Skycoog

The smaller DZ clubs at public airports will have a tough time without USPA third party coverage, and they will probably fade away. However, there are DZO(s) who operate from private facilities, and they have too much invested to simply fade away. They will buy their own insurance, and the price of the jump ticket will increase. Much like Walmart driving the "mom-n-pop" stores to extinction, the larger DZO(s) will absorb the jumpers from the smaller displaced facilities. I haven't gotten a chance to read Parachutist yet, so I haven't seen the article regarding the insurance situation yet, but being on the Membership Services committee for USPA, I am involved in it. This is an ongoing issue that's coming to a head quickly. It's impossible to touch on every point of the issue in a post on a newsgroup. Three basic things in a nut shell, since there's been some good points raised on this topic that as a skydiver/board member I'll bring to the forefront. 1. USPA's individual 3rd party liability is essential to our sport. It is our sports first line of defense. Advocates of doing away with it (that it is unnecessary because of personal policies) aren't looking at the liability situation facing the sport at large. Small DZ's rely on this policy to stay in business in regards to answering claims, and meeting requirements to stay on public airports. Sure, you could do away with it, and see the number of available DZ's fall, and see the jump prices at the larger DZ's go up substantially to cover insurance costs, which will have a serious effect on your bank account if you make more than 10 jumps a year. Keeping individual liability (within the current limitations of the policy) is workable, whether it's finding more competitive policies, restructuring the policy, or working towards self insurance, there is a solution that won't break the bank. 2. What you are getting now in your membership dues is a bargain, even with the dues increase. AOPA's membership is $39 (also a bargain), it provides access to discounted individual aircraft policies. If USPA did'nt provide insurance at all, our membership dues would be right around $36 to $40. In essense, you're getting insurance that protects you and your (hopefully beloved) DZ for around $15 a year. This may sound..well it is...sarcastic, but it doesn't take a mental giant to realize that if you don't pay insurance through membership to USPA you'll be making it up in jump costs carried through your DZ, which will be more than $15 a year if you do any sort of jumping. DZ's/skydiving business do everything they can to minimize liability by whatever means, the "Uninsured" Relative Workshop comes to mind, or some sort of LLC, but the 3rd Party liability coverage has deflected some of these claims negating the need for litigation, which is definitely worth $15 a year. What was my point?? Oh Yeah, it's a bargain. 3. Cost increases. There's a lot of reasons for the insurance premiums going through the roof. Most business's/individuals are facing the same sort of insurance problems and having to make hard decisions. USPA has an additional problem in that these policies are unique. Changes in BSR's/requirements/safety issues alone will probably not substantially effect premiums. There are a number of reasons insurance has skyrocketed. Too many to mention here. They range from things that have nothing to do with skydiving (driven from poor decision making by the insurance industry during the recent market downturn), to the structure of the policy in regard to liability concerning demo jumps. For the most part, the problems are industry/risk/profit related. In closing, the reason I posted is because as USPA members/skydivers you should be as informed as you possibly can on this issue, because YOU have a stake in it. This is not simply some USPA hack item. It can/will effect your ability to jump. It is our number one priority. I would urge everyone to 1. Be informed of possible solutions/decisions that are upcoming 2. Comment/Support/Don't support these solutions through your regional director. The schedule's pretty full so I won't have time to debate this here. If you have questions/comments feel free to email me, I'll get to them as I have time. Please be patient in awaiting an answer. Thanks, Don Ellisor Gulf Region Director

I understand completely the feeling of not living deeply in the issues or knowing enough about the candidates to make an informed decision. It certainly is your decision of whether to vote or not. You are no lesser of a person which ever way you go. Still, I would encourage you to do a little research and vote, especially when it comes to your regional directors, who represent you on the BOD and should be accessible. Like you, I'm just a skydiver, and as it stands, I don't see any big issues currently that will "destroy" the sport as we know it. Still, when it comes to sudden changes or events, especially airport access, airspace issues, things that could potentially threaten your right to hurl yourself towards the Earth, you might want to have a say in who you have at the USPA level dealing with those issues or lobbying in your behalf on the local or national level. You don't have to vote for 8 National directors, you can vote for the ones you know something about. Regional director information should (hopefully) be no more than an email away. Monday with the BOD is a good forum. I think the most important thing it does is lets the lurkers who don't want to jerk around with the typical rec.skydiving banter read honest answers to good questions (most of them are good) to get a feel for the issues. As a regular skydiver, that might not be any issues that are threatening you now, but that doesn't hold for our future, so it's best if we try and get the best and brightest to the forefront.

Helga, Should'nt you be over in the women's only section tucking your shirt into your thong and baking me some biscuits Good luck with camera stuff, when you figure it out, come and teach me how to do it. Gordo's the only camera guy I know that is so pretty, sheep begin to do tongue exercises every time he comes around. Heck, I'm almost willing to buy him a whole flock so he'll show me how to shoot video!

I deserved that. What can I say, I'm republican, I'm into fuzzy math I was shooting from the hip. Actually, when I started shooting video (and I haven't shot much, but it's really interesting) I probably had around 3000-3500 jumps. When I filled out that profile, I was probably around those numbers. By the time it was submitted and the Nov. Parachutist had come out, I'd blown past 4. I've been busy. I like shooting video when I get the chance. It's a different facet of the sport. The digital aspects of it interest me. Plus the tandem money sure doesn't hurt to stop the bleeding from competition jumping. I guess what I like the most is that you're producing a product that you can take part in. Camera flying is a different discipline all together, and the guys that do it really well are something to behold. That being said, my biggest weakness is that I simply don't know enough about the equipment that I'm using. I wouldn't know an F-stop from a hole in the ground. Video wise I can put the little dude with the golf club in the frame, and stills I can set to what the local tandem guy said was a "good setting". That's about it. One of these days (here we go, how many times do we say that?) I'm going to learn how to be one of those pro-fessional photographers. I'm a student in every game, but for this game, I'm strictly pre-school.

I had 4000. Guess I'm a little slow on the uptake

I always get pinchecks either from a team mate or someone on the airplane. I can feel my main pin, etc like most people here, but feeling isn't the same as having eyeballs look at it. In fourteen years I've never had an instance where someone has checked my gear and screwed something up. On the other hand, I have had them find things on my gear that could have been a potential hazard, such as pilot chutes not being cocked (my fault for not checking after packers) and reserve pins that have moved. By habit I check handles, buckles, etc just before exit, often while I'm climbing out. It's everybody's choice obviously, but I've seen a lot of problems (horseshoes, premature deployments, pilot chute in tow) that could have been prevented by a simple pin check before exit. Don

I think I did 12 over the weekend. Mostly coaching, I managed to get in a couple of fun jumps. I actually went and did a sit dive. Bottom line, I think you have to actually make more than one sit dive every 14 years to do it successfully. It was fairly stupid. It was so comical that someone on the DZ actually paid for video so everyone could see my attempts.

I see this sort of thing a lot at DZ's. I've been on both sides of the equation as a new jumper at a big DZ (years ago), and on the other side as an infrequent LO. The smarter larger dropzones invest in their new people with coach's/LO's that cater to newer, lesser experienced jumpers. I heard good things coming out of Elsinore from Todd Hawkins (though that was in past years) of working in a program for low experience jumpers. Spaceland has a couple of people (JumperPaula) who organize and develop new people, which is a credit to Steve Boyd (DZO) who supports it. A lot of DZ's require LO's to put together loads of at least a certain size, which makes life difficult for the LO. You have to have the experience level to make the jump work, or else the experienced people get pissed because the jumps aren't good, and the inexperienced people get frustrated because they feel they're not flying adequately. Bottom line, when I organize I fit the size of the group to the experience level. I hate turning away people. I don't think I have it in my heart to cut anyone. Now a days I often invite the group I'm going to work with before hand to work with for a day or so. There are options to load organizing "come one, come all" groups. What I've done in the past is divide into smaller groups. The upside being that it includes everyone, downside being that it's twice the work organizing both dives on an often tight call, and I can only be in one of the groups, which often negates a good post dive briefing afterwards. If I do this, I always go with the less experienced group. Other options are to hook them up with people of their own experience level, which I hate to do because it makes them feel like they're "not good enough", or to ask them to wait until the next load where you can put something together that's appropriate for them. Either way, you have to make time for new/less experienced people. It's the only way to develop and nuture our sport, whatever the discipline. LO's often get jumps/compensation for their time and effort, and I think they deserve it. At the same time, if the DZ is inflexible to the point that it's impossible to put together successful loads with the right experience level, it's simply not worth it. It pisses off everyone involved eventually.

I know I'm probably in the minority, but I've always thought that the rule should be changed so that you're required to have a D-license before making night jumps. In the old days the requirement was fine, but with different parachute designs, more turbine high capacity DZ's etc; night jumps can be some of the most challenging jumps any skydiver can make. If it comes down to a licensing system, then having at least a couple of hundred jumps before taking on a jump where you can't see much of anything under canopy isn't a bad idea. The same rule for night jump briefings apply. A D-license with today's requirements hardly qualifies a skydiver in today's environment as either a "Master" skydiver or an "expert". I've been around for awhile and I can't claim either of these, I haven't touched CRW or FF, and I'm no swoop expert by any means. Just thought I'd throw that out there as a different point of view. No need to cut me off at the knees. I really don't have a problem with the way that it is now. Don

Damn, why did'nt I think of that. I'm such a moron. I'm shocked by my own stupidity. We managed to find somebody and took 2nd in 4 way open. It was a well run meet with some really great teams participating. Juggernaut took 1st in Open and Otter Limits (I think) 1st in intermediate. Both were very impressive. I think ol' Hookie was fairly happy with the 8 way event. If you could have seen the look on his face in the door during the jump off you would have thought he was criminally insane. It was good to see him supercharged like that, I'd like to see more of it!

If you're waiting on Mikey to be able to fly on his own, you'll be collecting social security by the time he learns how to spot;) We managed to pick somebody up and took second if 4 way open. It was a fun group. Lots of laughing. Sunday we forced Deguello to a jump off in 8 way, which was a great way to end the meet. They beat us in the jump off with a really good wagga wagga out the door.

It's sort of late and I'm sort of shooting arrows into the air but here goes. A pick up 4 way team needs one more member for TSL at Skydive Houston this weekend. People so far include 2 members of Arizona Evolution (Alan Metni's 8 way team), and one from Arizona Vengeance (Dan BC's 8 way team). Should be a good group. Low key stuff. Qualifications are a willingness to show up and have fun! If you're interested, contact me at "[email protected]". Please excuse my lack of operational efficiency with computers, I'm a certified computer moron. Don

It's sort of late and I'm sort of shooting arrows into the air but here goes. A pick up 4 way team needs one more member for TSL at Skydive Houston this weekend. People so far include 2 members of Arizona Evolution (Alan Metni's 8 way team), and one from Arizona Vengeance (Dan BC's 8 way team). Should be a good group. Low key stuff. Qualifications are a willingness to show up and have fun! If you're interested, contact me at "[email protected]". Please excuse my lack of operational efficiency with computers, I'm a certified computer moron. Don

I think Paula would make a great team mate. She's calm in the air, open to learning, and willing to work. Very talented. I hear a lot of people saying that they're waiting till their skills are "good enough" to join a team. In most cases, I'd say there's no reason to wait. If you're ready to develop your talent, open to learning, and ready to press yourself beyond what you believe are your limits, then competition skydiving is the place for you to be. Notice there's nothing there about skill level, other than being able to skydive with your team mates without killing yourself or them. Go out and use team skydiving to develop your skills. There's no better environment for becoming "good enough". There's great programs available these days to help novice team jumpers along. Tunnel camps/Sky U are great ways to develop basic body flight. There are a lot of team coaches around that do a great job, and most places I've been have a lot of communication between teams so that information trickles down quickly. Along the lines of keeping your energy up during the day for those 6-12 jumps days, I think Lisa had a lot of good points. The stretching helps (especially if you expand it into your off days), "grazing" (great term) to keep your energy level up, anything that you can do physically during the week to stay in shape for that sort of jumping, and giving yourself some mental breaks during the day will keep things moving. Lisa - Congrats on making the "Jump for the Cause" team, I shaved real close, threw on a skirt, and butchered up my face with mascara and lipstick and Kate just looked at me shook her head and said "Nice try, Sister". Guess I should have stuck with stiletto's instead of the flats. Don

Did a bunch of jumps over the week, mostly 8 way. Made it back to Houston for most of the weekend. Boy, the winds were outrageous. Still managed to get in some fun jumps though. Cool stuff: Launched a donut (intact) out of an Otter with some people who didn't think it could be done with the experience level in the group. Other cool stuff: Lauched a meeker with me compressed on the tail person. One of those other things that "could'nt be done with the experience level" bets. One of my team mates does those weird, crawling out backwards on exit at the tail position a lot, I always wondered how it worked. Now I know!! Coolest thing: My wife's pregnant!! (Now I'm really going to be poor)