jonstark

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Posts posted by jonstark

  1. Quote


    Quote

    (my nominee for ugliest container of all history)



    I respectfully disagree. The original Mirage is the ugliest container of all history. :D



    Some may have found the Mirage unattractive buit the harness was the MOST comfortable of it's day!!

    Remember... At that time the effort was to make rigs as thin and wide as possible. They could hide behind the large wings of our jump suits. We were after light and low profile for diving after a base that had exited the a/c 10 seconds before if not more in some cases. Go fast, flare hard, dock soft. Racing in the back...The good old days!

    jon

  2. A few years ago I ran into a friend in a sporting goods store. Man! He looked as though he had been run over by a truck! "What happened to you?!"

    He had always had a bum shoulder and knee and wrist and a smashed over nose. He said If I'm going down to recover from one why not get 'em all fixed?

    He's real glad he did.

    About the only savings I realized durting knee surgery was on anesthesia. I had two problems which we took care of at the same time but I had to pay for each procedure ala carte, full price for each as though he had to open and close for each and do all the set-up. I felt ripped off. Make sure if that's a determining factor that he will indeed offer a reduced price for collateral work.

    good luck!

  3. My first jump... It's February, 1982. I haven't made a skydive in about 18 months. I've just come into town to visit with a friend and suggest that we visit the local DZ for a jump but after waiting for an hour watching the scudding low clouds realize a skydive is not going to happen.

    "We could go jump off Wxyz. " I idly suggested. The reply was too quick and cool for me. "Yup. Let's go"

    Now I'm starting to thinnk... How do I get myself out of this one?

    We took our sliders and tied them to the connector links with pull-up cords then layed the lines in the bottom of the pack trays in figure eights and free packed the mains on top of the mess. I had a 1978 WonderHog with a Strato-Flyer and a Preserve III. Belly band, blast handle 28" pilot chute. All the while we were guessing what would make a good BASE pack-job. We really had no idea and all I could think of was... How the hell am I going to get myself out of this one?

    Mid day on Sunday. Low cloud base. 1500' tower. Large, Brand X jumpsuit. Four hours after starting we're at about 1450' and my knees are knocking like castinets. (They still do) I have to wait for eons to reach that inner calm that lets me release my vise-grip on the steel. The clouds are coming down and we gotta go! Aw Shit! I leaned out and let go.

    I took about a nano-second of a delay and waited forever for a canopy.

    It ain't much of a story but that's what most of us who had heard of BASE and hadn't been tutored by anyone got into it at the time. We soon found that the heat would come if we went during the day and started to go at night adding to the thrill. Foggy days were OK and some times it wouldn't burn off so you had to go off into the unknown but at least we knew we hadn't been seen.

    Get Mad Dog to tell you about his first jump!

    jon

  4. Tom used to come up and fly for us at Skydive City in Sylvania, GA north of Savannah. What a nut!

    Tom had a super 8mm movie of the Ladds in a line waving to Mom and pulling one by one. After the last sibling pulled you see Tom's green strato-star then almost immediately there are pine tree limbs. He had really sucked it down unintentionally trying to finish the filming.

    Never got to talk to Rachel or Jon or the other Ladd about it.

    Anybody know where they went?


    jon

  6. I don't remember a quiet day in my entire life. I remember asking other kids whether their ears were ringing too.

    There is a new procedure which is to inject something directly into the area of the cochlea. They strap down your head and go in with a needle thru the tympanic membrane and soft bone. My friend, Mike has had a dozen treatments and his debilitating tinitus is gone.

    There is relief available. Mine is not so bad as to warrant this. If you would like me to get the name of the procedure e-me offline.

  • I've seen six.

    Everything from Suicide tracking towards the pit, malfunction that stood up the victim and sent his long bones thru his torso making him end up about 18" tall in a bloody heap, landing a canopy backwards on the runway breaking his neck, flat and stable bounce ten feet, disappear behind the trees.

    None of these were necessary and I wish I had never seen a one!

    It is the sutff of nightmares.

    You better thank your DZO for being one of the bravest mother-effers you know. He's the guy that has to go out there and see the carnage then make the call home.

  • So was I.

    I wish I could raise my kids like I was raised. I'm doing my damndest to give them whatever freedom and room to grow that our urban environment will allow but it's tough.

    Thank goodness we have a hanger where we can pound pennies on an anvil, ride go carts, make small explosions and do stuff that their mom is convinced will put an eye out.

    jon

  • Can anybody fill us in with a good bio of Gus?

    Where was he from? What did he do before moving to Deland?

    I met him years ago in Deland when he would come for the boogies. Then he moved there to go full time skydiver.

    My favorite series of pictures was taken by Gus. He stayed pretty far away from the first 100 way and passed it. The pictures showed dramaticly the size and shape of the accomplishment. Above, on level, below. Very cool.

    That man sure had an eye!

  • I wish I could join you guys at this event! Have fun...

    If you've never heard of Dean or Steph, They are real, very real. Their exploits are the stuff of novels and I don't know how Dean can carry what must be a ton of brass balls. How would you say the same for Steph ?

  • Not a thermal but....

    My DZ partner threw a static-liner out one day just ahead of some pretty grim looking weather. We thought it would be the last jump of the day. Was it ever!

    The student exited OK and opened fine. After opening she climbed above the a/c to the base of the clouds and stayed there!

    I saw this happening and jumped in the truck. We were in very rural Georgia with swamps and TALL pines all around. She stayed stuck to the cloud base for what seemed an eternity. Finally she got broken loose and came down a couple of miles from the DZ in some not too big scrub pine.

    All was cool and she wasn't too upset, at least not as much as we were.

  • I used to throw three static liners from our 182 with a student harness and a belly wart on then have the pilot go around for another jumprun. While he was going around I would take a Piggly-Wiggly bag from under his seat that had a cheapo S-folded into it with the risers taped to the outside. I'd then climb out with my back to the strut and the bag in a bear hug, hop off and pitch the bag out in front of me. Did it half a dozen times.

    Good visuals.

    I had a gutted cheapo (550 innards removed form the canopy from skirt apex). That one opened real weird! Like it was in a lava lamp.