skypuppy

Interesting. I would like to know more about this, like where, when. Can you pm? For a moment I thought you were actually talking about Jan Davis. Olav also had some interesting jumps from what I hear.... If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

First BASE “Below, River rages. Behind Leeches press on (“Ninety Thousand celebrate Bridge Day” the newspapers would read.) To see These fearless youth Leap. Alone On the rail One cannot feel them – The gorge beneath (‘eight hundred and seventy-six feet from river to road” read the brochures) Occupies thought Above all. Tunnel vision Paralyzing thought A deep breath – Fear and fascination pushed away Suspend worry (“after all,” Kone had said, “it’s only another skydive.”) Leap…. Accelerate…. Exhilarate…. Steel girders rush by And then are gone The river sees all…. Seems all…. Is all…. Three seconds only THWACK! Colorful nylon explodes above The comforting caress of the harness against My thighs Steadies me. Fall arrested, Blood calms as Perspective returns. Steering for the target There’s time to notice the trees Colorful in their autumn foliage. Silent onlookers – so different from those above…. Not living on others’ adrenaline Hook it Over the white water And come to bear on the sandbar. Flaring – Just right – Tippy-toe standup. People cheer As you look up…. Ambulances Unused Line the shore. Above Another parachute Blossoming Gains their attention As you re-enter the crowd And look For a place to pack. If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

Endless Fall by Mike Swain.... order at www.endlessfall.net If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

I think part of the hard-opening thing was that you were wearing the reserve on your stomach, and you'd tend to bend backwards and touch your heels to your head on those openings. On Bill's jump he hooked both hands onto the canopy through risers going through the sleeves of his jumpsuit, so the opening forces were more normal.... If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

Like packerboy said, why aren't you talking to Don Grevelle or Fuzzy or Angus about this, instead of asking a bunch of 'Mericans? As for boogies, email TK at Z-hills, or any one of a number of large dzs in the Southern States that all have boogies at Xmas.... There's always the Canadian invasion at Eloy, John Smith or purplened or Lyall Waddell at Eden North could probably all give you information about that.... Edit to add "Not that there's anything wrong with 'Mericans, some of my best friends were/are 'Merican." If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

I don't know about down there but up here you can be charged with 'engaging in a prohibited activity while trespassing', or with 'mischief'. Still, when I was faced with that situation, I jumped. (Flew through the guy wires and landed right beside the cop, too.) Think I always would, it's safer then climbing down. And if I'm caught, hey, I'm caught. If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

Reissued as 'The Silken Canopy' by Airlife Publishing in the UK in 1997. Also check out "The Sky People" by Peter Hearn. If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

We get $32 per jump. The student pays $289 for the jump, more with video. If we pack it, we get another 10. all Canadian dollars. If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

I don't know, he didn't actually jump again, did he? They took him to hospital from the top of the bridge. I'd give him an honorable mention, maybe, for effort, but not the top award. If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

I think three times. Once for 30 days for doing rw with a jumper without a licence. I jumped the next weekend at a different dz, then there was an emergency meeting of the club and my grounding was overturned by the general membership. Once for 30 days for doing a two-way at terminal at 700 feet. We opened low. I didn't fight that one. Dz owner let us jump again after 2 1/2 weekends. Once for one day after a buddy and I broke a biside coming in downwind, at around 100 feet. I turned my strato-star immediately and landed fine into the wind. For some reason he waited to turn, then hooked too late and sprained an ankle. For some reason they grounded me. What really pissed me off is he said it was my fault too. As far as I'm concerned it was a mutual decision, and his injury was his fault for waiting to turn. We both had to turn exactly the same number of degrees to land into the wind. I don't think I've talked to him since. If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

afraid my internet savviness is limited -- only just got a dvd player. Perhaps another Canadian more astute than I.... If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

Round, round we go By a Canadian Band, Trooper Oooooh, darlin' darlin' It's your style to change your mind But darlin' darlin' Each time you do I rearrange to suit you In and out Round and round again Oooooh, darlin' darlin' Life was all glitter Everything just a game But darlin' darlin' Now you're so bitter Everything's pouring rain In and out On and on and you're Turning me upside down Turning me inside out And I feel My head is spinning round Round, round we go (round, round we go) Oooooh, darlin' darlin' Each day's a new day A change in the weather But darlin' darlin' Each mood is a new one Nothing remains the same In and out On and on and you're Turning me upside down Turning me inside out And I feel My head is spinning round Round, round we go (round, round we go) Lyrics By: Frank Ludwig, Music By: Frank Ludwig Copyright: Ludwig © 1978 Survivor Music If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

As far as I know, this has actually happened in Washington, involving Ebay and a much lower bridge a few miles from where the poor jumper should have been. I'm sure somebody can fill us in... But I agree; the main reason for not naming names is in my opinion to prevent jumpers going there without the required background knowledge (access guidelines, best times to jump it, potential dangers). _________________________________________________ That could lead you to think it just might be a good idea to lean over the rail and look down before you jump.... If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

You don't worry about any slack in the bridle getting caught on something, or drab from the bridle popping the pin(s) before the subsequent toss by the catcher? If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

Yes -- that putting an 11 year old child out on his first-ever skydive with no static line or IAD, no instructor exiting with him, and no AAD, amounts to negligent homicide, no matter where it happens. Might as well have dropped him off a bridge in front of a moving truck for all the g**d*** difference it makes. IMHO Every single person directly involved in that completely avoidable tragedy should have gone to jail._____________________________________________ Actually, I don';t think age necessarily has anything to do with, we don't know if he couldn't pull the r/c or just didn't. Obviously an aad might have made a difference. I know several people who did 5-10 second delays on their first jumps from 3000 feet or less. It was a long time ago, but it was common and IT WAS DOABLE. Is it the best way? I guess not. But it is not certain death. In this case something went wrong and an aad MIGHT have made a difference. If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

Uh, I odn't think those towers are high enuf, Tom. If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

I guess if they had pics it wouldn;t fool anyone anymore. If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

Rhonda Where did you get the skydiving stat? I think that's what Bill Booth quotes in his OLD tandem waiver video, but I thought it had actually decreased to more like one in 80,000 over the last few years. If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

You spelled "hilarious" wrong. I think it's a play on words -- you know, a steep hill is a cliff. If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

I'd rather have people say what they saw..Without editing. __________________________________________________ Ditto. I think I like this guy. Sure we might not know if the aad MISFIRED, but we should know if there were eyewitness reports, that it FIRED. All we're asking for is the physical facts which were observed, not an analysis of what the guy was thinking, or what someone thought he should have done. Tell us your best observations, and we'll all try to figure what we would do in the same situation. If nothing else, it makes people think about what CAN go wrong, and some of the ways they can or should deal with it. If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

For all the talk some jumpers make about "my odds are 50/50 on every jump", I respectfully suggest that those individuals have no idea what 50/50 odds would feel like. 5%, as it turns out, is enough for me to seriously consider turning back. So we're still arguing about this. are we? What you know nowadays came from what other people were doing 20 years ago. 2005, hmmmm, 1985..... different eras. If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

The problem with this type of attitude is that invariably when you put off discussion of an incident, no report ever comes out. For example, what ever was decided about the tandem fatality on Guam last year? Or the tandem fatality in Hawaii? I haven;t seen anything. The only ones where we actually get final reports are often when the police instigate a criminal investigation, like in the suicide in England a couple of years ago. Otherwise, they fall off the radar and no one ever learns anything from it. Merely by TALKING about it, we learn a lot. _________________________________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------ There's a difference between trying to hush something up, and a number of people, all of whom know they only have part of the picture, trying to make sure they all saw what they thought they saw. ___________________________ And of course the reason the police like to separate witnesses until they can interview them is precisely to stop them from allowing what they saw to become what 'they thought they saw' after talking to all the others on the dive. If they wait more than a day or two they're very likely to start remembering "Oh, yeah, I guess it wasn't 2200, it must have been 1800...' and all sorts of other details could be changed. I'D REALLY LOVE TO SEE IT WHEN THE FINAL REPORT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT DOES GET POSTED. I've never seen one yet, why do all these people keep saying to 'wait for the report'? We should be discussing the incident when it happens. If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

I'm just guessing, but I think in the 80's, like when I did my first in 84, the numbers of first-timers might have been higher.... Rob If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

I think the biggest thing, and the biggest relief to me when I did quite a few AFF jumps, was knowing I had personally trained the guy on the ground, and I WAS CONFIDENT IF HE HAD TO HE WOULD PULL. It is my responsibility to see he lands safely, no matter who dumps for him. So I like the idea that if I got hit on the head on exit, or something else happened, he would know how to react and save himself. That said, I would be following him down if he went low, If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone