BlindBrick

Does anyone have a photo or remember the N number from the "Uncle Sam" caravan that used to be at Skydive America-Pahokee during the Olav days? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Don't kid yourself. The guys most likely to be visited by the US gvoernment have been taking very careful notes about US COIN tactics and and been adjusting accordingly. There are some very organized, very sophisticated militas out there (I used to live not too far from a battalion-strength one that had a full ArCav squadron complete with rotary air support) and they focus a great deal of their efforts and resources thinking of ways to counter the big bad government scenario even to the point of figuring out ways to rapidly disseminate weapons counter measures info to the average joe in the hopes that if it does hit the fan, they can win over enough popular support to generate some partisan activity. Personally, if the governemnt is trying to defang internal threats against itself, instead of your average joe's guns, I'd be far more worried about the established militas that have the ability to deploy actual military heavy hardware vs the plethora of soft military targets within the borders of the US. They have no hope of actually winning a ptiched campaign, but it would be frighteningly easy for them to damage the support strucutre of the Us miltiary enough to comprimise its ability to deal with external threats in the short and mid-term time frames. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

In that case, really shouldn't the debate be about rotary wing aviation? Frankly, your average American has easy access to the tech to defeat/or at least survive JDAMS and both laser and mm-band hellfires, so I'd figure you'd mostly have to worry about dumb munitions like 70 mm ffar's. Gvien that the engagement would be on US soil collateral damage would be an even bigger issue which means that rotary aviation would be the choice because of the higher accuracy from the slower moving platform. In that case, the helicopter of choice would be the Apache and isn't it proofed vs 50 cal AP? Would it even know if it was beign fired on by a .308? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Why are you guys even debating AA weaps? No one is talking banning them and they are totally legal and arguably better protected under the 2nd than small arms. Buy your tax stamp for the launcher and then buy another for every round of ammo and your golden. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I transitioned from a Prodigy 1 to a SuperMach at about 25 jumps (after entering ws with the bare minimum suggested # of jumps), and with absolutely no disresepct to Tony or his suits, I wished I hadn't. My SuperMach is a wonderful suit but it absolutely demands that you are able to fly well before you ever strap it on. I wasn't a good flyer when I got the suit and being the only wingsuiter at a small dropzone, I didn't have anyone who could help me. Thus for the first 30 or so jumps I put on it, I would spend the first part of a jump flying in very tight circles as I fought with the suit over who was flying who. It was also unforgiving (when combined with my bad technique) at pull time and I had three chops from severe, irrecoverable linetwists in under 80 jumps on it. That suit scared me so bad I almost got out of the sport and to put it in perspective, I entered this sport as someone who had 20/80 vision in one eye and 20/140 in the other eye so I don't scare easily in the sky. Now that've I've got way more jumps on the suit, I love it. It's fast and, at my wingloading, wickedly agile. But I would never in a million years recommend it to someone with less than 80-100 ws jumps. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

The "Rigger" rating used to exist for that purpose but was done away with by the FAA which is why now the entry-level rigging rating is Sr. Rigger. -BB "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Skyeyes and I took jobs teaching K-1 in a rural school in bush Alaska. Our kids are really into weather and technology so we found a grant that will allow us to get them a internet-capable weather station, but we've hit a snag. The lowest-registering temp sensor we can find caps out at -55F and we know from locals that the temperatures here get below the -60F that their analog mercury thermometers will record. We've tried contacting the university and NOAA for assistance but they either did not respond or had no knowledge about anything outside of the ultra-expensive AWOS/Scientific grade of instruments. Can any of you guys/gals recommend a home or pro-am grade wx station that will both register below -60F and upload data to the internet? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

R-max's are f'ing awesome. All that structural reenforcement isn't just for looks. Mine has handled rough openings overloaded by 15% and lands well at 1.25. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I'm good. Someone resurrected a 9 year old thread. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Because we're using all our funds to get there and the school district we will be working for won't cut our first paychecks until late September. Setting aside the fact that the pre-winter hunting will be done by that time, there are no roads or FFL's where we are going. So I'd have to fly out to Fairbanks to buy a rifle so that automatically adds $750 to the cost of anything I'd purchase. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

N/A

I'm moving deep into the Alaskan bush and my father-in-law gave me a carbine to take with me. It's a bit of a mystery ship though. The SN and stock style identifies it has a 1901 or 1904 D.O.M. (depending on what sn source you use)but its' chambered in 44 mag. so obviously it's a conversion. I know at one time the gun was owned by a gunsmith and I'm trying to identify whether he used a kit or did the work himself so that I can decide if the weapon is safe to use with modern loads, specifically Hornady's Lever Evolution rounds. The only non-stock identifying marks on the weapon are ".44 MAG" unevenly stamped on the barrel and a "76" and a underscored numeral "8" stamped on a plate at the bottom of the receiver, just forward of the trigger. I appreciate any help you guys could give me. I need to make sure that this thing is safe with modern rounds because it will be what I'm using to feed my family, and there's no way I could afford the cost of the 320 mile air evac to Fairbanks if it blows up in my face. thanks, -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

As a former rancher I udnerstand the horseowners position. However, I'm curious about what the liability owuld be for both dz and farmer McNasty if due to McNasty's complaints, the dzo/m marked that field off limits and someone got killed trying to avoid landing in that field. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

If a perosn wishing to be a non-tandem jumper can't find the dz without the aid fo a dz, maybe this isn't the right sport for them. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Sorry for being a bit late to the conversation. I've seen a fair bit of webbing wear on some old, very rough handled Telesis I's but I've only seen two atually harness failures (albeit, I was at a small dz). The first was at one of the later Quincy's and a large jumper jumped an old rig where the thread had went rotten. Most of the stitching let go as the canopy opened. Jumper reported an unusually soft opening on a Sabre I, which we think is the only thing that saved his life. Second time was on my own rig when I, a very heavy jumper, was learning to fly wingsuits. I have an extremely high forward velocity and my slider doesn't function well during ws deployments, so I had some truely brutal openings before I learned to get the suit shut down before opening. After one hard-opening jump that damaged my ws, I thought to do an in-depth inspection on the rig. During that inspection, I noticed that the seam on one side of the left riser's 3 ring loop had opened up about 4/5th's of the way. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."