Bob_Church

"Always cut away a total. " That tactic has kept me alive. Also, Pat Works' advice to build muscle memory of your handles and procedures. If you have to look you'll be in big trouble if you get low. Ground rush is downright mesmerizing. But the main thing is to select how you're going to do it then practice it until your body will do it for you.

I don't know, but considering some of the uses for wingsuits I'd say stitching on them would be at least as important as on main canopies. That's why I was asking.

I've always seen USPA as a central body that represents skydivers. They mostly defend us against those people who see skydivers as an unnecessary problem. There are occasions where they need to act on something but the idea of actually wanting to set up a group that oversees us, I think, says more about the person wanting it than USPA or skydiving. Some people can't imagine a body of people without someone being in charge and enforcing rules. It's like when we were kids and we'd start a club and the first thing we'd do is set up rules and the punishments for breaking them. Most of us grow out of that. But not all. Personally, I'd rather be skydiving.

Are there any patented stitches involved with wingsuits?

"You can decide whether you think that is unsafe or not," But the real question is, "why would I decide one way or the other?" This is just a guess but do you have between 100 and 200 jumps?

You're kidding right? "inform not enforce" translates to "I can do whatever I want because I wont get in trouble for it anyway". Imagine if the police only 'informed' citizens about the laws they broke and not actually enforced any of them. The FAA needs to step in the other direction and start handing out larger fines, revoking pilot licenses, and grounding aircraft permanently. What do you think would motivate a DZO more to do maintenance, threat that the FAA will come over to them and 'inform' them about the FARs they broke, or threat that the FAA will fine them six figures and ground their entire fleet? Are you really having this much trouble, or maybe I should say lack of trust, at your DZ? Was it an incident or something else that made you feel like you aren't safe when you skydive where you do? Have you talked to anyone else at your DZ to see if there isn't a way to address it locally?

Well, while you are technically correct.... It does not say "fund"...Try to give an example of where providing training in skydiving does not require spending any money. Tunnel? Money Jumps? Money Gear? Money Get them a book on mental training? Buy the book or spend funds on an employee finding one for free, or copying it, etc. So it does not say "fund"... It does say train and you will be hard pressed to help train several teams without spending any money. BTW, It also does not say 'fund a museum.' I don't get where you're coming from on this. DZs and boogies offer load organizing. Many DZs offer coaching jumps. To even start skydiving you need first jump training and then the training that goes with whichever type of student program you choose. These are all forms of training but there's never any question of who will be paying for the jump tickets, and even the tickets of the coaches. Bob Church

I wear a chest mounted MA2-30 as my primary altimeter. I also have a Neptune 3 wrist mounted. I half jokingly refer to it as my toy. I like the information it gathers and sometimes its handy when under canopy to have an altimeter that I can see when looking up and another when looking down. But I wouldn't run out and buy one just for this but since I have it I put it to use. And on a side note, have any of you jumped with the Titanium model of basically a Alti-3 that they sold years ago. It was limited edition and I keep trying to find info about it but no luck. If anyone has pointers to information like how many made, that sort of thing I'd really appreciate it.

As electronics get smaller and cheaper I could see doing this for a freebag and pilot chute.

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 Call me unimaginative but I can't imagine not wanting a Skydiving museum and I can't imagine anyone but USPA doing it. I just really really hope they use that article "The First 50" about night stacks from 1982 as the basis for a bronze plaque.

"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 " The increased time between reserve I/Rs alone saves me more each year than my membership. And I have no illusion of that happening without the USPA's getting behind it.

I wonder if the cords are too long between the locks and where they're sewn into to the slider. Mine has plenty of slack even when uncollapsed so talk to your rigger about the possibility of shortening those. It sounds like maybe it doesn't collapse it enough and actually makes it louder. There's no reason you should have to switch to something else, a lot of people are using these successfully.

This is just my preference but I like to think of the reserve and container as a single unit. I have a Strong container with the Strong reserve that it shipped with but have had a couple of different mains in it. It just seems like it would be less likely to run into any compatibility problems and someday having a rigger say "I'm sorry but I'm not comfortable repacking this reserve into this container". But, that's just my opinion, I haven't seen anything that backs it up and I don't buy gear often enough to run into exceptions.

If this doesn't work out for you Paragear sells a replacement set for a lot less that I'd have figured.

I'm afraid I got a call from home and had to leave early but it was great to meet everyone. As the man said "I'll Be Back!" Bob Church

From what I recall the source of the blank cards was delayed until recently. Make sure you have indicated in the database that you want a card. No more Pro card with picture. No more stickers. Pro is going to be on the membership card. Something that's handy is that most member DZs have a computer that's online and can check directly with USPA. I showed up once and realized that I still had last year's card but it wasn't a problem and wouldn't have been if I hadn't had any card. They just verified my membership online. Most of the places I jump don't check so I forget to replace it.