Bob_Church

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Everything posted by Bob_Church

  1. If you ever jumped at Bidwell, Ohio, or if you didn't, you might really enjoy this. We've been having some great times catching up. Catching up with old friends isn't just for funerals. http://www.ohio.edu/people/churchr/show/reunion_2016.pdf
  2. Something that seems to have changed big time is that gear, or at least rigs, don't go out of date like they used to. When I started jumping if you had a rig that was five years old people would stare at you when you got on the plane. I know, I always had old gear. But I bought my Quasar 2 twenty years ago and it still looks current and I see no reason to replace it.
  3. Here's a question for everyone. Let's exclude unintentional openings, the head down accidental pilot chute extractions, that sort of thing. This is a skydiver throwing out their pilot chute because it's time to get canopy. Which models of parachutes have killed skydivers during this sort of opening? Which models have put people in the hospital with injuries?
  4. I mail a lot of stuff via USPS and we live in a small town, village actually, where the two guys at the post office have become friends. They've both assured me that they consider USPS' insurance a waste of money. They have many many stories about something getting lost but neither can remember the postal service actually paying anyone, no matter how legitimate the claim. According to them it usually comes down to the higher ups saying "well, you claim that that was in the package, but we don't know that for sure, so claim denied." Anyone on here have any actual experience with trying to get paid for something that USPS has lost?
  5. I can't blame them for not wanting to bother. Fortunately they've still got tables at Xenia (Greene County) and a good rigger who is so young that I'm sure he'll outlast me, let alone this old rig. With the 180 day cycle I only get it packed once a year, that covers all the events where I might need it. I don't get any demos in the winter these days, at least nothing big enough that the FAA might show up. Which is good since it's hard on the knees. Our air show, third Sunday of September, tends to wrap things up.
  6. Did you seriously have a rigger refuse to pack a round PEP with a round ??? Remember, many new riggers for the last few years have no training on round parachutes. Dave DeWolf does not include training or testing on round parachutes and PEP's in his basic rigger course. For that training you have to stay longer and spend more money. On the other hand my FAA Supervising Inspector REQUIRES me to test senior rigger candidates on round AND ram air parachutes. And even if they know how to pack they many don't have the equipment and facilities to pack round parachutes and don't want to mess with them. The problem is with the ones that don't know how but still pack them. On the other hand there still should be a lot of old farts around the midwest. About all I pack are pilot rigs with rounds. He may not have tried very hard. I ain't no old fart, but but have plenty of round packjobs. It ain't nuclear rocket surgery, and freepacking a round into a bailout is easier than bagging a square. And I don't think you need much more than the floorspace to stretch the canopy out. Basically, my opinion is that if a rigger refuses to pack a back bailout rig, I would be cautious of how knowledgeable and competent they are. This is getting weird.
  7. Sort of off topic, but when I moved to Athen Ohio, a college town where the University is bigger than the City, in 1975 there was a garage named The Subtle Bug. They only worked on Volkswagens and it was run by a couple of nice young hippies. It's still here, but now they only work on Subarus and it's run by a couple of nice old hippies.
  8. After that accident in Wisconsin where the one pilot survived by bailing out I figured the FAA would start clamping down on that rule. I bought a used bailout rig with a Phantom for demos where the FAA might show up and want one. The biggest problem is getting a round packed but I've been lucky so far. Another thing that we used to do, and works ok, is to take an older rig, something like a Wonderhog, and cut off the main flaps. If you loosen up the leg straps, just a little, and let it ride up the reserve will fit over top of the seat of a Cessna.
  9. Sorry, I didn't realize that I was only seeing page two of this list and that the question had been answered.
  10. Lew Sanborn is D1. I made a couple of jumps with him in 1980 or so and he's a great guy. It was at a meet in Deland and they were going to bring a Twin Otter over from Daytona Beach. At that time a Twin Otter jump was something. They made us a deal, we could pay the night before and leave in a van early the next morning and ride back in it. We got discounted tickets for that. I remember getting in and noticing a pilot an co-pilot wearing neat uniforms, wood trim on the lights and nice carpet on the floors and thinking "this isn't' going to last long." We got two loads out of it before they left. Having skydivers in general, and especially floaters, hanging off their nice shiny executive aircraft just didn't go over well.
  11. USPA can't make anything legal or illegal. At one tome they sad that plastic rip cord handles were illegal. They were wrong. The rigs were TSO'd with them. I remember this from the Nationals in 79. Jumpers were finding out at registration that they wouldn't let them jump their gear.
  12. I'd happily pay three or more times for an annual repack. I hate messing with it.
  13. I remember when the Unit came out it was the first canopy a lot of us had ever seen that would actually fly forward a few feet when you flared it. We discusses whether it was a bug or a feature.
  14. I would strongly recommend against calling. Make the time, go over, and spend some time with them. It will make all the difference in your results.
  15. Damn, I was there but no video. I'll try to contact some of the others who were there with us and see if they have it, but as you said, it's slim.
  16. There's advice that they used to give to student pilots that I think applies to becoming a skydiver now. A layoff, even a short one, can be expensive. If you have to wait a couple of weeks or more between jumps because you're broke it can set you back because then when you do get paid it will rain for the next couple of weekends. You don't want to have to do jumps over, it's expensive and a good way to get out of the mood and quit. Talk to the DZ and come up with a reasonable estimate of what it will cost to get off student status then, even if it means taking out a personal loan, get that amount and bank it for the jumps.
  17. "Allen Silver is the one you can thank for the extended repack cycle" Thanks for that. In this internet age it's hard to remember how difficult it was to get information at a small dz in 1978.
  18. To any Bidwell Oh, Ravenswood Wv, Chesapeake or well, anyone else interested. We're having another reunion this year, it will be October 8th 2016. I'm trying to get in gear and update the web page, I'll post a link soon. We've been having some great lunches too. We've been doing this since 2008 and just this past Sunday we had someone show up that I haven't seen since 1979. Let me know if you're interested. PS I really hope this is the ok place to post this. Please let me know if I should move it. Since we're not jumping during the get together (well, maybe) I didn't think it fit in the upcoming events forum, but let me know if I'm wrong. Thanks Bob Church [email protected]
  19. I've been trying to remember what the pack cycle was when I started, in 1978, and when it went up to 120. I found an old PIA document that says 60 days but I think it may be about something else, because I really remember it as 90 days and more importantly a couple of other people that were jumping then said they thought 90 days too. If I remember correctly, and I wouldn't put money on that, when the cycle was increased to 120 days it made trouble for people with the custom built leather Vectors because having any natural materials meant that you had to go by the older cycle. So that would put it in the early 80s rather than late 70s. It's not important, it's just bugging me that I can't quite remember.
  20. Also, 120 days is approximately four months. We moved numbers around a lot in calculus class but never managed that much delta.
  21. The pack cycle wasn't 120 days when I started jumping. It was lengthened to that at least a year later.
  22. As I said. When I started jumping the pack cycle was 60 days. (I remember it as 90, but the citations say 60). Either way, it was not 120 days when I started so I don't see what your point is.
  23. PIA filed the petitions but I remember USPA encouraging the move. Oh, and it wasn't for any old rig. Those people with expensive custom made leather rigs were SOL and stuck at 60 days.
  24. The year after I started jumping the cycle went from 60 days to 120. Now it's at 180 so I have to pay for an i/r twice a year rather than six times. Except for times like last July when I had to use it ahead of schedule, but was very glad it was there.