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I saw this posted as a joke years back but it's been true so often that it probably has some validity. When you see a republican go on the attack against something, there's a very good chance that they are doing what they are attacking. Joel Greenberg and Matt Gaetz come to mind. Trump saying whoever pleads the fifth is a criminal. Herschel Walker attacking absentee fathers. Tim Murphy campaigning against abortion then pressuring his mistress to get an abortion. Scott DesJarlais campaigning against abortion; his ex-wife had two and he also pressured his mistress to get one. Family-values politicians Dennis Hastert, Mark Foley and Roy Moore and their affairs with underage kids. This headline from a news story years ago was eerily prescient: "Speaker J. Dennis Hastert faced intensifying questions on Monday about why Republicans had not reacted more assertively to Representative Mark Foley’s messages to a teenage page." I guess now we know. And now Jim Marchant, the GOP nominee for secretary of state in Nevada, has come out strongly against mail-in ballots. They are rife with fraud, he says: "NO Mail-in ballots! We need to protect our election integrity! VOTE Jim Marchant in 2022 to FIGHT voter fraud!" You all know what's coming next. He voted in Florida elections via mail in ballot three separate elections - 2006, 2008 and 2010 - while he was living in Nevada.

He was just doing research.

‘Voting’ has started in Russian controlled areas of Ukraine. ‘Votes’ are being collected by election officials going door to door accompanied by armed police and soldiers, using ballot papers written only in Russian. Election observers around the world are condemning it as a sham, the Texas GOP is condemning it coming too late to copy for the midterms.

Back to the immigrant thing: Imagine 50 people at a MAGA rally being told they were going to be taken to Mar A Lago, but then flying them to Venezuela instead.

Jerome Powell and President Biden aren't on the same page. After the feds policy meeting, where rates were hiked another 0.75%, Fed Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that inflation was "running too high." That contradicts Pres Joe's statement that prices have risen, "just an inch, hardly at all." Jerome thinks that cooling "red hot" inflation won't be painless. He quoted stats looking at 3, 6 and 12 month numbers and inflation is at 4.8, 4.5 and 4.8%. Joe has stated that inflation hasn't spiked and that the monthly rate was negligible. That was in response to a question from a CBS reporter that said that the most recent CPI was 8.3% annual, close to a multi-decade high. The reporter said that grocery store inflation was 13.5% in August, fastest pace in 43 years. Joe's answer was that one needs to look at the month-over-month rate rather than the annual %. I'm just wondering if Joe really believes his statements or just doesn't know the facts. Is this simply posturing for the mid-terms? Is this the stuff his handlers are feeding him? Scary times.

The only pictures that I have seen of LD was the one where he is holding up the guitar straps and the one below which was taken sometime in the mid 90's.

It does look from the video that there was nothing caught up in the reserve, that it was a tension knot all on its own. A rather unlucky day! (That's both from the start of the video - with you way off in the distance - and near the end where the camera flyer swoops past you on the ground.) Tension knots are made more likely (but still very rare) from a bad body position, or even a momentary entanglement with your foot. (As you said initially, after your massive crash you couldn't recall if it had been the main or reserve that was entangled for a moment around your foot.) Parachutes do better when opening symmetrically, and somewhat less so if one side (eg, jumper's shoulder) starts out way lower than the other. And thus it seems not be have been as I had speculated -- before the photo from the video or the video came out -- that the description sounded like a typical main-reserve entanglement of some sort. Still, it is not impossible that there was some brief interaction / entanglement that hindered the reserve opening, where a very slow extraction from the bag, or interference from a main riser catching lines or whatever, could also have hindered the reserve inflation. In any case, parachutes do open better when they start with a shoulders level body position, everything symmetrical, with no tumbling of the deployment bag, and the deployment proceeds at a normal rapid pace, so that it is less likely for slack lines to be whipping around that are more likely to cause a tension knot.

Thank you for the replies, and apologies for my tardiness. wmw999 I still have strong memories of pulling the cutaway first. I can see why some training advises cutting away with both hands and then pulling reserve handle with both hands. I was taught to look and locate both and then cut away with right hand followed by pulling the reserve handle with the left. I remember after locating both I paused for at least a couple of seconds as I was concerned that I may have moved to emergency procedures too quickly as time gets distorted when in an emergency situation. I also remember thinking I hope the cutaway Velcro comes away easily and it did. DougH I think the main parachute was still in the container, I remained in belly to earth freefall during the emergency procedures and if the main parachute is not out I now assume the RSL won’t do its job. I never got a chance to look at the gear, so I don’t know what the reserve cable was like. The kink in the cable sounds a reliable positive indicator of a RSL-initiated reserve deployment but can have false negatives. I think it was a pilot chute in tow and realize there are multiple possible reasons, such the chute being stuck in my burble…..sometimes I think I may have “Lazy Throw” put on my tombstone, as a summary of my lifeJ. I have also been advised that a too-tight closing loupe could have made the pin difficult to extract, or the bridle may have wrapped around the pilot chute and prevented it from inflating. I am pretty sure the pilot chute was cocked, as it is checked about four times before the jump. The packer, myself, a jumper on the ground and a more experienced skydiver in the plane. I wish I had waited longer before going to emergency procedures as I deployed at 5000-5500 feet so had plenty of time to ‘relax’ before moving to emergency procedures. Being spun on my back, seeing lines unravel from my foot and seeing a fouled reserve open above my head were almost simultaneous, so there is a good likelihood they did come out together. I did talk to a club coach, but he only talked about the poor throw and burble, which I thought was a little unfair. As the gear was hired and packed, I feel that there can be a lack of openness about the many possibilities due to legal considerations, although laying blame is not my intention. The safety officer for the Australian Parachute Association was more forthcoming with possibilities. Regarding the trauma, I started back work a few weeks ago, and although I will be left with residual issues, the experience has been amazing. Seeing possible death, a short period of experiencing pain that makes death nothing to fear and a blessing, the humility of needing your arse wiped and the pleasure of short-term gains in recovery. Finally, the relationships with hospital staff and patients were inspiring, of the latter, some were facing hardships much worse than mine, and they weren’t indulging in risky sports. Riggerrob Thanks, I now know the RSL is very fast and beats the handles if they are pulled in the correct order. I also think the main was still in the container, so the reserve handle activation was necessary. kleggo That article was fascinating. I think I did sink to the level of my training as I had no idea what to do with my malfunction. Once I had tried to flare a few times, I did not think to use riser inputs to try and correct the spin. The safety officer who saw a video of the descent advised me I would have probably stalled the canopy, so maybe ignorance was bliss. As Pchapman had intimated earlier, an interaction between the main and reserve may have occurred. Reading the tension knot article, it seems that this may have caused asymmetric canopy expansion/inflation and line disorganization. A theory of twisted break lines as a culprit appears to not be substantiated by the research. RolandForbes J I could have easily died, but there is much worse than death. I don’t think my marriage would have survived paraplegia, and although I give full credit to those who can, I don’t think I would have hung around with quadriplegia. Interestingly, the suicide rates for quadriplegia plummet compared to paraplegia, there are obvious reasons why. I had a few cracks in the cervical vertebrae and have 2 numb fingertips to remind me how bad it could have been. I appreciate all the responses and just want to lastly talk about what I did do under canopy and get opinions if you are not sick of me by now. My spiralling descent rate was fast, and my novice mind only thought to pull down with weight on the back risers to try and reduce the descent rate. I think it worked, but put me in a flatter spin, so I hit the ground side on. There were no compression injuries; the minor neck damage was an extension injury. I was hoping for an opinion on this and whether I made any difference. A very experienced skydiver named Boags was under canopy and filmed my descent. He landed off the dropzone and got to me within 23 seconds of hitting the ground. I have enclosed his video for any opinions. Julian.MP4

Bravo for suggesting a concrete plan. Some practical issues: Using FEMA for a problem like this would radically change their mission, And if the threat of illegal immigration is enough to justify activating FEMA, much more deadly and immediate threats (like the 11,000 Americans killed by speeding every year, or the 7500 Amerians killed by coal power plants every year) have much stronger justification. However, I don't think that's what FEMA is intended for, and they wouldn't be the best traffic cops or EPA enforcers. (Or bus services.) There are much better ways to accomplish all that. You'd have to open far more than those two military bases. Lots of bases in California would have to reopen, for example, to handle the California aliens who want to move to Texas. I don't think you'd want to rely too much on the justice system in their own country to decide what to do with them. Imagine, for example, finding a Ukrainian family who escaped Russia after they were labeled traitors. I don't think we'd want to send them back to Russia. Likewise a Colombian family who crossed a warlord and was wanted for being an informant. That being said, I'd support anyone found guilty of drug smuggling being deported. And the bipartisan review / governor's concept are a good idea in theory; the practical implementation would be difficult (i.e. all governors say "we have zero room period") but might result in some movement in the right direction.

I think a better explanation is that the people who voted for Biden are not members of a cult.

That Coco cat is sketch. Read it on Facebook once.

Hi everyone, Greetings from Ontario Canada I’ve lurked here on and off but have decided to finally make an account. My friends are mostly whuffos and whenever I bring up my interest in freefall they all say the same thing “I’d never do that.” Skydiving is something that has been on my mind since I was 6 years old and last year I decided to finally do it. I’m still fairly new to the sport however I was hooked the moment I first jumped out of the plane. I took a first jump class at a nearby drop zone, in late August 2021 and immediately fell in love with skydiving. I called back the following week and said “I forgot my head in the clouds and would like to book another jump to get back up there to retrieve it.” I went back again in mid-October just before the end of the season and completed jump 2 which was even better than the first. I told my parents about my interest and my dad told me stories about his late father who was a WWII spitfire pilot, and my mother gave me two jump gift certificates for Christmas that year. Now this place is a fairly small drop zone with just one plane so getting a spot can be a bit tricky depending on both the weather conditions, how big of a backlog they have for first timers, and recently the availability of pilots but I really like the knowledgable instructors here, the jumps are done AFF style and not tandem which I absolutely love as I get to pilot the chute, and whenever I call to try to book they ask me how I’ve been. I tried to get back to it in April but they were in the midst of training some new pilots and was told to call back in May. I unfortunately lost my job in May forcing me to put everything on hold while job searching so in the meantime I kept practicing my body position in hopes of getting back up there again someday. In August I saw someone’s gopro jump footage on my instagram feed and my appetite for freefall came back with a vengeance. I called on and off until one day they called me back and asked if I was available that afternoon to which I instantly said yes, made the drive, and completed jump number 3 with one of the gift certificates. I’m hoping to make jump 4 before the season ends and just keep on doing this. I’m a patient girl and the wait is feels worth it just getting to fly and continue to improve.

Nice work not dying!

excellent info regarding tension knots read it https://docs.google.com/document/d/13FS-69F2ExGxwBw_nes_M1B5A9ENia8k-RQxgknw32U/edit think form your own conclusions. I'm going to have some 6 grommet sliders made.

An RSL will always pull a reserve ripcord faster than a human. Back around 1990, AFF I/E Rick Horn made a training film for the US Air Force. The training film included a couple dozen intentional cutaways both with and without RSLs. Despite all his recent experience, Rick was never able to pull his reserve ripcord before his RSL did. The only way a human can beat an RSL is if the main does not release ... or is still inside the container as Wendy suggested. IOW an RXL will not pull your reserve ripcord during all types of malfunctions. All that being said, it is still a good habit to pull your release cables completely clear of your harness and promptly follow through with your reserve ripcord.

Sorry to hear about your accident. Based on your account of the events I think there is a good chance that the RSL didn't activate your reserve, and played no role in the reserve malfunction. You could look at the reserve cable, they often get a kink in them when there is a RSL initiated reserve deployment. But like you say in the quote before, you pulled the reserve handle, or at least that is what I interpret your comment "reserve deployment" to mean in that sequence. This sounds like a pilot chute in tow, or potentially a pilot chute that is stuck in the low pressure burble above you or even sucked right on to your container. Pchapman's has a good potential account above for the PCIT scenario. You did the right thing to initiate emergency procedures. What happens next is a bit of luck. Once the reserve is deploying the main container may stay closed if there is a misrouted or pierced bridle, or it may open up and the main may start deploying because having the reserve tray open and the reserve out relieves some pressure and tension on the main container which allows the closing pin to finally clear the closing loop. There may be things that you could have done differently, or it could have just been a spot of bad luck. You may never be able to determine exactly what happened here but you can talk with your instructors and experienced skydivers to help avoid it in the future. Know your gear, ensure that is is properly maintained, properly configured, and operate it correctly. Practice your emergency procedures. Review how you will respond to different circumstances. Plan your jumps from take off all the way till you are back safely in the packing area. Build awareness about what other skydivers are doing. You may also want to talk about your accident with a therapist who specializes in traumatic accidents and events. Having an accident, especially one that has many questions, can leave you with a lot of mental stuff to process.

The RSL will open the reserve container in about 1/10 of a second. You’ll beat the RSL pretty much only if you pull the reserve first. Wendy P.

Tension knots can happen any time and it sounds like (given inspections) you may have had a bad one. You don't say how much the reserve was loaded , which would be a factor. We like to think that if we do everything right, that everything will be OK. Its what we like to believe/need to believe but it isnt absolutely true.

Question, was the main still in the container or if not, was it fully deployed or still in the d-bag?

Yeah it is a little hard to piece together what was happening based on imperfect memories after what sounds like a crash landing. A possible scenario: Pilot chute in tow. (Rather than pilot chute around leg, which wouldn't have left you still falling stably while 'nothing happened' for some seconds.) Cutaway & reserve procedures performed. Loss of pressure on main container allows main to come out of container as reserve deploys. Bad luck and bad timing results in a riser from the main tangling in the deploying reserve. Probably nothing to do with tension knots. Just an effectively fucked-up reserve because there's a main parachute somehow connected to it by a main riser caught up in it, pulling at it probably off center or maybe partially choking it off. Leading to a high speed impact under a spiralling, perhaps partially inflated reserve. There are certainly some youtube videos out there of such scenarios. Various related possibilities don't change the basic scenario, just how bad it might be: You might have been thrown into line twists under the reserve; the main could have been partially inflated, mostly streamered, or still caught up in its bag by its lines; the reserve canopy could be fully inflated or have part of it pulled together if the main riser wrapped itself around or through multiple lines or caught under rather than over the slider.

More information would be helpful if you can provide it. Any feedback you get here will be speculative because there are many unknowns and possibilities. To me the first and most obvious piece of information missing is what was the state of the main canopy and it's deployment system both at landing and during the descent under the malfunctioning reserve?