MikePelkey

Chris, Since I switched from Cingular to T-Mobile sometime in October or November I have not been able to make or receive calls in the vicinity of my work (where I spend 10 hours each work day, 4 days a week). Unfortunately this was not information I was privy to before we made the change. I wish you the best of luck. Mike In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

************************ BASE 66 is by far the best account of BASE jumping yet published. ************************ Except for the small issue of the nebulous reference to our '66 El Cap jump as having been made by "two guys from California", the book was excellent. (just kidding)

I made my first BASE jump twelve years before BASE began In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

I picked up a copy written in English from Jevto's booth on Saturday at Bridge Day 2005. Apparently everyone was more drunk than I was. That's a first. In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

Nick DG mentioned the sport of "Extreme Bowling", where the bowlers wear blue and red dyed spiked hair and full body tattoos and swear. That would scare the pants off me. In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

*************************** If you find that 100% of Parisians are openly hostile then i would suggest the problem lies with you. ian *************************** Very astute obversation Ian, but how then do you account for the 100% warm and friendly people of England? I'm the same in either country. In all fairness you do run into the occasional Parisian who will condescend to speak English and smile, but not often. In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

**************************** Cheers!- east france was my favorite option- base wise... i didnt realise that there were english speaking places in france. i knew the french could speak english quite well, but was under the impression that they chose not to.....guess i was wrong. **************************** I know that there is at least one jumpable tower in Paris, but they don't only refuse to speak English - they are openly hostile to anyone who doesn't speak French. Paris is a wonderful place to visit except for 100% of the people who live there. I was not aware of such a stark contrast between Paris and East France. I thought the whole country was hateful toward visitors. I guess I was wrong too. In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

*********************************** It's not a mis-quote, because that's pretty much what goes through my mind when I jump. And Bridge Day is already legal.... However, the media loves to extract certain parts of conversations and headline them. Sometimes, that's the price we pay for simply opening our mouths. *********************************** Yes, Jason. I guess you already explained it. This is pretty much what I was saying about the press. Now that I recall the journalist was supposed to submit the article to you in its entirety for your approval before he printed it. As I said, those bastards will leave their principles behind to entertain their readers. In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

We all know that Jason is a strong advocate of BASE jumping. The rest of the world has received the impression from one ambitious Life reporter that he and all BASE jumpers are a bunch of suicidal morons. I never believed for a second that Jason actually told the journalist in his interview that he was: "looking for where I'll impact if the chute doesn't open". The media prints what they think their readers want to hear. In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

No, I learned that 40 years ago. Next time it will be name, rank and serial number. Does anyone know who the jumper is? In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

My background is in electronics engineering. I can design and fabricate embedded processor computer controlled, electronic, electrical or electromechanical gadgets. I also have some experience in mechanical design engineering. I have been working as an automated machine design engineer, including mechanical and control system design for the past year or so. If anyone has an idea for a new whiz-bang electronic gadget, I can help. In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

...In fact, the only "BASE" jump in the 1900's was from the Statue of Liberty by Frederick Law. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once again I have gone and misstated the facts. Tom was kind enough to PM me with the following timeline of fixed object jumps in the 20th century. I should have done a little research before I made this erroneous post. Sorry about that. 1906 A British expatriate named Bobby Leach jumped from the Rainbow Bridge between Niagara Falls, Ontario and Niagara Falls, New York with a parachute in 1906, landing in the Niagara River. At that time the bridge was only about half the distance from the falls that it is now (original bridge was destroyed by ice in the '30's). Leach was a daredevil, twice swimming across the Whirlpool rapids as a stunt. He later jumped from a plane over Canada but was blown back and landed in New York. 1912 Frederick Laws jumped from the torch of the statue of liberty in February, 1912. A photo of the jump appeared in one of Phil Smith's Baseline mags. 1914 Stefan Banic, a Slovak inventor, constructed and tested a prototype of a parachute in Washington, D.C. by jumping from a 41-floor building and subsequently from an airplane. His patented parachute became standard equipment for U.S. pilots during World War I. 1917 Major Orde-Lees and Lieutenant A. E. Bowen made jumps from Tower Bridge on sunday, November 11, 1917 with Calthrop's 'Guardian Angel' s 150' into the Thames to attempt to convince the Air Admiralty to buy parachutes for their pilots. In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

I only have one "vintage" BASE jump to relate, but it does go back a few years. I'm sure a lot of you have already heard it, but I'll tell it here for those of you who haven't. The year was 1966. BASE jumping didn't have a name yet and there were no FJC instructors around, so we had to play it by ear. The square Ram-air parachute technology hadn't been invented yet, so we had to make do with the round state-of-the-art modified military parachutes which were widely used those days. The Cap had never been jumped. In fact, the only "BASE" jump in the 1900's was from the Statue of Liberty by Frederick Law. We were not aware of that jump at the time. Our mission was quite simple. We wanted to be the very first parachutists to conquer the Cap. The hike to the top was extremely arduous. Brian Schubert, Jim Cleary and I made the tiring trip to the top in approximately 8 1/2 hours. The gear was much heavier back then. We did our utmost to appear as backpackers in the event we might be seen by anyone in authority on the way up. We had no idea whether the park rangers would stop us if they happened to recognize that we were parachutists, but we didn't want to take any chances. When we reached the top we came to the most perfect launching pad we could ask for. It was as close to perfectly horizontal as it gets and hung out over the edge at least 6 to 8 feet. Jim Cleary was not there to jump. He was with us to do his best to record the event with a still camera. As I was finishing getting geared up (we both wore full jump suits, paratrooper boots, helmets, 28 foot TU-7 mains and 24 foot reserves), Brian beat me to the punch and exited without so much as a warning. I followed right behind him. We knew nothing about still air jumps and we both apparently exited in the same haphazard manner. Two hundred feet below me, to my amazement, Brian began executing a front loop. As I was wondering why he would be performing ariel maneuvers while he was still within ten feet or so of the face, I started my own unintentional front loop, perfectly identical to his. We had no reason to be real concerned about off-heading openings. That was one redeeming characteristic of the good old round parachute. They were made more to float you safely down to earth than to fly you where you might want to go. There was no chance of clearing the trees and making it all the way to the clearing so our only choice was to land on the rocky talus right below the face. Once open, the winds were incredibly erratic. At one point I was considerably higher in my open canopy than I was when I opened. I encountered some extreme updrafts and sidedrafts. The wind blew in every direction except directly away from the face. At one point, coming out of a tricky side draft, I made an unfortunate decision to turn my canopy around to face the mountain so I could see when I hit it and kick myself away. Striking the cliff fractured a bone in my ankle. I knew I would somehow have to be able to land on it at the bottom and I could be in trouble. Brian had worse problems. His canopy collapsed from the erratic winds as he rode the last 50 feet or so down the face of the mountain. Landing on the rocks below with a collapsed canopy cost him some very severe injuries to both his feet. I was very fortunate to end up landing like a feather with my broken ankle. We both spent some time in the hospital. I was released the same day but Brian was confined a bit longer with his injuries. We did, however, accomplish exactly what we came for. In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

It is virtually impossible for NVRAM chips to get corrupted because of wetness. The sequence to write or erase them is very complex and the possibility of writing or erasing them as a result of a random serial data sequence is infinitely lower than the possibility of an individual getting struck by lightning. Printed circuit boards are typically cleaned after assembly by a water bath. If you can get the internal circuitry clean and dry somehow it will probably work just fine. In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

Dwyer makes a portable hand-held wind meter that sells for $21. I used one for an air speed indicator mounted to a home built gyrocopter many years ago. I had nothing to compare it against for accuracy, but it seemed to work quite well. http://www.dwyer-inst.com In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

********************************** Did anyone get a photo of Mike Pelkey's Bridge Day jump? ********************************** Nick, Johnny Utah indicated that he will be sending me some stills of my jump along with the video he took on our two-way. I'll be happy to send them to you as soon as I receive them. There are also at least two pictures I will be getting from leisuresportsphotos.com as soon as I get off my butt and send for them. And thanks again for the fabulous dinner. -Mike In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

The dinner was great. Among all his other obvious talents Nick is a great cook and a terrific host. My wife, daughter and I had a wonderful evening. After dinner he put on some serious BASE jumping videos for us that scared me out of my socks with some incredibly low openings that looked to be about one or two seconds before imminent touchdown. Nick signed off my Bridge Day jump and autographed my logbook for me. I can put my logbook in moth balls now for posterity. Now that I'm officially current, I think it puts me in the position of having been a BASE jumper longer than anyone else on the planet. I'm not positive about that but I'm sure someone will be happy to correct me if it turns out that I'm mistaken. -Mike

_________________________________________ He's a great kid, and any parent would be blessed to call him "son." _________________________________________ Yes Rhonda, our son Brian was very appropriately named after our dear friend, Brian Schubert. We couldn't be more proud of him and his older sister Jacqui. We have definitely been blessed. In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

___________________________________________ I'd love to see Johnny's video of that jump if it survived his water landing. ___________________________________________ We recently resuscitated a DV tape that had been through a full wash in the washing machine. I'm sure Johnny's tape will be just fine. I'll send you a copy when he gets it to me. I'd also love to have a copy of Leah's footage if it turns out. I noticed in your profile that you're a computer engineer in Silicon Valley. We have a lot in common. Please send me an email sometime - mike@destiny.com Thanks, Mike In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

______________________________________________ It was a pleasure meeting you and hearing you talk about your experience. I do regret that I couldn't find you to autograph my picture. Could I mail it to you to sign and send back to me? ______________________________________________ Ankur, I don't recall any time in my life when people were asking me for my autograph. In fact, after my last BASE jump in 1966 a lot of people were asking for my head. Times sure have changed. I'll be delighted and honored to sign and send back your picture. Please send it to: Mike Pelkey 2105 Cutler St. Simi Valley CA 93065 FYI, my email address is: mike@destiny.com and cell phone: 805.813.1413 Mike In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

After nearly forty years since my last BASE jump, Bridge Day was as close to stepping into the future as it gets. In my day parachutes were used mainly to float you down to Mother Earth. They didn't fly like squares. It was an absolutely awesome experience for me. I have a debt of gratitude to almost everyone I met, but especially to Johnny Utah and Jean Boenish for their tireless personal attention to be sure that I was as up to speed as possible on the art of modern day BASE jumping before I took the plunge. My most sincere thanks to you all for the warm welcome back. In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

___________________________________________ I really enjoyed the talk from Mike and Brian. They about brought the room to tears with the pure life emotion they brought to the room. I even got them to sign my 100th jump and even my BASE patch! Definatley going in the BASE scrap book _________________________________________ Thanks LeRoy, I'm glad I forgot my drawn-out boring written speech at the cabin. Nick DG gave me a quick tutorial on making an impromptu speech just before I came up - thanks Nick. That, and a few too many drinks helped me get through it without bombing too bad. I was fully prepared to have a lot of tomatoes thrown at me however. In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny

Count me in In theory, there is no difference bretween theory and practice. In practice, however, there is. - "RIP Forever Brian Schubert. Always remembered, Never forgotten" - Leroy DB http://www.johnny