SStewart

Summerfest is a Zoo, Lost Prairie is a Safari. Onward and Upward!

Do they think maybe skydivers are overcompensating? Onward and Upward!

Could this be considered driving with an open container? Onward and Upward!

I charge the same to repack a main as I do a reserve. Most folks decide to do the main themselves or hire a packer for $5 bucks. Onward and Upward!

Looking for an Altitude Shop Corsair container manual. I can't find this online and the one I have is missing some pages. Any help is much appreciated. Onward and Upward!

Hi Wendy, I have one and I have used it on and off for several years. You can take good pictures with this lens but I would not recommend it for freefall. The focus is not that big of deal because you can just set it to infinity. The problem is the F stop is also manual and you can't change that during a jump. If you don't have it set just right the shot will either be too dark or washed out. You really need to know what you are doing and make adjustments to the light, not something you can do when it is strapped to your head. I still use mine for ground shots and fun jumps but I won't use it with paying tandems. If you look around on Ebay you can sometimes find good deals on fully auto wide angle lenses that are better suited for jumping. The best deals are to look at film cameras that have an EF mount. Sometimes these cameras have good lenses on them but sell cheap because the camera body is not digital. I recently picked up a Canon 20mm lens that was on a Canon film camera. I got the whole thing for under $150 which is about what I paid for the Zenitar. The lens alone sells for $500 and up. Onward and Upward!

Oh Wow! This thread brings up so many memories from the '80s. We used to have this hot lady off the end of the runway about a half mile out who had a swimming pool and would sunbathe naked. In the summer one of our jump planes had no door so we would sit in the door and have a peek as we started the climb. Funny thing was she did not seem to mind, she would even wave back at us. “It’s a cloth-flapping noise,” Of course, some of the neighbors were not so friendly. One local farmer took the DZ to court because he said our activities caused his pregnant cattle to abort and his laying hens to choke. He also claimed that skydivers caused "irreversable soil compaction" from landings making the land worthless for future agricultural use. The case was thrown out because he had absolutely no eveidence of "aborted cattle or choked chickens" The gallery of skydivers found this most amusing and even had T-shirts made that said come on out and choke yer chicken! LoL! Onward and Upward!

Hi Jan, not exactly the case. I did an investigation last summer and interviewed both the pilot and the TM. I also did about a two hour phone interview with the FAA official who was in charge of the investigation. He told me that the FAA was initially not going to get invloved and let the ploice handle it as a suicide but later changed that decision after a complaint from a concerned citizen. When I asked him who the complaint came from he told me that was confidential but that it was "one of our own" (in other words a fellow skydiver) He said it would take about 2 or 3 months to complete the investigation and then he would turn it over to their legal department for a final decision. His opinion was that a violation may have occured but that it was not likely much would come from it. I told him to contact me as soon as possible when they came to a conclusion and that USPA would wait for their investigation to be complete before we would consider any action on our part. I discussed my decision with the staff at the BOD meeting in alexandria and they agreed that was reasonable approach. Well, that was 8 months ago and I never heard anything back from the FAA and as you know it is no longer my problem. I will say this; during my investigation I found at least half a dozen cases where there was an incident involving jumpers and the pilot had a private license and the FAA ruled it to be legal. Of course I also found just as many under similar circumstances where they took action against the pilot so it is still not so cut and dry. The last I heard the pilot had sold his plane and was no longer flying but I can't confirm that. Onward and Upward!

Wow Tom, Base rigs out of an aircraft, clear violation and the pilot could lose his license. Do you really think they requested and were granted a waiver.? I thought you were a big stickler and outraged opponent of pilots breaking the rules? Remember last summer? Were you not the same Tom Buch who was outraged that a pilot with decades of experience flying jumpers was in question for flying jumpers with a private license? Aren't you the same guy who made a stink with the FAA and complained to USPA about this? (I was sent copies of the emails) You are a commercial pilot right? Would you allow such jumps out of an aircraft you were in command of? You seem to have a different attitude now but I guess you have no axe to grind with Pastrano. Your standards for right and wrong seem to be very selective. All this time you have been preaching safety and it turns out you are really just a naked low puller. Terrific! (Edited for civility) Onward and Upward!

I just wish I took more pictures back then. It seemed like hardly anyone had a camera. Nowadays it seems like everybody has a camera. Circa 1981 Onward and Upward!

Well, snowboarding is an olympic sport. Let's face it, if it were not for pot there would be no such thing as snowboarding. Remember when the Canadian guy lost his medal for smoking pot? He kicked everyones ass but he was disqualified for smoking pot. How dumb is that? His event was even called the "Half-pipe" Onward and Upward!

I don't care if Phelps smokes pot, he is a swimmer and he swims faster than everyone else....Game over. I don't care if baseball players take steroids, nobody seems to care about basketball players or football players. I don't see why this is even a story. Onward and Upward!

I don't Onward and Upward!

It looks like those fires are real close to the DZ in Nagambie. Has any of our mates down there been affected? I was a firefighter for the US forest service for 20 years and in 2005 I went down there with my wife on an employee exchange program. I am retired now but my wife is being considered to go back down there and help out, we should know in the next few days. As I remember the DZ is right in the same area. Onward and Upward!

Rounds are steerable, the glide ratio is different and they take more skill to spot and land. I think it is safe to say that detractors have little or no experience with such equipment. I can knock it because I have tried it. PS you should still spot for the freebag and cutaway main. That shit aint cheap. Onward and Upward!

Yep, a whole plane full of ebay shit shot to hell. Too bad there were no big rivers near by. Onward and Upward!

It's evolution....If parachutes keep getting smaller and smaller eventualy we won't need them at all. 20 years from now people will look at the gear we jump today and say... I can't believe they used to jump that shit! Just like we now scoff at the gear from the 80's. (well, not me of course) Onward and Upward!

I have 8 total reserve rides. The first 7 were on rounds. 6 of those landed on the DZ the other one was miles away but that was due to a high cutaway in strong winds but that is another story.... I never had a problem with round reserves but that is likely because I had almost 60 jumps on rounds as a main. Half of my cutaways were with capewells. Three rings made things so much easier. My last reserve ride was on a square 202 rascal and I did a stand up in the peas. I had my cutaway handle and reserve rip cord in my teeth and I spit them out as I flared and yelled "eat fuck skydive" as I landed. I have not jumped with a round on my back since that day. I was SOLD! That was my last malfunction 18 years ago and over 2000 jumps ago. Back in those days we were jumping in rural areas with lots of outs. The big concern was trees, animals or fences. Nowadays we have freeways and houses and industrial parks. Unless my situation changes I will likely never jump a round again. Onward and Upward!

Yep, but I did not hear about it until today. This would have been a big deal with passengers but a load of cargo did not get much attention... Onward and Upward!

Long time skydiver and lifetime USPA member Rodney Holberton walked away from this. As far as I know Rod and the co-pilot are fine. Rod (nick-named Noid) is the son of DZO George Holberton of the infamous Beagle Sky Ranch in Southern Oregon. I have made many jumps with Noid at the controls. Way to go Noid!!!! [url "http://www.jetphotos.net/news/index.php?blog=1&title=fedex-atr-42-crashes-in-lubbock-texas&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1"[/url] Onward and Upward!

WTF? Onward and Upward!

I used to own a silouette and I loved it when it was new but after about 300 or so jumps it just did not seem to have any flare left in it. Nothing scientific just my personal observation. The landings got consistently worse over time so I got rid of it. Your milage may vary.... They might be easier to pack but I still think 100% ZP is the way to go. .02 Onward and Upward!

Right on Tom! My sentiments exactly! If you do a search under "search nazis" or the "search police" I think you will find that this subject has already been covered. I swear it is like some people read these forums just so they can find something that has already been discussed just so they can be a dick and tell someone else to go do a search. "How dare you, we talked about this 2 years ago you moron!" And it doesn't just happen to newbies. Sometimes a newbie will do it to the more experienced....I have seen the 100 jump wonder say "Do a search grandpa!" to the guy with thousands of jumps. Onward and Upward!

Sigh.... I guess I am still old school.... I have the same Altimaster I bought when I was teenager (I had to save up for it) I usually don't look at it until after I open the main and I am in the saddle, airspace cleared, slider cocked and brakes released. When I was a student you were not allowed to have an altimeter until you were off student status which was usually 25 to 30 jumps. You had to first prove you could count and maintain altitude awareness, if you could not do that then no altimeter until you were ready for it. We were allowed to have a stop watch to help you with the count. Time and altitude, time and altitude, that was the drill. Build up that mental clock and learn how to read the horizon. Don't trust gadgets! I still have my trusty old altimeter and on camera jumps or big ways I have an audible. They are there to remind me I still know where I am at. Onward and Upward!

Thanks Jimmy! My new set up will look similar to yours with a smaller still cam body. Looking at the Batrack I think the quick connects are needed. I think it would be tough to manipulate thumb screws between the helmet and top plate without them. I was looking at the new BH Mantle but I found a vintage Batrack in great condition. The top plate is about the same size. I am going to get the chin cup cutaway mod and new liners. If you have time I would like to know your method for aiming the two cams side by side. It came with a Newton cross site. My old system was stills in front and vid on top. To others; I now jump in a dry climate..... Cracks on the camera base? so you are saying the box saves the camera if the base of the camera fails? Onward and Upward!