AndyAnderson

Or look for a drunk falling off the nearest golf cart with his pants around his ankels and a broken collar bone. Somethings are not meant to be forgotten.

Posted to incidents. I will post a photo of the cop car when I get it. Andy

Be paitent grasshoppers, Time will reveal all. Andy

Put all the most bizzare things together on one day and you would think Tarrintino just remade "Cutaway". Watch the forums and let the feeding begin. Yes he was wearing a helmet, and his wingloading varied. I will say more if there arn't too many dumb questions and when I know more. There is one lucky fellow out there tonight! Andy.

There is no minimum or maximum age for jumping in the USA, however if you are an individual member of the USPA you have to follow the club rules. If you are not a club member you can not break their rules. You do not have to join a club to jump in the USA. Andy.

Almost certainly a juvenile turkey vulture or a black vulture. Leg lenghth and feather colour. Adult turkey vultures have light brown legs and turkeys have orange legs. Herons have longer leg bones. Andy.

Charlie or Jeff. They were at 1000 by 13 or 14. I will find ouy this weekend. Charlie (25) now has 8000+ and Jeff (17) has 4500+. Nobody else comes close to reaching 1000 at such young age. Andy.

"If you don't like the Group Member program, then be the agent of change, rally the general membership and vote the DZOs out of office. Put well trusted people in place and hope that they can "correct things." That is why Mike is now on the BoD. "You might consider running yourself." That is why Mike is now on the BoD. "A DZO of a non group member drop zone has, in my opinion, no business being on the BoD. It just doesn't make sense." It makes perfect sense when you realize the GM program serves no purpose to the USPA members. That is why Mike is on the BoD.( And got lots more votes from the membership than other GM DZO's and was supported by quite a few GM DZO's who collected votes for him) I would fully support a regular skydiver from a non group member drop zone, but a DZO? -- never. Have him do the honorable thing, take the pledge and pony up the dues and he'll get my blessings, but until that time -- no. We (all USPA members, Mike included) have to abide by the BSR's pledge or no pledge, thats honor. Paying dues for a nonfunctional GM program is not honorable, just stupid. The services of the USPA are due to the members, not to the business owners. Andy.

Reply to the original post. No I do not feel any safer at a group member DZ. Group membership has no influence on adherence to the BSR's or FAR's. The individual skydivers, pilots and DZO's and staff DO have an influence on adherence to the BSR's and FAR's. The USPA is a members organization not a DZO's organization and should put the interests of the members, not the DZO's first. The members agree to follow the BSR's by being members which makes the Group Membership program redundant. How many of the GM DZO's who are board members volunteered for the USPA inspection program- NONE. The USPA put a lot of time and effort into the program but the GM DZO's do not want to have an inspection done on them, the same as they choose when to follow the BSR's that suit them. For example on the A license proficiency card the applicant must "In routine jump conditions, plan with a jump pilot and spot the aircraft without assistance". How many of the graduates at the big multi Otter GM DZ's owned by and not owned by Board members have actually complied with this requirement. Now sticking your head out the door when told and jumping when the pilot is watching his GPS does not cut the mustard. So all those who have not done this do not deserve their A license and the instructors who signed them off sold them short. You will ruffle some feathers that need to be ruffled and not affect others. A USPA member is a member no matter where he/she jumps and should have the support of his/her organization. Andy. I have jumped at 28 Non GM DZ's and 52 GM DZ's (and a whole bunch of demos) on 3 continents. I express my opinion because I know there are non GM DZ's that are safer than the majority of GM DZ's.

"Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my gun" On a real southern redneck's pickup in Memphis TN.

West Tennessee Skydiving near Memphis has a Kingair (Mike Mullins Super Kingair) and a Super Cessna 195.(450 hp) The fastest Turbine and the fastest piston jumpships in the country.skydivekingair.com The web site you may have seen is for Skydive Tennessee in Tullohoma near Nashville but I do not know what plane they have at the moment. PM me if you need any other info. Andy

Be shure to tell Greg, Seth, Fumio, a nameless friend's mother and the other +-38 and their families that they were taking a thrill without responsibility or consequence. Were they the wrong type of individual? You may have to do a search into history if you do not know what I am talking about.

It is obvious the majority of instructors who have taught students who have and have not done a tandem agree what gives the best results and some jumpers who have no instructor ratings and very little experience have very strong opinions about how skydiving should be. Scott .. Every one my thousand+ tandems is just as pure any other skydive I have ever done, and quite a few a lot more scary. How do you know that you are " The right type of individual ", and what are the right things to look for in skydiving individuals or is there any diversity in us. You seem to have something against tandems (after you were told to stop bothering students and let the instructors do their jobs). I put as much energy into taking you on a sit / freefly coach jump for free at Lompoc (Skydive Santa Barara) as I put into taking every tandem and AFF and making the most of their jump. And doing those tandems and AFF is what allows a lot of us to keep jumping and almost make a living. Andy

The profit from the one time tandem customers is what keeps the large multi otter DZ's in the black. I am sure the DZO's do not have any misconceptions about the majority of those those "students" coming back to do AFF. And I am also sure they want as many of the public to be exposed to this experience as possible. More tandems= lower prices and more aircraft for us to utilize and more open DZ's across the country and more money. Even if skydiving should be our own little select group.

Having Worked at DZ's That require tandems and DZ's that sell AFF as a first jump in the last year I have a very strong opinion. The student who has a tandem experience ( even one with no extra training i.e. Arch, pull, landing pattern and landing) is a better student on level one than one who has never done a jump. The DZ's wasting 6 to 8 hours of training to have a first jumper backout, overload, find out this is not for them, no pull and fail the level, not listen to the radio, be scared as this is their first plane ride ever or any other thing happen is trying to make money more than the DZ that insists on a tandem and has a better prepared student who passes more levels and in the long run spends less on their course. I agree those problems still happen to some students but a tandem first really does help and saves most students money. Any one who thinks tandems have ruined skydiving or turned away anyone who really wants to start jumping is very misinformed and needs to spend a few more years on the DZ and will see how many more of the public will get exposed to skydiving and the video the first jumper took home. Some DZ's only offer AFF as a first jump because they are afraid the customer will go to the competition who do not require a tandem. Which would you rather be a victim of. Andy

Jeff Mullins did 186 and packed them all himself at Quincy a few years ago. He only used one rig each day except for the last load where he used his other for a back to back. I think he was 14 at the time. Andy.

On April 13 1998 Mike Mullins flew a load around Florida. 14 of us jumped into 14 different DZ's and Alisha joined us on 4-5 of the jumps. When we got back to Keystone 2 hours ahead of schedule we all packed up and did another load. Palatka-Flagler-Deland-Titusville-Sebastion-Pahokee-Clewiston-Lake Wales-South Lakeland-Zephyrhills-Coleman-Williston-Live Oak-Keystone x 2. The jumpers were: Andy, Steady, Perry, Scott Atea, Dan, Jason, Mark, the late Scott Smith, Ted, Winsor, Scott "Taxiway", Harry, Bill, Wayne and Alisha. Personal best over 20 in a day. Andy

{A MINOR has no capacity (under the law or otherwise) to fully cognizantly, and rationally make those decisions. Nor should ANY reasonably responsible adult (parent or not) have the audacity, nor do they truely have the capacity to simply waiver that away either. Trading that off for the sole benefit of potentially head-start "grooming the next workd champion"?? ...TOTALLY NEGLIGENT, and not reasonable by any stretch, IMHO. } These same MINORS took flying lessons from 8 years old, solo'd on their 16 th birthdays and got their licenses on their 17 th birthdays allowing them to load friends and family in an aircraft and fly to any public airport in the country. Maybe MINORS are more capable and allowed to do more things legally than you would like or think reasonable. Happily you are not making their decisions for them. The FAA and the gov have decided that they have the capacity if they can pass their tests and check rides, just like they did in their freefall training. Andy

[email protected] is his e mail address. See ya In Tenn in April when THE Kingair returns. Andy

East Tennessee Skydiving is operated by father and son Scott and Mikael Stevens at Greenville Muni near to Knoxville TN. I will post their website as soon as I speak to Mikael, I do not want to post his cell #. They have a pristine Cesna 182 and sometimes host boogies with an Otter or Mullins Kingair. Mikael aka. Verde Rodriguez because of his green hair! Andy.

Mullins' Kingair is a B 90 with Hartzell 4 bladed props, PT6-34's (750 hp per side), Frakes Cowls and velocity stacks. Check out http://skydivekingair.com/aircraft.asp It has bigger wings and is lighter than than an A100 so it is faster to altitude. The pilot also seems to know what he is doing. Andy.

Urban Legend The story has had various subjects (A sky surfer, A free flier, 2 freefliers and I have heard it with 4 free fliers). Eack time I hear it I let the story teller continue to see how far out it gets. The Story; The subject/s get on the plane and Mike asks on the P/A "What is out first?" Subject says he (skysurfer / freeflier/s), Mike has an argument with them over exit order and when they still say they are out first Mike gives them the "EXIT EXIT EXIT" far from the DZ. The distance in the story is between 2 and 25 miles. The Truth: At a boogie Mike wants to get to exit as fast as possible and would never go 25 miles out. When Mike asks "What is out first?" he is finding out how early to call the exit (deep for an 8 way with a long climbout or short for a solo). He has never tried to dictate the exit order while trying to take off. Mike would never deliberatley give a bad spot possibly leaving a fellow jumper with a disastrous off field landing. Where the story originated: At Quincy about 4 or 5 years ago 2 French freefliers had an argument at the boarding tent over exit order. The 8 way flat fliers asked me who should go first and I told them "belly 8 way first and then the freefliers". When they boarded the plane the free fliers sat near the door, Mike asked "What is out first?" and all the jumpers shouted "8 way belly". Mike set up the spot deep for the 8 way climb out and called "EXIT EXIT EXIT". The freefliers slid the door up and said F#*! you to the belly fliers and exited first, They were less than a mile from the DZ. If you hang around long enough someone will tell you the story and will be adamant it happened. It did not! Andy

"If you don't like the system, work toward the changes it needs to be better." That is exactly why Mullins was elected with only BJ getting more votes, maybe he has some skydivers who agree with him. Mullins is a USPA member. Mullins is a VERY staunch supporter of the USPA and spends a fair amount of his time improving what the USPA does for us. Maybe it is the Group Member program that needs Revision? Remember Mullins tried to put a "Ethics" clause into the GM pledge but the GM Board members would have none of that. Imagine a pledge that you would have to abide to and why have none of the GM board members ever had a GM inspection after they spent a fortune putting the program together. Maybe nothing would change if the GM program disappeared, DZ's would still require personal membership. Don't forget all but one jumper at WTS are USPA members and that means we all have to abide by the BSRs. Two weeks ago I spoke to Jim Wests manifester and Bill Dawse and they assured me all their students join the USPA by jump #3 and all their instructors are current and certified USPA members, all that happening at non GM DZs. I am a USPA member no matter where I jump. Andy

The Mullins King Air will start operating on weekends from the 6th Dec and then full time from the 20th Dec to the end of Feb and then weekends to the end of April. The DZ will be operating to its normal schedule for the rest of the time.

I also miss Florida but I think there are too many DZs fighting for a piece of the pie. I don't think Mike wants a price war, He can only fly so many with one plane and he brings lots of foreigners to the reigon who then go jump at other local DZs, only a fool would drop his prices because all his regular jumpers would just pay less and still jump at their home DZ. Mike Just wants a place to operate and to give us skydivers the best possible deal. Andy.