Deuce

I meant to refer to chemotherapy machines, not x-ray, and I don't know diddly about the technology of either. I'm asking. The active agent in chemotherapy machines is highly radioactive, right? So if some looney took it out and combined it with conventional explosives (about which I know a little) you could spread the stuff around and make lots of folks sick. I'm surprised there isn't better security around that source of radioactive material.

No. I've almost been killed lots of times. This is probably the closest skydiving, but there's probably lots of veterans out there that are amazed I've survived this long. "That boy's dumber that a box of rocks" This will be covered by my bi-monthly general-purpose case of beer. And don't make me kill again, Seb!

Kinda like that poor fella that got accused of the Olynpic bombing. Maybe you know, isn't the radioactive source in chemotherapy machines toxic as hell? I have thought that a dirty bomb could be made from the stuff in those machines, and hospitals have notoriously low security. I doubt it's fissionable at its state of refinement, but I recall reading (possible urban legend) some kids in Mexico took one apart and many of them died of radiation poisoning.

We must have been perfectly balanced, like a low profile tire on a competition rim..... I have no idea. That naked load is always landing away from the hangar. We gotta work on that, although seeing DeBar swoop naked right into the hangar is something I could miss..... Lisa E. on the other hand, such glamour, such beauty....

: 15: a few. Video'd tandems and big ways 10-12. Jumped with Cornholio and Lummy, Jams was there but we didn't end up jumping. Jumped my new wings on my camera suit, videoing big ways that big was a first. Thanks for the Skyvan exit tips. Sebster, what's your gear choice. I just ordered rig number 2, another Wings, PDR 146 and a Spectre 150. Whatcha getting?

Oh God! They're all disabled! What happened?

I've been using TDK tapes from Costco. What should I look for or avoid? Brent Finley had mentioned to Jairo about using the best Sony tape available, I'm just wondering what tape is good and what is shite. I've got a PC 120. Thanks all!

Sorry, monkey-one. I kinna help it. Oh, I'll be cryin on my great huge pilla tonight.

Chocolate covered mint Oreos. The secret ingredient is put in by the pentaverate. It makes you crave the cookies fortnightly. Oh, the Colonel, with his beady little eyes.....

Probably not a wake, I've video'd behind CRW 4 stacks in that wake turbulence, and it was nothing like that. Plus it banged the hangar doors when it was through with me. Our hangar has old-style roll-to-the-side doors and they bang in their tracks when the wind gusts. Byron old-timers can determine the wind speed by the volume of the doors banging

And the rock-n-roll ballerina LAYETH THE SMAKETH DOWN! Hee Hee. Somebody hear something? Oh. B-squared's all mad. Beers. JP

Yes, I was there to see it . Thanks for showing me my max stand speed. Aggie D! Stop with the depleted uranium! It has no nutritional value! "Try FreeFly Flakes, enhanced with depleted uranium to speed you up on your way down!"

"Hagar". I fly better than I type. Really. Q, the wind was blowing from the northwest, so it was coming over open ground, and the airport and buildings were behind me on final. There's one shed out in the field that's about 8' X 8' by 6' tall. I don't think it was a contributing factor. I wasn't hot yesterday, either. Maybe describing the turbulence as a dust devil is innacurate. As I think about it, the term clear air turbulence comes to mind, but that's not a phenomenon I know enough about to use it to describe what happened. I have had my canopy deflate once before that I was aware of, but it was at 1000' where our turbulence layer usually is. Shifty ground winds are nothing new at Byron, they can 180 while you are setting up your pattern. When things get sketchy near the ground I say in my mind at about the speed of light "fly the landing, keep flying, fly the landing out..." This time when the canopy reinflated right near the ground I had a pretty high sideways speed and I flat-turned into the wind just in time to get a decent flare. I'm pretty cynical, so when I first heard people saying "nice landing" I thought they were dogging me about my 7-cell. The old, "that looked like a swoop, only smaller" kind of thing. But several told me I'd just beat the reaper, and I thought I'd share it with the group.

On final I'm in front risers and it suddenly feels like I cutaway. I drop about 20 feet, it feels like, and I actually hear the crowd watching gasp(it was our boogie, so we had some spectators). My canopy reinflates about 10 feet up and I flare and step out no problem. Dust devil or something. It banged into the hagar right after it flew through me. It was not visible. Some skydivers tell me good job, that I was completely collapsed and then reinflated right before I bit it. I never looked up at the canopy so I don't know how bad it looked. Several people called me a dead man walking. I'm grateful for my training, and my Spectre. But mostly I'm glad I was lucky.

Damn, that Lumster is smart. What he said. Nobody hates their job more than I hate this one today.

I vote Stroboframe. But I'm constantly riding Quade's leg. What do I know.

No! No! The matching "We're cooler than you-ooo. We went to NASH-uh-nals!" Sweatshirts are a really nice touch.

Yikes. I had been warned that when I took up camera that I'd start to leave the hangar without my rig, having spent all my worrying time thinking camera and video. Leaving the plane, though.... Hey Q! Nice picture of you and Lori on the Perris site from last weekend!

Did this happen? From the Darwin Awards site: (North or South Carolina, 1980's) A parachute instructor was videotaping the lessons he was giving to a group of trainees. He had attached the video camera to his helmet so that it would capture the entire day of instruction. The group of enthusiastic beginners went up in the plane, and the instructor led them through preparations for the jump. When they reached the jump site, the students and instructor jumped from the plane, tape still running. A few minutes later, the instructor realized that he had been so focused on preparing his trainees for the jump, which needed to be perfect for the sake of the videotaped lesson, that he had forgotten to strap on his own parachute. All but the last ten feet of his fall was recorded by the camera. The very last part of the tape was destroyed by the impact. Readers! If you can confirm this story, please Share Your Information!. It happened in the mid-1980s, in North or South Carolina, and was probably reported in many newspapers. http://www.darwinawards.com/ ***

Good luck Nathan.

All fortune cookie sayings have two words left off the end. All fortune cookie sayings make sense when you add them. .....in bed. Try it!

Sorry about that B-squared. Back when my wife was a travel agent we went on a Canary Island cruise, and the German tourists would get up in the middle of the night to put towels on the best deck chairs by the pool. You'd have your breakfast and mozie up, nobody up at the pool yet, sit down, get a drink, start to relax, and there's Gunter, "Fahren die chair-en" or something. "No,dude, you can't keep the chair for the whole cruise" It would start to get ugly and I'd open my mouth long enough for them to identify me as an American and I'd say I had a gun. That always freaks em out, and most Europeans have a sneaking suspicion all Americans have guns. So next time you get stuck, especially in Arizona, home of the Gunsite Academy, and one of the rare uncool euros is just watching, shout "Hey Fritz, get your ass over here or I'll f$cking shoot you!" It works most every time

I vote Stobo. Your life is no democracy,though!

Yesterday was day one of the Byron Boogie. No tandem work, so I worked out my new wings shooting 10 and 12 way. Michael,(I hope I remeber the name right) the guy that built Brent Finley, et al's helmets, is doing RW in the big groups and watches my video and gives me some coaching. His helmets are awesome. His is a very highly modified Bieffe motorcycle helmet with all kinds of whiz-bang electronics and custom anodized aluminum bits. We were going out of the Van all day (9 jumps) totally super fun. He told me how to get in and out of the burble without crashing by watching my video and telling me what I was feeling. Psychic, I tell you. You meet the best people skydiving, and the best advice seems to be free. Relative work today (staying at home with the family) but more tomorrow. 1. Start skydiving younger in the next life. 2. Jump more.

Clearly an indication of the impending apocalypse. How did that happen?