DougH

Fatality rates are lower when the hospitals aren't swamped for infected individuals, and other critical medical conditions. It avoids people lying on the floor in hallways instead of in a hospital bed, like we saw during the surge in Italy. It allows for a better standard of care, and more achievable infection control measures.

We have a bucket of shoes that they can dig through to find a pair that fits. That is normally a good sign that my student isn't going to listen well, since they couldn't read the blurb on the website of what to wear. Here is a hint for you, it doesn't list hiking boots as acceptable footwear.

What happens if the snap comes free of its pocket and snags a line on deployment. It may be a small risk of that happening, but the result would be disastrous. Horseshoe that can't be cleared with a high chance of a reserve/main entanglement. We saw the footage from the mexico fatality when a side connector, that wasn't reattached after opening, caught a steering line. Also the older video of the vidiot doing a back flip through his risers only to catch a line on his boots. I always reattach the side connectors, and I never allow students to have hiking boots with hooks. This seems like another deadly snag risk. I don't want any snags on a solo fun jump either.

No it doesn't naturally follow that you are looking at gear. Cabin fever has me being overly blunt so here it is. It is super awesome that you are excited about skydiving, but you need to chill the fuck out, otherwise it will naturally follow that you will progress to be a student that is hard to teach and abrasive to other jumpers and instructors alike. You don't need to read about gear, you don't need to read about anything else about skydiving other than reading the drop zones website to understand what to wear the day of your jump (athletic sneakers, comfortable clothes that can get dirty, layers depending on temperature). There isn't too much information, because none of it is intended for you to be reading at this point in your progression. Learn as you go, from the DZ and its instructors. Have a wonderful time. Limit your reading for the next 20 jumps at least.

Jebus! Take the ventilator! Very glad to hear your Son is making a steady recovery!

You are misquoting me, it was yada yada yada, not bla bla bla.

What a shitty hope. Yet again we are living in the South Park Vote or Die episode. We have Giant Douche and Shit Sandwich to pick from. I am amazed that Biden was the best the Democratic party could come up with. This was a great opportunity to raise up a great candidate, instead we have to choose between a misogynistic racist drug addict that is actively undermining our standing in the world, and a senile groper who is 10 years too late and whose only qualifications now are being Obama's Vice President. Our two party system continues to suck.

Hate to tell you this, and I am just going to be rude and blunt, but your DZO is fucking you in the ass if you are getting charged 120 - 150 for a recurrency jump as a licensed jumped. Maybe you are getting confused with an AFF jump to get recurrent as a student? Most dropzones in New England offer free recurrency jumps at the start of the season. The uncurrent jumper pays their slot, and the dropzone covers the slot and the compensation for the instructor. Why? Because it is the non dickhead thing to do.

Mine as well, I am patiently waiting for the next Novel to come out. And have resorted to re-reading the earlier books and a number of the little offshoot novelas.

What does Mars and the Belters have to say about this?

CIGNA too.

We are just about ready to kick off the New England season in my area. It looks like most DZ's are going reschedule safety day, or offer an online stream of some sort. As far as actual opening days I haven't seen any flat out closures, and I don't think you will see that unless it is government mandated. I have a bad feeling that this is going be a tough year for owners,and full time skydivers.

Well smoking and obesity are two risk factors for having a much more serious covid-19 infection, so I guess it is just a roll of the dice. I heard that local police stations are testing meth for covid-19 because it is one of the substances that has been shown to be contaminated. Make sure you tweak safe, go get it checked out.

I started out by calling this other jumper an idiot, and they probably are, but the question is what do you mean about tracking up jump run, and what did they think you meant. It sounds like they were referring, not to break-off, when you track enough to get minimum separation from the jumpers on your group, and instead literally tracking up jump run. If that is what they meant then they should know that a premature canopy opening, or something else out of the ordinary like a canopy malfunction on opening will eat up that vertical separation from group delay in a nano second. Combine that with your movement relative to the other groups because of tracking, and you can get yourself a cozy coffin, or a rad wheelchair. If they mean tracking at the end of a jump, well yes, you track relative to your group center, and you should track just long enough to get the separation. IF you left proper delay between groups, and the group order was correct, then that type of tracking for separation shouldn't be an issue and your focus should be on a heading that gets you the best separation from your group.

I am not going to do much other than wash my hands and keep them away from my face. I have a newborn at home so I was doing that anyway. I did buy some N99 respirator masks for the slight chance that it becomes prevalent in my area and I need to be out in crowded places buying things. Staying home would be the best option if that did happen, but babies need things. I will use them for home improvement projects after this all blows over. The kid is supplemented with formula in addition to nursing so I may stock up on some extra formula. It will get used anyway, and that will reduce my need to be out and about in the slight chance that it ends up being common around me.

I read in an article that in interviews he openly admitted that the rockets were totally unnecessary and were only meant for publicity purposes with the hopes of getting future funding for another crack pot idea called the ralloon, part rocket part balloon, that he intended to take up to the edge of space.

Send them a link to this thread, and post it on facebook too. Everyone should know that they are being unreasonable jerkoffs, and they should know that we know.

Wow! I it looks like he lost a canopy early in to the launch. Don't know how all of this was planned to actually work. No good.

I think Mike Rowe is a better "Opra" singer than Joe Rogan. You get a dirty job, and you get a dirty job.

Millions of dollar invested in a racing team and a driver could be pissed away with one twisted ankle. Instructor could fuck up, student could fuck up. I think that they are well within their rights to ban skydiving for their team members.

The USPA group member affiliation means nothing in terms of safety. It only shows that they paid their annual dues. There are no inspections or other mechanisms to actually evaluate the safety of those operations. They could lose the designation, but that is long after a crash or a student dying because of poor instructing/student gear/etc. Your instructor made a good comment about aircraft maintenance being one of the areas cut back on, but I think that is more of a symptom of a ineffective DZO. Low funds and poor maintenance are both symptoms. A safety focused DZO isn't going to fly the plane when it isn't in the right condition, even if the money is tight and they have to send the tandems home. A smart DZO is setting aside the right reserves for maintenance so that won't happen in the first place. But MX isn't the only area of risk, smaller DZ's may also have green jump pilots that are earning their hours. I think that is of at least equal risk, because a good pilot can get you down safely when the rubber band breaks, and a poor pilot might panic and stall you in at the end of the runway. It isn't uncommon to have relatively new pilots with operations flying smaller single prop planes that aren't turbines. They should meet comercial hour requirments but sometimes just barely. The DZO needs to bridge the gap by getting new jump pilots good training from a more experinced jump pilot, and making sure that emergencies like engine outs are drilled. When you get to bigger more expensive jump planes the insurance companies start demanding more hours and training. Your best way to start evaluating DZ safety is your eyes and ears. - What is the condition of the dropzone on the ground, does everything look well maintained? - How does the student gear look. Is it nice and new, or does it look beat to shit? - Do you get a good safety briefing, or are they super casual about having a new jumper visiting. What about inspecting your log book and your gear, do they give everything a good look, or do they not seem to care. - Ask them about the pilot, how long has he been flying jumpers. If you ask nicely you should get a nice response. - How is the plane loaded. Do the instructors and jumpers communicate well, work out exit order, or does everyone just pile on the plane. - Are there seatbelts in the plane, and are all the jumpers using them? I won't jump at a DZ without seatbelts. And you should really start to question when people don't use the ones in the plane and no one seems to care. - What do they do about the landing pattern. Is it set, is it discussed, or does everyone act like it is their own personal landing area and land however they want, it which ever direction they want. Are people swooping in the middle of the pattern. Safety comes from the deliberate actions and the tone set by the DZO or club governance. If they make safety their key focus everyone else will follow. If fun jumpers and staff aren't being safe what kind of tone is the leadership setting, and what else isn't getting done?

This is a really great post, thank you for sharing. It would be awesome if you could type up as much of this as possible in the history and trivia forum, maybe post pictures too!

Being fully eliptical matters much less than the recovery arc. The older stilleto is a fully eliptical canopy, but it is horrible for HP landings. You want canopies with steeper recovery arcs that allow for higher longer dives that give you time to make adjustments. You don't get that with a Crossfire2 a Safire or a Pilot. I asked about coaching because I am suprised that your previous canopy selections haven't been mentioned by those coaches. Were you just getting general canopy coaching, or was it coaching that was focused on HP landings? I get the feeling that you are learning the swooping part as you go, which isn't the safest or most efficient way to go. My head is sometimes stuck in older gear selections and I forgot to mention the new Fluid Wing canopies. I have been hearing good things about the Gangster as canopy for learning how to swoop, but it isn't first hand experince. Might be worth tracking down a dealer to see if you can get a demo for all of these potential canopies before you make another purchase.

Safires and CF2's are both terrible canopies to learn to swoop on due to their short recovery arcs. I don't know your experince beyond it just being 600 jumps so I don't want to go out of a limb and recommend something smaller or fully eliptical, but I will say that a sabre 2 in the same size as your crossfire is going to be better to learn on. I have seen solid progressions that went from a smaller sabre 2, to a same size katana and then on to a velo. Have you sought out any actual canopy coaching? A canopy coach would be the best place to get some advice on wings.

If there was a club at one point there may be existing bylaws out there? I wonder if the old club was actually registered as an official organization with the secretary of state? Is the school a for profit organization with a DZO?