JerryBaumchen

Hi Scott, Both you & I are long-time friends of Ralph. That is why I am staying out of this one. IMO, your postings are unusually biased and you should state as such. I bought my first piece of parachute gear from Ralph in 1964 and I bought my last new piece of parachute gear from him about 1 1/2 yrs ago. I have bought a fair amount of gear from him over the years. I would buy from him tomorrow if I was looking for something. I consider anything that I might post to be biased and will not do so, JerryBaumchen PS) For the record: Ralph's place is only about 45 minutes from me. I occasionally stop by just to chit-chat.

Hi guys, If it works correctly, here is a jpg of the PdeF pin toggle system. It might not work as I am not much of a computer guy. JerryBaumchen

Hi andrew, Nicely done. I had forgotten that the Mk II had one less turning slot. I always was of the opinion that the Mk II ( which had a very short life in sales; it was on the market for only about 1 year ) was built for two reasons: 1. Cheaper as lots of the gores were identical. 2. Had less forward speed which worked better for the Europeans who would not competitively jump in the winds that we would continue to jump/compete in here in the USA. JerryBaumchen

Hi steve, There were two schools of thought: 1. A 'very' long retainer line to let the sleeve & pilot chute hang way over the canopy. 2. A rather short retainer line ( about 10" - 18" ) to keep the sleeve laying right in the depressed crown line area. This is the method that I used & would do still if setting up a PC. Take your choice or try both and see what fits you, JerryBaumchen PS) I always preferred a bridle line of about 5'.

Hi boston, IMO, there is no set answer. It does depend upon who you are dealing with. Gravity Girl is one of the most ethical people I have ever dealt with ( and that's a lot of them ). I would send her money without question. I have also found her to be trustworthy when describing the condition of the used equipment. Hope this helps, JerryBaumchen PS) If you go with someone else, say just some random jumper with an ad here, then try to find a 3rd party. Get the seller on-board with who the 3rd party will be, send your money to the 3rd party, have the 3rd party inform the seller that he/she has the money & ask the seller to send the goods to the 3rd party. I did this once selling some gear and it worked just fine. There is no one size fits all, IMO.

Hi Jack ( I always like doing that ), I 'seem to remember' something about Sylvia Winiger, the Swiss girl, who used to work for National Parachute Supply as being one of the firsters to jump Angel Falls. Any idea about that? JerryBaumchen

Hi Amazon, +1 JerryBaumchen

Hi Andy, I saw a short clip on this on the news last night. Ya gotta love skydivers: The husband alleges: he claims she began having an extramarital affair 18 months to two years after receiving the kidney transplant, his attorney, Dominick Barbara said. Note: he claims And then all of the skydivers posting here take it as being factual. I think he's going about dealing with her betrayal in the wrong way. Said person violates your marriage, your trust, and your love. Given the way she betrayed him, Had she cheated years later, his ex is a cheating straw haired pig-whore pig whore They're divorcing because she's unfaithful. You guys would look sooo stupid in testimony, JerryBaumchen

Hi lucky, That photo looks like a Comp PC. Note the large steering windows/louvers. The Mk I had one large & 3 small steering windows/louvers; the large one at the rearmost position. JerryBaumchen

Hi granny, You are truly an outstanding example of the AARP generation. Someone should do an article on you for their magazine, JerryBaumchen

Since I am VERY much older than the vast majority of you folks ( you'll get there one day and it won't be fun ) I thought I would share what you may face in the future. A few months ago, at my annual physical, the doctor said 'I think we should schedule you for a colonoscopy.' Well, the dreaded day is this Friday; so my daughter sent me this: I got a chuckle outta this... hope you do too. :) This is from newshound Dave Barry's colonoscopy journal: I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy. A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis. Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient manner. I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, quote, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!' I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called 'MoviPrep,' which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America 's enemies. I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous. Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordance with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor. Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarm water. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons.) Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon. The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor, state that after you drink it, 'a loose, watery bowel movement may result.' This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may experience contact with the ground. MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but: Have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet. After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep. The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurtage. I was thinking, 'What if I spurt on Andy?' How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough. At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked. Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand. Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep. At first I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of this, but then I pondered what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom, so you were staggering around in full Fire Hose Mode. You would have no choice but to burn your house. When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the 17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I was seriously nervous at this point. Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my hand. There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that could be playing during this particular procedure, Dancing Queen' had to be the least appropriate. 'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from somewhere behind me. 'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like. I have no idea. Really. I slept through it. One moment, ABBA was yelling 'Dancing Queen, feel the beat of the tambourine,' and the next moment, I was back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood. Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I felt even more excellent when Andy told me that it was all over, and that my colon had passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an internal organ. JerryBaumchen

Hi howard, I don't know about any 'favoring' but he did pass through this area back in '65. I 'think' I may have posted something about it sometime in the past; but who can remember that far back. JerryBaumchen PS) Hint: the article had to do with D-rings. Now get to work.

Hi Capt. Slog, We have a winner. SI is not 'the' metric system. There are/were numerous metric systems throughout Europe ( and maybe other parts of the world ). SI which is International System ( Systeme Internationale ) combined all of them ( some outfit/people/organization; maybe some folks from the UN, I do not recall who actually came up with it ). It makes it's jumps by 1000's; as in millimeter, meter, kilometer. There is no centimeter, decimeter, etc in SI. For those who don't want to change/can't figure out how to use it; I say, Go live in it for a very short period time. It will become very easy for you. When Australia made the conversion, the nation was given two years to convert/use a dual-system. After two years, no more lbs, ounces, etc. Canada ( IMO ) still cannot get it right. I was fortunate to spend 15 months in France in the early '60's, nearly immersed in the metric system, and found it to be very easy once you get used to it. I also spent 3 1/2 yrs on a committee to come up with a plan to convert my employer ( an agency of the US gov't ) to SI. At the end of the day, they are still on the antiquated English system. Yes, house repairs & remodels will be difficult; but we will get passed that problem. I've actually built some stuff ( buildings type of 'stuff' ) using the metric system ( just to see how it would go ) and found it very simple. Just my thoughts, JerryBaumchen PS) I would suggest that anyone going to the SI system not try to 'convert', just learn what it is. You can today buy Coke by the 1/2 liter & liter, is that a problem for you?

Hi repcool, Send me an email, JerryBaumchen

Hi howard, That one was the 2nd article that I wrote that appeared in PARACHUTIST. Can you find the first one? JerryBaumchen

Hi ParaShoot, OK, I'll fess up; my memory is not perfect. However, if I do remember correctly the Comp PC had a much larger rear window & the turning slots were longer than a Mk I. But I may just be wrong, JerryBaumchen PS) Lots of PC's were short-lined 'back in the day.'

Hi Beatnik ( Jim ), Back in ~'68 I wrote an article that appeared in a local publication called Chuting The Breeze ( that's the name of the publication ). The article was titled Modifications to the 26 Ft Conical. The article was eventually reprinted in SKYDIVER magazine, I think in '68. If you come across the article, I would like a copy. It was printed near the 2nd half of the magazine and contained no drawings, as the original article did. It was also reprinted in the Australian federation's magazine but I have not been able to locate it there. Thanks, JerryBaumchen

Hi steve, Those photos Para Shoot posted are of a Mark I PC, not a Comp PC. JerryBaumchen PS) Those patches are nothing compared to the number of patches I had in my old Mk I.

Hi Steve, No, 'busy' does not mean ugly. If you were to look at an Army Team PC you would find a very simple pattern; a black w/gold keyhole. This canopy shown in this thread just has lots of colors all mixed up; to me that is 'busy.' OK? JerryBaumchen

Hi Jeff, We had a guy at the Donald, OR dz who also had a Clown PC. He then ordered a X-BO rig with every flap/panel on the container being a 'different' color to match the canopy. Very busy to look at, JerryBaumchen

Hi BIGUN, Quite a 'loonngg' time ago, Rocky Kenoyer of Issaquah/Snohomish fame set a world record for number of jumps within 24 hours ( something like ~300 ), all from 1500 ft or so. To this day USPA will not recognize them because of the altitude. JerryBaumchen

masterrigger1 chutingstar slotperfect billvon loudiamond DSE j_ung howardwhite RIGGER JerryBaumchen ( look for the old guy )

Hi Michael, An excellent sewing machine for just getting going & doing light work is a Singer 401A/500A/501A. If you can find one they aren't too expensive; the 'finding' is the hard part, but start looking in your local sewing machine centers. These machines will take cams ( if you can find them; good luck ). They do a good straight stitch & 304 zig-zag quite well without the cams. They are considered a 'heavy-duty home' sewing machine. I usually ask for a Jeans needle when I want to sew 'E' thread on a home-type machine. Or work some extra hours, get some 'mad' money ( don't tell the wifey ) and buy a simple machine like a Singer 31-15; properly taken care of they will never wear out. JerryBaumchen PS) Back in the early '70's I built an entire container with a Singer 401A.

Hi bigway, If you ever get the chance, go see Ralph's inventory. I am VERY sure his inventory is much larger. Want a used main ripcord for a CrossBow 3-pin main container, CALL RALPH. JerryBaumchen

Hi Rob, For those who might want to know: Oregon Aero 34020 Skyway Drive Scappoose, OR 97056 1-800-888-6910 503-543-7399 www.oregonaero.com I would not recommend using their email address; they do not seem to monitor it that much ( IMO ). JerryBaumchen