jimjumper

Thank you, Jan! Without making comment on any of the information you provided, at least you came on here and stated what you have been told and provided some specifics.

When I got my Harley I took the MSF course. They provided the bikes, 250's if I recall correctly. Dropped it during one of the leaning turn exercises and snapped off one of the rear view mirrors. I apologized to the Instructor when he ran up and he said "If you drop it again, try the other side and you can keep the set as souvenirs."

Most of those regulations are USPA or UPT. That's why the Golden Knights (Army Parachute Team) do the jump. They can ignore all the rules by claiming it's a military jump.

I posted this over in the "Incidents" section when this all came up. I think the apology "I.E. Safety Article" will be published just before the next Board meeting, anything disciplinary will be handled in closed session and won't be discussed, and then it's back to business as usual! After 30 years of seeing stuff like this you tend to get a little cynical when it comes to USPA.

It was right after the incident report in Parachutist. Oh, wait...

That would be age discrimination and it would also be non-accommodating under the Americans with Disabilities act. Of course I am sure that most drop zones fully comply with the ADA regulations and wouldn't have any problems with a lawsuit artist checking.

Sigma manual says 4.5 minimum exit altitude after probationary jumps. 7.5 is the recommended minimum.

I'm pretty sure I was right around a hundred when I attempted my first 20 way. It was at the '84 Herd Boogie but I was jumping with the same people from my home DZ that couldn't get an 8-way together so why not go for bigger funnels out of bigger planes. I was usually out in the middle somewhere and occasionally I actually touched someone before break off. Sure had a lot of fun though!

I was about 230 when I bought my first rig. To jump a square you had to have 50 jumps. The school was using ragged out 35' T10's and my landings were pretty rugged. I bought a 27' Russian PC which landed me much better so I'd survive getting off student status. The reserve was a 24' flat (non-steerable). While I was being trained on my shot and half cutaways, the Instructor recommended, not entirely in jest, that I not cutaway from anything better than a streamer!

I really liked the 2 mods you did for me. And no, I'm not the guy Councilman24 is referring to. Sometimes it was a pain to get a re-pack from someone unfamiliar with them but once they looked it over they were usually OK with it. i would still be jumping them or replacements but when I started teaching AFF the school used conventional gear and I didn't want to teach one system, use another system, and then also switch to Tandem gear in various rotations.

You might try Rob Warner (riggerrob on the forums). He modified both of my Vectors to SOS some years ago. I don't have them anymore and I had them both returned to the 2 handle system before I sold them anyway but he might still have the technical info.

Or look at your First Jump Certificate! Surely you framed it and put it on the "I Love Me!" wall.

The generosity of some women never ceases to amaze me!

I'm thinking that Bob Sinclair might be in the running, but you'd have ask him when he started. I remember him telling me he taught his first student in '43 or '44 and he was barnstorming before that.

My nephew is flying the lead Apache. This is a photo taken of the TV coverage of the opening of the Charlotte 600 NASCAR race. He is third generation military! Not too bad even if he didn't go Navy.

I posted this in the Incidents section back on April 5th and I haven't seen or heard anything that would indicate anything has changed. "For those that have been calling for various punitive measures, I think that in the end very little is going to happen. With the number of DZO’s on the Board it is unlikely that they will do anything to one of their own. As a DZO he also could just drop his DZ Group Membership and then all the rules about USPA ratings and appointments are moot and it’s back to business as usual. I suppose USPA might need to appoint a new S&TA for the DZ but those are easy to replace. As an elected Director he was voted in by the membership and even if he doesn’t follow the rules at his own DZ his elected job is to represent those that voted for him so I doubt that there will be serious repercussions from that area either. I expect that he will offer an apology either to the USPA Board or via “Parachutist” and that will be the official end of it. This may sound cynical but I think ultimately any effort towards contrition will be of his own volition in an attempt to repair his reputation and not from any official concern by USPA." USPA is going to handle this event in the same way it's historically done.

My friend Joe Leach purchased his first square from ParaFlite in about '81 and was getting hard openings. He called Herb to get instructions about slowing the openings and Herb gave him some classic advice. The quiet Herb told Joe, "We never told you it was a sport for a candy-ass!" Joe used to love to tell that story. Herb did tell Joe how to slow the openings after that.

Used to jump with a guy that did everything he could to be recognized as a "sky god". When he finally realized that he just didn't have the athletic talent to accomplish what he wanted, he decided to quit jumping. He announced his last jump on me and my fiance's wedding jump and paid for the entire formation load! Now that's quitting with style!

These didn't taste like chicken at all. I live in a bad neighborhood!

On Casa's the fuselage edge where it meets the ramp edge is about 3" wide when the ramp is down, so if you exit backwards off the ramp with your arms spread the point of your elbow clips that ledge on exit. The regulars called it "Casa elbow" and usually you only do it once!

That's too bad. I was the treasurer for the Okinawa sport club in '94 and '95 and because we were MWR sponsored, we were given a monthly helicopter slot of 4 hours and use of the LZ on IeShima. Sure was fun jumping '53's and '46's on the militaries dime!

The point he was trying to make was that with the Strong harnesses, the chest strap is not fixed on the main lift web. It can slide up or down. I have seen TI's grab the chest strap to prevent it sliding all the way up. I don't recommend it myself for obvious reasons but I have seen it done. As far as having your hands on the risers during opening that is an exceptionally bad idea on tandems. A line twist on a tandem has a lot of force and I have seen the skin pulled off fingers and broken fingers from grabbing the risers on a tandem opening and getting a finger or thumb caught as it twists up. If your doing tandems and having canopies open so close that you need to riser turn for avoidance you need to review your aircraft exit and jump run procedures.

Maybe we could digitize Al Frisbey's "Bounce Book" as a start. I wonder what happened to it?

Around my place, that would be like putting out a salad bar for the local wildlife! Although, squirrel and rabbit would go well with some veggies... My neighbors have a good pot crop growing, maybe I'll see what they use to keep out the pests.

I love junk food and if I let myself indulge I put on weight fairly quickly. Before I realized I really needed to watch how much I eat, I got up to 245 pounds! I went on a calorie counting type diet and lost 65 pounds over a 7 month period. I also started running at the same time to help get the weight off and to maintain some muscle mass. Now I keep my weight within a 10 pound variation of 185 to 195 so that I can keep a regular fall-rate.