DARK

You cant guarantee anything in this sport, thats the point. There are people out there who can fly these wings as well as most can fly the bigger ones. Of course you cant guarantee anything but I would rather jump with a confident 5000 tandem ti, who knows the ins and outs of canopy flight and has tested himself under all sorts of wings, under a 250 than a guy with 1000 jumps total under a 365. The funkier the conditions the more I want to be attached to the former. You're missing the point entirely. Of course you'd rather be attached to the more experienced instructor - so would I. But would you rather be attached to the experienced instructor doing the safest possible landing, or attached to the same guy NOT doing the safest possible landing? Which would you rather a member of your family was attached to?? Likewise, I'm not suggesting that technology of the wing itself is a bad thing. I'm all for advancements (particularly in canopies!) but this isn't about that. It's about instructors wanting to have their cake and eat it at the potential expense of a student - to get paid for skydiving by being a tandem instructor AND getting their swoop on and thereby INCREASING the danger to a non skydiver. And THAT'S the unacceptable bit. I understand that is your point and you might be right that might be what it is about but I dont think it is. To answer your question about who I would want my family with, I would want them with the expert pilot flying the equipment he felt was best suited to the job / conditions he faced. Also I dont think being conservative and doing the most conservative landing is the same thing as being safe and doing the safest landing. There can be situations that warrant a more aggresive approach / style whatever. I just dont think its as simple as higher performance wing = more risk. I think its more complicated then that.

You cant guarantee anything in this sport, thats the point. There are people out there who can fly these wings as well as most can fly the bigger ones. Of course you cant guarantee anything but I would rather jump with a confident 5000 tandem ti, who knows the ins and outs of canopy flight and has tested himself under all sorts of wings, under a 250 than a guy with 1000 jumps total under a 365. The funkier the conditions the more I want to be attached to the former.

The problem is that the conditions you're talking about are higher winds. So you're making a trade-off, and not for the better. In no way is a higher speed landing a good thing for tandems, and I know for sure that people jumping these canopies are not putting them away when the winds are light, and only using them when the winds pick up. On top of that is the idea that higher winds equal more energy and less stability in the air. Anything that's going to go wrong is only going to happen harder or faster in higher winds, and simply downsizing to stop yourself from backing up is not a 'prudent' choice in a tandem environment. Maybe when the winds are too high for jumping a 'normal' tandem canopy, it's just time to hang up the rigs for the day? So first of all I concede to your higher experience, but for arguments sake. its not necessarily higher winds I am talking about although they will certainly help in those conditions, its more turbelence that I think it makes a difference in. I have seen 330's and 365's fold up on straight in approches due to turbelence, I have been flying my tandem canopy in full flight and watched one side fold up and then reinflate at about 200ft. Now maybe this isnt anything to worry about, everytime I have seen this the canopy has reinflated immediately with no apparent loss of control or heading, but it can be scary looking. Now, is the tfx cross braced? the fx is afaik. I assume to help with the high wingloading that is is but I could be wrong. If it is then it should go through turblence like a knife through butter. The other thing that seems to happen in turblence is getting dropped out on final and not having enough flare to stop it. now this could be pilot error in many cases but I have seen this happen to very experienced people. My guess would be that with the higher wingloading you get better penetration and stability in turblence and also more speed, speed = lift and lift = a soft landing. I am not saying I am right I am just wondering why this reasoning is wrong?

Its understandable that you would think that but its not really true. The apf gets $30 from every apf dz for every tandem they do. The company I worked for owns numerous dzs and just one of them was sending $500k a year to the apf in fees for this alone. Also their materials are seriously dated, my packer b exam included questions on fxc's and the original cutaway system before 3 rings came about. That is just pure laziness on their part. edit; their 'thesis' programme for people who want to become chief instructors is a great idea though and as a result the apf has the best intro to freefly, intro to crw etc booklets I have seen from anywhere

afaik these canopiies( I thought they were 285's though so dont know if these are the ones I am thinking of or new ones) are in operation at dzs with very high winds like guam and hawaii. having seen thousands of 330's being hooked in in high winds and turbulence and seeing thousands of tandems being landed 'traditionally'. in the high winds and turbulence I will take the power and pressurisation that comes with the turn over the mushy semi-collapsing straight in approaches. having said that not everyone should be allowed fly their tandem canopy like that. If you have the skills for it I do think its a better landing but unless you are a top of the ladder canopy pilot on your own canopy you shouldnt be messing with these types of approaches with a tandem imo. personally I dont have enough experience to do it myself but I do believe in certain conditions and with the right pilot it is a safer landing. /flame gear on

Someone should just beat that guy to death. What are we trying to prove by keeping him alive in a cell for the rest of his life? He is a damaged human being, there is no place for him here.

Do you pay the TI?

So I am a new ti so this has only happened once to me and in all the years I have been in the sport I have only seen it happen a handfull of times. My student was a small asian girl, cool as a cucumber throughout the entire thing until she saw the tandem ahead of us go and as soon as that happened she freaked out. I kept us moving to the door but the closer we got the more cat like she got. we landed with the plane. So this is the part that I am wondering what other people think about. As I am a new instructor and because I felt like I 'gave in' too easily I told manifest that I was happy to go again if she wanted to. She said she wanted to try one more time but this time I asked her on the ground if she freaked out again did she want me to force her out. She said yes. So we went up again and she was terrified all the way up. Everyone on the plane knew what was going on and tried to calm her down which only made it worse. She wouldnt let go of my sleeve the entire ride and would just stare at the corner. We got geared up and this time she kept it together until we were right in the door and then she went cat like again so I turned around and made sure her arms and legs were not grabbing anything and I went out backwards. When the parachute opened it sounded like she was crying for about 30seconds which got me real worried but then she sobbed ' that was the best thing I have ever done thanks' It could easily have gone the other way I guess and she could have hated but what do you guys think? Student says yeah force me out, do you do it? Is it right to do it?

I would be fine taking anyone that fit in the harness as far as safety goes common sense says that if they are not at least 13 they probably have no idea what they are asking to do and while they might enjoy it I dont think its a very good idea. my kid will hopefully get to be in the tunnell weekly until they reach 12/13 and I convince someone to let me take them on a tandem(assuming they want to) for aff I think I would be ok with a 15 yr old doing it if it was a pretty mature or well clued in 15 yr old but not younger than that.

There are people recomending that I overstay so that if the path to citizenship gets opened up to illegals I will be here illegally and can apply. I am not going to but its pretty crazy that that might be the easiest way for me to do it. Also I have no intention of becoming an american citizen I would just like to be able to work here and come and go as I please

there is a split between the people who learn and progress in the tunnel and those who only skydive. There is also a huge discrepency between the number of people who can freefly and do those 8 way jumps you were taling about and the number of people who have those skills and are willing to jump with the noobs and bring them along step by step. To an extent its understandable, people spend a lot of money in the tunnel so that they can go on these more complicated freefly jumps and they dont want to invest more time with the noobs but it is leading to this big skill gap. In my experience experienced belly flyers are a lot more welcoming and helpful to inexperienced belly flyers than experienced free flyers are to inexperienced freeflyers. edited to add; it seems like to the belly flyers a free slot is good enough reward to organise and jump with the noobs but that the freeflyers dont feel the same.

Yeah I was being overly simplistic I am fairly familiar with how it all works. Yes I can get sponsored for h1b1 but then I am locked into that company unless I find a new to take over the sponsorship. when you are on a h1b1 you can apply for permanent residency which puts you on a list. a friend of mine has been here for more than 7 years, has a degree and an mba and her promotion opportunities and everything associated with that has been super limited because the company knows she has no other options. The sponsorship process is complicated enough that companies just don't want to even bother with it in my experience adn there is a limited number every year. This year applications open on the 1st of april and the lawyers I was talking to expect all available visas to be filled that day. I am not going to work illegally I have been legal here long enough and now I am in a situation were I cant risk not being allowed back in in the future so thats out the door. I really should find a lawyer and ask if working remotely for a company back in Ireland counts as working while in america. Depending how you look at it doing it that way avoids all of the disadvantages the immigration laws are trying to avoid (like taking jobs americans could fill, having people arrive and get on welfare etc) and has all of the benefits of a person working here for an american company accept for taxation.

No particular story inspired this post just a general question about what people think about immigration reform? I am specifically NOT asking about weather or not current illegals should be given legal status, I don't really care. I think its dumb not to but ultimately it dosnt effect me one way or another. I am talking about the ridiculous state of affairs currently in place which affect SKILLED workers who want to come here to work legally, pay taxes and fill roles that americans are currently not filling for wathever reason. Personally. I have lived and worked and paid taxes legally in the US for the majority of the last 5 years. In two months my work visa will expire and I will return home and try and upskill again and see if I can figure out a way to return legally. Ultimately if nothing changes I can still come here for up to 6 months out of the year on holiday. I dont know if it is legal but I can work from anywhere I have a laptop so I could just hang out here for a few months at a time work from my laptop and get paid into my account back home and pay taxes in Ireland. Dosnt that sound ridiculous though? I currently have an honors bachelor of science degree in one of the most sought after areas right now and in 12 months time I will have a masters and industry experience. My earning potential would probably be twice the average industrial wage and therefore pay more than twice the amount of taxes but the best way for me to get a greencard is to enter a lottery every year were they give out 50K (I think) a year and treat everyone equally so people living on welfare back home with no skills or qualifications have the same chance of getting one as I do. Not only that, but you guys welcome people who want to come and study here, the universities take their tuition fees and train them up to a very high level (you guys have great institutions no doubt) and then you make it so hard for the students to stay after they graduate (which many of them would) that they are forced to go home were their skills are of no benefit whatsoever to the US. Discuss

1. I don't have that many tandems 2. I don't think we get glorified by anyone other than our students and their families. If anything I think we are respected by the general fun jumper population for two reasons. The first has been mentioned already, we take their friends and families. The second is that we can rack up a lot of jumps in a short space of time and a lot of people automatically respect people (at least to some extent) with high jump numbers). 3. Unless its a fun jumper who wants to be a ti, I would imagine there is more pity then glorification in their heads. They get to come and do the exact type of jumps they want as many times as they want, with whoever they want, sleep in late if they want and leave when the weather rolls in if they want. 4. As for the telling b licence jumpers what to do, the I part of ti still stands for instructor by the way. I was telling low low timers what to do before I had my t-rating because I had a coach rating. It was always followed by but make sure to double check with your instructor. Now I do the same thing (usually only if I am asked tbh) and the only thing that is changed is be sure to double check this advice with your instructor or a more experienced instructor than me. The whore that keeps the brothel going is a good way to put it.

if you overly subsidize education - then don't be surprise when the cost of getting it skyrockets This is not evident in the numerous countries that offer public / subsidised education. Quality, appreciation, waste are all things that can be debated intelligently but there is no evidence that cost increases follow subsidization. In fact in Ireland its not only subsidized but completely paid for until postgraduate level and if you happen to be one of the people who have to pay full price it still works out far far cheaper in Ireland then in an equivalant university in the US and in many cases cheaper then the US equivalent.

The tax code is about collecting tax revenue not spending it and I am all for tax simplification but spending cuts and tax cuts are two COMPLETELY different conversations and trying to link the two is just another bullshit way of muddying the waters so that nothing of substance ever happens.

Dosnt his entire staff travel with him? Chief of staff, press secretary all that jazz? Their staff, the press, secret service, army guys who carry footballs? Sounds like a lot of people to me, airlines have worked out the most efficient way to move large numbers of people is with big planes. As I said earlier they are not spending this money on his vacation they are spending it to keep the goverment running while he gets to pretend he is on vacation. How much of a reduction do people think can be had? Could you get it down to 20K an hour? that would be a massive 90%ish reduction and after you spend millions on r+d and vetting and making sure the new way is more efficient and just as safe you might recoup the money you spent on it in a few years and then the tax payer will start saving money but the country will be long gone by then so it whats the point?

budget deficit 2010 = 136,067,000,000 To resolve the budget deficit in the manner you suggest would require finding, roughly, another 20,410 individual programmes that cost somewhere between 500,000 and 45,000,000 and cut their funding by 100%. TWENTY THOUSAND programmes that vary from infrastructure to research and development to art and culture (your examples) By the way the previous president was handed an annual deficit of around 236billion and turned it into just under 500billion and then handed the current president a situation that required numerous trillions to be tacked onto that. Since that first budget the current president has cut the yearly deficit by almost 500billion. Funnily enough that is roughly equal to what the entire deficit was before this multi trillion dollar problem.

Ok I accept the figures although I would still like to know if the airforce says it costs 181k per hour to operate or if it was saying that if you work out the operating costs of af1 it works out at 181K per hour of flight because that is not the same thing and I bet it was the latter and if that is the case then the more he uses the plane the cheaper each hour gets. If that is not the case then; I imagine that there is not a single worker that has anything to do with the president or af1 that is on an hourly wage and not a yearly salary so it dosnt matter how often or little they are required to do their jobs they get paid the same (or do the ss air force etc get paid overtime? I honestly dont know). If military maintenance is somewhat similar to the civilian world then, as we all know, some are calender inspections and some are hourly so their costs are fixed. but yes the inspections will come sooner now that there is an extra 20 hours on the plane Fuel of course will be a cost increase but 14million worth of fuel? I dont think so. So were is the money going? Maybe there is a breakdown on that link but its broken so I cant get to it. Finally, do you think the electorate were in some way unclear about the fact that every flight obama made during his term would be in af1? If not what is the point? Do you think he shouldnt get a vacation during his term(bearing in mind that vacation is probably a loose term when you are talking about the potus)? To me this seems like a high but believable figure but its being spent so the goverment can continue to operate while he and his family are on vacation.

Is this more expensive than any other president using af1 before him? Was he the one who decided that af1 was how presidents should travel? Were did you get this 181K/hour figure? Can you back up any of your figures? Do you care?

His record shows that he is in favour of stable law abiding citizens owning guns and being as free with those legally held guns as possible. Some facts He has said Dosn't sound very anti-gun to me, in fact it sounds like something that everyone on the planet should agree with. He also said Again common sense, noble, infallible goals, nothing to suggest he dosn't think anyone should ever be allowed guns. And so on and so forth, common sense rhetoric with very little action in either direction, well actually no action in the anti gun direction since being president only action which widened gun owners rights not limited them. Finally So he really can't win. Your own ridiculous entrenchments on both sides prevents action of any sort and nobody wins and people continue to die but you keep going with your cheap digs and one liners they are really helping your country fix the mess its created for itself.

I imagine if it was arepulican president you would be saying something along the lines of him making a joke that any other father would make regarding his daughter and her meeting boys but no any excuse for a cheap, irrelevant one liner that mkaes you feel smart about yourself

As distasteful as it is to say, it dosnt really matter what they do or don't disagree with. A law student once said something to me like hard cases make bad law. The parents get no more or less say then they had before this tragedy. There is a correct answer to the problem, I don't know what it is accept to say that it probably involves some sort of stricter control over people with psychiatric problems and their access to guns in the short term and an examination of how your society treats people on its fringes in the medium term. I do know that you will never find the solution if everyone behaves like they do here.

The point is there is no need for guards in the schools, armed or otherwise, if there are kids in private (or public) schools who might be a victim of kidnapping or something like that becuaswe of who their parents are then yes they probably need protection that other kids don't. There are more people poisoned every year in the US then there have ever been killed in mass shootings. American society is damaged to such an extent that more or less guns won't make any difference to anything at this stage. I have no problem with teachers being allowed carry if they want to but I still don't think its necessary, if you don't trust your kids teacher with a gun then why do you let them teach your kids? It still wont really protect anything imo as the shooters will just target the teachers first. Even if armed guards are put in schools it isn't like they are going to be the delta force, one or two fat wanabe cops with guns will just be the first to die from a bullet to the back of the head by any shooter with a modicom of intelligence. Its the psychology of a society that breeds people who feel their only solution is to grab a gun that is the problem. edit; my grandfather was a long standing member of the police force in Ireland, member of the flying squad and was one of the few at the time who was permitted to carry a gun but most of the time he chose not to. IIRC he was in a situation were he was unarmed with criminals / terrorists pointing guns at him twice in his career and he is convinced that the only reason he wasn't shot is because they knew he was not armed and the consequences for them to do it were so great (killing a police officer in Ireland was the last crime you could get the death penalty for in a long time) but mainly he was convinced it was because he was unarmed. You can never go back the road you have gone down with weapons and I think it is totally futile to try and I personally wouldnt want you to as I enjoy guns but just because a gun is the blunt instrument somebody used to do something terrible does not mean the solution is as simple as more or less guns, it is far far more intricate than that.

Nobody would be interested in a comic about me or my Dick. Having said that, that hasn't stopped Skydiving Duck so maybe I should give it a try.