JohnMitchell

The OP is a good friend of mine and having a great first year in the sport, 300+ jumps. She's also very safety conscious and aware. I'll forgive her touch of hyperbole. I can certainly remember some of my "Holy Crap!" moments. Now, this one time, no shit, there I was . . .

Thanks for the data. Here's my idea of what you should do. Take the helmet off, hold it with both hands and, trapping as much air in it as you can, use it for floatation.

We'll see ya then.

Yeah, I'm not even sure where that started, but I think it was on DZ.com. I don't really hear that at the DZ with the arbitrary "10 year" threshold. How about a term for people like me, who jump only on weekends, usually just good weather, and only get ~ 200 jumps a year, sometimes less when life gets in the way? What do the full time, 1000+ jumps a year folks think of us?

Absolutely right, except for some folks who then backfold their cheststraps to stow the excess. But those would show up as an exposed buckle. It's pretty easy to spot if you take the time to look.

Ill be flying up there to visit Big Red and my Favorite Family Cool. We'll be in the new house by then. Look forward to seeing you. Will it be Christmas again?

Damn, I'm still a tourist. Oh snap! How about it pays the jump bills? Hot damn, I'm almost there. Seriously, I see a lot of jumpers in their 60's and 70's, decades in the sport, still having more fun and enjoying life more than many people half their age. And they seem to me to be very happy, successful, together people.

Don't be Dis'n my 3 ring Tatt, Bitch Ahh, but you're a long term jumper. I talking about those who get the ink after the first tandem.

You got an "AMEN" on that one, sistah! Do ya like barbecued ribs? I just picked up another 20+ pounds of ribs today, heading to the smoker.

You got an "AMEN" on that one, sistah! Do ya like barbecued ribs. I just picked up another 20+ pounds of ribs today, heading to the smoker.

Dissin' the American Bacon Cheeseburger? Don't be messin' with that. . ..

Thanks, gotcha.

Yep, I can imagine having a small spare, like a G-5, standing by. And for really far out 3rd world places, yeah, pack a spare set of everything, including planes. Thanks for the link.

Wow! Yep, it's crazy. We had our DZ shut down on a beautiful blue sky day because we were 2 miles inside the 30 nautical mile radius No Fly Zone for the president. Seriously, a little Twin Otter, 28 miles away, take 10 minutes to get even CLOSE the the POTUS, easy to shoot down, is a security threat? If I was prez, I'd call BS on all that. Hell, I'd make 'em let me fly my own F-15 everywhere I went.

***The NTSB’s release of incomplete, out-of-context information has fueled rampant speculation about the cause of the accident. Yeah, the press is hounding the NTSB and maybe they should just be silent, like ALPA would like, but partial info is what the public wants. I know of a C-141 crash that the FAA and NTSB knew was controller error, but they sat on that info for a week while public speculation went wild. The ILS is only "critical" in very bad weather. It was CAVU at the time of the crash. And we keep telling you this: ILS's are taken down all the time for maintenance. An aviation expert such as yourself should be familiar with this. Was there any GPS interference at the time? I, too, would like to know if the PAPI was working. I didn't see it Notam'd out, did you? Dunno, you should ask them. It still seems like they got behind the curve and let the plane get too low and too slow. Sure. And the FULL investigation is still going on. No one is closing the books yet. In a year or so we'll have all the details. But in the meantime, this one is walking and quacking like a duck. Quit saying it's an anteater.

I worked AF1 (used to be A1, but I guess some National Headquarters wienie thought that was steak sauce) a number of times but I don't recall the other plane being in the group. I do remember working the C-5 that carried the limos and, these days, the F-15's for fighter cap and their KC-135 tanker and putting all other traffic in holding patterns until the prez is down and safe. It's quite the airshow. I'll have to check out that show and see what they said. Maybe they do that for certain destinations, but not Seattle or Portland. I worked AF1, a B757, into Redmond, OR when W was the Prez. They use the smaller plane going into smaller fields. I understand it still has the fancy paint scheme. Sure costs a lot of $$$$$ to fly these guys around. I think we should just make them stay in DC.

http://cdn-www.i-am-bored.com/media/cow-pig-forever.jpg Kinda a cheesy ending, but happy none the less.

Ohhhh, Nobel prize for the first folks to do that!

I think my family is okay with it. It took my mom years to come watch me jump. (She came to a demo I was in.). My dad and stepmom both did tandems with me, as well as several of our kids, nieces and nephews. A few of them went on to make even more jumps and get licenses. So I think they have an open mind to it. Plus, I'm in my 4th decade of jumping and I'm still alive, so that says a little something about it.

I remember MADD had a push in our state to lower it to 0.06 a few years back. The restaurant owners were some of the most vocal in the fight to defeat that. Years ago it was .12 just about everywhere, then .10, now .08. Yet the hardcore drunks are still out there at .20 or higher, causing carnage. I have no magic solution. I just think this constant lowering is all political. How about a free breathalyzer at the door when you leave the bar?

Haven't read that but have read other articles on those issues. When Airbus came on the scene with their highly automated A320 years ago I felt Boeing was behind the times, too stodgy to make their planes flown by computers. Now I have a ton of admiration for what I feel was a wise engineering choice; keep the pilot in control of the plane, not in control of a computer.

Too true. And once you own that first house, there's never a weekend where there is not something you should be doing. Sure, you might ignore it and go skydiving, but you should be weeding the flower beds.

Wait...WHAT?! Ouch! Whatever. If I had a nickel for everytime I've heard that about me . . .

Automation complacency, automation confusion, two very real hazards in today's modern commercial aviation. It's a dirty little secret that many commercial pilots these days get very little actual hands-on flight time, a minute or two at take off, a minute or two on landing. If I were king of the world, all ATP's would have to log a couple of hours a year of aerobatic training/flying. That would bring up their stick and rudder skills.

People get into freeflying pretty quickly. A freefly suit, with maybe a few grippers, is pretty versatile. Don't be too quick to abandon belly flying, though. Those skills are needed too. There are plenty of threads on it. Just be aware that freeflying, with its higher speeds and inherently less stable body positions has a new set of hazards to bring to the mix. Get some good instruction. And don't go sliding up the jumprun line into my group. If you don't know what this last statement means, go talk to an instructor.