kimemerson

Come to the Ranch. We have "Bounce Bingo". Or we did. Even had a winner. Someone died. Someone collected. And I think that someone is dead too. O-bla-di, o-bla-da, life goes on...

Yep. I've grounded people only to have them march right up to the DZO and claim they were valuable to the DZ because they were on a team and were doing a lot of jumps etc. and I was overruled on the spot. I think the person in question may have missed one load as a result. Grounded for as long as it took to find the DZO and bitch. Case settled. Thank you for your tireless and useless efforts, Kim. This approach was a vital consideration of mine when I opted out of being S&TA another term. If you lack support from the DZO, then S&TA's hands are very tied. He/she is in fact, very useless and meaningless on such a DZ.

Yes, the S&TA CAN say no but still has no final authority unless supported by DZ management. There are no BSR's requiring the S&TA input for a demo, but in the SIM, under Exhibition jumps, it says, "1) The S&TA or I/E may recommend the use of specific jumpers or advise the organizer to use only individuals meeting certain experience requirements." Note the words "may" and "recommend". Nothing about "should", "must", "has the authority" or "required". It is still down to how well the S&TA is supported. An S&TA is not required before doing a demo, and if an demo organizer wants his 80 year old grandmother to jump a heavily loaded Velocity when she hasn't even done a tandem, it's his choice and go fuck the S&TA if that's the nature of the relationship. Again, S&TA has no real authority anywhere unless backed up.

The 'A' in S&TA is for "Adviser". They have no, zero actual authority to enforce anything. They cannot even ground anyone. They require DZO cooperation for anything. An S&TA can recommend and they can get the ball rolling by making reports to Regional Directors. But they cannot enforce a single thing without the explicit cooperation of management and/or owners. I was an S&TA for six years and I ran into a bit of difficulty at times trying to make things happen. If someone wants to overload a canopy then all an S&TA can do is guide, suggest, advise. But there is no power to govern or rule And as with all things, once someone has spoken, you need someone to listen in order for it to be effective. So when an S&TA suggests someone is out of their league, a "fuck off" reply might just have to be accepted. It isn't pretty or wise, but it may just be the fact.

Ok, unqualified as I am, I am going to try to name a scant few of these folks in Jerome's photo. I am not even certain some of the people I am naming were there, but I think so. Left to right, in back, standing: #3 is Jerome Bunker, #5, Roger Ponce; #7 is Dan O'Brien; #11 is Tom Sanders; #17 is Tommy Piras Kneeling in the middle row is a whole bunch of Knights but all I can name (even though I recognize all of them) are #2 from left is Charlie Brown, #6 is Chris Wagner. That's it on the Knights for me, but then # 8 is Guy Manos and #9 sure looks like Mike Truffer. Can anyone confirm or add to this? Did Mike Raible get on this at any time? The whole front row is a mystery to me.

well I'm not likely to see her till May or so, and I have no idea what her email is. So I asked Pete Clark and he says yes. But Jerome Bunker said no. What's important is that I was not. Was there only one "official" jump? Could someone have been on another "unofficial" jump and not on the "official", thereby not appearing on any roster? We need some of our historians here to clear that one up.

It occurs to me that though you have heard about handles coming out in freefall, you must also have heard that they don't. People with thousands upon thousands of jumps have never reported anything like it. Which means that when it does happen it is rare and likely the result of something out of the ordinary for "standard and accepted" procedures, such as being bumped in the plane. It is far more likely that a metal handle- not a pillow - due to their weight, will be the one to come out. So, in the plane and especially after we have begun jostling about getting ready to get out, I will check no fewer than 420 times. I'm a paranoid freak about and I don't trust anyone on that plane - myself included - to not manhandle my rig just enough to kill me. So I check both handles, both flaps (main & reserve) and the pilot chute & riser covers. I do not ask for a pin check but I will confirm that the flap has not been forced open AFTER I do my own pin check before putting the rig on. Asking for a pin check is asking someone to undo the flap and look for something they probably don't know what they are looking for or at. (f the pin is in I will likely know that. It is a bridle routing check that interests me more.) Did I get off topic again? Fuck! Gotta watch that stuff.

Well that wraps that up. 'nuff said.

I seriously doubt Linda Wazolonski from the Ranch was in on it. I've known and worked with Linda for about 16 years and she never mentioned it, nor has anyone else. Never saw her in a green Vector. I knew/know a few people from that jump and Linda was never mentioned. Then again, maybe she's real humble. I could be wrong and next time I see her I'll ask.

A.)As long as they've been taught properly. B.) We jump the reserve, not the main. C.) A canopy can deploy even if it has been crammed into a Hefty bag and you hold it as you get out. You might not like the opening but it has a pretty good chance of opening. This is not conjecture. It's been done.

thanks.

ok, I see two bearded guys. Which one are we talking about here?

http://uspa.org/publications/SIM/2008SIM/section5.htm#52b (someone make this sticky, please) There's what you could do and what you must do. USPA does not require anything (see the BSR's) regarding getting back. It recommends, though. So as long as you have your license, you don't actually have to do anything beyond being current with USPA membership, in date reserve and getting on manifest. Any advice beyond that is of the practical, wise nature. (Unless it's neither.) So a FJC, or a coach jump are wide suggestions, but you don't HAVE to do either to be legal, just to be safe. Good luck and welcome back.

I never mentioned signatures, contracts or waivers. I said the age requirement is a USPA thing, not a fed thing. And while it may be true that some non USPA DZs will require a parent's signature, I highly doubt you or I can say that about all of them. Hell, for all I know this lad lives right down the road from one. Maybe not. Who knows? I don't. Do you? Frankly, I have no clue about every non USPA DZ in America. Do you? Also, he has not let on what his relationship with his parents (he only mentioned mom) is like. I always told my parents what I was doing. Never asked for a thing. We have never been close so it was never a question for me. So not listening to one's parents could also be the wisest thing someone does. But we just don't know about this guy, do we? Parents don't always make the best choices for their kids. We can only hope.

At the risk of sounding like I'm telling you to go slit your throat, go to a non USPA drop zone. The age requirement is a USPA thing, not a Fed thing at all. Get a job to pay for it and don't even tell your mother. There. That ought to get me some shit. But I believe it answers your question while providing not a lick of wisdom. Where else but here?

I wasn't there at the time as it predated me, and I have read the book though that's not how I know. Or think I know. But "Cowboy" almost crashed the Caravan at the Ranch in NY a few years before he died. I think he hit some trees after take off. And aside from reading the book, being a Ranch hand is how I learned. Is that it? Is that what you're referring to?

Would that be too early for Tommy Piras? Or is that Tommy in #2?

DeLand?

You beat me to it. I have that one framed. And I just knew there were intelligent folks in this sport.

Or as Mark Twain reminds us, "There are lies, damned lies and statistics."

Thanks folks. Now I just have to wait for something worth while to try it on. Or do I? Hmmmm......

I can't make a clicky either and the help isn't so good. Why don't you explain it outright. Just what the fuck do you do?

When I was an AFF Instructor I was asked often for statistics on skydiving safety. I figured it might be helpful to use a comparison with familiar situations so that just saying that X amount of skydivers per X amount of skydives die or are injured. So I went to the library and did some research on injuries and deaths in the US. I learned that, basically, we are all in the greatest danger at home, at work and when we drive. Also, males are at an 89% likelihood of getting killed by a gunshot than women are, presumably because we are more likely to be near guns for reasons that range from hunting to drug dealing. The number of deaths or injuries in skydiving is ridiculously lower than in almost all other daily activities your parents no doubt already accept and never give thought to. But there is no sensationalism involved in an every day auto accident in which people die. It is tragic, but not a real awakening moment for anyone reading about it. Example: If you and your mother are driving along and you get into an accident and you are injured enough to need an ambulance, will your mother ride along with you in the ambulance or will she never set foot in an automobile again and insist that no one in her family ever go near a car? It isn't that skydivers are not succeptible to danger. We are, but for the most part (not 100%) the greatest danger is our own cockiness and willingness to assume that we know more than we do. The greater danger is the human factor, not the technology, equipment or training. As a student you will be - in many ways - in the safest possible environment because you'll have a lot of hand holding and guidance. If, as you progress, you slow down on the learning curve and make the fatal assumption that you have progressed beyond any need to keep listening and learning, then your parents will have a point. It will be your responsibility to them and to yourself to not give them fuel for argument. As you will be 18, you will, as has already been pointed out, be in a position to do as you damn well please. But they are still your family and you alone have to decide if their concerns matter. Rather than dismiss their feelings out of hand, share your thoughts and research and passion with them. Bring them to the DZ.Show them the USPA web site & Parachutist. Get some videos and some pocorn and show them just how beautiful the sport is and that it is, indeed, a sport and not just a lunatic attempt at suicide. Take them to this web site and show them the discussions and the help available. We are not a renegade bunch of crazed mavericks anymore, regardless of what anyone says or shooses to believe. USPA is the only aviation sport granted a self policing, self monitoring position by the FAA because our record for both safety and training are superior to the other such sports, and USPA routinely deals with safety issues before the FAA steps in, and then goes the FAA one better by enacting or issuing more detailed and precice measures than the FAA would have. Meantime, go skydive and have a great time at it. Stay safe, listen to wiser, older voices.

At 70 jumps it would.

I have a theory. I cannot prove it. No one shares this theory and it is all mine. I call it the "Percentage Hog Theory". It goes like this. Please follow along as I will not repeat although there is not a test. USPA has numbers. There are numbers of malfunctions per skydive ratio. There are numbers of deaths per number of skydives made. There are numbers of injuries per USPA member per skydives made. Then there are about 300 some odd Group Member drop zones and these DZs all share in contributing to the stats which supply those numbers. So, in a sense, there is distribution mechanism in place which allots a percentage of malfuntions, injuries and fatalities per drop zone. These are averages over the whole of the drop zone spectrum. Each drop zone has so many skydives per season/year, so many skydivers making these skydives and therefore another average of skydives per skydiver per drop zone. USPA can tell us on average how many malfunctions per how many skydives per skydiver is likely. How many fatalities per skydives made. But averages are just that. Average. Which means that numbers are not necessarily distributed evenly, just averaged out. Assuming, for illustration purposes only, that each skydiver can expect to have a malfunction on average between 700 and 1,000 jumps. Busier drop zones have more fatalities per season than smaller ones but their percentages might well be similar. Well, every now and then we meet someone who has had, say, four malfunctions in under 100 jumps. That person is a Percentage Hog. If a DZ is allotted 50 malfuntions (100... 150...whatever) in order to satisfy the percentages, and that average is stretched out over all the skydivers at that DZ, and along comes the Percentage Hog. that Hog is taking up all the percentages allotted the DZ. In a sense, that person is doing the rest of us a favor and it is up to the rest of us to identify that person and, while in a spirit of human kindness we should wish the person well, it would also serve us well NOT to educate that person. There is always the remote possibility that what doesn't kill them will make them stronger but let us not dwell on that as it only hurts the rest of us. No. Rather, I propose we simply keep quiet when we I.D. the Hog. Because, frankly, with a robust Hog on the DZ, I can pull low with relative impunity. I can wing load in stratospheric numbers. I can hook, dive and swoop at tree top level and walk away with a smile. A dearth of appropriate Percentage Hogs is a danger to the rest of us. And what with Darwin losing ground as the sport of the sport is ebbing at an outrageous pace, there is a shortage of Percentage Hogs in the wings and the rest of us need to become vigilant, recognizing a good Hog as soon as possible, manifest the poor sucker and watch. Get video. So load up, pal. I haven't had a good scare in a while. I thank you. My friends thank you. Please come to the Ranch in New York. Things are mellowing out here and it's getting sickening to watch.