Bokdrol

Sure, there are many older current jumpers to be found - I'm older than the bloke on the cover, as are you and the jumpers you have mentioned. They didn't look us up though! Their loss. However, to the general public who read N.G., doing an extreme sport like skydiving at the age of 69+ will seem unreal.

The magazine article is about keeping younger and firing on all cylinders at old/er age rather than just subsiding into terminal bed shitters. It's a 69 year old Dutch skydiver by the name of Arnold Camfferman - according to Nat Geo mag website he does about 500-700 jumps p.a. They go into a spiel about getting the photo, as if it was something unique (putting a camera on to the helmet of another skydiver....wow) so we can maybe take some of it with a pinch of salt. However, I wonder how many of us would turn down the opportunity to appear on the front cover of a worldwide publication? I'd be happy with being on page 3 of The Sun....lol

To touch on the original topic/question i.r.o. death penalty, there's an interesting, if sad, story on the BBC webpage about a young lady, Edith Thompson, who was hanged at HMP Holloway exactly 100 years ago yesterday. She was found guilty, along with her lover, of the murder of her husband. Draw your own conclusions if you are inclined to read it. If not, suffice to say that it illustrates perfectly why capital punishment should never again be on the UK's statute books.

I'd be interested to read other comments but a fear of heights, for me at least (as a child who couldn't even climb a tree out of that fear) didn't necessarily translate into a fear of jumping out of a plane. Nervous/anxious during AFF, yes, of course, but no fear. And if you are a bit scared on AFF, console yourself with the knowledge that you are leaving that plane with extremely competent instructors who have seen it and handled it all before, that you will be flying a large and very forgiving canopy that will look after you too and that, before you know it, you'll be safely back on terra firma. Blue skies.

69 y.o. skydiver pictured

Tom Cruise was at Skydive Jeffrys Bay in South Africa very recently filming a promo for Mission Impossible 8. Some of his film stuntwork has been done in the UK at RAF Weston and nearby DZ's. He allegedly has to be persuaded not to perform the more dangerous e.g. pyrotechnic type, stunts himself. Whether or not this extends to mc base jumps, I couldn't say. He is reportedly a more than competent skydiver.

I haven't jumped in the USA for about 5 years so the rules may have changed somewhat (e.g. If you are jumping your own gear I believe that you now need USPA rigger sign-off on your reserve repack which wasn't required previously) and may vary per State/DZ, but when I have jumped at Elsinore I had to show USPA membership, which I got online prior to leaving the UK, current log-book, BPA licence, and then go through the video rigmarole where you confirm that you are jumping of your own free will blah blah, California apparently being the litigation capital of the world. The vid. is done by the DZ staff at reception. It's all (or was) quite straightforward. E&OE.

Try Skydive Spain in Seville - they have good weather all year round, can probably sort out accommodation and transport etc at a reasonable price. You won't get 'cheap' jumps but the overall price should level out. Alternatively, you could contact Skydive Atmosphera (sp) also based in Seville, who can probably offer some type of all-in deal. Or contact Scotty Milne at Active Skydiving. He runs monthly AFF trips down to Seville, except during high summer, and is always happy to have licenced jumpers along with his group. That way you get to share transport/accomocdation etc which all helps with the overall price and thereby brings your price per jump down. Seville have good aircraft, altitude 15k every jump, good gear if you want to hire and so on. I get what you mean by 'cheap' jumps - maybe you could have worded it better!! 'Cheap' and 'skydiving' don't always fit well in the same sentence. Blue Skies.

We sit on other sides of the political fence and seldom if ever agree but in this instance, I do agree - other than the rule thing which I guess may be tongue in cheek. As I think I said earlier in this thread, the country now needs a change of ruling party. Enough is enough. Hopefully Labour will have learned from the dismal Tory performances of late and will make a decent fist of it. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes for the press and sm experts to revert to type.

Me Tory, you Labour - we'll never agree. Leave it at that. We'll see how new labour's champagne socialists fare after they get in. They can't do any worse, or can they...

Well, it's easy to say 'because of policy' blah blah and to not credit the leader, but the buck stops with the PM as Truss will find out sooner rather than later. The stuffed shirts on the benches got rid of him (and I've no doubt many are now regretting it) due to personal dislike of him, along with press and social media pressure to which they cravenly bowed. Despite being a Europhile with strong personal European connections, he took us through Brexit, something that Cameron was too chickenshit to do, DC having himself opened up Pandora's box. Bojo also led us through the greatest pandemic since 1919 - but of course those with 20/20 hindsight will say, not very well. People look at his dishevelled buffoon-like persona and fail to see a razor-sharp brain and super intellect. Imho, one of our great leaders - someone who could converse with world leaders, not only on the same level, but often in their own languages. People remember Churchill, Thatcher (even Julius Caesar who got it in the back but remains the one Roman Emperor we all recall) and in time they'll remember Boris Johnson as a once great leader too. To me one of the best endorsements of Bojo as a leader was Putin's joy at his fall, but Zelensky's dismay. Says it all...

(1) Time will tell/is already telling. It's highly unlikely this current sh*tstorm would have occurred under Boris. And now many would have him back (2) Well, he saw off Khrushchev and his Cuban missiles for a start.

Churchill, Thatcher and now Bojo, the latter if you concentrate on the leadership aspect. Naturally, supporters of Comrade Corbyn will disagree. Don't forget, the man who is often revered as the greatest of all POTUS', JFK, was a human being who had his peccadillos and would have struggled with today's sm and forensic press generation where even someone with one brain cell and a cellphone or a keyboard is an expert with a 'valid' pov.

We have a history of shooting ourselves in the foot, and head, in the UK. We get rid of world class leaders and replace them with dross, and then live to regret it. A lot of what we believe to be 'accurate' is simply drivel, sorry I mean driven, by the press and by social media experts. For sure, we're going to do it again - it's nothing new. As I type, our C of the E is coming back to the UK to actually blow his own head off. And for the record, (and for Stumpy who loves to fire a few at me lol) I'm one of those 'dumb Brits' who voted for Brexit but am still dumb and thick skinned enough to vote for it again and again - a bit like Momma's Squeeze Box.

Just like that CI or instructor who is always ticking off/grounding jumpers for in air/under canopy infringements, however minor, and who we in fact need on the DZ to keep us on our toes, we might also need the Nanny State to keep us safe/r. Personal opinion only, of course.

Got my Cypres 2 set at 1050 (shows 3 on the display next to the 0). Extra 300' might just help one day....

I take it you are well aware of the meaning, here in the UK at least, of the word 'bonking'? If you are, great double entendre! It would certainly keep Liz off the PM's 'hot seat' for a while.

Just waiting for the Maggie Thatcher blow-up doll to hit the shelves in Soho and then my life will be complete.

I stand corrected then although I guess the deputy would be boss man/woman until the ballots were in. The Tory deputy stood in for Bojo when he had covid, as I recall. For the record, I wouldn't wish ill on any politician, not even Comrade Corbyn or the Krankie woman.

As a committed Tory voter I have to say, though through gritted teeth, that we DO need a change of Government. Much as I dislike Starmer and his deputy, I doubt that they could sell us down the river much further than we already are. The only problem could be -Starmer checks out unexpectedly while serving PM and we are left with the deputy in charge.....check out an interview she did with Andrew Neil - she makes Truss look like a seasoned interviewee pro.

Not to me, but then I only live and vote here....and I wouldn't describe Truss as a right wing, neo-fascist, anti-immigration, isolationist, Putin supporter in any shape of form. I'd say, more than Truss looking up to her, it's vice versa and there's not much Truss can do about that, is there? She is blond, though, I'll give you that.

Do expand on this....

LOL. Texans need to check out Zimbabwe where voter intimidation is rife but nobody in the rest of the world seems to give a flying F. They don't do too much well in good old Zim these days but they certainly know how to get the voting right. Yes, I know, admin.....this should be in Joke of the Day forum.

Given that the BPA /BS don't even allow 100% fit adults over the age of 55 to do AFF in the UK, I would have thought that your chances of completing an AFF1 jump in the UK are pretty slim. You can but ask. I know that disabled ex servicemen (BLESMA) do have some dispensation but whether or not that extends to sight issues, I can't say. As the previous poster said, you might have better luck in Spain (or one of the other EU countries) where the rules may not be less rigorous but are, on occasion, possibly less rigorously enforced. Good luck with your quest.

Let's see what comes out in the wash, if it ever does - until then, thanks for your rational, intelligent observations and comments (and I'm not being sarcastic, either). Over - and Out.