jdatc

I was desperately firing off shots with my rebel trying to get a shot like that but I failed. I only got lightning or canopies. Missed getting both. Anyway, I think we don't want to have the operaters take responsibilty. As the other thread states we need to be a self policing group.... But it's stuff like this that pisses me off when someone goes running to the FAA about a BASE rig that almost got on a balloon. No one says a word to everyone who got out of the jet on that last load. And since I was up in the glider while the jet was taking off, I can tell you without fail what the ceiling was..... But, We can't have things both ways. We can't say these people need to take some responsibility for this, and then those people should be responsible for that. It is up to us to be responsible for ourselves. The same goes for safety infractions. if you aren't going to talk to all the people breaking the rules, why talk to one. That's hypocritical in my eyes. Apathy man. it kills everything. Fuck it.

I said using BASE gear out of a balloon is stupid, because it harms skydiving. I guess I need to repeat once more that I am not anti-BASE. I understand that you are not anti-base, but I fail to see how a BASE rig from a balloon harms skydiving more than a lot of the other things I have seen. I would have no problem if you were trying to stop every problem in skydiving (which we know is an up hill impossible battle), but it seems like you kind of singled this guy out when there were a lot more detrimental things to skydiving occurring at the convention. This was just a guy taking his BASE rig out of a balloon on an early morning load most likely with the pilot's consent.. Against the rules, yes, can't debate that fact, but if you had to rate the harm it was doing to skydiving out of a 1 to 10, i'd say a 1.... And then the whole FAA thing.. They (FAA Management especially) are not anyone's buddy regardless how well you know them. Trust me on this. Because if something were to happen, and their butt is on the line, it will be them over us. -Justin

As a controller, working for the FAA, I do my best not to get pilots in trouble even when they screw up. I have a simple no harm no foul policy. I am not interested in violating someone or damaging someone's livelyhood for a minor transgression. Gross areas if miscinduct detrimental to the safety of others are different. But on the turning people in thing, how about rigger's who only pack their own reserve, but pencil whip it. Does that warrant being turned in in your eyes? I mean, they are only affecting themselves, but they too could damage the sport if they went in and it was discovered.... On that balloon load if you knew someone had done that, (pencil whipped their reserve for a year) would you have pulled them off the load, or councled them or went to the FAA?

Did you also run to the FAA every time someone or some acft punches a cloud? or How about when people pull way low and have 2 out cypres fires? If your actions were about safety, I would think you would bring up these F.A.R and USPA violations when they occur... I met the FAA bunch at the WFFC (being one of them) and they were really cool people. -Justiun

He is a great guy. And not just cause I bought my gear from him or have jumped with him.... He'll be at the WFFC limping around I hear

I managed to get group one. I bribed my little sister to do all the work and register me as I was out mountain biking on the 1st.... $20 well spent!

Western NY area / Buffalo locals please PM me. Will be out in that area this weekend (6/22-6/25) thanks.

I will be there. FLying to the potatoe bridge on July 21st for 5 days. Then on the way back stop at midway (July 26th) and drive to WFFC till it ends... Was originally going to spend all the days at the convention but.... Oh the fun, A BASE rig, A skydive rig, helemts, camping gear, etc.... I will be way over on my airplane luggage allowance....

Let's all call the FAA and put some pressure on them..... What's the FSDO number?

My pc1000 connects to my PC through USB 2.0 (also has a firewire port on the dock). It takes up enormous amounts of Hard drive space for the video footage but it seems to transfer ok... Not slow, and the quality is good... My understanding is that firewire and USB 2.0 have almost the same transfer rates (well as for how they are rated)... Firewire being somewhat faster depending on the task and system architecture.... http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdpcm/is_200302/ai_ziff36161/pg_2 ... Then again, maybe I misunderstood...... _Justin

Wow... Miami quoted basically what I did. I picked up my camera from B&H... actually went to the store and got it (PC1000) and for not using it skydiving, just around for fun I find it a great camera. I don't know how it will fair once I get my FF2 (which I did order from Miami recently), but a couple video guys at my DZ use it (the camera) and like it. It has a lot of fun options for the non camera *crazy* person. Some of the time lapse stuff is cool. Packing in 26 seconds via time lapse looks cool... The digital pics are cool for cuts between segents, but not equal to a Digital SLR of course... Overall I've had it for a few weeks and playing with it in a non-skydiving enviroment is fun... -Justin

exactly. I Missed it. was manifesting for the next (canceled) load. But he went off the side. Chris saw it. I just saw him taxi past with the left side gear facing the wrong way. it was Fixed up, and there it was next weekend though... I made sure to take a glance at the gear before i junped in... and not to be the first load of the day on it!

The weekend before this was the one it landed and went off the runway. Sunday about 3pm-ish... I was suprised to see it back this last weekend, as they weren't able to fly it back out for a few days due to the damage.

I have paralog and a garmin etrex vista c... It is pretty cool, but the big problem for me is satelite reception. I sometimes lose it in the plane, but re-aquire it in freefall. I turn my gps on and leave it on all the time. The only thing I turn on before I leave the aircraft is the logging function (1 point per second). Then on landing I turn off the logging function. It is pretty cool, and defiently works very well under canopy. The google earth feature alone is worth it...

Car: 170ish rollerblades: 50mph Mountain Bike: 53mph Skiing: 78mph (per my gps) Skydiving: 210 (per my neptune)

Telling my parents I started skydiving wasn't too hard... They were used to a lot of my more *interesting* hobbies. But now this May I am headed out to take the Apex BASE course. Telling my parents about it has proved difficult to say the least. I kept it from my mother till last week. A frank open discussion is the best though. I find that not shrouding any of the risk, or downplaying it works best. I told her the honest truth that it was something I always wanted to do, I was going about it a proper way. I also explained to her that she couldn't change my mind and that while not having her blessing wouldn't stop me, it'd be easier if she tried to understand my motivations.... She just said she'd pray a lot more... -Justin

I have / use a Garmin GPs with paralog. It's very interesting when you view the images on google earth. My only problem is reception on dives. Though I've got some good hop & pop data. If you want to be *somewhat* accurate, I'd go that route. I'll let you know later in the summer (when the DZ is in full swing) how many miles I can get....

Glad to here the course went well. Mine is schedualed for the 3rd weekend in May with Apex. Looking forward to it. Have any advice in regards to the course? I plan on staying a few days after it concludes to jump. -Justin

I may be dyslexic... I thought Mmmm.... Craving Crabs. Sweet delicious snow crabs. Damn you Discovery channel and your deadliest catch! Then I saw carbs. Damn. Drink a lot of diet soda. You'll have to piss so bad, you can forget about eating. Man I wish I could get some crab legs at this time of night....

I think I have been diving for around 13 years now... was a lot more fun when I was a teenager, but I still get out for a few dives a year. The most interesting thing I learned was, that you can in fact puke through a regulator. Hey, the fish liked it.

Let me make you feel better. This is a tale of my stupidity. Me (alone), Car Subaru WRX STI, With snow tires, a lot of idiocy. No special driving courses and a lot of tickets later.... The pic I stole from google earth and made a diagram.. Coming off the expressway to exit and to make the turn on north ocean ave, I was doing 70ish in the far left lane when I hit some ice. Car nose started going right. Tried to straighten it out in the lane as the nose rotated clockwise at a rapid speed.... Lost it. Was sliding sideways in the high 50mph zone. Car is perpendicular to the road.... Pole approaching... Big, mean and intimidating... It wanted to kill me I think... Going of the road. counter steering not helping.... I am perfectly sideways.... Fuck it. Accept the situation. Me or the car. Really rip the wheel right and downshift into second... If I am going to go right maybe I can keep going right and spin it. That way at least the dirver's side door won't strike the pole and kill me... clutch completely optional. off the road into the enterance for the radison parking lot. Sideways into the entrance. Missing the pole. whew. Probably going to eat the sidewalk scurb sideways at low speed. Hmm... could roll... bad is getting worse. Boom. Traction. it turns and stops exactly parallel to and I miss the curb by less than 6 inchs. Get out, whoot and hollar! WOOHOO! I made it. My car is on bonus days from here on out.

From http://www.bridgeday.info/faq.php#32 This relates to Tar... but.... (32) What can I use to clean tar from my F-111 canopy? Use "Carbo-sol" which is made by the Sunnyside Corp of Wheeling, Illinois

It's funny. I just got a copy at work today. And I log on and read that everyone was having trouble finding it..... The Facility chief knew I was a jumper, so he brought me down the book... One more piece of FAA literature for the bookshelf. I think it is definetly something that even if you aren't a rigger you should check out... Hmm... Maybe later on I could learn to rig, I could use another cool FAA license to add to my collection.....

Maybe they can put the plane up after safety day at SDLI if there are enough of us that want to jump. I'm in.....

I spoke to Nick last week when I put my order in.... The best was as I was giving him my info to reserve a stock canopy, my radar detector went off... "He told me quick, give me your credit card info before you get the ticket...." I know my gear order is in good hands.