JohnMitchell

When I retired he mentioned in a email to me he was working towards that himself. Maybe sooner than later. I just hope he stays in the sport. It's always fun jumping with him.

Back in the round chute/static line days, you figured maybe 5% would ever make a second jump. I knew one instructor who figured on a 10% injury rate. More would sprain ankles than jump again. Most the folks in the class were there to cheat death once and go home to tell the tale. And that was cool. I made my first jump not even knowing you could make a second jump. Now with the way better gear, better training and more efforts to retain students, you still have the majority of AFF students as make-one-and-done. It's still people doing it once, maybe just for the experience, maybe for the bragging rights. And it's still okay. This sport just isn't for everyone. It never will be.

Only got your reserve and the jump ship ain't gonna take you up again. Might as well get some good freefall out of it.

Like watching a hook turn go bad and then wondering "Did his lines steering line suddenly shrink, did the gravity vector displace, was there a light aircraft on the runway at the time?"

My wife dreamed that she landed with no chute out and was embarrassed to think someone had seen her do it.

Not by anyone with their brain engaged.

Very good post. I've had the pleasure of discussing these issues with you at LP. I'm afraid the "cool factor" that Bill Booth talks about will continue to kill people in our sport for years to come. RSL's, big canopies and normal landing just don't get the chicks, man.

Got another friend that has the same skybirthday as you. She has 300+ jumps. Damn, tough act to follow. But good on ya. 100+ is a great first year. Keep going.

Heck, I consider that on just about every jump! I don't think I ever will, but I don't want to be overconfident.

I knew that pilot pretty well. It was his first jump. He said he climbed out onto the bottom of the wing, looked back in at his new Dave Clark headset, thought about going back in for it, and said to himself "Nope" and jumped. Sad way to lose a plane. I've known 4 other jump pilots to use their reserves. Three were "reserves into the C182 tail" and one was a mid-air collision. Yeah, that's a lot, isn't it.

It's good that you two are around to help her in her last days. I hope I'm that lucky.

Damn, I'm sorry it didn't work out. I guess you could talk to some of my ex's for commiseration, but they'd tell you I was an A$$hole.

If the stick shaker was going, they were at least approaching critical angle of attack, in other words, a stall. It can be the hardest thing in the world for a pilot to put the nose down when he doesn't want to, as in a situation like this. But when you're literally behind the curve, in the zone of reverse command, you have to fight the urge to pull back. Many, many pilots have made that fatal mistake. I argue that if they had kept the plane more level and continued to add power, they would have avoided the tail strike and had fewer injuries.

You guys are killing me! No respect, I tell ya, no respect!

Let me know if you need a 6 footer to go from inside next year.

***John, 90 percent of the time the bay is overcast at 800 - 1200, which means Cat II Cat III autocoupled approaches! (or however you wish to phrase this) having any system NOT UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE FAA down and the port authority having a homemade approach procedure, that is not listed, such as switching from one parallel runway to another and the media selectively fails to report this????? 90% of the time? It's better than that right now and I'm sure will burn off. Even down to 200 OVC a CAT I ILS will get you in. And the weather was CAVU at the time of the incident. Now, if there was some unpublished ILS in use with a non-standard threshold, etc. that I THINK you're talking about, fine. That could definitely have been a causal factor. That will come out in the investigation. Sorry, I don't know much about their insurance. But I know the FAA does NOT require ANY plane to be on an IFR flight plan unless they're are flying in clouds or at or above 18,000'. Last time I rode in the cockpit our commercial airliner came in from over the water, did the HAWKZ1 arrival to a visual apch RWY 34L at Seatac. Well, that's the nature of our media. But CNBC and FOX will not have the final word. The NTSB will. BTW, who said the Boeing guys were not invited to the crash investigation. I'm sure there is much, much fact gathering going on outside the view of the news media. Do you really think they know everything? Are you a pilot or NTSB employee? I'm just a former controller, so that's my background on my views.

***Most likely this dick pilot pulled the: "cancel services,...field in sight," so that he could pull a 25 degree turn and impress his copilot! happens more often than you think. (Considering the fact that the Bay area is under SVFR most of the time.) There was no way that pilot had canceled IFR prior to crashing. And I'll bet there is no SVFR allowed into SFO's Class D surface area. They don't HAVE to be under IFR rules in good weather, they just prefer to be. I've worked B747's on VFR flights. The standard phraseology is "Cleared visual approach runway ##". ILS equipment is routinely taken out of service for maintenance or due to failure. Then other approaches, including Visual approaches are used. There is NO requirement for ILS equipment to be available for visual approaches. Many airports have no ILS at all. I think you have the two confused. I'm pretty sure the only fuck up was behind the yoke, I'm afraid.

I tell them it's an electronically activated opener. I avoid all mention of pyrotechnics, etc. They are safe for cabin transport, as we all know. Some of the TSA peeps are dialed in, some are clueless. The worst are the ones who think they know all about "chutes" 'cause they saw them being jumped in the Army.

Congratulations! I hope you love being married as much as I have. Now, career over? Is she making you quit jumping? That's not so good.

Immigration control? Here the folks are supposed to go thru customs and immigration control yet they're mixing with the media folks. At least he didn't get tazed, Bro.

It's an approach with a usually 5 mile final or more so that the pilots can set the trim and power to have a stabilized, constant descent rate and speed, leading to a smooth, on target landing. Because jet engines have a lag time between pushing the throttles up to getting the additional thrust needed (the turbines take time to "spool up" in RPM's), the FAA has been recommending this practice for years for turbojets. Prop airplanes, with their quicker throttle response, are not as susceptible to this type of accident. Back when I was a controller I would vector jets, even in good weather, for a 3-5 mile final unless the pilot requested otherwise.

We had the same thing a few weeks ago at MMV (McMinnville, OR). Plane landed short and took out the ILS. Damn shame about today's crash. I'm glad most survived and I worry for the critically injured.

looks like a slyride OhFuck! Sorry. . .

It's easy to see how that natural selection could take place. Anyone ever sue a home inspector for missing important faults in properties?

Ahh, thanks for the info. Yes, it does vary from state to state. If my daughter and son-in-law in FL start house hunting I'm going to have them talk to you.