Trae

Not sure if choppers count but it'd have to be a tailgate chopper.... best of both worlds except for higher altitudes perhaps. If not a chopper it'd have to be a CASA ...heaps classier than a Skyvan with no tailgate not there issues. Once you've jumped a DC3 it's hard not to include them in a list of favourites ... So best one?? a turbine DC3 yes please.

Pagans have more fun than heathens but the real winners are us hedonists . ps Everyone is a hedonist whether they know it or not some are just a whole lot better at it.

Good on you for handling it well.

How about 'NEWTOPIA' ?...pronounced like Utopia. For some reason "SPACULTY' jumped into my head as in a cross between spaccy & faculty . From your original ones 'The grid' appealled the most to me....so.... Spaculty grid New cult grid Culture grid Grid nexus,/nexus grid Newsex gridust

in reply to"Aha! Makes sense. Just go WWWAAAAAYYYYY...... to infinity and beyond!!!

Sounds good with the cyalumes. Last night -birdy I did I mounted a divers head-lamp on the top of my helmut. The lamp is the type that takes 4AA batteries and has a axial-swivel head . it didn't add much height to the helmut. The swivel allowed me to point it up to check canopy and then point it forward as a landing light. It is powerful enough to light up a landing area on a pitch black night. As it was only used for short periods of time the batteries have lasted well. Good for ordinary night jumps as well. I felt well equipped even for landing off if necessary. cheers

in reply to Happythoughts 'Ah...a word from The Keeper of Excellence. I suppose that anyone who disagrees with you is an "enemy of excellence". Does the Pope hat fit well? If the hat fits wear it there's enough hats to go around. Your replies appear to be very much from the 'enemies of excellence' side......fire away the putdowns ....not very happifying in reply to MarkM 'What incidents? Where are all these students pounding in and dying under too big of canopies? ' I know of at least 3 that have been in and out the courts recently. Ongoing legal action restricts me from saying anything specific about these cases....so I'll keep it general. You see if its too windy or turbulant and a lightweight person (usually a small female) has been put under a large canopy they are much more prone to the turbulance and/or being blown into areas where they can't easily make a safe landing given their low experience levels. This is sort of common knowledge or should be. in reply 2MarkM's "Frankly your post has no examples, no facts, a lot of BS and painting of DZs and skydivers in broad strokes. I can only guess you're trying to start a nice little flamewar. " BS? ..you mustn't have really lived yet outside da bubble. This sheet and heaps more is currently IN the courts ...you want me to spill all my beans at once????? I get the feeling there's a lot of student / novice/ skydivers that would just love to have their next 10 years jumping or medical bills payed by the dropkicks that are responsible for hurting them. in reply 2 "Spread the love and fly! Tunnel for the Cause October 14th & 15th 2005 a JFTC fundraiser. Tunnel Pink MafiaSpread The Love & Fly" Some people just don't recognise my type of lurve

You get done for stalking or treated like a 'can't read between the lines romantic fool' if you keep pursuing a woman who gives you the snub. It often appears that women that think they need pursuing (something to do with putting money in their purse?) are too high maintanance and not really worth pursuing unless you're just in it for the hunt. However if you feel true attraction nothing will get in the way of a good track 'em down and wed 'em.

Apparently the earth wobbles on its axis a bit and every 10,000 to 12,000 years spins right out and finds a new axis to settle down on. Apparently this coincides with the rise and fall of whole human civilisations. If this is true the extreme weather patterns (ice ages) that come with this realignment could make hurricanes/tropical cyclones/typhoons look pretty tame. Better off believeing it's not possible .....

in reply 2"MI had the most f***ed up self-defense laws I seen. Pepper spray: illegal. Stun guns: illegal. CCW? Forget it unless you are a cop or a judge. While I was there, the state threatened to shut down a Benton Harbor K-Mart for selling a firearm to a teenager. You know what they really sold? A BB gun! But according to the states goofy-assed laws, a BB gun was a firearm, and subject to all of the same restrictions. " This sounds just like the Commonwealth countries. You're not allowed to defend yourself with lethal force unless you're in fear of your life. Catch 22----Being in fear of your life is not a sufficient reason to get a firearm licence. But you can get a concealed carry license to protect some-one elses money. The crims can carry and threaten and use their little toys but the decent people have to call the cops before any firepower turns up after it's all over usually. The funny thing is the governments used the gun massacres as an excuse to disarm the country but if even one person had had a banger at least some-one could have shot back. Gun related crime reduced --yeah right ---only hidden better now.

I have been called 'Cluster Phuck' but its not my favourite. I prefer 'Treacle' or even 'Treat" but it's usually "Get your arse over here and bring your little mate"

If one existed now I'd either buy one or be saving for it...... you could finally go to sleep in freefall after a long day's flying and wake up safely returned to your feather bed .. all automatically as programmed. Naughty DZ hackers could be a problem though taking your exo-skeleton over and testing the failsafe circuits by bouncing you off obstacles . Also you wouldn't have to train students ..just toss them out and forget about them ...knowing the auto's 'll look after em. Pilots would be a thing of the past as the robo-planes rocketed us to height . We could all just wake up at the DZ just as the auto-applied stimulants kicked in ... Who'd want to die when future skydiving is gonna be so much robotic fun.

'What insurance for instructors? I've never heard of a country that has insurance for instuctors" Intructors in Australia pay a extra insurance levy due in part due to the number of negligence claims being made against sloppy operators. in reply to riggerrob's "Drop a few thousand students, then come back and beek off like this." Bit off topic ,,, your beef looks the old 'avoid the issue' and shoot the messenger tactic. I don't see this as a beef or whinge as such but more an attempt to discuss what I see as a serious issue facing anyone who has their head out of the sand & gives a sheet about our sport and its future out of the negligence courts. in reply to Hooknswoop'I wonder how many incidents have been avoided because DZ.com exists? ' Even one would be enough ??? Talk here is pretty cheap but its a good place to get a feel for the 'enemies of excellence'. Gotta start somewhere..discussing a potential problem and/or the perpetrators can be a starting point. . Thing is as a lifestyle skydiving only really delivers when the spirit level is high. When people are getting hurt and you can't rectify obvious discrepancies (eg novices on HP canopies) the spirit level has plunged to the point where caring individuals don't want to be associated with the irresponsible behaviour. in reply to NickDG's "So here's the plan: We scrap everything about how it works today. .......gear upkeep and give every instructor who showed up that morning $500 right off the top. Then they are paid for whatever jumps or classes they did. Then the "master riggers" .........if there is any left over the DZO can have it. The new deal with DZOs is after we train up competent and safe skydivers they get to milk those same jumpers for whatever the altitude pop is for the next thirty years . . . " This doesn't sound so bad..bit like a club would have operated., .By sharin the wealth a bit more equitably perhaps more skilled and competent instructors would feel like doing the job. This could involve perhaps a % investment or interest in any club/company run along these lines. The required skill levels would no doubt be higher than what appears a bit common at the moment. I have heard of some operations that DO pay a bit better. Hopefully something similar will make financial sense in the long run due to avoiding court cases for 'cost cutting' negligence. Most skydivers don't / can't tune in to the negligence cases and a lot of these cases get settled out of court and out of the general skydiving head space. One place I worked at for a while was continually having to retrain skydivers who appeared from a neighbouring DZ as they didn't have some of the basic safety knowledge or abilities as well as being misinformed about some areas of the sport.eg cutaway procedures or when to actually cut-away. They also tended to turn up with semi-worn out HP canopies sold to them by irresponsible people more intersted in making a buck than safety levels. There was some mention of ol' time DZSO restricting more vigorously the type and size of parachute that a novice could use. This alone would seriously reduce the number of incidents as it is common for people with less than 100 jumps to be buzzing around with the latest gear. One mistake becomes an incident rather than what could have been an injury free learning experience on a slower canopy. This might also encourage people to hang in the sport until they are considered skillful enough to be rewarded with access to a hot canopy. There has been some talk about who is negligent by allowing novices to use HP canopies. Lots of buck passing (paying off judges and such ) but no one wants to take responsibility for saying for example 'NO you can't use that until you've got 100 jumps.' on Responsibilty. I suppose this relies on the DZO being a knowledgable and respectable caring individual. One or two places I've worked at the head bods were still learning how to fly themselves . These places had none of the finer atttudes that a highly skilled long term team of skydivers/competitors has to offer. The way these low skilled guys employed in their own image was also a bit of a worry. Employ the person who would turn a blind eye to the corners being cut or safety issues totally ignored. eg adequate student gear maintenance. Something as simple as slipping leg straps has killed many inexperienced people. Point out any deficiencies at a low skill DZ and you get attacked as a traitor to their cause which is often no more complicated than money, booze and big-headed incompetence....with the actual work being in general beyond their abilities. This may sound a bit too strong as most operations do seem to be based on a good level of decency. I do find it peculiar how a lot of operators don't like being shown that things could be done better. The good places are more than interested if you have some improvements to share with them. Sure it's mostly good ()...the thing is it can be and has been a whole lot better. If you haven't seen it then you weren't there. Skydiving is more than just a cash cow. Often the people that find it TOO hard to do correctly shouldn't be doin' it in the first place. They're much better ast deflecting blame or 'shooting the messenger'. And they'll be the ones telling us we should take up another sport ... cause they're running it now. I've seen enough bullshit incidents covered up and would greatly prefer to be seeing as much effort being put into doing it right the first time . If you don't know what right is anymore then that's a large part of the problem we're all facing. The thing is in the meantime people are getting hurt unecessarily .... some of us see this as the result of negligent behaviour...I know my lawyer did and still does.

Warnie's a pommie now anyway ..(lock up your daughters). There's a lot of ozzies don't want him back as the kids now think it's cool to cheat on your wife with every stray cat in the bowling alley. that just leaves our fast bowlers.... ...now that batsmen wear helmets it looks a bit sissy.

in reply to"I wish I could have been a skydiver back in the days before it became all about money." I'll 2nd that wish. FUN Skydiving needs more clubs and less 'operators'. $$$$$$$ doesn't always = FUN.

in reply 2 "How did you decide "now's the time" to get [whatever] rating? " It really helps if you actually know what it is you're teaching. A lot of modern instructing is done by people who have been taught how to repeat the same old bits of information without necessarily really understanding it fully themselves. This leaves it open for small information gaps to turn into large ones ..and quickly...and dangerously. You might know you're ready when you feel that you can truly be trusted to act responsibly knowing that it is another persons life that is being placed in your hands. Instructors are often derided and sometimes applauded but it doesn't change the simple fact that sometimes they get it wrong. Are you humble and mature enough to accept your own mistakes/ deficiencies and learn from them? If not then it would seem inappropriate to place yourself in a situation where you are expected to point out others mistakes when a mistake or misinformation on your part could result in your students death or injury. Some people think being an instructor is just a way to rack up free skydives. Some people think being an instructor means that they are an expert skydiver. Having seen all sorts of people of all sorts of experience levels teaching skydiving it appears to me that the best instructors are the ones that realise they have a lot to learn from their students . Being an instructor doesn't mean you are excepted from learning yourself . If you are ready YOU will know it . If you're not ready but THINK you are hopefully YOUR instructors will recognise you getting your ambitions mixed up with your ability. Instucting is a position of high responsibility. In todays litigation environment a gross mistake on your part could be perceived as a criminal act. Hopefully when you become an instructor you will enjoy teaching as much as being taught.

The general increase in exit speeds due to larger aircraft being more common has made your 'fear' of floating into the rear of the aircraft very topical. Quite a few people have suffered tail strikes due to being light-weights or exiting when the aircraft is going too fast or in a climb . In general the less experienced or talented the pilot the higher the exit speed . If the pilots don't wear parachutes for some prehistoric reason they will often be very jumpy about people taking out their tail. Some aircraft in particular are prone to tail strikes with the low tail-plane more rear door types being obvious candidates. In trying to overcome these valid concerns of yours perhaps you could try doing a few jumps from much slower aircraft such as C182's . These little beauties slow down to less than 70 knots with ease making for much less stress at exit time. It is also LOTS of fun and easy to strut hang or try some other climb on the sircraft type tricks. A friend of mines speciality was to climb underneath the aircraft (C185) and come up on the other side and give the pilot a fright by banging on his window. One of the funnest things I've done climbing on an aircraft was to shimmmy down to the tail and climb up onto the horizontal stabiliser holding onto the front of the fin and wobbling the rudder for the pilots enjoyment. You can minimise your liklihood of a tail strike from a faster aircraft by putting yourself in the front part of a drag-out. It also helps to not grab too much air until you've actually left the plane. Also try and ensure the pilot knows you're still there if you're geting out last as sometimes they'll begin their dive too early. This is definitely a risk mangement type thing as these tail strike type accidents seem to keep happening.

Negligence in Skydiving...or...’Just sign on the dotted line.’ I’m wondering if recent (and not so recent) hikes in instructor/TM insurance premiums are directly related to negligent acts by certain people in skydiving. It appears that we are all forced to pay more due to the negligent acts of a few incompetent & uncaring people in positions of power and influence eg some incompetent instructors and dodgy operators.. There’s a buzz around that says that the disclaimer most skydivers signed (usually before their first skydive) has NEVER been beaten in a court of law. Recently I’ve found out this is a total crock.... Apparently the disclaimer has been beaten on multiple occasions due to negligent behaviour. Apparently you can’t contract out of negligence. Ie you are always owed a Duty of Care even as an experienced skydiver and most definitely as a student or novice skydiver. From my little bit of research such topics are Taboo within skydiving in general especially if you try to talk to the perpetrators about their seemingly uncaring acts. These perps roam our sport having committed their negligent acts usually against students or tandem passengers who know very little about our sport. Acts of negligence by incompetent instructors /skydivers are certainly not uncommon in my experience. It’s surprising how often the good ol’ ‘blame the student’ reaction washes on an unenlightened unknowing public . The insurance companies are not so easily fooled. Eg Over time there have been a swath of incidents involving insufficient guidance for students while under canopy. These include such things as poor target control procedure or training and poor canopy selection recommendations. Such things as too big or too small a canopy being used by students can result in incidents that the student has little control over. Eg small people under large parachutes in marginal or changeable conditions can often result in putting the student into situations way beyond their control. When these incidents result in death or serious injury it is seriously questionable whether they have been the victim of a negligent act. The perpetrators are often protected by a closing of ranks and often by other criminal means such as altering evidence or just simply lying under oath. Try and find out the truth about such incidents and you get to see the lengths that some skydivers will go to cover their tracks. Sometimes these people are even rewarded for beating the rap. Life for a DZ goes on even after very serious incidents with many experienced skydivers being experts at deflecting the blame. Some even managing to fool themselves about the true nature of many incidents they have been a party to. Facing the music over your own negligent acts is a tune I hope you never have to dance to. For you other types still wandering in the skydiving twilight zone who haven’t heard the music yet perhaps you can spare a thought for the people your negligent acts have affected. YOU may have forgotten but there are a lot of people out there who are still affected by your gross incompetence. Thankfully such behaviour appears to belong to a distinct minority. Take care and give it back as well.

in reply to "The main reason I'm still doing it is, so I can fly a wingsuit. Is that enough to stay in the sport? Please any advice would be great. " If you really want to fly wingsuits then YES it is worth it . There are not many other options anyway except perhaps BASE. The thing is even flying a wingsuit can get boring if you're the type that craves/needs 'real' excitement. I've met quite a few people who've thought skydiving was just a big joke compared to a lot of other sports. Motor-cycle racers in particular wonder what all the fuss is about. Base jumping can also provide a whole new level of 'rush'. Once you've dodged a few bullets skydiving sort of gets boring very quickly if you're looking for it to provide a rush. There are a lot of cheaper ways to get a rush...sometimes you can even get payed. Once you get fairly competent at skydiving it becomes more of a relaxation type sport. Wing suiting can really deliver here as each flight lasts more than twice as long as a skydive usually does. There really is nothing to compare to flying around in a wingsuit with people you like on the ground as well as in the air. If you really want to do this then hang in there but instead of doing what lots of other skydivers do (eg try and be world champs, instructors and such) use your time to hone the skills that will come in handy to make your wingsuiting more enjoyable eg do heaps of tracking dives . A large part of the call of the air is the persuit of excellence.(i wish I could spll that) Any sack of potatoes with an AAD can skydive but it takes a lot more to be able to fly. Have fun trying and before you know it you'll be doing it.

Sounds good. Perhaps a further developement of this idea would be some type of exo- limbed psuedo- bot that you strapped on. This contraption could then be programmed to do your skydiving for you by taking over automatically when you need help with a new body postion or manoevre. If this worked every student would have to wear one to make sure they 'do it' right. This could then be used as a walking device as well as a skydiving mechanon. If programed correctly it could even get you home after passing out at the fire. Astro boy crossed with the transformers meets skydiver....alrite.....

in reply 2"I thought low pulls while skydiving went out of fashion in the 80s. ' It seems that inappropriate hero worshipping is alive and well. you don't study history you get to repeat it etc etc...... ask an ol' timer about the ' Herd boogies" if you want to find out what happens to go lowers going low. If there wasn't at least one fatality in those comps then it wasn't a go low comp just some out of it trying to show off. The only way to get a real reaction out of the crowd was to bounce. low pulls???? ...yawn ..boring and dead-ended. You seen one you've seen em all. If low pullers where on the highway they'd wanna play chicken with every semi that went past. so....DON"T LET THEM DRIVE>

in rep 2 '...can tell me about a mistake that maybe you made when you started out, so that I don't make the same mistake.' I didn't like PLf's for some reason as a student and found them a bit brutal....so I developed my own 'NEW' landing technique. This invloved absorbing the landing shock with my legs and if necessary going down onto my knees. This new technique worked well for a time ..UNTIL....I had a heavier landing. My legs couldn't absorb all the force and when I fell down onto my knees I burst a fluid sack in one of them. It was an amazing thing for me to see the egg that grew out of one of my knees...it looked as if a chicken egg was under the skin. It took a while before I was OK to jump again ( a couple of weeks) and this gave me enough time to ditch the 'new' technique and realise that perhaps the PLF wasn't such a bad landing style after all. Now PLF's are still in fashion for all us fashion conscious look after you body type skydivers. ps...... don't let any-one teach you their bum sliding technique as its a surefired way to break your tailbone or worse yet break your back. happy tumbling

' Gotta have awar to keep your factories, Gotta have a war to keep us on our knees , Gotta have a war cause it's industrial disease...." ......or something like that. Just a few scattered but perhaps related thoughts. The comment that 'there's no winners in wars' may be true. Apparently the companies that built the Nazi war machine (including supplying chemicals to extemination camps) are now still operating as multi-nationals . Cannon fodder = genetic culling , socio-economic war mongering= technology developement acceleration, Armageddon is happening all around us with the end result being permanent high tech enslavement for any-on who survives. Is it worth it? Should we pull out? It'll probably be worse if we do now that it's up and running . Start a fight and then run away???? There's nowhere to run so not such a good idea. Gotta have a war it's called industrial disease. Pick a fight with this planet and it'll be planet 1 V's everything else NIL.