Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

[JohnMitchell 14]

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5 years of great times teaching and jumping and two less so, it's time to get a real life outside of skydiving and see more of the world while I still can.

You can do both, ya know.
BTW, Seattle's very nice this time of year, about 62 degrees right now.

[GeorgiaDon 340]

I hope you have a great time Andy. Check in from time to time and let us know how you're doing.

I'm jealous, actually. But, glad someone is getting to do it.

Don

_____________________________________
Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996)
“Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

[wolfriverjoe 1,340]

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Damn fancy way of sayin' ya got parole!

Safe travels friend.

Don't you mean finally got off paper?

Good luck Pops. If you're dumb enough to head north instead of south, I got a couch you're welcome to crash on for a couple nights.

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[livendive 8]

Congrats on your retirement Andy, or your break, or your change of scenery...whatever it turns out to be.
Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[Namowal 0]

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... see more of the world while I still can...

Have fun!

My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

[skydiverbry 0]

Take care and stay safe!!

Enjoy your travels and I wish you the best of luck in whatever you do


Bry

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Growing old is mandatory.Growing up is optional!!

D.S.#13(Dudeist Skdiver)

[LisaH 0]

Best wishes and safe travels.

Be yourself!
MooOOooOoo

[popsjumper 2]

You guys rock!

Thanks for all the good vibes, my friends.

One of the great things about skydiving is that it's so easy to make friends all over the country. See somebody in an airport with a rig or closing pin necklace and you have an instant beer partner.

This is a good thing all around...for all of us.

I do hope to see all you guys somewhere, sometime when you are least expecting it.



And always...pay it skyward.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[Divalent 89]

I was at the farm yesterday for first time in 2 weeks, and noticed your absence, and when I asked where you were and they said you departed to wander the world. Then I found this thread. I sorry that I won't be seeing you at that farm anymore: you were one of the fixtures that give it a sort of balance, and it won't be the same place with you gone.

And I want to thank your for all the help you have given me, and many other students / low timers; we will certainly miss you. You have given me so much (and for so little in return: a few 12 packs of coca cola!) More so than any other instructor, you forced me (and us) to think about things when questions were posed to you, and for that I thank you for helping me become a smarter skydiver.

For those of you that don't know Andy and his teaching style, if you asked him a question that you thought required just a simple answer (e.g., "what altitude should I go straight to reserve on an emergency exit?"), you never got a definitive answer. Instead, he'd engage you in a dialog, usually begun with one or more questions fired right back at cha (e.g., "What are the differences in a reserve and main that might be relevant to this situation? How might an AAD factor into your decision?"). In the course of the conversation, if you weren't aware of something relevant (e.g., mains open slower than reserves and/or reserves less likely to have a mal) then that would become the focus of the conversation (e.g., "what happens when you deploy your main, and what happens when you deploy your reserve?"). Maybe eventually he'd get to the bottom of your knowledge and explain something you didn't know (e.g., opening times for mains vs reserves) but only enough to return you back up to the next level. In the end, he often didn't give you an answer to your question, but left it up to you, knowing that you now had the knowledge base to figure it out. (But, he would tell you to rethink if you decided, say, that 700 ft might be a good cut off.)

IOW, for Andy it was much more important to understand what was needed to answer the question than knowing the answer. Because if you have the former, the latter should be easy to work out. And the knowledge needed to answer that question would be useful for addressing related but situationally different questions (e.g., "What altitude should I go straight to my reserve if I find myself low in terminal freefall?") Andy's was much better way to teach than either giving an authoritative answer (leads to no understanding other than a factoid), or a quick lecture on the topics with the answer (a more common teaching strategy, which is okay except there is no assurance the student really understands the factors at play).

As skydivers we operate with many "rules of thumb" (opening altitude, hard deck, emergency exit procedures, group breakoff altitudes, breakoff tracking times, exit separations, pattern directions, countless "dos" and "don'ts", etc) that anticipate and pre-decide what should be done in common situation (often when there would be no time to work out the solution from first principles), and although I suppose an instructor is producing a competent skydiver by just giving a brief lecture and then stating the rule, IMO they are producing better skydivers if they ensure their students understand the basis for those "rules of thumb". (It is a more time intensive method, and I understand that instructors have limited time during the day to deal with some questions, particularly from more advanced students where they are not really compensated.)

Andy, I will always consider myself your student. Although I will miss you, I wish you the best in your adventures.

[rolinrok 0]

Wow, really sorry to see you go Andy! I have two more friends ready to start AFF next weekend, and it looks like their FJC instructor will have some big shoes to fill.

Hopefully our paths will cross again. Good luck in your adventures and take care! STF won't be the same without you.