TampaPete

Ron – That was my post, but it was a hypothetical question. My real question is “Do the tandem manufacturer’s have a minimum experience level for strapping on a hand cam.” I also referenced the thread were the tandem manufacturer’s are adamant about the minimum age for a student (18) and was wondering if they have a minimum number of jumps requirement before allowing HC with their systems.

Jim – An additional rating is an interesting question in itself. You haven’t chimed in on the “Letter from Tandem Manufacturer’s” thread. I think there is some connectivity between these two threads. Has anyone conferred with the Tandem manufacturer’s and solicited their opinion on hand cams? We know their opinion with respect to minimum age. What is their opinion with respect to hand cams. I would be interested in their point of view in relation to the safety aspects of hand cams and tandems. What if a hand cam entangles with the drogue and doesn’t allow a complete cutaway of the main and results in an entanglement with the reserve? Any thoughts?

I'm not a base jumper but I read Base 66 (birthday gift from my wife). It's a good read. I recommend it.

Two would only double the gyroscopic effect.

Faust Vrancic - Homo Volans Other early inventors designed parachutes, including Croatian Faust Vrancic who constructed a device based on Da Vinci's drawing. Faust Vrancic jumped from a Venice tower in 1617 wearing a rigid-framed parachute. Faust Vrancic published Machinae Novae, in which he describes in text and picture fifty-six advanced technical constructions, including Vrancic's parachute called the Homo Volans. http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/ss/Parachute.htm Base Jump first.

Here is Skydive Deland’s website with contact information. http://www.skydivedeland.com/ Here is Skydive City’s (Z-Hills) website. They have night jumps sometimes. http://www.skydivecity.com/index.html

We have a video guy at our DZ that packed a few thousand chutes before he ever jumped.

Hey Dave – I’d like to ask a question about I plane I thought might make a good jump plane. A low-hours (+-6,000 to 8,000 TT) Queen Air with Excalibur modifications can be purchased for under $200K. The Excalibur mod replaces the geared 540’s with normally aspirated 720’s. The fuel lines are replaced with armored lines also (eliminates the fire history). The QA Excalibur is generally noted to have similar performance to a King Air 90. Your thoughts?

Dave – I can understand why you guys were amazed at his presence in the air. He truly was at home in 3D space. One year we were at USTTA trampoline nationals in New Orleans. When we went to the gym there were three brand new trampolines for us to compete on. Two were Nissan tramps (the standard tramp for competition) and one was this yellow monster from I think Australia. We all tried a few jumps on the yellow submarine, as it was quickly nicknamed, and it was HOT! Tramps are designed to throw you back toward the middle but the yellow sub would throw you were ever it wanted to. We all chose to compete on the Nissans but not Bobby. Neely threw his routines on the yellow submarine. In finals he was in the middle of a very difficult routine when the yellow sub threw him off sideways. We didn’t even notice it until he landed on the floor on his feet and stuck the landing. Remember he stuck the landing from about 25 feet in the air. In the middle of the air in the middle of a double twisting double back summersault (two back flips with two twists all done together) Neely noticed he was gone and adjusted the trick to land on his feet on the floor (a really tough feat). When he stuck the landing he gave the big victory V with his arms that we all present at the end of the routine. The crowd went nuts. He had the best cat sense of anyone I’ve ever seen.

I can promise you the stunt of writing his name on the gym roof is true. He did this in the early 70’s. Neely was one of my trampoline coaches. He taught me how to do a back flip and a double back flip when I was in 5th grade (many moons ago). What most of you don’t know is he was a world champion platform diver from the 85-foot ladder as well as a world class trampolinist. He was a pure athlete. (Skydiver 33460 he wasn’t an Olympic diver he was a professional ladder diver). He climbed to the top a bridge in Lafayette (La.) and lowered a weight on a string until it touched the water. He took the string home and measured it so he would know the height. Then he climbed back up and nailed a layout reverse sommersault on the first jump from about 80 feet up. Years later I designed the bridge that replaced the one he jumped from. And any wild story you can think of I know is true. He loved life and loved sharing it with everyone. We were driving back from Houston to Lafayette after a trampoline meet. It was about midnight in November and we stopped at the interstate rest area. When we (about 7 of us) got back in the station wagon there were two hitchhikers sitting in the middle of the back seat. Neely got in last (he was driving). One of the other college jumpers asked who the two new guys were and Bobby said “they looked cold. We’re taking them Lafayette.” And that was that. His favorite sayings that I remember from way back were “that’s some neat shit” and “hello boys and girls”. If you knew him you were lucky to know a very unique, crazy, funny and kind individual.