Velo96

Coaches work under the supervision of an instructor. The Instructor must verify and sign for all items on the 2 sided card since that card lists only the advancement criteria for the various skills required for the A license. The A license progression card lists line-by-line all of the items a student needs to be trained for, some of which can be taught by a coach and initialed by the coach. Sounds like you need to find a DZ that has some patience and staff that understands how to train students using a modern system, so you are better prepared to fly a modern canopy along with all of the other things an A licensed skydiver should know. Maybe if more drop zones followed the ISP we would have fewer jumpers screwing themselves into the ground flying canopies they are not prepared to handle in a tough situation. Go ahead and flame away!

A new BSR will not prevent acts of stupidty and arrogance such as swooping in the middle of traffic. DZO's need to make a plan that works for their particular landing area, and make the jumpers stick to their rules. Those who refuse to play well with others should be grounded. It doesn't do any good to yank the membership of an arrogant asshole who has caused a collision and killed himself and an innocent jumper. That is about the only thing a landing area BSR would be good for. Unless the DZO's grow some balls, the stupiduty will continue and we will lose more friends. Separate the traffic with a separate landing area or through time by getting the swoopers to exit on a separate pass so they are not performing a 270 into those flying a standard box pattern. If everyone would learn more about canopy flight and respect the airspace around them it would go a long way towards eliminating these fatalities. That is, except for the occasional jackass who thinks he is above all of this and can swoop wherever he wants.

From www.uspa.org: Summer BOD Meeting Completes (07/16/06) The USPA Board of Directors met July 14-16 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Highlights include: The 2005 USPA Gold Medal for Meritorious Service will be awarded to Tom Sanders. The Sport Accuracy event will be eliminated from the USPA Nationals beginning in 2007. Several sport promotion, member recruiting and member retention ideas were discussed and will continue to be developed. Based on the success of the current sport promotion efforts, additional funds have been allocated to support PR efforts through 2006. Skydive Chicago in Ottawa will host the 2007 USPA Nationals. The 2007 Collegiates competition will be held at Skydive Arizona in Eloy. Procedures to challenge instructional rating courses have been simplified. The state and national record certificates were unveiled to kick off this exciting program for new and existing records. USPA Headquarters will examine member third-party liability insurance policies including partial self-insurance options. The 2007 summer BOD meeting will be held in San Francisco. The dates of the next BOD meeting in Reno, Nevada, have been changed to February 2-4, 2007. Look for a full report in an upcoming issue of Parachutist. Back to top

When are drop zone owners who are still using 7 level AFF going to realize that you can't train a student properly for freefall or especially canopy skills in a 7 jump program? 7 level AFF is one of the reasons that skydivers continually kill themselves with the same botched emergency procedures and poor canopy control year after year. The longer students stay under the guidance of an instructor or coach, and continually learn new information and REVIEW emergency procedures the better off they will be in the long run. They learn good habits as new jumpers and carry on with them as they gain experience years after their student training. The students should be trained to fly a proper pattern along with the additional canopy skills outlined in the Integrated Student Program, and the radio can be used as a back up in case they deviate from the planned pattern. Does the radio add to the cost of the student's jump for the DZ? Hell no. If they are busy and need more radios for other students, then maybe they need to spend money for additional radios.