winsor

I sometimes think that rather a few hot-button issues are but red herrings to keep the focus off the potentially insoluble problems we would just as soon ingore. Beyond the fact that I am entirely uninterested in having anything personally to do with homosexual marriage (or any other kind of homosexual relationship), I am wildly indifferent. If you are gay and want to be married as well, fine, knock yourself out. So long as everything is between consenting adults, you are on your own. I figure that it is of primary importance that people who see things differently than do I (read: 99+% of the population) should see fit to leave me to my own devices so long as I do not involve them. I thus try to grant the same leeway to pretty much everyone else. On the one hand, I oppose persecution of gays. OTOH, I like the idea of people doing whatever is necessary to spare me the details (I really don't want to know the specifics of what does or does not happen behind closed doors). At any rate, there have been people of all kinds of sexual persuasions through the centuries. I'll take peaceful (and discreet) gays over forceful/violent heteros any day. Blue skies, Winsor

My RWPC has 325# suspension lines 18' or so in length. Its dimensions are the same as my MK-1s. I think my Sierra is also 24', and it has cascaded lines, something lighter than 550#. I haven't measured my UT-15 (commie original to the Russian PC from Pioneer), but expect it to be as peculiar as are many things Russian. I am not familiar with an "R Mod," but that does not mean much in and of itself. I'll look it up in my PC manual, and ask some of the folks that have more PC experience than do I. Blue skies, Winsor

Why? Because it is by no means for everyone. I have known people who made one jump, and either had a horrible time or were injured when doing so. In two cases they were there because fellow frat-boys pressured them into making the jump, but the result was the same. In the Army, you MUST be a volunteer to jump. You have to want to do it rather badly in order to get the chance, and you can turn down ANY jump (you likely won't get a chance to make another jump if you do - or to have the right to wear jump wings again - but that's your choice). One man's meat is another man's poison. Just because I find skydiving to be very rewarding, that does not mean that everyone will have the same reaction as do I. If someone is willing to jump for all the wrong reasons, talking them out of it is probably doing them a favor. I've been detailed to give people "the talk" enough times that I think prevention is the preferred approach. Some people are craters looking grid coordinates from the word go, and the sky is not always the optimal place to discover that. Even if the gene pool could use a little chlorine, I would rather not make excessive use of the Darwinian nature of the sport. Blue skies, Winsor

17 My Uncle (Sam) paid for it. I was a Trained Professional (tm) after 5 jumps.

Strangely enough, I have a G3R (reserve version of a Wizard) packed in one of my rigs, and a Laser 9 Reserve I haven't been able to fit in anything yet. I'll probably stick it in whatever rig I find to accommodate the ParaFoil 252 I have on hand. Three Raven IIs, and Swift Pluses in 200 and 175 square foot variants, round things out. Regardless of how heavily loaded is the main, I want as much nylon overhead as I can get when I pull silver. Like the joke about the funky British RJ - "How come it has four engines?" "The designers couldn't fit six under the wings." My response to the question "How come you have a 218 reserve with your 99 main?" Is "I didn't have anything bigger handy when I assembled the rig." Blue skies, Winsor

I tend to stick with the basic one-tone dirt alert. In addition to standard Dytters, I have a Skytronic and a Cool and Groovy whatever-it-is on hand, but don't put much stock in the excess complexity. When it comes to safety equipment, simple=good. I set my first tone about 200 feet below breakoff. Thus, if it goes off and I'm still turning points, I'm not paying attention to my altitude. About the only time I set the tone for breakoff is when I'm shooting camera. I'm too far away from the other jumpers to watch their altimeters, and try not to ruin the shot by looking at either my altimeter or the ground (except out of the corner of my eye). If I have a snivel that puts me into the basement, I am acutely aware of it without having a voice in me ear saying "you have ten seconds to live, you have eight seconds to live...." If I don't get slowed down in a very reasonable time frame, I'm yanking handles. Blue skies, Winsor

I have never had a reserve malfunction, but I have packed one. FWIW, the reserve opened exactly as it should have done, but it was operating in excess of its placarded limits for both loading and speed, and thus sustained significant damage. A Strong LoPo Lite 26' conical was deployed at higher than a "low speed" rate of descent with a loading of something around 250#. There were broken lines, and two seams blown out that worked like extra modifications (LeMoigne? Derry slots?), and resulted in a faster than normal arrival. I count it as a "save," and the people at Strong - who were well-versed on the scenario and personnel involved - stated that the canopy had performed above and beyond its specifications. This is but one of the cases that has led me to wish for a "nylon overcast" when I yank silver, regardless of how tiny the main I jump might be. Blue skies, Winsor

QuoteHere in Poland most skydivers say "Ready, Set, Go!", but I heard some say "In, Out!". What other countdowns are there, mainly country-specific? Is it always in English language?Quote In France I saw RW teams practice, and their exit count was "okay." I couldn't figure out how they got the rhythm down, given how some of us stress the count to get the exit right, but a number of teams would simply get in the door, one of them would say "okay," and they would nail the exit. As far as it being English, I don't know. Samuel F. B. Morse came up with OK (--- -.-) as shorthand for "received" after hearing stevedores in New Orleans, who said "aux quais" when checking that something was on the dock, or received. Thus, in a sense "okay" is actually a French expression, so it is apropos that French teams should use it in their count. Quite what "on the dock" has to do with leaving the airplane in a coordinated manner escapes me, but those folks were so good that I take it for granted that they know much that I do not. Blue skies, Winsor

This is a subject near and dear to my heart. I have known too many people who came to grief, but would have had an uneventful jump if they had checked their gear one last time before exit. For some years now, I have made an announcement at about 2 minutes before exit (typically at 10,000 feet) in which I ask people to check their straps and handles once more. I should probably throw in pin checks, but people generally do so anyway. Occasionally the Cool People will roll their eyes - particularly if I'm at an unfamiliar dropzone - but they generally humor me (and occasionally find the odd misrouted strap or inaccessible handle on their color-coordinated rigs). If Scotty Carbone or Orly King is on the load, I tend to let them make the announcement. Their approach is somewhat different, but the intent is the same. As far as asking for pin checks goes, I can tell where the closing loop is on the pin by feel, and check it myself routinely. I may ask someone to tuck in my bridle if it feels like it has become unstowed, but i check the pin again thereafter. If I ask for a pin/gear check, I am confident that someone who takes the time to do so will be careful and attentive. Someone just off student status is likely to be overly cautious if anything, and someone with 10,000 jumps will give it a competent inspection. I have jumped all over the world, and I have never been to a DZ where asking for a pin/gear check was a problem, or one where it was treated as superfluous. The only time I have ever been hurt in this sport was when I had a question about a procedure that I did not ask the owner of the equipment I borrowed, since he was busy talking to the pilot at the time. In retrospect, I realize that if I had interrupted him it would not have been considered rude, and I might have avoided a few weeks in a cast. If you have a safety-related issue, bring it up. It greatly improves your future in the sport. Blue skies, Winsor

The procedure was to connect the snap hook of the static line of the person ahead of you in the stick to the left D-ring outboard of the reserve. Holding on to the static line with your hand is a bad plan. Even if things go right, deployment forces may be greater than you can handle, and you have a few of your pals in freefall well below pattern altitude. Not good. If you somehow secure the static line so you can't let go, the static line is strong enough to rip your arm off at the shoulder socket. This scenario also leaves something to be desired. The way to pull it off without getting court-martialed was to come up with some spare static lines from the rigger shed, so you have something to hand the jumpmaster before exit. Since the approach in our unit was for the last man in the stick to hook his reserve below the main of the next guy and RUN for the door (exit delay? what's that?), bodies thus came out of the aircraft like toothpaste from a tube on which someone had stepped - emptying a C-130 in like 5 seconds - and the jumpmaster didn't get a clear look at the offending arrangement. The most that anyone did while I was around was four IIRC. With six, from 1,250 feet with T-10s, the last guy gets maybe an oscillation or two before arriving - if EVERYTHING goes right. If exit altitude is at all low, or if someone has the slightest hesitation, you begin to lose people, so five was considered an operational limit. FWIW, the average IQ in my unit hovered around room-temperature (in Fahrenheit), and daisy-chain jumps were a reflection of limited intellectual acuity mixed with an excess of testosterone (and God knows what else). The rate of "death by misadventure" amongst my comrades was simply horrendous. Go ahead and try it if you're game, but be advised that, if you make a habit of it, it is not so much a question of IF as WHEN and HOW BAD. All the way, Winsor

You'll be in far more danger driving to the drop zone than you will while making a tandem jump. Have fun! Unless your drive to the dropzone is through a hot combat zone in an unarmored vehicle with a bullseye painted on it or something like that, there is no way the drive is more dangerous. This has been rehashed ad nauseum, and the "driving to the DZ is more dangerous" argument is patent hogwash. Blue skies, black death, Winsor

I'm trying to remember the girl's name in one of the original "right to die" cases, she'd OD'ed on pills and booze. When her family finally won a court order to take her off a respirator, she surprised everyone by going on living for a few more years, until she finally died in 1985. But nobody was allowed to starve her, or press a pillow over her face, or anything else to actively kill her. Karen Ann Quinlan

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Wow! Serious stuff! Thank God I'm an atheist.

I guess you mean people who are exaggerating on the high end. I assume you a youngster. The idea of people over 30 being anything but celibate may strike you as fundamentally icky, but I have it on good authority that one need not give it up after turning 25. Let's say someone got active about this time in 1967 or so, and kept it up as much as possible since then. If moving around a lot for job-related reasons precluded long-term relationships, it would not be unreasonable to have a new interest every six months on average. That's an awful lot more than 40. Add to this the fact that some of the geezers around here lived through the sexual revolution. In the'70s, I understand there were places (like New York, Boston, Miami, Boulder, Munich, London, etc.) where spending a night alone took a conscious effort if one was at all attractive/fit/virile/whatever. This is, of course, what I have read on the subject - and I believe it. Blue skies, Winsor

Penniless is right - in a gas, Mach is a strict function of temperature (it varies by the square root of Tabs). IIRC, the relation for incompressible media is M=sqr(k/rho) where M = speed of sound, k = compressiblilty and rho = density. In water the speed of sound is something like 30 times that in air. Blue skies, Winsor

Pedro was a good man. I learned a lot from him, and was looking forward to seeing him again. This sucks. BSBD, Winsor

I did not mean to imply that the business practices at ASC were going to qualify anyone for a halo. I should think that the Better Business Bureau would be quite familiar with ASC, to the extent that it would pay to have a form printed up in advance to save time when filing complaints. The differences are that ASC has something to offer and Skyride does not at all (like the difference between the Amway business model and a pure Ponzi scheme - which may be largely academic). Also, the objectionable practices of ASC are mostly merely unscrupulous, rather than solidly on the wrong side of the line of demarcation for legal activities as is Skyride. If ASC was to lay off the most predatory of their policies and largely play it clean, they would be a worthwhile operation. Skyride qualifies for RICO status. Blue skies, Winsor

I prefer an original Dytter. Set it to the altitude of entry for a perfect swoop and all you have to do is dial in a 180 when it goes off; you are guaranteed to have people wondering how you achieved such mastery so easily. Put the fun back in "Funeral!"

Skydiving is a very small market and community. The effect that Skyride has is poisonous, and affects everyone in the sport to an extent that would appear disproportionate to someone who is not paying attention. Don't be so humble. You have convinced many people that Skyride is a bad thing who were previously on the fence. I have known Ben and Cary for a long time, and like them both. I have been impressed by how hard they have worked to make ASC a first-class operation. I have seen others bust their hump and not quite make it, so I understand how unforgiving is the market in which they have excelled. Having said that, it concerns me that they have crossed the line between aggressive marketing and legally proscribed behavior. The list of business practices in which Skyride is engaged that would concern a Bunco Squad is extensive. People have received long prison sentences for lesser infractions, and I think it is a waste to see them place themselves at risk of such consequences. If they could see fit to conduct their skydiving-related businesses in accordance with the law, and prevail on the basis of a superior product and more effective (but honest and legal) marketing, I say bully for them. It can, and has, been done, and I think they can do so as well. If they are imprisoned for their activities it will be a waste - but if that is what it takes to halt the transgressions of Skyride, so be it. Blue skies, Winsor

You forgot one more force - Archimedean force -lifting force which allow us to make baloon jump :) That and Force of Habit. "How come you jump out of airplanes?" "It's what I do."

In my line of work, roles, responsibilities and scope of work are clearly defined. This does not seem to be the case w.r.t. USPA. As I understand it, USPA is a club, at the service of the membership. I'm kind of fuzzy as to quite how the Group Membership program fits into the picture, since DZs have evolved from clubs into commercial enterprises since the GM program started, and it seems to have become a trade organization with some clout, to some extent funded by the general membership. USPA's actions in a variety of cases have struck me as being erratic and/or capricious. One person was banned for life for doing something, and someone else did not even get a slap on the wrist for doing something an order of magnitude worse. Sometimes the leadership will get sanctimonious and self-righteous, and other times they will wink and shine it on. I can speculate as to why, but it would not do any good. I am quite familiar with Skyride, and I am not impressed. I think it is an issue for Law Enforcement to sort out. ASC, however, is another issue altogether. Although ASC and Skyride share common ownership, they are separate entities. Even if the business practices of Skyride result in prison sentences for the parties deemed responsible, I know of no reason that this turn of events should affect ASC or its relationship with USPA. I am not saying that I approve of the practices of Skyride, I am saying that you have to follow the rules if you wish to fault someone else for breaking them. If ASC conducts their operations in accordance with BSRs, they have met their obligation to USPA. The GBI, FTC and other LEOs don't concern themselves with BSRs, and USPA should leave issues of law to the organizations tasked to their enforcement. Blue skies, Winsor

To answer your question, I don't think it is safer per se. A couple of things come to mind that don't directly address the question. For one thing, my tiny canopies are LOUD colors, that can be spotted in peripheral vision under lousy light conditions. Visibility can be a lifesaver. For another thing, I HIGHLY recommend getting agreement on a landing direction before loading the aircraft. Asking "which way are we landing?" in a loud voice allows everyone to come to some kind of consensus, so someone intentionally doing a downwind to get an awesome surf (or whatever) won't hose the whole load. Thus, my response to which way is the correct way to land is that you should all land as agreed before the jump. FWIW, when there is an incident, who is right is largely academic. The hot tip is to work out a means of avoiding traffic conflicts before they happen. Unlike Hollywood, in this sport there is such a thing as bad publicity. If you are going to show up in one of the publications, it should be for a milestone, rather than tombstone, event. I'm glad it worked out that it was nothing more than a wake-up call. Blue skies, Winsor

Agreed. If you click your heels, it gives you a better idea of where your feet REALLY are. Your legs may be much farther apart in fact than you think they are, and they are likely less extended than they feel like they are. It should take some effort to actually extend your legs in freefall, since the force of air against them is significant. If you aren't actively extending them, they are likely on your butt. Once you get used to freefall, being on jumps where camera is used can give you a good idea of how you are actually flying. You can get an idea of why you don't have the drive you expect, or what you are doing when you close on a formation or whatever, and having a mental picture of what is going on can help you to correct it on subsequent skydives. A standard caveat is to take ANYTHING you hear online and run it past your instructor, S&TA or someone else with lots of experience that you know personally. If you focus on safety first, you will have plenty of time to polish and fine tune your skills. I expect instructors and coaches to keep safety first and foremost on a personal basis, so take anything I say with a grain of salt. Blue skies, Winsor

I suggest you figure out something if you expect a relationship with any woman to work, ever. Her fidelity, or lack thereof, is HER karma. Your fidelity, or lack thereof, is YOUR karma. If her conscience is clear, and her motives are honest, you have no basis for complaint. If she is being unfaithful, you two have other problems. Your choice is to either let it go - or let her go. For you to subject her to your standards, assuming she does not subscribe to them, is out of line. If you want to foster resentment in her, you have likely come across a pretty good approach. If you want your marriage to last, I recommend that you never again read her mail to anyone else unless she asks you to. If you want to end the marriage, you are better off doing so without poisoning the relationship further. Speaking from painful personal experience, I recommend that you be VERY careful about threatening divorce - unless, of course, you are quite ready to go through one. If you love her and want to save the marriage, I recommend that you tell her that you know it is none of your goddamned business how she interacts with her friends, apologize to her for being such a boor, assure her that you will leave her E-mail entirely alone in the future (and MEAN it!), and behave in a manner that leaves no doubt in her mind that you love her dearly. One of the most precious things someone can give in an intimate relationship is slack. If you want it, you had damned well be ready and willing to give it. Semper fidelis (in this most important of relationships), Winsor