NickDG

>>I'm going to be a daddy and I couldn't agree more.

Oh boy, I'm very sorry to hear that . . . And while it's too early for conclusions there is one general lesson in all types of parachuting. Always use your legs to protect your torso from impacts. A good analogy is an aircraft pilot using their landing gear to absorb crash impact energy thereby protecting the fuselage . . . I used to strut like John Travolta, but now I waddle like Elmer Fudd, but at least I can still walk . . . NickD

>>Nick your the man of knowledge how many BASE jumpers have died driving to a site ?

>>what kind of a delay did he take?

Lonnie, you know stats are funny things. How do you think they'd look if as many people BASE jumped as drive cars? I'm just saying, in my personal experience, I've known more jumpers who were injured or killed while jumping than driving . . . In fact, I know more people that were killed flying in planes (on the DZ and off) than driving in cars. So in my world, jumping and flying are more dangerous than driving . . . NickD

There's another interesting angle to this . . . The sport is old enough now that I thought we'd be seeing more than a few second generation BASE jumpers. In about 1990 I knew Don Boyles (the first to jump the RGB in the 70s) had a son and daughter that made some BASE jumps. But right now I know more young BASE jumpers whose parents were skydivers, not BASE jumpers. It may be the natural way offspring rebel, or at least, have little interest in what their parents do. At least I hope that's it, or else it means no spouse will have us, or we don’t survive long enough to pass on the sport to our children . . . NickD

>>We all put our lives at more risk driving to and from the sites.

Gee, how high is that thing . . . ? NickD

I actually liked John on a personal level, but there's no doubt he was the biggest site burner of the 1980s. And like too many "newbies" then and now, he used the sport to gain personal attention outside the BASE community without regard to the harm it caused. He brought the heat down on several long time sites and was warned over and over to stop doing it. So one local crew tracked him down and did what they did. Actually they seriously debated killing him, but cooler heads prevailed. John was hardly a BASE jumper when he first tried the ESB jump with skydiving gear. Her later paid a BASE rigger to send him an already packed BASE rig and then made the jump. John did eventually become a rather competent BASE jumper, but the damage was already done and his name was mud in the BASE community. John is the reason old timers roll their eyes at Felix B. and the Red Bull guys. It's human nature to want to be known, to be a name, but there's a right and wrong way to go about it. I can't count the opportunities I've turned down to be interviewed by people outside the BASE community. Sure, I could have gotten a certain amount of fame and made some easy money, but it's more important to me what my true brothers and sisters thought of me, and it's more important I stay true to the sport. I was never in the group that said BASE jumping should be kept entirely underground. And I believe a certain amount of "good" publicity is necessary for growth and access. The problem is when the wrong people are doing our public relations. John actions were especially galling as he made it look as if he invented the sport; it was all John, all the time. And the MTV generation swallowed it whole. To this day I still get occasional media inquirers about John and my stock answer is always the same. "I've never heard of him." The lesson for folks new to the sport is you are standing on the shoulders of the jumpers that came before you. And you have an obligation to pass on what was given to you. We all need role models at some point, and the sport is full of good and bad ones. My advice is be more like an Aiello and less like a Vincent. That way the next time a pretty girl knocks on your door in the night you won’t be afraid to open it . . . NickD BASE 194

Anyone smell hot tar? There's "another" vid you should see . . . NickD

I've never had a problem remembering. Unless I've used it, I just repack my own reserve every year on my birthday . . . NickD

I, and many others, made thousands of jumps without them before they became the norm. So I suppose it's a generational thing. So yes, I wouldn't think twice about jumping sans AAD. And besides the better parachute lofts should have loaner AADs for when yours gets sent in for maintenance. NickD

Since I've read these A/C can be configured to carry up to 800 PAX the real question is are we ready for air disasters approaching ocean liner proportions . . . NickD BASE 194

It's funny that instead of uniting together against over-regulation and misunderstanding the various fields in aviation knock each other so much. The thrill and beauty of flight is universal, a common denominator that should bind all of us together, but it doesn't. For instance, while I don’t fly a hang glider I can appreciate it and I grieve for the sport's injured and killed. While it's nice to see some try to understand, many don't and those are the ones that feel "theirs" is the only way to fly, and it's a sad statement on the human condition. Maybe the FAA makes a mistake calling their tickets "airmen certificates," as it seems most would freak out if they actually got any air on themselves . . . The following is a thread from rec.aviation.piloting. http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.aviation.piloting/browse_frm/thread/7ac0b1d7465062ef/a96f934b46ef8ba8?hl=en#a96f934b46ef8ba8 NickD

>>Be prepared to live mouth to hand if you work at a DZ doing odd jobs.

>>a little over a thousand skydivers have an injury every year that requires a visit to a doc...

Leave the DZ, and it's "May I?" mentality behind, get some friends together and set up a day of water jumping somehwere. Oh, and there's always that other sport where you can do anything you want . . . NickD

>>there usually was a good breeze coming off the ocean

Send one of those photographs to the USPA. If they don't include it in the next USPA Calendar I'm burning my membership card . . . NickD

Hi Jason, I was hesitant to name hot tower jumping as a cause the first time I had cancer, because I was a smoker. However, just today my doctor said Testicular Cancer isn't linked to smoking. I made many jumps from that now gone 50 kW flamethrower in LA, but no one can say for sure it caused my problems. Besides, there was a rather large crew jumping that tower and many jumped it more than I did, and so far there is no cancer cluster among those people. However, I still advise people that jumping AM towers is not worth the risk . . . NickD

>>Of course you will silly! At least until 2018...

The usual bunch of CH-46s, CH-53s, and Hueys, a B-25, and a Boieing Kadet (Stearman). And this one, a Russian Ilyushin-76 Length: 152ft 10.25in (46.59m) Wingspan: 165ft 8in (50.5m) Height: 48ft 5in (14.76m) Maximum Takeoff Weight: 374,780lb (170000kg) One hundred and fifty of us did a mass jump for a demo in New Zealand. A crewman told me the A/C could probably carry up to 300 skydivers. However, it took over a minute just to launch 150. We flew a few hundred miles from Auckland to the site of the Demo and we even brought a few cars with us. This is the largest transport A/C in the world and as an A/P mechanic I was amazed how it was built. It was held together with rivets the size you'd normally see on a locomotive. I believe this particular A/C filled with 40 tons of cargo and a crew of ten crashed on takeoff near Moscow a few years later . . . NickD

Hello Barry, When you've solved all of skydiving's problems, please come and help us BASE jumpers . . . NickD

Sounds as if you got it knocked . . . And some lucky AFF Instructor somewhere is about to get a dream student. NickD

Hey - No Frigging in the Rigging . . . NickD