Ron

Still does not show how GM DZ's are *held* to a higher standard. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Great bumper sticker, now care to answer the question? How is a GM DZ actually held to a higher standard? Does the USPA audit GM DZ's? You think Lodi could sign a piece of paper and pay some money and become a GM? And exactly where does the FAA require a DZ to be a GM? If I don't take a Flight Review every 2 years does that make me a bad pilot? Maybe, maybe not, but it is indicative of attitude. See Section 2-5 of the following: www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/media/pilot_handbook.pdf You avoided the question again. How does the USPA actually hold a GM to a higher standard? Simple question John. Answer it and not misdirect. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Great bumper sticker, now care to answer the question? How is a GM DZ actually held to a higher standard? Does the USPA audit GM DZ's? You think Lodi could sign a piece of paper and pay some money and become a GM? And exactly where does the FAA require a DZ to be a GM? "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

You are of course in charge, but I think it is relative. Some people think a DZ not being a GM means they are dangerous - And it means nothing of the sort. Honestly, the TI not being USPA means almost nothing as well. I have well over 1k Tandems, if I dropped my USPA membership, does that suddenly mean I would not be capable to do AFF or Tandems? The question if the TI had never been through a training program. That would be a big deal. But since Lodi has two Examiners on staff, I'll bet that he just got his rating and the paperwork has not been sent in and received. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Again: How exactly is a group member DZ *held* to a higher standard? Way too many people think the GM program is anything more than sending a check and signing some pledge. If Lodi sent in its check and sighed the pledge, they would be group members. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

His, or his group membership? "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Please tell me how a group member DZ is held to a higher standard? Last I checked, GM DZ's sign a pledge with no penalty for lying or not even trying to meet the pledge. Ron: USPA DZs at least aim to adhere to industry agreed standards of training and vigilance Proof of that claim? She said that GM DZ's are held to a higher standard... HOW? By what method are they held to a higher standard? In my 24 years jumping at 50+ DZ's all over the US I can say that I could not tell any difference between member and non-member DZ's. So, how are they held to a higher standard? The USPA is not doing its due diligence in many areas... Such as TSO compliance. But that was not the point of my question. Exactly how is GM DZ somehow held to a higher standard considering the USPA has not inspected a single DZ and to the best of my knowledge *ever* pulled a GM DZ's 'certification'. In fact Bill won the 'Safety Award' a few years ago... The exact same year that the FAA gave him a 660k fine for not doing the MX on his aircraft. If Lodi paid the 500-1000 bucks to be a GM DZ, they would be listen - Simple as that. The GM program is nothing more than an advertising program that MAKES jumpers become USPA members. It is a joke and should be gotten rid of because it serves no purpose for the members. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Please tell me how a group member DZ is held to a higher standard? Last I checked, GM DZ's sign a pledge with no penalty for lying or not even trying to meet the pledge. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

No The USPA has many times proven to be an advocate for the manufacturing industry while not supporting the members. Case in point, the USPA caved to the manufacturers to require a medical to do tandems when medicals are not required by the FAA for skydiving, flying Light sport, Balloons, or Gliders. This includes teaching Light Sport, Balloons, or Gliders. In addition, the EAA and the AOPA (who really do advocate for the members) just helped push a law that will do away with the Class Three medical for all recreational pilots. There are other examples of the USPA siding with manufacturers over members. The USPA has made it so you have to be a USPA member to jump at USPA DZ's. And made it so DZ's want to be a member because it is cheap advertising. This makes it so people have to join the USPA. If they dropped this, the USPA membership would drop till they showed they were actually beneficial instead of just forcing you to join. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

At Skydive Spaceland Clewiston.... We use a bit bigger drones. This guy had a chop at about 8K and if you look under the prop, you can see we found it. It was about 5 miles from the DZ. I have about an 80% success rate finding canopies. The ones I have lost normally fall into the tall sugarcane and you can't find them unless you walk on top of them. I once found a freebag, landed, picked it up, and flew it back to the airport. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Your best use of the tunnel will be to do randoms. Randoms win meets. Blocks in the tunnel often have to be modified to fit and that is just a waste. So: 1. Randoms. 2. Blocks that can be flown without modification. 3. Block pieces that can be done without modification. 4. Blocks flown with modification. Randoms win meets. If I had 100% of tunnel time, 70-80 percent of that time would be doing randoms in the tunnel (and random like blocks 7, 9, 14, 15, with maybe 6, 11, 18.... in that order. If you can't do a 6, don't bother trying an 11 or an 18) If Advanced or Open throw in 5, 16, 17. I was on a team in 2002 and we did 10 hours tunnel and maybe 50 jumps and did a 14.9 average with an alternate after round 8. So save yourself some grief and focus on randoms. Blocks in the tunnel look cool... But unless you can fly randoms well in the tunnel you are wasting time (unless you just enjoy it). And every glitch costs more time. And if you don't have a coach.... This goes double. So my vote is spend that money in a 12 footer if you have one local. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

We called it slot stealing or swapping. Stealing is when the solo could select the guy to replace. Swapping we did it like volleyball where we had a defined rotation. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Min IAS for the Pitts about 80 Min IAS for the Citabria about 60 "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

What I am looking for is to try and get glide ratio, fwd speed, and descent info so I can do some comparisons for flocking. Longer version: I have two aerobatic airplanes and wanted to get some data on canopy flight to see if there was any chance at formation with a guy under canopy. Can someone post some data on what this recording system provides? The size of the canopy is not important at this point, but smaller is probably better. I'd just like to see the kind of data it provides. If it is good, then I'll see about getting a recorder and running some descents in both my planes and see if there is any chance of pulling it off. If they can fly XRW. And can fly wingsuits with gliders.... It might be possible to fly a canopy and a plane in formation. I have not seen anyone do it... And even if they have, I have not done it. I keep my planes at the DZ and it sounds like a neat project. I am doing some research now on how to prevent shock cooling my engine. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Where can I get some data on canopy flight... What I am looking for is some data on speed/descent/glide ratio. Can the trackers the wingsuit guys use also collect data for a guy under canopy? "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

The USPA is going to do whatever UPT tells them to do anyway. If UPT wants it, the BOD will do it. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Which is going back to the USPA being the only one requiring a class three medical to be a TI. Yes, the manufacturers require it to GET the rating, but the USPA requires it to KEEP it. And it is a shame the USPA continues to allow the manufacturers to tell the USPA what to do. The USPA is/was supposed to be for SKYDIVERS not for the manufacturing industry. Lets see. Light Sport Pilot INSTRUCTOR - No FAA medical required. This allows an INSTRUCTOR to fly a plane with a student that is 1320 pounds and goes about 130MPH. NO MEDICAL. Balloon INSTRUCTOR - No FAA medical is required. Glider INSTRUCTOR - No FAA medical required. Once again the USPA shows it cares more about making UPT happy than listening to the members. If this medical reform passes.... The USPA will still require the medical. And for what reason other than making UPT happy? The story is to prevent people with DUI's from doing tandems. OK, so make that a rule. Fact is that in my 20+ years jumping I have seen TI's do worse than drink at night. Yet the USPA does nothing to stop that. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

AFAIK he is kidding, but I did figure out how to pull APA's out of the skyvector.com site. Use this link: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Askyvector.com+aerobatic+practice+area Thanks, that helped... Found about three more. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

So this is not true... Just more 'quiet skies' bashing? "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

I am looking for nationals and world meet coverage... Trying to collect scores and team members to put online. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

So I have not been jumping much (went to nationals with three training jumps and six jumps for the year). But I have been busy flying aerobatics. So I want to put an aerobatic practice area (APA) near the airport where my wife and I skydive.... Long story short, the manager of the airport said no... But I don't need his permission. I have a meeting with the FAA later this week. I need to know what airports have aerobatic boxes and Dropzones. I have a short list, I'd like a longer one for my meeting. So far I have: X51 Homestead ACQ Waseca, Municipal CGE Cambridge, Maryland N71 Donegal Springs, Penn KHWY Warrenton, VA 42J Keystone had two DZ's and an APA at one point. Anyone know of more? And just so I don't just ask without offering something... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yonaZ4WSirE "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Seems I have an old account here that I don't use. Can I delete it? "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Using your source: "According to the FAA “Over the past 3 years, the number of denials of third-class airman medical certificates has ranged from approximately 2000 to 2500 per year based on approximately 135,000 to 140,000 applications for third-class airman medical certification per year. Most of these denials resulted because of a failure of the applicants to provide sufficient information for the FAA to make a favorable decision”. OK, so out of 140K class 3 medicals, 2500 were rejected. So less than 2%. And out of that 2%, most were "because of a failure of the applicants to provide sufficient information for the FAA to make a favorable decision". So out of that less than 2%, how many were actually a risk to the general public? Most of the rejections were paperwork issues. I know guys that can run a marathon but can't get a medical because of an issue that they had years ago because the mountain of paperwork makes it next to impossible to get all the information available. Oh, and you don't know what paperwork you are going to need and once you apply, you only have SEVEN days to submit whatever they ask for or you are automatically rejected. FURTHER, the USPA itself has admitted that they only care about the DUI aspect. So the medical itself is not needed. I have another buddy who never drinks at all, but had a stint put in and now can't get a medical because of the paperwork issue... The FAA wants the serial number of the stint and the Drs notes from the procedure. Well, that Dr has been dead 10 years. But here is a guy who HAD an issue and is now under the care of a cardiologist (so he is watched much more closely than you are I) and has a clean bill of health and he can't do tandems because of a paperwork issue. Me, I made the mistake of being honest and told them I had a kidney stone. So they make me jump through a bunch of hoops every year to get a medical. And not a single Dr INCLUDING the one who sent me for the procedure and the one DOING the procedure thought it was worth doing. And again, remember the USPA only cares that I don't have a DUI. They have admitted that is what they care about. Call and write the USPA. Tell them you think it is a stupid requirement. Maybe go to the next BOD meeting and express your opinion. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

I would not buy a container just because is has a MARD system. As for brand.... Everyone has opinions. I personally have jumped most of the major brands and found them all to be fine. My best suggestion is to find what is popular in your area. The riggers in your area will know them best, spare parts will be easier to get, and prices should be lower. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

+1 The vast majority of running/hopping/sliding/faceplant landings are caused by jumpers simply not milking the last ounce of flare before putting their feet on the ground. As TK mentioned, keeping your feet up and flaring deeper and deeper until the canopy truly won't support your weight will produce the slowest airspeed before touchdown. And it should be mentioned that there are some cases where the brake lines are too short. I had a buddy that was landing on his butt on almost every jump. I asked him if he was flaring all the way down and he said yes. I was going to watch him on the next landing, but on that landing he didn't flare all the way and had a great landing. So I told him that his brake lines were most likely too short and he was stalling the canopy. On the next jump I had him pull a bit higher and see if he can stall the canopy. I described what would happen and sure enough, that was the issue. We measured his brake lines and they were all in spec, it must have been that he has ape like arms. We lengthened the lower brake lines and he is now happy with the canopy. But yes, 99% of the time people do not flare completely. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334