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billbooth

Booth's Law #2

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"The safer skydiving gear becomes, the more chances skydivers will take, in order to keep the fatality rate constant."

Low hook turns, and high speed collisions on tiny canopies is just the latest example of this law in action. Without this new kind of risk taking, fatalities would be about half what they were 20 years ago.

The sky over most drop zones nowadays is like a busy intersection with no stop signs or traffic lights...for that matter, no rules at all. I just got back from Roger Nelson's funeral and I'm pissed. Too many good people have lost their lives recently because canopy pilots won't follow even the most basic traffic rules while landing their nylon airplanes.

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Bill,

Have you read any of the other threads on WL restricions for low time jumpers?

If so, what is your take on it?

Ron
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

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Very true, Sad, but true.

Maybe "nylon airplane" isn't the best term as extensive training, testing, and re-testing is required to fly an airplane. Any jackass with some free time on the weekend and some extra cash can buy and fly any parachute they please. Of course, if we had some sort of training requirements in place, similar to the pilots license maybe Booths Law #2 would be more like "You must comb your beard after each jump to prevent knotting".

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"Rules" usually come from fatalities...auto, airplane, or skydiving. Their purpose is to keep others from dying the same way. I would think that by now we have had quite enough canopy related fatalities for some firm rules to be in place. I'm glad to see the current trend to at least propose some common sense guildlines to stop the carnage. Now, if we can just get skydivers (who as a group hate rules) to obey them.

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true, when I first started skydiving, admittedly 3 months ago, I was suprised as hell at the lack of "rules" for air traffic. With firmer guidelines collisions would be less likely, no matter what the WL of the canopy pilot is. Im still shocked everytime I pull at 3.5k-3k (what everyone else pulls at my DZ for the most part) how crazy and hectic it is. Kinda scary in light of the recent canopy collisions. [:/]

---------------------------------------------
let my inspiration flow,
in token rhyme suggesting rhythm...

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Bill I could have sworn that Booths law #1 was:

Insted of getting married, just find a women you hate and buy her a house....In fact buy her your own house.

Ron
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

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One of the advantages to training at a small, Cessna DZ:

Maximum of 6 guys per load, all drop faster (FF), and pull lower than my rookie (RW) ass. Everybody flies a faster canopy than me (230 Sabre). I'm in no hurry to get to a busy, turbine DZ - until my canopy/traffic skills are more developed.

I'm not in a hurry to get on the ground, I like it up there :)

----------------=8^)----------------------
"I think that was the wrong tennis court."

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Maybe "nylon airplane" isn't the best term as extensive training, testing, and re-testing is required to fly an airplane.



It's true that it takes a lot more training to fly a plane, but you might be surprised that at uncontrolled airports there isn't always a whole lot more stopping planes from bumping into each other. I think what really helps is the fact that runways only have 2 directions. Parachutes land in every direction. On low wind days, many airports have preferred runways (usually for noise abatement or convenience), so there may be less confusion about what direction landings will be. Course most planes have radios. I think skydivers could use those... sometimes. But even so, I've seen planes attempt to land in opposite directions at the same time. I've seen the results of a plane that landed on top of another plane... 1/2 mile from the runway, in midair (they landed fine stuck together... happened again a couple years ago too). I once almost got hit by a B-25 as I turned final (coolest sight ever, by the way... passed a few hundred feet over top of me).

My point is that it's not necessarily training thats missing (in the case of canopy collisions). It's procedures too. Maybe dropzones need more than one traffic pattern. One for slow people like me and a totally different procedure for the hook turners. I mean a left hand hook turn is NOT the same as a left hand traffic pattern, right? I've been on final (under canopy) facing a hook turner on downwind at the same altitude. Scared me first when I though we were on a collision course at a couple hundred feet and scared me again when he suddently went into a diving turn (is it just me, or do they always look like they're gonna smack the ground when you watch from above?).

But anyway, I'm usually against adding rules to prevent stupidity. I'd rather see dropzones implement new procedures to keep stuff like that from happening. And just saying "make all turns to the left" isn't what I mean.

Dave

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One of the advantages to training at a small, Cessna DZ:

Maximum of 6 guys per load, all drop faster (FF), and pull lower than my rookie (RW) ass. Everybody flies a faster canopy than me (230 Sabre). I'm in no hurry to get to a busy, turbine DZ - until my canopy/traffic skills are more developed.

I'm not in a hurry to get on the ground, I like it up there :)



Don't get complacent. Two friends of mine died in a canopy collision at a DZ with an enormous landing area when only 10 were on the load.
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

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One of the advantages to training at a small, Cessna DZ:

Maximum of 6 guys per load, all drop faster (FF), and pull lower than my rookie (RW) ass. Everybody flies a faster canopy than me (230 Sabre). I'm in no hurry to get to a busy, turbine DZ - until my canopy/traffic skills are more developed.

I'm not in a hurry to get on the ground, I like it up there :)



Don't get complacent. Two friends of mine died in a canopy collision at a DZ with an enormous landing area when only 10 were on the load.




Amen to that. As soon as you begin to think you are safe or immune, the probability that you will be killed doing it goes up by a factor of 10 or more.

Complacency kills

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Actually, I have a few more laws, but I don't want to publish right now with the new Harry Potter book just out.



You could crush Hillary's sales, too!B|

Let me know when "Booth's Laws" are up on Amazon or in the gear stores.B|

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But anyway, I'm usually against adding rules to prevent stupidity. I'd rather see dropzones implement new procedures to keep stuff like that from happening. And just saying "make all turns to the left" isn't what I mean.



Isn't a new procedure actually a rule? You have to follow it if its a procedure right? What's the difference between a rule and a procedure?

Chris Schindler

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I'm definitely not complacent - just the opposite!

(I have a hard time relaxing):|

I just think that - with my jump numbers - I'm better off learning with half a dozen guys that I know in the air, than with 40 or 50 that I don't know.

----------------=8^)----------------------
"I think that was the wrong tennis court."

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I'm definitely not complacent - just the opposite!

(I have a hard time relaxing):|

I just think that - with my jump numbers - I'm better off learning with half a dozen guys that I know in the air, than with 40 or 50 that I don't know.



My point is that it can happen anywhere, all you need is 2 canopies. Being at a Cessna DZ doesn't immunize you.
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

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