winsor

Having spent a number of trips to France driving around battlefields from The Great War, Parts I and II, I think the impression that the French soldiers were anything but valiant and tenacious is inaccurate. The U.S. cemetery at Omaha Beach is very impressive. However, compared to the French military cemeteries on the Western Front, it is about mid-size. The Americans were engaged in combat for a period of months in 1918, and were very impressed with themselves (not to denigrate anyone who endured that appalling conflict). The French, OTOH, were engaged in a slugfest/bloodbath for YEARS, enduring despite the (largely successful) German attempt to bleed them white ("weissbluten"). A simplistic view of the failure of France to successfully defend itself against Blitzkrieg on the second go-around may be appealing, but it fails to distinguish between the gallantry of the French fighting men and the incompetence of the French high command. FWIW, Haig was no prize, either. Blue skies, Winsor

My reaction to fatalities is hardly uniform. The loss of a friend can leave me in tears; even now the memory of a farewell that turned out to be the last makes my throat tight, and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to say how much I valued them. OTOH, I am devoid of sympathy for some people whose Darwinian exploits left but a legacy of destruction in their wake. The guy who put his body in the way of the 412 rotor at the Convention comes to mind. In general, I am concerned that people's sentimentality gets in the way of their objectivity. They can't separate the facts surrounding the loss of someone from their emotional attachment to them. I have lost friends who didn't have a chance, such as when aircraft have crashed, as well as friends who made a couple of mistakes and ran out of options. I do not think I have to pretend that those who died as a result of bad choices really did not err in order to grieve their loss. In fact, I think denial is one of the most dangerous pitfalls of losing someone close, since it can blind one to very real dangers that we all face. The best and the brightest are not immune to the results of a lapse on any particular jump. I can think of a list of world champions who are no longer with us as a result of easily avoidable circumstances. My reaction to people bouncing is to work with the people around me to increase the likelihood that we will all survive each and every jump. When I ask people to check their gear a couple of minutes before exit, the only people who give me a hard time are friends - while they're checking their gear. Enough potential problems have shown up that I think the effort is worthwhile. As far as botched swoops and panic turns, we have a long way to go to get a handle on the issue of high-speed dirt under a good canopy. The reality is that the equipment has evolved faster than has the skillset of the jumping population, and it is going to take some years to stabilize. In any event, when people die in the sport there should be both a clinical analysis of the circumstances of their death and the search for lessons to learn, as well as a mechanism to deal with the grief of the survivors. These functions are both important, and should not interfere with each other. Blue skies, Winsor

Some of my rigs: Main - 99 /reserve - 175 Main -99/reserve - 218 Main - 175/reserve - 200 Main - 220/reserve - 202 Main - 250/reserve - 240 Main - 282/reserve -294 I don't ALWAYS have a larger reserve than main, simply as a matter of mixing and matching what I have available. The 175, FWIW, is my first square reserve, and I have landed it successfully more than once. so I haven't traded up with that one. Regardless of what I'm jumping for a main, I try to have a reserve that gives me a chance of survival if I get a collarbone or arm broken during a violent exit or whatever, and have to land with a minimum of steering and no flare. I also want something I can sink into someone's back yard without having to eat a fence. That's just me. YMMV. Blue skies, Winsor

In politics the scum rises to the top. What else is new?

Since they were riding on the same parachute, they'd be in violation since they were (theoritically) jumping two single harness dual parachute systems, an 'experimental' animal I'd say. Now, if they were jumping a Tandem system (dual harness, dual - main/reserve - parachute), and the passenger was unlatched and then rode down on the TMs shoulders, that (in theory) would be legal since it's a dual harness, dual parachute system, right? They were following the letter of the rules... Actually, no. Some time ago, when tandems had a higher age restriction (I don't recall what it was - I've never made a tandem jump), this age restriction was circumvented by having the passenger/student in an appropriate parachute harness, attached to the tandem master. This was researched pretty carefully beforehand, and was done (repeatedly) in accordance with BSRs and FARs. The BSR does NOT say you must open above a given altitude, it says you CANNOT open below that altitude. A tandem passenger/student on the shoulders of the tandem master is in violation of SOPs and thus either or both FARs and BSRs. Regardless of whether it was a good idea or not, landing the Mr. Bill did not, in and of itself, break any rules. Blue skies, Winsor

What a bunch of non sequiter bullshit. I didn't bitch or whine so don't spin it out like I was. I simply stated facts. Us and Them huh?.......it's that easy all I have to do is join "them" fuck I wish someone would have told me that a long time ago. Please tell me the solution to a 4 year old child calling me nigger how do I fix that? take her away from her parents and never let them reproduce again? I don't give a fuck if you ever jump with me or what your reasons were if you didn't I never mentioned skydiving in my post you just threw that out there. More spin? Oh by the way you can go fuck yourself (twice even) if you think I'm about feeling sorry for myself once agian I notice that I'm accused of felling sorry for myself or being melodramatic but not the person who started this thread explain that shit to meQuote Poor baby. Evarybody's being mean to you.

I will as soon as society and your government stop practicing institutional racisim. That way I won't have to be hit, called names, followed through stores like a criminal, ignored when trying to get seating in a nice restaurant, jacked up and searched by police for walking down the street, pulled over by police for DWB, simply because of the color of my skin There's only two kinds of people on this earth, US and THEM. To a great extent it is up to you whether you are one of us or one of them. If you want to bitch about how tough it is to be one side of the black/white divide, I'm sure I can match you case for case, personally, from the other standpoint if I were so inclined. I contend that it's a cop out, and I challenge you to focus on solutions rather than problems. The "civil rights activists" have a conflict of interest when it comes to resolving differences between groups. In fact, they have a vested interest in keeping the various factions polarized and at each other's throats. If everyone gets along, they're out of a job. If you think the Government is picking on you - News Flash! the Government fucks over EVERYBODY! That's what they do! Deal with it! Many (most) movements are based on a combination of real issues and misconceptions/misrepresentations. If it makes you happy to buy into it hook and sinker, knock yourself out. At the DZ, I'll jump with you if you have a good attitude toward safety and like to have fun. I don't give a rat's ass if you are male, female, Irish, Albanian, Zulu, Tibetan, Shinto, Zoroastrian, Mormon or Animist. If I won't jump with someone it's because they scare me in the air - even if I like them on the ground. I voted to axe Roger Nelson when he fucked up on a par with other people who had been axed - and I certainly didn't take into account his race, religion or sexual preferences. If you want to feel sorry for yourself, you are on your own. If you want to let that shit go and join in the festivities, you might note that you really don't have a much tougher time than people who aren't bitching about it. Blue skies, Winsor

Because unlike the FAA's rules which don't say you must actually open a parachute at all, I interperate the BSR's to mean Minimum container opening altitudes above the ground no matter what the speed. Otherwise the action was a "Tandem Skidive" and was definately in violation of both BSR's and FAR's. Tanedm skydive? They were both wearing approved, in-date dual container parachute systems. They just landed under the same parachute, and it was open per BSRs.

As I'm sure people will try. Just as a note to everyone, it is a stunt that is against the USPA BSR's specifiacly this one: Waiverable only by.... So kids make sure you try it only at a NON USPA DZ. Why? Nobody opened below the hard deck.

I like the abuse. Anyways, thanks to everyone for their insight. Basically, I was telling Phil about my dream where someone died while doing cocaine. He said that maybe Stacy (our invisible coworker) replaced the cocaine with Comet, and that's what killed him. I said that snorting Comet wouldn't kill you, and it looks like (big surprise), I was right! Snorting a gram of primo blow in two half-gram lines would be one hell of a lot likelier to freeze your heart than would dying from the same amount of Comet. Bleaching the hell out of your sinuses would be bad news, but hardly a COD. Blue skies, Winsor

If you are pretending to be clueless, you are most convincing. At best you sound petulant. It is not purely down to jump numbers - there are people who have 1,000 jumps, and those who have 100 jumps ten times - but jump numbers can generally give a pretty good idea of what is one's perspective, regardless of innate ability. Talent is all well and good, and some people can have extensive experience without catching on. All skydivers are not created equal. Nevertheless, people with the ego level necessary to skydive tend to confuse luck with ability. After sticking around a while, the difference can become more apparent. I've known too many "naturals" who are no longer in the sport because they pushed their luck too long and it ran out. Life is a series of lessons - the ones you miss get repeated and get harder. Some are not surviveable the first time around. FWIW, I thought the Mr. Bill was a lot more impressive than the LOW opening, and generally agree with Chris. I'm not sure that I'm all that confident that one or both of these guys won't guess wrong and try something that is, in fact, fatal, but my reaction while watching it was anything but righteous indignation. I don't feel like trying to duplicate their results, but thought it was great entertainment. As an aside, I will be interested if your standpoint remains the same if you stick around long enough to achieve some kind of senior status. Nobody I know has done so, but you may be different. Blue skies, Winsor

The dumbest stuff I can think of resulted in either a Life Flight or a trip to the morgue. Do you mean stupid moves that people pulled off without injury? The hop and pop that resulted in a

You have what amounts to a compound question here. The implications of the buzzword "strong women" vary greatly, depending on who you ask. Being hetero, my relationships with women are (with any luck) quite different from those with men. Thus, behavior that I will not tolerate on an intimate basis is not a factor with men the way it can be with women. If you ask any person who has worked in an insane asylum, they will tell you that with psychosis often comes superhuman strength. Thus, what is generating fear is not necessarily the "strong woman" part of the deal so much as the "psycho bitch" factor. Note that the quotes are from women who concluded that they scared men away by their "strength," not from men who were trying to get clear of them because they were bonkers. FWIW, the women I find truly attractive and with whom I am comfortable are the kind you find in this sport. They are decisive, self assured, and fundamentally capable human beings. The kind of women who bitch to their therapists about how they scare men away because they are too "strong" scare me. If someone thinks they're fucked up enough to need therapy, they're generally right about being fucked up, and I'd just as soon stay clear. NOBODY is that good in bed. Blue skies, Winsor

You have a 99 main and a 218 reserve? What container do you have? I have two Racer Elites (400 cu. in. main & 400 cu. in. reserve IIRC) set up with EXTreme FX 99s and Raven IIs. They work beautifully. Blue skies, Winsor

On my primary rig? If they pull silver and don't get too creative, their odds are good. Raven II - 218 sq. ft.. If they are advanced enough to deploy the main, they're screwed. EXTreme FX 99. If they do nothing, look for the crater. The CYPRES is in the shop. Blue skies, Winsor

An American checks into a hotel in London and asks "Which way is the elevator?" The desk clerk responds "the lift? It's around the corner to your right." The American says "it's an elevator, not a lift. An American invented it." The desk clerk smiles and says "as I understand, it was an Englishman who invented the language...."

Geee... I don't know who that could have been Now c'mon, you know it was a long snivel. Yeah, after pitching in the basement. A discussion about turning off a CYPRES before this jump was overheard.

Nope..not a bit. Seven years and counting. 6241 days - but who's counting?

None. It really didn't agree with me. Since the last thing I drank was a bottle of Mezcal (down to the worm, on July 1987 at roughly 1215 hrs), I was given a pass on Rodriguez Brother initiation. I have nothing against it, but am not by nature given to moderation. Better you than me. Blue skies, Winsor

Strangely enough, REDUCED tolerance can be symptomatic of the physiological changes associated with stage 3 alcoholism. The general breakdown is something along the lines of: Stage 1: You have ever drank to get drunk. Stage 2: You have ever blacked out, e.g., were ambulatory but have no recollection of what transpired. Stage 3: Alcohol is part of your diet/consumption regimen, whether continuous or binge. Physiological changes may manifest themselves by higher or lower tolerance and/or withdrawal (hangover) characteristics. If alcohol is really that big of a deal, it should provide you with a clue. Not to worry, most people that conclude they are alcoholic look back and realize they met all the criteria for years. Betty Ford, when asked during an interview about her consumption patterns, started to answer, and then said "it doesn't matter." The gist of her was that if, when you go to an event, it makes a difference whether alcohol is served, that's a bad sign. If you have a preset limit for how much you will drink, that's a bad sign. If you know at any time precisely how much you have had to drink, that's a bad sign. If, when leaving the party, you're proud of yourself if you limited yourself to the predetermined amount, that's a bad sign. FWIW, if you must indulge in mind altering substances, alcohol is one of the worst - in the long run it makes heroin look like a gift from God by comparison (physiologically, at least). As far as building up tolerance to alcohol goes, it has been tried with mixed results. Your experience may, of course, be unique. Knock yourself out. Blue skies, Winsor

Gee, someone with one of those would definitely have it over a skilled rifleman with an M-1 Garand. It really looks kewl, and that is important. Blue skies, Winsor

He dropped 7 targets and that's considered SUCCESSFUL? 25-17=8 Just a thought ... Yeah, I'm good at math but not arithmetic. When scattergunning you're expected to hit them, and one only notes the ones that got away. I don't usually have to consider what corresponds to more than one or two missed, and dropping EIGHT is new ground. Anyway, he's a Democrat so he doesn't really matter. Blue skies, Winsor

He dropped 7 targets and that's considered SUCCESSFUL? Maybe if he was shooting a Skeet gun at International Trap, or was stuck using a .410 I could see it, but with the Citori he was packing, using even the cheapest WalMart 7 1/2s, that's a pretty poor showing. My ex-girlfriend was doing that well on her second or third outing with an ill-fitting 870TB. It figures that he's a Democrat. Whenever you have a politician that turns a plane into a hole in the ground (or fish bait) because he can't keep the wings level, dollars to donuts it's a Democrat. It makes sense that one can barely figure out which way to point his trusty stackbarrel. Blue skies, Winsor

WRT skydiving, we were talking about that last night. Some people have a lot of the verbiage memorized, and it sounds plausible until they get into the details - then their story falls apart. I had someone make a variety of extravagant claims last night, and he apparently didn't know that I could check them out within minutes with no effort expended. I guess some people assume that, since skydiving is only a theoretical endeavor from where they sit, it likely is to their audience as well. When it turns out that they are talking to someone who has done quite a bit of it, it is too late to back down. My favorite person whose story was patently hogwash was a guy who claimed to be an airline pilot. I never did bother to find out quite what he really did for a living, but the fact that he had the temerity to put forth his fantasy at dropzone, where a very large number of the audience really were pilots of one description or another (private through ATP and/or military) never ceased to amaze me. I figure if I ever see fit to gild the lily, there is a better than even chance that the person I'm trying to bamboozle will turn out to be an authority on the subject. In this sport, there are a lot of ringers about. Blue skies, Winsor

I second that.