Reginald

Okay, I've got a friend that entered her cat in a photo contest. Her cat is currently in second place. Being a crazy cat woman it's very important to her so I agreed to help. It was effortless. Go to http://www.thecatconnection.com then click "photo contest" at the left and then click a radio button for Sophie. Please post here that you voted. It sounds like a silly little thing, and while it may not be as important as tsunami relief, it will make a friends day so please help. Blues, Ron "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Yea, the FF'ers whined about it being 0 degrees at altitude that day. If I remember that weekend I got 17 jumps in! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I’d not agree with that as a generalization. Canopy size is usually inversely related to experience (lots of jumps = small canopy) at most of the DZ’s I’ve visited there are experienced jumpers in both RW and FF with newer jumpers in both disciplines. It is not uncommon for a large RW group to have everything from sub 100 to 210 canopies, the same for FF. Separation at deployment is more important than separation at landing time for the simple reason that deployment is a high-speed problem relative to canopy flight. It is almost impossible to avoid someone deploying beneath you; it should be RELATIVELY easier to avoid a canopy collision in the landing area. My first priority on landing is to land safely, not to swoop the beer line. I am more than happy to land out in the field a bit if it avoids an impending canopy traffic jam. I’m also more than happy to hang in deep breaks and let everyone else land first too. Not to get off on a rant here but crowding in a landing area is a highly avoidable problem regardless of who exited where and who has what size canopy. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Honestly, it falls into two categories for me. 1. People that died in a routine skydive while exercising all due care and were jumping gear that was appropriate for their skill level. This type of incident bothers me; I feel sorry for the friends and family members of the person who lost their life. 2. People that died doing something that was foolish, e.g, jumping while drunk or high, swooping a tiny canopy they don’t have the experience or training for (usually against the advice of others), engaging in stupid behavior (Dog fighting canopies, cutting away intentionally when not necessary), etc. These people I have zero sympathy for. I’ve watched people die doing this type of stuff and it didn’t bother me one bit. Sorry if that makes me a bad person but stupidity is not something I have sympathy for. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Brian, I’m a big supporter of your concept. The specifics probably do need a little debate though. A number of your suggestions are essentially very similar to what the USPA already requires which I listed below. The one that has to go is 4) Stand up landings within 10 meters of the target on 5 consecutive jumps. No way students will be able to do that. Most struggle for the USPA version of five 20 meter landings that are not consecutive. USPA: 1. Plan and fly a landing approach pattern that promotes smooth traffic flow and avoids obstacles. 2. Demonstrate a stand-up landing. 3. Perform a braked approach and landing. 4. Land within 20 meters of a preselected target on at least five jumps. 5. Perform rear-riser turns (brakes set and released). 6. Above 2,500 feet, perform a maximum-performance 90-degree toggle turn, followed immediately by a turn of at least 180 degrees in the opposite direction (two times). 7. Above 1,000 feet, perform front riser dives and turns (may be waived if insufficient strength). 8. Accurately predict the presence and effects of Ron And yes I do ahve too much time on my hands.... "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Slight tangent here: My main is unceremoniously stuffed in a bag in 6 minutes. My reserve has every stitch lovingly inspected by a master rigger and is carefully packed and inserted into the container, moreover it is designed to open quickly and reliably (although it doesn’t fly as nice as the main). Both mains and reserves have malfunctions, however, I expect my reserve to be more reliable. When I first started jumping I worried “if my main has a malfunction why should I expect my reserve to be any more reliable…it can malfunction too.” Well sure it can but if you don’t trust your reserve you might hesitate at the moment of truth. Trust your reserve, which I also think means trust your rigger, which means find a rigger you trust. I had “reserve reliability fear” until I had a nasty spinning mal and had to chop. The speed and stability of the reserve deployment gave me confidence in the equipment. I no longer have “reserve reliability fear” "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I hit the point that I log in blocks at the end of a weekend. My last entry went something like this Jump 330-329 Date: 12/11/04 FF Time: Various Total Time to date: 5:30:27 (from pro track) Gear: S2 170 Alt: Various Description: Various 10 to 12 ways with Doc Mike, KB, Jim, Ron, Steve… As I change the types of jumps I’m doing from say 12 way to 1 on 1 coaching I change the block of entries. If I do a special jump such as a friends 500th I log it by itself. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Dallas is open on the 2nd. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

So do you think the incident was still caused by someone grabbing the hard housing? Is the person that told you your gear was safe as long as you were belly to earth (which IMHO is really bad advice) the same one that told you someone grabbed the hard housing to fire the reserve? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

How about a plowed muddy field a foot thick? And yes it sucks! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

1 reserve ride in 326 jumps. It was a spinning mal (picture a hard spiral toward the ground with multiple line twists and me with my back to the ground) You'll get different opinions but my current guess is cutaways happen about once every 500 jumps. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I love my Z1. The visor is easy to use and secure. I like the extra chinstrap. I like everything about it. My wild ass guess is that about 60% of RW folks use Z1’s and 40% Oxygen. As far as open face vs. full face I highly recommend a full face unless you plan on going directly into free flying. For RW virtually everyone wears full face. Imagine being on a 16 way skydive with 6 floaters and 10 people crammed in the door and all bailing out at once. What do you think the chances are of getting a foot or elbow in the face? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Not gonna happen. There is more to water training than just jumping in a pool and having an old parachute thrown over your head. There is a review of procedures that you should follow before you hit the water. Should you cut away or not, if so at what height? What should you do with your chest strap before you hit the water? What about your helmet, keep it on or take it off before landing? Just because you’ve done search and rescue does not mean you done it with a parachute strapped to your back. Water training is worth an hour of your time. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Now come on, that has to be for a family. Are you really telling me that your insurance is $12,000 a year for one person. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Actually, Premier does burn discs. It does not do nice DVD authoring with menu’s etc. but it burns simple discs jut fine. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

PS: Glad everyone is okay! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Man, there’s a lot going on there in the video. The rear float has his main flap open and it looks like there is something flapping around on your rig too. Just looking at the video I don’t know that someone pulling on your housing was the problem. The video makes it look like the reserve had a problem before you launched. You can see it flapping back behind you when you are setting up in the door! Man oh man, is this video ever a cautionary tail about gear checks! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

LOL, Anton I’ve found that I can date them on weekdays for a while. Oh sure they get tired of being second fiddle to a sport but I can usually get a few weeks of dating in first. Well Anton, let me give you an example of spin for the whuffo chicks that dig the “Danger Guy” thing. I’d describe the formation load Saturday night like this to other skydivers. “I was first diver out on the training plane. I had a collision going out the door and went unstable. I tracked over to the base that was building and for the life of me could not find my slot. I ended up going low and never making it in. I was facing an off airport landing and decided to get as close as I could and go for the downwind landing (in a 3 to 4 MPH wind) and only have to slog through 20 yards of muddy field instead of 50 yards. The landing was more brisk than I thought and I biffed in and rolled in the mud. I left an imprint that looked more like a chalk outline of a body at a murder scene than anything else. The whole DZ laughed at me that night. The next morning everyone pointed out my impact crater from 1,000 feet on the ride to altitude for anyone that missed it the night before.” Now here is the story I told to the ladies at the office. “Yea, I was on a 36 person skydive Saturday night. Jumps that big are particularly dangerous. It was great to be in the second airplane and have to fly over to the formation; it’s the harder position. It’s really cool to see that many other people in the air at the same time. Big skydives are really dangerous when it’s time to open my parachute though as you don’t want to get caught up with someone else and plummet to your death in a tangled mess of nylon. So I flew away from the formation as far and as fast as I could at breakoff. It put me so far away from the landing zone that I had no choice but to land in a dangerous field, who knows what obstacles were lying hidden the in the foot of mud. The winds caused me to land dangerously fast, and you know I just downsized to a higher performance parachute too, so it was a blistering landing. I managed to hit and roll it out and not break any bones that I know about. We drank beer that night and regaled in the fun we had! My performance was even talked about the next day on plane rides to altitude” See it’s all a matter of spin! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

LOL! I used to try and explain to my coworkers how safe it really is (at least relative to what the average whuffo thinks) and that I’m not some crazed lunatic with a death wish. Then I just gave up talking about it at all even if I was asked, I’d just say, “Yea I had fun this weekend.” After about a year, one of the more comely secretaries in my office mentioned that some of the ladies in the office were kind of turned on by the “Danger Guy” thing. Hmmm… I rethought my strategy about discussing skydiving at the office. When people ask me if I jumped this weekend, I tell them “Yes!” and then I play it up, “No shit there I was, I thought I was gonna die…!” Give the people what they want…especially f there are attractive young ladies!!!

Yea, but if I understand your post they only took the DZ owned gear and left everything else. Unless the gear was physically separated it sure sounds like the only people capable of making the distention between DZ owned and personally owned gear would be someone that was intimately familiar with the DZ. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

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Okay, I’ve decided to do this. I’ll still have to work out a few issues on mounting, etc. I’ve looked the net and only come up with a few companies that sell these. This is my current top choice. http://www.sports-camera.com/helmet_cam_ntsc.htm#Lanc_-_Sport_Remote_Control Edited by slotperfect to make the link clicky

Sorry to hear that. Motorcycles are dangerous. You should stick to safer sports like skydiving in the future! The good news is you'll be back in shape for next season! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I don’t think this makes any sense and seems to show a lack of understanding of the employment dynamics at DZ’s and the IRS tax code. I’m not beating up on you here but your questions appear to show a lack of understanding of these issues hence answering your question is difficult. First, most staff at DZ’s are independent contractors thus there is no employee/employer relationship. Taking instructors for example, they are self-employed and hence have numerous options available to them under the tax code already for retirement. I would guess the majority do not take advantage of them, however. Could you elaborate on your thoughts? It might make it easier to reply in a meaningful way. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Jumps 89-316 (and probably until about 375) WL 1.1 Ordered new canopy (expected to arrive at about Jump 375) WL 1.3 So yes, I‘m within the limits. I plan on jumping the new canopy at least a season so I’ll be under the recommended level for at least another year, at which point I’ll probably continue to be under it for sometime. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP