Zennie

Thanks for the info greg & shark. My condolences to you Elsinore folks. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I agree with you. It's not something I particularly like doing so I try to avoid it. In any event I've been presented with that situation and that was my thinking. In retrospect, the smarter move may have been to dump above the deck (doing a quick look above first). It's a little harder on n-ways when the breakoff altitude winds up at the haze level. Do you break from the group early or take it in (no grim pun intended) with them? In any event. As soon as I find a clear spot below the deck, I front riser it like a mofo to get down below the deployment range. That's just a bad situation that's best avoided. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Some states are prohibiting drivers talking on cell phones. A better solution is for people to use those "no-hands" headsets. I've used them & they're great. Granted, I prolly look pretty weird talking to no one in particular. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hrm. Tough call. I don't know if this is unsafe or not, but I've taken it about 500 feet lower than my "advertised" deployment altitude when I've encountered that situation. I figured it might be enough to bring me beneath the deck but not too much that I risked smacking into someone below me. Just one question for your, er her, fellow jumper. If she and (presumably) he were both in industrial haze, how could he see her? If he saw her entering it, how did he know she didn't have an off-heading opening? I've dumped above the cloud, er, haze, deck when I was the last one out. Just made sure not to do any radical canopy moves going through. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

This is the first I've heard of this. But I'd be interested in finding out the context that it was made in. I'm a big supporter of environmental regulations because there is absolutely 0 economic incentive to minimize impacts on the environment. But regulations, just like anything else, can be taken way too far. If he's saying that the environment should always take a backseat to the economy, I agree that's just asinine. If he was talking about regulations that have a minimal impact on cleaning up the environment but major impacts on the economy, I'd agree with him. As far as the environmental impacts of Otters vs SUVs, I think the Otters really are a proverbial drop in the bucket. I mean, we have 3 Super Otters flying in the Houston area, as opposed to 10s of thousands of SUVs. I seriously doubt that tha smog that I have to deal with every morning on my drive to work is caused by skydiving. I know this is kind of cynical, but we can't destroy the earth or life on it. No matter what we do (short of driving the planet into the Sun), something will come back & thrive. Life works that way. Still, if we as a species are to stupid to realize that we're killing ourselves, then maybe we deserve to go the way of the dinosaurs. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Yep. But wait, it gets better (or worse I suppose). My wife & I were watching Howard Stern last night (yes he gets old after a while, but they were having fun with a polygraph machine last night so we tuned in ) and right after the "Girls Gone Wild" TV promo, they promoted a new video -- "Backyard Wrestling". And it's just what it sounds like. A bunch of rubes jumping off of roofs, trampolines, TV antennas onto guys laying on fold-out tables and filming it. What's the last thing you hear a stupid redneck say? "Hey y'all, watch this." ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

This is the real trick. If we could get some folks in the media to come to the DZ and do a jump, I think it would go along way toward clearing up misconceptions about our sport. I've always said most negative opinions can be eliminated with knowledge and understanding. I've thought about suggesting to our DZO to get a radio station van or a local TV crew to come out and do a jump and report on the experience. I think other DZs have done this with very positive results. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Besides calibrating on the ground, I usually try to verify my alti on the ride up when my audible gives its 1000 foot warning. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Or even worse, a BMW SUV. Arrgh! How could they do that? What's next? A Ferrari SUV? The stupid thing is they're making these things so big that you can't even get one in a standard garage anymore. Or if you can, you can't get a second vehicle larger than a motorcycle in the second space. I suppose it won't be long before we see the unveiling of the Ford Behemoth or Chevy Leviathan. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Welp. I'm doing my part. I purchase my gasoline from the Texaco just down the street.

So what do I post right on the heels of a media-bashing tirade? A news article! Ah, sweet irony. But I just had to share this with y'all... Much as I'd like to go into space, I don't think I'd use this approach. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Well, Frank & I have managed to get in yet another debate. That's alright, it keeps life interesting. I figured we might as well get it out of that thread, because our argument really doesn't belong there. So reporters are pressured to get the "story" out often at the expense of the truth -- just as lawyers are pressured win cases at the expense of the truth. Does that make it right? Who's fault is it? Ultimately, it's ourselves for wanting information, any information, NOW -- regardless of its accuracy. Media outfits are just giving us what we want. But it often results in a "ready, fire, aim" syndrome. There's plenty of blame to go around, but it still doesn't make me any more inclined to trust what's reported. If anything, the "deadline pressure" argument makes me less so. I got out of law because I was disgusted with the rationalization that went on in supporting utterly indefensible positions. Reporting something, anything in the name of "deadline pressure" is equally indefensible (as is our lust for information, regardless of its accuracy). ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Just so we're straight on this. You'd call "His parachute failed to open" responsible or even remotely accurate reporting? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Ex-lawyer. I was unwilling to sacrifice that little thing called a conscience. You wanna really see me go on a rant? Get me going on my old "profession". ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie Edited by Zennie on 5/7/01 12:17 PM.

My condolences to the jumper's family & friends. Blue skies forever dude. [rant] "His parachute failed to open", while technically correct, is so vague as to be misleading. Which parachute? His main? No, not from initial reports. His reserve? Yes. But why? Cutaway with low/no reserve pull? Total reserve malfunction? Dunno yet. This is precisely the reason why I don't believe anything reported by the newsmedia anymore. They either edit content to create a more sensational "news" item (i.e. news as entertainment) or they are simply too lazy to get (or print) the whole story. Either way, it's irresponsible. It's bad enough that DZ staff have to deal with a fatality. Now it looks like we need to immediately assemble a media mis-information task force. Arrgh! [/rant] ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Nice pics (your too skreamer!). That's the second batch of photos I've seen with that CASA. That's the coolest paint job I've ever seen. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hey skreamer, like you I had been doing a fair number of solo jumps. What I've found is that if you really want to do RW, this may not be a great idea. Sure it means you may have to endure some frustration as you learn, but the problem with solos is that you have no frame of reference. I have a bit of a tendency to backslide (video shows my legs are fine, but my arms are out a little much). Plus you can't work on relative fall rates. So lately I've be scaring up anybody else I can find to jump with me. It doesn't have to be anything special. Hell you can play patty-cakes. But if you fall with someone else, you'll work through some bad habits. I personally like doing two-ways undocked and practicing chasing. Then we hook up and just alternate side-by-sides to about 4500. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Well I'm hump loaded 1:1 for this weekend. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

You weigh ~105? Dang dude, ya gotta stop eating that hummus & falafel. Come by Texas and have a nice big steak or two. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

We get about 2-3 good swoops every load at our DZ (i.e. the camera guys & a couple of instructors). What I'd like to see is a curriculum in canopy flying. Start with the basics & work up to the more advanced stuff. We have curricula for everything else... belly flying, freeflying, skysurfing, but nothing that I've seen on canopy flying skills. Anyone know of anything like that? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I'm looking all over the place for a video of a cutaway gone bad. The guy has a mal (broken lines I think) on his main. You see him wave & say "Bye bye" and he cuts away..... into a lineover on his reserve chute! He fights it and gets it cleared right before he reaches the ground. When he's down. He turns the camera to himself and goes: "Holy....fucking.... shit! I'm done for the day." Both funny and terrifying at the same time. Is it on a particular video or downloadable somewhere? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

CHOPPER - Does Ray still jump out there? He helped me out in the wind-tunnel big-time. Tell him Zennie sez "Hi". I'm gonna make it down & jump with those guys one of these days. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Here it is. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

This really sucks. Last weekend was the first decent weather in ages and where was I? Doing relative work. OK. I got 2 in on Saturday morning, but still. Now it's gonna be crappy again. And, of course, as it always does, the weather will be beautiful Monday - Friday. Ugh. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

One of these days I'm gonna take an airsickness bag, fill it with oatmeal and hide it in my jumpsuit. I'll fidget around for a while and then about halfway up go "Oh, Gawd I think... I'm... gonna... be...... SIIIIICCCKKKK!" as I whip out bag and make horrible barfing sounds. Then I'll say, "Hey man, can ya hold this a sec?" and hand it to the student. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie