Zing

From the Para-Death Death Gear Catalog, circa 1975 "Para-Death Solid-State Altimeter, No Moving Parts, Always Reads 2-Grand ... Never Be Accused Of A Low Pull Again!" Zing Lurks

I spent many hours in conversation with Tom between flying loads over the years. I considered him a friend. His was a character rarely encountered. Breath easy now friend. Zing Lurks

Ever hear of Bob Sinclair? Maybe Ken Coleman? There were a number of others too. Zing Lurks

If I was to tell the truth, no one would believe it ... and there is that thing about the statute on limitations and ... uh ... protecting the not-so-innocent. Zing Lurks

I have done numerous round parachute jumps into water from aircraft. I have never jumped a round parachute on any of the base dives I did. Have to agree with Nick. Short sightedness often leads to never seeing beyond the horizon. Zing Lurks

Its a strange place, but the skiing is excellent. Zing Lurks

Flowers is the acceptable gift for the woman of the Mormon household. Found this out during a five-year stint living and working out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Early on after moving to SLC, my landlord invited me to Thanksgiving dinner with his family, so I took a bottle of wine ... duh! They weren't upset and even offerred to open it for me, but they did offer to "set me up" with available women from their church. Zing Lurks

A mass of parts flying loosely in formation, and getting looser by the moment ... a fling-wing! Zing Lurks

Tanzania is trying to rebuild a crippled health care system. In January, my father, a surgeon, is leaving for a third trip to Tanzania with a group of people. The group gathers medical supplies and equipment, donations, bought out of pocket ... you name it. For this trip, they shipped four containers over by ship and hope it will have arrived at this year's destination by the time the group arrives. On the first trip, 3 years ago (I can't remember the names of the places they've gone, but they tend to be rural) the plan was to reopen the hospital section and surgery at a place that had been closed for 10 years. It had become a hospice where AIDS victims went to die. They arrived late in the afternoon, planning to see patients through an impromptu clinic. At sunrise, there were more than 5,000 waiting to see the doctors, and no medical supplies. Some snafu held up delivery for 24 hours. There was nearly a riot, but people kept things together and thousands were treated over the next few weeks. Everything from rashes and insect/snakebites, to major surgical procedures were done during power outages, incompatible power supplies for equipment. An amazing accomplishment for a group of volunteers and a little help from the Tanzanian authorities. In my travels to third-world nations, medical care is something you hope to not need. Zing Lurks

Reminds me of the time the dropzone manifestor called up to the airplane and said, "tell the jumpers its too windy to land right now, and ask them what they want to do." They wanted to jump. Zing Lurks

The part where one, or more, engines really do quit. Zing Lurks

You must mean this one ... Zing Lurks

That was "Don't Make Waves," the one Bob Buquor drowned on during the filming. Zing Lurks

As long as the dropzone has no objection, the main opponents of such a thing are likley to be Animal Welfare, the ASPCA or PETA. It's been done by several people both for military uses and by sport jumpers taking Fido for a ride. If you bounce your dog, people are REALLY going to talk about you on dropzone.com. Zing Lurks

I recall reading an account of an encounter with a giant squid by a man who sailed around the world several times, solo in sailboats. He was fishing and had several long lines deployed. While reeling in one of the lines, he noticed a disturbance in the water next to the boat and saw a pale shape in the water. He turned on a spotlight and found himself looking into a blue eye ... "the size of a dinner plate." For about ten minutes, he watched a creature longer than his sailboat and was able to clearly identify the mantle, tentacles and siphon of an arcetuthus (sp?), commonly known as a giant squid. He wrote that he had the distinct impression that the creature was checking out the boat and was completely aware of the movements the man made forward and aft as he looked the squid over. After a few minutes, the squid descended out of sight. There was also a recent program about a Japanese researcher who dropped cameras with baited hooks attached. He recorded some of the first pictures of a giant squid alive in its native element some 1500 to 2000 feet deep. He was the one that pulled up a giant squid's main tentacle, about 25' long, that continued to writhe about on the deck and grip and taste things with its suckers. Small squids, cuttlefish and, particularly, octopi are fun to play with on night scuba dives, but a squid or octopus of any appreciable size would be a formidable foe underwater for a human. I had a small octopus, about two feet long, remove my mask and regulator. They are incredibly strong for their size, and they love crabmeat. Zing Lurks

The Hunt For D B Cooper is on the Discovery Times Channel right now. The sow is using some of the photos Skyjack71 has put on here. Zing Lurks

This is the equivalent of a reporter publishing a story about a visually impaired person making a tandem skydive, with the headline: "Blind Person Jumps Out of Airplane!" Damn, John, I think I wrote that story during my dats as a a mild-mannered reporter for a metropolitan newspaper. Couldn't help but laugh at the irony of this. Good reply. Zing Lurks

I'm surprised you don't know Trevor....HE KNEW EVERYBODY! And even if he didn't ... he'd tell you he did. Zing Lurks

That's Evergreen Airlines' 747 modified for firefighting. It is dumping water in that video, but can also drop slurry ... a mixture of water and fire retardant. It is still going through certification. I've seen it flying and doing practice drops out of the old CIA base near Marana. Zing Lurks

Is that photo the Sphincter Brothers? Zing Lurks

For the record ... It was MJ Townsend who was found passed out in the RediWhip aisle of the Coolidge Safeway, not me. Zing Lurks

Trevor would occasionally put in appearances at the MSUSPCDZ in Charlotte where my brother and I started jumping. I always got on with him well because he usually had some of "Mother Nature's best" with him, but Trevor generally managed to piss off some of the "big kids" there and wasn't the most popular viistor to that dz. Zing Lurks

Found this on a news wire today. The entire article can be found here; http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/6261964?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=167 1. Cale Comes Down To Earth Cale Yarborough's list of near-death, off-track incidents lends a little perspective on how ridiculously out of proportion the Jimmie Johnson story has grown. Throughout Yarborough's life, the three-time Cup champ has been bitten by a rattlesnake, struck by lightning, shot, and nearly attacked by his pet bear while flying an airplane. And no, I'm not making any of this up. But the single greatest and most bizarre NASCAR Injury happened in Jacksonville, Fla. in 1958. Yarborough was working with a traveling air show as a skydiver and leaped from a plane at 5,000 feet. At 2,000 feet he pulled the rip cord ... and nothing happened. He pulled again ... still nothing. At about 200 feet above the Earth, the chute weakly rolled out, providing a minimal amount of drag to slow him down. "Lucky for me, I landed on a patch of high grass and mud, which gave me a little bit of a cushion. I walked away with a chipped elbow." After reading that, we may now know why Jimmie Johnson refuses to let the real details of his golf cart crash be revealed. He's waiting until he can come up with a better story, something that can compete with horse wrecks, lost appendages and unopened parachutes. Zing Lurks

Attitude adjustment is a sport ain't it? Zing Lurks

Nope, the vent cap was intact. It was just one of those things I was never able to figure out. To be more precise, it was an opening sequence that took about 900 feet. I had one of the original SSTs with shot-and-a-half Capewells, and that reserve had been packed into the rig by Bruce Bickford. I cutaway from a mostly open, but turning, StratoStar with rings and ropes reefing system. I seem to remember that there were line twists and the reefing rope was fouled and I couldn't steer it. I cutaway and fired the reserve, saw the pilot chute leave, but no opening followed, looked back to see about two-thirds of the canopy was out, then the skirt and the first few line stows left, hesitated again, then went on to line stretch and streamered for awhile longer, then opened. I cut away at about 1600 feet and was open around 400-500 feet. Unlikely it was because of a tight container. A Navy Conical packed smaller than the 24' flat I originally had in that rig. I'd used the 24' out of that rig once with no problems. Gremlins and LurkMeKnots. Zing Lurks