skydance1954

Fearmongering from either side is wrong and should be called out. The inability of either or both sides to have constructive dialog is destructive and counterproductive. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

No, I haven't missed the point. I was making an observation on the behaviour of the current minority party and their supporters. Now, you have clearly defined the nature of the problem in a dispasionate manner, which is excellent. Now we have a place to begin a civilized discourse. To play devil's advocate here: perhaps asking young people "what they can do to help the president?" could simply be a method to troll new ideas from young people. Kinda like brainstorming - throw everything against the wall and see what sticks. This only works if you ask the question and stand back. Give no guidence for one side or the other. Young folks look at things differently, and we can all do well to listen to their ideas. Sometimes something really good comes out of it. I can attest personally that I've learned as much (or more) from my kids as they have from me. It can also be construed to be a sinister plan to brainwash the youth of America into a specific line of thought. The opposition and several private citizens chose to see it as the latter, and objected. The objectionable content was then removed, and a more neutral tone was applied to the speech. And hasn't there been pictures of the sitting president in schools and classrooms around the country for at least the past 100+ years anyway? I seem to recall a LOT of movies about young people where there's a picture of the president in the background. I seem to recall there being a shot of Eisenhower behind the principal in Grease. A good percentage of the people who originally objected to the specific (and possibly legitimate) issue above, still removed their children from school, stating straight up that they don't want their children listening to "that man", no matter what message he carries. The news even showed several parents pulling their kids from school, watching the speech, agreeing with what was said - and STILL telling the cameras that they are glad they pulled their kids from school because they don't want this president talking to them. And they'll do it again if he chooses to give another speech. They don't care what he intends to say. From my point of view on the sidelines - this isn't about the issues. They are the justification being used to engage in extremely negative behavior. We have parents that are deliberately and unapolligetically (sp?) restricting their children's right to hear both sides of an argument. At this point, I'm not talking about the school thing. I'm saying that these people are going to spend the next 4 years telling their kids that there is only one way to go - their way - all other arguments are invalid. Period. I was taught that America is a land where diverse opinions are meant to be discussed in an open forum for all to hear. We are allowed to disagree. We must try to be civil to one another and respect the opposition, even when we don't agree with it, and try to work on something we can all live with. This isn't what these people are doing. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

Yes, it's offensive to me in the sense that helpless & unarmed people were hit with a military strike. And this is the aftermath. Happens in every war, on every side. Still, and excellent photo, though. In that "capturing the human side" of history way. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

I looked that up, too, and I would like to also know what specific point is being violated here. And how is it that previous presidents didn't violate this law, but the present one does. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

From the point of view of someone on the outside looking in - I don't understand why all of a sudden, we have this very vocal group screaming about not trusting the president's speech, and his "indoctrinating" young minds to his agenda. The past three sitting presidents all did a similar things in addressing young school children, and there was no outcry. My kids are grown and full adults - but I can relate to concerns that a parent would have about anyone coming to a school to give a speach about something. So it's OK to be aware and take note of what is being said. However - (again from the point of view of someone on the outside, with no dog in the fight) - what I see here is that some parents don't like the man and what he represents. That's fine too. As a free country you're allowed to disagree. But here's where we have a problem - even when the man stands up and gives a speach about something we can all agree on (work hard, stay in school, live up to your potential, contribute something positive to society in your own unique way) - above said parents refuse to allow their children to listen to this message. Apparently because it comes from a specific source that they don't want their children to listen to - about anything, even when it could be something that is right. My concern here goes beyond the speech itself. The pattern I've seen from the "loyal opposition" is not one of competing ideas and working on compromise - it's one of simply trying to torpedo whatever agenda the administration has. No alternative ideas, nothing constructive - just resistance and demonizing. Don't like what you see? Fine. Provide an alternative and start negotiating. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

davelepka's answer was excellent and on the money. Short answer to your original question is R&D, along with custom, hand built craftsmanship. Imagine the price of cars if they were built like parachute gear. There wouldn't be a person in the country earning less than 6 figures that could own one. I bought my last set of new gear in 1996. With the proper maintenance that I regularly give it, I've put well over 2000 jumps on it, and it's ready for another 2000 at least. If a jumper really only needs to buy a rig (as opposed to wants), every decade or so, with the small market, even world wide, you don't need to make a lot of them. Which means, the price goes way up. Besides, I'll gladly pay $5K to save my life 4,000 times, and throw in another $1200 to replace the cypress that I hope that I never use. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

I'm gonna go with GaryRay on this one. The student has time and finanical limits. They go through the course at their own rate, not due to an arbitrary business decision on the part of the school. Will you progress faster if you're at the DZ every weekend? Yes. But that's up to the student as to what (s)he can handle. If you really want it, you'll make it happen Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

I'm probably somewhat past the anxiety phase, but these days, when the door opens, I get real focused. If I'm spotting, that's all I think about until climbout. Otherwise, I'm living in the moment, doing every action very deliberately. The comments about the balloon jumps are quite right. Did another one this weekend, and my heart was going a thousand miles an hour. Funny in retrospect. One side of my brain is in a near panic, and the other side is telling it to calm down, as I'm leaving anyway. Turned out to be a great jump. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

16 years ago I lost a friend and mentor to a skydiving accident. The feeling at the time was that he couldn't have POSSIBLY made a mistake because he was one of the safest skydivers I had ever met. Very conservative, thoughtful and logical. However, the subsequent inquest did show that he was given a bad situation, and made a series of bad calls. So, while the accident didn't happen to me personally, I was seriously spooked by it all. I didn't stop jumping, but that year I made less than 50 jumps. Deep thought and risk evaluations as mentioned by people above, plus the chances of certain rewards were all taken into consideration. I came back stronger than before and the past 16 years have been marvelous. For me - it was the right call. And I'll keep on jumping until I can't. Your life is still largely ahead. Now, with this injury, you're appreciating better the risks that we take. If you choose to "get back in the saddle", learn as much as you can in your down time. Take courses, attend seminars. Listen to the grumpy old farts. Even they have nuggets of wisdom from time to time. But this is your call and yours alone. Don't do it because someone wants you to. Do it, or not, because it's what YOU want to do. Either way, we'll understand and support you. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

Jump numbers alone should never be considered the only yardstick of skill and competence. It didn't work in the '70s and sure as hell doesn't work now. Time in sport, currency, skill evaluations as given during courses, number of jumps, freefall time and displays of common sense should all be factors taken into consideration for whatever task the candidate is choosing to do today. Our job as the DZ instructors, safety officers and owners is to shepherd the young ones through the danger zones as best we can. If they choose not to listen - well, we can try harder. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

I'm solidly with Ed on this one. If you need to use me to stay in the formation because your flying skills are not up to the task at hand, then what are you doing on this dive? Don't care if it's a fun dive or not. I've been "that guy" taking people out, and been taken out by them plenty of times. Don't like it either way. Using grip switches as a substitute for flying skill is not a way to progress. Anyone who uses it at first can certainly be forgiven, and instructed on how to do better, and perhaps moved to a different slot in the dives to help ensure better success with less temptation to use it. However, if (s)he has the attitude that it's acceptable all the time - well, obviously you have little or no interest in improving your flying skills and therefore over time will be invited on fewer and fewer dives. There are lots of fun jumpers out there who have never been on teams who kick serious ass in the sky either on their heads or on their bellies for the same reasons that competitors do - they constantly strive to do better. And so should you. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

You're ignoring two very important points here: 1) that the video setup is for the convenience of the judges, not the competitors, and certainly not the videographers. They must watch a stupid number of videos in a real short period of time and post the scores. Video formats and resolutions are not their concerns, regardless of your (valid) arguments. 2) Videographers across the country set up their systems according to their own personal preferences and budgets. They don't know about, or care what the Nationals standards are for video delivery. I dare you to ask any videographer on a non-sponsored team if they have checked the Nationals requirements prior to purchasing their equipment. Or even after. They don't. Hell, the competitors don't even read the rules themselves! They do the pools, train and then go to the meet. And sometimes find out that there are rules that negate a lot of the training they do. There needs to be a discussion of what to do next, certainly. But you've pointed out that there needs to be updates to Omniskore, and the equipment used at the Nationals. Well, who's going to do the development? How long is it going to take, and who's going to pay for it? Who's paying for all the equipment upgrades? For the "serious" videographers, our cameras break often enough, that upgrades are inevitable. But there are a lot of teams that train without them, and find a happy freeflyer to do the video duties at Nationals. Hence the plethora of inputs that the technical staff have to deal with every year. And that's not going away. While a standard must be discussed and agreed upon at the National and international levels, mandating it over the next 24 months is both unrealistic and quite possibly improbable. You might halve the number of teams that can participate in the short term, which may damage the sport in the long term. It's going to be an evolution - and it's going to take time. Back when DV first came in, it still took several years before Hi-8 went away. And that was a simpler situation. Several good points have been made about certain aspects of the technology being standard. But there are still questions about direction that have not been fully answered, to at least my satisfaction, and certainly not the judges. The question is not "What technology is going to be the standard?" But, "What do the judges want to use?" And "What can we afford?" And by "we" I don't mean the videographers. I would recomend that the FAI examine the options, and make long range policy calls, which would allow people to choose future purchases more in line with those policies. And then at some point, have a "drop dead" date (say, 3 years out) where older formats and delivery methods will not be accepted. After all, there are so many options right now, I don't think that anyone is in a position to positively identify what the future is. The only positive thing we know is that HD and widescreen is here to stay. But do the judges intend to use it? Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

Congratulations dude! I'm gonna have to come down there and do a few loads with you in the left seat. Think you can do a better job than Zeke? Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

You misunderstand. I recognize that you can review on the camera, or on a TV as per current procedure. My particular picadillo is that I never erase anything. There are many reasons for this. Students contact me, sometimes years later asking for another copy for various reasons. (one of the more entertaining was his SO was pissed with him and deliberately taped over it with All My Children just to spite him) Others are for historical and entertainment value. What is throw away this year turns out to be pure gold after 10 years, and vice-versa, but I digress.... Point is, that currently, I tend to review the footage as it's captured and log it in a video log, which includes date, position on the tape, tape number, etc.. Once done, it's done. Now, I'll have to take the files, put them into the computer, then archive them to DVD or similar permanent hi-def & large capacity format, and THEN produce a log of what's what. Two extra steps taking additional time and effort. And it will have to be done as each card is filled, otherwise, we lose the video permanently. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of solid state. No more tape failures. No gears to jam. Lighter, possibly more rugged. More creative options on where to set up shots. Higher quality pictures. Pure digital all the time, no degredation of picture or sound. Just more administrative work. There's always trade-offs. We'll just have to adjust our habits. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

Here's what I think is my best shot from the past season. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

Firewire transfer speed is 400mbps, and if you have Firewire 2.0 it's double that. Transfer rates on flash drives usually top out at 40mbps at the moment, regardless of what interface they are plugged into. So, perhaps it MIGHT be faster than real time, but we'll have to see how it operates when we actually get our hands on it. For review and editing purposes though, I don't see this as a time saver, but the exact opposite. Now we're going to have to download and clear the cards as they fill up every time. THEN we can review the video and choose what we want. Whereas before, we had the option of using the tapes as permanent storage without the overhead. Purchasing dozens of cards is not cost effective. Instead of a log of the tapes in the order that they were recorded as we go, we now have a series of vaguely named files that mean nothing. Which means we now have to take the time to organize and properly name them. So, while I am grateful for the reduction in weight, and the, hopefully, improvement in video and audio quality, I don't see a brighter future on the maintenance front. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

Looks pretty damn cool. I'd say the future of video cams is looking very interesting. We'll have to get card readers directly connected to our various PCs and MACs to download the footage, I think. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

For me, pretty close to 5 years and 1,000 jumps. Mind you, a lot of those were rounds, which were almost impossible to stand up, and the rest were Strato-Stars, Strato-Clouds and Sleds. Even then, it was best if I landed in the peas. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

Hee - that reminds me, the 8-way team I was on in '79 - '80 was called Nexus, and we would party a lot on Fridays and Saturdays, train all weekend. We had this one guy, Mike Garonski, who would always feel a bit under the weather every morning. We're training out of an open small door Beech 19, and he'd sit by the door on every jump. Good thing, too, because he'd yak on the first and second load every day. He even wrote a paper on the art of "aero dynemesis". Basically recounting how he managed to get the angle just right so it wouldn't paint the aircraft, his helmet, or the downwind side of his face. He certainly had lots of practice. Hey, Mike, if you're still out there, say hello! Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

I dont see any conflicts there, it's meant to be a story about some parts of DBCs life not a documentary on the darker sides of dropzones. Darker side? In whose opinion? We're all adrenaline junkies here. By definition, we do drugs for fun. Legal drugs made by our own bodies, but we still get a high from it and WE LIKE IT! That said, the sex, drugs and foul language seen at DZs everywhere are part of the human condition at just about every social gathering, regardless of venue, to various degrees. A movie about Dan's life can be done within a framework that minimizes those aspects of a DZ. Remember, this is a movie about Dan, and how he came back from tragedy to triumph. Not about DZ culture. His personal journey didn't involve orgies with the Arvin Good Guys, or parties with the Herd. He stuck to the straight and narrow, and hung with the best FS skydivers of the day. They were, and are, too busy training and making ends meet to be doing too much of anything else. It is said that top FS people are out of touch with the weekend skydivers. Well, duh! These people come out and train hard, then go to bed. The rest of us come out, jump a bit, then party. A significant difference in lifestyle. And it's been that way for over two decades. So, yeah, a movie about Dan that doesn't have much to do with drugs, outrageous sex and parties until dawn will probably accurately show a side of skydiving culture that a lot of us right here on the DZ don't really see much. I mean, come on, people, how often do we see members of Airspeed, of any generation, being stupid drunk with the rest of us and acting silly every weekend? You want to be the best in the world? You gotta pay the price. Don't believe me? Ask any one of them who's been there, or working towards it. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

My favorite part? The warm inner glow that comes over me at the end of a good jump day. Everything hurts, but I've had a full day's jumping where the jumps went well, I performed at or better than my potential on a given day, and I've got all kinds of new visuals in the data banks that the wuffos in my life can't possibly imagine. It took all day to get to that point, and it doesn't happen every jump day - but every once in a while, I feel very content. You can tell when it happens. I just sit by the fire smiling, holding my beer, and don't talk much. Never lasts, though. Sunday morning I've got to do it all over again. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

I get nervous in certain situations: 1st jump of the season after a 4 - 6 month layoff. Unusual jumps like night dives, that I don't do often. Pushing the edge of my personal envelope (this is the "Please, God, don't let me f*ck this up!" kind of nervous.) Jumping borrowed gear. Jumping at a new DZ in questionable weather and then being asked to spot the load (on jumprun) because I'm the most experienced jumper on the plane. Any exhibition skydive. Competions. (But this is a good nervous - it makes me REALLY focus) And sometimes random skydives for no reason at all. It just happens. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

Back in the day - same problem. Home DZs had 182s and 180s, but the Nationals were usually out of Otters. Sometimes we had Beech 19s, DC-3s and once a Caribou. How do you train for a ramp when you've never jumped one? You don't. You do the best you can when you get there. Bill said it right. You find three people, train out of the 182, using the old style exits for the various points, and debrief the best you can. Get to the meet a few days early. Hell, if you can swing it, get there a week early and train every day before the meet. Complete with video and find a coach. Retrain your exits and correct as many of your by now built in bad habits as you can before the meet starts. Make your training plan to do most of your training dives the week before the meet. If you plan to do 100 training dives, do 50 the last week. Is it optimal? No. Does it kinda suck? Yes. But it's either that, or move to a DZ that has an aircraft that closely mimics the one you'll compete out of. Let me know what you decide. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

Come sit by me, my son, and I'll tell you how dirt was invented. Smartass.... I still got better stories than you. And more gratuitous nudity. Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666

QuoteWith the stilletto being so old, are people ignoring it as a path on the route to HP landingsQuote