DSE

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Posts posted by DSE

  1. As an FYI on Nationals;
    the rules require a C license or better. So...if you're an A-license skydiver with 5,000 skydives, you will not be able to compete.
    If you wish to compete at Nationals, you've got plenty of time to upgrade your license to a C. It would be a tragedy for someone to travel all the way to CSC for nationals and find themselves turned away for not being eligible for a Nationals competition.

  2. HIGH1

    What are the Wingsuit categories per manfacture for the Paralog Performance Competitions?



    As you look at them, it's relevant to know that not all competitions will recognize all three categories for suits. For FAI world events, there is ONLY an open class, for US Nationals, only advanced and open, and for the US Performance Cup, same as US Nationals.

  3. Good point, but there is a point of diminishing return. We should have asked DougH what his budget is. My thought (likely a wrong assumption), is that this is a short-term project til his body heals. Therefore, spending a lot on a lens with an old body, likely won't pay for itself before end of season. however...good glass holds its value as well as diamonds do, so investing in good glass is never a loss.

    And that said, I'm turning into an anti-DSLR snob anyway. :) Switching everything over to E-mount, and dang...that's spendy.

  4. Quote

    Loading up a Pulse would be like trying to do hot laps of your favorite racetrack in a family car. Sure, you can drive it "fast" but that's not how it's intended to be used. Accordingly, you don't want to be sitting in a Ferrari in stop and go traffic.



    A perfect analogy!:)

  5. Amyr

    Thanks pchaman and Tom, It is Sigma rating. that I plan to pursue when I meet the last requirement, which is 29 more jumps. Although walking in the door with 501 jumps to me is a bit scary. I have went ahead and obtained my medical, coaches rating, am current Have 4 years in the sport and have my freefall time. I was hoping, and at the same time trying not to appear totally naive that there was a rental program like with sports rigs that would allow one to "try a tandem rig out". I can see with the mountain of legal issues (now) why that wouldn't be something so simple and easy to do.. Wish I was closer to Texas and your DZ Tom, I have strongly considered going to Kansas (i have family there, I can stay with while taking the course) and taking the amazing Jen Sharps course. Also living on the East coast and with the never predictable weather and the possibility i may need more than one trip to complete the course am considering Florida and Sky Dive Ratings course. THANK YOU GUYS appreciate the help.



    Two thoughts for you;
    A-you've indirectly met Tom Noonan; he's about as top-dog in tandem training as there is in this world. If you're considering Florida, find Tom. Failing that, find Jen.

    B-the finest tandem instructor I've ever met is 5'3" and 125 lbs. She takes the big guys and ladies, and can pound out 14 jumps in a day with a big grin on her face while making everyone that she takes, like they're part of the best skydive she's ever had.

    Have fun!

  7. champu

    a) If four people drove to his house "minutes later" and yelled at him for shooting their drone that kinda outs them as having used the drone to snoop on the guy (even if it wasn't personal, i.e. they just wanted to spy on whomever.) I wonder if the camera was streaming and recording locally and if the memory card survived.

    b) If you knew someone just shot your drone down, why in the god damn world would you go to that person's property immediately afterwords and confront them?

    c) The guy has a point about #8 shot. Frankly at "suburb distances" unless you shoot directly at someone or directly through a window or something you're not going to hurt bystanders. I live in a city though, so I definitely wouldn't try this.

    d) I'm curious to know, of anyone who objects, what their feeling would be if the guy used something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE1ZRupUfPo (a net gun.)



    The memory card did survive, and the police used it in part, as cause for arrest.
    The owner of the drone was able to show flight tracking information demonstrating that at no point was the UAS below 150', and at no point did it "hover" over the Kentucky man's home.
    http://www.wdrb.com/story/29670583/update-drone-owner-disputes-suspects-claims-produces-video-claiming-to-show-flight-path

  8. douwanto

    Hog Wash. Seems to me you want the USPA to hold only tandem instructors to this high level of moral conduct and not the rest of the instructor community.
    The high horses around here are way to high and I expect some will be falling off sooner or later.

    :)



    You'd be wrong. I feel any instructor should be held to this. TI's however... *always* are in total control. Ergo, TI's should be held to the standard first and foremost. AFFI's are not always in total control of their students. Each DZ I've worked at has mandatory, random drug tests. I'm a fan.

  9. This should likely be split off into it's own thread:P

    Sport competition and tandems fund this sport.
    Without funding, there would be no development. Without development, the sport would stagnate. Can we agree on that?

    Development means BOC instead of ripcords, three rings instead of Capewells, squares instead of rounds, and turbines instead of pistons.

    In short, we NEED manufacturers to be present, part of USPA, part of competitions, and evolving the sport. So..it's good that we recognize their importance to the board, to our sport, to individual members. It's trickle-down politics. B|

    I entirely agree, RD's should be forced to vote by name. I've been present when several RD's have voiced a request to vote by name; it usually comes across as a threat. "I ask for a vote by name" so that when the position passes or fails, the RD has to answer to his/her region for voting against them. Unfortunately, that's not often the case.

    There is at least one person on the board who often flipflops his position, voting for what his friends want vs what the USPA needs. I've watched him do it more than once. For the first time in a while, he's running against opposition, so with luck, he'll disappear from the board. With more 'modern' people on the board, perhaps voting by name could become more common.

  10. fencebuster

    Actually, the FAA does not try to hold TIs to any standard, much less the standard of Air Transport Pilots (ATPs), which is what "airline pilots" are. The FAA does not require a medical of any kind to act as a Tandem Parachutist in Command; that is solely a requirement generated by USPA.



    Charlie,
    Imagine that your guy has been given his rating (I've rec'd several PM's from people about your guy, but that's entirely another topic). Imagine that he bounces in a student, whether he's sober or not.
    Now imagine the USPA having to explain on the morning television show, sitting across from the local director of MADD, that in spite of multiple DUI convictions, our membership organization gave him a license to fly students. That's not going to serve the USPA, our lawyers, nor our community very well.

    I understand now, that you've got a friend that you want to employ, who doesn't meet the requirements. OK, fair enough. And at a DZO level, I think that's great. At an administrative level for our membership organization, I feel that it is wrong. While personal agendas do make it to the BOD, it's the membership's responsibility to do their best to prevent it from happening, when possible.

  11. jlmiracle

    So, DSE, are you saying that if you were running, you would be more likely representing the Group Memberships then you would be the individual memberships?

    There is no manufacturer membership that I am aware of.

    As you stated about attending a meeting, and I have attended a few, they sleep, play on their phones, text their buddy across the room, make fun of the guy doing the current presentation, read the newspaper and really give no indication they want to do the job they ran for and were elected to do. They are there to get drunk and do their little under the tables deals.

    Quote

    Keep in mind that just as many skydivers want manufacturer sponsorship, so do some members of the BOD, just in a different way.



    What is your source for the above statement?

    Judy



    No, there is no manufacturer membership, that's what PIA is for.
    And...plenty of manufacturers and their people are members themselves, so of course they get a vote that way, too. Bill Booth, Sandy Reid, etc, all members of USPA and they have their own voice.

    I don't have an issue with BOD members wanting to be "friendly" with manufacturers and whatever agenda a manufacturer may have from time to time, so long as it doesn't interfere with how they represent individuals in their Region. More than once, I've observed RD's go exactly opposite what their region had requested, either in presentation or polls. One RD commented that his region "didn't know what they wanted, and didn't understand what was going on."

    At the same time, I wonder if the individual members understand how much the manufacturers bring to the table for competitions and overall support for USPA?

    My bigger concern is that there are BOD members that are on the board simply to protect their turf, their DZ. Those BOD members don't at all represent their memberships, IMO. They represent their own business.

    Does that best serve the needs of a membership organization?

  12. Unstable



    So far I have only seen one issue, and that is the TM's and DUI's. Where else could a BOD member have to choose between two masters?



    -Most any tandem issue (tandems before 18 y/o, demos, gear life span, etc)

    -Manufacturers may decide to require XXX for AFF, static, IAD, where DZO's don't want it.

    -Insurance conversations

    -Mandatory AADs nationwide (wouldn't that make Airtec, Vigil, and Mars happy?)

    -Landing area topics could have them serving individuals differently than groups.

    There are myriad places where the BOD might serve manufacturers over the best interests of individuals, and very few places where it might serve the other way. Keep in mind that just as many skydivers want manufacturer sponsorship, so do some members of the BOD, just in a different way.

    Attend a BOD meeting; I recommend every member of the USPA attend at least one. You'll get an idea of which RD's actually do anything, and which ones are there to have a free flight and meals to somewhere other than their homeland. There are BOD members that shake hard, work hard, and come prepared with data from their regional membership, there are those that are there solely for the purpose of making sure no rules are passed that will (in their perception) negatively impact their DZ operations, and there are those that literally sit on their ass and argue about punctuation and spelling, offering nothing but useless drivel. You'll watch a great deal of backtracking, you'll see some empassioned beliefs, you'll see at least one BOD member sleeping (I remember when he once snored loudly in a meeting).

    It's a great cross-section of society.

  13. fencebuster

    There is no "evaluation" at all by USPA.



    So...you don't feel that rated Tandem Examiners represent the USPA either?

    As an examiner in my own right, I'd like to believe that my action, the training I present, and the goals to which I endeavor represent the USPA. Perhaps I'm alone in that belief?

  14. fencebuster

    DSE: I suppose the answer is I am not small-minded enough to accept at face value a stereotype. I spent 24 years as a Marine officer evaluating character. I'd rather trust my judgment in evaluating a person's character than on a stereotype or a "one-size fits all" rule. I lost the BSR issue. I accept that.



    I appreciate your candor, Charlie. And in one-one situations, I'd tend to agree with you.

    Do/did you have a way of proposing that you personally get to evaluate every single person with multiple DUI's that wants a TI rating?

    An organization like USPA is all about dumbing things down to the lowest common denominator while protecting its own, right? If that makes USPA small-minded, then I guess that's what they are from your perspective.

    I'd like to think of USPA looking at the larger picture, rather than being small-minded.[:/]

  15. gowlerk

    ***Charlie, if there were a TI that had been convicted of a DUI, goes "straight" and has a few years of sobriety, and then goes out and harms a tandem student...USPA will likely be forced to pay out for that. Let's say it's a cheap payout at 100K$.

    Who pays for that lawsuit and payout, if not the membership of USPA? It seems that in protecting the association, USPA rules protect the lay member, too. Do you disagree?



    When was the last time USPA was successfully sued over the actions of a member? USPA would need to be negligent to be sued. Your position on DUI and TI's is over the top. People with DUI's on their record can become professional drivers. There is no room for being under the influence of alcohol for anyone in skydiving. We just don't do it. Even those with past DUIs. I just don't understand how you can think this way.

    "Successfully sued?" Or "Settled?" A suit was settled quite recently.
    Both cost a heap of cash, so it makes sense to weigh the cost of settling vs attorney's fees.

    Relevant to Charlie's agenda; More than 100 tandem examiners said they have no problem with the medical requirement and support the current rule. If Charlie were the "voice of the skydiver," then perhaps he'd have spoken directly to the more than 100 examiners to determine what they wanted, vs promoting a personal agenda in the "voice of skydivers." Had the 100+ examiners agreed with Charlie, that the rule would have changed.

    There are some sorts of mistakes that can be forgiven in society. Restoring full rights in skydiving (or any other high-risk activity involving others) to someone with multiple DUI's isn't one of them, IMO.

    I cannot fathom the motivations of a DZO who would fight so hard for the right to hire someone who has been convicted of multiple DUI's. :S

  16. fencebuster

    DSE: USPA pays nothing. They disclaim all liability in writing and rely on their inclusion in every DZ waiver. Page 1 of the SIM, seriously. in all bold letters.



    Sorry Charlie (I've always wanted to have a real reason to say that :P ) I am 99% confident that I know different.

    I'd urge you to pick up the phone and call Ed Scott and ask how much money USPA pays out in lawsuits.

    USPA generally settles, if what I've heard at various boardmeetings in various hallway conversations is correct.

    I'd very much like to be wrong. Ed Scott would have to disclose if you asked him; would you take his word for it?

  19. Charlie, if there were a TI that had been convicted of a DUI, goes "straight" and has a few years of sobriety, and then goes out and harms a tandem student...USPA will likely be forced to pay out for that. Let's say it's a cheap payout at 100K$.

    Who pays for that lawsuit and payout, if not the membership of USPA? It seems that in protecting the association, USPA rules protect the lay member, too. Do you disagree?

  20. Csaber

    Huuuge thanks for Skyderby for professional and free support of the Hungarian WS National 2015, which was the first ever same suit flying event on planet



    Not quite...:P
    Skydive Elsinore hosted Phantom 2-only events in 2011 and 2012. I'm not certain they were the "first in the world" but that didn't matter at the time. I believe there were other Phantom boogies at other locations.

    Congrats on a fun event.

  21. Laszlo hits the nail on the head...it's not for everyday jumping, and you'd hate it for tandems. The workflow isn't there. It's designed for production.

    Most are using tools like FFMpeg or Cineform to convert Cinema DNG to Avid dnx or other format. There is no point in editing raw unless you absolutely have to, and have an absolute monster machine that is clean as can be (very rare in the skydiving world, IMO).

    that said, I've got an Odessy for this sort workflow, and yes, that's the route I'd take. ProRes is fine for 99% of the work out there.

  22. I couldn't tell you. I likely won't load past 11. Since all of Win10 is backwards compatible excepting legacy hardware, I can't imagine it's a challenge for older versions. However...I haven't (and likely won't) try it.
    Try the 90 day version of 10; see what you think.

  24. nolhtairt

    I think what he meant was that he isn't going to be tied in to some good-ole-boy network where they protect each other, as we saw with Sherry Butcher...

    In any case, he gets my vote



    If you think anything has been any different with the current president vs any number of past presidents, you're sorely mistaken. The only difference is, she's a woman and for some, that'll always be a grating fact.

    Charlie, I'd like to vote for you, but your position on DUI's/Tandem Instructors gives me a lot of pause. Convince me why your opinion is the better one.