PabloCruz2

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Jump Profile

  • Home DZ
    Ozark Skydiving Center - Miller, MO
  • License
    A
  • License Number
    53301
  • Licensing Organization
    USPA
  • Number of Jumps
    68
  • Years in Sport
    13
  • First Choice Discipline
    Formation Skydiving
  • First Choice Discipline Jump Total
    68

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  • Pro Rating
    Yes
  1. I will miss Marnie. Although we did not have a close relationship, I so appreciated her friendliness. Her willingness to jump with a rookie and share her experience. My heart breaks for her daughter, her family, & Fletch. Everyone involved is in my thoughts and prayers! Blue Skies Marnie!!
  2. This is quickly moving away from a useful conversation to a waste of time. I'm sorry if you have misunderstood my intentions. I'm not trying to convince anybody to jump. If anything, it is to explain why I jump. I have no points or theories to prove. I thank you for your opinions and let's leave it at that. Here's to having many years of successful, fun jumps for both of us!! Take care. __________________________________________________ I have this statement from you that shows that you are clearly not objective: You want something (to convince your friends to jump) and you to want statistics to support your opinion that it's not dangerous. That's not an objective approach. I'm one of the group that believe that incomplete fatality statistics (or even complete ones for that matter) will not provide any useful information for someone making the decision to go make a jump. The obective way to attempt to prove a theory would be to take an objective look at whatever data you can find and form a conclusion. What you're doing is taking a preconceived conclusion to the data and hoping it proves your point. The point that many other people here are trying to make is that choosing to skydive probably should not be a decision based on fatality statistics because each and every time anyone chooses to leave the airplane we accept that the dice might role up with our number on them. People die skydiving. Whether it's 1 in a 100 jumps or 1 in a million it doesn't matter. Let your friends make their own decisions if possible. How would it feel if you made them feel okay about jumping based on statistics that might not even be applicable to them and then they were injured or killed? Just because (making the numbers up) 5 students die each year out of 250,000 comes out to be a very low percentage doesn't mean it's safe. 5 students are dead. Statistics are numbers, dead people are real.
  3. No offense taken Andy. I appreciate your input. I feel like there has been some misunderstanding of my intentions. I'm not out to prove anything to anybody, either online or in person. I'm just looking for info. Thanks again!! __________________________________________________
  4. I knew/know where some of the statistics are. They are bookmarked in my browser. I was hoping to find out if there were any different sources that I wasn't aware of. I have been informed of several which I wasn't aware of. So I feel this thread has served me well. As for your opinion that I'm likely not being objective, I don't think you have enough info about me or what I'm doing to make that judgement. Your input has been appreciated. __________________________________________________ I most certainly did not mean to imply that your interest was morbid. I meant my reply to be objective. You can't "know" that useful statistics are there and when you take the approach that you "know" that they are, it's likely that you're not being objective yourself, thats all.
  5. Congratulations, I hope to have mine in a week. At least I'm going to try awfully hard!
  6. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm sure this has been a frequent discussion on here. I just didn't have time to go through every thread in every forum looking for what I was searching for. ------------------------------------------------------------ Actually, they are not out there. You may be able to find US stats, maybe Uk stats, but beyond that, it gets very difficult. Use the search function on here, this has been asked so many times now....
  7. In accordance with my last post, the last thing on my mind would be to try and mislead anybody. If you would like to check out what I write, check out www.myspace.com/pablocruz2. Log in and read my blogs, I welcome your opinion. ------------------------------------------------------------
  8. My interest in statistics is merely to help educate people in my own little part of the world as to how safe skydiving actually is. I realize that I am merely a rookie with 45 jumps (and since I can't stand skydivers who act like they are something akin to skygods just because they have multiple 100's or multiple 1000's of jumps under their belt). The last thing that I would want people to think of me online or in person is that I am cocky or that I know it all. I have worked VERY hard to be a good student in skydiving and I am passionate about it. I have been blessed with (I believe) excellent instruction at my first DZ in Oklahoma and my current one in Missouri. I want to learn from anyone with more experience than me. But if people are going to be annoyed or ugly about questions I have about the sport then there is NOTHING I can learn from them. Fortuneately in my 7 years of skydiving I have had the awesome opportunity of meeting and being trained by some incredible skydivers and I am thrilled to be a part of this sport. I apologize for rambling. I mean no offense. This must have struck a nerve. I merely speak my convictions. ------------------------------------------------------------
  9. Your question as to whether I "hope" statistics exist insinuates that I might revel or glory in the death of others. If I am misreading you forgive me, but that is the way it comes across. I am mere trying to educate people in my life as to the safety of skydiving. I grow tired (as I am sure you have) of the age old question of "Why would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?". My goal is to try and get those people to go with me and take a First Jump course and jump so they can see for themselves!! ------------------------------------------------------------ Respectfully... how can you possibly know that statistics exist if you don't know where they are? Are you really saying that you hope statistics exist?
  10. Thank you. I appreciate your help. ------------------------------------------------------------
  11. Gawain, Thanks for your help. It is appreciated!!
  12. My interest in statistics is merely to help educate people in my own little part of the world as to how safe skydiving actually is. I realize that I am merely a rookie with 45 jumps (and sinceI can't stand skydivers who act like they are something akin to skygods just because they have multiple 100's or multiple 1000's of jumps under their belt). The last thing that I would want people to think of me online or in person is that I am cocky or that I know it all. I have worked VERY hard to be a good student in skydiving and I am passionate about it. I have been blessed with (I believe) excellent instruction at my first DZ in Oklahoma and my current one in Missouri. I want to learn from anyone with more experience than me. But if people are going to be annoyed or ugly about questions I have about the sport then there is NOTHING I can learn from them. Fortuneately in my 7 years of skydiving I have had the awesome opportunity of meeting and being trained by some incredible skydivers and I am thrilled to be a part of this sport. I apologize for rambling. I mean no offense. This must have struck a nerve. I merely speak my convictions.
  13. I'm needing to find out how many jumps world wide were made last year versus the number of fatalities for something I am writing. I know the statistics are out there I just don't know where to look. Thanks. Paul
  14. I have visited Quantum Leap once and I hope to jump there someday in the not too distant future. That's a great shot of your jump.
  15. Here is mine! Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 23:03:21 -0500 Subject: I Fell! I Flew!! I Walked Away!!! Hey everybody, After a day like today I really have drop you a note ( no pun intended) =:-) After a few more hours of training this morning, I climbed into a Cessna 182 and took off with three of my friends, our jump master, (and of course our pilot)! It was about a 10-15 minute flight to an altitude of 3500 feet at which point our jumpmaster opened the door ( it is just plain wrong to open the door of an airplane flying about 90 mph at 3500 feet). The heart really starts pumping at that moment! Bryson and Keith jumped ahead of me. Then it was my turn. After each jumper left the door was closed and we circled the airfield for another pass. I was sitting with my knees to my chest and back to the control panel (the pilot on my right ) with the jumpmaster on his knees straddling my feet. He opens the door (let me again emphasize that this is just plain wrong)! He has me swing my legs out the door and place them on a small platform right above the main landing gear with my right hand on the door frame and my left hand on the wing strut. He turned my radio on (My instructor on the ground was on the ground watching me and radioing instructions to me as needed. Showed me my pilot chute ( a two foot diameter parachute which pulls your main chute out of your backpack ) and instructed me to step out and stand up the platform and hold on to the wing strut with both hands as far out as I can reach. I am now standing OUTSIDE an airplane flying 90 MPH at 3500 feet (this is really, REALLY wrong!!). The jumpmaster then instructs me to hang from the wing strut. I step off the platform. Now I am hanging from the wing strut of the airplane flying at 90 MPH with nothing but 3500 feet of air beneath my feet (Have I mentioned how REALLY, REALLY wrong this is?)!! I look at him (I'm supposed to smile at him as an indicator that I am ready.................I didn't). He says, "Ready"? (Stupid question!). Then he says, "Go". At this point I let go of the aircraft ( I have only been hanging for a few seconds ). Now at this point words can't describe how so VERY, VERY wrong this is!!! Words also can not describe the next 4-5 seconds. If their was ever a time in my life that I experienced what faith and trust (Both in God and man) are. This was that time. 4-5 seconds after letting go my chute opened. I have very few conscious memories of those seconds. The feeling of relief and joy that I experienced upon looking up and seeing a fully open and functioning parachute was amazing!! Once I had determined that I had a good chute and had reassured myself that I was safely secured to it ( I had already figured that out before I ever got into the airplane, but it was a good time to reconfirm it. Considering that there was still 3000 feet of air beneath my feet!). I really enjoyed the flight down. It was the single most amazing experience of my life. I am really looking forward to doing it again!! =:-) There was one guy there today that jumped twice. He now has 5,690 jumps under his belt spanning 29 years!! He had 1500 jumps under his belt utilizing the old round parachutes before they designed the square airfoil parachutes. Out of all those jumps, he has only had to cut away his main chute (due to some form of malfunction) 15 times. Statistically it is very safe! Many times safer than driving to the airport this morning. Time will tell but I doubt this was my last time. If you are adventurous, I would highly recommend it. Do your research and find a Skydiving center that has a really good safety record and all the latest technological safety equipment and take a major step into faith and trust. It is mind boggling!! One of our guys had a digital camera so I might have some pictures to share later. I did have my jump videotaped. Due to the altitude the cameraman didn't jump with me. The tape was made from the moment of opening the door. To the letting go of the aircraft and opening of my chute as the plane flew off without me. The look on my face is hilarious!! I better get to bed. I'm feeling a little tired. Talk to you later. In HIS grip, Paul Fockler / [email protected]