NickDG

It's funny, but I've been slamming PARACHUTIST for years, but the last four or five issues have "looked" really good, probably the best since I've been reading it (1975). And besides the "look" maybe it's because they are finally using some pieces I suggested to them years ago. The "Logbook" and "Back When" were all my ideas . . . They also need a last page article called, "Last Out!" instead of the photograph they use now. The interviews they do are all right (also my idea) but they are way too formula driven and I'm surprised they aren't asking, "What's your favorite color?" The problem is PARACHUTIST is a "house organ" and that's why you aren’t getting the harder hitting kind of stuff you see in "Skydiving." When I asked, "Why does it have to be that way?" The answer I got was, "That's just the way it is." The one thing they have to absolutely get rid of is Chris Needles opening article. The first thing you read in a magazine sets the tone for the rest of the thing. And as it is now I always read the rest of the magazine feeling like I just got yelled at by my crazy uncle . . . As for members submitted articles they are way more picky than say "Skydiving" is. Not in quality of writing, but the piece must be politically correct and in no way slam any gear, manufacturer, or DZ that's advertised. I've had several, what I thought were decent articles, rejected because I can't write "happy talk." NickD

I did some cutaway "test" jumps on the Amigo reserve when FreeFlight was TSOing them. The one test I remember the most was the "High Speed" deployment test. I was already out on the strut of the C-182 when it was nosed over into a dive. I think we were at 150 when I let go and deployed. That was a good little reserve . . . I also did a lot of test jumps on early BASE gear, but that doesn't really count as every BASE seems like a test jump . . . NickD

The next frame in that sequence would show his heels hitting the back of his helmet. When they moved the chest rings up higher to prevent that then we got fat lips when the main opened. This is a classic case of when the "good ole days" weren't really . . . NickD

Sewing machine oil and needles is about you'll find at the local sewing store. The good stuff can be gotten on line. Here's a place that beats Para-Gear on price for E thread: http://www.threadart.com/shop/category.asp?catid=63 NickD

>>*Wasn't it sparked by Ralph loosing the windshield?

Getting a "pilot" save in your logbook is pretty rare. I know Gary Douris has one at Lake Elsinore and so has Hank Ascuttio up in Cal City. I remember they were both giddy as kids on Christmas morning. I came "close" once. A guy left a message that he'd just bought a sailplane and it came with a parachute he wanted me to look at. Before he brought it up to where I was in Oceanside he bailed only to find the rig was field packed. I think the Aviator is the thing. And we thought about packaging some kind of deal together that included a "check out" tandem jump. But pilots, being pilots it didn’t fly. I'm continually amazed these guys are sitting on tickets that say "airman" but they actually freak at the idea of getting any "air" on themselves. NickD

>>you have to go and write DZ.com that "this travis is such a lame ass looser gloryhound.." ?>> Does Red Bull sponsorship="unqualified gloryhound?"

The Smithy did have one at one time. The USPA spent a ton of money on four special mannequins that were posed as a four way team and suspended from the ceiling. This was in the 1980s. They picked four "real" jumpers from four different eras wearing gear of their times. Jerry Bird was modeled, and so was Bill Ottley, Jim Arenda was I believe the third jumper and an Army Parachute Team jumper who's name escapes me now was fourth. The gear represented included was the Army guy in trad gut gear, Bird with his "J. Bird Rip-off" reserve, and Ottley in a "modern" piggyback either a Handbury or early Wonderhog. The big expense on these mannequins, besides how well they were articulated, was the faces actually looked like the people they were supposed to be. The jumpsuits were all period too. I don't remember how long this exhibit hung at the Smithy but it wasn't all that long. Then around the late 80s across the country in San Diego a really great aviation museum burned to the ground in an arson fire in Balboa Park. It was a real shame as not only did they have some great aircraft they also had a huge collection of WWII parachutes including a lot of "silk" Japanese and German versions. When the museum was finally rebuilt years later other aviations museums in the country combed through their attics and basements looking for "off exhibit" items to help San Diego get back on its feet. So somehow the "four way" came to San Diego. When I went to visit the re-opened museum the four way, which this time was put up by wuffos, was in a sad way. Ripcords dangled from pockets, Ottley's throw out pilot chute bridle was hanging outside its belly band pouch, other parts of the gear were on wrong and the grips in the four way were comically awry. I convinced the museum staff I knew what I was talking about and spent an hour on scaffolding with one of the curators fixing it up. Over the years I've checked on it, and the last time was about two years ago and it was still there. I'm up in LA right now but maybe some San Diego locals could get together and adopt this thing. It's just crying out for a free flyer to be included in order to make it a hybrid! If it’s not on exhibit any longer USPA should try and get it back for their new place. But I doubt there's anyone at USPA right now who's even aware of it . . . NickD

Below is a link to the B.A.S.E. jump into the Grand Canyon Travis made on a dirt bike. John Carta was the first to ride a motorcycle off an object on a B.A.S.E. jump in the 1980s. Rod Pack made the first chute-less jump in 1965. There is certainly something to being first, no matter the motivation. So admire Columbus, if you must be a hero worshipper, not the endless stream who followed in his wake. Travis is counting on a new generation of impressionable teenagers who will think both his stunts are brand new and cool. He's using both sports, B.A.S.E. & skydiving to advance himself - not the sports. I could almost abide this if he'd said, "I've modernized this stunt," and then gave some back-story on those who came before him. But it's just "him" all the time . . . and that's not furthering anything, it's just being a gloryhound . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8pH5jgSuP8 NickD

I signed up for a Home Economics course when I was in high school figuring the class would be full of girls. At 17 I was more interested in sowing not sewing and it turned out I was the only boy in class. But our first project was producing a simple vest and it turned out I had a talent around sewing machines. That summer I purchased an old Singer machine and rebuilt it including the motor. When years later I became a rigger the sewing part was easy for me, so that class paid off, in more ways than one. NickD

The simple answer is the obvious one. They don't jump enough to get proficient with ram airs. If carrying a load was the determining factor, why aren't we doing tandems with rounds? If I was loaded down with axes, shovels, and whatever I'd want a humongous controllable square over my head regardless of the terrain. That way I'd have a shot at a clearing, and if not, I could sink it into the tree of my own choosing. NickD

This fire seems worse than the 2004 San Diego ones. I grabbed my medic's bag and headed down there yesterday, but could only get as far south as Poway. I ended up checking folks over who were taking refugee in the North County Mall off the 15 freeway. There are sure a heck of a lot of displaced persons . . . NickD

Zing, just change it to "first parachute decent from a flying machine" and you'll be spot on! Yes, the ancient Chinese used small parachutes mainly for aerobatic displays but as such they weren't really life saving devices. However, there is written evidence that some particularly nasty Asian warlords used larger parachutes to throw vanquished enemies from less than vertical tall cliffs. The idea was the parachute would somewhat retard their decent while slowly turning them into hamburger as scraped along the walls. You've got to love a humble winner . . . The first "real" parachutes appeared in around the 15th century. And while every skydiver learns about Di Vinci and the parachute he sketched in his Codex Atlanticus the thing you have ask yourself is why? Since the first hot air balloon was over 200 years away why did anyone need a parachute? The answer is throughout Europe of that time stonemasons had learned how to build stone towers that sometimes reached two to three hundred feet tall. Rich noble men lived in these towers and like billionaires of today the game they played was my tower is bigger than your tower. The problem was these towers where heated with wood, furnished with straw, and lighted by fire bearing torches. And it was here the world first saw "towering infernos" and people actually jumping to their deaths to escape heat, smoke, and flame. It didn’t take long for young entrepreneurs, looking to make a quick buck, realized some type of life saving device was needed. In 1617 Faust Veransio demonstrated a parachute he designed in front of 3000 people in Venice, Italy. The jump was only half successful as the leap form a tall stone tower resulted in his death some days later from injuries he probably would have survived today. All the aviation texts from the early 20th century make mention of these "tower jumpers" as a group while the later ones seem to focus on the parachute from WWI on. So who truly made the "first" successful parachute decent is, so far, lost in history, but it surely wasn't that French guy in 1797 . . . NickD

>>I take back every word I just wrote if the raw footage of his interviews would show that he ponied up and the angle of the reporting was twisted by the media, which is very well possible.

And when I first saw "snaps" on a Dolphin rig's riser covers, even though I knew they weren't true pull the dot types, I freaked . . . NickD

Somewhat in Lutz's defense I was behind him in the airplane with another level one AFF student as he exited with his Instructors, Rocky and Moley. I didn’t teach the FJC that day, but I saw his class training throughout the day and I did talk to Lutz when I came across him practicing on a class break. He seemed like any other student, and from that you should know I really mean any student is a potential Lutz. Some of you are judging him through your "experienced" jumper mind set, when you'd do better to see him through an Instructor's eyes. Lutz was presented with an extraordinary problem in freefall. So when he says, "Nobody told me what to do when the parachute disappears," it's not as dumb as it sounds. Lutz wasn't trained for exactly what happened to him because nobody was. If we taught for every million to one thing that can happen the FJC would last a week and the student wouldn't be able to remember it all. I'm sure if Lutz would have had a "normal" malfunction he'd have handled it like hundreds of other students have. But what happened to him was too out of sequence, too unlike what he was taught and drilled in. So even though he comes across as very un-sympathetic in his later TV interviews you have to ask yourself, as a first jump student, how would you have done? It's easy to say now he should have simply followed the procedures for a total malfunction but the way the student gear was set up and amount of things that went wrong put Lutz into a corner. From my point of view this jump was a sterling success as it actually came very close to being a fatality. For those unfamiliar with the circumstances here's the back story. At Perris the gear had the normal, for those days, hard hip mounted plastic main ripcord which like all student rigs was fairly close to the cutaway handle. The rig was also equipped with a FXC AAD but it was mounted to the main container and not the reserve, and set to fire at 4500-feet. The reasons for this AAD arrangement is a large subject of pros and cons in itself so ignore it for now. There was also an RSL which was attached to a main riser via a snap shackle of the type you see on experienced jumper's rigs. The exit and freefall were normal until 5000-feet when Lutz reached for his main ripcord handle but placed his hand on the cutaway handle instead. This is a common mistake that AFF Instructors are always ready for it. It's also one of the best arguments for going to the BOC main handle, and better than the one about having to retrain people later on. Moley, who was on the mainside, grabbed Lutz's hand and tried to prevent the cutaway pull, and he did, but Lutz managed to dislodge the handle from the Velcro. Standard procedure says you can’t leave a student in that position because while he's later steering the main there's too big a chance he might accidentally further pull the handle while pulling down on a toggle, or flaring, at low altitude. So Moley then pulled the cutaway handle completely from the housing and immediately pulled Lutz's main handle, all the right things to do in this situation. Meanwhile on the other side the second thing was going wrong. Rocky, who was the reserve side saw Lutz reach in to pull, but instead of riding through on the main opening he turned away to leave a bit too early. Rocky's an excellent Instructor with thousands of AFF jumps and oh well, we are all human, and we all screw up sometimes. Meanwhile, on the other side, Moley had also released his grips on Lutz like he was supposed to do and this is when the third thing went wrong. As the main deployed and detached, because the cutaway handle was already pulled, the RSL extended but instead of pulling the pins on the reserve container at some point as the three rings released the snap shackle came open and the RSL did nothing. So now we have Lutz alone in freefall with no main and no AAD. And even though Lutz was unable to articulate it later, I'm pretty sure he was running through what he learned earlier in the day and searching for the answer. But realistically, not only was the answer eluding him, so was the question. With Rocky tracking away it was only the fact Moley just backed away, because he knew full well things weren't going right that saved Lutz from being a fatality. He managed to fly down into Lutz's sightline and made pulling motions on his own reserve handle. And this was the only thing that gave Lutz the answer he was searching for. As for the reserve ride and his not steering away from the power lines that's easy to understand too. Lutz knew something big went wrong and he probably figured he had something to do with that. But now he had a parachute over his head and I'm pretty sure he thought, "I'm not touching anything else that might screw this up." We've seen that behavior before with military pilots who had ejected and were then supposed to whip out a knife and cut through the four rear suspensions lines that would make their rounds somewhat steerable. But in their debriefs one after another said, "After all that trauma of the initial problem and the ejection I wasn't about to pull out a freaking knife and start cutting any lines that were holding me up." After the big white flash of Lutz hitting the power lines I ran into the office and pulled his "rap" sheet. This was the waiver he signed and written test (the one that I wrote) he'd taken at the end of his class. That was all in order and he hadn’t missed any questions on the test. It was then I heard Bad Spot Bill's voice on the radio, "He's a bit singed but he's alive and all right." What we learned from all this was the obvious but Perris changed some things including going to connector links instead of snap shackles for the RSL and moving the ADD back to the reserve. This was something I'd be arguing for and I'm glad they came to their senses. While there were a few good arguments for having it on the main, the bottom line, I thought, was it saved the DZ some bucks on reserve repacks. Another thing is some of Instructors started doing a drill I always did with every student. I had a main plastic ripcord handle, a soft cutaway handle, a metal reserve ripcord handle, and a main lift-web with a large harness ring on it. The drill was to close your eyes and tell me what you have in your hand? So let's temper our judgment of Lutz, and let him be an example, not of this one individual's inability to later say the right things on TV, but to all future Instructors who think being one is a big piece of cake. And to the rest of us, because we all made a "first" jump – the take away being - there by the grace of luck, it didn't happened to us . . . NickD

I think it was Janet Lundquist who had a hand in producing that advert. The Herd always did PR well. Speaking of posers. Seeing Guy Manos reminds me of the time an overly-impressionable jumper, along with his wife, saw Guy heading into the showers at some earlier Boogie. The jumper says, "Wow, look honey, there goes Guy Manos! When he comes out go over and ask him to come over and have a beer with us." So she does and Guy Manos says, "No, sorry, but have you got any hair conditioner?" In the same vein another time I was at Skydive Monterey Bay and Roger Nelson was there. And it just so happened there was a particularly hot blonde in the first jump course. It was then I found Roger ripping through a large box of old PARACHUTIST magazines and when I asked what he was looking for he said, "I'm looking for a picture of myself so that chick knows I'm somebody." NickD

>>On the morning of the jump, he was shown a video that was intended to prepare him for what was to come.

Well, on another front I was just staring at the name of this part of the forum, "Skydiving History and Trivia." I think including the word "Trivia" trivializes what's to be learned here and minimizes the contributions to the sport some of us (not me yet, I'm too young ) have made. I'd write to HH about it but I'm on the shit list already and banned in a couple of topics. Airtwardo? I think it should be flat "Skydiving History." NickD

We always called them "ropes and rings" and not "rings and ropes." Probably a coastal thing . . . Basically the way it worked is instead of a slider, because the slider wasn't invented yet, the canopy could only inflate as a fast as it could drag the already inflated pilot chute back down to its top surface. The "ropes" that surrounded the canopy were all part of the pilot chute bridle system. It was "reefing" in the best sense, when it worked right. And it should be mentioned some where doing terminal jumps completely "un-reefed" in those days with the idea if you could take it, the canopy would. They built bullet proof squares, and bullet proof jumpers, in those days. It took Greg Yarbenet, with a small square model of a Volplane, to invent the Slider. He pushed his wedding ring up the lines, before throwing it up in the air, and noticed the canopy would only inflate as fast as it could push the ring down the lines. Adding fabric to that idea only slowed things down more . . . and that became the full sail Slider . . . I've heard different stories over the years, but that's the way it was told to me, and I'm sticking to it! NickD

I've known of at least two of them that failed. Both were the older un-reinforced Type-17 mini risers. And both were TSO'd. One failed on a B.A.S.E. jumper at Half Dome in Yosemite and what saved him was the riser caught in the slider and the canopy spiraled him in instead of just dumping him in. The other was a skydiver at Lake Elsinore and it killed him after an out of sequence EP. Neither broke at the rear leg where pictured. They both broke where the grommet was. If you think about it, after punching the hole and installing the grommet the only thing left holding you is the bit of material on either side of grommet. Otherwise these are rated at, I think, 2500 pounds, but once you put a grommet in, it's nowhere near that. This is why the newer Type-17 risers are reinforced in that area. I can see where Type-17 risers are good aerodynamically for swooping and such, but if you aren't doing that what's the point? You can still use the fatter Type 8 risers with mini-rings. It reminds of something the late Al Frisby (I'm still not used to saying that) said, "These idiots, they swap out their steel connector links for Slinks to save weight, then they strap on lead to jump." NickD

And as a rigger, you can "write off" your expenses of attending PIA too . . . because it furthers you in the profession. It all depends of what you write down as your "profession." I always write "professional parachute jumper" and I'm this close to writing off my travel expenses for B.A.S.E. jumps, as I've been paid to do that too . . . NickD

>>So just jumping and repacking your own main is not "rigging work."

>>I can see where CA jumpers might have thought the Wonderhog and SST were "So East Coast," but not "So Florida."

>>be VERY careful with what you do to the airplane for a "temp door".