kleggo

nick dg wrote Let's stop training 3 or 4 students at a time for free or for a few hundred bucks. If you want to be a true BASE mentor take one person at a time, charge them five thousand dollars, and take them all the way to a BASE number. Get them to the point where you can let go with a clear conscious. Make that commitment to the sport or stop doing it because it's not working. and TA responded Do you think the five thousand bucks is important in that equation? What if you took someone on for free, and worked with them until you felt comfortable that they were reasonably competent to be let go on their own What if, instead of cash, what you required from them was a commitment to the learning process, that they would not go out and jump on their own until both student and teacher agreed that the time had come? Just a thought... and a good one, from both of you, but not a new one, just one that imposes such a burden on the prospective student that very few people would buy into it, even if it were " free". back-in-the-day, Moe Viletto blazed just this path for any worthy students that came his way. He pretty much demanded at least 6 months of that persons life to learn all necessary aspects that he thought necessary. it started at the DZ of course since very few people bypassed that avenue, ( take a bow richie ), with simple lessons such as spotting, wind direction awareness, landing accuracy, when to step off a load if ground conditions sucked. and progressed to rigging skills, as in down to the level of building risers and sewing patches. then you pretty much had to memorize some of dennis pagan's works on microweather and turbulent air theory. memorize and comprehend. after several months of this you might be ready to go out and help with a site scouting expedition or actually be a part of a ground crew gig. it couls easilly be 3 - 4 months b4 you made your first jump. who among us has the time / desire / money to follow this path? i'd guess very few. those that do, are special people that have certainly earned their knowledge and have likely forgotten more about parachuting than many of us know. more power to those that choose this path. be safe kleggo

i've used inexpensive thin leather gardening gloves with good success for > 20 years. They cost $10 - $12 at the home improvement warehouses. be safe kleggo

On V1 and BOC/leg pouch issue: i have finally had a couple of small fumbles with BOC, and may eventually convert to a leg pouch. So far it has not been a big deal, but then again i do not currently pull low. yuri do whatever it takes to ensure your continuing survival. something as seemingly insignificant as a gear modification may keep you going for decades to come . be safe long flights kleggo

bill wrote (later) Ben just opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate the first flight, and Mary is walking around with the bottle. hey, rob told me that he immediately landed the otter when hte russian team tried this a few weeks ago . i guess the ensuing discussion between ben, pat and the russians was............ interesting. have fun cgf

in quite some time Time-Out for Lysebotn well worth reading i'll leave the "making it clicky" to someone more knowledgable than me be safe kleggo oops , forgot to add the to indicate a bit-o-sarcasm as far as timelyness is concerned.

RL wrote There's an interesting thread for the old fogies in General Skydiving right now. interesting? yes it does fit the criteria of the defintion of interesting, ( at least the cynics view of interesting). i'd probably choose the word............................. hmmmmmmm what's a good word to describe the feeling you have when you see or read something that leaves you shaking your head in bemused disbelief? be safe kleggo

Wendy, will you post the link as described on the dogs mailing list here? thanks kleggo and what the H? I guess i'm not compter savvy enough to figure out your email addy. Please contact me.

Well, the good news is we have a "team" and are jumping a few times a month. The bad news is we are a team of 4, one of our guys was hurt on landing and we now have no alternate. We are actively recruiting a 5th to join us and We need a video person that can commit to filming us at Nationals and at least the weekend prior. We'll pay your registration and jumping expenses. Let me know, Craig

I came home from a ride last saturday , turned on the radio and heard Jeb speaking with Alex Chadwick, the host of the NPR program Day to Day. Even though Alex was doing a decent job of trying to present Jeb with a fair opportunity to present Fixed Object Jumping in a "rational" manner, he still tended to slip into the Overdramatic / Sensationalism questioning mode. I thought that Jeb did quite a good job keeping Alex on track and painting FOJ in a reasonable light. He did almost blow it when he admitted to Alex that he had played Russian Roulette as a troubled teen With Jeb in the media spotlight quite a bit, i think he is doing surprisingly good job in presenting our shared pasttime. Surprising because I'm an old conservative fart and i can still appreciate what he is doing / saying and Surprising because he comes off pretty well under hte glare of the kleig lights. Bravo. FYI NPR usually archives all their programs for later download. Broadcast date = 9 july The final quote about whether Jeb would make the best counsellor or the worst counsellor for troubled youth was very telling be safe kleggo OK OK my bust The show is actually called Weekend America. The host is Bill Radke. A link to the interview can be found at http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/programs/index_20050709.html scroll down to the second hour of the program. someone else can make it clicky. sorry for the teaser. kleggo

That is a correct statement at this time. be safe kleggo

i have made nearly a dozen jumps using Moe's version of the ParaPak and will pass along my experiences to anyone that asks. i also have recently had the chance to "play with" Moe and Todd's new version of the ParaPak 2. The PP2 has some significant improvements over the original and is quite a sweet tool for a specific task No jumps on the new version............... yet. Be safe kleggo [email protected]

Jaap Give Todd a call at the Perris site.951.940.1324. He'll be happy to speak with an enthusiastic potential customer . At least as long as it does not intefere with production.......... As of this past weekend Marta was also there cranking on gear, including some of their new Dual Pin harness / container sytems. be safe kleggo

that is some spectacular footage thanks for sharing. i think i'll play with this position when i get my wingsuit back from repair. would you please be so kind as to tell me what the two jumpers in black are wearing at around T=0.48? Are these the new Phoenix two piece suits? Be safe kleggo

Keith welcome back from Bush's folly. I was happy to hear that you returned safely. Stay in touch Craig kleggo(at)adelphi.net

story number one time = early 1983 place = L.A. site = a bank building under construction, the baby of two similar buildings. gear = a 1978 wonderhog a Gargano Spirit, ( 220 ft 7 cell ), with a sail slider in a bag, skydiving throwout bridle and PC. It was my first Building jump and I was a bit concerned about the choice of gear, so I drove over to Carl and Jean’s and asked Carl, “ Hey what do you think about me jumping Baby ******* with a Spirit in a bag?” Carl, “sounds good to me, let me know how it works out”. So a friend drops off me and ex-patriot Brit, Mike Mc. and we start the climb up the construction stairs. Even though I had recently left the Marines and I thought I was a tough guy, I was quite fried when we stopped at about floor 42 or 43. Ever climbed 43 stories with 25 pounds on your back, in the dark? Amazing how noisy those stairwells were. We sat around for a bit to let the sweat dry as we hung our feet over the edge and enjoyed the downtown LA life @ 2am. Finally we had screwed up the courage to exit. Mike went first and all went well. I followed and…………………………………………………… things did not go so well. After a short delay, I opened 180° off heading, ( imagine that), and not far at all from the building. I was on the rear risers hard to stall the canopy which still swung me out towards the wall. I tucked up and hit the building HARD, fortunately between the windows, with both feet. I’m alive writing this because just as the nose of the canopy touched the wall it was flying backwards and I was able to turn away, pop the brakes and land on the street. Unfortunately the story does not end there. Upon landing I was greeted by two BIG black security guards with big baseball bats who said. “don’t move boy, you’re under citizen arrest”. I did not really care. I was alive and unhurt. The LAPD came and were forced to take me to Parker Center because the building landlords wanted to start busting people to dissuade activity for liability reasons. The police were very cool. They let me field pack my gear in their hallway and stashed my gear in waterproof bags. They also kept me out of the drunk tank general population. I was eventually charged with Criminal Trespass. it cost me about $250 and 80 hours of public service duty which I spent filing books at the Inglewood Public Library. I’m glad we know a bit more about gear nowadays. be safe or be smart kleggo

hmmmmmmmmm short version ~ 1984 i was jumping with Wrapture the speed 8 team. We had split into 2 X 4 for rotations and were practicing feverishly. somehow, even though i was jumping a Pegasus (220 sq ft) and i only weighed 150 lbs, i generated enough velocity that combined with my poor aim i flew all the way through the L/R riser groups of suspension lines from back to front of the canopy. i ended up hanging from Terry's shoulders, belly to belly with him, with my canopy mostly collapsed and his canopy still flying. i was a pretty stable mess and we had plenty of time for him to laugh his ass off at me and spread the joy with our 2 team mates who were circling like vultures waitng for me to cutaway. no way i just climbed back onto his shoulders and did a Mr. Bill off of his back. My canopy reinflated and the vultures returned to rotation fun with disappointed looks on their faces. he he he kleggo

hmmmmmmmmm good question. perhaps people will reply with some thoughtful responses and not just click a button. here's my attempt I believe that basic premise of an AAD is to open a reserve container when you are too incapacitated or too unaware to do so. I don’t think there is a high likelihood of a CReW scenario occurring where the jumper is too unaware to initiate canopy deployment. So, I’m going to ignore that variable, which leaves the incapacitation thing. It’s easy to imagine scenarios where a jumper is injured or unconscious and can not respond to an emergency, ( ever done competitive Rot’s? ). The question then is, how effective would it be to have the container open when the jumper meets certain rate-of-descent / altitude parameters? Gut feeling is that the AAD would probably be useful here., but then there is always the chance that the incapacitated jumper who would have landed under one good parachute, ( or has a buddy who top-docks him and pilots to earth {take a bow Kevin V and Chris G and Ken O and whoever else has done this} ), might spin in under a main / reserve entanglement. That outcome would probably be worse than the single canopy scenario. Possible reasons to not have an AAD; 1)unintentional opening due to a hardware / software malfunction, not sure how likely this is. 2)unintentional opening due to altitude sensing error because barometric sensor is confused when wrapped in nylon. 3)unintentional opening due to altitude sensing error because barometric sensor is in unusual attitude due to forces generated during a high speed wrap. I’m sure there’s other things to consider. Bring em on. Oh yeah, I vote bad idea, but am willing to listen to reason. Be safe kleggo

QuoteHe had a Comet 228' in a rig made by Chuck Embury but I can't remember the name of it. Throwaway in leg-pouch; round reserve. Fisrt let me say thanks for sharing this and bringing back memories. A Comet was THE shit back ~ '80 / 81, at least until Bill Gargano started making the Spirit and Mike Fury manufactured the Pegasus. All were far better than the dreaded Viking Superlite..................... AFAIK Chuck did not manufacture production style rigs, or did not make many. His neighbor Jim Handbury (sp?) did make a popular rig at the time. Chuck was active in Hangliding and Rigging. I believe he made many hidden parachute rigs for "hollywood". be safe kleggo

I didn't know about Greenie until 1986 or 87 when Mike Allen and some visiting Brits did a widely circulated video. But, I'd bet the locals are jumping prior to this and keeping it secret . . . but I don’t know how early or who made the first jump. Adam or Dennis might know . . . i made my 1st jump there in oct 82 with bK BASE #17. by that time it was being jumped ocasionally by so. cal. locals such as Peter H and Mark S. Clem might be a good source for nor. cal. info. i don't think there was a lot of activity there until late 1980 ish National Paratroopers Association ?????????????????? kleggo

The whole thing was likely a publicity stunt to get more skydivers to visit Perris so that their new wind tunnel would flourish. Pat Conatser is the “Ross Perot” of the skydiving industry. My guess is that he never had any real intention of ever having the plane fly skydive loads. He knew it would take years of red tape to even get the FAA to consider the DC-9 as a jump plane. Pat Conatser probably never thought that a slackened maintenance cycle would ever get approval for such a sophisticated and complex aircraft. When the news leaked that the aircraft’s speculative new maintenance cycle got approved, Pat realized that the fancy new paint job wouldn’t be enough keep the locals interested in the plane. Now these damn skydivers actually want to fly it, and jump out of it! Maybe Pat should have used all that money to cut skydivers a break on jump tickets? That’s just my opinion. this is the first time i've read this forum and lucky me, i have the opportunity to read this type of inane drivel. i've known pat for ~ 20 years and have had extensive converations with him over the years on many subjects including the jet. trust me, untamed dog has his head deeply up a deep brown canyon on this particular subject. It would be interesting to see how things went if UT wouldespouse his theories to Pat face-to-face. UT, if you are not happy with the policies at perris, please feel free to not return. why go someplace that you don't like? be safe kleggo

Two questions: 1) Is BASE really a quest to pull off the most "sick-ass shit"? Well, since you asked, definately NOT in my world. BASE, to me, is about;in no particualr order feeling peace on the exit point. satisfaction confidence relationships exercise being in the "great outdoors" solitude messing with gear beautiful sunrises and more................................... be safe kleggo

Thanks for the cogent reply Tom. As is most often the case your raise good points and i do not see any reason to dispute any of them. I asked this question simply to hear others opinions and reasoning. I am not advocating using any gear other than that recommended by our Norwegian friends. Of my meager 17 jumps at KJ, all have been on CR and BR BASE specific gear. If the poster that listed Tom Begic's link could post the correct URL I"d be grateful. Tom B's writings are definately worth reading and considering. Hey, he does CReW, and does it well, how bad can he be

It is my understanding that Skydiving gear is not recommended at Kjerag. Perhaps this is a way of filtering "undersirables" out until they have the requisite exit and subterminal airspeed skills???? Additionally it is likely because modern gear is not well suited for landing accurately in the grassy area. I'd be interested in hearing why you, or others, feel that BASE gear is inherently safer than skydiving gear at this site. I would have no reservations about jumping my old stored-in-the-closet rig, ( Centaurus, Pegasus, Raven 1 ), at this site with no modifications other than using the tail pocket already installed on the Peg and using an appropriate bridle / pc. thanks craig edit for thread name ~TA

I"m curious to see how many of us are jumping vented canopies with ZP top skins and under what conditions are we using them. please respond if you have personal experience with jumping this configuration. i am particularly interested in seeing if anyone is jumping this configuration at 7+ second delays and if you are, why do you choose to do so. my only prior expereince with a zp topskin canopy resulted in unacceptably hard openings, ( my personal perspective ), for no-slider jumps. It had ~ 125 jumps on it and had been in the water twice. The bottom skin was just a tad too porous, leading to rock-your-world openings. thanks for your input. be safe kleggo

thanks for taking the time to reply with your help. kleggo