gemini

First time at Eloy I asked about high alti jumps and they said if they got a full load they would put one up. Started asking other jumpers to contact manifest if they were interested and on the following Sat they went to 21k+. Omar was jumpmaster. Blue skies, Jim

I have told this story here before, but I think it needs to be repeated on this thread: Bought a Sabre2 150 with less than 70 jumps from a friend. Canopy opened great and on heading. Fast forward 6-9 months and 700-800 jumps. Seemed like during a short period of time I started consistently getting off heading openings. I could not keep the canopy on heading during deployment regardless of what I tried. Often I would be rotated more than 45+ degrees one direction and then slammed 180+ degrees in the opposite direction. I had not changed packers since I bought the canopy and thought initially that maybe the openings were due to something the packer was doing or not doing, but couldn't understand why the packer would change procedures. Discussed it and was assured nothing was being done differently. Several other packers at different DZ's could tame it a little, but openings were still erratic. On heading one jump, radical turns on the next. Then it happened. I get the mother of all hard openings. I didn't realize how bad it was at the time even though I somehow managed to kick my face shield in on my Z1 during the deployment. Had the sore neck and back, but brushed it off and finished the day with a few more jumps. Took the next week off because I was going to my first Perris Big Way camp the week after that and had already paid my camp deposit. The four days of the camp went fine although I was always seemed to have a very sore neck and back at the end of each day and my left knee had started hurting. Got back to Houston and cut back on jumping a little to let things heal. First day at Rantoul after 3 jumps and I suddenly couldn't walk, stand up, sit-down or lay down. Right leg had no feeling at all from knee to ankle, and my right knee was really throbbing. For some reason left knee suddenly was not painful. After a very, very long week without sleep and a lot of pain (Clinic in Rantoul could not see me for a week!) I manage to get back to Houston courtesy of a lot of folks and wheelchairs (Thanks Southwest Air!). Went straight to the Dr from the airport and had an MRI the next day. Herniated L4 (North and South herniation) and fracture at L5, nerve damage to right leg. This was in August and I didn't get back into the air until November after twice a week physical therapy. During the downtime, I sent the main back to PD and told them what was going on. The found five little holes on one side and replaced the line set which they said was badly out of trim. Canopy now opens great with only a little wiggle at depolyment. Moral: Take care of your gear. Inspect it frequently and do not put off a reline just to postpone spending a little money. It cost me a lot more than a reline by the time everything was fixed. If you have a Sabre2 have your rigger check the lines at the next repack, especially if you have 400-500 jumps on the canopy. He might take a look at the main and see if those little holes are there. The PD rep told me they have found them on several rigs that have been returned for reline. Blues, Blue skies, Jim

No I think this one would be called the BUFF which has several variations; in civil society it is Big Ugly Friendly Fellow; in military circles it is Big Ugly Fat Fu##er. Blue skies, Jim

Come on everyone, the obvious answer is great sex! Blue skies, Jim

My son jumps, but he freeflys so I don't get to jump with him very often unless he is doing hybrids. My sister-in-law and her husband both jump. We jump together frequently. My wife made her first tandem when I made mine and she says she will do another, but we are not putting any money on it! Blue skies, Jim

Sounds definitely like an issue USPA should address. Especially when you think of the US Team results from the last world event. I would prefer that the USPA field a full roster of teams using the best teams available starting first with the current US National champions, then former champions, and finally other available and qualified flyers. This way if a field is incomplete hopefully the next best would be able to go and represent us. In this case an injury kept the team from competing this year, all the current champions can't go and they definitely are former champions. USPA needs to be less bureaucratic and do what's best for US skydiving at world meets. Blues, Blue skies, Jim

Not exactly an excuse, but a true story.... Caller: Hey Jim. I saw your office door was shut and you didn't answer your office phone, so I thought I would try your cell. Me: Hi Harto, what's up? Caller: Are you going to be in the office soon? Me: Well I'm... Caller: Yeah I'm sorry I know you're out, but you need to get here right away. Me: It will be a long commute. Is the company picking up the travel? Caller: Sure, but get here as soon as you can. The system is down and... Me: Harto? Caller: we need you to ... Me: Harto? Caller: Yeah? Me: I'm in Perris waiting for my parachute to be packed. It's almost an hour back to Ontario and then at least 3-4 hours back to Houston. Caller: Silence Me: Harto? Caller: Ummmhh, I didn't know you were going to be gone. Me: It's on the vacation schedule. Have you checked it lately? Caller: Well no, but you didn't say anything yesterday about being gone. Me: I didn't think I needed to since it was approved, you were in a meeting all afternoon, and BY THE WAY I DON"T WORK FOR YOU. Caller: Ok see you when you get back. [click] Blue skies, Jim

We get the same thing frequently at the family farm. It is on the flight path from Ft Hood to somewhere on the Texas coast. I used to think the pilots used the house as a way marker before GPS came along. If you can't get outside fast enough to see the first helo pass over, you can definitely catch the 2nd and third; and get waves from the pilots as the buzz by. Blue skies, Jim

Well said. This idea was concocted by the same maroons that came up with don't ask, don't tell. One of whom is running for President this year,,,Oops, not quite correct he was fired by Clinton for not following the party line. Blue skies, Jim

I think there may have been a thread similar to this a few months back. Many people forget to check their pilot chutes for wear and tear. Things that can go wrong that are similar to the main canopy eg., "kill" line shrinkage, holes and tears, increasing porosity of fabric can all cause hesitating deployment or slower than normal openings. Other issues that can cause deployment issues include pilot chute stitching coming apart at bridle attachment points, hackey stitching coming apart at attachment point, etc. I had about 500-600 jumps on the pilot chute that came with my Sabre2 when I got the first deployment hesitation. When you get one there will be no doubt in your mind that something is not right because absolutely nothing seems to happen after you have pitched. You may not be aware of it, but I can assure you that you will know when the normal pitch to main inflation start sequence is to long. I limped along with mine until the hackey literally came off in the packers hand one day. Sure glad it happened to him on the ground and not me in the air. I was very angry at myself for not recognizing and finding the problem. Pilot chutes should be replaced frequently. It's not worth the few dollars you save by putting off the expenditure. Blues, Blue skies, Jim

I hesitated responding to comments like these when this thread was first posted, but I think we need to clear the air for all you folks WHO WERE NOT THERE AND HAVE NOT JUMPED AT SPACELAND! Kim was in a 4-way. Although the day was sunny and clear, the uppers were 60-80 knots out of the West. That's right they were screaming. Only Stevie from Anomaly landed on the DZ from the first load. Due West of the DZ is a very large wooded swamp that is full of 4-10 ft briar and very thick brush and trees. We broke the 4-way at 4500. Normal deployement was probable around 3500 for Kim. Unfortunately for her her track was to the North which took her further into the swamp toward a large lake and away from the dz. As she stated, (1)she knew where she was relative to the dz, (2) what her altitude was, and (3) which direction the wind was blowing. She was in a spin due to a released toggle and felt she was going into line twists and made a decision based on ALL THE FACTS that the cutaway was her best decision. It doesn't matter that she did or didn't know the spin was due to a released toggle because, as she stated she knew she was close to her decision altitude and was finally deployed under her reserve at 1500. Had it taken any time at all for her identify and resolve the problem before she turned back toward the dz she could have been in much worse trouble because there are no outs where she was. This would have dictated her landing in the swamp which is something no one who is familiar with Spaceland would ever do willingly. We have a Deguello canopy out there that we could see from the air, but could never get to after chopping away at the briar for an afternoon. I have had a released toggle on a Sabre2 which spun me onto my back so fast I couldn't believe it. I made at least one full revolution and probably most of a second before I saw the yellow flash of the released toggle and in those few seconds I lost 1000 feet. In the best of circumstances with deployment at 3500, a normal Sabre2 snivel and two revolutions she couldn't have been any higher than 1500 even if she had instantly recognized and released the other toggle. Any lower than that and she would have been in serious trouble due to her location even under her main. As JumperConway posted earlier, I also think she made the correct decision based on the actual situation she faced. Had she been over the dz she would have had a few extra seconds to identify and resolve the problem. But she wasn't. Jim Blue skies, Jim

Kim: Didn't see the cutaway, but knew it was you when the canopy sailed past and behind me. Sure glad the wind was out of the West, because it would have been in the swamp otherwise. I was sure happy to see that you were alright. Great landing for a Dash M. The important thing now is to get back in the air! The 4-way (Meeker, Open Accordian, Cataccord and Bow if you need it for your log.) was a lot of fun. Blues, Blue skies, Jim

Hey I was never one of them either...until I got back from Vietnam and went to college...Only then did I actually ever study. Blue skies, Jim

Heard on the radio driving to work that a group of parents has protested the posting of the names of honor roll students because it is harming the children whose names are not included. PC strikes again... Blue skies, Jim

Interesting conclusion based on what David Kay actually said 10/6/2003: "SNOW: You also had heard that Saddam Hussein had gotten frustrated with the UN weapons inspectors and was simply ready to go ahead, regardless of their presence on his soil. KAY: His senior head of the arms industry has told us that in 2000 he believed that Saddam had simply gotten fed up with the UN restrictions and was ready, in the face of them, to start restarting the program. Now, the one piece of evidence that confirms that is in the missile area, where exactly that's when it restarted. SNOW: And you also found propellants. You mentioned that there are four classes. You had cruise missiles. You had the attempt to buy the Nodong missile from North Korea that can have a range of up to 1,300 kilometers, about 800 miles... KAY: Right. SNOW: ... and a series of other things. You had rocket propellants, correct? KAY: Well, the rocket propellants are really an interesting story I'm surprised no one has picked up on. We have Iraqis now telling us that they continued, until 2001 or early 2002, to be capable of mixing and preparing Scud missile fuel. Scud missile fuel is only useful in Scud missiles, no other class of missiles that Iraq has. And yet Iraq declared that it got rid of all of its Scud missiles in the early 1990s. Why would you continue to produce Scud missile fuel if you didn't have Scuds? We're looking for the Scuds. SNOW: In speaking to reporters the other day, you also said that you were examining the possible cross-border transportation of arms into Syria, Jordan and Iran. Now, the Jordanian government has said, absolutely not true. Do you still think it's possible that arms could have made their way into Jordan? KAY: Well, we're still examining what moved where. We have multiple reports from Iraqis of moving material. We do know that documents were taken to Jordan, because we're engaged in negotiations with someone who is in Jordan to recover those documents. I have no personal knowledge that weapons were moved into Jordan. SNOW: Does this person in Jordan have any official relationship with the government, or is this a private citizen? KAY: Oh, absolutely no official relationship with the government. He fled there, and he's there solely on his personal basis. SNOW: How about Syria? I've heard talk of convoys making their way out of Iraq into Syria in the weeks before the war. What have you heard? KAY: We've heard the same reports. Actually, we have probably more specific evidence on that, on dates, times... SNOW: I would suspect you know more than I do on that. KAY: ... and routes taken. The difficulty we have is proving what was in the convoys, and that's where we're stymied right now." Fox News And... "Kay, a former UN weapons inspector who is serving in Iraq as a special adviser to Tenet, issued an interim report earlier this month acknowledging the American failure so far to find illicit weapons or weapons material in Iraq. Kay has cautioned that his search is far from complete, and senior intelligence officials say they still expect him to find weapons material. But Kay has said his team is considering a number of theories, including the prospect that Iraq moved weapons material to other countries and that weapons and other weapons material were destroyed before the war, and perhaps in the period immediately preceding it. . Clapper's agency is responsible in particular for interpreting satellite intelligence. He said the heavy volume of traffic leading from Iraq to Syria before and during the American-led invasion had convinced him "inferentially" that illicit weapons material had been smuggled outside the country. . He declined to answer a question about whether he believed that illicit Iraqi weapons material was smuggled into any other country, including Iran. . The New York Times Head of spy agency points to signs of heavy travel before U.S. invasion WASHINGTON The director of a top American spy agency said Tuesday that he believed that material from Iraq's illicit weapons program was transported into Syria and perhaps other countries as part of an effort by Iraqis to disperse and destroy evidence immediately before the recent war. . The official, James Clapper Jr., a retired air force lieutenant general, said satellite images showing a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria just before the American invasion in March had led him to believe "unquestionably" that illicit weapons material was moved outside Iraq. . "I think people below the Saddam- Hussein-and-his-sons level saw what was coming and decided the best thing to do was to destroy and disperse," Clapper, who heads the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, said at a breakfast with reporters. . Clapper said he was providing a personal assessment. But other American intelligence officials said his theory was among those being pursued in Iraq by David Kay, who is heading what has so far been an unsuccessful American effort to uncover the weapons cited by the Bush administration as the major reason for going to war against Iraq. . Clapper's comments come as the CIA is preparing to mount a vigorous defense of its prewar assertions that Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons and was seeking to reconstitute its nuclear program. The director of central intelligence, George Tenet, has written a private letter to the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence saying the agency will be ready by late November to provide a detailed assessments for members of the panel. In the letter, whose contents were described by several intelligence officials on Tuesday, Tenet proposed that a team headed by John McLaughlin, the deputy director of central intelligence, provide a briefing for the committee sometime after Nov. 20, when the agency's own internal review is expected to be completed. The Senate and House intelligence committees are preparing critical reports about the intelligence work done on Iraq, with congressional officials saying that the CIA overstated Iraq's potential nuclear capability in the months before the war. But the CIA has objected vigorously to that assessment, saying that on the basis of evidence available before the American invasion in March, it would have been foolhardy for the agency to have reached any other conclusion. . Clapper echoed that defense on Tuesday, but in offering what he called his own "educated guess" about what happened to any illicit Iraqi weapons, he went beyond what any other senior American intelligence official has said publicly. "I think probably in the few months running up to the onset of the conflict, I think there was probably an intensive effort to disperse into private hands, to bury it, and to move it outside the country's borders," Clapper said. . He said he believed that "at the level below the senior leadership" of Iraq there were officials who "saw what was coming and went to extraordinary lengths to dispose of the evidence." . Kay, a former UN weapons inspector who is serving in Iraq as a special adviser to Tenet, issued an interim report earlier this month acknowledging the American failure so far to find illicit weapons or weapons material in Iraq. Kay has cautioned that his search is far from complete, and senior intelligence officials say they still expect him to find weapons material. But Kay has said his team is considering a number of theories, including the prospect that Iraq moved weapons material to other countries and that weapons and other weapons material were destroyed before the war, and perhaps in the period immediately preceding it. . Clapper's agency is responsible in particular for interpreting satellite intelligence. He said the heavy volume of traffic leading from Iraq to Syria before and during the American-led invasion had convinced him "inferentially" that illicit weapons material had been smuggled outside the country." International Herald Tribune, 10/29/2003 And... January 6, 2004 2004 WorldNetDaily.com A relative of Syrian President Bashar Assad is hiding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in three locations in Syria, according to intelligence sources cited by an exiled opposition party. The weapons were smuggled in large wooden crates and barrels by Zu Alhema al-Shaleesh, known for moving arms into Iraq in violation of U.N. resolutions and for sending recruits to fight coalition forces, said the U.S.-based Reform Party of Syria. The party, based in Potomac, Md., regards itself as a secular body comprised of Syrians who want to see the country embrace "real democratic and economic reforms." One weapons-cache location identified by the sources is a mountain tunnel near the village of al-Baidah in northwest Syria, the report said. The tunnel is known to house a branch of the Assad regime's national security apparatus. Two other arms supplies are reported to be in west-central Syria. One is hidden at a factory operated by the Syrian Air Force, near the village of Tal Snan, between the cities of Hama and Salmiyeh. The third location is tunnels beneath the small town of Shinshar, which belongs to the 661 battalion of the Syrian Air Force. The nephew of Zu Alhema al-Shaleesh, Assef al-Shaleesh, runs Al Bashair Trading Co., a front for the Assad family involved prior to the war in oil smuggling from Iraq and arms smuggling into the country. Al-Bashair has offices in Damascus, Beirut and Baghdad. In an exclusive interview yesterday with the London Telegraph, Assad came close to admitting his country possessed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Assad told the London paper Syria rejects American and British demands for concessions on weapons of mass destruction, insisting Damascus is entitled to defend itself by acquiring its own chemical and biological deterrent. He said Israel must agree to abandon its undeclared nuclear arsenal in order for Syria to consider any deal with the U.S. " AND... "Posted: October 1, 2003 5:54 p.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Following months of frustrated searches by hundreds of U.S. and British investigators for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, some have turned up in Kuwait, according to Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyassah. The pro-government daily reports Kuwaiti security forces foiled an attempted smuggling of $60 million worth of chemical weapons and biological warheads from Iraq to an unnamed European country." Something doesn't smell right. There may be no Iraqi WMD in Iraq, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are still not out there. Finally, also from WorldNetDaily.com: "The Washington Post reports Kay is expected to float a working theory that the ousted Iraqi president was bluffing about possessing weapons of mass destruction to appear as more of a threat than he actually was." Sounds plausible. I think the truth is somewhere in between and each story contains an element of truth. Syria is reported to have imported small arms and ammunition prior to the war. Could this have been simply to help it's neighbor against the US devil or part of an exchange? Again the truth is probably a combination of all of the above. Like one of the other dz.commers tagline..."just my .02 worth". Blue skies, Jim

This is extremely bad logic. The first 4 years of the Vietnam war were 1955-1958 when only MAAG advisors were in country. I don't know the exact number, but it was probably 10,000 or less. When I was there, we were losing 500 GIs a month out of a force totalling approximately 500,000. Think about it: 58,000 lost in 10 years. I think that works out to about 480 average per month. Although I abhor the loss of even one of our soldiers, 500 killed in one year pales to the horror of 500 killed per month. Do your homework before you post. Blue skies, Jim

Nice website Tami. Glad to hear you and Scotty are doing well and enjoying life. Hope to see you at WFFC since last year was literally a "bust" on the first day. I owe you for a dinner too...signed up to eat, went to jump, and never made it back. Blues, Blue skies, Jim

And for those of us who keep rigs and equipment at the DZ, it is probably a good idea to check and see if you have insurance that will cover property stored at a third party location like the DZ. I suspect that a lot of DZ's don't have a lot of insurance to cover third party property. Blue skies, Jim

Yep you're right as usual, Kennedy came from a poor background. Blue skies, Jim

Are you talking about Kennedy? Blue skies, Jim

N/A

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds...and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of...wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew. And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space Put out my hand, and touched the face of God. We'll miss you.... Blue skies, Jim

Sky blue PD, just like Conways! Blue skies, Jim

I don't think I will ever get used to seeing a jumper cut away and go back into freefall below my altitude. It was an exciting cutaway to watch from up close. Sure glad it turned out ok. Blue skies, Jim

I agree. Problem with Houston is it can be 85F one day and 40F the next and 70F the third this time of year. You just never know. Blue skies, Jim