CanuckInUSA

Is America ready for a female president? Is America ready for a Black president? Is America ready to try something different in an attempt to evolve itself or it is more interested in maintaining the status quo (which does not appear to be working). Besides John McCain (who’s health could be questionable) we still haven’t seen who the Republicans might field. Of course not being a Yank, I am only a spectator here, but I am all for listening to what Hillary Clinton has to say. But if she plans on leading America down a more socialistic path, I think you guys will be making a huge mistake. If she plans on leading American somewhere down the center, then she’s got to be better than the fool currently leading you guys (oh and historically I’ve always sided with the Republican presidents … until GWB came on the scene). But center to right leaning Americans should think again if they want to leave and come to a place like Canada. That is unless of course you like shitty weather, high taxes, low to medium wages, high housing in all the major urban centers, a broken healthcare system and a socialistic society that thinks of itself as a victim and caters to the special interest groups. No if center to right leaning Americans leave America because of a left leaning government, their options around the world are limited. Is America ready for a female president? I say yes … but only if she leads them down the center (we know she won’t lead them down the right). But I would like to see more people step up to the plate. If America truly is ready for a female president, I think a Clinton versus Rice race would be interesting to watch … meow. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Are you going to sit there and listen to someone who's planning on jumping themselves who's flying a far less efficient wing who you know damn well will be effected by the weather way more than you will (assuming you jump a x-braced canopy) all the while telling you that you that they feel you shouldn't be jumping because they feel the WX has exceeded your limits when they don't even have the slightest idea what your limits are? Yes there are arrogant people in this sport. Tell me something I didn't know already. A few of the best canopy pilots in the world have their arrogant streaks. But there is also no shortage of hypocrites and while you may think I'm some arrogant full of shit dude, I see yourself being a hypocrite right here right now. Cause I'm pretty sure you're going to trust your own judgement and not the judgement from someone who doesn't have your experience. I'm not going to tell you when or how to fly your canopy because I trust that you've already figured this out. So why should some competitive swoopers listen to someone who is going to be effected by the WX conditions way more than the swoopers will? I guess it was more important for you to call someone a crock of shit than it was to read when they said there are many different types of personalities on the competitive swooping circuit. I'm out of here, I have more fun things to do this weekend that to debate this issue ... I've put my two cents into this topic and have nothing more to say. See you all next week. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

That is rather unfortunate that you received that sort of response from my competitive swooping peers. Not being there, not knowing who said what, I would like to refrain from passing too much judgement on them or yourself. What I am about to say doesn't excuse their potential rude behavior but it's more a case of helping you educate yourself a little more about our mindsets during a competition, the canopies we fly, how we fly them and how our progressions got us to this point. If this group of competitors (sounds like they could have been So-Cal CPCers based on your profile ... maybe even PSTers) are likely very seasoned canopy pilots and hopefully they analyzed the WX conditions before they set foot on the airplane and made their decisions then as to whether or not they would jump. My competitive swooping peers, we know our canopies. Our x-braced canopies are nothing like a Spectre. Our wings are rigid and we have the ability to cut through turbulence in a much more efficient manner than something like a Spectre would experience. We fly in all sorts of different winds and we actually prefer to land downwind and unless it is a zone accuracy round, we don't like landing into the wind. Is what we're doing safe? Hell no ... it is a calculated risk. But when I'm loading the airplane during a competition jump, I have my game face on. Some guys are totally focused and some guys as relaxed and loose. But we know what we are doing and we know what we are getting into. The last thing I want to hear is someone on the airplane flying a much less efficient wing telling me that they don't think the WX conditions are safe when you yourself are about to jump as well. Contrary to what you may think, we have set WX limits for the specific disciplines we are doing during a comp. If the winds exceed these limits, the round is suspended. If not, it's game time. And to have someone tell us that they think we are making a mistake (when they themselves are planning on jumping) is likely going to result in us saying (either to ourselves or possibly out load) WTF is this guy yapping about? Doesn't he know that I've already analyzed the conditions and have come up with a plan before I even stepped on the airplane? There are many different personalities in the competitive swooping circuits. I can totally see someone like TJ telling you to your face "STFUYDA" and then someone like Stu saying the exact same thing, only to himself. All the while someone like Ian will be polite and diplomatic and he'll tell you kind of what I'm telling you now (all the while he's thinking the same thing that TJ and Stu were thinking). Three different types of personalities thinking the same thing, but expressing themselves differently. You may not understand this, but you have to be a competitive swooper to understand what's going through our minds when we're on the airplane. If I knew you, I might talk to you about the WX and tell you what I had already analyzed and exactly what my plan for the jump was ... and if you were a face on the plane I didn't recognize ... who knows I might just tell you the same thing these guys said. We are a competitive group ... we have to be. It's the only way to perform up there. Sorry dude but you have to walk a mile in our shoes before you understand our mindset. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

The Kennedy's must be jealous. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

If the results are posted they will likely be found at www.canopypiloting.com before any other site. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

LOL ... all fine and dandy for Eloy's golf course like main landing area, but yes he hasn't jumped at Mile-Hi has he Drew. The only time you can even think of turf sliding at Mile-Hi is during a wet winter day. But what does this have to do with no wind landings. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

What may work for you may not work for others. Flying slow by wrapping your toggles isn't the smartest thing to be doing. Go back and read what Walt was talking about concerning forward speed and lift. I don't agree 100% with what he says, but I do agree with the majority of his comments. Personally I wouldn't be advising people to change the control range of their canopy. But that's me ... Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Despite what we continue to tell them, they just don't get it. I am all for seperate landing areas (be it seperated by time or space). Going big in traffic is rolling the dice and well sonner or later the losing number will come up. But it's a knee jerk reaction to think banning 270s will solve the issue. They remind me of the politicians in this world. Promise the lemmings something the lemmings think they need when in reality the politician knows they have done nothing of real substance to resolve the issue. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I realize that you are considered a low time experienced jumper and the most important thing right now is knowing when to decided to jump and when to stay on the ground. But at some point soon, you are going to need to get over the "I must land into the wind and it must be [insert wind speed here] knots for me to feel good about it" since one day YOU WILL LAND OFF and you may not be able to land into the wind and could very well end up landing downwind. There has been no shortage of people seriously messing themselves up in this sport because they seem to feel they have to land into the wind and then they do something stupid under canopy low to the ground. No as far as my preference on wind is concerned, unless I am doing a round of zone accuracy, I generally dislike landing into the wind on the vast majority of my jumps. Crosswind landings are the most common landings I do and as long as the winds are less than 15 kts a good downwinder always gets the blood circulating. But what can I say, I am in the minority as I am a competetive swooper. I swoop for the ground rush. Nothing more, nothing less. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Are the PD guys going to be there? What about some of the new blood (Tom D and Johnny Z)? Plus don't count out little Nick B and maybe Jim S can reclaim his glory? There is a lot of really good talent in the pro ranks. Not to sound like a cliche, but the person at the top of their game will be taking home the spoils. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Not sure how your area differs from a place like Gastown in Vancouver BC. But never before have I seen so much affluence and so much poverty so close to each other. The area around Hastings and Main is truly the real life version of Dawn of the Dead. If you're concerned about your real estate investment, get out while you can. But you never know ... the residents of Gastown (the affluent ones) haven't appeared to be effected by the zombies ... yet. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

To each their own. Since I view every jump as different, I try not to get caught up in the "you'll never be consistent if you don't do it exactly the same way each time" mindset because this goes against how I was trained. Before I get on the airplane I try to analyze (to the best of my ability) what the WX is doing, come up with a plan and once I approach my setup point in the air I decide which tool to whip out of the tool box of tricks to get down and into the entry gates. Does this mean I never make mistakes? Of course not ... I'm only human and not even remotely as talented or as experienced as some of the best in the world are. But it does mean that I am not worried about adapting to the conditions. To me I don't see a difference in my flying ability if I am turning left or right. It just doesn't seem to matter. What does matter is recognizing your progress in the middle of the turn and knowing how to adapt to whatever is happening up there. To me, each jump is different. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Exactly ... Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

"I don't like Whuffos" - there I said it. I'm sure it's more me than them. But regardless ... I just find it harder and harder to relate to them. It doesn't matter if they are socialists - great spenders of other people's money or the money hungry look at me look at my house and my car and I'm willing to sacrifice everything in life just to be rich crowd. I'm starting to dislike them all. So when is my straight jacket coming? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

That's just ####ed up. You know the whuffo's in this province better than I do (in the context of whuffos showing up to make their first skydives). But I can't help but notice the image skydiving has up here compared to other places all thanks to a few select incidents where the media has been allowed to cast a negative image of the sport to the whuffo community. If the reserve was in date and the tandem passenger signed the waiver, it should be a no brainer. The dude should be thanking the tandem master that he did the right thing to save both their lives. I'm beginning to really not like this province the more and more time I spend here. It wasn't like this 10 years ago when I left here. Of course 10 years ago I was a whuffo. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

As Mark has already mentioned, do not fixate on the water. The depth perception of the H2O (espcially in no wind conditions) is a lot harder to judged than over grass. Plus while it may not apply in this case, it's important to level off and slow down a tad before you attempt to touch down. I have learned the semi-hard way how much the water can hurt when either fixating on it, or not leveling off and touching down too soon. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Agreed ... before I sought out some advanced swoop coaching from one of the industry leaders, I used to think that we always had to setup at the same altitude in the same part of the sky on each and every jump. But then I was taught that each jump was different, I was shown how to conduction my performance drills in order to find my performance envelope, I was taught that slow turns burn up more altitude than fast ones and I was armed with a whole slew of tools to pull out of my tool box as to what kind of inputs were needed on a given jump. Oh and once the turn starts ... hopefully the swoopers spider senses will kick in as from that point on it is all visual and it's our spider senses which tells us when to get off of the front risers and when to stop the turn. Yes swooping is a very dynamic thing ... every jump is different ... and this is one of the major attractions I have to the discipline (aside from the ground rush). Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

There is a very good chance that this is because the canopy is allowed to fly through it's natural recovery arc and maybe you're not starting your 90s high enough. Have you done your performance drills up high? Do you know how much altitude your canopy loses and are you also allocating enough altitude to let the canopy recover by itself? Is your turn rate constant or does it vary from jump to jump? Back to the topic of this thread: I abort my swoops a split second before I am poised to take Kallend out of the sky? LOL ... do NOT take this last statement serious. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Just saying that I don't know what normal is and whatever it is, I'm not it. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Stay away from the "D" license and you're likely to live a nice long life. Those of us who have our "D"s are on borrowed days. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

That's a little harsh. I want him to continue making good music. But it would be nice to see him stop his quest to try and influence governments into adopting his vision of world socialism. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I don't know what normal is. But what ever it is, I assure you, I'm not it and I don't plan on trying to change anytime soon. Now what was this thread about anyway? Single women? They're out there somewhere ... I'm not sure where since they sure aren't interested in me, but they do make up 1/2 the single population. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

The JVX is not made by Icarus ... Oh and while there are more talented and more experienced canopy pilots with more jumps on their JVX than I have on mine (I have 200+ JVX jumps). I have not experienced this mushiness on my JVX that the original poster refers to. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I like Bono's music. But that's where my admiration for him stops. I do not care for his politics and do not care for his vision of world socialism. For someone with so much individual wealth to be telling my elective representative that they need to tax me even more (as if we here in Canada aren't being taxed enough by all 3 tiers of governments) so that my elective representatives send more money to Bono's pet projects is just a little over the top. I guess all those years where Bono held regular meetings with our last PM where he was allowed to dictate to us how we should behave has worn off on the billionaire superstar . Please Mr Bono I am not rolling in money like you are. In fact it is quite the opposite where 1/2 of my earnings go to taxes to this very much socialist country of mine with incredible poor services in return and then close to the other 1/2 is consumed with just trying to pay for housing and food. If you feel you need to save the world from itself maybe you should be talking to Africa and asking them why their population continues to grow exponentially when they don't have have the resources to feed themselves. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I agree that much of our thinking up there is psychological. But in the summer of 2005 when I was lucky enough to be able to train full time 7 days a week as a competitive swooper, I would analyze what went wrong after each training jump before the next jump in order to try and correct any mistakes I made towards my setups and my swoops. I guess what I am trying to say that it's okay to think about the mistakes that were made on our jumps just as long as the person is trying to improve and learn from their mistakes and not beat themselves up for making the mistakes in the first place. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over