gweeks

A friend of mine at our dropzone gave me this story that he wrote circa 1982. The canopy was a Stratocloud packed slider down into a skydiving rig with a d-bag. ---------------------------------------- Antenna Tower Jump During last year's Freeze Fest weekend at Pelicanland-Drop Zone in Ridgely, Maryland, Madman Will, (who was one of the first 40 jumpers to earn a BASE number), treated everyone who was interested to a two hour video show on BASE jumping. Having made one base jump from the New River Gorge Bridge, I was quite interested. The video blew me away. After watching it, I mentioned to Will that I would like to jump off an antenna tower. That was all he needed to hear. Early Sunday afternoon, after Will and I had spent all we could afford on fun jumps, we decided to ride out to [city], [state] in search of an antenna tower 1,000 feet high. After discovering not only one but two towers, both about 1,000 feet A. G. L. and jumpable, we decided to go for it on Monday. On Monday morning, I helped as the Madman very carefully packed the chutes for the event. It took approximately three hours as he explained the special technique of packing for a tower jump. Finally we were ready. Terry O'Malley (who is a member of the CRW team Jump-Street) went along to film the event. As we drove up to the first antenna tower, we noticed that the landing area was ideal because the tower was in the middle of a field. Unfortunately, there was a guard there. Knowing that at the other tower only one side was suitable for jumping because of tall trees, we waited to see if the guard would leave. After waiting about 30 minutes, we were so pumped up we decided to go check out that other tower. When we arrived at the second tower, there was no ground wind at all. Hoping that the wind at altitude was blowing in the same direction the clouds were moving, we started putting on our gear. I was all psyched up until I climbed about 100 feet. By the time I got half way up, I was so exhausted I even said, "I would be glad to pay six dollars for 3,000 feet." Finally, after about two hours of climbing, I made it to the top. Will had been paitently waiting for at least 20 minutes before I reached the top. Exhausted from the long climb, I sat and rested awhile, enjoying the view. There was a brisk, cool, breeze blowing in the direction we had hoped. After about 5 minutes of rest I could tell Will was getting a little impatient, so I said, "Let's get ready." Will wanted to go off first, and got no argument from me. We checked each other's gear one last time, then he climbed over to the launch area, which was one of the metal rods of the tower. He then signaled down for Terry to start the camera rolling, and said "Ready-Set-Go". He did a perfect five second delay--stable all the way. One second after I saw him pitch out his pilot chute, his canopy opened with a loud "Whapp." I took a deep breath, and climbed over to the launch area. I heard myself say, "Oh, Shit" and watched as Will landend. Feeling a little more at ease after seeing Will land safely, I yelled down to Terry to point the camera up at me. I took one more big hit of oxygen and said out load, "Ready-Set-Go." Looking up as I pushed off into a free-fall, away from the tower I went. Less than two seconds after I jumped I went slightly head down, and could see the tower as I zoomed down along side of it. I could feel my speed increasing rapidly with every second. I pulled up into a stable position and continued to fall for another two seconds before I pitched out my pilot chute. "WHAMMO !!!!". The pack job worked like a charm. After a brief canopy ride I was safely back on the ground, I could have climbed back up that tower in less than 15 minutes. Wow !! What a rush !!. Many thanks to Terry O'Malley for climbing up about 600 feet to film us. I wouldn't have done it without Madman Will's expertise. I can hardly wait to jump off the other antenna tower now. Thanks Will, I still get off just thinking about it. Al Shinaberry C-14564

Update: The Skyvan has been confirmed for the rest of the weekend!!!

Skydive Delmarva's 2nd annual pig & beef roast is this weekend (6/9 - 6/12)! We will have the Skyvan on Thursday and Friday, the Helicopter Friday through Sunday, and the Caravan Saturday and Sunday. Saturday night after the sunset load, PIG & BEEF roast with KEGS and LIVE MUSIC from the band Chowderfoot (http://www.chowderfoot.com) The weather forecast is great. Plenty of camping and RV slots available. Check our events page for more details: http://www.skydivedelmarva.com/news_events/2005schedule.html

bump

On June 4th and 5th (and 3rd if needed) Jimmy Tranter will be at Skydive Delmarva coaching the Scott Miller canopy course. Skydive Delmarva is about two hours from the Baltimore - DC area. Registration is required. Call 1-888-875-3540 or email [email protected] Information about the course: http://freedomofflight.tv/public/index.php?which=canopy Information about Skydive Delmarva: http://www.skydivedelmarva.com

Man, that was too easy. Two minutes and I faxed three letters to my local representatives! Pretty cool. Everyone should do it. Tell your friends: http://www.backcountryparachutists.org/step1.php (Should this be stickied for a while?)

If you're looking for something to do in Twin Falls on a rainy day, check this place out: http://www.nazzkart.com/ They have a fast indoor go-kart track, a mechanical bull, pool tables, pingpong, and cheap beer. We had a blast there. Oh, and they will let you wear a helmet cam when you race

According to the CR website it's the front 30% of the upper surface. You can also see where the zp ends and the f111 starts on this page: http://www.crmojo.com/pressrelease_601.htm

Fat Tire - What I'd have around my midsection if I had one of those in my garage

"I Will Not Take These Things For Granted" Toad the Wet Sprocket

Definitely see a doctor! I got bit by a cat once on my hand. Twelve hours later my hand was big, red, puffy, and painful and you could see the infection spreading up my arm. I had to go to the hospital and get antibiotics by IV.

Does anyone know the person who is advertising a Perigee II/Mojo 220 on Blinc? They posted as "freeair". If so can you tell them to check their email or get back to me at [email protected] and let me know if it's still available? I am very interested in the rig, but they haven't responded in the past couple of days, and time is running out before I need it. Thanks!

What do you mean? An African or European swallow?

All those stars and dashes and enters WASTED!!!

**************WARNING**************** --------------Potential Solution Below------------ **************WARNING**************** I *The subject of self-consciousness. IS *Expressing position within limits of space and time. SIN *The breaking of divine law. SING *To utter musical sounds with the voice. SWING *Cause to oscillate. SOWING *Scattering on the earth. SNOWING *Frozen atmospheric vapour falling to earth. Am I close?

I hate overly complicated parking lots, especially ones with curbs everywhere. You can see where you want to go and it's only about 15 feet away. But you have to drive around miles of curbs and roll through fifteen stop signs to get there. I also hate neckties.

Right now: Built to Spill Favorite bands in no particular order: Toad the Wet Sprocket Refreshments/Peacemakers REM Built to Spill Ween Cake Counting Crows Midnight Oil Radiohead

I know a jumper who had a pilot chute snag on a static line jump. He got down thinking everything went fine. When he went to pack the next day he noticed his bridle and pilot chute missing and a rectangular hole where his bridle attachment used to be. He called up the manufacturer (Asylum) and found out that the bridle attachment point functioned exactly the way it was designed. It is supposed to break away at 400 pounds of force. I've done similar tests as you and come up with similar results. My tests were even less scientific because I just used my home weight set and kept adding weights until I could get a piece of break cord to break. The tests were too unscientifc to draw any real conclusions, but a single strand of break cord will break at 75-80 pounds. If there is a knot in it, it won't break at the knot but somewhere near the middle of the piece. Looping the break cord doubles its strength. I've actually had 160 pounds hang from a static line with a looped piece of break cord tying the two ends together without breaking it. I could only assume that the static line itself was taking some of the load. Would it be possible to put a more reaistic static line set up in your tensile tester (instead of a looped piece of break cord)? Something like a piece of dacron with each end tied together by a piece of break cord? It would be interesting to see if the dacron takes some of the load and actually increases the strength required to break the break cord. It would also be interesting to see the difference between a looped piece of break cord tying the two ends together versus a single strand. I want a tensile tester! It would significantly reduce my risk of dropping a 50 pound weight on my foot

The rest of the book is about equally hairy adventures including rock climbing, white water kayaking, flying, caving, and even sliding blindly down three foot steel water tubes hundreds of yards long. It's a fun book to read. If you liked the way he wrote Carl Boenish's story, you'll like the rest of the book too.

If you're still in the DC area and actually want to go through with it, consider Dave Obloy ("Shooter"). He's a fellow skydiver and also a damn good tattoo artist. You can see some of his work at http://www.inknthis.com

When I read the thread title I thought you taught your baby to sign your log book. Now THAT would be a useful thing to teach a baby

I still haven't done the mod, but I plan to. My 1 and 5 lines are actually longer than the 2-4 lines. However like yours, the 5th (closest to the center) does skip an attachment point so the brake lines control 2 1/2 cells instead of 2. In my handful of slider-up jumps I haven't had any major heading problems or hard openings, even on terminal skydives, so part of me says 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. On the other hand I figure the manufacturer knows better than I do the best way to set up the canopy. There is an interesting post on the topic by Adam Filipino on the ABA board here: http://www.basejump.org/discus/messages/2/308.html?1101747637

Yeah, but 85% of their jumps result in an object strike

. . . attached to this post in zip format. It's too big to post unzipped.

http://www.wh.wcsd.k12.ca.us/authorofweek0102/authorsiegel/authorsiegel14/14cover.htm