NickDG

And I just remembered this one . . . I had an honest to goodness streamer on a square once. It was an old Glidepath Clipper and it came out of the bag alright and pulled me upright, but I felt myself going past upright and start accelerating. I reached up and shook and pulled on the risers but the slider, which I couldn't see, was still folded into the bottom of the canopy. And absolutely nothing was happening. This wasn't a snivel it was a real streamer. I couldn’t believe it . . . Anyway, even with the drag of a streamered canopy out, never mind just a small bag, you'll go faster. I wrote about it for Precision Parachutes when they used to print stories from people who used a Raven reserve to save themselves on their website. It's off the web now, but here's a copy: NickD

I've see more than a few go in flat and stable with nothing out, and also two go in with stand up baglocks. To my eyes the baglockers were definitely moving faster . . . NickD

Just throwing this out there . . . I'm assuming your talking RW and not vRW but I'd say the same thing applies. You might not be going low due to jumpsuit issues. You might be going low because lots of folks with 70 jumps go low. I did and I'm average size. It's sometimes more a case of not slowing down soon enough and/or not approaching formations by staying in what we used to call, "the cone of possibility." What I mean is you can be well above a formation and already be low because you are on the wrong angle. In that case there is no way you can get there without winding up underneath it. This usually happens, and for good reason, because you are trying to be too conservative and your approach is too shallow. The problem with throwing on a big jumpsuit now is you'll use it as a crutch. And sure some jumpers do need a bit more drag but it might be more the people you are jumping with now just aren’t falling fast enough so don’t make their problem your problem. There was an idea years ago in skydiving akin to boxing. Heavyweights don’t get into the ring with featherweights. So find four guys your size and experience level, form a team, and you'll be turning and burning with the best of them in no time . . . NickD

>>Instructors need to use judgment. Instructors need to teach judgment.

The FAA is only concerned with the harness and the reserve. Their juristiction and the TSO standards end at the bottom of the main risers. It's where the saying, "you can jump a bed sheet for a main if you wanted to," comes from . . . And any non-rigger can assemble a main to the risers, even if it isn't yours, you just can't pack it. NickD

>>Anyone agrees with me....?

>>Replace it with the DZ inspection program, THAT will serve USPA members by putting inspection data on USPA's web page.

>>Hell, perhaps skyride should start offering a marketing 101 course to DZO's. You guys could probably learn a thing or two.

http://www.5min.com/Video/The-best-way-to-pay-at--a-bar-8317 NickD

So much for the new USPA Executive Director. Oh well . . . What's next? The skydiver patriot act? NickD

uHuck.com . . . http://www.basejumper.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2881087;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread Please consider helping the brothers out . . . NickD

When modern anti-drug TV spots first appeared about 30 years ago (although please feel free to poison yourselves with big Pharma's offerings) there was a cool one showing a pusher working a school yard and in answering one child's concern he says, "Come on, kid, how do you know ya even got chromosomes?" NickD

Well, here's another piece of the puzzle . . . This is from today's UK Sunday Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2851719.ece NickD

I thought you were taking about a jump pilot I used to know at Lake Elsinore . . . NickD

>>comerbackers

>>My Chain of Command is ordering me to provide proof that I can skydive, or I will be ordered not to.

Radial engines, mostly Continental 220s, were used in many WWII era tanks. The left over ones are what kept many Stearman dusters flying after the war . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXLL5hxkl58&mode=related&search= NickD

>>and call it Parachute Parachute

I know its marketing but I recall when DZs had simple and romantic names before every thing became the more sterile Skydive this and Skydive that . . . DZ were mostly named for the town they were in and advertised that way. Perris was just Perris and not Perris Valley Skydiving. Or they went by endearing nicknames like Borderland instead of the much lamer Skydive San Diego. Hemet was always just Hemet until it became Skydiving Adventures and I remember when Jim Wallace started calling Lake Elsinore - Jim Wallace Skydiving and worse Wally World and I was mad at him for months. I reminded Jim that Jacque Istel tried calling Elsinore SkyWorld and the freaking floods came. Thank goodness Pope Valley closed before it became Freefall Pope Valley! NickD

Neat story about a pilot save. Turns out the pilot is/was a jumper so that probably had an affect on the outcome . . . http://www.wmur.com/news/14576272/detail.html NickD

Yes, it was Art, thanks for the memory jog. And I now recall him drinking me under the table with that rum on several occasions . . . On another Cal City note I remember it was my birthday and I had the day off. So I drove my truck out into the desert (not much to do in Cal City if you aren't jumping) and had myself a little solo picnic. It was October 14, 1997. Off in the distance there was a F-15 flying around which isn't strange as Cal City is very close to Edward's Air Force BASE. The jet came pretty close to where I was camped out and he was low and slow so I stood up and waved and I know he saw me because he gave me a little wing wag. He then hit the burners and went straight up and I thought, wow, a little private air show for my birthday. A few minutes later I heard the double tap boom of the sound barrier being broken. It wasn't until later that night back in a hangar I learned who was flying the F-15. That day, October 14th 1997, happened to be the 50th anniversary of the sound barrier first being broken. And the pilot who gave me the wing wag was none other than Chuck Yeager himself. He was there to celebrate by breaking the sound barrier again. That was pretty cool, just me and Chuck, partying together out in the desert . . . NickD

Gizmos, gizmos, and more gizmos . . . AAD batteries, mini-cam batteries, alti batteries and MP3 batteries. I wonder when the first unintentional water landing electrocution will come . . . NickD

I was working at the "other" Cal City DZ with Bob & Judy when Mark Hewitt and Nannette were working for Van. We really did try to keep it friendly but would always shoot the finger at each other when taking off just for laughs. But, I'd go over and visit Mark some nights as we knew each other well from B.A.S.E. jumping. I had a motorcycle that I left outside the hanger and one night, what's his name, I can't even it remember it now, took it and went screaming up and down the RWY with it. He lived in a van across from Van's hanger and we had a big to do about stealing my bike. A few days later he comes over to the Bob's DZ to apologies and I blew him off. And about a week later, and unrelated to anything I did I'm sure, he took a gun and blew his brains out in his van. Cal City was the weirdest place I ever worked, and that's saying a lot . . . I liked Robert though, he had every Frank Zappa album ever released . . . We'd also, because of the WX, we'd start jumping at first light and be drinking by one o'clock when the winds started to blow. I fully understand the loyalty in this thread from jumpers who consider it their home drop zone, but man, you guys should travel more. We always secretly admired the fact you guys had an Otter as we struggled along with barge of the week. Mostly small C-172s and 182s and that death trap C-401 we had for awhile. But DZ politics aside there was a good group of jumpers up there, Philly, Harry, and the Air Force guys from Edwards. Van had a better LZ than we did too. We were kind of moving around a lot, getting kicked out from this place and that. But man, backing up under tandems in that blowing desert wind trying to avoid washing machines and refrigerators dumped all over the place was a real education for me. Cal City had a strong Japanese student connection and we'd spend windy afternoons out in the desert letting the little Japanese girl's fire big hand guns. It was really worth it hearing them squeal with delight when the guns went off. We shared a hanger with Wally who rebuilt vintage airplanes and who didn’t really like skydivers, but used us to help pay his rent. He was refurbing an L-29 jet and one night I went over and drunkenly climbed into the cockpit. Cal City, at night, can be really boring. I closed the glass canopy and I heard it lock. I sat there pretending I was over the 'Nam dropping napalm and zooming around until I needed another beer. But the canopy wouldn’t open. I pushed and pushed and it wouldn't open. I was freaking trapped. I pushed on the "canopy lock release" lever, but it wouldn't budge. There wasn't anyone around and I realized I was really screwed. I looked down between my legs and there was the ejection handle. I didn't think the seat was actually armed and thought maybe pulling the handle would, at least, release the canopy. I was just drunk enough to give it a go, but I really thought about for awhile. I really didn't want the last thing I ever accomplished to be a smoking hole in the hanger roof. Then I had to pee. So I gritted my teeth and yanked up on the handle. There were a bunch of clicks but when I opened my eyes I was still sitting there. So I fell asleep. I woke up hearing voices. Bob was up teaching the first jump course, and probably wondering where the fuck I was because that was my job. I tapped lightly on the canopy glass trying to get his, and certainly no one else's attention. It was only when he was demonstrating a hard arch that he threw his head back far enough to see my frantic waving. He smartly sent the class on a break and the next thing is he and Hank Asciutto are staring down and laughing hysterically at me. They pulled the outside canopy release lever and I was finally free. And except for teaching the rest of the AFF class, taking a level one, and doing a few tandems that was finally the end of that day. I was never so happy as to leave Cal City eventually. And when I went back to Perris/Elsinore, with all the problems I "thought" existed there, a lot of old hands asked, "Did you learn your lesson?" NickD

I know you're a skydiver . . . Take a trip out to Perris, CA from New Jersey and I'll personally "Air Trash" you. You won't, I guarantee you, leave still wondering . . . NickD

Yes, except for the military cases mentioned and Ted Mayfield's shenanigans I've never heard of a civilian rigger being jailed. There have been, however, some that have been sued and had their careers and reputations ruined. For new riggers there is a big lesson in what happened to Mike B. Mike was a Southern California rigger who inspected and packed the Reflex that James Martin was wearing when he was killed at Perris. I knew Mike pretty well as he also worked for the same BASE equipment company I did when this incident happened. He was a fairly new rigger, but he was conscientious and bright. James Martin, like a lot of Perris/Elsinore locals including me, purchased the Reflex system when it first came out. It was an innovative rig and we all knew and respected the manufacturer who was also a local jumper. Right around this same time canopy manufactures also started to make available some of the strongest yet smallest diameter suspension line the sport had ever seen. And James, like a lot of jumpers, liked to have the latest and greatest stuff. I'm not entirely sure, but I doubt Mike the rigger ever saw the main canopy, which was equipped with these newer lines, when he inspected and packed the reserve into James' new Reflex. So James was putting his sixth jump on his new gear when a main suspension line snagged a grommet on the Reflex's main container. He cutaway but the snag held and when he fired the reserve it fouled in the trailing main. Everybody who owned a Reflex quickly took a closer look at their grommets. The ones on my rig looked fine, but the manufacturer came out with a SB saying the grommets should now be "countersunk." The ensuing lawsuit stated the grommets weren't set correctly but failed to mention the partnering cause which was the new smaller suspension lines. Now suspension lines have "caught" in grommets prior to this, but the older Dacron lines were too fat to get totally under a grommet unless it was so badly set a rigger would have to be blind to miss it. And if a few fibers of that Dacron were snagged they would be too weak to hold. But this new type line was a whole different ball game and I'm sure if I would have inspected James' rig I would have passed it too. Shortly after this incident it came to light this new line was snagging on other types of rigs too. But none of those ended in fatalities so that info didn't hit the rigger grapevine quickly enough. And that's the lesson here. Mike was caught in a gear vacuum. That period of time after something new comes out but before all the ramifications are fully known. This was a sad affair for everyone involved, it was sad for James, sad for the Reflex manufacturer, and sad for Mike the rigger . . . NickD