was not really suited for dropping jumpers because it had a really small door that had to be completely removed in order not to risk tearing it off in flight making for an extremely cold and noisy flight to altitude. Even though the pilots, all experts and well seasoned, assured us that we could make the dives without a weather problem, some of us were still unsure… and that in itself was the beginning of the Fakawee Tribe… read on… Weather wise, it was pleasant. Small portals of blue sky were showing through the clouds and the wind had died down to a slight breeze. We debriefed the first dive and went over the plane formation so that the 13 of us could get together without having to spend precious time tracking across the sky to build the formation. We intended to make at least 4 attempts that day and if they were unsuccessful, we would have Sunday for additional attempts. Boarding all the airplanes we were all focused on making the record on that dive. During the climb to altitude every group in each airplane was singing some song, but the base airplane was far superior in sound quality because we had rehearsed the day before. As the mini-flock of tiny airplanes filled with jumpers climbed and got closer to the clouds, we all began to wonder if we would be able to spot the airport from above. The cloud cover was pretty heavy but Tony assured us that he knew where to let us out so we could land on the airport grounds. This was a lie we all believed in, at least, at first. At approximately 11,000 feet above the ground, we caught a glimpse of the airport through a sucker hole in the clouds. The lead plane called for jump run and the airplanes slowed to open the doors. We all began to climb out onto the wheel struts of the Cessnas and the jumpers in the Bonanza began to climb all over the outside of the plane. Since we were the “idiots” in the base and in the lead airplane, we would be giving the count and starting the dive. As soon as the other jumpers in the other airplanes saw us exit, they were to leave and fly to join us to make a snowflake formation. Most record attempts in skydiving are made from one or two large aircraft and flying that many bodies in 3 aircraft was a trick itself. With people hanging on the outside of the planes they tend to fly crooked therefore making it hard to keep the airplanes in a relative formation to each other. This formation went to hell in a hand basket very quickly. One plane went too low, another veered off to the right so when we exited the aircraft, we were way too far away from each other to even build anything close to a state record. To make a long jump short, a group of 5 people (the base “idiots”) were the only ones to get together and everyone else was way too far away from us to even get close enough to dock on us. We all deployed safely and were in fact over the dropzone. After landing, we all gathered and repacked our gear for the next attempt and had a little meeting to debrief the events of the last jump and how to solve the problems we had encountered that made the dive fail. While we were inside packing and debriefing the weather and the cloud cover began to close in. Having faith that the pilots knew what they were doing, we all trusted their judgement in being able to spot the load above the airport again even through thick clouds. Our faith was quickly dusted on the very next attempt… can you say Fakawee? The Clovis airport was about 10 miles from the West Texas border. We all climbed aboard our designated planes and set up for take off. Because of the formation flying problems of the previous attempt the pilots decided to showboat a bit and take off in formation to prove to us jumpers that they knew what they were doing. This was a bad move. As we began to speed down the runway and then only 75 feet above the ground, the twin Bonanza got caught in the prop wash behind the 206 and the 210 sending the plane into a perpendicular flight straight towards the ground. Lucky for the guys in that plane, the pilot was John Carlson, and his expert handling of the aircraft was the only thing that saved them from smashing down on the ground in a fiery ball of flames. This must have been quite a sight from the ground. I am sure that anyone on the ground who would have seen the plane flying on its side and nothing but wide eyeballs glued to every window of all of the planes because of the shock, the surprise and the sheer terror of the situation. As we continued to altitude there was no singing because we were all trying to catch our breath and calm down from the near catastrophe only minutes prior. We neared 11,000 feet and Tony assured us that he knew where we were and that it was time to start the climb out. The engines slowed at bit and the airplane formation was much tighter than it had been before and this time the cloud cover had no sucker holes. Having faith in our pilots we climbed out on the wheel struts again and launched our bodies into the air. The base flew perfectly and steadily members from the other planes began to dock on our formation base. One came in, then another and then a couple more docked. Time was running out and the ground was quickly rushing up to greet us. At 4000 feet, the preplanned break-off altitude we still had 3 people out of the formation. We all spread out to clear ourselves from one another for deployment and everyone’s parachute opened cleanly. As we flew through the clouds and then into open air we all began to look for the airport so we could land. Nothing looked familiar to any of us. Shocked and dismayed by not knowing where we were we all began to converge on a small farmhouse in the middle of nowhere in hopes that the owners would be gracious enough to allow us the use of their phone. On the decent to the farm house, Deuce, who had the smallest, most high performance canopy of the lot started flying up to various members of the lost group saying, “Where the fuck are we? Where the fuck are we?” He said it so fast that the question sounded more like “We are the Fakawee! We are the Fakawee!” and so the name of our little rag-tag group was born… but our troubles weren’t over yet. We still didn’t know where we were and as we approached the house, things looked even grimmer. Landing again was uneventful, but the farmhouse that we had hoped would have a phone was deserted and was only inhabited by a family of owls. Lost, confused and out of options in the middle of who-knows-where we all began to find a clear spot to repack our parachutes. Amidst the owl droppings and old broken furniture we all packed up our gear trying to figure out what to do next as none of us had any cell phones or any other communications devices. After we were all done, we decide that the most effective way to get back home was to break into three groups. One group would stay at the farm house and wait and the other 2 groups wold run in opposite directions until they came to a inhabited farm house and call the dropzone with direction to come pick us all up. 45 minutes later the group who went east came back empty handed and 15 minutes after that the west group came back and said that they got a hold of the dropzone from a phone about 2 miles away and they were coming to get us. Our next question was, “Where the fuck are we?” and soon learned that we were 20 miles into Texas near a town called Bovina which was a total of 30 miles away from the dropzone. Relieved that we were going to get home before the storm picked up again, it was a breath of fresh air to us all. Our pilot Tony, who had assured us that we were right over the airport, was going to get the shit kicked out of him for wasting our afternoon in Fakawee land. All of us on the drive back to the airport began to map out plans to make Tony pay for his mistake… lucky for him he was gone when we got back or he probably would have been met by an angry torch carrying mob of pissed off skydivers. That was ok… we knew he’d be back the next day and we would get him then…. Or maybe not. Sunday… Success! Getting up after a hard night of partying at Gary’s house turned out to be just what the group needed to get the record together on Sunday. Tony, despite being held down and ”pink-bellied” for a good 10 minutes was in good spirits and ready to fly again especially since today there wasn’t a cloud to be seen in the sky (lucky for him). We put up 3 loads that day. The first two we only had one or two people not get into the formation and dock, but on the last attempt of the day things changed. We couldn’t have put together a better skydive. The planes flew in perfect formation, the base came out of the plane rock solid and everyone docked onto the formation quickly and we ended up holding it for about 20 seconds before we broke off and deployed our parachutes. This was a great day for the Fakawee Tribe and was a new New Mexico State Formation Skydiving record. There are many more stories to be told surrounding the record attempts but none, even the record making jump itself, surpasses the rag-tag group of skydivers called the Fakawee Tribe. In retrospect, I enjoyed landing in the middle of nowhere so 20 miles over the Texas border more than breaking the record and secretly, I think everyone involved in the Fakawee tribe does too. Grafico GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

OK... here it is... This is a editable PDF where you can enter all your information http://www.mercurygrafix.com/clients/velocity/INFINITYFORM.pdf This should help until the webmaster gets it online. As far as the color picker... I will make sure he gets your comments as I do not administer the Velocity Sports Equipment website. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

I am making one right now for you and you should have it in the morning. Kelly Called me and asked me to make one. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Firefly Jumpsuits phone 515-280-6691 fax 515-280-6681 email firefly@fireflysuits.com GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

ER...UH... moving parts in micro-drives and opening shocks... why in the world would you use a microdrive for freefall?!? Ask Eli from the Flyboyz... he killed a drive and his camera using a microdrive... Or maybe I'm insane here... Quade... care to comment? GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

yeah... I thought about that. Haven't done the update yet but I've been going through all my links for software updates and checked it and there was an update. Post away if you run into anything folks... GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

just visited the Canon site and there is a new firmware update for the 10D. http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/EOS10D/10D_firmware-e.html GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

1362:3 #1- Hard pull on student rip-cord gear... brought both hands in and went head-low opened in a track and blew 2 cells front to back on opening. Wouldn't fly... so I chopped. Round reserve. #2- Incident report waiting to happen... Borrowed gear, 2-way drill dive busting points to 2000ft. Short track away, couldn't find pud, no AAD, round reserve that was way too small for my weight. Deployed a lineover at just above 1000'... 10 second round reserve ride to the desert floor at 5000' ground elevation. Landed in a heap. Bruised and pissed off. #3- Misrouted bridle using a BOC covered pouch (bridle on the outside of the pouch but inside the BOC cover) total malfunction. Had Integrity risers and when the reserve deployed so did the main but risers were lodged in the 3-rings.... popped them loose and landed uneventfully in the center of the peas. Just proves what I have said for many years now... "Complacency in extreme sports will kill you. When an event gives you a whisper about your mortality.... listen to it." All reserve rides were under 300 jumps... none since. Knock on wood... GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

yup... FF top, FF pants, Camera Top and Bootie Pants. Yer all gonna be jealous when you see these... GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

THANK YOU...er... but BoneHead Chris is the one you should compliment... he did the paint job! The Guner is so quiet and comfy that I can still hear my Pro-Track in freefall on the LO volume setting... excellent skydiving helmet design. I just read that BH is about to unveil a new version of the Mindwarp...http://www.boneheadcomposites.com/news.htm GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

UPDATE:::: Talked to Ms. Firefly today and she is turning suits out left and right. She also said she's shipped my new pants and they should be here tomorrow!

Pro-Dytter or Pro-Track either one is an excellent buy. I have a Guner and I can hear either one just fine (I fly both at the same time) Frankly, there isn't another audible that can match either the Pro-Track or the Pro-Dytter in quality, accuracy or price. Sure the Skytronic and the Neptune will do the same +/- as a Pro-Track and are slightly cheaper... but you get what you pay for. Is $30 extra worth it in terms of quality, customer satisfaction, accuracy, etc... in my opinion... YES... but that is up to you to decide. I'm sure that Baddog Services or any other gear retailer can take care of you... BTW...FWIW... here is a pic of my Flat-Top, My Oxygn A3 and my Guner GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Filming a 22 way and having the breakoff puller have his D-Bag at full extension in my face... first jump after installing Super Bands... Any idea on what I think of them? GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

One of the most seen and yet under-propped video guys out there is Craig O'Brien Just when you think it's Joe Jennings... it's really OB... Excellent flyer and and a helluva great guy. Get him at the following web address: www.teamfirestarter.com GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Just talked to Ms. Firefly today... Just so those of you who don't know... Firefly moved from CA to IA this summer. So the time off for moving always puts things in a bind and after speaking with her she is doing everything she can to get her delivery time back to where it should be. All of the Firefly stuff is really exquisitely made and some of the finest attention to detail I have ever seen in a jumpsuit... well worth the wait folks! I got a FF jacket, Camera top and FF pants just before I was injured in February and now that I have started jumping again I can't wait for the bootie pants I ordered to match the rest of the suit. If the bootie pants are anything like the rest... WOW! As soon as it gets here I will post photos... this suit is total custom! Firefly rocks GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

er uh... this isn't going to be another thread like the last one I hope... This thread should be named Nope-Tune go with the Pro....Track. GraficO PS... if you want my personal experiences with either unit...I'll be glad to discuss them privately. GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

As a former S/L instructor and jumpmaster, I believe in the merits of both S/L and AFF. I my opinion, S/L students have a better grasp of basic stability issues than AFF students ESPECIALLY in sub-terminal air. As touched on in an earlier post, "turbine babies" lack in the areas of packing techniques, basic spotting and other core basics of skydiving. In my opinion, AFF tends to be much like joining a karate class and getting your blue belt before you have earned your white, orange and green ones. You miss out on a lot of discipline and experience that comes with earning the ability to freefall with skill. Granted, I do like the fact that going to freefall right away does take some of the monotony out of student level skydiving and probably keeps more students from quitting because the goal of going out at the top is already reached. In short, AFF get's you to the top quicker and probably has a better retention rate but the S/L student earns and adds experience with every jump in a much broader spectrum. Some modern DZs that teach AFF do focus on a post-AFF program for packing and canopy flight but most still do not teach the finer points of spotting. With the wonders and advancement of GPS and qulified, experienced pilots the need for most spotting techniques is unneeded... but it sure does screw ya in you go from a turbine DZ to a dot on a map with a 182... unless you trust completely the people you are jumping with to put you in the right place, your jump might as well be a crapshoot as far as your landing. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."