hongkongluna

You jump at the Ranch and if you did your AFF there I know you probably used the rainbow jumpsuit students get to use when the blue ones are all taken, so it's not that much of a leap :) -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

If none of these options work for you, you can use escrow.com. It's pretty cheap and you can split the fee. I used it a few times to buy domain names from a complete stranger and it worked out well. The fee for a 1000 dollar transaction is $32. just my .02. oh and I have no financial stake or ties to that company in any way.

Thats classic!!!! -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

I have used escrow.com to protect me in online transactions before. I dont understand why no one on here has ever posted (besides me) about using an online escrow service. I have heard one or two objections as to it being too expensive. The transaction fee for you would have been about 80 bucks but how expensive does that seem now?! Not very i bet. The fee can be paid by either of you or split between both. Those services will verify everything and your money wont get released until you acknowledge that you have gotten what was promised. The seller wont ship until they have been advised your money is in escrow. No one can mess around. Perhaps we can add that as a suggestion in the classifeds. (flame on...) Sorry you lost your loot man. Hopefully your credit card fraud protection will cover you in this case. -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

This has to be the best thing I've read all day. Thanks for sharing! Thats a skydiving Leroy Jenkins. AWESOME!!!! -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

besides the usual stuff from the fam, my sis-in-law gave me a gift certificate from my home DZ. Sweet !! -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

Before you type your link, click the 'url' button below your post window. When you've finished typing the link, click the '/url' button. that will make it clicky... -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

The Ranch Proshop -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

At least i dont land in trees at 150 jumps....hence one of your nicknames, BUSHWACKER -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

Thanks for the input. I was geared up but still wanted to avoid getting too cold. Underarmour, balaclava, glove liners, gloves. I was okay jumping the rest of the day. My brother said the same thing about the dog. Something about great danes being very docile breeds, etc. Well, to all of you i say, a large barking dog running at you leaves little time for speculation. Kind of like in-air rigging. I got myself out of the way first. He can prove his friendliness by going the f$#$ back home I felt safer assuming he didnt mean well since barking and running at the intruder usually dont mean "hey buddy, how are you, lets play catch!" -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

Thanks, i'll definitely try this if i get in that situation again... -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

I agree wholeheartedly. Thats why i took it back up higher, to where i usually pull, since my "plan" obviously sucked. -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

Thought I'd share. Did my first jump of the day yesterday and planned to pull at 3k to spend less time flying my canopy around the cold air. it was about 40-45deg yesterday on the ground. I didnt pitch at 3, i pitched lower, how much I'm not sure, perhaps 2600 or 2700. To make a long story short, my long-sniveling sabre2 sniveled even longer with the cold air and i was open at 1800. I seriously get 800 feet or more on usual snivels. 1800 is way to low for my comfort level. Thankfully i was square, stable & steerable right away. I was not sure if i could make it back to the DZ, it looked just possible. So, i looked around immediately and chose an alternate landing area behind a horse farm. Landed with no problems. Check for the direction of the road first to get my bearings. I found a dirt road and followed it but as i got very near the main road, i hear a very loud, very deep bark. I look over in time to see a great dane jumping over his porch railing and heading my way. There was nothing to climb and i didnt think i'd outrun a dog on a straightway. So, I did what any self-respecting badass would do. I jumped into the bushes and yelled, "help" at the top of my lungs. Luckily, the owner came out and called him off before he reached me, dog was about 5 feet away. The rest of the day was uneventful and i adjusted my pull altitude to be open at betw 3000 -3500...basically my "pulling at 4" was getting sloppy. -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

http://xkcd.com/291/ -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

I used my rigger as the go-between but also had more trust because the person is a verified dzo of a dropzone and that gave me more confidence. I have used www.escrow.com for buying things from people i did not know and who were out of state. They dont get the funds, until you release them, AFTER you get & inspect what they promised. They are first notified that you have paid escrow.com, so they can feel secure in shipping the merch out to you. Its expensive but worth it i think... -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

I use the Old-Jumper-Wind-O-Meter. Simply, watch what all the old, un-broken, jumpers are doing. When they are lined up watching everybody else land, with smiles on their faces, don't jump. This meter is free. No purch necessary. -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

Forgot to paste the link about the poor bear... http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E4DA123BF930A15751C1A963948260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

Looks like a bear suffered the fallout of that incident with Drew... http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960158-1,00.html -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

Out of curiosity, does anyone know the story of the Cessna they used for the Pecos Parachute school scenes? In the film, you can barely make out this tail number : N2673R, which if you do a search comes up as owned by a Sam Deluca. I would gather that this Mr. Deluca is related to Rande Deluca who was aerial coordinator for the film... Perhaps BJ Worth can enlighten us. I'm wondering what the story is regarding that plane & the movie... Rainier -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. Don't listen to the online haters. It WOULD make a cool skydiver's xmas present. How much crap do we buy thats even remotely skydiving related ? lots. t-shirts, keychains, videos, bags, necklaces...etc. This would be useful. -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

Loadstar Silvania W.A. - if you have the alti, you might get out & survive Beech 18 Taft Ca. - plane over weight limit, crash immediately after take-off, low alti, nothing you can do but ride it in... C-208 Jekinsburg Ga. - crash immediately after take-off, low alti, nothing you can do but ride it in... Totter Perris Ca. - crash immediately after take-off... Beech 18 Hinckley Ill. - crash immediately after take-off... KA West Point Va. - weight limit exceeded, plane crashed immediately after take-off KA Lake Point Ut. - bad weather/visibility, AC had inadequate instruments for IFR - pilot put everyone in the water, flying thru fog & snow. KA Marine City Mi. - crash immediately after take-off C-182 Grain Valley MO - why didnt these guys get out???? They canceled the skydive flight at about 3700msl (KC Intl Airport is at 1000ft amsl) Perhaps the pilot told everyone to stay put that they could make it back ? C-205 Holmstead Fl. - spin down from 3500 ft. 1 jumper got out. C-205 Celina Oh. - AC had sufficient altitude when it ran out of fuel that 3 jumpers were able to get out. Totter Sullivan Mo. - crash immediately after take-off. -- Taking into consideration what i could pick up from those NTSB reports, it seems like most of the crashes were from low enough altitudes that there would be nothing you can do except ride it in and hope. Besides reminding me to gear check to prevent deployments in the plane & hanging on the tail, etc... i dont see what else there is to learn from your original post or the NTSB reports except for 'it can happen to you too' That point is well taken and i hope my home DZ is spared tragedies like these.. what am i missing in terms of what i can do to "break the chain" besides just be near the door when possible, be ready to bail, and hope we're high enough ? -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

How long is the flight between the two places they were traveling to/from? Would they have been wearing their rigs that whole time? Also, if pilot did "controlled flight into terrain" or they had not much warning of malfunctions in engines, how would they have had time to get out? Out of curiosity, how many times have jumpers actually bailed out to safety and then the plane went in ? Being relatively new to this sport, I havent seen any ,or heard much about, plane crashes etc. -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

When i had about 20 jumps and had flown "near" my 2nd obstacle, the first being inside the pond, the 2nd being "near" the plane, props spinning, Army Mike at the Ranch, took me aside, stood about 2 inches from my nose and said, "If you don't learn how to fly your canopy, you're going to die." I got the message and i appreciated that.. :) -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

My instructor signed me off for the water training....live action exercises count ! -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere

Absolutely. I landed in the swoop pond on my aff level 5 jump. After asking my instructor how deep it was on the way out to the boarding area. His response: Its deep, don't land there. :) The best/worst part was just the grins & nodding heads as I walked past vultures row by the old Great hall. (This was at the ranch). No one said anything, they just smiled and nodded as i walked past, water dripping from me all over, coming out of the shoes & mud all over me too.... classic moments :) -Rainier Sparks Brother #1 // "I vaguely heard someone yell "wait!" but by that point i was out the door." Quote from dz.com somewhere