jonstark

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Posts posted by jonstark

  2. 3. Bobby Gray was around in the last few years but I don't remember who told me so.

    5. Silly is around but you have to go golfing to find him.

    6. Chrome Dome, Fast Harry. Last time I saw him was in Deland in 76. Lost him after that. Moe Villetto might know.

    10. Beanpole ain't dead. He showed up at a south Florida invitational wknd to see old friends this year. Val Thal says he's doing fine.

    11. DogEater is as bad as ever in Deland.


    How about Barb Challat? Last I saw her she was a Capt for People Express airlines 1984ish.

    Suzie Luger? Where's she?

    Brian Jeffries?

    Darrel Berger?

    Matt whazizface? with Slots?

    Is Al Brown still in Florida smashing bags for Delta?

    And where did that slug Jon Stark go? fekkin' geezer

  3. Bill Coe, the brains and drive behind Perofrmance Designs, was especially enamoured of the Hornet. He wanted to develop a single surface squarelike canopy that would perform better but still have as little bulk. It was in the back of his mind for years.

    He jumped one more than any other jumper that I know. I think he might have weighed #140 at the time and was living on ramen noodles to spend every cent he made at Eastern Airlines on materials to make canopies. His was a very interesting story to watch.

  5. I started jumping in Pgh 30 years ago and some of the same guys are still at it with a vengeance. It is a great town, although very different from when I was there. Try Beaver valley Skydivers too. Small rural setting but lots of history. enjoy...

    jon

  7. The Hot Dog was a good evolution away from two PCs but was even harder to pack and cost quite a bit as I recall... OLd MA1s were usually laying around and you could get 'em for pennies if not for free. Wasn't the HD about $100?!

    I pulled my reserve for repack with my friend across the room and the HotDog gave him a fat lip and almost got me a black eye.

    jon

  8. seems to me that you'd probably be doing a front loop on the way out...

    I kinda like the idea of jumping into aerated water but how deep would you end up?

    For that matter why not a bunch of floating packing peanuts.

    How about a bunch of nerf balls...?

    Things that make me go naaaahhh!!!
    jon

  10. "minefield" ??

    That's an interesting choice of word :-) :-)

    Or did you mean "Mind Field"?

    But you're right, Bill has been one of the real thinkers.

    Skr





    Anybody remember when he tried to get a whole lot of Glad trash bags reefed together to jump? He was going to sell the idea to Glad for an ad. A couple of the young bucks at the relative Workshop in 1978-9 were trying to figure out how to slow the openings to survivable speeds. They finally got bunches of bags tied together and reefed them with middle 3-ring hardware.

    Bill used to laugh about getting the whole mess open and riding it for awhile. Bummer if you tried to ride it to landing only to have it come apart on final!!
    I can't remember if anybody ever actually rode one tho. That would be a fun story!!!

    Now, Just what was that mindfield thinning then?...

    jon

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    Maybe this would be a better post for the security_dork.net. I fail to see what this has to do with BASE.

    Tom?



    Tree... Knock Knock Is anybody home???

    Wakey Wakey pal. Read the first post keeping in mind what it is that we do...

  • Quote

    The wire is insulated(rubber/plastic coating) I touched it nuthin' happened.
    Next time I'll try pissing on it:o;)
    ~J



    It could be a wire that would indicate that it had been deformed or overheated by the inner conductor touching the outer sheath causing a closed circuit or the inner insulating material breaking down in extreme heat. It is typically uninsulated tho.

    For more info on your proposed installation you could look for Fenwall or Kidde on your box.

  • Quote

    Don't think I've missed this one among the previous posts - when I first started jumping I was told that since big-way formations tend to slow down as they grow, one day people would build one large enough to land...



    It was predicted that we'd be landing 150 ways!!! Of course the bases were being built with balloon sootes.

    jon

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    Its not a myth but a question I get asked alot when recruiting is "What happens if both your parachutes fail?"



    My standard answer is... "You die". :P



    My Standard answer is "you will get really, really, hurt" and just walk away. The confused look on the persons face is priceless IMO.

    R.I.P. (DZ name)



    My standard answer is... You have the rest of your life to think about it...!

    jon

  • Mike, I think the 4 way at the '75 World Meet was won by the U.S. Team, but they were The Rainbow Flyers. I can't remember his name anymore, but one of those guys played a big role in getting AFF started in the U.S. before he died in a balloon crash.



    According to my shakey memory... The Rainbow Fliers were... Ken (Mr AFF) Coleman, Rocky Evans (also hurt in the same crash that killed Ken), John with white hair, and another possibly Hoot Gibson?... As I recall they were also the DelRay Aerial Circus.

    Can Ya'll say HOG FLOP??? That's what we called round/backloop/round.

    The hot tip was to keep your chin tucked during the backloop. You'd go around much faster and stay much closer. Try it!!!

    Jon

  • Quote

    I am deffenetly getting into this, But I want to learn the safe way,


    Talk about an oximoron... What "safe" way is there to learn BASE?

  • Here's a photo that was posted to an earlier thread....



    You see how the jumper is looking up at his canopy? You spent a lot of time doing that under a Dactyl.

    And...Nobody warned me about stalls. They just said to "try it...heh heh heh"

  • Quote

    wow, I can't beleive BASE jumpers kill hundreds of birds a week!? WTF? How? The noise of opening scares them to death?
    -----------------------------------------

    If the party leaves a rope dangling into the cave the birds hit it on their way out in the morning. They have to climb out in a slowly ascending spiral. They swirl out of the cave in such a huge torrent in the very early morning and can't see the rope hanging there. I would imagine that a rope left hanging for the morning swarm might indeed kill 50-100 birds.

    Cavers and BASErs alike must be aware of this hazard and be sensative to the birds' need for clear airspace during the morning.

    jon

    In the evening the birds go back in in a different manner and seem to miss the rope. They just dive in and their flight path is steeper then when they have to circle climb in the AM.

  • I actually spent about 4 summers helping restore a Lockheed 10A. Any Lockheed 10 person would yell at you that it's not an L-10, it's a Lockheed 10! Lockheed never called it L-10.

    I probably know the Lockheed 10A better than I know any other plane because I've been inside it everywhere from inside the nose (to work on the back of the instrument panel) all the way to the tip of the tail (to clean out 60+ years of crap).

    This particular one is 4 serial numbers from Amelia Earhart's. Originally the VIP transport for the Secretary of the Navy in about 1935.

    Dave



    Please forgive my ignorance. I'm not a "Lockheed person".

    Was the airplane on the Skies Call cover a Lockheed Electra or not?

  • It barely carried 12 jumpers to altitude.
    It was know as a Lockheed L-10 Electra.

    I jumped this a/c out of Barnwell South Carolina many many times. It was operated by Bobby Frierson at his Vikings of Denmark DZ. It was a little slower and smaller than the more common Beech 18. (This one in particular was reputed to be the next serial number built after Amelia Earharts ill-fated a/c which disappeared in the South Pacific.)

    Bobby put all kinds of handles on the a/c and we had a ball climnbing all over it. The videos, or shall I say Super 8 and 15mm movies, were a lot of fun. On one of the exits a jumper ran along the roof only to fall off the opposite side just short of the horizontal.

    The Lockheed Lodestar carried 30 jumpers and was powered by much larger engines, depending on modification status. The nose was totally different, not as blunt and much longer. It was a much more powerful and roomy a/c and very fast in cruise. I have an old dislocation injury from being slammed into the top of the door during exit because the floor fell out form underneath our feet momentarily.