crapflinger2000

Just some general observations on the concepts this brings to light: 1) I DO believe there is a problem with policing in America. Far too militarized. At some point the risk seems to have xferred from the police to the citizens. I believe we pay cops to do the right thing (i.e. NOT shoot unarmed people because they got scared) even if that means they might make the wrong decision and get shot because they were taking the time to figure it out. I am not speaking about someone dumb enough to wave around a bb gun... you do that in front of a cop its on you if you get blasted. But I am talking about "got shot because I did not announce I was going into the glove box for my registration". Any cop who blasts away in that context is usually a f*cking sh*tbag. 2) It seems that the concept that EVERY shooting of someone who turns out to not be armed is a "bad shoot" has taken root. Bullshit. If you are a 150 pound cop getting pummeled by a 280 pound dude, you have every right to shoot the motherf*cker. And not all of the unquestionably "bad shoots" (thinking about the BART cop incident for example) are not automatically about race. That cop plain and simple fucked up and meant to taser the guy. The concept that he intended to MURDER a guy on a platform full of people is laughable. 3) Point 2 brings up an issue that further drives us all into our respective corners. Police Unions refusing to admit there is a problem and calling every police shoot "good" gives rise to point 2. Similarly, BLM screaching about racist policing every time someone gets shot, regardless of context, drives people away from their POV. Either side taking an absolutist stance is idiotic. 4) There are UNQUESTIONABLY BAD SHOOTS documented out there. To straddle the races, I am particularly disturbed by the New Mexico shoot and the Walter Scott shoot. I will freely admit that anecdotally this seems to happen more to black people. Point being, see point 2. Media has latched onto these examples and unfairly painted with a broad brush that every time someone gets shot that is unarmed, it is AUTOMATICALLY a bad shoot. 5) Tasers - Use of a taser should be subject to the exact same use of force investigation that a shooting is. IMHO these tools were supposed to help prevent police shootings for guys swinging bats around. They appear to have become tools of poor policing. I am more scared of the prevalence (and increasing acceptance by the general population) of taser usage as a compliance tool. We've all seen videos of "if you don't get out of your car I will taze you". This attitude is furthering many cops' views that we MUST comply with their every order and escalating situations. It is helping slide us towards a police state. Cops need to get over the fact that if they tell someone to do something and they refuse, this "challenge to their authority" is not something that is worth escalating a routine interaction with a citizen into a resisting arrest charge. In other words, be a big boy (or girl) and figure out how to accomplish what needs to be accomplished without escalating the situation even when dealing with an asshole. I fully support police departments mandating de-escalation training. 6) This is America... we have the right to bear arms. The concept that this makes cops jobs a lot more dangerous is something that I (just speaking for myself here) accept. That should NOT however justify the concept that we grant police more lattitude in shooting people because "he might have had a gun." 7) Cops are people... all are different. There are cops that truly just want to be a good sheepdog against the wolves out there, and those that were just picked on in high school and are on power trips. I wish I could say "weed out the latter", but I doubt if we got that selective we'd have as many cops as we need. You go to war with the army you got, not the one you want. I have no solutions. Just throwing out my .02. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

Try this: Go to store, buy some of those wax air freshener cubes. Also a box of the strongest smelling dryer sheets you can find. Get big box (like 3x3x3 feet) with enough room for a lot of air space around the suit. Throw it all in the box loosely. The idea is to allow the good smell stuff to permeate the air in the box and then the jumpsuit, so the good smell stuff should not be buried under the jumpsuit. Cover and leave in the sun for a week, periodically shifting the jumpsuit so all parts are exposed. Again, keep the wax cubes out of direct contact of the jumpsuit or they might melt/stain it. Worked well for getting smells out of rigs and canopies, although if used for that purpose you want to avoid the good smell stuff ANY direct contact with the gear, especially the dryer sheets, who knows exactly what is embedded in them. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

Not in the game anymore but how DO you do this properly w/o opening up the yoke and all that? I certainly cobbled together some serviceable quick fixes in my time... but if there is a cool guy way, would love to know what I was doing wrong. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

It helps when one of the plane owners/mechanics/pilots is also a skydiver. With a lot of lightweight sheet aluminum lying around. Had him cut me 2 patterns, one for the mesh, one for the zero p. If memory serves I have him a free repack plus one of the first PCs off the assembly line in return. I took care of drilling and cutting holes and notches for marking up tape locations and so forth. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

Thanks all! __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

Hey, I've been out of the game for some time, can't keep up with all the new-fangled sooper-swooper-dooper canopies out there. Is a 2000 DOM Velocity with about 800 jumps the equivalent of a Falcon 195 these days? It was made before all the competition line set hullabaloo and all that. Just wondering what my expectations on selling this thing should be. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

When I was a rigger by far the thing I was most concerned with was the rinsing and drying aspects. You don't have to scrub 600 times to get it clean. A couple cycles and you are fine. However, being the paranoid sort I always rinsed the sh*t out of them, to include letting them sit overnight in clean rinse water culminating in taking a shower with the rig in as cold water as I could stand, making sure to rinse out all the soap from all the nooks and crannies around the hardware with the shower head. I know its only Woolite but I did not want anything but Nylon left in the Nylon. For drying I generally let it dry a long time. Washing someones rig was basically a 4-5 day ordeal. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

Don't ask me how but I managed to graduate off AFF w/o being to dive out truly stable. My first truly stable dive out exit was... from 1,800 feet during an "emergency" exit (air quotes cuz it was just a blown piston on a DC3, not much of an emergency). Either got lucky or I somehow mentally pulled it together when it seemed to count. Regardless after that I could dive out like a champ consistently. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

To OP, sorry, I know my response was of ZERO help to you. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

"Once a nominal 4' bridle is attached and the top of the canopy is stowed in a certain part of the pack, crown and crown lines tucked under as in many packing instructions, only 3' of the bridle might be really free to extract with really low drag." I still don't know why they say to tuck this stuff under. The guy who taught me rounds just said to do it but could not explain why, which I did not like as I didn't like doing stuff "just cuz". Someone told me it had nothing to do with opening performance, rather it was about protecting that area from abrasion from the container cordura. Idaknow. I was rigging for like 5 years before I finally had one of my round repacks deployed, was happy to see it worked. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

Just don't decide "oooh, that chest strap looks a little frayed, I can fix that problem by chopping it off and replacing it with some car seat belt material and my trusty home sewing machine" like one guy I know. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

Pro-tip... Not sure if Cypres still comes with this or not but back when I was in the game each unit came with a retro fit kit, which included some F-111/Zero-P ish cable channels. You can use these for quick and easy drawstring channels, assuming you don't mind your slider having black racing stripes. For best results, split the channel lengthwise down the adhesive part so you are only adding one layer of fabric to the slider. The adhesive is nice cuz it helps hold it in place while you sew it down. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

If it were an NB6 the POBs and so forth would definitely have been a problem as far as a safe exit from the plane. Especially at night. My money is on the NB8. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

I think rolling the tail DOES affect the opening but not in a very helpful way... I used to always pack my own but every once in awhile would have a packer do it. I used to get trap-doored whenever this one packer did it. I watched him and he rolled the tail SO tightly that my theory for the trap door was that it would stay in that tight cigar shape, nose unexposed to the air, just long enough to freak me out and imagine a trap door feeling. It paused the normal smooth opening sequence long enough to make me FEEL like I was accelerating. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

When I was still in the game (sr rigger only) I did a lot of this... as my sewing skills got better I said to myself "Assuming I can duplicate this so the ending dimensions and materials are 1:1, I can make that!!!" "That" included making the odd D-Bag, replacing lines on mains, replacing bridles on non-collapsible PC (it's just bloody square weave), and ultimately making collapsible PCs. My theory was that if I can make some money at it and it can be cut-away, go for it. So I never messed with reserve components like cutaway handles, reserve ripcords, reserve line replacements, reserve DBags, etc. Granted a screwed up collapsible PC posed some risk in the "can cut it away" philosophy... but I was confident in my ability to duplicate a PC more or less exactly (I used a Sunshine Factory PC as my model, those were built like brick sh*t houses). They sure as hell were better then some of the PCs that came from major manufacturers for awhile (cough Talon cough). __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

Oh shit, quick ejectors! That guy could lose all his books if he's not careful! __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

We circumcised our little boy. I am cut as well. At the time it was not because of the "won't he be confused cuz he does not look like daddy" thing, which I consider to be bullshit [my 2.5 yr old son told me the other day that Iron Man is gonna get in a fight with Darth Vader and sang a song about it, concluding with an explanation about how I am R2D2 and he is C3PO - meaning I don't think our dicks looking a little different is gonna phase him when he has all that other stuff on his mind]. Rather it was because I felt a little gooshy about having to do all that extra manipulation of his junk for cleaning purposes and so on. Well, fast fwd a few weeks and there I am, up to my elbows in barf, breast milk, piss and shit, having to bathe him down there ANYWAY.... and I got to thinking, "meh, would not have been that big a deal". Net-net is that while I am not losing sleep over it, I do feel a little bit bad that I had the Dr chop off a little bit of him, over my stupid fears and squeamishness... My vote, don't do it. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

When I made them for PCs I filled them with a bit of foam rubber... The big challenge I had with them was working out the finishing knot to not be overly bulky or a possible snag hazzard after I hot knifed off the excess rope. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

Yeah exactly, floating on my back. But that was not super helpful either as it is one thing to float in a calm pool, quite another to float in a choppy lake with water splashing over your face intermittently. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

Dude I know the feeling from an incident last summer. Difference is I am not a strong swimmer and am out of shape. But still, wading / swimming out to some rocks out at Tahoe should not be TOO taxing, right? Made it out ok but the trip back to shore kicked my ass. Panic started to set in as I tried to make it, gulping down water. I had to revert back to my USMC boot camp "aqua-rock" basic water survival floating techniques, forcing myself to calm down. I had to tell myself, "Dude, you are NOT going to drown at frickin Lake Tahoe, within sight of your 15 month old boy". __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

Recommend you post pictures of the dapper gentleman... cuz you know... you've posted pics of everyone else as "evidence" in your thread... Also I demand screenshots of the FB post. I demand proof that you posted this prior to being told to go away. Recommend you post any private messages, recordings of phone calls or conversations, etc. Also, if you have any evidence of more shooters on the grassy knoll, I demand you post that as well. Back... and to the left. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

I stopped watching about 1:30 in, expecting to see massive carnage. Seen better, seen a LOT worse. I did see YOU hit or almost hit the tandem though. You're pissing in the wind dude, did this guy steal a girl from you or something dude? __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

Dude... Criticizing a DZM is one thing... but posting a pic of him just makes you seem incredibly douchey. I have no dog in this fight, seen good and bad DZOs and DZMs... but the way you go about this REALLY makes you look childish. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

I am out of the sport for a few years now and am posting cuz its either this or do work, and I don't want to do work at the moment. I never had a tandem rating, but flew a crap-ton of tandem video and was THE rigger for the DZ I worked at for most of my professional skydiving career (so I always had a eye on how "my rigs" were being used/treated by the TMs). Main point, IMO nothing you have posted in terms of photos or videos points to a dangerous or pervert TM. We had some (usually weekend warrior fill-in type) TMs who DID clearly grope tandems from time to time. When it happens it is obvious. While the hand placement is odd, doesn't seem "gropey" to me. Also saw my fair share of "throw yourself stable" guys as well... your pics don't demonstrate any of that. Show us some pics of the bridle actually touching some part of the tandem pair... or the relative wind blowing the drogue back past them because the TM tossed it while back to the relative wind on exit... My personal opinion of the TM based only on what has been presented in this thread (mainly the twitter stuff and the legs down position in the video)... he's an immature twit with a dash of "I want the video to be about ME ME ME" but that's about all I can infer. On that basis I'd not want anyone I cared about to do a tandem with him, but the overall picture you are painting of the guy just isn't supported by the evidence you present. I don't know, never flew with the guy, you have, he could be a total spud, but it just does not leap out at me that he's about to leave a 2 person sized crater somewhere. __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?

In current times, I can't think of a culture more absolutely alien to the western mind than places like Dubai. I'd feel less alienated if you stuck me amongst one of those "indigenous Brazilian rain-forest tribes only glimpsed from airplanes that might still practice head-hunting". My only first-hand experience in a predominantly Muslim country was in Tunisia and while still fairly liberal in the touristy areas, the crap I observed made me happy to get the hell out of there. That being said, if that's their culture, fine. It's not like I expect them to change for me at all. You go there and you take your chances as a visitor. As a thinking person I can have that "eh, it's their way" thought but at the same time think "I am fricken glad as hell I do not live there, what a crap-hole". __________________________________________________ What would Vic Mackey do?