MikeD10834

Everyone, Many thanks for the responses and PM's, much appreciated.

There are those who would say that he's a lucky man. If you take a moment and think about it; from the time a guy hits puberty untill the day he dies, he's on the constant quest to get back into the warm, wet heaven from wince he came (or at least one just like it...) and it looks to me like 'Andy' is a 'head' of the rest of us.

Howdy... I'm looking for someone to change my chest strap from type 17 to type 8 webbing and my local rigger has no desire to do harness work. Can anyone out there recommend someone within a reasonable driving distance from Winston Salem NC? Any ideas as to what kind of costs would be associated with this? Any help would be appreciated and of course, TIA.

BTW....the name of the gal with 1 leg working at IHOP is Ilean The guy on the side of a hill? ...Cliff Swimming in a pool? ...Bob A gal with no arms/legs? ...Cunswaylow A dog with no arms and legs? ...Doesn't matter. Call him anything you want and he still isn't going to come to you. But, if you happen to have one, what would you do with him? ...Put him on a leash and take him for a drag.

what "shot"? ...whiskey? Seriously, they have a 'shot' to quit smoking?

No shit, there I was.... on the ground watching this unfold...thinking it was a couple of goofs trying to do RW after break-off. I remember seeing her slowly spiral down and thinking something wasn't right. As I recall, she hit a hanger or something which contributed to her injuries, and I'm pretty sure she was unconscious for the ride. I never met the guy, but there's no doubt she would have bounced if not for him.

I jumped "Georgia Box" at Jacksonville NAS back in Oct 90'. There was an airshow going on there with some sort of Boyscout anniversary or some such. I remember the F117 was there, under armed guards with the tail covered by a tarp. Anyway, it was a 60 way mass exit from 7500' and I managed to snivel my way on the jump at the last minute, thanks to my dad. He was already on the load, which made it easier... So anyway here I am, having a grand total of 8 jumps in the 3 years prior (the last jump 2 months prior to this jump), doing a demo on borrowed gear with a round reserve, no altimeter, no helmet, no water gear, an no fear. As I mentioned earlier, my dad was on the load. Since he only had 1 leg and there were so many jumpers, he sat at the back so to make exiting easier for him. To aid his endeavors, I always followed him; in the airplane, if he was landing out, whatever... He's the first out, I'm the second, and the plan was for me to pull when he does (since I wasn't wearing an altimeter). So here we are, cruising around over down town Jacksonville waiting for our time. I'm casually (read not holding onto anything) gazing straight down over downtown when we hit an air pocket and I suddenly find myself above the seat. It catches me totally off guard and I feel a sudden panic as I think I'm falling out of the plane. About the same time, I remember thinking that my dad fell out so I'll need to go after him... As I'm looking over, I see him barely on his seat, not hanging on, with his leg off the edge of the ramp. Thankfully, someone had caught him and he didn't fall out. If he did, I would've certainly gone out after him... An impromptu demo into downtown Jacksonville! Anyway, the jump went off as planned for the most part. Dad dumped at 4K to avoid the crowd of folks trying to land, which put me a bit high as well in uppers that were smok'n. I had a slammer opening and it took a few seconds to get my wits together. I was going downwind, towards the St. Johns river and downtown, and when I got turned into the wind towards the landing area (a grassy area between taxi ways) I was backing up. I did a couple of front riser turns and realized I was losing too much ground and wouldn't be able to get back if I kept it up, so I just hung on front risers (and hung, and hung, ...). I did make it back, but didn't have any altitude to play. I was last landing, so finding a spot was challenging. There was a spot in the corner I could make, but if I over shot it I would be landing on concrete and could hit the crowd. I nailed the landing as the National Anthem was playing; landed on 1 foot, dropped the toggles as I touched down so the canopy just kinda hovered there for a couple of secs, put my hand over my heart, and held it until the Anthem was finished. Although this post should probably be in that other thread Stupd things..., this is one of my most memorable jumps and was the last jump I ever had with my dad. Thanks for the memories!

A skyhook failure or installed improperly? What does Mur think?

...paraglider?

... a couple of french fries short of a happy meal!

simply put... when coding HTML for webpages, it's somewhat common for folks to link to the image they want even if the image resides on someone else's server. By coding the document to go to their server to load the image, your using their bandwidth (the amount of traffic their server sees) and it's costing them money.

Yep, that's me for what it's worth. What do I win?

I was a rigger in the Army, stationed at Ft. Bragg in the mid 80's. In a nutshell, I'd advise against becoming a military rigger just to be close to wonderful world of skydiving. Military rigging has very little to do with skydiving (99.9% of the time...). My duties were primarily focused on heavy drop loads (LAPES, CDS containers, etc). I even did a short stint packing rounds for the ground pounders (...pun intended!). The best part of my experience as a rigger was that it got me a temp duty assignment with the Knights, helping to get the try-out rigs ready. ...And of course, jumping for next to nothing with the various jump clubs at Bragg. Raeford is also just down the road... My advice would be to get into a field with more applicability towards a civilian career... tis kinda hard to parlay military rigging into a civilian job. Not that it can't be done, it's just a bitch is all. Hope this helps...

as requested...

Weegegirl, Where might one get a handful or two of these thingies, and what other flavors do they come in?

Fun = just about everything at the dz Happiness is getting hugs from my wifey and kids as I walk through the day after work...

There's bunches of stuff you could do... 1) remove the hd and apply sufficient force to physically destroy the drive itself (sledge hammers work nicely), 2) drop said hd in a bucket of muratic acid 3) run a program that repeatedly rewrites the drive over and over again 4) toss hd into the next bonfire at the dz... Additionally, instead of just dumping the computer, you could donate the computer so it could be refurbished (or vandalized for parts in other computers) that are given to schools, churches, or other worthy causes so that improvished kids have access to computers... If you choose to remove the hd, than that's easy enough to do and all you need is a screwdriver (prolly phillips head). Open the case and look for a ribbon cable approx 2" wide and really flat. There's a black or gray connector (usually at the end) that's plugged into a metal box that has no 'user interface' (which means you can't access it from outside the computer case, ie you can't put a disc in it). Pull out the ribbon cable, unplug the other wire connector (the power supply), remove the screws, and pull the hd out.

Alex, I caved last fall and returned to skydiving after a very short 16 yr hiatus. Everyone in our position has their own reasons why they left and why they returned. For me, it was simply a matter regret; I regretted giving up the sport to concentrate on school, family, career, etc.... and I just 'knew' that I would always regret NOT returning the only sport that I really loved.

here's another for the list.... Wayne

...umm, I hope I'm not asked to turn in my card for this, but did anybody bother to tell him about the 3 rings he's gonna get?

Matt, ...might help if you attached the pics.

Matt, Do you mean a step through harness -vs- B12 snaps? If so, I prefer the B12 sn aps because I look so 'uncool' trying to contort my fat arse into the step through flavor. It's purely a convienence thingy for me.

Nope, closest is in TN at Flyaway, which is a good tourist ride, but not the best freefall simulator. Next closest is in NH when it opens this Summer/Fall or Orlando*** ...Actually, there's a wind tunnel in western NC just off I-40. I don't know anything about it other than it's there, and can be found here as well:http://www.bodyflight.net/aac.html. I'm sure you can find out more about them on the windtunnel board though.

Well, granted it's been a while since I got tranquilized and tagged (read married), but as a 'giver', I recall it's usually much more advantageous to just go ahead and ask for directions than it is to fumble around in the dark. Not only does this do away with the whole learning curve thingy, but I tend to get invited back because of a 'job well done!'.

Doh.... I heard nothing mentioned about gear! What's your thoughts on that? ... and I'm not going to go anywhere near the 'why go into debt for training when you'll have more than enough opportunities to go into debt later for gear, boogies, camps, & beer'.