rgoper

without mentioning any monikers, please know that the that some give, does NOT represent the entire sky diving community. you know the old adage "There's One In Every Bar" the upper eschelon will always be there, sad, but true. sky diving is an extremely exilirating sport, there is no doubt about that, but some of the "hairstyles and attitudes" suck, you know who you are. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

See Story Here they need to scrap this antiquated aircraft. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

i doubt it.

after careful perusal of your prior post one can only surmize that it's your reading comprehensive skills in question, not mine. (of course, i realize it may be the climate, but my real bet is it's the alchohol) i'll not quibble with you any further, you come and take something intended for safety and training and turn it into a pissing contests for your own vendetta, whatever it may be, you have my congradulations.

hey, mr braintrust: which part of this paragraph don't you understand? don't come at me with your BS. i know i'm not immune to anything, i never made any such statement, your just trying to start some shit, it's friday evening and you probably half drunk right now, so piss off. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

racoons are very mean, by nature. have you ever seen a cat REALLY pissed off? racoons are 5 times worse, they are larger, have longer teeth, and are very ill tempered when they are intimidated. i'd eradicate him ASAP. the crazy thing is more than likely trying to make a nest for itself to have it's babies. there's some ol' country boys here where i live that cage racoons to train their coon hounds, they put the dog on a chain just long enough to where he can get his snout on the cage, and the racoons go ape freaking shit, they hiss and growl, wierd animals. a live trap, or a snare with a wire on it to snare it's foot may work, or last ditch effort, catfood and antifreeze, but i know you have other animals this could effect, one things sure, she ain't coming out by herself. good luck. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

taken from the "Incidents" forum. now, i'll pose the same question to you. i wouldn't...ever, which is why i created this topic to begin with, please read ALL of the posts. thank you. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

i took a downwind landing in light winds not long ago. another skydiver below me was "hanging out" in brakes waiting for canopy traffic, my canopy being faster than his i tried my best to hang out above and behind him, he finally turned right and landed upwind and away from the peas. i didn't have enough altitude to make a turn and land upwind, so i took the downwind, just slid it in easy. but, for a split second, the thought of making a hard right hand turn did cross my mind. i got three responses out of that landing: 1) Hey Richard, "Land safe, not close" 2) Richard, you did the right thing for not making that low ground turn 3) Hey Richard, you want to explain why you just did what you did on that landing? just as i was gathering my gear up, a well known camera jumper at this DZ came in and swooped right past me, missing me by inches, landing in a crosswind, wonder if anybody said anything to him? i didn't bother. but on the very first time i took a downwind landing, another jumper was in self induced line twists right under me as we were lining up for final, he was having a very hard time trying to kick out, so i altered my landing pattern to give him all the ground i could, because it wasn't clear where he was going to end up landing, everybody seen what happened there, so there was no problems. as far as crosswind landings go, i do them when i can, when canopy traffic and landing area permits. at certain DZ's with twin otters and small landing areas, it would seem the rw jumpers would have their gear all gathered up, and be headed to the packing area since they are first out of the aircraft, and first to land, but this is often not the case. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

the above taken from the "Incidents Forum" thus the reason i started a new post here to begin with, but i guess that's what i get for following the rules. personally, i thought the opening post was so clear Ray Charles could see it. i admit, i'm no journalist, and never claimed to be, but i have written quite a few safety and training manuels for my profession, a lot of my ideas led to changing safety policies and procedures. it is my belief that there are a select few who feel if they didn't think of it theirselves, they don't want anyone else giving advice, even if the intention is to try and give someone food for thought, or maybe even save a life. it seems you read it quite well. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

i doubt you'll find someone who will go under the house to get him, coons are very, very mean, and ill tempered and more often than not carry dieseases. if a live trap is not available, the soft catfood is the only thing i know that will work, maybe keep you personal pets penned up for a day or two? anyway, in the country where i live this is how we get them, if not by live trap, because they are nocturnal and mean as hell. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

coons love catfood. leave the little fella some catfood out in a dish, get him used to eating it, after that just add a little anti-freeze to the catfood, end of problem. i'm not trying to be cruel, but if you don't have a live trap, other than tearing out you wall and eradicating him, i just don't know of any other way to get shed of it. good luck. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

i already said that, didn't i? Edited To Add: Please to god, go back and read the very first post in this thread. i just bet ya if i said white, ya'll would have said black, and vice-versa. should i provide incorrect information about safety and training rather than get into a pissing contests, just delete the damn thing. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

this is 98% of my point. but the other 2% is for a skydiver to handle a malfuntion in a more relaxed manner just because they are flying a light wing is, in my opinion, a mistake. if you have line twists on student status, and you have deployed at 4500' AGL, well, yeah then you have a lot of extra time. i like to see students in hanging harnesses and use a stopwatch and time how long it takes to clear the mal, and become S.S.S. again and altitude aware again, you'd be surprised how many lose altitude awareness. personally, i don't let anything give me a false sense of security because of good equipment, low wingload, open landing areas and plenty of outs. there was a time in my skydiving carreer i was waiting until 1500 AGL before deploying an 750'-800' sniviling Triathlon canopy, until the S&TA gave me a talking to, and what he said made sense, it was ignorant on my behalf. Edited To Add: i asked this poster to "sell me" on this idea, never responded, i'm lost on this one....create a "comfort factor?" maybe he was referring to CH&A in the jumpship? --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

my condolences for your pet "Brutus" i personally know your pain, my "Bear Dog" will be gone 2 years in december after having him for 13 years as well. peace, take care. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

failure to identify, failure to react, and his freaking wingload didn't save him. black and white? maybe, reality...oh yeah. could an RSL, or an AAD made a difference here? --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

is this agreeable? landing with lineovers, not a very good controlability check. let's just say for arguments sake a sky diver deploys at 2500 AGL and experiences a blown cell in the canopy, their wingload is 1.1:1, what is it now that the cell is blown? is it still a 1.1:1? i think not. the same physics apply for a lineover, there are a few malfunctions that will increase the wingloading on the remaining parachute, since in some instances it isn't all there anymore. and i should have stated that no matter what the wingloading is, in the event of a malfunction, partial, or total, wingloading should not be depended upon, or give a false sense of security for a safer, final emergency scenario. Edited To Add: for general good safety procedures, treat a 1.1:1 wingload malfunction with the same tenacity you would a 2.2:1 wingload. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

what does anything you just said have to do with this statement from my last post to this thread? in my mind you either agree, or dissagree with this statement, which was my whole point at the onset of the post. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

all of this extra rhetoric is fine, but as original author of this post, my question still stands and has had little if any resonses in a "yes" or "no" format. your wingload will not save you no matter what it is if the problem isn't properly identified and dealt with accordingly and in a timely manner. this doesn't have anything to do with drunk drivers, or statistics from any other types of incidents. can you depend on your wingload to buy you more time? as i've stated before, a lower wing may slow things down a bit of course, but should you rely on this for a contributing "comfort factor" you'll be N.F.L. again, never take anything for granted...ever. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

i wouldn't hesitate to buy a Hornet canopy because of the changes. i had a Hornet, and just bought a brand new Heatwave and do not anticipate any problems with maintainance or service. they are great canopies. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

Click Here And tell me how many "squares" these shots would take! blame this on another frequent skydiver besides myself, i merely saved the URL! --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

i've only experienced one lineover on a Cobalt 170^2 loaded at 1.55:1, of course i looked at it for a second to completely evaluate it, the canopy didn't spin, twist or try to collapse, i just released my brakes and did a deep flare which thankfully removed the line off of the left side of my canopy. it was one of the four lines that go to the cascade, i consider myself lucky! --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

while this is a true statement, it has happened. i trained utilizing tandem/afp progression, jumping a Sabre 230^2 loaded at 1.1:0, i experienced line twists, line dump and hard openings during student status, and i'm glad i did. that said, remember students deploy anywhere between 5500-4000 agl, if we were confident of lower malfunctions at light wing loads then why the extra altitude? point being it can happen and altitude goes by quicker under a malfunctioning canopy than any other time. agreed, but stats can change. the days of the Manta are just about over, and training students on Sabre2's are starting to be the "new training method" so we cannot rely on old stats to determine what will occur in the future. i would like to think that an intelligent, informed and properly instructed sky diver would make this decision. "It's all about living" my whole point in this post if nothing else is "don't take anything for granted" complancency kills. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

Kevin: Congrats! you will do well. good luck, take care and be safe. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

I See Your Point although my point is altitude awareness and the so called dependency on "comfort zones/factors" ie: light wingloads etc...just when you think it can't happen...if our training continues at the same level it is now, we will see more incidents. i would never, ever tell a student or any other jumper this, or that cannot, or is less likely to happen to you. i think being prepared for any and all emergencies regarding everything from boarding the jumpship to exit and landing should be emphasized constantly. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

i'm not going to dissagree with you, YET. but sell me on this mentality, and explain how "comfort factors" are condusive to life longevity in the sport of sky diving. i'm a "safety freak" i take nothing for granted, and before exiting the jumpship i rehearse every possible malfunction i can think of visually, in my mind and how i will react, it's saved my life twice thus far in the 4 years in the sport. Ron's statement is dead on, "altitude awareness" is the one constant that will yield safety and life longevity in this sport. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"