peckerhead

>>>>>> Out of curiousity (not aimed at anyone in particular): When buying equipment online from an unknown source, all of you ALWAYS check serial numbers and description against DZ.com's stolen gear database? OF course you should!!!!!! Thanks for that, I have reported this twice and it still does not appear on the DZ.com stolen gear database. I contacted all 3 DZ's listed on dropzone.com in the Phillipines. One of them was returned as undeliverable. The other one has been very cooperative. The 3rd has not responded. This is how these crooks get caught. They steal stuff and try to sell it. I bet this scumbag is not even a jumper. At least I hope so. More later,

The Ebay and paypal fees have been refunded. It turns out you are only protected if you ship the item to a confirmed address in the US, Canada, or the UK. If you ship to any other country you do not have protection. I also just found out that a stolen credit card was used to make the purchase through paypal. If you are selling to anyone outside of those countries DO NOT take paypal.

This is what I teach; A Pilot chute in tow is a total malfunction. Don't fuck around, get flat, pull your reserve. There is nothing to cut away. An open pilot chute is much stronger than your arm so don't waste time pulling on a mis-routed bridle. If your pilot chute is not cocked then it may not have enough drag to pull the pin. If you reach back and actually manage to get hold of the bridle and open the container then you will have an open container but still no pilot chute. Not good, and you just wasted another 1000 feet or more. If you don't cutaway first and your main deploys after the reserve is open you can deal with it. A two out situation is survivable but you can't land a PCIT. If your main deploys after the reserve is open and it has been released it can foul your reserve. Keep your 3 rings attached until your reserve deploys. At that point you may want to leave them attached for the rest of the ride or you may want to release them depending on the situation but stop the skydive first! Regardless of what you do have a plan and execute it immediately. 2 grand is not the time to decide which method you want to use.

PM sent. I have all the details and a full description including serial number. I have reported it to the stolen gear list here and on the USPA website. I also sent emails to DZ's in the Phillipines. The crook has probably already removed the data tag. But, you bring up an excellent point. If you ever buy new or used gear you should always check the serial number against the stolen gear list. If the seller will not provide a serial number DON"T BUY IT! I am also a rigger so anytime I get an unfamiliar rig I always check to see it it might be stolen. I urge all riggers to take the time and do the same. This is how most stolen equipment is recovered, when it is serviced or when it is bought and sold. At this point I feel like a total idiot. If this thread can prevent one more person from making the same mistake then it was well worth posting even if I never do recover my loss. It used to be "buyer beware" but in todays electro-commerce world it has become "seller beware" as well.

It was delivered before I caught on to what was happening. If Ebay would have notified me a few days sooner I could have stopped delivery.

I absolutely agree. I have made over 200 transactions on Ebay and have never had a problem before both buying and selling. I have also sold canopies to foriegn countries and was paid with paypal without incident. This was total stupidity on my part and I mainly wanted to post this to keep others from making the same mistake. In my defense I had no way of knowing the buyers account had been taken over and his positive feedback score gave me a false sense of security. I also did not know that the funds could be reversed once I had already been paid.

Unfortunately I had several other transactions going on at the time that I could not complete unless I brought the balance to zero.

That's what I thought too...... Actually I did transfer the money to my bank account before shipping but when paypal reversed the transaction it left a negative balance on my PP account. I had to pay it back so it did me no good.

I sold a Triathlon 160 a few weeks ago on Ebay. It was in perfect new condition. The winning bid was $1175. After the auction ended the winning bidder contacted me and asked if I could ship it as a gift to his cousin in the Phillipines. I told him if he would pay all shipping costs I would do it but I would not ship until it was paid for and the funds were in my account. The buyer had a 100% positive feedback score with over 130 trasnsactions. He made immediate payment with Paypal the total with shipping was $1308. As soon as the funds were in my account I felt it was safe to go ahead and ship the package Right? Wrong! Three days later after the canopy had been shipped Paypal removed the money from my account. It turns out this scumbag hacked into someone elses ebay account and placed the bid without the account owners knowledge. He also used thier Paypal account to make the payment. The funds were returned to the rightful account owner and the listing was permanently removed from Ebay.... No problem I am covered with Paypals seller protection right? Wrong! Paypal will not give me a refund because I shipped it to an unconfirmed address. Ebay instructed me to report it to law enforcement as an internet crime. So now this scumbag has my canopy and I get nothing. The canopy has been reported as stolen property and the internet crime control center is investigating. I really don't expect to get the money or my canopy back but I would like to see this guy caught and prosecuted. It was delivered to Pasay. I am offering a reward for the canopy or information leading to the arrest of this thief. If you are in the area you can send me a private message and I can give you the details. It just makes me sick that a fellow skydiver would rip me off like this. If you accept Paypal payments for anything DO NOT ship to an unconfirmed address. I learned the hard way.

I don't think people realize how strong a pilot chute is. At 180 lbs. of pull the rubber band is either going to release the stows or break even if it is doubled. I would rather take another wrap and have the lines tight. I have done this thousands of times and I have never seen a bag lock from double stowing. No rubber band is going to hold 180lbs. I just don't see any point in replacing rubber bands before they break. If they get loose I just take another wrap. Sometimes I might even GASP!take a second wrap. Remember the portion of the rubber band connected to the bag is not doubled, only the portion wrapped around the lines is.

Here is my new Sonic...

On a side note the day I made my first jump was also the infamous mid-air crash involving a jump plane and a commuter jet in Loveland. Maybe not the very same day but about the same time.

Ralph also operated out of Donald- Aurora during those years. He had an active DZ at Mollala up to 1976 and then moved to Eagle creek. I think Beaver Oaks started in 1977. There are numerous stories of farmer McNasty in Oregon and some of them are true. There are also stories of jumpers pulling guns on farmers. But that is another thread. Those assholes did burn 68 Charlie to the ground and they were never prosecuted. That plane I am leaning on in the photo....... Some dirty rotten sonof a bitch that hated skydivers doused it with gas and burned it.

I am going to stay out of this one.

It is definetly D-5465 That much is easy to read. The signiture is hard to read but it looks like Bill or Bob Vance. I heard rumors he was killed on a demo doing crew.

It may be hard to see in that old grainy scanned photo but there are no covers. I have two cutaways on shot and a halfs and one on R-3's Two of those were on back to back loads at Ralphs. Anyway, we did not cutaway on the rig shown in the picture. We started cutaways once on freefall with shot and a halfs. That is when we started using spring loaded pilot chutes on the reserve. On static line jumps it was direct bag deployed t-10s with break cord on the apex. If you had a malfunction you opened the reserve container and reached between the lines and the canopy and threw it out. No pilot chute...

Bummer, he was that close and did not come and see me.... I went half way around the world to go jump with Dav3e and he doesn't have the sack to come see ol Peckerhead..... Oh well, I don' think he even has a computer

Good for him! I knew he would finally make a name for himself.

Noid lies! Those are mine!

Eagle Creek Harrisburg Scravel Hill Beagle Sky ranch Mollala Bend Cline falls Madras And all points in between. I have about 1600 jumps in the great state of Oregon. One shot capewells, we did not cutaway on static line jumps. No pilot chute on the reserve. Stay with what you got and throw the reserve by hand.

Yeah, I remember. Whatever happened to ol Teddy?

I don't need no ammo and stay out of my locker!

Funny! How many times have I tried to get my family to watch my videos? You would think I was trying to show them baby movies! Remember that episode of the Flintstones? And here is pebbly-poo playing with her foot. And here is me and my 3 buddies going from a compressed accordian to a left hand donut. Wait! Where are you going? You are going to miss the best part! Same shit.

Does that mean you have reconsidered paying to watch swoop competitons? I am not really bitter, today is a good day!