Mostly_Harmless

I pm'ed you his information. Give Mike a call, he should be able to hook you up.

I think I might be able to help you out. I ride the train for free into NYC so it wouldn't be that big of deal.

Quote

Hey Mike if you really have high def footage, make me a copy.. PM me and I'll give you my adress and a few bucks for shipping.
by the way i may do a Mikey perfect episode about that and call it mikey miracle

Glad you are alive and alright! Easily the scariest thing I have seen yet.

Quote

That looked like it sucked.

It did suck. It sucked to watch it too, I hate seeing people get hurt. But by the time I walked over there I could hear him talking and he seemed in good spirits. He made the comment "Did I get a point for touching the water?". I don't know if it makes any difference but when I looked over my other footage I saw that his first jump he was very high over the pond.

Here is the crash from my perspective. I was at the other end of the pond with a wide angle lens on my camera so it's not so clear.

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=6121

Quote

Since noone has asked...

Aircraft?

Will the King Air be flying?

The King Air is no more.

Quote

I'm in Manhattan (working) the first week in July (Next week!) with the 4th and 5th off. I'm bringing my gear. I've narrowed this down to the Ranch by bus or Skydive Long Island by train. All comments would be appreciated.

I am a SDLI native and recent vistor to the Ranch. While SDLI offers a view like no other, the largest landing area around (I mean come on the run way is 10,000FT long) and now a King Air that will do like 2500FT/min in the end its the tandems that get priority. The Ranch is just so much more. The tandems coexsist nicely with the fun jumpers. They rip up two twin otters doing 1600FT/min and you would never even realize that tandems are there. The atmosphere is so much better at the ranch. They make you want to skydive. Here's my break down:

SDLI (few hundred jumps):

Pros:
King Air
Caravan
Big landing area
Beautiful view
Majority of the people are friendly and cool to hang around with

Cons:
Tandems come first.
Small fun jumper crowd (keep getting smaller)
13.5 50%
11.5 50%
Expensive tickets ($24 13.5, $22 11.5)

Ranch (about 10 jumps):

Pros:
Two Twin Otters
Large fun jumper crowd
Plenty of coaches
When both planes are in motion its balls to the wall skydiving
Good balance between fun jumpers and tandems
The atmosphere is unreal there, you can't help getting on every load you can.
14K every load, every jump
$20 jump tickets (did I mention 14k every load?)

Cons:
Small landing area
20 people per load with small landing area can get crowded
Both days I was there it took them a while to get both planes going, was waiting just as long as I would at SDLI to get on a load
Winds can be really funkie.


Thats my view. I will be making a lot more trips out to the Ranch now.

Is there a boogie at the Ranch on the 4th?

I was thinking more of....

That's pretty neat. Please wear a grey suit and red bowtie when you ride it!

Quote

I have not had a chance to watch that episode but I have it on Tivo. My first thought is he has a base rig on and either has another harness on underneth with just a the main rings with a cutaway set up for the first canopy so he does not have a way to contain the d-bag or he has both sets of risers hooked to his base rig with a cutway set up on the first canopy and still has no way of containing the d-bag on the first canopy.
Kirk

Good one.

Instant canopy. I believe normally when you jump from a stationary object you should wait a few seconds to pick up enough speed to get a clean deployment. Remember that is does take a bit of force for your PC to pull your lines and canopy out of the bag. It was a cool stunt though.

Quote

Quote

Why the hell would Meadow get whacked? She does nothing in that show.

See how upset Tony was when AJ nearly died last night? And how upset he got when he gave Coco the curb job? Multiply that by a million, and you have why she'd get whacked. Her dying would be worse than Tony's own death to Tony.

Having said that, if Carmellia, AJ, or Meadow died it would all mean the same. They are an Italian family and nothing means more to them then each other.

I laughed my ass off when meadow was talking to him and he told her that he was sick and was on medication so he had to quit school and couldn't get a job.

I honestly don't know why they aired such a bs episode last night with only a few shows left. I can't believe they turned AJ into such a pussy. Every episode he is crying and acting like a baby.

The ice wall is also 150ft high.

Someone get me off floor 1....

Quote

Quote

If I could go back in time I would definitely jump into my prom!

I did a bandit jump into my College Graduation, on an old round Pap...skydiving tee shirt tucked into my cutoffs.

I landed, my GF handed me the hat & gown on my way to the stage to get the sheepskin!

Mom & Dad....were SO proud!

LOL! That is soo cool!

If I could go back in time I would definitely jump into my prom! People pay hundreds of dollars to arrive in a limo when you might be able to pay a few hundred to arrive in a fashion no one would forget. Go down to your local DZ and tell them your plan. I remember seeing a clip on skydivingmovies.com about someone jumping into there prom:

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=3219&string=high%20school

What happen with your other two cutaways?

Quote

Not an attack, but, why would you buy a suit based on what someone else says....especially from a person who sells them?

Seriously people....what ever happened to good ol fashioned self education? Find out what kind of fabric holds up well to what we put them thru, which manufacturers double and even triple stitch, does the fabric wick moisture, does it have stress relieving elastic panels, and perhaps most importantly....how good is their customer service? Inspect all of the suits that are out there by them inside and out. I'd bet if you went to a big DZ on a weekend and you will have the opportunity to look at every one made....

Don't ever buy something just because everyone else does, or tells you to. It's just stupid. Let the product sell itself.

It's good to hear from people who use the suits. You can't tell how long something will last by looking at it. By getting peoples opinions you can find out how well the suit is holding up, is it easy to clean when it gets dirty, or how customer service is etc... A lot of companies are really nice to you when you are a potential customer but that all changes after you buy (talking in general, not just about skydiving). When you are talking about product education it starts with the end users. People who use the products will tell you there likes and dislikes and from there you can start your investigation into a company.

On topic: I owned a Freak'n'Suit for my first 300 jumps and it was a quality suit. It held up pretty well considering I brought it as soon as I was off AFF. I own FF pants from them too (still have them) and have let plenty of people borrow them and they still are in great shape. I recently moved over to a matter suit. I wanted something a bit tighter. To me the matter suit is built extremely well. The materials are really nice and the fit is excellent. Both companies had awesome customer service and were always there to back up there products.

I am happy pulling at 3500FT (FF).

Borrow agaisnt your 401k. Then you pay yourself back plus interest.

Quote

Another major US dz has adopted to 180 rule. Skydive Crosskeys has recently implemented this rule. It's sad one dz (SDA) can have such an effect. To implement a rule thinking it will fix things without any teaching, so sad.

Crosskeys has had this rule long before SDA. I visited Crosskeys last year and was told that there were no hook turns greater then 180. I believe (and could be very wrong) this was put into effect after two swoopers had a collision and were killed.

Is he peeing on her?

Can't go wrong with a Honda. Take good care of it and you will have it for a long time. A girl driving a manual? Sexy. Enjoy!