wartload

Here, HERE!! Now I'm just waiting for a reality show called, "Baps Out for CASH!" to hit the air!

Hey, Gary ... weren't you at ECU?

Why would they tell you anything different?

Yeah, but they SPELL it COD.

Hmm ... two smart-assed replies to that statement: Yeah ... I especially like the flowers that they sell on the side of roads in big cities. Yeah ... if you are under 5'10" and figure out that "flaring" a Mooney means pulling off the power when you are 4" above the runway.

Anti Wind Blast Handle -- Because there seems to be some interest, I took some pics of a "new" blast handle that's moving to Texas tomorrow. I'll post them here as big files, so that people can see details. They may take awhile to download... http://home.gwu.edu/~brobie/BH1.jpg http://home.gwu.edu/~brobie/BH2.jpg http://home.gwu.edu/~brobie/BH3.jpg http://home.gwu.edu/~brobie/BH4.jpg

How about, "teaching yourself to fly is like do-it-yourself brain surgery". I saw a man break his back when a gust of wind put him in the air after doing high speed taxing in an ultra light. He flew just a little before crashing. Exactly ... an instructor would have helped him to learn what the wind limitations of the plane and the beginning pilot were. People used to ask me if flight instruction was necessary for ultralights. My response was usually, "No, and neither are basic intelligence and good judgement--but all of those play a large role in learning to fly anything safely."

It's a shame that they article didn't mention that the restoration was done by students in the auto body program at Forsythe Technical Community College in NC. (The broadcast piece did mention that.) It was a truly classy thing for a group of young men and women to do for a kid who isn't all that much younger than they are.

Actually, the quote was adapted from something that Sir William Osler said -- about the time that the Wright Brothers were perfecting their flying machine. "The physician who doctors himself has a fool for a patient." Osler, a revered early member of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's staff, also said some pretty dumb things. He made an off-handed remark that it would be beneficial to society if elderly people in poor health would allow doctors to end their lives. For that, the press hounded him for years, for a time replacing a lifetime of incredible work with only the word, "Oslerization."

I stand humbly corrected. That serves me right for looking at the picture, instead of waiting until I got home and looked at the rig!

No. I don't think that they were fools, but I don't entirely agree with your premise, either. A fool does something that has great inherent risk without first availing themselves of all resources available to minimize, if not eliminate, those risks. The Wrights didn't just build a machine that they thought would fly and then launch it off a cliff. They studied all available resources, then refined (and corrected) the information accumulated by others who had achieved some degree of success before them. They tested models in a wind tunnel that they built. Finally, they tested the full-scale machine in clearly incremental stages -- kites, gliders, and powered airplane -- even finding a site where the effects of impact with the ground would be lessened before attempting manned flights. Curtiss (not Curtis) took the same incremental approach as part of Bell's AEA. So did Louis Bleriot and Alberto Santos-Dumont. Curtiss observed, and learned from, the mistakes of Selfridge, J.A.D. McCurdy, and others involved with building and flying the AEA machines. Doolittle's first "fog flying" demonstration, using nothing but instruments, was the product of many thousand human hours of development, experimentation, and simulation. The quotation inherently assumes that flight instructors are available. That was not the case for the Wrights, Bleriot, or Curtiss. It was the case for those others whom the Wrights, Curtiss, and Bleriot taught to fly--and all of us who have followed them.

Don't be redundant. (I'm not worried. How many Italians know what "redundant" means ... or have a dictionary?)

Yeah ... who the hell designed that, anyway?

Twardo - Whatcha looking for ... a blast handle? *** Yup... Send me a USPS mailing address. I've got a brand new one, with housing and 2-pin cord, that I'll send you. I'll figure out some sort of appropriate payment in the future. http://home.gwu.edu/~brobie/blast_handle3.jpg

Feeling that I've made a contribution to the world.

CONGRATULATIONS! Now ... go ahead and sell your gear while you can still get soething for it. Your lifestyle has officially changed for the next 19+ years!!

The Panthers have already pulled their bios from their website.

Congrats to your Mom ... and high praise for the folks at your DZ. That's how it should be everywhere!

Well ... maybe ... but it worked for me. I put quite a few jumps on the rig shown in the pics that I've posted. I'm still here.

Twardo - Whatcha looking for ... a blast handle?

Yep. Here are some better pics of the blast handle and reserve for you: http://home.gwu.edu/~brobie/blast_handle.jpg http://home.gwu.edu/~brobie/crossbow_reserve.jpg http://home.gwu.edu/~brobie/crossbow_reserve2.jpg Note that, in this installation, the housing was secured by a blue fabric sleeve placed about 1.5" above the point where the handle snapped into the metal housing. That 1.5" of remaining housing was then (think it was a later modification) secured by a band of elastic. That allowed the handle to still come out if it was pulled at an angle, but helped to keep it still in freefall.

The Wrights, Louis Bleriot, and Glenn Curtiss all developed flight schools, so that people would learn to fly their airplanes safely. Alberto Santos-DuMont was an open advocate of flight instruction and safety. I'm rather certain that all of them would have found your statement to be a bit foolish. Ever seen the figures on how many of those self-taught pioneer aviators died in plane crashes? Also, given the experience and total number of hours that Bob Livingston has in light aircraft, I also feel certain that all of the above gentlemen would find him to be a tremendous resource. If you want to talk about early American aviation and aviators, be prepared. I think that I can hang in there with you.

First of all, see if you can find a community college in your area that offers ground school. That's the grunt work involved in getting a license. Get that out of the way first, if someone offers it (community colleges are relatively inexpensive, too). Take that, pass the written, and then start flying...you'll have 2 years from the time you passed the written test. Have your cash, attitude, and commitment all ready to go when you start to fly. Try *very* hard to fly with your instructor 2-3 times a week. People who get in an hour every week or two lose most of what they'd learned between lessons. Don't waste time and money by stretching it out. On the other hand, don't try to fly every day. Have a day between lessons to think about what you did. "Fly" inside your head. Don't be afraid to get off by yourself, sit in a chair, and go through what you've been practicing in your mind. Close your eyes and imagine what everything looks like in the cockpit, etc. Go through the motions of a takeoff, landing, etc. This is FREE and any repetition helps you to remember how to do it when you are on the clock with your instructor. Don't get frustrated. Just about the time that you figure you'll NEVER get it right, and everything seems to be going to shit in your landings, you'll have that epiphone that makes it all come together. Have fun...even when your palms are dripping sweat.

This topic's been pretty well hashed over, but I thought that I'd add two pics: http://home.gwu.edu/~brobie/jeeziz_string.jpg http://home.gwu.edu/~brobie/jeeziz_string2.jpg This particular modification was put on one of the first piggyback rigs ever manufactured, so it might be close to the original "Jesus String." Note that the reserve container is still very much like the front-mounted reserve containers--and they'd sometimes stay closed when the ripcord was pulled all the way out (one standard procedure was to pull the ripcord and punch the container). Since this one was on the back, and most people can't reach that far back, the cord was intended to be pulled in case the container stuck on the cones. Or, as one guy put it, "It may not actually help you, but it at least will give you something to f*** around with while you're waiting for the ground to smack you."

I find it highly disturbing that anyone here knows all the lyrics to that song.