JohnRich

Update:Cuomo whacks gun law "With virtually no public notice or legislative debate, a centerpiece of ex-Gov. George Pataki’s controversial multimillion-dollar anti-gun-crime program was shot dead Friday by Gov. Cuomo’s new state budget. "The budget killed off the so-called CoBis, or Combined Ballistics Identification System... "Many Democrats praised the program, and even then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, running for the US Senate in New York, praised Pataki for showing “real leadership in proposing a state-based ballistics program... something that needs to be done on a national level.’’ "Trouble is, the Pataki program NEVER worked. Despite the hundreds of thousands of spent shells submitted, not one criminal was ever captured using the extensive and costly-to-maintain database, state officials concede..."Full story: NY Post It's a done deal, and COBIS is gone.

I'm guessing that the "James Bond" thing is just a theme to make the opening ceremony exciting, but the actual jump would be done by a body-double substitute, not by Daniel Craig.

Whats next? Will you condone pencil packing reserves? People respect your posts for the most part John, do you really want it in writing that you are suggesting to make a fake AAD? I'm not advocating violating FARs. Local business rules are quite another thing. The most a DZ can do for a DZ rule violation is to ban you, which would already be done without the aforesaid mandatory AAD. So there would be no loss for trying. And since I've posted the fake AAD thing openly, drop zones would be looking for that on my rig. So if a drop zone mandates AAD's, I guess I'll just have to quit jumping there. But the idea might serve others so they don't find themselves out of a place to jump. So by expressing the idea, I'm sacrificing the ability to use it for myself, on behalf of others whom it might serve well.

So you need three Cypress' at $1,500 each, for a total of $4,500. If you make $30 per tandem, you'll have to do 150 tandems just to get your personal rigs equipped to fun jump again. And during that time, you're not making any profit to help your family. So if business is good, you might be back to fun-jumping and making profit again in, oh, about 3 months, if the weather cooperates. But the weather never cooperates. You'll be mid-summer before you get all this taken care of. Just go for one rig to get yourself back in the air as a fun-jumper as soon as possible, and then go for a longer term plan to outfit the other rigs.

Yep, they have the right to implement whatever rules they want. And that means that this rule will drive off the CRW dogs and some of the experienced jumpers. So be it. That still leaves them a thriving tandem business, but that's short-sighted, because without the fun jumpers, there are no new tandem masters being bred there. And when they run out of tandem masters, then what? Get 'em from other drop zones that still raise them? What happens when enough drop zones get out of the fun-jumper business that there aren't enough tandem masters to go around any more? No need for you to be a jerk here. Freedom means freedom of choice for the customers, and businesses that want to suceed should provide that freedom of choice to them. But yes, the choice from a business standpoint as to which way to go is ultimately theirs, and also to live with whatever consequences follow from their decisions. The loss of revenue should be insignificant. But what about the loss of spirit and soul? I have a lot of respect and love for Paul, Jen, Eric and all the rest of the crowd there. I'm gonna miss 'em. 'Tis a shame after all these years, that I'm suddenly deemed not safe enough to jump with them any more. I know they're shaken by the recent fatality there, but it's my opinion that this is the wrong response.

Nope, but he sure did have a lot of people calling him at the party! That would have been one serious beer run! Would have been a short run - just climb down off the roof into the store, and grab your "first crash landing on the roof of a building" beer.

On average in America, one skydiver dies every other weekend. Think about that while driving to the drop zone in the morning - it could be YOUR day. Then again, about 100 people per day die in traffic accidents, so hurry up and get your ass off the road and to the drop zone where your odds are better.

Political cartoon.

Okay, Booth has an amphib aircraft, but his was a single engine the last time I saw it. So I take it that this is NOT Bill Booth and/or his airplane.

If I fake it, it's for me only. I don't loan my gear to anyone else. And if perchance I do, I'll tell the borrower there's no AAD. They can then make their own free choice to jump the rig or not. It should not be up to anyone else to dictate to experienced jumpers what configuration their gear must be in to jump. Such regulations suck the freedom right out of this sport. If the airbag in your car became inoperative, would you be afraid to drive it?

It's always nice to receive advice on what we should all do from highly seasoned veterans. Thank you for keeping us safe.

I take my own chances, and I signed their waiver. Drop zones should not dictate to experienced jumpers what equipment they should use. Yep, I should start looking for an old Cypress unit to slip in the plastic pouch on my rig, with the cable appearing to run down inside the reserve. Then I just have to hope that a DZ doesn't require it to be turned on to verify it functions. But maybe I can make a fake display to slide inside the window to even make it appear that it's turned on. Some day soon, trickery may be necessary to make a jump. Next up, a fake RSL. That one will be easy. I'm not a regular at San Marcos, but it's close enough that I've done some boogies there in the past. But now it seems that I'm no longer welcome...

Netiquette aside, doing THIS took me about 10 seconds. So did THIS. Sure, it was easy enough to find the news stories. But the netiquette point is that it would be easier for everyone if he posted a link to one of those stories in his starter message, rather than make everyone who is curious to go poke around and find it independently on their own. One link by him, could save doezens of people the time it takes them to go fish for it themselves. It's just the polite thing to do.

Then they'll ban canopy loadings over 2.5:1. They had a fatality there from a formation load a few years ago - are formation loads banned too? I disapprove of such knee-jerk reactions to isolated tragedies. If you do the same thing after every incident, banning the "cause" of every accident, then pretty soon there won't be any means remaining to jump. Maybe it's time to implement my plan for a fake AAD unit to make it look like my rig complies with such rules.

Albert Florence was forced to undress and submit to strip searches following his arrest on a warrant for an unpaid fine, though the fine actually had been paid. Even if the warrant had been valid, failure to pay a fine is not a crime in New Jersey. That's a completely different issue. Do you want to talk about whether or not he should have been arrested in the first place, or what happened to him after he was arrested? While you're on screwed-up laws in New Jersey, wanna talk about the Brian Aitkin case? Sentenced to seven years in prison for two legally-owned guns: http://reason.com/archives/2010/11/15/brian-aitkens-mistake

Perhaps you should provide a link to a story so everyone knows what you're talking about. Or are you intentionally trying to hide the nature of these strip searches?

That photo has TWO people in it - which one is the duck girl? The one with the big A stamped on her head.

That photo has TWO people in it - which one is the duck girl?

I think sane law abiding adult Illinoisians should be allowed to buy anything they want from anyplace they like. You've been speaking out more and more in FAVOR of pro-gun things lately. Have you had some kind of epiphany? I'd almost swear you're turning into a gun nut right before our very eyes...

I don't know what the original motivation was for the law. Did Illinois residents have to show a FOID (firearm owner identification) card to buy ammo? If so, then by forcing face-to-face ammo sales where a FOID could be verified, perhaps they were trying to prevent prohibited persons from obtaining ammo. Just a guess!

23 states currently allow hunting with suppressors, and I haven't heard of a problem yet. If hikers are worried about it, they should stay out of public hunting areas during hunting season. Even if they have not heard a gunshot yet, that doesn't mean that the woods are free of hunters. And the hunters, of course, should certainly do their part by being sure of the identity of their target, regardless of whether or not they have a silencer. Because of the hassles of owning a silencer under federal law, very few people are probably doing this already, and I doubt if many more will take advantage of a new law allowing it for hunting. They can already do what they want, without a silencer. I don't think the woods will suddenly be filled with thousands of silent ninja assassins. The gun-o-phobes are funny. They complain that guns make too much noise and want to ban them because of that. And now they're complaining that they won't make enough noise, and want to ban that. So for them this isn't really about the noise guns make - it's about opposing anything related to firearm freedoms, no matter what, even if there is no logical basis for it. Lions and tigers and silencers, oh my!

This may be an April Fools hoax, but reality is that jump prices where I live just increased from $22 to $25 on April 1st, due to rising fuel prices. So it's April 1st, and we ARE paying more for jumps. No fooling...

History shows that high expectations of IL governors are seriously misplaced. It sounds like you are in favor of the passage of this Bill - is that correct?

I did, it changes nothing. Only in dog logic.