jimp

They used these for the record attemps in Russia: www.imcat.com/pages/MI26/HTML/index.htm

You can check here: www.styleandaccuracy.com

The Beaver isn't loud, it's described by its fans as having "that lovely radial engine rumble". For really ear-splitting there's the Yugoslav-built Utva66, known throughout the Western Balkans for converting aviation fuel into noise.

Some of my fondest skydiving memories are of jumps in remote locations: Yukon, Nortwest Territories, southeast Alaska and northern British Columbia. A few were "official", but the majority were impromptu and solo, out of aircraft as varied as a Super Cub on floats, or Sikorski S61. For this kind of jumping you need a big accuracy canopy, and lots and lots of classic accuracy practice. Don't even dream about swooping in under the power lines into the parking lot! The best were the ones in the wilderness where there was nobody at all watching!

Hi, Rob, I'll bring my "Spravochnik Instruktora-parashutista" next time I come down to Pitt. Maybe one of our Russian-speaking friends can do an accurate translation that will help out. Jim (edited for spelling)

I can send you a copy, but it won't be for a couple of months. I'll be away from home for a while.

Google Aeroklub Skopje. You will be able to get some useful information from some of the sites that come up, especially if you know the languages in the region. There is a parachute club there - how often they jump these days I don't know. If you're still stuck, I can find out more from a friend of mine in Belgrade.

I jumped there in June '83 - from Cessna 182 N9907T. On the first jump there broke lines and ripped the bottom out of the main - cut away and had a very soft stand-up under the Swift reserve. Field elevation was high, but not as high as the dz at Steamboat Springs CO, which is somewhere around 7000 feet.

One thing I do remember quite clearly - a 26er of Cruzan rum went for less than a buck - but everything else is a bit - shall we say hazy. I wonder why?

The last one I know about was in 2002, I don't think there's been one since.

The Guiness Book of Records used to have a category "most travelled skydiver". The one name that I remember was Kevin Seaman (sp.?) who did the lower 48 with Charlie Merrit in a Cessna Skylane. Maybe he was the only one to complete the trip. I don't think Guiness has this in their records these days - try to get an old copy. I seem to remember meeting Charlie many years ago - he was running a bar on Morningstar Beach on St. Thomas.

Gee, you didn,t get to jump NC436W when it was at Issaquah in the early '80s? It's a Curtiss-Wright Sedan 15D, manufactured in 1931. The current owner is Albert Stix, 1444 Old Farm Drive, St Louis MO 63146 Maybe...

Charles von Sury? At the last world POPS meet in Switzerland. I think he and his team (including his wife) won the national 4-way event.

Here you go: www.styleandaccuracy.com

That's the PZ-81. It has assister pockets on the rear skirt and a reefed slider.

Blue at the Mizzen - the twentieth and last completed volume in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series. I look forward to re-reading the whole series in a few years.

Please don't forget Melton Mowbray pork pies, and Stilton cheese!

To be or to not be... Ah hell...

Along with split infinitives, this also drives me nuts: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/they.html

I have a couple of "foreign" Ds. The requirement was simply to buy the issuer beer for the rest of the evening.

You might consider Aosta in the NW corner of Italy. The dropzone is on the regional airport a few km east of the town. Views of Monte Bianco (Mont Blanc) and Monte Cervino (Matterhorn) on jump run are breathtaking. Skiing everywhere - Aosta itself, Breuil Cervinia, Cormayeur, and through the Mt Blanc tunnel to Chamonix in France. On the other side of the Gd. St- Bernard tunnel in Switz. are Verbier, Sion, etc.! You lucky person!

Shadowplay by Clare Asquith.

In 1976 I made half a dozen jumps from one of these, courtesy of the South African Defense Forces, to take free-fall photos of their No. 1 Recce Commando. http://www.paulnann.com/country/France/SA321.htm

This one was brought in for a couple of days of jumping at the World Pops meet at Matamata a couple of years ago. They removed the right side "blister" (no easy feat - hundreds of bolts holds it on), and we exited single file from there. http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/AirShows/WanakaWarbirds/Catalina/InTheAir/ (Edited to make "clicky")

Here's another that I've had a love/hate relationship with for many years! http://homepage.ntlworld.com/nick.challoner/aviation/pix/64-24.html