SkySpice

"Help! I'm in Hong Kong and my cash and credit cards have been stolen! I need some help from my friends immediately so I can get home again. Please respond immediately for instructions on how to send me emergency money by Western Union. Thanks!"

Did it differ much from saturating it with Scotchgard or silicon spray? He kept his formula a secret. But if you looked up the Mil-Spec for zero-porosity nylon, you could see all the ingredients, if not the proportions of each in the mixture. He would hang up the canopy, and then spray it with the liquid mixture using a paint sprayer.

Well... I saw a number of those tired old Leonardized canopies blow up on opening shortly after the treatment. That tired old fabric just couldn't take the stress of being zero-porosity again.

Not to take anything away from Helmut - he's done good! But as the saying goes, every inventor stands on the shoulders of a thousand inventors who came before them. And I believe it was Steve Snyder who invented the first AAD; the Sentinel. I think he also created the first skydiving specific altimeter, The Altimaster, still in wide use today, so we didn't have to mount those heavy bulky aircraft altimeters on our belly wart reserves. And didn't he also come up with the slider, to tame hard openings on ram-air parachutes so that we could enjoy our sport without bruises?

Why do you dislike her?

Here is what happens when an officer allows a thug to get his gun away from him: http://elmira-corning.twcnews.com/content/news/722621/johnson-city-police-officer-shot--killed-with-service-weapon--suspect-dies/

Gary doing CRW with Walt Appel at Skydive San Marcos: [inline Gary_CRW.jpg]

What's that rope hanging out of your grill? The winch line for vehicle rescue sticking out of the middle of the front bumper? or are you talking about that very thin thin line in the picture on the driver's left? It could be water, though it is more likely to be some sort of twig picked up along the way on the trail. No, nothing to do with the winch. Rather that line that comes out of the grill underneath the left headlight. If it's a stick, it's an awfully long one.

Laly: Thank you for that fine testament to Gary. And for the other readers here: Gary gifted that surfboard to Laly in his last will and testament, and she picked it up last weekend.

John Choate, Bob Sinclair & Gary Wiist, at Lost Prairie boogie: [inline John_Bob_Gary.jpg] All three of these men are now gone...

What's that rope hanging out of your grill?

The reasoning they used to give for the background check was the BASE jumpers and rappellers were the only ones allowed on the bridge with "backpacks" and they weren't searched so "for safety" required alternate protection methods. Thanks of that info. So it all goes back to terrorism... But the assumption is that a terrorist couldn't possibly pass a background check in order to sneak a bomb onto the bridge. Or that they couldn't assume the identify of someone who has. Or that they couldn't fake a permit. All of those are false presumptions.

Are the going to background check all the spectators too? There could be all kinds of wanted felons wandering around on that bridge...

Gary (blue jumpsuit) in 12-way hybrid dive (photo by Nate Wernig): [inline Gary_Hybrid_dive.jpg] Gary playing guitar at Lost Prairie boogie: [inline Gary_Lost_Prairie.jpg] Gary fishing in Alaska: [inline Gary_Alaska.jpg]

Yep, Gary only let a small number of people know how really bad things were for him, because he didn't want a bunch of people fretting over him.

That's a cool idea. Start a collection! Yep. I had thousands of dollars worth. They even threaten to sue you if you don't cash it and send them back what they are "owed". It's fun to see how long it takes them to realize that the scammers have been scammed. They're just as gullible in their greed as their innocent victims in their ignorance.

Gary Wiist passed away on November 12th, 2014. Gary battled with cancer for the last several months. After the first wave of treatment over the last two months, the disease failed to go into remission, and it came back even stronger. At that point Gary went home to die, in the care of a sister and hospice nurses. In the face of certain slow death, he was a remarkable model of courage and positive attitude. He was known here as user "BeachBum". Gary skydived at Aggies Over Texas (AOT) in Bryan, Texas, Skydive Houston in Waller, Texas, and Skydive Westside, in Sealy, Texas. He could never jump a lot because he had inner ear problems which limited him to just one or two jumps per day. If he did more, the build up of pressure caused him too much pain. Numerous doctor visits could never solve this problem. But despite this handicap, he loved skydiving too much to quit altogether. So he would show up, make a jump or two, and then hang out the rest of the day with his friends. He was tall and skinny so he used to be kind of floaty in freefall. But he bought a tight, slick jump suit, and experimented with his body position to increase his speed so he could do RW with big boys, and was successful at it. Gary was also known for cooking chili at the AOT dropzone. He would spend days beforehand finding the right kinds of ingredients, and would then on the weekend he would nurse the cooking all day long. He made two pots; one hot and spicy, and one mild for those who couldn't handle hot. At the end of the day everyone had all the delicious chili they could eat. He loved to skydive, fish and surf, and had many friends in each of those communities. His wishes are to be cremated, and to have his ashes released in freefall over the beach where he loved to fish and surf. I'm told that Gary never used bait to catch his fish, believing in the use of only artificial lures. Gary's best skydiving friend was John Choate, who also died of cancer 10 years ago. They went on epic camping and fishing trips together to far-flung places like Alaska. One of the things Gary did to serve his love of beaches was to gather up Christmas trees every January, and stake them out in rows on the beach, to promote the growth of sand dunes to prevent erosion. He figured out the best way to arrange them to catch the blowing sand. There are miles of Texas beaches today that have been preserved because of his efforts over the years. Gary also served a year in Iraq as a civilian contractor, maintaining computers and networks on a military base. He tells a good story of how he came to have such an unusual last name with two consecutive i's. His ancestors were German immigrants who came to America through Ellis Island. When they filled out their paperwork they spelled their name the German way, as Wüst, using a "u" with an umlaut over it (two dots). Some immigration official didn't understand that character and changed the umlaut-u into two i's, and thereafter the family name became Wiist. A group of friends gathered at his house today to start cleaning it out so it can be sold, and we ran across many items which must have evoked precious childhood memories for him, to have saved them all these years: a rocking horse, a cub scout tie clasp, toy soldiers, matchbox cars, and so on. I don't know all of his last wishes, but a female skydiver came by to pick up a favorite surf board that Gary wanted her to have. His Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/gary.beachbum Those who knew him, please add your own special memories here of Gary. Gary Wiist: [inline Gary_Wiist.JPG] Blue Skies, Gary. We love you.

Play along and make them send their fake check. Then ignore them thereafter.

You've identified a couple of potential problem areas right there. And since no one is perfect and such mistakes do happen, and considering the high risk of serious trouble should a loop fail, then it seems prudent to go ahead and sew it down just to make sure it doesn't slip out.

What is your definition of a "tunnel flyer"? Do one-time visitors count? Or only people that do it on a "regular" basis? Or only real skydivers who also visit tunnels?