steve1

It seems that some canopies are designed to open slower than others. The old Sabres, Monarch's, and others seem to have a rap of sometimes slamming people. Maybe not all these canopies did, but some. A friend of mine with thousands of packjobs under his belt, could barely walk last summer, after his Sabre spanked him again. We had a student last summer who was getting severely banged up, almost every jump. He even lost control of his body functions on one slammer openning, and ended up with the nick name "DB Pooper". We figured he wasn't packing right, so one of the most senior members of our club did a perfect pack job, and he was almost nocked senseless also. So, we mailed that rig off to a Master rigger to find out what's wrong. My "hornet" was really slaming me when I first got it. It came from the factory with an over sized slider. It shouldn't have been opening like that. The error was probably mine, trying to fit it into too small of a bag, and things were slipping all over, with the new material. I started Psycho packing it, and this seemed to tame down the openings on it. Psycho packing helps me get the air out, and into my undersized bag more easily. The slider is kept tight against the grommets using that method, and I love it. It's quick and easy, and everything fits. Other packing methods probably work just as well, if that's what your are used to. Rolling the nose should help also. If you try all these tricks and it doesn't help, send it off to a good rigger. Try a bigger slider, a pocketed slider, different pilot chute. (So, that's about all I know on this subject.) My neck is still messed up today, from hard openings, I had three years ago. But then again there were all those slammer openings 35 years ago on para-commanders.....Steve1

You're kidding! Mahoney looks at least, old enough to have jumped in Casa Grande. I hate to think that I might be older than him. But then again Mahoney has had a hard life, and that's what hard living can do to a person. I'm just wondering if all that hard living may have affected his brain some. Or maybe dementia is setting in. Last time we were all bent over dirt diving a Mad John load, and I looked over and here's Mahoney humping on one of the members of our group. I mean it was down right discusting. Doesn't he realize he's supposed to be a mentor and role model for all the new young pups who are just coming up in the sport?.....Steve1

So, I asked Larry if he came from Idaho, and he said no. Maybe I better quit spreading rumors..

QuoteGeoff Frangos ... aka "Jacuzzi," is alive and origin. reply] If you see Jeff tell him he is still remembered and missed back in Montana. He was once a member of the Red "Wuffo's". An elite four way team back in about 1972. Greg Nardi (from Titusville) was on that team also....Steve1

I heard that a few people would stick the hand and arm in their shirt sleeve and then shake hands with some poor unsuspecting soul. I can picture Mahoney doing something like that. Casa Grande must have been quite a place back in the 70's. Anybody remember Jeff Frangos? He was an ex-Vietnam helicopter pilot who drove a hearse for a car. He's since disappeared. B.J. Worth, Skratch Garrison, and Hod Sanders were down there too during that time period....Steve1

No...just make him jump a Tri-Con at terminal in a belly wart Good idea!....Steve1

Quote[I wouldn't take that guys post seriously... I think it might be a troll... reply] I agree... The moderators should throw it out....Steve1

Quote We had two small door Beeches, the "Blue Coffin" and the "Green Star Express". reply] We used to jump some aircraft in the 70's that were barely airworthy. We took off in one ole beech when shortly after takeoff we could smell something burning. So at barely 3,000 ft, we made an emergency exit that would have rivalled even Jerry Bird's team. And then the pilot was wondering what to do next. I don't think he wanted to go down with the ship very bad. Apparently the electrical system had started on fire a little, and smoke was starting to fill the plane. He couldn't tell if his landing gear was down or not because the wiring was messed up. One of us should have been able to look out the door, and check this visually, but we had all left with first whiff of smoke. At any rate, he kept his cool. Apparently his radio still worked fine. He did a fly by the tower, and the controller told him it was safe to land. (That his gear was down.) So, we all lived to play another day....Steve1

Hey that's a good point. It's been almost a year since my last near death experience!.....Steve1

No, that sounds exactly right on. Thanks for clarifying things....Steve1

Actually that picture shows a Beech with a fairly large door. B.J. Worth is the dark haired guy, way to the right. He was about the only one of us tough enough to jump a para-commander in tennis shoes....Steve1

Here's one of the old twin beechs that we used to jump. Many of them had the oval type door....Steve1

But think of the demographics... reply] I wish you wouldn't use big words like that, it makes me feel kind of inferior. Daaah, is that kind of like one of them, there, pictures of someone doing a demo???

QuoteI have more than a few out of a small door Beech...and believe me it's even MORE of an art when you are about 6'5" and 240 lbs. w/o~ gear! reply] Gee whiz...That's how big I wanted to get but it never happened. I think I had a midget or two in my family tree somewhere. It really messed up the gene pool.....Steve1

I'm planning on making a jump into the school I work at. You see, almost noone here knows what I'm really like, and yes they even let me work with kids. It would be during red-ribbon week which is a week long campaign against drugs and alcohol. So my plan is to jump in with a long red ribbon dangling behind, and then give a little speech on the evils of drugs and alcohol. I thought I'd throw in a few stories for good luck. (Maybe the ones about Lost Prairie, last summer, may not be appropriate.) At any rate, who do I call to file the proper papers on this. Jees, things are so complicated these days. When we wanted to do a demo in the old days, we just did it. In fact my last demo into this same football field may have been a bandit jump. So I got to thinking....Maybe it wouldn't look too good if the FAA packed me off in handcuffs in front of the children....So I want to do things right this time. After all, I'm trying to go straight, and I may even be born again, (if I can just pull off this one demo without a hitch). The last several demos, I've been on, were organized by someone else, and about all I know for sure is that papers need to be filed in advance. I work in a very small town in Eastern Montana, so maybe I don't need to worry about all this. Oh, and did I mention that the last time I jumped into this place I almost died....Yes it's true...I was setting up to land when suddenly my canopy collapsed. It reinflated and then I went in for a nice landing. (Yes, I did have to change my underware.) The field sits down in a bowl with a wall of Cottonwood trees on one side. I should have been able to read that with the wind, this could be a bad place. At any rate, that was many jumps ago, and now that I'm an 800 jump wonder I know better. I plan to jump in the morning when the wind is calm. But the wind almost never quits in Eastern Montana. I can postpone things if it doesn't look right. I've also been telling my fellow employees that I may jump in with nothing on....all wrapped up in a red ribbon. But then again maybe I've just spent too much time up at Lost Prairie. Can anyone give me any advice on this? Thanks in advance.....Steve1

One thing jumpers will probably never see again is a good RW team exit a small door beech while wearing the old gear. By today's standards this might seem impossible. But let me tell you, back in the day, teams did it all the time. Most doors on the old twin beeches were tiny. This was truly a marvel to watch. Most jumpers back in the early 70's had chest mount reserves and bulky para-commanders, and yet an experienced ten-way team could exit, slick as a whistle, one at a time, at a record rate, with narry a hang up. The way we did it was cram as close together in a line. After the pin-base left it was follow the leader time, diving for the hole (of a door) when your turn came. And we were really slow in comparison to the truly greats in the sport like Jerry Bird's All Stars. One worry was banging the top of your container on the top of the door, bending your rip cord housing, and having a total on your main. But then again, what was there to worry about back then. We were all young and dumb, and bullet proof. Does this bring back any memories for anyone?.....Steve1

Ever jump out of a plane with a pumkin? Last weekend I traveled to North Dakota to jump with some jumpers there on a farm. First thing I noticed was a number of pumpkins on a table inside the hangar. Not wanting to buy beer I didn't mention to anyone that this was going to be my first pumpkin jump. The plan was for the last guy out to leave with a pumpkin. Then we would fly in and take turns passing the pumpking from jumper to jumper. The last guy with the pumpkin had to try to open with it and then land with it. Guess who ended up with the pumpkin on the first jump? I tried tracking off with it, and things weren't going well, so I gave it a toss. There's plenty of open space in North Dakota, so things were safe below. We made a couple more jumps until finally one guy came within ten feet of the ground before losing it. I imagine it wouldn't be possible to play this game at most D.Z.'s, but it is a fun change of pace. On one jump the pumpking was passed several feet between jumpers. It didn't work. Man...can a pumpkin fall fast. I mean there was no catching it. That might have something to do with my never learning the proper way to do head down. I mean what can you expect of an old fart, relative worker. At any rate, if you are looking to broaden your skydiving skills, try a pumpking jump. There's nothing else like it.....Steve1

Please give U.S. forces more credit than that. Depending upon their mission, S.F. troops may wear sterile fatiques, use foreign weapons, or do whatever it takes not to be identified when in combat. When that is all over, nobody is going to blow you up when you get home, just for saying you were once in Special Forces. Maybe someday this will change, but at present that's the way things are here. So I guess I had trouble understanding the rant earlier. I sympathize for those who live in other countries where life is not as easy or as safe as in the U.S....Steve1

This does sure sound like a troll to me! And I do have better things to do than argue with one but... Since when has Special Forces become such a secret unit that you couldn't tell someone you were once S.F. Please explain I don't get it. Lastly could the source of your anger be that you are just plain jealous of someone who wears a green beret?....Steve1

When I finished Infantry training at Ft. Polk I got on the bus for Benning (Jump School). On a corner, waiting for his bus ride home, was one of the idiots I trained with. He was wearing jump boots and a beret, all duded up in his Dress Greens. The only people in the army allowed to wear a beret (in 1970) were SF and Rangers. And you had to be Airborne to wear jump boots with your greens. I mean it was laughable to see that phony standing there. He may have fooled a few people back home, but he would have been in deep do-do if he was caught on base like that. And then again, we have this guy working in our school who claims to be former S.F. He talks about making a halo jump from over 20 grand, with a ruck, with no previous halo training on a combat mission in Vietnam. This is probably one of his wilder tales. I guess he watched too many Rambo movies. I'd sure like to see his DD-214. And then again I've caught a bunch of former vets who claimed to be Airborne and their jump stories just didn't add up. I hate liers....Steve1

Is one of those Dr.'s Pete Hill? I visited with him briefly at the boogie and I see him every year at Lost Prairie. Sounds like a really fun guy. I heard he has some really good Wally Benton stories....Steve1

I'd love to own a m-16 or AR-15 just for fun. For coyotes my preference has always been an accurate bolt action rifle with a good quality scope. But I imagine an AR-15 would work fine if it was accurate enough. Underneath all that fur coyotes aren't very big. At longer ranges they can be tough to hit. I use a very accurate rifle and I don't sight it in to shoot too high. I sight my big game rifles in at almost three inches high at 100 yards. That would be almost 4inches high at 200 yards. I've missed coyotes with those same rifles because I forgot about how high the midrange trajectory was and shot over them. Two inches high at a 100, or a little less than that, would have worked better. Free floating the barrel will improve accuracy on most rifles. I have a couple of bolt action rifles that have long fairly thin barrels. Free-floating those barrels actually made the accuracy worst. You need to test all this out at the range. On those rifles I left them floated but put a shim under the forend. You can experiment with how thick a shim to use. I can now drive tacks with both those rifles (if I use the right load). I like a nice, light, crisp trigger. Have a good gunsmith do this for you. I used to adjust my own triggers and have had problems. One rifle almost ruined a hunting trip. Every time I closed the bolt the firing pin would slip. Luckily I had another rifle to use. Having too light a trigger can be dangerous also. A good quality scope isn't cheap. I really like Leupold II scopes. There are better scopes out there, but they all cost big bucks. And don't skimp on good mounts. Little things can make a big difference in the size of your groups. As far as building a rifle from parts, I don't really know much about that. I'm wondering why a person would do that. Is it cheaper somehow than buying a finished weapon? I can see how it might be fun to do as long as all the parts were compatible. You could end up with exactly the weapon you wanted if you were knowledgable enough to do it.. I know there are a lot of options available. At any rate, good luck with you project.....Steve1

I'd say leave it up to the tandem master, and start by just lurking the tandem. When you start docking on the tandem be careful. There's a huge dead air space above the tandem and you don't want to get sucked into that. This story illustrates what can happen. Shortly after starting to dock on the tandem, there was a jump when I reached down to grab the passenger's wrist. Sure enough I rose up and got sucked in. Ended up crawling around on the tandem master's back. Stupid is as stupid does. It took a lot more jumps before I was allowed to try that again. Then a year or two later, an old jumper wanted to build a formation around his son's first tandem. Probably not too smart either. At any rate, since I was an old jumper too, I was asked to join in. The eight way was building nice. I had a smooth approach on the tandem and was just about to grab the tandem masters wrist when someone hit the star really hard on the other side, which turned the formation. I again found myself in the tandems well of dead air and bounced off his back. I mean I looked like an idiot in the video, but I don't think it was my fault. The formation didn't funnel. I took another approach with better luck that time. At any rate, building a formation around a tandem student may not be a very bright idea either.....Steve1

Darkwing, We had a boogie this past weekend at Hamilton. There were a lot of Star jumpers there, including several old timers. We were BSing about how I competed down at Star in "73" at a big collegiate meet, and they were trying to tell me it was the nationals. One guy even said, "You must have been really drunk not to have known that you were competing in a national meet." I know my memory is bad, but I'm sure it was a collegiate meet only and not the Nationals in 73. Thanks for the info.....Steve1

Does anyone know where the Collegiate Nationals were held in 1973? Anyone good at skydiving trivia questions? It must be written down someplace. I've had several people tell me that the Collegiate Nationals were held at Star, Idaho in 1973. But I think it was more like 1974. Just doing some research, and I don't have a clue where to look....Steve1