davedlg

No, he never went skydiving. He had said that he wanted to at some point, but he never made it out to the DZ. Nevertheless, I know he understood me. I took him rock climbing a number of times, he'd gone whitewater rafting with me a few times, and he knew my way. I wish I'd had the oppurtunity to get him into the sky though.

A few people on here know that my brother died last week. He was 25 years old. He was epileptic and apparently drowned after having a seizure while swimming laps. I am posting, not for vibes, but because I'm damn proud of who he was and I want people to know. My brother graduated law school last May and took (and passed) the Colorado Bar Exam last July. He had just started his life as a lawyer. He had some of the best courtroom talent around, and he could have made huge amounts of money working as a litigator, however, he found his calling in Family Law. He had taken on some clients on his own, and I'm told that he had a difficult time billing them when he knew they couldn't afford it. Apparently he even took a $30 retainer for a rather big case. All this while struggling with his own finances. His memorial was last saturday. At the memorial, we allowed anyone who wanted to get up and speak to do so. We heard from many, many people, and they all had the same basic message that he was a good person who genuinely cared about everyone. Just about everyone who talked said that he was their best friend, who always wanted to do the right thing. One person even spoke who had only met him once and spent one day with him, but she was so touched by what she saw in him that she had to come and speak. This one hurts alot. His loss is beyond words. I always thought he would be there. For the last week everything has felt hollow to me. There were so many things that I was looking forward to doing with him. I wanted him standing next to me as my best man when I get married. I wanted to have the 'spirited' political discussions we often got into. I wanted to see what he made of himself. Now I will never get to do those things. I'm always going to miss him.

Here's a good website for that. Not too exciting though.

Here ya go

Eloy is a big dropzone. Lots of jumps take place there. Statistically, this kind of thing will happen. Four fatalities from canopy collisions in three months is a lot though. I think it is more an indicator of the state of our sport then a specific problem at Eloy. However....they can do better. I'm not pointing any fingers here, as I don't think Eloy is run any worse than any other dropzone out there, quite the opposite in fact. Eloy is the biggest, best dropzone out there...they should be on the cutting edge of things in this sport. I think they can find a solution. I hope these last four fatalities should encourage them to be innovative - the other dropzones would eventually follow. With bigger planes, more loads, canopies with widely varying speeds, and the advent of swooping, there is a problem in the sport. Simply telling people, "fly a pattern and keep your head on a swivel" is NOT working. That is obvious. I think there are several things that can be done that would make skydiving in general a lot safer. First, keep swoopers and students way the hell away from everyone else. These are the two highest risk groups out there. There are two ways of doing this: physically seperating them with widely spaced landing areas, and seperating them with time...even to the point of putting them on different loads or doing completely seperate jump runs for these groups. Maybe the students should have their own landing area far away from where everyone else lands. Yes, they would have to be driven back to the dropzone, yes it would cost a little, but I think it is a reasonable thing to do. Such a thing is already done at Davis. Next, brief EVERY load on traffic patterns and winds, and MAKE SURE they understand. I know this is already done to some extent, but obviouslly people aren't getting it. Finally, spot EVERY load and watch everyone's pattern. Anyone who does not follow the correct pattern and established guidlines should be grounded for at least a day. No if's and's or but's about it. There is too much at stake. I really think that the goal of no canopy collisions is a reasonable one. It is probably the most avoidable fatality in our sport. It comes down to educating people, strictly enforcing the rules, and keeping the high risk groups way away from everyone else.

I didn't mean you. I was referring to the people who still live here and have stopped jumping or have nearly stopped. Yeah, this state tends to have that effect on people.

There, is that better? Now I edited too, now you just need to edit your above post and she'll never know! Of course then I'd have to edit this post too... Yeah, I think I actually found a new hobby more expensive than skydiving: flying aircraft as opposed to jumping from them. You're a pilot right? How the hell do you afford to fly aircraft and jump from them. I'm working on my instrument rating, and I think I'm going to go broke doing it.

What's your point? Just because I don't live in Colorado anymore is meaningless when it comes to my opinions of that state. In fact given the choice I would still be in Colorado. But I didn't have permanent resident status in the USA. I was only ever considered a temporary resident (unlike the millions of illegal aliens who are allowed to stay). Gotta love how the US immigration system works. Oh I know Karen can dump her boyfriend, marry me, I will sell my house here in Cowtown and resettle down in Colorado in some new digs and everyone will live happily ever after. Well maybe not Karen's boyfriend. LOL ... in my dreams right ... Trust me Steve, we'd love to have ya back.

Not to say that the front range doesn't get it's share of wind, but there are plenty of places that are windier. My vote for Karen is still in Colorado. I had the pleasure of meeting her a couple of times last summer and I think the good people of Colorado would warm up to her real fast. I'm definatly not trying to talk her out of coming to Colorado. Like I said, I love it here, and would be happy if I never have to move. But the expectation of getting 300+ jumping days just doesn't work out. Sunny days don't always equate to jumpable days....but they're great for other activities like skiing, mountain biking, hiking, climbing, etc.

I just got rid of my 98' Ford ranger with 187,000 miles on it without major repair.

While Boulder gets a lot of sun, the wind can also be a factor. Don't get me wroing, I loved my time in Boulder, but it is definatly the windiest place I have ever lived. Espically in the winter. It definatley makes for some interesting jumping.

I went to CU for undergrad and loved it. It'a a great school and a great place to live. I had a good friend who majored in speech pathology....it seems like they've got a great program there from what I hear. As far as hiking, rock climbing, snowboarding, etc., you really can't get much better than Boulder. Hiking and rock climbing are literally 5 mins away. snowboarding is 40 mins away (Eldora). There are a TON of kayakers in Boulder. There is a kayak play park in town and hundreds of kayak-able rivers in the state. As far a skydiving goes, Boulder is 15 mins from Mile-Hi, and an hour from the tunnel. There's also a small group of jumpers who run a 182 operation out of the Boulder airport.

Being the geek I am, I looked at it really closely. He appears to be on Jetway J-11 between the Bryce Canyon and Fairfield VORs. This means that he is not on a standard terminal arrival into SLC. The JAMMN FOUR arrival, Bryce Canyon transition runs close to where he's at, but he'd be about 10 miles to the west. It's still possible that he is going to SLC though, he could be following a non standard arrival procedure, or have been instructed to proceed direct via J-11 by ATC.

Twardo quickly regretted not paying attention in the "spinning malfunction" portion of FJC.

One of my good friends owns a video game distributorship. Basically he sells pinball games, arcade games, pool tables, tabletops, etc. to the people who put them in bars. He has a huge showroom with everything set on free play. Every afternoon the FedEX driver, the UPS driver, and the DHL driver show up and stay for an hour or so.

Sounds like you are going to need a lawyer. I know a whole bunch of lawyers in the Denver area if you need a referal. You might want to start talking to banks now to get pre-approved and see what you can afford so that you can go to the auction with financing in hand if it becomes nessecary.

Looks like he's setting up to land in SLC. It took me a little while to figure out what that was. I've been to that little town to the east before, so I was trying to think of what's in that area that might look like that.

That's what I was thinking. To a non-native english speaker "Lord Willing", which would not be such an outrageous thing to put there, might translate to "please god"

I haven't heard from them since they left, but I saw them about a week before they left they told me about it. Lemme know when the party is

It's only a convention that we prefer to analyze dynamics in non-rotating frames of reference. In rotating frames, centrifugal and Coriolis accelerations are fully defined. yeah, yeah relativity and all that. To analyize everything in the most absoloute frame of refrence we'd have to go to the center of the universe... Whether it's centrifugal or centripetal force depends on whether you are in the plane looking out or on the ground looking at the plane. In this case neither neither would be incorrect to say.

Actually, that would have been centrifugal g's, (or 'force') centripetal g's or force draws objects together as a result of gravitational pull between the objects. What you experienced was centrifugal pull that causes objects to be drawn away from the center of the spin... I know this is a small thing but I have seen the word centripetal used incorrectly in several posts describing what should have been centrifugal Not that it's the point of this thread, but he is actually correct. Centripetal force is defined as the force, directed toward the center of rotation, that is required to make an object follow a curved path at constant speed. While it can be caused by gravitational forces, it does not have to be caused by them. In this case, the plane was pushing against him with centripetal force to make him follow the curved path. Centrifugal force is a false force that is caused by using a rotating frame of refence, ie. someone sitting inside the plane will see him sliding outwards instead of someone outside the plane, who sees the plane forcing him into the curved path.

Another symptom of the problem with today's society: Study: College Students More Narcissistic

I accidentally left them around my neck once when I jumped. First the wind started hurting my eyes, then the goggles flopping around started hurting my neck. I spent most of the dive holding my goggles down in one hand.

Some interesting stall/spin reading: http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/topics/stall_spin.html What I found interesting: ...and that's with experienced pilots who knew they were putting the planes in a spin...

It means job security for me (an engineer) There are a lot of things that can be taken from that. Some people blame the education system. I think it is more of a societal thing. It was explained to me (by an Indian engineer) like this: Most American parents dream of their kids becoming a quarterback in the NFL, while most Indian parents dream of their kids becoming a doctor or engineer. The fact is, engineering school is tough and there is a lack of motivation for kids to go through with it. Why spend 4 years working your brains out in college, when you could be a psych major and party every night? Parents simply aren't bringing their kids up in a way that makes them want to study difficult subjects, and that is a product of our society. Sure, spending more on education might help push a few more kids in that direction, but it would take a major change of society to change those numbers. This does open up another debate though...given that we aren't graduating enough engineers, and other countries are, we have a demand for engineers in this country. One of the surest ways a to get a work permit in this country is to major in engineering.