Zing

During five years as a mild-mannered reporter for a metropolitan newspaper, I did a fair bit of editing. What do you have? Zing Lurks

I saw a report, with video, of an Asian-appearing person in custody, on the ground in handcuffs. It was later reported that the person was a reporter/cameraman who got a bit uppity with a cop while LEOs were getting ready to enter the hall where the second shootings occured. Zing Lurks

In a word ... yes. Zing Lurks

Lekstrom, do you remember Clayton troutner's dz ... MSUSPCDZ at Charlotte? Sixteen ways with two camera jumpers out of the Cessna 182, Cessna 180 and the DC-206? The good ole days. Zing Lurks

Yeah, Roger, we've likely met before. You probably knew my brother Perry ... he ran the Z'hills Jump Shack back in the late 70s, early 80s. Zing Lurks

Sky-Hi Pioneers Zing Lurks

I have some vague memories of an all brothers leap at Z'hills back in 74 or 75 during a turkey boogie. I think there were 11 of us, four pairs of brothers and one trio. I think we got a 9-way out of it with one low and one on wrists when the star broke. I've been looking for the old logbooks from back when, but haven't located them yet. Seems like BJ Worth and his brother were on the load. We didn't all jump together, but I was on a couple of all-family Cessna loads where we tossed out my dad and another sibling on static lines, then went up to 7,500 feet for a two way with my brother Perry. Six from my family made some jumps. Zing Lurks

Guess that there lawyer type must think of that as water-cooled ... Zing Lurks

That's a Cessna 195. In its day, it was a Cadillac of the general aviation fleet and a classic today. Note that the designer placed the nose wheel on the correct end of the airplane ... where it belongs. Zing Lurks

There goes another piece of jumping's history. You never knew what was going to happen when the Latins came to the dz ... but there was always fun to be had. Zing Lurks

Anne Margaret in the movie Slaughterhouse Five, Ursula Andress undressed in every movie she did ... and what's the name of the movie star who claims she taught Elvis Presley to eat pussy. If yer gonna dream ... dream big. There is no point in settling for small disappointments. Zing Lurks

Those systems have been around for years as after-market add-ons. Theyt used to be popular in the frozen north lands. Ten minutes before leaving work on a frigid day you'd walk over to a window where you could see your car from, hit the button on the keychain fob, and by the time you left work your car was all warmed up and toasty for the drive home. I had an old Dodge mid-60s station wagon that had one installed. Zing Lurks

Skydancing is not a "stuff," its a state of mind. Zing Lurks

Hence arose the legend of the "Codflicker." Zing Lurks

So ... is this is why Michigan wants to buy iPods for all the high school students? Might just as well buy them all Zippo lighters for Hell Night too. Zing Lurks

What? Do you get extra credit if you're crater has more battery-operated fallible devices in it? Calibrate your eyeballs. Zing Lurks

I remember seeing photos of J. Scott Hamilton flying on a tether as he was reeled into the C-130. With the agreement of the pilot, I put together a 100-foot long tether with a Capewell release on the end and "flew" at the end of it from a Cessna 182 a couple times back in about 1972-73. I'd just cutaway from the lanyard and open my ParaCommander after a short freefall, and the pilot would reel the line back into the airplane on his way down. I think we quit doing it because the static line attach point on the floor of the airplane wasn't quite strong enough for the load and the ring the static lines and the tether attached to bent out of round. It was a fun thing to do, and you really could "fly" relative to the airplane, depending on the airspeed. I found that at 100 knots, more or less, you could "flost" up to almost level with the airplane, and dive down to a low trail position. The pilot told me that he could feel it when I would try going side-to-side behind the airplane. I could also get spinning so fast on the end of the rope that it would make me dizzy ... but I've been like that most all my life. Zing Lurks

"No Shit...There I was...fumbling frantically for the right page in the "Night Demos for Dummies" book.... " Well, hell, Twardo ... there's yer problem right there. Ya shoulda been referring the the "Night PYRO Demos for Dummies." Sheesh ... I think you can order order a copy out of the ParaDeath Sport Skydieing Catalog ... it even comes with a handy-dandy "Compute Your Team's Frappe Factor" calculator. Zing Lurks

Many years ago there was a bounce at a small dropzone I was involved with. Without asking if we'd agree, another skydiver "volunteered" six of us to serve as pallbearers. Everything went well getting in and out of the church with the casket, but the dead guy's family was clearly not impressed with the dead guy's friends, and none of us had ever met any of these relatives before the funeral. Duting the 30-minute drive to the cemetary, toasts were drunk, attitudes were adjusted, and we made it to the burial ground just a few minutes late. As the funeral director opened the back of the hearse, we all looked up the steep, grassy slope with a lot of rocks hiding in the undergrowth at a crowd of the dead guy's disapproving relatives sitting in their chairs next to the gravesite ... watching us like a bunch of buzzards. The dead guy was a veteran, so his casket was draped with an American flag, but the since it was windy, the funeral director had neglected to bring the elastic strap they normally used to keep the flag from blowing off. "You'll just have to hold the flag with one hand and carry the coffin with other hand," says the funeral director. We picked the casket up and one of the skydivers up front accuses the funeral director of loading the box up with extra weight. That sucker was REALLY heavy! We start up the hill, about a 50 yard hike from the road, and nearly lose the flag a time or two, but we're maintaining a semblance of dignity ... until a guy at the front tripped on a rock, lost his balance, but held on to the coffin. It was like watching dominos fall from where I stood, and there was an audible "thump" as the carcass shifted inside the box, and four of the six us fell to the ground and we dropped the casket, which of course, decided to start sliding back down the hill. The only thing right we managed to do was that we kept the flag from blowing away and touching the ground. The dead guy's relatives weren't impressed. We, the pallbearers, chose not to attend the reception at the dead guy's parent's farm after the service. Zing Lurks

Sounds like another satisfied customer who shopped the Para-Death Sky-dieing gear catalog. Solid-state altimeter ... no moving parts ... always reads 2 grand ... never be accused of a low pull again! Zing Lurks

Me too, Walt. Sold dozens of Racers in years gone by and I'm still jumping one ... on the odd occasions when I make a leap. Zing Lurks

As long as its being brought up, it should be mentioned that the struggle, struggle, thud came about after the reserve ripcord housing on a few rigs (and more of them were bootleg copies than true SSTs) were incorrectly tacked down at the top of the reserve container. When the ripcord was pulled on, the housing made a 90 degree angle to the ripcord's cable and the 90 was just above the top pin ... nearly impossible to pull. From what I remember, there was one bounce on an SST, two on Sod Farm copies and one incident where a guy managed to pull hard enough to tear the ripcord loose from the tacking and the reserve opened. It had nothing to do with the pull-out main pilot chutes that came out when the original SST was redesigned and designated the SST Racer. Besides, everybody knows that SST actually stands for Sherman's Still Trying! Zing Lurks

The hokie-pokie IS what its all about! Zing Lurks

If you watch enough of the WKRP shows, Johhny Fever often wore "Black Death" t-shirts on the show. He even had a Black Death poster up in the broadcast booth for a while, but that was for a band with that name. Zing Lurks

Look for a black ghost, a white ghost and a chocolate ghost. Inexpensive for a 3 to 4 inch size fish, but in a 30-gal tank, they will grow to 10-plus inches. Zing Lurks