skybill

Hi Dave, So Pioneer did the chute. The CEO of Pio. (If he's still there??) Steve Hinsky used to be an engineer at Irvin in CA. back when I worked there. Irvin had this MARS Mid Air Retrival System that we worked on. That was in the late 80's. MARS systems have been around for years! It's a lot of fun to put a D-bag in a steel reinforced fixture, fold in the chute and apply about 75,000 lbs. of pressure to it with a hydraulic ram!!! Pioneer and Irvin should have websites showing all their cool toys. Doing aerospace rigging ain't yo' average day at the DZ $5dollar packjob!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Cheese, As 2fat2fly mentioned gen. avia. activity appears to be down and skydiving is part of the big picture. 9/11 sure didn't help matters and until the world situation improves who knows? For years it seemed the price of 12.5K was $7.50 at a lot of DZ's then in the mid 70's it started creeping up!! Find a good, cheap, easy to get source for a lot of OIL , (LOL)!! Or, Figure out how to economically convert a Twin Otter to "Electric Power!!" Remember how "nylon" came around?? It may still be a long way off but refining the mouse trap will pay off. A lot of people will laugh but then again remember that America is called the "land of opportunity" and American does not end in I-RAN it ends in "I-CAN!!!!" SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi CV, After spending 3 years, 11 mos and 19 daze in Uncle Sugar's Canoe Club 05DEC66-23NOV70 making it to Parachute Rigger 2nd Class, 2 Viet Nam Tours etc., I'd say that if you "Really" want to join the Marines at the ripe old age of 23, do it as an officer !!!! Don't enlist! As an officer you will get all the gung ho training you want and more! Going in as an enlistee is fine if you're 17, fresh outa high school and don't have any direction in your life. You sound like you have it together so if you really want to do this, do it as an officer ONLY! Hell, you can follow in Ollie North's shoes just don't make the same mistakes (Iran Contra). SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi BillyV, I concur that USPA is the way to go and NOT the FAA. As I said, safety is a lot of hard work. You guys are doing something positive and how's it going? Any progress being made? Hopefully your efforts will be significant. Guess again if you think I want the Feds to get involved!! Like Duckey, I too have unfortunately been around at a fatality, not cool at all!! But what can you do? The best thing is to make an example of your self and DON'T GO IN!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know who's next but I sure as hell am going to try my damnedest for it not to be me (or anybody else if I can help it!) SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Duckey Dude, Rant and Rant some more. Are you going to run for Conference Director or National Director or both? Try to get involved with the FAA, if they won"t hire you, then just start reporting all these dificiencies to them and let the pot stew!! Write letters to town councils to outlaw hook turns at the local airport (work at the grass roots level) Start pulling ripcords on people you consider unsafe. Go to PIA Symposium and tell your story!! Start writing letters to the USPA Staff demanding more action and regulations!! Quite frankly, I like things the way they are! The USPA is doing a good job. The Industry (PIA) is doing a good job. I support USPA , the Parachute industry and the sport. I've worked in the Parachute industry all my life from the grass roots DZ level, Military and on to Aerospace Parachutes. Everyone at least that I know of is trying to minimize the "Risk" gap and or develop the "better mouse trap!" Generally, safety comes with a lot of hard work! There's nothing easy about it and you are not going to get it by demand or over night. You have your agenda, go for it. Let's see how far you get. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Dave, I guess you mean like lettuce, tomatoes and the like? OK-Fine. BUT!!!!!!!! Gotta have my Tomato Juice, (add lemon or lime juice, pepper, worchesterchire and tobassco sauce) Curly Fries and Red Beans and Rice!!! Take some of my kicked up tomato juice, pour about a jigger in a mug and add beer (Red Beer) good stuff. Still like my celery stalk in my Bloody Mary!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi D, What ya' do is trap it and feed it corn meal for a couple of weeks. Then kill it and cook it (roast possum and sweet 'taters) and have some friends over for dinner and tell 'em it's pork!!!!!!They'll never know the difference!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi ya' Duckey again, I'm back! As far as USPA being more regulatory, guess again. What would shut down skydiving will not come from the Federal level, try the local level. Back a few years at the Gulch, (Casa Grande AZ) it was the town that shut the DZ down!!!!!! As for your slinks, why didn't YOU figure out before hand that the tabs can slip out and snag something? General rigging practice is to tack down things that can slip, slide, catch or?? You don't just put something together and "See what happens" when you jump it! Get YOUR rigger's ticket and be part of the solution!! I graduated Navy Riggers A School in '67, FAA Senior Rigger in '71 and FAA Master Rigger in '75. As far as exp. aircraft having 2X the fatal accident rate of GA aircraft?? I don't know what the stats are on difference between hrs/miles flown was but if performance is a factor lower performance GA over High perf. exp. aircraft well what would you rather crash, a KR-2 or a J-3 cub. Fact is that both aircraft can kill you just as dead!! Oh yes, a great GA aircraft the Beech Bonanza, why is it called a "Forked tailed Doctor Killer??" All these Dr.'s and Lawyers get one when they start making big $$, get their instrument rating then get "uncurrent" wanna fly somewhere IFR and the rest is history!! "Ya gotta stay on top of your sport!" ya can't get killed doing a game. Oh ya' I got my FAA Private Pilot (SEL) in '79. Well Sport, Shit happens and you think the answer is more regulation? That just means more hoops to jump thru and more bureaucracy!! (Remember my FAA job!!) I like the idea of education and vigalance, that's constant vigalnce... hunt for trouble, find it before it finds you! (slinks, case in point) SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Duck, Read your post and you are smokin'!!! So you think the BSR's and USPA are a failure? What should we do? Hand over regulation to the FAA? Oh Boy? Right now the FAA regulates skydiving fairly well, Gear is TSO'ed and packed by FAA certificated riggers, Our Airplanes and Pilots are regulated by the FAA, so I guess we need FAA Student, Private and Commercial Skydiving licenses next?? More bureaucracy!! This could be a good thing!! I'm an unemployed Parachute rigger and I could get a Government job with the FAA to help regulate the sport! I'll get $40,000 / yr, med. bennies, 401K and 2 weeks paid vac. and sick daze!! I'll wear my aerospace nerd short sleeve white shirts with the pen protector with 5 different colored pens in the pocket and my clip on tie!! How fun and all I have to do is tell you that you can't jump!!!! If I tell you that you can and you kill yourself then my regulation failed too. So, you can''t jump!! See, you're still alive and not a fatality!!! Sorry if you're strung out from seeing a fatality but I doubt that it was a result of a failure of our "Self regulation!" As Eldridge Cleaver once said,"You're either part of the solution or part of the problem." That goes for all of us!! This is a dangerous sport, not a game(period) The risk is managable but the stakes are still, your very life! Try golf. Keep your fish bowl* so you won't get hit in the head by flying golf balls. *fish bowl- hard helmet eg bonehead or the like. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi EV, Picture if you will a cartoon showing a couple of golfers looking up at a plane load of jumpers and the jumpers looking down at the golfers. The thought bubble is in the middle with arrows pointing at both groups, "Look at those nuts just ruining a perfectly good day!!!!" Somewhere in my archves in an old Parachutist mag resides this cartoon. Some things just don't change. Have fun! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi EV!, LOL sounds like those old farts were young at heart!!! As the saying in POPS goes,"Ya' don't quit skydiving because you get old, you get old because you quit skydiving!!!" SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Sparky!! 10-4!!! Low on cash at the moment, but when the $$'s come back up I want to go visit everyone out there!! What kind of canpopy are you roll packing?? F-111 or ZP?? I liked roll-packing but the rides are wild on ZP elipts.!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi EV, Grab right, grab left, pull right, pull left!!!!!!!!!! There is only a brief moment of uncertainty between the main risers leaving and opening shock on your reserve. 'Amazing how a reserve ride gives you a fresh perspective on things. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Cheese, 'Still got my rig, my PCA (oh that's USPA these daze) is current, 'been jumpin' 40 years now. 'Guess I'll hang around. I don't jump as much as I used to in Ca. but quit? Why? I've noticed a few posts lately by people who want to give it up for various personal reasons eg. broken bones, other people going in, etc. Oh well. That's their gig. To me, skydiving is not just a "sport," it's been my life. So, I'm not quitting either!!! I guess we'll be the last two on the DZ doing 2-ways, unless we drag the pilot out for a 3-way!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Mich, I get mine, that's it. BTW except for some from the last few years, I have 'em all back to '64!!! It's a trip to see what was going on in the sport "back when." SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Rig, Flip, Flop, Roll, Pro, Trash, U-Name-it they all have their place. Take Sparky's post a notch further. I put the slider on top of the stabs. and fold the d-c and a-b to the middle, butted against each other. Then fold the d-c over the a-b. Take about 10" fold from the slider/stabs. and pull it up on top. Rotate canopy 90 degrees and fold top down over the rest. The whole package fits the bag perfect! Had to take 2" out of my closing loop. Some of my friends named my pack job the "Deli-Roll!" Works fine on most 7 and 9 cell F-111 / lo-po type canopys. Worked fine on my Dragonfly and Rascal also on PD-230 and 210's I've jumped. Nice soft on heading openings. Rich Iccobachi asked me to show him the Deli-Roll as his PD-230 was wacking him on opening. When he came down from the jump with the Deli-roll I asked how it was, he said," I let go of the pilotchute and didn't feel anything so I thought I had a mal, I looked up and the canopy was open and flying fine!!" Yup, just transition from vertical to horizontal flight with little or no stress on you or your canopy!! As far as zp elipticals, I stick with pro-packing. As for line burns on some roll packs, I'm not surprised the way I've seen a few roll packs done. Good luck if you try a roll-pack on a ZP eliptical, you're probably in for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi 321, Good "One Jump Wonder" story!!!!!!!!!! They're everywhere!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Skratch, Dial up a few posts and read about Lester. Hard to believe he would do something that dumb. Maybe he didn't. Maybe it was intentional. One sure way to kill yourself is to jump out of an airplane sans chute. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Flyer! Ya' got a cat, we got 4!!!! Fuzzy, Lucky, Jethro and Anglefood McSpade!!! Ya' open the door and there she is, "Meow" (which translates to ,"move over sucker, I'm moving in!!!!!!!!!!!!") SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi UK, Got a '99 Chev, Silverado 1500 pickup and it's still worth a nice chunk of change. As for rigs, that's another story. For pic. of truck, go to Airtrash skydiving home page photo gallery "postcard fom Bill Deli" SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi KR, Hooters Buffalo wings,(hot or plain, crispy, "Sizzling!," with blue cheese dipping dressing) and Curly fries crisspy, sizzling and with the cheese dip. "BEER!!!!" Oh yes and ALL the Hooters "eye candy" to go with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it's even better when there's an "apres skydiving" party going on there!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Jen, Print up a personal invite to come to the DZ and make a "SKYDIVE!! Put everyone's name on them and hand them out at the party. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi KB, Tired of these fatalities? Sure, who isn't. Quite a thread ya' got going here. Jacked up a few people for sure. The sport is "DANGEROUS!!!" We know that and proceed anyway. We feel that with good gear, good training, good proceedures and our own good abilities we will prevail. We have good statistics, good days at the dz and then wham something happens and we realize that inspite of it all we are still "vulnerable!!!!!!!!!!!" In spite of all proper prior planning, no matter how well we cover all our bets and bases, fate is still the hunter. Some people wear their vulnerability on their sleeve and some may put up a calloused front. You've seen 'em both. After it's all over, you have to move on. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Fly, Ya' and "Nobody" at work believes that you did this at home, Right? They say you're fibbing and you did it at the DZ!! I was going down the stairs at my apartment to check the mail and fell,tripped, twisted, broke my left ankle at the bottom step as I was saying,"Hi Joe" to my neighbor in apt. A!! Hurt all weekend and went to see Andy Schafer (Ortho MD) on monday morn. yup it broke, got a soft cast and no sympathy from the guys at work!! Oh well. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi ATS, Well, if you really want a racer, fine. Get one. But who is going to win the race? Racer has (2) pins. Hence 2 pin cypress more $$ Fewer riggers want to fool with them so you have a hassle getting them packed. Less popular so resale factor is lower. This is just the way it is. Single pin rigs, (Vectors, Mirage, Javelins, etc.) are less hassle to work on and work great in the air. Performance wise, a racer and a single pin one can work just as well as the other and kill you just as dead as the other. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out