zoobrothertom

Awesome thread Pat! Did anyone mention Skydive USA in Wharton, Texas? Pretty good operation run by Chuck Akers. I think it opened around '94. It was scary sometimes to land and watch the clouds of mosquitos rise up when distrubed by your landing. Anyone know the open and close dates? I need to pull out my logbook and see what other DZs have closed. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Thanks for sharing! I had a copy years ago. Unfortunately, my ex-wife decided she needed a tape to record something. She put scotch tape over the tab and recorded over it!! Can't wait to see it from the "Master." ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Good Gawd, what a pansy ass sport its become . . . NickD

Nothing so exciting for me. I was just hanging out with the Mrs. on our 15th floor apartment balcony waiting for the fireworks to start down on the beach about a kilometer away. The last 7 New Year's evenings have been here in Korea. Jonesing for a jump as always in Korea! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Is there a link to download? I'd love to add this one to my collection. Nice work!! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

I wonder how much extra altitude they got? ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

LOL ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Most of the folks below have mentioned something that is just as important as having a good knife. Have 2 knives. One around your chest level and the other one low in a thigh pocket or leg strap. My standard setup is a small one on my chest strap and my jack the ripper in my thigh pocket. My pocket doesn't have a flap, just velcro. I put my jack in the pocket and leave the lanyard sticking out of one corner pinned between the velcro. No digging around. Just grab the lanyard and guide it into your hand. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

I've been subscribing to Skydiving since the early '80s. I like both magazines. However, Skydiving reports things that Parachutist ignores. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

I love the movie (Evil Dead III) Army of Darkness. The first one was a basically a home made movie. The second one was in the same location as the first but upgraded. #2 ended with the door sucking Ashe in the introduction of #3 (falling from the sky with his chainsaw hand, car and shotgun). #3 was by far the better one. Fucking hilarious!! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

I believe it was Across the 5th Dimension, but yeah I loved that shit. Although it wasn't a comedy, does anybody remember the movie The Black Hole? I never see it on TV anywhere anytime. I saw it in the late 70s or early 80s. I can't remember when it was made, but Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins (of Psycho fame), Robert Forster and Ernest Borgnine starred in it. I guess it had to be bad if it's never shown anymore... The Black Hole was a Disney production. I thought it was so-so ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Hi Tony Great footage. I've been living over here in Korea for 6.5 years. My wife still vividly remembers the opening ceremony! In S. Korea, civil aviation is very, very limited. Mostly corporate helicopters. However, there are several ultralight airfields scattered around the country. After 20 years since the video, the #1 jumper in the country has about 6000 or so jumps and it's because he's special forces (maybe retired by now). There's only one DZ in the country and the costs, to put it nicely, are prohibitive. $100 per jump from a leased helicopter. $100 annual dues and, for me, a 5 hour drive equals another $100 in gas round trip. If you take a bus, the travel time can get as high as 8 hours depending on connecting buses. At last word, the DZ is still seasonal. Around April to September and only every other Sunday and only for 4 hours! My rig has been gathering dust for 6 years. I've calculated that it's cheaper to take the hydrofoil to Japan and jump than it is to watch it rain on Sunday in Korea. Anybody got an update? My info about the DZ is 4 years old. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

You never hear someone say, "Fuck this place! I'm packing my bags and heading to New Jersey!" Admit it, everyone is from NJ, nobody willingly moves to Jersey. Unfortunately, I worked with a guy from Perth Amboy in Texas who actually packed up his shit and moved back to NJ. There's a first time for everything! I lean corrected! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

I have my license as well and i absolutely agree with magic!!! Plus you can take a model airplane with a completely flat top and bottom wing and itll still fly!! Physics my ass! I've always known that even a brick will fly if given enough thrust. Look at the F-4 Phantom! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

I'm bored... just answer the damn questions: I'm bored, too. So I'll answer. 1. Whats your name? Thomas 2. How old are you? 45 3. Why did you decide to start jumping out of airplanes? I volunteered for an Airborne training recruiting presentation in army basic training as a way to get the afternoon off. I still regret it! 4. Are you single or taken? Definitely taken with my beautiful Korean spouse 5. Do you have kids? Yep, twin BoyZ - 4 years old and they're 2 of the biggest kids in Korea. 6. What do you drive? 2002 Kia Spectre (is this car sold in the States?) 7. Have you ever done a kisspass? Yep. Best one ever was a 6000 foot tongue fueled lip lock over Lauterbrunnen from the Air Glacier chopper in '90 with my oblivious ex-wife watching from the ground! 8. Where do you live? Pohang, S. Korea for the last 6.5 years 9. Do you have any pets? Not anymore My cat passed away last November at the age of 18.5 years. Pretty darn good life for a furball. 10. How many jumps do you have? +1300 11. What color eyes do you have? Hazel 12. What is your nationality? USA (25% German, 50% Irish, 25% Scottish) 13. Have you ever dated someone you met off the internet? Not yet 14. Favorite Movie? Life of Brian and Monty Python in general (too much PBS as a kid before cable) 15. What do you do when you aren't skydiving? Work, think about skydiving and work 16. Have you ever BASE jumped? Yes 17. If not... do you want to? Is it okay to say "Yes," again? 18. Do you have siblings? 1 brother and 4 sisters. I'm the oldest and 3 of the girls qualify as baby sisters. Woo Hoo, way to go Dad! 19. Where do you want to travel to the most? Australia 20. What's your favorite color? Yellow. I'm an optimist (aren't all skydivers?) 21. Where was the last place you flew to ( not skydiving )? JeJu Island, S. Korea. Just look at a map. It's the big one off the south coast. BONUS QUESTION 22. Why did you answer this survey? It's one of the better threads in a long time! I learned a lot of stuff I was better off not knowing! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

You did fine. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Wow! That's a sweet little plane. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Hey Pat Thanks for reminding us why we fly! I still have my dog eared and battered copy of The Art of Freefall Relative Work. I can't count how many times I've read and reread it. I bought it as a newbee back in '83 and reading your book immediately improved my swooping skills. Jumping with some newbees for an SCR a few years ago I waited in the door for a full 10 seconds before exiting for the swoop from hell! I threaded the needle between a few folks, flaired and docked. On the ground, they asked me how did you do that? I dug through my gear bag and held up your ancient book! Nowadays, most folks never get a chance to swoop anymore. Blue skies ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

------------------------------------------------------- I follow you there. The people that do it for the 'thrill' don't stick around too long. Over the years, I've had years where I can jump regularly and some where I can't. Right now, I've been living overseas for 6.5 years in a country where skydiving is limited to one DZ in the country. I'm too far away to make it worth while. Could I jump? Of course! After 26 or so years, jumping is part of my self-image, my special place in my head where I am free from all responsibilities. When I need to jump but can't, I just close my eyes and remember! When people around me are stressing out over shit, I'm always the most relaxed person in the room. Daily life ain't got shit for 'real' stress to me. I've got 10 malfunctions and only 9 reserve rides. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Thanks for bringing up Darwin awards. I was about to suggest something like temporary pins if you have to wear your rig. However, I kept pondering the wisdom of letting the red tape flap in the wind or tucking it 'safely' under the closing flaps! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Ugly wrap! Were they transitioning directly into a 3 way downplane or just splitting when it went to shit? ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Isn't this the same grip that can lock you up? I've been in a couple of DPs where at break off we were locked in. We had to reach back with our hands and take the tension off it to release. ---------------------------------------------------------- Wow. Never had that happen to me, or heard of it happening to anyone. ---------------------------------------------------------- Look around DZ.com in history & trivia for the Chris Bickerdike thread. He became the first we know of to land a DP and became DP#1. In July 1986, he and Todd Cudnowsky, DP#2 (sp?), rode a downplane in at Raeford with 'death grips.' Todd was only knocked out but Chris was screwed up pretty good. I wonder if it's the same as the parabatic grip. You had to get in really close when setting it and long legs were a plus. 8~9 out of 10 times you wound up with a very strained normal grip that you worked hard on keeping. When it worked tight, it was a dream to fly in a DP. You just had to do a constant 'wiggle' check to make sure you could break it you were smokin it low. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Sounds pretty good. My first tri x sides in the mid 80's were very similar because we all used 220 7 cells. The technique I described above was around '98 where we used two Fury 220s and a Sabre 170 loaded at about 1:1 for the center. It might actually an instance where a semi-noncompatible canopy has an advantage. The ZP Sabre had no trouble docking on 2 Furies in a side x side as long as he started above us. Your description of the walking down the lines was what we also did but with the lightly loaded Sabre, it was more of just letting the lines slide through your hands on the way down. We were too cheap to sew loops on the leg straps. As long as it works and it's under control, there's more than one way to skin a cat! Maybe the only thing that doesn't change is that the center guy is usually the strongest! Blue Skies CRW Dawg! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

Isn't this the same grip that can lock you up? I've been in a couple of DPs where at break off we were locked in. We had to reach back with our hands and take the tension off it to release. Fortunately, we were a little off target and had to break high each time. Ever since then, I check the "feel" of any style leg grip to make sure it will release, especially if we were smoking it low. On the death straps for a tri-by-side, I've used them before but it was years ago. Not a 3 ring, but it was so long ago I only remember that we tested them repeatedly for release reliability before using them. We finally gave up using them after we figured out a reliable leg grip. Here was our recipe for a solid tri by side. Start in a side by side. Center guy docks on the bottom and uses brakes to come up. Center guy takes and keeps a harness grip on each man for the duration. At this point, the center guy gets as high over the leg grip as he can (gotta come down on it, not from behind it). He then wraps his legs over and around the side by side leg lock and sets his ankles underneath. At this point, split it out into a tri by side. We flew a few from 7K all the way down to 40' with little strain. Ah, memories! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!

----------------------------------------------------------- Absolutely 2 of the best sources you can find in any video store. Truman Sparks of Fandango is a skydiving legend and one of the best instructors to ever take chalk to board. Watch it and learn at the hands of a master! Point Break should answer all your questions about communication in freefall.