gowlerk

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gowlerk last won the day on March 2

gowlerk had the most liked content!

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About gowlerk

Gear

Jump Profile

  • Home DZ
    Gimli
  • License
    C
  • License Number
    3196
  • Licensing Organization
    CSPA
  • Number of Jumps
    2100
  • Years in Sport
    24
  • First Choice Discipline
    Formation Skydiving
  • First Choice Discipline Jump Total
    1000
  • Second Choice Discipline
    Freefall Photography
  • Second Choice Discipline Jump Total
    200
  • Freefall Photographer
    Yes

Ratings and Rigging

  • IAD
    Jumpmaster
  • Tandem
    Instructor
  • USPA Coach
    No
  • Pro Rating
    No
  • Wingsuit Instructor
    No
  • Rigging Back
    Senior Rigger

Recent Profile Visitors

5,317 profile views
  1. Russia's oil will get to market one way or another. We need it to fuel all our PT-6 turbines.
  2. When I Google Kozy Korner Kafe I find a few entries for restaurants in the Caribbean and a couple in rural parts of the USA. The FB post says it was not a KKK meeting place or headquarters and no doubt that is true. But the name likely was a dog whistle type of advertising to let the right people know who is and is not welcome.
  3. My understanding is that most turbine DZs who drop swoopers out low no long give any discount on the ticket price. I can see by your point that even so the extra jump run still costs them at least some time and fuel.
  4. Good luck. I used to hear occasionally that someone had managed to contact them on the phone, but it's been quite a while. There are some people who post here that may be able to help you with the info you need. By all means keep trying to reach Precision but maybe ask what for what you need here and also on the FB rigging group page.
  5. Ah yes, the law of unintended consequences strikes again. Restricting the pattern to prevent collisions is not the same as outlawing big turns. Those are two different issues as you know. Serious big turns absolutely need to be separated from the regular slow safe traffic that issues forward from large turbines doing FF loads. Either by time as in a separate pass or aircraft or by landing area. Or ideally both.
  6. I can not and do not disagree with this or the rest of your post for that matter. It very nicely wraps up the problem. Many of the most active skilled and influential jumpers today engage in HP landings. Many are also BASE jumpers, but at least that activity is done away from the public eye. Often these are the same people that are doing tandems and AFF instruction. And they have a lot of influence on the USPA BoD. Clearly most of the sport still continues to be willing to accept and allow participants to take that risk while also developing coaching programs that are a double edged sword. They teach skills that help reduce the accident rate but they also give a false sense that anyone can learn it if they just have the desire and the cash to pay for the equipment jumps and training. Let's not forget that skydiving is and has always been run by risk takers for risk takers. There is no redeeming social value in it and that is why I am hesitant to tell others what risks they can take. We talk about the trauma inflicted on us and sometimes the public by witnessing landing mishaps up close and personal. At the same time we push waivers at 90 year old passengers, pretend they are students, and hope their skin doesn't tear open in the breeze and they don't fracture limbs on landing. All to pay for bigger and better airplanes that we could never afford otherwise. There is plenty of moral hazard to go around in this game we call a sport.
  7. I'm glad that is working for you. The Lord works in mysterious ways.
  8. Okay, that is a starting point. But it hardly solves the problem. Should PD dissolve it's CP team and stop selling canopies designed with fast landings as their main purpose? Should landing discipline of 90 degree turns only become the rule?
  9. A small start up car company is running out of cash before it can become profitable. I wonder if there is a list somewhere of all the ICE car companies that have failed. In the meantime the real companies are pouring Billions and billions into battery plants and EV production lines while announcing the closing of ICE lines. I wonder where this is going?
  10. I can see your point. But Michael Cohen went to jail for the same caper. Why should this one fail? The wheels of justice grind slowly, but they make a fine dust.
  11. Hard to see it moving any other direction considering that ICE production lines are being phased out, models discontinued and money is pouring into EV infrastructure and production facilities. The dead enders are crying out in frustration again.
  12. This is actually a beautiful thing. It will cause the R party to be forced to rally around him and then give him the nomination. Even though he could not beat Biden last time around and will be even weaker next time. This will save Y'all from the possibility of a President De Santis. Who actually could be worse than Trump as he is far smarter and likely to be more effective at moving the nation backwards.
  13. Or you should do the right thing. Which is whatever it takes to fix the problem caused by the 2nd Amendment. I'm sure you are familiar with the concept of the "root cause".
  14. The lastest shooter was 28 years old and had recently legally acquired 7 weapons. Making it hard to get those weapons could very well have prevented this event. But that is not really the main point. Most gun deaths to both children and adults are not from mass shootings. They are spectacular but they are only the very visible tip of the iceberg sized problem.
  15. It's very doable over the long term. Confiscation would not be possible politically. But restrictions on new sales and a voluntary buy back program could slowly reduce the hazard. It took decades to reach the point it is at and it would take decades to improve it.