Krip

GOOD MORNING DZ.COM!!!! FWIW 11/11/11 is veterans day this year. Not sure if that will happen again. I'm sure someone with a complete brain and computer skills can tell us. On a more serious note when some of us are enjoying the three day holiday it might be a good time to write your congress person about the inadequate treatment some of our vets are receiveing from the VA. R. One Jump Wonder

Hi RR Fourth hand info: My wife's dad bailed out of a B-17 got to keep his canopy and must have been in italy for a while. My father in law gave the canopy to a nice italian lady who somehow dyed the silk and weaved it into a bed spread. The bed spread has been handed down in the family and my brother in law is supposed to have it. We'll try and get a pic. Posting it on DZ.com will be a challenge if we can get the pic. My father in law passed away about 10 yr's ago and my wife got the flag that was drapped over his coffin. It's locked up in our fire proof "security" vault. The flag means more to us than the bed spread. One Jump Wonder

Hi Mr Winsor Thanks for the link

I don't think anyone would ever knowingly break a FAR except for the DZO in southern OR. We're self regulating for a reason R. One Jump Wonder

Hi Mr Baumchen Military gear that was floating around before their experation date was usally a dead giveaway. That it was very warm. Personally I didn't see to much of a problem dumpster diving for perfectly good "obsolete gear" before it got ruined by cutting the lines off. But diverting new gear was something I personally had a problem with. Our supply sgt was a pro, he was being paid for living off base but was able to eat for free at the chow hall, The cook alway wore a nice looking light weight flt jacket. Flight glove's When we wanted a new pair we were supposed to turn in the pair, The regs only required one glove (people lose stuff) When the supply sgt got a pair of old flight gloves he would split up the pair, give one new pair to the original owner and keep one new pair for tradeing stock. Inventory shrinkage was a real problem for the poor G.I'.s in the shit at the botttom of the food the chain. The REMF's had all the new stuff and the poor guy's in the field had to wait longer than they should have. R. One Jump Wonder

And a number of companies are again doing freebies for vets; one being Applebee's which will be doing a free meal. JerryBaumchen Hi Mr Baumchen Thanks for the reminder, I also carry a copy of my DD 214 in my wallet in case i stop by home depot or lowes, for their 10% dicount. Available 365 days/yr based on my personnel experience. If you ask FWIW there are some people I address as Mr, because they have earned my respect, your one of them. But in the big picture showing my respect really doesn't mean squat except to Number one. Me FWIW I stumbled on the 11/11/11 date by accident due to a Dr's appt. Enjoy the triple 11's on vets day R. One Jump Wonder

Hi AA Read the incident reports about the people that wanted to do things before they were ready. 1)Downsize and swoop (may never walk again) 2) Downsize and is dead 3) Dude that wanted to wing suit at 100 jumps was told come back after he had 200 jumps, went to another DZ and fell out of his winsuit on opening on his second Wingsuit jump. IMO Read the incident forums first than come back and ask questions. Please don;t try and inflate your jump numbers by pencil whipping your log book. When your a cripple for life or dead To bad so sad we care but you did it to your self. R. One Jump Wonder

Hi Fast IMO the reason you don't get it is because your trying to talk some sense to a head of lettuce that wants to argue instead of listening to people with 1000's of jumps when they don't get the answer their looking for. One yes one no then you have to allocate your limited time to someone that will listen. The incident reports are filled with people that got busted up" really really bad" because they wouldn't listen. The dude with 100 jumps that went shoping for a yes after his first no and fell out of his wingsuit is one example, a more recent example is the dude that knew he was ready to swoop, downsize etc in spite everyone telling him otherwise. No one enjoys seeing these people get hurt or killed. But what can the industry do if they won't listen. A peerson with 4 jumps wants to argue and knows he will stay with the sport I'm not going to waste my time responding to a head of lettuce OTOH Fast your worth my time, you earned it and deserve it. BTW My time isn't worth much R. We're reading One Jump Wonder

Hi OP and everyone else. I'm a x jumper, retired, and old. Imo there are some kick ass commericals on T.V. that feature skydivers. One is a net 4G commerical thats computer generated featuring 2 jumpers in free fall using their cell phone with a app for making hotel reservation or something. By the time they land the reservations are made and they land in recliners at pool side with their gear on. I've recently noticed another commercial with what looked like real jumpers with the full face helmets all decked out in black includeing the visors, tail gateing out of a acft with some kind of a glowing globe in their hands. Blue screen? Hollywood special effects? I don't have a clue and never even picked up on what they were advertising but it wasn't skydiving.

Hi Mr Spot Almost back in the day some of the military canopies in Bailout rigs had a shelf liife of 7 yr's before they were taken out of service. I din't know if the 7 yr's were from date of service or manufactor. G.I. have their ways of getting hold of stuff before they were taken out of service, or before the suspension lines were cut off the canopies. This is were some of the cheapo's came from that were modified in to double L's, double t's etc. A 26' navy conical reserve canopy were hard to get but they came from the military,surpkus mkt same with the army belly warts. We had 10ea BA 18's bailout rigs on our c-130's that we used for standing by open doors while dropping troops equipment, and certain emergency's. The army jumpmaster also wore these rigs. You can google the spec's. Not a good rig for 300-1000ft. Blast handle, bailout bottle, and other stuff. We always took off with ten rigs because we could be diverted any time to anyplace. one time we landed with 9 rigs. we were carrying jeeps, trucks and some army people. One of the GI's must have threw one in the jeep trailer or the back of a deuce & half . We were issued 38 S&W combat masterpiece when we went in country, but it was a PIA to wear so we stuffed it in our helmet bag and hid it on the flt deck to prevent a G.I. from stealing it. In the civie world there was some kind of a shipment of gear that got damaged in a train accident. It was sold as scrap but some of it made it's way back into the surplus market. I was only in for 4 yr's, the longer people where in, the more connections they had. The supply sgt for our C-130 flying squadron had all kind of neat stuff to swap for jump gear he was interested in. He just happened to be a rigger. I'm talking about 40 yr's ago but when I see a complete halo gig for sale on ebay it is what it is. Of course there could be a logical explanation that I'm not aware of. Keep in mind during the Nam some G.I.s were working the system and partnering with some corrupt rvn higer ranking officers to smuggle drugs into the states inside of KIA's. R. R. One Jump Wonder

Quite easily when a bottle of acetone was next to the candle, This I found out later, Chain of events, She poured a bit of nail polish on the flame of the candle, a bottle of acetone (lid off) was next to the candle, when the nail polish flared up she knocked the bottle of acetone over which spilled on to the bed then somehow managed to knock the night stand and the candle fell over, the rest is history. Hi zep I discussed this with my wife

Hi Hookitt Ding Ding ding I think we have a winner. Your post shook some of the cob webbs out of my old brain. My last canopy was a sabre 1 I only had two very firm openings in about 3-400 jumps. The first one I packed myself I did everything to get my 500 jump crusielight to open faster, big hole in slider, nose fully exposed. etc Finally had to throw it away, it got to scary for the altitude we were opening at. Didn't have the heart to sell it for even a nickle. The first time we jumped the Sabre 1, The opening was I thought my shoes were going to come off on opening. While walking back to the packing area I reviewed my packing procedures and realized I had made a major brain fart. I had left the nose on a brand new Sabre one fully exposed, just like i did on my snivelly cruiselight After that fubar I rolled the shit out of the nose, payed attention to the slider etc etc. No more slammers Until I got lazy on holiday trip to Z-hills and met some real professional packers. Never had a problem with the opening on the Sabre 1 Until I returned to the local DZ and got lazy again and let someone I didn't know pack my Sabre one. The canopy had 300 more jumps on it, but that opening was much worse than my Fubar, It felt like line dump, improper slider placement, and the nose fully exposed I didn't bitch, whine or complain, just payed the packer, said thank you, threw my rig in my car and went home. It was my fault again because I let someone I didn't know pack my rig. Lesson learned the hard way Not all packers are created equal, No one is going to do as good a job as you will do for yourself. Learn how to Pack ASAP!!!!!! from someone that knows how to pack. If you get lazy and use a packer at a boogie that you don't know beware!!! R. One Jump Wonder

Hi Mike And all vets and their families. 11/11/11 is veterans day this year. I don't know what the odds are of this happening again, but I'm glad to have lived long enough to see it, and sorry for those vets that missed it. R. One Jump Wonder

Hi Mr T I'm trying to be realistic and serious. >>Want to pull the 'Free Market' card USPA?...lets go one step further and use democratic process and let the general membership decide if working against itself is in fact, 'really' in it's best interest. >> Since everyone that competed in the nationals, and those that are employed by the industry are USPA members the concept of the democratic process and the general membership isn't going to work. I'll leave it at that before this gets kicked into the black hole of SC. R. One Jump Wonder

Hi One of many available on Video of the Fulton recovery system Youtube is your friend I'm so old I didn't even know what youtube was until DZ.com and someone asked if people were posting their pics on you tube. Trust meI was serious when I responded no way was I going to post a pic of my tube on the internet. Someone responded "I don't know who you are dude but that was funny. I was serious

Hi DB The Mcnasty at KAS was a pilot & was well versed on the FARS and had the FAA on speed dial. I think McNasty used the 25 mile rule to put a stop to the Dave Rucker posse PNW "chute camp" boogie or whatever it was called. The KAS (east) Mcnasty was ruthless and didn't call the FAA about the FAR untill it was to late to notify offically call off the last boogie. The boogie went on of course, just not the way it was planned. Where is J&V Mitchell when we need them I'm old and I forget, check with John & Valinda Mitchell for the facts. Gotta go and take a nap R. One Jump Wonder

This. And take the precautions I wrote about in Parachutist a couple of months ago. Hi Folks Back in the day we born abd raised in the bronx. So we almost have a six sense when things don't feel right. I'm sure AD and othe LEO's have developed the same skill. A skydiver/jumper caught stealing is dead meat as far a jumping goes.

I have been saying this for years. You have an organization run by DZO’s for the benefit of DZO’s. As you said the average dues paying member is at the bottom of the food chain and their needs are the last to be considered. They started charging for jump wings and free fall badges but can loan $10,000 to a TBN entity. It just doesn’t make good sense unless you are the one receiving the loan. Sparky Hi Mr Sparky It doesn't have to make sense if theres a monoply involved. Based on past history this may have been just the tip of the iceberg. Things are a little different these days thanks to the internet and dropzone.com. Trust me I'm from USPA and I'm here to help you. R. BTW 11/11/11 is vet day. It's a honor to know you

Hi Mr T & Normiss >>Maybe we're coming up on a time the USPA needs to re-think it's commitment to the competition team and concentrate more effort and resources to the needs of the general membership.>> I think that horse has already left the barn when USPA came up with the GMDZ program. IMO the general membership is at the bottom of the USPA food chain due to the AFF and Tandem industry. USPA have evolved from a jumper organization to a industry organization GMDZ's, that is basically a monoply if you want to jump you have to join USPA. The industry has come up with creative ways to increase the cost of becoming a new skydiver. But as long the new jumpers are willing to bare the cost of the new requirements, the cost of the learning curve will continue to increase. The industry has even come up with a new class of skydiver The tandem skydiver. USPA and the BOD may have finally crossed the line by trying to take away the rice bowl from the pro demo teams, and shareing it with the industry. There are plenty of creative ways to raise funds for a USPA demo team. If I can think of a few the smart boys in the head shed can come up with a lot more. Regardless of how the funds are raised, it won't solve the basic problem of more competion for a limited supply of demo's. There are plenty of options for raising funds for the competion teams. They do have other avenue's for raising funds for their goal for the gold at the international level. We've already seen a major DZ being able to sponsor a team that is very competive at the international level. It may take them some extra effort hustling up more GMDZ's as sponsors in addition to the USPA trust fund. IMO The USPA brand is worth a lot more than the GMDZ are paying for the use of the brand that the skydivers and demo teams had a major part in developing. R. If your a spelling, grammer bully bite me.

I bought a used B&W checkerboard PC around 1971 that someone had shortened the suspension lines. Whoeveer did the mod was not a rigger, but they did have a sewing machine. To bad they didn't know how to adjust the bobbin. So the ends were sewn together sort off. We put aboout 400 jumps on the PC without a problem. I'm not a rigger but the knots that connected the lines to the connector links imo was the critical part.

Hi Raptor There was something similar to what your describing organized in the PNW organized by ....... maybe Dave Rucker and some of his posse. The time frame was probably in the early to mid 90's, I think they made a boogie out of it. I think John & valinda Mitchel from KAS (E&W) can give you the specifics. FWIW the scenery in the PNW can't be beat, but we've got real man size tree's out here and if my memory serves me right (50% chance ) The LZ's were not at DZ's. So it was a challenging boogie. I was a local but knew my limits and stayed away. R. One Jump Wonder

Thats one way of looking at it if you wear a $3000 armani suit, a $200 tie, a $25k rolex watch, $500 shoes etc etc. I'm still at paying $80-$90 for a pair of Carhart bib overalls. Steal toed Red wing boots another $150- $200, Inflation is a bitch. One Jump Wonder

Hi Was that $100 including the cost of postage. One Jump Wonder

funny enough, i've ordered a new freefly-jumpsuit; one of them high-tech ones.. and even without a voucher, at the current exchange-rate.. it cost me about 450$! Hi VB Almost back in the day we remember when the exchange rate was 4 deutch marks/$. Now the $ is in the toilet and our business folks just love foreign customers. Got a bunch of friends that go to the states to jump, every winter don't need no cheap ass motel or tent. Buy a house. 50% off before the exchange rate. We like everyone that has $$$. R. One Jump Wonder

Hi J&V Be carefull what you all wish for. My Boss and I didn't get the draft letters until after we were both retired I think now we've gotten 5 of them. Pierce Co Wa was paying $10/day about 5 yr's ago. But it's not about the $$. Its our civic duty Jury duty: No handicap parking, no free parking, no milk and cookies, no bus pass, When my boss finally got her $10/day check it was attached to another draft letter Being a G (word) owner won't help. My Boss had done a year in WCCW (purdy), had relatives that had been shot, and actually got chosen for a Trial. R. One Jump Wonder