kuai43

There's a simple solution. You put your damn phone on the table at the beginning of a formal meeting and you pick it up at the conclusion. This is like dealing with teenagers. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

I think we're seeing the real 'sock-puppetry'. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

Good find! My knife has been on my chest strap for years now. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

I've been concerned for some time that our society has lost much of it's personal relationship skills and has become desensitized due to the internet. In our need to feel important and relevant, our empathy and compassion is all too often reduced to that of a keyboard. My prayers go out to the family and friends of yet another of our lost brothers. You are both now two of my favorite persons. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

Just my $.02, but that toggle issue you had looked more than a little bit scary. You might want to talk to your rigger/packer about that. For my part, if I saw my toggle out of its keeper and ready to tie itself up, I might stop fucking with trying to pull my slider down and first make sure I had good steering line control, especially in the high desert in the summer. Glad it worked out for you.

Here you go, JerryBaumchen Good thing that doesn't look sketchy as hell. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

Landing that Otter backwards was the shit. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

From the SIM: Chapter 13, Section 2.1 Skydivers participating in a freefall group skydive consisting of a tandem instructor in a single harness with a student, along with one or more separate jumpers, either with or without camera equipment, should adhere to the following guidelines: a) All jumpers should have a minimum of 500 group freefall skydives, 100 of which should be naked jumps. b) A certified Skygod (c) tattoo should be prominently displayed on their asscheek. c) A minimum of 5 oz. of titanium should be internally installed on each jumper accompanying the tandem pair. This should winnow out your suitable candidates just a bit. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

You nailed it. This isn't about noise--it's about power. The same kind of power that HOAs use to keep American flags off houses in their developments--or tell you what color your mailbox has to be. Her comment about showing up with 100 folks at the next meeting is the clue. I suspect that even if you could make an airplane totally silent it wouldn't matter to her--she'd find a reason to complain. It's not noise--it's skydiving.....it's "outside the box" activity that doesn't conform to her idea of what's socially and politically correct. Someone suggested "taking the gloves off". While I am generally in favor of amicable solutions--there are some folks who can't be dealt with that way. It's time to play hardball with the cqs and her--she left herself open to that by placing her name on the complaint. Demand that the Colorado AG investigate her financing, her use of "donations" and if any of the donors are taking a tax deduction for contributing and disclose who her contributors are and how much they contributed, if she is using any of those funds to contribute to politicians, her personal income, her own land use and conformity to the zoning regs of her own property, etc. If the AG won't do it then file a lawsuit against the cqs and her personally demanding full disclosure of all her activities, financing, donor lists, bank account information, accounting statements, who she or the cqs paid for what....the list goes on and on. Yes, it costs. But--if she and her PC friends win again--the dominoes begin to fall. The only thing someone with power wants is more. It won't stop with this case. So far, all the pain has been on one side--it's time to make this painful on the other side. ^ This. The only thing this type of people will respect (fear) is scorched earth. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

Says "San Marcos, Mexico" if I read it correctly. If it had been Canada, they would have said "excuse me" before jumping. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

You've got a 1664 sq ft canopy & your rig is only 13#? Must be made of faerie fur. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

Quite clearly, sex during freefall is by far the most hazardous. You could end up with 18 years of a much emptier bank account. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

I wish to be the first to offer you $25 for your defective N3. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

I had thought it was to reduce the parasitic drag of their own bodies and thus travel further and faster while looking more badass. Fairly simple, it keeps their huge balls from dragging. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3745669#3745669 My fucking gawd, this was a great post! I don't know how I missed back when. Ouch, Andy. Still as froggy as you were in these posts? Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

I personally think that releasing brakes after loosening the chest strap is not the best choice. What is the reason? Here: http://www.deepseed.com/d-spot/blog/liam/inside-no-pull-cypres-save-0 I agree. Goonie, you may want to consider this flow: Canopy looks good... check traffic Release brakes & control check... check traffic Locate LZ... check traffic Choose best/safest route to LZ Housekeeping... slider/legstraps/cheststraps/turn camera off, etc. Not only the aforementioned cheststrap, you may not want a reserve opening with legstraps down to your knees. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

Baseball bat, can of black spray paint, pickup (ute) with a stepladder in the back... you've got a party night! Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

We just took over about 50 libraries and I'm going thru and making them work again. Does that count? How YOU doin? Well, I'm wet. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

I've got no opinion, either. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

Im not insulting you, but you arent getting how compound interest works. When a trust or nonprofit sets up an endowment the money from charitable donations, estates/wills, life time member lump sum payments, etc all go into it and with the annual interest compounding and it quickly grows into a sizable cushion. It would be an ideal way for them to eventually move to self insuring if they so chose. Its why nearly every large national nonprofit and most universities and everyone else uses endowments. Its not "my idea", its fairly standard practice in the nonprofit world. Additionally the ACA used to run their own magazine for members as well. There is no way the USPA should be losing $25 per member annually on every magazine subscription. If they are then either their advertising revenues arent in line with their production costs; or they are paying to much for printing, staff or some other overhead cost. Why do you think most other print magazines only charge $8-20 in subscription fees these days? You are covering production and mailing costs, and then the magazine is making its money on advertising revenues. So if the USPA is LOSING $25 per member on the magazine then something is seriously wrong. This isnt rocket science. Their are organizations out there like the Center for Nonprofit Excellence (https://www.cnpe.org/) that could help the board and staff work through these issues and come up with a better stratgeic long term financial plan. Damn, boy... Get it! Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

Thank you, Doug. You beat me to it. A lump sum payment in advance should be held in trust, not spent on near-term payables. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

This has NOT been explained by anyone who represents USPA or was present at the BOD meeting. Are they hiding? It's because the LTM is a losing economic scenario for USPA. Annual dues would have to be increased to cover the costs of the LTM. After a certain number of years, LTM are taking more out of USPA than what they paid in. It's unfair to make the annual renewing members to pick up the costs of the LTM. Thanks for the reply. I would assume there are statistics to support that analysis. How do LTM cost anything beyond the magazine and a fancy membership card? It would seem that it would require a great number of LTM to 'take more' out of USPA beyond the 18.18 year span that would compare projected yearly dues (assuming no future fee increase ) to the now-obsolete $1000 fee. Do you happen to know how many LTM there are? Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

This is most likely the reason. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

This has NOT been explained by anyone who represents USPA or was present at the BOD meeting. Are they hiding? Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

And this is the question... perhaps it's time to revisit the 'needs for the business'. It might be time to lean this shit out. When people begin to protect their livelihood, tenure, and perquisites at the expense of the membership, then you have to ask whether they're working for the membership or themselves. USPA should be working for airport access, FAA regulation control, marketing of the sport, information dispersal, and recommendations for improvements in safety. Period. Sorry to bust everyone's balls, but this doesn't include funding or promotion of skydiving competitions. None of that shit hits mainstream media anyway. Unless you can show that it brings people to the sport, drop it. The Red Bull crowd does a better job. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess