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Most have you have seen the recent video of the Flying Elvis crash landing under canopy breaking his pelvis and other bones. What, if anything, could he have done in the last 50-100 feet to have saved the landing or at least have significantly reduced vertical velocity? It looks like he is coming down very fast. I don't do hook turns so I dont know much about canopy control in this kind of a situation. Although my video is low resolution, it looks like he is in deep brakes during the last 30 feet or so. It is painful to watch. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I used X and S band marine radars on commercial fishing boats. On X band we could pick up pelicans on radar about as far as you could see them. On S band sets we could pick birds up many miles away. You would think that a pelican is the ideal stealth aircraft, but nope. Furuno markets certain radars as "Bird Radars" to tuna boats which use birds to locate fish schools. I bet a skydiver with gear is at least as good a microwave reflector as a bird. Some ground radars looking at aircraft have doppler velocity filters to screen out anything that isnt moving at a certain minimum horizontal velocity. It cuts down on extraneous echos. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Want a tunnel? Want training from world champions? Want a jet jump? Want to stay a while without spending all your $$ on lodging? It's ALL here. The dust is a hassle but it all shakes out in freefall and opening. The Conatsers (DZ owners) make BIG investments (tunnel, jet, reinforced runway for heavy jumpships)and take substantial business risks. In doing so they advance skydiving for the benefit of all of us. Who else would undertake the incredible expense and hassle of buying a DC 9-21 passenger jet and getting the FAA to approve it for jumping? They do most things right and put a lot of thought into the operation of the DZ. You can always find something to gripe about at any DZ, but when you look at all that Perris offers, and its reasonable pricing, you gotta admit that it is one hell of a great DZ. There is a reason that people travel thousands of miles to spend a week at Perris: it has it ALL.

I am a lawyer and an engineer. I started the thread. The engineer part of me called bullshit on the doctored photo and video. The lawyer part of me could rationalize all day long about the lack of deceptive intent, lack of material harm, etc. Outside of the courtroom, the engineer in me prevails. The mayor should be ashamed. Why not have a video of him dressed in fatigues, visting a military training camp here and morphing it into him engaging in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan? Its either real or fake, period. Everything else is rationalization. BTW, I did like the video, it was very catchy. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Whether or not he ordered the retouching is irrelevant. He knows the photo and video are heavily doctored and he says absolutely nothing to correct the mis-impression it gives of him as a solo jumper. By knowledge and silence he has ratified the faked photo and video. It is not Watergate, it isn't stealing, but its something falls far short of being truthful. It's like resume' fraud... like saying you have a PhD when you just have an AA. No theft, nobody gets hurt, but it creates the impression that you had more training than you actually received. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

He does sound like a decent mayor and I have to admit that the faked solo jump picture isn't like Watergate or Monicagate. I want to hire that photo editor. Finally, I can be in a big way, just as big as I want. Hell, lets double up the Thailand pix and put me last man into an 800 way... or a 1600 way. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

In the current issue of Air Trans inflight magazine their is a puff piece about Denver's Mayor John W. Hickenlooper whose email is: [email protected] At the very top of the article is a photo showing the Mile High mayor in solo freefall titled: "actually John Hickenlooper, actually at 13,000 feet" Yeah, sure. Something looked wrong about the photo, deliberately made less detailed by the insertion of faked video scan lines. On closer examination, no cutaway handle, no 3 rings, and no container. It was a tandem jump with the tandem master carefully cut out and replaced by blue sky. The mile high mayor has a faked solo jump photo. Oh well, what do you expect from politicians. He should have put himself into the Thailand 400 way. With Adobe Photoshop anything is possible. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

UPDATE SEPT 2006 Still a great DZ, great people, great planes and great prices. We all owe Bill Dause some thanks for keeping his prices low for YEARS (I used to jump for $5 at Pope Valley). As far as I know he has the lowest prices for tandems and up jumpers anywhere. Most places gouge tandems since most of them never come back, but not Bill. It sure isn't cheap running large turboprop aircraft and fuel prices have skyrocketed, yet Bill keeps jump prices very reasonable for all types of jumpers. I have always thought that he was motivated more by the joy of sharing the experience of skydiving than by money, and his consistently low prices prove it. I have sent many tandems his way just to support a DZ that has given such great prices to everyone for years. Bill is also to be credited for still offering the least expensive path to an A license: the old tried and true S/L (static line) training. It doesn't generate much revenue, but it gives a poor skydiver who cannot afford AFF a chance at entering the sport. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Bill Dause is a seasoned DZO (used to run pope Valley)and probably has more jumps (24,000??) than any other DZO, so he knows the business from both ends. Last I heard his DZ was not USPA affiliated, but that doesnt bother me a bit. I don't care if anyone checks my reserve date. It is well run and has a very friendly atmosphere. Bill often offers to jump with novices and can tell you a lot about how to improve your freefall skills. His wife Kathy runs manifest and she is as nice a person as you will ever find. Bill got lucky when he met her. The DZ is located near a busy highway, but the highway runs at right angles to the normal upwind approach and is easily avoided. The only thing I dont like is that Bill sometimes jumpmasters static line students with him flying the plane and doing the jumpmastering. Too few resources in my opinion. Very few students do S/L these days so it may be a moot point. Their Beech 99 (like a giant King Air) is a great jumpship and they have others if that gets too busy. Prices are always reasonable and you get the feeling that Bill runs the DZ cause he likes the life not because he wants to squeeze every penny out of the customers. In fact, I think he has the lowest tandem jump prices in the whole US. Give it a visit, you'll be back for sure. Don't do anything real stupid or unsafe as Bill has been known to tell some folks not to come back again.

WOW!! I have new respect for the time proven C 9. How does it deploy from a head box? Just a pilot chute extracting the bare C 9 or is there a bag or sleeve of some kind to slow inflation? Wonder what would have happened to a Navy conical under those conditions? Confetti? 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Somewhere on the Internet there was a video of a C 9 high speed opening shot by a VERY high speed film camera camera for some govt project. That canopy did things during deployment that looked like the laws of physics were being violated. I think it blew up but I may be recalling some other video. Is the C 9 still used in ejection seats today? I liked mine, well... at least I liked how it looked with the sun lighting it up. The performance was more likely to benefit orthopedic surgeons than the jumper. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Did pucker vents actually do anything useful on C 9 canopies? It was an elastic banded thing that closed the apex hole if pressure was low. I kept mine but everyone else I know cut them out. Maybe they helped in high speed ejections, but sure didnt seem to do much in a skydiving jump. My C 9 was so worn out and porous that I never had one standup jumping it over a hundred times. It was BRUTAL, but I was too poor to get anything better at that time. I'd probably be an inch taller today if I could have afforded a PC back then. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Members of our loosely organized Cal Skydiving Club included Doug Hansmann (ME), Bob Hink (physics), me (EE), and a few others whose last names I cannot recall. Packing chutes in the Student Union plaza during semi annual events promoting campus clubs got a lot of attention from girls. It apparently was more interesting to them than chess or astronomy club. For some reason the skydiving club membership always seemed heavy on the science and engineering side. We jumped out of Perry Stevens' plane, an Aeronca Sedan? (called the RAT because of its general appearance) at Livermore and sometimes out of a Twin Beech, C 180 or C 206. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

we had one at WFFC 2006. It flew in from TX. See attached picture. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I remember transitioning from awful surplus gear to a TOP SECRET with a PC and round reserve. Paid $125 for it. The jumpers with $$$ were dumping their PCs cheap when the squares starting hitting the market. Finally, painless landings. The guys who made the TOP SECRET had a shop in downtown Vallejo. They were nice to me and did repairs and mods really cheap. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I graduated from Cal (UC Berkeley) in 72 (BSEE). We had a small club during most of the 4 years I was there. We mostly jumped at Livermore, but sometimes went to Antioch. I don't think any of us could afford squares, just cheapos and PCs. The good old days... free love and cheap jumps. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I guess that ejection seat survival stuff (even down to the hook knife design and fishing kit) is well thought out. I ran into a skydiver who was an active duty Navy S 3 Viking pilot. He and his crew punched out of an uncontrollable S 3 over water. It was, despite all his skydiving knowledge, a very humbling experience. Easy to drown, huge compression forces on ejection, and many other things that made it a jump you'd never ever want to repeat. As I recall all four survived and he was battling with the Navy on whether they would assign pilot error or mechanical fault as the cause. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Maybe Bill ought to look at some commercial fishing hardware for ideas. I used to fish for a living and saw a lot of specialized hardware designed to hold huge loads reliably yet release with the pull of a release line. There is something called a Brailer Block that does this and many other similar devices used in purse seining, trawling, etc. Nothing is useable in skydive rigs "as is", too huge, but some good design ideas might come to Bill if he looked at that stuff. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I alerted eBay to a similar scam some time ago and they did NOTHING. They even allowed the phony auction to continue to the end with some buyer probably getting ripped off. The item STILL appears from time to time. If I can find it eBay can too and should block it. Ebay talks a good line about fraud prevention but in reality they do very little to stop it when it is brought to their attention. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Has any though been given to making the RSL easier to release in flight? I have read that in two canopies out and in certain wraps you should disconnect your RSL. The connector is small, hard to see and manipulate. Seems ripe for a new design/invention. Any ideas? 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Guess I overestimated the heft. Less then two oz is sure not heavy. I'd say the quality of these USAF hook knives exceeds the razor blade types by quite a bit insofar as ability to keep on cutting after having the cutting edge assaulted by repeated cuts of abrasive Spectra line etc. Wish Sparky would sell his cool custom pouches for these surplus hook knives. The guy selling these knives says that the pouch they come with was designed for mounting on canopy risers, but I doubt it. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Turns out that the plane's owner had tried to extract the DC 3 from a situation where the wheels were sunk in the ground. A big piece of wood or a log was used in the process and it got kicked up into the turning prop as they were trying to move the plane. Nobody told Skip and the prop was not x-rayed or magnafluxed. Apparently it had suffered a crack that resulted in the blade loss during takeoff. Skip told me that if the blade had come off after they had taken off it might have been the end for everyone. As it was they had a VERY close call. Skip sure knows DC 3s inside and out. I like flying in DC 3s and feel more confident with him in the left seat. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Those orange USAF ejection seat hook knives have been available recently on eBay new in the orig box for around 10-12 dollars. Dont go nuts bidding them up, the seller has many and keeps listing them. I got mine for $12, quite a bargain considering the exceptional quality. Probably cost the govt $150, maybe more. See: http://cgi.ebay.com/Parachute-Riser-Knife-USAF-Survival-New_W0QQitemZ280015190028QQihZ018QQcategoryZ588QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem They are very high quality knives but also HEAVY. They come in an unusual pouch, not very useable for skydiving. The pouch has the knife enclosed in a stitched up container. Guess you pull the lanyard and break the lightweight cord stitching to extract the knife. For anyone who can access specs by FSN the number is: 1670-00-779-1253LS POCKET CUTTER F41608-91-C2345 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I love Triathlons and Aerodyne, but even the factory can make mistakes. When I got a new line set installed by Aerodyne on my 190 they mis-rigged the lines on one riser. Had to take the link apart and rearrange the lines. BTW, the new line set made a big difference, much more linear flare. I emailed Aerodyne and told them about the mistake. Never got a reply. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Here it is. Sweet plane, climbs well, has Wright 1820-86 engines from a Grumman HU 16 Albatross. Shown at WFFC 2005. I made almost every load flown by the DC 3, just loved the plane, but the spots.... well, lets say that it was hard to believe that they had a GPS, but they did. One load I was on landed miles!!! from the WFFC DZ. Exited over scattered clouds. Finally Air Boss Dean flew with them and showed them how to fly a jump run. They seemed to improve after that. Oh, and that plane was the loudest (by far) of the six DC 3s I have flown on. Ear plugs mandatory. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I have bought EVERY accessory that L&B has ever made. Their customer service is A+++++++++ (actually PERFECT) and their products are great. The non linear face on the Altitrack is a very useful feature. It doesnt require wraparound conversion to figure out your altitude if you are above 12K. It also spreads out the low altitude portion to give you good angular resolution where you need it most. They use a solid state pressure sensor, a microprocessor and a digital stepper motor to do this. The back lighting is nice, not overly bright. The hand mounting works well, although I prefer a wrist mount. The jump logging features are awesome, everything the Pro track does and more. I like to have an accurate altimeter from TO to landing and here is the one shortcoming in the current version of the product. For about the first 500 ft after TO it stays on zero then jumps up to the right reading and is fine after that. Maybe L&B will fix this in a new software version. When you consider all the work that went into the product. the amazing number of useful features and the relatively small skydiving market, it is a good value at $299. I think it is out of kindness towards the Cypres mfr that L&B does not make AADs. Clearly they have the software and most of the hardware to do it already. The Altitrack is a great device which is useful, fun and very accurate. Buy one, you will not regret it. I love knowing that if something goes wrong, even after warranty expiration, L&B will treat me right and keep me happy, just as they have always done. They truly deserve my business and set the gold standard for taking care of customers.