scottjaco

I just wanted to post again to say thanks to everyone for all your kind words and to those who sent P.M.’s This morning I drove up to CalCity and got on the early bird load. I hadn’t jumped since January but after reading all the positive thoughts from everyone, I wanted to see how jumping felt. I have to say, it really felt great to be back in the air again. I did 4 jumps and met some really cool people. I even got on a jump with an inflatable raft! That was a new one for me! I realized that it’s not worth sitting on my ass and worrying about every little thing that can happen to me. There are no guarantees either way. I don’t want to put restraints on myself just to appease the small handful of people in my life that might be upset if I were to be killed. I can’t live for them, I must live for myself. To anyone else who has doubts about continuing in the sport, realize that in order to skydive, you must learn to let go of everything. Your entire life as you know it has been suspended, pending the outcome of your skydive. From the moment you leave the plane till the time your feet touch back down on the earth, nothing else in your life matters. Perhaps leaving one’s own life behind, for just those few minutes, is what keeps us coming back to the sport time after time, even if we know it might kill us. Blue Skies!

Just like craigslist warns, the best way to avoid 99.9% of scams is to meet the person face to face and accept cash only payment. If a meeting isn't possible, have the seller mail the rig to you COD. If you are the seller, and agree to use COD, make sure you specify a "certified check/money order only" for payment.

Thanks for your words Chris. I remember thinking to myself that while the deceased have moved on, the rest of us are left to clean up the mess. Someone had to call the family, someone had to go to the dropzone to pick up their car, and then go to their homes to clean out & distribute all their worldly possessions, then make the funeral arrangements. It’s just a huge mess when someone dies unexpectedly. I guess it bothers me more when someone dies young. I knew Cliff was going to college to become a lawyer and had a lot of good things in his future. It seems as though they’ve been cheated out of living up to their full potential in life, getting married, having kids, growing old. My depression was more of a dissociative response. I started to view people as cardboard cutouts, with no depth. That second day, when Tom died, it was like watching toy soldiers. I didn’t have any real emotional response like I had the day before when Cliff died. The counseling & medication was extremely helpful. It’s too bad I have all this doubt when it comes to jumping again. I wish I could just forget the whole thing happened. Cliff & Tom had a good send-off. They both seemed to have many friends that honored them with memorial dives & a 2 page tribute in Parachutist. That’s more than most deceased people get. I’ll eventually return to skydiving. I want to make it clear that if I should die in the sport, I don’t want anyone feeling sorry for me. I don’t want anyone to experience grief or be pushed into quitting the sport on the account of me. Thanks for all the responses. Scott

That sounds like a good idea. I might just go up one day to hang out. It's better than sitting around stewing in my own miseries.

I would like to continue because of the reasons you mentioned, I just don't want to get killed doing it. It's like being stuck in a feedback loop.

I got on a plane to do a skydive 5 minutes after Cliff & Jay bounced. I can still remember the manifest speaker saying "Now call for DC-3" I was amazed they didn't shut down.

Hi, I’ve been struggling with the events I witnessed during the Christmas boogie at Eloy a few months back. I haven’t skydived in a while and still have the black images in my mind of what happened to Cliff, Jay & Tom. I witnessed Cliff & Jay’s accident while standing outside the hanger, I watched them from the time they separated from their entanglement, till the time they both slammed into the ground. It was the most horrifying thing that I’ve ever witnessed. It looked like their gear was getting torn apart as they descended towards the earth. (I later found out that they had both deployed their reserves before impact, and that Jay had prosthetic legs that had disconnected during the entanglement) Cliff's impact sounded like a shotgun blast. I knew he was dead when I heard that sound. I was greatful that at least Jay survived. I knew Cliff when he was at Hollister. He seemed like a nice guy, I did a few jumps with him the first time I visited that dropzone. The next day, I saw the aftermath of Tom’s accident. I basically stood there and watched everything from the CPR to when they lifted his broken body into the body bag. I’ve been pretty hesitant to peruse the sport ever since. I just haven’t found the nerve. I’ve done some therapy with consolers; I also tried Prozac to help alleviate the depression I was feeling after the incident. I would like to know what others have done to move forward in the sport after seeing something like this. Is there a way of looking at this that might help to put things into perspective? I would like to skydive, but I just have a lot of hang-ups because I’m afraid that I can’t control my surroundings or what might happen if I loose control of a situation. Thanks for any advice that might help. Scott

I would like to give an open apology to Skydive Taft, CA. About a year ago, I stopped jumping there and later responded to a thread on DZ.com where I expressed several grievances I had with the dropzone. I believe that posting these grievances online was a bad decision. It was nobody’s business except the parties involved. I contacted the DZ owner today and we discussed the issues that we had with each other. This is something I had wanted to do for some time. We both had a lot to say to each other. I hope we can resolve these issues in the near future and develop a mutual respect for each other’s feelings. I plan on visiting this dropzone tomorrow in hopes of making things better. Thanks for reading this. Sincerely, Scott Jaco

Bring a Keg of Heiniken.

Wow, that takes balls to turn down something so extravagant. I certainly respect your decision to turn it all down. I guess whoring for tips really depends on how badly you need the cash. Not many people can earn a living off any sport. There are these days between weekends....they're called weekdays...use 'em!

I visited a dropzone a while back that actually had a sign posted saying you had to tip your tandem instructor. Pretty tacky. IMO, A "one time" Tandem would be more likey to tip. An AFF or Static line student who is trying to get through the student levels, then get their "A" licence and eventually buy their own gear is already spending a fortune to do all this. Doesn't a certain dropzone in Arizona charge $400 for AFF level 1? In my line of work, it is always a kind gesture to tip the soundman before a performance. Tips are nice but should never be expected. If you want tips, go work in a bar.

Is this improvement due to the medication you are taking? If you have a moment, please explain the treatment process. I heard with todays medications, you may never get full blown AIDS, is this true? How long do the doctors think they can keep the virus under control, so you don't get full blown AIDS?

Hate to stir the pot, but, I would ask a rigger about what upgrades it needs if you chose to "freefly" with that container. The last Dolphin I saw had a really thin peice of velcro holding the main pin flap closed. Maybe a tuck flap or whalrus teeth could be added to help this.

I would be very interested in knowing why he is selling the DZ. Is there a date set for when the DZ will be shut down? What led to this? please PM me if you don't want to post them here. thanks, scott

Pick...Pick....Pick!!! You know damn well what I meant.

This is very big news. So Skydive Las Vegas is shutting down completely? It is a shame that it could not be sold, and reopened to allow real skydivers to jump there.

4 reserve rides? Why so many?

I've never really understood why repacking a reserve causes wear. It may effect the porosity slightly over time but I can't imagine the reserve failing from too many pack jobs, especially if it's never been used. Have any riggers out there had a problem with a reserve being packed too many times to be airworthy? This question is regarding modern style reserves (7-cell F1-11).

The "non spandex" BOC pouches I've seen around don't look freefly friendly in my opinion. The mouth is always open and you can see the pilot chute. I saw a brand new vector like this. This is not the case with a properly maintained spandex pouch. I almost told the guy with the new Vector to get his BOC replaced with spandex

I had my '94 Talon switched over to hard housings. I can't really tell the difference in "pull force" when I cut way on the ground. I do like the concept of hard housing better. My cut away cable used to hug the back of my reserve ripcord when it passed around the yoke of the container. It didn't look very good. I like knowing that the cords are totally isolated from the rest of the rig and not rubbing against anything.

I heard that having it on the outside makes the readings slightly more accurate, don't know if this is true or not. Some people put it on their ankle.

After I pull the tail around, I peak inside before wrapping the tail to make sure the lines are still in the center. That way I know when I'm pushing the air out (on the ground) I'm pushing the lines towards the center.

Every place I jump around LA checks your repack card and it is stored on a computer at manifest. You can't jump without proof of an "in date" rig. Are there any measures being taken to increase the the repack to 180 days or is this all hype?

I just tested my new 24' pilot chute w/ my Sabre 150. I did 3 jumps....no problems. Everything felt the same, deployment happend almost immediately after releasing the pilot chute. It wasn't any faster or slower than the old 28' pilot chute that came with my Container. The black hackey handle sure gave my rig a nice facelift, a big improvement over that bright orange PVC pipe!

Kinda sounds like a contradiction.