Zing

"How the hell did we survive!" I don't know, but there's still a few of out here that jumped with both the Nelson boy's. About two years ago, I started playing in the big blow job at Elroy, but I didn't like the Pro-tec helmets they used and they wouldn't let me wear my old frappe hat, so I toodled over to Square One and bought this beat-up purple hard hat like the free flailers use. I didn't think I'd need the audible altimeter bracket on the side of the helmet, so I took it off. Underneath was a sticker proclaiming the helmet was the property of Freak Brother #2. I figured that helmet would be okay. Zing Lurks

I did not have sex with that woman! Zing Lurks

From the Para-Death Black Death Products catalog, circa "The Guy Manos Nightmare At Ghoulidge," 1989. Other products featured were Levelidity Goggles, and Bench Goggles, aka sunglasses. Zing Lurks

My first hand-deploy rig was an original SST with shot-and-a-half Capewells, converted from a ripcord set-up. The pouch for the pilot chute was sewn to the back of the mainlift web. There were a lot of home-made hand-deploy set ups during the transition from ripcords to hand-deploy deployemnt systems. Zing Lurks

The problem with killing people is, once you start, it's hard to know when to quit! Zing Lurks

Teach him new ones? He already knows all of them! Zing Lurks

Ultimately, it came to describe any rig with a front-mounted reserve. Previously, it meant the military surplus rigs, usually sage or OD green, that were modified with low mounted D-rings installed for the reserve, as opposed to the (at the time) spiffy sport rigs with high-mounted D-rings. A hard opening on those low-mounted D-rings could, and did, bounce one's heels off the back of their helmet. The high-mounted D-rings were much less punishing to the body. Zing Lurks

Does anybody have the list of the types of rigs supplied to DB Cooper? Name the rigs and/or types of gear, and pictures of the rigs are easy to locate. Zing Lurks

Well hell, looks like lines and mirrors are making a comeback in skydiving again. Zing Lurks

I'd forgotten about the plane wreck down there. Years ago some of the Flagpole Crazies did a skydive out of an airplane into the crater, and there was a time when unauthorized flights dipped below the rim, but that was long ago. Zing Lurks

Hell, I thought he bought one of those teletubbies. Zing Lurks

Didja happen to see a flying squirrel? Zing Lurks

A PT-6 is a pretty good motor, but like anything mechanical, they will fail on occasion. Let's see, I've had engine failure(s) while flying jump planes on Lycoming, Continental, Wright, Pratt & Whitneys (both radial and turbine), Garretts and Rotax engines. I can't think of but a couple other engine manufacturers out there commonly used in the USA, but the point is, AIN"T NONE OF THEM SAFE ALWAYS! I would like to see one of those Kodiak's up close and take it around the patch a few times. Zing Lurks

I'm just an old usedtawas, and I don't even jump much lately, but when the issue of "dedicating" yourself to one discipline arises, I've found this to be an excellant reply. "I can flail like an expert on any axis!" ... and there's no reason why any jumper can't learn to do it too, if they want to. Y'know ... maybe expand your horizons a bit. I always thought skydiving had a little something to do with that freedom thing, not restrictions ... With challenging oneself, not submitting to the status quo of some transient clique ... and because I just can't stop the smile jumping always puts on my face, whether its a bigway celestial whirly-swirly with the pros or a total garbage load with Team Flail that's only success is that we did jump out and we did land, but that dirt-diving thing must have been for a different load. Its about doing what's fun for you. Zing Lurks

I didn't recall the dimensions, but its a HUGE hole in the mountain. Zing Lurks

I've been thinking that NASA ought to install a couple mini SCRAM jets on Yves' turbojet wing and haul him up 60 miles and see how far he can make it cross country. Zing Lurks

There is an old copper mine just south of Salt Lake City that is comparable in size. Years ago, aircraft used to take unauthorized aerial tours of the pit. I was down in it once with a J3 Cub and it was big enough to do a loop inside the pit with only the very top of the manuever going above the rim. The pit is a series of stairsteps down to the bottom with nothing high enough to jump from. A local helicopter company taking a newly-wed couple on a flight went down in the pit after snagging a power line, killing all on board and after that, all flights near the pit were prohibited. Zing Lurks

There is a thing called a Koch fitting that was used on military style parachute risers. It attached the riser to the harness, was a machined metal fitting with ridges on the slide that activated the riser release. The only thing missing is the chain, but I don't see why a Koch fitting couldn't be attached to a chain. I don't have a picture of one, or access to one of those fittings anymore, but maybe someone here does. Zing Lurks

If you're going to be a lawyer, you ought to know the answer to that by now. Zing Lurks

Found an old shot of Nite Cap #3 and #4 back when Carl was keeping the numbers. It was the second time we did it and the only one of three I did there in daylight. Zing Lurks

I've got a bunch of family who have jumped. Me and one brother did it a bunch, two other brothers, two sisters and my dad did a few jumps each and I've a few nieces and nephews who want to make a leap someday. In days gone by, the bunch of us did a few all family Cessna loads. I watched my brother bounce and live with broken bones. I bounced and lived once, so far, and there was a close call when my brother and a team mate did a harness-hold leap with my sister that ended with her open at about 500 feet and my brother open under 100 feet. I wasn't there when that happened, but I'll never forget a neighbor of my dad's who was, telling me the story, which ended with this line, "Well, I was standing there watching them get closer and closer ... and wondering how I was going to tell your dad that two of his kids died." The neighbor was a fine man upon whom it fell the chore of telling my father that his wife, our mom, was dead, from non-skydiving circumstances just a year or two before that jump. A year later, I had to do some real sniveling to get the same pilot to fly me and my brother for a leap into my dad's backyard. I believe one can devote so much effort to avoiding death and danger, that you'll never get to live. Zing Lurks

The Canon City photo looks more like a staff photo than an inmate mug shot. Any chance Duane had some kind of professional association with the prison other than as a guest of the government? Zing Lurks

Well, you can hire a plane and fuck your brains out in the back with a partner, but it won't make you a member of the Mile High Club. In order to qualify for membership, the potential candidate is required to commit a sex act with the pilot in command of the aircraft. Anything less is merely airborne fucking. Zing Lurks

Y'know Shell, I thought you had an exotic taste to you, but I wasn't sure what it was til now. Zing Lurks

From experience tossing a few of those out of a twin beech, the parachute need a lot of rerigging to work. Zing Lurks