freakyrat

Just put a Optimum 143 in my Micron 310 made for a regular 143R reserve. I mean a regular PD143R would be tight in this container up here in Dallas but the Optimum fits nicely and fills out the container well and is not to loose. I'm going to put a Optimum 126 in my Mirage G4 MT which has a regular 126R in it now that is a bare to pack and close. The larger Optimum should fit very nice as a regular PD113R would have been a better fit in this particular container. Chris

Dave That's and outstanding painting. I still have your painting of the guy sitting on the cloud. The green one. It is framed on the wall in my home office. Chris

Mine (Cypres2) took a little over four weeks to be serviced also which I didn't mind because SSK and Airtec are really thorough. After all it is your life we are talking about and I would rather have them perform the excellent service they do than not. While checking on it, I saw that they had sent it back to Germany at no cost to me and it came back with all the new mods and instructions for them. Maybe the mods have to be done in Germany at Airtec. I don't know. Anyway, a month was no big deal and I received the unit yesterday. Chris

This Sunday night 60 Minutes will have a special report of DADT featuring an Army Sergeant serving in Kuwait. This sergeant is highly decorated and is in a critical medical field and is serving openly with the blessing of his command. Chris

Definitely one of the nicest guys around. Ray is one who will be truly missed. May God bless his family and friends. Chris Chrzan Skydive Dallas

"This policy needs to change. Our security is at risk. Once people's feelings on gays are taken out of it, and once it is viewed as a security issue, I can see no rationality in continuing the policy. It's a policy that can literally get our brave men and women killed. " Lawrocket, You couldn't be more on target by the above statement. One of the former Army troops who was discharged under DADT last year, worked with us on the lobby effort, etc was an Explosive Ordinace Disposal specialist and a darn good specialist in IED recognition. In fact he taught our forces in Iraq that were in his unit how to recognize these devices and keep themselves out of harms way. A very softspoken Texan who lives in Austin now. While in Iraq, he made the mistake of confiding in his best and closest friend that he was gay. Well the Army did an investigation and dismissed him under DADT. Here's the real rub of the situation. His commander had to take TWO troops out of his unit and send them to Ft. Irwin, Ca to learn how to do this one seargent's job. Now I'll pose a hypothetical question. How many of our brave men and women were killed in IED attacks afterward cause this expert was not on the job training them how to be safe? We don't know and will never know. Here is another human side of DADT that no one will talk about but I brought it up in my earlier post. I really hammerd my Congressional Representative last year on. While I was in the Rayburn House Office building on the House offices floor, there was a display in the halls with pictures of every one of our brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice and gave their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan. Some 3,000 plus once smiling faces, someones broter, sister, father, mother, son or daughter and yes if the averages are right some 90 of these could have been gay or lesbian and someones partner. Now what happens when one of our troops get killed whle serving. A representative of the appropriate military unit comes to his or her next of kin's house with the news. Now what if the troop happens to be gay, WHO makes notification to his or her partner? NOBODY cause of DADT. This is not right , it is inhuman and UNAMERCAN and I let my Reps' legislative aid know this. Just some more thaughts on the issue. Chris

This is a flawed policy when it wastes the talent of Arabic Language Translators such as Sgt Bleau Copas and Petty Officer Second Class Jason Knight. Air Force Nurses such as Major Margaret Wirt. All dismissed under DADT. I read of one case where one Navy Petty officer was taken back to Kuwait several times as a member of the IRR cause his Language Specialist MOS was critical and his Commanders forgot to code his original discharge papers that he was discharged under DADT. Now if his job was so critical, these commanders couldn't care less if he was gay proving that DADT is totally useless. Also with our troops on long deployments is it fair for the ones who are gay, and there are 65,000 of them in the military today, to have to jump through hoops to maintain contact with their loved ones because of DADT. Not only is it not fair It's UNAMERICAN. As a former USAF Vietnam Era veteran I will again be pounding the pavement of Capital Hill in March along with some of my fellow veterans including General Kerr to keep hammering members of Congress to pass the Military Readiness Enhancement Act and end DADT for good. I forgot to mention It has cost you and me as taxpayers 363 million dollars to maintain this flawed policy. Enough to armourplate all our vehicles in Iraq or supply body armour to all our fine troops in harms way over there. I could go on and on. The time is now to take action. If our elected officials are constantly hammered on this they will take action. The bill is presently in committee in the House and picked up another sponsor this week. When I first worked on the lobby effort 3 years ago we only had 4 co-sponsors. We have 137 today. That's an accomplishment. Chris

Anvil, I don't really have a problem with Bill Bennett not serving. DADT seems to be important to six Republican Congressman and Congresswomen to support the bill to repeal it. I guess CNN thought the General's Question was important to them. The former military that I've worked on the repeal effort are a bi-partisan group and are surprisingly conservative. My apology and a correction as you pointed out Jason Knight was a former US Navy Linguist and a Petty Officer Second Class Chris Former SSGT USAF Being a former zoomy, What do I know about US Navy rank Anyway. Oh congrats on beating Army today. Have a Great Day. Thanks for correcting me.

My mistake Jason was a Petty Officer Second Class. Chris

I've worked with General Kerr in a lobby effort to overturn "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" . He doesn't need any help from Hillary or others and pretty well speaks his mind. That being said, CNN had plenty of You Tube Video's to sift thru to pick one's for the debate. General Kerr's wasn't the only one asking questions about DADT. Former Seaman 2nd Class Jason Knight asked the same question of Congressman Ron Paul and his video was not used. I guess CNN thought that if they pick the same question from someone with higher rank it would have more impact. The spinmasters (Bill Bennett among them) of the Republican party got caught with their pant's down again. They tried to discredit a General and couldn't do it. So much for their so called support for our military. Bill Bennet by the way didn't serve, He got a 4F draft rating for bad knees etc. The True American Hero's are people like The General, Jason and guys like former Marine SSGT Eric Alva who was the first Marine injured in Iraq. SSGt Alva got his leg blow off by a landmine. The fact that he's gay had nothing to do with his service to his country. Just imagine if it was SSGt Alva asking the same question during the dabate. Guys like Bill Bennett, Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly etc. wouldn't dare try to spin that. Chris

Saw Tiesto live at the Area2 Tour in Pontiac, MI during the First WFFC at Rantoul. Flew to Detroit and back to Midway to see the show. All the DJ's that performed were good in their own right but by far Tiesto and Carl Cox just blew everyone else away. (DJ Tent) Everyone was just dancing up a storm and Blue Man Group joined everyone dancing after their performance in the Concert Tent. As far as Drum and Base goes, Dieseboy got the DJ set rolling with it while the movie Blackhawk Down was going on the video screens. On the Concert Stage (same show) David Bowie outclassed and outplayed everyone. Moby couldn't hold a candle to Bowie. Chris

Scott Although I didn't know you that well, I remember you for the high fives and smiles you had for all of us as we boarded the aircraft for the climb to altitude. You were just so genuine. Thank you for your service to your country. Skydiving, Spaceland and the World has lost a great friend. Chris Skydive Dallas "when we are young, wandering the face of the earth, wondering what our dreams might be worth, learning that we're only imortal, for a limited time" RUSH-DREAMLINE-Lyrics NEIL PEART

My sincere condolences go out to Scott's friends and family. Chris Chrzan Skydive Dallas

The real morons are those in our governmant that class hemp in the same as weed. How frikkin dumb. Hemp comes from the non-psycoactive version of the plant. The THC content is extremely low in industrial hemp. Hemp seeds are rich in Omega-3. Hemp lotion and soap are also good for dry skin. I was actually pretty pissed when The Body Shop quit selling Hemp Soaps and Body Wash because of some stupid whims of our government. Used the product all the time during the winter and never had a skin problem. Also I never failed a random drug test while using the products. Bunch of Morons. Chris

My heartfelt condolences go out to the entire Wagner family. Rose was one of the most kindest and warm hearted person I have ever met in my skydiving life. She was the best DZ Mom and very supportive of the sport but most importantly supportive of her family. I'm sure God has made a special place for her. Calen C. Chrzan Skydive Dallas

I once had a skydiving T-shirt that had one of Chris's drawings on it. It was a skydiver in freefall with a gigantic padlock going through the side of his head for Brainlock. It was very funny.

Just happenned to see this so I'm chiming in. Here is an update on some of the ex Ft Hood people. I worked for the Feds for 37yrs (ATC) and am semi retired and live in Ft Worth, TX. Frank Hope worked at Albuquerque Center. Terry Chavez worked at San Antonio Tower. Mike Weber worked at Phoenix TRACON. I'm not sure if they are still working or retired. Mike Weber got me on a DC3 Load in Coolidge in the 80's when I flew out the weekend for the U2 Rattle N Hum concert at Sun Devil Stadium. ( The concert that was 5 bucks for each night cause they were making the concert into a movie.) The DC3 was the Col Joe one that is now at Skydive Arizona in Eloy. While we were climbing to altitude the left engine tried to quit several times. We ended up getting about 10,000 feet and got out and did a 12-way. The plane had thrown a jug on the way down and landed with the left engine feathered. Ran into Jack Heady some time back when I lived in Houston. He had come to Skydive Houston to do some demo. Unfortunately he passed away about two weeks after that. I didn't even know he was sick. Don McGillicuty is also gone due to cancer. On the bright side, Remember our pilot Gary Lash. Gary flys Boeing 737-800's for American Airlines. I remember the time Sheila Lindley got out on the skid and crawled to the front of the Huey and knocked on his windshield. The other crazy thing that happened there was when Al Pohl packed his strato-cloud in that paper grocery bag and just daisy chained the lines in his racer and went up and jumped. Pieces of that bag went everywhere on opening. Yeah Duckett was a trip as some of you have mentioned. Those club days were fun. I just can't believe that we used to jump such gutter gear compared to what we jump now. Going from those 28TU's to a Katana. What a jump trip it's been. I remember my first parachute the r/w/b PC I bought from Col Bob Spear, the chaplain. Nice to hear from you'll, I jump at Skydive Dallas now but it's been so windy and turbulent the last two weekends that it hasn't been worth going to the DZ. biggierat

I had no problems carrying it through Dallas Love Field or Houston Hobby this past summer. Usually at Hobby they like to swab it but this time they didn't. I packed it in a Rollerboard type bag both times. I guess they are just getting used to seeing them. Chris

I contracted MRSA from a brown recluse bite. The doctors used Levoquin on it and it worked. One of my co-workers daughters thought nothing about getting a little scraped up playing in their yard. A few days later she started getting sick and ended up in Texas Children's Hospital. Fortunately the doctors were able to diagnose a MRSA infection that had spread to her lungs etc. She was deathly ill but was able to survive after being in there for weeks on IV antibiotics. She's quite healthy today. The moral of this story is to make sure you wash all cuts or scrapes out thoroughly and keep tripple-antibiotic ointment in your medicine cabinet. These measures can prevent a staph infection in most cases. If you go to the gym etc. Wipe down all exercise surfaces etc and just use plain common sense. MRSA isn't any fun and can be very deadly. Chris

J OK Thank You. Chris

J welcome back to Texas. Do You have the dates for skyfest? Lockmart is making us put in for our vacation now and I would have to Know by the 30th. Chris skyrat2@verizon.net

I've had both a Stiletto135 and 120 and I have to say my Katana 120 opens better than either of these canopies. I haven't jumped a Crossfire2 but did put a jump on a demo Crossfire119 a few years back and the Crossfire did have a flatter glide than the Katana and opened very soft. I really like how the Katana does contnue to dive during the turns. Actually I would call it maintaining its airspeed as opposed to the Stiletto sort of levelling off or climbing after a turn. The Katana just feels more modern to me. The canopy is coming down though and a little bit quicker. Yes you can extend the glide with the rears or brakes when coming back from a long spot but always make your cutoff point higher on the Katana if you have to make a 180 to set up for final. In other words, give yourself plenty of outs cause the Katana does loose altitude quickly in turns. The Katana does have a lot of toggle range when it comes to shutting it down for landing and if you time it just right and with a little wind it has a very soft landing. After about 30 jumps on mine, I'm still getting the feel for it but I feel much better under it than I did when I had one or two jumps on it. Demo the X-fire2 and the Katana and see what you think. Have fun and be safe. Chris

"Most stores have a policy that anything over a certain dollar amount requires a signature check" Not so While I was attending PIA in Reno someone used my credit card at Home Depot and charged 800 dollars worth of stuff while I still had the card in my possession. The funny thing is they tried to do the same thing in Lake Wales, FL at another Home Depot (Hint Hint maybe a skydiver would you say)) about a week later. This time for well over 300 dollars worth of merchandise. Guess what the bank caught them and refused the second charge and notified me. The bank gave me a new cc number and took off all fraudulent charges off my account. How they can check out with a bogus cc number is beyond me. Home Depot just had to eat the charges. Chris

I remember the days of the "safety meetings" at the DZ. Some of those vans looked and smelled like "Spicoli's from Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Chris

Cheryl Lemke from The Weather Channel still is the best though. Chris