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Brent buddy, I'm thinking you could power a windmill all by yourself.

Announcing your intention to not engage is a form of engagement.

I find it interesting what you chose to bold, Phil. My take away was earlier in his response. “I don’t know much about that movement other than they like me” was the actually important part here. Qcumbers have been dying for a reporter to ask Trump “the question” as they call it; and now that they have, Trump - the supposed leader of the “white hats” - has said he didn’t know much about it. Trump’s support for it has been revealed - it’s not about a secret baby saving movement, it’s about a group that likes him a lot, so he likes them. Somebody play the “sad trombone” sound for Ron. It also reminds me of a joke I heard: A Qultist dies and goes to heaven... Upon meeting Jesus, he asks with glee who Q really was. Jesus takes a deep breath and says, "I've been expecting you to ask, but I'm only going to answer you once and then we move on... Q started as a random bunch of people pranking you online, which then was used by people in power for their own political purposes.... It's OK though, your life still had meaning..." The Qultist starts shaking his head and says, "I can't believe it... The Deep State really does go all the way to the top..."

I have bought a Cookie G4 and I'm looking for advice on a cutaway system for a Go Pro Hero 7 black. I used to jump a Cookie open face which had a cutaway on the chin strap and the Go Pro was fitted using the Cookie roller mount. I have since bought a cutaway system from Freefall Gear Store which uses the Cookie roller mount, but I've not fitted it to the helmet yet... There was a YouTube video on the website showing how to fit the system and how it operates. But they no longer sell this system and have replaced it with the following... https://freefallgearstore.com/product/cut-mount-g4-cutaway-system/ Cosmetically I prefer the system I've already bought which uses the Cookie roller mount. But functionality and safety is critical so I am wondering if I should exchange it for the newer version, assuming it's a better system ? I've also seen the VMAG system but was not so keen... http://vmag.dk/ Or is there another cutaway I should look at ?

Steve Bannon Charged With Fraud In ‘We Build The Wall’ Fundraising Scheme "Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and three others were charged with fraud by Manhattan prosecutors Thursday in connection with the “We Build The Wall” fundraising scheme, with the Department of Justice claiming that hundreds of thousands of donors were defrauded as a result, with the campaign raising over $25 million." Ho hum just more of the same trump type corruption, more draining the swamp.

This really should be Trump's campaign song:

Right wing extreme? It's a continuum I guess. Words like extreme get tossed around so much that they mean little other then "I strongly disagree with you and you are therefore an extremist". The dude you are likely talking about usually seems to want to hide his true beliefs, or at least evade answering questions about them. His game is mostly to ridicule the beliefs of others by attacking from the flank and then retreating. He pretty much never engages in honest debate. He does not want to be pinned down. It would not suit his style of coming in to aggravate people.

No, he’s by no means extreme right wing. Fortunately. mWhen pushed, lots of people get more and more defensive, and go to their comfort zones, intellectual, social, or whatever. Doesn’t mean don’t push ever, but sometimes constant pushing doesn’t soften as much as it hardens resistance. That makes it possibly more personally satisfying for the one doing the talking, but less effective in getting a point across. Wendy P.

I am indeed booked already for an AFF with 10 consolidation jumps in Spain at the end of November. Since there is no point rushing back to quarentine have booked a further 7 jumps to train FS1 and staying a few extra days to jump some more. I know Covid is still a concern but the case rate but I'll manage my risk accordingly. Oh yeah when I told my missus I was booking she asked me to book for her too

Hi Sky, Actually, anyone who read the link would know that. Hmmmm???????? Jerry Baumchen

That is it, from now on I am calling the Q-nicorns.

I am at the other end of the scale. I did a basic Freefall course starting on Static lines 36 years ago when I was in the Army. Operational postings meant I fell out of currency and didnt get to keep it up back then, although i dreamed of getting back into it. Fast forward 14 years and I decided to do it again. At that point I was 15kg over my height to weight ration for AFF training so it was a no go. I worked really hard to get the weight off but by the time I had kids were on the horizon and the financial pressures meant it was a no go. That brings me to now. Kids have left home, I am fit healthy and my height to weight is well under the limit, I have never been more ready. But I live in the UK and the agist rules here mean that you can not learn in the UK once you have reached your 55th birthday, which I have. What to do? Well if the dream is big enough the facts dont count so I have found a way to do the training elsewhere and I'll get my jumps in to gain the qualification for my A license overseas. Once I have done that I will cross the bridge of license award in the UK somehow. So my advice to the OP is it may be difficult, it may take some time, but dont lose sight of your dream and dont be disillusioned. Your time will come, and you cam find a way to make it come sooner.

I own a Freak 3 and a Colugo 4. They are both fantastic suits. The answer to your question is easy--for time the Culugo 4 will do better. It's a larger suit and it's based on the C-Race platform. The ATC2 is basically a stripped down version of the Freak 3 and the Culugo 4 is a stripped down version of the C-Race. However, the difference in time between the ATC2 and the Culugo 4 is not as much as you might think, and the difference is even less than the difference between the Freak 3 and C4. If you're pretty good and you know how to fly for time well, you might get an extra 30 seconds in a jump with the C4 vs the ATC2. Even the difference between something like a CR+ and a Freak 3 is not as large as you might think. I have done many time runs and I know exactly what I can get in a given suit that I fly regularly. In my CR+ I can get my average fall rate to about 31 MPH. 29.1 is my best. In my Freak 3, I can do 33-34 MPH. So in reality, there is only about a 3 MPH average vertical speed difference (about 30 seconds) between the CR+ and Freak 3 and those are two massively different suits. Also know the step up from the ATC2 to the C4 will be pretty big at first. The C4 is a powerful suit with quite a bit more surface area than the ATC2 and again it's based on a race platform so it's built for performance. The Freak 3 will be slightly easier to fly and pull in. Also, the C4 does not have backfly inlets. I still backfly mine and it can backfly okay, but you need to be fairly experienced and conformable to be able to do it and actually stay in formation. Overall, my personal recommendation would be the Freak as it's better for flying with other people, you can backfly it easily and you can still totally crank out close to a 4 min jump if you're good and know how to fly for time well. However, if you're truly dedicated for time only with zero care about anything else, the C4 will do slightly better and the C4 has a lot more flare power than the Freak 3. But the Corvid will do even better than the C4 will do for time at the cost of speed. The Corvid is a big suit. If time is your main goal something like a C4 would be good and then the next step would be the CR+ which is about as good as it's going to get. I've done a 5min 3 sec jump in my CR+ from 16.5k before.

I'd written about it here before but I can never find anything specific with the search function on this site. But that's okay as I'm sure I tell it better every time I take a swing at it. So here it goes again . . . It was in the 1980s and I was working at a DZ in San Diego. There were several jumpers on the DZ who wanted to make a balloon jump so a group of us arranged for one up in Riverside County. When we arrived 5:00 AM it was us and several other groups from Perris and Elsinore. The balloon was going to 5000-feet on each load and we'd all follow along in our vehicles as the wind pushed the balloon landings further south. The basket would carry three jumpers and the pilot and we are on the fifth or sixth load. When it was our turn the balloon pilot told us to hurry and get aboard as the winds were coming up and he still had three or four loads to go. On the load was myself, my then girlfriend Karen, and another jumper we'll call Manny, as he's still jumping today and I don't want to embarrass him. I had probably a thousand skydives, plus I was already making some B.A.S.E. jumps at that time, Karen had around 400 skydives, and Manny had just recently done his hundredth jump, and it was a first balloon jump for all three of us. We took off all giggly nervous and singing some Wizard of Oz song. At about 500-feet Manny mentioned the houses and terrain below us didn't look all that great for landing, but I said we'd be passed all that by the time we got to altitude. For gear we were all wearing state of the art stuff for the early-1980s. Wonderhog rigs (the forerunner to the Vector) with seven cell square mains and round reserves. And of course no one had an AAD (which were called AODs in those days.) In hindsight, and because I've made plenty of other balloon jumps since, I didn't realize how fast we were going up. Usually it's not really noticeable, but we could feel it in our knees and the pilot was continuously running the burner with only very short breaks in between. We didn’t have a chance for gear checks on the ground so I was doing them now. And I couldn't help notice Manny was getting visibly nervous. I suppose we all were, but you know as you get more experienced you can just hide it better. I'd previously practiced with Karen for her making a stable type B.A.S.E. launch as she was using this as a rehearsal for her very first B.A.S.E. jump. I hadn’t had a chance to work with Manny at all. And at about 1200-feet Manny dropped all pretence of being brave and said, "So how the fuck are we gonna do this?" I then made a very bad mistake considering what was about to happen. I told him, "Just sit up on the edge of the basket and push off. After about 8 to 10 seconds it will feel just like a normal skydive." "What's it gonna feel like before that?" he then asked way too seriously. So I tried to lighten him up with some humor and said, "It'll feel like falling down an elevator shaft." And everybody laughed except Manny. We figured out an exit order with ladies going first, then Manny, and me going last. By now we were making good progress toward a large open field and we could see the chase vehicles below snaking along the dirt roads trying to keep up. I mentioned the wind direction to everyone as being out of the north, "So keep that in mind for landing." But with the burner going full blast it was hard to talk and hear each other. (I've since always worn ear plugs on every balloon jump). Right then everything went south. I'd just looked at my altimeter and at the other one mounted in the balloon. That one was set to MSL and I was doing the math in my head. Mine said 1700-feet and pilot's said something like 3200-feet. I looked below us at the rolling hills and was about to mention something about it all when we all heard a most horrible sound. The top of a balloon, what we'd call a crown or an apex, balloonists oddly enough call the parachute. And it's actually held in place with Velcro, and there's a rope attached to it so on landing the pilot can rip it loose to spill air from the balloon. But the Velcro had let go on its own all the way around and we are all just staring up at it. The pilot grabbed his hand held radio and announced, "We've got an in-flight emergency!" Which, at the time, I thought was weird as was someone going to send us a ladder or something? We started coming down. I looked and could see my altimeter starting to unwind and feel it too. "You guys gotta get out right now," the pilot yelled. I told Karen to go now and without a word she just dove straight over the side of the basket did about five seconds and opened her main. She was tumbling when she deployed but she did wait until the business side of her rig was up. "Now you Manny!" But he was a mess. "I can't, I can't, you go, you go first, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!" I looked again and we were going through 1200-feet and picking up speed. "Manny, you gotta go right now or I'm gonna leave you here!" But now he's really freaking. And all the time the pilot is screaming, "Get out, get out, get out now!" I thought about trying to throw him out, but didn’t want to get into that fight, but my instinct as a jumpmaster was telling me not to leave him. I decided to do what you do on AFF when you and your student get low but you can’t get to them. You open in their line of sight and just hope they follow suit. "Follow me, Manny, you can do it!" And over I went as we were going through a grand. I delayed a bit and saddled out about 700-feet. I know some of you are wondering why we didn't all use our reserves, but in those days we didn't have snively mains, and you only used your reserve just before the light were about to go out. I looked up and could see the balloon above me and coming my way. I pulled down on the front risers trying to get out from underneath it as I knew, or hoped really, that Manny was coming. I looked down for a second to decide where to land and picked someone's back yard. I then looked back over my shoulder. The balloon was still a couple of hundred feet above me and all of a sudden I see Manny go over the side. He passes me in freefall at about 500-feet, on his back kicking and flailing. I watched him get way below me and I'm expecting the exploding dust ring any second. And I'm yelling, "Get something out, Manny!" But I later realized my bad advice was coming into play. Manny was waiting for it to start feeling like a skydive. At the last possible moment he did throw out a pilot chute, but it was his main, and he just made it. I only saw his canopy stay inflated for a very few seconds. Manny landed first, then me, and then Karen. And now here comes the balloon. The pilot, of course wasn't wearing a parachute, and he had the burner going full blast. The balloon envelope wasn't a complete streamer but it was very close. And it crashed into the ground with a wallop. We all ran over expecting the worst, but not only was the pilot alive, except for some bleeding from cuts and some big bruises, he was awake and talking. And I could hear sirens in the distance. I talked to the pilot a bit later, and when I asked him, he said thank god you guys were jumpers, as if it would have happened with wuffos onboard, like he usually takes up, the extra weight in the basket would have probably killed everyone. He also admitted he was over-temping the balloon with the burner, in order to get in all the loads before it got too windy to fly the balloon. And that's what made the Velcro let go. He also became a great believer in parachutes, and while I don't think he wore one when he had regular passengers on board, he purchased two pilot rigs that he and his wife used when they flew together, and he always wore one when he took jumpers up. And that's what happened over a field in Riverside County some 25 years ago . . . Enjoy your first balloon jump!!! NickD