wartload

Well, THAT explains it! Thanks!

The SCR Database goes from... 4784 LEPICK MARK H BORDERLAND CA 06/14/75 6810 NOVOTNY PAUL J HINCKLEY ILL 11/13/1976 Anyone know when that gap of about 2,000 recipients might be filled in?

Yep. I started jumping not long after that. The DZ where I was had been using pilot chutes on their reserves but they were debating whether they should or not. There were other DZs in the state who went back (for awhile) to reserves without pilot chutes. I never could figure out how that malfunction could have happened. Possibilities were that it could have gone too long without a repack, could have been a cotton twill (still some around then ... I had one) that had gotten wet, pilot chute problem (no kicker plate of any sort? weak spring? who knows?). It really didn't make sense. It sounded like she'd done everything exactly as she was supposed to have done.

Invest in a sybian and enjoy yourself. Nymphomania isn't a bad word ... it's a great date.

With a name like yours, are you kidding me? Baltimore has lots of places with great food, but it has several excellent Greek restaurants. I'm a little partial to Ikaros, but get a ride out to about 4800 Eastern avenue and look around for some place that looks good to you at the moment. You can't go wrong with any of them.

Have any of you got references that will tell me more about this canopy than the fact that it was made in July, 1965? The serial number is PC 651782. It's a Mark 1 made in July of 1965. Anyone have an idea when the first Mk 1 was made, and where this one would have fallen within the production numbers?

Just another datapoint ... pea gravel wasn't "invented" for accuracy landings. It was a grade of gravel that was in common use on military bases (and other places) for decorative landscaping, filling outdoor ashtrays, etc. It was found that pea gravel absorbed a good bit of impact, drained well when it rained, and didn't create dust on a hot & dry day. As has been noted here, sand was also used for early target areas. I remember one place that had a sawdust pit for a target area, but it was a soggy mess after a rain. The first year that the Nationals were held in Tallequah, they used something more like rocks--much to the dismay and discomfort of the competitors.

I'm not in NOVA, but not too far away. I'm a bit down the river from you. I didn't start jumping in this area, but would come up to VA from time to time and jumped at Hartwood, Buckingham, West Point, and Shen Valley.

Then you may like these pictures of my youngest son - age 8 at the time these were taken. The plane belongs to a guy that I taught how to fly many years back, then lost track of. When we made contact, he offered to take the kids up, then left each of them have the controls for about a half hour. This kid hadn't been at the controls of a plane before, but he had a few hundred hours of flight simulator time. Because he couldn't see over the panel, he flew the thing on instruments, keeping the ball pretty well centered and doing controlled turns. When he cranked the thing around in a steep turn, my buddy looked a little apprehensive, but he let him keep on the controls ... but he drew the line when Dave asked, "Ok if I loop it?"

Doesn't that make you feel OLD??! A plane that I test flew is hanging up in the ceiling of a museum in Richmand, VA. Dayyyummm! It ages me to think of that!

How about the "Cash Cows"?

Thanks for taking the time to post all of this. One of the most vexing parts of all this is that the "victim" never told my dad that she felt uncomfortable. She went to the supervisor, instead (now, it turns out, she did that after he had disagreed with an evaluation that she did on a case they apparently both reviewed). It also appears that the supervisor and HR got themselves up to their necks in going after him before anyone bothered to ask her if she ever let him know that she felt uncomfortable. Maybe that's why it took them a week to actually sit down with him and formally tell him about the grievance. Many aspects of our society really suck, you know?

I've tried hard to look at this thing from all angles, even hers. Maybe she's so immersed in our Culture of Youth that the sight and presence of a very old person creeps her out. Maybe the woman was abused by her grandfather, or something. If so, that's terrible, but isn't that the issue she should be dealing with? I really suspect that this is, at the core, all about her issues--why does she have the power to make it about him? The guy's 87. He's fragile, frail, and has trouble walking. He's almost a cartoon of the typical old guy. He wears his belt too high. He wears shirts that are out of style (probably got them on sale, and the old Depression mentality of his youth can't let him pass up a bargain). He's soft-spoken (maybe why she didn't hear him talking to her and he had to tap her on the shoulder). I doubt that he's had any sexual urges for 15+ years--it's totally ridiculous for anyone to think he could have been hitting on her. It seems that, in our institutional stampede to be viewed as politically correct in our behavior toward some people, we've totally abandoned the rights of others who are in less-favored groups. It's interesting that all five of the supervisory and HR people (that my sister saw at the meeting where he was officially informed of the grievance) were female, but at least one was on his side. My sister said that the only one of that group who actually knew him, and that she had tears in her eyes during that meeting. I'm sure that there are many people in his office, and on this forum, who are thinking, "God, that's a shame, but that's the world that we live in today!" I'm equally sure that there were people in Germany who had the same sort of thoughts when the National Socialists took control of that country. This guy is a decorated veteran of WWII and Korea. It can be unquestionably documented that he saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives during his military and civilian career. How one person can cause his career and his dignity to come to a crashing end by claiming that he made her feel "uncomfortable" by a courteous compliment and a non-sexual touch is beyond me. Is this the world that we are going to give to our sons? Sorry, but this is making me crazy. The same thing could happen to any of us.

My thoughts, exactly. I saw something about this on tv last night. He seemed a bit bizarre, although well-intentioned. The biggest pity was the apparenlty new GF who got sucked into it.

Thanks for the reply. One of my questions, though, is "zero tolerance" for what? For tapping someone on the shoulder? For saying something nice about someone else? These are hardly sexual acts, nor are they threatening. Have we shifted into some sort of weird 1950s mindset where males need to walk with their heads lowered and eyes averted from women? Can certain people now say, "That old guy makes me feel uncomfortable," and that's cause for the "offending" male to be hauled away? Thanks for your kind wishes for dad enjoying himself, but I predict he'll be dead before the end of the year. This has caused him to be depressed and has taken the joy away from his life. Being able to contribute to society in a meaningful way is largely what kept him going and alert for so long.

My lab goes nuts over any sort of seafood, especially crab. I used to have two greyhounds who would eat anything they could swallow. There was a grassy area where we'd walk them to do their business. One spring, after all the frozen poops had thawed and been washed with a heavy rain, the place looked like a museum display of twisted socks, Christmas tinsel, plastic wrappers, etc.

I need a reality check here, folks. The following is factual, and I'm dead serious about it all. My dad just turned in his resignation from a state agency, effective the end of this month. At age 87, he is currently the oldest state employee in that state. Following a career as a military officer, he "retired" in the early 1960s. Since then, he's contributed a heck of a lot to that state and to society as a whole. For his privacy, I'm not going into details, but trust me--his contributions were pretty substantial. It was undoubtedly time for him to retire, but he was still performing well at his job and he enjoyed the work that he has done for so long. Why did he retire, then? Recently some people visited his office, escorted him away, and sequestered him alone for most of the day in a room in another building. Then they took all of his credentials from him, telling him that he was to go home on administrative leave and wait for a call from them. He took them literally, and spent the following week, mostly alone, sitting next to the telephone all day. Why? A young woman, not someone he supervised, filed a grievance against him. She stated that he'd made her feel "uncomfortable" on two occasions. The first time, she had her back turned to him and he tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention, in order to hand her some paperwork. The second time, she came in to work wearing her hair in a different style than usual. He told her that it looked very nice. That's it. One of my siblings went with him to the meeting where they, after a week, finally presented the young woman's grievance to him and told him that they had to determine what to do about it. That was the "charge." Although he could probably go through a lengthy appeals process and be reinstated, the shame of all this made him choose to resign, rather than go back into that sort of environment. Besides, he says that he doesn't understand what he did that was wrong. He thought that he was just being courteous. How is it ok for them to humiliate him and treat him like a criminal because someone else felt "uncomfortable" that he complimented them and tapped them on the shoulder? I just don't get it, folks. Who's making up the rules here, and where does one find a list of the latest changes? Sorry to vent like this, but I really need to know -- does this really make sense to anyone?

Spring of 1970: Freefall prep jump course package, including 5 SL jumps and gear, $50 (with only one SL jump it was $35. SL jumps were $5 each.). First complete FF rig (7TU), with main, reserve (cotton twill), aircraft altimeter and stopwatch, $50. Hop & pops at 1,800 - 2,000 feet, $2. 12,500' for $7.50. New pair of "waffle stomper" boots, $18.00.

I think that I'm quoting her reply pretty near exactly when she was asked if she ever had a reserve parachute: "Oh, yes! I always had a reserve on the ground with me in case the one that I was jumping got torn or wet!"

Not long ago I spoke with an AN-2 pilot who was in the DC area. He said that he loved flying the plane, but that his (not used for jumpers) was a bit thirsty and it took forever to get to altitude with a load on it. He questioned whether they'd be practical for skydiving on a regular basis. Great cropduster in the Ukraine, though!

I think that the Funk shares that honor.

Not sure that I follow you.

The book is about the best resource on "Tiny" that's readily available, but a very few of the comments in it are not accurate. For example, it states that the Early Birds refused her membership for many years because she was a woman--hard to buy when one of the founders of that same organization was Katherine Stinson. I wouldn't try to take anything away from the incredibly brave "Tiny," but I believe that skypuppy is pretty much on the mark. Mr. Broadwicke (neither her father nor her husband) was the designer. Tiny just jumped 'em.

Yep. That's precisely what I was talking about--alternating colors on the gores.

And, in some cases (so I've been told) you get laid more often that way.