CanuckInUSA

Nothing would. I'm not that kind of person. If I'm concerned about the safety of a given DZ operation, then I will either talk to the DZO/S&TA or I would take my business to a different DZ. But ratting on someone to the FAA is not my way of resolving issues. The FAA is not our buddies and given the choice, I'm sure they would love to shut skydiving and general aviation down. Why the #### do you think organizations like AOPA exists? They exist to protect general aviators from the FAA. This all reminds me of a recent incident between an Air Force cadet and local rigger. The cadet wants to jump on a given day and knows that their rig is out of date. The cadet pleads to the rigger to do something ASAP so that the cadet can get airborne. Since the rigger was ultra busy that morning and couldn't repack the reserve on the spot as the cadet was asking, the rigger was also the person to pack the reserve the last time and the rigger and cadet come to a verbal agreement that the reserve card will be updated on the spot so that the cadet can jump that day and that at the end of the day the rigger will indeed repack the reserve. Well the cadet goes off to tell his buddies and superiors what the rigger did and the next thing you know the air force is coming down hard on the rigger. Was the rigger right for his pencil pack? Well by the law we know that he wasn't (even though we know that a reserve is a reserve and just because it's been packed for 121 days doesn't mean that it ceases to be a reserve). But what about the rat ... the cadet. This goodie-two shoes will never be trusted again and good luck getting anyone to help him at this DZ. The cadet has been black listed as someone who can not be trusted in this sport. If you want to go ratting on your fellow jumpers, then that is your right. But don't ever expect to be respected because we now know that you can't be trusted. Trust and respect need to be earned and you've thrown those out the door with your actions at Rantoul. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Send this thread to the "Speakers Corner". That way the born-agains and bigots can tell us all about how superior they are to the rest of us and they can tell us that this person hasn't been battling their emotions from an early age and that the whole sex change was done only to accel in gender specific sports. Yes send this thread to the wolves. The born agains will have a field day with it. Not directed at Arlo: STOP ####ING JUDGING PEOPLE and take them for who they are. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Without seeing the video it's hard to say if they were close. For sure tandem videographers need to be experienced fliers. Three lives are on the line and it's no time to be complacent. I think you mentioned something in a post I made the other day that you saw me at Mile-Hi in Longmont CO last weekend? And if you are indeed talking about the videographers at this DZ, then I'd like to put your mind at ease that Mile-Hi actually has a fairly high standard for their videographers. They don't just let anyone jump with the tandems. Your friends will be with good fliers. But shit can happen ... that's why we have to sign the waiver. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Nope and I'm running out of time. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Yes but Keith you don't know Alana. I do (well sort of) know her and she'll eat you alive for breakfast. So be nice to her if you don't want her kicking your ass. See you in less than three weeks. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

But you must admit, it's one of the funniest threads in a long time. Hey I might have a rig for sale? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Sorry to hear about your friends Matt. I met Heather a few times last year, but I didn't really know her. There's been a lot of bad luck these last 7-8 months losing friends all over the place. Who's next? But I never will forget a certain day last year, am happy it happened over a country road instead of the mountains we flew over a 1/2 hour prior and believe it or not, I'm actually kind of glad I got to experience it. Spice in our lives is good for our souls. Hope you're healing well ... take care ... Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Not sure if this was directed at Dan or myself. But I can tell you from personal experience that just because I'm jumping a JVX doesn't automatically make me fast. It's still comes down to the pilot and their turn technique. After this weekends NW CPC comp, most of the competitors (and friends) got together afterwards and watched video of our jumps and when possible Stu would critic our techniques. The message I was getting from Stu was that I was starting my turns too high and because of this my turn rate was too slow and I was losing a lot of speed and was no where close to my powerband. After watching the video, I couldn't argue with Stu because you could totally see myself slowing down at the end of my turn and my decent into the gates. But of course I was starting high this last weekend because I came close to pancaking myself down in CO the weekend before and guys like Jim were telling me to turn higher. Obviously what works at sea level doesn't automatically work at altitude and visa-versa. So it's the pilot, not the wing which is the biggest influencing factor in how we do up there. I hope I can sort out my issues before the CPC Championships as I'm just not consistent this season and just haven't be consistent with finding my powerband on my JVX. But if I don't perform well, it's all okay. Losing my "Advanced" status will only save me money next season as I won't need to worry about spending money getting to all the different swoop comps. This shit (competitive swooping) is fun. But it sure isn't safe and it's not easy (or at least it's not easy for mortals like myself). Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I think it sucks that this guy ratted on a fellow jumper (actually in reality he ratted on the hot air balloon pilot) to the FAA and I think that sucks. But personally I think you need to start realizing that not all BASE jumpers jump for the same reasons you jump. We're all different and have our own reasons to jump. To slam other jumpers because they don't follow your view on what it means to BASE jump just goes to show how little experience you have in these two sports (and I'm not all that much more experienced). Time under canopy is still time under a canopy and no amount of skydiving time under a skydiving canopy (whether it's only in the hundreds or if it's in the thousands of jumps) is going to make you a bad BASE jumper. But having too little time under canopy can make you a dangerous BASE jumper. So I hope your BASE canopy skills are above average because it sure sounds like you feel you've already learned everything you need to learn under a skydiving canopy. I know I'm only starting to scratch the surface of knowing what I need to know about jumping large, medium and yes small pocket rocket canopies. The moment you stop learning in these sport(s) is the moment you should really think about doing something else. But yes that guy who finked to the FAA is a rat. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I'm jealous. Show up to the big DZ in Longmont and I'm sure they will like having another cute girl hanging around and you'll be making some new friends in no time. Oh but I will be at the DZ three weekends from now (just for the weekend) and hopefully I will see you there. Did I mention that I was jealous? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

This might not be an issue at the CPC Champsionships since Jim has an electronic timing system which will be used on the speed courses. But we (the NW CPC District) ran into an issue this last weekend on how to score the straight line speed course and that was how could we use the video camera to properly calculate the times. On a carving course, a camera can be setup to video the competitor entering and exiting the course. But on the straight line course, it wasn't so obvious as to when the competitor was entering and exiting the course. We came up with a compromise and tried to judge each competitor the same. But the technique used was less than ideal and did result in some timed scores being a little higher than they likely were in real life. All things aside, I have my theories as to why a straight line course will be used at the CPC Championships and it has a lot to do with yourself and myself having to run the 5 footers while everyone else will be on 10s and just making things easier for the organizers not having to dick around with different course setups. But I could be wrong ... Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I'm assuming that the names have not yet been released? This has definitely been a bad last couple of weeks for the community. BSBD ... Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Bald ... strike one Some what overweight ... strike two Ugly ... strike three? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

No Steve they are not. If they were doing that... there would be nothing left of any Lebanese city.. and the death toll would be approching a million by now.... Back on topic ... Whoever came up with the idea of this war just wasn't thinking. Israel doesn't seem all that egar to send in the ground troops and they're not going to eliminate Hezbollah's unless they go in and do the dirty work. Instead they're using air strikes and heavy artillery to do their damage, which has caused huge infrastructure damage to much of the country and totally disabled the Lebanese economy. Sure to date not that many Lebanese have died (600 or so is the latest I've heard). But one in five Lebanese is homeless and there is little food and water. How long are these refuges supposed to survive with no food and water? Lebanon is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. You watch ... Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

The funny thing about Americans getting their news is that the only source of news they get is from fellow Americans and it is only the American point of view. The funny thing about the rest of the world is that we obtain our news from multiple news sources. If you had access to non-American news, you would see the devastation which is going on in Lebanon right now. The country is in absolute ruins thanks to the Israeli military. Now of course Hezbollah is just as bad as the Israeli military. I am on neither side of this conflict. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

you kidding me right. you are an intelligent guy. Both sides are committing atrocities towards innocent civilians. Israel has decided to carpet bomb the shit out of Lebanon regardless of whether or not they are killing Hezbollah militants or innocent civilians (they seem to be taking a "let's flatten the whole country and hope we kill some militants along the way"). While Hezbollah continues to fire rockets into Israel by the thousands targeting civilians. Unless Israel can send in the appropriate number of ground troops to occupy Lebanon and rid the country of Hezbollah, then both sides will continue to slaughter innocent civilians at an alarming rate. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that war is never won by air strikes alone. War is only won when one country can occupy and supress their enemy on the ground (ie: kill them all so that there is nobody left to fight) In other words, both sides are fucked up in the head. Peace is never obtained by waging war and this shit will never end. So we better get used to more death and destruction from both sides as that's all they seem to want to do. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Hey Jim does this mean that the competitors will automatically get their water dragging points even if they don't actually drag in the water, or will they only get the water dragging points when they drag through the water gates? Personally I'd like to see it where all competitors need to drag the water. I understand why the points are automatically given when we were swooping over hard ground. But this won't be in the case in CO on the pond. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

You can't always have your cake and eat it at the same time. Sometimes we swoopers are coming in way too fast and swooping on regular loads is just rolling the dice. No matter how accomplished you are as a swooper, if you continue to push it on regular loads, sooner or later you will encounter something unexpected in the landing area and that could result in a fatality (or two). Save going big on a swoop for hop n' pops and/or high pulls. And please people ... if you're just learning to go big on your swoops, learn how to do it in a controlled environment such as a hop n' pop and/or high pull. Swooping rocks!!! But it sure isn't safe ... especially when done on a regular load with all the other jumpers trying to land in the same location at the same time. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

If you think you want to jump with a hook knife (definitely a good thing to jump with once you know your gear, know what to cut and when to cut it), then remember to bring two. You're going to drop the first one. And if you think I'm picking on you? I'm not. It's what the CReW Dawgs always tell their new CReW pups. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Nice one and very true. Hey who put Speakers Corner in the Incidents Forum? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

It'll be in a new category soon once a greenie sees this thread. What about Femur? Why was Femur left off? Shit anything can happen in this sport from a slight bruise, bloody nose, to broken bones, to paralysis to death. Just don't #### up right? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

One of my brothers is my emergency contact. I know my mom will hear about it soon enough (knock on wood let's hope the emergency contact is never needed), but I don't think the first point of contact with the DZ should be my mother. I'd prefer for my brother to deal with it first. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I believe JC had a JVX 120 made for him (I'm not sure how much he's jumped it ever since he joined PD). But I don't think anything bigger has been made ... yet. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

It was actually a pretty cool event where you needed to drag through the entry gates and maintain contact with the water the entire 200 feet to score until the exit gates. It was almost as fun as the freestyle zone accuracy rounds.

No problem-o ... Despite witnessing Mar's spinning mal (from a considerable distance), I don't think we know enough about what exactly happened. I saw Jim Slatons post earlier today mentioning that it was a "tension knot", but I'm not sure if he's still going on what most people think went wrong or if the Master Rigger (I believe Billy R was the one) has completed his rig inspection yet. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over