wartload

Jerry - I remember jumping a student rig (because it was packed, I'd just jumped my rig, and a load was about to leave) that had an orange & white striped main in it. My recollection was that it was an FS-F1 (or some such) and had been designed for Forestry Dept. smoke jumpers. It was slow, docile, and landed mighty soft. Does that sound familiar to you?

When I saw that, I wondered just how badly that canopy could have actually been ripped. They were indeed tough, and the pics don't make that one look too dogged out. And how many of you would have cut away a cheap-o just because of one blown panel, especially if it was low on the canopy? I think that I saw a total of two former-military canopies blow panels. Both were very tired T-10s that pretty heavy guys were using for cheap freefall mains.

I have very little choice in the matter. There aren't many people older than me!

Who called?

Not me! In person, I'm a rich, young Adonis - not the old, bald, fat guy that I pretend to be here!

Vibes for Omar! We had two greyhounds in past years. We lost one to cancer and the other made a dash for the outside and couldn't outrun a car. Just was out at their graves today, planting dogwoods. Here's hoping that Omar's surgery not only cures all his ills, but also magically solves the notorious greyhound problem of farts that could peel the paint off the walls.

Trivial point, but I think that the original organization was actually called the National Parachute Jumpers Association (NPJA), and that evolved into the National Parachute Jumpers and Riggers (NPJR) association (sometimes listed as (NPJRA), and THAT became the PCA -- all under Joe Crane.

The FAI (Federation Aeronautique Internationale) is an international organization that is represented by various "arms" in different countries. In the US, it's the NAA (National Aeronautic Association), under whose umbrella the USPA falls. In order for a record to be homologated, the local arm of the FAI must be involved. The would-be record setter must make a declaration of the attempt, and FAI (NAA in the US) certified judges must be present to witness the event. In cases involving altitude attempts, sealed recording barometric devices need to be in the aircraft. These are unsealed and read by FAI (NAA) certified officials after the attempt has been made. With all these requirements, there are several explanations why any record, or record attempt, might be listed as "unofficial."

I'm not appearing either. They quit just before my SCR 4820. That puts me in the gap, too. May I join you, Wendy? I'll let you see my gap if you let me see yours.

Yep ... and she may have a pretty good sense that he's creepin' on her, but not sure with whom. That makes virtually every woman they come into contact with a source of paranoia ... and they apparently come into contact with you a lot.

Lighten up, Rhonda. Some of us take the opposite approach--maybe a good laugh will produce an orgasm.

Yes. My dad didn't use the shaving mug of soap (with a shaving brush, no less, to create lather) that mom gave him, so she used it to cure me of saying "dirty" words like "shut up." (Seriously!) I'll have to admit that I did have a flashback to those experiences the first time that I performed oral sex on a girlfriend in the shower. Did it cure me of cursing? Of course not. But it did cure me of ever wanting to buy anything that said "Old Spice" on it. My grandmother, on the other hand, had a far more civilized approach to dealing with little boys who said naughty words. When she caught me doing that one day, she very calmly and sweetly looked me in the eye and told me, "Son, if you can't open your mouth without saying something profane, please just keep your fucking mouth shut!"

Since I can't be creative, I'll give a history lesson to you culturally-insensitive people. The term "Rigger," although long in use, is actually highly offensive and derogatory. For a short while, whuffos tried to make that word sound more acceptable by referring to persons of the rigging persuasion as "Rigroes," but that was yet more offensive to us. We traditionally prefer to be called, "Packs," but "Stuffer-Americans" has gained some ground in recent years.

How'd it taste? Creamy? Did the bull smoke a cigarette afterwards?

Flubadub, Clarabelle, Nellie Belle (Pat Brady's jeep), Hopalong, Gabby, Kukla-Fran-&-Ollie, Mr. Peepers, I Remember Momma, Life of Riley, Bob Cummings (US Flight Instructor license #1, BTW) ... can I get into the treehouse?

There are two ways of looking at this. The first is that she was having an orgasm and laughing is the way that she emotionally releases the built-up sexual tension. The other involves her saying something like: "Uh ... yeah, babe ... No, really. I was cumming. You really did it for me! (*giggle*) You're the best ... no kidding! (*snicker*) No... honest ... I meant that sincerely!! (*GUFFAW*) The way that you kept going and going like that ... all at the same speed ... and for nearly three minutes ... no ... WAIT!! (*howl!!!*) I'm serious...!!!!! (*CHORTLE!!!!*)

I have no idea why this memory popped into my head, but did anyone else ever pack additonal "stuff" into their canopy ... just to get a reaction? I remember dumping the contents of two cans of baby powder in between the panels of my PC, hoping to get an impressive "cloud" on opening. (There was cloud, but not as impressive as I'd hoped for.) So ... next came lots of long strips of toilet paper. THAT showed up better. I did it at a demo and got chewed out a bit because some of the wuffos though my parachute "done blowed up."

Thanks for posting the ads -- especially number 8 because it mentions the use of pongee silk for parachutes. That's the origin of what we currently call "bungee cords." The words are pronounced almost the same.

It must have been fun jumping when you started, Pop ... seeing as how God didn't invent clouds until several years later.

I want to add one observation to that, and I won't try to claim that my opinion is humble. If you want to label this "sexist," go ahead and do so--but it probably means that you weren't there at that time. The early sport gear was modified from military gear. The military gear was designed for average American males who were in above average physical condition and were larger than the average American female. A "normal" pull on a pin and cone rig was best executed as almost a punching jab. Hard pulls were fairly common, especially if you tried to pull the ripcord in a slow, fluid, motion. The typical average American female of that era differed from young women of today in a number of ways. Two of those, most relevant to this posting, were: They didn't tend to participate as much in contact sports that required strength training as they do now (indeed, "masculine" muscle development wasn't encouraged of daughters...that was too "tomboyish"). It was then considered "feminine" for the average American woman to react to an unusual circumstance by shrieking and cowering. Let's say, a mouse showed up on the floor...American women were taught that they were supposed to yell "Eek!" and jump up onto a chair (whereas Russian women back then would probably say, "Dah!" and stomp Minnie's guts out--I loved the difference in personalities of the first female Russian skydivers that I met). I used to hate to see a petite girly-girl show up at the DZ with her boyfriend trying to talk her into doing something that she didn't really want to do. (I would have felt the same way if it had been a tiny male who was clearly afraid of the idea of jumping, but I never saw that sort of male show up at a DZ back then.) Some of the instructors clearly felt the same way and would try to discourage women of that sort from jumping. It wasn't a sexist thing. It was looking out for that person. If the female was relatively strong, self-motivated to make the jump, and big enough that she wasn't falling out of the harness ... no problem. If we had data on early female fatalities, especially ones where it appeared that no main was deployed or there was a malfunctioned main with no cutaway or with no reserve deployed, I'd be willing to bet that the majority would have one or more of the following traits: small build, jumped because someone else talked them into it, and/or had a passive sort of personality. "Women" in skydiving weren't dangerous back then, but I feel that certain types/sizes of women were at a substantially higher risk than men were, primarily because the military gear wasn't designed for them.

Thanks. After seeing people speculating how the method that I used for years either didn't work, or was likely to cause broken limbs (or both), it's nice to see you confirm that it was standard practice. I'm sure that I learned it from one of the early style & accuracy competition types...and didn't break anything because of PC flares.

When my wife and I were first married, the occasional no-tact individual would say to me, "You must be TWICE her age!!!" I enjoyed telling them that it would be four more years before that happened. Age differences in couples is only a big deal to other people. And no ... I'm not rich.

Why would you worry about that. So long as you don't make the sport look bad, nobody here would care about much else.

Yep, but profs are also supposed to cite their sources.

I've still got two pair of "Frenchies," or, "Waffle Stomper" paraboots. At some point I quit wearing them for PC jumps, unless I was carrying a smoke bracket on my foot. For landings where I'd either be in the peas or on fairly level grass, I felt that I had more control of how my feet were placed with tennis shoes than boots...sort of like a sports car not doing as well in a collision as an SUV, but maybe more likely to be able to swerve away from a collision than an SUV, I guess. In order to truly say whether or not a PC could be "flared," I guess that depends on how you define that term. We used to refer to "flaring" as a method of landing cheapos and PCs. My own PC was a short-lined Mk 1, and I weighed between 170 and 185 lbs when I was jumping it. Before that, I had a 28' with a 7TU mod. I jumped them both the same way. If I was making a stable and straight approach to the the point of landing, I'd pull the toggles as far down as I could reach, just a few feet before contact. If I timed it right, the canopy would be just about to stall when my feet hit the ground. That would reduce the forward speed-over-ground of the canopy. If the wind was around 5-7 mph, that sort of landing was fairly gentle. Nearly all of my landings, starting with my first jump off static line, were standups. "Flaring" the canopy would also swing my legs forward a bit, putting my feet at a better angle to hit the ground with a little forward drive (unless the grass was wet or there was a fresh cowpie there). I tried the pull-down-on-the-back-risers technique on cheapos a few times, and on the PC once, in a high-wind landing. I remember thinking at the time that it didn't really make much difference, but stalling the canopy did. In case of an anticipated hard landing I guess that it did put your arms into a better position for a PLF, though, than having your hands down by your sides.