NickDG

Thanks, Japp, and eh, how'd Moe do on his first jump? LOL! Don't worry, you aren't the first one he's taken in with that one . . . NickD

I'm finishing up a Bridge Day article for "SKYDIVING" and there's two things missing from my notes. What is the name of the new Triax video they showed at the post-jump meeting? And what was the full name of the jumper who carried Russel off the bridge on Russel's second jump. I know it was Collin. But, what's his full name? Also if reading this Collin, is it okay to use your name in the article? Thanks, PM if you want. NickD

I'll have a big pot full of pasta going this evening (Saturday, Oct 27) and all jumpers in the So Cal area are welcome to dinner 6:00 PM PM or e-mail me for the address! Cell # (951) 315-3450 Post up or call me if you can make it. NickD

One problem with checked rigs is how much they get jostled around. You know how gently you treat a packed BASE rig before jumping. Throwing it around can mingle the lines in the tail pocket, and so on. If you repack before jumping, or are just field packed on your way to an object, this isn’t too big a deal. Another thing is having a hard shell case to put it in. Checking a soft sided gear bag with your rig risks having it on the bottom of the baggage hold with 2000 pounds of other people's luggage bearing down on top of it. Also in inclement weather checked baggage can sometimes get soaked while sitting on the ramp getting loaded or unloaded. I've checked rigs the way Moe does it. He shrink wraps the rig in a medium weight plastic bag by sucking the air out with a vacuum cleaner before sealing it. It then goes into something hard sided with a big sticker that says, "Life Support Equipment, Please Handle Gently!" You can get stickers like that at most medical supply stores. BASE rigs tend to be small and are easy to carry-on; it's the helmet, pads, clamps and all the other claptrap that bulks things up. Besides, being a licensed aircraft mechanic, if I'm ever called on to crawl into the nose gear well to straighten an Airbus front wheel, I want to be wearing a rig . . . NickD

Didn't have time to gift wrap it, Brother, but . . . You get the "Nod . . ." NickD

>>the Duckie Boys. (never understood that, shrug)

In earlier days when BASE rigs are getting popular people often fouled their Three Rings. I don't know why they did so as 3-ring failure is very rare. It probably came from when people are just starting to get used to jumping with one canopy and trying to eliminate as many failure points as possible. One fellow told me he was afraid he'd have line over and instinctively cutaway. I never understood that and don't think it's very valid. How do you forget you are BASE jumping? Also, I wouldn't use a metal connecter link through the white loop. Some of those links have burrs on them that could chew into the loop. In fact I wouldn't put anything in there other than a cable. The rational for L-bars is a bit fuzzier. It does make for a simpler cleaner rig but you do have to check the screws once in a while. I suppose there are folks who'll take dangling in a tree and being alive over other things they might imagine happening. I actually wouldn't mind another handle altogether. This one sheds the entire rig from your body. More than once I've fallen on my face trying to run away and get out of my rig at the same time. NickD

>>Also in 1994, actor Burt Lancaster, who starred in several films including "The Killers," "The Crimson Pirate," and "From Here to Eternity," died at the age of 80.

We had TI who was taking a woman on a birthday jump. He neglected to hook up either top attachment point. He told me later when he deployed the drogue the woman (her upper torso anyway) started going away and it was a sight and a sensation he'd said would spook him for the rest of his life. He managed, with a lot difficulty, to get one upper hook attached but it took him the whole skydive to do it. He was a good fellow, but he was fired the minute we saw the video, but he agreed with that and added he'd never touch any kind of student ever again. At the most basic level if you are a static line Instructor you get your money to make sure the static line is attached to something besides the student. If you're AFF you get paid to make sure the student's ripcord gets pulled. If you're tandem, you get paid to make sure the student is hooked to you. We had another TI a few years later, and this one is even more disturbing, because he was a very experienced (thousands of tandems) multi-rated Instructor and he had a premature main container opening in drogue fall. The bagged main was dancing around and hitting him on the back of the head. He did absolutely nothing about it. The video shows the blank look on his face and you could see he was searching for the answer. But nothing was coming to him. This is before AAD's on tandem rigs and at 1500-feet the camera guy pulled but continued to video the tandem pair. Right before impact a canopy comes out and the pair gets a few second canopy ride. When debriefed it turned out the TI was working nights and doing tandems during the day and he is mentally exhausted. He was fired on the spot. Oh, and what saved them is the student said that to him it looked liked they were just about to hit the ground so he found and pulled the drogue release. It was amazing that after all that flopping around in the bag that it worked, but it did. NickD

>>I was fully prepared to have a lot of tomatoes thrown at me however.

I think you guys have it all wrong . . . I think it's good that we know Joe spiraled in with a line over, or Pete whistled in with nothing out, like we used to whisper from DZ to DZ in the old days. The problem now is DZO's have way too much power concerning what goes on in this sport. Instructors are answerable to everyone from their peers, to the USPA, to the parents, and to our own ability to sleep at night. But, a DZO can come and go with no license, no rating, no nothing, and it's business as usual. I hear about DZ's close to each other now where if you jump at one you aren't welcome at the other. What the fuck is that all about? And how did we let that happen? Do we jump because there are DZO's or are there DZO's because we jump? This has been plaguing the sport for some time now and it's high time we stopped it . . . I remember DZO's that lost their shirts year after year and only kept on because they loved skydiving. That dynamic has changed with the advent of tandem and all of sudden you could sell out and make a bundle. Don't think just because they know your name and you have jumped there before that you aren't being used . . . if you die skydiving they will sell you out to deflect the blame. Come on, let's wake up, and take back skydiving! NickD

>>LOL ahh, well, i'm still trying to learn about the thousands of years of history that my own country has, i'll try and learn about the couple of hundred years of American history after

>>our border

Not if you consider us one planet in a universe of who knows what . . . NickD

>>i'm not sure of what great depression you're talking about as i don't know your history in much detail, sorry about that, but a depression is nobodies fault,

I was going Crips, but went Bloods as they had a better health plan . . . NickD

"Don't fuck with the Baldies . . ." Loved that movie. NickD

I wish they'd put that on the Statue of Liberty . . . NickD

Yeah, in the end that attitude is going to work . . . NickD

Anytime Brother . . . 951-315-3450 NickD

I can answer my own question. It's greed. I don't have much, but I could get by on a quarter of it just fine. How some can see suffering and not be moved by it just eludes me. It's like Janis sang so many years ago, "It's all the same thing, man." NickD

I saw a PBS thing last night about the head of Mexican family who lived in a small modest home in Mexico with his wife and four children. He's a nice man, his wife is adorable, and the children are cute and happy. But there's no work to be had in his town and the land won't raise anything. What this fellow does is leave his family for a year, comes North to work, then goes back until the money runs out. Then he does it again. The story of how he made his way to Chicago is like something out of Europe in WWII. The worst part, and it had my crying through the whole thing, was when the day came for him to leave on his journey North. He's kissing and holding his wife, the kids are clutching at him, and Grandmamma tells him to remove his hat so she can bless him. He opens the door and stops for a minute. He says a silent prayer and then walks out the door without looking back. What's wrong with this world? NickD BASE 194

The Windows . . . NickD

Bill L. did the San Jacinto Monument in Texas and the picture looks a lot like the other thing. That may have been what you saw. In 1991 I was being driven around D.C. at night by Bill Ottley (then executive director of the USPA) and I was sitting on the trunk lid of his flaming (red or yellow?) Cadillac convertible drinking a beer. When we passed the Washington Monument he caught me eyeballing it and said, "Don't even fucking think about it." If the Washington Monument has been done, it was done right, as I've never heard about it from anyone . . . NickD

>>After reading the List several times, it appears as though using the right gear incl. boots, helmet, etc., being REALLY good at sub-term tracking, opening, canopy control, off-heading recovery, line twist recovery, and landing, plus taking a course, using a good mentor and good judgement would eliminate a good chunk of the accidents on the List.