Ron

So we have established that a smart person, when the event is running well, tries to take care of people and that it is not the RESPONSIBILITY of the CUSTOMERS to support a poorly run event. That is free enterprise in action. Now, from what I have been told, the Dubai 500 way folks did offer refunds. So there is no point in the OPs rant. Edit: Damn you auto correct! "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

When my employer has a bad year HE takes a reduction in salary. And they HAVE taken salary from me. YOU run an event, YOU are the employer. And yes, when my employer has a great year they give me a bonus. Now, answer the question... When YOU run YOUR boogie and have a great year, do YOU give back some of the participants money? Cause, you seem to think that everyone should bail out a free enterprise when they screw up. And that is just not how a free market works. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Edited to remove political discussions. Avoid political arguments here please. When you have a bad event, you want the participants to help bail you out.... But when you have an AWESOME event where you might rake in tons of money... Do you give refunds? "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

1. My wife is hot AND has a kick ass personality 2. My wife could teach you quite a few things about skydiving. 3. I didn't have to act like a jackass to get her. Act like a poser. Go into debt to look like a bigger success than you are. It is clear you are stuck in the middle of your own little pity party.... You are just setting yourself up for more pain. At this point, I don't care anymore. You have proven you don't either. But for the record: * My wife is hot and has 1200+ more jumps than you. * I drive a sports car (2006) and have enough in a fund to buy my next one with cash. * I wear a Rolex everyday (Bought used, Paid cash) * I have an airplane (Paid cash) * I have more than a coach rating and three sets of gear (All paid for) It is not your desire to have nice things that is shooting you in the foot.... It is your desire to have things you really wouldn't want and really can't afford except to try and impress people who really don't like you. Win a girl by waving silver you can't afford and you are going to lose her to someone that has silver they can afford, or to the bigger fake that has gold he can't afford. Enjoy your future pain..... I am sure we will read about it here "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

When you go after that type of person.... They will leave you and your 'nice' car every time they find a guy with an 'awesome' car. And yet you are more concerned with projecting a false image than presenting the true you..... This is a path to failure each and every time. Sorry your ex screwed with your head.... Keep acting like this and I can promise it is going to happen again. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

You know what also should make a person smile? Actually OWNING the car in your driveway and not owing a dime on it!!!! And there starts the failed thinking. Instead of thinking about the car you could afford and how much you were willing to pay for it... You started thinking about how much each MONTH you could afford. You focused on payments, not price. Women REALLY like a guy that can treat them well. They hate the guy with a cool car and that can't afford to pay for dinner. I find it hard to blame you.... You just fell into the bull shit advertising. Still, YOU have no one to blame but yourself. Complete crap... All of it. Maybe you need to look for a higher class of woman. If you think dressing and acting like you are rich is the way to a woman's heart... You might as well just buy a hooker and save the heartache. And never forget, the girl that you took from the guy with the rusted out truck with your low end luxury car.... Is going to easily be taken FROM you by the guy with the high end luxury car. I dated this stripper once, I thought it would be cool. The instant she meet one of my rich friends.... I know it was over. Good thing I always knew she was a stripper at heart. You act like a fake to try and fool a woman with silver.... She is going to leave you for a fake with Gold. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Being in debt is the new slavery. If you owe money to someone, they are your master. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

BEST answer is don't lose track of altitude. Of course, we know it happens. What I did (long story on why I was there, lets call it a hard cutaway just to speed up the process) was to pull pretty much both the cutaway and the reserve at damn near the same time. I took enough of a delay to ensure I was free. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Liq4HYJZaho But as others have said, the BEST course of action is to have hard decks for both your main and reserve and stick to them! More people die from trying to "Fix" and issue than cutaway and deploy a reserve too high. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Well, it has happened even before wingsuits. I can think of three cases where a guy got on a plane without a rig or without it on correctly in the time I have been jumping. One was caught, the other two ended in fatalities. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

That is why I continued to write and wrote: 1. In the case of an accident those objects become projectiles that could easily kill someone else. Same reason we tell camera folks to strap the camera helmet in. 2. In the case something goes wrong, they do not want you distracted by reading, or surfing, or making a phone call. They want you ready and able to take directions. 3. When everyone has all these devices out, it will make egress from the airplane much more difficult. imagine trying to leave a burning plane while some moron tries to stow his laptop. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Here is why they tell you to turn the stuff off, it has very little to do with electronic interference. 1. In the case of an accident those objects become projectiles that could easily kill someone else. Same reason we tell camera folks to strap the camera helmet in. 2. In the case something goes wrong, they do not want you distracted by reading, or surfing, or making a phone call. They want you ready and able to take directions. 3. When everyone has all these devices out, it will make egress from the airplane much more difficult. imagine trying to leave a burning plane while some moron tries to stow his laptop. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

I look at this issue and I am reminded of crw.... Give me a second to explain why. When I started skydiving in the early 90's the most popular canopy's were still F111 7 cells. It was very common to do an RW jump and pull a little higher to put together a 2 stack, maybe turn that into a down plane. Heck, some of my buddie even had a hand signal that was read as "This sucks, let's do crw". Then some serious advancements came out and became popular, canopy's designed for crw. These things were so much better for crw and some amazing records were created, like a 100 way diamond. This would have never happened with Raven II's. But, this also came with a problem.... These new crw canopy's were not very good for RW. They normally opened REALLY fast and only those with iron spines braved taking them to terminal. And more modern zp canopy's are not good for crw at all either. Basically, crw dives became crw dives with no RW and RW dives didn't end in crw. Now, what does this have to do with swooping? Well, I think we have reached a point where swooping canopy's are so much more advanced than normal canopy's and the techniques used are so different.... That it might be time for swooping to become truly its own sport. We need to separate the two, and I mean totally separate. I talked to the owners of my DZ about creating a "swoopers paradise" a pond, staked swoop lanes, soft obstacles, ribbons to swoop over/under/over AND under.... Basically create an area that would allow a swooper to do just about anything he could think of. To jump in this area, you had to show you had the needed skills and were only allowed to do a hop n pop, no RW then swoop. We have gotten to the point that doing an RW jump and then getting a killer swoop is over. I kept hoping that the canopy's would advance enough to do this on its own, but snoopers have shown that they are pretty damn adaptable. RDS systems for example. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

It depends on: 1 Who 2. Equipment used 3. Maneuver used. Me on a velo 96 doing a 270. That's not pushing it. Me on an FX69 was pushing it. Some guy with 100 jumps on a stiletto doing a 180 is pushing it. Some guy with 100 jumps on a velo is pushing it even if he flies a straight in approach. Which is not to say that me doing a 180 on a stiletto is 'conservative' there is nothing conservative about turning low to increase speed. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

I want to say it was 104 and done in Perris. IIRC, they had a center 'sacrificial' round base and looped off of it. Then they dropped grips and the loops off of the base were in a 104 way star. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

The FAA does not care very much for our opinions. Those are VFR flight rules and not only the jumpers, but the pilots of the jumpers are only allowed to allow dropping of objects in accordance with VFR conditions. IFR traffic will be there. So no, it is not safer. Yes. IFR planes can fly very fast and are not looking outside the cockpit. Slower: Yes More controllable: No, we can't power up and climb. Leave it alone. You are not going to win and maybe worse you will get the FAA to look at the situation and decide that skydiving ops need MORE regulations. Remember, the Govt does not reduce regulations, they create more. I am a pilot (just bought my first plane... Yeah, beer) and I can tell you that VFR rules are fine for skydiving operations and should be left alone. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Interesting, thanks for teaching me that. I guess I don't really a see the point though. I mean getting a medal would be nice, but it is almost like a second meet being held. Still, interesting and thanks "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

No. When AAD's became popular in the 90's there were a higher rate of fires than there are today, IMO. The higher number of AAD fires is due IMO to: 1. More people jumping 2. More people jumping AAD's 3. Slower opening canopies. 4. The internet lets us know the day it happens. It use to take WEEKS for a fatality to get around and smaller events never got around or it took a lot longer. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Debt free but the house and the note is less than 10% of our take home pay each month. I just bought a light sport plane.... I'd either put it towards the engine rebuild fund, or buy my wife another tunnel camp.... Most likely the tunnel camp. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Those are not THE NATIONAL championships. They are meets that anyone can attend. More like the Shamrock, Valentines day meet, Malesky Meet, or the Super Cup. WORLD MEETS only allow ONE team per Country per event (there was some crazy FF event that allowed more than one.. don't know the story on that one). Fact is that the US NATIONALS is the event to select the US TEAM to go to the WORLD MEET. Because of that, there is no reason to allow foreign competitors at all. If Airspeed goes to the French Nationals or the UK Nationals, they are a GUEST team there as well. ALL TEAMS can show up to events like the Shamrock which would be like your example of Wimbledon. ALSO, you have to be ALLOWED to compete at Wimbledon. So if the Nationals was run the way you would like only teams that WERE INVITED would be allowed to compete.... thats better? "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Why should a foreign team or person be allowed to compete and win at the *US* nationals? That is what the World Meets are for. Would you be OK if Airpseed just went around the World winning each countries championships and then at the World Championships they just jumped against themselves? Just be glad guests are even allowed to compete as guests. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Issue for the police. I have seen police hint at McNasty's that keeping a canopy is theft. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

I dont recall people calling him an asshole. We did ask him to bring data. He however did insult people. Opinion without data is just an opinion. You want action? Bring data. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Thanks TK... figured you have done some homework on this since the PHX/SDC issue years ago. Can you share where you found this information? "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Can you provide some more information? "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Oh look, still no data, just lame personal attacks. I asked you to bring data so we could have a discussion, instead you just insult and act like a know it all. Since lame personal attacks seem to be the best you can do....until you bring some data, I'll just ignore you.... I don't know why I bothered even trying to have a serious discussion with you... You always act like only your opinion matters and when asked a question you start throwing insults. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334