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Jerry, I think there are only two ways the HOF and Museum stay viable and open for the long haul. Build at a large warm weather DZ. Make a nice exhibit hall. Put in a banquet facility that can be rented out for all kinds of events. Host the yearly inductions and dinner there. Keep it open 3 days a week with volunteers. or... Put it at an existing air museum that gets a lot of annual visitors. Some donors are getting very frustrated.

No one fails to buy Greenland better than Trump! No one can get the deficit as high as Trump! No one can assault as many women as Trump! (Well, some of his closest friends might have him beat there . . .)

Damn this is a huge loss. Gary was a big man with a big personality, yet also soft-spoken and mild-mannered. Epic moustache, epic ponytail (did I ever see it unfurled?). Every year he was in charge of 60+ load organizers at the World Freefall Convention, which was a monumental task, but he did it with maximum efficiency and little drama. He did not play a part in my first becoming an LO at WFFC, I have DJan Stewart and my friends David “Duk” Miller and Todd Jacobson (RIP) to thank for that. However, once I earned my hat, Gary was my biggest advocate and supporter, even when a jilted lover from a previous year caused a ruckus at tent #1. His speech was basically “pick less psycho women, or keep it in your pants”...haha, the good old days. He was a big dude, not fat, not a bodybuilder, just big. A barrel chest and big trunk. Huge calves. When I first met him, I think he was jumping a Man-o-War 320, and his Vector was so big it looked like a tandem rig. He liked being safe and was in no hurry to get down. He enjoyed working with students and newer jumpers, and he had many other interests. He was a genius-level computer programmer, an accomplished musician, and a budding scientist with a focus on (what else) aerodynamics. Oh yeah, and he was on USPA’s BOD for more than a quarter century. Not bad, eh? I had not seen much of him since the convention disbanded, and I am very thankful that I had a 30 minute conversation with him at last year’s nationals in Chicagoland. We reminisced about the glory days, then I let him vent about his current gripes with USPA, of which there were many. Same ol’ Gary...I’m gonna miss him...sigh. BSBD my friend...

In no way do I advocate for a ban on all firearms. I have several that I would not be keen on giving up. I agree ammo is a place to look if some semblance of a solution is desired. And you are absolutely right about a bolt action rifle being a good sniping weapon. I have a Ruger M77 in 7MM with a 3X9 Leopold that would be excellent for the purpose. But then, it would also make an excellent club, if need be. This is just one of those areas of disagreement gun owners have: I just don't believe in the slippery slope thing. I think sensible regulations will leave guns in the hands of hunters, enthusiasts and those of us who believe in protecting their homes with a Beretta shotgun.

Hi Rich, IMO this is the only way it can pay it's own way over the long haul. Jerry Baumchen

I couldn't find an actual clip. This is the best I could find. It's cropped and a terrible picture. Go to 1:45 Proof we have been working on the idea since the 1980's and it still isn't perfected. Lee

Hi baron, You might win a few converts if you stay out of the gutter. FWIW I also oppose using any money other than direct donations to fund the boondoggle. Jerry Baumchen

I pay my dues so I can keep my ratings and jump. My DZ is not a GM. Doubt it will ever be. Don't think that qualifies under the Sheeple definition but, that's your call. Don't believe pointing out what is clearly a problem, qualifies as "Bitching". If the USPA or the ISMHOF do nothing to fix this, I am prepared to attempt to remedy it. No guarantee I will be successful but, I think I can find a solution. Time will tell but, you'll know sooner than 50 yrs. 1st step is to bring awareness....

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/08/04/paleoclimate-cycles-are-key-analogs-for-present-day-holocene-warm-period/ It simply illustrates that over geological time scales there are natural warming and cooling cycles. It says nothing whatever about the current RAPID warming. You can't even see 100 years on the time axes (100 years is less than 1 pixel in width). BH either doesn't understand what's going on, or he is deliberately obfuscatating.

I keep getting drawn back to the green one. Never ben a big fan of green for cars, but there's something about that particular shade that works.

Dogmatix: "Tough shit for the beginners." People tend not to like newbies coming in and criticizing everything. First, just learn to do things the way they are done...Even if I agree the discussions are perfectly logical about why things are done a certain way, and not some other. Which is useful in understanding different ways to do things in the sport. And it can be cool to dream up new ways to do things. But it helps first to have a really deep understanding of why things are the way they are, and what the pros and cons are. Some newly added complexities to rigs, or different ways of doing things, become common in the industry, some don't. - e.g., Aerodyne has different coloured line attachment tapes, but other companies don't bother. People learn quickly enough to distinguish between line groups. Yet coloured tabs would help do the job quicker. (And I've used ink on one of my own canopies' attachment tapes). - e.g. Aerodyne has elongated 2nd rings in the 3 ring system. They clearly improve the leverage of the system, which sometime has been a problem. But no other company has bothered to follow their lead, to get similar rings designed and produced the steel hardware companies. Maybe that innovation should have become more popular. Who knows. - e.g., Wings recently has made main d-bags with bungees, which will last longer than elastics, although can have downsides too. But other companies aren't interested in that, so that remains, for better or worse, an outlier. Even if you don't have such a main bag, you have the option of Silibands and Tube Stows, as was mentioned earlier, if you don't like rubber bands breaking. But you need to know what can go wrong with those options too. - e.g., A few canopies from PD use plastic snaps to hold the slider to the canopy a little bit, during the start of the inflation process. Keeping sliders in place is a serious issue as it can avoid openings that injure people. So will that technique become more common or not? Who knows. Become a rigger. Then you can sew stuff up the way you want it. Well, some countries require TSO's and such, but other's don't, so limits on changing one's rig other than the main parachute system vary. So I can do things that no company is likely to try to push for everyone. I built a flap system in my main container so foam blocks can be inserted, varying the volume of the container. So the rig can take everything from a non-crossbraced 75, to a 150. That works for me, but isn't likely to spread across the industry even if some company marketed it. A solution for me, but not for the industry. Packing a parachute isn't like dealing with software where things can be automated, as you almost seem to wish. Unless you pay someone else, you'll have to deal with compressing a sometimes slippery parachute and compressing the air out of it. And using some sort of deployment system that will keep it from malfunctioning or killing you. You can buy a tool like a Pack Monkey. Again, who knows what will happen with that on the market. It might become somewhat common for newbies and the occasional other jumper dealing with a tough to pack canopy, or fade away. We used to all use pullup cords to close containers, while now the majority of jumpers buy some sort of pack tool that allows pulling harder on the closing loop, more easily. Don't know what to buy? Don't know what's out there? Yeah, it is tough for newbies. Just keep talking to people at the DZ.

Yes I would say so. This is one of the things that makes the USA so successful and at the same so miserable. Two better words would be individualism and opportunism. Both of these things are not nearly as profound in other countries. In Europe nobody has a problem with socialized health care for example... The individual has higher standing in the American Psych than it has in the old country by far.

The best way to determine if it's the canopy for you is to fly one. What's right for others may not be right for you. Contact Aerodyne to arrange for a demo canopy to be shipped to you. Aerodyne Demos

I like the c7 pic! The green paint looks great in the sun, and mt rushmore in the background says "this baby is on a road trip!"

The second amendment was not about hunting, or personal protection, it was explicitly about the ability of a populace to rise up and overthrow a tyrannical government by what ever means necessary without regard to the weapons DuJour.

So does freedom of the press only apply to newspapers & pamphlets printed on movable type? Does freedom from search and seizure not apply to computers or smart phones? Or telephones at all for that matter? Do any of our constitutional protections only apply to the technology of 1776?

Well, given that Trump is President, you never know what lunatic might be "voted" into office in the near to distant future, so it's nice to have some options. And if you think that the people couldn't stand against military forces, just look at Afghanistan that put up a relatively respectful fight with assault rifles we gave them decades ago to fight the Russians. And it's not just that. Our vulnerable lifestyles of excessive consumption are heavily dependent on digital electronics and a sketchy power grid. I was in Downtown Detroit during the Northeast blackout that only lasted a couple days and it was fucking chaotic. I couldn't imagine if that lasted for an extended/indefinite period. So when SHTF, it would be nice to have at least a couple standard rifles and a few shotguns for necessary provisions.

No posts about the 40 victims of gun violence in Chicago over the weekend? Or does 1’s and 2’s not get the headlines and emotional response that a mass shooting does? Neil Degrasse Tyson is right. Hard to argue with numbers. Is it about saving lives or gun control? What are the leading causes of death in the US? Around 74% of all deaths in the United States occur as a result of 10 causes. Heart disease. Cancer. Unintentional injuries. Chronic lower respiratory disease. Stroke and cerebrovascular diseases. Alzheimer's disease. Diabetes. Influenza and pneumonia. kidney disease. Suicide. Lifetime odds of dying in a motor vehicle accident- 1 in 108. (Just missed making the top ten, it is number 11). Lifetime odds of dying in a mass shooting- 1 in 11,125. Where should we as a society spend our time, energy, and resources to get the most lives saved for least effort spent? I’m not saying do nothing or nothing can be done. I think we should enforce the current laws for sure. What I am saying is if I am not breathing and have a cut on my leg that is going to require stitches, don’t start discussing the best way to sew me up. I get it, we are wired to react emotionally to mass shootings. The same way there can be 30 people die in separate motor vehicle accidents won’t make the national news, but 30 people dying in a bus crash will. But if we focus on bus crashes, how many lives will be saved per year vs. if we spent the same time on motor vehicle crashes? People complain that nothing is done after a mass shooting. That is because there are no easy fixes to that issue. Derek V

No, you should not have said that either. I absolutely feel, and believe, that our nations laws should be followed. But for certain you are referencing immigration and that gets us into confusing territory. Not so much about the mechanics of it but rather about how we citizens see it. I'm chill about immigration because I see huge upside to it. Mostly what I see are super hard working family people who not only work in Tysons awful chicken factories but also tend the local farms and operate the freakin' awesome food trucks here and there. I do not see them taking jobs from anyone, far from it. I see them taking jobs that are not getting filled otherwise. To my eye, that's a win for all of us. I do think we need to control our borders in a serious way. But we do and have been doing so for a long time. The thing is that last week and this week and next week are not evidence of how we handled the thing. Nothing going on in a year will make or break our nation. So I think we can stay chill, stay humane, keep tight to what makes Americans loved around the world and stop being assholes just because some fuck nut who crawled under the baseboards into the White House has so inspired us.

Nonsense: AirBnB has a very effective way of controlling boarders (but I'm not sure what lodging arrangements have to do with this thread). If we did a better job of educating Americans then Trump would not be president.

Small canopies is probably the major cause of death and injury in skydiving today. Tightly regulating them in France has drastically reduced the death and injury rate here. Everyone knows gun control will drastically reduce the murder rate in the USA. Criminals will still have a reduced access to illegal guns but when your average guy flips he will not have the material at hand nor the ability to access it to do a mass killing. The big problem in the US is even with gun control how do you remove the large number of guns already out there.