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I think I have twin turbine cancer but my doctor keeps calling it tinnitus.

I am 69 years old and in my 51st year of skydiving. I had two cutaways, one over Pope Valley CA in 1972 using military surplus gear and one over Rantoul Illinois using modern gear in 2005. I see skydiving as a very risky sport and see myself as a lucky cautious participant. Perry Stevens D-51 taught me how to jump in 1968. One bit of advice he gave me was: "when something looks marginal to you, take a pass on it, ALWAYS." Marginal planes, marginal gear, marginal jump plans, marginal weather etc. I've done nearly everything I can to mitigate risk. I jump with an RSL and a Cypres AAD. I don't swoop, wingsuit or BASE jump. I practice emergency procedures. I get gear checks before I board. I was a very early AAD user, buying an SSE Sentinal 2000 as soon as they hit the market. Back then experienced jumpers who wore AADs were ridiculed, but I didn't care. When I could finally afford a square canopy, I bought a conservative one (Triathlon) that would put me at 1.2 to 1 wing loading and never downsized even on subsequent buys. My reserve is almost as big as my main. If steady winds exceed 18 mph I wait for better conditions. I passed on manifesting for Twin Beech jumps on really hot days with loads that clearly exceeded max gross limits. I passed on really green Cessna piston jumpship pilots. I passed on having beer with lunch at a DZ where it was SOP. I could go on but you get the picture. I am not gloating or saying I am better than people who take more risk than I do. My point is that there are many things you can do (or more accurately NOT do) that will substantially reduce risk and still allow you to participate in the best sport on the planet. You won't be sharing granite skimming wingsuit videos with your friends but you can still have a great time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soAirkFeyFU watch me experience said event. watch me fix the malfunction.

There is no evidence of god. None. There is only faith, and faith (in the context of religion) is a choice to forego evidence.

I don't really understand your post. If you want to alter the openings of the canopy your packing technique is by far the easiest thing to change. Is this a new canopy or used? The first thing I would check is the line specs, particularly the break lines. Could it have been built with the wrong break lines? Did some one replace them between relines? Altering the break set depth is the next easiest way to alter the openings. The slider is the third option. How big is it supposed to be? Was it assembled with the wrong slider? Did some one, perhaps of a different weight or tracking habits change it out to slow it down? Changing it's size or it's ratio can alter when the canopy becomes dominant over the slider on opening. Between the three you should be able to get nice openings out of a canopy. Lee

Wind tunnels have obviously grown in popularity with the last few years. Personally, I started skydiving in 2013 which I feel was the start of a mass movement towards tunnel training. Now that tunnels are abundant, there is a “fast track” option for learning freefall skills. However, tunnel also introduced a “pay to play” or “keep up with the jones” sort of vibe. I did an hour of tunnel a few years back, but in the end, dropped out because of the cost. As much as I enjoyed it, I couldn’t justify $800 an hour to learn flight skills. So, I committed myself to tracking/angle because it was the least tunnel impacted discipline. I’ve seen many people become highly skilled in a short period of time due to tunnel. I’ve also seen the quantity and attendance of fun jumpers decline. I feel on any given weekend back in 2014, my home drop zone was bustling. You could just show up and find an abundance of people to jump with. Now, it’s hard to just show up and expect a group to be there. I’ve seen a decrease in competition for load organizing. I’ve also seen a trend locally where smaller aircraft are being utilized more often than larger aircraft. All these things indicate to me that there is a decline in attendance; at least locally. My observation is this. Tunnel has been a brilliant tool in helping those committed to the art of flight experiment and learn. It’s fun, but it can be expensive. Skydiving, which has always been kind of niche, seems to have gotten even more niche due to the introduction of tunnel. I would assume, that the post A- license dropout rate has gone up as well. This is an assumption, but I’d imagine that if a student feels like tunnel is a cost barrier that is required progress (on top of buying gear), it could feel out of reach for them. It also seems that there is a growing separation in overall skill levels as well. I’d like to hear the community’s thoughts and observations on the subject. In specific, are the trends I’m noticing accurate? What trends are you noticing in your area? What does the future of skydiving look like? **Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece based on observation. It comes from a fun jumpers perspective. Southern California. **

Tunnel is just the freefall. Skydiving is more than just the freefall. While tunnel is fun and educational, it's not the DZ and it's not jumping. General observations: Freefall (and freefly) skills are well up. Gear knowledge, airplane procedure knowledge and canopy skills are not. My DZ still has a good fun jumper base, although the freeflyers are becoming more prevalent. Finding other belly fliers can be challenging sometimes. A lot of this is dependent on the DZ and it's 'vibe'. The DZO where I jump is an active jumper (competes in vert at nationals) and the DZ sponsors several teams. The 'fun jumper community' is actively supported. Events, classes (instructional rating and canopy courses), even 'after hours' stuff, like potluck dinners and the annual chili cookoff. That sort of action by the DZ makes all the difference in the world.

It does make a difference - sometimes a significant one. First step would be to reach out to Icarus (j@icarusworld.net) and find out if you've got the factory-size slider or some other goofy thing (you never know what you're really getting when you buy used gear - people make all kinds of modifications and maybe the previous owner of your canopy wanted slower openings for whatever reason. who knows?), and go from there. J is quite responsive - you'll probably hear back from him right away. Good luck!

Locations like this are used frequently by the movie/TV industry. If you need a desert background than its better to go here than it is to go to Elsinore or Perris and see the lake and homes everywhere.

The best person to answer the question is Tom at Sunpath. I have supplied quite a number of pilot chutes to individuals and it isn't the first time I have heard of this sort of thing. SunPath calls for a larger than average PC. Not everyone agrees to use the recommended size, but for those experiencing lazy extractions, a new PC has always resulted in the problem going away. More than once I've loaned a replacement PC when someone felt theirs wasn't worn out, and funny thing, they never ask to have their original re-installed...

Bob Dylan, With God on our side - lyrics http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/god-our-side/

I'm suddenly reminded of another country with a similar slogan/motto. Hmmmm...

Atheism is *not* a religion. I agree. I was saying that atheists killed people because of their religion (christianity, islam, etc.) not atheism.

Clearly The Church has become far too liberal. What it needs is a good old fashioned Inquisition to expose the heretic at the top.