howardwhite

Well, in a few weeks, you can start dropping pumpkins. Wanna talk about unsafe -- they explode. HW

As an alternative to all these wonderful, complex, expensive solutions, you could just buy a Mac. All hardware and software already there. I am of course impressed by the current series of Apple TV commercials. I am less impressed by Gateway pretending to be Macs. Ducking flack from Redmond, WA, and Gateway Cowland, I am HW

"Just call up PD and get a reserve on risers and a bag sent to you " Yeah, but I wasn't talking about a reserve, I was talking about my reserve. HW

Dropping things that could cause injury or damage to people or property (paraphrase of FARs) is illegal. HW

Does anyone recommend jumping a new reserve as a main? (Once) The point is to see whether it has problems such as built-in turns, and also to get a feel for how it lands. I did it with one reserve a buncha years ago, but not since. HW

Wanna be the Top Gun of commercial airline pilots? Learn how at http://www.theonion.com/onion3836/i_am_the_top_gun.html HW

4. Give up smoking. I've seen smokers with purple lips during longish exposure even at 10-12 grand. HW

"Give Skydive Deland a call. " But for whatever reason, he specified "other than Deland." HW

How could the legendary Skratch Garrison not exist here? HW

the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds (also, with the church's protestant blessings daughters,unscented shapeless spirited) they believe in Christ and Longfellow, both dead, are invariably interested in so many things-- at the present writing one still finds delighted fingers knitting for the is it Poles? perhaps. While permanent faces coyly bandy scandal of Mrs. N and Professor D .... the Cambridge ladies do not care, above Cambridge if sometimes in its box of sky lavender and cornerless, the moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy -e.e. cummings

And Bill Booth didn't invent the piggyback in 1985, or what was that I was wearing a lot earlier? Automatic Activity Device? I need one in the morning. HW

I'm happy, I'm happy. The glossary in the USPA SIM offers: PULL OUT: A hand-deployment method of initiating parachute opening, where the springless pilot chute is packed into the main container. Pulling a handle first withdraws a container closing pin and then extracts the pilot chute. risers and pull the reserve. HAND-DEPLOYED PILOT CHUTE: The springless pilot chute used in hand-deployed systems. See PULL OUT and THROW OUT. I'm not sure I'd agree with " the springless pilot chute is packed into the main container" but that's the kind of generic definition I had in mind. HW

In the first "Skys Call" book (very old) there is a picture of someone's sleeve with a fork followed by the letter U. HW

As I understand it, there is nothing in the CRW rules about a "hand grip." Apparently the judges included that in their "interpretation." HW

"greg yarbonet is alive, well and works part time for atair aerospace. " I'm delighted to hear that, and sorry to be wrong. I wonder who I was thinking of. HW

And the problem with the Reuter wrap is that if that one line essential to deployment did not get stretched, the jumper was hosed. That's what happened in the fatality I saw. HW

I'm not a CRW dawg (made a few) but a friend is. Who can comment on the judging at the Nationals? A team was busted, I'm told, for a "dual grip" (leg and hand), won unanimous support from the jury, and was nonetheless rejected again by the judges. HW

In addition to what Mark said about the conditions for Volplane hydraulic reefing systems, temperature was a factor. If you packed it in warm weather and jumped in cold weather, the silicon oil would thicken and considerably slow the opening beyond what you planned. I never had it happen to me, but I know someone whose hydraulic system blew off its end cap on opening, releasing all the oil and resulting in a slammer. In one of my mals, the system released but the line going around the flare did not clear the canopy so I chopped; as soon as I did, the main opened beautifully. I still have my HRS in my garage somewhere, and occasionally take it to the DZ for the edification and amusement of newbies. I later put a Yarbonet slider on my Volplane. If I remember correctly, Greg died in a tandem accident in Connecticut. HW

Well, you're probably right about most. It's just that after the fact of having survived all of the above, I thought in retrospect that they seemed bad. OK, the Reuter wrap, a deployment sequencer from Pioneer. Killed a JM at Orange MA. HW

"At least it was on the belly strap so you could see it..." Well, you could but lots of people didn't. HW

I guess I would have used the generic term "hand deploy" to differentiate from ripcord. Then one wouldn't have to get into the technicalities of where it's located. HW

I made quite a few jumps on a Security Unit with maybe one stow of lines on the bag and the rest just coiled in the packtray. 'Course I also made quite a few jumps on a Volplane with an hydraulic reefing system. Not to mention a StratoStar with ropes 'n rings. Also blast handles and early belly-mount PC where the bridle could be twisted. And early plastic reserve handles. And....on and on. HW

"Also remember guys putting a rubber band just prior to the last pin of their rip cord so they couldn't pull it all the way through the flexible metal tube and lose it. Not a good idea. " Rubber band, nothing. People were putting lead fishing sinkers on their ripcords. HW

"If the new PC-XII weren't single engine aircraft I'd love to see them in use for jump ops down the road. " Assuming you're talking about the Pilatus PC-12 (not all *that* new), I had the same thought. But I talked about it with a Pilatus dealer pilot who is also a jumper (and I got a ride in it.) The current problem is that the door is structural so cannot be removed or replaced with a jump door. HW

"50 pounds of camera gear is Imax camera range" Do a Google search on Imax skydiving to see how it has been done by several people. HW