fastphil

Fringe, yes; but hardly extreme when almost anybody can participate...

Sometimes I think we could fix the issue if everyone just chilled out for a while. The public has a short memory and maybe we could turn the clock back, maybe we could convince them the "fad" is over. But in reality the toothpaste is already out of the tube. And history we'll forever remember who the chief "squeezers" were . . . I don't know Nick, there is always going to be those who won't put the cap backon, but in my experience, you can always squeeze out one more drop... NickD

Remember, Nyquil is only good for nite dives...

Because it IS DIFFERENT NOW! I have asked the old timers about this and they said when they started, no one seemed to care. And then the bad experiences came from dayblazing buildings. And that's why the universal rule of night jumping started. Not true, the MAN was there from the beginning with his gun and handcuffs...

Remember, the early jump in Houston filmed by Carl was in the infancy of BASE. The filming was done early Sunday morning, and, with no defining history, the collective attitude of the early BASE jumpers was that the spectacle of object jumping would be admired, not admonished. Boy, were we naïve. We failed to realize that the narrow views of authority would question the legalities of these jumps, but not surprised, as we were considered outlaw by some of our own in the USPA. These early jumps were made by very experienced skydivers with much planning and forethought. Shortly afterward came a wave of glory hounds, including a lesser experienced wannabe that bounced off the side of the same building, knocking off a piece of the granite, before he plunged through the angular glass near the base of an adjacent building and required rescue. Lawmakers and law enforcers make their living off our laws. Changing the Senator’s mind is akin to your dentist telling you there is no need to come in for a check up. BASE is a misunderstood fringe sport that is probably best performed on the sly, and unfortunately, that’s the world’s loss...

Is it necessary to stoop to name calling; probably so. When I got into skydiving a motorcycle was my main form of transportation. This was in the ripcord days, so I would bury the pins as deep as I could, put the rig on (legstaps too) and take off. The ride to the drop zone was about 25 miles or so. At the end of one particularly fast ride I pulled up by the manifest to park, put the kickstand down and, as I stepped off the bike, my main opened, letting the spring loaded "Hot Dog" pilot chute fly about six feet behind me. Amazing, the effects of a little vibration. I made arrangements to leave my rig at the DZ after that, which worked fine since I was there six days a week anyway...

Air...

It's nice to know now that you can handle the situation, now never get too relaxed in your EPs. I had a friend who had several hundred jumps without incident, and maybe that made her too indifferent. She was involved in a messy canopy collision, cut away high enough but never pulled the reserve...

Phil's rig may be the same one he's wearing in this pic (orange), like a pigletII or something. Whatever we had for skydiving we used for BASE. We were already freepacking Strato Flyers for terminal skydives, and very comfortable with them, so for object jumping we initially just left the slider down. I think the canopy is a cruiseaire. but could be wrong...

Smitty, looking unusually graceful...

Kicker Plate is a small, circular, frisbee looking plate thingy that packs between the pilot chute and canopy of reserves to prevent the spring from burrowing into the canopy. It is not attached to the rig and fall free upon reserve deployment. We once lost the rear luggage door off the Spaceland Twin Otter on jump run, it potatoe chipped down from 12K in the field next to the runway. Dave Boatman was some kinda pi$$ed, and, of course, no one knew nothing about the cause (Dave had machine guns). Guess the latch may have been opened on the ground while loading.

Can't believe you're checking up on us. Where's the trust...

oops, sorry; I type and think at different speeds...

Yep, Zinger is right about the 70s, we worked those eight ways overtime at Spaceland. We did SCRs during the day and we did them at night (NSCR), we did them thru hoops (SCSA) and we did them at night thru hoops (NSCSA), we did them naked (BASCR) and with our women (WSCR, my favorite), and we also took up a first jump wonder for his SCR. We reaped lots of beer...

There's a lot I don't remember also, Wendy, possibly related to drug usage. Do remember some guys pulling "high"...

Those are some cool tattoos. Wendy?, are those nails dry yet...

January 17, 2007 Web Tools: [print] [email] Illegal bridge jumpers caught Five plead no contest to charges By Susan Williams Staff writer Five parachutists who illegally leaped from the New River Gorge Bridge Monday entered no contest pleas to various charges in federal court Tuesday. National Park rangers discovered the jumpers Monday evening, after they parachuted off the 876-foot-high span. They were arrested after landing on a gravel beach along the river, said Duncan Hollar, an assistant chief ranger with the National Park Service. In plea agreements worked out with the U.S. Attorney’s office, some of the original charges were dismissed, said Hollar. The five people entered their pleas before a U.S. magistrate judge, he said. Cinderella B. Aquino, 23, a Michigan college student, and Dennis Dyminski, 30, of Urbana, Ill., pleaded no contest to unauthorized aerial delivery — the jump from the bridge — and were fined $600 plus court costs. Dyminski was also charged with fleeing from an officer and fined $50 plus court costs. Peter Lutz, 48, of Davison, Mich., was charged with aiding and abetting an unauthorized aerial delivery and fleeing to avoid an officer. He was fined $650 plus court costs, Hollar said. Victor Survorov, 48, of Romulus, Mich., entered a plea to his second offense of aerial delivery; he was fined $1,200 for that and $50 for fleeing from an officer. His wife, Ekaterina Suvorov, 26, pleaded no contest to fleeing from an officer, and an aerial delivery charge against her was dismissed. The Suvorovs fled the scene Monday, but turned themselves in later. The jumpers landed on CSX railroad property, but trespassing charges were dropped in the plea agreements, Hollar said. He said he believed the five people knew each other and came to West Virginia specifically to jump off the New River Gorge Bridge. Jumpers who want to parachute from the bridge can do so legally only once a year: Bridge Day, the third Saturday of October. The jumpers protested to the federal magistrate that they were jailed with people who were charged with crimes of harming other people and with drug use, Hollar said. They said that jumping from a bridge should not have earned them a jail stay with people who were accused of more serious offenses. Hollar said the magistrate explained to them that the rangers were simply enforcing the law. The magistrate also said they would be welcome to come back and jump legally on Bridge Day. The Associated Press contributed to this report. To contact staff writer Susan Williams, use e-mail or call 348-5112.

"a bore"?? haha, my favorite line is "if it rains, we don't jump". I'm guessing that movie was shot in 35mm film, but Carl used to bring some big camera rigs out to play with that were pretty awesome in terms of size and weight. He had a couple of motorcycle type helmets setup, each with a 16mm movie camera and also a motordriven 35mm still Nikon. Talk about neck breakers...

Got hooped yet?? Don't forget you have to carry the hoop outta the plane without dropping it too. I'd hate to be emptyhanded in front of 9 skydivers who think I owe them a jump ticket, all the while wondering where a safe spot to pull is. Looks cool on a patch too (pic)...

Cool idea, I've hauled trash at the DZ to fund my jumps...

The Strato Flyer was the hot new canopy turning heads there, the first small packing square. I bought one while I was there and seemed to be one of the few (maybe only?) that really liked the canopy. I jumped it 500+ times and then took my girlfriends out of her closet and jumped it some more...

One of those 3 starlite main canopies was mine, and miscellaneous footwear could have been my bare feet on a jump or two, but I don't remember any conventional rigs in RW...

Thanks Wendy, nearly made me spit coffee...

I have plenty of jumps with spring loaded pilot chutes; it's amazing how they can sometimes just fall onto your back and lay there when you're flat and stable, and it's easy to run out of altitude and ideas at the same time...

Here's brother Kenny, with his toy. Nowdays he'll only fly 737s...