freakyrat

I think I maybe got the problem solved with my Skydiving magazine. Thanks to Mike the letter carrier from OK that sent me the messages on how to solve this mess. Anyway I'll give it a couple of more months to see if the USPS can straighten things out. The problem is not with the magazine it's that the USPS is running it through the wrong type of sorting machine. It should be run through a flat machine that is made for newspapers. Chris

Just thought I'd let you all know that I spoke to someone at Skydiving Magazine and they are going to try to take care of the problem with the USPS. I put the poll up because I just wanted to find out if this problem was widespread or just isolated. Seems like from your answers it is just an isolated problem. Thank You Chris Conroe TX

Just curious, since Skydiving Magazine changed to the glossy paper I have had the North Houston US Postal Service bulk mail center just tear it up every month. Seems like they think it is like regular mail or a magazine and they run it through the automated sorting machines instead of sorting it by hand like they do newspapers. So I'm taking a poll. For subscribers to Skydiving, has your magazine arrived in good condition or has it looked like it had been through a war zone? Chris Conroe TX

Passed the Pentagon on the way to Reagan National Airport last year. From the highway side there is really nothing out there. Chris

FANTASTIC! Chris Skydive Houston

I've been reading this thread for a while now and am happy and elated that William is getting better. Keep the faith Laurel. My prayers are with you both. Chris Skydive Houston

When we used to jump at the old Spaceland all of us would go over to Marios Flying Pizza on Nasa Road One. Haven't been there in ages. In Chicago, I like Geno's East and Giordanos. Chris Skydive Houston

My heartfelt condolences go out to John's family and friends. Chris

Good news the single is still available from Canada. You can order it from Archambault music. Here is the link. http://www.archambault.ca/store/default.asp There is a John Creamer and Stephanie Kaye mix on the compilation by DJ Chris Cox, 12 Inches of Cox. Amazon has that mix. I had to go to Archambault music to get the DJ Mogui Compilation from Ministry Of Sound the had the song Accelerator (Chicks On Speed Mix) on it that someone on the group wanted earlier. It is out of print in the single format but I had it for a long time on a bootleg mix and finally was able to locate a good copy of it in Canada from Archambault. I was looking for the Puretone song to and I really had a junk mix of it but I decided to check Canada (Montreal) and I found it. It is also available from AppleI Tunes. Hope this all helps and if I locate a copy of it I'll send it to you. I finally got a freefly training dive shot of me on video last week and when I get a collection of them on tape I want to use Underworld's Push Upstairs (Roger Sanchez, Plastic People Mix) for it. It was always one of my favorite club songs and I got to see Roger spin in Montreal last year and he is pretty bitchin. He holds a dance floor together in the wee hours of the morning and his mix is so infectious that you just don't want to get up and leave even though you are tired as hell. Chris

Rhino First off I respect you and your opinion . I remember the WFFC in Quincy when the Super Connie made the flyby. He was so low that the people were darn near diving off their motorhomes. Also at Freeport (Freakbrother Convention) one year when we went out to moon the DC3 on a flyby, it came in so low that people had to really lie low on the ground. From my experience in aviation, accidents happen when a series of things go wrong. Any one of these breaking this chain and the accident most likely won't happen. Look at the recent accident of the 19yr old pilot flying a Piper Cherokee from New York to Wisconsin over Lake Michigan at 11:45 at night. He runs out of gas and ditches into the lake 8 miles from the west coastline. He tells ATC that he is running out of fuel before he ditches. He ditches, gets out of the plane and calls 911 on his cell phone and then says he is going to try to swim ashore in 44 degree water. The plane has been found but no sign of the pilot. Now what is wrong with this picture? Several mistakes in this pilots decision making contributed to this accident. If he would have landed and stayed overnight somewhere in Michigan and then flew the next day He probably would have been alive. The lake water temp. was about 44 degrees. The pilot had no life vest or like equipment. If the pilot would have took off the next morning and planned to fly around the lake and put up with the Chicago Class B airspace procedures he still would would be alive. If he would have stopped for fuel in Michigan before crossing the lake he may still be alive. It may be cool to fly across the lake in a single engine plane and after all it's only 80 miles across or about 1 hour or less but is it safe. Chris

Mike I checked and I don't have the version you would be looking for. This song is really out of print and I tried to find the proper copy of it to and had no luck. Chris

I may have a copy of it as the song is out of print. If I do I'll convert it to MP3 and send it to you. Chris

My heartfelt condolences go out to Gus's family and friends. Calen Chris Chrzan Skydive Houston

Too windy in Texas this weekend. Chris

First, I have no issues with PD. Everyone there has been totally nice and treated me right. When I sent one of my canopies in for a re-line they phoned me and let me know what their rigger found upon inspecting the canopy. They gave me a price and told me when I could expect the canopy back. Their work on the canopy was totally professional. As far as the demo program goes, They even have their reserve canopies set up for demo and I got to demo a PD126R canopy so I know that there would be no surprises if I ever had to use the one I have in my container. Like others said, PD is interested in YOUR SAFETY and are not going to give you a demo canopy that they feel you do not have the experience to demo. This protects them with the liability issues etc. An example of how PD takes your safety serious is when I demoed the PD126R Reserve. They gave me specific instructions on how to deploy this canopy at terminal when it was set up for a main. I followed their instructions and had a very rewarding and pleasant flight and a great landing under the parachute. In summation, PD is a very good company to deal with. Chris

Flew back from PIA in Jacksonville, FL. on Southwest. The only thing TSA wanted me to do was run the rig through separately from my kitbag. Easy and simple they even knew how to handle it without grabbing deployment handles. They did a wipedown after running it through the xrays as the pilot chute spring sort of set the screener off. No big deal though. The screeners were very professional and nice and it only took an extra few minutes to clear the rig. Just a non-event. Chris

Mine is an MT with a PD126R and a 120 Stiletto. It doesn't look to bad after the SB. Not as flat but still acceptable. I'll take a picture of it and post it later tonight. Chris

Hey Musicman I think most people here on this forum answered your concerns so I won't belabor their points. I want to speak to Texas weather being a weather specialist. If you were at our DZ here in Waller, TX this weekend and saw how even the hottest canopies were behaving in the gusty wind conditions you can understand why some people were not jumping and others who were had some interesting experiences landing especially after the cold front came thru this afternoon and the winds suddenly changed direction and speed. Your instructors are there for your safety. You have a lot of things to comprehend and do under canopy without having to worry how you are going to land the parachute in less than ideal conditions and conditions that would be unsafe. Give you an example. A couple of years ago I was jumping in California at Perris Valley which is a nice dropzone but one that can get high winds and dust devils etc. given it's desert location. I was out in the air under a 135 sq. foot PD Stiletto canopy which is a high performance ram air parachute that you can see experienced jumpers jumping at any dropzone. It was my third jump of the day and on this jump the winds suddenly came up after I had already gotten out of the aircraft. I barely made it back to the DZ from where I exited the plane. Setting up for landing I could see the dirt and the tumbbleweed blowing around. I managed to land fine and get the canopy collapsed after I had landed so I wouldn't get drug thru the sand. Now I wouldn't normally jump in these conditions and these were certainly not the conditions for a student jumper or even some experienced jumpers. In fact the DZO called a load down that had just taken off because of the windy conditions. Very similiar to the conditions we had in Texas this weekend. O'h and I learned how to skydive at Ft. Hood Texas when I was in the military and we also had strict rules on what conditions we would let student's jump in maybe even stricter cause it was a military base club. In summation, There are going to be better weather days, You are going to get to jump when conditions allow it and just remember YOUR SAFETY COMES FIRST. Chris Skydive Houston

No it's not going to suck to have or sell a small reserve. You are still going to have jumpers with the right exit weight that could easily have and fly a 113R or 126R reserve and it would be just right for them. I'm personally waiting to purchase another reserve canopy because I currently own a 143R and 126R and have one ride on the 143R and a demo of the 126R. I would really like the 143R that can pack into a 126R container. Chris

Actually Leonard Morehead let me jump the Stealth at a boggie in Albert Lee MN. I jumped another person's homemade canopy at Spaceland. I also have several jumps on Excalibur's mostly 150's and 170's. I demo jumped a freaky pink and white 170 from PD at the old Nationals in Muskogee one year. It was fun jumping this stuff. When I was younger I would jump almost any canopy. I don't have any desire to jump anything smaller than a 120 sized canopy on a regular basis now. I jumped a 105 Firebolt here at Waller last year only because it was real windy (but not dangerous) and I wanted to get in the air and I felt the canopy would give me the best foreward drive under the conditions I had to jump it in and it did. It was in a power racer and frankly I didn't even think I had a rig on in the air it was so light. Speaking about Leonard, is he still around? Hadn't seen him in ages. Chris Skydive Houston

Hey Aggie Dave I even put a test jump on the Stealth back at the old Spaceland. Chris Skydive Houston

Hey folks I'm posting this link to Rex Wockners column concerning this rare HIV strain as a public service. http://www.365gay.com/opinion/wocknerWire/wocknerWire.htm He kinda gives people hell and tells them to have some personal responsibility. This should apply to everyone gay or straight. Chris

LJ The guy that picked up this rare strain on HIV was to me a stupid shit who should have known better. He admitted to his doctor that he was HIV- and went to a crystal meth party and just let it all go. Gay author Rex Wockner had some choice words for this incident in his column on 365gay.com and Rex is right in what he said. HIV is also running rampant in the Black Community. This disease is everyone's problem and we all have to pitch in and educate our friends to be safe and also spend the money on research so one day we can eradicate HIV. Were very close to taming it as new discoveries are being made everyday into the workings of HIV and it's vulnerabilities and new medicines will be introduced to target these vulnerabilities. Always enjoy reading your post's Chris

TK The guy admitted that he was high on crystal and had unprotected sex with multiple partners and was so wacked out he just didn't care. He was originally HIV- before he went on his crystal induced sex-binge. I think he takes the Darwin award for being a stupid fuck. Chris

Hey Storm The guy that was diagnosed with the super strain was HIV- before he did crystal for a weekend and went to one of these sex parties. I say what a stupid fuck. Some of these people just don't care. I'm with you on this and even gay writer Rex Wockner agrees with me and you too. He had some real harsh things to say about this whole situation and he's right. Chris