mdowling

Video of Joe D's 10,000th jump while doing a tandem may be found here: JoeD's 10,000th Video Still pictures may be found here: Joe D's 10,000th Still Pics

Channel 6 ABC interview on Flyers skydiving ticket This aired last night. If you experiece problems, you may need to turn off the popup blocker on your browser. It's also the sixth video down on the main homepage: www.6abc.com under the video on demand section. Click on Favorite Flyers Photos The skydiving picture appears on the Flyers home opener ticket on Oct. 13.

Quote Girls in raft Layly Rosier Eliane Doering Amber Fernandez J Schrimsher Mark Futch Ryan Bonham Trae Miller Josh Greene Does this sound right??? Quote Last person should be Matt (not Josh) Greene (silver full-face, far left of the raft picture.

Hey guys, It's great to hear Lead handled it well, is okay and got to keep jumping. I hope to see hee you guys at the dz sometime soon. Hey Lead, who packed your reserve? Someone at SJS? Matt

Everyone's going to have criticisms about an event the magnitude of the WFFC. I have a few, but I'd rather offer a post that highlights the positives, which are many. For me, the WFFC (I've been to the last 4) is my favorite 10 days of the year. If there are folks who've never been and are considering whether to go this year, here's my take on the best things about the convention (in no particular order) 1) The people -- I can't stress this part enough. Over the last four years, I've gotten to know a great bunch of folks just by jumping on organized loads. I only usually see them once a year, but when we arrive in Rantoul it's like time was suspended those other 355 days of the year. We pick right up where we left off and welcome newcomers into the fold. 2) The RW organizers - Super nice folks with tons of skydiving knowledge. I can't recommend the RW tents enough for everything from low pressure 4-ways to the bigger, more complex stuff. 3) The facilities - The place is huge. There's plenty of outs and the volunteers are the friendliest folks around. It's pretty well maintained for an event of its size. 4) Lots of Jumps -- I live within 2 hours of 6 turbine dzs, but there's no where that I can make more jumps in 10 days than the WFFC - hands down. Calls are almost always under 20 mins. Last year I did 82 jumps and we had a few weather days. 5) Socializing -- Finish jumping at sunset, grab a shower and bite to eat and head to the entertainment tent for a bit. The music isn't always my style, but what could be more fun than hanging out with a few hundred like-minded folks who love skydiving. 6) Aircraft -- Specialty aircraft provide a fun diversion and something to talk about. I know people want more of this, but a few variety jumpships fill the bill for me. Everything else is a bonus. It seems fashionable to be down on the convention this year. Some of the gripes are quite deserved. I've been to several other boogies, large and small. They all have their merits and shortcomings. But the overarching theme I've found at the WFFC that keeps drawing me back is the overwhelming feeling of friendly camaraderie. It's nobody's home dz, and everyone's home dz at the same time because it only exists for 10 days a year. For those who've seen past the nay-sayers, I look forward to meeting you there. I'll be in the RW organizing tent, just before 8 a.m. on the first day, waiting for those awesome songs to play (national anthem, then "over the rainbow".) Hopefully, I'll have just landed from Mullin's dirty-bird load.

Thanks Rick. Just the answer I was looking for.

http://www.xperiencedays.com/ Need to know immediately if this is a skyride affiliated site. This site is about to get some publicity from a rather large newspaper I work for and I want to make sure it's legit. It's being promoted as a NJ-owned company. For those more tech-savy at tracking down ownership of websites, please advise. Thanks.

About the spots, I have made roughly 300 jumps in the last four years the convention has been at Rantoul. Outside of specialty aircraft, I think I have no more than 4 or 5 out landings. All of these have been on the airport. Spots were tough this year because there were a ton of downwind jumpruns. The reason was that they didn't want us running jumprun toward the practice field for the University of Illinois football team (so I heard). They didn't want us landing there by accident. As a result, ground speeds were swift and people failed to adapt. I was on several loads where a 5 or 6 way was the third largest formation load and we counted 20 to 30 seconds between green light and the first group exit. Lots of these times, (I hate to point a finger), but Arizona Airspeed was organizing. They hosed everyone else regularly. Then the airspeed guys swooped the organizing tent and put everyone walking to the planes at risk. That's not setting a good example, in my humble opinion. That being said, I love the WFFC. I can't wait till next year. And I'll be a regular at load organizing tent 3 with the good friends I've made there since Rantoul became Rantoul. Best, Matt

I have read a lot of your posts and respect your opinion. Please explain the last one.

Here's the story I wrote on the same killing for my newspaper today. It offers more details than 1010 WINS version. Newark Star-Ledger Story

FYI, the link I provide is to a lense for $380.

Wade, I bought a 15mm Sigma lense and for my digital rebel and couldn't be happier. I bought it on this site and the shipping was fast: http://www.tristatecamera.com/lookat.php?sid=1wvvusc1&sku=SIGAF15S&cs=find.php&action=search&target=products&keywords=sigma&search_method=all I also jump a .43 lense on my video camera. Good luck.

To specifically answer your question: I cutaway at 600 feet after a canopy collision with no RSL and had a reserve at about 100 feet. It should be noted that the opening after such an event is subterminal and may take longer. I landed without injury in a clump of trees and walked away. As for what's actually recommended -- I'd go with what Bill said.

Who knew there was another skydiver in the audience at that show Friday night? I bought the exact same gift for my girlfriend for Xmas and we went on Friday too. If you had dinner at Asia de Cuba (great food) in mid-town before the show and had a beer at the Irish pub next to the theater while waiting for the doors to open, then it's just too damn weird. It is a very funny show for all those in the NY area looking for something different and entertaining.

Couldn't agree more! This lunacy of spiraling over the pattern nearly killed me about 2 years ago when I got blindsided from above as I started my downwind leg. (Check this thread from the incident forum: Canopy Wrap if you're curious what I'm talking about.) Head on a swivel folks, please!

Yep. EBAY is the place to go. Last month, I bought a WJ-AVE7 (the bigger brother to the AVE5) for about $215. There's some great deals there. You should look into the AVE7 too. It's got a timed autofade feature that I really like in comparison to the AVE5 model, which has a slider bar for manual fades. Good luck

Recently bought a CD by a band called Caviar. Their single "On the DL" has been getting very light airplay, but it's one of the best overall alternative albums I've bought in a long time. Their website has a link where you can sample some of their tunes: www.thecaviarmy.com An earlier song by them called "Tangerine Speedo" made it on a Charlie's Angels soundtrack. Also check out Tony C and the Truth. Great song called "Little Bit More" anchors a pretty decent album. www.tonycandthetruth.com

The New York Times requires a membership to access stories on their site. To save people the trouble, I've posted the entire text here. There are some pictures on the website as well if you're interested: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/nyregion/index.html . New Thrill for the Bored-With-Just-Parachuting Set By COREY KILGANNON Published: August 23, 2004 GARDINER, N.Y., Aug. 20 - From 5,000 feet up, a parachutist glides gently to earth, destined for a soft, feathery landing in the grassy airfield here at the Blue Sky Ranch, at the base of the Shawangunk Mountains. But suddenly, at about 500 feet, the jumper abruptly begins plummeting in a downward spiral and seems in a free-fall death plunge. At precisely this unnerving moment, though, cheers erupt from a crowd assembled around a small artificial pond below, and the jumper deftly pulls out of the plunge by banking a turn toward the water. In a steep, swooping approach, he hurtles toward the pond at about 70 miles an hour. The parachute bleats loudly and the jumper controls it like an airplane wing, leveling himself off and flying low and steady and horizontal just above the pond surface. It all culminates in a moment of graceful parachute control, as the jumper dips one foot into the water - or two feet, like a barefoot water-skier - and skims the length of the 240-foot pond before slowing to a gentle touchdown on the far bank. It is called pond swooping, and the Pond Swooping Nationals began Friday at the ranch, a parachute club just south of New Paltz, a 90-minute drive from Manhattan. Ranch regulars claim to have invented this extreme form of high-speed, high-performance parachuting, now popular with a growing subset of thrill-seeking adrenaline junkies bored with simply plummeting to earth as plain old sky divers. The tournament, in its sixth year, attracts the world's best pond swoopers, competing for about $7,000 in prizes. On Friday morning, they began their runs, swooping down to the water every minute or so - first Sonic, then The Punisher, then Fruitcake - flying over the water in a narrow buoy lane, first curved, then straight. Just as many competitors in the weekend event skimmed along on their bellies or buttocks, or lost speed and control and splashed unceremoniously into the muddy water, to hoots and jeers from spectators. This is called chowing, and it is as integral to pond-swooping fun as the perfect surface glide. Splashers get flagged down by the chow judge, Bruce Chapman, which means a big deduction of points from the judges sitting lakeside in lawn chairs. They assess a swooper's approach, skim length and swoop control. In other events, swoopers try to land on a raft, and show their freestyle skills in an event called canopy expressions. The crowd watched intently as Clint Clawson, 29, from Perris, Calif., drifted down from the clouds and swooped down on the pond. Mr. Clawson, a top pro on the national Pro Swooping Tour, has won the event at the ranch the past two years. With his black Chuck Taylor hightop sneakers, he traced a graceful arc in the water before landing on the far bank, while mugging for the crowd. The son of sky divers, Mr. Clawson said he began jumping out of planes by age 9 and eventually started swooping for the thrills and the emphasis on skillful maneuvering. Swoopers use a small parachute called a canopy, which allows them to drop out of the sky much faster than a larger chute. At 84 square feet, Mr. Clawson's canopy looks like a picnic blanket, made from densely woven nylon for minimum air seepage. During a dive, its riblike pockets fill with rushing air, turning the chute into a stiff wing that jumpers can steer like a high-performance glider. The swooper dives to gather speed and then converts it to lift, to sustain a long horizontal flight above the pond. Another contestant, Eldon Burrier, 38, a landscaper from Seattle, said he began conventional parachuting in the 1980's as an Army paratrooper. After taking up swooping three years ago, he is now on the pro tour. "I'm a speed freak and this is a serious taste of speed," he said. "Swooping is like doing a high dive, but with a parachute." But it is also dangerous. There are the occasional newspaper articles about tragedies like swoopers dying while using recreational drugs, or the dive center in Chicago that recently had six deadly plunges in a year's time. In the 2001 nationals here at the ranch, Lisa Gallagher, 41, of Columbus, Ohio, hit a wind gust during her approach. Her parachute collapsed, and she slammed into the ground and died. A rescue captain for the Gardiner Fire Department, Dot Bailin, watched that and the deaths of two conventional sky divers at the ranch. "I'm just watching human beings bounce themselves around," Ms. Bailin said, as she leaned against the first-aid equipment in the back of her Dodge pickup and watched each landing closely. She treats a steady stream of sprains, cuts and bruises. People with broken legs and arms go by ambulance to a local hospital. Those with broken backs or necks, or worse, go by helicopter to Westchester Medical Center, she said. Swoopers and tournament officials say that safety is their first concern and that all competitors have completed thousands of sky dives. They welcome critics to compare the dangers of swooping to driving a car or swimming in the ocean. "Yes, you have to dive to pick up speed, and if you mess it up, you're going to die," explained one ranch regular, Rick Graham, a 43-year-old computer consultant from Queens who said he sky-dives, surfs hurricane swells and has bungee-jumped off the Manhattan Bridge. "It's dangerous," Mr. Graham said, "but for some of us, it's the only time we're in control of our own destiny. If this sport was totally safe, most of these guys wouldn't be here."

I actually found their customer service to be relatively responsive and good. They messed up my order last year. Right colors, decent fit, but wront suit altogether (the cheaper style, rather than the one I ordered, which was $70 more.) They were very apologetic and said they'd make me another one and I could keep the mistake. Three weeks later, an identical suit to the first one arrived. Again, I told them about the error. Same response. Keep the suit and well make you a brand new one. Eventually, my order arrived and it's a great suit. So now I have 3 freefly suits for the price of one. I already had a friend throw wings on one of the extras and I have a new camera suit. Not bad.

I can't possibly say enough nice things about PD's customer service. They were very, very cool with me after my Sabre2 got pretty mangled (a few broken lines, tears, etc.) from a canopy collision in March 03. I got constant updates about the repairs. When it was all done, I got a call from Donna who almost apologetically told me the total cost. I nearly fell out of my chair because it was so ridiculously low. Let's just say it was less than 1/4 of what I had been assuming the bill would be. About 300 jumps later on that same canopy and it still flies good as new. Do you think any of this factored into my decision to buy a Katana last week? You bet.

Former head of parachute company dies at 85 TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The former head of a parachute manufacturing company whose canopies helped save the lives of thousands of airmen has died. Richard Switlik Sr. was 85. His son said the cause of his death was not clear, but that his father suffered from Parkinson’s disease. Switlik was for years the president of Switlik Parachute Co. in Trenton. The company had been founded under a different name in 1920 by his father, Stanley Switlik. Stanley Switlik in 1934 teamed with Amelia Earhart’s husband to build a 115-foot tower on Switlik’s Ocean County farm to train airmen in parachute jumping. Earhart made the first public jump from the tower in 1935, according to the company’s Web site. Richard Switlik Sr. was the first to leap from the tower to make sure it was safe, said his son, Richard Switlik Jr. “He was a remarkable guy who wasn’t afraid to do anything,” Switlik Jr. said. As World War II approached, Switlik Parachute made about 2,500 parachutes each week, Switlik Jr. said. The company estimated that some 5,000 airmen were saved during the war by Switlik parachutes. According to company lore, one of them was a Navy pilot named George H.W. Bush, who bailed out when his plane was damaged over the Pacific, and later was to become the 41st president of the United States. “When you think of the number of lives that were saved because of his designs and his efforts, it’s a great accomplishment,” Switlik Jr. said. Bush used a Switlik canopy when he made a parachute jump on his 75th birthday. The former president plans another jump this weekend, on his 80th birthday. After the war, Switlik Sr. oversaw the company’s expansion from parachute making to production of life vests, life rafts and other survival gear. Switlik Sr. was a 1939 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. A Hightstown resident, he served as a captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He is survived by his wife, Irene, three sons and a daughter.

(a cross post in case it gets buried quickly in talkback) The debut of the MTV show Boiling Points on Monday (jan. 5) is supposed to include a segment they taped at Skydive Jersey Shore this summer. They conned a bunch of people into thinking they got a cheapo skydive and kept upping the ante with outrageous things like duct taping the passenger to the tandem master (one huge guy, by the way - see pic attached.) Two of the people involved in the spoof wound up making actual skydives later that afternoon. We provided that footage (one of the tandems was shot by me) to MTV. Hopefully, they'll use it to show the fun side of actually getting to jump from planes in addition to the pranks they played on the unsuspecting wuffos. Boiling Points airs at 4:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. eastern time tomorrow. One of the MTV folks from the show said that'd be the time the skydiving bit aired. I'm sure they'll rerun the show ad nauseum in true MTV fasion over the weekends.

Thanks. I think it's fixed it with that last edit.

The debut of the MTV show Boiling Points on Monday (jan. 5) is supposed to include a segment they taped at Skydive Jersey Shore this summer. They conned a bunch of people into thinking they got a cheapo skydive and kept upping the ante with outrageous things like duct taping the passenger to the tandem master (one huge guy, by the way - see pic attached.) Two of the people involved in the spoof wound up making actual skydives later that afternoon. We provided that footage (one of the tandems was shot by me) to MTV. Hopefully, they'll use it to show the fun side of actually getting to jump from planes in addition to the pranks they played on the unsuspecting wuffos. Boiling Points airs at 4:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. eastern time tomorrow. One of the MTV folks from the show said that'd be the time the skydiving bit aired. I'm sure they'll rerun the show ad nauseum in true MTV fasion over the weekends.

If you look at the toolbar you will likely see a selection that appears like a dotted-line box. Click and hold on this box and you'll see three other options. One of those options will be a pair of arrows. Use this if you want to move *everything* south of that on the timeline in one direction, forward or backward. If you'd rather be more selective and only move portions at one time (leaving, for example, a music track in place at the bottom), you can use that dotted line box tool as a lasso. And remember ctrl-z (undo) is the magic button for trying any new tool.