JohnMitchell

I take a tip from the old tandem manual. If it's an amazingly windy day, I disconnect my RSL at 1000' in case I have to chop when I land. It actually came in handy once. . .

My favorite line when I take scuba divers on tandems.

too cool. Although our kids have not accomplished what yours have in the sport, but I agree. DZ kids grow up in an enriched environment. Chaotic, sometimes crazy, but interesting and intelligent and self reliant. Many adults comment on how our kids are amazing. I think the wonderful skydivers they grew up around had something to do with it.

"Put your faith in God, but put your trust in a Security Lopo."

Super cute daughter. How old is she? Our son started packing when he was 11-ish and maybe just barely as tall as she is. Now he's full grown and jumping on his own.

Well, there's a gap in your poll answers, so I didn't vote. 4 Kids, 3 made tandems with me as teenagers. One made 17 more jumps before going off to college. Another became a tunnel instructor, then took AFF and has about 45-50 jumps now. Another works at a wind tunnel. And one wants nothing to do with "the cult that is your sport". Direct quote.

Not everywhere and everyone. There's always some peeps around the bonfire at dawn at Lost Prairie, it seems. But not this guy anymore.

Thanks for the input. Your syllabus sounds very logical to me.

Tough to see people burn out or get frustrated, or worse, injured and then our sport. That's what keeps me working with people to help them enjoy our sport safely.

Well, I'm sure that guy is a great canopy pilot (skills beyond mine) but not a physics major. Every sub-200 canopy??? I find a huge difference between a Pilot 190 loaded 1.0 and a Xaos 97 loaded 2.0. Don't you? 7 cell, 9 cell, elliptical or not, wingloading, etc. Many, many variables. My wife is around 1.0 on her Fusion 135. I'm 1.3 on my Stiletto 150. Neither one of us is pushing the envelope like the sub-100 crossbraced group. Neither one of us does more than 90's to final. We're having all the fun and excitement we want at the tame end of the spectrum. I do agree that many do not fly their parachutes as well as they could. I love to sit in on canopy flight seminars when I can. I always pick up something that will improve my flying. Watched a guy learning to swoop last weekend. He was doing 360's overhead and recovering at around 70-80 feet. I found that a curious way to approach swooping. Shouldn't you start with 90's and work your way up thru 180's, 270's etc. but coming out at the right altitude above the ground? One of the swoopers told me the guy was on the right path. I hope so. I don't want to be doing any first aid this season. Any thoughts from people who DO teach swooping?

Sometimes you get tired of shopping and just want to buy.

Not too many years ago, a former jump pilot who turned anti-DZ would occasionally fly his private plane under our jump run at about 1500 AGL. He at least once videoed all the canopies opening above him. He then took the video to a local news station with the startling story of how the skydivers were a hazard to all aviation. They ate it up and advertised the upcoming story. Our DZ got in touch with the news program to tell them the truth about it all. They couldn't have cared less. A sensational story of dangerous, reckless skydivers sells much better than a disgruntled man trying to cause trouble for others.

And it was practically the only tree! Considering most people's PLF skills, or lack of them, it's probably just as well the tree caught him.

A guy I know was doing a low pass in a aerobatic biplane. As he pulled out, the elevator linkage broke and he lost pitch control. He undid the harness, stood up and deployed the canopy right out of the cockpit at 300'. Plane went in, of course. So . . . $hit happens. And how the pilot was "lucky" to get out. I don't know how hard or easy it was for him to get out. But, are we "lucky" every time we use our reserves? Or just well practiced?

My old house had Home Depot and Lowes 10 minutes away, right across the street from each other. Talk about convenient comparison shopping.

Same in WA too, no income tax. Almost 10% sales tax and rental cars will hit you another 7% on top of that. Hotels are an extra 3% in King county around Seattle. Yep, stick it to the out of towner.

I also heard the Sherpas are considering a different pay scale or compensation package in exchange for continuing the season. I wish them well in their labor battles against management.

Austin is the Eugene, OR of Texas. Kinda apart from it all, ya know?

Back to the subject, I heard the Sherpas are cancelling this summer's climbs. I heard an interview with an American climber at base camp there who said they lost 5 sherpas from their group. He said all the climbers he spoke with are in agreement with the Sherpas, to cancel this season.

I know every sports team in Orlando has had the local governments help to pay for their arena's and stadiums Atlantic Monthly had a good article not long ago about billionaire team owners getting free stadiums built on the taxpayers' backs, ultimate corporate welfare.

Wow, that's stupider than just about anything I did in my teens and 20's.

I made my first jump in September 1974. I've never been a full time jumper, just the weekend guy with a weekday job, but I got instructional ratings and worked a bit. Marriage, career demands and kids brought more constraints on my time, but with Vskydiver being a jumper I was able to knock out jumps from time to time and keep my hand in the sport. Last 15 years have seen me do a steady 200+ jumps a year. Now that I'm retired I hope to double that, esp. after I get some excess real estate sold. I still have my ratings, my health and a not too creaky body. I know I say I love the sport but more and more I realize I love the people in it even more. Some of the most interesting, kind people you'll ever meet.

Being 16 probably helped. I sure wouldn't survive it. Plus fitting up in the wheel well? Ain't too much spare room up there.

Probably a Broncos fan anyway.

Thanks for the interesting viewpoints. Prevention would have been the better solution here.