mdrejhon

It's pretty routine. I know data-recovery centers have resurrected data from laptop hard disks, VHS tapes, diskettes, BetaMax tapes from airplane crashes crashing at mugh higher speed. The tape is usually crumbled and shredded, but as long as there's still silvery slivers, you can piece them back together with splicing tape, insert in an empty plastic casing, and copy the video to another blank tape. Also, sometimes special ironing procedures were used to flatten the wrinkled tape. That's how it was done in those days. According to the other dropzone.com thread, the 1988 (1987?) videotape had moments of static, because of limitations of data recovery.

I heard that back then in 1987 (1988?) that some cameramen were still using VHS tape decks, strapped to their belly inside a protective cloth cover. A 1970/1980's style VHS tape deck, from the days when the video camera and the tape recorder was separate units. This may have been a factor - that the cameraman was bulky looking that he looked like he was wearing gear.

I'm a 1-cream-pie wonder, not a 100-jump wonder.

I have learned to self-pin-check but I want at least one visual inspection by another person (either on the ground or in the air) during at least one of my three pin checks per jump. Sometimes I am at an uncomfortable position or there's people now less experienced than I am, so I now can "feel" the metal and the bump of a closing loop on both the main and reserve. Funny thing. I am right handed, but only my left hand can reach all the way to my reserve pin and feeling the metal and feeling the bump of the loop 3/4 of the way up the pin. My right hand reaches one inch short of the reserve pin, so I can only self-pin-check both pins with my left hand. Time for some more stretching exercises

Well, unfortunately, there's no time to get a rig checked before bidding, when it comes to eBay. What's needed is negotation to use some kind of escrow, an agreed-upon neutral rigger that both parties trust. So the seller and buyer can't easily scam each other. Then bidding is okay, I'd say. I've bought numerous items from eBay, including laptops and home theater equipment. As long as you "know" the system, I think it's OK. I didn't get my rig on eBay, but I definitely agree about getting it checked before the release of funds. I know someone who flew somewhere just to get it checked and test-jump a rig -- considering the funds involved, I can understand why!

I just did my 100th jump (Click for thread). Yes, I got the cream pie. I'm curious, though: "What Year Was the FIRST CREAM PIE in Skydiving History?" Who was that unfortunate guy?

Oh, and my topic title question hasn't been answered yet: "What year was the first cream pie in skydiving, anyway?"

Thanks! I'm still humbled by the great instructors that were on the RW jumps, but I was glad that I was not the bottleneck on the RW jumps (at least the recent ones). While some others were flying more challenging slots than I did, I was able to fly my easy slot fast enough to warrant a few "great job!" comments from other instructors. I did some more challenging transitions that involved more flying, towards the end, and still kept up. Can't really boast my skills though. But I kept up. From the start of the weekend to the end of the weekend, I was getting much better at staying level and resisting the temptation to de-arch, especially when people grab my grips. Legs out, keep level with fallrate, and don't go low. I noticed I was rapidly getting better because I had so many consecutive RW jumps. It was spetacular to see all the people flying around me! I'm finally "good enough" to be accepted on bigger-than-2-way RW jumps which was my goal at 100th. Tracking is the main area that needs work now before I do a 20-way. Linked exits are a big challenge too. I rememember a couple of 3-way linked exits went upsidedown (funnel!), most especially my first linked 3-way exit from a Twin Otter (as part of the 9-way), but all recovered without letting go and the jump continued with plenty of altitude. (I had some great exits too) All in all, I had LOTS OF FUN and learned a LOT, so I am happy about that. About two-thirds were linked (linked 3-way base on 5-way and bigger) and one-third was flying to my slot (on 4-way and smaller only). I learned to avoid going low so I am happy to say I can finally fly to my slot at the right speed (not too fast, not too slow). Since I made some good time towards the requirements of my B-license, I am thinking of doing my B-license tests this weekend. I'll have to see... (I'll contact the dropzone to warn them as soon as I decide if I'll go for it). Oh, and my landings are better now so I am happy about that too. Landed 4 consecutive zero-wind standups too (running, really). I think I am now used to the new lines (when I figured out I needed to pull toggles down to the point just before tail deflection, when gliding in my final - then it all made sense - I have 6 to 7 inches of extra brake line, they're brand new.) (If any instructors from my dropzone are reading this -- A big THANK YOU to all that helped me. Lot of beer coming on my next visit...)

Yes, I did the 100. Yay! Yes, I got the mandatory cream pie. The 100th was a 9-way formation skydive I helped organize. It was the best weekend ever for me at Skydive Gananoque. (Also did several 6-ways / 7-ways / 4-way too. Finally, I feel as if I am making REAL progress in RW rather than being a bellyflopping bellyflyer.)

That one is very funny too! I posted about that, but for some reason, a greenie deleted my post a few days ago -- Wonder why this thread still exists and I received no explanation why my thread was removed (did I break a posting rule?) -- I think he saw an eBay URL and did not bother to verify that my post referred to a legitimate joke worthy of Bonfire, rather than eBay spam;

You got to be kidding. 120mph terminal velocity at -12F is like -60F wind chill factor. You're going to freeze nearly instantly at that if naked.

Funny. I posted this eBay URL, but one of the greenies deleted my thread to the Recycle Bin. I don't think the greenies like these eBay URL's. Personally, I think this one is more funny: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7179285903 "1st SWOOP TRAINING LANE MAKES HOOK TURNS EVEN EASIER" (joke auction) I would bet that all of these eBay items are indeed spoofs. (After trying to figure out why these threads were being deleted, I just did some research on this matter to figure out why. Possible theory that I have noticed that threads like these are often eventually deleted by a greenie - One of the ads were published in Skydiving. Then the next month, Skydiving magazine apologized for the spoof. Apparently there were a lot of people upset by this ad. I think, that there are some people still upset about the spoof. On top of this all, some don't like jokes about bouncing, for other spoofs like the swoop lane.)

Here's the Sept 3-5th Otter weekend details posted: http://www.skydivegan.com/ngspc/events.htm#otter Very few places in Canada ever have a Twin Otter as the jump plane. Over 20 skydivers all the way to 13500 feet in half the time of a typical Cessna. Take advantage of this!

Just a heads-up. The Twin Otter is arriving Skydive Gananoque for the Labour Day boogie from September 3rd to 5th. Gananoque is near Kingston, which is easily reachable from Ottawa/Toronto/Montreal. Free camping. More info at www.skydivegan.com. I sure had a lot of fun at the last Twin Otter boogie - I jumped a whopping 17 times in just one weekend. Probably one or two other people at Skydive Gananoque will post more about events, but I thought I'd give you all area guys a heads-up on this Labour Day weekend boogie.

Try searching 'diabetic' in the Search textbox at the upper-right corner of this web document. This link was interesting reading: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1648919 Not diabetic here, but I happened to notice this when it was posted in June.

$6.19 per gallon in Quebec? Ouch. In this city ot Ottawa, it's about $1.10 CDN per liter (Approximately $4 CDN per gallon.) and still going up. As the exchange is approaching parity, that's still about $3.36 USD per gallon.

Jump tickets are already higher than that in Japan.

Solution: 7 month repack cycle Nontheless, I'm playing on the safe side.

Bingo. I'm already past this point (painful ouch!). Own my own gear. Now I can jump 10 times in one weekend for the same price as one tandem. Whoo! I got used gear. It's not too bad if you budget future purhcases well. I expect about $500 average per year for minimum maintenance/membership/reserve repack/cypres costs. It'll be more than that when I feel like doing something new (i.e. freefly next year, or travelling to a dropzone in USA, rig upgrade in maybe 5 years), but I can rest safe that I know that if I'm poor, I can scrape about 50 full altitude freefall jumps (or 100 hop-n-pops) per year on less than $2000 to stay current. That's under $200 per month. Reality will be, I'll probably spend more than that in the near term.

Flattering but I don't think so. I'm just a newbie and I'd say FAA knows way more than I do... I haven't heard from the original poster -- I'd like to know what the original scenario was. Both plane and skydiver obviously turned left, so it must have been obvious to both parties that they had to turn left instead of right. I'm only making guesses as to possible scenarios. Obviously, the possibility needs to be considered that if only one turned right, it may possibly have been disastorous. So I would like to know what happened in this case - was it obvious, or was it luck, or both. "If about to collide at an angle, turn away from each other" is pretty obvious to me. What's less obvious is what to do when you're "head-on but offset" ... for example, you're about to collide with the wing of the aircraft, a skydiver's instinct may be to turn away from the wing away from the center of the plane. I sense this must be a can of worms, but the "obviousness" factor plays here, though it's probably easier with obviously offset, such as a skydiver about to collide with the last 2 feet of a Twin Otter wing, then I (at my relatively newbie experience levels) would automatically turn left away if it was so clearly obvious. Then again, I may not be able to notice that from the distance with the plane racing towards me at breakneck speed, I'd automatically turn right anyways. At speed, something tiny can become big in a real hurry, so I'll automatically turn right anyway unless it was so blatantly obvious I had to immediately yank left. Turn right is a muscle memory now though. Anyway, I would be such a dumbass to have been in front of a Twin Otter in the first place... Probably such an unlikely scenario, and more worth it to pratice my EP's for the zillionth time, but I'm just curious what happened.

Get a 14.4K modem and a dial-up connection It'll be so much torture, you'll avoid it except when necessary. Use a webmail system such as GMAIL so you don't have to download large attachments.

Left bank? If it was a direct head-on trajectory, isn't that a right turn we've been all trained to do? I'll always do right bank as taught for a direct head-on collision danger, but I'm just curious what circumstances would warrant it -- perhaps it wasn't directly head-on and a left bank was simply the "obvious" direction to go in at the time (i.e. potential collision at an angle), or you just saw the plane banking left and you followed suit? Just making sure that was the case, and not some foreign rule, etc. Yah, yah, I know, best not to listen to dz.com - and just ask the instructors questions. I just am curious, though.

Isn't that how Cani flew his VX39? (Edit: At first for the test jumps...before he decided it was a landable canopy)

Landing. I think. (Although it was door fear too. And performance anxiety doing 2-way with an instructor) Although I stood up my first landing and about 9 out of 10 subsequently. Now my brake lines have been replaced and I feel like I am learning how to flare, all over again. Plus I skidded a tarmac landing (my first) and almost fell over. Wasn't too happy about that. Sometimes I've been pretty calm during the landing, as I was before the brakes got replaced. Oh, and maybe, my reserve. I need to test-jump it soon with an intentional cutaway as soon as I'm approved for it

Called my friend's cellphone in New Orleans three times in the last 12 hours, but all circuits were busy. I hope he's OK. He lives downtown New Orleans.