First to Scottie and Tammy. You guys made our trip down from MN a lot of fun this new years and it was great to meet you both. Why you are leaving is your own business, but I send my love and best wishes. As the apparent skydiver AND A&P, I will speak about something that caught my attention. It was said that it was legal for someone to perform maintenence under supervision and then that was countered by the comment that there wasn't any other A&P around. I don't pretent to know all the details about this, but I know there's more to this than what is being said. ANY pilot's liscence allows a pilot to perform a wide range of maintenence. As a journalism major I also know that facts and pseudo- facts can be used in whatever way by a committed person. They can be used to back up any slant, and make no mistake, there is a slant going on here, maybe more then one. Our DZO works on his planes. If someone had issues with him, they could easily come to a place like this and say that he is perfoming illegal maintenence on the planes. But I know that he has a lot of knowledge about planes, a commercial pilot's liscence, and a program worked out with his maintenence facility, ME and others, to work in conjunction. As for the jumper who got hurt, again, I don't know all the details. But I know the most important one, they are responsible for themselves. Sure we can look out for each other, but it's about personal choices and taking responsibility for those. If I ended up hurt or killed, it's my own fault. At pull/flare time, I'm on my own and so are we all. That sucks and might be hard to swallow, but it's about personal responsibility. The other issues, I don't have enough info to comment. But if a jumper feels the need to "Stand up for other jumpers" I want to know why they're doing it here? If it's that big of a safety issue that you would bring it up publicly, why would you post these concerns here to people without the power to change it? If you feel it's a true safety issue, let the USPA or the FAA know about it. That's also about personal responsibility. If you want to make those claims and you really feel they are true, back them up or let them go.
