NickDG

I was born an American citizen in 1954. I have the right to life and the pursuit of happiness. If you don't agree with that you can kiss this . . . NickD

No, I won't be quiet . . . This happened in skydiving some years ago. One team was elevated to athlete status by some wuffo reporter but they got their butts kicked by a team called Elmo and the Glue Bags . . . Yes, I want to win this fight. But I want to win on our own terms. I don't care anymore what some wuffo (reporter, ranger, whatever) cares to say about us and what we do. We own it to ourselves and we own it to all the brothers and sisters that paid in terms of jail and fines. And we certainly owe it to the ones who paid the ultimate price. I know and believe that someday there will be a Constitutional day of reckoning in this country, and all those who raised their hands to uphold that piece of paper, and didn't, will get their due . . . NickD

That's really cool . . . But, they should re-screen "Stealing Altitude." I don't think they got it the first time. http://www.stealingaltitude.com/ NickD

A proud "One Percenter" . . . NickD

Here's how many of my generation became skydiving instructors. Sell everything you own and move to good sized DZ. Buy an old car and sleep in it for 2 years in the DZ parking lot. Eat only Top Ramen noodles as you work your way up the Instructor ladder. After twenty years (by which time you may have moved up to living in an old trailer) you'll be on top of your game. But, you'll still be eating Top Ramen Noodles . . . NickD

You heard something in the A/C out of context and shouldn't make too much of it. This sounds like a later level AFF (5 or 6) and some students at that point need to be challenged. Don't be too quick to judge instructors. I've always found experienced jumpers are incapable of remembering themselves as students. And many think they are experts after attending a single FJC as a student . . . NickD

"You Shook Me All Night Long - ACDC Especially, after you doubled timed in the seduction line . . . NickD

I haven't looked at the vid, but wanted to say something about walk or step through(s). Sometimes they can happen, when you spin around to control the canopy in a strong wind after landing. They can also occur when you take the rig off and lay it down, or when it's picked up again. It's the reason for doing a line continuity check each time you pack. If you don't do your own packing, well, there you go . . . NickD

Well, the below shows the folly of my own comment from the other day that people at large are getting more knowledgeable and accepting of BASE jumping. One result of the Dam jump video making the rounds on the net is all the comments it generated among non-jumpers . . . Warning, this will make you mad, and it will make you realize, in a general way, what non-jumpers think of us. But, it will also make you see that all we really have is each other . . . This first section is comments made by college students. The second section is off one of those video sites. NickD

There was a time when the ripcord equipped R.I. student rigs we used for AFF at Perris needed the main flap left open or the rig would likely total. This was when main closing flaps are transitioning from Velcro to tuck tabs, from being not secure at all, to being very secure . . . and spring loaded pilots chutes, used by students, were caught in the middle of that change. It's amazing how normal we thought that was. Sure, you need a secure rig for freefly, but there's an across the board hysteria about it nowadays. We used to jump rigs all the time that had no risers covers at all. We just always made sure the toggles and whatever excess steering line existed was stowed very securely. We now see, with the more secure risers covers, some people don't even stow the excess steering line at all . . . (not good in my opinion). NickD

Somebody on the East Coast should jump all over this one . . . http://www.dexigner.com/architecture/announcements-g1038.html NickD

Go ahead and put in a proposal, Russel . . . There's precedent for this sort of thing, and it looks like you'd even get a ride to the top. In the summer of 1995 Theresa Tran made a pitch to Six Flags Magic Mountain outside Los Angeles, and much to everyone's surprise they accepted it. The very morning the park opened for the season found us legally perched on the Skytower. The patrons, mostly teenagers, are all gathered around the tower, as the rides wouldn't start operating until after the show. The PA announced the jumps and Todd S., Anne H. (now C.), Dave B, and Theresa all made 2-second freefalls before landing in a very small grass area. All, except Theresa, she landed in a tree. The kids watching didn't see it as any different from the live action shows the park had staged in the past. As cool as that was it's the preceding week that was the kicker. We had full access to the tower for a full week before opening day after we told them we had to, "rehearse." I'll never forget those mornings we pulled up to the gate and told the guard we were the BASE jumpers and they said, "Good morning, come on in!" The ride workers spent the same week getting all the park's coasters ready for opening day and they showed a lot of interest in what we were doing. They were sending the roller coasters around filled with sand bags, but when asked they said sure and we also rode around and around as many times as we wanted. I'll never forget being on one of the coasters that loops just hoping the sand bags would stay in place. After the success of the jumps, and with good referrals from the Six Flags Corporation, Theresa planned to get this going in other amusement parks, but she died BASE jumping that Christmas . . . NickD

We had one in Cal City and I hated it for AFF and Tandems. For up-jumpers it's okay as long as they don't snag anything around the small door and are observant of the horizontal stabilizer position. With medium to large size AFF students the early levels are hard to launch. I found myself alone with AFF Level Ones so many times we started figuring the second jumpmaster was in the plane just to make things legal. I'm an A&P mechanic, although I never did any work on one, but they always seemed underpowered to me and when fully loaded we used a lot of RWY. To get my mind off an engine going south at that point I always kept myself busy doing something else. I was in the right seat one day, no students on board, and I mentioned my concerns to the pilot. He promptly pulled the right throttle back and scared the hell out of everyone in the back. We had a hell of an argument later about that. I won't say this series Cessna is involved in a lot of mishaps, as there are a lot of factors to consider like maintenance, pilot, weather, etc. but it seems over the years I've seen them mentioned quite a bit. At the DZ we called that aircraft a four-oh-shit . . . NickD

You're gaining ground as a proof reader, RL . . . NickD

There's surely been a spike in the number of student starts over the last ten years, but the "traditional" number (taking into account that as new jumpers come in, old jumpers drop out) is 3 to 4 million a year in the U.S. This number is somewhat inflated by one time tandem jumpers. The number of hardcore everyday jumpers still wouldn't fill a good sized football stadium. NickD

Can someone send me a photo of Josh I can use for the List . . . PM or base194@aol.com Thanks. NickD BASE 194 http://www.basefatalities.info/

I'm still having trouble with DZ.com timing out. I thought deleting the cookie and re-logging in was working, and it was, but now it isn't. I click on one thread and it works, and then the next one times out . . . NickD BASE 194

"Where is the prince who can afford so to cover his country with troops for its defense, so that ten thousand men descending from the clouds might not, in many places, do an infinite deal of mischief before a force could be brought together to repel them?" -Benjamin Franklin, 1784 I came across this article today that is similar to many I'd seen before. It describes the formation of the U.S. Army Airborne. The story is about Trooper Thurman Weaks. They seem to re-run this same piece over and over, just plugging a new name into it. I don't think its outright jingoism, its more ignorance on the part of the writer that may leave the reader with the idea we (the U.S.) invented the idea of airborne assault, and worse that parachutes came about after the invention of the airplane. The story is set in 1940 at Ft. Benning, GA. http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-2/110828557591840.xml The truth is in the 1880s and 1890s, people began jumping with parachutes from balloons and this is where most modern history texts begin the history of the parachute. These texts all but disregard the many fixed object jumps that were already done. As for the first Airborn it was the Italians who pioneered that with the first combat jump during the First World War in 1918. Also during WWI, balloons are being used for aerial recon, and many of these observers jumped with parachutes after being shot down by early combat aircraft. The Germans formed their first parachute regiments in 1935 and the British and Americans followed suit in 1940. But, in 1930 Russian parachute troops jumped in a military exercise to demonstrate the use of parachute troops to conduct a flanking attack of the enemy from the air. And, in 1933 there were five 10,000 man parachute units in the Russian Army. The problem is all earlier fixed object jumps are backed up with verbal, sometimes with drawings, eyewitness accounts. There are some photos of early fixed object jumps like this one, see photo one. But it's hard to pin down the dates. However, it's for sure that the Frenchman Andre-Jacques Garnerin who's October 22, 1797 jump from a balloon over Paris and cited as "the first parachute jump," is wildly wrong. Where did the idea come from that a parachute jump had to involve a flying machine? When Fredrick Law made his three fixed object jumps in New York City in 1912, he never claimed to be the first; he knew jumping from objects had already been done. We BASE jumpers are direct descendants of the first true parachutists, and if I do anything before I get on that big sunset load, I'm going to get that into the history books . . . NickD

http://www.fsfreeware.com/dcd/ Use the search feature to look for "Skyvan" NickD

"Mark Mark" was a gear sales outfit located in the Ghetto at Perris back in the day and they sold the biz to Tony and Kate who renamed it, Square One. Tony was a thousand dollars short on the asking price so he borrowed it from another jumper named Steve Byers. Steve dissappeared soon after, but many years later returned to find he had invested in a biz that was now worth millions in sales per year. What happened after is a good story, involving stupity, ego, and greed, but it's too soon to tell it . . . NickD

I don't know how many skydivers I've seen cutaway a line entanglement or nasty slider hang-up and land proclaiming they had a "line over." The only true line overs you're likely to see on the DZ are put in during packing . . . NickD

Make sure your PC is symmetrical and the trim is correct. Be especially careful how you lark's head to your bridle. A tenth of an inch off center here turns into big problems later on . . . NickD

The other DZ in Cal City was better. NickD

I spent 4 years in the Marines during the Vietnam War and now work around SEALS everyday. The older and smarter of them take to heart the history of warfare. During WWI the British lost thousands gaining just 100 yards of ground. And the next day they lost thousands more defending it. Historians called it a war of attrition. Wake up. "War, what's it good for, nothing, say it again. War is human kind's ultimate failure. The only allure it holds is for the young and the dumb. NickD BASE 194

I'm so glad I'm fifty years old. This current thinking would have never allowed "mini skirts." NickD