Bob_Church

"Pitbulls have the title today that dobermans did in the 1960's. While I agree most all dogs can be rehabilitated given the proper training, time and a owner/trainer who knows animal psychology. Just saying it can be done. Dosn't mean every combination of animal and trainer/owner can make it happen. " Something I wonder about and would like your opinion on. Unfortunately dogs get mistreated or neglected every day. Pretty much any species. It's hard to even write about because when you think of what dogs will do for us it's hard to imagine someone abusing one, but it's everywhere. Ok, back to what I'm wondering about. Do you think pitfalls react differently to being abused or ignored than other breeds?

Gee who would imagin shipping issues at Christmas time. Are you suggesting that even though Amazon would imagin (sic) shipping issues, they failed badly in providing a simple mechanism for resolving them. Or are you suggesting that Amazon failed to imagine shipping issues, which is why they provided no simple mechanism for resolving them. Whichever, I agree. Every time I hear about a plane crash, train derailment or anything else along those lines I do a mental checklist to see if I have anything in transit that might be affected.

I really miss Para-flite. The happiest I've ever been with a canopy was with my Cruise-Lite.

Jaeger worries me a lot. He's an incredibly sweet dog but he looks like his day job is guarding the gates of Hell. Every once in awhile he gets out during the day and goes trotting around the neighborhood. I can't catch him but I try to stay close enough to at least try to keep someone from shooting him.

True, but it's not just this. There are way too many other examples instead of just your homeboy or Michael Vick wannabes. I think the situation is that the results of abusing a pitbull are much worse than the results of abusing other types of dogs.

Sorry to get so worked up about this, but living in Appalachia, the topic of neighbors and what they let their animals do is a hot topic.

I rate things for danger based on how quickly people start yelling "it could happen with any (insert thing that's killing people left and right) at any time". You can tell they've had a lot of practice defending whatever it is. One of the first stories I saw today was a woman killed by a pitbull and I assumed it was the same story but no, a woman was killed and her husband chewed up by one in Kentucky last night. I think Joe hit the nail on the head. trashy people seem drawn to pitbulls. Montreal just went through a big pitbull affair. "Leader Lionel Perez said the city's own data suggests the number of dog bites related to pit bulls accounted for 40 per cent of the total bites reported in 2016 and 2017, even though they represent just three per cent of canines in the city." So they were banned then the ban just rescinded. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-pit-bull-ban-1.4458038 The license should be required for all the owners of that breed. I agree but how does that help? The people two doors down from us have a pitbull that I love. I really do. And when she gets out and runs I follow her and make sure nobody shoots her. These two people are responsible. But if the white trash living up by Carpenter road ever get a pitbull instead of just dozens of cats that run wild, what then? The people killed and injured last night didn't own the dog, had no control of it's life. It sounds like they didn't even know the guy. It came over and attacked them. Should people have to live with the idea that if one of their neighbors doesn't follow a checklist that dog will kill them or the kids riding their bikes. And as for the "it could happen with any dog." Ok, name the incidents. Dogs killing kids make the news. Let's see all the articles about other types of dogs going off because of their worthless owners and killing people who have nothing to do with them. And not the bait and switch of bites, I'm talking about ripping a child's face off or killing people. No problem if they handle the dog correctly. Dogs that have to be raised and treated in specific ways to keep them from killing the neighbors should not have neighbors. That article about the woman killed last night and her husband hospitalized was over half about how the problem was that the neighbor didn't raise it properly, so no problem. Who f-ing cares?

I rate things for danger based on how quickly people start yelling "it could happen with any (insert thing that's killing people left and right) at any time". You can tell they've had a lot of practice defending whatever it is. One of the first stories I saw today was a woman killed by a pitbull and I assumed it was the same story but no, a woman was killed and her husband chewed up by one in Kentucky last night.

When Nick called last Monday morning, I knew something was up. Something I wasn't going to like. He kept sort of beating around the bush. This is a guy who runs an explosives factory, Austin Powder's Red Diamond plant, as his career and manages an airport as his hobby. He usually just comes to the point. But not this time. He starts off by telling me the shirts he specially printed for me are done. Oh yeh, he also has his own little screen printing business. He talks about taking me up for some jumps on Wednesday, and other pleasantries. Finally, he gets down to it. He mentions the upcoming "Hilltop Music and Antique Car Festival" at the Vinton County Airport this Sunday, and confirms that I will be jumping for it. Nick's our pilot for these things. He's also the head booster for the Vinton County Airport, which receives no money from the county. "Bobby" (I know I'm in trouble now), "bobby, how do you feel about jumping in a Santa suit?" He interprets my hesitation as reluctance, and I've got plenty of that, but it's more the idea of why in God's name would I be jumping a Santa suit for a music festival during the first weekend of August. But that's what he wants. It turns out it's his latest idea for the candy drop. Many of you may be familiar with Candy Drops, but not the way we do them. You go to your Wood County Airshow for instance, and the kids are kept 500 feet back as some old guy in a Piper Cub taxis down the airstrip dumping candy. After the engine has been shut down, the kids are allowed to run out and grab the candy. But where's the sport in that? The first candy drop Nick did still stands out as one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had at an airport, at least during the day. First off, they filled a five gallon bucket with candy. And we're talking a wide assortment, lots of jolly ranchers, tootsie roll pops, gold wrapped chocolate coins, the works. Then all the kids were kept in a group just inside the fence, as Nick flew over and Scott dumped the bucket. The kids were kept back by a group of adults, including Harry the instructor, and they all noticed that something wasn't quite right. On the final part of the run, Nick decided that he was too far to the right (the kids being to the left) and made a last moment adjustment. This did two things. It increased airspeed and put the plane on a course with the kids. We heard this huge "whoosh" like all the whooshes you've ever heard but all at the same time as five gallons of candy hits the slipstream. It looked like a Peter Max poster. All the colors of the rainbow, plus a few, especially the Jolly Ranchers. Speaking of which, as the heaviest, they hit first, striking the hangar roof across the parking lot and sounding like 50 caliber machine gun fire, Then a creeping barrage of candy advanced relentlessly towards the kids. Harry took a tootsie roll pop to the forehead and went down on one knee. Just before it reached the kids, the barrage ran out. Chocolate coins were exploding out of their wrappers, leaving little gold carcasses and little m&m packs were doing their Claymore impressions. The kids loved it, and Nick was forced to promise that there would always be a candy drop. It's never been quite that good again. Last year they used a little helicopter. The guy hovered at about 20 feet while his partner dumped out the candy. I stood behind the EMS truck. It was the most solid looking thing around, and I knew that one cough of that ancient engine would mean prop pieces everywhere. But somehow, and I'll probably never know how, Nick got it into his head that Santa should jump in, then the candy would be dropped. The idea was that I would exit at 3,000 feet, make a landing then walk over to the kids, do the Ho Ho Ho bit, as Nick and Scott dropped back down to about 20 feet and dropped the candy. I pointed out that this was stupid. After all, why would Santa jump then have the candy dropped? I know they're kids, but that doesn't mean they're stupid. I mean, what's my motivation? So I had them modify the upcoming announcement. Santa was going to jump in and then hand out candy. What I would do was to come up to the crowd of kids, give my ho-ho-ho and reach into the candy bag. Which is empty. Santa forgot the candy!!! It's still on the plane! Everyone is horrified, but Harry, remember Harry, who will be standing beside me will get on the radio and let the plane know. They'll find the candy and drop it off. They liked it. I find all this very, very stressful. I'd feel stressed out enough just wearing a Santa Suit and going up to a bunch of kids, but to climb out of a plane at 3 grand, not know what the wind will do to the suit, etc. puts the pressure on. Which, I firmly believe, is why Nick picked me to do the Santa jump. The others would have said "that sounds too stupid, no way." Plus the damned suit fits me, but I don't want to go into that. At about 5:30 I put the suit on, put my rig on over it, and had Ted and Neal both do gear checks on me to see if I'd missed anything. I knew the cap wouldn't stay on in freefall, so I'd hold it in my left hand. I use my right hand for opening, and figured that if nothing went wrong I'd be ok with that. If it did go wrong, then Nick would owe someone a new cap, since I might have to toss it to get things straightened out. The beard was a bigger problem, I decided that the only way to keep in in place was to bite down on it. As I told everyone later, if you think that beard looked bad, it doesn't look half as bad as it tastes, smells or feels.. Scott sat on the backseat of the 172, and I knelt on the floor where the passenger's seat would normally be. This gave me a good exit without moving around a lot, which I needed, but meant that I was on my knees during the entire flight. A flight that went on forever. I never found out if it was because of a plane in the area, or timing or what, but we circled for at least twenty long miserable minutes. I have a purple bruise on my left knee. Finally, this is it! Nick lines up on the airport and I put my head out to spot. I notice that if I have my head down, charging-bull style, as I put it out the door, the wind plasters the beard to my chest, which works out well. I've worn two altimeters, my usual chest mount and my less-used wrist mount, to make sure I'll be able to see at least one of them. so this is perfect. I climb out, let go and rather than opening immediately I take it down a good six to seven seconds. It's just that freefall feels so good after such a stressful day and plane ride. Then I reach back with my right hand and toss out my pilot chute. The next thing I know, I've gone into a cloud. No, it's the beard, being pushed up over my face. I clear it, then clear up the canopy, busting the breaks, checking the cells, collapsing the slider and generally making sure I have a working parachute. Details. Then I put on the cap, and it's time to play Santa. And it went really well. Neal slipped a sack to me with a handful or so of candy in it. I went up, did my bit, and the kids actually bought it. When Nick and Scott flew over I stood out on the tarmac holding my sack up, getting into the act, when they kept on going. I couldn't tell if it was part of the act or what, but I faked it, jumping up and down. This happened twice. Scott explained afterwards that Nick was way too far to the left each time. Half the candy would have ended up on the terminal roof and the other half directly into the kids, taking out an eye or two. As the kids ran out to gather up the goodies I slipped into the briefing room and de-briefed, as it were. Man it felt good to get out of that suit, and to have gotten past the whole thing. And the kids actually bought it. I kept my interactions to a minimum, mostly because I didn't know what I was doing, but also to cut down the chance of some older kid pointing out that I looked a lot like that guy who'd been here all day. One really sweet point was when a little girl was telling her Mother that she wanted to thank Santa, but couldn't find him now. The Mother told her that Santa had had to get back to the North Pole, etc. This was while I was standing next to them, in street clothes. so I'd pulled it off.

But I've personally never been killed by a pitbull so they must be safe.

I think the biggest problem with the pullout back then was that when you got to the point of putting the bag into the container, arguably the most important phase of packing a rig with a pullout, you were already done. Putting what seemed like 10 pounds of flour into a 5 pound bag was a full time job in itself, so those all important corners didn't always get wedged in as well as they should have.

Thanks, I appreciate the info. I've got three "hypoxia" loads on Mullin's plane but only to 23k. Since I exited alone each time I was last out and that trip down the fuselage got really strange. But if and when I do get a chance for a HALO I'll pay special attention to the equipment and try to avoid what he went through.

Do you think this stuff might be old enough for museums, or was there just too much of the stuff still around in basements and old hangars?

Do you know why the one guy got hypoxia despite the oxygen? I'm curious because I really want to do a HALO jump but I'm one of those poor bastards who starts getting hypoxic at 10k or even lower. Thanks

That's not what he said. Thanks.

I think throwouts are like The Beatles. You had to experience what came before to really appreciate them.

"Pilot chute hesitations, reserve pulls, and fatalities because of pull outs were numerous in the 70's when a lot of people first tried them. That's why hand deploys became the dominant system. When all is said and done, hand deployed systems simply have far fewer problems in actual usage. " I can't even imagine going back to a pullout. I remember the last person I knew who had one. Her husband and I were in the C180 getting out on the next pass and we watched her in freefall with the pud in her hand and the bag getting line stretch in a huge horseshoe. We never did figure out how she actually got canopy but she finally switched to throwout after that one.

If people want to fly by emulating birds then they have to go all the way. First off, have your bones hollowed out.

Retirement means that the next time someone says "have a nice day" you just might have a shot at it.

What's really disturbing is how much today's so-called Left resembles the old fire and brimstone Bible Thumpers.

Are you sure that the container system and the canopy are the same age? Canopies tend to age, including design wise, a lot faster than containers.

I put the holder under the laces, no edges to catch.

When one of us was having a fit because we couldn't find something "The last time I used it I put it back where I found it."

I normally have one on my chest strap and one in my knee pocket. During CReW I have one on my shoe.

Just to let you and everyone else know in case they don't- You can select a service called "UPS Last Mile" by which UPS will deliver your package to your local post office, and they will delivery it from there. The idea is that if you live in certain areas, like in a rural area, this will be cheaper than having UPS deliver to your location, because the post office is going there every day anyway. You will need to let your vendor know that you do not want this service if you are willing to pay for UPS to your door. I'm just letting people know so that they don't think poorly of UPS, which can't control what USPS does. (I'm sticking up for UPS because at least locally, they give me very good service.) Personally I don't like it because UPS in is my neighborhood every day, and it would make shipment one day longer. I've never heard of it being optional. At my local post office the UPS stuff gets dropped off on Tuesdays and is then sorted for delivery on Thursday. And no, they're not allowed to dig something out for you, I've tried. We have a great situation here and I think it's because UPS and USPS are vying for the all important Ohio University business. They've set up an incredibly efficient pipeline into and out of Athens, and Albany benefits from it to. I never pay for extra shipping because things get here so incredibly fast anyway. It's not unusual to get things in two days, regular shipping. And a few times I've gotten them the next day thanks in part to the distribution center in Wilmington, Oh. The bad news is when someone ships Fedex. I'm sure they're great in some areas but not here, in fact their nearest shop is in Parkersburg Wv. I think they decided that competing with UPS and USPS was a waste and never really tried. I just thought their prediction of me getting the package by the 19th (yesterday) was a little unrealistic.