howardwhite

If you liked that, the helicopter will be back at Skydive Pepperell Saturday Sept 21 for both day and ***night*** chopper jumps. HW

"Hope it's still there tomorrow. " Hope all you want. It won't be. HW

Actually Pepperell got a fair number of Casa and Otter jumps before the ceiling came down, but you could have gotten at least 12 grand for a while. And there were about 20 helicopter loads. And what about the two night nump loads you missed on Wednesday? I don't really think you want to go to Pepperell HW

Well, not to bitch too much but "cloudy" doesn't do it. Unless your weather service includes ceiling (and that info is available elsewhere), it doesn't help me know whether I can expect jumping to happen. So can you find a service that includes ceiling? HW

"There's always Jean, Nevada where a bad spot could land you in prison." There used to be a DZ at Stormville, NY, maybe a mile from a state prison. There was a very old "how to do RW" book which showed a formation above the prison. Someone wrote on the picture "From 1,000 feet, you could hear the Vaseline jars opening." HW

How is the collection plate looking? HW

The weather turned to merde at the DZ today so we watched old skydiving movies (16 mm, not video), from the 60s. There was a different kind of chuteless jump, where the dude, wearing only a harness, docked on the guy with the rig and hooked on. Sort of a reverse Mr. Bill.

Agree about JVCs; I've trashed a couple. Same with Canon. There's a reason you can get it for $150.

"I couldn't have asked for a better instructor than in Keith LaRiviere. " Keith is awsome. Strong and Racer tandem examiner. Master Rigger. AFF (and SL) instructor. Jump pilot. All on weekends. He has a real job. His sister is Nancy LaRiviere of Jump Shack, multi-time US team S&A member and the babe in the red latex jump suit on the Jump Shack poster. I did a 16-point two way with her last summer, dirt-dived in the airplane. HW

"but, damn, I still need a camera!" I think they're still for sale HW

"As a general rule, you should strive to have more skydives than posts. " I do. But I am now an Enthusiast so I have gained faith in the System HW

Rev. Jim In your profile, you list freefall photography as your second preferred discipline, but you say you're not a photographer. How can this be? HW

In addition to the FAA stuff, in Massachusetts this would be a demo jump and you need something called a "Mass. waiver" issued by the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission. This is not particularly hard to get, but there 's no way you could get one by this weekend. The Air Adventures team made one there last weekend, but they are all pro-rated. HW

Just a thought... we had a Dobson Fly at the DZ years ago and most everyone thought it came off a banana boat. Whenever I hear about a wierd monster bug, I think about it. HW

Does it look like this? http://www.unl.edu/agnicpls/dobsonfly.html HW

In the US, packers must be "under the direct supervision" of a licensed rigger. This is interpreted in wildly varying fashion at different DZs -- for example at one DZ I frequent, only licensed rigggers pack tandems and student rigs, while at another, only one of three plus tandem packers is a rigger. They work hard, bitch a lot and make great money for teen agers. HW

"That's why they put the students on the front - so the instructor doesn't hurt himself. " Ideally so, but we had a really experienced tandem master further injure his knee today because the student didn't pick up her legs enough. Every day I remind myself why I would never be a tandem instructor. But I'm grateful to those who are .. they feed and majorly pay for our sport. HW

Since he is far too modest to announce it , I am pleased to announce that LawnDart21 got his tandem rating today and has already made four or so of his phase two jumps. Perhaps one of these day he will learn how to land. HW

http://www.bmezine.com/pierce/11-surface/uvula1.html

"coach card could be worth some income".... I don't think that was the kind of coaching jumps he had in mind. HW

Night jumps the night before -- Aug 21. You need to register and plan to make a day jump before the night jumps. Bring your own lights, as the DZ hasn't any to loan. HW

Tom... Have you tried being a little more subtle, like wearing a pullup cord on your belt? HW

Yup. That fell within drenalin's category of "old disciplines that didnt make it or that died after sometime." In TRAC, your team was judged both on RW points and accuracy. HW

Oh, stop. That would be like suggesting that people buy a map so they can find their way to the DZ. HW

Gee, when I saw the subject line about "Old skydiving disciplines," I thought it was about "old" disciplines, like style and accuracy. O.K. old timers, what is/was TRAC (a national event for a bit.)? HW