GatorNation

As someone already said, there is a difference between making a "bad judgment call" and doing what this guy did. Have I made split second decisions while skydiving, that in retrospect, weren't the safest thing to do? Yes. Have I ever joined a group for the purpose of throwing the jump, while putting everyone else at risk? No. This wasn't a split second "judgment call" by this guy. He had plenty of time to think about it... while dirt diving, while gearing up, and while flying to altitude. He decided to do what he did... so let him face the consequences of his actions.

I've wondering about this myself, and I've thought about doing some statistical analysis on this matter. People keep comparing apples to oranges when it comes to comparing skydiving to other activities. They’ll say something like 1 in so many drivers die a year driving, but only 1 in so many skydives results in a fatality. As someone with a statistics background, this sort of analysis makes me cringe. I’ve considered compiling the data myself. I think the best way to go about this is to compare fatalities per hours of involvement in the activity. For example, it may be that there is one driving fatality per 100,000 hours of driving, but there may be 1 fatality per 1,000 hours of skydiving (this would include the ride to altitude, freefall, and time under canopy). In this example, I think it would be safe to say that skydiving is 100 times more dangerous than driving. Just a thought.

Some months ago while drinking at a local bar I run into a whuffo acquaintance of mine and he started telling me that he had done a tandem at a local DZ (not my home DZ). After he is done telling me about his tandem he says "Man, and someone got killed at the same place I did my tandem this week" and starts to laugh. I told him "Nope, it wasn't your DZ... the guy died at my DZ and I was one of the first people to show up to give him first aid. He was my buddy and he will be missed." He just stared awkwardly and walked away. There was a reason I never liked that guy.

I always try to avoid talking about skydiving with whuffos. They always ask the same stupid questions, and really don't care much to want to get into the details of the sport. Whats probably happening here is that they are kinda tired of you bringing up skydiving so much, and I can kinda get that. Like someone said above, when a whuffo asks me how my weekend was, I always say something like "it was fun" or "it was great".

I don't know what to say. Very sad.

At the University of Florida Falling Gators we do all those activities you mentioned to get people involved. But I think the important thing about tabling and giving out flyers is that you have to be advertising a specific event. Every semester, we have a tandem special (we coordinate with our dz to have a weekend of discounted tandems for UF students), and we usually advertise our club that way. The ultimate goal is to have people sign up for AFF, which we provide at a discount for being a club member. We also provide ground school for free, since it is usually done by a member of the club.

UF has a good skydiving club too, if that is all you consider when going to grad school.

I use th $10 goggles sold at gas stations for bikers. They aren't the highest quality stuff, but they get the job done.

I jumped a paracommander for my 100th jump. Edit- spelling.

Jump #60ish- Did a 8 way raft dive, and when I broke off at 4,500ft I decided to track for 5 secs. After tracking, and around 3,000 ft I decided that it would be smart to do a barrel roll to make sure that there was no one on top of me before pulling. Well... I did the barrel roll and became very unstable. I eventually pulled unstable at around 2,200 ft. Lesson learned.

Awesome Excel sheet. I sure will use it. Question- I would like to add "Round" to the type of skydives in the drop box. How do I do that? Edit- never mind. Just found out how to do it!

I also received an email from him telling me that he wanted to by my container.. when I'm only selling a coupon for a container. I know that he's prob a scam, but what are the signs that immediately give him away?

That's funny coming from you... The last thing we would want is for this thread to turn into a forum for personal attacks.

Several years as a prosecutor (including as a charging supervisor) and 25 years practicing law, including a great deal of criminal law, in 6 different jurisdictions. Tampering with someone's property with the intent to harrass or piss them off is criminal mischief, criminal harrassment and destruction of property. Tampering with something with the intent that it places them in real danger of getting hurt, with a lesser chance of getting killed - say, tampering with their car's break lines or steering - would be agg assault and reckless endangerment. Tampering with a PARACHUTE with the intent that it will fail while in the process of being deployed after having jumped from an aircraft in flight - is trying to kill someone; and that's attempted murder. I'll see your couple of prosecutors who wouldn't charge that as attempted homicide (along with lesser included offenses), and I'll raise you a whole boatload who would do so (including myself). As I noted up-thread, an attempted crime, one of the forms of inchoate crime, does not require that the owner of the parachute actually try to use it for the offender's crime to be complete. All that is required for the crime to be complete is the criminal act and the criminal intent. Maybe you, like the other poster up-thread, could benefit from some continuing education on inchoate crimes. That's why you're wrong. Thanks for the law lesson. The last thing I needed was someone telling me to take a CLE on anything at a skydiving forum. You feel better now?

Thanks for the law lesson. The last thing I needed was someone telling me to take a CLE on anything at a skydiving forum. You feel better now?