FastRon

For Pops- Nope- no civil rights suit. Angry farmers, two deputies, me and a bunch of puzzled cows all gathered together. Cops had probable casue- likely never heard of FARS. I was happy to avoid having my rig seized, being maced, jailed, and/or fined... Took months to sort out though.

I believe Dave is correct as far as the legal liability is concerned- even as far back as the mid '70's... The only thing is that een though the charges were dropped later, I still got arrested (including handcuffs) and summoned. You can beat the charge, but you can't beat the ride in the back of the Deputy's car...

Amen to Chuck, Wendy, Ian, Pops and all. The endorcement of the 'best practices" will be by carrot or stick- I personally hope it's the carrot (education?)- because I have way too much stick time already...

Ditto the Reynaud's syndrome. Doesn't help when your hands are above your torso either. Anyone else use handball gloves, or fingerless biking gloves? They fit snug and allow good dexterity?

Because I had wanted to for a long time, and I knew it was probably going to be the hardest thing I had ever done. The first one was... It was also the coolest thing I'd ever done too. I resumed it after a motorcycle wreck and 32 years and it is still about the funnest thing you can do with your clothes on....

Dave- It's no way restricted to Texas. In a 10 month period we removed over 200 children from rock houses to CPS. All but 4 were returned to the houses within days... Why the four? We raided the mother's house 9 separate times. I guess her double secret probation finally ended.

In my limited experience- getting stolen stuff back once it appears on the List, tends to be a low probablility event... Takes jurisdiction, interested detectives and judges, court orders etc... Most of that cannot happen quick enough to locate and retrieve it, let alone arrest and prosecute. In a perfect world, the Feds could/would handle it. Just saying-

For sure Grunge- I mean with all the screaming, just has to bring back that first jump...

Welcome back. My first jumps were in 1973, Had a bad motorcycle crash in '81 and Dr. said I needed to hand it up... With the help of the great people at Kapowsin, came back 32 years later. Equipment and the aircraft are different, for sure. I'd say everything,including the jumper is generally safer. After 170's 182's. Beech's and DC3's- turbines absolutely rock! Waiting for spring now and selling my waterski!

We use dual lock on water ski bindings. Comes in two 'strengths; 250 and 400. Has a LOT of holding power. It does not snag or grab at various materials like the hook portion of Velcro does. It also doesn't 'fuzz' like Velcro. It has a somewhat limited service life... We replace it after about 5 separations of bindings from the ski.

Long ago, I made maybe a hundred jumps without. Normal freefall speeds didn't cause issues, but the speed of a paricular long, steep dive/swoop really did. Wore some kind of eye protection religiously after that. I also knew a guy who hit a bumblebee square in the eye at terminal at maybe 3000 feet. No goggles. Did not lose an eye but it did cause some bleeding and bruising as I recall. They are doing some great stuff with knees etc, but no artificial eyes yet...

I used to use leather handball gloves. An inexpensive glove we use here at work is a nitrile foam coated woven synthetic glove from "Advanced Gloves" Not particularly warm but prevents conduction heat loss and has a very secure grip with good feel. They appear to run a little small but are pretty stretchy. No idea where we get them but we buy cases of them, so they have to be out there somewhere...

I've no idea how to compare today's dollars with 1973- but first jump was $55. Year later bought new custom rig, with new PC and 26'Navy conical and altimeter for I think $800. 3500 feet was $3 from a C170. People were learning how to fly pretty well. The jumpers from Snohomish and Issaquah were regularly putting together sequential 10 ways using belly reserve rigs, et al. (I mostly just watched.) Beer was cheaper too, I think. Fun times!

Bill- I'm pretty sure that's what I meant. Airspeed plus or minus the vector of winds aloft parallel to that airspeed= the ground speed along jump run? If that is zero then everything ends up on top of everything else? If it's not zero then isn't there SOME built in separation by allowing whatever time between groups is appropriate? (I only suggested 7 seconds becasue someone else cited it.) I am sort of aware we usually don't try to open at ground level... I personally prefered about 2500 feet or so. :-)

Most of my skydives were from Cessna 170's, 180's, 182's... So we rearely had two 'groups' of jumpers. I'm trying to get a handle on the the issue(s) but 'ballistically' as it were, I would think that unless winds aloft changed in the time it took to launch the next group, they would affect all jumpers the same pretty much if they have similar fall rates. If we dropped say 4 same sized/weight watermelons 7 seconds apart, shouldn't they impact in a rough line parallel jump run about aircraft ground speed (in ft./sec.) times 7 seconds apart?

i don't know what-all about the 45 degree rule, but I'm obviously missing something- if it was a ballistics problem, unless conditions change, the separation between two 'targets' would be the separation at initiation (exit?) Conditions like: consistent speed and direction of winds, direction and altitude of (aircraft) similar ballistic (freefall) speed, and altitude of target. Of course (unguided) ballistic 'bodies' can't track down jump run...

I don't have the experience to provide input on the winds aloft stuff, but I do know something about external ballistics. A dense object (like a bullet) will eventually (very quickly in fact) be moving at the rate and 'value' ( angle of incidence) of the moving air/wind. There is a measurable difference in the drift of objects moving at velocities above and below the speed of sound, but freefall speeds are not that high (yet).

Have to agree about the slow news day part. Happens all the time these days- not just U.K. Q. Looking at the still photo of (line stretch?) If it was line twists.. wouldn't ALL the lines be twisted? Not all the groups appear to be twisted/wrapped. What am I missing? Maybe this is a result of a step through or other packing error?

A DZO friend had a paradactyl. As I recall he was compelled to start doing his own reserve repacks because it had opening 'issues'... a lot. If I remember right it didn't really flare and landings were "sporty" on no-wind days. Fun to watch tho, I recall it motored around pretty well.

FWIW- I have seen a "course challenge" type mechanism used and proposed in other sports, w/ re: to knowledge bases, but I wouldn't want the rigger packing my reserve to have "challenged" the course of study. Most sports don't have the level of negative consequences that "lapses" of knowledge might have in skydiving. When I get around to ignoring the doctor's 'recommendation' and restart jumping- I will seek the most knowledgeable, experienced, and best qualified AFFI, I can find.

I agree- In other venues, we've seen the real agenda behind efforts like the City of Creswell- driven by behind-the-scene developer money. Is there already a buyer for the airport property? Is Creswell proactively spending money on the issue? Do cities usually do that unless they anticipate a method to recoup? Cities usually employ people to advise them on 'issues' like that, to make (better?) financial decisions... I don't know Creswell but airport properties don't reqire a lot of earthwork to prep for buildings and parking for stuff like malls, industrial parks, casinos and racetracks. Don't they all bring more tax revenues to the city, than airports do? Just saying.

I find changing a behavior is much tougher than changing a rule. I once thought 3500 was break-off altitude, and pitching above 2500 was a waste of freefall. Hop and pops were from like 2550- so we had canopy at 2500 or 'thereabouts'... times, equipment and attitudes change- maybe the behavior will too.

Among the other valid observations given- I think lots of people seem to think they are 'entitled(?)' to a "do-over" for every decision. Maybe they are uneasy with those who don't.

I have no experience with European procedures, but in the U.S. it's important to get a stolen property report taken. "Lost" property does not normally end up as a hit in the NCIC databases, if the serial number is checked. If it's discovered somewhere in an arrest or raid or or by a suspicious rigger or whatever, it would not find its way back to you if "lost", and no one gets arrested or charged. It can be 'difficult' getting a stolen report taken. Agencies often hem/haw about jurisdiction re: where stolen- (even when it's a firearm-) and not want to take a report. You may have to be very demanding to get it done. TSA would likely NOT be helpful. They are not really law enforcement per se, with limited jurisdiction and authority.

Winds were maybe 10-12mph. I remember thinking briefly- "Damn, I REALLY don't want to ride a reserve today"...