Leaderboard

Trump and his supporters are getting very, very worried about what Cohen will say tomorrow. Matt Gaetz, one of Trump's strongest supporters, just tweeted this: "Hey @MichaelCohen212 - Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot..." Nothing like a little witness tampering to get Cohen's testimony off to a good start. "Hey, I'd really just HATE to tell your wife about your girlfriends. I guess we'll see what you say in your testimony, eh? Nobody likes a rat."

And Mitch McConnell has just taken a brave stand and . . . blamed the Democrats for letting this happen. So my apologies to Lummy. The GOP went right to "blame democrats" too.

And almost no one would have heard about it - and almost no one would have complied. Any AFF JM who has an AAD fire on a student jump DOES need retraining. If your DZ does not concern itself with such incidents - seek a different DZ. Because when a competent instructor does a good job no retraining is required. I assume you do not make such foolish claims in real life, and you are now just angry and trying to "win" the argument.

You need a real rigger. A rigger that puts a 20 year life span on a reserve is a rigger to run away from.

Man, this thing sure ran away fast. I never opposed Finding out if this is a problem. I have always said I didn't like this approach. The board cude have simply asked if anyone witnesses a fire, send a text, phone call or Email to Ron Bell. No need to name any place/one to gather data. But Nooooo. Now it's actually being suggested that every instructor at a DZ that has this happen, needs re-training. Why stop there? Why not re-train every AFF, Tandem and videographer that may ever be on a student jump across the entire planet? And while we're at it, require every instructor to put a non refundable deposit with the USPA because there's a chance that a life saving device may actually be used. They can continue to wisely invest that into projects like the Museum. And then beg for funding to send a team to a World event......

Sometimes rules and regulations are a good thing. Yes, some of what I suggested would add to them, but it would serve multiple purposes. A required classroom session (including discussion) and a check dive would help to ensure that instruction given across the country is the same, that each instructor is capable of planning and performing a safe student jump, and other data could also be collected by the I/E and then sent on to S&T What I wrote - "Should a pattern of AAD fires be seen at any particular dz, S&T could then investigate further and require whatever retraining may be indicated by that pattern. I see nothing wrong with requiring the entire dz instructional staff to go through some sort of retraining." One AAD fire does not a pattern make.

Lots of reasons. It would be good to spot trends before they turn deadly. If the rate of AAD firings of AFF JM's is going up, due to pursuing a student too low? Then we change the training syllabus NOW before they turn into fatalities. It would also be good for student safety to see how much the industry is relying on AAD's. Are student AAD firings an incredibly rare thing, as they seem to be? Great. Do some DZ's see a student AAD firing once a month? Then the only thing standing between a student and a fatality is a fallible device. Bad. Also people often wonder whether or not to use student or expert AAD's on students, with good arguments being made for both. Do student AAD's result in a lot of firings in less than emergent situations? Then USPA could advise DZ's to use expert AAD's instead. Or do student AAD's really save more students in emergency situations than an expert model would? That's another very important thing to learn. Right now no one. And that is EXACTLY why we need more data - so we do know. "Who knows?" is a poor reason to set a specific training policy. Yep. And many on the board have earned my trust.

Sooo, we have an as yet to be proven problem and the answer is to require more rules and regulation to fix it? Requiring the entire staff to have to go thru retraining because 1 individual had a fire? I think if the Board continues to act like this, and some members continue to support, these type of un-needed actions, fewer and fewer folks are gonna want to participate as instructors. And before I start getting, "What are you afraid of?" routine, I don't have an AAD in my personal rig, Don't hum it down as I have witnessed at many member DZ's by current board members and I/E's, have no intention of suddenly changing that. It is extremely doubtful this will ever affect me personally. I hate bullies and I hate bully tactics. This stinks of that...

May want to read everything I post. I am against a required BSR to collect this. DZO's and S&TA's cude provide this info. They don't need a BSR to require it. Airtec introduced their AAD's in the early 90"s. Most everyone I knew. had 1 near the end of the convention days.. You can continue to nitpick my points as much as you see fit. The point here is the Board continues to focus on non issues and ignore more important things. I'm not alone in feeling this way. If yer OK with this, good for you. I disagree and am not afraid to say it

After suffering through pain the last 5 months I finally went to the doc thinking I might have a tear. I was prescribed (at home) PT and Etodolac for the period of one month. If no progress, go in for MRI. The first month is coming to an end and the PT has worked amazingly. I did ask for a cortisone shot while I was in and that provided immediate relief however I feel the PT is working for a long term solution. Time will tell.

So suddenly any time the board needs to "collect" data, they pass a BSR? Of all the options I see to collect this, passing a BSR to do it wude have been past last on my list. Granted, I'm not on the board and maybe this is happening a Lot more than I (or most everyone else here) are seeing but, going heavy handed like this, seems inappropriate at best. Those in favor of this, seem to continually use the argument of how badly this info is needed to back their argument of being in favor of this. I don't think anybody is against finding that out, including me. I don't agree this is needed to get it. I remember the days of the Convention and can't recall seeing any more than a few (<5) activations. Pretty sure there were more jumps done in those 10 days than just about anywhere else on the planet. Let me make a prediction: I don't think this is going to be reported very often. A; it just doesn't happen often. B: it's embarrassing and since there is (at this time) no repercussions for NOT doing it, there is little reason to expose the risk of trusting the USPA with that info.

I have had a SLAP tear and chose to have it repaired. Cortisone shots helped some but the PT just hurt. The Doc who did mine did it via arthroscopy. Only had three very small incisions. The healing process was painful, but they did basically explode my entire shoulder to get to the glenoid labrum and fix the tear. If I needed it, I definitely would do it again.

Download the podcasts of Skydive Radio.

Can't really comment on a tear, but I've had 'rotator cuff issues' for a while. No tearing, but some minor impingement. The doc who I saw took my arm, yanked & twisted it in various ways while asking 'how does this feel?" She decided there was no tearing, and gave me PT. I've been doing it daily (mostly) for about seven years. Huge improvements (almost no pain), no progression since.

Here ya go Parachutist's Songbook

There's eleven years worth of jokes. Go back and read them again. Surely you can't remember them all!!!

Well, heck. What I'd like to shoot HC would be a 7 for video and one of my pile of 3 or 4 for stills. Doesn't sound like there's much chance of ever outfitting a glove to do it. Maybe you could build a housing for legacy on bottom and 5/6/7 on top with access to buttons and ports??? Bet it would sell! Martin

Hutch Got to thinking about you this Memorial Day weekend, Marine. Woof Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

Woof. Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.