JohnMitchell

This right here. On my bike or even in my car I've had to point to the stop sign I was obeying so the car without the stop sign would just go.

This isa problem, but with an obvious solution. We simply require our students to leave their mobile on the ground. Can't believe you didn't think of that. I feel you may be joking. Of course we don't let our students take phones on skydives.

Love that place.

The broken 12 pack of bottles was still in the gutter a day or two later, but was gone after that.

I remember you telling me about that. Talk about experienced. And you're right. It should be everyone working together.

Thanks, bro, I needed that. When I was 14, I got knocked off my bike by a car making a right turn on a red light. I had a green light and was riding the proper direction, but he just didn't see me. Bent up bike, scrapes and bruises for me, nothing serious. Cop didn't ticket the driver because, well, it was Utah. But the driver paid for my emergency room check out and to fix the bike.

So, out driving yesterday with Vskydiver riding shotgun. I'm making a right turn on a green light, driving in the retail area of Lacey, WA. There's a woman, 20-something, head down, looking at her smart phone, earbuds in, waiting to cross the street but she has a "don't walk" sign. Even so, I pause to see if she'll step off the curb. She doesn't, so I start. She steps off the curb in front of me. I hit the brakes and the horn. She never even lifts her head from the smart phone as she strolls in front of me. . . I am getting so tired of entitled pedestrians who don't care enough about their own survival to look around a bit for traffic. Do they really think those painted lines will magically stop a ton or two of rolling steel? Last month, while in Florida, my wife and I witnessed a jaywalker running thru traffic with a 12 pack of Coronas get nailed by a car. He ran in front of the car from behind a blind spot, totally the jaywalker's (jayrunner's?) fault, yet I'm sure he'll get a nice little settlement from the driver's insurance company. Hey pedestrians, you're outweighed by automobiles by a factor of 10 to 20. You just may want to pay a little more attention. And don't even think about learning to skydive. I don't want your stupid attitude in the air anywhere around me.

That's how I was trained and I'm still here.

Ahhh, love those turtles. Were you snorkeling or scuba diving? We're heading back to Oahu in August. Can't wait to get back into warm water.

I allow it but I go by Bill Booth's requirement of 500 jumps or an AFF rating, and being current. It can be done safely by experienced skydivers. My wife did video and I docked on a tandem pair one time with an instructor that had never done that before. He was amazed at how much fun it was for him.

That's some heavy stuff you've got going. Sorrow, you should be feeling lots of sorrow and grief. But not guilt. It's not your fault.

The brightest candles burn the quickest. . .

Was the storage company liable for damages? Or could you make a claim on your homeowner's insurance? Or possibly the monetary value wasn't worth it?

Yah, sure, but I'm still guessing stroke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69fPof-ZTnU

Sounds like the split bags are not that popular. I've owned them in the past and didn't need that feature.

I was sure Florida would be gator bites or lightning strikes. I'm not sure what they were getting at with that map. And Utah, with its healthy lifestyle, seemed rather vague.

Good strategy. Use it as a back up, not a wake up. I had a tandem riser knock my last audible off into the Pacific Northwest woods about 8 years ago. Haven't used one since. So far, so good.

When in doubt, whip it out.

Maybe a nut-under ain't a "big" deal for you, but for some of us it's like a giraffe with a sore throat.

I think you may be on to something. I knew one guy who handmounted a camera so he could do selfie video on belly jumps. He kept f-ing things up because he was trying to get certain shots as he docked, flew, etc. I think someone gave him the word to ditch it 'cause it's gone now.

it showes me how the whole formation backslides. Oh yeah, my camera was doing that too. I think it's broken.

I thought of that too, having actually been in his position, frosted blind in freefall. The longer you track, the less likely you'll hit a friend and the more likely you'll hit the ground. Risk assessment can sometimes be a balancing act. I do know one thing. You'll most likely miss your friends. You will never miss the ground. Sometimes ya gotta trust that good wave-off you gave.

And furthermore ! ! ! I'm not a swooper. But we all know many that do. Some talk about using digital readouts, accurate to the foot, to gauge their swoops. I asked a very experienced friend of mine, who makes a living being paid to swoop, about that. He says he just looks at the ground and knows if he has the altitude to huck a 270, 540, whatever. Seems like a better way to go.

Thanks for bringing that up, Chuck. I know you remember the days of "break at 3500, pull by 2000." You didn't have a lot of time to f-around. You break, turn, track some, wave and check, pull. Now I have people wanting to break at 5000. be open at 3000. Okay, fine, I understand comfort zones. I'll tell them to track for 5 seconds, wave off and pull. Then I'll watch them do all that but pause 2-3 seconds reading their altimeters. Wasted move, wasted time. You'd be better off spending that time tracking farther or looking for other jumpers around you than staring at your altimeter. Heck, break at 4500' if you want to do that and get more skydiving done with your friends. Is it the AFF training, where we train people to "lock on"? Or just redundant gadget dependency. Heck, I never got to use an altimeter until my 2nd 10 second delay. They said just count to keep track of time. I guess that's the lesson that stuck with me.