dbattman

I've been to a few places where they have a big barrel jar at the manifest. If you buy something in town visit they ask that you get a receipt and put it in the barrel. It would be interesting to see the season tally from a typical dz running just one turbine aircraft.

Well, I had a close one coming home this morning from VA. Since I bought a ticket Sunday for Monday morning travel (one-way) I get flagged. No biggie it happens all the time. Pass through security and they initially told me I couldn't take my rig through here. I explained it has not been a problem so far and asked for the supervisor. The screener pulls down her sweater and eposes her name tag that says 'Screening Supervisor.' I then asked her to refer to her procedure manual, which she does. They swipe the rig according to the manual and the dang thing gets a positive. Uh oh. That hasn't happened before. They wanted to open everything up but I managed to get by with just taking the main bag out so they could squeeze it. They did ask me what is potentially hazardous and I explained there is nothing in there- just nylon and a little metal (I conveniently forgot to mention the AAD). Now, they did tell me that the category of positive reading they received can be set off by glycerine in hand cream. I use that stuff in the winter to keep my face from drying out and I happened to have the bottle with me, which I showed them and let them read the ingredients. So, if you are planning on taking the rig with you it might not be a bad idea to wipe it with a wet rag first, particularly if you use moisturisers.

GUYS! GUYS! GUYS! Man, if you weren't there last year you totally missed out. Friday afternoon we probably had 100 people the day BEFORE the boogie. The fire was so huge it exploded the concrete pad underneath. In typical skydiver fashion they just looked around, brushed off the dust and kept right on going. Dublin absolutlely loved having us. The spectator ratio was high. Tandems poured in and a lot of disappointed people were turned away Sunday for wind. The caravan and super king air ran nonstop on Saturday. Everyone pitched in and Chris organized 2am trash patrols and really went the extra mile to leave the place looking better than when we showed up. If I had to pick only one boogie to go to next year this would be it.

you cock blocked with your friend's cock, hee, hee HA! Say that three times fast.

I did most of my post-static line stuff out at Gladewater a few years ago. They had a metallic 182 at the time that was such a beauty. That King Air looks familiar- where is it from?

NASA has been 'thinking' about the space plane for ten years and nothing has happened. Need a research flight? Fire up the shuttle for $100 Million +. The only thing that I've ever seen have been good looking pictures drawn by artists as they continue to 'conceptualize.' Put up some money to the winner and the authority to conduct the flights and it gets done. Let these guys run with it and that plane will be hitting low orbit and carrying payloads in no time. This was a pilot and two passenger payload. That's three or four hundred pounds of equipment for a fraction of the cost of the shuttle. If they put up $500 million to whoever puts a man on Mars and gets him back, it'll get done. The latest buzz is the space elevator. There's cash prizes to whomever design and presents the best individual components to that. I love private industry. [TWO THUMBS UP]

NASA should be hanging their heads and working on their resumes. Once again, private industry triumphs over government,

I spent a weekend down there chillin' with Vic and Co. around the pool. I'll tell ya, the man has a vision and is a joy to talk with. Look for these guys to make a big splash on the SE scene in the future. If you've wanted to get back to the down-home dropzone environment, this is the place.

I catch his show here in Atlanta, and I think they picked the appropriate callsign. Your listening to WWAA. Whaaaaaa!

10-25 years is a heck of a payback time. Do you forsee the efficiency of panels increasing and the price dropping significantly in the future? I'm a bit of a techie and I'd love to have a system on my house, but I just couldn't see myself dropping thousands of bucks on panels just yet. How about a wind turbine? I did see a 400W turbine advertised for under $600. Any idea how much wind you need to get these things up to speed? Granted, I don't have a big open area at my house where it would be practical, but I could see them being used some other places.

It's not just the TSA inspecting it without telling you that can be the problem. People have retrieved their checked rigs and found them to be in dangerous condition. Reserve pins have had bolt cuttters taken to them, reserve containers have had screwdrivers shoved into them as probes tearing the canopy, etc. On at least one rig the damage was not found until a reserve repack. Not a good situation. I'll carry mine, thank you.

Sandy: We almost lost two novice jumpers who lost altitude awareness. Both were injured landing two-out, one serious. Please be careful with moving right into an audible. I'm not saying don't do it, but be very cautious with becoming accustomed to listening for the beeps.

I hope you have receipts to show the replacement costs of the gear. I cannot speak for an international flight, but I did have a suitcase go missing on a domestic flight once. After a few days and no arrival I immediately began to itemize everything in that suitcase I could remember, right down to the toothbrush and the dental floss and I actually priced them at a drugstore. When I estimated the replacement costs of my clothes, I pulled out a few sale flyers and used MSRP NOT THE SALE PRICE. I still had my receipt for my new jumpsuit (which I never liked anyways) since it was over a certain amount. I got back about 82% of what I claimed. If there is a difference you can call your homeowners or renters insurance to cover it if it is significant. Best of luck, but start writing things down now before you forget.

It would be worth it to ask around. Just walk up to a group of jumpers and tell them you're looking for used gear. Lots of jumpers have old stuff lying around that they don't use anymore and don't get around to selling.

Right. What I said. These Russians since a long time are fighting for their independence from Moscow. Who TF told you they are Islamic fundamental terrorists? In my eyes, that's BS, simply BS. It makes me angry to read such trivialities, condemning in advance the Islam itself. Think. We need get somthing cleared up. The Islamic fundamental terrorists ARE NOT Islam. Oh my. They hit the United States. Then they hit Spain. They just Russia. They're coming for you next, Christel.

WTF are you coming from on this? All I was commenting on is the polarization of the type of responses that this brings out. You have the 'let's hunt em down crowd' and the 'let's try to work things out' crowd. Bio attakcs? Drawing analogies to building alliances in the war on terror? Man, you're out in space. Forget it.

Run for cover when you hear 'hold my beer.'

Oh really. So you'll be launching an invasion of some other sovereign country in the near future? Say, a smaller oil-rich country located in the middle east?

How are you leaping from that to 'airborne bio attacks?' You missed my point. You have one group that wants to go on the offensive and deal with the problem at the source. You have the other group that wants to do the touchy feely 'we need to learn and try to understand them and blah blah blah.' I gotta be honest Bill, but I don't think you'll be able to hold up that Koran and reason with these people if you ever end up sitting on a gym floor under explosives.

Alright Bill. You're Putin. You've just had hundreds of kids slaughtered by a group of cowards. You honestly expect me to believe that you wouldn't strap on your butt-kicking boots and go headhunting? Or would you pull everything back and fortify so you can deal with a bigger problem later on after they see you turn tail and run.

Events like this and the WTC attack bring out the true differences between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives go out and buy a 12-gauge. Liberals go out and buy the Koran 'to try and understand them' edited for clarity

Man, I'm still waiting for the bottle from that boogie two years ago. Well, they do say memory is the first thing to go.

Oh baloney! You're not a day over 35, max.

CHRIS!!! You didn't say a damn thing at Staesboro about this! I thought you were canceling the beach to do a 'Screw Charlie.' WTF, over! Edited: Whoops. I've got the email buried in my inbox. My bad. (bends over for an asskicking)

If I had to rate this one on the 'potential scale' I'd have to give Vic about an 8.5. This is one DZ that has their crap together. You could show up with a super otter and 50 fun jumpers this weekend and manifest is ready to handle you. That's pretty good for a 182 DZ just getting started. Talking to Vic, Nic, Laurel, Melanie, and James was just a blast. The stories those people have to tell are just awesome.