ChasingBlueSky

I learned if you are drinking moonshine with Chuck, don't plan on remembering how you got back to the hotel room, or waking up for lunch! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

when did i miss that one? Yeah, I want to know too, because Kirlin reemed us out for driving our cart too agressively. Of course the XKeys cart was the fastest one there. Hmm...no one said anything when we did golf cart crew.. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Didn't we end up calling that "Jump Foo?" _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

6am? Hmmm...need to have a talk with them and let them know how much you like those calls at 3am!

Where is she at? I'll be driving back thru Central Illinois tomorrow morning. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Pass some vibes on to Lew for me - finally had a chance to jump with her at the convention - and she took some great stills of the hoop dive we did! Hope she heals fast! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Here is my Cross-Post from talk back... OK, now that it is out, I'll tell you what PD told me at Rantoul....(nice pics, they said you would be able to pick the canopy out once it was in the air - "there will be no way to miss this one") It isn't quite done, yet. Well, they have sizes up to the 120 finished, tweaking the 135 still and once the 150 is completed they will start taking orders. 150 is going to be the largest sized - they don't see the need to make a canopy of this perfomance any bigger. It is a 9 cell, full eliptical, deeper flare than the stiletto, but more bottom end. Openings are better than the Sabre 2, and some of their test pilots think it may be better than the Spectre. It turns "really fast" is what I was told, some of the lightest front riser pressure ever but the trade off is more pressure on the rear risers (however, the rear risers turns are "aggressive"). It dives - ALOT and may even require some toggle input for a shorter recovery arc. It is officially a step up from the Stiletto as far as performance and experience required to fly it, and roughly a step below the cross-braced crowd. If I recall correctly, the glide path is somewhere between the Stiletto and the Vengeance, but was told that a long spot will not be an issue. I was told that at my wingloading (1.65) I would pretty much be near a sweet spot on it - but you could easily go higher. The only people that will be jumping it at Rantoul will be the PD team. I think that is all I was told....other than, if I was looking at the Samurai or Crossfire2, I may want to wait just a little bit longer. Just be patient, is what was suggested to me. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

As a few of us found out - Don't call Stacy at 3am on a Thursday night - it makes her very cranky since she has to be at work quite early! Sorry about that one Stacy! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

OK, now that it is out, I'll tell you what PD told me at Rantoul....(nice pics, they said you would be able to pick the canopy out once it was in the air - "there will be no way to miss this one") It isn't quite done, yet. Well, they have sizes up to the 120 finished, tweaking the 135 still and once the 150 is completed they will start taking orders. 150 is going to be the largest sized - they don't see the need to make a canopy of this perfomance any bigger. It is a 9 cell, full eliptical, deeper flare than the stiletto, but more bottom end. Openings are better than the Sabre 2, and some of their test pilots think it may be better than the Spectre. It turns "really fast" is what I was told, some of the lightest front riser pressure ever but the trade off is more pressure on the rear risers (however, the rear risers turns are "aggressive"). It dives - ALOT and may even require some toggle input for a shorter recovery arc. It is officially a step up from the Stiletto as far as performance and experience required to fly it, and roughly a step below the cross-braced crowd. If I recall correctly, the glide path is somewhere between the Stiletto and the Vengeance, but was told that a long spot will not be an issue. I was told that at my wingloading (1.65) I would pretty much be near a sweet spot on it - but you could easily go higher. The only people that will be jumping it at Rantoul will be the PD team. I think that is all I was told....other than, if I was looking at the Samurai or Crossfire2, I may want to wait just a little bit longer. Just be patient, is what was suggested to me. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Does this mean you have successfully gotten DaGimp under control? I mean, you did have that collar on him the other night _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Yea, well I have a picture of him in a jumpsuit at the WFFC!!!!! Hmmm...wonder how long it would stay up for if I posted it? _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Nothing like passing immunity laws to help out close friends. From yahoo news today: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=68&u=/nyt/20030808/ts_nyt/rivalssayhalliburtondominatesiraqoilwork&printer=1 Rivals Say Halliburton Dominates Iraq Oil Work The New York Times By NEELA BANERJEE The New York Times The Bechtel Group, one of the world's biggest engineering and construction companies, has dropped out of the running for a contract to rebuild the Iraqi oil industry, as other competitors have begun to conclude that the bidding process favors the one company already working in Iraq (news - web sites), Halliburton. After the United States Army Corps of Engineers quietly selected Halliburton in the spring to perform early repairs of the Iraqi oil business in the aftermath of the war, other companies and members of Congress protested that the work should have been awarded through competitive bidding. Halliburton's role in the rebuilding has been under political scrutiny because the company was formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites). But the Bush administration and the Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the Iraqi oil reconstruction effort, have repeatedly said that Halliburton has no inside track. Preliminary plans for a new contract, which industry executives had thought might total $1 billion, were announced late in June by the Corps of Engineers. The bidding was meant, in part, to introduce competition and a sense of fairness into the lucrative Iraqi reconstruction market, an executive with a major engineering concern said. Like many industry executives, he would speak only on condition of anonymity because his company does not want to jeopardize its chances for future government contracts. But in the last month, the corps, which is overseeing the reconstruction efforts, has specified a timetable for the work that effectively means that the value of any contract companies other than Halliburton could win would be worth only about $176 million, according to Corps of Engineers documents and executives in the engineering and construction business. Earlier this week, Bechtel cited the timetable as its reason for dropping out of the bidding. The company now plans to deal directly with the Iraqi oil ministry for future reconstruction work, a spokesman, Howard N. Menaker, said. Although the oil ministry and the Army Corps of Engineers nominally cooperate, industry analysts say the Americans have the upper hand. Officials of the Corps of Engineers did not return numerous phone calls yesterday seeking comment on the contract. But last month, in response to questions from other companies about Halliburton's role, the corps said on its Web site that all potential bidders had received the same information to "eliminate any competitive advantage" Halliburton might have from its involvement in the Iraqi reconstruction work so far. A spokeswoman for Halliburton, Wendy Hall, would not discuss whether its engineering unit, Kellogg Brown & Root, would bid, saying only that "we will evaluate the opportunity." After indicating in June that it planned to solicit bids, the Corps of Engineers held a conference of prospective bidders in Dallas on July 14. Records of the meeting show that it was attended by some of the most experienced engineering and construction companies in the world including, besides Halliburton and Bechtel, Fluor, the Parsons Group, Schlumberger and Foster Wheeler. Among those companies, only Fluor and Parsons have indicated so far that they plan to make bids by the Aug. 14 deadline. A winner will be announced by Oct. 15, according to the Corps of Engineers. At the meeting and in the initial request for proposals, the Corps of Engineers put forth what the industry calls "an indefinite quantity, indefinite delivery" contract. Industry executives said they were told there could in fact be two principal contracts, one for the oil industry in northern Iraq and the other for the south. The value of each contract could range from $500,000 to $500 million over several years, according to the Corps of Engineers, which cited the continued instability in Iraq as a reason for keeping the terms so vague. A transcript of the July meeting shows that bidders were concerned even then that Halliburton would have a competitive advantage over other companies because it was already working with the Corps of Engineers in Iraq and helping to assess the repairs needed at oil production sites and pipelines after the war and years of an economic embargo. The corps denied that such a conflict of interest existed, according to the transcript. Over the last three weeks, however, the Corps of Engineers has provided additional information to bidders indicating that by the July meeting, it and Halliburton already had a fairly clear understanding of the scope and financial value of the work to be done and the timetable for completing it. The newly released information indicates that a week before the Dallas meeting, the Corps of Engineers and Halliburton participated in a large workshop in Baghdad that also included representatives of the Iraqi oil ministry and the ruling Coalition Provisional Authority to draw up a detailed plan for rebuilding much of the Iraqi oil industry by the end of March 2004. A week ago, the Corps of Engineers Web site carried an amendment to the contract proposal, saying that 220 projects, mostly at installations above the ground, must be completed for Iraq's oil production to reach prewar levels. The projects are divided into three phases, with a total estimated cost of $1.14 billion. But the corps notes in the plan that the first two phases, which together would require about $967 million in investments, would have to be completed by Dec. 31. Halliburton's competitors worry that if the winner of the new contracts is not announced until Oct. 15, that company could not even begin the work before year's end. The only company that could do the work based on that timetable is Halliburton, its competitors say. Only the third and final phase, worth about $176 million and requiring the work to be completed by March 31, could realistically be performed by a Halliburton competitor, its rivals say. "The feeling at our company was `Yes, Halliburton is the incumbent, but we had an opportunity there,' " a representative of another engineering concern said. "But if we had believed that from the beginning we had no chance of winning this, we wouldn't have bid." Responding to pointed questions about the timetable by potential bidders, the Corps of Engineers' Web site said the proposed schedule was "not intended to change anything" about the bidding process. For its part, the Kellogg Brown & Root unit of Halliburton will do whatever work the corps gives it, Ms. Hall, the spokeswoman, said. "It is not known at this time how or if the future award of another Corps of Engineers contract will affect current K.B.R. operations or the terms and conditions of its contract," she said. The first wave of Halliburton employees arrived in Iraq in March, to oversee the extinguishing of several oil well fires near Basra. Since then, its responsibilities, under the direction of the Corps of Engineers, have expanded from its initial job of making emergency repairs. Working in Iraq has helped turn around Halliburton's financial performance, its second-quarter results showed. The company made a profit of $26 million, in contrast to a loss of $498 million in the period a year earlier. The company stated that 9 percent, or $324 million, of its second-quarter revenue of $3.6 billion came from its work in Iraq. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

I'm sure Bill will be back on here as soon as the connection in the tent is working again. But from what Bill told me today - she was still awake, still on her back and not doing anything to save her life. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Um...oh....um.... Well, as it turns out - Heather was one of the most popular initiates, and we had one too many people that wanted to be her parents.....and then the drinks that ClownBurner and Kris were handing out (why would you put Vodkand Jagermeister in a margarita anyway?) helped give our newest bumpy brother the ability to have some influence over me

Well, It didn't work...and logic prevailed....Albondiga Rodriguez (HeatherB) was just dropped off at Midway Airport. Nonetheless, the convention was a great time, and all the DZ.com folk that we meet were great! Boy, can this group party! I'm sure she will be posting her pictures once she gets home and catches up on some sleep. Now, trying to decide if I should head back to the convention or not....hmmm...only 85 minute drive! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

While AirMail fixes a drinke next to me.... NEEd to let all ya'll know that HeatherB was pied tonight BIG time by a few dz.comunists (i don't know but someone is calling us that)....... The Pie was all over the place for her 500th jump (which was a kick ass hump jump with video ...just ask Jerm, WingNut and LewMonst)!!!!! Her Her ..... Anyway....all you DZ.com folk need to come online and tell HeatherB the who, what, when, why and how on why she needs to blow off her flight home tomorrow!!!! Did I mention that Clownburner and others have been making the strongest sckrewdivers ever!!!!! OK,.,,,,tell her why she needs to stay. Nine cell, and we are not sucking! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Well, thanks to the work of one person (not sure if he wants to be mentioned) and the help of one or two others.... We are sitting here with internet access in the dz.com tent.... Off to my right is BillVon, Wingnut, Sunshine, FallinWoman, Skymedic, Indyz, SANGIRO, and Phreezone, Gimp, and Clownburner....not sure where the rest went off to. Need to say, NINE CELLS!!! Oh yea, this place isn't sucking...you should be here right now. Oh, and Skymonkeys really know how to party!!!! OK, where did I put my drink. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

I took off from Rantoul this afternoon to head back to Chicago for a wedding. The storm that was headed their way was terrible, but about 30 miles north of the dz, there were clear blue skies. There is a good chance that they may be jumping by now! I'll be back at the boogie tonight, and there is no way in hell I am going to have anymore of SkyMonkeyONE's moonshine....I had two drinks off that stuff and was drunk all night long.....not sure I remember much after I left Chuck's trailer. OK, off to the wedding! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

SDI took their message board offline today. Sorry for all the jumpers that are now without their home! Please come and check out the other three DZ's, can't wait to jump with you! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

A few years back the first Krispy Kreme opened in Chicago about 3 blocks from my house....I could smell them all the time (it was better than the Chlorox plant when the wind came from the other direction, or the Corn Products plant to the west). I could never get into my neighborhood....the line went around the block twice just to get those donuts. There was a 2 1/2 wait at one point, if not longer. That hype lasted almost 9 months. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

that and cutaway on tv last night might explain why we had so many guests on dz.com _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Ah, then you haven't been in Chicago lately. The Mayor is on a rampage about the TSA right now. Delays out of Midway airport are out of control, all on the security side, not at the gates. Daley is asking for a whole lot of info on the TSA that they do not want to give up. Interesting that when some local alderman were asking for the same info on the Chicago Police Department Beat procedures, Daley balked. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Yup, don't feel bad bro, I got laid off 1.5 months ago, so tight budget and guess what, I had to pay my car insurance (begining of July) $1000+ and 2 weeks ago the balance for my rig (which I ordered close to 3 months ago) $2,500, so....how are you feeling now? Welcome to the U.S.A (Unemployed Skydivers of America) I hope your stay (and mine) is a short one. I'm in the same boat - pruchased a brand new car, and was laid off three weeks later! That was march, this is now and I still have no job. Ah, the joys of being in IT. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Hey guys, Just wondering outside of the AAD card, USPA license if there is any "just in case" documentation a friend of mine should bring with on a Southwest Airlines Flight into Chicago? _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

pub is open _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....