likvidskaj

The first "big one" among many: with previous 17 military static SL jumps, two years after the last one (at the time I was flying sailplanes), I did my first freefall ever on a night off-DZ jump. Completely illegal stuff, even in my country back then. I'm still proud of it but if something have happened to me, more than a few people would end up serving jail-time. The second one was an omission I still regret: I was in Kuala Lumpur with no BASE experience at the time and Dwain Weston suggested I should do my first jump from the KL Tower doing a 2-way with him, riding on his back on exit and than he would pull my PC. I wasn't current in skydiving at the moment and I kindly declined the offer. It was a reasonable descision but I'll never get over it.

Let's say: B.J.Worth and the rest of the Mirror Image. Tom Piras and the rest of the Desert Heat. All members of the Visions. Patrick de Gayardon. Robert Pecnik.

Buddy, that system works great, just do your stuff and enjoy. Know your emergency procedures, be mentally in the jump. You're not going to bounce. Have fun, yeehaaaaah!

ha ha, thanks VB I can't believe there's so many posts on this subject geez, man, pack wherever you want, but you can enjoy some breeze and suntan when packing outside there were no indoors packing areas back then and they are in fact rare even today pack outside and be a part of The Elements

Never pack outside, nobody does that. Oldtimers just used those rounds and there was no need to pack them as we all know.

It would be very, very interesting to hear some first-hand stories about Tom Piras, Desert Heat 4-way team, Mirror Image, Visions, and other hard core teams and personalities of that time.

Go for it, try and see how your plan's gonna work for you. If you don't try, you'll never know. If you don't succeede, you can always find another "use" of skydiving. Just go for it. I apologize for this but it's too hard to translate to english, so: Stari moj, idi sto dalje iz ovih balkanskih govana i skaci, uzivaj - ako ne probas, makar ti sve dojadilo nakon dva mjeseca, cijeli ces zivot zaliti sto nisi pokusao. Probaj! Uvijek se mozes vratiti u ovu vukojebinu ako zapne. Sretno!

They were probably just too old for that shit, and old dogs don't care about new tricks...

During my army (paratrooper) days, I asked our captain why the unit doesn't use any combat dogs at all. He told us a funny story: back in the early '70, the unit has trained a bunch of combat dogs to jump. The ground practice - countless exitis on command from a DC-3 with the left engine running - went well, so the dogs did ok during their first ever jump; they exited on command with no hesitation. On the second jump, when the door opened, all of the dogs started to shake and squeal in terror and all of them run to the frong of the plane, to the cockpit door, not a single dog wanted to jump anymore. So the whole program was canceled

Ha ha, people So it seems at first I have to apologize to those heavily offended by my late-nigh subtle playing with their mother's tongue, and yes, it could be a problem to actually wear a wallet without a hard-on and that would be extremely rude in public's eyes. One should carry a wallet around for sure. Preferably in a pocket, for one's own sake And many thanks to those being helpful on this trivial question of mine. And yeah, a 3-fold folds only twice, that's true DSE, I've seen that Twallet of LookMa but it's to fancy, thanks on the advice The quoted word Skydiving (wallet) refers to specific fabrics only – Cordura or Parapack – and not to various prints, labels, embroideries or other jumping related graphics which I personaly don't like on such everyday used products anyways. That's not a fetish, just feels good to touch the same fabric rigs are made of during those days between weekends. And those materials are pretty sturdy, too. At the end, for those who like to fry – I hope there's something to swallow in the above, again Blue Skies to you all

Well folks, I've been wearing my (French made) cordura 3-fold wallet for 23 years now and it's still functional but really worn-out (no wonder, huh!) It seems that nobody produces those "skydiving" cordura or parapack wallets these days or maybe I just can't find such a store. I'd be very thankful if someone knows about such a manufacturer or a store (dealer) who make/sell that kind of wallets. Thank you, blue skies!

I apologize on this digression. I had a book Parachuting Folklore (M. Horan) and there a few pictures of Susan in it. As I recall, she was a national S&A champion once or twice. Was she still active in sport after her competitive career?

Uncle Tom.

LT, I've just downloaded the video, the feeling was the same as it was a long time ago while watching it for the first time! Thank you very, very much again! Blue skies!

Thank you very, very much!

Well, I'm, drooling Shall we, the old farts, be able to see the Jump video again (on skydivingmovies.com or wherever)? Thanks! Blue Skies!

I've seen that video a long, long time ago and it was really great, humorous and with a darn good plot

As I can recall, leglocks were included into dive pool for a brief period, only for a 1987 World Meet which was held in Brasil. Eric, Jerome and guys won that meet in the name of Republique de France.

The book is definitely worth the money

That mountain is in Macedonia (so called Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) and is named after late Josip Broz Tito, a long-time president of Yugoslavia. Funny how it still bears his name.

Just my 2 cents: we (let's say consumers) often forget that behind all those WS designers (or constructors if you like) is tremendous passion and desire. I'm a close friend of one of those people for decades and every time he is in the process of creating something new he's full of that passion. You just have to see those sparkles in his eyes when he boards the plane for testing his new prototype. In those moments, he's not just a designer, aerodinamycist, cool headed engeener of some kind. He's also a kid with a enormous desire to FLY faster, further, better. Very, very passionate things move those people through the designig process and through the sky. Every single product my friend puts on the market was immersed, saturated with that passion during the designing and test-flying phase. So, let those people do their beloved job and the whole body-flying world will benefit from that, step by step. The "pissing contests" are just full of piss, nothing more than that.

Thank you Lord on Ematteo! Buddy, if we ever meet I'll buy you a beer!

Back in the early '80, we were still jumping Strato Clouds with front-mounted Strong LoPo's. One of our accuracy-crazy guys (and he was very good at S&A, very experienced jumper, too), has started to imitate (as seen on some top-class meet) the technique of putting the reserve container to his back instead of just unsnapping one reserve riser from the harness' "D" ring and letting the reserve to hang on the side (that way you could see the target better). To transfer your reserve container onto your back means you have to cross-connect reserve riser snaps with harness' "D" rings using some kind of cord, and when your main is once pressurized and flying good you have to unfasten your reserve from it's side holders and carefully unsnap it's risers from "D" rings. Then you have to turn it 180 and bring it over your head (between the head and the slider) and let it go to hang there on your back. The problem with this technique is obvious - if you need your reserve any time after the transfer, you can kiss this dimension goodbye. Some of us used just ordinary break cords to cross-connect the reserve to the harness. And there he was at 2 grand, opened and flying well, ready to kill another dead center. He did his reserve container transfer alright. Suddenly, the pilot chute shot out from his back and Strong LoPo started to catch air behind him and inflate. It formed-up very fast and his main started to wobble and two canopies started to crash one into another. We, on the ground, were aware of his situation and the show bacame very tense. Then he cutted his main away. Whe he descended closer we could see his hands holding onto those reserve risers. The only thing connecting him and his reserve were two cords and his hands. Those cords were so long that he could hold just the riser ends near the snaps. That was one scarry thing to watch. But luckily, he landed ok and everything was fine. One good thing in this whole incident was that he didn't use break cords but some old suspension lines for his trick of the trade.

Or go to the Phoenix-Fly web site. But no track pants or suit will make you a good tracker if you don't learn how to track without it first. Have a good time, blue skies!

Jeb is certanly not an idiot. I'd say that idiots are those who can not see beyond techinques of present and do not have a vision. Also, idiots could be all of those who think Jeb will land his wingsuit on the conrete runway or grass strip. And what's wrong in pioneering anyway?