🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan3.100855.889@zia.aoc.nrao.edu> dbriggs@zia.aoc.nrao.edu (Daniel Briggs) writes:

>>Mike's opening was reported as around 500'.
>
>  People don't often think
>of a camera as a new (potentially dangerous) addition to a dive but it
>really is.  Especially when it's a novelty, the camera can be a *big*
>distraction. 

Hi Dan!  
This incident should remind us to be responsible for our own
safety.  It's too easy to feel confident that when you're with a
high timer like McGowan, you don't have to watch your altimeter 
because he'll never let you down (no pun intended). I've never 
met Mike but I'll bet that as the senior jumper he feels pretty 
lousy about letting the dive go to its fatal conclusion. 

>...  I wonder how Mike got sucked down to 500'?  That sounds almost
>like an attempted save.  He's too good to have done that accidentally.
			  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ARGH! Don't even think that!  You might start believing it yourself
when _you_ get mega-jumps, and then......... :^(    Mike McG almost went
in himself!

>But if it's just a question of altitude awareness, I think the best thing
>that the cameraman can do is dump, getting across the idea that *now* is
>the time to deploy.

Absolutely correct, which is why (if all these facts are true) I think
McGowan lost track too. Guess we'll have to wait to find out what happened.

Very sad and a warning to us all.	

Robin King
king@glacier.stanford.edu

BTW, if I were mainly doing freestyle I'd get a Cypres AAD.  And
DEFINATELY a Dytter or two.