NickDG

Back at ya . . . NickD

I see a lot of wacky things while driving around in my ambulance, but this one on Halloween night was a new one. I snapped this at a red light, but when the light changed he took off still playing . . . NickD

Place a large dildo in a medium sized sauce pot. Tie the pot around your neck. When asked reply, "I'm Peter Pan . . . " NickD

Been working long shifts at work and just saw this . . . Thanks, you guys made my day! NickD

Thanks . . . I'm 54 Today! NickD

Another year better . . . If you were a wine you'd be "upper shelf!" NickD

Happy B-day, Sweetie . . . NickD

I did some of the original TSO test jumps on the Amigo (A Friend for Life) for Gary Douris. I did several cutaways and two high speed (150 MPH) deployments from a diving Cessna. Like Rob said it's a no surprises garden variety 7-cell reserve that I wouldn't hesitate to jump today . . . NickD

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=a1ThSi1wbqU NickD

Today it was revealed Fosset was working on a "secret project" un-related to the crash. It's an interesting one though . . . http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=6429493 NickD

I think you just have to use a parachute to save your life in an emergency. So I've always thought using a reserve after a main malfunction would qualify. I could be wrong though . . . NickD

I can't figure out if you are talking about one guy, or two guys, but if two I guess the first guy would just be in the Lucky Club. The second guy that had some part of his reserve out would be a member of the Caterpillar Club . . . NickD

The day I told my girlfriend the argument we were having is now locked . . . NickD

I'm going to try and not make this sound too sappy, but I'll probably fail . . . I've followed the careers of both Eric Fradet and Bill Booth for a very long time. And I can say without hesitation thank God for both of them . . . Between the two you are getting all the perspective and information you need to make an intelligent decision. Eric I initially knew from the BASE side of the house and his depth of knowledge and judgment has continually amazed me. And Bill is the only skydiving manufacturer I don't employ the "Two Year Rule" on while with some manufacturers I stretch it to three years. I trust Bill Booth right out of the box. And where it says "Master" on his rigger's ticket it really should say Wizard. However, that being said, in a overall sense young skydivers do need to follow Eric's advice and be a bit more skeptical. Skepticism is a life saver in this sport. I'm become (just lately) pro-Skyhook but I can agree with Eric in wishing we didn't need some of these things in the first place. I wish skydivers as a group were just flat out better at saving themselves in bad situations. But wishing ain't gonna get it done. And there is no doubt, for whatever reasons, we do need some of these things to avoid needless deaths. Today's jumper has a myriad of gear choices, way more than we had in the beginning of our jumping careers. We had Sherman's Racer and Booth's Wonderhog with every other container being mostly knock-offs of those two. Canopies were all pretty generic except for their names and offered in just two sizes - large and extra large. I can even recall earlier times when a custom container meant your ripcords faced inboard instead of outboard. Simpler times indeed. So if you're seeking advice on a Skyhook, or anything else, listen only to those who lay it out and let you decide. But, if the first thing you hear is "You gotta have this!" Turn around and run for your life. That's not deciding, that's just following . . . NickD

My hand is on your shoulder, Brother . . . NickD

Hey Larry, Were you banned or grounded? Banned, to me, would mean kicked off the DZ while grounded just means they keep you off the planes, in their eyes, to teach you some kind of lesson. If it's the latter welcome to the club as back in the day groundings were handed out like candy at Elsinore and everywhere else. These days, low pulls, intentional and otherwise, are negated by AADs and hook turns are semi-acceptable (the two main reasons for groundings) so most groundings nowadays stem from behavioral issues. I never thought I'd be around long enough to see it come to this as it used to be you could be as whack as you wanted on the ground as long as you had your stuff together in the sky. Now it's sort of the other way around. And sometimes it seems we are becoming a bunch of little pansy-ass conformists. Don't fret too much though I've seen many DZOs come and go at Elsinore since the 1970s and except for the occasional flood that DZ remains. And I see all the DZOs since Larry Perkins as merely temporary custodians of a great tradition. When Jim Wallace, who I consider a good friend, ran Elsinore he changed the name of the place to "Jim Wallace Skydiving" and I went off on him. I actually told him, "Man, you got some balls, Jim." And looking back I made way too big a deal out of it but at the time I saw it as outright heresy. And Jim good-naturedly reminds me of it to this day. My point (yes, I'm coming to one) is any trouble I've got into in this sport has always been of my own making. And it's never over the initial thing, it's my big mouth getting into gear after the thing. I was at the Perrine Bridge and a woman who jumped a few minutes prior turned an ankle and I thought damn now we are going to have to carry her out. But someone called in the helicopter to medivac her. But what I thought would be a quick scoop and go turned into a 45 minute ordeal and in the end they didn't even take her. However, before they left I was alone on the bridge, got tired of waiting, and jumped. And I got a big ration of shit over it. "Couldn't you wait?" "Do you only think about yourself" And all of a sudden guys half my age and B.A.S.E. jumping a month are calling me a rotten greedy bastard. And I flipped out saying, "WTF are you morons talking about? There's no fucking rules in B.A.S.E. jumping!" And it just rolled up into a ball after that. But all I had to do was keep my trap shut and it would have been quickly forgotten. So Larry, my point is, maybe you're making the same mistake? You've been around long enough to know how these things work. You're it only until the next guy pushes Alex or John's button. And that's the mistake you made. It wasn't swooping it was putting yourself in the line of fire of a frustrated DZO who for a few moments hated the living guts of all skydivers . . . NickD

>>To practice a PLF, maybe try going to a swing set at a playground and jumping off while you're moving? I don't know, I'm no instructor (obviously!) but it occurred to me that you may be able to simulate the motion somewhat that way.

Sounds like it . . . http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/10/01/2008-10-01_possible_items_belonging_to_missing_adve.html NickD

I was going to stay out of this one, but you're killing me here, Dave . . . If I, as an AFF Instructor, sent a newly graduated student to you, as a coach, and that same student later asked me why I taught him some "outdated" method then you and I would have to go for a walk and talk. But I guess we'll settle for a sit and read . . . Let's start with the fact we're talking about two kinds of students. Primary students (AFF I-VIII) and graduated students (prior to "A" License). And there is more of a difference between those two designations than between a jumper with 100 and 200 jumps or a jumper with a 1000 and 5000 jumps. As a primary Instructor some things we teach are set in stone. Things like overall safety issues, gear emergencies, aircraft emergencies, etc., and some things are more free form. And one of those things is basic freefall stability and maneuverability techniques. Primary students, unlike you or me, cannot just naturally use their entire body to make subtle movements in freefall to turn and move around in the sky. They need, at first, exaggerated movements as they test for themselves what actions produces what reactions. It's like you can explain to someone how to ride a bicycle 'till blue in the face, but until they actually try it, get all wobbly, and fall off a few times, they aren't going to get it. And at this point you wouldn't complicate things by reminding them to keep only the balls of their feet on the pedals. When working with primary students one the most important things to know is when to reign in a student and when to let them go. And I've found from experience in this area letting them find their own way is best. If a student can hold a heading, if they can turn in control and stop those turns, if they can move forward and back, and up and down, I don't care where their arms are as long as they are getting the job done. Let's look at it another way. Say you join the Air force and get selected to fly the F-16. Do they just stick you in a dual place F-16 and start teaching you? No, because your control inputs on the stick would be so ham handed a slight right turn would turn into a full roll to the right. So they first put you into a plane that's a lot slower with a fatter wing so you can be all goofy as you explore what action produces what reaction without getting into too much trouble. Until you get subtle. Now let's get to the essence of this, Dave. As skydivers is there really only one correct way to fly in the sky? If so that's news to me. You can call me old school but I think skydiving is a freedom of expression thing and the person who docks last on a hundred way can do so with one hand scratching their butt as long as they get the job done. And over the years I've seen, and enjoyed seeing, many unorthodox types of flying that works for people. And I'd rather see that than a "you must but your arms in this position" cookie cutter approach to skydiving. "Oh yeah, you must get in lock step, you must conform, you must trust in the State and the Great Leader . . ." And yes, Dave, I'm exaggerating your point for those who don't read subtlety well. When I learned to skydive this wasn't much of an issue as I was alone in freefall. Nobody was there throwing me signals, nobody was there adjusting my body position, and nobody was there to stop me when I spun. All I got was, "Okay kid, go up and try this!" So let's talk now about the "mantis" position. I can fly that way. And I do if I'm turning points. But otherwise, especially when flying with AFF students, I fly wide. And I tell students on the ground to do the same. I tell them to, "Fly like an eagle!" What will happen is, over the span of a few jumps, as they get the feel of things they will close up their basic position and it's a joy to watch. They are learning to fly right before your eyes. As for myself I fly wide with them because I might need the power to move in a hurry. Many times I've seen students look at me and smile like a child on their first bike. "Look, Daddy, I'm doing it!" But then they suddenly lose it and I need to close the three feet between us right now. And I can start and stop faster with everything hanging out there. The mantis is used in formation point turning and in the tunnels for practical reasons. In point turning you are trying to stay in tight with your team mates and in the tunnels there just isn't a whole lot of room. So the mantis in those two areas is appropriate. And when a tunnel instructor says they "correct skydivers all the time" I took that different then you might have. I took it as corrected them as to tunnel flight, not as to skydiving flight. And if that's what he actually did mean he's wrong. Now one other thing thing, Dave. And I saved what really bothers me to last. Even if I was acting in a coach capacity with a graduated student and that student told me something his primary Instructor said I would never in a million years say his Instructor taught him something "outdated." And believe me there are some mediocre Instructors out there and I've heard things I considered outright dangerous. But I'd just say, "Okay, but here's a little trick I learned," and I would just explain it in a way that makes the student see the light without denigrating his previous instruction or Instructors. Because when you bag on their previous Instructors what are you really doing? In the student's eyes you're making us all look like idiots, yourself included, and doing it when they need confidence in all of us the most. They next to last thing is the cutesy way some newer people re-invent the wheel. Let's go back to the Mantis. In order to promote it you first gave the "old" way a new name with an implied sneer to it. "The Lazy W!" WTF is that? It's like RW became "Belly Fly!" Please give me the respect of a lifetime of freefall. I don't call free flyers "lawn darts" like most of my older buddies do - I call it doing Vrw. And I rarely say Free Fly out loud because it denotes the rest of us are tied to some kind of string or something. But among us experienced jumpers even that's a little thing to be cheerfully argued over a beer. But around students, even though we keep it light, airy and as fun as possible, underneath it all everything is a deadly serious gunfight. It's why I think the entire coach program is ass backwards. Of course I believe we can't just turn students loose like we once did. The skies are now too dangerous for that. But I believe the coach position should be reserved for only two classes of jumpers. Very experienced primary Instructors as right now I can't fully teach a student everything I learned about skydiving over 30 years. There's no room for it in the current format of the AFF program plus they aren't in a head space to understand or take it all in yet. The other jumpers would be those in the waning years of their jumping careers who may never have been Instructors but have a lifetime of experience. Between those two groups the tips, tricks, lessons learned, and yes, even the jump stories passed along is a million dollar education that right now we are wasting. What prevents any endeavor from getting completely out of control? Its experience and maturity. And we are facing some very serious issues in skydiving today. And the longer you are in the sport, the more perspective you achieve, and the more glaring these problems become. Let's take a hypothetical, a typical young coach is asked by his student about swooping. It's a natural thing they ask, as they see it, and it may have even been the thing that attracted them to skydiving in the first place. So your typical young coach says here's how they did it, "Step down slow, blah, blah, take a canopy course, blah blah, stay out of the corner, blah blah blah blah." Now take the same student and the same question but now he's sitting in the Otter with old Pete who's been skydiving since the 1970s. Pete would probably say the same thing as the young coach did, but he might add one very important aspect the young coach left out. "Kid," Pete might add, "I've got five thousand jumps and I've always jumped a one to one canopy and I've never hurt myself seriously and I've had a blast over my entire skydiving career. Swooping is very cool, but it's not something you have to do to have fun in this sport." And because old Pete has been teaching so many good real life lessons to this student he's being taken seriously. Pete is the Man as far as this student is concerned. And finally our novices would be getting "options" that are sorely needed in the sport today. Don't think oldtimers would step up for this duty? I do if we made it a position of respect. And I would appeal to their sense of duty. Spend your last few years in the sport putting back, what do you say? And finally, the coach position is not the place for new people to hone their craft, earn their chops, or make their bones on their way to becoming a primary Instructor. Novices are in way to vulnerable a position to allow that. Coaches should learn their trade along side very experienced AFF Instructors. You grab onto my belt loop and eat, sleep, and crap primary skydiving instruction until I think you are ready to be cut loose. And there are a lot of tips and tricks I can teach you too that right now are also being wasted. Even the current AFF Certification Course format somewhat prevents me from helping candidates who are having trouble. Outside the classroom portion I'm not really supposed to say, "Gee, you're going about this all wrong, try this, this, and that." I can't because they are presenting themselves to me ready to be certified not taught. In a time when bad landings, canopy collisions, and aircraft falling out of skies are getting more prevalent we need, more than ever, to step up our student and novice training. Including the training of trainers. Right now it seems to me we are only slapping band aids on arterial bleeds . . . So the right people to do coaching, which should really be all about long term survival skills, are the people who actually proved they have long time survival skills by still being around. Right now young coaches mostly teach flying skills. Something the novice will spend the next hundred jumps learning and refining anyway so what’s the big hurry? We are pushing our students too hard and too fast and in the wrong areas. Instructors and coaches shouldn’t be all that concerned by how flash a student flies, it's all about filling their toolboxes with things they can pull out when needed that might just save their lives when the time comes. And that time always comes sooner or later for all of us. And many times more than once and in different ways . . . NickD

>>The U-2 wasn't using the catapult. Notice there is no bridle or shuttle attachment.

This is a new one on me . . . Almost like launching and trapping a jet powered glider! Also, I didn't know they could dial down the cat shots to this slow . . . You can actually see in one shot someone running along holding the wing. http://www.creativefission.com/Frame_MOV_Carrier320x240.html NickD

Maybe if I knew the person and their ability and I was there on the DZ I'd let someone actually jump a rig I was selling. But I would never send someone I didn't know a packed ready to jump rig in the mail. I don't hold with the try before you buy thing anyway, inspect yes, but it's not a used car you get to drive around the block to see if you like it. It's up to the buyer to know what they're looking for. I won't even go for that "send it to my rigger crap" or that "escrow" baloney. If you don't trust me go look somewhere else for all I care. I've sold plenty a gear that way and never had a problem with a buyer . . . NickD

I'd have to really sit down and think about this but just off the top of my head here's a few points. (I'm leaving a lot out here). There are several advantages to IAD (mostly for the DZ) and some disadvantage for the student. Advantages of IAD . . . - You don't need a static line attachment point in the plane. - You don't have rig and re-rig the pack jobs when changing from static line to freefall. - There's no static line and direct bag to retrieve and stow away after every jumper. - No chance of a student in tow. - No damage to the side of the airplane. (Or leading edge of the tail if the static lines are too long.) - No chance of JM forgetting to hook up static line (This contributed to the death of first jump student in San Diego in the 1980s) - Cleaner and faster to get your students out during an in-flight emergency. - A slightly longer freefall (if the JM let's go on time) than static line provides. - Canopy deployment takes place behind the student like a normal hop and pop. Disadvantages of IAD . . . - If you use a regular curved pin there's slightly more chance for a premature opening either during climb out or when hanging. You can and probably should use the longer static line pins but that negates somewhat the no extra rigging issue. - This is the big one. It's possible for a panicky first jump student to grab the bridle and completely stop the main deployment. Secondary to that they can accidentally become entangled with the bridle and accomplish the same thing. Advantages of Static Line Direct Bag Deployment . . . - As long as the static line is hooked up there are only two possible outcomes. Either a student in tow (very rare) or some kind of main deployment. - If using a direct bag there's no pilot chute on the main that can get over the nose or entangle with the lines or a descending slider. (Although if wanted a pilot chute can be first packed into the direct bag. But it's overkill.) - In an in-flight emergency you can hook up each student and physically just throw them out of the plane without worrying too much about their stability. You can also hook up the first student at a thousand feet (or whatever your seat belt off altitude is) so if anything catastrophic happens at that point you have a good chance of saving at least one student. (I can't emphasis speed of action enough in these cases. I was in a Cessna full of students once that crashed into the mountains in Ramona, California. I started putting the students out at 1800-feet and by the time I jumped we were down to 600-feet.) Disadvantages to Static Line . . . - Not many people know how to properly do it anymore. And as time goes by that number becomes less and less. Static Line JMing looks simple enough but there's a lot of little tricks to it that can take some time to master. I'm now leaving out the basics of hooking it up and checking it. - A very head high exit can cause the d-bag to come passed the student's side rather than up over there head. Or it can cause the d-bag to hit the student in the back of the head. Not a big problem but we called it "ringing the bell." - Student in Tow: This is very rare but a possibility and a very big deal. JMs have to be ready for it all the time. With the current level of AAD reliability the procedure is the student shows they are awake by some pre-arranged signal (usually placing their hands on their helmets.) The JM than uses his knife (you remembered to have that with you, right?) to cut the static line as far away from the aircraft attachment point as possible. They student then goes for the reserve handle as taught. If the student is unconscious it becomes a bit of a deal. I've heard some say they'd still cut the static line and trust in the Cypres but I couldn't do that. So now here's why you get that big five bucks for putting out Static Lines. If there are other students on board you quickly brief them to stay in the plane and obey the pilot after you are gone. Then you open the glove box in the plane and dig out the metal carabineer you placed in there. (You did do that didn't you)? If not you're screwed as there's no way to accomplish the next step without it. You hook the carabineer around your left lateral (or your chest strap) and then around the static line connected to the student in tow. Then carefully you slide yourself down the static line until reaching the student. (You are wearing gloves, right?) Once grabbing a hold of the student if you are an EMT you begin your SAMPLE assessment – no just kidding- you cut the static line somewhere between you and the student. (You did bring the knife with you, right?) Once you're both in freefall you give the student a reserve canopy. Don't worry too much as I've been waiting all my life for a student in tow and so far its never happened. The closest I've ever come was in the early eighties when tandem drogues first came out I did it to myself by throwing a drogue over the tail of a twin beech and getting myself in tow . . . NickD

Saving a Pack Job . . . http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1654 NickD

I'd pay it . . . But if money is an issue you may want to save your duckets for this one! http://www.ledzeppelintickets.org/ Led Zep were looking for a replacement vocalist (like that was possible) but it looks as if Robert Plant is on board! Now they only need a replacement drummer for John Bonham who died in 1980. John's son handled the kit in London but no announcement has been made that I've seen. But it sounds like there's several "big names" who'd do anything for the chance to tour with Zep. So it sounds like an full-blown American Tour is possible for 2009! I paid $7.75 when I saw them in San Diego in 1975. I'd gladly pay a grand now . . . NickD