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Let’s get back to talking about Ukraine — thanks, Joe Wendy P.

Not sure of the value of my experience with this but here you go: I bought a second hand rig that served me well from jump 50 to jump 200. I wanted a custom made rig and, as you say money wasn't the object, so I bought one and started using it from my 200th. I kept the original thinking "turn rig". Reality has been the turn rig has hardly been used. It comes out when my main rig is in for a repack and that's about it. Unless you are competing or working in the industry a turn rig doesn't really make sense. Put your money into jump tickets

I can overlook some confusion around the rubber band/bank strap issue. But mixing up the Three Stooges and Abbot and Costello? Unforgivable.

While I can not imagine where we are in agreement on probably every other matter, I do respect that your self is inside of what you post and that what you post is what you believe. On that note, is there anyway we can buy up all copies of your soon to be published self help book so as to actually save the world from further chaos?

Sweet! Are you like in MS-13 or some other Pro 2nd Amendment Organization? What I'm wondering is what if he didn't buy it legally but got it from someone who stole it from someone like you? Or maybe it came from someone who died and his heirs couldn't pass up selling it to anyone for a few hundred bucks? The thing is I think the "I did it the right way argument" is bunk. I think having a MAC-10 in your possession, if that's the gun, should be a felony. I think they should all be turned in or confiscated and then destroyed. I think that until we, as a society, insist that those types of people murdering guns are considered to be the real problem we will never get close to fixing the problem.

The leader of the Dambusters raid (1943), Guy Gibson, VC, had a black labrador that in various versions of the movie about the raid is renamed Trigger or Blackie. The death of the dog is actually important in the unfolding of the events of the raid. Re-writing history to avoid offending people (none of whom that I've met seem actually offended) seems silly to me.

If the answer is that people have to have firearms in the shower - something very fundamental is broken in our society.

That it would still be a pilot7

Electric shock should be the punishment for dragging up years old posts with no added contribution other than being painfully pedantic. Zap zap...

Don't start quoting literature.

I say no. Think about the jump before jumping, think while you're making the jump, think about the jump after the jump, and think about it some more while packing. Get the most from every hop. If money is no object get good coaching before a second rig.

if you have the cash, sure, go for it. money buys experience

Time in the sport is also valuable. Raw jump numbers aren't everything, but being on the DZ and paying attention to what happens, listening to the stories and advice of other jumpers is also a good way to learn and get better. Typically I see turn rigs being used for higher-level competition teams that want to knock out 10+ training jumps per day. At 115 jumps I honestly doubt that a turn rig is worth it.

Hi falls, Well, I see some problems with the Supreme Court. Jerry Baumchen PS) Which I thought Joe was referring to when I first read the title of the thread.

Never got a DUI, but once in Venezuela I had a couple of cops pull me over shitfaced and then they followed me to the ATM to pull out their bribe. Surprised by how much better I'm feeling 3 weeks into Dry January. I don't drink a lot these days, but after realizing it's been 20+ years since I went a whole month without whetting my whistle, figured it would be a worthwhile endeavour to take a month off. Will probably be feeling a bit rough Feb 2, though

You do realize that deficits cause the debt, right?

. . . democrats bring the deficit down, republicans drive it up.

You simply can't bring yourself to admit that Trump's gross incompetence is responsible for tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths, in addition to the largest 4 year increase in the debt in history. Pathetic! Just plain pathetic.

Let's look at the facts! Debt to GDP ratio, last five years of Obama: 2012 6.6% 2013 4.0% 2014 2.8% 2015 2.4% 2016 3.1% Cool! Obama had our debt ratio going down. Let's see how Trump did before the pandemic: 2017 3.4% 2018 3.8% 2019 4.6% Rising fast! Understandable, since he increased spending and cut taxes, which is the formula for huge deficits.

Funny how Covid gets blamed for the deficits and debts. Despite not existing for the FIRST THREE YEARS of the Trump idiocracy.

Thankfully, I don't think its anywhere near 50 per cent that fell for it. Just the extremes of the bigoted, the gullible, and the not so bright.

The best that Q had to offer was a claim of a pedophile ring run from the basement of a pizza parlor that doesn't actually have a basement. Q - the information source for the terminally gullible.

i jumped with "rdufokker"

In '89 I was practicing Leg Locks (Venezuelan Connection Day's) with a buddy. No AAD, no Dirt Alerts, no operating synapses, we saddled out just short of 500'. That was world class dumb.

During the four years of the Trump administration, the national debt rose by 24.8%. And we weren't even in a recession. Yet the GOP clings to the myth that tax cuts pay for themselves, and morons believe them.

Sort of. "Reserve Storage' means they were cleaned out and parked. They may or may not have had any preservation done. As an 'airplane guy', you likely know what has to be done to preserve an airplane engine for long term storage. This is similar to what the Russians are looking at when they are trying to pull the T-62s out of storage. I've seen generalized estimates that 1/3 will be usable with a bit of preparation. 1/3 will require major effort to get operational and 1/3 will not be 'revivable' and will be used for parts. Before they could send any over, they'd first have to evaluate them to see what they've got. Then get some up and running. Another problem is maintenance. The Abrams is a very maintenance intensive tank. It requires skilled techs (and quite a few of them) to keep it going. Beyond training the crews (an experienced tank crew could adapt to the Abrams fairly quickly), the rest of the folks who are involved in keeping it going would need substantial, specialized training. Then there's the logistical support. The main gun is different from what they are currently using. So they'd need to figure out how to keep those specific shells supplied. The ideal fuel is jet fuel. It can run on other stuff, but there are downsides to that. There's a lot more to it than just 'sending them a bunch of tanks. And even if it was just 'sending' them, that's not a trivial exercise either. 2 Abrams fit in a C-5. I'd guess they'd go to Poland, not risking flying into Ukraine. Then overland to Ukraine. Sending them by ship is usually preferable, but that takes a lot of time. Personally, I'd LOVE to see substantial, serious arms get sent to Ukraine. And I think it's going to happen. But it will take some time.