gunpaq

Old: First ram-air rig was $750.00 used. Lift ticket to 10,000 ft was $8.00. Keep the wife and kids at home. Pulling 4 ways off at 3,500ft. Belly bands. Injuries & fatalities from malfunctions. Lots of WWII vets jumping. If it's round it's sound. 50 jumps on a cheapo before a PC jump and 50 jumps on a PC before a ram-air jump with a sign off. A dozen jumps on the weekend kept you sore and limping until the next weekend. "Have A Good One"/ Thumbs Up sign before jump. Students car pooled or drove old VW's or rust buckets. Fortyfive to fifty pounds of gear on your back. A few select self taught skilled cameramen on the DZ with ten pound of equipment on their helmet. Sport parachutists. Today: New rig is $7,500.00 Lift ticket to 10,000 ft is $25.00. Bring the wife and kids to the DZ for family fun. Minimum jump altitude 5,500 ft for lots of DZ's. BOC's. Injuries & fatalities while under fully opened parachutes. A hanfull of WWII vets still around. :( What is a round? First jump students on ram-airs. Twenty jumps a weekend keeps you invigorated until the next. Fancy fist bumps and hand jestures passed on before jump. Students drive new luxury automobiles. Fifteen to twentyfive pounds of gear on your back. Everyone is a camerman with a ten ounce GoPro. Skydivers. The difference between now and then is that the "Now" is better than the "Then" and these present "Now" days will soon be remembered as the good old days so enjoy. www.geronimoskydiving.com

Being late. www.geronimoskydiving.com

We just came back from Z-Hills. Considered all the options and rented a trailer there.....best choice for us: affordable (more money to jump with) clean, comfortable and convenient. A lot of folks were camping and using the bath house which is spotlessly maintained. Also stayed a few nights at the Quality in $79/night - very nic e and treat jumpers as favored guests. Have a great time. www.geronimoskydiving.com

Hi folks, Here is a newpaper artcile about Nuncio Forte who is a very good friend of mine and a skydiving buddy for more than thirty years. Nuncio is 83 years old, a Korean War combat vet (medic), and a pancreatic cancer survivor but most of all he is an inspiration to all who face lifes challenges. Never give up! Click on the link below or cut and paste to your browser. Gunpaq http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140127/FEATURES/401270301 www.geronimoskydiving.com

16 years since surgery for me . Made sure that I was fully restored or as much as a once broken body can be restored. Rule of thumb is to double the time the doctor says you can go back to every day activities and in the meantime some serious prescribed PT. Remember its your spine, you can deal with the pain but not paralysis. Use a docile soft opening canopy, be conservative, and stay in the sky. Good luck and blue skies. :) www.geronimoskydiving.com

What about rural folks, people living in the country miles from public services? Also, if a person's birth certificate has been long lost and they have no proof or evidence to provide for ID and endure great hardships via public transportation then how do these folks survive. How do they earn income or receive financial and medical assistance? Just wondering. www.geronimoskydiving.com

Touché on the fine points of the debate. www.geronimoskydiving.com

Personally I feel that one should be required to identify ones self when voting as it only makes sense to keep an accurate account of votes and that is not a position on race, immigration status, or political party affiliation. For the most part persons in and out of immigration status do not vote but both the Republicans and Democrats use them as political fodder and try to exploit votes from them and by using them . I want to be certain that my one vote as a citizen and all citizens are valid and are counted and a proper and accurate record of voter registration/ID is a logical way to assure that. The political debate with Republican vs Democrat using race and immigration status as a rally cry on Voter ID is just a political parlor trick to get citizens arguing amongst themselves while the politicans garb more power and tax payer money. www.geronimoskydiving.com

Here is the application for a Pennsylvania ID (the state this thread relates to): http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/pdotforms/dl_forms/dl-54a.pdf The pdf document PA ID Application also provides for "other" means of identification. We have helped many immigrants fill these out in our office and have gone to the DMV with them. "Other" means that I have seen accepted at PA DMV's for ID have been medical records, utility bills, foreign ID's, and notarized letters. As a former 50 year resident of PA working in social services and the ministry I have had some first hand experiences with voter registration and I am not pulling statements out of the air. My wife was an immigrant to the US and had experienced the whole DMV Motor Voter Registration process as well. She refused to register even at the insistence of the clerk when she obtained her PA drivers license. The DMV followed up with a phone call for her to reconsider and register via phone and with a letter which followed. We were fortunate enough to afford an attorney to handle all our immigration issues but tens of thousands are not and get caught in a cruel trap at the DMV. The problem is that the laws on the books are not uniformly being carried out or enforced by those government representatives in the field. In this case namely the DMV, re; Motor Voter Act. In PA there seems to be a pattern relating to urban vs rural and political districts. Of the five immigrant families in Pennsylvania we have assisted personally in the ministry one family member was without status (to be politically incorrect she was an illegal alien) but did not register to vote, the other three had status and were registered to vote when they applied for a PA drivers license. The DMV offices this occurred at were in Scranton, Reading, and Pottstown, PA. In PA DMV's, depending upon the county, the applicant for a state ID or drivers license is verbally asked by clerk if he or she wishes to register to vote and the clerk records their answer or the applicant pushes a yes or no button on a computer touch screen. There is no signing of documents in the PA DMV for registering to vote. It is up to the DMV clerk to be vigilant and not politically motivated as well as the applicant to be honest. In the case of immigrants with a poor command of the English language and with a fear of authority a good many folks unwittingly register to vote. For many it is the most cruelest thing the government can do by knowingly making them ineligible for citizenship by encouraging them to register or automatically registering them without them understanding the process and the laws. The gentleman who had his citizenship application denied for registering to vote was not informed until his last interview in Pittsburgh after a seven year process in which he never voted. His case is under appeal with the help of Catholic Charities. You are right that voter registration is not automatic because a Voter ID card is not issued automatically when one applies for an ID or license through the DMV. But for many immigrants without their informed consent ( a clear understanding of language and process) their registration is automatic when they visit the DMV for ID's and licenses. www.geronimoskydiving.com

US citizen and vet who happens to live in Canada. Would I be more credible if I were living back home in Pennsylvania? As far as the Obama Care: My old insurance policy coverage, premium, and deductables no longer exists in compliance with Obama Care.....so yes you got me as the original product was not cancelled just highly modified making it unaffordable and impractical to keep. So the plan that I had for more many years of coverage is gone for the sake of politics. Check with your local DMV, DHS protocol, and with your County Seat human & family services for verification as far as the Motor Voter Registration System. We found this out through working with immigrants coming to our church shelter for assistance in Bradford County, Pennsylvania who were denied citizenship eligibility for registering to vote while getting a drivers license even though they did it unwittingly at the direction of the DMV clerk. www.geronimoskydiving.com

The door and the gate has been wide open for almost twenty years. Illegal aliens and non-citizens already have the right to vote in the US via the Motor Voter Regeistration Act, something that both the Democrats and Republicans have exploited to gain a voter base. An illegal alien may document ones self at the DMV obtaining a state ID card (without threat of deportation........see current DHS protocols) and a non-citizen may apply for a drivers license at the DMV and both will be automatically registered to vote. www.geronimoskydiving.com

Good job & keep going.

Ralph is a great guy from the old school. Have done business with him for many years. A man of his word. www.geronimoskydiving.com

Remember you jumping a Para-Commander on student progression rather than the T-10's. Still have an old club patch. Always liked the VW van. www.geronimoskydiving.com

Watching the TV series ripcord, DZ on neighbors farm, seeing the movie The Gypsy Moths did it for me. The barn roof and a tractor sun umberella was my first jump as a kid. As teenager attending an air show, Tom Morrison from The Herd/United PC offered me a free jump on his rig which was part of the demo jump act but I didn't know that at the time. Took flying lessons out of high school but could not afford them in college but jumping was affordable. Headed out to York Sport Parachute Center in the spring fo 1976 and the rest is history. www.geronimoskydiving.com

Great post and brought about a smile from memories of days gone by. One could do no better than the first rig I owned which was a two-shot capewell B-4 with a 32' 7-TU lopo and a 24' chest mount (hand deploy) reserve...............the cat's meow for certain. The 1 /12 shot capewells were replaced by tapewells on my Super Pro that contained my sporty red Para-Commander (yes, a darn nice canopy to jump and we did stadium demos with them too), attached to the high mounted D-rings was my new Joe Smith 26" lopo reserve complete with a MK2000 Sentine AAD (AOD back then). Yes, those were the days when men were men and we went home sore with riser burns and sore ankles. Sport parachutists from the old school when sex was safe and jumping out of airplanes was dangerous. Good point about the high tech pretty gear swaying folks away from the basics of our sport such as spotting. But all in all, that new fangled high tech pretty gear has helped our sport grow beyond imagination. That high tech gear of today even makes it possible for a crippled dinosaur like me to keep skydiving.

??? www.geronimoskydiving.com

I wonder if Senator Paul could perform my much needed eye surgery for free since my health care insurance plan has been cancelled by the Obama care mandates? www.geronimoskydiving.com

Back in the day there was a sign posted in the loft at York Parachute Center in Thomasville, PA that read, "Pack Slow, Fall Stable, Pull High". The DZO, the late George Bolen, said that saying is the secret to survival in the sport and to always prepare for and execute each jump as though you are jumping without a reserve. There are probably more people than we know of out there that have thousands of jumps without experiencing a malfunction and cutaway. www.geronimoskydiving.com

Have cut away three times from malfuctions on my rig. Comes out to an averaged of one in every 2,078 jumps. www.geronimoskydiving.com

Bob was a great guy and good friend. Lost track after my accident. He made our jump team a hybrid Laser 9 with three zero P center cells, still have one today.Quote www.geronimoskydiving.com

Question #1: Who or what organization posted this picture for public viewing? Question #2: Are the firearms in the photograph real firearms or just replicas such as an AirSoft? Question #3: Why all the big controversy about a family safely displaying their toys? Question #3: Would a picture of a family playing Grand Theft Auto Three be more appropriate for a Christmas greeting? Just wondering folks. Maybe I am just old and out of touch having grown up in the US when a firearm was a tool, a family heirloom, a treasured and respected possesion, and usually sat in the chimney corner of the family home. www.geronimoskydiving.com

1. Lent my copy of Skies Call to a former friend. 2. Never backed up hours of VHS & 8mm video tape to digital. 3. Tried to clear a line over before cutting away. 4. Missed the last Herd Boogie. www.geronimoskydiving.com

Gordon was a great guy and a good friend. He was a man of his word and an inspiration to many. www.geronimoskydiving.com