Zing

Hey, don't forget about the magic lizard ... after all, what's a cult without a mascot? Zing Lurks

It was all done with lines and mirrors. Zing Lurks

I used to have a lot of fun doing similar things with the porter at ghouldge. Fun airplane to fly. Zing Lurks

" ... the canopy posted by pchapman, the square with the cutout in the back." Hey Howard, I'm drawing a complete blank on that one too. From the looks of it though, it appears to be some type of accuracy canopy with the stabilizer panels, the exaggerated "flares" on the bottom skin and the multiple vents. I'd wager there weren't many of them made. Zing Lurks

Zing!! Damn, and all this time I thought i was agnostic! Zing Lurks

First Rush, now Rehnquist ?????? Looking at the dates in the story, it appears to me it was Rehnquist first, then Limbaugh, but then, you're no stickler for detail, eh? Zing Lurks

Oh well ... never mind ... Charges dropped against girl who wet her pants Special ed student, 12, was hit with disorderly conduct charge for discharge DANVILLE, Pa. - Authorities are dropping a disorderly conduct charge against a 12-year-old special education student who they accused of deliberately wetting her pants at school. Superintendent Steve Keifer said Thursday that it was a mistake to bring police into a case of school discipline. “I think the situation was one where the parents and school officials were frustrated, and that’s why it was done,” Keifer said. “At the same time, it was probably not a good idea.” The mother said the girl urinated only because the principal frightened her. The mother said in Thursday’s Press Enterprise that the incident occurred last month, after the girl, classmates and teachers ate a holiday lunch at Danville Middle School. The girl was told to go to the kitchen to wash some pots and pans, but refused, and wet her pants after teachers summoned the principal, the mother said. The newspaper withheld the names of the girl and her mother. Police Chief Eric Gill had said school officials were at “wit’s end” with the girl, and that they believe her actions were deliberate. District Attorney Robert Buehner spoke with Keifer and Gill on Thursday and decided to drop the disorderly conduct charge. Buehner said, “it makes better sense to just let the school district handle it with the child and parents.” © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Zing Lurks

It's a can of worms that should have been opened a long time ago. Zing Lurks

No doubt there is more to this story than what appears in the article, but??? Good thing the principle didn't scare the shit out of the kid ... "school officials" might be calling for an execution. Jan 4, 2007 2:48 pm US/Eastern Young Girl Facing Charges After Wetting Pants (AP) DANVILLE, Pa. A 12-year-old special education student in Montour County was charged with disorderly conduct after authorities said she deliberately wet her pants at school. Her mother told the Press Enterprise it happened because her daughter was frightened by the principal. The girl had been preparing a holiday lunch with her classmates and teachers at Danville Middle School on December 20th. Her mother said when her daughter refused to go to the kitchen to wash some pots and pans, teachers summoned principal Kevin Duckwork, who confronted the girl. She then wet her pants. Her mother said the girl is terrified of Duckwork and has wet herself during previous confrontations with him. But Danville Police Chief Eric Gill said school officials are at their “wit’s end” with the girl, and they believe her actions were deliberate. (© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ) Zing Lurks

In the words of skdiver Joe Park, circa 1972 ... "yer dead until you pull!" Zing Lurks

After watching the intros to The Bionic Man and The Bionic Woman ... one might conclude that this here aviating and jumping out of them flying machines might be ... um ... dangerous, or something. Zing Lurks

Looking at the foil, I'd guess it is a Para-Sled, because of the split tail. Can't tell for sure on the cheapo, but a lot of 24-flat canopies had that candy-stripe design, but so did a lot of 28' cheapos. The square in the photo, with the bottom skin "vents," looks like a Strato-Cloud ... the upgraded version of the Paraplane made out of lighter materials. Howard, I almost bought a combo scanner, copier, printer machine today, but held off to get a little advice on what brand model to buy from one of my more technically inclinded friends. I've got some stuff it would be fun to scan and put up here. Zing Lurks

That one, a Twin Beech converted into the Hamilton Westwind III was my favorite jump plane to fly. At Coolidge, when the Air Farce was still doing training flights for T-37 pilots, the regular Twin Beechs and DC-3s were often "targeted" by the instructors for mock gun passes. The tables were turned when we got 711DN. It couldn't match a T-37's speed, but it was fast enough to catch one if you spotted it below you after dropping jumpers. I'll never forget the look on the pilots' faces looking out the top of the tweety bird's canopy the time I came over the top of them inverted ... just like they'd done to me numerous times previously. Zing Lurks

I stand corrected, sir. You are correct. I have all sorts of wierd facts and such stored in the old brain cell, but occasionally I get some things confused ... more often nowadays than in the past. Zing Lurks

I won't spoil this one, Howard, but i distinctly recall that this main (also a reserve) was advertised to have landings that are "Firm, but not bonecrushing." Zing Lurks

Well, that'd be Nate Pond jumping the Vortex Ring parachute. I believe it was designrd by the same guy who built the Barish Wing Sail. I did some drop tests for scaled down versions of the ring sail that were meant to be used to drop flares and other observation equipment. And he's jumping into Long Island Sound off New London, Conn. Zing Lurks

Lets see ... which airplanes have I flown jumpers in that had bodies or canopies hit the tail, um ... DC-3, Twin Beech, Cessna 182, Cessna 206, Cessna Caravan, King Air, Queen Air, Pilatus Porter, DHC-6 Twin Otter ... that I recall off the top of my head. While one or two of those airplanes are built like the proverbial brick shithouse, most airframes are little more than glorified beer cans. Its foolhardy to fly jumpers without an emergency rig that is correctly buckled on and adjusted to fit the pilot, even if you have to remove the pilot's seat upholstery to do it. Zing Lurks

Sorry Howard, didn't mean to spoil the game ... what else you got? Zing Lurks

I had one for a short time in the late 70s (??) ... as I recall, the bottom skin only went back about a third of the way and the single-surface tail had those slots in it. It wasn't a bad canopy, and it packed fairly small, but there were better parachutes around. Zing Lurks

I got to jump Clayton Troutners Paraplane Silver Cloud at his dropzone in Charlotte, Mich around 1972 ... maybe 73. It was a great place where geeks like me got to do our static line jumps on a Paracommander ... one of the US teams red/white and blue versions. Rumour had it that it had belonged to Clayton ????(last name escapes right now) who used it for a first place accuracy championship. I went home to Fargo, No. Dak., and found this defunct jump club. Student rigs with reserves and Sentinel auto-openers, a hangar with a decent Cessna-182, a pilot or two waiting for someone to fly, and no jumping activity. A few of us got the jumping going again and there were stories around about Bob Odegaard's Baby Plane ... so I asked about it. Sure enough, in the corner of the hangar, under a bunch of old airplane parts, tires, cans of paint, etc, was a blue and white Baby Plane with about 10 jumps on it. It had malfunctioned 4 or 5 times, and scared the bejeezus out of the guys when it did open. Bob O broke a leg real bad on the last jump he did and the canopy was abandoned as "dangerous." I bought it for $75 with a matching blue stylemaster harness and container. I packed it up the same as we had done with Clayton Troutner's cloud and it opened just fine ... and it went REALLY fast! This one also had the 1000# lines with clove hitches and heat-shrink. I jumped that parachute about 250 times. Had two cutaways that were exciting because of the spinning induced by only a third of the canopy coming out of the bag. When packing, you pulled a loop of the suspension lines up through a "keyhole" in the d-bag that was closed with velcro and pull-the-dot snaps, then you fed the reefing rope through a steel ring, and looped that around the suspension lines protruding out the top of the keyhole. If you think that sounds scary and confusing, imagine what it was like for the person preparing to jump it. During the couple years I jumped that thing, it underwent several mods. Bruce Bickford shortlined it about 8 feet, I cut tons of reinforcing tape off it, eventually it got a slider. It sometimes opened like a ton of bricks and I found the outline of the harness in black and blue on my body more than once. A lot of times it opened in a "firm, but not bonecrushing" manner. I actually made money on the parachute. I talked a local motorcycle dealer into having his logo sewn on the bottom of the canopy and jumped it at demos. I got a brand-new Suzuki 400 dirt bike and $50 every time I jumped it on a demo. Not bad for a $75 investment. Zing Lurks

Its a Hornet. Zing Lurks

Note that it only says he fell out and landed astride a horse ... it doesn't say Sgt. Webb or the horse survived. I did know Gene Minnel from Alaska. Back in the late 70s, early 80s, he cutaway a main about 2 grand and hit the trees and snow at the edge of a parking lot on a demo in Fairbanks, with his reserve still in the container. One of the witnesses ran over to him expecting to find Gene dead ... instead, the corpse said, "That wasn't so bad." He suffered a crushed heel and broken fingers along with severe bruising. Wasn't his day that day. He died from cancer just a few years ago. Zing Lurks

Never got video of any of the dogfights, but here's a simple way to do it. Each person on the dive attaches a two-foot long strip of cloth to the toes of their shoes using rubber bands. We'd drag the exit off the plane, and on the break from a round star, the fight is on. The idea is to get the cloth strips off your opponents and not allow your own to be taken. Rules are simple: 1. You must stay in the fight. You can't just track or dive away from the group. 2. No one is allowed to grab/touch any part of an opponent except the cloth strips. 3. If both your streamers get taken, you are out of the fight and those out build a star. I've done this dive with up to six individuals ... everyone is on their own, and with nine people in three squads of three. It's a blast ... and no mess from paint balls. Zing Lurks

I've got five brothers and four sisters with spouses, partners, kids, nephews ... and ALL of us got together at my dad's house for Christmas. It was the first time the whole thundering herd had been together at one time in about 15 years. I hate shopping, never know what to give, and was about at my wits end trying to figure out what to do. I stopped by the local airport where an old skydiving friend runs the FBO and rebuilds warbirds. I was talking to him and bemoaning the fact that I hadn't done any shopping and would probably just give everybody some cash. "Take 'em all for an airplane," says my friend Jerry, and offered a good rate for a Cessna 172 parked on the ramp. On December 24, it was cloudy and started snowing in the afternoon. Christmas day dawned frigidly crystal cold under a blue sky so bright it hurt your eyes to look at it. I think there were 39 of us in my dad's living room from the crawling anklebiters to great-grandparents ... total pandemonium and piles of shredded wrapping paper. When all the gifts had been opened, I announced to the crowd that anyone who wanted their present from me should come out to the airport in groups of three and four at 30-minute intervals. I put almost five hours on the Hobbs meter that day and it was one of the best days of flying I've had in 25 years and 12000 hours of driving airplanes. The youngest ones were wide-eyed in wonder as the ground fell away and ecstatic when i let them "fly the airplane." Gramma Rita, then pushing 80, still brags about the day she saw her family farm from the air on the first airplane ride of her life. My dad, who once pursued a pilot's license, but was grounded by the cost of insurance for a doctor with 10 kids, got the right seat for the sunset flight and he made the last landing of the day against one of those golden red sunsets no artist could paint. It was a good day. Zing Lurks

Nonsense ... Its a fashion statement i've been making for decades. Zing Lurks