AirRage2

I just felt I needed to voice my opinion and it seemed as though a very small number of people know exactly what is really going on. i have been following this thread since the begining and only felt I had to comment because of Kip. I became an examiner because of seeing I/E's working in the field first hand. In my own Tandem course my paperwork was lost and took me months to finally get the rating. Since becoming an Instructor and seeing the substandard performance of such a large number of I/E's in the field I knew I had to "get in" the club and institute change from the inside. My courses are hard, but fair. I don't hand ratings over, you earn them. I wish more I/E's would step up but I guess money is more important than the safety of students. I feel the changes need to start with the I/E's. The USPA, Tandem Manufacturers these are the folks that have to do this. I think we have a great program in place but the I/E/'s need to step up or get out. Now if that can be fixed which won't be easy but we can start by dropping I/E's who don't even stay current. I/E's need to be put in check first. Now, the requirements for instructor ratings. I honestly believe the coach requirement should stay the same. The AFF rating should lose the 6hr freefall and go to 500 jumps. The Tandem I should move to 1000 jumps. My opinion. There have been several incident's in the past few years that have really gotten under my skin. They involve fatalities of students and the instructors involved still working out there with ratings intact. Not acceptable. One coach rating was issued in January 2009 one week after that candidate was involved in a wingsuit fatality. There isn't a wingsuit Instructor rating yet but to save Mr. Knebelkoph Mr. Lohmiller pretty much handed him a rating without putting him thru the course. It's a pretty well know incident in the skydiving world. Conditional AFF ratings where you can't take students up alone or fly main side. Because a Reserve side JM has never ended up on the main. What? Also a Mr. Lohmiller rating. Total B.S. and how did this get thru USPA? I'm only an examiner working in the field so take my opinions and views or don't. This isn't science fiction it's science fact.

The only reason he's on here posting about the AFF rating is 1. to talk smack about the President of USPA who he has a long standing beef with and 2. Now that being and I/E is actually a rating instead of an appointment there will be a lot more I/E's out there cutting into his funds. Now people won't have to travel as far to go through courses so his market is getting smaller. One of the biggest problems with the old course was there was only a few AFF I/E's who would fail and fail people because the could. They had the monopoly on ratings courses. Well those days are over. Let's see what the new crop of I/E's are all about. Hopefully it's a change for the better. How many times can you screw the pooch as an I/E before the USPA takes action? As far as K.L is concerned quite a few I see. He needs to be tossed. Let's start a petition about that. if you want to make a career out of being an I/E you have an obligation to the people you train. Not being a shady piece is a pretty good start. Billy Rhodes had his ratings pulled and K.L. is well on his way to having the same done to him.

This is how it is. The system isn't broken, the Instructor Examiners in the field is where the problem lies. You have people out there taking money for courses and not showing up. People taking money for courses and not submitting paperwork. Failing people with skill because they can and passing others who shouldn't have ratings. The AFF course is still as hard as it's ever been but there are some examiners out there that have fluctuating standards. You have dumbass examiners who give out "conditional" AFF ratings because you don't have skill enough to pass the course but you have boobs and hand over coach ratings to people who were just involved in a wingsuit fatality. Your shit is being looked at and good job making all examiners out there look stupid. K.L. My favorite examiner by far is the one who holds tandem courses and isn't even there. Just watch these videos then jump with each other. When you have your card filled out send it to me and I'll sign off on it. Amazing I know. I personally ride on the front for all 10. But that's just me. USPA needs to re-evaluate who they have in the field along with all the tandem manufacturers. There are more jackasses out there than I care to think and the King of them all is the one posting on here trying to slam everyone else for low standards when he in fact has the lowest standards of all. Shady business practices, low course standards, can't manage a dz without getting fired for sleeping with other skydivers girls, jumping with underage tandems. K.L. you sir are a piece of work.