Leaderboard

Well thought Id mention I just placed my order for a cypres multi mode. Excited to get this in my rig and start jumping this spring!

I’m a month late but I thought I would let everyone that creeps through here know. He’s arrived!!!! Dec. 3rd Benjamin 9lbs 2oz Yes, I think he’s perfect! And yes this is the craziest time of my life. I’m back teaching and he’s back with me,bundled right on me and listens/sleeps while I teach. I’m lucky enough to be able to have a mini nursery set up in my classroom.

Points for The Good Place reference.

Follow up.. The GEOREF updated to include a new small area which was searched with negative results..

Maybe the first translation was visual and not data driven. The plot would be an estimate within a grid reference.

Damn can't believe I missed that (well, I've missed everything else this year.) We had a Comic-con beer festival here years ago where Angel's Share, Older Viscosity _and_ Woot Stout were all on tap. Amy had to drive home. Back to the topic - years ago I worked a demo in Cabo for MTV sports. We tandemed in the contestants for some reality TV show. The logistics were nightmarish - but we pulled it off with no injuries. I even got a fun jump in at the end over the beach. But it was a huge amount of work, and anyone who thinks they can just get two TM's and pull off a demo for TV may learn the hard way how much work it is to do that safely and effectively.

my dad told me once that when you're leading troops, remember that all of them, even the stupidest, most worthless one had someone at home who thought he was the best thing on earth and treat him like it. it stuck with me.

Hi Joe, The oldest, standing committee within the organization. Jerry Baumchen PCA/USPA member for 50 yrs

don't have a cow, man

Jersey, Guernsey, Black Angus, Texas Longhorn, Herefords, Holsteins. Maybe this is just the cattle list we need to get things going.

Is the person leading on their feet or their head? Being able to match a head first angle on your feet is a rare skill amongst free fliers, unless the leader is intentionally assuming body positions that are more friendly to feet first fliers. I would recommend against it until you have dozens of feet first angles. If the leader is on their feet and you have a decent sitfly, I suggest you start from a more static position and moves from there. And double check your confidence about being safe. The best way is to get in an angle camp with a smaller group that is ready to learn together with an experienced leader. Two ways are also great to start playing with it.

Who is it that you would like to be less vague? The manufacturers want to sell canopies. They are not your instructors, and they are not your national club. If you want USPA to be less vague, fine, have at it. But when USPA makes anything resembling a stronger recommendation, they seem to catch a whole lot of shit about it. Just look at the discussion regarding the USPA recommendations for jumping with a camera. The folks at USPA just can't win. It seems to me that people demand standards mostly so they can be ignored. The best person to take care of yourself is YOURSELF. If you are unsure, if you feel the manufacturer's recommendations are too vague, if you feel that the USPA's recommendation are too vague, then take the matter into your own hands, and stay well on the conservative side of any of the recommendations. If the problem is mentors who will say whatever the students wants to hear, maybe the student should be wanting to hear something more conservative in the first place. After all, survival is the goal, isn't it? Sure, it would be nice if this was nice and scientific and mainstream. But, it is not. It is a fringe sport, what's written about it is often less than we would sometimes like. A lot of canopy flight is more art than science.

Exactly. Wendy W. There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

He had changed, please don't judge him now for his attitude 2 years ago. He was listening to people, he just didn't appreciate the way he was approached most of the time (and keep in mind, here on dz.com he'd intentionally go over the top to antagonize people). He stayed with the sabre2 for the last two years, and at the begining of this year went to the XF2. I don't believe what he did was unreasonable. Aggressive, but not ridiculous. He also had a lot of coaching and encouragement from qualified people. He made a mistake, and paid dearly for it. In all my conversations with him, he had no misconceptions about what he was doing - he fully realized the risks he was taking to do something he really wanted to do. it's like incest - you're substituting convenience for quality

One of the morals of this story is that people have really long memories sometimes. What you post, and what you say, are evidence that people will use in judging you. I'm hoping too that the next few days are good ones. Wendy W. There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

OK everybody calm down please....I recieved an email telling me that Brian was pissing everybody off, so I thought I had better jump on here & see what was going on. Yes, he was jumping a Jedei 136 at 100 jumps. After lots of training , specialized advice & much critiquing of his first dozen jumps. All of his training jumps (AFF etc) were on Safires. He has always had exceptional canopy control & has never done anything unsafe....the stupidest thing he has ever done is getting on this forum & giving people the wriong impression. Did he mention that he weighs in at about 140 soaking wet? Yes we may be a smaller (not as small as some people think) DZ. He does not have to go to Deland or ZHills for training...one of our best kept secrets is that we have some of the Worlds best instructors right here. Several of our jumpers are Pro Swwop Qualified, and regularly offer good advice to novices. We have DZ policies regarding wing-loading. 100 to go 1.1, 200 jumps to go 1.2 . 300 jumps to go 1.3 400 jumps to go 1.4 after 500 jumps you can jump anything you want...however you are sunject to loosing that option if I see anything stupid or dangerous. I am the DZO & I can and will ground anybody from jumping anything I feel is unsafe. At the same time, I try to balance that with not holding anybody back if they have the abibilty to perform above the average joe. Nobody wants to see an accident on my DZ any less than me. I have over 7000 jumps. I know a little bit about skydiving and canopy flying. My next in command has over 4500. jumps & several other of our Instructors have over 2000 jumps. Collectively we control what people are jumping. On rare occasions we will let somebody load higher than our quidelines IF they have demonstrated good judgement, ability & skill. In spite of the impression you may have gotten, Brian posseses all of these qualities.. Some people just come across the wrong way in wriitten format- he's one of those. If you actualy sat down & talked with him, you would probably feel a lot better. It doesn't matter who recommends what canopy to whom...it doesn't mean we will let them jump it here unless we feel that it's not a problem. Nuff said

The key difference between you two is he made it through that period. Many like him did not. You - only time will tell. This is common to many sports beyond skydiving. Diving, motorcycling, climbing - all have a danger period where people progress to a level of difficulty faster than their experience has grown. Some get through fine, either through luck or actual skill. Some get bit on the ass and either dial down, or quit the sport. A few die. In worse cases, they take someone else out with them. If it were not for that concern, they'd be happy to let you do whatever you wish.

reckless advice? here's some advice; stop making friends with injury-prone people. The bad part of thinking that you're a big fish is that you think that you have the right to tell other people that they don't know what they're talking about. I, for one, think that self-doubt and fear have put more people in the ground than taking calculated risks. "Don't talk to me like that assface...I don't work for you yet." - Fletch NBFT, Deseoso Rodriguez RB#1329

Im gonna be really honest with everyone, as far as i'm concerned, once your an adult and have recieved your USPA A license, it is up to you to make the personal decision about what canopy you want to fly. I bought and flew a Jedei 136 at 100 jumps, and am now downsizing to a Nitron 120 (my first new canopy), and i'm still here with no injuries or anything. I am sick and tired of people blaming the canopy selection for causing the injury when more often than not it is the jumper DOING SOMETHING STUPID close to the ground that results in the incident. The bottom line is that some people just naturally fly their canopy better than others. On my AFF level 1 (no prior tandems) jump I stood up my canopy right in the center of the target, and have been just as successful on my later jumps. On the other hand, we have jumpers with 600+ jumps on our dropzone who still slide in their landings under Sabre 2's and Pilots loaded at 1.2 or so. I am a USPA Coach and when I jump with students and the students ask me for advice on canopy selection I refer them to a USPA Instructor. But once they recieve their A license, it is their decision what they want to fly, and I will not hesitate to encourage licensed jumpers to downsize quickly like I did if I feel that they are flying their canopies really well, and seem to be heads-up people. One of my friends, around my age on the dropzone who I jumpmastered on his coached and clear-and-pull jumps is thinking of downsizing quickly to satisfy his need for speed under canopy. With the way he is flying his canopy, I will support him in whatever decision he feels comfortable making. Bottom line, I am SICK AND TIRED of Instructional Rating holders using their ratings as "ranks" to give orders to licensed, adult skydivers who are free to make their own decisions about what they want to fly. As long as a licensed skydiver is not breaking any BSR's, or Federal or State laws, USPA Instructors have ZERO authority to tell them to do anything. I will fly what canopy I want regardless of what anybody tells me, and unless im breaking the BSR's or FAA rules there is nothing USPA or anybody else can do about it.