NickDG

There's an albeit small, but worthy and not often considered drawback of becoming a rigger just to pack your own gear. It sometimes, depending on where you are located, and who you know, puts you way outside the mainstream rigger information loop. From time to time certain practices come and go from vogue, certain materials like line and fabric get a hint of taint attached to them but not yet enough for some general announcement. Some piece of hardware may bear watching because a few riggers noticed something not previously encountered but you never hear about it. These are all things you can be blissfully ignorant of if not connected into the rigger grapevine. Plus working in an actual loft, seeing and packing more than just a few systems a week, trading tips and tricks with other riggers tunes you into things you might miss just doing one rig, your own, every six months. You'll know your own rig well enough to focus in on that one wear spot while missing something else. It's not having the discipline to look at your own rig with fresh eyes, to inspect it like you never laid eyes on it before. Rigs, these days, are indeed a bit more complicated than they used to be. So would you take your system to a rigger you know only does two repacks a year? And even long time very experienced riggers sometimes need to reach out, to pull out that little black book of phone numbers and instinctively know which dialed number will yield the best and most reliable answers. And while any rigger, or even any jumper, can call the manufacturer sometimes the answer you get is sometimes shaded, frankness wise, by if they know you or not. Then after a few I&Rs on your own gear that don't explode in the container, the temptation, no matter how much you resist it, is to do one for your buddy and there's that can of worms. So pay the hundred bucks a year to the busiest most experienced rigger you can find and go blow that ratings money burning a hole in your pocket on something way more fun like flying lessons . . . NickD

~ In Stephen King style ~ The horror swept over him, slowly at first, like the hint of a coming illness, then faster and more telling the truth of it immobilized his legs, then churned his guts to jelly as he fell over backward never to rise again. Sprawled prone his wide unblinking eyes took in his last earthbound moment, the last straining synapse of a brain trying to cope, trying to make sense, trying to rationalize. But the crushing hideous fact that people born after 1986 are in college now is what did him in . . . NickD

It's definitely the North American Parafoil. I love calling them to order one for a customer. The girls there have those sweeter than honey southern accents . . . As long as there are Golden Knights, or any kind of accuracy in its current form, there will always be Parafoils! NickD

There's a few AYCE Sushi places around me in Pasadena that run about $20. The fish is just as good as anywhere else except they slice it a good bit thinner. But, no prob, just eat more pieces. If you remember 20 years ago when there wasn't a Sushi Bar every couple of blocks, you'll know why they went to AYCE. Competition! If DZs were popping up as fast and furious as Sushi Bars we could all go back to making $10 jumps . . . NickD

Of interest to us older boomers. Bozo the Clown is dead . . . http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=fb6f021b-dbd5-42e8-9976-c4ea62ecaa5d I searched to see if this had already been posted, but there are so many references to Bozos on this site it was impossible to tell . . . NickD

No-name-media is going to open yet another website with all the pickys they just purchased from this thread. They'll probably call it Boystown . . . NickD

Let's all bail out . . . Am I here because your are? Or are you here because I am . . . New site to be announced . . . NickD

>>boobies?

I've been thrust off DZ's right and left, at first it was deservingly and later it was because I knew more than they did . . . NickD

>>She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man, because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

And you know what? I gave credence to HH. But bandwidth bla blah blaa, he sold us out for MONEY . . . Are you ALL idiots . . . NickD

Yea, but not what follows . . . NickD

In deference to the moment I think we should all change our Avitars to match NWFlyer's . . . Where ever you are now look up! NickD

I'm over on the other side (the lower side) and didn't notice it . . . NickD

http://www.basejumper.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2889792;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread DizzyCom may be next . . . NickD

I'm sure RL (Peaches) will weigh in when she sees this . . . NickD

Some of you around since the early 90s may remember Michael Masterov from his numerous posts to rec.skydiving. Michael was a skydiver, pilot, and B.A.S.E. jumper. http://www.wndu.com/localnews/headlines/21433934.html NickD

10:30 on Wed in that Bar at the foot of the Bay Bridge. Bring a BASE rig and watch out - that pier has big holes all over it . . . I'll be the guy rubbing his nose . . . NickD

Right after the Perris Otter crash Sandy Reid suggested a hook in method for skydiving harnesses. You would just clip in to a floor mounted anchor. It made sense, since you were already wearing the best body harness ever. But FAA bullshit (not invented here) and the overall liability aspect of it squashed the whole idea. So just sit there and die, that's what you paid 22 bucks for . . . NickD

It's 11:30 and I'm in the Perris Ghetto now. I couldn't be in wuffodome tonight . . . NickD

In a sport where superlatives describe a great many people Frank Mott was one of those. In a sport where you know people you can trust with the women and the money Frank Mott was one of those. In a sport where I have a thousand acquaintances and twenty lifetime friends Frank Mott was one of those. In a sport where someone's death is too often described as, "he was the best instructor, the best flyer, or the best rigger," I won't embarrass his memory in that way. Sure Frank was good at all those things just like thousands of us are. But in the good and bad times, in the ups and downs that course through our lives, in the thirty years of learning how few constants truly exist, Frank Mott was one of those. Frank Mott was a rock. A man who in his thirties single handily spawned a generation of Southern California jumpers and riggers to a man who took to doing tandems in his sixties. Frank Mott smiled and grounded me a number of times when I pushed it too far and Frank Mott smiled and welcomed me back when my time was up. Frank Mott taught me the ways of fabric and string. With thread and needle Frank Mott taught me life must be interconnected and elastic or else it will break. Frank Mott, to a lot of us, was dad, big brother, and friend. Surely the toughest trifecta of them all. Frank Mott taught me how to be an instructor. He taught me no two students are alike. He taught me every student is someone's brother, sister, mom or dad. He taught me that every first jump student counted. So now I'm going to put on some classic rock and open a beer. I'm going to spend a few hours contemplating the lifetime of a man I truly loved. And in the end I know already the answer that will have me in tears, Frank Mott was one of us . . . NickD Photos - Frank (bottom) in 1982 and inflight with a jumpsuit he built for fun with open cells like a canopy on the arms.

I was going to say Jan, put the gag over your ears instead, but then I went back and listened to it again to make sure I had it right . . . Yikes, I totally blew hearing the first sentence correctly. That TM was right - no one has ever come undone from their TM's harness . . . I heard me, rather than[ i] you. Apologies to the TM. And let this be a lesson to the rest of you . . . NickD

>>I swear, some people get on here and nit pick every little thing in the world.

This morning CNN is running a piece on a reporter, inspired by Michell's high altitude jump, who did a Tandem in New Jersey. During gear-up the conversation went like this . . . "Any chance of my coming out of this thing [the harness]." "No." "Never happens?" "No, never." We all know tandem passengers can ask awkward questions but just like the "death" question brought up in another thread there are better ways of handling it than fibbing. Some things I would have said, especially knowing I was on TV, is either use humor or just tell the truth. "Well, so far not today." or . . . "Anything is possible, that's why it's called skydiving. You still want to go?" The problem is some bored CNN intern could actually look up if anyone ever came out of a tandem harness and without really understanding the circumstances, I could see that story running for a few days and giving the sport another black eye. NickD

At 12 jumps you shouldn't be jumping a semi-kinda-sorta, almost elliptical canopy of any sort. Over the course of the next fifty jumps you are going to make mistakes. You want to make those mistakes while jumping a large barge. This is not your fault. Keep in mind there are many very experienced jumpers in the world who won't touch eliptical canopies. Too bad you weren't given the time to learn enough to make that decision for yourself . . . NickD