Zing

A hearty red wine from the CATalonian District. Zing Lurks

Hey Pop, here's a question for you. When you contract with someone to provide a professional service (such as rewriting a sales brochure) and promise to pay for that service, repeatedly, but then fail to deliver that promised payment, do you think anyone should believe your statements on any other subject? Zing Lurks

MMMmmmm, I love these things ... soft on the outside, crunchy on the inside! Zing Lurks

Mine's a kinky Twin Otter that was trying to mount a Skyvan. I can't remember which airplane I was flying. Zing Lurks

I did a few of those exits off the Twin Beechs at Ghoulidge, but they were all one-ways without any cameras around. There was one guy at the Phoenix FSDO back in the 70s and early 80s who poked around the goings-on at the dropzone a lot back when photos and movies of people doing odd things on and with airplanes got out in the general public. Zing Lurks

Here's the date and a synopsis of contents of the issue of Parachutist reporting his death. Issue #17: 03/03/1981 Raible Heads South; Riggers Insurance; Rigger Training; Careless Tacking; Riggers Convention; Details of WSCR Award Given; Skydivers Jump California Bridge; Royal Gorge Jumps Continue; Parachutist Joins Balloon Record; Canopy Soaring; Club Sells Bonds to Finance Improvements; Skyvan Bust Becomes Helicopter Heyday; Upside Down Skydiving Made Easy; Gear Ad Stirs Controversy; Jumpers Welcome on Phillipine Islands; Para-Gear Needs Photos; Mr Douglas DC-3 Sold; Decontrol Ups Avgas Prices; Pioneer Unveils 20 Foot Reserve; Manufacturers Invited to Riggers Convention; Georgia Council Makes Plans for 1981; Another Turboprop DC-3 Built; Ripcord Switch Raises Questions; Advanced Air Sports Now Owned Solely by Handbury; USPA Changes Nationals Rules; Janousek Makes 3000th; M Anderson Jenkins Drowns; New DZ Opens in Florida; Para-Flite Rounds Some Safety Flyers; Colorado Gets Beech; Boenish Announces BASE Award for Fixed Object Jumps Zing Lurks

Hey man, Twardo told me about it ... I think he was there on the rigging crew. He probably jumped second, and that's why nobody remembers him for it. Pity really, he could a been somebody ... he could a been a contender. Actually, I pulled that blurb of of one of those "On This Day In History," columns on a newswire. Zing Lurks

Today is Monday, Oct. 22, the 295th day of 2007. There are 70 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On this date: On Oct. 22, in 1797, French balloonist Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute descent, landing safely from a height of about 3,000 feet over Paris. Party on boys and girls. Zing Lurks

In my experience, Mexico City and the tourist districts are a hell of a lot more dangerous to gringos than the rural parts of the country ... even in the state of Chiapas. Best thing to do is take (sneak) a cheapo pistola in, and then sell it to a Mexican just before you leave the country. You'll get 3 to 5 times more than you paid for it in the US. Just don't get caught with a pistol by the Federales. Mexican prisons aren't exactly the resort destinations you want to spend your vacation at. Zing Lurks

How many of the current batch of blazes were set intentionally? I recall flying a Twin Otter out of Elsinore and watching a car stopping several times along the road that goes south from Saddleback Peak in the Ortegas. Within 15 minutes there were five fires going and it still took almost an hour to get a response from the sheriff's department. Naturally, the deputy came to the dropzone instead of getting on up the hill and the arsonist was long gone before anyone started looking for them. We did get a pretty good airshow from the S-2s and helicopters that came to fight the fire. Zing Lurks

Okay man ... just keeping me posted! Zing Lurks

Uhhhh ... did I miss something here? Zing Lurks

AKA as the last hope rope, or the Jesus Cord, and Top Secrets weren't the first, or only, rig to use them. Zing Lurks

Yeah, but back then it was known as The Camel. That DC-3 is a true warbird that served in North Africa ... and has a few patched bullet holes in it left over from WWII. I saw it sitting at Ottawa a couple years ago when I flew a Skyvan there. Other than the smashed left wing and aileron, I noticed it still has the Maytag engine on one side and the Studebaker engine on the other. Theyt appear to be the same engines that were on it when i was flying it back in the late 80s/early 90s. Zing Lurks

Seems to me that I recall hearing that the Strato-Star's rings and ropes system employed a reefing rope, maybe 1/4-inch nylon that was sixty feet long, end to end. I believe I still have a Strato-Star reefing rope in a pile of assorted ropes and cords, but it probably isn't 60 feet long anymore. I used the reefing ropes off my Strato-Star, Silver Cloud and Baby-Plane for a number of other uses after those canopies were converted to sliders. The first slider I had on my Baby-Plane was an X of type-13 webbing with a large D-ring on ecah end that would fit over the bundles of heat-shrink covering the cascades of the suspension lines. I don't recall any hard openings on the rings-and-ropes Strato-Star, but that Cloud and Baby-Plane delivered a few slammers on opening and some violent malfunctions. The #1 hardest opening I ever had, including reserve openings, was on Mk II ParaCommander in a long sleeve. My Bell helmet was down over my face, my googles were gone, I was seeing stars and one of my shoes was nearly off and hanging on my toes. I didn't notice that until I landed and my shoe came off. My brother, who was right next to me in freefall watching said the pilot chute launched and the canopy was open instantly. The next day, I had a fair approximation of a B-4 harness outlined in bruises on my body. Zing Lurks

Incorrect response ... your only alternative now is to correctly answer the four questions all true Turtles know the answer to ... or turn in your shell. Zing Lurks

First ghoul to the crater gets the best souvenirs. Zing Lurks

That looks like the hangar at Coolidge circa 1986, just after Larry Hill took the place over. The Twin Beech in the foreground is N2625, which is still owned by the Hill's at Eloy. It's hard to make out the N-number on the other Beech, but I believe that's the one that crashed in Illinois in 1990(?) or so. Here's another ground view of the hangar around 1988, maybe 1989 when I was flying there, and an aerial shot of the new roof that replaced the one with the skull and cross bones on it around 1981, but prior to the roof being painted orange. The orange roof came about after a trainee pilot in a T-37 got lost flying down to Ghoulidge for touch-n-go practice, stalled the airplane and spun in, crashing less than a 1/2 mile from the hangar. You can spot that orange roof from miles away. Zing Lurks

I'm guessing its Jim Wallace. Zing Lurks

There are a number of sites on the Internet that have "identify the bug you found" sections. Every once in a while somebody comes up with a new bug that's never before been described in the scientific literature. I met a guy who lives just up the road a spell in Sedona who is a retired postman and amateur bug collector. So far, he's had five different beetles named for him and has a couple more pending. There are some pretty strange bugs out there if you know where to look for them. Zing Lurks

"If the DZO is more concerned about his own liability than my life, I'd think about heading to a different dropzone." Suck it up, cupcake. Every DZ owner is more concerned about legal liability than your life. Remember that waiver you signed? Did you read it? Zing Lurks

You could go to bugguide.com and look for an ID on that beetle. It's not a moth, but i do not know what kind of beetle it is. Zing Lurks

A couple of Cherokee Sixes being used for jumping came down without their tailfeathers when parachutes deployed out the door. I flew a couple demo jumps in a Cherokee Six. It dropped like a rock when people climbed out to float. Zing Lurks

That sign hung in the hangar at Ghoulidge for years. Zing Lurks

The OSI is the acronym for Opening Shock Inhibitor. Basically, it was, depending on who made it, a 4-6 inch wide piece of webbing a couple feet long that used Velco to close it around the lines. As you packed, the OSI was wrapped around each line group as the canopy was stacked prior to putting it in a bag. The color-coded lines were to clue the jumper as to which lines went into each wrap of the OSI. OSIs predated sliders by a few years. Zing Lurks