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And included an opinion piece that has since been shown to have some pretty glaring flaws. Which were then identified. That's not really thread drift; that's actually a direct response to your original post. And then you tried to switch it to an AOC attack. So drift away. But complaining about your own thread drift isn't likely to get you any victim points.

Damn straight! I'm restoring an oyster patch off the shore of a friend's property on the Chesapeake. It involves mostly eating oysters and dumping the shells in the water while we drink cocktails on floating chairs.

Awesome! Thank you so much for to info! Those are some really good points that I hadn't even considered until now. I'll be doing my tandem jump as soon as the DZ opens in May

I'd steer you toward a tandem first. And don't worry about those other losers (kidding). But on a serious note: whether or not you have friends go with you, the experience will be no different. You won't see them after you exit the plane until you all arrive back at the DZ. Besides, you'll make new friends if it's a half-decent DZ. The reason I'd say do a tandem first is that there's a lot of nerves involved that you can't quite understand until you are sitting at the edge of the door getting ready to take the plunge. And if you think you're going to be just fine and it won't affect you...trust me, you're wrong. A tandem is an important first step to mitigating those nerves, because then when you go up again ready to do your first solo AFF, you're going to experience an even more overwhelming batch of "what the f*%$ am I doing?" Do the tandem. The licensing is going to cost you roughly $2000, and the extra $220 for a tandem is well worth the extra investment. Talk to your instructor and see if they'll let you do a little canopy steering once they pitch. I know some TI's are cool with that.

Let's just ignore Alex Jones. He is an idiot that doesn't deserve ANY attention.

I jumped an Alpha all last summer and there will be some Military Betas in the air this summer. I pivoted our focus from the Sport AAD to the Military one as the U.S. Military is looking for a replacement for the Cypres-2 and Vigil AADs. (The Sport and Military AADs are different in regards to hardware and software). I would recommend that you go ahead an get an AAD, and when this one is ready, you will always be able to sell the one you got as a stopgap. I am excited about live testing the Military AAD this summer.. If the U.S Military does not give us the nod then we will pivot back to the Sport version. I am very pleased with how both AADs are evolving as we improve / refine the algorithms, and address issues that could arise from potential scenarios; of which there are an incredible amount lol.. The algorithms are performing at a level that I never thought possible when we started these projects.. It is like watching a child grow up lol.. I will try to keep everyone updated this summer.

I am not entirely sure about moderators, but I know that admins can select the best answer in threads where the OP doesn't select it. This is something that I will occasionally do, if I see that a thread has been without reply for a week or so, I'll then select a best answer to assist those who come to the thread in future.

You can add to that the fact that 30-odd years ago skydiving use to hurt. As a student parachutist one would jump worn out modified ex-World War II C9 round chutes. Every landing felt like someone hitting you with a lump hammer. The pain on every jump helped reinforce that skydiving is dangerous, you need to be careful up there.

Not likely you'd ever get out. The airspeed of a commercial jet is so fast you'd never get the door open, not even with multiple people helping. All the doors I've seen open outward and toward the relative wind which makes them virtually impossible to open in flight. You might be able to get one of the emergency doors over the wings open, but the hole would probably be too small to get through with a rig on. Plus if the plane was in a spin, shit would be flying everywhere and you'd be lucky if you could even get the overhead bin open let alone take it out of your luggage, put it on, get to the door, open the door, jump, ect. Then of course there are issues with altitude. If you got out at 20k or below, fine. But if you got out at 36,000', you could pass out quickly without supplemental O2 and your hands would freeze likely rendering complete loss of feeling. You'd have to be selective of the door too. If you chose one of the forward doors, your exit path could put you straight into the wing or one of the engines. Any one of these things would be an issue. All of them combined make it ultra unlikely you'd pull it off. Even skydivers in jump planes sitting right next to a door intended to be easily opened with their rig on have had issues getting out during emergencies.

Bill, I don't reject SUVs, my wife drives a Mercedes GL450. As far as "the wall" I am for securing our boarders and following our laws. My position on border security is the same as my position on energy, I am for what works. Just think, if we had control of our southern border Trump would not be President. Put a price on that.