kkeenan

Yeah, it's axed for today. They'll try again tomorrow morning. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Yeah, it's like hanging at the DZ waiting for a hole in the clouds. They have spotted a hole coming and the new launch time is set for 1054 EDT. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

A bit of a delay due to problems with the 5-Hole Probe. All is fixed, and a new launch time set for 0944 EDT. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

They're certainly not used to seeing teeth like THAT in England. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Oops, I misunderstood. The new launch time is 0924 EDT. I knew it wouldn't get earlier. There are some issues with the telemetry communications between the vehicle and the ground station. Too bad because the weather is perfect right now. Hope it holds up for another hour. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

T-0 time is now 0824 EDT. That's the first time I've seen one move up to an earlier time. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

The Ares 1-X is out at the pad ready for takeoff. The weather is a possible constraint to launch, but currently, liftoff is scheduled for 0829 EDT. This photo is from a couple of days ago during launch preps. This is currently the tallest rocker in the world. Even though it is a prototype, and everything except the first stage is a mockup, it is one impressive looking vehicle. When it goes, it will be carrying a lot of signatures of folks who worked on it, signed on the inside of the nose. Among those signatures is a "Them ToadSuckers" CRW sticker (see avitar) to bring good luck to this rocket. Fingers crossed. Go Ares 1-X Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Maybe they just have limited ambulance parking ? _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

I forget whether it's a Pit Bull or an Alligator that has a reflex that will not allow its jaws to release, once it has a grip on something. I think that most DZOs hands work that way with money. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

I can't resist the urge to laugh at the idea of a guy with a D license and 25 years in the sport asking how to spot. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

The Air Force trained me to be a Tailgunner on a nuclear bomber. It was fun, but there weren't so many openings for that skill in the civilian world. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Hi Don. This was a great old thread to re-read. My first jump course was from Jesse Hall at Doc's place in the Spring of '71. About 1/2 hour of instruction in the trailer and a bunch of PLFs from the platform, then out to the plane. I always loved that whichever way you took off from that strip, the first thing you flew over was a cemetary. Jesse's favorite joke was, "Ya know how many people are dead down there?..All of 'em!" And people think Fandango was fiction - Ha. I hadn't had a lot to drink before that, but hanging around with Jesse and the Bottrell bros. sure changed that. It seems like you were the most sane person on the DZ back then. I'm still grateful for the rigger training from you and Carl Maroon at the old loft near San Jac Jr. College. Kevin K. SCR-3022 _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Great photo. You just don't see that many official team photos with firearms anymore. Reminds me of weekends at Spaceland with Dave Boatman... Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

2007 - 100-Way CRW formation. We had been building up to this for several years with the CF World Team, and the jumps, while by no means routine, had a pretty familiar pattern. I had been toward the end of the build, meaning my position was along the outer edges of the formation. For this one, however, I had an earlier slot. Big CRW diamonds always start with a 4-way diamond and then add layers onto the two bottom edges of the diamond, with the top people in the base always staying at the top. On this one, I docked about halfway through the build. Previously, docking toward the end, the whole formation was to one side of me and a couple of folks between me and clear air by the time it was built. This time, after I docked, layer after layer added on, until I was almost in the geometric center of the formation. I really wasn't prepared for the sight of 5 rows of canopies to my right, 4 rows to my left, and 10 rows above and below me. It seemed like all I could see was people, nylon, and suspension line going forever in all directions. In an emergency, people along the edges have a better chance of getting away from the action, while people toward the middle do not. This slot was THE CENTER. CRW seems to elicit something like a pleasure/pain thing, only it is a happiness/fear thing. It's almost like the unbridled fear of your first jump, even though you may already have made thousands of jumps. CRWDogs seem to be happiest when they're scared shitless. In the back of your mind, you're thinking that this will either be the coolest jump on earth, or an incident report that will require an entire special edition of Parachutist. Everything went well, and everyone performed flawlessly, even though we all felt like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, with a syringe of adreniline straight to the heart. When I think about Memorable Jumps, yeah, that one was Fucking Memorable. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

...as a grubby dude with no shoes followed him around saying, "Hey, I'll pack that for 5 francs". _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

1797 -- Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute jump from a balloon.

I don't think that the alternate would be listed on a World Record. The World Record folks would be the ones who actually performed the feat. USPA National Championships, however, are a different story. The alternate is part of the team, and as such, is awarded a medal for the team's performance. It's actually possible for a team to turn in a world record jump in one round of competition, and still not place in the competition. This is unlikely, but possible. Every year, dozens of Alternates get medals in events that they did not jump in. An alternate's job is to be there if needed. They get a medal whether they jump or not. It's rare that an alternate who is not even at the competition receives a medal, but it has happened. This is certainly not limited to CRW. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

I hate to be a picky space geek, but that would be: Atlas - Mercury spacecraft Titan II - Gemini spacecraft _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

It will require sufficient fuel to get past the point at which the earth and the moon's gravitation forces act equally on the vehicle. And it costs extra to stop when you get to the moon - or rather to slow down before you stop - something that the LCROSS probe didn't have to pay extra for. It stopped, but the way you would stop a freefall if you didn't use a parachute. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Yes. The reason that the "Cutaway First" procedure is NOT favored by some is that if the main deploys along with, or shortly after the reserve, you have already cut it away and have no control over it. Best Case Scenario is the main flies away - no harm, no foul. Worst Case is that the main flies away, but something (risers, toggles, etc.) snags on part of the reserve on the way. If this happens, it will be above you and out of reach and will most likely affect the controllability of the reserve. This would not be pretty, and could very likely be fatal. In one well-known case, one of the main risers caught the reserve slider, as the reserve was almost completely inflated, and pulled it back to the top of the lines. There's not much that can be done at that point, and the jumper survived only by miraculously going through a tree, which snagged the reserve canopy. Leaving the main attached, keeps it in the control of the jumper. Whether the jumper will know what to do with it is another question. Two-out situations are something that can be trained for. A heads-up jumper with the right training can do the right thing. An "Eyes-shut, screaming-to-Jesus" jumper may not. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

I feel ya, Jimmy. I had a similar experience, back in the day, with a similar rig. When bellyband-mounted PC pouches first came out, people were bouncing left and right with PCITs from accidently twisting the bellyband. We had all talked about how to deal with a PCIT, and thought up lots of creative things to do to avoid a reserve horseshoe - pulling in the PC before dumping the reserve, hook knifing the bridle, etc. One day, I pitched, and felt nothing but a tug at my hip. I reached to my side and my hand landed directly on the twist. I instantly thought of all those accident reports of twisted belly band fatalities, and I knew I was fucked. I looked back down, and I was directly over the numbers of runway 22 at DeLand. We didn't pull real high on RW jumps back then, and those numbers were coming up at me really fast. All thoughts of exotic things to do with that PC went right out of my head, and I couldn't have stopped my left hand from dumping the reserve. It was a 24' round with a 4-line release, and opened at terminal like being hit by train. That rig had Capewell releases on it. No one would have ever tried to operate those in freefall. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Word. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Agreed. One issue with the "Cutaway First" method is that the handles are sometimes difficult to locate in a slack harness, as opposed to a hanging harness that most training is done with. If someone feels that they MUST complete the Cutaway Handle pull prior to starting the Reserve pull, then there is the potential to lose a LOT of time before even starting to reach for the reserve. The Cutaway First method seeks to avoid a "possible" problem (two out), whereas the Reserve First method addresses a "definite" problem (High Speed Dirt). I find it interesting that the poll shows a lot of folks who were trained in the Cutaway First method do not plan to use it in a real emergency. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

This has been a long-standing controversy. People are trained both ways. The USPA SIM shows both options, with no preference. I'm interested in knowing how you were trained, and if your knowledge after your student days has altered your plans as to handling this emergency. Kevin K.

There's not a lot of time for in-air rigging in a situation like that, but you do what you can. That may include hauling in what you can and trying to pull whatever loose that you can. If you don't try, you won't accomplish anything. As far as where you land, there was a well-known videographer a few years ago, who rode an uninflated reserve into a big tree. The canopy caught in the tree and stopped his descent. The tree then broke and he was busted up pretty well from the fall, but without the tree, he probably would not have survived. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?