sabre1700

Hey all, I'm looking for a few close-up pictures of the upper and lower thread tensioners on a 7-33 machine. Also, if anyone knows of a source for complete tensioners, that would be great. Thanks, Jim Rasmussen

And I've heard of one "First Date" wrap.

Hey all, time to start and email list for all you Neanderthals who aren't on Facebook, yet. Dates: Sept 8-11, 2011 Location: Sky Knights, East Troy WI Aircraft: SkyVan and Pac 750XL, Cessna 182 Cat Herders (Mike Lewis, Eric Galan and me, so far) The "List" (in no particular order, other than they popped into my head. So, please let me know if I've forgotten you, or if you just checked flights and realized how cheap flights into Milwaukee are currently, and you can't resist coming, because it will be my birthday on Sept 8th and we will have free cake): 1) April Schuldt 2) Jason Smith 3) John Bechtel 4) Brian Martin 5) Seth Kuttruff 6) Kermit 7) Jeff Klingbell 8) Tim Schue 9) Linda Loo Who 10) Bob Felt ver 4.0 (but only with Doctor's note) 11) Brent Racine 12) Jeremy Olexa 13) Tom Stewart 14) Paul Peterson 15) Keith Paulson 16) Andi Bongert 17) Korissa "La" Bomba 18) Eric Galan 19) Mike Lewis 20) Jim Rasmussen Blue skies, Razz

Hey all, Maybe this should be in the "Help Wanted" section, but what the heck. We're putting together a beginner crw camp in Eastern Michigan (just north of the Motor City). We'll have some where between 8-15 aspiring crwpups (depending on how many crw coaches I can round up.) Beginner Class will be the evening of Thurs, Aug 11th, with jumping on the 12, 13, and 14th of Aug. Plan is: one-on-one coach jumps Fri and Sat, working towards larger dives on Sat, Sun, as progress permits. Warm-up jumps with anyone who wants to get there early, on Thursday Aug 11th. If you're available, have some crw coaching experience, and would like to come help out, your assistance would be greatly appreciated. We'll be jumping Lightnings in the 1.3-1.35 range. The DZO is very supportive and excited to have CRW at the DZ. Come on out and let's help get CRW restarted in Michigan. Thanks and blue skies, Razz & April

Just a brief - well not so brief - update on the weekend crw activity. First the numbers: We had 18 Midwest crw jumpers. 10 Wisconsinites 3 Iowans 2 Illinoisans 1 Minnesotan 1 Michigander and 1 Canadian, Ryan Drew (making this an International Event for the first time, and yes, of course he bought good beer). We had four formation pilots: Jason Smith, John Bechtel, Brian Martin, and myself April Schuldt shot video. I taught five in the crw class on Wed night. We had 18 crw loads over four days of mostly nice weather (Sunday being the only really marginal day). Jumps ranged from two way coaching dives to 13-Ways with video - which was the limit for the aircraft. We had two cutaways. The Rest of the Story: The first day, Wednesday, brings rain and cloudy skies. Really great weather for teaching a crw class and hooking up canopies. Thursday brings much better weather and the PAC 750. We make four crw jumps of increasing size as more crwdogs roll in. Friday brings more perfect weather and we get in five jumps. But, Friday also brings a few mishaps. First incident; Joe Thompson loses his wallet on breakoff from a post-stack. A few heads up crwdogs and the video person (April Schuldt) notice the something flying off. Nobody knows what it is at the time, but several people comment on it in the debrief. It is only later when Joe can't find his wallet, that we put two and two together and concluded that he lost his wallet on the dive. Lesson learned - don't leave your wallet in your back pocket on a crw jump. Crwdogs will steal it every time. A few of us point out the field where we think he lost it, and console him with the idea that maybe he'll be able to find it in the field, while secretly thinking, "there is no way in hell he's going to find a brown wallet out in a huge bean field. But, Joe, being the eternal optimist that he is, heads out to the field to look. The rest of us feel bad for him, but being realists, we're not going to waste the rest of a beautiful day on a perfectly hopeless task. Second incident: Diamond formation builds to six, it's flying poorly, when the right row three wing (John Bechtel) comes around, wrapping the right side row two (Paul Peterson). A line or part of John's canopy snags Paul's cutaway handle, cutting him away from his main canopy. Paul falls out of the formation and out of the video frame wrapped in John's main canopy, taking John along for a fast ride. Meanwhile, the remainder of the formation explodes, with the other row two wing (Andi Bongart) coming around and wrapping my left leg, a few seconds after I manage to kick Paul's cutaway canopy off of my right leg - losing my right shoe in the process - it's always the right shoe - always. Paul has the good fortune to fall safely clear of the formation and John's canopy. He deploys his reserve. After a few tense moments Andi's canopy stables out below me, she gets light and the canopy comes off of my left foot, easily, nearly taking my left shoe with it, but not quite - never the left shoe - never. I drop Andi, fully expecting her right end cell to pop back open - like they nearly always do. After six or seven really fast rotations, it becomes clear that the right side of her canopy isn't going to clear. Getting light headed, she decides to chop. Everyone does a great job of following mains, and freebags, and fellow jumpers. No one thinks to follow my shoe. After collecting the jumpers and gear that landed out, and viewing a couple dramatic videos of the jump, we all conclude that it was a few less than perfect row three docks that started the 4-way base oscillating, and from there it was downhill, with the wings fighting to stay on and only making things worse. Lessons learned: Both row three wings should have asked to be dropped, to let the base settle down. Also, I should have hung onto Andi's wing for a bit after I got my foot free. There was no need to drop her immediately, after I got my foot free. Heck, I probably could have walked over to the center cell and flown around with her, while she worked on clearing the right side of her canopy. If nothing else it would have bought her more time to work on it, before cutting away. Not wanting to end the day on a sour note, we decide to go up on one more crw jump, to end the day. Paul is kind of sore, so he elects to stay on the ground. While we walk to the plane he walks out to the bean field to bring Joe a bottle of water, since Joe's been out the looking for his wallet for awhile, now. The last dive goes well. When we get down, Paul walks up to me and hands me my right shoe. Joe found it, in the field, while looking for his wallet. Now, I'm starting to feel guilty about not helping Joe look for his wallet, even though I know there is no way in hell we'll ever find it. So, I'm talking to another club member about how we really should try an organize a search party for Joe's wallet. Sunday morning the weather is supposed to be bad, and after all, "if he can find a shoe in that field, maybe, if we got enough people walking it, we just might get lucky and find a brown wallet." While we're discussing it, Joe walks up, with his wallet. So, net result, no lost shoes, no lost wallet, no lost gear - not even Paul's cutaway handle, which was still attached to his rig after it got pulled by John's canopy. Paul wound up with a sore leg, Andi had a sore arm from the wrap, and I ended up with a bruised right ankle and a slightly tweaked left knee. Saturday brings some wind and a few clouds, but we still managed to get up five crw formations and a couple of coaching jumps. Ryan Drew is finally able to get up in the air, for his first crw jumps, after making the 12 hour drive from Canada, and then suffering for a two days from an excruciating stomach ailment. Sunday morning does indeed bring bad weather - rain and low clouds. It clears up in time for a couple crw jumps before folks have to start heading out. Thanks everyone for a great time, good flying and entertaining jumps. We got a lot of great comments from the other jumpers at the DZ and a few more who are interested in trying out crw. Thanks everyone for heads-up flying and following gear and jumpers after the wrap. Congratulations to Ryan Drew on making his first crw jumps. Ryan is in the market for a used L126, if anyone knows of one that is available. He is a motivated buyer. Congratulations to Joe Thompson for finding everything he was looking for this weekend, and more. Congratulations to Andi and Paul on becoming full fledged crwdogs this weekend. Thanks April for the great videos. Blue skies, Razz

Everyone please take a few extra precautions, if you are going to be jumping this Saturday, May 21st. First, all born again Christians please please be sure you have turned on your AAD. The bible really isn't clear on whether your rig will ascend to heaven with your body. And, those left behind really don't need to be dodging empty harness container systems falling from the sky. Everyone else, be sure to give extra leeway to any reserve parachutes you might see. Keep in mind that if there is no body attached, they will have a very slow descent rate, and could be flying in any direction. Be sure to ask the pilot, before your first jump, if he or she is born again. You may want to alter your jump plan accordingly. In particular, you should have a clear plan for how low you will exit the aircraft, should the pilot ascend bodily to heaven. DZO's, this might be a good weekend to schedule atheist pilots, if you have any. Remember, if you hear a really loud horn on exit, that it may NOT be the stall warning. You might want take a look up into the cockpit. If it is empty that could be your clue to hurry-up the exit. CRW on this Saturday will be a very risky proposition. The instant ghost plane that could result, may be very difficult to handle for the poor lost souls left behind. And, if we're all still around the fire at midnight on Saturday, let's have a toast to another rapture dodged. Blue skies, Razz

We're a little over three weeks out from the Boogie and the list is over 50! Please preregister here: http://skyknights.skydivemilwaukee.com/event-registration.html Time for some more details and time to start talking about what we'd like to do. Dates: Sept 24-26th Location: Sky Knights, East Troy, WI First off, some folks will be getting in on Thurs, and many others will be coming up from Chicago, as soon as Nationals wrap up. (oh, and if you can go to Nationals, please by all means do so. It will be great fun and the more the merrier. We really could use some more folks for 8-way.) Thursday Sept 23rd: Aircraft will be flying on Thursday starting at NOON, for anyone who would like to make some warmup jumps. If you will be getting in early on Thurs, and plan on jumping, let me know, I'll make a list so everyone will know how many other Crwdogs there'll be to play with. Friday Sept 24th: We will be jumping first thing in the morning Friday and all the way through sunset on Sunday. 7am circle-up on Friday morning, so we're ready to jump by 8am. We can discuss how early we'd like to start on Saturday and Sunday, but my vote, as always would be for an early start time. Night jumps (Friday or Saturday Sept 24th or 25th): A number of folks have expressed and interest in doing night jumps Sunset will be 6:50pm, Moon Rise 7:00pm Friday, 7:30pm Sat. Moon will be useful earlier on Friday, 1/2 hr later on Saturday. So, I'd suggest that Friday night would work better for night jumps, but we could do Saturday, if that is the overwhelming preference of folks. So, if you really want to do night jumps, let me know, and if you have a strong preference for one night or the other, let me know that as well. We can discuss the details about what to bring for night crw, once we have a count of how many want to do night jumps. Organizers: The following folks have generously offered to organize/pilot for the weekend: Mike Lewis Raul Ramirez Eduardo Guillen Cheryl Michaels Kirk VanZandt Jim Rasmussen Eric Gallan Damien Ristaino There should should be a good mix of experience and enthusiasm for dives of all sizes and skill levels Goals for the Boogie. 1) Keep things reasonably safe. 2) Have fun and get everyone involved in dives they'll have fun on. 3) Place people as best we can by skill level in slots they'll find interesting and challenging, within the constraints of safe dive plans. 4) Respond, as best we can, to reasonable requests to switch folks around. So, if you're on a dive you'd rather not be on, or in a slot your not comfortable with, or have a group you'd rather be with, please speakup. What you can do: 1) Register in advance at the Dropzone's Registration Page http://skyknights.skydivemilwaukee.com/event-registration.html It will help the dz to plan, and it will speed things up when you arrive. Please do this soon, as they'll need to order T-Shirts, plan food, etc. 2) Please, if you not crw current, get out and do some crw. Of course, and there is no better way to get current than to compete at Nationals the week before the boogie! But regardless, you'll fly smoother, dock faster and generally have more fun at the boogie if you show up current. 3) Spend some time thinking about; Aircraft Exit safety (timing, delays, collision avoidance), Eschelon flying (positioning, clearing turns, approach angles, flight controls), Formation flying (arching, trim, breakdowns, starburst counts, and exit angles), Emergency procedures, landing patterns (positioning, being predictable, defensive flying techniques). Much of the preparation for larger formation flying is mental, spend some time thinking about it, reviewing what you know and asking questions, if you're not sure, especially if you haven't done much big way lately. State Record Attempt: We will do one or two attempts at setting a new Wisconsin State Record CF formation, early Saturday morning. The current record is a 25-way, set last year. As with last year, the limit is likely to be the aircraft lift capacity for the dive. This means that some very good fliers will necessarily be left off the record dive. There is no helping this, but hopefully, everyone will keep in mind the limitations we have to operate under, and keep a good perspective on things. We'd like to set a new State Record, for the fun of it, but not make the whole weekend about that, and certainly not at the expense of fun and safety. Other dives: Wisconsin Women's CRW Record Cheryl Michaels has offered to pilot a Wisconsin Women's Crw record. We should have a good number of women for it, and who knows it could just be the start of something bigger... If you're interested in being on the Wisconsin Women's Crw Record, and you lack the balls for it, please let me know and I'll pass on the list for Cheryl. Vertical formations: We would also like to build some tall vertical formations this weekend, using partially planed stack (PACK) formations. We've experimented with this type of formation over the summer, and I believe it has good potential. We will certainly have the talent for this weekend and, if the interest is there, we could attempt some unique and challenging skydives. Clearly these dives won't appeal to everyone, and they definitely won't be the sole focus of the weekend. They will entail some additional risks, planning, and rigging, as well as different flying techniques. The following will be needed for these dives: 1) Carefully matched wing loadings. (1.3-1.35 ideally everyone would be lightly loaded with weights, to allow us to make adjustments) 2) Matched trim and line lengths (WR trim and line lengths, short-lined canopies won't work for this) 3) Helmets 4) A-B line cross connectors (will be provided, rigging takes about 15 minutes) 5) Ability to make smooth planed docks (not something most of us have practiced much lately). 6) Desire to try something new, challenging and potentially risky skydives. These will be experimental formations, and we will make the primary focus managing the additional risks. The goal will be to build progressively larger formations, gauge the flight characteristics, make adjustments as necessary, and then based on what we see, either go larger or move on something else. If you're interested, please let me know and I'll send you some additional information on what we have planned for these dives. "The List" 1) Jim Rasmussen * 2) April Schuldt * 3) Jason Smith * 4) Brian Martin * 5) John Bechtel * 6) Bob Felt 7) Linda Ruiz 8) Brent Racine 9) Jay Kedley 10) Ken Kniech 11) Tim Schue 12) Jeff Klingbell 13) T LaVonne 14) Keith Paulson 15) Paul Peterson 16) Andi Bongert 17) Tom Stewart 18) Jeff Paulsen 19) Dave Holmvik 20) Jeremy Olexa 21) Bill Grace 22) Josh Luba 23) Brad Kult 24) Mike Livieri 25) Dave Prozinski 26) Eric Bernetski 27) Chad Neidigh * 28) Bart Stonestreet * 29) Eduardo Guillen 30) Todd Martin * 31) Damien Ristaino * 32) Eric French 33) Bob Edminston * 34) Ernie Pliscott 35) Eric Gallan * 36) Raul Ramirez 37) Sean Jones * 38) Don Johnson * 39) Steve Cannestra 40) Wes Shivers 41) Gina Marinelli 42) Daniel Harvey 43) Korissa Bomba 44) Abbie Mashaal* 45) Jamie Cromer 46) Shireen Khavari 48) Don Bromley 49) Sarah Bromley 50) Mike Muscat 51) Kris (Sharon's sister!) 52) Cheryl Michaels * 53) Annie Dekoker 54) Kirk VanZandt * Means you're planning warming up for the Boogie by going to CRW Nationals. We'll have something special for everyone who goes to Nationals before the Boogie.

Everyone who's coming out to Cross Keys this weekend (May 29-31st), could you please let me know your current exit weight and canopy? I'd like to fly some Pack formations relative to each other, and for that we'll need to plan the wingloading of the formations. I'll be out at the DZ early, so how about we say 8am for start time on Saturday. Blue skies, Razz

Thanks everyone who came out to play in East Troy this weekend. We had 14 crwdogs, most from Seven Hills and East Troy but a few made long commutes for the weekend, Keith and Andi from Iowa and T Lavonne and his wife from Indiana, and Paul Peterson and his wife from Illinois. Some of us got to knock the rust off, after a long winter break, all of us got to sweat in mid-eighty degree temps. And, everyone got to fly some new formations and slots. Andi got her first 8-stack on one dive. Thanks everyone for working hard and keeping it safe. We tried out some larger partially-planed-stack (PACK) formations. Everyone flew really well, especially considering all the canopy swapping, and wing loading adjustments we made, while experimenting with the flight characteristics of the Pack formations. All and all, I think the dives went really well. We got six dives in on Saturday and four on Sunday, before the air got rough and folks had to start heading for home. The best dive, of the bunch, had to have been the two side-by-side 5 way Pack formations, with Brian Martin docking his 5-way on the bottom of my 5-way. Along the way we got to build multiple side-by-side formations, play with adjusting the descent rates, and practice proximity piece flying. Everyone responded really well to the challenge of flying either slightly heavier or slightly lighter wing loaded canopies than they we're used to. Thanks everyone for accepting the challenge and working harder individually for the health of the formation. We made some great progress, learned a whole bunch about how to fly these, as a team. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. I look forward to our next get together, which will be: Seven Hills Skydivers, Madison WI June 17-20th Aircraft will be the PAC XL and two Cessna 182's (if we need them) Hope to see everyone there. Blue skies, Razz

Dates: Sept 24-26th Location: Sky Knights, East Troy, WI "The List" 1) Jim Rasmussen * 2) April Schuldt * 3) Jason Smith * 4) Brian Martin * 5) John Bechtel * 6) Bob Felt * 7) Linda Ruiz 8) Brent Racine * 9) Jay Kedley 10) Ken Kniech 11) Tim Schue 12) Jeff Klingbell 13) T LaVonne 14) Keith Paulson 15) Paul Peterson 16) Andi Bongert 17) Tom Stewart 18) Jeff Paulsen 19) Dave Holmvik 20) Jeremy Olexa 21) Bill Grace 22) Josh Luba 23) Brad Kult 24) Mike Livieri 25) Dave Prozinski 26) Eric Bernetski 27) Chad Neidigh * 28) Bart Stonestreet * 29) Eduardo Guillen * Means you're planning warming up for the Boogie by going to CRW Nationals. We'll have something special for everyone who goes to Nationals before the Boogie.

Third Annual Wisconsin CRW Boogie September 24-26th, 2010 Location: The Sky Knights in East Troy, Wisconsin. http://www.skydivemilwaukee.com/ Sky Knights DZ is located in Southeastern Wisconsin, 1/2 hr drive from Milwaukee and just a short drive north from Skydive Chicago. Aircraft: Twin Otter, PAC XL, Cessna 182 We will have our usual fun, relaxed CRW dives, and pehaps do some larger Vertical Formations (more on that later). We’ll have more details and the “List” soon. But, mark the dates on your calendar. It'll be fun. Note: We picked the weekend after the CRW Nationals, in the hope that some folks would find it easier to attend both - single plane ticket and such. But, if you can attend only one, try and make it to Nationals. Beautiful, sunny, warm Wisconsin will always be here next year. CRW competition may not if we don’t support it. Of course, if CF competition isn’t really your thing, you can just come to the Boogie. We promise that no one will poke fun at you for being to chicken to compete! :-) Blue skies, Razz and April

Hi all, So, we have enough for a new Wisconsin Vertical Stack Record. Let's plan on starting at 8:30am on Saturday. If you don't already have cross connectors on your lines, please plan on getting there a 1/2 hr earlier, so we can put them on. Updated List: 1 Jim Rasmussen 2 April Schuldt 3 Bob Felt 4 Brent Racine 5 T LaVonne 6 Brian Martin 7 Keith Paulson 8 Paul Peterson 9 Dave Holmvik 10 Kermit 11 Jason Smith 12 John Bechtel 13 Jeff Klingbell 14 Tim Schue 15 Ray Frazier 16 Josh Luba Blue skies, Razz

Jumps are free, rides back if you land out are $1000. :-)

Hey all, This will be the "first" Nationals for me, and I'm trying to figure out how many cases of beer to bring and whether I'll need to rent a U-haul to bring them down. So, if everyone could help me out, we can get a list started and I'll have a better idea how much beer to bring. (Note: We'll be driving to Chicago from Wisconsin where beer is plentiful and good) So here we go: 1) Team Name : "Next Best Team" Members: Mav, B-Mart, John, April, Razz Disciplines: 4way, Rot, 2way, ProAm Original Date (Sept 18-23: Yes Alt Date (Sept 15-20): Probably 2) Team Name : Members: Disciplines: Original Date (Sept 18-23: Alt Date (Sept 15-20): 3) Team Name : Members: Disciplines: Original Date (Sept 18-23: Alt Date (Sept 15-20): 4) Team Name : Members: Disciplines: Original Date (Sept 18-23: Alt Date (Sept 15-20): 5) Team Name : Members: Disciplines: Original Date (Sept 18-23: Alt Date (Sept 15-20): 6) Team Name : Members: Disciplines: Original Date (Sept 18-23: Alt Date (Sept 15-20): 7) Team Name : Members: Disciplines: Original Date (Sept 18-23: Alt Date (Sept 15-20): 8) Team Name : Members: Disciplines: Original Date (Sept 18-23: Alt Date (Sept 15-20): If you could just put down your team name or "Funny Team Name Pending", or if you're an individual put down your name and that you're looking to get on a team, or if you're a team looking for member(s) indicate how many. For disciplines, please put down the ones you intend or would like to compete in. If you're a "Pro" or "Am" looking to get on a ProAm team indicate that. Also for the two proposed dates, indicate whether; Yes-For sure you'll make it, Probably-You can make that date, Unlikely-You will be able to make that date, or No-You can't make that date. Note: Let's not have this list digress into discussions on the merits of drinking, preferences for dark or light beer, or whether or not teams should be sponsored by beer companies. Thanks all, Razz

Starting to feel like a good idea to escape to someplace warm for a week. Who'd like to do some crw at the Keys Boogie Nov 5-8th, 2009? List: 1) April Schuldt 2) Jim Rasmussen Blue skies, Razz