Leaderboard

December 2nd will be the 60th anniversary of the first of my 2000+ jumps. Like anyone in this sport I had my share of misadventures and was recently encouraged to chronicle them. I just completed Bad Decisions Make Great Stories and it appeared on Amazon yesterday in paperback. Skydiving is the focus of the book but my misadventures in ski racing, snowboard racing, unicycling, sailing, flying etc are featured as well. The Kindle version is forthcoming. If you got into the sport in the sixties or seventies, you'll be able to relate. Pat Moore D-1814

That question is unanswerable without knowing party affiliation.

I can feel your inner confusions. The evangelical commandments may help: Soon another false idol will be waived of all present, past and future sins. Ron DeSanctimonous will become the chosen one and he has already claimed divine status.

Announcement from Bruce Smith: Big News - I'm Retiring Yup, after CC22 next week I will officially retire as Mayor of Cooperville. I want to live a simpler life and one more closely connected to nature. My reasons for coming to Washington 32 years ago have concluded, so I will be leaving the Evergreen State and going into the big unknown. Some destinations are known in the short term. On November 22 I will be returning to NY to finish closing out my mother's house and selling it. Closing on the house is expected to take place around February 1, 2023, and at that point I will slide into my pick-up and drive to Key West to go for a swim in the warmest ocean water I can find. I'm also thinking of parking in long-term at Miami International and heading to Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands for a week or two. After that, I will head back to Eatonville to finish cleaning-out all my stuff from my rental RV on a buddy's six acres. After that, I don't know - the desert? French Polynesia? Santa Fe? Buy a boat and sail the ocean blue? As a result of these life changes, I will be traveling light - very light. Hence, I cannot and will not take my Cooper stuff with me. I have 14 years worth of notes, interviews, and investigations. Do any of you want it? Also, I will be giving away all the Cooper references materials and books I have accumulated since 2008. You want any? Galen has got dibs on my copy of Himms' NORJAK, GG's Skyjack, and HAHAHA. Other than that, it's all up for grabs and I'll be bringing it down to Vancouver next week. First come, first serve. Lastly, I will always continue to answer questions from those who call, chat on podcasts, and sell my books - DB Cooper and the FBI, 3rd Edition. So, adios my friends. Love you all.

That's some outstanding quality footage.

So you're a skydiver, airport owner, and a motherfucker? And here I thought it was just me.

I was manifested on a load to make a jump with a couple friends. We got bumped down a load because of tandems. I understand tandems are money makers. Well the plane sat on the ground for 20 minutes while they got the tandems ready. So we are up next. Before the plane lands, we are bumped down again for the next tandem load and the plane sits on the ground again. I have to scratch because I have to be somewhere. The DZO says to me "If I knew you had to leave, I would have sent your load". That didn't sit too well with me. The DZO is no longer operating at that airport. I guess I should mention that I own the airport.

And to quote another post: Looks like our finger wagging and our harsh words (and some discreet funding of weapons systems for our allies) has indeed done quite a bit to prevent Putin from achieving his goals.

More fun on Twitter:

Ya, sure, but skydiving and USPA is in the business of creating mom and pop stores next to big box stores. DZ's are not incompetent marketeers, as demonstrated by the sometimes heroes who arrive on seen to show us how it's done and then disappear. The issue is we do not have an unlimited market available. Start up DZ's, invariably with USPA assistance, pop up near established and growing DZ's. They undercut, discount etc., all good I guess, but that makes price increases and the consequent ability to pay staff more money difficult or impossible. So DZ's close. Those economic conditions also make it difficult to make expansion decisions based on a hoped for upjumper increase very difficult. It's vastly easier to make those decisions based on customers that reserve in advance with a deposit. In the world of shifting feuds and alliances that is skydiving taking on a million or two in debt to support our upjumper friends and hoping for the needed volume is a real risk. And yes, I do hold USPA to account for that reality.

Sarcasm is only effective when there is some agreed upon standard of crazy. Otherwise, it's too difficult to distinguish that sarcasm from an intentional argument. Unfortunately, what was once considered off the wall crazy is now the norm and it will only get worse with the developments at Twitter.

I am reminded of Ron who feels a similar way. But when Trump being a draft dodger was brought up, he replied something along the line of "oh, I wasn't all that political back then, so I didn't really care about draft dodgers. So that's OK."

He's alive and well on Facebook.

The AltiPro has been released. https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/86020739-c857-491a-b671-0713047b6556 Be safe