NickDG

My favorite was always this one. The glow in the dark paint shows a certain panache not found in your average loon . . . NickD >A few weeks after the stunt, Miller used a powered paraglider to get on top of Buckingham Palace after painting himself green and covering his private parts with glow-in-the-dark paint. British authorities evacuated the palace in seven minutes, then came for Miller, who was arrested on the roof. They charged him with terrorism, believing he had connections with the IRA.

I agree, I've never been able to find anything specific with it. Maybe the new corporate masters will throw some money at it . . . NickD

>>REPLY> What does it mean to 'prime the pins'. Pull them out slightly to make sure they are lose and will eject?.

When Claude, from Perris died, many thought it was all those years of pushing the stairs up to running Otters on every load and breathing in those fumes. I figured it was more the drinking, smoking, and eating in the Bombshelter every day . . . NickD

OMG, Fan Man . . . The media isn't always accurate but they have a long memory! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_Man NickD

I think the best type of intentional cutaway rigs are the ones that are regular rigs with the addition of a low front mounted reserve. We had a guy, an experienced jumper, doing a movie stunt once and using the other type of system (the dual three ring set up) for a planned cutaway. The cutaway canopy was hand deployed from the aircraft by another jumper. And even though he'd practiced his planned actions in a hanging harness to the point of having it down cold he still managed to pull the wrong cutaway handle. Now he was in a spot. But this is show business. There is tens of thousands of dollars being spent on this shooting, plus his Hollywood reputation as reliable is now at stake. What would you do? NickD

You know, I watched the vids again, and I'm not entirely sure about this angle but here goes . . . In freefall, and maybe without really thinking about it, we use our limbs and muscles to stay in the rig. In the video you are purposing using your limbs and muscles to try and come out of the rig. Also, and probably more so, the fact you're standing on the ground gives you some added leverage you won't have in freefall. For an inverse example, and this may not be a great one, but some years ago on a two-way one of the jumpers left the aircraft without their leg straps on. And even with the other jumper trying to help, they couldn't manage to get them on. Running out of time the legstrap-less jumper had to resort to locking both arms together while the other jumper deployed the pilot chute. But the result was being stripped out of the rig on opening. What I mean is, comparatively, even though some jumpers need to lean against something, it's easier to put your legstraps on, and do it alone, while on the ground. And that's because of the leverage. On the other hand in actual freefall in a sit or head down position, if you had a premature deployment and an instant opening I could imagine being shot through either rig hole. But not only would you have to be in one of those positions and have a premature deployment, you'd also have to get an opening shock without first being pulled upright. And the chances of all three of those things occurring in succession is rather slim . . . NickD

>>He has 84 jumps, is this possible?

What makes those vids is the subtle hand gestures you make after the rig comes off. I always wondered what I do in freefall if that happened to me, now I know . . . NickD

>>I think the word "idiots" was used to describe the jumpers at some point in their conversation.

Flap speeds in a 727, like all airliners depends on among other things, weight, but generally they are anywhere from 180 K down to about 140 K. at that altitude. And I've immediately deployed more than once off aircraft doing 150 K during reserve testing and it wasn't that big deal. And that's a few times with square reserves and once with a round. And the round Cooper had was a older continuous line type I'd imagine and those are pretty tough. And back in the days before "smart" ejection seats there's been military ejections at all sorts of ungodly speeds that worked. NickD

LOL, they should change their names to The "Wrong Way Corrigans" Demo Team, Inc. I can imagine right after . . . "I know you didn't request a Demo, but you got a Demo, and we want our dough!" NickD

I believe, a good photo with a well written caption, but no real story, would have better chance of being published in Mike Truffer's SKYDIVING. They use photos as filler to keep the publication interesting looking while PARACHUTIST would just fill the hole with another advert. Nobody has to get SKYDIVING - so Mike tries a bit harder. NickD

Links don't work . . . NickD

Well, we know it wasn't Airtwardo. Instead of just trailing smoke he'd have been on FIRE!!!! . . . http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2008/08/31/misdirected-skydiver-crashes-duke-football-opener-instead-of-lan/ NickD

We can go with the idea Cossey, as an experienced rigger, would not have packed a rig with an impossible pull force, that's a reasonable assumption. Plus the fact parachutes that are packed for any amount of time tend to settle down (compress) in the container so I'm not sure all this hard pull stuff in relevant. And a NB-6 has what? Three, or four, ripcord pins? That spreads the pull force out fairly well. And if Cooper was at all experienced he would have checked the pins. He would have tried to actually move them with his fingers and maybe he even primed them. But let's say he had no experiences what so ever. I know from experience every new jumper without being told just naturally worries about being able to pull the ripcord. When we taught skydiving with ripcord mains they would always ask how hard to pull is it? And we'd let one student in the class actually pull one. "Oh, that's easy," they'd say to their classmates and that was the end of that worry. But an untrained Cooper may have been worrying about it. So he'd either leave the plane with his hand already on the handle, or he'd simply walk down to the bottom of the air stairs, turn his back to the void, and pull the ripcord right there, using two hands if needed. A pull off at that speed might have damaged the canopy but not necessarily, and rounds of that type sometimes do get damaged at high speeds, but they rarely fail completely. So even with some blown out panels he still could have landed all right. I still hold that no one without previous parachuting experience would do what Cooper did. I don't think he was a very experienced civilian sport jumper as he would have brought a decent and familiar rig on board with him. I think he was a military trooper style jumper who had a handful of jumps spanning a single military hitch and who never did anything but static line jumps. NickD

Okie doaky . . .

>>...no wait, I REALLY AM a skydiving instructor!

My sailboat next to San Diego airport gets coated with the Jet A residue and it's very hard to scrub off . . . NickD

Down safe, carry on everyone . . .

Here she comes . . . NickD

It's American, not United. American Airlines 1586. If you want you can track them here: http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightTracker/flightTracker.do?id=137462111&airlineCode=AA&flightNumber=1586 They are out over Catalina Island now . . . NickD

UA, blown main gear tire, or tires, on take off. Circling now and dumping fuel. It's on CNN . . . NickD

I peaked at your profile and there's nothing there, So before this goes any further, are you an experienced jumper? NickD

>> its a good thing that i live in a relatively rural area of the uk. is there any entanglement issues i should think about?