kevin922

Yeah I jumped one a few times at orange a while back.. very fun. Here is a good shot of my butt going over the side of one... http://www.interone.net/gallery/Skydiving-Adventures/aap?full=1

Was looking on the birdman site and saw these pictures.. what the hell is this airplane? it looks bad ass! http://www.bird-man.com/birdman/pictures-espace.htm

Well the whole crew from skydiving.com including Jari from birdman were hanging out at Orange this past weekend demoing birdman suits and whatnot. I decided I'd try one out. Jari did the 30 - 45 minute ground class with me and away we go. I was a little worried about the suit.. i had heard all kinds of things about how peopel had hit the plane on exit, how cutaway procedures were different and whatnot... I found out through the class however your cutaway procedures are the same, there is no reason to cut the wings on a malfunction (unless somehow the wings are interfering with the malfunction?) - you have enough movement to cut and pull with the wings in tact. Anyway, so there we are Jari in the door me (i'm sure looking petrified) looking back at him.. ready, set, go ! away we went I arched spread my wings and away I was. It was unbelieveable.. i've already forgot the true feeling because so much was going through my mind... practice pulls were scary, after I'd go for the hackey and act like I threw out I'd then do a nose dive.. which was kinda scary... I also was not jumping my camera helmet which meant no audibal for me which was another thing that threw me for a loop.. I pulled about 500 feet below my pre-determined altitutde but that was all good since it came out to be around 4,500. I found out arching is very important with birdman suits and I definately wasn't arching enough. Unfortuntely I only had time to make 1 jump, I wish they had the suits at my DZ so you could rent them. I guess I'll have to wait until I get a new job that pays worth a flip so I can buy one because they are great. If you have enough jumps and Jari is your way, try them out they are fun. He didn't get close enough to me to talk to me, but one of the other jumpers who jumped with him said they were talking in freefall!

Ah ha so does this mean everyone gets back to their normal status and thus starts the post whoring all over again??

Well I was really more refering to a normal rig setup, normal slider, no tailgate, etc.. What do you do about stowing your brakes in a jump like that? And do you think you take a normal pro pack and just flake it out a little ? Wonder if you could do that jump from a helicopter or if the downdraft would just yank your butt off the side... There has to be some "safe" way to do that jump.. it looks like fun..

Now that is just bad as shit. I guess you could use a normal canopy for that since there is no deployment, right? How big is that canopy anyway..

Resolution: Don't use microsoft for chat. :)

So who is the happy girl on the right? :)

take it for what it's worth - email is easier to save / trace. So if you are wanting a hard copy of the convo and don't have tape recording on your phone line that is the way to go. Getting into recording phone convos is a whole other legal thing (Some places require you inform the person they are being recorded, etc). I've learned (through being burned) to use email over voice because I have a good record of what was said then. Kevin

I just saw the video located at ftp://ftp.skydivingmovies.com/public/cutaways/lowpull.mov. All I can say is WOW. I would have been scared s*itless after walking away from that. The guy got his reserve out and not 5 seconds later he was on the ground.. amazing. Anyone know any details about this video? Kevin

Until my auction on ebay ends to sell my Jeep :) So if anyone is interested in a new used car, check it out this way I can get enough money to go to the dropzone and jump! Kevin

I would think that is grounds for a discrimination lawsuit...

i can't even get the damn thing to load.. grrr

Wow! I went to see wild california in the IMAX in DC and the little skydiving there was in it was awesome. I can't wait for this movie to come out, hopefully it will come my way.

Okay I stand corrected, and apologize, i was misinformed by another jumper as to what was going on at orange . At anyrate this has definately not been a good week for skydivers.. all of those injured are in my thoughts. Blue Skies. (Hey congrats on post #1 ostrich.)

Anyone know if weber is on this page? Here If so which one:? Kevin

Make that 3 femurs - 1 at Orange, VA. Kevin

The car didn't come with the radios in it - I put mine from my last ride in there. Some of the PDs in my area are using digital - fortunately a few of the ones who are using digital are re-broadcasting on the older analog so people who want to hear it still can. Oh and it has a siren. :)

Try again with the URL - that one doesn't work. Kevin

Cool! I got a new car too, my jeep cherokee was hitting 118K so I figured it was time to start looking. Found me a 2000 chevy impala 9c1 (police) all ready for my EMS outings. It even has a spotlight perfect for lighting up the landing area during night jumps! :) Check out my Pictures as well. Kevin

Gold coast is the closest. Kevin

Blue skies.. here's the CNN article: SUFFOLK, Virginia (AP) -- A former Navy SEAL and skydiving instructor died after he hit his head on a plane during a jump and fell to the ground without his parachute deployed. Brad Foster, 42, of Virginia Beach, was one of 14 parachutists practicing for a show this weekend when he jumped from the plane Friday, officials said. Foster, who had more than 4,000 jumps to his credit, likely died upon impact with the plane, fire Capt. James Judkins Jr. said. Foster's body was found in the back yard of a house about a quarter-mile from Suffolk Municipal Airport, where the flight originated.

Yeah they are showing how he spent his final day(s) And it was a letter not a fax ! :) It's on at 10:00 est (i think) Kevin

An update on ER Skydiving. Be sure to watch tonight, it is supposed to be on this episode. He does NOT die from skydiving. Skydiving was on the list of "things he wants to do before he dies" -- so it will probably be a short clip but hey it's skydiving! :) Kevin

Ok.. so I did something stupid the other day. I was closing my car door and not looking what I was doing, ended up closing my middle finger in the door. Suprisingly enough my reaction was very calm, just opened the door back up and looked at my finger.. then the blood started spewing everywhere. So being the EMT I am I got my trauma kit out of the back and bandaged it, stopped the bleeding and whatnot. It hurts like a mo-fo, but here is my question. The fingernail is split from side to side towards the top of my finger. (I.e. the rest of the nail could probably come off, it's only attached at the sides) What can you do about this? What will happen with growth? Will it push the large piece of nail down which currently exists and then it will just fall off or what?? I really wanna go jumping this weekend but don't want to bleed all over my rig. Any ideas?