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I can follow that. The majority of the former POTUS's ramblings, OTOH, not so much.

Joe, it's one thing to answer him. But did you have to quote his post to do it?

I'm amazed that Brent's ISP can provide service so deeeeep in that rabbit hole. A Chinese provider would be cheaper if he just went a couple more feet.

For the gazillionth time, it's not about how well Harris or Biden are serving our country it's about how Trump is not mis-serving our country from the oval office. And really, if you were a true patriot who wanted Trump nowhere near the Whitehouse or Congress again you wouldn't be doing your damndest to tear them down for no other reason than you have an internet connection and are perpetually bored.

If trump is so wealthy why does he need to borrow cell phones?

Skydive Wichita got a sneak-preview of Cessnas' new Sky Courier jump-plane when they borrowed it for a half-day of testing on April 1. "It is super easy to load" reported Skydive Wichita's ground crew member Dick Shovinski. We just pre-load the pallets beside manifest. Straight out the door and into the pallet with zero chance of passengers wandering into propellers. Then the automated truck drives them down to the end of the taxiway and shoves the pallets into the plane. Integrated cargo tie-downs secure pallets to the airplane automatically. "I tried riding along for the first few loads, but got bored and spent the rest of the morning hooking up with a cute passenger who has big ..... " Tandem instructors report that strapping in is a no-brainer with the automatic securing system. "I only had one problem with one student who was busy taking selfies and got her foot (don't ask) entangled with a seat-belt. But we quickly sorted that out. I love the way the seat-belts completely retract out of the way before the door opens. The powered door is great too. Exits are a breeze with no handles for students to cling to. Even my worst, clingy student could not delay the exit when the pallet floor tilted. Yee! Hah! Out the door!" Shovinski reported that Sky Courier pallets are easy to clean. "We had one student lose her 3:00 am. pizza, but we just tilted the pallet and hosed it out. Nothing sticks to that Teflon lining!"

Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine continue with Ukrainian President Zelensky agreeing to several of Mr. Poutine's demands. "Sure we can agree to de-nazification. We even agree to bring in some ardent neo-nazis from America to confirm that those charged are "nazi enough" to deserve prosecution. In other news, Zelensky agreed to return all the Russian vehicles seized in Ukraine. "We are willing to write it off as a silly spring-break frollic by a handful of drunken Russian soldiers who slipped away from adult supervision during spring break. They can have their trucks back as soon as they pay parking fees." The Ukrainian Union of Tractor and Automobile Mechanics are busy repairing Russian trucks, tanks, mobile rocket launchers, etc. to allow Russian soldiers to drive their trucks, tanks, etc. home as soon as they pay for repairs. Ludmila Lastokovich - a county court clerk - has reported a record number of mechanics' liens filed in the county court house of Whatchamacallitski, a suburb of Keeve. Mr. Poutine agreed with President Zelensky that the whole miss-understanding was caused by a handful of drunken soldiers having too much fun during spring break. Mr. Poutine vowed to punish the mischievious lads who were responsible. He also insisted that they return to Russia with all their vehicles, equipment, etc. "If you are not driving your Russian-made army truck, don't bother coming home." A passport office in Kharkhov reports record numbers of Ukrainain young men requested replacements for their passports that were destroyed during recent fighting. Most of these lost passports belong to young men from the Russian-speaking, Eastern oblasts of Ukraine.

Ummmm... No The morgues overfilling wouldn't be the 'tragedy' part. The ice cream shortage would be.

Hmmm... So what would the downside be?

this is interesting, as it seems to be the norm at my small 182 dz in wv(safety culture). of course, our landing area is only about 300' wide and that includes the runway, and of course the prevailing wind direction comes straight off the river and blows over the tree line causing massive rotors most of the time and normally a cross wind landing. they say that when our students learn how to land here they can jump anywhere, since our whole landing area is the size of most d license areas on bigger dropzones. i also started jumping back when that cowboy attitude was prevalent. back before tandems were the norm and most folks came to do a static line jump. it doesn't seem to be that way any more, at least most of the time. it is perfectly normal for them to stop jumping completely when the winds pick up. most of us watch the treetops to determine when to stop jumping. i don't care how fast it blows, or which direction it is coming from, if the treetops are acting funky, it's time to take a break. i like that safety is a bigger part of jumping now than it was when i started, even though i never felt unsafe at all. i've been blessed with good instructors and folks at the dz who care about safety.

The best altimeter on the planet is... The Planet. It's always right there, it never needs batteries, and it never lies.

I guess it'll be a bit more trouble the next time you claim you aren't getting your facts from Fox News.

Interesting discussion. In the unlikely event that anyone doesn't know, Chuck Akers is President Of USPA (Captain Obvious, at your service). Kinda cool that someone at that level in the sport is participating in this. Something I didn't see (or missed) is the concept of "Safety Culture" at the DZ. Dan BC is big on this. He's written a lot of stuff about it, and it's worth reading. One reason behind 'safety culture' is that with the bigger DZs, and the dependence on tandems for revenue, having a DZ in the media for accidents isn't a good thing (yes, I know the stats that jumps go up after an accident). People who want to do tandems often ask about the accident rate. Even though we can (truthfully) say that the majority of accidents are experienced jumpers who make foolish mistakes or exhibit bad judgement, many of the students just want to hear that 'there haven't been any accidents here for a long time.' So the DZO has an incentive to promote a safety culture. Not all of them do, but the big DZ I (normally) jump at has a very strong attitude towards safety. Nobody gets ridiculed for pulling off a load when the wind picks up. Or for making any sort of 'conservative' decision. I don't know for sure, but that sort of attitude seems to be a lot more prevalent than the old 'cowboy' or 'daredevil' attitudes of the past.

Fixed it for you. But you would already know that, if you had bothered to read any of several links other people have posted. But then you might have to recognize that your attack on Biden is bullshit, and the lack of increased oil production is almost entirely investors putting their personal bottom line above the interests of the country. Don

There is also the fact that since skydiving is often seen as a little more tame these days many of the jumpers who want greater thrills, challenge, and risk will go onto BASE jumping. The BASE fatality list currently contains 423 entries, 238 of them in the ten year period of 2012 to 2021. Almost two dozen per year average. Nearly all of these people were also skydivers. At one time riskier behaviors happened at DZs and while not encouraged there was more tolerance. Now more people go to where there are few if any rules and everyone is even more individually able to decide on their own level of risk exposure.