fastphil

People are always gonna ask you "how many jumps ya got" you know . A good tactic might be to just wait till the subject comes up and say "I did that"...

I guess a kiss pass will take a certain adroitness from the tandem masters...

First time you wake up at the DZ it's kinda hard to deny...

My king was 2300 (I think); prices are protected so don't bother looking for a deal

I just got the new Tempurpedic "Cloud" and love it; seems perfect for the skydiver type...

Geez, Louise... ya'll make it sound like Tinks entering a destruction derby or facing a firing squad. I made several hundred jumps on one, all of which were enjoyable with mostly stand up landings where I wanted to land. The "kelvinator" remark is true though.

The advanced method of landing is to hook turn into the landing, which gives pendelum motion. For your first time just fly straight in and expect to stand up the landing; PCs don't really "pound in"...

My most memorable, funnest, best time would have to be the ’76 Z-Hills Turkey Meet; my first year in the sport. I believe that year there were 102 speed star teams entered. Loaded with four teams (40 jumpers) each sometimes hours would pass with a DC-3 or C-47 constantly on jump runs no more than a minute apart. You could see four teams airborne at a time; one exiting, another in freefall, another just getting open and a fourth near landing. After last jump the Herd entertained with milk jug cannons, hay bale fires and “Ride the wild Semi” (truck cruising). Add to that the wet t-shirt (pronounced no t-shirt) contests and assorted beer and N2O consumption. All this seems like a couple of lifetimes ago and much is forgotten, but one scene burned permanently in the memory cells. My friend, Linda, was selling “As the Prop Turns” t-shirts, which pictured a DC-3 on front with the props positioned to correspond with a girl’s up front anatomy. On a cool morning she was wearing a sweat shirt over one of the t-s, and when asked to see it by a prospective customer, Linda pulled the sweatshirt up over her head, not realizing that the t-shirt came up also, and unknowingly flashed the crowded DZ. A first-class ending to a first-class skydive meet, but like they say, you had to be there…

I wonder if it was the jump or the whatnot...

The grab bar blocks the spot we always put someone in on 4-way exits...

Is that Phil Smith standing left? You're right, that is Phil; except to me he is Smitty, because I am Phil. That was a time when three of the best in Texas were Phil; very confusing when we had a "Philler" load... Sparky

I've exited a couple of times at 1100 feet. Once from a little helicopter that just couldn't seem to get any more altitude and the pilot wanted us (my girlfriend too) to leave, and once from a 182 at a demo into my house when the ceiling wouldn't allow any more altiude and the pilot didn't know any better four of us (girlfriend again) unloaded. This was in the late 70s when we were figuring out that BASE was do-able at these altitudes...

'77 was my first nationals; I jumped with the BC-4 team. Tallaqua was an eye opener for me because I had only been jumping a year, but did have about 600 jumps. Attached is the official pic of our 4-way team "Air Strike" at Richmond one year as published in Parachutist. We were out to win at all costs...

Long and lean equates to adjustability in this sport, and stability is highly over-rated...

Carl did have some big a$$ camera helmets. He used to bring a couple out that had a 16 MM movie camera AND a 35 MM motor driven Nikon on each. Carl spared no expense when it came to doing it right...

That's a dangerous perception that has caught more than one person I know off guard. It's natural though, and most car drivers suffer it...

If the dicks have license numbers they are probably acceptable to the USPA; I've known some dicks that belonged...

That's so 80s...

"the Pioneer K-20. It was only intended for petite ladies..." I had a K-XX; this is so embarrassing.

The game of Badminton comes to mind here...

First, do you mean tandem, tandem progression or AFF? Second, having no fear at all in the door on one's first-ever jump from an aircraft in flight is so extremely rare that, well ... let's just say it warrants a further explanation. I always thought sitting by the door was the best seat in the house, but someone who has no fear; that scares me...

For some reason a yo-yo comes to mind...

I hate being last out and having to close the door. Somebody's gotta do it...

"that was a period when they knew how to have fun," Of course; in the 70s that's all we knew. With a good reach it's not hard to get to the strut and wheel of an Otter, but remember to tell the pilot to hold the brake if you want to stand on the wheel...

Ah. Some hard data. Thanks. They're kinda soft actually, and quite cool to toss at your freefalling buddies because of the "weightless" conditions...