reprobate

It's LALO rather than HALO, but a Rhodesian I once worked with told me of a brother whose unit jumped static line with no reserve. They exited from 500 ft so they didn't need one. I asked him if they had a belly or back mount container but he didn't know. They were a unit of the Selous Scouts and 3 or 4 four man teams would be put out quickly along a line and set up counter ambushes. They didn't use rucksacks but wore a vest sort of like a photographers vest. I got one of the vests and a pair of boots of the same type they wore. The vest ragged out but the boots are still fine. They are made of buffalo hide with antelope skin rolls and tounge and lining. The sole is a steel belted radial tire that is protection against spikes. Carl

Age - 67 Avg (4 tests) 0.2664 Carl

I only have one eye and was concerned about not having any depth perception and was (happily) suprised to find I compensated for it easily. What your brother may get into is a situation where he may have to lay off if he has some eye problem. This can happen with anyone but is especialy critical with a one-eye. I have been under a doctors watch after an eye injury in a bicycle race and the doc has been watching for any retina separation. Happy to say it hasn't happened and I am no longer have a bloody outlook on things! Your brother should wear glasses under goggles to insure against anything getting in his usable eye. Stuff can get by simple glasses. Carl

I quit smoking 15 years ago. Took me 10 years. Quit 5 or 6 times. I was diving at the time. The first thing I would do is take off my Rat Hat, second, snach the butt out of the tenders mouth and get a quick drag on the way to the chamber (de compression, not gas!).Quit because I'm cheap and didn't like burning up $.75 a pack. I could smoke one 10 feet long right now with one inhale! I carry an ID that says I'm 16 so no one will sell me cigarettes. Hang in there, you can do it. Carl

My theory is my own and I've never heard it from anyone else :). LHO fucked up everything he ever did and I don't see how he finally got it right the last day. -- An aside-- LHO was left handed shooting a right hand rifle. I am right handed and after losing my right eye changed my shooting style. I have a bolt action 270 that I battery on my left shoulder, aim with my left eye and when I shoot I leave my left hand on the grip and finger near the trigger and re load with my right hand. With a steady, strong grip one doesn't even touch the fore grip. It is possible to fire VERY fast like this. Accurate; Not By Me ! Anyway, I have thought that LHO was really shooting at John Connelly. When JC was Sec. Navy Oswald petitioned him to expunge the Undesireable Discharge he recieved. Connelly personally refused it. I kinda think LHO was shooting at JC and screwed up as usual, paniced and started running for cover. When he went into the theator he was acting suspisious so people pointed him out to police looking for the killer of officer Tibbetts (sp?). These guys might have even thought they were arresting a cop killer until they got him to jail. I even have my doubts about the Tibbits thing. LHO had photos taken of him with his guns. The only hand gun was a revolver and officer Tibbits had shell casings next to his body. He and LHO were carring wheel guns Anyway, I am the only person I know that thinks this. Except for a Brother-in-Law that thinks he was shooting at Jackie. Carl

Falling; How Our Greatest Fear Became Our Greatest Thrill. Author Garrett Soden, Publisher is W. W. Norton, 2003 It has some, but not a lot, about skydiving and mentions Charles Broadwick but not Tiny but was still of interest from a skydiving point of view. It covers everthing from wire walking to BASE jumping and has good (to me) references regarding our pre-historical development. It refutes the common belief that high-sensation seekers have a death wish, it is exactly opposite and brings up the stat, which I didn't know, that of 380 mountain climbing deaths only one was a free solo climber (risk vs chance). The best part was a researchers finding that "high sensation-seeking women preferred a higher frequency of intercourse, reported more frequent multiple orgasms,--------- than the low sensation seekers". The Houston library has one copy but I have it for the next few weeks because I am reading it to my SO. Carl

Both in theory and in practice, people with one working eye can judge depth. You can judge depth but it is different. I had my right eye knocked out by a golf ball. I can see daylight but there is a black spot right in the middle and it doesn't focus. Before this I was a fair track & field hand, afterward QuoteI had (& have) a hard time judgeing the jump. Ditto the 10 meter board. I did the usuall messing around on bicycles and took up mountain bike & cyclocross racing after loseing the eye. About half the time I bust my ass on a jump. Using relative sizes, positions, crossing speeds etc works fine if, as Lori pointed out, one has time to digest it. I can't see my STP coach on my right side and it does make a difference in how I react. As far as landing is concerned, my only experiance is monocular but I have a feeling that if I had learned before loseing the eye it would not have been too hard to adjust. Carl

M, I'm a backpacker and bicycle rider and although I have never had to walk rather than put out I have had my share of blisters. Your local pharmacy should have mole skin. One brand name is Second Skin. This is a wetter cover than regular old bandages. It is intended to go right over the blister but if you have removed the epidermis, put a pad over that part before applying it. Some Novacane brand ointment before hand may deaden some of the pain. Leave the mole skin on until it rots off. Carl

"been to long , little nervous" Makes me feel not so alone. I also haven't jumed in 3 months. I got banged up by a horse while on vacation and now my Mother, a breast cancer survivor, is in hospital with another type and needs lots of visits. I know I will be not just a little nervous but a whole lot. Carl

I once was a Journeyman in the ironworkers union, was also a steeplejack and tower builder. That bit about the edge "drawing" and looking at the feet and not below brought a lot back. It has always amused me that people can walk along a 2x4 laying on the ground and can't if it is up in the air somewhere! As you said , fear of consequences. I was caught up in two collaspses, a pre-fab one story warehouse that had some roof joists buckle while we were placing them and a tower built to the 160' level that folded up with 3 of us on it. No one suffering anything but minor injuries, by that I mean "treat and release". I was nearly killed on one job. I was yanked off the back of a flat bed truck by a roll of 4x4 reinforcing wire when my glove fouled on it. 4 feet off the ground! Stepping out the door of an airplane doesn't bother me, my stomach, that is. The thought of jumping off a tower does. I know the lack of forward speed at exit would give me elevator stomach. One of the old timers told me the same thing about concentrating on outs and not results of a fall and he was right because I could ( and still can) make myself sick thinking about the consequences. Carl

Count me in. If I'm in, that is. I run a lot, Hermann & Memorial. Bike a lot too since I boggered up my knee. My knee held together for 5k last week and I'm working back up. Carl

The best thing about being self employed is complaining to the boss My daughter once saw me looking in a mirrow, "Listen here, ASSHOLE I WANT A RAISE! FUCK YOU, YOU'R FIRED, You can't fire me, I'm me" Carl

I AM self employed. That is the main reason it is taking me so long to get through the training program. I have to work to fit my customers desires, not mine. Which means daylight - weekends. I have always felt that too many business' and especially government offices are open at hours to suit the employees, not the customer. Ever try to go to a city office after you get off work! Carl

GawdAllmity! I knew there was a reason why Fourchon sucks! The only place in the world the wind speed is in negative numbers. I went to Nigeria for 6 months, got back home 17 months later and found out she had moved, no forwarding address. Right now I got a GF in LA, England & Houston and get along just fine with all of them. Carl

truk stop cawfe. i gotta get outta this dam car and get some beer Carl

Starbucks Caramel Mocha Carl

I have found that using a throwdrown address helps. My "real" business address isn't even on my cards. The clients I am working for use it but it is a mailbox of the public account. In addition, I have a mailbox used only for on line buying. When surfing and finding a site that requires an address to enter I either use a made up address such as tamu.edu or a Yahoo account that I dont even check. I stilll get spam but it is easier to cull. Carl

Success: At age 1, success is not peeing in your pants At age 7, success is having friends At age 16, success is being able to drive At age 21, success is having sex At age 30, success is having money At age 50, success is having money At age 60, success in having sex At age 70, success is being able to drive At age 80, success is still having friends At age 90, success is not peeing in your pants HawHaw! I showed this to my 92 YO Mother and she threw a diaper at me. I'm 64. I'm having surgury on my left hand tomorrow and the doctor told me to not bend my fingers for 2 weeks but my right hand is OK so I can still................never mind. Carl

Community Club Dark Roast Carl

I've been a hostage. Some time ago some un-reconstructed Biafran Army soldiers turned bandit and being chased by a Nigerian Army unit grabbed some of us to try to negotiate their freedom. It ended with them taking into the bush once more in an attempt to scatter and evade. A priest was killed and two hostages slightly wounded. The bandits, because that is what they had become, were chased, caught and later executed. I attended the execution and took photos of the execution which I still have in my bank box. I have a bullet scar on one arm to remind me of what goes through a hostages mind. This is truly a zero sum game. A hostage wants to stay alive. That is all he/she wants to do. There are no philisophical discourses of any kind. It is not the same as being a prisoner of war, as an Uncle was, it is short term, immeadiate and violent. And the hostage, or me anyway, is willing to do almost anything to stay alive. A close friend was with me and if the choice had been he dies or I die I probably would have told them to take him and he would have done the same. There was a plane hijacked and taken to Egypt where a U.S.Navy sub-mariner was beaten to death. Several oil field trash were on board and I have since met a couple of them and they all thought every moment was their last and they all were ready to do that anything to stay alive and all of them seemed to feel that fighting the terrorists was only an option if they became convinced that there was no hope for (their own) life. Which might bring up the point that had the 9/11 hijackers kept their mouths shut re their intentions it is possible Mr. Bemer, et al would not have felt so threatened as to be willing to make a last stand. To this day I couldn't answer the question posed by skymama and I am a practicing, believing Christian and think have a correct sense of ethics. Carl

I had to learn the Pledge twice! I was in school when the "under God" words were added. I don't remember any discussion, pro or con, about adding it. My Father was a minister and missionary, a WWII Marine and he and my Mother had many dinner table conversations about all sorts of things but I am not even sure he paid any attention to it. The only thing the school did was teach the new form. When I went into the National Guard in 1954 there was a questionaire to be answered concerning membership in Communist front organizations but I have only learned now that they were the reason for inserting a referance to God in the Pledge as it was believed a Communist would choke on the words! In my opinion, leaving the words in it will make it more acceptable to all but Atheists as belief in God is about the only thing uniting Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus. Carl

"Age does not count" Diss agree. It matters a lot. One thing that made me delay, for about 10 years, my AFF was not the fear of dying, but the fear of disabling injury. A friend of mine broke a leg skydiving, age 55, he had started while in the military and had many years in it but it was his first serious injury. His doctor told him flatly that it would take nearly twice as long to heal and would not mend as well as it would if he had been younger. In my own case, I took to down hill mountain bike riding and after seeing another friend get an almost identical injury by sticking his leg through the frame during a wipeout. I said to myself, self, what the hey, just do it. We also get a little less adventurous AKA: we know we aint bulletproof. I don't know if the words "conserative skydiver" is an oxymoron or not but that is my goal. I don't think a late student could ever be proficient enough to participate in freeway median swooping or something like that but he can still have a hell of a good time. Carl

Swarley, I have done a fair amount of lurking, surfing and downloading and have found a lot of material that can be printed out that can give a lot of insight into the different parts of skydiving. With one exception I won't even try to post links as there are too many. Start right here on dropzone.com and just jump from the equipment pages to the mfg. pages. PD & RW, for example, have some pretty good stuff. Skydivemag is a British publication that has good (free! ha ha) archives. Read PIA's Dual Square Report. Etc. The link is: http://www.MakeItHappen.com it has a page of links as does our own home. I guess you are aware that we old farts have lost our edge as well as our teeth. It has been pointed out to me that some old students may be a little behind. Being "half a step behind the beat" may look funny on the dance floor but aint funny in the air so take and use videios and keep in mind your instructor is your kids age and don't really have a clue Cheers, Old Rep, Carl

Oh, Richard. Even if I were off student ststus and met the skydiver part I still couldn't be a YUP. I drive a ugly old Jeep. I know I be young enuf. Carl

Swarley, I am certainly not an instructor but am really good at butting in to someone elses business I am 64 and a student. I have done 6 tandams, 3 with my STP and 3 at another DZ, and 4 STP (like AFF but w/one JM). At the time I started I made inquiries as you did and the concerns were probably the same. The large differance between someone older that is continuing skydiving and someone of the same age STARTING it. I got a lot of feedback and several PMs that were really on the ball (Thanks, you know who you are). I would say, go ahead and start. If you have concerns about landing, as I do, possibly take a few extra tandams. I know they are expensive but they will help you put it in perspective. Hell, I even helped kick out line twists on one! You need to examine yourself and a good place to do it, I believe, is on a freeway. This may start some stuff, but here goes. You may have heard that one sign of failing skills is an inability to hold your own on the road. If you can drive right down the side of the construction wall, keep up with the fast drivers and make the lane changes (without wrecking ) you still have fair position awareness and nerves. This isn't as dangerous as skydiving but is pretty good multitasking. if you do it on a motorcycle, even better. RE: Landing, this is, I believe, of concern to any older skydiver because of deterioating vision. I know I have a problem with it and am having to hunt and peck this because I have one finger and a thumb in splints! Don't just discuss this with your instructors, pound it into them because he or she won't have the faintest idea what you are talking about because they don't even wear glasses much less tri-focals. Another concern: continuity of lessons. I have no way of knowing your personal situation but for myself, I travel a lot and this puts really too much time between lessons for good retention so try to start a regular schedule. Feel free to email, flame or PM me. Carl