tikl68

Again not disagreeing that happens. but it does not appear that is the case in THIS STORY, but still waiting to hear the facts before raising the lynch mob. Saying that all cops are bad cause of the actions of some is no different than saying all African Americans are bad cause of a few, or that all white Harley Davidson riders are in biker gangs dealing meth, cause of the actions of a few. I dont hear you or any one else saying what a tragedy it is when an officer is killed by some POS, and that happens fairly frequent and that POS should be held responsible and there is no out cry when he gets off. Yes they chose that job but should not diminish the tragedy, or make it open season.

Ok, while the story you referenced does happen unfortunately, and should be dealt with, it has no similarities to the OP story of A police officer shooting a black teenager who ran from the police and pointed a firearm at them in a threatening manner.I fail to see the connection. Unless you are trying to say these cops fabricated the story about him running and then "planted" the BB gun on the scene. I will wait till the facts come out before I start beating the conspiracy drumb.

Why is it you always point blame except where it belongs. Yes there have been some terrible misuses of power and authority whether by a racist bigots, or just by a mistake, based on the facts after the the fact. Why is it so hard to understand this person brought this on themselves by their actions. Were you not raised to take responsibility for YOUR actions, or is it every one else fault. The police officer has no way of knowing that the person is wielding a simple BB gun, which can still cause an injury, in a split moment, and I would be willing to bet if the police officer called"time out" to ask the offender if the gun was real he would have just been fired upon, with yes a BB gun that can stiil take your eyes.

Triathlon. I have 1100 jumps on my 135 triathlon and have used it for freefall and I do video for CRW dogs. I can pack it to take 700 feet to open or 400 feet to open. It has forgiving characteristics and no bad sides in my opinion.

No clarification, only avoidance and side stepping. The correct response would be "My bad I assumed he was one of of douggs' students. Good job douggs" period. Instead there were many excuses and statements made that dont apply to the situation.

No way! That is sad news. I just watch a Red Bull air race episode 4 days ago that was probably a week old with him competing. Bummer

LOL!

Yes tracking does build skills, just a different set. It does not help you with not reaching for a grip, keeping eye contact with the formation or your piece partner, or how to turn on your center point, or fall rate, but it is a life saving skill to get separation from the other people on that jump with you to LESSON the possibility of colliding with some one during deployment.

Some of the advice is applicable and some not.Again depends on what type of tracking you are looking to do. I disagree with an earlier post that flat trackers are not good skydivers. I am pretty good and can more than hold my own in 4 wy or any RW for that matter and jump with a big-ish way group once a month and im known in the group as having an awesome track and yes its flat and fast. I went into a structured program for belly flying as soon as I got my license at my home dz put on by experienced 4 wy team to build the basics, for at least the first 250 jumps, its called EXCEL(then went on to be one of the coaches for EXCEL) camp put on by Elsinore, and one of the things that you get a good chance to practice is tracking. Video is also important when debriefed by some one with experience. At the end of the day we would usually do a tracking dive with those in the camp that were capable led by the coach in formation sorta slot specific. It is awesome to track in formation. I wear a video camera most of the time so what I normally see is people either track steep"in a delta", or they track with an ARCH position and usually sink out but still moving forward a little. Start with some one (experienced) tracking next to you and or get video after a RW jump. Your body in reality is always different than it feels to you. Once you are able to move forward with out potato chipping, and can hold your heading,start tweeking your body position with very subtle adjustments.Try to not bend your legs at the hips ie. keep your legs straight at the knees and pull your shins down towards the ground with your arms out a little bit for stability. As you get better at that more micro adjustments can be done with slightly tucking your chin, but dont bend at the waist. Go to vimeo.com and search for randy forbes, then search for" looking up falling down". He is the video guy for the biggish way jumps I do once a month and at the end of the day on the last jump he wanted video of my track and it is at the end of the video looking up falling down. I was very aggressive getting into my track so I am not parallel with the ground when I first take off but watch my hips/shins as I start to move and notice how flat I end up being. Eventually I ended up parallel-ish after the initial take off but he stop shooting before that part of the track.

True it is a 'community' and yes we should all look out for our fellow human beings. What I understood was that MOST of the people on the bridge were students under douggs, and were probably focused on them selves which is understandable, and from watching the video when the guy walks up with his canopy obscuring most of his harness from view UNTIL he climbs over the railing and drops his shit for a roll over and now his harness is less obscured, it is at this point that douggs noticed it. I dont consider this to be a scenario where "EVERYONE" failed. And NO I am not saying you should stand there and not say something. Even If I dont like some one I would still point out some something I saw that might be a problem, it is the right thing to do, but I was also raised to take responsibility for my actions. But like I said to LAY BLAME on some one cause they might not have caught some thing, or because they might have been focused on not being an ass hat them selves because they them selves are inexperienced, is not right, but that seems to be your S.O.P Just curious have you ever made a B.A.S.E jump or stood on an object and seen what goes on? I have. Yes we do look out for each other.

+1 well said. Tkhayes its not Douggs or any one elses responsibility. How about focusing on the positive which is that Douggs was on point enough to have caught this, and post something" like good job mate", instead of going negative and trying to place blame. On an object/exit point you are responsible for your self. If your a dumbass and some one catches it, tell them thanks and yes bye them a beer or two and take some notes.

I have no dog in the fight just want to clear some inaccuracies. I have jumped in 3 countries at small and and large DZ's and jump at 3 big SO Cal DZ's regulary(even worked at one for 6 years) and all of them have more than 1 rigger working, and yes they do drug test, surprise random type ones, even for the packers on the mat.

As I posted earlier you usually tip the TI and he tips the packer. Yes it is normal for you to tip the camera person.

Hi Hilltopper. Glad you have decided to check out our awesome sport. Your concerns are understandable and your questions are good, and Skymamma answered them so no need for a "go around". I worked at a pretty busy So Cal DZ for 6 years and one of my duties was to train tandems on the weekends. What I would tell students when asked about breathing is relax and just breath and the easiest way to do that is to breath through your nose. From talking to students after they have landed they said it helped. Going to do your tandem during a Boogie is an awesome experience. You and your friends will get to see the sport in full swing. The saturday night parties at a Boogie are the best. I think Skymamma meant to say tip your instructor not the packer, the instructor should tip the packer. Have fun.

Whew you beat me to it and thank the lord."Go out and get a HP canopy like a katana" to some one who is having trouble flaring and standing up her landings, really, to say it shocked me is an under statement, and I agree

Sounds like a good idea. When you do send me a PM about a week ahead and if im not committed elsewhere I will make a point to be there when your in town and get our jump on. Tickle

Glad you asked the questions before hand, and there is no dumb question, and yes as you found out there are packers there. If you do go again on a week day and dont find a packer on the mat you can always go to the school and as the tandem packers. Glad you had fun, and hope to see you maybe on one of these week enders. Tickle

Also a good idea for jumping at ANY new dz is to listen up when getting the briefing and do a hop n pop, or open a little higher than normal if you go to the top, in order to orientate yourself.At Elsinore land marks are easy. The big lake is hard to miss, and the twin runways help. Have fun Tickle BSBD

Congrats on the license and welcome. SD Elsinore has been my home dz for 13 years. It has an easy going fun atmosphere. Its not super busy during the week unless there is a group in town, so might be little slow paced on a wednesday. Their Twin Otter is having much needed maintenance done so they are running two caravans right now. The landing area has plenty of space. There are some objects to the east of the landing area but they are easy to see and avoid. There are packers on site and a gear store. Have fun, and maybe come back and see us again on a weekend when it is little busier and there are LO's and plenty of friends to jump with. Tickle BSBD

Most of what the other posters have said are accurate. Just want to point out another scenario. As you increase your jump numbers while still working at the job you dont enjoy,or the dz, bite the bullet and focus on getting on a team(and getting awesome) in a discipline you enjoy. If you start winning competitions then you can think about sponsorship and so on. Christi Frikken did a story in an issue of parachutist about becoming a professional skydiver and being able to pay the bills at doing what she loves. She is based out of Perris Valley Skydiving and covered how she accomplished it. Most of the TI's at my home DZ have multiple ratings, and still have other jobs. There are 2 or 3 instructors that only work in the skydiving industry, in order to cut over head they live on the DZ which is not as glamorous as it sounds. Like another poster said about the ex-pat, no med benefits(unless you pay for your own), no vacation pay, no retirement(unless you invest wisely), you have to 1099 your taxes, which means for us us citizen, our taxes are taken out of our pay check, but at the end of the tax year we get a return, not so when you 1099. You pay what you owe based on what you made over the year. And think about weather days, you dont get to work.

Thanks for the update John. You rambled on perfectly.

You keep saying this is a case of plagiarism. It's not in my definition. In today's technological time's the internet and social media sites like Face book are hyped up as way's to get more information to more of the population faster and way's to communicate. That's what he did. He shared information on an device made for that and said right away where he got it from.He did not lead me to believe in any way that this was his work. Nor is he a reporter trying to earn a paycheck, or one of your students turning in a paper and trying to get credit for it as his own. And yes I looked up the definition of plagiarism on the computer, using google, and it took me to dictionary.com. Don't want to be accused of plagiarism.

They are very missed but far from forgotten.

Huge bummer does not begin to express my feelings . Lots o memories. Will be very missed. Still have a hard time believing it. Condolences to his family and girlfriend.

No not worth that much. Might end up being more than just a rear ending. Could spin you out then if you go into the median could possibly roll over or get T boned.