tkhayes

Does he feel that his famous jump actually furthered some scientific purpose? Or was it just something really cool to do? I guess I am wondering what good came of it. Not that I am digging, it was one of the coolest things I have even heard of, and he is my hero too, but I wonder what his views are on it, then and now. TK

Which is no big deal, lots of people do. I have been doing it for years. I donate Platelets (Apheresis) every two weeks, which takes about 3 hours in the morning. But today was my 300th donation - so I think I will toot my own horn a bit..... TK

that is the part that is not entirely clear. 'part' of the system may not invalidate or validate anything. If an accident happens, the FAA inspectors may be out, and they are judge, jury and executioner, all wrapped into one. Since they do not care much about you, they go after the pilot when you violate an FAR, and even if you are right, it could cost the pilot a lot of time and money defending himself or herself against said allegations of wrongdoing. So here's the simple rule, - when in Rome, do as the Romans. If you have any US Made container or reserve, then repack it in the US to US specs and there is no issue. Hopefully in March of 2008, the FAA will change this rule and all this will be moot. But it is not up to the DZ to decide at this point - we care because in the USA, it is FEDERAL law, not like Canada, where it is just a CSPA rule, which has no law-making abilities. TK

I am not 'quick' to point out anything. And I resent being told I am ignorant. Your original story was from CNN. How accurate is that? fact is, neither me nor you know what is happening in Venezuela. And my point is that it is THEIR business, not ours. I will die in hell before I trust ANYTHING verbatim what comes out of our government's mouth after the lies and complete shit that got us into Iraq. Again, it is THEIR business, not ours. We do not NEED Venezuela, nor should we care much about what happens there. It is and has been the asshole of the Caribbean for decades now, long before Chavez got there - and the only reason we are involved at all is not for the dictator, nor the people, democracy, free speech or any of that crap, it is because of oil.

what if the 'fascist dictator' is feeding the poor, educating the masses, providing housing and health care? Mother Teresa, if she were a fascist dictator with totalitarian control over all, would probably be far better than Mussolini. (or Chavez) I see Chavez as 'not playing the game' with the big companies and the USA. I do not see him yet torturing and murdering his own people. He is still pretty popular. Ever wonder why? And yes, if a govt nationalizes the companies and takes away everything - but gives it back to his country and countrymen, then I see the only whining coming from the people at the top - the multi-million dollar CEO's and BoD's, and the politician's that are funded by said CEO's and BoD's After all, nationalization, communism etc all work in their perfect form. Trouble is that they are seldom in perfect form. When Russia turned Communist, it was probably the right time for that society. It worked for a while, but never worked perfectly, and eventually, a new time came when it fell apart. What version will Chavez come up with? I have no idea. Will it work? I have no idea. Is it good or bad? I have no idea. But it is their decision to make. And we should stay the fuck out of it. TK

Venezuela owns the oil? But all the profits go to large foreign corporations? Chavez wants to change that....which makes him the poor man's hero. Hence he got elected and now he is changing it. Of course he can 'cross the line' into a fascist dictator too, but what I have seen so far does not constitute that, it only aggarvates those big foreign govt's and companies who want to take it all and keep it all. Why does Saudi Arabia have no taxes, free health and education and everyone who picks up garbage and mops floors is a foreigner? Chavez and the Venz. people want the same thing - can they do it? Not overnight and probably not without a civil war or other politicla turmoil. People like Pat Robertson calling for Chavez to be assassinated is just another example of us sticking our noses in where they do not belong. Stay the fuck out of and away from Venezuela - it is their country and they can fuck it up or make it work if they want to. TK

call the dropzone 813-783-9399 or 800-888-JUMP to set it up, about $50-$60 Tampa to DZ or hotel, whatever

I built a Tesla coil when I was in high school - what a geek I was. It was about 3' tall, took 2000-2500 wraps of fine wire to make the secondary coil. I found an old neon sign transformer, built a capacitor from ordinary glass, about 18" Square and mounted everything on a 3'x3' sheet of plywood. When I lit it up in the basement, it arc'd to everything, water pipes, electrical boxes, - mostly other components. and made the most amazing noise. I had to eventually break it up into separate components, so I could place them farther apart to prevent the arcing. It would light up a fluorescent tube from 8 feet away and knock out all the televisions and radios for about 3 houses around us. Load of fun - always wanted to build another one - but they really have no use other than cool effects. I ended up donating it to Mr. Deichman at our high school to use in physics class. TK

Mar 8 at SWOOP, 1992 or 93 perhaps. 8 PFF students in the ground school and they all wanted to jump that day. -20C at altitude, 1 foot snow on the ground and I think Jay Conkey and me got 6 or 7 of them in the air that day, one at a time. Michelen man, definitely....... If I had a mal, I probably would not have been able to do much with the ski gloves on

are you using factory magazine or aftermarket? I had a lot of trouble with almost all magazines other than the origianl ruger's. if not, next step is to change the ammo

Cypres just arrived with cool goodies for us - Helicopter will be here Fri-Sun lots of airplanes and organizers. see you there

I wasn't afraid to say it, as a matter of fact I said it. And I said it just fine - clear and concise what my message is/was. What's your opinion on abortion? How about abortion on Tuesdays? How about abortion for minorities? About abortion in hospitals versus clinics? Abortion with or without the use of sterile tools? not much point in hashing it out since we we and always have disagreed.

I thought it was originally written by Elton Motello?

I think I stated my case just fine, thank you and I will not rehash all the arguments you suppose. we disagree.

I think I stated my case just fine, thank you and I will not rehash all the arguments you suppose. As you said - we disagree.

no real impairment, and it in not really a cage, but C5-C7 are fused with hip bone. 3 plates and 12 screws. definitely changes your life. I was pretty lucky with the surgeons and the care I received. Especially the big gay nurse named 'Ned', who i always thank - they really gave a hoot about the care int eh Neurosurgery unit at Tampa General. They see it every day and I bet they understand the impact to peoples lives.

'taken away'? probably not, taking away anything from someone is always a tough call for governments, especially in a free country. What disturbs me is that in this 'great country', people feel that they have a need to carry a handgun to feel safe - and yet they think their country is so perfect. If the country was so frigging' perfect and took care of its own citizens, then the need for handguns likely would not be there. you guys claims rights, but do not get to the source of the problem - why do you need a gun to feel safe? sure in a perfect world, everyone carrying a gun, who was trained, conscious, mentally sound, capable and ready to use that firearm when and only when the need arises, then great - what a perfect world. but that is not the case. too many innocent people killed by too many guns. You need to protect yourself from that - I see a better picture - because I have lived it for a large part of my life. and I am no worse off than you so would I pass a law to ban all guns? No. Would I require extremely stringent requirements to own one? Probably. Look what I have to do to fly a frigging airplane. Am I am a very small risk to the community. But in 3 hours on a Saturday, I can get a piece of paper that says I can carry a hand cannon in my belt. something wrong with that sir. TK

I have stated that there are GUN PROBLEMS in the USA, and that everyone armed is not a good idea. responsible gun ownership is a different thing altogether. I have not (that I can find) stated anything against gun ownership, but plenty against HANDGUN ownership. Too many of them, too many owned by idiots and zealots, and that my ideology is that if there were no handguns, then no one could be killed by a handgun. I have also stated that gun ownership, registration and ONGOING training might be a good idea, but was often shot down by the 'constitutional zealots' who state it is their RIGHT to own whatever the hell they want, which is obvious to most with an education, not the intention of the writers of that piece of paper. Nationality should not enter into it, but a nice try anyway. I am a naturalized US Citizen now. I still think the USA has a GUN PROBLEM. my 8 shotguns, 5-6 rifles are locked away in a safe, unloaded, and secure. no one will ever get to them 'accidentally' and hurt themselves or others. No one in my house will ever get into a fight, pull out a gun and do something stupid with it. No one will break into my house and steal my guns, and most of all, I really doubt ANYTHING will ever happen in my life where I will need a gun to defend myself, because I am smart enough to stay away from those situations, as naive as that might be. And even if that thought is naive, the sheer ODDS, of anything like that are so slim that I am not interested in being paranoid enough to arm myself for that slim slim chance. thanks for dragging me into it anyway. I have been shooting since I could hold a gun, .22 cal since I was 6, shot my first 30-06 when I was 8, have EXTENSIVE trap shooting experience and reloading of many types of shotgun and rifle ammo. I owned a 9mm handgun (in Canada) for a while, and I turned it into the cops, as I had no need for it. I used to big game hunt every year, ducks, grouse, and other birds. Please do not underestimate my experience with weapons, I have plenty, hence why I talk the talk and walk the walk. The USA has a GUN PROBLEM. TK

when did I say I did not like guns? I own 13 or 15 pieces. Have not shot in ages. I have an issue with Americans who say there is 'no gun problem'. there fore I believe there IS a gun problem, for which I will not get into that debate again as it has been flogged endlessly with no result on either side. I do not own any handguns - I have no use for them,

absolutely can happen and I have seen it first hand, both a 30-30 rifle and a shotgun. even a few drops of water in a barrel could cause a barrel to crack. shotguns come apart easily since the barrels are so thin. rifles are tougher to break, sometimes the barrel fails - but in a lot of older weapons, the bolt would fail instead, usually firing shrapnel in and about your face/head. But they still fail - it's just a piece of steel with thousands of PSI pressure in it. go stuff your 30-06 with mud and pull the trigger - go ahead....I dare you.... TK

attaboy - let's spread MORE hatred around the world - that outta solve ALL Our problems.... Hopefully my vote negates yours in the next election

Actually, an informal poll of gay men says that 63% prefer Skydive City's bathrooms over Skydive Deland's.....

so I think 'giant child seats' for adults sound like a good idea....

I had mixed results - the one I bought said 'network attached' which it was, but it used the HTTP protocol, which limited file transfer sizes to 2GB or something stupid like that. Which pretty much made it useless for backup since almost every video file is larger than that and it would just hangup and the application would die. Eventually I sold it, but I still want and need one - now i do not know what I am looking for to overcome the stupid limitation. Of course the box or product info did not say "BTW, you cannot transfer greater than a 2GB file on this..." TK

there are too many questions to generalize here. what kind of canopy - what shape is it in? What kind of flare have you been taught? What sort of winds are you normally landing it. Elevation of DZ? First, read the two recent articles here on dz.com from Brian Germain and Scott Miller about no-wind landings. Talk your instructor, sure, but if your instructor is not that good at reaching landings (and many are not), then find a second opinion. It is also possible that if you are jumping a baffed-out F-111 canopy with 1000 jumps on it, that you are simply not going to stand anything up. as I said, too many questions. I am working on an article I will call the 'Perfect Practice Flare' (although 'perfect' may not be the right term) targeted to students and intermediates to improve their flare and landings based on what they feel in their belly when they flare (lift) and some exercises to practice it. I can teach it and it appears to work in practice, however, I have yet to write it down. TK Hayes