nacmacfeegle

I was working on power stations. A thousand ways to die each day, and none of them under my control..... Guns pointed at me, dead people lying in the street, a civil war going on around me, leaking fuel gas systems, lakes of toxic tranformer oil, turbines litterally shaking apart in front of my very own eyes, kids hot tapping gas and petroleum pipelines, kids frigging up transformers on the national grid, live wiring hanging out all over the place, rotten access gantries, highly volatile chemicals being 'wheelbarrowed' around by kids, leaking fuel oil tank farms, held up by the police AND the army in the same night. I was there to do some safety audits...HAH! where to start? Oh and a month long dose of the shits. Bastard of it all was I was there for virtually no extra money...Not a happy bunny. not happy at all.... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Been there, scared the sheeeite out of me, ain't going back....Or have I told you this before?...... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"When I am spending this amount of money I would really like to buy the right thing the first time!! " Then don't buy an MV based camera. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

100,000 tax free.....and the rest. At least with the radiation you can 'see it coming' with your G counter. As Clay mentioned its the other nasties that I would be worried about, if I were Saddam, I would be busy poisoning these guys right now, no weapons inspectors = no weapons inspections. Naw give me nice, safe offshore North Sea anyday... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

From http://www.reillyind.com/our_products/deet1.htm "CAUTION: Harmful if swallowed. Avoid contact with eyes and lips. Keep out of reach of children. Do not use on synthetic fibers. May damage some plastics, furniture or painted surfaces." I wouldn't go applying it immediately before packing anything.....and keeping bottles of it in your rig bag is probably not a great idea, just to be on the safe side. BTW it ate my Casio case too.... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

If its MV format, 'run away' as Tom said in an earlier thread..... This format is incompatible with other minidv cams, and editing the stuff on an NLE machine will be a PITA. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Hehe, when the y DO card you Gary, show them your British driving license and watch them try and puzzle it out! -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"Fairly new to Texas, but last year I jumped at Skydive Houston, great people & good jumping." That was my impression of all Texas jumpers I met. For RW there is a very strong scene at Spaceland south of Houston (about 30 minutes from downtown). RW people there from the forums are:- Jumperconway, Antimike, Jumperpaula. There are some very good RW load organisers there, and some very good competition teams based there. Its the home DZ of Jack Berke, and Tom Jenkins who have cosmic reputations in RW circles.... www.skydivespaceland,com If you fancy meeting some other good people, Aggiedave is at a DZ on the north side..Skydive Aggieland, its a Cessna DZ, but I'm sure Dave will introduce you to some people you can train / have fun with.... If you need a break from H-town, I can recommend San Marcos, about 2 1/2 hours to the west, near San Antonio, I don't know about the quality of RW jumping out there, but the local freefliers are very good, and its another very friendly place.. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Gary, Aggiedave is about the same size as me...He's a big lad, but with a smaller gut, my rig fitted him fine when I loaned it to him. It looks like his profile is up to date, as it has his new/recent gear in it. Reminds me of a joke... Girly jumper" does my butt look big in this jumpsuit?" Guy " Hell no darlin'....But your rig looks smaller" SLAP.... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Nice Idea! The conference centre is usually set up for it anyway, you can hook a camera or portable tape deck into the o/head projector. I did this for a short presentation in 2000, it worked fine.... But no not going, its not worth the trip for me this year.... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Strange things happen on record attempts, see attached from Henny Wiggers' point of view. I've got funny footage from the Brit100 record in 99, Derro T (name shortened to protect the well known owner of Sunpath) left the Let without fastening his chin strap, caught the thing just out the door, then flew down to his base slot. He had a side mount camera on, also POV cams in the base, the footage is funny..... Not so funny, but worthy of mention nevertheless, we had at least two instances of open containers in the formation, again on video. Some seriously heads up jumpers spotted the potential situations, and prevented any drama..... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

By far the thing that has disgusted me most, in my many years of rubbernecking horrible things... Was Margaret Thatcher's re-election.... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"Pull out rocks, if you take care while packing it..... Will never jump anything else." I must admit, I liked jumping a pull out set up, but changed when I went with big (huge!) wings for camera flying, then changed over to BOC throwout.... I wanted that PC as far from my bodacious burble as possible.... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

http://www.afn.org/skydive/sta/highperf.pdf Prints better than it looks, it has a section on density altitude, and its effects on canopy landings. This should, IMHO be required reading for anyone wanting more fom their canopy. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Absolutely, its far less likely to snag than a hackey. If you have to get out of wee planes like cessnas etc, its much more secure during bum shuffles to the door. Also, it doesn't float, wiggle or move in the mouth of the pouch, so it is always in exactly the same place. Of course, initially it feels a little strange, but once you get used to it, you won't go back to a hackey handle. You still in the desert bro? -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Tip top techno babble Wendy... Ever play buzz word bingo at work? http://mail.fvcc.edu/~rowens/humor/bingo.html -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Sheesh, what dull colours, you need more purple Dave... Rich, I jump a FF PUD on my javelin oddity, it works real nice, not a hard pull or anything, the handle "feels" good, very secure. But thyen again, I jumped a pullout for a couple of hundred a while back. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"that ambiguous confused Spork...." I think he was just trapped in the wrong implement... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

I am all for education first, and "giving the boot as a Last resort. We are agreed then Ron.... Peace. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Freeclimbing pah...I only broke both my wrists doing that... Dirt biking claimed my collar bone.. Skydiving claimed my femur.... Avalanche surfing dude, thats where its at these days.... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

It would be kinda embarassing if it was wrong.... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

I hear what you are saying Ron..... However, I am not a DZO, or a S&TA, hell I'm not even an instructor. I, like you, have seen people do many things that I am uncomfortable with, both at 'home' and also on my many travels. It simply is none of my business to 'kick off' someone from a DZ....All I can do is educate them, (which sounds easy but is not simple for casual jumpers like ourselves to do), or simply avoid being on loads the person concerned. I'm all for keeping people alive, but sooner or later you have to back off and let them do their own thing. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Great post Phree, as you said, it simply isn't black and white...... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"but now I feel better that nacmac is older than I am." I prefer the term "mature" to be used when discussing my age..... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

38 going on 12..... Yeah, yeah I know, I'm old, but I'll be retired when you guys are all still working... Besides, like a second hand car, its not the years, its the miles that count.... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson