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Both of my statements were for the sake of clarity - not for the sake of argument. I’d be willing to bet over half of the eight fatalities that occurred in 2022 were witnessed by unsuspecting bystanders who had no idea what swooping is. I’ve intentionally been terminal at <1k in both skydiving and BASE environments. I’ve also performed high performance landings with big turns on <100 sq ft canopies. I’d say the margin for error is pretty similar for all three. I don’t think the skydiving community has come to terms with this reality. The culture is, “Pulling low is stupid because there’s no point in it and you’ll eventually make a mistake and die.” Also, “BASE is extremely dangerous and if you BASE jump long enough you will eventually die.” But somehow, “Canopy Piloting is an exciting spectator friendly sport that has potential for inclusion in the Olympics and is used as a platform to promote skydiving to the general public.” There’s some serious cognitive bias occurring in the skydiving community and it contributed to the eight deaths that occurred in 2022.

Long-time skydiver Bob Boreman, 84, passed away in Los Angeles, CA on March 21, 2023 from acute leukemia. Bob began jumping in the 1960s and was the recipient of SCR-80. He jumped throughout Southern California with the Wuest Ways and the Costarison Farms events. Bob was an accomplished artist, musician, surfer and hang glider pilot. He also owned and flew his own airplane. Details for a May 2023 memorial will be posted.

Hi folks, A recent Letter to the Editor here in Oregon: Readers respond: Modern gun laws for modern times - oregonlive.com I could not agree more. Jerry Baumchen

Headline on BBC News: Donald Trump Under Arrest after Arriving at Court Headline on CNN: Trump Arrested Headline on WaPo: Trump surrenders to authorities to face charges Headline at the NYT: Trump Surrenders to Authorities to Face Criminal Charges Headline on Reuters: Trump arrives at New York courthouse to face criminal charges Headline on FOX News: TENSIONS RUNNING HIGH Protesters get physical outside New York City courthouse ahead of Trump's arraignment And the lead story is one Trump supporter who tried to destroy an anti-Trump banner - and fell down.

If you want to see how bad FOX News has gotten, check this one out. Trump has long been a fixture on their TV show and they trot him out whenever they need a quick ratings boost. But they also are wary of the damage he causes them, and are worried that their cash cow will end up looking like, you know, a deceitful criminal, which they are anxious to avoid. Hence all the "Trump is a poor victim of the clueless - yet eerily competent - democrats who are indicting him in their latest witch hunt" stories. And also as a result of their worries they haven't been using him as much, But at the end of March Hannity trotted him out once again to get that ratings boost. Now he knows that he has to be careful, because the last thing FOX wants is him to say something like "well I barely remember doing Stormy Daniels, and I only paid my lawyer to make it go away. Not like this witch hunt says!" It would harm their viewership if a FOX News segment featured prominently in a case against him, Now, the latest Trump legal problem is that it appears that Trump personally rifled through his boxes of stolen records even after he was subpoenaed over them. This means that a) any denials that he didn't know what was in them are false and b) there is now evidence that he sought to hide some of the materials that the FBI later recovered during their search. Check out this exchange as Hannity tries desperately to keep Trump from incriminating himself on TV: Hannity: “I can't imagine you ever saying 'bring me some of the boxes that we brought back from the White House. I'd like to look at them.' Did you ever do that?” Trump: "I would have the right to do that. There's nothing wrong with it." Hannity begins to sweat: "I know you. I don't think you would do it." Trump plows ahead oblivious: "Well, I don't have a lot of time . . .but I would have the right to do that. I would do that. There’d be nothing wrong . . " Hannity interrupts him to try to change the subject before he says anything else: "Well, let me move on . . .” Trump still doesn't take the hint: "Remember this. This is the Presidential Records Act. I have the right to take stuff. Do you know that they ended up paying Richard Nixon, I think, $18 million for what he had? They did the Presidential Records Act. I have the right to take stuff. I have the right to look at stuff.” Dang, that's a lot of work to keep someone from saying something they want to say.

This is good context....and good expectation setting. Not a lot of winter jumping in my neck of the woods, so I might have to accept that my activity in late summer and fall will be pretty limited, solos and hop and pops and maybe the occasional no-contact two-way. Just enough to keep me from going crazy. Then focus on getting back into it for real next spring. *sigh* I was lucky to be randomly assigned to a surgeon who is a former collegiate athlete, has specialized training in sports medicine, and has worked with professional teams in the past. Which, you know, I never would have even thought about how important that was until a few weeks ago, but I'm pretty grateful that is how it turned out.

Anyone who does anything for Trump without being paid upfront in cash is a fool.

Yeah we need a sarcasm emoji. What i meant was that those should have been the issues that the US government should deal with. Instead its unending gun violence. 102 pages now and no end to ideas or shootings. Someday there will be compromise. I just don't see that day on any calendar now. I know Joe gets a little sensitive now and then. He's just a sensitive kinda guy.

Or maybe read Phil's post and quit posting against America for a while.

I'll bet that you've never been in terminal freefall below 1500 feet. Trust me, there are visual differences. Magical? That's up to the observer.

And in good news; the Illinois House has passed a bill that will deny state funds to any library system in the state that bans books. I expect the state Senate and governor will go along.

You should have stopped after the first 8 words. We don't need to hope for an amendment that will never come, we need to pack the SC and use it to reverse Heller and any other jackass interpretation of the second. We need to put giant taxes on guns and especially ammunition the next time we have all three branches after the court is packed. Kieth is a smart guy and a real thought leader on this, and probably a fancy dresser and nifty dancer, too, but I'm also of the mind that responsibility will read regulation and go down in flames

Hi Keith, Well, as one, I do know that the vast majority in Oregon tend to the liberal side of any issue. Most of the non-affiliated here in Oregon were former Democrats. Jerry Baumchen

Sure, high performance landings can be done without injury or death if done properly, but it will never be safe. The level of risk involved is equal to pulling <1.5k and BASE jumping. Your suggestion that those of us who are voicing concern simply don’t understand swooping - is ignorant at best. The injuries and deaths happen when high performance landings aren’t done properly (duh). People are flying themselves into the ground because they couldn’t do it properly every time. If you haven’t already, read the 2022 Fatality Report. Eight people died from intentional low turns. Three of them were tandem passengers. This should have sent shock waves throughout the skydiving community. Instead, we got the same ol’, “Whelp, that’s a shame, but we’re making progress!”