ontour36

Very sad to hear of Vaughn's passing, way to young, couldn't have a better man in the the plane when things were marginal. Vale mate, Cookie

Not quite on topic but, As DZSO many years ago I watched a dude on an AFF Rating course with a line over cut two lines then land his main, was thinking WTF then rememered he'd been trying to sell a Hobbit main for a while and now had a 2nd rig. When he got back to the shed I dumped his reserve much to his displeasure and sure enough there was a "reserve"that had 300+ jumps as a main. He passed the next course a year later.

Vale Adam, loved working with you mate, one of the most enthusiastic and infectiously funny jumpers I've met. It's been a while since we last met but good memories come to the fore, glad we talked recently. BSBD Cookie

My !st was a Static line at Kakadu National Park, NT of Aus in 1981, Darwin PC came and trained 6 of us in return for a weekend of booze & fishing. All I remember of my 1st jump is landing a PC and standing in awe of what I'd just done and hearing the CI say"see if one of the 1st jumpers wants to fill the fun load" I put my hand up and was back in the C 206 10 minutes later. In the plane I felt the luv from the experienced jumpers and knew I'd found home. Cookie

Was involved in two seperate studies years ago and boths results found that a 1st jump S/L students heart rate peaked when emplaning, from memory about 165, when exiting about 160. Experienced jumpers were cool except for a sharp spike when pitching and waiting for opening.

If they survive the impact OK its the DZSO's temper that ignites first which invariably leads to fires being lit under the participants arse's if unfortuneatly death is a consequence cremation is the logical next step (open coffins not recommended) Catching on fire would be the least of there worries

It was the 1988 Katherine Rel Week that we did the 23 way, not a record as we had one guy go low early which was a shame as it was a smooth skydive. It was the biggest we did over 3 annual meets but the aim was media coverage rather than the record hence one attempt only. There was a nude accuracy meet every year just before Corowa nationals at the Mangalore Nudists colony and I'd guess the Nudist/Jumper organisor could be your record holder, ask Paul O for his name as Paul could also have the most Nudey's Both meets would get good coverage in Pix People and Post mag, but importantly in the Pre"Point Break" era it lured in and then educated TV media to the great footage that "new"video camera's produced. The year before was 6 guys & 6 girls doing 12 ways, eventually we asked why we boys had to be the 6 way base while girls docked on toes, eventually the reply came"ummm we just wanted to see who had an eye on us when we docked on their toe's".