kkeenan

I've seen his face...you didn't miss much. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Dear krkarl, I hope that you are getting the message in the replies that the overwhelming opinion here is that you should rethink the safety of jumping this canopy at your experience level. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

I always liked the story of one faker, with a Navy SEAL tatoo, who was visited by some authentic SEALs, none too happy with his charade. They brought a belt sander with them. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Be careful what you wish for... http://www.theflyinghellfish.com/ _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Don't they use that same sign at the door of the jump plane ?

One of the biggest factors here is capability to execute a safe hop & pop. In training people for CRW, even some with quite a few jumps have trouble making an exit that is stable enough to produce a great opening. In an emergency, they will be even more amped-up and squirrelly. It's really something that requires more practice than you're likely to get from the occasional a/c emergencies. Following what's been said, a low h&p is vastly different from terminal velocity at the same altitude. 1800' at exit is much farther from the ground (timewise) than 1800' at terminal v. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

At a CRW boogie with a lot of people wanting to jump, the ceiling was at 2500'. Not wanting to sit around, we put together a set of 4-way teams to do a "Speed Stack" competition, exiting at 2500'. What could possibly go wrong. Turns out that my bad dock on a teammate wrapped him with my canopy. I cut away at about 900' for a 20 sec. reserve ride. Low hop & pops are fine, but for low CRW, I try to dock more carefully now. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

You would think this guy would need a bigger boat just to float his giant brass balls. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1202308/Pictured-The-record-breaking-kayaker-risked-life-limb-186ft-waterfall-drop.html _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

You always have to be suspicious when you see a happy Manifest Person... _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Is this that organization that we are supposed to send all the outcast gay jumpers to join ? _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Is this really Billy Vance ??? _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Yeah, don't you realize that you're employed to answer these noobies question right now without delay - and none of that skydiver wisecrack stuff ! And don't keep telling tham about the surch function. That's too hard. They can surch and surch, and they have to look at a lot of stuff that they weren't surching for. Noobies' time is valuable. They're paying good money for instruction - Oh wait, that's their instructors they're paying. I guess you get what you pay for. When you ask for free advise on the internet, especially from jumpers, you may not get the best customer service. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Michael Jackson had that problem...he's OK now. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

I share your feelings. Yesterday, I stood under the Saturn V rocket at Kennedy Space Ctr. listening to seven of the Appollo astronauts describe flying on top of one of these. This rocket is one of three Saturn Vs that were built for the Apollo Program, but never used. The last 3 missions of Apollo were cancelled, due to politicians losing interest in the program and the due to the rising costs of the Vietnam War. Now, after having built the equipment and flown the missions 40 years ago, we are planning a new lunar program. It will take about 10 years of work and expense to re-accomplish these same missions, just because we squandered what we had once achieved. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

NASA PLAYS AUDIO "TIME CAPSULE" OF HISTORIC APOLLO 11 MISSION NASA will provide a unique audio "time capsule" in observance of the 40th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon. Audio from the entire Apollo 11 mission will be replayed and streamed on the Internet at exactly the same time and date it was broadcast in 1969. The audio retrospective will begin at 7:32 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 16, two hours before the spacecraft launched. The audio will continue through splashdown of the mission at 12:51 p.m. EDT Friday, July 24, and recovery of the crew shortly afterward. The Web stream will feature the communications between the astronauts and ground teams, and commentary from Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. To listen to the replay, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/apollo11_radio For historical information about Apollo 11, visit: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo11 NASA's Apollo 40th anniversary Web site provides easy access to various agency resources and multimedia about the program and the history of human spaceflight, including a gallery of Apollo multimedia features. The site is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/apollo40th

Can we all send you our old magazines to distribute to your list ? Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Next, you'll be telling us that the French don't have French Fries... _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

I have a couple of PLDs in good condition. Does anyone think there is a market for them ? Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

I could not care less about it. It does crack me up to read about someone "concerned about our collective sanity", who will be yelling at their TV. I guess sanity is a relative term. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

One of my freakiest jumps was a water jump that didn't end up in the water. Early 80s at Homestead FL, we were all going to jump into a local lake for a party. The load I was on was a 4-way from the Cessna. We were all wearing shorts and diving fins, figuring that we could use the fins in the water and they would certainly be interesting during the 4-way RW. Hilarious was a better word for the RW. I'm here to tell you that swim fins have about a zillion times more drive than booties (which hadn't been invented yet). We were all zooming around like crazy and laughing our asses off at the sight of each other flying with these things on our feet. I had borrowed an old rig with a PC and a 24' reserve because I didn't want to take my Strato Star into the lake. After tracking off, which was pretty awesome with the fins, I pulled the ripcord. The opening shock felt like a baseball bat hit to the head, so I was very surprised to see a big wad of nylon up there instead of an open PC. I still had the main ripcord in my right hand, but was easily able to operate the Capewells for a cutaway and pull the reserve with my left hand. The 24' opened fine, and I held both ripcords in my teeth as I popped loose the 4-line release. Then I looked down to see that I wasn't even going to make it to the water. In several places around that area were "redneck landfills", where people dumped stuff like old refrigerators, air conditioners, building supplies, etc. I was coming down right in the middle of one. All I could see was piles of trash, concrete blocks and re-bar. I was wearing nothing but shorts and giant swim fins. I figured that those fins were going to break both of my legs, even if I survived the cement and rebar, so I started taking them off. Not wanting to loose my fins, I held those between my knees. So, there I was, ripcord handles in my teeth, fins between my knees, steering a 4-line release 24' reserve, aiming for a small patch of clear ground I spotted in the middle of the crap. Luckily, my experience with steering 28' Cheapos paid off, and I was able to do a stand up in the little clear patch. Apparently, fear of a rusty length of rebar up the ass can actually inspire great accuracy ability. It's like Rosanne Rosanadana used to say, "Ya know, it's always something..." Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Not exactly a good selling point. Maybe you meant INFLATED. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

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

Gotta be a good story behind this. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Who gets the monkey ? _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Funny - I was pouring, and it didn't hurt a bit. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?