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Don't blame the student yet. Often as not what goes on in a DZ's student program isn't the subject of full disclosure. The DZ just figures the student won't ask for an instructors license and no one will ever know. Several years ago I was leasing a Caravan to a nearby DZ. Because it was my airplane someone sent me a picture of the DZO, who was a USPA AFF Evaluator doing a Level 3 AFF out of my airplane with a non-rated reserve side Instructor. I don't go for that shit so 2 hours later my airplane was back home. But for most DZO's the attitude is: not my DZ, not my problem.

Hello all, I'm considering buying a bigger suit next season, with performance flying as the main goal. The Colugo has caught my attention as a potential next suit and I would like to hear people's opinions about the suit.

Yes. I've had a handful of bell-ringers, one of them on a V3 with magnets. It was nowhere near as bad as the ones I've had on rigs with tuck-tabs and/or velcro, however, and none of these caused any injury or discomfort that lasted into the following day. One of the tough things about discussing heard openings, is that there is no standard on what is meant by "hard" - it's a totally subjective evaluation. For instance, we know a deployment that makes the jumper see stars, lose consciousness, or worse, qualifies as a Hard Opening. I don't think concussion and/or catastrophic injury is the appropriate threshold for a TOO Hard Opening. We need an objective metric, so we can gather info and meaningfully address the problem.

I'm strongly in favor of mandatory public service. At 18 or when you finish high school, whichever comes last. Only exceptions are actively and aggressively mentally ill, doing legitimately ground-breaking work in some help-humanity science endeavor (which is fairly public service anyway), and maybe really essential to family support (parents both disabled kind of thing). But educably mentally challenged, potential athlete, rich kid -- yep, gotta go. Wendy P.

I have a novel suggestion to help mitigate the snowball effect. It's a model that is used in more than a few countries, that works... Mandatory public service. I can speak from the inside, I've seen it with my own two... It works. This isn't per say military service either (for the record).

Isn't that what "cuck" really means?

Hi folks, Jerry Baumchen

I'd suggest you watch the video again. Fear, and baiting is the nom-de guerre of the entire video. She is nothing less than a vote spoiler for blacks to the benefit of the GOP. No platform, nothing positive but a invite to trump-fest. She could have talked about using her non-profit ideas into real development but instead sent out a video to appeal to hypocrites. Like the GOP that wants to help inner cities. This is her website for her non profit http://www.potential-me.com/ Founded in 2014 by Kimberly Klacik, Potential Me sells donated items including clothing, from socks and shoes to dresses and suits, on eBay. Proceeds are then used to provide clothing and host workshops and events for young women who lack the means to make their dreams a reality independently. For more information on Potential Me, visit www.potential-me.com. Oh excuse me that charity has been dissolved and Kimberly Klacik isn't even a board member anymore. This is the new organization that no longer has any involvement with her. http://suitedtosucceed.org/board-members/ Perhaps someone should tell the GOP.

What a load of crap dude. She started a non-profit in 2013 and has been helping women enter the workforce ever since with no help from city officials that she has accused last year of "pay to play." Her non profit may not have done as much as others out there, but she's doing her part and certainly seems sincere.

Typical trumpite republican. Offers not one idea on how to fix what she all blames on democrats. If she is truly running as a Black conservative why does she have nothing positive to say about the hard working people in the seventh district. Everyone is a murderer or drug dealer and she wants their votes? She talks about economic revitalization yet the GOP has abandoned inner city projects that require money for such projects. Where is the republican governor from Maryland in the whole equation? She doesn't even live in the district.

Why does the USA have 18x the death rate from CV-19 than other G7 nations? Is it QAnon related? Why are fully 50% of the "Keynote Speakers" at the GOP Convention named "Trump"? Is it QAnon related? Why did Pecker step down from the National Enquirer? Is it QAnon related? Inquiring minds want to know.

Do you have an experience in writing? If you're interested in writing for us, please send me a DM and we can discuss it further (This will be a paid collaboration). We're looking for individuals to assist in writing some authority articles and help address some outdated content which needs to be re-written to account for changes in disciplines, technology etc. Looking forward to hearing from you.

The most recent age waiver was granted to a 17-year old girl. You might want to choose your words a bit more carefully. This young lady trained and earned her USPA A license outside the country specifically because she couldn't jump legally in the U.S. She and her father (also a jumper) travelled from Florida to Phoenix to attend the last board meeting where she addressed the board in person to request a waiver. The board overwhelmingly supported her request. As for your assertion that there is a "good ole boy system", you are flat wrong. I have served our membership for more than 4 years and haven't experienced any of the countless things the keyboard warriors claim. By the way, you owe this fine young lady an apology for your rude remark.

Hi Ken, Yes. Think Nelson Rockefeller. Jerry Baumchen

I find it interesting what you chose to bold, Phil. My take away was earlier in his response. “I don’t know much about that movement other than they like me” was the actually important part here. Qcumbers have been dying for a reporter to ask Trump “the question” as they call it; and now that they have, Trump - the supposed leader of the “white hats” - has said he didn’t know much about it. Trump’s support for it has been revealed - it’s not about a secret baby saving movement, it’s about a group that likes him a lot, so he likes them. Somebody play the “sad trombone” sound for Ron. It also reminds me of a joke I heard: A Qultist dies and goes to heaven... Upon meeting Jesus, he asks with glee who Q really was. Jesus takes a deep breath and says, "I've been expecting you to ask, but I'm only going to answer you once and then we move on... Q started as a random bunch of people pranking you online, which then was used by people in power for their own political purposes.... It's OK though, your life still had meaning..." The Qultist starts shaking his head and says, "I can't believe it... The Deep State really does go all the way to the top..."

Wow very sad. He was my course director for AFF/I in Cal City back around 95'. Hilarious teacher. I remember him criticizing my skull tee-shirt as inappropriate for my ground school classes, and his incessant 5-5 but never pulling checkout dives, to keep us candidates on our toes. Best Wishes to his family. You are sorely missed.

Climate change has been going on for 4.5 billion years, we are just here to notice this small slice of time. If we stop putting corn in our gas tanks there will be more to eat. One of my professors once said, if you piss upstream of where your buddy is drinking that's pollution, if pissing down stream it isn't. Too many people pissing upstream.

I do not wish to comment on the instructors performance. If you feel is was deficient it would be best to review the jump with the student, yourself and the instructor in order to identify problems and find solutions. If the instructor is truly incompetent not having your friend jump with fixes nothing and may leave others exposed.

This is a bit late, but sad to hear of Rick's passing. I've been out of the sport and out of touch with Rick for 36 years but something came up got me thinking of him & Googled this thread. I made my first jump at "The Ranch" in Coolidge, AZ on September 30, 1978 at age 26 when Rick and his business partner Clay Muise ran the jump school and did my first two-way freefall hookup with Rick as instructor/jumpmaster on my 20th jump on February 11, 1979 and was shocked to get a kiss pass from Rick. Back in those days there were no AFF or tandem jumps yet and everyone had to go through static line progression jumping old Army surplus rounds and belly wart reserves. Conventional wisdom was you should have at least 100 jumps before even trying a square canopy. Those were the days of balloon and "silly suits". I went on for five more years and 400 jumps, many of which were from the same Twin Beech N9533Z that did the hang loads featured in Carl Boenish's 1970s "Sky Dive" film. I finally left the sport in March, 1984. Have many of Rick's signatures in my logbooks which I've saved & treasured to this day. Also had the privilege of meeting the late Carl Boenish once at Coolidge during a boogie back around 1980-81. Toots for 'tudes Rick, & rest in peace. Blue Skies. Steve Eshleman C14608, SCR 8825, SCS5681

I say go to Mesquite. Though I have jumped there at SLV which does give an awesome view of the dam, etc... since you are a low timer you will not be allowed to land where the rest of us do.. At Mesquite you and your friend can go out on the same load and still land near each other

The USPA group member affiliation means nothing in terms of safety. It only shows that they paid their annual dues. There are no inspections or other mechanisms to actually evaluate the safety of those operations. They could lose the designation, but that is long after a crash or a student dying because of poor instructing/student gear/etc. Your instructor made a good comment about aircraft maintenance being one of the areas cut back on, but I think that is more of a symptom of a ineffective DZO. Low funds and poor maintenance are both symptoms. A safety focused DZO isn't going to fly the plane when it isn't in the right condition, even if the money is tight and they have to send the tandems home. A smart DZO is setting aside the right reserves for maintenance so that won't happen in the first place. But MX isn't the only area of risk, smaller DZ's may also have green jump pilots that are earning their hours. I think that is of at least equal risk, because a good pilot can get you down safely when the rubber band breaks, and a poor pilot might panic and stall you in at the end of the runway. It isn't uncommon to have relatively new pilots with operations flying smaller single prop planes that aren't turbines. They should meet comercial hour requirments but sometimes just barely. The DZO needs to bridge the gap by getting new jump pilots good training from a more experinced jump pilot, and making sure that emergencies like engine outs are drilled. When you get to bigger more expensive jump planes the insurance companies start demanding more hours and training. Your best way to start evaluating DZ safety is your eyes and ears. - What is the condition of the dropzone on the ground, does everything look well maintained? - How does the student gear look. Is it nice and new, or does it look beat to shit? - Do you get a good safety briefing, or are they super casual about having a new jumper visiting. What about inspecting your log book and your gear, do they give everything a good look, or do they not seem to care. - Ask them about the pilot, how long has he been flying jumpers. If you ask nicely you should get a nice response. - How is the plane loaded. Do the instructors and jumpers communicate well, work out exit order, or does everyone just pile on the plane. - Are there seatbelts in the plane, and are all the jumpers using them? I won't jump at a DZ without seatbelts. And you should really start to question when people don't use the ones in the plane and no one seems to care. - What do they do about the landing pattern. Is it set, is it discussed, or does everyone act like it is their own personal landing area and land however they want, it which ever direction they want. Are people swooping in the middle of the pattern. Safety comes from the deliberate actions and the tone set by the DZO or club governance. If they make safety their key focus everyone else will follow. If fun jumpers and staff aren't being safe what kind of tone is the leadership setting, and what else isn't getting done?