crotalus01

My friend Caitlin Smith passed away after several prolonged illnesses on Sunday Feb 12th. Her home dropzone was West Tennessee Skydiving. She had over 500 jumps and a D license before being forced to quit jumping due to her health issues. Blue skies Caitlin, fly free. I love you. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

That's awesome! Thought about contacting Pieces of Eight? I As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

He obviously intends to keep jumping (unlike you). Why would you tell him to sell his gear?? As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

BASE is self regulated - meaning no regulation really. When it comes right down to it, anyone can get hold of a BASE rig and go jump off a bridge with no training (not that that really happens that I am aware of - even death camps have mentors). Skydiving involves aircraft, and pilots who are potentially at risk of losing their license if certain procedures are not followed, as well as being mildly regulated by the FAA and has a requlatory organization in the USPA - meaning there are a lot more people who have a vested interest in skydivers being properly trained and knowing the rules. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Another consideration in analog vs digital is that digitals use batteries - I have had my Neptune malfunction in freefall 3 times due to a low battery. Kinda gets your attention when you exit at 15K and after the formation builds it still reads 15K (and under canopy it reads 20 feet!). As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

3 cutaways, 2 low speed and 1 high speed - I didnt look at my handles on 2 of the three, just made sure one hand was on each and executed my EPs. Maybe that was a mistake but it worked... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

I agree - I have 3 chops and the hesitation from chopping to pulling my reserve was maybe 1.5 seconds (probably closer to 1). One for spinning line twists, one for a broken steering line and one spinning on my back with multiple broken lines.... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

I landed a stepthrough once - it passed all my control checks, and I had plenty of altitude to see how it was flying. Really wasn't a big deal (other than being my own stupid fault - I also ignored a feeling that something was not quite right...) As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

The best way is go to the DZ and look up. You can't jump if you're not at the DZ. Seriously, it can be solid cover 3 miles away but jumpable at the DZ. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Frontloops, backloops and barrel rolls are in the AFF diveflow, so the expectation should be that those maneuvers will be done on student gear. I have seen lots of video of AFF students spinning on their backs, their sides etc using older student gear with no premies. Am I way off base thinking theres a big difference between trying freeflying and hucking a few front/backloops? As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

If your profile is correct best check that your DZ will allow students to jump a full face. Some will, some wont. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Under Armour... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Good thing you don't own the DZ then.... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

You should have sucker punched the prick. Every swooper I know will tell you to stand still when you hear or see them coming because its easier to avoid a static target than a moving one.... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

ChrisD - I asked for information, not a lecture. As for "skipping the controlability check", I can think of several scenarios that would in fact force a rear riser landing and have personally had it happen to me. If the fingertrap on your left toggle comes out at 600' what are you gonna do? I'm sure as hell not gonna chop.... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

I don't get that....2000' is not really that low. I have a handful of pulls below 2K and it was always my main. Never even got close to spooking my Cypres (when I had one). As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

The recent incident of a dropped toggle resulting in a femur fracture got me thinking about rear riser landings and I have a question. When landing on rear risers, how much is the stall point affected by having both toggles dropped vs 1 toggle in hand? Obviously you aren't going to have any emergency situations I can think of where you have both toggles in hand that force a rear riser landing, so is it better to drop the remaining toggle or hold onto it, and why? As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Well I was not flying so it was not up to me... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

A few times I have been on load where we had 30 seconds between groups with the pilot calling the exits for each group. One load each group got a seperate pass - I think the uppers were 80ish knots on that one. Not common but not exactly rare to see the uppers hauling ass with perfect conditions on the ground... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Hahaha good luck with that! My first was the first jump on a newly packed reserve (repack on Saturday, chop, repack on Sunday). My 3rd was my 1st jump on the 4th load of a boogie (and I had just watched a friend chop a spinner on the 2nd load)... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Good thing Sluggo held that PC until he got his leg back around it for a clean deployment. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Poll makes no sense...yeah a few times I have been on loads where it was a 3 way freefly and then a 12 way belly where the freefliers got put out first because of upper winds - but those were super rare, and they all worked out awesome. If the order were reversed completely wouldnt it be pretty much the same?? If not then why not? As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

This question is for you Chuck - I am a belly flyer and have only done a few freefly "attempts" so I know jack shit except corking to belly is way bad. SO - Yeah it was a total dick move on Simon's part BUT did he really add that much risk to the jump? I wouldn't think a guy as talented as him would cork to his belly. Caveat that I saw the "potential" grab/touch to the cutaway pad but it was the cutaway not the reserve.. Anyways I can see it both ways. Dave Lepka opines there was no real endangerment on this jump. Do you see it differently, and if so why? Open question to any who would care to add to my education BTW. Regardless it was a shitty thing to do. I really hope he can redeem himself in some way. I do believe (most) everyone deserves a chance at redemption. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Why does she want those specific names? Is it because of the Citizens for Noisy Skies page? As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Yes. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...