zoobrothertom

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Everything posted by zoobrothertom

  1. . And, IMHO, a much more natural throw than the half-twist back-hand throw required for ROL or BOC. Mark I have to agree with you there. It was a more natural throw. Considering the slightly longer velcroed bridle, it did leave a little more bridle to blow up between your arm and body. Not often, but it did happen. You just rotated out of it. On the upside, if you survived the belly band, a belly band forced you (well, not forced. you only had to wrap your hand a few times to decide it was the smart thing to do) to learn how to rotate slightly to your left side and twist your wrist to avoid a pilot chute in tow off your hand. This technique also cleared the burble on your back as well. When I switched to a ROL, I used the same left leaning knuckles forward outward twisting throw. The advantage, like a deploying a belly band, was that you could watch your pilot chute go to bridle stretch as you rotated back face to earth. The only hand wrap I ever had was a very, very lazy throw that took me until 1400 ft to clear from 2.5 Since I don't yet do head down. My only complaint about the BOC is that it takes longer to deploy. However, with today's slow opening canopies and higher pullers, it's not usually a problem. On the other hand, a low pull scare usually has the jumper doing the muscle memory pull. I figure it's about 70~100 feet slower than a leg strap memory muscle pull. Oh, remember Look, Reach, Pull? It's now Reach, Feel Around, Pull. A forward or rear leg strap and a belly band were (are) a single smooth motion at pull time even with a wrist twist. A BOC is a 2 motion pull like the old Racer pull out. But, I have to admit, a BOC probably has less hand wrap potential than the others. Any thoughts? ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  2. You missed an option. I've done an upward backsliding pull in a siutation like this. Arms out and cupping your shoulders gives an instant 5~6 feet vertical and pushes you far enough away so that your feet don't accidently kick someone as you swing under line stretch. Another key factor is what kind of main you're jumping. Jumping a Sabre? You could probably dump your main and get your hands on your handles. Jumping a hot rod and an AAD? You get to choose ..... Here's a good one. Back in '85, I was on a 16 way for a guys 1000th jump. The plan was for one person on his right leg to pull him out at 4k. So, nobody had an audible back then and no one was looking at their alti. We were just all watching the victim. Our designated "puller" forgot his assignment. Suddenly, someone's pilot chute accidently slipped out of his leg strap without warning and he was sucked out of the formation. Us remaining 14 co-conspirators all thought, "Hey! You pulled the wrong person you idiot!" Oh shit, we all suddenly realized we were in a rock stable 15 way going through 2300 feet! Woo Hoo, talk about nice tracking staggered pull openings in a very small cone of air space! I guess there are some advantages to F-111. The clap of thunder as 15 assholes puckered up could be heard for miles. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  3. Looks like a big "Johnson" to me. Anyone ever jump this plane? ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  4. To bad they weren't jumping into James Madison University. I did a demo at JMU in '85 during fraternity rush week with 82nd Demo team. JMU was an all girls univeristy until the mid 70's. It .... well, I'll save this one for the history and trivia forum someday. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  5. Ha, gotta love it! It's like trying to stand still. You're swaying and moving (albeit, very gently) to maintain balance. Skydiving is the same. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  6. Thanks, Nick. Like above, good post. Swooping a landing and actually flaring at the point you intend to hit are two different sytles of canopy control. Guys & Gals, jump a 7 cell before you HAVE to jump a 7 cell. Talk to the old timers and CRW Dogs about the difference. Then go out and do it. BTW, for GP learn to PLF. (If any of these abbreviations confuse you, just read the above and do it) ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  7. Glad to hear you weren't seriously injured! Also, wearing a wedding ring makes it hard to pick up the really cute tandem students! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  8. Damn, John. You're really wearing a lot of gray nowadaze! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  9. Hey John, Yep, that's it. Thanks ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  10. Definitely man! You gotta post your flailing exit! My first bomb bay exit was a B-25 over Corpus Christi, TX in '85. Nobody fucking tells you that bomb bay doors slam open and close slowly. So, I'm sitting on the ledge above the doors. My partner (Jay Upinghaus, I think) was strattling the bomb bay with his feet and had his hand gripping my chest strap. At about 12,500 feet, the pilot yells, "Door!" So, we wait with anticipation for that Hollywood style slow opening bomb bay door. Fuck NO!! Boom! Bam! We go from the 'relative' quiet of a B-25 to roaring slipstream at 120+ MPH in about .5 seconds! Jay freaked and lost his balance, but not his footing. He still had both feet firmly planted as he went back first through the bomb bay doors. Remember that little part about the chest strap (mine, that is)? As Jay jerked me off my seat above him, I had just enough time to pull into a cannon ball and follow him through the doors! We tumbled like hell until he let me go. The rest of the guys followed us out. Nice 4 way and CRW on the bottom end. The picture is from a later B-25 jump with most of the same crew. I couldn't find the other one. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  11. Dolly Parton, that's classic! In my military Daze, I had a water landing in Bermuda where my damn Mae West flotation device had a pinhole leak in it! You can give'm a blow job through the little tube, but it wasn't worth the effort. I somehow pulled my reserve getting out of my harness only to discover that I had a wimpy version of Dolly & Mae to hang on to. Then the damn reserve inflated in the water as I towed us back to the beach! I had to hold my harness by the collar and swim around to the reserve apex and snatch up the reserve bridle before it could sink (about the 3rd try) again. The longest 500 yards I ever swam. The bitch was, I landed closest to shore. That meant I was the last one to be picked up by the recovey boat. Hell, I was damn near dry by the time they pulled the boat up onto the beach! I tried to find a picture, but no luck. It's the basic OD Green rectangular package most of us used for water jumps. It's about 4"x8" and uses a lanyard with a CO2 cartridge to activate it. It inflates to 2 tits that you can put under your arm pit. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  12. You know, one of the reasons I bought a Swift reserve back then was its reputation for quick openings. But..., the more I think about it, the only thing I can recall is the story about some woman falling out of a DC-3 at about 300ft while dropping static lines for testing of some other canopy. Airspeed probably had a lot to do with it so I figured that pins cleared above that would probably open at terminal. Anyone else remember this? BTW, I did have about a 500+ foot sniveling subterminal opening on my Swift after a CRW wrap in '99. Cutaway at about 750ft and scared the shit out of myself watching the trees come up oh too quickly. Only enough time to unstow the brakes, do a flat flaring 180 and slide it in. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  13. Messing with the students is always fun! On an Otter load, 3 of us were first out. We put my girlfriend in the middle and did a mock AFF exit. She pretended to freeze and started screaming. My friend and I hoisted her up by her harness and threw her out the door screaming! The looks on the AFF and Tandoom students' faces were priceless!
  14. I had a t-shirt years ago that showed a skydiver with the legs of a bird sticking out of his mouth and feathers flying past his head that read "The next time a pigeon doesn't shit on your windshield, thank a skydiver!" ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  15. Another good intro, "This is no shit, but me and a buddy..." ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  16. I've had one that happens about once a year. I'm on the gournd watching a big way break off very low and people are bouncing around me as they throw out their pilot chutes. Not a fun one. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  17. When I was living in Europe and traveling around, I used the "international beer scale" as an indicator of overall prices in the country I was visiting. If beer was expensive, so was everything else! My favorite place to visit was Hungary. Before the USSR collapsed, beer in Hungary was 15 cents and a shot was 20 cents. With $10 you could party all night! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  18. My Fury 220 was 14 years and had 800 jumps on it before I lost it on an intentional cutaway. It had never been relined and I was still getting soft landings on no-wind days. But, as mentioned above, I was the original owner and took care to keep it out of the sun when I could and never left in in the truck during the summer. I doubt many F-111 canopies were as babied as mine! ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  19. Now I remember. I had heard about the drawing switch at some point. All of my swift reserve rides were after the modification and I had no problem with the landings. But, I think my couple of hundred jumps on a Strato Star helped. Flaring a small 5 cell is quit a bit different. Staged flares, for me anyway, will pound you in. You had to time it well and flare hard. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  20. Nice post ! I second the nomination for best post or top 10, at least. Six degrees of seperation comes to mind. In the skydiving community, it's probably more like 2~3. Kudos for being a cool TM! BSBD - Tom ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  21. Sleeves were not routinely attached to the canopies until the very late '50's. Until then they would just fly off at opening. The US team coaches of that era got tired of retrieving them and just started tying them to the apex. ----------------------------------------------------------- I wasn't too surprised based on the year. When I saw them seperate my first thought was "I wonder who finally got around to tying them off." ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  22. At 4:50 there is a very low pull with a sub 10 second parachute ride. Watch him open and then count until his chute deflates. Also, the pilot chute and sleeve/bag seperate at line stretch. There's also a 3 parachute ride by one guy in there. Probably not the first, but it's the earliest film I've seen of a cutaway(s). It's now in my collection. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  23. Does the new Centarus still have the handles above the chest strap like the old one? I had one back in the 80's and got rid of it because the handles were so high in the saddle. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!
  24. Except for that little problem in '86 when they were recalled to replace the leading edge, they were very reliable reserves. I have at least 4 reserve rides on it that I can remember. 177 square feet if I recall. Yep, the lines were flat and the brake set up was weird. There were extra brake lines inboard of the normal lines. When you released the brakes, the inside lines just went free and trailed behind you. Someone else jump in if I'm wrong. I think the extra inboard brake lines were to keep the tail down equally across the trailing edge except (maybe) in the very center. It allowed the center cell to achieve a higher pressurization first and a more stable on heading opening. Did I get that right? I jumped mine up until 2001 in my original mirage container that I bought new in '84. Got rid of the reserve, but the container is in the closet and serviceable! My first square was a Strato Star 190 sq. ft. 5 cell. I later had a Safety Star reserve at one point in one of my old wonderhogs. ____________________________________ I'm back in the USA!!