NickDG

Congrats Russel . . . I thought, like me, you were a confirmed bachelor? Ya big quitter . . . ! NickD

I don't ever recall them cutting it this thin before. They must come down sometime Saturday at the latest as they'll be out of cryogenic oxygen and if that happens the fuel cells won’t produce electricity. On the other hand, I'd imagine they could land (if they had to) at a lot of places besides the three primaries. (O'Hara approach STS-116 is downwind for RWY 24!!!!) The real problem would be something happening that prevents them from de-orbiting right away. NickD BASE 194

>>its too bad she's married...

That's interesting about the control cables failing, and it makes more sense too. I remember reading something about the A/C just coming out of an annual inspection and the controls were somehow mis-rigged. But, that never made sense to me as how did they make it from Dillingham to where they went down without that being apparent. I had been jumping for sometime before this accident and left the Islands some years prior, but it was the first "cabin class" incident I can recall. And it seemed like it began a trend when later the Loadstar went in up in Washington, and Spike's Beech went in at Lodi. BTW, I said something about turbine aircraft being more reliable up-board, and if you look at it in terms of numbers of operations, it is certainly true, but I didn’t want to leave an impression on new Instructors that the worst never happens. The Perris and Sullivan Twin Otter mishaps are testament to that. (Although there wasn't much anyone could do in those two situations). However, didn't a tandem student in the Sullivan crash credit her tandem master with saving her life by cradling her body with his own and taking the brunt of the impact? That's the kind of devotion in an Instructor that brings tears to my eyes. And every time I hear someone deriding Instructors it just shows how clueless they really are . . . NickD

Also at the same time three South Africans went missing off Portland, Or. when their cat overturned. The boat washed ashore, but it didn't seem like much of an effort was made to find them. (Compared to the rescue effort at Mt. Hood.) Those guys could be still floating around in a small rubber raft out there. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/16/BAGI9N0S921.DTL NickD

The question of an Instructor's responsibility to a student in bad situations has changed substantially over the years. But it was always a large part of the discussion during what used to be the training classes for apprentice Instructors. In these Jumpmaster Certification Courses (JCCs) during the '70s and early '80s it was pretty straightforward. While no one would come right out and say it – as a JM/I you took the five dollars – and doing so implied you would do every thing in your power to save those in your charge if it all hit the fan. Of course this is when static line was the primary first jump method and without tandem or AFF were all more or less on the same page. In the worst case scenarios like mid-airs or wings dropping off it's kind of a moot point but at least every one in the aircraft was wearing a rig and so still has a shot. A good static line Instructor would always include the following into every FJC, "Okay, you're sitting in the back of the plane minding your own business and there's a large boom and all of sudden you are falling through the air – what do you do?" In lesser situations emergency bailouts with students onboard are rare. Now having said that - it does happen, it happened to me three times, and all at low altitudes. In those situations, and I'll say this plainly, it's your job to be chucking students through the door until the lights go out. When AFF began it became more complicated. The ride up was about the same, but now you, as JM/I, had to deal with in-air emergencies on the way down. We lost more than just a few Instructors who chased students until it was too late to save themselves. We got away from that by improving the ground training to take those situations into account. That's where the AFF first jump mantra of, "You find yourself alone in freefall, what do you do," came from. But what really saved us was the introduction of Cypres AAD. Prior to that the Sentinels and FXCs brands of AADs that student's wore didn't hold much confidence for Instructors. In hindsight they weren't as bad as all that, but we all sort of acted like they weren't there. The Cypres changed all that and it was the day JM/I responsibilities began to morph into what goes on today. It now acceptable to count on today's AADs to save your student when he blows through his pull altitude and you are out of position to assist. Another really really big thing that changed is experienced jumpers started wearing AADs too. This meant no JM/I was going to be chasing any student into the ground. Many of us resisted using a Cypres, at first, as we thought it would prevent us from fulfilling the requirements of the job. But it became the way of it. The era of, "They signed the waiver," had arrived. Tandem was another problem altogether. Especially for the ride up. I was the chief Instructor at Lake Elsinore when Tandem first started and when the rig arrived I remember we all sat around looking at it and running through all the things that could go wrong. If I recall correctly there wasn't any real tandem certification course like today it was basically just a video tape, a booklet, and a written okay to jump it from the manufacturer. It's funny now but I remember one of the Jumpmasters remarking, "Man, that thing has a lot of handles on it." When another wondered what we going to do with it, I know I said something like, "Let's burn it . . ." Once we did figure it out the next question became modifying our protocol for in-flight emergencies. This of course is before every DZ had a turbine aircraft so it was a slightly larger concern. Our first thought was hanging a round chest mounted reserve on the cabin wall of the D-18. We only needed one as we only had one tandem rig. The idea was instead of taking the time to hook-up and go at low altitude; you'd attach the chest mount to the upper rings of the passenger harness and dispatch them by pulling the handle in the door as they go. Thank goodness we never had to do that, LOL. The SOP has changed of course and now to bail out with a tandem student, and to answer the Ops original question, you hook up the top hooks, or in dire circumstances just one hook is good enough, pull both main ripcords, get out, and throw the drogue. In an out of control situation you'd do the same thing and then just try to get the drogue out the door and let it extract you. Yes, not real great, but it's a shot . . . Thank goodness, I've never had to do that either . . . Finally, we learned it's better to be a hero on the ground instead of in the air. What I mean is we learned to teach better, to prepare our students better, and to have procedures in place for almost anything that could happen. In any case there's one thing that will never change. Once they stamp Instructor on your ticket, and no matter what we tell ourselves, your students are entrusting their lives to you. And when (not if) that Cessna throws half its prop, or a piston rod shoots through a engine crankcase and starts a fire, or your pilot passes out, you better be able to come up with the goods . . . NickD

I agree! We were together for about 7 seven years as a couple and she's still one of my closest friends. You should meet her family back in New Zealand – class all the way . . . ! NickD

Okay, I'll give you a bump . . . There are a lot of angles to this one. A record attempt for number of jumps would depend, I would think, on the WX conditions more than on jumper or balloon pilot endurance. I suppose if you flew in the morning, and then again at dusk, you could do a decent number, but your time eater is going to be the time it takes to go to legal opening altitudes and come down again. Here's a question for you. I realize it would need navigation lights but can a balloon legally fly a night? If so you might have a shot at a meaningful record. But then there'd by those pesky balloon landings in the dark. I'm thinking power lines and things of that nature. Plus the jumper will also be landing in a different place on every jump. And even with a moon, that could be sketchy. The other option is a tethered balloon. We used to use one to train first time BASE jumpers in the hills behind the Perris drop zone for awhile. We kept it low key (due to the legal issues) but using BASE gear and a 800-foot tether hooked to a huge pick-up truck we could put up a dozen loads of three jumpers or so with no problems. The tethered balloon can also stand a bit more wind, but you must closely monitor the forces involved. The thing about a tethered balloon is you could very loosely construe that as a fixed object and the record for the number of fixed object jumps in a single day is already so high it would be out of reach in a balloon. Two "funny" stories for you. I have an acquaintance who'll take me to 600-feet or so in his balloon with my BASE gear every once in a while. He flies the tourist types every weekend and as a CFI also teaches new balloon pilots. The way it works is I hang back, out of sight, while he does his briefing and then I just "quietly" slip into the basket without too much fanfare or anything. Most passengers, those waiting and those onboard, being all excited and everything, hardly ever notice I'm wearing a BASE rig. The last time I went was a few months ago (getting up that early is tough) and they are running two balloons. I got in with my friend and a guy who is taking his commercial check ride. As we ascended my CFI friend, who can act kind of gruff sometimes, is firing questions at the guy in rapid fire order in addition to getting him to keep specific rates of climb. The funny part is he's telling the guy that when flying with paying passengers there will always be distractions and that keeping the balloon under control at all times is always paramount. Then he added, "Today's distraction will be Nick." I launched at 600-feet and when I landed the check ride guy's wife came over to me and said I scared her to death. I said I was sorry for that and she said that's okay. "But I thought my husband was doing so badly on his test the instructor threw him out of the balloon." Another time I jumping with another outfit but this time we were skydiving and going to an altitude of 5000-feet. It was me and three other skydivers and I was the only one who had done balloon jumps before. At about the 1600-feet the "parachute" (the top of the balloon that is Velcro-ed in place and used to spill air after landing) came completely undone. We figured later the Velcro was worn and the pilot was over temping the envelop in an effort to get all the jumpers up that were waiting. The balloon started coming down in a hurry (my alti needle was moving) and I thought great - we are all wearing the wrong gear for this. I won’t say the other jumpers were panicking but it was close to that especially when the balloon pilot started screaming at us to get out. He, like most balloon pilots, wasn't wearing a parachute. The first jumper to go asked me what should he do? (I don’t think any of them had much more than hundred jumps each). We are going through 1200-feet and I said do a five second delay and use your main. (This was a time before snively mains were the norm.) And the jumper did exactly that. The next one did a real short clear and pull but used his reserve and he was all right too. The last guy just wouldn't go at all. We are now going through a grand and I said I was going to leave him if he didn't go right now! But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Then I went over the side, but before I left I told him if he changed his mind to use the reserve. I picked up some decent airspeed and deployed my main canopy. I was then sitting a few hundred feet below the balloon hoping I'd make some distance in case the last guy decided to jump. And right then he did. He missed me but passed by still in freefall at about 600-feet. He's on his back and fighting to turn over in the sub-terminal air. I'm thinking, oh man, get something out, get something out now! He finally threw out his main and had a canopy ride that lasted a whole 5-seconds or so. The balloon was descending much faster than I was under canopy and it passed me. The envelope was a flapping ball of garbage, but not exactly compactly collapsed and I hear the burners going full blast all the way to impact. When we got to the pilot he was pretty banged up and had a nasty cut on his head, but other than that he was alive, just very disorientated. After he recovered his wits the pilot said he told the last jumper that he was a dead man if he stayed in the basket. And that did the trick. He also said if we had been tourists, not jumpers, we all probably would have died because we would have been so heavy. Anyway – good luck with your project! NickD

I see it too sometimes. It's the same image as shown in the photos but in my case it's repeated a bunch of times right down the entire page. Haven't seen it in a few weeks now . . . NickD

>>I suggest you buy a SIM, or download it from www.uspa.org

I'd like to see a file on Hoover himself . . . While he was keeping tabs on the likes of John Lennon and Elvis Presley (considered subversives) he was prancing around his house in a dress. NickD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBe-i5eSKT8&mode=related&search= NickD

Nice . . . But if that puppy came after you it would change the definition of "ram-air" . . . NickD

We had some good photos of her, but they went missing over the years. So yes, please post what you have. I really need one for the List . . . NickD

Of course this is of interest to BASE jumpers as we are out there at four in the morning anyway. Here's a really cool (and free) program I've been using for years to find stars and planets. It's called WinStars . . . http://www.winstars.net/english/ This is a link to v.2.0 which I haven't tried yet . . . NickD

So did we all, bro . . . NickD

An addendun . . . Martn Tilley, of Asylum Designs, was also on that first Magic Mountain load. Simon P. Jakemon and I were ground crew . . . The day before the park opened we rode the Viper time and again without stopping as they were testing it. NickD

>>On that 1995 Christmas card was a photo Theresa took of me standing at the top of El Cap only a few months before her death. We both jumped El Cap and I got to see what a unique person she was.>c)2006 Jason Bell. No unauthorized duplication permitted.

>>It's a shorty wetsuit, and it's to keep warm in the cold water,

>>I think (I don't know) that the moderator who moved it probably thought "no one but a BASE jumper is going to have any experience or insight into the issue of jumping a small round into water."

>>Thanks for the reminder Nick..I'll be sure to raise a glass

May I ask what good moving the thread to here did? Gee, it's like we mentioned the "BASE" word and got kicked off the drop zone. The OP asked about small rounds, a question any jumper would eventually wonder about. NickD

Although it seems like yesterday, tomorrow will be eleven years since we lost Theresa Tran just five days before Christmas Day of 1995. I'll never forget that beat up car she had that was all stove in on one side, an auto she'd jump into on impromptu trips to Joshua Tree where she'd spend 3-days, hiking, climbing, and roughing it all by herself. She was warm, smart, and independent; she was dynamite in a small package. It was her doing I found myself at the back gate of Magic Mountain one early California morning, and when asked by the guards who we were, they opened the gate and waved us in, even after we told them, "We're the BASE jumpers." These were probably the first ever "corporately sponsored" BASE jumps as Todd. S., Anne H., Dave B., and Theresa Tran made freefalls from the "Skytower" on opening day. The park officials loved it, but the customers, mostly teenagers, thought it was some kind of "trick" and I suppose it was . . . Anyway, for those who may have forgotten, and for those who don’t know what I'm talking about, at some point tomorrow raise a beverage and say, "Hey Theresa." We lost a good one this day . . . NickD

Andy, I know that was tongue in cheek, but skydivers knocking BASE jumpers = wuffos knocking skydivers . . . It was an attitude we dealt with in the early days of BASE that resulted in lost friends, lost DZ jobs, and it's what really drove BASE jumping underground. Some thought (or still think) we went "black ops" to conceal our actions from the authorities, but it was really to protect ourselves from small minds in the skydiving community. What I've never understood (and still don't) is what's so sacred about flying machines (planes, balloons, helicopters). If I come home from downtown and someone asks where I've been I'll say I was out jumping. If I come home from the drop zone and someone asks where I've been I'll say I was out jumping. NickD

In 28 years we went from a "small band of brothers" to [enter your favorite glory hound/site burner here]. We are so doomed . . . NickD