patairborne

Max: I am so very glad that you are on the road to recovery, you look great in the photos. We look foreword to seeing you when you make it back here to Elsinore. I am very proud of you Max Ramsey for the service and sacrafice which you given each and every one of us. I appreciate the fact that you heard the call and enlisted. The wreath which goes around an EIB is not that easy to get. My CIB is the one that means the most to me and every other 11B out there. Be strong and take care of yourself. Pat

Max: I am deeply saddened by the news of your loss in combat. As a fellow 101St ABN combat vet (Vietnam), I truly appreciate the sacrafice which you have made. I wish you all of the very best and look foreword to skydiving with you back at your home DZ, Skydive Elsinore. I have missed you since you have been gone and have thought of you often. Take care my friend and if there is anything which you need, please do not hesitate to ask. Pat Newman Skydive Elsinore

Try the 2K Composites web site. Do a web search for 2K Composites. The FF2 helmet which they make requires no mods other than adding the required switches and ring site is so desired.

Where does Airspeed work when not on the DZ? Most of the Airspeed members do coaching after they are done training. Considering that there are only 8 of them and over 35,000 members of the USPA, chances are slim to none that a lot of people ever make it to the top of the skydive heap. Very few make a whole lot of money in this sport and those who do usually burn out after 4-5 years and venture off to other things. Stick with the day job and try it on weekends.

Hey guys: We had a great turnout for the "Jimmy & Manny" Memorial last night. Pictures of the festivities will be posted at skydiveelsinore.com in the "around the DZ" section by Tuesday July 5, 2005. Check them out. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who either came out, or to those who have sent money in for the fund. The Skydive community is a small family and it is times like these that the community shines.

The TRV 38 is a really good camera for freefall. I have 5 different Sony cameras but I like the 38 the best because of the 3.5 LCD. It is a whole lot easier for a 4 way team to debrief jumps from if they are doing back to backs. The TRV 38 is rugged and the weight difference is minimal.

I echo the posts here who feel that tips "should not be expected". A tip is a little something from whomever does the tipping as a way of expressing their thanks for the good time which they just had. We have an instructor at my DZ who actually trolls for tips, and tells the student that, "if they have a good time then they should tip". I feel that this is totally inappropriate and tacky to say the least.

As an Elsinore Staff videographer who lost everything, I would personally like to thank all of those out there in our "skydive community" who are pulling together resources to help out. A heartfelt thank you goes to each and everyone. This is indeed a tragedy which we will all come through, and hopefully will see a lesson in this somewhere down the road. As for now I think that most of us are still in disbelief that this has happened. But, once again thank you, thank you, thank you to all who are responding.

On Saturday December 20, 2003 I witnessed what I consider to be a jumper much to anxious to prove his machismo by jumping when he should not have. This particular jumper a week or two before, broke his finger so bad on a hybrid jump that it required pins to hold it together. His left forearm was completely wrapped in an ace bandage with a pseudo type cast extending to his hand. The only finger exposed was his thumb. He felt that he was okay to jump and became very defensive when asked why he needed to jump. I believe that this jumper is pretty heads up, but in an emergency situation what may have happened when it came time to pull handles? There is a time to jump and a time not to jump. In my opinion this was not the time to jump. The S&TA finally convinced him not to make a jump that day and to wait until he had a different cast on his hand. He was not very happy about it though. I'd like to hear what others think about this.