kimemerson

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Everything posted by kimemerson

  1. when I was a caddy a very long time ago at the local C.C. I noticed that the bigger the golfer the more humble they were. That it was the interim golfer who was so full of himself. When I was just starting out in skydiving I was spending winters in DeLand. One day, when I had under 100 jumps, Tommy Piras announced a call for the first 20 people to show up to manifest for the sunset load. I misunderstood and assumed the announcement was just to fill the load so I manifested. When I learned it was for a 20-way I scratched because I simply was not up to that level and I knew it. Tommy caught what I was doing and told me to get back on the load. I explained my mistake. He repeated, "get back on the load." I tried to explain again but he would have none of it. So I did. I manifested again. In the dirt dive Tommy took all the time I needed even though there were 18 other people who didn't really need any of it. I was assigned a slack slot and away we went. I didn't do bad at all, considering Tommy wouldn't let go of me. After we landed (I was nervous about landing with all those canopies so I landed in the soccer field across the street) and everyone was high-fiving everyone, Tommy sought me out, walking past all others, high-fived me first and congratulated me. We shared a few beers together and some other stuff and had a great evening. Now, of course, Tommy looms large in my respect and it set a standard for me to this day, 21 years later. Any "big" skydiver who looks down on the little ones could use a lesson. And they may have forgotten their own humble pasts. Every newb has the potential to change our sport forever. Every beginner might be the next Tommy or Jerry or Olav or Jack Jeffries. Even if they're not, disrespect for anyone regardless is still disrespect for the sport. Frankly, for me, anyone who cannot be bothered with a beginner would make my day by moving on to something else.
  2. This was easily ten years ago. Maybe more. The TI was Mark Tripari. I don't recall what the canopy was, but Mark started with the hook turns much to the shock of quite a few people, but when the school told him to stop he went over the head of the school and straight to the DZO, who told him to stop until he could prove Strong permission. I can't remember if it was Ted Strong or Bill Morrisey but he got the permission in writing from one of them and that put an end right there to the discussion and he continued. Mark also did the only tandem pond swoop that I know of. It was impressive only because of what it was, not that they did a great swoop. Short as it was, it was dirt-water-dirt. And the passenger was also a TI, which makes a hell of a lot of difference when we're talking about who knows what when risks are taken.
  3. I remember hearing a tandem-passenger-to-be emerging from just seeing the waiver video. She turned to her friend and asked, "Did YOU know you could die doing this?" as if she'd only just learned that salient fact two minutes earlier. The people who think we can't breathe in freefall or breathe through our skin; who think we go back up when we deploy; who think a spinning pilot chute is a rotor which propels us forward, these are people who, bright as they might be, don't fully understand what it is we do or what we do to get out of what we did. They won't know diddly until they pick up some experience. So why don't we just stop talking about how much they are prepared for anything at all when they do a tandem. If it's a first time, they don't know shit. Which in itself is not a reason for prohibiting certain behavior by the TI. If that were the case we wouldn't be doing tandems at all. Back before tandem hook turns were done, a TI at our DZ started doing them on the Strong rig he was using. At first he was told to stop. But he told the DZO that Strong allowed it. He was told to get it in writing, which he did. Strong ok'd it and the TI was then allowed. But he was the ONLY TI allowed because at the time RWS did not allow hook turns. As our technology advances it takes a while for our skills to catch up and even longer to be accepted by the general skydiving community if it's thought of as dangerous. Hook turns were banned on many DZs until, largely due to the advent of pond swooping, canopy manufacturers started designing their canopies to accommodate what we were doing anyway. Now it is understood that hook turns don't kill so much as inexperienced skydivers kill themselves doing what they can't do well. Sort of like "guns don't kill people. People with guns kill people."
  4. I could be wrong on this one but Patrick's co-surfer was Wendy Smith and she probably had as many jumps as he did when they did that, or certainly one damned impressive number of jumps anyway. Not messing with any of your assertions here. Just keeping facts straight as facts seem in short supply where speculation reigns instead.
  5. Did Francis Rogallo have anything to do with the delta parachute design? Or was it designed based on his work, without him being directly involved? I know his kite designs are very directly linked with hang gliding, as in hang gliding might not exist - or would have much later - had it not been for Rogallo. His delta wing concept was encouraged by NASA at first till they began looking into the Shuttle as a way to have earth (as opposed to water) landings, such as the Russians were doing. And though I don't actually know the era of the delta parachute, it seems close to the time Rogallo's designs were influencing the birth of hang gliding.
  6. That's stEEEENking. You left out the N.
  7. i'm assuming you're just having a little fun with the truly concerned here. Nice, dry wit. And if you aren't kidding, then your stated viewpoint suggests to me that you aren't happy being a USPA member. I mean, it has rules and regulations, many of which restrict us from our stupidity and prevent us from killing ourselves and others. So, in the highly unlikely event that you are not kidding, I'd like to understand why anyone with this view would tolerate such an unsavory organization and not just go somewhere else. If it's a joke, please excuse this. I have no way of knowing.
  8. I'm holding it in my hand as I type. PM me and tell me where to send it and it's yours.
  9. Drew Cochis used to take photos with a hand held SLR all the time. He never looked through the view finder, kept the camera by way of a lanyard on is left wrist, and snapped away. He has whole photo albums full of these photos. And I don't mean a disposable camera. I mean a real, hard body SLR.
  10. As far as I can tell nothing came from that movie.
  11. A stretched out pilot chute pocket with a brand new shiny pilot chute making its way out early is exactly what killed Tommy Piras. He was training a four way team in Panama and he filled in one of the slots while that team member stayed down. (The process was to rotate so that Tommy took various slots while each team member stayed down one jump) One of the guys went low and had a premature pilot chute deployment which opened the main in Tommy's face, causing him to hit the canopy, flop over the front of it and hit the other guy's knee, knocking Tommy out. He was observed at about 1,000' on his back groping groggily for a handle. But... An intersesting part of this tale is that Cypress had just come on the market. It was unknown and untested and suffered from the reputation of other, earlier AADs, which, essentially meant that no one wanted one. Tommy didn't want one either but as the Cypress folks wanted the big name to sponsor and rather pushed themselves on Tommy, and he could conceal it and he didn't have to turn it on, he accepted and didn't turn it on. So he died. The irony is that even though the Cypress was not on and did not do what it was designed to do, three days after Tommy died you couldn't buy a Cypress for ready money and it put them on the map. Cypress sort of owes its reputation and success to Tommy who didn't even use it, not once.
  12. It seems to me that if the instructor has to give you this kind of advice, then he should have just told you to ride the plane down instead. If he was that concerned about oncoming storm clouds, then he shouldn't have put you out into that air to begin with. But what do I know, I'm not an instructor. Well I am an instructor and you're right. I can't see telling a student to pull below their designated pull altitude unless it's part of the normal progression of training. But especially when coming in and that's the reason for the lower pull. Any instructor worth the rating should have scratched you off the load and possibly even suggested the whole load stay down. Even though you were on a large canopy and that had its effect on you, in the conditions you describe anyone else could have had their own trouble too. Trust me, you never need to skydive. It's ok to stay down and live to jump another day. Glad you walked away, though.
  13. I did that once when we got "ceiling'd out" at a boogie and someone shouted "hop & pops from the Cessna!" The Casa pilot & I both stepped off the plane just a shade over 2k and I pitched my pilot chute to.. nothing. Looked over my shoulder and there's the ol' bungee pilot chute flapping in the (non-existent) breeze. I'm thinking "You dumb shit, you know this thing needs 80kts.." just about the time the PC finally pulls the pin and extracts the bag. It took me like 8 more years to replace that pilot chute. :) My Sabre opens pretty quick with the kill line collapsible. I have no qualms about a 2000 ft hop & pop. I'm still pretty amazed at jumpers who literally freak out about a 3000ft hop & pop. Sounds a lot like the one I did. We had a reporter from the NY Times doing a story but we weren't jumping because of the low ceiling. I suggested we at least see what it was because the poor lady wasn't getting anything otherwise. We were scraping the clouds just at 1,500'. There was a bit of a breeze and we weren't going fast at all. I got out, tossed, and just watched the bungee pilot chute waft, float, and go all sorts of slack in front of me and I was thinking the same thing, "I need speed...now!" I'm not sure it was the lowest I've opened but the Earth was damn big right about that time. I was so scared after I landed I wanted to do it all over again.
  14. see the video I attached and didn't make into a clicky. I believe you will see the "someone' you know. How the hell are you, stud?
  15. yeah, sure. As I said before, it depends on how much money you've got. Go jump from bridges it's low and you don't need any financial, legislative nor administrational burdens. You don't even need reserve, AAD, Rig and all that "non-cool" and "uncomfortable" stuff. be free, jump chute free! Yeah sure what? You don't believe me?
  16. I've done 1,500' From a Cessna with a bungee pilot chute. Here's someone else http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dtoTJ9Aic8
  17. Maybe someone here can help. Go to the contacts and ask. John Wands http://www.drharp.co.uk/aboutband.html Bruce Roberts http://www.jessroden.com/Whoswho.html
  18. Well, that was in the early days, I'm sure. But for at least the last 21 years taking all written tests has been required regardless of your intent to actually get that license. To the O.P.: The D means you've done everything USPA requires of you as far as licensing goes. The D supersedes the A, B, & C. so that by using the D in a signature, for example, it is understood that the requirements for A, B, & C have been satisfied. So, no, it is not at all necessary to go from one to another, back and forth. The D says it all. You also do not have to have held any license prior to the D, you just have to be qualified, done all the requirements and take the written test for all four licenses.
  19. Each license you get is yours to keep, number and all. Even if you quit & come back, same # for life. And as each license is earned prior to each subsequent license, they can all be listed. So Jimmy has his A, and C & D (a lot of us never bothered with the B). I also have only the tree and were I to list all my licenses, ratings, etc. I could list each one I ever held.
  20. Anyone who thinks that's the worst USPA has ever - EVER - done on a cover, obviously hasn't been in the sport very long. This one is lame in many respects.