Deuce

I've read that Diablopilot has already responded, but just to add, his previous DZ is very much like my current one. A Cessna during the week, usually, and a turbine on the weekends. AggieDave, there's just no way that SoCal is any kind of turbine snob.

http://www.nationals.com/ Everything you could ever want to know.

I got your RW jump with Gareth in mines. Look!

The fact that those women reflect light is what makes them look good. I'm only hoping to capture that reflection with this contraption I wear on my head.

Ask them what kind of meats they have, and when they get done telling you, say "yes". Ground meat parts in animal intestine casing: it's what's for dinner!

I really think you should charge more. The gear is obscenely more expensive than film gear, and the flash card discwriter is more expensive that a whole lot of film rolls.

Yeah, I got a team, like, uh, today. I'll be there, I don't know about Rosa.

Fox Force Four will be in the house with a last minute replacement camera flier, me. I am going to be styling in my Fox Force Four spaghetti strap tank top! http://foxforce4.com/

Hey, we took an 81 year old up on a level one, and he passed! It was fun to meet your gran, and I'm glad you were able to share the skydive with her in real-time. I had more fun than her, though, cause I was THERE! Wyatt! We gotta do that hyper-performance CRW thing again. You and Q were leaving a contrail, that two-stack was moving so fast. You see the shot of half his canopy collapsed?. Lou! Not enough time. I'll be big into Birdman at Eloy for at least a half day with MonoUno and the flock. I did get one flight in with Ed, and that bird can get it on. He has an awesome backfly. I lent my suit to Iwan most of the time, and he got to fly with Jari. Enough free nylon crack, though. He's picking up his new suit in Holland this week.

I've clearly stunned everyone to silence with my art.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1271720;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread You are featured.

Well, at low light angles, you'll get flare off any lens. The other lens I use is a Canon 20mm, which I use for tandems and most RW. Just about all my Herc shots were with the 14, so if you check my sig line you can get into my galleries and check out more than just the one I posted. Peter Galli and VDSchoor chose the 15, and you can compare my shots (and diablopilot's) to theirs and see what you like more. I'm just not a fan of fisheye, and I'm pretty sure I'm about a year away from a $1499 D30 with the 20's speed and a full size sensor. At that time I will be glad I sprung for the aspherical, cause on a full frame, the 15 is pretty rounded all over. A plus on the current cameras is that the "roundness" caused by the 15 is cropped off. It's a real bargain, price and quality-wise as well. Oh, the other problem with the 14 is fogging. It has never been a problem for me in California, but in Sweden I got condensation in the center of the outside of the lens from temperature change and humidity. You can't really put a filter on it (on the outside)

Brother, that's like saying "Once you've stuck enough pins in your eyes, you'll be able to really appreciate the difference between a tack and a needle" I've already said the Caravan is the bomb for tandems. Better than the KingAir. The problem with the PAC is that the benches are carpeted. You can't scoot down them. The ceiling is too low to duck-walk down the aisle hooked up more than a couple times a day, and while the door is bigger once you are on the step that doesn't help cause I don't poise the tandem passenger on the step. We gotta go through the hole, and it's short from inside. I prefer hooking up on the straddle bench too. Problem is getting the outboard feet into the center aisle and getting down to the door, where the interior of the fuselage keeps shrinking like an optical illusion. The reason I'd rather it had floor seating is because I'm too big to take a tandem my size down the aisle and out. So is Connie! Again, one of the Davis tandem masters, who jumps the Caravan and the PAC weekly, told me the Caravan is far superior. As to paying the bills on a KingAir vs. a PAC, the PAC wins. The airlift provider can have his own forum. I'm posting my opinions as a consumer. It's got a stable ride, it's reasonably fast to altitude, and it has nice big windows. It's cramped. As a tandem master (with fewer tandem jumps than you) I'd rather go out of the 182 or the 206. For Birdman flight it's REALLY uncomfortable, and after one experience with it, the flock at the Byron Boogie was actively avoiding it. Look, as I said, there is no doubt that it is the future of skydiving airlift. Everybody, including me, will find ways to make it work. So far I've jumped the CASA, Skyvan(s), Caravan(s), KingAir(s), Otter(s), Beech 18, C182(s), C206(s), a couple ballooons, a couple helicopters, and the Hercules. The PAC is a compromise aircraft. It compromizes lift capacity with economy. Everybody wins when more people get to skydive more in a day. That doesn't mean they are comfortable. That's all. I was really looking forward to this airplane. I was just hoping for more from all the hype.

You conceived your son in only one or two tries? Wow.

http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/JPKelly/Skydive/20040926ByronBoogie The most difficult ones were the PD Velocity CRW stack. Staying with that one took a whole lot of middle-aged muscle. Velocity's just freaking HAUL ASS! Both vertically and horizontally. A 2:1 velocity, in a two-stack vs. a 1.6:1 Spectre means the Spectre pilot is doing a lot of hard spiralling to stay in it. I did a lot of experimenting and I've submitted some of my favorites, so they're not in the album. Girlfalldown is, though!

While I think that was not meant as a slam, it truly is. The blessed 182 is the little engine that could in skydiving. It is not the be-all, end-all that the PAC has been advertised as being. The skydiving industry, such as it is, runs on tandems. As stated by Skymedic, the PAC has really nice windows, so rides to altitude are nice sight seeing tours for tandem passengers. That is, so long as a rig is not smashing their balls or boobs. At max gross, the plane is over tight. The might Sebazz was behind me on one PAC load, and was really smashed and pretty desperate to get out by the time we were at alti. So, for tandems, it sucks. At least with the bench. I'd set one up with wrestling-type mats and floor seat belts, much like Monterey's Otter, if I was in charge. Sitting on the floor kind of defeats the advantage of those big windows, though. The prop blast is heinous. I think this is contributing to people striking the flap and the horizontal stabilizer on exit. When up on the step in the blast, however strong you are, you are straining to keep your body forward. I think this contributes to throwing oneself forward on exit. The air right above the wing might be cleaner, so once out of the prop blast, WHACK!, right into the flap. The shiny new one we jumped at Byron had head-shaped dings in the flap, and I saw the Amazing AvgJoe himself smack the flap with his noggin. The blast seems to be superterminal, so if you track up into it, it seems it would be easy to track up into the approaching tail. Especially with a wingsuit. Like I've said elsewhere, I'm sure we'll adapt to it, cause like it or not it's the future of skydiving transport.

What make and model of car?

Thanks for the belly laugh. Oh, that's funny.

Being the compassionate convervative I am, I'll translate. Ever see film of someone getting "drummed out" of the Foreign Legion? They cut the buttons off the uniform, then do a kind of perp walk out of the fort. Seemed like making them stand in a hurricane and then slam the brakes on their car 15 times would fit in there somewhere.

Are you a Major Monkey yet?

Ohhhhhh, yeaaaaaaaah. Git some, Big Red, come on!

Tell them to go stand in the middle of hurricane force winds for 15 minutes, then get in their car, put on the seat belt, drive 120mph and slam the brakes on 15 times and let you know how they feel. Geez, Philly, at what point do you cut the buttons off their shirt and cast them out?

Each opening is like a minor car accident. It gets easier the more you do it. I'm averaging about 20 a week (skydives) these days, including tandems. You just gotta jump more, Corndog.

Thanks very much, Paul. That's really helpful. JP

As per my usual, I met somebody at the dropzone, jumped with them all weekend, took oodles of pictures of them, and didn't remember their name. Hi Shawn! This would be the front float geek you are referring to? (one of many) I'll upload my pictures overnight, they should be available tomorrow.