SpecialKaye

Hippie, You could be in New England with the foot of snow, as well. LOL!!! Guess you don't want to hear about our 75 degrees of sunshine? I love Florida! Hope you get home soon! K

Happy Good Friday Birthday!!! The year I was born was Holy Saturday...this year a friend of mine's is Holy Saturday...mine is in 11 days. We've got the best month to have a birthday and the BEST birthstone!!! Kaye

Derek, We all have choices! I would hope that my choices will save a life or two. Good luck breathing with your head in the sand. Kaye

I'm curious from the DZO/DZM's out there (and for that matter, other TM's) if they would work with these individuals. Scenario #1: DZO was advised via e-mail by the boyfriend of a student because of very "off the cuff" sexual remark and stated that he was not allowed to jump at one of her other DZ's any longer and he's "on probation" regarding this incident. The DZM heard the remark and didn't chastise the TM and kept it from the DZO until the e-mail came in. Scenario #2: It's a month later, he's been pulling low on tandems constantly and finally pulls so low that the Cypres fires. Here's the interesting part, the student looks up and recognizes that they have two canopies out. When he lands, the gear is inspected by me (a rigger), it's determined that the Cypres has, in fact, fired. He brags to the student that he just saved the guy's life...the poor student doesn't have a clue of how close he came to dying. The DZM keeps this information from the DZO and only advises of a reserve ride. The TM refuses to fill out an incident report because "there was no incident to the student, therefore, no incident", until Strong advises that they are aware of a reserve ride and REQUIRED an incident report be forwarded. There's a BS story given to Strong, and still never admitting to the Cypres firing. The DZM (rigger who repacked the reserve) never stated on the packing data card that the cypres fired or that the reserve was repacked after use. For that matter, the rig was "in service" for almost 2 weeks after out of date. Are these the caliber of individuals that you want to be working with? The DZO was advised of much more, rigging infraction issues, however, wishes to have this caliber of individuals at her DZ. I'm really curious of whether this is running rampant in the sport. Kaye

Better yet, call Mike at Altico 352-523-0052 and he'll let you know how long the mods will take and how much they will cost. Knowing the mods that will most likely need to be done, you're looking at $300-500 to be brought up to date. I own 3 Dolphins, am very happy with all of them and had the mods done to one by Mike relatively cheap several years ago. A rigger can do the mods, however, Mike does it all day every day and can do it much quicker and cleaner. Kaye

And those "packers" have the attitude that they have a right to be packing. The DZO's/DZM's post ads for "packers" which just encourages the attitude as well. The FAR changed a few years back to state specifically that anyone not certificated must be directly supervised by a certificated rigger.

Jason, The Easterpigs all still love you! Even if you are a mailbox killer....LOL! As always, looking forward to Bridge Day...and we appreciate what you do for the masses. Go have a drink, light a fire and hang out with your wife and munchkin. K

Thanks Phil & Jason for posting the articles.

wanna post the article so we all can see?

in case you haven't noticed...the weather kinda sucks out west these days...best weather is in florida! LOL!

I hope someday I can be such a "god" like you...NOT! You haven't a clue of what I've seen over the years. You're obviously full of yourself and think you have some right to blaze people when you don't agree. F*UCK OFF!

one of our easterpigs had 43 when he did his 1st base at NRGB BD97...he was also the youngest jumper that year...18

The people I'm talking about don't have small eliptical canopies...they have big, fat, clunky F111 7 cell canopies and are being taught to land with accuracy. Learning to fly backwards, fly in deep brakes and sink into where they want to be. NO RADICAL TURNS! They know how to do flat turns, fly with risers, land with risers...skills that most skydivers don't EVER learn. The mentors involved are some of the most experienced basejumpers in the world. Blue skies, Kaye

The same people that are bad mouthing the Racer would probably tell you not to buy a Dolphin...I own 3 of them. The main thing I've seen on the older Racers is the velcro on the riser covers and making sure it is in good shape. If the container fits you good, and is in good shape, don't fix what ain't broke. And, the RSL is an easy fix. Regarding the Raven4, jump, get comfortable with your canopy skills and keep it...you may need it later...demo jumps and big canopies...ummm fun! If you think you need another opinion, go to another DZ and have the rigger there give their opinion. You go to another doc when you're not sure, I'm positive of that. I got 3 opinions when I blew my ACL. Good luck, be safe and have fun! Kaye

I'd also like to add, I do not recommend entering base with no skydiving experience. I'm just saying that I've seen it done and work out safely. I also have recommended to several new base jumpers at BD to take the water if they didn't think they could handle the landing area. You can dry your gear out a whole lot sooner than that femur heals. When I started base, I was able to land proficiently and consistently in the peas. No, I didn't have 200 jumps, either.

I didn't say they WON'T kill themselves making low turns, I said most likely. I've seen some jumpers (skydivers) with 1000s of jumps and have no canopy skills and/or have killed themselves doing low turns and did know better. I've also seen several "static line base students" that had better skills than those skydivers with 1000s of jumps. More heads up, as well. Can land in someone's backyard, sure. One advantage I've seen the "base static line students" have, is they are by no means altimeter reliant, they use their eyes and judgment all the way. I've seen skydivers "forget" their altimeters on the ground and ride the plane down because they freaked out because they didn't have an altimeter. I've also been someone in the plane that's given up mine so they didn't ride the plane down.

My 1st question is why are they telling you that you need to buy the J7 container if the Racer is in "good/great shape"? Is your rigger/instructor trying to sell you the J7? It is no problem to either A. make an RSL to replace the missing one; or B. contact Jump Shack and have one shipped. The J7 is going to have the Sabre 230 swimming in the container when you downsize. I would not recommend buying a PD260 when you already have the Raven 4 for a main...both are F111 and don't have a long life. The Sabre 230 will have a much longer life expectancy. I guess it's my food for thought as a rigger. Kaye

The loop may be too long, however, a problem I have seen with many wings containers is that the rigs are actually sized small, which creates undue stress on the seams. A friend of mine's wings container had stitches popping. When he sold the rig, the guy who bought it put a Sabre 135, downsized from a 150 which fit perfectly...and the reserve was downsized to a PD143. Just make sure you watch the stitches at the bottom of the reserve container in the main pack tray and on the side seams. This seems to be where the stress is greatest. Also, an awful lot of "packers" with no rigging experience will tighten your closing loop tooooooo much, therefore creating additional undue stress on the seams. Please make sure you have a rigger look at this rather than "joe packer". They have nothing to lose and it's not their gear. Kaye

Do you jump there? If so, could you let him know to check here or pass the message on...thanks. Kaye

I met a guy at the potato bridge in 01 that was being taught base with no skydiving experience. He was being taught by way of static line...no freefalls on any of his base jumps until he had so many jumps. Then saw him at BD 02 and he had over 100 basejumps, still with no skydiving. He's very heads up and has great canopy skills. Yeah, it's possible to enter base with no skydiving. My attitude is: "all basejumpers can skydive, but not all skydivers can basejump". Maybe they can't skydive well, but they can save themselves. Most likely, they won't kill themselves with low turns, either. Blue skies, K

Hey Eric, Get in touch with Smitty (ep1@gte.net)...you never got your pig number. And you did earn it at BD! Later, K

who's the balloonist? where is it taking off from? has the balloon pilot flown jumpers before? is is the same guy that was going to do balloon jumps at lake wales before and kept "rescheduling"? thanks for the info. kaye

His name is Frank, otherwise known as Easterpig 7 ....I'll call him and tell him to take care of whatever he left behind. SpecialKaye...Easterpig13

My thought as well. Did you see the video?

Hey, Just saw the video on Fox News of Scott S. as the Human Slingshot. Great video!!! GoFast all over the place... I'd be interested in hearing who else was involved in this stunt. Congrats!