Zennie

bill Read your article. I think you've had your share. Let's hope those are the last you ever have to see. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Read my earlier post. I said it obviously depends on the quality of gear maintained by the DZ. Our DZ maintains good gear. I'm jumping it right now since I don't have a rig. You saying I should just stop jumping? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Dammit. That was me. For some strange reason I get logged out every once in a while even though I tell the browser to remember my login info. Wonder if my browser has some sort of expire feature or something... Anyhoo... Logansport. Hrm. You're pretty close to Lafayette. is there a DZ up that way or do you have to drive a little? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Seriously though. I think it's an overexposed ceiling light cover. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

The back of your retina? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Shoulda taken the quote and ran. ;) I've asked this question a lot and never really gotten an answer from anyone. Does anybody know of an insurance provider that will provide health/life insurance to skydivers? I have good insurance now, but if I ever quit my job I want to make sure I'm covered. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Nah, not really. This one is kind of dicey given the article. I can only give my take based onmy limited experiences. There have been days where I've be sort of iffy about things, so I ask my instructor and he'll either say, "Yeah, you can handle it." or "I wouldn't try it if I were you". I trust his judgment, since I don't have enough experience to guage what is too rough and what isn't. If he said it was OK, I'd probably go ahead. UNLESS, and this is the big part, I thought things might get worse between now and when I get to altitude. If a front's rolling in, it may be OK now, but 20-30 minutes from now on jump run, it could be really dangerous at ground level. I've seen it happen. This is when trusting your instincts is crucial. I really think these kinds of things are instinctual. I think we innately know when things like the weather are about to go bad. We get uneasy. We start pacing. We keep looking up at the clouds coming in. When skydivers are constantly looking up at a cloudy sky and buzzing amongst themselves, that's just not a good sign. Its at times like that when I think you need to not worry about looking cool and worry about living to jump another day. De-manifest yourself. No one worth jumping with will hold it against you. So, I guess to answer your question, I'm going to give a big wishy-washy "it depends". If the DZ operators behaved the way she claims, then yeah, to the extent that she relied on their judgment, they bear some of the blame. But she still should have trusted her instincts if she doubted them so much. As far as the litigation goes, at least she's not asking for the world like they would here in America. Sounds like basic salary losses and medical expenses. If this were in the US, she'd ask for anothe $40,000,000 in "pain and suffering" and "emotional distress". The legal lotto mentality here disgusts me. It's part of the reason I quit the legal profession. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I think the D lets you do record attempts and some demo jumps. Other demo jumps require a PRO rating. You can instruct on a C? I thought you needed a D for that. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie Edited by Zennie on 4/3/01 04:57 PM.

I'm sure the quality of student gear varies from DZ to DZ. At my DZ (Spaceland) all the rental gear are Sabres with PD reserves in a Javelin container (and Cypres, obviously). Two-handle cutaway system. Their smallest Sabre is a 150. I jump them now as I'm building my rig, so I'm not too worried about it being terribly different from my personal rig (when it's done). 'Course I'd prolly do 1-2 jumps with a high pull just to get a feel for it. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

In my case, I'll jump rental gear. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Someone who knows more about this correct me if I'm wrong, but USPA doesn't require you to progress from A - D. You can go straight to a D (or whatever) as long as you meet the jump & accuracy requirements and pass the written test. I don't know about reciprocity between different licensing organizations. I also don't know if you can be a non-US-resident and be a member of USPA (anyone?), which is a prerequisite to a USPA license. So I guess my advice would be to keep going through your BPA licenses until you get to 1000 jumps and then join USPA and apply for a USPA D. You might want to take a look at the accuracy & other requirements for the D so that you'll have those locked up by the time you hit jump #1000. After you get pied, take the written test and you should be good to go. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Rock on froggie! Your cousin would be proud of you. I know quite a few risk-averse types. I think I have the mindsets figured out. To the risk-averse, living is all about avoiding dying. Well, guess what? You can't and you won't. Life is a gift. A miraculous gift. And you only get one (unless your a Hindu or a Buddhist, but I digress). I'm made the way I am and I'm going to be true to myself. That means experiencing life to the fullest. Seeing and doing as much as I can. To live otherwise would be wasting this gift I've been given. How many people will go to their graves saying they've flown? Really flown. How many people have felt the warm humidity of a cloud (er, industrial haze) as you pass through it? Not many. How many will go to their graves having danced with clouds only in their dreams? Too many. If I ever burn in, I want my friends and family to know I wasn't dying, I was living. And if they sue the DZ or anybody else related to this sport that I love, and I'm around somewhere to see it, I'm going to be seriously pissed. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I'm with you man. I'd either be running one of the dictator chutes at Big Sky or diving Devil's Throat in Cozumel. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

You're not the only one that has that rule. It's my personal rule as well and it's one of our cameraman's rules as well. I'm always looking around, but in skydiving, just as anything else, you just never know what might happen. I see the Cypres as my last line of defense from Mr. Murphy. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

A little story 'bout a man named Ted.... A couple of weekends ago I was out at the DZ and the weather was sort of skitzy all day. Last dive of the day I manifest to do a 2-way with another guy. Right before the jump the clouds started rolling in and the wind started kicking up. This little voice inside my head started saying "I don't like this." I just started getting more & more uneasy as we got to 10 minute call. Finally I just decided to listen to my little voice & I demanifested myself -- with my partner giving me flak the whole time. But I'm not going to jump if it doesn't feel right and it definitely didn't. Well guess what? 5 minutes after I de-manifest, the pilot kills the engines and everyone goes on standby. Listen to the little voice. Always listen to the little voice. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Well, since tunnel-girl has replied, I think it's only fitting that tunnel-boy also jump in. Basically, everything she said. I had a bad chipping problem during my student progression. My next jump was going to be the one where you go out without your instructor hanging on. I happened to be in Vegas and decided to do some coached sessions at Flyaway. 10 sessions (i.e. 30 mins of airtime) later I went back and jumped. My instructor was absolutely amazed at the difference. I totally sailed through the rest of the training. So, in a nutshell, if you have a chance to do time in the wind tunnel do it! No matter how much experience you have it will make you a much better flier. I have yet to talk to a skydiver who did the tunnel and didn't come away thinking it dramatically helped their skills. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Excellent skreamer! Congrats! Double beer indeed! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Thanks all! I'm kind of reminded of that scene in Star Wars where Han Solo tells Luke "Nice shootin kid! Don't get cocky!" ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Heh, I'm not touching the socialized medicine issue with a 20-foot pole. But I will say this with respect to insurance companies. Your experience is largely dependent on who your insurer is and what plan your employer has. Small to medium size companies, with a few exceptions, have crap policies. In John Matthews case, I have just a three word comment: Aetna is evil. And I base that on stuff other than his case. Now in contrast to John's case, you have Dead Mike. Mike worked/works at Enron. I don't know what policy he had but I do know that they covered *everything*. And he was a mess. But Enron has some very good plans. I have Cigna PPO. They've been pretty good with me and my wife. Never had any real problems. We had Aetna for a while when I was with another employer and they were nothing but problems for my wife and her doctors. So like I said, quality of health care insurance is largely dependent on the plan you have. I've also found that I generally prefer PPOs to HMOs. Under the Cigna plan I can self-refer to my hearts content to any doctor in their network. If I have nose problems, fine, I just call up an ENT and make an appointment. If he doesn't find anything wrong I call up an allergist. Shoulder's giving me probs? I call up a sports medicine doc. It's nice. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

'Nuff said. Hoooo-aaah! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Arching right is kind of like riding a bicycle. It just sort of happens. After that you don't forget. Problem is, just like riding a bicycle, it's hard to describe how to do it to other people. You just sort of do it. It is a relaxation thing, but not totally loosy-goosey either. Ever swing a baseball bat or a golf club? You don't throttle the grip, but you don't let it fly out of your hands when you swing it either. It's kind of like that. Best advice I can give (and the only reason I'm giving it is because I got past the same bugaboo not too long ago) is to just sort of let yourself "sink in" to the arch. Let the wind flow around you and shape you, but have enough control that you can work it with your arms, hands & legs. Sounds weird, but that's the best way I can describe it. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

The closest thing I've seen to what I'm talking about is Sky System's Sidewinder. Nice rounded edges and nothing for lines to catch on. Plus it's full face so there's no ring sight to snag on either (my guess is you could mark a bullseye on the visor if you needed one). Pretty nice design actually. Problem for me is that my camcorder won't fit in the housing. Everything else I've seen either just has mounts for the cameras themselves or has housings, but they aren't contoured. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Oh man, I'm sorry. For once I'm at a loss for words. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

DAMMIT! My condolences to her family & friends. This is the second fatality in a row related to camera equipment snags. From just doing some quick reading here & on usenet, it sounds like she did everything she could, including dump the helmet. What could have prevented these two fatalities? No snags to begin with. This leads me to wonder whether its time for some of the camera helmet manufacturers to step up and design some "no-snag" camera helmets. Before, ya'll flame me, I'm not saying these are the helmet manufacturer's fault. Sometimes things just reach a point where maybe it's time to step back and re-evaluate the way things are being done. Kind of like when things moved from the ROL to BOC to offer better bridle protection. This problem has been known for a long time and these two incidents IMHO underscores the need to re-examine camera helmet design to prevent future problems. The best thing we can do from these two tragedies is learn from them and try to prevent future losses. It's the best respect that we can pay their memories. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Trolls (as a noun) are those nasty things that live under bridges and eat hapless passers-by. Trolling (as a verb) is a method of fishing where you toss out a baited hook and then drag it behind a boat hoping a fish will come along and take the hook. Personally, I think both definitions fit in the newsgroup-posting sense. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie