GeorgiaDon

I know of two professors at the University of Georgia who jump, me being one of them. Go Skydawgs! _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Thanks for the clarification. I asked here because I thought the information could also be useful to others who are browsing the web site. I'm pretty excited by this tunnel as it is only 3 hrs from where I live, much closer than Orlando. We have a new skydiving club at the University of Georgia and I'm sure we'll have a group to make a visit soon. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

According to the web site for this tunnel, individual flights are not available; you have to have a group to reserve a 30 or 60 min block. Does anyone know the minimum number of people that is considered a "group" for a 30 min slot? Blue ones, Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

A couple of weeks ago I stopped at the Orlando tunnel while on my way to Miami. As luck would have it my new jumpsuit (first one with booties) arrived the day before so I took it with me to try it out. I got to watch some Airspeed tunnel campers, which was an unexpected (and quite amazing) bonus. Anyway I had just 10 minutes booked, in four 2 1/2 minute slots. I went in for the first slot, all stoked from watching Airspeed, and spent the whole 2 1/2 minutes bouncing off the walls while I tried to figure out what to do with my legs. By the 4th slot I could more or less stay in place and manage centerpoint turns. I know I wasn't doing myself any favors by trying out a new jumpsuit and first time with booties, but I found the tunnel a lot harder than I had expected (very humbling but still lots of fun). Do people usually find that it takes a while to get used to flying in the tunnel or do most take to it right away? _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

If you're going to point to the Iranian hostage situation to justify the US's support of Saddam, you might also want to consider why the Iranian revolutionaries were so hostile to the US. American policy for at least 25 years was to unconditionally support the Shaw of Iran despite the fact that he ran an incredibly repressive regime, under which political dissent was ruthlessly crushed and rivals invariably "disappeared". Of course there was a strategic reason for our support: the Shaw was also being courted by the Soviet Union, who needed a warm-water port from which to base their navy. All Soviet ports either freeze over in winter, or else (in the case of the Black Sea) surface ships have to get out past the Strait of Gibralter or the Suez Canal, both under the nose of NATO. This situation limited the effectiveness of the Soviet Navy, so access to an Iranian port would have been a strategic disaster for NATO. Nevertheless, it's yet another example of how US support for ruthless dictators comes back to haunt us. I guess it also shows the difficulty of these policy decisions, where there is really no good choice: either support a ruthless tyrant, or (in this case) increase the risk of war with the Soviet Union. In the 1980's there was a real possibility that an Iranian-inspired fundamentalist Islamic revolution would sweep across much of the Middle East, again threatening our (economic and political) interests. So once again we had little choice but to let it happen or throw our support behind yet another ruthless dictator (Saddam). Maybe it just goes with the territory of being the world's largest economy and military. Still it's worth remembering that things happen for a reason (good or bad), and people don't hate us because they hate freedom. They hate us because all too often we're the "friend of their enemy", the dictators that cause them to live in oppression and terror. Sometimes our surrogates get so far out of line we feel the need to rein them in or get rid of them (as was the case with Noriega). Maybe that's part of the reason for the war on Iraq. What I really don't appreciate is justifying the war based on innuendo, rumor, or deliberate overstatement of suspicions from the "intelligence" services, then trying to change it to a "war of liberation" after the fact. Why not trust people to understand the real reasons? Could it be that this administration doesn't trust the public? If so then it's mutual, I sure don't trust this administration. Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Good vibes from Georgia. I had to do the same thing for several years when I lived in Tucson; when Mexico was included in NAFTA then I could just pop down to Nogales, much closer than Alberta. Have you considered going south, you can renew the TN at the Mexican border even if you are Canadian. (That way you could stop at Eloy on the way down and the way back, or head to southern California instead). I never had any trouble but I always got nervous dealing with INS, I guess because they can mess with you so badly if they're having an off day. Now I've got a green card, one more year and I can apply for citizenship. _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

One cutaway so far, at jump number 99. It was the "kindest" sort of situation for a malfunction that I could imagine. I hadn't jumped in a few weeks so I wanted to go solo and open high to play with the canopy. There was one tandem on the load, so the tandem master told me I could go last if I opened at 7,000 feet. The canopy (215 ft2 Falcon) opened with three broken lines on the left side, and started a slow turn that quickly picked up speed. I found I couldn't counter it with the opposite toggle, and when the spin built to the point where the canopy was horizontal with me I chopped it. Under the reserve by 6,000 ft. Kept the handles but lost the freebag. So I had lots of altitude, lots of time, all in all ideal circumstances to experience the first cutaway. _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

If you're ever heading to Florida stop by Monroe Georgia on your way and we can do an all-Canadian 2-way. My folks live in Golden Lake about 45 minutes from Arnprior, so next time I'm up there I should bring my gear. How is Mile High, friendly folk? It's a Cessna DZ isn't it? (but that's OK, it's all good). Don _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Wendy, I really wish I'd read your reminder about last Thursday. On Friday I went up for a two-way, but on the climb to altitude the wind had picked up some so after opening I found I had little forward penetration. I was barely able to clear the trees, but couldn't make the grass and landed in an ungraded area with knee-high grass. Once I cleared the trees I thought I was fine and kind of relaxed, but I put my foot right into the side of a six inch high ridge of rock-hard Georgia clay. Now I have a broken tarsal bone, a foot the size and shape of a bologna, and about a month to contemplate the merits of a PLF. _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Thanks Bill. Of course skydiver safety is the #1 issue, I was just wondering if the liability issue was even worth considering. I guess it's too rare and unlikely a scenario for DZs to require AADs for this reason. _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Here's a different take on the AAD issue: they also offer some protection for people and property on the ground. I was told that several years ago a jumper at my DZ had a heart attack in freefall and wound up making a new skylight in a local building. We can't use skyballs around here because of the risk to people/property on the ground, but 200 pounds of incapacitated skydiver is OK? It seems there is a small but real risk of liability here. Is this the reason some DZs require AADs, or is it something worth considering? There is a thread elsewhere about issue of liability insurance the USPA offers, and it was suggested that we all need to do what we can to reduce incidents that generate lawsuits. I think one could make an arguement for AADs in this light. _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

"The teachers at the universities do have a 'leaning', the students are getting that every day. Read the news. Also, I've been to school and know it first hand, and hear it in the news and from current students at college." Well, as a teacher at a university I don't try to instill a leftist leaning. Since I teach biology courses that wouldn't really be appropriate. What I do try to teach is a way of critically evaluating information. You can think of it as a series of questions: What is the objective evidence for this "fact" (i.e. what experiments were done)? Are there alternative ways of accounting for these experimental results? What are the limits to my understanding of this system? How does this "fact" (or hypothesis) relate to other facts or hypotheses that I currently believe? What are the logical predictions that follow from this hypothesis? In dealing with graduate students working on research projects, I emphasize how they have to generate a hypothesis to explain their experimental results, then try their very best to design and carry out more experiments to try to shoot down their own ideas. Always be rigorously self-critical about what you know and what you only think you know. Now, all of that is taught in the context of science, but inevitably it spills over into other aspects of belief and "life" in general. Why do I believe the things I do? Is it because my parents, my friends, my minister, or my president told me that that is what I should believe? Is it because the punishment for not believing is social ostracism, or a permanent vacation in the lake of fire? Or is it because this particular belief is the best available explanation at this time for a particular set of facts? The outcome of this way of thinking is that "tradition" loses force as a reason to believe certain things. Similarly one becomes less inclined to assume that parents, religious leaders, and government figures always know best. Also one becomes more comfortable with changing your mind as new information becomes available. Come to think of it, I guess that does sound a lot like a "leftist" point of view. _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

A long time ago I saw something on TV about someone designing an emergency parachute for small aircraft. There was even video of a Cesna landing under this system, with minimal damage. However I haven't heard of such a device being used in the "real world". It would seem to be ideal for gliders; you could have a big round reserve under a pop-top behind the cockpit, with a handle inside the cockpit. No need to climb out and jump, which can be hard or impossible in a spin. I can even imagine an AAD, something like a student Cypres (it's hard to visualize accidental deployments from exceeding the descent limits while swooping the runway in a glider). Silly idea, or more business for the riggers out there? _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

Would an uncocked, torn, or entangled pilot chute generate enough force to unstow the lines? If not you have just spent time transitioning from a pilot chute in tow to a bag lock. I'd vote for emergency procedures and forget about pulling on the bridle. _____________________________________ Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996) “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)