Luke

I'm planning to be there with my little Aussie mate, Ash, if we can figure out transportation from Eloy. Kevin's not going now, apparently. Anyone from AZ that would like to share the fuel bill and ~9hrs each way, please drop me a line to: Ron_Luke@hotmail.com

Mike's right and those email addresses look correct. I think it's traditional to send them a letter with a $5-10 donation detailing the dates and times of your four qualifying objects. They work on a voluntary basis. See http://tinyurl.com/n2mb

Found a promising link on a Brit BASE web site: http://www.annual-insurance.com/cgi-bin/affiliate.pl?affiliate=mbadvent&page=index.html Had a quick look through the policy and didn't find any reason to doubt they'll cover BASE. Thought that since you're already searching you wouldn't mind checking them out.

I've just checked my policy booklet and BASE is excluded, unless I've "paid the appropriate additional premium to include cover under the Hazardous Activities Extension as shown in the schedule". So I checked my schedule and it says "Hazardous Sports and Activities Extension: Included" Now even cynical me is thinking: I'm covered. I took my policy out on 13th March 2003 and the code on the back is D549 03/02. Anyway, if James or Craig or anyone else would like to borrow my policy book I'd be more than happy. Only thing is I'd want it back- sounds like it could be quite valuable.

Jason Bell has something on this topic on his web site: http://www.vertical-visions.com/24radiation.html There are much more in depth articles available as health and safety guidance for engineers, but the advice is pretty obvious: climb past emitters quickly- don't hang around by them and don't go in front of them. Sometimes the strength of emissions are so strong that engineers are advised to call for a complete shut down before accessing the A. The H & S article I read was from Motorola in the US and suggested that over there at least, clear signage is posted at the point of access. If you do a search on Motorola's site you should find the article I got my info. from.

Here, hold my beer and watch this...

It was one of the films in the Empuria film festival about a year ago. I don't remember if it won, or not. There are some pretty funny films. If you wanted to know more about it you could contact manifest. Tiffaine worked there for quite a while.

Probably not. I'm quite a quiet person on the ground and I usually do all my smiling in the air. I had a blue and white DaKine freefly suit and was either jumping with 2 very pretty girls or Ray and his ball. Thanks! I was thinking it could use more pink! I'd go with that, for a girl's rig. Damned nice it is anyway.

Guess you posted the contents of a PM because he was a kind of made up character that didn't really exist? Anyway, that was funny as fuck. Wonder if he was related to Nippleboy: http://www.skydive.co.za/Humour/NippleBoy.htm

Compared to you, many people might be considered introvert. I remember noticing a very happy looking girl at Eloy sometime back, wouldn't stop smiling. Kept a suspicious eye on her and she just didn't stop smiling all day long. Then at the end of the day she bought a case of beer because it was her first time there- double impressed.

Why? Is it what some might call spontaneous and unique? Looking forward to the rest of the boogie video...

Thank you for posting that video, I liked it a lot. I really wanted to come to the Christmas boogie, but the airfare was just too much. It was as much for one return ticket over Christmas as two tickets and a rental car cost in late November. Seeing all the pictures people have posted here was really nice too. Looks like everyone really enjoyed themselves. It seemed like a lot of the footage in the video was flat flying. Were there many dz.com freeflyers there? I've had to entertain myself over the holiday by watching video from my November trip. My favourite jumps were with a friend I hadn't seen in over a year. We had so much fun I still smile just watching the video. I've never put video on the net before, but I thought I'd give it a go: here is a link to the first three jumps me and Tim did: ftp://ftp.skydivingmovies.com/UPLOADS/Eloy Ron & Tim B-W.wmv The connection isn't fast enough (and my editing knowledge isn't good enough) for it to play from there, it needs copying to your computer with a right click and "save target as...", sorry. The idiot in blue and yellow that can't stop smiling is me, Tim is behind the camera but he's smiling like a fool throughout too! Ron

Hi Ben, guess California agrees with you? Drop me a line when you've got time: Ron_Luke@Hotmail.com Ron[email]

The poor girl broke her femur a couple of years ago on her 5th jump making a mistake that I've seen many students make, usually with less dramatic results. The silver lining (for me) is that she loves the sport and lets me get away with murder. Rather than giving me a hard time for spending too much time jumping, when I get home she pesters me to hand over my DV tapes. She'll sit there and watch 120 unedited jumps through choice.

Santy Klaws brought me close to bugger all worth mentioning, the bastard. The missus, on the other hand, was an absolute Angel. She isn't rich by anyone's definition, so it meant a great deal to me; I was speechless for several minutes. On careful reflection, I'd have to say it's the best present I've ever received, ever ever.

There are a couple of nice sand bars within easy reach and plenty of deep water. Getting back out looks like a pig but a couple of friends have done it. The two occasions I've stopped to look at it the winds have been nil too. It's a shame that CrazyT couldn't adapt his approach to the tone of this board because he asked some valid questions I'd like to hear the answers to.

Would you have anything to add to Dwain's analysis and explanation of backsurge on the vented Fox? Thanks, Ron

Once again, Jason gets "the money shot"

To me it sounds like the vented Fox simply exhibits different opening characteristics in terms of surge, which have been addressed by making the deep brakes setting slightly shallower. If the backsurge problem was inconsistent enough that the brake setting has to be made a lot shallower, so that normal forward surges are much greater than unvented canopies, then this is a real issue to this beginner. Is that what you're saying: that the vented Fox will typically surge more than an unvented canopy? I'm pretty keen on simplicity and keeping cash in my pocket too but, along with vented small and medium sized PCs, the multi looks and seems like a good logical idea. I'd be interested to hear any negative experiences with the multi in terms of potential problems and packing hassle. I'm not sure I want a fast flying canopy for a first BASE canopy, I think I'd prefer to get into trouble more slowly. Whilst taking shorter delays for the forseeable future, the additional altitude would make the inferior glide angle of a vented Fox more of a nonissue. I've concluded that as experience and longer delays come I'd simply work with the different flight characteristics and plan jumps accordingly. Everything you say about the superior responsiveness about the Ace seem to be inappropriate for a beginner. I like the idea of having a better range of flight, both glide and steep approach, but twitchy behaviour sounds less than ideal. Thank you for taking your time to voice your observations and share your knowledge. Ron

ABA Forum would do the trick. I've been mentally filing away odd snippets of information on gear selection for a couple of years and now that I want to start BASE I'd pretty much chosen a Fox Vtec with Multi as the "best" option for a beginner, but I had difficulty listing all the reasons why to myself. This changed when I saw D-dOg's post on the ABA board a couple of days ago. All the observations that he made struck a definite chord with stuff that I've picked up from other people or the BASE boards. The one negative aspect that I've heard about the vented Fox from a couple of people is that it can open too promptly on longer delays, but I'm ready to accept that appropriate packing could tame that a tad. I'd be interested to know if anyone disagrees with D-dOg's post, before I throw a considerable amount of money at a vented Fox, rather than a used Mojo. Cheers, Ron

Thanks for the pictures Tom. I really like the McCavey. The original links will load without any drama in Linux on Konqueror, Mozilla 1.0.1 and Nutscape 7.0. They wouldn't load in IE 6.0 on XP, but would in Nutscrape 7.0 on XP. Both the link and attachment from the post that I'm replying to worked, even on IE 6/XP, so maybe if you posted them using the same format everyone would be able to see them. The copyright JS doesn't work anyway, so why not chop it? Did you go on this expedition? It'd be great to hear more about it. Cheers again for the photos, Ron

Especially true on rounds. As a student I pulled at 4.5k instead of 2k and instead of landing at the dz the uppers had me backing up 4-5 miles away, over national grid power lines, a very busy fast road and a river.

Now *that* is an impressive job! I'd get the sack for consumption of any drugs at all, even legal prescription drugs that haven't been predeclared and checked by management. Respect, Dude!

That's an impressive job description! You're not a baggage handler, are you?

or this one: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2002430339,00.html