kimemerson

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Everything posted by kimemerson

  1. Tunnel is tunnel. Sky is sky. Go for the 500 first.
  2. true. From Wings Came Flight and the Dream Team stuff was all Vector. Vector II's if I'm not mistaken.
  3. Never stopped but suffered a huge slowdown due to 1. Letting my Instructor rating lapse 2. Serious injury 3. Smaller DV cameras now mean everybody & their brother does video Seems like there are more cameras than skydivers on some jumps. Fewer people will pay for a videographer plus a slot and in some cases standards have lowered too. So after I allowed my ratings to lapse, and I got hurt (and the evac people cut up my camera suit) and my camera broke and I'd been working in the sport full time for 15 + years and was out of the "real world" work force, I suddenly found myself with no income and no way to skydive. 4. Then I broke a leg on my front steps (more dangerous than skydiving!) So that sort of killed a season. I was getting five jumps a year and when I hit ten jumps one year it actually felt good. So I healed and got my rating back and finally did just short of 100 jumps last season. After averaging about 300+ a year for a few years. The hope & plan is to be able to get back at working again, to add to my jumping and to pay for the fun ones, like it used to be. The short version: Life got in the way. It does that.
  4. Thanks. Somehow I just knew it wasn't Public Address, Pubic Awareness, Pleasant Attitude or anything else I could figure out. Actually, PeteJones has used the term ad hominem ("To the man") which is more or less a PA.
  5. Um, that does not stall the argument. It only suggests the stab in the dark found no purchase on that one point. So you pack. That's sort of entry level on the semi-professional trajectory of the sport. I've seen a few packers who shouldn't be so please don't rest on those laurels as a way in to credibility. Not here. Too many here who know better.
  6. I have one jump from a tandem hang glider. I jumped. The pilot didn't.
  7. Sure Tom. Just like the Ranch had an observer/passenger walk into a spinning prop. JR Well, I can't say anything about the Porter in DeLand but something is familiar about that. (Possibly when filming Drop Zone & Patty Wagstaff was piloting the Porter that crashed? Maybe not tat. I don't know.) And a twin otter did indeed hit someone under canopy. But the Ranch did not have an observer/passenger walk into a prop. A FFE plane was involved in such an incident years ago but it was not at the Ranch. Might have been Raeford. It also ended the practice of allowing observer rides on FFE aircraft. Just helping with facts, folks. Carry on.
  8. I'm no shrink as I doubt most of the critics of Billy's psychological makeup are, but as a 20+ year Ranch member, I can say that the above description could be taken as generally accepted knowledge. It isn't new to anyone who knows Billy. But I have to defend him against this comment, that someone like Billy "...doesn't give a shit about safety..." This statement is a broad and indefensible argument, and further, shows that the speaker doesn't actually know Billy. He is a certifiable nut case; only an idiot or a fool would attempt to describe him otherwise. And he takes a certain libertarian perspective on personal behavior and responsibility, but he is absolutely passionate about safety and the safe operations and actions of skydivers, pilots and anyone else associated with the sport. Say what you will about his business practices, his friendship cementing practices, his social graces. But he has shown enough regard for safety in too many ways to allow the comment that he doesn't care to pass without comment.
  9. As I understand it there are no currency requirements. Only recommendations. The only USPA member requirements anywhere are in the BSR's. Everything else is probably just a good idea. In other words, you don't have to do anything if you have a license. So except that the decision will be up to the individual DZ and some common sense depending on the individual skydiver, you can just wait till you feel like it. Or have the money. Or have the bike and the money. Any advice you get telling you what you must do is referring - or should be - to the policy at their DZ, and not a USPA requirement. Look it up. As a USPA member, looking hings up in the SIM should start to become a habit.
  10. Unless it is strictly behind the scenes completely, Guy is not working at the Ranch. He may or may not have any deal with Billy regarding a relationship somewhere else, but we at the Ranch don't deal with him at all. He used to be the manager but now he only occasionally does a cameo appearance. If that is different from plans for 2011 and beyond, I don't know. But as of now, Guy is not actually officially at the Ranch. To many of us he is an organizer who has been known to come to the Ranch, and many jumpers don't even know him at all. Just clearing up some facts so the dirt tossing can continue in good faith. Carry on.
  11. Hard to tell but the camera looks like it could be an 8 or hi-8, so pre-digital but not so far back. I'd guess no earlier than 1985 - and that's just a wild stab. No booties so definitely pre 1991 or so. B-12's suggest either earlier or at least a jumper who started out with them and never switched, or someone who just prefers them, or someone who got cheap gear as a result of having them. I don't know. I'm talking out my ass.
  12. Otherwise would we be required to have on board oxygen above 15 k or if we're a half hour at 10k?
  13. First day of summer. Sunset load. 13.5 hop and pop. Well worth the price of admission.
  14. Excellent. Thanks. I knew what a tailgate was, just never knew it had a name. I've seen it mostly as an after market field mod., a lot like soft links were before things like Slinks. Now I can go back and understand what I already read. Thanks.
  15. Just to help me get up to speed: What's a tailgate? How does the tail of a ram-air inflate first? Does inflation move from tail to nose? Would brakes being set cause the tail not to inflate first or just to be inflating while the nose is too, rather than ahead of it? Thanks
  16. Great discussion, guys. Thanks. Gary, I think, from looking at the photos, I might be thinking of the "stack" pack.
  17. I don't think I've heard either term "roll" or "stack" pack. Or if I have, not enough to register. I am referring to the flat pack as the one where the nose is to one side, turned 90° off from the direction the container would be flying, if it were flying. Then the tail & stabilizers are all flaked and laid on top of the nose. As far as I recall, there is no moment when the nose is actually facing the same direction as the container. In fact, even the tail is oriented the same 90° off what the nose is. And though the lines too are crossing over each other on that same 90°, it is the air inflating the nose while it is situated off the heading the skydiver is on at deployment that causes the off heading opening. So what causes an on heading opening in this scenario? I don't know but if you or Beatnik would let us know I know I for one would be thankful. Maybe not a case of beer thankful. But thankful.
  18. As I understand it, it depends on who (e.g. which manufacturer) you talk to I've heard "Preferred Ram-Air Opening", "Proper", "Professional", "Pretty Random Opening" to name a few... And I'm not entirely convinced by the flat packing 90 degree off-heading either. I have a feeling that's a rumor... I'm sure someone who knows, rather than guesses will interject... [Low Experience] Well, legend (myth?) has it that Billy Weber coined the term. Billy will confirm this for you too. As a friend of Billy's and having heard the tale many, many times, I'm sticking with Proper Ram-air Orientation. The others you suggest are just random stabs in the dark and are, essentially, incorrect. Trust me on this one. You could win a bet calling it Proper Ram-air Orientation. As for the 90° "rumor", I don't mind getting a second opinion, but I also think I can be one of the "someone who knows, rather than guesses" people, having packed and jumped a ton of flat packed canopies. And just to drop my credentials, please note my 21 years to your 3. I was a full time packer in DeLand for years back when many, many DZs still had not even heard of packers, were still mostly flat packing, and when DeLand was still in the forefront of PRO packing, when the manufacturers still had flat packing in their owner's manuals. Any "rumor" should have been debunked by this time, I would presume.
  19. I walk the bag as it's between my knees. I remember learning to drag the container (when flat packing was still what most everyone did) but I also remember thinking the walking method simply looked cooler. And of course, cool is a huge player. Walking the bag doesn't impinge on the ability to keep lines taut or straight. That's a matter of discipline. That said, dragging the container usually involves pulling everything closer to you so that between the pulling and the finish of the stowing, those lines are probably a little slack and it is with the hands that you'd have to milk down the excess to get the lines taut. Whereas with the walking method those lines stay right where you put them and stay taut throughout the stowing process. And I'm never actually sitting so I don't really have to get back up. And as you recall the ease with which you flat packed, remember these two things: 1) It's always easy when you know how. And 2) PRO packing is an acronym for Proper Ram-air Orientation. Flat packing builds in the automatic 90° off heading opening. Probably not an issue with four place Cessnas, "back in the day".
  20. Hell I thought we were calling it skysurfing.
  21. If you'll permit me another Tommy tale I remembered after I mentioned above about how even today's beginners could turn into tomorrows leaders: Tommy told this to me a little later in the year after the 20 way thing. I've told this one here before but it figures in here. Before Tommy had ever jumped he was living in Az. with his brother. One day on his way home, his brother had seen parachutes in the air and rushed home and told Tommy. Tommy found the DZ to have a look. He connected with the DZO and talked about instruction and assorted things. As they were chatting a load was dropping and they watched, when they saw a malfunction. "Black death" the DZO said. When the reserve came out, the DZO said,"White life." Tommy was really impressed with what he saw - an apparent potential fatal situation saved by the reaction of the skydiver. Tommy said to the DZO, "I want him to be my instructor." When the skydiver with the malfunction landed and walked toward them, the DZO introduced Tommy to Bob Hallett. And we know where that went. (I've always loved that story.)