michaelmullins

Well since you are fucking deaf you would not realize how loud the Skyvan is, it is "deafening", therefore the "Dive 'til you're deaf".

SkyVan "Dive 'til You're Deaf" event. Sunday, 31 March, weather will be excellent and West Tennessee Skydiving is having a SkyVan "Dive 'til You're Deaf" event. For licensed skydivers, jump the SkyVan all day (yes, all day) from 14,500 for $50! Yes, just $50.00. SkyVan available at 9 AM. Did we mention it is $50 for all the jumps you can make on Sunday? If you make 10 jumps, then that would be $5 per jump (do the math).

Operating a DZ at a tower controlled airport can be anything from absolutely horrible to absolutely great. It all depends on whether they actually want you there or not. This is especially true if it is a contract tower, that is, manned by non-FAA personnel. If the airport owners are behind you, then probably the tower people will be also favorable to deal with. It can be great or it can be a living hell. If the owner is not extremely enthusiastic about having you there it would be best not to go there.

Well, I have 23 members that are in favor of the decision, how many do you have that do not like it? USPA is not a democracy, it is a Republic, just like the government of the US. You elect your representative to make the decisions and they do so using their experience, insight, and judgment. If you do not like their decisions, then run for the BOD yourself, or elect someone else. BTW, I have no idea who you are, or if you are even a USPA member. I have signed by name to every post that I have made on DZ.com. I will not be replying to any more posts from individuals who do not identify themselves. If you feel so strongly about your position, you should (or shude I say shude?) identify yourself. Mike Mullins

You say "we never asked any members for input". In fact, we asked 23 USPA members for their opinion and input. These are the jump numbers, ratings, and qualifications of the members we asked: Total number of jumps of the 23: 224,790 Average number of jumps: 9,773 Low number of jumps: 1,004 High number of jumps: 19,999 AFF IE: 6, AFF I: 8, TIE: 3, TI: 7, SLIE: 2, SLI: 5, IADIE: 1, IADI: 1, CE: 9, S&TA: 9, DZO: 3. After much discussion among these 23 USPA members, it was decided to pass the BSR. These USPA members ranged from fun jumpers with no ratings to highly rated professional skydivers and certainly represent the broad spectrum of USPA members. Mike Mullins, USPA National Director

Why now? Why not now? This is information that the Director of Safety & Training and the BOD feels is important to have in order to enhance safety.

Not correct at all. The BSR requires the report and if the report is not made it is a violation of the BSR. Then, disciplinary action may be taken for not filing the report and any actions that were also BSR violations. If the report is made, then no disciplinary action will be taken on what is in the report. This is the reference in the USPA Governance Manual: Any USPA member shall be guilty of an offense justifying the imposition of the penalties set forth in USPA Governance Manual Section 1-6.4.C (below) who— Willfully, flagrantly or continuously violates the USPA Basic Safety Requirements.

Just get your German license as it will be more acceptable most places in Europe. If you get the German license, or any skydiving license that meets the FAI minimums, it is no problem to get it changed to a USPA license once back here. If you are going to live and jump in Germany, you probably will be required to get the German license anyway. I would not go out of my way to get a USPA license until you actually return to the US and need it. Even if you are just visiting the US, as long as you are a foreign resident you can use your German license in the US.

Having reports relating to safety and incidents has always been important but USPA was simply not receiving incident reports in most cases. The reason for the reports is safety. USPA needs to identify safety issues so that we can address possible solutions. For example, the problem with canopy collisions was addressed with the GM pledge to separate high performance landing areas for normal landing areas. You can be surprised as much as you wish with Ron Bell passionately asking for these reports, it does not change the fact that it is his position that he really wants these reports. I suggest you go ask him, and ask him specifically if he "passionately" wants this, as I have described. As far as a "new" Safety & Training Committee, it has changed little and the Chair is still the same person, Michael Wadkins. Mike Mullins

There may not be an S&TA on the DZ, and the DZ may not even have an S&TA. The report needs to come from those most familiar with the situation, and that would be the skydivers on the jump, or the supervising instructor if it is a student jumper on self supervision. Yes, you may not realize it, but every student self supervision jump must have a supervising instructor, and, that instructor may be on the ground. Further, there is actually no mandatory requirement, and there never has been, that anyone make an incident report other than the report made mandatory by this BSR. This BSR came about from a passionate plea from the USPA Director of Safety & Training, Ron Bell. Ron felt that is was so important to receive these reports that a trade for no disciplinary action was a fair trade to glean the information that he felt was critical to further USPA safety goals. By the way, Ron is doing a great job in his new position with USPA. Mike Mullins USPA National Director

It means exactly what it says, if ANY AAD fires on a jump with a student, a report is required. USPA definitely wants to know if an instructor has an AAD fire on a student jump. You can confirm this with USPA Safety & Training Chair Michael Wadkins or Director of Safety & Training Ron Bell. Their email is: michael.wadkinsxcelskydiving.com, [email protected].

Lisa & Rick, While I totally understand the restraint put upon you by your contract with the airport, I would assume that the logical issue that the airport has is for the jumpers to carry 3rd Party Liability Insurance, such as is provided with USPA Membership. Along that line, CSPA members have $3 million dollars of coverage (worldwide) vice USPA members $50K. It seems only logical that the airport would accept the CSPA coverage. Is there some other issues involved that prevent the airport from accepting the CSPA coverage? It seems that the airport would prefer the CSPA coverage vice the USPA coverage. If you are interested in pursuing an avenue where the airport might consider accepting CSPA, I am sure that USPA could provide some help, if requested, in that goal. I would be happy to request that the problem be put on the Group Membership agenda in the upcoming USPA meeting on 1 February, if you so desire. Mike Mullins USPA National Director

The case you speak of was never heard by a judge, it was settled out of court before it ever got to that point. Have no idea where you got that "22 minute case", never happened.

Plenty of free tent space, or you can bunk in the building. Modern bathrooms with hot showers open 24/7. Pick a date: Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday evening, Sunday morning. Send me a pm with your contact info and I will book for you.

*** But do you think the USPA really had safety in mind when they made these license changes? Mike Mullins directly admitted to me in another thread that the USPA made these changes to make it easier on our athletes - that safety was not the basis for their decision. Wow, really? Wasn't safety placed before competition in the USPA's own mission statement? Quote That is NOT what I said. The changes in the licenses were made to ensure that our licenses were in line with the FAI/IPC Certificates of Competency that are required for their sanctioned competitions. Without these changes, it could result in our jumpers not being able to compete in these events. I fail to see how that makes it "easier on our athletes", it allows our athletes to compete. From the USPA Constitution, a duty of USPA is to: "to select and train the United States Parachute Team for world competition." We cannot have a US Team if the FAI/IPC will not allow our jumpers to compete due to a lack of a "Certificate of Competency". Mike Mullins

West Tennessee Skydiving will be having balloon jumps at its annual Halloween Boogie held 26-27-28 October, $150 each, balloon holds 3 jumpers, total of 27 slots available. Also have Mike Mullins Super King Air, Helicopter, and Pitts Special for inverted biplane jumps. see: https://www.facebook.com/events/856544867866267/ Mike Mullins

I assumed no such thing. I was simply pointing those who did not know about the project, or those who wished additional information on the project, to a site that would explain it in detail. I am sure that there are those that know about it and oppose it, I am sure that there are those that know about it and are in favor, and I am sure that there are those that know nothing about it. As far as asking the membership, as I have posted many times before, USPA operates like virtually all corporate Board of Directors do, you elect a board and they make the decisions. Since you are so adamant against your $0.62 per year being spent on a donation to the museum, I was going to send a check to USPA, in your name, for the full 5 year, $3.10 donation to be spent on the program of your choice. However, since you are not a USPA member the point is moot and you can rest easy knowing that none of your dues has been spent on the project. Mike Mullins

Most would agree that the more skydivers we have, the better skydiving will be for everyone. That's a very fine line to walk down. While greater numbers are good in some aspects, they are really bad in other aspects. Most high-risk sports are largely unregulated because they are fringe activities that the vast majority of the population will not participate in. Thus, with fewer numbers, the effects of our actions is less and therefore the government has other things to be concerned with. But as our numbers go up, so do incidents and other issues in parallel. If the numbers keep going up, without question we will eventually get big enough that the FAA will legitimately start looking to regulate us. If we want to be a self-regulating sport, then it's to our benefit to minimize our footprint otherwise the government will become the new USPA. We have fewer fatalities in absolute numbers than we had when our sport was far smaller and the percentage of fatalities per jump is far smaller than it has ever been. Their is strength in numbers with the political clout and money that a large membership brings. For example, the recent drive to privatise ATC, which would have been a total disaster for the jump community and many more alphabet organizations. BTW, USPA voted to donate $25,000 to the cause to fight that. The more USPA members, the merrier. Just think, if everyone was a USPA member we would have very few political or perception problems :) Mike Mullins

USPA, like our federal government (just recite the pledge of allegiance) is a republic, as is every state government. You elect board members that then handle USPA business by vote. I believe that this is the first monetary donation that USPA has made to the museum. However, USPA has made "in kind" donations by allowing the museum to use USPA office space. You say "after the BOD voted to sell the land". I do not know what land you are talking about. The museum owns a plot of land next to USPA HQ, it was paid for by them, and they still own it. USPA did not donate any money for that land and it is up to the museum to sell it or keep it. USPA has the right of first refusal if the museum does sell the land. In my opinion, the museum made the right choice by co-locating with a wind tunnel in FL. There is no way the museum could attract enough visitors in Fredericksburg, VA, to sustain it. Bottom line, it is $0.62 per year per member, and, it can be terminated by USPA at any time for any reason. Mike Mullins

Your USPA BOD did indeed vote to donate $25,000 per year, for the next five years, to the International Skydiving Museum & Hall of Fame. I would suggest that all who are not familiar with their mission and the skydivers involved go to skydivingmuseum.org/ and educate yourself. It was not a unanimous decision of the board, some would have liked a lessor donation per year, some may have not wanted to donate at all, I did support this donation as I am certain that this endeavor will benefit all skydivers. Most would agree that the more skydivers we have, the better skydiving will be for everyone. This ISMHF will be a first class, interactive facility, adjoining a wind tunnel in Sarasota, FL. There will be a lot of people who will see this and, hopefully, decide to try skydiving, or at least come away with a favorable image of skydiving. I also believe it was important that USPA step up and make this donation as we are, by default, the host country. It would be a hard sell to get other countries skydiving associations to donate if we were not to donate. Concerning the donation, how much would you as a USPA member be willing to donate to the ISMHF out of your dues? Would you donate an amount less than the price of a bottle of water or a coke? There are 40,318 USPA Members. With the $25,000 donation that comes out to $0.62 per member. Plus, if the BOD determines that our money is not being used wisely we can cut the money off at any time for any reason with a simple majority vote of the BOD. Again, I would highly recommend that each of you check out the ISMHF website, see what they are doing, and see who is involved. I believe that most will be impressed. Mike Mullins USPA National Director

What I said is 100% accurate.

Ed Scott never claimed this happened because Lodi wasn't a USPA GM DZ. I have attached the video for you to review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVUTZ3APTMs This wasn't an "Unlucky Tragedy". This was negligence by a number of people involved. They keep mentioning the TI not having required USPA certifications. I'm not a TI, but it is my understanding is that no one legally needs anything from the USPA to be a TI. They need a rating from the manufacturer and that is the only rating that matters. If they have a USPA TI rating but no manufacturer rating, legally they cannot do a TI jump. Is that accurate? So the more important question is did he have a TI rating from UTP (or whatever rig they use)? I will repeat myself from an earlier post in this thread, the person in question: Was not a USPA Member, and had never been. Had no USPA License, and never had one. Had no USPA Tandem Rating, and never had one. Had no manufatuerer's rating, and never had one. Mike Mullins

As shown in the Lodi accident... Not sure I would trust a person that just had an instructor card. https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article99446487.html You know the TI had a USPA rating card... Right? The person acting as a Tandem Instructor in the Lodi accident was not a USPA member, did not hold a USPA license, did not have a USPA Tandem Instructor rating, and did not have a manufacturers rating. Mike Mullins