Praetorian

I just moved back to Eastern Washington and am very happy that my "local" (read closest) dropzone is such a great place. my (beer) jump there was a 2 way with Rex the DZO. I checked the dropzone out by stopping by during a previous weekend trip and came back last weekend, on a sunday afternoon I caught the last 3 loads of the day. Great atmosphere friendly people, great facilities. For a part of the country where you would expect a small Cessna 182 dropzone connected to a regional air strip, it was trilling to find a private airstrip with a turbine (caravan) high quality military trained pilot, and a welcoming atmosphere. It isn't one of the mega dropzones, it isn't a tiny 182 club but it has some of the best aspects of both, I'll be a regular and I recommend it as a great place jump.

on the off chance you werent joking The object breaking the soundbarrier cant hear the "boom" Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

Funney thing about Unions... in EVERY instance I've seen or read about, prior to Unions the bosses SCREWED their employees as hard as they could, with in the law (sometimes in the grey area, or blatently in the red of the law) And the there were UNIONS And for a time Unions fought to get their members a less screwed deal, until they finnally got what could be considered a "fair deal" And then the Unions began to do the Screwing, the union officers screwed the union members, the unions screwed the Bosses and the companies, and many companies folded. In EVERY case those who have the power abuse it. Yay pilots union, pilots paid more = DZO gets less/club gets less to cover other expenses, or jump tickets go up. Push the price up too far and fewer jumps get made, and pilots loose their jobs... I for one do think about money, I'd jump more if I could afford it, I'll jump less if prices go up not because I want to jump less but because for my limited income there comes a point .... (point already covered by many posts) Sorry I hope this is not too far off topic, I just don't agree with the "socialist" solution any more than I feel the "market" solution is best (or even real, we d not have a free market, there are regulations, there are rules, and they are NOT only dictated by cash transactions) Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

(not a direct reply to anyone) ? how is this not STUPID simple... if the harnes don't fit you WILL fall to your death, so YOU CANNOT JUMP sorry, this is for fun not assisted suicide! Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

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now you sir are a voice with some serious knowledege! anything to this other than using a light avation plane for acrobatics it was not built to take? and if yes any idea why it did not break during the high stress manover insted of after returning to level flight? Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

you are correct sir, (end best ed Mcmann voice) very low rez the first time I watched it Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

Break.com has a clip http://www.break.com/index/wingless1.html of what looks like a twin otter taking off, doing a loop, then returning to level flight only to have both wings snap off outboard of the engines ... needless to add it goes in .. I don't think this was a jump ship I'm just curious if there is any more on this type of thing with the otters, I'm sure its just a matter of the plane being pushed beyond design strength and the failure taking a few seconds to show (some asian language, I speak none of them so I can't tell which one, no disrespect intended) on second view it may be too small to be a twin otter Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

THAT is seriously messed up... anyone hear that... its darwin calling!!! remember sometimes selection candidates screw up so big they get others killed... though in this case I'm seeing the jumper as just as guilty, and luckey Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

I'm curious, in the end what is going to happen to John? USPA, State, Federal? I'm wavering between extreemly vengeful and fairly forgiving... because I was not actually hurt I'm having trouble holding a grudge (something I've never been good at) that said I'm still pissed off and am curious what people think should be / will be the out come? USPA.. membership? State... criminal charges? Federal .. Criminal charges? these are FEDERAL documents that have been forged No one that I am aware of was actually hurt, but negligence charges? I'm not personally interiested in civil action, but I'm not sure I would say the same if insted of a pencil packing a good rig, he had misrigged a total for me... Wadda ya all think? edited to fix some grammer Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

In the case of the "rigger" in question, each of my 3 "repacks" was preceded by me pulling my handles in front of him, he always carefully handeled the freebag(which never really left the container) and the pilot... I figured it was to protect my gear ... actually it was so the freebag was still in place and he could just close the container, put a new seal on it, charge me and call it good. Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

I'm glad my C1 has 4 more years, all comers will have that time to prove themselves before I buy my next "hopefully not needed, may not work insurance policy" ... if I had to buy now I'd go Cypress2 just because of the way SSK handeled my cypres 8 year, followed by a MISINSTALL by my "rigger" see therad FAA decision... the "install" could have damaged the unit, so they asked for it back checked it out and replaced the "potentially" damaged cord... ALL FREE.. well not the 8 year check. I know they are only protecting their rep, but their interiestes and mine coinside and I think this is good customer service Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

My bro sat Observer on my first jump (tandem with some buddies, he had a recently broken ankle and the Dr. would not clear him to jump) Kapowisn Washington (not the new DZ they moved to) bench seat on the otter Facing the DOOR, wearing a belt. he had a pilots reserve on, got a good safety briefing, the watched us all exit and enjoyed the ride down in the plane Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

all fun and games aside, my rig was inspected, they found the pack job of the rigger who assembeled my gear 2 years ago, Jon "pencil packed" my rig 3 times the first and third of these "repacks" were my spring repack after a lay off through winter. they also found my freshly 8year checked cypres mis-installed and potentially damaged. Anyone who tells me this is no big deal can KISS MY.... (wow I am still pissed off!) the big deal here is someone bet my life on their lazyness, took my money and gave me their word on a service I am not qualified to do... rigging is something I'm not interiested in, but after this I might have to get my riggers ticket just to trust my reserve pack job ! what sucks is I'm not good at sewing, have no real interiset in rigging and am not sure I've got the time to remain current at being a rigger, so in the long run I may know my reserve was repacked but I doubt my pack job would be as good as most if not all dedicated (honorable honest) riggers. Not a fun place/mindset to be in. Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

I'm one of the wronged, I cannot express in words the level of betrayal I'm feeling... if you have a rig packed by John, get it repacked NOW, I'm too pissed to risk further comment in a public forum, if you NEED more (no just for curiousity) please PM me Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

Warning I am repeating advice and do not know this to be true first hand I am told that for swooping you are better off learning on a Sabre2 than a stiletto, the stiletto has a very short recovery arch were the sabre2 is more like the swooping machines you will fly later. Stiletto will teach you to setup too low and depend on the quick recovery arch too much ... AGAIN I don't currently have the skill to begin swooping, I just LISTEN a lot to the "real" flyers Someone who knows PLEASE correct me if I've got this wrong Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

none yet so um 200+ to my first reserve? Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

I'm betting the rush, the "fear" the using your will to force you out the door despite the objections of your instincts... will subside, I thought I'd get the rush forever... nope and to be honest I don't miss it because as it fades your connection to what your doing your real focus only SHARPENS ... pardon the metaphor here but, eairly skydiving is like sex, later on its like sex without a condom! (as far as feeling goes) ... please no flames about pregnancy responsibility or disease, these are out of the scope of this terrible metaphor Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

You'd think but look at the war against medical waivers that would insulate doctors from malpractice suits... no state accepts an adults waiver of the "right" to sue a Dr. EVEN FOR ELECTIVE SURGERY like vanity plastic surgery! Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

WAY WAY WAY OFF TOPIC HERE ... BUT cars will NEVER run on water, water is NOT an energy source, if you are talking about hydrogen you are fooling yourself Hydrogen is also NOT an energy source. Hydrogen can run an engine (again water cannot) however hydrogen has to be produced and collected, it cannot be grown in a field nor can it be dug out of the ground. Hydrogen cars are like electric the power has to come from somewhere. Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

Zipp0 Nope, first the DZO will need to recover the loss in PROFIT from when gas prices spiked, second best to bulid a bit for when they spike again... and they WILL spike again... third when have you EVER seen a price DROP in a nitch market? and of course 4th fuel prices will NEVER drop again not for dino based fuel in a world with an exploding population, especially when that population is focused in nations currently working on "modernization" like china and India Edited to actually include a reply Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

I still see value in thinking about incidents BEFORE they occur, you have NO time in flight, you have INFINITE(relatively) time on the ground. When I think about skydiving at home, at night, on the ride home, I think about all the shit that can go WRONG and plan my response AHEAD of time, same as training to turn RIGHT in the event of an imminent Head on collision. to chop or not to chop in the event of a TOTAL. How to maintain altitude awearness, what to do if you find yourself low. thinking about your response and visualizing the problem before hand, discussing even improbable events Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

NO NO NO I don't ascribe to the no point in talking about it line. Simply DISCUSS all options you can think of, when someone says, well in a baglocked (like the diagram) there is nothing wrong with describing one flavor of Fu#ked and say how you would deal with it, arguements about the best courso of action should be specific to that flavor of Fu#ked and then we can go on to the next flavor... if we find enough where we can agree (or each of us personally feels, after all in the end it is our own ass on the line) that a LOT of flavors have a set best response we can train that as our basic response to a horseshue. leaving the rest of the discussion for the unlikely place where we have a lot of altitude to really "work" the problem (meaning more than just the distance from normal pull to decision altitude) in a High speed mal I have about 7 seconds MAX between normal pull alt and my "screw all else pull silver" altitude Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

They say its wrong to hit someone in the face with a closed fist... but it is ... on occasion... Hilarious (stolen quote, can you name it?) Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

well not including fueling and load/jump run I'd say thats 4per hour, but with fuel and load/jumprun I'd say 3 per hour more like 7 every 2 hrs next questions 1 or 2 pilots (whats its gross weight) how many per load just to turn the thing? if the exit is rear only is that gonna be as useful as a large otter side door? or more like the 727 single file thing ohohoh and they have retractable gear too ... big insurance BUMB Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.