NickDG

Nachos Grande will always be yours brother, and you two did it in grand style . . . The one next to it, (Moe) should top out sometime this week. NickD

>>I've never done a night jump, but I would assume that checking that your AAD is still on before boarding the plane is pretty important.

Fixed . . . 10. It's on 24 hours a day with no infomercials. 9. The great muzak that accompanies "Local on the 8s." 8. Because my short term memory is like... short. 7. When it rains, it bores. 6. You can get INTERNATIONAL weather for free. 5. Can Know what it is like outside, even if you are stuck in a computer room with no windows. (For hours.) 4. They occasionally show an interest piece on how different types of weather phenomena affect skydiving. 3. Most local WX people are assholes . . . 2. 1. NickD

#2, Most local WX people are assholes . . . NickD

>>Dude, if you make sure I can jump it again if I ever come out, it is all yours.

I tried to respond to your message over on the BB, but by the time the page loaded I forget why I was there . . . (No offense Mick, I love you man). Anyway, You know where I live. I'm here until the 23rd, and then i'm going up North for Xmas. Send a PM for my cell number . . . The three you can see in the photo are code named, Moe, Larry & Curly . . . NickD

>>Listen to the Yosemite NPS on my answering machine WAV file....priceless.

>>I can understand why the NPS doesn't want parachutes popping off EL Cap on a busy summer day. There is a traffic problem in the park, and let's face it, your everyday day Joe is naturally pretty shocked when they see someone parachuting off of a Yosemite wall.

Strawberry Fields Forever . . . Here are some photos of the now gone KFI Tower . . . The first shows the base of the tower and the small maintenance shed next to it. On the roof of that shed was 10-foot wooden plank. It was first put up there by M.H. in about 1985. Amazingly, that plank was up there, undisturbed, for many years. There was also a boarding ladder from an old crashed Twin Beech stashed out there. We used it to hook over the barbed wire fence and then scamper over. The wooden plank was necessary as this was an AM tower and touching it while being grounded meant instant death. In fact, broadcast engineers referred to this tower as, "the 50 kW flamethrower in LA." We'd climb to the top of the shed, push the plank out toward the tower close enough, but not too close, and jump across. (This is freaking nuts, do not do this, ever!!!!) The second photo shows the strawberry field that surrounded the tower. This photo also shows the early construction that began to spring up in the 90s. There was a time when there was nothing there at all, and I always wondered what the strawberry farmer thought when he spied footprints appear out of nowhere and then walk off . . . No one that jumped this tower had a pair of shoes without the red strawberry stains. The third photo shows how the landing area looked more recently. Even though we have learned that playing around with AM towers isn't a very healthy idea, a lack of objects in the LA area caused this tower to be occasionally jumped right up until it was knocked down. NickD

>>Dig those tight pants!

Bob Sinclair (the skydiver) came to an early Bridge Day (when most of us are still going hand held) where he jumped his ripcord, spring loaded pilot chute, skydiving rig and we all snickered at his choice of gear. He mentioned later that our problem is all these loose pilot chutes and bridles flapping about. (In those days zapped rigs around the launch point are common, and there always seemed to be someone re-closing a rig). He flat out said we should be going stowed. Yeah, all right old man, and we just snickered some more. Who's snickering now . . .? NickD

Cranes do grow taller as the structure being erected gets higher. Since many of us climb around on these cranes, I looked into how they make them grow taller, and it's pretty cool. Let's say it's a building. When the building gets to a few stories the crane is brought in by truck in twenty foot sections. They pour a small cement foundation to support the bottom of the crane and also anchor it to the side of the building. As the building grows they raise, they call it jacking, the tower up like this; Right below the cab (the part where the crane operator sits) are four hydraulic rams that can raise the cab another twenty feet higher. The crane operator then picks up another twenty foot section and lifts it into the space created by raising the cab. For those of us that have been up in these cabs, in the middle of the night, on very tall buildings, we can see these crane operators have one of the scarcest jobs in the world. These cranes do fail and fall over sometimes. But, you can't beat the view . . . In the early days the hatches that provide access from the ladder up into the bottom of the cab were seldom locked. Nowadays, they all seemed to be locked. But, I'm not sure if we had anything to do with that.

>>I was sitting in the back of my pickup with some Elsinore regulars when YOU walked by and said hello... Comments were made regarding the 'parasite' sport of BASE jumping and how it was ruining 'regular' skydiving.

I was talking to a whuffo at Bridge Day this year and he asked me what other kinds of objects did we jump. I told him, in a round about way about towers, and KFI in particular. He said he was a Ham radio operator and for about an hour a night and at 27 hundred miles away, he could hear KFI very clearly. He said that once in a while static would block out the signal and I told him that was me, or some other BASE jumper, banging their three rings against the tower . . . NickD

Yes, Dennis has the record, god bless him; he did the time for all of us that didn't get caught. John Vincent is in second place, but he deserved it, and also the electric chair . . . NickD

>>"Everyone I see doing this, they have the shaking hand."

>>It would be difficult to outlaw rope jumping without banning climbing, since leader falls are essentially short rope jumps.

>>As for the "rope jumps" performed in Yosemite, I read that the NPS was not happy with them and they were looking for a way to shut them down as well. Typical.

One Wednesday night about ten years ago I'm at a raging party in the Perris Ghetto, (where else can you find a raging party on a Wednesday night?) and I'm wandering from conversation to conversation until sitting in with some Perris Ghetto old-timers (so old they used to be Elsinore Ghetto old-timers) and they are railing on free flyers. And oh, how we laughed. We guffawed at the clothes they wore, especially the hats, you know the kind only your old Uncle Charlie wore, and we mocked the lingo, "they should call themselves the sick dope bombs," one said, and we rolled on the floor laughing . . . I mentioned just seeing Fritz (or was it the other guy, I couldn't tell them apart) sitting at a table in the bombshelter. He'd gathered all the salt, pepper, mustard, and ketchup containers, and he is arranging them, and then re-arranging them on the table and he is sooooo serious. We rolled on the floor laughing some more, the poor saps, my god, it must hurt to be so young . . . After a bit more of this I stopped laughing. It hit me all of a sudden that these good fellows are about to be paid back for something they did three and four decades ago. These guys, and the rest like them, are the ones who invaded skydiving back then, and literally reinvented the sport with their long hair hippie ways, and shocking the straights who practiced style and accuracy. Relative work was the new thing. And this was hard to take by the straight group, as many of them remember a time when exiting more than one jumper on a pass was dangerous, and even a time when it was outlawed. Now with the advent of Atmonauti, we see the first very small signs of resistance from the free fly community. "Who are these guys, and why are they changing things?" Well, here's a tip my brothers, resistance is futile. Someday, about ten years from now, Fritz and a bunch of free fly old-timers will be at a party in the Perris Ghetto on a Wednesday night, and they'll be rolling on the floor laughing. But their laughter will only serve to obscure the freight train that's coming right at them . . . NickD

Wow, this was a close one. When are people going to get the idea that dedicated BASE equipment is the only way to go . . . NickD

Damn, many So Cal jumpers, including me, cut their teeth on this tower. I have many BASE memories there. Note: Fullerton airport is close by this tower. Attached is an photo from there, the year I think, is 1986. And yes, none of that is BASE gear . . . L-R: RalphM, ToddS, TroyF & NickD NickD

I like Troy too, and have known him for a long time. The most badass thing he ever did, on that short lived MTV show he hosted, was attaching himself to a bunch of small balloons and floating all the way from Lake Elsinore (I think) to Temecula. He descended by using a pellet gun to shoot out balloons . . . Oh, and Troy was not the first to do a plane to plane freefall transfer. That was Kevin Donnelly and/or Dar Robertson back in the 80s. NickD

It's the standard law enforcement dilemma. Most people entering police work do so with some sense of civic duty. It's the innocence of the young. After a few years the culture of the work teaches you that everyone is a threat and a bad person. People who commit crimes are bad, people who report crimes are bad, anyone you come in contact with is bad. Making every little thing a federal case, as described up-board, is how the NPS justifies their own existence, in terms of numbers and budget. Most federal agencies spend most of their time doing that. The bigger the budget, the bigger the manpower rolls, the more power you have to yield, and that gets you more money and power. And power is what it's all about. I certainly don't want to throw gasoline on a feud that seems to be cooling, but no matter what good things may happen in the future, the way the NPS have treated BASE jumpers in the past has been all wrong. And any history of that relationship will always begin there . . . And Karen is right, the more we criminalize small transgressions, the more we lose our spirit. Attached is an old cartoon I ran in The Fixed Object Journal. It's a fantasy flashback to a time Park Rangers first came in contact with BASE jumpers, and it shows how easily it could have all went the other way, it would have took just one enlightened Ranger . . . NickD

Thanks, Skypuppy, I was going to say something, but I didn't want to be the kill joy. Using Jean's stuff without permission, in anyway, even if it's educational and done for free, will absolutely flip her out. If she finds out you did it, you'll find yourself on her list. And you'd almost want to be on my list, than hers . . . Anyway, it is her stuff, and she may have plans for them. I doubt she'll ever do what Nigel did with his magazine and put it on the net, but if you can get in touch with her (always a quest in itself) you might be able to purchase Xerox copies. BTW, Nigel, very cool! I want to also put the nine issues of The Fixed Object Journal on line, but that's the next project . . . Until then, for anyone with copies of my magazine, you have my permission to copy and spread them around (just don't sell them or post them on-line). NickD

Got mine too, she's sitting under the tree, thanks Brother . . . NickD