upndownshop

When was this with Brian, if you have contact for him I would appreciate it. He and I were partners on the Texas State Record the following year. No he did not beat me every time to the formation! Hope he is well. Oh dont let any Sun Pah folks see this, they may not like whats on my back. LOL What a fun jump that was, we were all beat up from the event. Hell you did Tandems didnt you?

There is a Turtle in there, no really! We had to send him back for coach jumps before he could jump with us again after the first SCR attempt with him on Friday.But by Sunday of SF02 he was able to jump with people once more. He wanted his SCR. But those ended on Sat at noon, some how we managed to rustle up a group and it included Bill Newell! Bill had not done a SCR in over 10 years (founder of the SCR program and one of the 8 on the first 8 way ever). I am sure that Turtle has some great additions to this story but what he may not know is what happened on Breakoff! Well Bill and Turtle have grips at break off Turtle makes a 180 then upon falling straight down (tracking) he makes a 90 right. Not a real problem cause others are actually covering some ground rather than just going to it, except for Bill.. He decides he doesn't need to do a 180 and heads off straight ahead. Directly over Turtle, neither of which are really going anywhere, but Bill is covering just enough to stay over Turtle, I'm still in my spot from the formation watching, shaking my head wondering if Bill knows, Cause I know Turtle doesn't and wont. At the angle he was headed down there was know way he could look up enough to see Bill even if he remember too! Bill luckily flew over and past Turtle so all was well. But man, one must ask, why do we continue to torture ourselves with these "fun" jumps!!! There, Turtle bashing over....Still have a camera slot for ya at SF09 Raeford if ya let me know soon!

Hot Spot

Well that I could not tell you, I just made the thingy a cliky for her, stuck in Texas working. Have fun

http://sunpath.com/sizchart.htm If your rig is K series this is the chart if not click the one below the chart. If it is a KL then it was built for a 150R and 170M Most likely it will fit, but gonna be tight!! Oh its actually built for a 150. In most cases you can go up or down one until you get to the much smaller sizes. Pay attention to your riser covers and pin covers, changing canopy sizes can affect their performance, since they were designed with a specific pack volume in mind. Hope that helps. J

Come on!!! That is not fair. give us a hint? Ok, well as usual, you ask for it and we make it happen! LOL Try this www.skyfestboogie.com yes its different this time, lots of hints!

especially for you Jay! LOL www.skyfestboogie.com http://www.skyfestboogie.com/content/view/2/1/

41 for the first time, not sure about next year..... 11

Ok here's mine. Of course I changed the logo this year so now my tat is wrong. After 8 years I finally got the primary disciplines in the logo. Replaced the sit flyer with a wingsuit. There are some cool tats out there, nice!

I am not in the shop yet this AM, but I THINK that all of the sliders were the made the same size for all of the canopies. I have some of the info in the shop and will post what I have later. BS, MEL Thats great, I almost posted that I thought they were the same size, and if not, just go measure a Spectre and go slightly larger. LOL Thanks Mel

Many times I have been asked if I am very religious after stating that I jump on the weekends. As long as I can remember I always replied: Sure I am, I get closer to God every time I get in the airplane." Most of the time I get a small laugh but pretty much the last time I said it there was this little girl, probably about 8 years old standing in the group. She looked up to me and said: " Maybe so, but he keeps sending you back!" I was a bit stunned, not sure to laugh or what, ultimately I laughed and thought to myself: it took about 15 years and an 8 yo to finally respond to my religious statement. Always thought that was amusing.

Hey Jay You cannot retrofit a Javelin. All rigs as of about 2 years ago are built skyhook ready with the option to add later but older than that, no SH is available. Of course you know my vote for which rig be well J

What year is it? Bob Chaffin was the last to make the laser and rascals, unfortunately he passed a couple of years ago. You might try riggerlee here on dz.com. I believe he was given many of the specs for the canopies he built. Other than that, Id say try to find someone else with a laser and get the specs. I know he sold many of them to Cessna DZ's as student canopies so you might try those as well. Good luck J

Bill's a cool guy and will probably give you his personal answer, but a couple of thoughts... it's true main and reserve don't need to be the same size, but there is a point where it becomes difficult to have a large size difference. Having a 109 and say a 210 reserve, while not impossible, would be very difficult and require a custom-sized container. a 1.3 WL reserve might not save you if you are unconcious during landing, but those circumstances are quite rare. It's one of the risks that many people accept. We are after all already accepting the risk of being unconcious or severely injured under a main (I've seen it!) For the experienced, a very large reserve can also be a liability... PD has an article where they found that in a 2-out situation the most dangerous configuration is to have a main and reserve of significantly different sizes. To add to the point of a 1.3 WL "saving" you while unconscious I think you are correct that chances are it will not. One of a few situations I have had a experienced with in regards to this was my fathers. He had a heart attack during deployment and never touched his toggles. He was 220# jumping a 220 Triathlon, his rig weighed about 30#s full. The winds were 10-12 mph he landed downwind with brakes stowed. He went head over heels and broke his neck and nose on landing. We believe the neck was not broken on opening due to the jump track data. It did not show anything unusual with the data compiled compared to previous jumps. He was leaning in the harness and it did create a very slight turn but not enough to be considered unsurvivable IMO. Our thoughts are that even if the heart attack had not of killed him the broken neck would have, especially with the amount of time it took to get him some assistance. So my belief is that even at a 1.1WL I dont think it is survivable, but the circumstances can be different, a tree landing might be survivable, or some other potential "cushion" for impact, or even what position the body is, in may create a survivable situation. But at 1.1 straight in landing with no flare IMO has a low chance of surviving. What WL is survivable I really don't know, I just thought Id share a situation that involves an unconscious pilot and what we learned from it. And of course I did upsize my reserve after this from a 126 to 143, still not enough IMO but better than the 126. You are also correct that we accept the risk and it is a rare situation, as should 2 out, but unfortunately it seems to happen more often. Hope this wasnt to off track, just thought it might give a bit of "insight" or "real" situations to consider when choosing a reserve. One other point that my father always said: "Always go for the largest reserve you can, if you are in a situation where everything is a ball of trash, you want as much trash as you can get over your head." J

ohhh bad ass! One of my favorites, do you think they can do it again. Another good "unknown" is Path to Paradise, while it is not a horror movie: the last line will send a cold chill right up your spine. Look forward to BSII!

Well you know why North Texas is windy? Oklahoma sucks! I know, I went thru the May 3rd 1999 F5! And that's also for your inability to press one button on your phone! 2 demerits my friend. LOL

A PD150 reserve does not exist I was thinking the same thing, the OP has two problems. Especially if the regular rigger filled out the data card originally.

I was still with them when they were toying with the idea. Produced about 20 rigs with them, one being mine. They determined it was not necessary as some else mentioned. I think there are about 12 rigs out there with them, (I sold mine). I left Sun Path one year ago but unless I am mistaken the secondaries will not be produced. They were actually pretty clever, the length of them was not as deep as the reserve tray so I had some packers that didn't even notice them. They laid so flat that unless you knew they were there you missed them. Some folks complained assuming it would be to bulky, I thought the design was fine, but again, not necessary.

Folks, If you haven't been to Mikes place you are missing out! Not to mention the King Air! I so miss not going twice a year like I used to. Do you have the fantastic fireworks show going again? The groups that show up for this can organize some really fun skydives! I highly encourage you to go! By far its one of two of my favorites! Have fun!

Et all... I am not a doctor, but all of that sounds like some pretty serious injuries and while I hope the person that hurt themselves does recover to the maximum extent possible... what do we really mean when we post things like, "Jumper will recover", in such incidents? Personally, I broke my right ankle badly during a skydive as a result of a low turn back in 1998. After a couple of surgeries (1 to put in 8 screws and a plate, an another to take the hardware out), I "recovered." I still skydive, I can walk, I can still exercise, although running isn't much fun because of some lasting loss of range of motion in my right ankle... but I never did much like running so its a convenient excuse... ... but believe me, here 10 years later, besides the scars, that injury still lets me know it happened. Hardly a day passes where I don't feel pain in my right ankle when walking down steps, sometimes sharp enough that I have to grab the railing, but nothing so bad I can't walk off in a few seconds. Basically, I think its "arthritis"?... can't be bothered to go see a doctor and see what's up yet and I ain't in to taking pain meds. Anyway, what's my point. I don't think we should kid ourselves that when we say someone will "recover", this doesn't necessarily mean they'll be 100% "like new", if ever. In a twisted way... by now, lots of folks have piled in on bad landings and ended up like the unfortunate described in the OP / Incident. Maybe as a community, it would benefit us to hear from some of these survivors with respect to their "recover"... what they went through shortly after their injury (surgery ?) and lasting effects (if any) as the years went by. Thoughts? My ankle injury was in 1993, double compound to the right tib/fib. Actually I did not break the ankle, I shattered it when the tib/fib went thru the ankle and came out. The exit points were just below the ankle on the left side and out the bottom left side of the foot. The impact was so hard it drove the two leg bones thru and out. Also broke my right wrist in two places. In most cases my accident would have been a fatality, so I am thankful to suffer daily with the pain. Hardware removed 12 years ago, had 3 surgeries and a cortisone shot in 98. The body is still trying to repair it based on the calcium build up I have, (according to the experts). The surgeries consisted of grinding away the excess calcium, which only grows back within three months to the point it creates a "buldge" 2" in diameter about 1/2" tall protruding off the front of the ankle which is visible. The last cat scan showed that the gap that allows movement is almost closed which now it gets "locked" at times so I have to force it passed the unnecessary calcium buildup. Extremely painful when this happens (almost daily). It takes 10 or 15 steps every morning to break the ankle loose before I can walk "normal". It used to drop me to a knee mid stride at times. If you have ever seen me early in the morning during SkyFest you have seen me moving very slow caused from being on my feet all day the day before. There are other parts that become affected from the way I walk since the accident, mainly to the bottom of the foot, the knee and hip will only get worse in time. I could fuse it but then I will have a definite noticeable limp, but the pain would be gone. Ankle replacement is what I would like to do but the technology is not there yet, I only want to do that once not every 10 years. The only other possible treatment I have heard is to do another outpatient surgery to remove the calcium again. But I would have to stay on my back for 6 months with leg elevated and only allowed to be upright for no more than 30 minutes up to three times a day. Not going to happen unless someone will cover my bills for six months and I want to risk blood clots building up in my legs. So when someone says oh he just broke an ankle that is really only true when the break is above it and not "in" it, which is usually the norm, but even those have repercussions. The wrist really only affected my darts, but I did learn to throw left handed. LOL I'm like you, no running which I don't mind. No wind landings can be challenging, 22 packed in an otter, and getting ready at the 2 minute are painful. I only float or dive out from at least 3 deep in the plane cause I cant squat properly to get out. Sorry so long but that is my definition of "recovered". The one benefit to it all is that I did 642 consecutive jumps without having to go to a knee (doing CRW under a 126 Lightening heavily loaded, at least put it in the peas) since then another 526 and still counting.

Have a great one, go ahead celebrate it two days in a row, probably be to old to party next year anyway. DOOH! As I did nothing on my 41st last week, guess I'll shut up! Hope it was a great one for you! Happy birthday!

Well I will be curious to see what 2009 excuse is! My tentative dates would be the week after that, so start preparing one now mama! LOL Ok folks we can do better than this on responses, for 8 years I been yelled at about changing the dates away from July in Texas, its to hottt! So I do a survey and 68% prefer July in Texas, but I go ahead and take it to S Carolina and bump it up 6 weeks, guess what? Its to hottt, as many whined during it. So help me help you, I need kids and colleges last days of school and preferred event dates. I think I already know when, and where, but I just want to be the courteous one that I am and give you a chance! So hit me, with some data please, decision time is very near. And I thank you for your support.

Those are some pretty damn good numbers in a short time, I'm impressed! 1462 jumps-1st in 1984, but only had 169 by 2001 when I got back into it. By the end of 2003 I had 1150. Started my travels in Feb of 2004 and here is the rest: 108 Successful SCR's organized Co - Organizer of 5 State Records 3.5 hours Tunnel 380 Camera 9 CRW 13 100+ ways 23:18:00 FreeFall time 14 Boogies Organized I think its 28 states & 2 countries 57 DZ's -59 visited (2- I refused to jump at due to unsafe operations) 12 Demo's 19 Ash dives 1 Hangar landing 1 Shattered ankle (double compound to tib/fib pushed out the side and bottom of foot still swollen today) & broken wrist in 1993 *see above for which jump* Countless off DZ landings but one with a girlfriend resulting with happy endings (the jump not the gf) DOOH! O real cutaways - 3 intentional (1 from a paper bagged main) 30 Fixed wing C182 Caravan Twin Bonanza Porter Queen Air King Air Skyvan Casa Super Connie Single Engine Otter Twin Otter C47 (used in Terminal Velocity) DC3 C130 C170 C206 (Dollar Daze) Pitts biplane PAC 750 1942 Steerman 1953 C195 1946 Champ DC4 Carvair PA-18 Super Cub 1947 AN2 1953 222 Glider 1969 DC9 Beech 99 1942 T6 WWII Trainer (over Sturgis during Bike week) 1952 Beaver Powered Parachute 4 Non fixed Balloon Bell 412 Alloutte R44 28 Canopies (not including different sizes on same) Laser220 Manta 230 Trialothon Diablo Batwing Zpo Velocity Hornet Sabre 1 Sabre 2 Vengance Omni Safire Pilot Boogie KT9 PM 143 Stiletto PDR 143 PD 190 Nitro Storm ParaPalne (in my fathers piggyback system I used to pack as a kid, used the original snaps and zipper deployment bag) Paradactyle (sp?) 1st water jump (landed in Ted Strongs lake) 26' Lopo (deployed from paper bag) The Unit (with a 1953 reserve in a 1960 container) I would not recommend some of these to anyone, a few I almost wished I hadn't made (well certainly 1 being the hangar) Goal: 2000 jumps and 24Hours

Thank you for clarifying that, I've been to NY once, and I never got out of the vehicle when driving thru. SO what do I know anyway, Im from the country of Texas