Deisel

Anybody got video of this out there? http://living.msn.com/life-inspired/the-daily-dose-blog-post?post=dafce133-fdee-41e9-9df1-f532fe9f96d6 The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

Have you discussed this with Bill Booth? He has a slightly different take on the safety of stand up landings. Quite different, actually. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

3.5 is my preference. Decision alt is 2500 and landing decision by 1.5. Anything lower and I'm cheating myself. But I admit that I suck it down for instructor training on a regular basis. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

Yep. The conflict here is what skydivers want versus what the customer wants. Market demand doesn't give a shit about purity and craft. Fast food, instant coffee, automatic car washes are all inferior products. But only real coffee has held off its lower quality competitors. Why is that? The industry adapted to what the market wanted. The others didn't. The history books a filled with 'better' products that aren't around anymore. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

The tandem equipment Manufacturers recommend butt landings. When considering all of the maybes as Doug mentioned, the butt landing has the fewest chances to go sideways. But as you learned, it ain't perfect. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

Thanks for the support Charlie. I'd love to talk it over with you and explore some options. I'll come by for a face to face in the next couple of days/weeks and see what we come up with. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

Ok guys, time for another update on the parachute club/team. Over the weekend I was able to make a couple of gentlemen’s agreements with the DC Skydiving Center and Warrenton Air Park. They are located at 9272 Green Meadows Rd in Warrenton, Va. It’s about 45 minutes away from MCB Quantico and the closest DZ (4 miles out) to the no-fly airspace over DC. Beautiful views of the capitol and the Appalachian mountains on clear days! Once again, we are going no frills and low budget. The skydiving center operates out of an old hangar and there are no services available. This place is a high volume tandem operation with very few, if any, fun jumpers. There are no riggers (except the DZO), no gear store, no packing area, no showers, no Wi-Fi, no bunk house or any other creature comforts. But they do fly a PAC750 and regularly turn 20-25 loads per day on weekends. And just FYI – I’m a TI there as well. And for the public record, I do not have any kind of financial agreement with the Skydive Center or Air Park associated with basing the club/team at this location. I am not being compensated in any way by either entity and I’m happy to answer any specific questions that may come up. It all just happens to fit really well at the moment. The air park is home to not only the skydiving operation but also ultra lights, powered Para gliders, and a few small single engine planes. The landing area is skinny in some places and the airspace can get crowed, so any A&B license holders will have to sit through my extended ground briefing and canopy flight review before being allowed to jump there. Student training is NOT being conducted at this time but stay tuned, I’m working on that as well. I am going to set up initial operations there with the potential for a long term arrangement. This of course, depends on the level of success that we achieve across various fronts. So at this point I should clarify exactly what we have here. There will be two different entities; team and a club. The main differences; Team – is eligible to receive MCCS funding for Armed Forces level and international competition (NOT local, regional, or national competitions). The expectation of participants will be to commit both time and money in order to train. We’ll work out the specifics as we go. Club – is not eligible for MCCS funding but authorized to use USMC equipment (like airplanes and helos). This is simply a group of Marines (and friends) that are skydivers getting together to jump. I plan to do demo jumps into local events as well. Former Marines and civilians are welcome to participate but would not be have to sit out certain events. I’d like to have a monthly club outing at the DZ and may be able to work some discount lift tickets depending on participation. Well, enough for now as this is already way too long. Step by step we are working toward competing in 2014! Stay motivated and stay safe. Semper Fi The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

Wait until you go to a boogie. The gear manufacturers usually bring out a variety for jumpers to demo. But please remember, never change more than one thing at a time! My first full face jump resulted in a fogged up visor and I had a spinner on top of it. Don't give yourself too much to think about. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

No, Laurinburg is still there. The Golden Knights are based there but fun jumpers aren't allowed on military aircraft. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

Maybe it's time to take another run at it. It's possible that with five additional years of data, they may be more receptive. Especially if there is support from the instructor community. Was the idea presented at a standardization meeting? What do the IE's have to say? The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

Just passing along the 'for' argument as it was presented to the BOD. BTW - This all came from Mike Mullins. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

The argument was that until someone actually exits an aircraft in flight while intoxicated, they have not broken any rules. This would include getting on the manifest, gearing up, and riding to altitude. All now against the rules. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

These are all indeed good examples. But they all revolve around an issue that has been discussed many times on these boards; instructor continuing education. There has yet to be a plan proposed (that I’m aware of) to address this. It seem that everyone is fine with the status quo; get your rating and it’s good for life. Shouldn’t there be some type of recertification that involves spending some quality time with an IE? But of course, that will cost time and money so it’s not practical… The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

What I figured. But I just read Pat Morehead's letter in Parachutist on Mike Truffer's hard opening and broken neck. Says that his technique is to tuck his chin on every deployment. Sounds like Ft Benning ground school. But coming from him, I'll take it! The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

The stu was deployed around 2200 or so. I knew where I was and wanted a little more separation before deploying. 1500 was and still is my hard deck for student emergencies. For fun jumps, I have no friends under 2K. I'll have to rethink it if the AAD minimums go up. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

Damn straight! Would love to have you on the squad. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

Steve, I've still been in freefall around 1500ft exactly twice. One was in the AFFIRC and the other was a real student emergency (I think you were on the DZ that day). The second I'd do again if necessary. Otherwise, I never want to be that low for any reason. Maybe I'm missing something here but I just dont see a good reason to not have a conopy out before youre down in the triple digit altitude zone. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

Thanks for the clarification. Yes, the BOD could have had a wider discussion of the issue. I like how the wing-suit BSR has been discussed as an example. Flawed process but with an acceptable outcome. Room for improvement, sure. But no reason for burning a at the steak on this one. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

In other words, the USPA and PIA have collaborated to increase safety margins and reduce liability industry wide. Wether we like it or not. Sorry bro. Not seeing the big conspiracy here. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

Yep, me too. S&TA can clear it. But to expand on this a little. One on the discussion points was that exemptions are to be event specific. Meaning that your waiver is good for a specific jump or series of jumps. Not in perpetuity. In other words, You can't get a cloud waiver this Saturday and be good for the rest of the season. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

This weekend, one of our elder statesmen that I respect immensely, showed me an X-ray of his neck. It looked like road kill. A freakin banana shaped curve that hurt to look at. He tells me it's just from a lot of jumping over a lot of years. And since I've started doing tandems, my neck is a little sore too. Needless to say, now that I've seen this I've become concerned. Until now, I figured that my good looks and phenemoninal physique and strength would get me through as I adjust to this new discipline. Maybe not. So my question is; how common are neck issues amongst TIs? Is this a technique or body position problem? Or is there something else that we should all know about tandem skydiving that isn't widely publicized? I figure that there's a pretty good reason that you don't see a lot of older guys throwing drouges. Please pass along any wisdom out there you guys care to share! Thanks

That's exactly why the S&TA can waive it on the spot - for the demo jumps, that is. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

This is exactly correct. As stated by the PIA reps, the industry (skydivers) has demanded slower/softer opening and smaller canopies. This can be a deadly combination during a malfunction close to the ground. And in this instance, seconds do matter. Would you rather deal with a ball of shit over your head at 700 or 1000ft? Easy answer here. My take here is that preservation of the sport from negligence lawsuits is a bigger concern than the percieved rights of those that want to pull low. Just my 2 cents. D The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

Ok guys, I was there when this came up in the S&T committee meeting but not for the full board discussion. Jay Stokes put this on the table. His argument, which was supported by PIA, was that AAD manufacturers would not raise their minimum opening altitude to 1000 feet until USPA raised the hard deck. This was to avoid possible two-out scenarios and the manufacturer liability if the AAD activation altitude was raised without the corresponding BSR change. So the real debate here is how much does having the additional time, during an emergency, do for the USPA general membership? Lets have a conversation about the true issue and leave the conspiracy theories for beers around the bonfire. Jay is a good man that is dedicated to this sport. Nothing sinister about his motives that I'm aware of. D The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

Thanks Rip! I'll be in touch as this thing gets moving. I'd like to have former members participate once we actually get airborne. Wouldn't it be awesome if Gen Kelly and Col Fox could come out and maybe even do a tandem on opening day? Not sure what their health situation is currently with them both in their eighties now. The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.